From Nothing to Urgent

Perhaps it is common in adoption to swing between periods of whirlwind paperwork to endless waiting and back again...with little to nothing in between. We spent all of last year running here and there trying to get all of the necessary paperwork together and made official. When it was done, we sat. All you could feel and hear was the sound of crickets in the dark. Nothing happened. There was nothing to do. There really wasn't anymore back and forth communication with the agency. Nothing. Nothing but silence. Now, all of a sudden, we are in a whirlwind again. How did I miss that we need to begin updating our immigration paperwork 3-4 months before it expired. After all, it is good for 15 (or maybe 18) months, and we were just registered in December. It FEELS like we shouldn't have anything to do this year but wait. On the contrary, the immigration papers were dated early 2010, so they expire in August 2011. Grrr!! So now we are rushing around trying to get our home study updated so we can refile with USCIS. We all have to have new medicals, 2 sets of fingerprints, another home visit, and lots of new paperwork that wasn't there when we did it the first time. Well, at least it gives me an adoption update to give you. ; )

I also promised to check in about Curves and couponing. Please don't let me discourage you from either of these activities. If you are the type of person who is easily discouraged, please stop reading now. But for the rest of you, I AM trying to be real here. I went to Curves at the end of June for my "weigh in". I just got my printed results back today because we have been out of town. The good news is that I have lost 16 inches. The bad news is that I can't tell it. My clothes still fit the same as always. The other bad news is that I had gained 1.6 lbs. Yay me! : (

As for the couponing, I guess I'm just not cut out for it. I DID find some great deals, and sometimes it was fun. I did NOT get into stockpiling (much less hoarding), but for two months straight I went overbudget by at least $100. I canNOT keep that pace! So for June, we went back to cash and envelopes (yes, the Dave Ramsey way). Keep in mind that June included our vacation. Lots of eating out on the road plus our traditional eating out once at our destination and once for ice cream. Even with all of that included, I only went overbudget by about $40. Much better. I can't wait to see how July will fare.

We were going to move forward with another yard sale this past Saturday, but we got back from Crossville later than expected and weren't quite ready. (We make an annual trip there around the 4th to visit Tim's sister and her family.) For one thing we needed more bottled water to sell in this heat. For another, we had another of our signs stolen, and we need to replace that. Makes you wonder why someone would "need" a yard sale sign that says Adoption Benefit and has our house address on it. But that makes 2 that have been stolen. Go figure.