SERIOUSLY!

That is all I have to say about the fact that we still have no new information on Simon. I am angry and I don't want to sound pessimistic or like "poor me" because I don't think that.  I very much think LUCKY ME, but I also don't want to pretend that every day is rainbows and teddy bears because that isn't true.  We've been waiting for 6.5 weeks for our update and today is 3 months since we've known Simon as our son and we have no idea when we'll have him with us.  We could REALLY use an update.

Because I don't want to be a total downer I thought I'd go through some of the random pictures we've taken to document Simon's adoption story.  It was fun to think about what was going on in that moment and what we were thinking about.

This picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day.  It was our application and first batch of paperwork.  Really important questions were asked like "How far is the nearest bus stop from your house?"  Obviously there were a lot more relevant questions, but that was on there!  We put the packet in the mail and went out to dinner to celebrate.  Nothing fancy, we were just trying to find some place where we'd be able to get in and get a meal without any St. Patty's craziness.  A strange thing happened though.  The tables were really close together and I heard the woman next to me say "I saw a couple pushing a stroller and walking their dog today and I thought that could be us soon!".  I immediately thought, "They are adopting".  I'm not sure why, maybe I had already noticed she was drinking a glass of wine, but I continued to listen and wonder if I was right.  Finally she said, "So and so said we could borrow their car seat and I thought that'd be great because we don't really know how old they will be when we bring them home so we might only need it for a month so it would be nice not to buy one". Weird coincidence!

Steve and I were actually quite slow with the first batch of paperwork.  I think it took us 6 weeks to complete it.  It felt a little scary to actually look at it and fill it out.  However, we got our act together for the next round.  After we attended Pre-Adoption Classes we were sent home with 19 questions, as well as more paperwork.  We sat down and finished it in two days.  Also, when I say 19 questions I really mean about 119 since each question had about 8 questions within it.    I believe Steve worked on his from 9am to 11pm on a Sunday.  We were both emotionally drained.  He was also really happy to be captured in those shorts.

This was taken before our final visit with the social worker. It was also the first time our social worker came to our house so we were a little frantic.  I had this whole dilemma of "do we offer anything or does that seem like we kissing up and what are we supposed to offer it's 9am she will have probably just eaten breakfast and like I want to worry about cooking anything that morning because I'll be running around worrying about dust and what if she has allergies etc. etc".  So I settled on offering iced tea and I got to use my cute new pitcher.  She seemed satisfied.

This is Gretzky waiting for our social worker.  We like to tell her when someone is coming so she isn't taken by surprise.  But when she knows someone is coming, she keeps a close eye on the driveway.  However, Gretzky pulled it together that day! I was in shock, I was staring at her out of the corner of my eye the entire 3 hours.  Those of you who know Gretzky know that she barks and likes to jump on guests and try get their attention.  She barked maybe twice, sniffed our social worker's feet and went back to her window and was quiet. This DOESN'T happen.  Even when she is in her window she is barking at anything and everything going on outside.  About halfway through the meeting she laid down next to me and took a nap. It was amazing.

And lastly, Simon and Gretzky's stockings this past Christmas.  They each got a cuddly stuffed animal from Santa.  Santa took a round about way of sending Simon's elephant to MN for us to send to Korea, but it all worked out:)