Lots of action!

...on all fronts! Well, on two major fronts. The first is Amanda's eyes. Dr. Troia decided it was time to do an adjustment to the outer muscle of her left eye, which still tends to turn in if her right eye is not patched. He will also adjust the top muscle of both eyes, as both tend to drift up when she is looking up to either side. Surgery is Tuesday (7/20) 9:15am, so any prayers would be welcome. I'm not nervous, exactly, but hey, surgery is surgery. I'm happy that this time she can communicate with me. Her first eye surgery was done when she was still speaking Russian, and she wouldn't open her eyes for days. I couldn't reassure her and was worried that she maybe thought that she was now blind! I took Tuesday-Thursday off to be home with her.

The other front is the second adoption. I received a referral (altho' my agency says they can no longer call them "referrals"). Anyway, I got a pic and some bare bones info on a little girl who is living in the same baby home where Amanda lived. She will be 4 in November, and I will be allowed to visit her in November. God willing (Russia doesn't close to singles, she seems to be without any major medical or mental problems, etc..), court would be in 2011, hopefully early part of the year. I'm very excited!! (altho' a bit less excited about going back to Russia, Southern Siberia specifically, in the winter!) I found her picture on the Russian database, as well as the pics the agency sent me. We must be careful with pictures we are sent, as these are not our children and it's disrespectful to other countries to send around pictures of "their" kids. But since I found this pic on the Russian database, which is public, maybe it's ok if I just show you a portion of her sweet face:

Brown hair, probably straight, and greenish eyes it appears. My mom and two of my sisters have green eyes, so she'll fit right in our family make-up. Prayers for this little girl, no matter what God's plans are for her, are appreciated as well.

To answer questions you are maybe thinking (since I've already gotten them from other sources): Yes, maybe I'm crazy. Yes, I know I'll be busy. Yes, I know (in theory, I guess) that having another child will be more like having 4 children, not simply 2 children. Do other people get these comments when they have child #2? I guess it's mainly because I'm single. Ah well.

Amanda is happy about the news, altho' we have kept it real, and she knows it might not happen, and even up to any court date, the little girl's family could show up and claim her. I showed Amanda the pictures and told her the situation, and said I'd be able to visit the little girl in November ... (big pause) ... unless she (Amanda) didn't want me to go. I knew this was a dicey question, but wanted to give her the chance to weigh in. I reminded her that having a sister would mean having to share Mommy, and having Mommy tell another little girl that I love her, and maybe would mean Amanda sharing her room for awhile. She looked at the pictures, thought about it, and nodded her head, saying, "You can go, Mommy." In hindsight, I'm uncomfortable with how she probably came out of that conversation thinking she has power over my decisions, but I think the balance of power is pretty good in our house, so I don't think it was too damaging. She has mentioned to some people about maybe getting to have a sister, but most times she is the one to state that we don't know if it's going to happen, etc..

I haven't picked out a name (and I won't share her Russian name here, but I won't be keeping it). I'm pretty sure I'll have my name as her middle name. I e-mailed my immediate family with the news, and mentioned that I hadn't decided on a name. My niece Meagan weighed in with the suggestion of Agnes Kathleen. I was amazed - how did she know that was on my short list!? =)

We had a fun weekend, but it's been so hot outside that right now I'm just about exhausted. So I'll try to wrap this up succinctly.

Friday night: movie & popcorn at home after supper. After work, I went to the state patrol to get my thousandth (seems like) fingerprinting done, this one for updating my home study, since it's been almost a year since I started adoption #2

Saturday: HOT. Holy cow, great day to stay inside. We did get out to a few garage sales, one a close-by church sale (love these - inside w/AC!) and another advertised on Craig's List. Got Amanda a Hello Kitty CD/tape/radio player for $2.50, and a bunch of clothes for her & me for $3. Picked up some puzzles, which we both enjoy, and paperbacks (Black Beauty, The Borrowers, etc.) Amanda played with Ashley in the afternoon and I got a bunch of stuff done around the house.

