Wouldn't You Know It?!

The second I start to 'wonder' if the Medical is ever going to come in.... it DID!!!

This morning I woke up, rolled over and looked at the clock: 7:30am - no phone call. Probably no Medical. Depressing. Rolled over and lay there for a while.

Oh well, on we go. Tons to do. Starting with my dump of a bedroom. You got one of those rooms that is lucky enough to be the dumping grounds for all the house? I keep the whole house spotless, but my bedroom seems to catch things.

I headed downstairs and was reading some blogs when I saw an email come in. I figured it might be our agency replying to a message I sent. I had asked if they could DHL my package to our girls, since we had missed Sue going to Ethiopia this month. Sue goes to Ethiopia once every 4-6 weeks, and it had been 4 weeks since court and it would be another 4 weeks til she went again. That meant our girls were 'legally' our girls for 8 weeks and would still have not have received their care package from our family.

Families send little goodie bags with photos and treats when they pass court. Some people have their packages to their kids within days of court. We have not been so lucky. The agency told me that since our package was so tiny (I split it between two people travelling) that they could squeeze it into a DHL package going next week, but they don't normally DHL packages for parents because it costs $500 a package! Whoa!

I am thankful as our girls still don't know what we look like!

Anyhow, this email comes in and it is Levina, our caseworker:

Hi Ray & Justine,

Guess what?!

YOUR MEDICAL HAS ARRIVED! This is a BIG step in the process and I am so thrilled to bring you this good news!

YIPPEE!!!

Okay, so I immediately felt nauseaus - kind of like I did when we passed Court.

Do you know how significant this is? This means that we will be travelling in 4-7 weeks! WEEKS!!

(yeah, yeah, I know our caseworker 'told us' that Immigration has the right to take up to six months to issue a Visa, but you know, I have never seen a Visa take longer than 7 weeks. Oh, and that family I mentioned yesterday? Isabelle? Well, double yippee! They got their Visa today, too!! They left for the airport 2 HOURS later!! LOL!! They have an adorable little baby girl waiting for them and they have been waiting many more months than us!)

So, now that we are down to weeks, this means that I have so much to do. I am very thankful that up to this point I have been busting my butt getting everything done that I can.

So this is where we are:

The girls room is painted pink and white. The trim is being painted and hung this weekend. The bedding has been ordered from an amazingly discounted store in the States - 60-70% off. Thanks to Denise, my good buddy, who was willing to field a frantic phone call at 11:15 pm. "There's a SALE!! I need coordinating help!!"

LOL! We were on the phone til 1:30 am!!! But, I got my order in and saved hundreds of dollars! Can you imagine that bedding can be so expensive? I was paying $5 for sheets, down from $20, and $13 for bedskirts, down from $45. It was fun!

Ray drives to the town north of us tomorrow, after work, to get the girls beds, dresser, and night table.

I have had lots of fun being very modest in my toy buying. I bought a number of black baby dolls, a beautiful white wooden doll crib and high chair - matches the girls room. Plus, I have ordered the Calico Critters doll house and furniture. I love the detail and I love the fact that the little occupants are animals, and not people! I bought the hamster family, plus added twins that were bunnies. Cause we are going to be a blended family, and so it only seems right that their little doll house family is not all one kind.

Now, I have to investigate hotels, flights, which countries are best to fly through: Amsterdam or London etc etc!!

Here we go!!!!