So anway....

I ran all the way home, practically ripped my house apart looking for the folder (while the cleaning ladies were there no less), found the folder, no form. FUCK! I'm running around trying to find this form when the phone rings. It's the agency. They found the form in Guatemala. Whew! Oh, and I did find out that we have been translated. We are on our way. I'm going to get around to doing a timeline soon. I promise.

Fuck Me Gently With A Chainsaw*

We were supposed to get updates on medicals & photos on Dylan by Tuesday. It's now Thursday and not only do we not have photos and a medical report but my agency called to say that the attorney lost our 797H form! I have to run home, get the copy, hope that it's perfectly clean (meaning that you can read everything clearly) and overnight it to Guatemala (at the Agency's cost of course). On the happy end of things (I try not to bitch unless I can end it with a happy note), our Dossier is translated. *Great line from the movie Heathers

August 10th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!!! You will always be my special baby girl :)

Nothing New To Report So... A Little Entertainment

Our Lawyer, R, in Guatemala, is in the process of moving her office and doesn't have access to computers to update us on our progress or send us medical reports or photos. So, in lieu of an exciting update on Dylan... I give you for your entertainment.... Crazy Frog (scroll down to the middle of the page for the video)

Now Introducing... Live from Blogland....

It's the Princess. She has joined her sister (me) on the dark side of technology (blogging). She speaks of what she knows... being Jewish and Single. She's an insanely talented writer (even though she probably wouldn't admit that) and I can guarantee you laughs. If you know of any nice, Jewish boys... send them to her blog too. Now, go flood her with hits (since I just told her how to get a counter on her site).

DTG!!! DTG!!!

Woo Hoo! Our Dossier was sent to Guatemala! That means we are just another step closer to bringing home our son! Now it gets translated and they request the DNA test. Great way to start the weekend no? ~dancing and twirling about~

Furniture Shopping, Registries and spinning... Oh My!

Wednesday night, my Mom and I went out for girls night out. Just the two of us. It was great because I don't get her all to myself very often. We went to this place I had heard of from friends to check out furniture for Dylan and found some amazing stuff! Our home is very open, clean lines, etc. The furniture I liked fit the whole house. Then, Mom begged me to get started on our registry (me thinks the cousins are making her nuts) so we headed over to the store and started registering. Mom had waaaayyyyy too much fun with that gun! I hope that Marc and I can head over this weekend and continue with the picking of the stuff. It was really nice. For the first time in, I can't tell you how long, I walked into a baby related store and wasn't asked when I was due. In fact, I got a few confused looks. My tummy is finally starting to go down! I don't look pregnant any more. Then we went to dinner at this incredible restaurant. Bottle of wine, great food and great conversation. It was, well, great :) I had a crazy day at work yesterday but managed to go home and have some real quality time with Marc. I had been feeling a bit disconnected so it was great to reconnect again. This morning took my usual 6:30 a.m. spin class with Russell. This man is awesome. He comes up with the craziest combinations of music to spin to but it always works. Although I really could have lived without the 75 two second jumps at the end. Oh, and the topper of my morning... some guy slowed down as he was driving past me and gave me a little look over and a "hey baby" as I was walking into the office.

An Even Better Way To Start The Day

Soper from Uterine Wars has posted again and it's good news. Go over and read her latest post and give her some loving will ya? Yeah, worked out again today but took it a bit easy on myself. Instead of killing myself to get to the 6:15 a.m. spinning class, we just got in at our regular 6:30 a.m. time and I just worked out on the eliptical for 45 minutes. Now, that 15 minute difference is HUGE! That's 15 minutes of extra snuggle time. I love for snuggle time. I could just lay in bed for hours with Marc's arms around me. He has amazing guns. I have left a phone message and an email message for the agency. I am really hoping someone gets back to me today.

Good start to the day!

Went to the gym and lifted (lower body). I was walking by a mirror and I realized that my posture is coming back. I'm starting to stand straighter with my shoulders down (which is good because when I stand straight - my belly doesn't stick out so much). I'm very excited for the Princess (my baby sister). Her birthday is coming up and a bunch of friends she made when she was living in Israel are coming in (pretty much from all over the world) for her birthday. She is just so excited to see them all and I know how much she has been missing them. We are having a big brunch so I will finally get to meet all of these people that have corrupted my sweet, innocent little sister (coughbullshitcough). hehehehe

Some Fucked Up Shit in Blogland

Ok readers - I know you are out there and that each and every one of you are wonderful loving people. Please delurk and give some much needed love to Soper. She is living every adoptive parent's worse nightmare. She traveled 30 hours to be told that there is no child waiting for her and her husband. Please delurk yourselves and give her your support, prayers, good wishes, etc. Thanks!

I'm so freaking sore!

Marc and I spent the weekend working on our landscaping. From all of the trimming and pulling of weeds, etc. my body just hurts. Of course I also added some insult to my injuries by taking a spinning class this morning. I was so tired going into it that at one point I thought I was going to throw up all over the bike and had to slow down. Yep, I'm an idiot. We also got an alarm system this weekend. It's pretty cool and I definately feel safer in the house alone. On the adoption front - everything should be coming back authenticated from the Guatemalan Embassy this week and from there it's sent to Guatemala for translation. I'm also hoping we get new pictures and a new medical report this week.

Another Infertile Gets Knocked Up!

Go give Dead Bug some serious lovin! That girl is sporting a HcG of 136! It must be the heat. So many of my infertile blogging buddies are getting their miracles. I pray that all of you get your dreams fulfilled. I promise a snarky non-crunchy post later :)

Happy Birthday Baby

Dylan is 3 weeks old today. I can't wait to meet him.