Sunday: early church, home for lunch, joined some friends at Mahoney State Park. Fed some geese and got in a paddle boat for a (hot!) paddle around the pond. First pic is to show new dress (25 cents at garage sale) and new patch I made - cute, huh? She likes it. Caught myself before I sewed the front part on with the hearts upside down (whew). 2nd pic wasn't easy to take as she was sitting right behind me, so it didn't catch her the greatest, but we were on the paddle boat:

Mon. July 12th: I called on a friend to help me assemble some ceiling fans, as I'd hired an electrician to help me convert from regular light fixtures to fans and I said I'd have the fans ready to go. My friend, Dave, had volunteered to help out wherever I needed, so I took him up on the offer. He arrived and, in Tim the Toolman Taylor fashion, decided he could handle the whole job. The fixture in Amanda's room was loose, so up in the attic (!) he went to see how to get it secured. Luckily, that was the toughest one (and was the reason I'd hired the electrician - I thought they were all not set up for ceiling fans). He also brought an extra fan they had in storage, and since it had multi-colored blades (pastel), that was the one we put in Amanda's room. We hung the new white one I'd bought in the blue room (pic below of Dave ready to tackle fan #2), and verified that the guest bedroom fixture is secure for fan#3. I now have a fan for that, so he's going to stop by sometime this week and finish up! Yea! His daughter Heather played with Amanda while we worked upstairs (Heather's brother Dan was at camp, and Dave's wife was out of town). These are the same folks we spent time with today at Mahoney. Very unexpected blessing! And so nice to finally have a fan in Amanda's room - she gets so hot, and the little desk fan I'd bought in the meantime didn't do much for her.

The previous Friday, 7/9, Phil was out of town for a class reunion, so Deborah asked if we wanted to go with her to Shakespeare on the Green. It was a great night! We brought food and sat on the blanket, watching the pre-show entertainment scattered around, and really enjoyed the main show, which was Romeo & Juliet. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at some of Romeo's lines (good grief, that guy had it bad for only meeting her for about 5 minutes!), but I enjoyed it more than I thought, and the troupe did a good job. (We were actually fairly close, but it was fun to look at costume details and other things with the binoculars.)

Saturday, 7/10, we had supper with our good friends, Steve & Stephanie, and their daughter Kim, who has babysat for Amanda in the past. I contributed some pork ribs, which had been on a great sale at Hy-vee, and even as I was buying them I had no idea how I was going to prepare them. I haven't used my grill in years (I'm sure it still works....) and am not grill proficient anyway. The slab was so large I didn't know what I'd do with it! I took it to Steph on Friday (we both thought it was amusingly weird for a person to drop meat off at another person's house). Stephanie grilled it and then followed that up with time in a large roaster pan. They were delicious, as were the rest of the fixins! I definitely got the best part of that deal. Then we sat outside on their beautiful patio, enjoying the weather and the beer. What a great night! Thanks, Steve, Steph & Kim! (Amanda was only naughty one time, but it was pretty naughty - talking back to Kim and saying something mean about God - weird).

Thursday, 7/8, my friend Beth came over to see the new house and had supper with us. I hadn't seen her in awhile, so it was nice that she could share a night with us.

One other notable is that Amanda had her 7-year checkup in conjunction with her pre-surgery physical on 7/14, and she weighs 39.5 lb (5th percentile) and is 43" tall (first percentile). I'm starting to worry about her height. Many 5-yr-olds are taller than she is. Her pediatrician said we can do a bone scan and find out her "bone age" (probably not his term but rather my understanding of it). If her bone age matches her actual age, then she is just petite, probably from petite people. If her bone age is off 2 or more deviations (bone age = 5 or less) then there are things that can be done. We decided to do the bone scan in January (since my flex spending account didn't "account" for the eye surgery, much less extra bone testing). I'm fine if she's just small - she has the personality to offset any negative - but if there's something to address, I want to be sure we address it.

Ok, my assignment (get blog done, notify of the surgery & referral news) is done. Your assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to say a prayer for the surgery and the little girl in Russia.

Thanks for your support!

Oh, what do you think of the new blog background? Last time I signed in, Blogger was somewhat forceful in showing me different samples and suggesting I apply one to my blog. I wonder if I'm on some list of people who never change their settings? I was tired of the PINK, though, so I was fine with switching since they made it so easy. I thought the blue was more restful, and COOL looking, which goodness knows we need in Nebraska in July! =)