finger print dates- finally

September 20th at 10am in Charleston SC...i am looking forward to a fun trip to Charleston with John :)
and another big hurdle crossed for the adoption. I got some older medican reports fo Little Man S- I requested anything they could find from the Mother Teresa Care Center....so we have a better sense of his history
TGIF!!

teacher-student-mother-wife-petowner- SCATTER BRAINED

This past week school started for me times three. Gabe is now a first grader, I am back teaching at Columbia High School and I am also back in grad school- this time in pursuit of my Ed. D in Curriculum and Instruction. Go Gamecocks! (the real "Carolina") hehehe
I am taking two courses online and one at USC on Thursday evenings when Gabe is with his dad.
Gabe has moved up to a new montessori class with 1st-2nd and 3rd grades. I thought he would feel weird about being the youngest grade. However, he is strutting around like a BMOC because he is friends with 3rd graders. Hehehe its too cute. He is also starting soccer this year. His friends play but this has been the first year he has asked to play...he has tended to shy away from team sports.
So its been quite easy to put the adoption in the back of my mind (whats left of my mind)...but we are still awaiting finger print dates. We got confirmation from Fedex and DSS that our homestudy was sent to the NBC and received Aug 14th- ...we have not been contacted yet requesting any further information....so we wait...
We are also in grant application mode...and currently are working on three.... i  need an assistant or there needs to be more hours added to the day.

spinning and going too many directions at once

Yay for mid-August its the beginning of school- new curriculum to develop, new students to get to know, new requirements of my time (damn being the "learning team leader" for Geography), service-learning projects to develop, Gabe is starting 1st grade, I am resuming grad- work, and we are waiting on finger print dates for finalizing our immigration forms!! After this, all we really do is wait for our case to be submitted to court. I guess its good to have so many things to side track my mind from obsessing over adoption- and i am excited about my new projects...but i already feel exhausted and overwhelmed. Mind you, once S is honme it will be FMLA time- and I am using all of it (most likley)- so that could mean - no more teaching after February/March- but for right now i am buzzing around like the craziest worker-bee....ugh and i just forgot that Gabe is also starting back at soccer and karate...ok, thats it, there really needs to be 2 of me.

Show me the Money

well we all know adoption is expensive (duh) and all those crafty sista's out there who make jewlery and clothes and bibs and pottery, beads, crochet- I have to hand it to you...i admire and appreciate craftiness but have little ability for it. So i am putting my talents to use and tutoring athletes at USC (go gamecocks) and working at an afterschool program three evenings a week for a middle school...i may not do both of these jobs- it matters what hours they can give me. The USC gig only pays $10 an hour (work study $ i am eleigible for) But the middle school tutoring job pays like $25 an hour. So thats how i am earning some extra $. We are also getting a small grant, and I personally have a large amount of my financial aid grant $ left over from grad school. I elected to take as much $ as i could - so that after S comes home (bascially after next Easter) i can work/study part time and have April-August home with him. So i am not fretting about $ too much...not like I was last April when it kept me awake at night. I seriosuly had ulcers about it.... i am happy to be able to get those extra jobs though- and it keeps me in my field :)

if its not one thing- its another

Well i was hoping to get to court by the end of the year...who knows if it will happen. The new snafu is that HOLT doesnt want our dossier until 17H/immigration is done...this is per the email yesterday to the ET families. What the heck? if its not one thing, its another. We were planning on sending our dossier out Monday. I emailed Pat about it....so lets see what happens. I at least want them to have the dossier and review it b/c god knows I will have left somethign out or done something wrong.... why wait to submit?!

any warrants?

apparently neither john nor i have any active warrants in Columbia SC and we now have documentation stating as much. We both got our police clearance letters yesterday....Monday I make a trip to our state's sec of state office to get the homestudy certified....then we have a notary party later next week (with johns friend or our local banker guy) and this dossier should be ready to set sail!!!!

In funner news (yes, i just said funner) gabe and i are going to the water park this week....the small one at ft jackson and then on to better amusement parks and water parks next weekend :)
Odds/Ins:I finally got to go to a doggy adoption day today- i am no longer working on Saturdays. I brought my two fosters with me. I hope Tipper and Sally get homes soon...they are both very very sweet.
John made dinner tonight- it was great! Time for a movie....date night is in :)
The rescue i help with :)
http://www.caretoadopt.org/

HOUSTON- WE HAVE HOLT COURT DATES!!!!!

I am so thrilled for today,...seriously at 4am last night i woke up (due to dog craziness)- but i was not able to go back to sleep. I kept thinking "Ethiopia, Holt, court dates" over and over...it was like i was counting sheep. And then today i find out that the first two groups of 2 trippers have their court dates!!! woo hooo I want/need/am so anxious to see how ths new system will work. It seems these families got thier dates about 3 months after submitting the request to the courrt. Soooo if we submit mid-September then mid Dec or early Jan is when we will get to go for our first trip (i hope)...amazing...its getting much more real for me now. All the official paperwork this week, new pictures, immigration, and now court dates! Wow!!!! I just want Little Man S here for spring break for our huge easter brunch and neighborhood egg hunt (i have a super big yard and lots of flowering trees so we always have a hunt here, with brunch and such)...i know many hope for their kids to be here by the end of the year or xmas ...i just hope for easter .