The Weather Outside is Frightful...

Seriously, can the snow stop now? It is November. My brother was swimming in the lake in October. Where has the beautiful fall weather gone? Will it be back?

Honestly, I had hoped to be in Vietnam when the crappy weather hit. Then home when the really crappy weather hit. Snow covering my car and I don't care sort of home. Home with my baby boy, both of us in our flannie pyjammies. Cozied up on the couch sucking back a bottle (Benjaminh, not me). Hot cup of tea in hand (in a covered travel mug...wouldn't want to spill it on the little man). Puppy curled up by my feet.

Well I got the official word that no letter of invitation means no travel before Christmas. Sucks. On the bright side this little bit more waiting means time to find homes in my house for all of Benjaminh's stuff. SO MUCH STUFF. Oh my. I will have to displace some of my own under-used stuff to make space.

In an effort to share a bit of the Benjaminh love I'm going to snap a few pictures for you. The hand-made bits you may not have seen on store shelves before...as well as some "piles" of Benjaminh Belongings looking for homes in my house.

Here goes...

Made in VN, a gift last Christmas, to carry me through.

You have never felt a blankie so soft...with a built in monkey pocket!No words are necessary...how cute are these?Handmade with love.Wow, I'm getting new floors but perhaps I need new cabinets?

Speechless...well, sort of...in a "I'm alone and there is no one to talk to" sort of way.

Generosity consists not the sum given,

but the manner in which it is bestowed.

Wow, what a weekend.

My dear friend Carol hosted the baby shower of the century in Benjaminh's name. So many people have walked by my side during the ups and downs and downs and ups of this journey. Lifting me up when I was down. Celebrating with me at the peaks. Many of these same people met yesterday for the first time.

Lifelong friends, adoption friends, sweet friends from school, family, neighbours and more... Young and not quite as young...sitting, chatting, laughing, eating and celebrating. Celebrating wee Benjaminh's imminent arrival.

It was all so very overwhelming. Really. Benjaminh is loved deeply by so many people he has not yet met. He received gifts beyond imagine. More importantly we both received the gift of love and unending support.

My tiny little family is so very lucky.

Wow.

A few pictures of the festivities for your viewing pleasure.

Yum...ice cream cake

Auntie K (travel partner extraordinaire), myself and Ben's new Build a Bear (Nana in the background)

Crowd views...

Take another peek...

Click here for another peek at His Deliciousness...
and a wee status update.

Elijah David

My sweet nephew.

Born Friday Evening,

on his mommy's birthday.

I of course commented on her having received

the greatest gift ever.

She responded that 26 hours of labour

including 3 failed epidurals

was gift she wouldn't have chosen.

A different gift delivery system would have been selected.

Apparently she is owed an ice-cream cake...

Soon...

Home from the hospital today.

Well over 8 pounds.

Healthy but a bit yellow.

Our family has been blessed once again.

Daddy, big brother Malachi (about 27 months old) and baby Elijah.

Auntie B soaking it in.

MOTHER NATURE, BITE ME

Words escape me.

Life Points to Ponder

I got the shot. Not without some heroic driving through an elementary school parking lot on a rainy day 10 minutes before dismissal (a school serving about 650 children who apparently melt).

Seriously, I'm walking towards my car thinking "After all of this waiting the journey won't end right here will it? In the school parking lot? After I KILL the parents who parked in front of my car TODAY of all DAYS...but other parents saw me coming...parents who LOVE me... they ran to get the 3 blockers...and saved the day.
Saved the adoption.
Saved my clean criminal record.

So, on to my points to ponder...

1. Where is my brain? I rush to pick up the dog at the farm on my way home and leave his leash behind. We are not going to another farm. We are going to a town. A town with leash laws and neighbours I have freaked out on because they refuse to leash their dog.
2. Where is my brain? I get to the pharmacy (the CLINIC pharmacy), have the little refridgerate the ducarol speech, pay the bill and the lovely woman offers to refridegerate the ducarol while I get my shot and sit for the required 30 minutes where they make sure I'm not going to croak. I get the shot, wait 30 minutes and leave without the ducarol.
3. Where is my brain? The town CENTRE pharmacy calls me about 2 hours later to let me know the CLINIC pharmacy (you know, the affiliate) has dropped off the forgotten ducarol and I can pick it up until 8 pm. I think great, I head out (and on the way I stop and borrow a leash because the pharmacy is close so I'm walking the dog) and I walk to the CLINIC pharmacy because I HAVE NO BRAIN! Then I walk back, put the dog in the back seat, drive to the CENTRE pharmacy stopping at the mailbox on the way where I find a parcel ticket waiting for me. Yaaaaay. The day is improving. I love me some parcel goodness!!!!
4. Where is my brain? I rush in to the town CENTRE pharmacy, pick up the ducarol, no one laughs at me (to my face), browse at some lovely little hand cream gift packages that would be perfect for nanny gifts and head out to the car and home. Halfway home I remember the parcel ticket. Guess where one picks up parcels in little town? Did you guess the PHARMACY? Did you guess the CENTRE Pharmacy...at the exact desk where I was browsing through gift bags? So I went back.
5. Ouch! Where is my bloody brain already! The parcel is big. Pretty sure it isn't cloth diaper covers. Sort of 1 foot by 2 feet by 3 feet in an unmarked Toysrus box. By unmarked I mean it doesn't have a picture of the contents of the box on the outside of the box. They offer me a cart. Me? A cart? Do I look wussy or something? Me of big muscle but little brain heft the akward box and head on my merry way shoving open no less than 4 doors with my left arm. Um yeah. Got that shot on the left.

