Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My first Voice Thread

The conference in FL was awesome! I learned so much that my head is still spinning with things to investigate. Here is one of the sites I learned about after researching some of the material. It's so cool. I'm learing to use it to see all the ways it can be used in school. However, I couldn't resist learning about it with my favorite photography subject!



http://voicethread.com/share/49798/

Use this link to go to the site and add your comments by typing text or recording your voice! I'm not exactly sure how it works when posted on a blog so I posted it here to see. This site is WAY cool!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Heading to Florida!

I'm leaving tomorrow for a technology conference in Orlando. *** By MYSElF!!*** Geoff has printed out all of my directions for me AND emailed them to himself as well. :-) I am very excited because I have heard of this conference for YEARS! It's supposed to be one of the best in our area. The funny thing is I AM going alone even AFTER last year's broken toe traffic nightmare of a fiasco in Atlanta when Geoff had to constantly give me directions and swore I couldn't travel alone EVER again. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning and arriving in time to listen to the opening session where the speaker is Discovery Channel's Jeff Corwin. Why do I think this may be interesting??? I don't know but I'll be there! Then I plan to go to the vendor's hall opening which is sponsored by Hewlett Packard before I head to my hotel and exercise and crash. (I've graduated from walking to running and am proud to say that I can now run 2 miles without stopping OR Dying and haven't done that much since college 20 years ago!... I'm very determined to be in shape to meet Lexi!) HOWEVER!!! The highlight of the trip will come on Friday night after it is over when I drive to see Lori and Andy!!! I can't wait to be reunited with my Philly roommate and her dear hubby (that we met last Spring). They are gracious enough to open their home to me and spend some much needed Panda time together. I'll come home on Saturday. Now for the KICKER... Geoff keeps telling me that he is going to babysit Brennen while I'm away on Friday. I even called Sara last week and asked her if she would let Brennen stay the night without me here and she said YES!!! (much to Geoff's amusement!) Sara just said, "I trust him with Brennen!". This is so sweet because there's no way in the world she would leave him with her bio-dad! She recognizes the great dad Geoff will be and already knows the fantastic Papa he already is. I don't think Brennen will really be here but if so, that's just fun for both baby and Pop! Of course, I'll try to get some pictures of Lori and Andy on Friday. I'm very excited even though I will miss being here with Geoff very much!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Glimpse into the future???

Yesterday morning I was working with 3 students in my computer lab when one of my dear friends (who is a county techie that helps me all the time) popped in for the first time this week. I was working with the students on a Media Festival project during a free class period. It so happened that one of the students was a Vietnamese girl. Well, when she popped her head in I immediately started asking her where she had been and that I missed seeing her this week. She didn't really respond. She just stood there looking at us and then finally said, "I'm sorry, I just had a glimpse of the future." I was confused of course but then it dawned on me. I looked at the little girl and told her I understood. She saw me with the student and was thinking of me with Lexi in the future. What a sweet thought! I explained to the student what we were talking about and she told me that she would still be at our school this year when we get Lexi. I'll certainly have to show her a picture of Lexi. This child by the way is so sweet and smart. She is 8 years old and can type with both hands as well as I can and yet she has had no formal typing training. It's amazing! Anyhow, it was a nice thought and a nice sentiment by my friend. Lexi is in our future... it's just a matter of time. (((*sigh* )))

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Another slow year???

Of course, we keep getting asked about our progress in the adoption process so here is an update.

Our 1-600A has expired. (This is the form we need that gives up permission from the US to adoption an orphan from a foreign county.) We actually sent the renewal paperwork off during the summer but somehow it is lost. So we are back tracking trying to get the new one taken care of.

Our homestudy for GA. will expire soon. Remember last February we had our 2nd homestudy. They are only good for one year in Ga. So we are about to work on that again too.

However, after receiving an email from our agency I'm not in any hurry. I think waiting until after tax season might be a good idea. Seems that the slow in referrals is likely to continue. At one point the information we were getting indicated that after CCAA gets through November and December of 2005, things would speed back up. We did get a glimmer of hope the last few referral months as they had two months where they got through 7 days of dossiers. This month, referrals went through 5 days. So as of now, CCAA has made referrals for Dossiers logged in through December 19. There are 70 days between the 19th and our LID of 2/27/06. So do the math... if it continues even at a pace of 7 days we are looking at the END of 2008 and possibly this time next year. Ugh! It's frustrating but we STILL have hope of a fall referral. Hope and faith is all we have to help us through this process. (And a lot of little Brennen doesn't hurt either!)

So why rush the paperwork renewal? It all expires so quickly (if you can call a year and 18 months quickly!) and each time we have to renew, it's MORE MONEY! Waiting a little on the homestudy just may be the thing to do and the lost I-600 could be a blessing since it is only good for 18 months.

So as we wait... everyone will have to endure more Brennen. He is our Sunshine in a very bleak process. So MORE BRENNEN PLEASE!

Brennen At 6 Months

Brennen got his 6 months shots last week along with a flu shot. He didn't like it too much and neither did his Mommy and Daddy because the shots made him sick. So after a couple of days of being fussy, feverish, and not sleeping he got well enough for Sara and Chris to let us keep him and give them a break. We had a blast. I just got a new camera from writing a grant at school so I figured what better way to learn to use it than do a photo shoot of Brennen! We only took about 230 pictures of him that day! The slide show below shows some of the better ones and I thought it would be fun to put them up as his 6 months pictures. This monthly slide show just may become a habit!




The pictures of him eating the cookie show him having his VERY FIRST cookie (biter biscuits). His peditrican said that he could have them since he is eating so well. It was so funny but afterward we just put the little guy in the sink! What a drooling nightmare!!! He also saw his first fire in the fireplace. He was really into it and wanted to get closer! We really have to watch EVERY SINGLE move he makes now as he crawls all over the house. We are finding that the hardwood floors are really tough on the little guy's head. I sometimes wish he had a helmet!

Lexi's things are getting broken in with Brennen. We took him for a walk in her pink stroller and just hoped no one would ask us why we had a boy in a pink stroller! LOL! One day he will grow up and ask us why he had everything pink over here! Aside from the 3 hard wacks of his head on the hardwood floor, the most challenging thing was NIGHTTIME! Having conjestion he couldn't stay asleep very long and we literally were up with him EVERY HOUR ALL NIGHT LONG!! Geoff is so fantastic with him. He doesn't shy away from anything and just jumps in to help all the time. It gives me a great preview of the wonderful father I have always known he will be. Sleep or no sleep we are looking forward to the next sleepover!