Well it has officially been four months since we've started this process. It seems like we've been doing it forever, and have always been planning for this baby. I have to admit that I don't miss the whole idea of being pregnant, but at least with pregnancy you have some sort of definite timeline - for example, you KNOW that you will have a baby in no more than 40 weeks. It's funny because somedays I think about getting the referral and all I can think is....WAIT! I'm not ready....I have too much work to do.....We don't have enough money saved.....There are more places I want to travel...blah,blah,blah. But then I see a little Korean child, or any child for that matter, holding onto his or her mother's hand and the waiting seems excruciating. This is all probably really good for me in some sort of psychological way. :)
We bought our first official baby purchase about two weeks ago. We went to a garage sale in the Uplands (here in Peoria) and bought a runner stroller for really inexpensive. We were really excited about it, but then I had to walk around the rest of the day with an empty stroller, and it just looked like I had lost my baby somewhere. Finally Dustin bought some items (beer mugs, books, etc.) and so then I turned into the negligent parent who brought her baby's stroller to fill with drinking paraphernalia. I couldn't win.
Since we last wrote we have also been approved by DCFS and are official card holders. I don't think that you actually get any discounts with the cards though - I tried whipping it out at the movie theater the other day and the 16 year old behind the counter thought I was crazy. I think they're just for "pretty" as my mom would say - more of a novelty saying that if you ever come visit us you will not be able to find any of the knives or dish soap, will never have the opportunity to take a shower that is warmer than 115 degrees (which is not warm), and can gaze upon our collection of 10 sets of fingerprints each, that have all been taken in the last year. (That was a bit of an exaggeration - only about the fingerprints.)
Speaking of fingerprints, we also had to spend our Saturday last week driving up to Naperville JUST TO GET FINGERPRINTED. I'm wondering why they don't just have a record of my fingerprints somewhere (You know, any one of the ten sets I've given the government in the last three years) that they can scan. Do they just scan your fingerprints once and then toss them? Perhaps that is why they can't afford to fix my deathtrap of a sidewalk out in front of my house. I've come up with a new system for the government where they would just take my fingerprints every ten years, save them, and then instead of just having a bank of criminal fingerprints, they have everyones. Nobody asked me though. :) The trip to Naperville went well though. The whole week before Dustin kept on freaking out about it being at 8:00am, which meant that we had to leave at 5am. I didn't think it was a big deal, because that is what time I get up during the school year. We were back by eleven. I guess I was wrong about it not being a big deal for Dustin because despite his multiple mini-naps, he slept for almost 14 HOURS on Sunday night - meaning he went to bed at...you guessed it, 5:00pm. I will never doubt his need for sleep again.
So what are we doing now?? We waiting for one final form from Immigration, and then we are officially marked "READY". We'll keep you posted.