So now I'm home. Got my shot. Got my big parcel (which I'm dropping off at the shower destination tomorrow and am NOT opening it even though I really really want to). I even stopped at my local Tim H0rT0ns on the way home. Couldn't lift the left arm high enough to pay through the drive through window. This is when I knew. I have no brain.

I do want to preface this brainless post with a few details. Typically I am not brainless. Most businesses have generators to support their I.T. department when there is a power outage or a computer crisis...my school secretaries have me. I remember EVERYTHING! I know EVERYONE'S name. Like this imaginary but very likely scenario: I know that Abdul is in grade 1 in room 16 and was in room 12 last year and has 3 older siblings and 5 cousin-brothers attending the school and I know where each and every one of those siblings and cousin-brothers are in the building. I know his mother's name and his aunts' names. All 5 of his Aunts. 3 of the aunts went to the school 15 years ago and I remember their classes and thier brothers names and and and...

Scary really. And even scarier? Most of that information is intact. The day to day stuff like where did I park the car? Gone. There is an empty space where this short term stuff used to live. I know others who have completed adoptions in the last year of so. Not everyone seems to get it back.

Un-frikkin-believable

If you are not a fan of venting move on to the next blog in your favourites...
seriously...

Okay, I warned you.

I'm simply trying to get a typhoid vaccine.
Easy right?
Not.

Go back to June 26th 2006. The begining of this seemingly never ending road to parenting. I was going to be a mommy in 6-9 months. Wow! the excitement! The thrill! The debt! The worry!

Off I go to the doctor to get my medical clearance. While I'm there I get a TB test and we discuss immunizations. It is decided I will get my routine immunizations updated that day (2 shots) and will get the Heb a + b series starting the following week. Closer to travel I will get typhoid. Right arm, left arm, tb test and off I go.

Fast forward 862 days. Early last week. I need my typhoid immunization stat. Chatting with the travel clinic I determine that they need a record of my routine immunizations...so I call my doctor to get them but...wait for it...there is no record of the June 26th shots. NO RECORD. Apparently I never had them. Can't use the travel clinic until I get it straightened out.

Day 869. This past monday. The doctor's office will do the immunization for Typhoid but I have been told to call 24 hours in advance so they can order it in. I call Monday at 9am. I have an appointment Tuesday at 12:10. I take the WHOLE DAY off work because I will need to sit 30 minutes after the shot and my doctor is 45 minutes from my school...

I get there. No vaccine has been ordered. Un-frikkin-believable.

But it gets better. worse. better. whatever... I move on. Or so I think.

I take my prescription to the pharmacy in the clinic building.
There is a line up. I read the sign as I wait.
Town Center Pharmacy hours...10am-8pm Monday to Friday.
My turn...
I comment on the convienience, specifically mentioning the hours the pharmacy is open.
I tell them the clinic is injecting me Wednesday between 6 and 7 pm giving me time to sit 30 minutes before they close at 8. She says great, the delivery will arrive by 11 am. I repeat that I will arrive just before my injection time. She even looks up the price for me. We chat. We are practically friends (I don't know any of these people because I DON'T go to pharmacies. EVER.

Fast forward to today. Get my Oprah, get my large steeped tea double milk, walk over to the clinic, the pharmacy is CLOSED! The one with the 10 - 8 hours POSTED ON THE FRIKKEN DOOR.

Why, why would there be hours for the Town CENTRE Pharmacy
on the door of the Town CLINIC Pharmacy?

Who knew there were 2 pharmacies under the same management in a town without a McD's...without a KFC...without a public high school.

Come back tomorrow and I will report on the conclusion of this story...
somehow I need to finish work at 3:30. Be at the CLINIC Pharmacy by 4:15 pm (40 minutes away) so that I can have the injection by 4:20, sit for 30 minutes before they close at 5pm.
OR
Wait until next Wednesday (but the injection needs to happen a full 2 weeks before exposure and a miracle may occure at any minute and I will receive the travel call...

So...

Got a package in the mail today from Parenting by Nature,
my cloth diaper registry...
Can I open it?
Can I
Can I
Can I

I know it is a shower gift
I know the shower isn't "right now"
But I'm not sure I can wait...

My Mind

If you do the laundry on Saturdays
and you have LOTS of blue in your wardrobe
and it is Tuesday morning
and you can't find your navy blue t-shirt
(or your other navy blue t-shirt or your navy blue tank)
and you are in month 29 of an adoption odyssey

then the only conclusion is that you are losing your mind...

Check the washer because your blue shirts are ROTTING in there.

Wash them again
And again

And DO NOT forget them a second time

Gotta go and put my clothes in the dryer...

"Do you think he ever imagined it?"

What honey?

"Obama, do you think he ever helped in the library when he was a kid and wondered if he would have a 323?"

A 323?

"Yeah, that's where the important people are. Like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. That is the shelf where Obama's books will be."

The world is changing today, for all of us, even the minority 5th grader living in a Canadian Urban centre...redefining his own possibilites.

From Here to There

12822 km

Several more weeks of waiting

(the agency says travel as early as December

though I'm guessing January is more likely)

A few hours of frenzied packing

A couple of days in planes and airports

Can't Wait!