Final Carpentry Projects Complete! (& Birthday Guesses?)

Our neighbor Aaron brought his contractor over this evening and they put up the two shelves on the wall in Leah's room that we had left. Since "Uncle Doug" put a bar and shelves in the closet this weekend, we can now say that all carpentry is COMPLETE! I just have to finish putting down carpet tiles in the closet, which I will get to this weekend.

The alphabet poster is also done and hanging, but I almost immediately realized that some of it is off-kilter, so I need to re-do a couple of letters. It was a fun project and went VERY quickly, so I'm pleased to say it was worth spending the 30 minutes to do it versus paying for it through the nose.

B.'s next doctor's appointment is tomorrow at the hospital. I meant to call her tonight but was babysitting, so I didn't have the chance. I'll be clinging to the phone tomorrow! I still have a good feeling about Sunday. Anyone else want to take a guess on Baby's birthday? We can start a friendly pool--no money, but the closest guess gets all the glory!

Our nursery is mostly complete!

Yesterday my sister and brother-in-law stopped by to visit with our niece and we spent some time having lunch. Then I ran over to Cracker Barrel to get a rocking chair--yes, we made it official and decided to get a rocker there instead of a glider. We were all sitting around and just decided to go up to Ikea to pick up a bureau I wanted to use as a dresser/changing table in the nursery so that I could pay Lucas in pizza to assemble it, and then finally I'd be able to put everything away.

Last night, I couldn't breathe when I was in bed, so I took some Sudafed PM, hoping it would knock me out. Fat chance. It did less than nothing to alleviate my congestion (next stop for Sudafed PM: the trash!). So I got back up and decided to clean up the nursery and put everything away. I took some pictures this morning. Hope you like 'em! I'm thrilled with how everything looks and now all we need is a baby!

We organized the books by color :-) Yes, we're just that anal


Mr. Ted has been my teddy bear for over 18 years. I hope baby loves him as much as I do!


The bureau is so big, I was able to fit in all the cloth diapers, blankets, crib sheets, swaddlers, wipes, and his clothes that we received as gifts!! Go Ikea!

Several friends have given me gifts of chocolate for "Mom emergencies"--some high test, some Weight Watchers friendly. The stash is in the super cool clock Michael picked out for him--open clock, diffuse chocolate emergency!

The other day, Michael and I were talking about the baby and I said, "I wonder what he's going to be like when he grows up?" like what kind of a person or what kind of job he'll have, that type of thing. My husband pipes up, "Well, I know one thing for damned sure! He's going to be a Patriots fan." To that end, we went on a little shopping spree on NFL.com



While the banner and pennant do not match the decor, you can bet they'll be proudly displayed in that room. And as you can see in front of the flag, baby already has his first Patriots uniform.

Next up will be the wall decor and putting up a couple of more shelves that I bought to hang on the wall. We also need to install a bar and some shelving in the closet, but that's totally full of 'stuff' so it'll have to wait. At least the room is cleaned up and ready :)

New Projects & New News

So I've got several projects in the works apart from the big "Build baby a bureau" and "clean the nursery" projects. One of them involves putting something on the walls of the nursery, which apart from that awesome green paint are blank canvasses at the moment.

I've wanted to put an alphabet poster up on the wall since my ideas about the nursery started coming to me. I did mega-research. Since the room was not going to be a pastel haven with lots of cute little fluffy animals, I needed to find an alphabet poster that would be a little more modern. It took a long time. A very long time. And when I finally found what I liked, it led to the question of, "WHAT!?" Seriously. Here is the poster I like. See any problems with it? Like the $85 price tag and it doesn't even come framed!?

Yeah. Not good. But if there's one thing I pride myself on, it's that I'm a pretty savvy shopper, especially on line. If there's a bargain to be had, I will usually find it. But I searched high and low and I couldn't find this poster for cheaper. Not even on Ebay.

I turned to my friends at Amazon.com Nothing. But they did offer a glimmer of hope. They didn't offer the poster, but they offered a set of notecards with the Binth alphabet on them, one card per letter, at a total cost of $16.95. (They'd be cool just as postcards, forget anything else! Want a set? Click here).

