Name That Kid

I'm an internet consultant. One of my marketing industry newsletters this week featured a fun new site, Nymbler. Give it a try! We'd be oh-so-Web 2.0 if we named our kiddo off of a baby-naming search engine.

CIS Visit

Hubby and I happily met at the Department of Homeland Security Office today for our fingerprint appointment. We were greeted by two stern guards at a security station much like you'd pass through at the airport.

Their serious demeanor didn't last long, though. Straight from work, I was wearing a dressy black knee-length skirt, sweater, and knee boots. The security guard asked me to remove my boots to pass through the metal detector. I complied... only to reveal hot pink striped knee socks that were originally part of my Strawberry Shortcake Halloween costume. Oops. Plan ahead, plan ahead....

While waiting for our fingerprints, we were instructed to scrub our hands with overscented lotion pumped from an industrial-size carton. Hubby commented that it smelled like Orange Glo cleaner, and we were told that's exactly what it was, minus the "grit." I felt like a citrus fruit for the rest of the afternoon.

We hit it off with the gentleman who took our fingerprints. He redid several of our prints multiple times to make sure they met the computer's specs. He and Lance discovered that they both became Catholic within the last few years, and they had a good chat about the Church and their classes.

A citizenship ceremony was about to commence as we left. One lady I met seemed absolutely giddy about gaining citizenship. I was excited for her.... I know it's not quick or easy to do so. There were dozens of people there, many of them with flowers and cameras. What a big day they were having!

As for us, we're so glad to have another step out of the way. Now we will watch the mail for our I-171H. Once we receive that, we'll overnight it to CHI and officially be added to their list. Based on other blogs I've read lately, we expect to be in the mid-200's. Let the waiting begin!

"They're driving an '84... sheepdog."

So this weekend I went with Lil Sis, her boyfriend, and one of my friends to "Spend an Evening with Jeff Daniels" at Sooner Theatre in Norman. Hubby was supposed to come but was home sick (sorry, Hon!).

I was a bit hesitant when the day of the show my friend mentioned it was an event highlighting his songwriting. Um, what songwriting? I knew him from movies, primarily Dumb and Dumber (hence the post title). I really should ask questions before blindly committing to things. At any rate, he put on a really good show! He was quite amusing, his songs were fun, and the venue is a gem - can't believe I've never been there.

After the show we played stalker in the back of the theater - it's a small building so we assumed he had to come out eventually. Ta-da! We were right.

How fun, he was nice enough to stop for pictures! He also autographed a program for Hubby:

I do think he'd tipped back a few by this point. He was accommodating but his patience was wearing a bit thin - I suppose that would happen after you'd put up with fans for years. I had to refrain from throwing a Dumb & Dumber quote at him myself.

Fingerprint Appointment

WOOT! We have a fingerprint appointment! I received an email this morning that they have us scheduled for 12:00 tomorrow.... a bit of a short notice but I'm thrilled it's so quick. I couldn't tell from the way the email was worded if they had mailed us a notice that we never received, or if they just squeezed us in. I've been pleasantly surprised by the CIS office's responsiveness to email.

With a quick dental appointment switch for Lance, we can both make the appointment. I promise I'm not hiding a felonious background. For some reason they won't just take my word on it.

Boy and Girl Talk

Several of you have asked what gender our baby will be. Note the first song on my blog for the probable answer. That's right.... it's Beautiful Boy by John Lennon! We aren't 100% sure yet, but chances are very strong that we'll be adding a little boy to our family. I'm grinning as I type this. It's so fun to think about having a little guy around here.

So, how do we know? We aren't requesting boy or girl - we'd love to have either (or both!). We're open to a surprise. However, the Vietnam adoption system takes away a bit of the mystery. As you know, the wait for any relatively healthy young child is pretty lengthy. The wait list for girls is longer than for boys right now, so we'll probably get to cut in line in front of a handful of parents to adopt our little guy.

It's so exciting to think that we'll be parents to a little boy in the not-so-distant future. There's just a big enough sliver of a doubt to prevent us from painting the nursery yet. :)

I'm off to listen to some John Lennon....

