Goodness, it's been awhile...

Since I posted anything. The whole holiday rush and working full-time sort of took over the past couple of weeks. So what's new? Hmmm.... Where to start?

Adoption updates:

• Got to speak with Tabitha by phone for about 10 minutes on Thursday 12/23. We'd expected she was going to chatter away, but the first 5 minutes were very monosyllabic. This was a conference call to Russia with about 6 people on the line, so I think it took her a bit to "warm up." I also managed to irk the translator by jumping in, in Russian a couple of times. They really don't like it when I do that, but I can't help myself. After the call, Michael & I agreed that all doubt has been removed about whether or not she wants to be here with us. He asked her if "she was ready for the very long airplane ride to come back to Texas" and before the translator finished the word for airplane there was a very loud, very emphatic "Da!" ("Yes" in English) Sweet, sweet word to our ears. She wanted to know how long until we see her again. Tough question. There's no easy way to say "Look Kid, we're waiting on your government here." Otherwise we both had grins for days. Best present for Christmas that I got this year!
• The first family survived, they're back, the judge waived their 10-day waiting period (Huge News!) and apparently all else went well.
• The entire application, that has to be re-done (as a hurdle of persistence I'm sure) has been re-done, sent to Austin to be apostilled (i.e. notarizing the notary's signature), returned to Gladney and is now just waiting for FedEx to reopen in Jan to ship to Moscow. Yup. There really are times in the year when you just can't get it there the next day. Turns out they shut down on deliveries to Russia Dec 30th and won't reopen until Jan 9th. Just as well as the government is on holiday until the 9th or 10th anyway. Just a bit more hurry up and wait at the Erwin Homestead these days.
• Michael's betting a trip in early Feb. Me, I'm feeling a whole "Valentine's Day" kind of vibe.

In the meantime, work is keeping me busy. No surprise there. And I've started on decorating her room. Slowly working on painting a bookcase, and then an armoire, and then I have to figure out the window treatment question. We found a comforter set discounted 66% this past weekend. Bought a nightstand, to be picked up on Thursday. And then there's the painting the walls issue. My Dad says wait for her to be here & she can help. At the rate I'm going, that's entirely possible. Michael says, "What's wrong with beige?" And me, I'm not sure that I want to tackle painting a room with a 7 year old & the kittens she adores helping. I've already found some hot pink nail polish in the carpet; I don't know how much more it can take for this year.