So baby project #1 is to make these into a poster or set of posters somehow and mount them on the wall. They're beautiful and I love the colors and the fun drawings, especially I is for Inchworm :-) And L for lobster is a nice nod to his New England heritage. I think this is going to be a lot of fun to put together.

I was also on a hunt for a baby book for him. It is kind of a pain in the butt to keep up with those little projects, but my mom made them for both my sister and I and they are something I cherish. I did some book store hunting, but most everything included "Here's how mommy found out she was pregnant." I did find one book that said, "Here's how we found out we were expecting you" which was good, but then it said, "Here's what Mommy was craving"... Not so good.

I was pretty sure that there must be adoption memory books out there, and so again turned to Amazon.com and started looking. Voila! There were several options, but ultimately I decided on Our Chosen Child by Judy Pelikan and Judith Levy. I like the design of it a lot, and last night Michael and I looked through it and read it together and much of it we can fill out already. It was kind of silly though, it goes all the way through the teen years (I think just in case you adopt an older child) and then adds a page for "your special day" and I said, "My God, I don't even want to think about him getting married" and burst into tears! Yeah, I'm a mess.

I also got a hanging photoclip mobile and I thought it would be fun to get B. a disposable digital camera and ask her to take a series of pictures that we could turn into a mobile and hang in his room. We'll see how she feels about that project.

Yesterday while I was blogging about the hell our nursery had become, the phone rang and it was B.! She was calling with an update about her Monday doctor's appointment. She went and told them that she was having a lot of trouble breathing and they said it was probably because the baby is a pretty good size and was pushing on all those muscles. Still, they decided to send her for a sonogram, so she went over to the hospital (Darn it! I MISSED IT!) and they did a sonogram (he still didn't want to show off his junk, so they still can't confirm 100% that it's a boy, but he better be, we have a LOT of boy clothes now). They estimated his current weight to be 9 pounds 6 ounces. Now everyone is telling me that it could be off either way by a pound, but 8 pounds 6 ounces is still a big baby, as is 10 pounds 6 ounces! B. said when she heard that news, she started crying, she is afraid of having to push out a baby that big and of having to have a c-section. I tried to offer her words of reassurance, but really, what can I say!? "Good drugs and a bottle of champagne afterwards?" She made me swear I wouldn't videotape the birth--which I hadn't planned on--and said I could shoot all the video and take all the pictures I wanted to after the fact, but not during 'the action' as she calls it. She also said that the hospital told her she could have 3 people in the labor and delivery room with her and she told the hospital that her first 2 picks were us, so they are aware of her plans.

So that's where we are right now. I am going to have to experiment with Blogger's privacy settings--we feel it is most important to keep B's privacy in highest regard. She is not computer savvy, and so we don't want to do anything that she wouldn't want us to in terms of posting pictures, etc. to a public space, but at the same time, we want to be able to share our joy at his birth and share photos with our nearest and dearest. I know Blogger will allow us to make this entire blog "by invitation only" which would mean you'd have to let me know you want access to the password. What I'm wondering is if we can just protect certain posts, so that if we got pictures of us with B as a family after the birth, we could just protect those posts with her image in them.

Other items we are discussing--our first date night! We have a tentative date planned for May 13th to go to a concert in DC, just waiting to speak with the ticket office about happy handicapped seating and then it's official. Anyone wanna babysit? :-)

We've also been getting strange calls from strange numbers in the middle of the night, so we're thinking we need to start packing for when the time comes that we do get The Call. Even if we just pack up cameras and baby gear and then only have to worry about our own clothing, etc., at least we're that step ahead of the game. So this is the game plan. We've been talking about it for a while, but we just haven't done it yet! So time to do it.

Our new freezer arrived yesterday, so we are probably going to renew our BJ's membership and start buying items in bulk--hopefully they have formula there, which should cut down on the cost considerably, although B. has offered us her formula vouchers, so that should help a lot too. When my mom comes to stay, I want to do a lot of cooking with her so we can load up the freezer and then I'll be able to just pull meals out and heat them up without worrying about it too much.

