2012? How did that happen?

Hi all! I have nothing profound, cute, witty, or even informational to post. But I just wanted to say HI and Happy New Year!! We are still here, and still awaiting being matched with Klaudia's little bro or sis.

The holidays and 4th birthday were great -- a very busy time! Klaudia is all 4 year old now, and we are impressed and amazed every day at her growth, wit, and plain old cuteness. I know everyone thinks their child is the most amazing child, but mine really is. ;-)

Here is a photo of K at her school holiday program, and a photo the morning of her 4th birthday.

Where Are My People?

The other day while driving to school, Klaudia asked me, "Where are my people?" I knew exactly what she meant. But instead I said, "Your people? Well…that is your family. Mommy, Daddy and Klaudia, we are family, and we are each other's people." She responded, "No, I mean my other people." Well now. It had come back to me, the times she asked about her jewelry box, kitchen magnet, and the angel on her wall, when I had said, "Those are from Poland, made by people from Poland, your people." Now, I said that in the most light-hearted affectionate way (months ago, by the way). But it really stuck.

She followed with "And my brother or sister is in Poland?" "Yes," I smiled, "just like you, your brother or sister was born in Poland." "I want to see her," she responds. "Me too." "I want to go there," she whines. "Me too." "How do we go there?" Fair question. "Well, when it is time, we will get on an airplane. Mommy, Daddy and Klaudia will get on an airplane and go to Poland, and stay there in a hotel with your brother or sister." I continued, "We will spend time together, and see lots of places in Poland, then we will bring your brother or sister home to Klaudia's house forever." "Forever?" she questioned and laughed. "Yes, because we are family." She was quiet the rest of the drive, but went happily to school after giving lots of kisses.

No real news to report on the adoption. We remain in the waiting stage. We have begun the process of updating our homestudy and will have to redo our immigration approval. Ah well.

We are very much excited for fun holidays this year. And Klaudia is excited for her 4th birthday that is around the corner too. She has already asked for about 100 things for her birthday!

Polish Fest?

Who's going?? WE ARE!! Will we see you there? I've never been to Milwaukee before, let alone Polish Fest, so I'm super excited. Even better will be meeting families that have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Poland.

In other news...4 months waiting done. While it is possible a referral could come any time, we expect some more months of waiting. The waiting isn't too painful (yet), but I am starting to want to do something...buy something...prepare in some way. That is just super hard to do since we did not specify male/female, and we don't even know if he/she will be in a crib or a bed. Ah well -- we should be spending time learning some Polish (or at least refreshing the little we have learned).

We recently got back from a trip to California - we had a blast with my parents and Klaudia was a trooper going to wineries, seeing Bodega Bay, and exploring some kid-friendly and some not-so-kid-friedly sights. I think her highlights were the swimming pools, the Dora Easter basket and eggs from G&G, the orange mini-van rental, a Spongebob DVD, and the cats at Preston Family Winery.

We had a great Easter with Ryan's family and enjoyed hunting for eggs and opening thoughfully put together Easter Baskets - we'll have treats for quite awhile! I'm glad spring has sprung. We have been enjoying the nice weather and being able to be outside. Klaudia is much better at her tricycle now and she LOVES playing with the neighbor kids.

Hope everyone is having a nice spring! Klaudia is looking forward to exploring new places in Milwaukee...and she is an expert traveler now...

I'm Ready to Hear Some Good News.

It doesn't have to be my news, but I want to hear someone's good news! It would make my day/week/month to hear about one of the waiting families I know to accept a referral! I'm ready to start living vicariously through someone's journey. So...who's it going to be?

All is fine with us. We had great holidays and Klaudia had a great third birthday. She is very proud of being three. She moved into her big girl bed, and is getting very good with the potty. Winter is in full swing and Klaudia has been asking "where did the grass go?" Yeah...we hope to see it in March...lol.

On the next child front, we do not expect any news for several months. But nothing is predictable in the world of international adoption! :-)

We Are Officially Waiting!!!

It really is unbelievable - but we are now officially waiting!! We have completed our Dossier. Everything was reviewed and approved by our agency, each notarized document was apostilled (approximately 40 of them!), and it is out of our hands now!!

On the right is a photo of our Dossier copies. It doesn't look like much, but it is!!

I'm so excited to have this done before Christmas. It feels like the biggest Christmas present to ourselves.

So....off we go into the painful world of waiting and wondering and hoping and praying. I already know it will be "easier" this time around because of the joy our little girl gives us every day. If a referral comes sooner, that will be wonderful, but if it comes later, well, that is just more time Klaudia has to grow, be more confident, move into her big girl bed, use the potty more, be more willing to eat new things, touch new things, wear new things, etc. All around, if we wait for a year or more, she will only be more ready to handle the shock of a sibling.

When we ask Klaudia if she wants a brother or a sister, she says "I want both." Unfortunately (for her), that won't be possible this go around. We have only had our home study and immigration approval be for one child! If she wants "both", she will have to hope we are crazy enough to do this again one day, or she can hope for a biological miracle, lol.

We have not specified a preference on sex, and we really do not have a preference. People ask us if we would prefer a boy since we have a girl. That would be great, but so would another girl!

I am SO excited for Christmas and Klaudia's 3rd birthday is on the 29th!! She has already been singing happy birthday to herself - cute!!

Have wonderful holidays all!!

Dossier Copies Off to Agency!

Yay! We got our I-800A approval. We made copies of everything and today have sent a set of it all to our agency. We await their approval or changes before apostilling everything. Still looking good for sending everything to Poland by the end of the year (if not much sooner!).

Klaudia seems to be excited about having a sister/brother...although she has no clue what that really means. She sometimes holds her baby doll and says she is feeding her little sister or brother...it is sweet. It will be challenging and traumatic in some ways (isn't it for every sibling who becomes the co-center of the universe instead of the sole-center?). But it will be awesome for her in so many ways - more love, more sharing, more caring, more family, etc. Also, the girl hates to be alone, so a sibling is instant companionship (she may learn to love being alone, lol).

I truly cannot believe that we are almost "waiting" again!

Waiting for the Last Piece of Paper!

Wow, have we really gathered all of our Dossier items? I guess so!! And last week we were fingerprinted, so now we wait for the very last piece of paper (hopefully) that we need to send our in our Dossier! We are waiting for the approval of our I-800A, then we will get that notarized and be able to send all of our docs to our agency for review. How cool is that? It looks like we really may have our Dossier in before the end of the year!

With Thanksgiving coming up (too fast if you ask me), I hope we all can take some time to reflect upon family and other things for which we are thankful.

I especially want to thank my fellow Polish adopting/adopted families, fellow Bloggers, facebook friends, email buddies, etc. You are really a second family to me! Your support during our first adoption and first year home, and now during our next adoption means a lot to me. Many of you I have never met face to face, and some of you I have -- but all of you have provided support and an empathetic ear when I needed it most. There are so few children adopted by US families from Poland, so it is great we have each other!

I will post when we get our immigration approval (hopefully soon!). And have a great Thanksgiving all!!!