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Friday, 18 December 2009

  • Fun Getting Shots?

    Well, I'm back to my Xanga blog, and I hope to carry on through our Rwandan adoption now.  We have had a period of waiting, but the day we got home from Thanksgiving in Michigan, things started to explode.  We weren't expecting our approval, but we came home to it.  After the approval you normally wait a month or two or even longer until the referral, but we had our referral within three days.  After working through a number of issues concerning medical records, we formally accepted the referral this past Wednesday.  Now instead of going to Rwanda in April or May like we were expecting, we may very well end up traveling January.

    In order to travel to Rwanda and Ethiopia (we will spend a week in each place), we had to get a number of immunizations.  Now I suppose we are like most other people -- we considered the shots to be necessary, but unpleasant.  But we found a way to distract ourselves and actually even make it fun!  We took pictures!  It was great because we were thinking more about faces and poses than shots.  Our nurse was also really good, and she played along and let us take her picture, too.

    We decided to get five shots.  Our diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus shot was still good from China along with steps one and two of Hepatitus A and B.  More were available, but these were the ones we decided on

    1. Hepatitus A/B (step #3, final step)
    2. Meningitis
    3. Typhoid
    4. Polio
    5. Yellow Fever (must carry a card with passport!)
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    The nice nurse
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    I think making a face made it better.
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    Janaya did not want to see it or hear it (she thought we might be screaming or crying).  But she said I could put this picture up.
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    Melissa's turn (she was nice enough to let me go first)
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    Our nurse was fast, so we didn't get great pix, but if any of you hate shots, BRING YOUR CAMERA!  It was a great distraction! 

    One last thing.  I suggested that Melissa and I use new nicknames for each other now.

    ME: Big Shot
    MELISSA: Pincushion

    She thought mine was better.

     

Thursday, 03 December 2009

Tuesday, 08 September 2009

Friday, 21 August 2009

  • Janaya's Vocabulary and Adoption Update

    For a four year old Janaya loves to try out new words, even if she has no idea what they mean.  For the last few months she has been letting big fancy words flow from her lips like she knew what she was doing, but it is often pretty obvious that her understanding has yet to arrive.  She was listening to Melissa quiz Josiah over his spelling words, and later that day she got my attention and then sincerely proclaimed, "Daddy, I love you OCCASIONALLY!"  She thought it was a good thing, and we had a great laugh.  Several times.

    Well, we are in one of the longest "quiet times" in our adoption journey.  The paper chase has been over for a couple of months, and we are currently waiting for approval.  Here is where we currently stand.

    Our DTR (Dossier to Rwanda) date was June 12.
    Average Time to Approval: 2 to 5 months.  We are currently a little over two months into this stage.
    Average Additional Time to Referral: 3-6 weeks.
    Average Additional Time to Court Date: 3-6 weeks.
    Average Additional Time to Travel: 1-3 weeks.

    There has been a lot of activity this week with people in our Rwandan Yahoo Group.  People who were DTR in March and April have been getting approvals.  This does not necessarily mean much because things are not always done in order, but it does show that the program is moving along nicely.

Thursday, 06 August 2009

  • Demolition Derby

    I grew up in a pulp and paper town with gold mines nearby, and sometimes I like to get back to my blue collar roots since I have a white collar pastoring job in a white collar church.  Josiah and I went to the Demolition Derby at the Greene County Fair on Tuesday night.  The derby itself was not the most exciting this time, partially due to the fact that the number of entries was down a bit on Tuesday as compared to Fridays in the past.  But we were entertained by T-shirt slogans--we passed the 40 minute wait by eating popcorn and peanuts and reading redneck T-shirts.  Here were three of them.

    On an older/middle-aged woman with a long white pony tail: "I don't need your attitude--I've got my own!"

    On a guy in his twenties with a long brown goatee and a long brown pony tail: "Hey, that thing got a hemi?  Sweet!"

    On a middle school girl with a brown pony tail and blonde highlights (what is with all of the T-shirt slogans and pony tails?): "Life is good.  Horses make it better."

    Ah, yes.  Back amongst my people.  HAHA.

Man_of_Melissa

  • Visit Man_of_Melissa's Xanga Site
    • Name: Steve
    • Country: United States
    • State: Ohio
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 9/9/2005

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