Finally!

Our fingerprint clearance came yesterday. Now our homestudy can be completed. Of course our homestudy agency is closed for the holiday and won’t open again until Monday. So, Monday morning I make the 2-hour drive to pick up the homestudy from the social worker, then take it agency for the final items.

Monday we will have the final homestudy in hand and on Tuesday we have an appointment with USCIS to change our visa pre-approval from China to Nepal. From what I hear it takes about 3 weeks to change countries. We are hoping the first part of February will be realistic to hope for.

Our dossier is on its way to our placing agency (they are out of state.) They will look it over and we can make any changes that are needed while we wait for the I-171-H. It is a good feeling to know we are making progress. The hard part of the process is once we have done all we can and then we wait. No one knows how long the wait will be, but I hope that by the end of 2009 we will have a referral. That might be a little overly optimistic, but I can manage my expectations as the timeline becomes clearer.

I am glad to leave you with happy news as we enter 2009. I know 2009 will bring many happy things for our family. I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

Send an email for me. . .

"Senators Landrieu and Coleman, along with other Members of Congress, are continuing to show their support of ensuring every child’s right to a permanent, safe, and loving family. As part of their commitment, they will be forwarding a letter to Nguyen Tan Dung, the Prime Minister of Vietnam. This letter will encourage Vietnam’s continued participation in negotiations related to the new bilateral agreement on intercountry adoption. The letter will express Congressional support for the continuation of intercountry adoption and will emphasize the importance of the transition to a Hague-compliant system and a new bilateral treaty." (from JCICS)

This link has more details and link for emails: http://www.jcics.org/Vietnam.htm

If you get a chance please email your senators and representatives and ask them to sign this letter.

Here is a copy of the email I sent:

Support International Adoption with Vietnam

We are writing this letter to ask you to support the effort to re-open adoptions with Vietnam. You represent us in the matters that are most important, and we are asking that you please sign the letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam regarding the future of intercountry adoptions from Vietnam. Please contact Sarada Peri from Senator Landrieu’s office (Sarada_Peri@landrieu.senate.gov) by Wednesday, January 7th, 2009.

Our son was born in Vietnam. Bringing him home was such an amazing and incredible experience. We wait anxiously for a new agreement to be signed and additional safeguard put in place to assure ethical and honest adoptions to continue.

Please contact Senator Landrieu’s office to sign the letter of support. Thank you for protecting what matters most to us.

Signed. . . .

I love the Wall Street Journal

So I was reading this morning that the US might fall in civil war in 2010. . .huh. Good to know :)

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.



Here's the link if you want to read the whole article: Wall Street Journal

The story. . .

Here's the scoop on our Christmas. . . Dave has done a great job with the re-cap.

Dave's Blog: Tis the Season. . .

Santa has left the building

We truly had a wonderful Christmas with family. It was a little crazy with the weather, but I thought I would post some pictures of what Santa brought our family. Our big family gift was a plasma TV, it was a great deal and after being snowed-in it was nice to watch some Disney movies and play X-Box with the crisp picture.

The largest gift (at over 8 ft tall and 5 feet wide) was given to us by Dave’s parents. Dave’s dad is an amazing wood worker. He built us some book cases for the family room. It was quite the job to bring them into the house and install them, but dang girl! They look good!

Our family room in September


Our family room with our “Balsam Beige” paint


Our family room with new book cases

Deal or No Deal?

I love after Christmas shopping. I found this 65-piece (service for 12, plus 4 additional serving pieces) Christmas Dinnerware Set. . . drum roll. . .

$60!

Originally $300. . . I love a deal and plan to break them in this morning with some monkey bread. Tony, Whitney and Kenzie are leaving this morning and it will be good to use them this holiday before then get packed away until the ’09 season.


I now have my own holiday dinnerware (*deep sigh of contentment*).

Christmas Eve 2008

Last night, Christmas Eve was just about perfect. My sister Tiffani was the perfect hostess and our family went to her home for the festivities. We had the traditional dinner of Nachos! It was perfect, Tiffani set a lovely table with her wedding china and we all enjoyed the scrumptious dinner. It was so good. (Just thinking about it makes me hungry.) Tiffani also made homemade gingerbread and apple pie for dessert.