Oh, Brother(s)!

A family from our agency, CHI, just received the referral of two fantastic brothers from Vietnam. You can check out these cuties on the Leonard family blog - they are beautiful. They family will travel to bring them home in about 4-6 months. Another family with our agency received a referral for 3 1/2 month old twin girls last week. Congrats to these families.

My understanding is that young sibling groups are rarely available from Vietnam. However, we're approved for two just in case. Talk about turning your world upside down - these families are in for a fun ride!

Vietnamese Heritage Camp

I love the adoption groups and message boards online. They have provided an invaluable amount of information to us as prospective adoptive parents. I just learned from one of the groups that an organization consisting primarily of volunteers offers Heritage Camps in Colorado. The Vietnamese Heritage Camp is near Winter Park. I've already Mapquested it - eleven hours from here. :) We may have to add camp to our "wish list" of future vacations.

Hubby is home sick this weekend, and I'm desperately trying to avoid his cooties. I gave the computer a sponge bath with Lysol wipes before I typed this.

I'm such a germ phobe that I'll be crashing in the spare bedroom/nursery-to-be tonight. I remember when I was little and my sis and I got matching daybeds. I was so excited, mainly because of the oh-so-cool hearts on the rail, and the endless sleepover possibilities offered by the trundle bed. Anyway, I'll be sleeping in that very daybed tonight. It's among the comfiest places to sleep in the world, though it could use some WD-40. We plan to leave it in there, space permitting, once Little One comes home. I have a feeling we'll appreciate the cozy place to catch a bit of shut eye. Speaking of which... night, all.

Vietnam in Oklahoma

Oklahoma City has a surprisingly large Vietnamese population - approximately 20,000, according to this article from the NY Times Frugal Traveler. We'll have to start visiting some of the mentioned restaurants to acquire a taste for pho before our trip.

Money money money!

It's odd to be happy that large sums of money have been drafted out of your checking account, but we were tickled to receive the receipt for our I-600A over the weekend. The money actually came out of the account back on my 30th birthday - an odd reverse birthday gift of sorts, I suppose.

Apparently the Oklahoma CIS office is currently processing all applications for both Texas and Oklahoma adoptions. We still don't have our appointment time, but that should arrive within the next couple weeks - hopefully the appointment will be soon. CIS said they average 60 days to process our fingerprints and send us our I-171H. Here's to hoping they're in a zippity mood for 2008 so we can hop on that list ASAP!

Christmas

I think I've exhibited a great amount of self-control by not allowing myself to start shopping for Little One yet. Hubby did pick up an OU baby bottle a while back. Other than that, we have refrained from even the most tempting of clearance racks. I've been savoring the thought of all the goodies and decorating. The nursery-to-be is still styled as a spare bedroom, leftover-furniture style, and probably will be for a while.

However, with the process underway, we thought it would be okay to indulge ourselves and put one little gift under the tree this year. We ordered this adorable book from Amazon. I'm in love.

It's the sweetest little adoption tale ever. However, now I've opened a whole can of worms. I've put off buying things with the justification that I don't want to decorate until we know the gender and exact age of our child. But books! There are few things I love more in the world. I could certainly justfy buying books galore for our little one without knowing any more about him or her than I do now. Must.... block.... Amazon....

Poppa and Gram also sent over the most adorable duckie robe. We opened it on Christmas morning, along with the book we had wrapped. We took pictures of the gifts under the tree and us opening them. I was going to post a pic of the duckie robe, but seeing as the pictures involve me in pajamas, we'll skip those little jewels for now.

Fingerprint Appointment

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a great 2008....

Due to wee bit of impatience, plus my concerns that our fingerprint notice may have been lost in the mail, I've been trying to contact someone - anyone - at CIS for several days.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an actual email response this morning. They said our info has been forwarded to the ACS (whatever that is) for processing, and that we should receive a notice of our appointment time within the highly definitive time frame of two weeks "or so." Not exactly speedy, but at least it's moving!