Preparing for the Internationally Adopted Child

Tomorrow we will travel to Atlanta to a meeting on Preparing for the Internationally Adopted Child. It will be a long day. Immediately after a long day of work with will go through rush hour traffic to get to the area of I-85 and 2-85 near the Perimeter Mall. The meeting last until 9:00 and then we will travel back home only to get to bed by midnight if I'm lucky. Oh well it's worth it. I think this adoption thing is going to take a little longer than we first expected, Mike's a little more ok with that than I am. I guess it will be nice to almost finish up the next school year and then take a "Maternity Leave" seeing how I have over 70+ days built up for that purpose and then have the summer off and possibly not go back and be a stay at home mom.

A Bear and Roses

Yester day was Valentine's day. I have to say that I had a great one. The kids at school were great and then Mike came home with roses. We had a great dinner (rice, sushi, crab dip, squash stir fry, and salmon). I receive candy, candles and a teddy bear from my students.

Father/Daughter Dance

Last night was the Vineyard's annual Father/Daughter Dance. I was the offical photographer and I took lots of pictures. I also invited my father. It was a night of fun, good food, laughter and dancing.

I PASSED

Yeah!!! I passed my praxis test. So now after 4 years of college and 13 years of experience I am "HIGHLY QUALIFIED!" Or should I say I am highly qualified for now until they change the rules again. That's ok. I am very satisified with my scores.

Tonight I took photos at my school dance. I painted my own background. It was fun. It was splattered painted with pink, purple, red and white. I think it looked really nice when the kids stood in front of it. I will be taking photos again tomorrow at the Vineyard's annual "Father/Daughter Dance" but I will also be dancing with my father. This is always fun. Maybe again this year I'll dance on his feet like I did when I was a little girl. The last time I did this at the dance by the end of the night all of the little girls were dancing on thier father's feet. I'll let you know more about this after the dance.

Home visit complete!

Well we just completed our in house visit of our home study. Our case worker met with Mike and I together, toured our home, and asked lots of questions. We were questioned on our marriage, how we handle conflict, how we will deal with discipline, how we will handle telling/teaching our child about adoption,what kind of child do we want(healthy, with or without disabilities, etc.), how we will handle loss in adoption, what values do we want to instill in our child and many more. I think things went well. It is kind of neat to really sit down with your spouse and discuss these things. We will get a copy of the report in about a month and then we will send it to immigration, and to our adoption agency to get approval. I have to admit I was a little nervous and had lots of nervous energy and was very hungry we it was all over, so we went to SAN JOSE to eat (my favorite!!) Will update you more as things progress.