Then we opened the presents. For our family we have the tradition to open family gifts on Christmas Eve and then we wake up on Christmas morning and see what Santa brought. (To me it seems very odd to open presents in the morning instead of at night. . .anyway.) So we exchanged gifts and Spencer was pleased as can be. He was running for person to person to see what was happening and loved the books and cars he received from his aunts.




After all the presents, Spencer got dressed in his Christmas PJs. It was super to hang out. We hit the road a little earlier then expected to beat a winter storm. (It ended up being the winter storm of the decade. We were totally snowed-in on the next morning!Wait until my next post about that adventure.)


We made it home safe & sound and nestled into our bed around midnight. . . with visions of sugar plums, Patti’s cooking and cousins galore. . dancing in our head. Little did we know. . .

Christmas is a time for sharing. . .

Spencer has started sharing his milk and crackers with his wee friends.

Book Club

I am so excited. I joined a book club. My first meeting was last night. We picked the books for 2009. Everyone suggested 2 or 3 books and then we all voted on the ones we liked the best. Here is our list!


It seems like there is a good mix, some fiction and non-fiction, some serious and not so serious books. I am really looking forward to it. Everyone takes a turn hosting it at their house. My month is February.

I am so sad to miss it next month (I will be in Canada . . . with my cute hubby.) So February is my first month. I am going to cheat. . . a little. Next month is “A tree grows in Brooklyn” and since I won’t be here I am just starting on February’s book now. “The Count of Monte Cristo” is 1400 pages. I think if I don’t start now I won’t finish in time. I could read the abridged book, but I think I would rather read the whole shebang.

I ordered "The Count of Monte Cristo" online last night and hope to have it next week. . . we shall see with Christmas being so close and the mail being what it is. . .Wish me luck.

Dossier

Our dossier is almost complete! Today I just picked up 20 copies of our passport photos. That was the last item on the list. It is a good feeling. Everything that can be compiled by us is done, filed, organized and waiting.

Now we wait for the background clearance. I just got the scoop a few minutes ago from our state office and it could be done was soon as tomorrow. But the Monday after Christmas is more likely. (It also could be January.) But I am optimistic. So, I scheduled an appointment with USCIS for Dec. 31. We need to have the homestudy in hand in order to apply for the visa. It could happen. . . and I want to be prepared.

Here is another picture of our daughter’s birth country. I can’t wait to see it, and her beautiful face.

Durbar Square

Insomnia

Not cool. I woke up at 2:30 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I got up and read some blogs, looked for gingerbread house patterns and looked at our retirement accounts. At 5:30 AM I finally decided I had to try to sleep.

7:00 AM and Spencer’s happy chirps came especially early this morning.

On a brighter note, Dave’s parents came over for dinner last night. Dave smoked some fish on the grill and Patti brought the most divine salad. It was a quiet and wonderful evening. After dinner (on the good china) we sat around the fireplace and talked. I love this time of year. . . now if only I could sleep through the night.

2008: Reflections

Last week I celebrated my birthday. It was a lovely day, all my siblings called me (except Jay. . .) my best friend in Austin also called and I got lots of emails, cards and warm wishes. Dave took me out for my favorite meal, sushi and then to the planetarium. It was a super day all around.

Birthdays always make me reminiscent. A year ago we lived in Texas, waiting for Spencer’s visa clearance. If you would have told me that only one year later we would be back in Utah (in the home we built to raise our family), I would have smiled at the joke. But, here we are.

In this last year the most incredible blessing is Spencer, how I adore and love our boy. He is amazing on every level. As I look to think what 2009 might bring I have a few ideas. . .

• I hope we have a referral for our daughter in Nepal by the end of 2009. (I can hope. . .)
• Spencer will enter the “terrible twos”
• Work on some landscaping in the backyard
• And finally, a year from now I hope to be in better shape. (A little wager with my sister might just be the catalyst.)

So it looks like there is a lot to look forward to and a lot to be thankful for. Let me leave you with the year in Review. . . Hair-styles.

