10 Month Waiting Anniversary!

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I always like to post a photo just to make things interesting. We really did not have anything exciting to show so I dug into the archives and pulled out this photo of our mower...I know I am a goober. But it does have some significance. I FINALLY got to mow the yard. It seemed that every time the weather was nice enough to mow I had a meeting or something. So the yard has been treated once already and mowed. I was speaking with my neighbor tonight asking when we should do the next treatment of "weed and feed" and he said to wait for the TV commercials to tell us. If any of you know a better method let me know.

Thanks for all the comments on our last posting. It is always nice to hear from everyone.

We have been working away to accomplish the tasks on our long list. The local background checks are complete thanks to the Richmond Police Chief. Our doctor letter are finished. We both had to visit our doctors for that...(about $140 for two letters, what a bargain...thank God for FLEX accounts with our insurance). To celebrate our 10 month waiting anniversary, we strolled to the ever so beautiful and exciting city of Connersville. The purpose of the trip was to get our FBI fingerprints taken. This was done at the State Police Post. This saves us a trip to downtown Indy. The rest of the items will not be too difficult. The home study agency will complete some of the required background checks for us thankfully.

In other news, we were guests on Tony (Niner) and Treva's podcast this week. Here is a link. http://www.tntpodblast.com/2007/04/14/tntp-15-the-one-with-the-special-guests/ They produce this weekly and it is very informative and educational. We had a good time.

Rachel and Jason purchased a new Jeep Patriot. They brought it by to show us since we are such Jeep freaks. It is a cool vehicle. It had 100 miles (or so) on it and they let me take it for a spin. Driving someone's new vehicle is like holding their newborn baby (and as all of our friends know I rarely hold a baby that is less than a day or two old).

Other than that, we did the Easter thing last weekend and just had a grand time working the past two weeks. Saturday was Robby's birthday...happy belated birthday!!! Cammie's was a little over a week ago...happy belated birthday as well!!!! Also happy belated birthday to Missy and happy birthday Nikki today. (am I missing any other b-days, anniversaries, etc...?)

We received many comments regarding the unidentified object over the hotel across from ours (per the previous post/photo). The odd object was not a UFO or anything exciting like that (would have been pretty cool if it was). It was a restaurant on the roof of the hotel, made for a good photo though.

Well, I am going to sign off for now. Another busy week starting with a city council meeting Monday night. Have a good week (and for those of you that harass us about not posting, you better leave a comment or my next post will be about you AND will post a picture of you...and if you are wondering if I am talking about you, one of you have the initials S.L.)

The past couple of weeks...AND...what is this hovering over Indy?

Well, our posts have been few and far between. It seems all we get accomplished is work, laundry, pay bills, work, go to grocery, work, etc...

We were lucky enough to get out of the lovely Richmond for a few days over Rett's spring break. Since we are trying to save $$ for an adoption that we hope happens in the coming year, we decided to not take a fancy trip to Florida or etc. Instead, we reserved a suite in downtown Indy. We had a good time. We acted as if we were tourists. We shopped and ate lunch in the Mass Ave. district, went to the top of the monument at Monument Circle, shopped at Circle Center, ate at several cool restaurants downtown and more. On the way home we went to Clay Terrace in Carmel and did some other shopping in the Carmel and Fishers areas. It was nice to get away. We took the laptop and did not even check email. It was nice.

When we returned home, we were welcomed by Bill and Mindy's hilarious dog, Sandy. Sandy is staying with us while they go out of town for Spring Break. Kyler tolerates Sandy. Grissom, the fearless cat, hates Sandy.

When we checked our mail we found a large envelope from our home study agency. Since our homestudy if finished and is in China, we thought this could not be good. It was not the best news. The great ol' State of Indiana mandated new requirements for adoptions. We have to update many items every twelve months until the adoption is complete. What a bunch of crap. It is bad enough that ANYONE can crank out a kid without having to "ask for the government's blessing". Now we are punished because our adoption is taking longer than expected. Chances are that we will have to do all of this again next year. Here is what we have to do, AGAIN!

• FBI National Criminal Check
• Indiana Limited State Criminal Check
• Sex and Violent Offender Registry Check
• Local Criminal History Check
• Child Protective Services-National Criminal Check
• Physician Update Letter
• Copy of Driver's License
• Birth Certificates (ever so intelligent lawmakers, think about it, my birth info did not change over the past year)
• Marriage License
• Pet Vaccination Records.

So, here we go again...keep posted, we will tell you how we progress with these tasks AGAIN.

When we fired up the computer and checked email we had an email from our coordinator at our adoption agency. She quit. Lovely.

In addition, we have to start the process to get a new I-171 from the Office of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). The Feds think that our fingerprints will change or something. So now we have to spend another day at the CIS office, getting new fingerprints and spending a small bundle of money (it costs between $400-500) for a new I-171.

Wow, this posting took a turn towards the pessimistic side. But oh well, with the wait getting longer, we have nothing better to do than do the whole "paperchasing" thing...

Other interesting stuff (well, interesting to me), I put new pads, rotors , brakeline and valve cover gasket on the wrangler. We took the top off and dusted it off since it sat all winter in the garage. It is ready for summer fun. I renewed our license plates and got the new "In God We Trust Plates". They are available for no additional charge. You just have to go to the license branch to get them. You cannot get them via the renewal notice if you renew your plates over the Internet or mail. We planted a tree in the back yard and will plant another one after we remove the the swimming pool (Thank you Randy and Kathy for offering to take this money sucking maintenance nightmare off our hands...they do not have the tree issues we have).

Well, it is time to get to bed. Back to work for the both us in just about 10 hours. I do not even want to think about the voicemail, email and other issues that may be waiting for me. I think I will do a few more thoughtless items such as browse ebay and watch race recap shows this evening.

Thanks for tuning in...I almost forgot, I did not even touch on the strange round object that we saw above the hotel across from ours (see picture above). I will not dive into that subject on this post...not that it has anything to do with UFO's or something...you would really think I have lost it...

Have a great week.