Hannah

For almost 20 years I've heard Donna talk of wanting to be married and of wanting to be a Mother. Now she is not only married, but also a Mom!!! Congrats to Donna, Eric and Hannah!

Look how big we're getting!

Since nothing major is happening on the adoption front, I thought I would show a new picture of the goslings. They are getting so big and are just starting to get their feathers. Their biggest talent thus far...pooping, pooping and pooping!

We also have a baby bunny living in our back garden. Its talent is finding my tender young flowers and eating them, whilst skillfully avoiding tender young weeds...funny how that works.



I-171H Update:
According to USPS.com, our home study and I-171H application were received by USCIS in Atlanta at 7:04 a.m. on Tuesday, May 24. Now the supposed 4 week countdown begins. Look, not only do I stalk the postman, but I stalk online too!

At the mercy of USCIS...Again!

Our home study has been completed, approved, notarized, and mailed along with our I-171H* to the USCIS. So now, I join so many others, in the waiting game. I'll be gnawing my fingernails, stalking the mailman, complaining to everyone who will listen, and even those don't listen, about how long this step is taking. I have been told by the Atlanta CCAI office, that USCIS in Atlanta, generally takes 4 weeks for approval processing. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the case, as I read of so many people waiting much longer. In fact, today, one of the posters on my CCAI news group, said that they have been waiting 10 weeks for the approval of their I-171H. They are in Pennsylvania though, so, I am not going to let their long wait stress me out...Yeah right!!!

*The "I-171H," also known as the "Notice of Favorable Determination," is an approval from the U.S. Government (namely the FBI and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services – USCIS), for us to adopt internationally.

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Baby food for Funshine

One of the blogs that I enjoy reading is Do They Have Salsa in China? I enjoy reading about Rod's passion for Mexican food and his anticipated need to search it out during his weeks in China. That being the case, when my girlfriend Angela sent me some pictures to make me smile, I realized that I had the perfect baby food for Funshine. What else would the baby of a Texan need? Maybe Funshine will be a spicy Hunan baby and will put Rod's spice tolerance to the test!

Fingerprinting was a breeze!

Yes, this building is still labeled as an INS Service Center. I guess all those increased fees and big changes to upgrade the INS to BCIS and then to USCIS, didn't reach this lowly building, where fingerprinting is done in the basement "lower" level. Actually, I can't complain at all, as we arrived just after 7:00 a.m. and even though we were scheduled for 8:00 a.m., they allowed us in, and even took us right away! On top of that, Eammon had a fingerprinting appointment scheduled for next week, for his N-400, Application for Naturalization, and they allowed him to be fingerprinted for that too. There was one downside to getting fingerprinted so quickly, we finished well before any of the wonderful restaurants opened, so I didn't get to pick a restaurant for lunch.

Lopsidedness can be rewarding!

When we first purchased our home, just over a year and a half ago, Eammon and I both loved that we backed up to the water, and we were also attracted to the small lawn and the beautifully manicured shrubs and garden beds. I don't know why the smaller grassy area appealed to me, as mowing is a blue job, and not one that I would have to worry about...other than listening to Eammon complain that he either has to mow, or complaining that he had to mow. My outdoor responsibilities are the shrubs and the gardens, and trust me, I got screwed on this bargain as the shrubs and garden beds don't seem to end. I needed to trim the shrubs, and my old hedge trimmer, had bit the dust, so I purchased a new Hedge trimmer. Thus, I have been spending the past number of days butchering trimming all of the shrubs surrounding our home. I have 2 sides of the house finished thus far, because as I go along, I weed, and cleaning up all the trimmings, takes forever. I figure another 2 or 3 days and I will be finished with all the shrubs.

 
The previous owners loved working in the yard, they were retired, that's what they did, so all the shrubs were trimmed beautifully. The down side...I have to keep up the shrub trimming, or it looks like crap. I think that, if the former owners drove by, they would have heart failure, to see the state of the lopsided shrubs, but their eyes would bug out if they saw all the fantastic changes that have been made to the interior of the house. So, why am I on this little jaunt? Sunday, I was watching The CBS Sunday Morning Show and they showed a man, Pearl Fryar, who's yard was just amazing. He said that it takes 2 weeks to trim all the topiaries, and by that time, he has to start all over again. He does all the trimming with hedge trimmer and snippers...just like me! I on the other hand, do the shrubs once in the spring, and begrudgingly, and only what I have to do, in the fall. I do plant and pull weeds all the time, but the shrubs kill me.