At Shoulders
No bangs (not a good look)
Longer w/ Bangs











Short & Sassy
Short & Shaggy
Chin Bob











By the way, I just gave myself bangs again this morning. . . never a dull moment when it comes to "fixing" my hair : )

Government Bureaucracy: one; Parents: zip

On Sunday we got the copy of our homestudy to look over and make sure all the details were correct. It looked great, our social worker was only waiting on our fingerprints to come back, so she could fill out the “no criminal history” portion.

We had our fingerprints taken and submitted about 3 weeks ago and she thought they would be back this week. The plan was to get the final copy of the homestudy on Friday (tomorrow) and go to USCIS on Monday. So yesterday I got the call. . . “There is a problem.”

Because we have lived in two states in the past 5 years we need, not only the Utah state check, but the FBI national check too. We passed the state check no problem. . . but the FBI. . . yeah there was a problem.


Apparently our finger printer didn’t do a very good job. The FBI rejected the copy of prints submitted and said that they where not good enough, they did not have enough definition.

Translation: This will add anywhere from 2-6 weeks to the process. . . sigh.

Yesterday I ran downtown to submit the prints we have on file and we wait and see what the FBI says. If these prints are rejected a second time, then they can run a “name only” check. So, that’s the deal pickles. . . More waiting. . . More money. . . More time. . .

On the bright side, it looks like January is still a decent estimate for matching to start in Nepal. However, with this new detour in the land of paper chasing, it looks like our dossier submission will not happen until February. Still no clue how long from dossier submission to match, but our agency is WONDERFUL to keep us up to date. I will keep you posted.

Posted by Request

You will love this Jenet. . . Using sweetened condensed milk cuts the time in half and I think they taste just as good as using cream.

Shortcut Caramels

1 cup butter
2 ¼ cups packed brown sugar
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

• In heavy saucepan melt butter over low heat.
• Stir in brown sugar, milk, and corn syrup.
• Cook over medium heat until firm ball stage (Drop a little caramel in cold water and it will form a firm ball, one that won’t flatten when you take it out of the water, but remains malleable and will flatten when squeezed. . . 248 degrees). This should take 20 or so minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
• Quickly pour into buttered (or foil lined) 9 x 13 pan and let cool.
• When firm you can lift the foil out of the pan and use a buttered knife to cut in pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper.

It’s cookie time people

Every year my sisters and I get together and make holiday goodie plates to give friends and neighbors. This year was no exception. Yesterday we had a ball getting together and making some great treats.

We also have the apron tradition, we each give aprons to each other to celebrate the cooking festivities. This year our newest sister (Sarah, Jay’s wife) got into the action. We all cooked together over Thanksgiving and Janelle picked out the cutest apron for Sarah from William & Sonoma. She was not here yesterday for the cookies galore gala, but I know she was here in Spirit. (Happy Birthday Sarah, by the way!)

I made matching aprons for Tiff and Janelle. They turned out a little more garish then I pictured in my head, but they were good sports and happily put them on. Tiffani gave me the greatest apron, it was monogrammed and had a matching dish towel. . . it was so cool.

Enjoy some pictures of the fun. Notice Spencer happily sitting on the lap who provides little sneaks of caramel : )











Feel free to whip up your own batch of holiday cheer:

Mint Chocolate Cookies

4 ½ c. flour
1 1/3 c. baking cocoa
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda

4 stick butter, melted
1 ½ c. sugar
1 1/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 ½ tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 pkg. semi sweet chocolate chips
1 pkg. mint chips

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

In another bowl beat melted butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat eggs into sugar mixture one at a time. Slowly work the flour mixture into eggs and sugar. Fold together until smooth. Add chips.

From 1 tsp. balls with dough and drop on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Cool and store in air tight container.

Nepal Update

It looks like our homestudy will be competed this weekend and ready for the final agency approval next week. Then on Dec. 15 we have a meeting with USCIS to update our I-171H to Nepal. We think the update will take about 3-4 weeks. We shall see with the holidays and whatnot. As soon as our updated pre-approval for a visa arrives (so our daughter will be a US citizen) we can submit the dossier.

It looks like sometime in January the Nepal government will start accepting dossiers and matching children with their parents. I doubt that our dossier would be looked at as soon as January. It seems that there are a lot more families ahead of us in the process. I hope our dossier goes to Nepal in January. No one knows how long it will take to get a referral, but I hope it will be some time in 2009. I hope within 12 months, but I am prepared for anything.

