Hello again!
So i went to Ikea for the first time ever, and i am officially in LOVE with ikea. How affordable is that place!!!!! I can pretty much furnish my entire sons room at hardly any cost at all and have money left for important things; TOYS!- Hahaha, or you know, a college fund or whatever...
I went there spent 150 bucks and got a toybox, highchair, table set with 2 chairs, a end table and a soft toy!
Only downside to ikea stuff;
Somethings are just downright ugly:
Yes i did buy that. It's a toybox...or more likely just a really really ugly box! Never fear, i have some pretty intense plans for this box! I am going to make it suitable for my little angel. I am going to call it ; pimp that box! No? What about; Z-dazzlin'. Dazzlin up everything ugly into things of pure perfection for my soon to be son- and doing it on the cheap! I am determined to be a super cheap, super crafty mom, and yet not sacrifice anything in the process, i will have it all!
So stay tuned for ths project of mine.
I also bought the matching table and chair set for his room, which will be my next project.
Followed by this end table ( don't actually know why i bought this or what i am going to do with it, it was 10 dollars so i couldn't resist! )
And lastly i finally decided on a highchair for my son; the blames from ikea. It's actually pretty gorgeous, while being simple, and matching my house, and being wooden and of course, CHEAP! It was everything i was looking for and more, so of course; I bought it :D I don't think i have much to do to fix it up, it looks perfect as is. I might do something though just to make it special...we'll see.
Hello everyone!
I have a ton of news to share with you all. Starting with the best news of all; We sent in our dossier and as of 19/04/12 we are on the waitlist for our little guy. Hopefully by this time next year ( or earlier ) we will have a photo of our son, we will have a son. I was going to take a picture of us mailing away our dossier, but, of course I had forgotten my phone :(
It has been a bit of a crazy week getting everything together, had a few glitches with our money order and the notarizing of our documents, but other then that it wasn't too bad. I just can't believe that pretty much all the work is done, so far this journey has been fairly smooth and quite fast i just hope it continues in this pattern. I can't believe it's been 7 months since we started all of this, seems like so long ago and yet it's gone by much faster then i thought it would!
In other non adoption related news i have started Nutrisystem! By the time my son gets here i want to be in tip top shape! I don't want anything holding me back from being the mom that he deserves! I don't want to be the kind of mom who shys away from getting pictures with her children, or going everywhere because they are too ashamed to be seen. Which is pretty much the way i am now, I am only partially living. Once i am given the gift of my son, i don't want to teach him these poor habits. I want to show him a life that is bursting with joy, I have waited too long for him for it to be anything less than spectacular....and i know it will have it's ups and downs, and surely it will never be perfect...but i would hate for my weight and my insecurities to take anything away from the life we could have together. I want to be active, happy, fun and most of all, i want to live a long life so I can see my boy give me grandchildren someday! ( Already thinking about grandchildren! I am mad! )
So I embark on my nutrisystem diet at a whopping 223 pounds! Yikes! I am only 5'5 so yes, I am very overweight! I started April 17th so I have been on it 5 days and have already shed a whopping 8 pounds with no exercise at all, just eating the food! Pretty remarkable! It's definitely working, and I must say the food is not at all as bad as many reviewers make it out to be. Some things are really quite delicious! It is VERY small portions though and I have felt like i was starving to death, but alas, i am still alive, and starting to feel better about myself!
Once I get to week 2 I plan to add some exercise....I dont know what yet, but something. The best thing about trying to get in shape for baby is that it really keeps my mind off of everything and gives me time to focus on myself one last time. I told my husband I am 'pregnant, in reverse' It is a huge perk about adopting, being paper pregnant affords me the time to get in shape and seeing as how my baby is currently not growing within me, I am only eating for 1! ( Although on nutrisystem i am eating for .5 of a person! But heck it's worth it! )
Another hobby of mine that I am absorbing myself back into is my photography. I love photography and have really let it fall to the wayside since i learned of my infertility years ago. Once again though i feel like i have things to photograph again, the world is beautiful and i want my son to see all of the things we were up to while we awaited his precious arrival.
I apologize for my previous depressing post. It was really hard waiting while knowing we aren't even on a waitlist for our baby. However all of that is about to change much sooner then expected, guess what came in the mail yesterday morning?
Our approval for Immmigration Part one! Which means as soon as my husband finishes transferring the money we need so we can pay the huge fees we can send away our dossier and officially get on that waitlist! Judging from everyone from my agency the timelines definitly seem to be about a year until you get that coveted referral so at least i kind of have an idea and i know what to expect.
I have many plans for this next year to keep myself as busy as possible!
I have started NutriSystem...just waiting for my order to arrive so i can get on it. I plan to be a fit healthy mama!
Now that i am graduated, I have to focus on getting my career going.
I plan to work more on my Piano since i have been neglecting it!
I am going to learn to sew, at last! My mother is going to teach me so that i can make my L.O halloween costumes some day! Hahaa. More then just halloween costumes, I plan on being a super cheap resourceful mom. I don't want to deprive my son from anything, but of course it's hard to afford it all, so i am going to craft,sew and hand make everything i possibly can now while i have the time. I have gotten crazily addicted to the website Pinterest, that site has AMAZING DIY ideas. Once i learn to sew i am going to do a project every week. I might as well benefit from having a 2 year 'pregnancy' by taking the time to handmake everything!
And last but not least i am going to spend a ton of time being an amazing wife, practicing my culinary skills ( or getting some! ) and spending as much time with my nieces and nephews.
My little 4 year old niece is coming over for a sleepover next week, i am super excited to have some quality time with her. I am also going to her ballet and hip hop performance this month!
I am going to start making plans and living in the moment because tomorrow is just too far away.
Hello friends!
I apologize for my lack of blogging, it's been a busy few weeks in our house mostly while i finished up school, my finals and all....and at last i am finished!
It feels incredible to be done with school and looking back it has gone by fast, which is very comforting when i think about my adoption, especially since i have figured out that the timelines of most people adoptiong from the Congo are somewhere around 2 years as opposed to the year i had been expecting. I just pray that the next 2 years of my life fly by just like my year at school did.
I am sure the key to keeping that clock ticking is simply to keep busy. I fully intend to keep my schedule as packed as possible so that i don't have a moment to long for my baby, or wish my life away.
It's really hard waiting now, especially because there is nothing to do. We have recieved our typed up homestudy in the mail, we are currently awaiting our part 1 immigration approval, but it's taking it's sweet time. 2 months wait so far, ugh. Untl then we are stuck doing nothing, we technically arent even waiting for our baby yet either, so we are literally not moving. To say i am deeply frustrated by this whole system is an understatement. I just hope i feel a little better once i too am in line for a referral.
According to my research, and i have done a ton, it seems as though it's about a years wait to obtain that coveted referral, and then another year till you hold that sweet baby in your arms. I hope we get that pre approval within the next month or two, because then it would line up with me having my boy home in June 2014, impossibly far away, but at least i would have him home during the summer months.
How sad is it that by that point it would have taken us a good 8 years to have us a baby :(
It's getting harder and harder to convince myself that the wait is worth it....after 8 years of waiting you just begin to feel somewhat numb, not to mention i have no idea what to expect of being a parent and what such a gift might entail. One things for certain, after completing my 8 year journey to become a parent i am going to be the most patient person in the world!
