Gratitude Blog

As you may have guessed from the significant LACK of blogging, not much is happening in our little corner of the wide world of adoption. As far as we can tell, our file is still at the Ministry for Education. Jeff, our Kaz program social worker, said that it's probably "sitting on the desk" of the person who makes decisions about which region we'll be assigned to. I'm trying very hard to be patient, which is not something I've ever been very good at.

That said, I've been thinking a lot about patience lately, and came across an article where the author described how selfish impatience really is. So I started thinking about what the opposite of impatience would be... the main thing I could come up with is gratitude! So here's my gratitude blog for today, as an antidote to impatience:

• I'm grateful for all the people who have helped and supported us in this journey - so many friends and family members who've been so enthusiastic and happy for us. Some of you have given me hope when my own hope was waning... so thank you for that.

• I'm grateful for all the folks at CHI who approach their jobs with such love and understanding, especially when they get bombarded with frequent requests for updates from impatient people like myself :^). I'm grateful for the folks at CHI who put in such long hours and bring so much thought and prayer to their jobs.

• I'm so grateful for all the new friends and aquaintances I've met through blogs and the yahoo groups. WOW! What a supportive community.... thanks, you guys! Thanks for being willing to share your stories and your insights. I can't imagine doing this without you all!

• I'm grateful for friends who are beginning to give me unsolicited parenting advice. I know this happens naturally to women who are pregnant. But having no "external" evidence of our "pregnancy" has made this a pretty surreal experience. If I was biologically pregnant, I'd be about 7 or 8 months pregnant by now...but being "adoption pregnant" is easier for people to forget. So thank you to those friends who are continuing to throw out bits of advice for us soon-to-be first-time parents!

• I'm SO grateful for friends at work who helped me successfully lobby my employer for a change in their benefits package: maternity leave for adoption cases! Yippeee!!!!

• I'm very thankful for the people who make Rody inflatable ponies (see pic below). I had never seen one of these until I went to City Sprouts in St. Louis (a cool kids store). Every time there is a young child in that store, he/she gravitates towards their little red Rody. They LOVE it... bounce on it, squeeze its ears, etc. So we bought one. Ours is black with yellow dots.
• I'm grateful for the avelanche of baby stuff that people have bestowed upon us... a crib, 2 car seats, a baby "backpack", a tricycle, 2 strollers, etc. It's pretty overwhelming. And I'm grateful for the offers of clothing and toys that have been made... we're just waiting to find out more about the size/gender/age of the kiddo. Believe me, one thing I can't wait for is launching into clothes shopping. I'm not a shop-a-holic, and I'm not obsessed with clothes, but there are just WAY too many cute things to pass up shopping opportunities for baby/kid clothes.
• I'm actually grateful for the waiting time associated with this adoption (going on 2 years now), because it's been a fabulous growing time for both of us... we have known each other for 18 years & been married for 11, but we've still learned so much about each other through this process.

So those are my thoughts on this last day of October. Happy Halloween, everybody! And stay tuned... more updates should be coming!

Worldwide Blog!

I've discovered that this blog is being read all the way down in Antarctica! How cool is that??? My friend Sune, who works for the British Antarctic Survey, responded to my email alert about this blog. Here are some pretty darn cool pictures that he sent from some work he's been doing with emperor penguin colonies lately:

(Sune titled that middle picture "Parenting." I hope that sort of parenting applies mostly to penguins, since I don't recall parental regurgitation of half-digested fish being mentioned in the child development books I've been reading. Maybe I skipped that part?)

I can't tell you how much I would love to visit Antarctica someday. Actually, I'd love to work or study there at some point - extreme biology rocks!. However, it will have to wait, as Sune informs me that there are no kids allowed in Antarctica (a shocker, I know)... with the exception of a Chilean base where the Chilean government allows their citizens to have babies, thinking that this solidifies their claim to the continent. Apparently, there are children in the world who are native Antarcticans. Interesting....

And speaking of children... no new info yet about a Kazakhstani kid. By the way: I've been reading books about Kazakhstan, and "Kazakhstani" refers to the citizens of the country. "Kazakh" refers to an ethnic group which makes up the majority of the population of the country. Just in case you were curious... I've been reading blogs by folks who've been to all of the regions our agency works in. They all sound like really interesting places to go... they range from big cities to smaller towns. I'm getting really curious about which part of the country we'll be staying in when we travel.

Also - people have asked about the gender of the kiddo. Short answer: we don't know. We didn't specify one or the other when we applied. In Kazakhstan, this normally means you'll adopt a boy (since most people who adopt request girls). We'd be happy with either.

AND... people have asked about names. We honestly have not decided on a name. The kid will, of course, come with a name. We figured that we'd wait to meet the lil' kiddo and make a decision then. Many people end up using the given name as a middle name... we have no idea yet what we'll do. This doesn't stop people from suggesting names, though. So far, my favorites (and by "favorite", I mean "the ones that have made me laugh out loud") are "Bergthora" (which is "goddess of the mountain" in Icelandic - thanks Nibby, for that suggestion), "Horst" (not really a suggestion, but just a name that came up in conversation and made me giggle) and "Zaphod" (this is probably what Michael Booth will call my child, regardless of what we name him/her.)

So, Where's the Baby? (Part 2)

Well, it seems the traditional thing to do on one of these adoption-related blogs is to post a map of the place you're headed off to. I know most of my friends have beat the pants off of me on the Facebook geography quiz challenge, so you probably don't NEED a map of central Asia in order to remember where Kazakhstan is, but for those of you who've never heard of the country, here it is...

Our agency currently works in several different regions in Kaz: Almaty City, Almaty Region, Shymkent, Taldy-Korgan (northeast of Almaty) and Qostanay (in the northern part of the country). So we're currently waiting to find out which region we'll be assigned to. Any guesses?

Fun facts about Kazakhstan: it is the birthplace of the apple (this is where they evolved). Also, Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world! Kazakhstan has had a long and fascinating history, from its experiences as a stop along the Silk Road, to the influx of Islam in the 9th century, to the arrival of Gengis Khan a few centuries later, to the experience of being a former Soviet state... it's a pretty amazing place. It's been a region of nomads and famous horsemen, with a rich cultural history. It's also been the home of the Soviet space program and Soviet nuclear testing. Overall, we're pretty psyched about being able to visit this part of the world. (Although it will most likely be the dead of winter while we're there... not quite as much fun for a couple of biologists like Russell and me who would love to see plants, animals, etc.)

So until we hear from our agency about where we'll be headed, we're busy preparing. Russ is trying to get another chapter of his PhD done before we leave. I'm teaching my fall classes. I'm also starting a research project on genetic diversity of hill prairie plants. This research project is what I'll be doing instead of teaching next quarter, once the baby is home. This weekend, Russ and I went out to collect plants from local hill prairies...some of them are really beautiful this time of year!

We're also still collecting odds and ends for the baby's room. Two of my favorite things so far: a mural for the wall called "Our World" (from Oopsy Daisy art) and a stuffed monster called "Oliver". The mural was an awesome find... I love it because of all the random places to include on a map of the whole world, the artist put the St. Louis arch (we're in the greater St. Louis area) and a yurt in Kazakhstan. Very cool. And I love Oliver because he was designed by a 4-year-old boy who described him as a monster who who loves pink and who is growing his hair out. Oliver wants to be a princess when he grows up (hence the crown). He has no arms, but as the designer puts it "That's okay, because everyone is different." Seriously, how can you NOT love that?
Finally, to the commentor who asked about our agency - we've been really pleased with CHI so far!