Tomorrow we head off to notarize a handful of documents and check a few more small things off the list. All we really NEED is the visa approval. I hope our Dec. 15 meeting goes well and that our daughter will be home and settled in before you know it.

I thought I would leave you with a lovely picture of the Himalayas. Our daughter’s birth country is so lovely. I can’t wait to see it first hand.

Jealous?

So, Dave and I have been married almost 5 years. . . 5 wonderful, adventuresome, coo-coo, delightful years. Next month is our anniversary.

Dave planned our honeymoon to San Francisco and Carmel, California and so I got to plan our special anniversary trip. Are you ready for this?? We are going to Niagara Falls, baby.

Here’s the scoop: We have frequent flyer miles and we wanted to use them before some thing happens with the airline industry (and they are only redeemable for Chuck E. Cheese tokens.) So where could we go? All the “cool” destinations, Hawaii, Bermuda, Mexico, Paris (sigh). . . required a ridiculous amount of miles and for some strange reason they had plenty of seats available to Buffalo, New York in the dead of winter. . .huh.

So we are flying to Buffalo and renting a car to drive the 30-some miles to Niagara Falls in Canada. We are staying one night at Niagara-on-the-lake and then two nights at a lovely 20-story hotel overlooking the falls. I am so excited. It will be a wonderful 4 day get-away. Grandma is coming to watch Spencer and he will be snug as a bug while we are gone. I can’t wait!

Joseph B. Wirthlin, Oldest Apostle, Dies, Age 91

From: LDS Newsroom

Elder Wirthlin had gone to bed at his Salt Lake City home, and died peacefully at about 11:30 pm of causes incident to age. His oldest daughter, Jane Wirthlin Parker, was present. A member of the family had been staying and caring for Elder Wirthlin, whose wife, Elisa Young Rogers Wirthlin, died in 2006.

He had continued to work at his office right up until the Thanksgiving holiday.

Funeral arrangements will be announced.



My favorite talk from April 2008 was from Elder Wirthlin: Concern for the One. It was nice to re-read it this morning.

I know he will be missed.

“That was a great talk. . .”

About 2 weeks ago the bishop asked us to speak on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Dave and I were asked to speak on gratitude. We spent the two weeks preparing and bouncing ideas off each other, making sure we weren’t giving the same talk. I am (slightly) obsessed with making time. If they asked for a 12-15 minute talk, that is what I will deliver. . . so I timed my talked about 4 times and it always ran within the limit.

Dave was the “accordion” speaker. He spoke last and that means he could have 5 min. or 20 min. He is really good at adjusting examples and being a flexible speaker. His talk ended up being 20 min. . . and it was amazing. He had some great quotes and it really made me think about the relationship between gratitude and humility.

So, after the meeting we had several people come up and tell us they enjoyed our talks. (That was nice to hear.) I was on my way to nursery and a sister came up and asked me about a specific example I shared. I shared a story from Stella Oaks (Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ mom). She talked about the death of her husband and how she coped with it. The dear sister smiled and said, “That was a great talk.”. . .my response, “Yeah, it was.

She squinted her eyes a little and smiled as we both ran off to class. . . THEN IT OCCURRED TO ME! I thought she meant the talk from Sister Oaks was great . . . But if she meant to tell me that my talk was great. . . the response “Yeah, it was” is totally uncool! *sigh*

Oh well, too late now. I just hope she knows what I meant. . .

Nepal Info.

We are well on our way for our second adoption. I thought I would post an update and share some information. Right now we are about half way done with the home study. Tomorrow we have our 2nd visit. The second visit consists of two separate interviews, each of us will have a one-on-one visit with Donna, our social worker. I am really looking forward to it. That will put us one step closer to our daughter. After tomorrow’s visit we just have one more left.

