The Flaming Hoops of Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy...who needs it.

Apparently the week in between Christmas and New Years is not the best time to speak to people who can answer questions at the Bank, at the Employment Insurance Office or at the School Board. Who knew?

I received a call from the Board of Education, my employer, requesting that I contact EI to get answers to questions they, at the board, can't answer by themselves this week.

I called EI 11 times today between 9ish and 2ish to get answers for the board. Each and every time I got the "call volume is high and we are not able to place you on hold at this time. Call back later. CLICK."---meaning "We are all on vacation...sucks to be you"

So, demonstrating initiative I got in the car, drove 35 minutes to the EI office and got the answer I was searching for... hmmm... Yup (she actually said YUP) I think your board is right but you really should call the call centre for confirmation. This week is probably not a good week to call though. Call on the 5th. That would be better.

Um, the 5th, right, from a plane over the PACIFIC OCEAN?

So I went shopping...for Benjaminh...because there were no flaming hoops of bureaucracy at Baby Gap

(Thanks for the sweet long sleeved onesie for under my overalls Auntie Chloe! And the matching socks of course.)

Paper and Boxes...the joy of Christmas

This type of play apparently occurs as a result of eating ONLY sweetened applesauce for dinner. Lots and lots and lots of sweetened applesauce. Oh, and skipping nap time of course.

My sweet 2 year old nephew calls this game "paper snow".

I call my livingroom a disaster!

A dog's Christmas in pictures

While the humans ate we watched...
and watched...and watched.


And then we feasted on our own fowl.

It wasn't a ruff Christmas at all.

"Deep Breath"

Lots of last minute paperwork.

Lots of worrying, wondering and waiting for email answers from those who know the answers...

Like, does it matter that you used the incorrect spelling of my first name on my airline tickets?

Should I be worried about traveling home alone with sweet Benjaminh and experiencing a 15 hour layover in Korea?

Oh, employer dear, you need my parental leave forms and supporting documentation RIGHT NOW? Signed by the principal in the middle of vacation?

Most everything is under control.

I have investigated the Korean Airport and quite frankly it is somewhere I can probably keep busy for 15 hours. And it helps that they are Asian daytime hours. 6 hours for 39 American Bucks in a transit hotel will certainly help as will a copious number of Infant rest rooms. I'll survive.

I'm assuming I will hear from someone tomorrow morning about the spelling error in my name. If I don't I can assure you that they will be hearing from me.

Almost all of the required paperwork is at the board office.

Now, employment insurance paperwork.
Next week I guess.

Two Weeks from Right This Minute

I'll be boarding a flight.
Unbelievable really.

In the interim I thought I should keep busy
so I scheduled Christmas and New Years.
And a few other things...

Choosing hardwood for the living room
(did this today)
Cleaning
Wrapping
Cleaning
Cooking (also unbelivable, I know)
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with friends and Family
Hosting Boxing Day, baby holding
(though I have to share with Grandma)
More cleaning
A couple of tutoring sessions
Choosing ceramic tile for the kitchen and entry
Cleaning
Meeting with Jack...the one who builds houses...
Imagine the book,
"these are the floors Jack installed, while I was in Vietnam"
A touch of last minute shopping
(for Immodium anyway, and books for the flight)
A spa day with the ladies
Lunch out
Photo developing
(for the orphanage director and past nannies of Ben's buddies to be...)
Oh yeah, installing gates and building cribs
And packing.
For up to 4 weeks or so in Vietnam.
Right, must pack...

16 sleeps until take-off

So, rather than cleaning my house for Christmas visitors I have been researching Hanoi weather patterns and climate...for January. All of January, as I will be there pretty much the whole month and in to February.

What to pack (for me- I've got the little guy covered...literally).
That is the question.

Well, it seems the average temperature is 16 or 17 degrees Celsius with lows around 13 and highs around 20 (record lows of 6 and record highs of 33). Though humid (75-85% humidity) there isn't much rain falling and it only falls an average of 7 days of the month.

So pants will be fine. Perhaps a couple of pairs of capri pants and a pair of favourite sandals. Runners. T-shirts, long and short sleeved and light sweatshirts for layering. A light jacket for the Ha Long Bay trip.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

10 signs that the
total number of days remaining
until you leave to pick up your son
is greater than your I.Q.

1. while you usually sleep 8 or 9 hours EVERY SINGLE NIGHT suddenly you seem to be sleeping 8 or 9 minutes
2. repetitive buzzing sounds when you are TRYING to sleep make you scream "shut the fu^# up" rather than actually getting you up...even though it is a work day and the repetitive buzzing, which has been repeating for over an hour, is in fact your alarm clock.
3. you go and pick up the pup at his farm dayspot, load him into the car, go home, go into the house, nap (because you are NOT sleeping well), hang out, look at pictures of your son, get dressed for a winter dog walk and realize, AGAIN, that you forgot the flipping leash at the farmspot.
4. you write a very detailed email to the travel advisor at the agency. It contains all sorts of important travel info like passport numbers and full correctly spelled names and credit card numbers. 7 different bits of requested info for each traveller. You call the next morning to give the expiry date and special code for the charge card so flights can be booked using the emailed info and the travel advisor is like" what email?" And it is nowhere to be found. Not in the outgoing mail or the drafts or anywhere. And you think...did I write it or just THINK about writing it. And you are not actually sure of the answer.
5. you feel like crying when the special guardian angel that heads out to pick up your favourite tea at lunch every day is AWAY...
6. you leap up from your desk, rush down to the school office to grab that important thing that you just thought about and by the time you get there you completely forget what that important thing was and then you hope it wasn't important at all and sometimes you forget to go back to your desk for a L...O..N...G time
7. you pack a box full of little gifts for Benjaminh's favourite Albertan uncle and aunt, take it to school on Tuesday so you can rush out and get it sent more than half way across Canada in between dinner and the school play, get the invitation to travel in between dinner and the play and forget about the package until 2 days later on the eve of a storm the forecasters are calling SNOWMAGEDDON. Oh well, it'll make a great Easter gift. sorta.
8. you figure you can use wax paper rather than parchment paper when trying to make macaroons for the first time...even though you made great pressed leaves with wax paper as a little kid and know wax MELTS...what a waste of 8 cups of flaked coconut
9. it takes 3 tries to sign the application for the Vietnamese entry visa the same way you signed your passport. The signature you use ALL.OF.THE.TIME! What is up with that?
10. I'll have to get back to you on number 10 because the apple cider I'm heating up on the stove just boiled dry. I was feeling a bit chilled so I thought I'd make a hot drink. Most people might realize that the thermostat is set at 60 degrees and simply turn it up but me? I'd rather try to burn my house down!!!