All baby's laundry is done except his cloth diapers, but I plan to use disposables for a few weeks while we get adjusted and then transition to cloth, so I'm not worried about that for now. Our washing machine died a painful death last night (it's less than a year old!), so it's being repaired tomorrow and then we can wash our clothes and be ready to roll in the event something happens soon! I'll keep everyone posted about going private and how to contact me to get put on the privilege list :-)

Maybe a Little Spoiled!

So if I had any doubts about how many of you are excited and already love this little boy, all worries were allayed in the past week. Between yesterday and the previous Monday, no fewer than 3 baby showers were held in our honor, two of which were total surprises. To begin to thank everyone would take FOREVER, but I'm going to do my darnedest.

Last Monday was book club. We were meeting at Elizabeth's house in Reston, which I have a bad history with (Reston, not her house!). The first time we ever had book club there, we got on the Dulles toll road and I allowed my sister to convince me that what we needed to do was get on the Dulles Access Road. We took a damned 30 minute detour and wound up at book club close to 45 minutes late. I don't do late. Late and I don't agree. Since that experience, nearly 5 years ago, I make damned sure to never take the Dulles Access Road unless I'm going to the airport and to leave early.

But my sister was feeling pokey that night. She took her time making the monkey bread she was bringing, getting Dottie changed and put together for her first time at book club, getting down to the car, etc. etc. etc. We finally got moving and got to Elizabeth's at about 7:20, and my sister says, "Don't you want to sit out here till you see someone go in like we always do?" Yes, ladies, we're just always that early that we arrive usually no later than 7:15 and then sit in the car so we don't look like total losers and are the first ones there--it's my code of book club ethics, but that's why you love me, right?!

So I said, "Oh fine, no problem" and we sat there for about 30 seconds before a fellow member drives up. So I said, "Well, Carrie's here! We can get going now!" and I hop out of the car and we roll into Elizabeth's, although Judy is fussing with Dottie's car seat and hanging back with Carrie, dragging her feet a little. I was like, "Oh, that's just Judy being her infuriatingly slow self again" and then I walked in and go to put my dish down on the table. Guess what!? There is a cake on the table that says, "Welcome, George Henry!" I was like, "What the heck?! This is strange." Then I turn to the living room, and there are several girls sitting around with a bunch of gifts on the coffee table. Surprise!!! It was a book party for George Henry! :-) So thanks to all his Lit Chicks auntie's, he's got lots of good reading to do, from Shel Silverstein to the Mr. Messy books to Goodnight Moon to some fun adoption themed books to a pajama dance to touchy feely books, you name it! I came right home and re-read all the cards and read all the books that night, and some of them made me just a little bit weepy, I'll be quite honest!

THANK YOU, LADIES!

Saturday marked my baby shower for friends in the area. I had selected the date with my sister, who got a bit busy with other things, some of my friends stepped in to take over, and then my sister stepped back in and the four of them managed to plan this magnificent party via email and telephone and Twitter! They didn't meet up in person once!

It was again at Elizabeth's Party Palace, and sadly the weather was drizzly and crappy, but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. I read the Evite wrong, thinking the party started at 2:00, so I arrived at about 2:00 on the dot while the party in fact started at 3:00. Oops! In fact, I beat 2 of the 4 hostesses there, but I just sat in Elizabeth's living room, unwinding with her kitty cats and chatting from afar with the girls so none of their hard work and surprises would be spoiled. I was happy pappy when Judy arrived with my friend Joe. Joe and I have been friends for 15 years come this fall--we met at Manhattan College during a psychology class. We were paired up together for a project and he hadn't done his homework and sponged off me. Despite this, I kinda liked him, so we started hanging out and 15 years later, it's a beautiful thing.

The ladies put on a beautiful tea for me. There was a variety of delicious food, a wonderful assortment of teas, and so much fun. My sister made her famous chicken salad sandwiches, which is my favorite thing she cooks, and she put the chicken salad in little pastry shells--YUM! Melissa went hog wild at Wegman's and bought fruit tarts (my fave dessert!), appetizers, and the like and Jacalyn made cucumber sandwiches. Elizabeth introduced me to the joy of peach flavored tea, and it was so, so good!!!

There were some fun games, one of which I remembered from growing up in the North Country. This involved someone freezing little plastic babies into ice cubes and us seeing who could be the first one to get him out. Judy won by dipping hers in hot tea. We also played baby taboo, where if you said "Baby" you had to give up one of your diaper pins to whoever caught you saying it. I did well until I started opening presents. Then I lost it. Joe was the big winner!

