Wait, Work, Wine

Sometimes I wish that the adoption process was the only dominating "thing" happening in our lives, but then I quickly come to my senses and realize that that this is most certainly not the case nor do I really wish it were. Beyond waiting for our babe to come home there are the daily realities of life, work, finance, and thankfully plenty of other events to celebrate and be happy about. Life hasn't, and shouldn't, stop because we're adopting. In fact we're lucky to say that it has only gotten more interesting (and along with that more challenging) on almost a daily basis. We wait, we work, we wine.

Wait: We've always known that we would build our family through international adoption, so I suppose you could say we've been thinking about the process for 12.5 years now. (High school sweethearts, dating and married for forever already - I think most in the NE refer to us as a freak of nature, being under 30 and already married for almost 7 years...) But have been actively pursuing the adoption process since May 2007 which puts us at the 10 month mark now. Then there's the "official" list which we were added to in December 2007 when we finally completed the hoop-jumping process of document preparation, notarization, certification, and authentication and were actually added to a list of waiting families. So interpret it as you may, whether we've been waiting 12 years, 10 months, 3 months, honestly I can't even place meaning on the number anymore. I take a deep breath every morning and pray for safety and love for our family.

Work: Challenges in this area will never cease (nor do I wish them too, as work without challenge would naturally push us to seek other work) but sometimes it would be nice if there were fewer challenges. My husband loves his work, and my work is our health insurance...oh wait, I mean...nope, my work really is just our health insurance... But the bottom line is that my passion lies with education and his with photography and both of us could think of nothing better than busting our humps to pursue the good of those causes for the rest of our lives. Sure there will be interruptions, breaks, maybe even a change in direction here or there - but the end goal for both of us is pretty darn clear. (kind of, to us at least ~ or maybe not...)

Wine: We enjoy sharing the occasional glass of good red wine that actually warrants looking at and enjoying the color and varying shades of red that change almost instantaneously from pour to pour. Other than that we are two completely different people, which for us is part of what makes things work. We can't wait to be the 80 year old couple who have been married for 59 years yet still argue over what seem to be the simplest parts of a marriage. Like the vines of a strong growing vineyard our marriage will learn to weave through the vines toward the sun.

For after all, it's the sun that's coming.

PDN Online!

PDN finally published PDN's 30 2008 online today so I finally have a link to this year's "30 Photographers to Watch" (one of whom I might have a little bias towards...) so here's one more (I promise my last for a while) plug of blatant self promotion - check out the 2008 PDN Top 30, of course my personal favorite, and another I really dig. Also, thanks for all of your very kind congratulations - Mike is constantly humbled by the natural sweetness of this community.

PDN's Top 30 2008 - Preview!

The March issue of PDN was sent in the mail today so the official unveiling of PDN's 2008 "Top 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch" is still technically a secret...but what the heck, I'm going to spoil the surprise! The love of my life is in this year's PDN 30! Along with the honor of being recognized by a leading industry mag a number of speaking opportunities are made available to them as well. Mike will be presenting at Parsons School of Design on the topic "Transitions: Strategies for the Young Working Photographer" along with 3 others from this year's PDN 30 and Creatives they've worked with. I'm so proud of him and can't wait for the official unveiling tomorrow so that I can post a direct link to this years complete group, but in the meantime I did get my hands on the invite to the speaking engagement so that will have to do for now. Cheers to my incredibly talented husband!

Atlantic City Baby

Work has landed me in Atlantic City this week. As a project manager my perks are few, but I must say that having Atlantic City as one of my clients is...wait, that's still not a perk. I don't gamble. I don't smoke. I'm not retired and enjoying my golden years on the Jersey shore. I've met with my clients in Atlantic City many times (lovely people) but this afternoon I finally put my finger on my main aversion to this city... there are no children anywhere.

Until the past year or so I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much more positive the general vibe of a place can be when there are children around. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved children. I would pick up my life and move to the other side of the globe tomorrow to provide a loving environment to orphaned children if I could figure out how to make it work. I just don't think I realized how they fit so naturally into almost everything we do. Obviously there are scenarios not entirely appropriate for children (for example, gambling in a smoke filled base-beat-thumping neon spewing room... ok it's starting to make sense why there are no children in Atlantic City...) but those scenarios are extremely few and far between.

My husband and I are so excited to introduce our child to our life, and to re-experience life "with child" for ourselves as well. I have a gut feeling we wont be planning any family vacations to Atlantic City in the near future... good thing I'm getting my fill now! OK, Off to the slots, oh wait, I mean off to the nearest smokeless thumping-beat-less place for dinner.

It's Atlantic City baby.

Dossier & The Boss

Today two major steps were completed:

1) Our dossier documents are now New York State Certified!
2) I had THE conversation with my boss!

We will need to return to the state certification office one more time once our CIS approval arrives (the I-171H form) however everything else is 100% ready to go at this point which is really really exciting. Our I-171H is in the works, and baring any roadblocks (there is one potential delay, but I'm doing my best not to focus too heavily on this as all will happen in due time...) we will receive our approval in 4-6 weeks. Hopefully less, but isn't that always the case? Also, I met a woman while waiting for my file to be reviewed who is adopting from Russia. She needed to state certify 57 documents! And I thought our 20 was a lot. We exchanged contact info and will keep each other posted on our progress!

As for the conversation with my boss, it could not have possibly gone better. She's excited, I'm excited. I'm dedicated to returning to work full time, she's very happy about that. Considering the fact that the best timeline I could provide was, "I could be traveling anytime between February and July of 2008 and even then this could change at the drop of a hat depending on the zillions of factors contributing to the process..." well, quite frankly she was a gem.

So, we'll keep our fingers crossed that these two steps forward don't result in two steps back (come on you Paula fans...) and if they do, well I suppose it's about time for another round of the patience song...

"Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry. When you are impatient, you only start to worry. Remember, remember, that God is patient too, and think of all the times that others have to wait for you!"