Starting To Get Excited

On Monday, it will have been 7 weeks since Ken and I petitioned the court to adopt Angelina. I think that this has been the longest 7 weeks of our lives. Ken and I miss our daughter so much. But...we are starting to get pings of excitement as we know that any new day can bring us the call of a court date! This brings us great hope and happiness!

We have put the finishing touches on Angelina's nursery.

Its 99% complete.

The only thing missing is an Angelina!

Our Baby Shower

I'm not sure if I've ever expressed how lucky and blessed Ken and I are to have such wonderful family and friends. This past Sunday, they threw us a wonderful family baby shower. Everyone's generosity blew us away. This was truly more than a shower for Ken and I. This party symbolized the light at the end of the tunnel of a long and hard road. The past few years of fertility problems just melted away as we knew that, finally, we could celebrate with our family and friends the arrival of our daughter.


The shower was at my sister-in-law's house. She, my mom and my best friend planned everything, and despite the rain, everything was just perfect. The food and atmosphere were both great, and we enjoyed celbrating with all members of our families!

Ken and I opening gifts.

Our Audience!

This tent came in handy when the rain and thunder came!

Us holding a stack of sooo-cute clothes!

Can you say spoiled already!?

We were lucky to recieve many, many books for Angelina's library.

A cute clothesline.

A Great Surprise!

On Thursday morning, as I was getting ready to leave for school, Ken was acting very, very strange. I needed to get out of the house, get to the store and buy some treats for my students, and Ken just would not let me leave the house. I was ready to kill him!!! I arrived to school just to be summoned to the teachers room for a staff meeting. Great. I was walking down with a colleague of mine, complaining that I did not have time for an impromptu staff meeting, opened the teacher's room door, and found a baby shower waiting for me....they got me. It was a great surprise!

I was very overwhelmed with the generosity of my staff. They really went all out for Ken, Angelina and I. We received many great toys, clothes, also a car seat, and the cutest table and chair set. (I had my eyes out for one of these for a while, so I was so pleased. I was pretty rushed in the morning, as we had students coming in, but after school, it was great to read through all of the cards. I am blown away by all of the well wishes and support that has been sent our way. Thank you Hillside Middle School Staff!

A picture of the gifts from my school shower.

Better Late Than Never Spring Cleaning

Its been 6.5 weeks since we have petitioned the court to adopt Angelina (but who's counting?!) We still don't have word on a pending court date, just that things are moving normally on the Russian front. So, just knowing that has given Ken and I piece of mind for now. Each day brings us closer to our daughter, and we miss her so badly!

Since we have been home from our first trip, we've been shopping and planning and such, but haven't given the house a great super-scrub-down. So we have spent the past few nights working on that, we still have a few rooms to go, but its looking good...some call this the nesting instinct...maybe our court date is closer than we think!

But for now...we still wait by the phone!

No News Yet...

Its been a little longer than three weeks since we have been home, and we have no new news about our case. I keep checking off the days from the calender, and Ken and I keep telling each other we are one day closer to bringing Angelina home. However, this wait is much harder than I expected it to be. I thought that since we would be so busy, the time would fly by...time is standing still!

We have done all that we can do in Angelina's nursery at this point. I will leave some pics below. Other than that, we just wait by the phone...