So, I spent the day doing yard work, and by the time I finished, my arms, my hands and my back were all screaming in pain. I asked Eammon, what he would like for dinner, thinking maybe, he would want to take me out, but NOOOOO, he says that he would LOVE for me to make sushi. So, after a long day in the yard, I compromised and made what I call lazy sushi...all nigiri. I had grilled eel at home, so I went to the store, for tuna and salmon. I could only find sushi grade salmon, so we ended up having a full plate of saki (salmon) and unagi (eel) nigiri. Isn't it lovely!!

Sometimes it pays to stalk the postman

After dinner last night, I checked the mailbox again, and was happy to find a package, (for me!!) but even better and more important, was a letter from Homeland Security. Our I-600A fingerprint appointment letters had arrived!! In less than a week, we will be going down to lovely Buford Highway to get our fingerprints taken...hmm, so many wonderful restaurants down there, where shall we have lunch?

Anticipation...

OK, OK... I realize, that playing the Carly Simon song in my mind while waiting for the Heinz ketchup to come out is not the same anticipation, now that I have a giant sized squeeze bottle of the red stuff. Also now that I think about it, I don't really look forward to the Boca Burger, ketchup or no ketchup but this is what I do in my ongoing attempt to try and help Eammon lower his cholesterol. Of course though I taunt him, by continually telling him that in my attempt to to help him lower his cholesterol, mine dropped to 112 mg/dL (2.9 mmol/L for my U.K. family and friends) and yes, I am bragging. Though my numbers have never been high, I am still pleased that they are lower.

So what got me on this little rant? A few things contributed to this; First, I realized that I'm suffering from a new disease. Thanks to Mary-Mia, for discovering this new disease, EMS and for informing me and it seems many, soon to be adoptive parents that we suffer together from the same symptoms. When I first read about EMS I tried to deny it as I said to myself, "even though I know that the mail does not arrive before 5PM, it might just be there" or "it's good cardio exercise walking to the mail box and opening that little door numerous times a day, must count as strength training" or better yet, "it smells so gorgeous outside with the jasmine and honeysuckle all in bloom, I just want to breathe in the fresh air". But in the end, truth be told, I'm addicted to checking my mailbox and I continue to be disappointed as nothing has arrived yet from USCIS. Help Mary-Mia, is there a 12 step program for this or do you think we should start an EMS support group?

OK, second on my list of why I am on this anticipation rant. When I was going out of the subdivision this morning, I saw all the pool furniture neatly arranged around the recently cleaned pool all in preparation for the pool opening on May 21st, the day after school lets out. Yes, schools in Cobb County finish their year on May 20th! But what it got me thinking about was, I have NEVER gone to our pool. When open, it is filled with children and their parents, it's loud and busy, so I have preferred to sit on my dock at waters edge, reading my book, listening instead to ducks, geese and bird songs. But then I realized, next year at this time, I will be looking forward to the pool opening, so that I can bring little baby Shanahan. How cool is that??

Well, my anticipation rant is over as I need to go do some weeding and yard work. I think I'll check the weeds near the mailbox first...just in case.

Eammon's new passport arrived!

I am very pleased to say, that both the U.S. Department of State Passport Office and the British Embassy Passport Office are doing a great job getting passports processed and returned in a timely manner. Now I hope that all our other paperwork goes as smoothly.

It's babies galore!

I love this time of year, when all the ducklings and goslings are born. We have so many new ones this year. There are the geese, Jo and JoJo who are always here, with their 4 goslings and then we have two other pairs of nesting geese, one with 3 and the other with 5 goslings. Then there are the ducks. We have seen one duck with 9 ducklings, one with 6, one with 5, another with 4 and lastly, one with 2. It is so fun to sit and watch them all. Daily, Jo and JoJo with their goslings and a duck with her ducklings peck at the french doors wanting to be fed. I am not good at ignoring them so we have been running through all the bread and saltine crackers in the house. There is one downside to all the new families, our backyard is a minefield of poo, you must be wary of where you step!

No more disposable organs for my man!

It has been a long day already and it is just past noontime. Eammon and I were up at 4:30 this morning so that I could get him to the hospital for his gall bladder surgery. The surgery went well...Eammon slept right through it. Here is the really sad part of my day though. The staffer in the surgery waiting area recognized me. Luckily not by name, but she recognized me by my frequent visits to the hospital, this being Eammon's fourth surgery in 11 months. I told Eammon that this is it, no more, he has run out of disposable organs, this is his last surgery ever!! The one good thing about this surgery is that unlike his emergency appendectomy, 2 days after it ruptured, this was scheduled and he seems to have breezed through it and doesn't need to spend a week in the hospital. I spent my time in the waiting area, sitting on another uncomfortable hospital chair, watching people eat Italian cream cake at 7:30 in the morning. Hey, free cake in the waiting area, guess they figure why not!