The fun thing about the games was that all the prizes were baby gifts. Each had a little note attached and the winner signed it and gave it to me as an extra gift. I got little teethers and so forth, so it was great!

The girls also had advice for the mom to be cards and each guest took one and wrote some words of wisdom. They included:

Stay calm, ask for help, and enjoy! --Cecily
Let me know when you need cookies! Sugar always helps! And wine (for you--not for him) --Sarah
Call me anytime you need to talk with a fellow clueless first-timer! --Elizabeth
"Spare the rod and spoil the child." When you don't know, say: "Ask your fatha" When all else fails, VELCRO! --Joe
If you have any questions or need a break, call my big sister, she's great this thing. --Judy (my little sister)
Sleep when Jack is sleeping. Don't watch him sleep. Sleep! --Kris

We got so many lovely presents. Melissa and Judy both learned some new crochet techniques and gave me a hand-crocheted blanket each. Kris got us the Little People farm, which I remember the old school version growing up, as did the other girls so we all squealed about that. Joe didn't know he was coming till the day before, so he went to Safeway and got a Hello Kitty rectal thermometer--HILARIOUS, but I'll never use it. hehe We got more books, clothes, a bumbo, blankets, and Jacalyn made a gorgeous diaper cake full of cloth diapers, clothes, spoons, teethers and more!

I must mention Jacalyn's mom Ann's gift. She got us some little boxes and filled them with goodies, but suggested that what we should do is have a box on each floor of our house with some diapers, wipes, washclothes, etc. Because we have a split level and the baby's gear is upstairs and we'll spend most of our days downstairs, this will save me from running up and down to change him. This is a great idea and one I am definitely going to use!

However, I got home and the General helped me unload the car and I was showing him everything and showed him Ann's boxes. His response? "These are nice boxes! They are just the right size to pack brownies in for work." It's clear where my husband's priorities are! Ha!

You can see pictures at both Melissa's blog and Jacalyn's blog. Sorry, I was too busy to take any!!!

So yesterday was my office day, usually I am in my office in Fairfax on Mondays. I was not too happy about going in yesterday because B. had another doctor's appointment and asked me if I wanted to come, which I sure did! But my boss had scheduled a staff meeting for yesterday and I had to be there because it was a team meeting to discuss the transition into a life without Susan. So I went. Grudgingly. Armed with a 4 page report I'd spent hours compiling so that everyone would know who their clients were going to be and what they'd need to do with each client.

Ok, fine. So then I get an email when I get there, "Denise has a meeting in the conference room at 10:00, so our staff meeting will be pushed back to 11:00." And I was like, "So help me God, if they push this meeting back till 12:00, I am going to be so unhappy, I might have to scream." Because I went to the doctor with B. last week and I was back in the office at 12:30. Plus, I had been asked to do a big inservice yesterday and I had to cancel it in order to attend this staff meeting.

So around 10:45ish, my boss Tim walks into my office and says, "You got that report ready?" and I was like, "Yeah, it's right here" and I hand it to him. He says, "Well come on down to my office and we'll discuss it real quick before the meeting, and also there are a few other pieces of paperwork you need to fill out."

So I go on down there with him and we're sitting and gabbing and he's emailing me files for things I need to do like an exit interview and rattling off who I have to email things to and I'm just like, "Whatever, I am so over this" ha! So then he says, "Ok, hold on a sec, I forgot something out front, I'm just going to grab this other form." and he takes off. So I'm just sitting there like la de dah and then he comes streaking back in and says, "Ok, well it's time for the meeting, so c'mon and we'll finish this up after the meeting." Ok, so I follow him out to the conference room and still in a haze and he opens the door and everyone is sitting around the table, the room is decorated and everyone shouts, "Surprise!"

