What a Year for a New Year

What a year for a new year
We need it like we needed life I guess
Last one left us lying in a mess
What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

What a day for new day
And our star shines like a miracle
And our world is almost beautiful again
What a day for a new day
New day

New Year
What a year for a new year
What a year for a new year
What a year for a new year
What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

Soon we'll be lying in our beds
And new dreams will fill our heads
And the old ones will be ended
Hope we'll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace
Wipe the teardrops from our faces

Oh, what a year for a new year
What a year, what a year, for a new year
What a year for a new year
What a year for a new year, new year
what a year for a new year, new year, new year

Lyrics by Dan Wilson

Wake Me In Another Year

So yesterday we finally met with the social worker. It was a good meeting, only took 2 hours instead of the 3-4 they said it might, so we were able to get lunch before doing the state fingerprints. We are now in possession of the World's Largest Binder and all the homestudy documents. Daunting when you look at it all, I must say. It will be worth it in the end, I know, I know.
She was very upfront from the start, letting us know that things have slowed down considerably on Korea's end, and our child will most likely not get here to us until 2006. That's One. Whole. Year. Away. Crikey.
I take solace in the fact we are both in a much better place than last New Year's, when we were still reeling from Miscarriage #4 and couldn't wait to slam the door on 2003. This year we've had sadness, but overall it's a better year than we've had lately.
Here's to a wonderful 2005, may those of us waiting for our babies to come home have them in our arms soon.

It's Finally Here

Tomorrow we meet with our social worker at 9:30 a.m. It's supposed to take 3-4 hours (which I hope includes time for a snack, otherwise my stomach will be growling around 11:30) and we will get the homestudy paperwork as well as our Adoption Journey binder to put all of it in. Oh yeah, and the invoice for the first fat check P will be writing. We need to bring the following things:

• 2 copies of our birth certificates and marriage license-check
• Said birth certificates and marriage license-check
• Certificate of completion from the online class-check
• Checkbook-check

I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be, we may even be able to get the first round of fingerprinting finished. I'm hoping our afternoon will conclude in time for us to hit Trader Joe's for our New Year's Eve snacks...

The world's cutest puppy, Pete and Candy's new baby 

Merry Christmas from Santa Bear! 

I have NO idea what the hell these things were in the lobby of our motel...aliens? walruses? pig butts on a stick? All I do know is that they completely freaked me out! 

Happy to be home safely

It was a whirlwind trip to Vermont for my nephew J's wedding, much too short. We knew the ride home would be interesting as the snow started flying as we were leaving Bennington. In New York the flakes were flying and sticking to the road. Freaked out as we passed a car on it's side "cars aren't supposed to be on their side". The snow gave way to ice around Harrisburg. Total accident count we saw was around 13, I believe, including the jack-knifed tractor trailer on northbound 81 in PA. Once we were home tucked in our bed I turned to P and thanked him for getting us home safely.

My other nephew J dropped the bombshell at the wedding that his girlfriend is pregnant. Surprisingly I didn't feel sad about it, just kind of excited that there will be 2 new babies for the family roughly the same age. Not sure how my dad will take learning he'll be a great-grandfather!

Not much to say

Not much has been going on since the big excitement of last week. I've completed 5 chapters of the online course (all at work-shhhhhhhhhhh) and registered P. Don't think he's cracked it yet. We're looking forward to this weekend in Vermont. And I'm actually looking forward to the holidays coming up as opposed to last year when 2003 couldn't end fast enough. Every year we think "this is the last Christmas by ourselves" yet here we are, still by ourselves. Perhaps when we say it this year it might actually be true.
One can only hope.

The Ball is Rolling

Sometimes it pays to not go to work. I stayed home today with a cold, so luckily I was able to answer the phone call from our social worker. She's scheduled us to be in the January homestudy group, so we will be attending the Catholic Charities seminars on January 11th & 18th. I didn't expect to hear from her so soon, so it was a nice surprise! We have our interview with her on the 30th of this month. Things are starting to move.