Today is a very special day for our family. Three years ago today Erich and I stood before a Russian judge in court and promised to be Josh's parents. I still remember sitting on those hard wooden benches while waiting our turn and how nervous we were while we waited for the judge's final decision after all the documents were examined and we had each answered her questions.

I couldn't find a photo from court day as we weren't allowed to see Josh that day (court was 3 hours away from the orphanage so not much time for a visit) but I did find one from another special day in December of 2009, the day we met to be exact. The second is from a couple weeks ago at Erich's birthday party. It's hard to remember how tiny he was when we first saw him!





This year is actually extra special too as tomorrow is the social worker visit for our fourth and final post placement report. I know some families have thought these reports to be intrusive but it has actually been kind of fun to go through my pictures every year and pick out a dozen or so to represent our family's year to Russia and show them how we are doing. And honestly at this point we've interacted with the two social workers from our agency so often that its not really like we're having a stranger over anymore. It's a major milestone that completes Josh's adoption requirements completely but I think I may kind of miss it though I won't miss writing the check:)

TUSAL 2013

So much for posting SAL posts on time this year:) I meant to get my orts posted this weekend but life kind of got in the way. The flu has hit my area pretty hard so work has been crazy busy with people trying to treat for it and lots still coming in for flu shots. Thankfully no one in our family has gotten anything except the occasional cold this flu season. Also, we've been busily putting the finishing touches on our dossier which has now been sent out and according to our agency is being shipped to Poland as I type. We've got our fingers crossed that 2013 will be our year for some good adoption news.



Until then, I'm going to do my best to finish QS Pirate Dragon so that it can hang in Josh's new bedroom after we do whatever switching around and redecorating we will need to do as we expand our family. He's very excited about seeing his dragon come to life as I stitch. Here's where I stand now...






The dark blue water has been pretty free of confetti so that has been nice but I'm looking forward to getting to the dragon again on the next page. Speaking of all that blue, my ort jar is almost completely blue this round...






I'm a little light in the orts this time since I just emptied it on January 1 but I'm hoping to get back to filling it up now that adoption paperwork and the holidays are over. Just in case the TUSAL is not something you are familiar with- its a fun monthly stitch-a-long run by Daffycat to show off your ort jar (all those little leftover thread scraps from stitching) and what you've been working on to fill it up.

Celtic Autumn framed

Thanks for the well wishes for Josh, he is much better now though he did pass on the crud to both me and Erich before it was over, no fun at all!  Everyone is finally better now and just in time for Halloween too!  We've got plans for baking some spooky cookies today or at least sugar cookies with Halloweenish sprinkles and someone is very ready for trick or treating later this week.

In adoption news, as of tomorrow when I stop at the doctor's office to pick up documents we will have all our dossier docs except for the home study (coming very soon, agency doing final copies now) and citizenship paperwork (can't ask for until home study is done).  Still not there but we're getting closer, much slower than I'd like but then again I'd only be happy if our paperwork was in Poland yesterday.

I'd like to say I've been finishing off a certain Halloween piece but being sick made me a bit less patient with the black fabric and spider webs so I put it down in favor of a Mill Hill kit on perforated paper, nothing too complicated there but now I want to finish it.  Maybe I'll put it down later today long enough to finish off the last couple webs.

I do have a bit of stitching to show off, not a new piece but a framed one.  Picked it up a few days ago from the not-so-LNS...




That's my version of Celtic Autumn by L&L stitched last year as part of the series I'm slowly stitching for my grandmother. She was very happy with the result and is currently trying to decide whether to display her pieces together or seasonally.

It's a wing!

Happy to report I've made good progress on QS Pirate Dragon.  The confetti in the wing wasn't quite as bad as the tail but it was enough to make me happy to get to the boring block stitching in the sky so I give you random dragon parts...



I'm getting very close to finishing the second of nine pages and I'm pleased with the design so far. I'm not quite tired of it yet so I think I'll continue on and see if I can hit the top of the design sometime next month.

Not to be outdone, Josh has his own craftiness to show off...



Found this kit when I was bringing out all the Fall/Halloween decorations last week.  It was all precut glittery foam for the house and foam stickers for the decorations, perfect for his attention span.  Josh and I had it all together in about 20 minutes or so but he had a blast helping punch everything out and peeling backs off the stickers. 

Oh, and one more thing too...



That's Leland napping, I mean guarding my stash prize from the stitching competition last month.  I actually qualified for a silver medal and was generously rewarded with two cuts of Kiwi Illusions fabric and a skein of GAST.  I've never used any fabric by Kiwi Illusions before but it looks great so I'll have to decide what will be stitched on it soon.  Thanks Terry!!

For those keeping track of the adoption, we did manage to get 2 more documents needed since last post.  We're still about 9 away from being done, not counting the USCIS paperwork we'll be filing as soon as our homestudy is finalized.  Probably just me but it seems to be going in slow motion right now.  I don't think it helps that we've done everything we can do at this point.  We're really just waiting for other people to complete forms and send them back to us which is the hardest part for me as I'm not always a very patient waiter when it comes to this kind of thing.  Thanks for your support and kind words regarding the adoption btw, it can be a bit of a roller coaster sometimes but we know we'll get to the happy ending someday- Josh is sure proof of that:)

Off to find some cartoons for Josh and see if I can maybe sneak a few more stitches in before dinner. Happy stitching until next time!