Well, honestly, I couldn't have been more surprised. In fact, I turned around to walk out. It literally didn't register what was going on. Tim stopped me and then I realized what was going on, and I said, "Oh my God!" and I smacked him one (fortunately he's good like that). There was a table full of food--Denise, my co-worker who had a baby a year ago had made piles of sandwiches and salads and dips and veggies, and there were chips and a beautiful "Congratulations, Susan!" cake. It was amazing. There was a table full of presents in the back and Denise caught everything on camera--she is going to give me a CD shortly. So there we were again, everyone sitting around watching me open presents!!! Tim read a poem he wrote in my honor (you can read it here) and it was also a going away party for me as I will be leaving my job on George Henry's birthday.

We got so much great gear for the baby, my friend Debbie is such a crafty one she made a beautiful bath time bucket out of a paint can and filled it with onesies and washclothes and bath goodies. Our office manager, Roxie, gave me a hat she had knit herself. Denise gave me a whole laundry basket full of diapers and wipes and good things like that, Kris gave me clothes for when he gets older (love that!) one of the mobility instructors and a counselor gave us a whole bag of Easter themed goodies and a lullaby CD. It was awesome. Plus they all chipped in for a good-bye gift to give me a gift certificate/Visa gift card, which I am stashing for a new mommy emergency run to Starbucks. I have plans for that Visa card.

Thank you, DBVI!!! I'm so lucky to have worked with such an awesome crew. It was bitter sweet, everyone kept saying, "What are we going to do without you for X, Y, or Z?" But I reminded them all that Jack's doctor is in Fairfax and I'll have nothing better to do than drive around aimlessly anyway, so I'll come visit often!

So I went out with Debbie last night and then driving home, I called the General and told him to be ready to flex his muscles--we got gear! We hauled in another round of goodies and at this point, it was looking like a desperate situation in our living room. It looked like a Baby Depot truck had pulled up, dumped its load, and driven off.

So today I spent some time putting things upstairs, washing all the clothes, and trying to get some things organized. We are hamstrung by our lack of a bureau and the closet doesn't have a clothes bar or shelves or anything. This weekend, Uncle Lucas is supposed to come help me get a dresser and put it together, and hopefully that will solve this problem.

You remember my beautiful baby ready nursery? I think someone called it "magazine gorgeous"?

Well, here's what it looks like today with all the gear loaded in.

Box of Bum Genius 3.0 diapers, ready to be washed and waiting for use!



Why have one carseat when you can have two?


He's got clothes, but nowhere to sleep!






This is my current organizational project! (See below for more details)

Ok, so the clothes in bags. My friend Mandy (you will remember her from the diaper cake) told me that she started putting her boys' clothes into ziploc bags, one outfit per bag. She said this makes it REALLY easy to grab an outfit and go, she can even send the boys or her husband to grab a clothing bag and they can be on their way in no time.

What really appeals to me about this is not only the speed and convenience of it, but that Michael will be able to pick out an outfit that's coordinated and dress Jack up and be ready to roll if need be. I'm trying it out and now have tons of hats and socks to include in the packages. Once we get him a dresser this weekend, I can put them in the drawers by size and we can recycle the bags as he outgrows things. I'm excited to see how this works!

Monday night, I should mention, I got home and Michael said we'd had a package delivered. So I took it and guess who it was from? My friend Julie in Georgia!! She and I met over 10 years ago when her parents and mine all decided to split up (they didn't know each other or anything, but it was at roughly the same time anyway). We've kept in touch all these years and she has a little guy of her own, Joey, who is 6, I think by now? and just so adorable he can't quit. So, she sent us a gift for Baby Kosior and guess what it was? A hand-crocheted afghan! In blue! Different than the other 2, totally gorgeous as well. This is absolutely wonderful, he's going to be the warmest baby on the block :-)

So we have some cleaning up to do! Our neighbor is going to install our shelves for us soon up on the wall and hopefully I can hire him to put in some shelves and a clothing bar in the closet. And that's it! Look for another post soon about my new projects for the nursery if it doesn't swallow me whole in the meantime!

Busy and Productive Weekend

We spent a lot of time this weekend on adoption related matters. The big news is that our birthmom has moved back to the East Coast and is much closer to us now. Consequently, meeting her is going to be a lot easier, as is going to see her during the birth and to pick up Little Jack. When we got the news, we immediately had to re-think all the legal stuff and so we are waiting on our attorney here in Virginia to sort that out for us again.