Finished Paperwork, Names and Friends

Well, our last document has come and gone. The wonderful 171H (or 797H depending on who you ask) is off to the nice dossier lady in South Carolina. Unless there is a problem (G-d forbid) we are done with our paperwork for now. Now we just wait to bring Dylan home. Oops... did that just slip out? Yes, we've decided to go with Dylan and are still playing with middle name(s). On the "not about Dylan" front, I'm almost finished knitting Marc's scarf which means I will be starting on Dylan's blanket soon. On Saturday, I got to meet a bunch of amazing ladies that I had met online at Fertility Friend. They were part of a local group of posters that I have gotten to know over the past year. They are an amazing group of women and I feel so honored to be able to count them as friends. Liana is a very talented knitter and extremely patient teacher. We got together in a fabulous coffee shop to knit and chat. Since I knew how to knit already, she gave me some pointers and helped me decide on a lovely blanket for Dylan. Cecily couldn't join us but I was finally able to meet the lovely Tara and my adoption buddy Barb. There are many other amazing women in this group that I hope to meet soon. As much of a curse as infertility has been for us, it has also been a huge blessing. Without it I wouldn't have these amazing people in my life. Without it I wouldn't have Dylan.

Hurry Up!

and wait. That's the stage we are at now. A courier has, most likely, dropped off our Dossier at the Guatemalan Embassy in DC. In about a week to ten days it gets authenticated and the Dossier lady will send it down to Guatemala for translation and then we wait for the request for DNA. That is still a few weeks away. So I will just look forward to receiving a new photo of the baby along with his medical report. We had fun this weekend but I felt bad because Marc worked Saturday and Sunday. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & Fantastic Four at the drive in on Saturday. I loved Charlie and hated Fantastic Four. While Marc worked on Sunday, I layed out at my Mom's pool. ***Sign my map please! I see really cool readers from really cool places that haven't signed my map so... please sign my map - it's that cool icon to the left of the post. Thanks!***

****BANGARANG!!!*******

Everything except the I797 is now on it's way to the Dossier Prep lady. Our photos, our passport copies, all of our authenticated documents, everything. She is going to put them together and take them to DC to have the Guatemala Consultate authenticate everything. Then everything goes down to Guatemala to begin the process there. Hang tight little one - Mommy and Daddy are working hard to bring you home.

We're getting closer!

We are now certified (or certifiable depending on who you ask). We are now sending everything down to the lovely Ms D to take to the Guatemalan Consulate in DC and then she prepares our Dossier and sends it to Guatemala to begin the process down there. A few more steps closer to our son we are! I'm very excited. I'm finally meeting some of my virtual friends in real life! My inspiration for starting this blog was my friend Cecily. I met Cecily online at Fertility Friend on a board they have for local infertiles. We are all hanging out at an uber cool coffee house to chat, drink coffee and knit. I am looking forward to meeting these incredible women face to face. Oh, and since we didn't get to go to the drive-in last week, we decided to go this weekend. Well, now I'm really glad that we didn't get to go last week because now they are showing Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Four. Woo Hoo!!!!

Ohhhh, pretty, gold, shiny, medallion

That's what I saw when I pulled the authentications out of the envelope. One State down and one to go! Also still waiting on INS to get their collective asses in gear. Hoping to see that tomorrow or Friday. I would love to send everything down on Friday. That would be perfect. Today is the baby's two week birthday. My beautiful baby is two weeks old today. I told a woman in the gym that and she practically fell over. She was extremely pregnant (I actually felt sorry for her in this heat) and told me that I looked incredible for someone who just had a baby two weeks earlier. Of course all of my gym buddies cracked up laughing and blew my cover. Speaking of the gym, I got my ass kicked this morning by a 5 foot tall Swedish chick. She filled in for the spin instructor and did some shit I've never done before. I'm gonna be hurting tomorrow!

That was cool

Got the ultrasound (external one - YaY). Tech said that everything looks normal. She also called me skinny. I'm in love with the young, thin, blonde, beautiful ultrasound tech who called me skinny. I think I told her that too. She is my new best friend! So, the doctor's office called because the ultrasound place didn't have my referral. They made me sign off that I'd be responsible for the bill (which he assured me would be covered) and did the ultrasound. The doctor's office now tells me they are not capitated to that office and he shouldn't have done the ultrasound. I told her that she can tell him that if insurance doesn't cover it - they damn well better write it off. She said they'd fight it for me. This is why I love this office. Paperwork is pretty much done except for one thing that goes off tomorrow to be authenticated. I worked on the photo array and it came out quite nice (if I do say so myself). Just waiting on everything to come back from the state and the INS shit and then it's off to Guatemala! Woo Hoo!

Feed Me! Give Me Something to Drink!!!

I'm whining because I have to fast before this ultrasound. I don't want to go. I've had enough ultrasounds for a lifetime. Yes, I know this isn't the cootercam but still. I'm also whiny because I didn't see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this weekend beause it was raining and I felt like shit. I'm also whiny because one of the reference letters has to be redone. Ok, enough whining... Marc and I really buckled down and stuck to our Weight Watcher program this week and I lost 4.8lbs and Marc lost 4.4lbs! Yay! Yesterday we went to a Phillies game and had tickets in the Diamond Dugout. What does that mean??? We sat three rows behind home plate, next to the Phillies Dugout (close enough to feel the air conditioning in the dugout) and everything is included. All our food, drinks, etc. I didn't go crazy because I wasn't feeling well but it was great fun and the Phillies won!