Adventures with cats and other stuff...

Kitty surfing?  I am glad our cats are so tolerant.

One of the 7 new lion cubs born recently at the National Zoo.

Visiting one our beautiful Maryland State Parks.

And Finally....

New pictures of Oliver.  Our paperwork is almost ready to go to TECO.  Not too much longer and we will be meeting him.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Update on Paperwork

I am finally getting some real answers from our agency in California.  They JUST sent out our homestudy to be translated and found paperwork that had not been notarized by the Secretary of State in California.  They are waiting for it to come back.  I think we are probably looking at a couple of more weeks before our paperwork goes to Taiwan (if we are lucky).  Who knows how backlogged the translator is with files to translate, or how long it will take to get the paperwork back from SoS and TECO?  UGH!  I am very frustrated that they have been sitting on this paperwork.  They have had our homestudy for 2 months and just sent it on Wednesday!  I am not happy with they way they have handled our paperwork AT ALL.  We just keep hoping that our court process is short and Oliver is home by the end of the summer.   The good news is that our USCIS file has been sent to AIT in Taiwan and we have not had any issues in that department :).    Am I being repetitive?  I wish I had something new to share.  Hopefully I will soon.
As far as that one other document is concerned, we had a new one drafted, took it to Annapolis Friday afternoon and had it certified by the county and state in about 40 minutes.  It is on it's way back to California now.  Not sure why we couldn't have done all the paperwork ourselves and I did mention this to the agency.  But it's a moot point since they didn't send in the paperwork to the California Secretary of State anyway.  OK-enough complaining.  Our next post will be GOOD news!! :D

Approvals and setbacks

We received our I-171H from USCIS yesterday!  (That is our approval to move forward with our international adoption.)  We filed in February, had our fingerprinting in April and received the approval in May.  Not too bad.  In other news, our paperwork is being held up by one document.   The problem is that it was notarized by a Navy Legalman and the county is not certifying it because he is not registered with the county. I requested the paperwork be sent back to me so I can take care of it.  I think this will be a relatively easy thing to clear up and I should be able to get it done next week, have it back to California by the weekend and our dossier to TECO by next week.  No one at the agency seems to want to go the extra mile to get it fixed.  The fact that they had a switch in case managers is not helping our paperwork get processed as quickly as we would have hoped either.   Man, all these little things really seem to add up and are frustrating.  Let's hope that our court process in Taiwan will go much smoother and faster and Oliver won't have to wait much longer.  No updates yet.  It has been over a month :(  Maybe next week.

Happy Birthday, Oliver!

Oliver is one year old today.  I hope that they celebrated his birthday at St. Lucy's and will send us some pictures on Monday.  We have had one nursery update since our last photos.  He is now a little over 16 pounds and 26.7 inches tall.  He is a good sleeper, likes music, and to play hide and seek.  He is also starting to walk.  He stands up and walks holding the bed frame.  I spoke with our agency last night.  Our paperwork is almost done in Maryland.  Our fingers are crossed that it will be back to California by the end of the week and out to Taiwan by the end of the following week.  I know it is only a few more months before Oliver will be home, but it feels like forever when he is growing and changing so much.

We almost have Oliver's nursery finished.  Just have to hang the curtains and a few pictures.  Here are a few photos of it so far...

Happy Birthday, Baby!  We love you!!

Easter Weekend

We started our Easter weekend with a short hike at Pataspco State Park on Saturday.  Sydney did an awesome job for her first hike! She negotiated the trail really well and didn't fall once.  The morning was a bit cool and rainy...

 But the afternoon became very warm and sunny so we went outside to blow bubbles

 Sunday morning Sydney found a trail of chocolates that the Easter Bunny had left for her...

 Of course, all she wanted to do was eat the chocolates!

Sunday's temps hit the mid 80's so Sydney and I set up the pool!  She was very excited and had a great time.  

After the pool, I put in Monster's Inc. while I worked on dinner and when I went to check on her, I found she had fallen asleep, which is not surprising since she refused to take a nap.

We hope you all  had a great Easter weekend and made some wonderful memories.  I will post adoption updates on a later blog post :D

Our weekend vacation

                                                 

Grandma sent me a tutu and wings.  Thank you, Grandma, I love them!

My best friend from my Navy days came to visit.  We hadn't seen each other since 2004.  It was so great to see her and remember those days.  Sydney really loved her!

Sydney and her new friend

BethAnn and Cinda

Here are a few pictures of our recent trip to Williamsburg, VA.

Here we are visiting the oldest plantation in Virginia, the Shirley Plantation, which sits along the James River.

It was a warm day, but there were thunderstorms passing through the area.  We had to seek out shelter a few times to wait out a passing rain.  Here we are in the ice cellar waiting it out :)

We had a great time at the Great Wolf Lodge.  Sydney adores her cousins!  She did really well in the water.  She went down the water slide all by herself (several times) and was really trying to swim.
While in Williamsburg we took a trip to Newport News to visit the Living Museum.  Sydney had a great time touching sea animals, viewing wildlife and generally running around.

Our last day at the Great Wolf Lodge (here with cousin Abi)

At the Lodge's Ice Cream Parlor.