We spoke with the agency out in Iowa and they spoke with the birthmom (I'll call her B. from now on--B. for birthmom!) and she gave her permission for us to have her phone number. We tried calling her on Saturday, but weren't able to get her. She did call us back and leave a message while we were at a game night at a friend's house, so we decided to call her back on Sunday afternoon. Surprise! She called us at 10:00am Sunday! We chatted for nearly 20 minutes and it was so great. She is such a fascinating person--we learned a lot about her and she learned a lot about us. It was fun to ask her questions like how she'd been feeling, what foods she's been craving (hot sauce, which her doctors have told her to quit eating. Ha!), etc. She told us that every morning at 3am, Jack starts kicking the heck out of her, and she said that he's such an active baby that a woman on the bus with her the other day asked her what she had hiding under her jacket! WOW! She told us we'd better be ready for a real busy body :-) She was also very happy to hear about our pet rabbit--she thinks it's great the baby will have a pet.

Anyway, we've made plans to meet up with her in early March to have lunch and get to know one another more. Thanks to everyone who has given me so many recommendations about where we should go for lunch! Sabatino's appears to be in the lead. I'm not sure how we'll keep still we're so excited, and we've been reading up on how to prepare for the meeting, which is a little nerve-wracking, but honestly the phone call was so great, that most of my nervousness has disappeared into pure excitement. She sounds very determined to go through with the adoption, and has filled out a hospital plan that includes us in every way. She verbally told us that we are welcome to be in the delivery room, in her words, "when all the action goes down", which is so reassuring and thrilling that we'll get to witness his first breaths in this world. It brings tears to my eyes.

Also big news: a great big huge THANK YOU to everyone who bought something from our Pampered Chef show! Together we managed to raise nearly $500 for the adoption!! This is huge, unbelievable, and unexpected. So many people passed the information along to friends and co-workers and family that we got orders from all over the place. I would get an email and think, "Who the heck is Ann Smith? Do I know Ann Smith?" and shortly thereafter get an email from a friend who'd say, "That's my mom/cousin/friend!" So thank you all! :-)

We decided that since it all looks pretty official, we need to get moving on the nursery! Sunday afternoon, TomTom vacated his room upstairs and moved into the basement. I wouldn't say he's unhappy about it, but I would say that he's rather confused. He keeps scurrying around the pen that we bought him wondering what the heck is going on. I cleaned his cage tonight, and I have to say, the house has not smelled the least bit rabbity, so I think thus far, after 48 hours, I am able to keep up with it. I do think we will wind up going through a lot more litter, as I plan to clean his box out every other day, but he's actually become much cleaner since moving into a smaller space. Hooray for TomTom! (Even if he hates it) As you can see from the picture, Michael decided to welcome him to the basement by making his ears stand straight up. Ha! This picture just cracks me up. TomTom LOVES having his ears stroked, so even though it looks crazy, you can tell by his eyes being closed that he's actually in hog heaven.

So this morning, we decided to tackle the baby's room, and had a ton of volunteers. My sister and brother-in-law came to lend a hand, and everything went so smoothly that we were able to call off the other volunteers and save them some free time!

Judy and Lucas divvied up the responsibilities--Judy helped me with the flooring, and Lucas was in charge of furniture building. We started with the floors--I'd spent yesterday sweeping and scraping and getting the floors into as good shape as they could be after having lived as a rabbit hutch for three years. Then we started putting the carpet tile down. I ordered carpet tile from Target.com I got two different colors so we could have a checkerboard design--green and what I thought was white but turned out to be beige. This is fine, though, I'd rather it be beige--hides the mess better :) I was a bit worried about all the cutting that would be required around things like heat vents and doorways, but it turns out my sister is a whiz (she claims all that playing Tetris paid off!), so she told me how to measure and cut and I did it. Only once did I totally screw up and it worked out anyway as I was able to cut the mistake off and still use the tile just fine. The tile has a light adhesive on the back, not really enough to do any good, so we wound up staple gunning the tiles to the floor once we were finished. This worked out really well and Lucas was able to vacuum with no problem whatsoever. There is one little section where the tiles are up just a little bit, but I think as we continue to walk on and over them, they'll settle in nicely.