August WIPocalypse

Long time no post:)  Since it is WIPocalypse check in time again and there are actually two scheduled for this month, I thought I'd better get on it and get my first post out before too much time passes.  So here's what I've been stitching on since last time we posted.

First up is Fish City.  It definitely grew since last round...





And then there's my new start to coincide with those sporting events over in London...



I know, another new start but I'm still doing better on my finishes than starts for the year so I can live with that:)  This one will eventually be QS Pirate Dragon by HAED/Lisa Victoria.  Blue blob for now but I keep assuring my son I will get to the dragon eventually.  Hope everyone else is having lots of stitchy fun this round.


And in the non-stitchy news, adoption application is mailed off and should be reaching our new agency by the end of the week.  Attempt #2 at adoption #2 is officially underway!

You can see the dragon right?

He's there somewhere, just not in my pitiful little pic.  What you're looking at is the slightly blurry start of the water the pirate dragon's ship is sailing on in HAED's QS Pirate Dragon by Lisa Victoria.  He is my new start while watching the Olympic Games on television the past few nights.   That's about 3 nights worth of work, around 800 stitches or so.  I'd probably have more but I keep putting him down to watch instead of just listen like I usually can while watching Netflix:)  Josh was kind of disappointed he couldn't see the dragon yet so I guess I better get my needle working a little harder!  I'll try to get a non-blurred pic next time, poor camera was having a hard time between the lighting and the smallness of the stitched area.

In non-stitchy news, I think it's safe to say what we're up to in the adoption world.  By this time tomorrow our application to the Poland program of a new (to us) agency should be Fed-Exing its way to the agency.  We've finally gotten all the final okays (though not the extra paperwork list, yay!) from agency and homestudy agency and we are signing.  Why Poland?  Well, my family is quite Polish in ancestry and both Erich and I grew up in a Polish American culture complete with a church that sang in Polish growing up and flies the Polish flag right next to the American.  And the program is stable, that's the main thing.  It may take some time but it is stable and the same unfortunately can't be said for Russia right now.  At this point we're up to renew all our paperwork anyway so we're going to make a total change and try something new.  Wish us lots of luck and speedy paperwork thoughts, we really want to give Josh a new sibling next year.  I'll try to keep things as updated as possible here as we move through the process so this blog will probably turn into a stitching/adoption blog again for awhile. 

July TUSAL

Time again for TUSAL! Don't know about TUSAL, click the button on my sidebar and join the fun. I actually have a decent amount of orts to show off this time, lots of Fish City blues for the most part...



And here is the result of all my blue stitching...



It's been mostly background this time but I really like what the addition of all the blue is doing to the overall look of the piece. And I was pretty excited to finally hit the top too, a big BAP accomplishment to me. It gives me perspective on how far I've got left to go- quite a long way for now!

Not much else going on around here that I can talk too much about yet. Still researching other adoption routes and I think we're getting close to our next move but still a few kinks to work out. I'll let you know our choice as soon as we sign with someone. Hoping it's sooner rather than later, we're anxious to get back on track for giving Josh a sibling.

In non-adoption news, looks like the heat has finally broken, at least for a few days. And we got rain, real soak the ground rain! Sounds terrible since we need more but I really hope tomorrow is sunny as we're hoping to make a trip to the county fair but if it rains we'll make it another day. Take care and happy stitching!

Adoption Changes

The last few weeks have been filled with all sorts of excitement, not necessarily all the good kind but I think things are going to work out all right. The biggest news is that we are being forced into changing our adoption plans. Some things have happened in Russia that will likely make our current application quite delayed and no guarantees that we'll get a child home at the end of the delays so we're looking at other options and I think we have hit on a winner so look for more on that hopefully sooner rather than later.

I've also been battling some pretty nasty sinus problems which hopefully will be corrected next month when I have an appt with a specialist.

On the bright side, we got our sprinklers fixed so despite the heat our grass is actually starting to look a little more green than brown. And I've put in a fair amount of stitching time since it has been too hot to do much else and my yard has been pretty dead anyway. New Fish City pics coming with my TUSAL post in a few days.

That's about it for the moment, I promise to dig out the camera and post some pics next time:)

Two years ago...

...today in a tiny court room in the middle of Russia a judge granted our adoption of Josh.  It seems such a long time ago now but I'll never forget how excited and relieved we were to finally hear that we would really be parents.  Here's our family a few days after the court hearing, still a few more days away from leaving Josh's birth region in late May 2010...

  And a few recent ones from a Cubs game Erich and Josh attended with my cousins last weekend and swimming yesterday...        I can't think of a better kid to brighten our lives and am so thankful that he was given to us.  Sorry for the lack of actual pictures with us but someone's got to be behind the camera:)  We'll have to try to get some family shots on vacation which we're leaving for this evening!  Be back with pics in a few days, maybe even a few of my stitching.