You may be curious as to what other steps are needed to complete our international adoption. We need to submit a dossier, basically it is a paper representation of our life. The dossier is not hard to complete, but takes A LOT of time. It is basically a full-time job. The dossier consists of: our competed homestudy, tax returns, bank statements, medical forms, psychiatric approvals, employment letters, letters of intent to adopt, birth certificates, marriage certificates, letters of reference, finical statements, guardianship documents. . . . the list goes on and on. There are about 40 documents that need to gathered, notarized and submitted. Like I said, it is not hard to get all the documents, but it takes a lot of time.

So, the next big step (once we the completed home study) is to apply for a visa for our daughter. Once the visa is pre-approved (a document called I-171 H) it will complete the dossier and off it goes to Nepal and we wait for a referral.

Right now, Nepal has not accepted any dossiers/given any referrals. They have approved agencies and orphanages. They have set up a committee to handle the matching of dossiers with children in orphanages. From what I hear, most adoption agencies have closed to new applicants. This is a pilot program and there are a lot of unknowns. Because the country is re-opening with new regulations and new protocols there is no way to know exactly how long things will take.

I am already getting so excited and ask Dave all the time. . . “So when do you think we will get our referral?!” He just smiles and . . . again. . . tries to manage my expectations.


Well, one diversion will be going to see the Twilight movie with my sisters tomorrow : ) I can’t wait!

Enchanting Dinner

The weekend started with Dave bringing home the most beautiful fall flower bouquet. He surprised me as he walked in the door with flowers bursting with red, yellow and orange. The bouquet was so large I had to put it in two vases, (one is on the dinner table the other in my office.)


Saturday we planned an excellent dinner. We had two New York cuts of steak in our freezer. The last two of a 4 pack we bought a couple of months ago on sale. We decided to do our favorite steak recipe. A lovely Mojito marinate (with OJ, lime juice, olive oil, onion, garlic, oregano, cilantro, salt & pepper) made a great start. It was sitting in the fridge all day.

We fed Spencer his dinner first and he had bath and bed. That means we had dinner later then we normally do, but it was with it. We also prepared our favorite side dish with steak, home made fries!

Dave fired up the grill for the steaks while I made the crowning glory for the steaks, this AMAZING sauce. It is called “Chimichurri” sauce (Latin version of pesto), but we just call it the green sauce. It is to die for and my favorite way to have steak, period.

Green Sauce
1 medium bunch fresh parsley
10-12 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
3 to 4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup olive oil

Combine all ingredients (except olive oil) in blender or processor and blend until paste. Slowly dribble in oil until fully blended.

Dave grilled the steak to perfection, we served it with green sauce, hot fries, fruit and some sparkling pear juice. It was just like a date. . . or how we used to have dinner before having kids : )

Spencer. . just like his dad

You think he has seen his dad put on a tie once or twice?

Cooking Galore!

I love cooking. I love cooking for family and friends even more and this Thanksgiving is my debut, if you will, of hosting the main family event. Sure, I have done some small family meals, birthday dinners and BBQs but I have never hosted Thanksgiving, Easter or Christmas.

I love a plan so this is what I’ve got going on in my head:


Menu

Turkey (or course): I plan to brine it and love my convection oven with the internal thermometer probe

Cranberry Sauce: I plan to make this from scratch but NEED a good recipe. . . let me know if you have one!

Famous Grandma Wakley Rolls: Courteously of my mother-in-law

Green Salad: Courteously of my sister

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes: I have never made this, but I thought it would be fun to try

Scalloped Potatoes: Thank you Betty Crocker

Joy of Cooking Carrots: My husband’s specialty

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy: A classic

Sparkling Pomegranate 7-Up (If I can find it)

Dessert

Carmel Apple Pie

Cream Cheese Chocolate Pie with a pecan shortbread crust

Now to the place settings. . . I need to come up with a good plan. I only have 7 place setting of my good china, so I need to either fork out the money and get an 8th setting or use my everyday place settings. . . still deciding on that.


I also would like a lovely centerpiece. If you have any ideas let me know. I am crafty enough to make something if I can get some ideas or inspiration.

Name cards would be fun too. . . if you have any ideas how to have some type of elegant name card (on the cheap) I am all ears : )

I am really looking forward to this! I also have a few appetizers in mind (cheese, crackers, veggies, spiced nuts. . .) we shall see. Food for an army, I know, Thanksgiving combines all my favorites cooking, family and gratitude.