Lots to Tell

After much debate, this weekend Tide Guy and I painted the flashing that has been the cause of much frustration on our new house. We couldn't decide if we wanted to paint it, pay someone to paint it, put vinyl over it, or rip it off and put a thinner strip. The paint looks good. I really think there has to be a better way to keep water from running down between weird roof lines, but roofers and builders seem convinced this is the only way. It is not the most attractive, so some smart person needs to design a better way

We also now have slate on our front porch. It is actually stamped concrete, but it looks amazing. I'm ordering columns for the front porch today and want to look at hardwood and maybe tile for the wet areas.

In world news, there is an outbreak of the swine flu. It started in Mexico and has now spread across the border.

Gas prices have stayed steady, but it seems the price of milk has gone down a little.

Yesterday, I planted our little garden of six tomatoes plants and four different types of pepper plants. I can't wait to enjoy these in the summer. My mom has some tiny tomato plants my brother gave us. They are too small now for planting. I love these little yellow bell shaped tomatoes. They are so good dipped in balsamic vinegar.

My running group has now dropped to two people. We are doing okay, but only have about 4 weeks until our run. I wanted to run the entire 5K, but unless the training increases drastically, it isn't going to happen.

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

Shuttered!!

We got shutters this week. They look great. The black shutters look striking against the deep red brick and help the front of the house look more complete. Tomorrow we are meeting the cabinet guy to go over our original picks and finalize what he will make.

There are rumors on the internet that the CCAA may begin to match more children each month. The word on the internet is that with the increase in orphanage donations and other factors, orphanage directors are being encouraged to have more children "paper ready" quicker. Once a child is found, the orphanage must run an ad in the paper called a "finding ad". This ad would be used for a family to find their lost child. It is a crime to abandon a child in China. Of course, the children are really left in a safe place to be found and taken to an orphanage. Since it is a crime to have more than one child (there are a few exceptions to this rule) and a crime to abandon a child, the parents never claim their child. The time frame from the time a child is found until they are eligible to be "paper ready" is about 6 months. Thus, the prediction is the speed up should begin in 5-6 months.

So, we shall see if these rumors end up being in true.

Tide Guy has planned a trip for us and surprised me with it. We are going to St. Thomas in a few months. With his travel due to work, we can't go right now. And, boy, do we need a vacation. Hopefully, we will be completely moved into the new house before we travel.

Tide Gal

Yahoo!!

We got it!! Today we got the invitations to have our fingerprints updated!! We are assuming the CIS accepted our paperwork a few days late.

Two problems though. First, my name isn't spelled correctly on my invitation. Not sure what to do about that yet. Second, our appointment time is on a day in May that is the middle of a business trip for Tide Guy. We are going to have to request another date. Unfortunately, Tide Guy will be gone most of May. We are going to wait a while to mail in our request to hopefully push our appointment date further into May or hopefully into June.

I talked to the cabinet man today and we are meeting him next week to finalize our cabinetry. We got more vinyl installed today, but they still need a few more days to complete the vinyl trim and gutters on the back of the house. The builder hasn't done much trim this week as we haven't had much rain this week so he has worked outside at a house he has just started. The garage sheetrock is now complete and the guys have removed their supplies.

Gas is about $1.93 and the economy still stinks.

Tide Gal and Tide Guy

Still in Limbo

We still have not received word if CIS in Atlanta has received our paperwork on Saturday or today. CIS has not responded to our agency's e-mail as to whether or not they will accept our homestudy a day or two late.

Ugh.

Updating on the Update

We had our homestudy overnighted to our state capital's city for review and approval on April 2, 2009 with hopes to have it to CIS in Atlanta by our cutoff date of April 10. 2009. Unfortunately, "the worker" was out sick and just today reviewed and approved our homestudy. Since tomorrow is our cutoff date and the state won't overnight it, we won't make our date. The reason they won't ask the state to overnight the packet is they already requested our paperwork be expedited due to our close due date. I guess they don't want to push their luck or ruin chances of requests in the future.

Our social worker suggested we have our agency call or e-mail CIS to notify them our paperwork is in the mail. Hopefully, we will still qualify for our "free" update and fingerprinting. Our agency did e-mail a request for them to accept our homestudy. They are also searching for a phone number, too.

We are still waiting to hear back. We asked the company that did our homestudy to check with the state this week. We asked several times, but they didn't want to bother the person. So, if CIS doesn't accept this, we will have wasted money ($$), time, and sanity on this "free" extension.

Fingers are still crossed that CIS will accept our homestudy one day late. They already have the rest of our paperwork (letters, copies of birth certificates, marriage license, etc) that we had to send them.

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

Garage

Just a quick update:

We got sheet rock in the garage today. They were able to start taping, but should complete that and some sanding tomorrow. Yeah! More done. And, we got more vinyl in the back of the house, too.

17 Months

Today is our 17th month LIDiversary. Another month down on the real calendar and two days down on the "Chinese adoption calendar". Two. We are now at March 8, 2007. Still a VERY long way to go for us to get to November 6, 2008.

On the "new" home front, we got some gutters and vinyl two days ago. Hopefully, this will help with water seeping into the basement. It seemed to help yesterday when we got quite a bit of rain. And also today when we got rain, sleet, and snow. Just a tiny bit of snow, but still, snow.

Last week we got interior doors and pocket doors. All of the trim on the sides and some of the trim on top of the doors are up. We also have some baseboards now. It is really looking great!

We are supposed to have the garage sheet rocked this week. This way we can get it painted, get the garage doors in, and the door from the garage into the house installed. We will then be able to lock some things in the garage for safe storage.

In national news, gas prices dropped, but jumped back up to $1.91 a gallon. Up about 12 cents in a week. The economy is still in the dumps with the unemployment rate. Basically, everything is the same in that area.

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

Time is Ticking...

We found out a few days ago that our home study is complete. EXCEPT! They were waiting to receive our criminal clearances from Alabama and Mississippi. We also found out that our paperwork had to first be mailed to Montgomery and from there mailed to Atlanta. A few steps that we didn't know were required. Our agency told us Alabama usually had a two week turn around for the criminal clearance, but was currently running two to three weeks behind. That would cause us to miss our April 10th deadline. Our agency has no contacts in Mississippi and wanted us to wait a few days before making calls. Also, it seems these places completing this paperwork frowns on citizens calling to check on the status.

Luckily, Alabama sent our paperwork and it was received at our agency a day or two ago. Our agency called Mississippi today for us. Our agency said whoever answered would check and call our agency back before 5pm today and seemed sympathetic after being told our situation. Before 3, our agency reported our paperwork from Mississippi was mailed yesterday. Our agency should receive it tomorrow and will overnight it to Montgomery. We may just squeak in under the April 10th radar. Barely.

I also found out if we miss our deadline we and our agency can send a letter to Atlanta stating why we missed our deadline and it is possible they will accept it then. It may depend on who receives the letter and their mood. Basically, if we miss the deadline, all of our work will have been for naught and we wasted the money we paid the agency. Plus, when we renew later, we will have to give information on all of our addresses each of us has ever had. Believe me, we really need to make this April 10th deadline. That requirement with a military person is does not make me happy.

Fingers Crossed!

Tide Gal & Tide Guy