After we finished the flooring, Judy and Lucas brought the crib upstairs and Lucas had it together in no time at all. I helped tighten a few screws, because really, that was all there was to it. It was an absolute snap. So we decided to put together Little Jack's bookshelf while we were at it--Lucas and I had built this exact model last Easter when I needed somewhere to house my "to be read" collection--sadly, it's outgrown the shelf, but oh well, it's still a great sized shelf! So we knocked that together in about 30 minutes and put everything where it belonged.

Well, of course, with the crib up, I wanted to put the bedding in, which I couldn't do without having a mattress, so I took a quick trip to Target and picked up the mattress, a touch lamp (cool!) and a garbage can to use as a diaper pail. After we got back and the sheets and blankets were done being Drefted in the washer and had dried, I ironed the curtain/blinds which had been washed to remove rabbit fur, I washed down the walls again, washed the windows, and cleaned the ceiling fan. Then it was time to put the room together, as much as we could with the few things we have. But actually, we're in good shape. I have a set of 2 shelves that need to be mounted to the wall, and then we need a rocking chair/glider and a dresser/changing table and the furniture is all done! Then we just have to make ourselves a working closet (there is no clothes bar or anything in there, and we will probably use the leftover carpet tiles on the floor in the closet) and the room will be in even greater shape.

So here's where we are with the room. If Jack came home tomorrow, we'd be ready for him.

Eeyore and Seahorse are ready for Jack to come home too!

More Odds & Ends

Well, the Pampered Chef show invites went out. If you didn't get an email, it means I don't have your email address. If you'd like to come to the party next Monday night in Alexandria, we'd love to have you! If you can't but would like to order, you can visit http://www.pamperedchef.biz/angie?page=product-order-guest-login&showId=1936956 and buy something. We get 30% of the sales, which is pretty good. We've only had 2 orders so far, but we've already earned $27. Thanks book club gals Cecily and Kate!

We've also started an Ebay account for the adoption. Michael has some computer gear that he wants to sell and I have some autographed books that I could get rid of. We'll be going through the house and hopefully coming up with some things that we can sell off that we don't want/need any more. I may try selling a few of my pictures too. It's a pretty cheap project, but could potentially make some money from photography lovers in Ebay-land.

That's about it, really. We've paid our Virginia attorney's fees and part of the birthmom's attorney's fees, and still have plenty of money to get by. We are anxiously awaiting our tax documents, because then we will be able to breathe a bit easier--we need that return! :-)

And everyone's been so helpful with the lodging situation. We found one posting on Craigslist Detroit for a woman who rents out her guest house for $40 per month. We are going to try calling her for more information. Lauren is on the quest with a friend of hers who works for a chain. My former boss is from Michigan and is checking with family and friends to see if they might know of someplace we could stay cheap.

We have a checklist from the Michigan attorney of paperwork we need to get in order, so we are busy finding all that. February 16th is "Nursery Day". We will be putting down the carpet tile, building the crib, hanging shelves, and hopefully putting the closet together. So much to do, and so much excitement in doing it. And then we will get to take a mini vacation courtesy of the Talmadge Glecks, NettieMacs and Mamorys in order to get a little down time/Mike and Susan and friends time before the real insanity hits.

Thanks to all who have been so generous and helpful with money, time, advice, connections, and affection. It's amazing the people who the people you know know. Ya know?

Moving Along

Well, it's been a whirlwind since we got our match on Tuesday--one week ago!! We were busy getting a loan for the lion's share of the money, and now are trying to make up the last little bit. We have an attorney selected in Michigan, and are speaking with him by telephone today. Our attorney in Virginia has been notified and made sure everything was kosher, giving us the green flag to proceed.

Friday we made the big payment to the agency, and last night I came home to all the information about our match and what to expect in the coming weeks. It was a treat to read, "Act as if you were giving birth--have a suitcase packed and by the door, ready to go when you get the call." So exciting!

We will know more about everything after speaking with the attorney today. I am making a list of questions to ask--I'm a little OCD about things and need a ton of answers so we know how to proceed.

We also ordered our carpet tiles last night. Hopefully they will arrive in time to be put down this weekend. I look forward to getting the nursery put together!

More updates as they happen.

Argh!