Flights are booked, waiting for confirmation from the airlines.

19 days until take-off.

Visa Application
Travel Arrangements Form
Next day Purolator delivery

Done
Done
Done

Sleep

Not so much

The agency will work to book all of the group's flights tomorrow with a hope that we will travel earli-ish in the week of January 5th (depending on flight availability).

I'll likely be travelling half way around the world to my baby boy 3 weeks from right this very second.

Wow! This is really happening.

934 days later a dream came true

I'm going to Vietnam!!!

Vietnam has issued my letter of invitation to travel.
The agency is looking for flights for early in the first week in January.

Details to follow!

Christmas Joy

Seriously, couldn't little C be on the cover of the Sears Wish Book?



A few short months ago he was most uncooperative...

Just to clarify...travel dates are VERY tentative right now (in my mind anyway). As soon as the plans firm up I will share the juicy details. So much has been "soon, any day" during this journey that even when things look somewhat real I'm sceptical until I have a sure thing on my hands.

Stay tuned. It could be an especially exciting week at wish, wonder and wait... The wishing and the wondering could very well be over and the waiting nearly done.

A gift...

I received a detailed email from the agency today that included all kinds of interesting information about visa's, passports, travel arrangement forms, balances owing on 'In Trust" accounts and Hanoi hotels. Oh yeah, and tentative travel dates.

I'm thrilled.

Many more details to follow mid to late next week when things are supposed to become less tentative.

Stay tuned Sweet Benjaminh,

Mommy is coming.

Sitting here

So, I'm searching back through Ange's blog over at theroadtovietnam reading about her time lines and hoping and praying that I get my letter of invitation on the 17th like she did and lo and behold she is simultaneously commenting on my blog to hang on just a bit longer... that she was impatient and losing it a week or so before her letter as well.

What would I do without my sweet friends, pulling me back from the edge, over and over.

Dossiers go to Vietnam a month apart, in October and November of 2006,
and referrals arrive a year apart, August 28th 2007 and September 2 2008.
Figure that one out while thanking God
because sweet Owen makes the waiting real.
Go see for yourself.

While I was over at "theroad" I tripped across this beautiful poem that our agency sent out a gazillion days ago. It didn't cite an author, so if you know the author pass it on.

And enjoy.

With Love to Adoptive Parents

You cannot change the truth
these are your children
but they come from somewhere else
and they are the children of those places
and of those persons as well.

Help them to know all about their past
and all about their present.
Help them to know that they are from extended families,
that they only have one set of parents
but that they have more mothers and fathers…

They have grandmothers, godmothers,
birthmothers, mother countries and mother earth.

They have grandfathers, godfathers,
birthfathers and fatherlands.

They have family by birth and by adoption
they have family by choice and by chance.

Childhood is short
They are our children to raise.
They are our children to love
and then they are citizens of the world.
What we do to them creates the world that we live in.

Give them life.
Give them their truth.
Give them love.
Give them all that they came with.
Give them all that they grow with.

Your children do not belong to you
But they belong with you.
You cannot keep from them what is theirs
But you can keep loving them.
You do not own your children,
But they are your own.

Impatient today.

Very impatient.

Desperately impatient.

The weather really was frightful...

I went on a little road trip this weekend to visit the (mostly) sweet Christian and his mommy and daddy about an hour and a half north west of the big city. When I headed out at noon on Friday there was grass showing in the big city. An hour and a half NW??? Not so much.

I didn't have my camera so you will have to use your imagination...
Snow.
Deep snow.
Like a couple of feet of snow.
Like the neighbour was shoveling his roof when we arrived.
Shoveling.His.Roof.
When we left today, 2 days later, the roof needed shoveling again.
I expect to see them again in April. or May.

It was like we drove through a cosmic hole or something and ended up in the far northern Arctic.

Tilleywear

Behold the beauty of Benjaminh's beautiful new Tilleywear hat!

Could it be ANY cuter?

Bunny Boo offered to model Benjaminh's cold weather wear for you tonight though the 6-12 month size was a bit on the big side...you get the idea though.

Hand made to my specifications
by Mason and Elizabeth's mommy Tiffany
with a generous return policy if Benjaminh's head turns out to be gargantuan

Can't wait to put it on my little guy...
perhaps we will visit Halong Bay on a blustery day?
( though I'm more likely to leave it in the car seat
in anticipation of our winterish Canadian return)

(hmmm...never thought to ask if the return policy has a time limit so
COME ON YOU VN OFFICIALS!!!!!.

It is December.
Little man turns 6 months old in a matter of a day or 2 depending on which side of the earth you call home.
Will I hold him in my arms by the time he is 7 months old?

Oh, I hope so.