One Week Down...

Three weeks to go! Three weeks from today I'll hopefully be posting about a successful court date. We're trying not to get to anxious (yeah right, like that's possible) because of the chance that it could take more than one try to pass, but then we read about other families who are passing on the first try and we just can't help ourselves. I have a feeling that the two weeks between court and travel are going to be stock full of things like packing, last minute house/nursery prep, etc... so I'm trying to take care of as much as possible now to minimize the stress later. So far it's not going terribly well as it seems that just when I create and finish one list another creates itself almost instantaneously.

For now my big to-do is getting ready for my maternity leave at work. The way the timing is working out is actually a best case scenario because it looks like I'll just be out for the summer months when my clients (school districts) aren't very active anyhow. Still, you never know what could come up and I'm always in favor of being proactive about things like that. So, for now I'm wading through a pretty ridiculous matrix of "if this, then this" scenarios to leave with my team while I'm away. It's not that I don't trust them, (quite the opposite actually) it's just that I work with an amazing team of professionals who's plates are already overflowing with responsibilities and the last thing they need is to have my mine dropped on them at the last minute. We're still not sure if I'm just going to take 8 weeks or if I'm going to use more of the 12 week allowance, but everyone I talk to seems to advocate for taking as much time as possible. I have a feeling once we finally have our beautiful boy in our arms that there wont be a doubt in our minds about how much time I should use, and boy am I looking forward to that moment!

I had lunch with a friend this week who also happens to be a colleague and we kept touching on the fact that it's really hard to complain about anything when we're so fortunate in so many ways. How could I possibly complain about deciding whether to take 8 vs 12 weeks off for maternity leave when the fact that I even have that as an option (and the guarantee of health insurance coverage) is a blessing in itself. Karma has certainly made an effort this year to open my eyes to just how thankful I really need to be for the life I'm living. I've had two cars die on me but in both cases I was able to pull over to the road and remain safe while waiting for a tow truck to pick me up and return me home. This week we got a flat tire in Brooklyn, but before I could even get out of the car there were 3 men working on removing the bolts for us who absolutely insisted they help us change the flat. Seriously, when does that happen? And today I'll be working on that matrix I told you about and my eyes will likely be bugging out of my head after hours of data manipulation and crazy Excel projects. But hey, thanks to wireless internet and a beautiful spring day I'll spend a portion of my time doing this while sitting outside in a hammock listening to the birds and a selection of Christmas songs. Hard to complain. LOTS to be thankful for.

Three weeks from today we could be officially mom and dad, and five weeks from tomorrow we could be taking off for Ethiopia, and seven weeks from tomorrow we could be swimming in the village swimming pool with our son! LOTS to be thankful for.