Wikki Stix

How did I not know about these things??? The girls were talking about them at lunch one day, saying how they're great for having the kids make the letter formations with them and then they have something tactile they can trace with their finger. And of course it's fun to do it.

I looked them up today. They are awesome! And they're totally going to Colombia with us.

Evidently they are wax covered pieces of string. They stick to nearly everything, and come off without a problem. So one can make all sorts of 3 D things with them.

So cool!

Addendum on its way to Colombia!!!

Yes! Awesome! Superb! Fantastic!

We got an email that our addendum was mailed today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Addendum Mailed

We were finally able to get our addendum mailed to CHI yesterday. It's been a week of running around with it though. Tuesday I realized that when I gave the psychologist the CHI address, I didn't specify that he needed to mail it to us so we could get it apostilled. So I called. They said they would mail it. Well, that wouldn't give us time to receive it this week and get it mailed off again. So I went to pick it up on Wednesday.

Thursday I headed downtown to certify and apostille and mail it. But, I ended up taking a wrong turn, which put me headed on one way streets back out of downtown. After driving around for 25 minutes trying to get back to the parking garage (downtown disables L or R turns after 4 pm to empty the area...very frustrating) I finally got there only to realize that my car may be too tall to enter the parking garage! I went home.

Friday, S called and said, wonder of wonders, he was working at the courthouse! Right where we needed to go! We got it certified and apostilled in record time for a downtown jaunt, and mailed off. (we measured the car prior and it fits, with 4 inches to spare.)

Now hopefully we only have to do that one more time for our updated medical letter and fingerprints!!

Yes!

Our psychologist will have our letter ready by the beginning of next week! Yay!!

Wishin' and Hopin'....

seem to be 2 things I frequently do! We're still waiting for the letter from the psychologist. I had been hoping to have everything sent by yesterday (Friday) but now I'm hoping to have it all sent by the end of NEXT week. All in all, 2 weeks is a pretty realistic timetable of getting an addendum sent back in. Will I be disappointed if it's not sent in by next Friday? Probably a little bit, but then I'll set my sights on the week after that.

I realized yesterday that I have had over 150 weeks of hoping week by week. So hey, what's another week? Oh, and it only takes 3 weeks to build a habit...so I guess I'm in the habit of hoping!

On a completely different topic, yesterday marked my 6th year participating in Valentine's Day School Parties. I LOVE IT! Maybe it's because I love pink so much, or my happy memories of those parties, but I love how excited the kids get too. And, I love the little thoughful valentines some of the kids make! One of my students made me a Valentine Bag...complete with my first name on the front...in cut out bubble letters. Quite skillful! I proudly used it...and insisted everyone still had to call me Mrs. D, while dispelling rumors that I had "real name". (As if the one they call me is fake!!? Gotta love overgeneralizations)

It suddenly struck me yesterday though, that my days with these students will probably be ending soon. And I got a little sad. Especially since I heard these remarks yesterday: " I just love coming to your class and learning all about writing! During recess I was thinking about how I could add some more details to my article." During outside recess!!! What more could a teacher ask for?

Oh, and one day I'm going to write a book about all the kid misconceptions I've heard over the years...starting with the one from yesterday:

me: What do you think you know about butterflies?
boy: They suck your blood!
me: Laughing...Oh really? Lets add that to our "think we know" list. ;0

Figured out

Well, we think it's figured out. Our psych report mentioned children up to 7. So we're going to write a letter explaining our decision to go from 2 under 7 years to 4 under 11 years. Then the psychologist is going to need to write an addendum. Thanfully, he's local, really nice and SPEEDY!! :)

So hopefully we can get this all sent out by the end of the week. I was a little worried today as the emails were flyin', but all seems to be in order.

Time to fess up...

I haven't said anything about this because, well, giving voice (words) to hopes can be scary if they don't materialize. There's something about writing things down...anyway, in August 2008, we sent a letter to ICBF requesting a sibling group of 4 we saw on the waiting list. The oldest turned 10, so not only did our homestudy need to be changed to to show approval for 4 (the couple month long saga) it also needed to have the age range raised to include her age. That was the impetus in suddenly having our homestudy updated. (Though not surprising, because it's what we've desired since the start.)

Currently, our homestudy approves us for 4 children ages 0-11. Somewhere, there was something that stated we previously were intending to adopt children up to age 7, so ICBF wants to see the preparation and how we came to the decision to go older. I am worried they'll think we haven't done enough.

Since August we've been thinking about these 4 little children, but as of yet, haven't heard if they still need a home. So we wait with great expectation, and continually pray for the Lord's will in our life and these kids' life. With the closing of our homestudy agency looming, it's very easy for me to start worrying about how long the requested info could take and the problems that could arise.

God has been in control, is in control, and will be in control.

So that's the story. :) If you get the noticiero and keep the old ones, I'm sure you'll figure it out. ;) Unfortunately everyone else will have to wait until it's official and we can post pictures....unless you come over to our house.

Colombia wants more info for our file

so we're gonna get right on that. Evidently there wasn't enough about our decision to move the upper age from 7 to 11 years.

But it was exciting to hear that they're actually reading our paperwork now!!! Our dossier was mailed Dec. 17th, so it probably wasn't even given to a translator until Jan. 1 or so at the end of the Colombian holidays.

I hope hope hope hope we can get the addendum sent mas rapido! Mas prisa, menos hablar! Arriba, arriba!