Merlin

Merlin (one of my fur babies) had to go to the vet today for a check-up. He has had kidney problems for several years, but has been doing fine for quite awhile. He is still doing fine from all appearances (just shooed him off his climbing foray through my office bookshelves), but his bloodwork showed his values are elevated. So, we triple his daily dosage of subcutaneous fluids for a few days and see how he responds. That is the fun process of sticking a needle under his skin and letting the solution drip in -- helps flush the kidneys -- which I've been doing daily for 3 years now. If it doesn't work? Well, not good. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed and sending up all kinds of prayers that he will snap back this time, just as he has the other times. He's used up many of his 9 lives already, but I think he still has several to go. Besides, he needs to be here to welcome home his little brother or sister with a few headbutts and a snuggle or two.

Finally!

The I171H form arrived yesterday! Woo-hoo! This is the approval from US immigration to bring an adopted foreign child home as a US citizen. Now for a quick run through the pile of documents with my agency coordinator, then off they go to the Colorado Secretary of State to be apostilled, then it's time to send them off to Kaz. There are many steps in that process too, but for today, I'm just happy to have made it this far!

Killing Time

So what am I doing while I'm waiting and waiting for my I171H to arrive? Besides working, I'm trying to get my house fixed up. I have at least 15 different shades of beige painted on a couple of walls (and still can't decide which one I want to use), have a completely empty family room with new wood floors (currently known as "the ballroom" -- the cats hate it), and have blotchy refinished wood floors in the kitchen that pains me to look at, and am in a seemingly neverending and fruitless search for the perfect sofa and loveseat, along with loads of other furniture that I need for this house. Also trying to figure out how I want to decorate my future child's room.

I thought all this house stuff would be done by Fall and I'd have a few months to enjoy it before I was off to Kaz, but instead I'm barely started and starting to stress! This was supposed to be fun!!! Sigh. I guess I'd better enjoy it anyway, because soon enough the house really isn't going to matter, and anything I don't get done will likely never happen, or at least not until my child is out of daycare!

Grrrrr.

As I expected, Immigration was never sent my homestudy. After several weeks of inquiring with my homestudy agency, I finally had that fact confirmed by the supervisor of the orphan petition section at USCIS in Denver. So, nasty phone call made to homestudy agency and finally found someone there willing to take ownership to get my stuff processed. Yeah Christy! She's my new advocate and calls at least every couple of days with an update. She also pleaded and begged and offered up homemade cookies to the application processors. They claim they are reviewing my homestudy today! Progress! We'll see.