The General's fingerprints have bounced back again as "unverifiable". This is the second time. Considering that he has prints on file with the FBI, I'm not sure what the problem is--surely the FBI can just look him up and be done with it? Right?

Wrong.

So now there is a new form which Beth, our social worker, says we might be able to fill out and request an end to the bouncebacks. I'm not 100% clear on whether or not that means we can skip doing the General's fingerprints or what, but I guess we'll find out more.

The philosophical part of us says that this is all happening because our child isn't ready for us yet. He or she is out there in the great beyond, waiting for us, and we all have to wait for the stars to align properly so that we get the right baby and a baby gets the right parents.

The irrational part of us is fuming. Fuming enough to say "The heck with it, is this really worth this kind of hassle?"

Of course it is, and all this will fade from memory when we have our little one home. But dang, this is only the first step! What else is going to happen?

----------------------

I spent a good part of my lunch break reading the blog of Sweet Baby James, which you can find at http://www.sweetbabyjames.info. It was such an inspirational story and so sad, but this family moved me--from the parents' struggle with infertility to the birth of a special needs child and his way too short life.

----------------------

My in-laws were down this weekend and bought us a crib! All we need now is a mattress and at least our baby will have a place to sleep and some snuggly blankets. If only we could get a floor put in.

Thanks, Hank and Sheila!

-----------------------

Colleen, our attorney, said she thought the profile looked good. She suggested we solicit feedback from family and friends. Thanks to those who have commented. If anyone else has a few minutes to look it over, please feel free to do so. It can be found at http://www.mkosior.com/profile.pdf and after viewing it, please leave us a comment about what you thought.

-----------------------

I guess that's about all. Hope everyone is well out there! We are keeping the faith, even though faith seems to be making a break for it.

The Nursery is Painted!

There is only so much you can do while you are waiting for your child to come home. But a fun thing is to get the nursery in order.

Obviously this would be easier to do if I knew we were having a boy or a girl, but we don't and we may not find out till the last minute. So I was just messing around on the Target.com site and looking at all the things I could get for a new baby and I happened upon a fun bedding set that was totally me while being totally neutral.

I nearly decided against it because the company making it is called "Babylicious" which makes me think of that little twerp on Project Runway who calls everything "Licious" this and "Licious" that and I sure don't want a Babylicious. I'll take a baby, thanks.

But ultimately good taste won out over idiocy and I bought it. It arrived last week and I love it.

Here's a little preview:



The only difference is that it didn't arrive with the checkerboard along the inside, which I am hearing as a complaint from many people. It has stripes instead. But I don't much care, I bought it for the polka dots.

So anyway, above you can see the before shot. Someone had plastered a lovely Americana border around the top of the room, which apparently complimented the forest green they painted the baseboards, window frames, and closet doors. (And for added fun, you can see the bunny supplies.) Well, Lucas more or less took care of the forest green issues, and I spent Sunday ripping down the wallpaper border. Unfortunately, and much to my chagrin, the people had slapped it up there to hide the fact that the crappy paint they used in the first place was cracked and peeling. So I had to repair that first.

Ultimately, I decided on a real sassy green for the nursery. Despite my current aversion to Home Depot, they were having a sale on paint this weekend, and I happen to love Behr Paint, and they happened to have a color I was in love with in their chips, and so I temporarily forgave them for the flooring debacle.

Here is the color on the walls:



The color is called Honeydew, and I think you'll agree it's quite sassy. It also matches beautifully with the color of the bedding and I really love it. It's very fresh and spring-y. Now that the room is painted, I can put down flooring. The next task will be the flooring, but I'm already 2 strikes down and starting to get discouraged just a little bit.

Anyway, Lucas was down this weekend, so the paint went up in under 2 hours for 2 coats. Turns out he is an excellent painter. I took the high road and he took the low road and we shared the cutting in. I'm going to be looking for some cute little switchplate and outlet covers and then once the flooring is in, I can work on finding furniture.

But it's nice to see something tangible in place. Oh and TomTom is still high as a kite on paint fumes!!! And seriously angry about all the disruptions in HIS room. Since we keep calling it The Bunny Room, does this mean we can call Baby Kosior "the bunny" until s/he gets here?