Is my daughter a vegetarian?

I've had inklings that Caroline is not a meat lover, but tonight pretty much confirmed it. Our church has a Wednesday night potluck. I always make her a plate of kid-friendly, easy pick-up items like chicken nuggets and pizza. But tonight she would have no part of it. She wanted what was on my plate: edamame, chick peas and tomatoes. She's a girl after Aunt Al's heart. But she also has her mom's fondness for cheesecake.

Today, we had another homestudy meeting (our second). The last one is scheduled for next Tuesday. Yahoo! We also received a copy of our psychological exam results in the mail -- 5 typed pages of observations about Spence and me. I just read it and I'm pretty sure I've never been analyzed in that much detail. In short, though, we passed! We're still waiting on our fingerprint appointment. Our social worker says that Tennessee is pretty responsive, so hopefully the wait isn't long.

Happy birthday, niece Baylee. We love you!

Little step

We received a confirmation receipt for our I-600A application from the USCIS yesterday. In the world of adoption, this is a microstep. But we fellow future adoptive parents (FAPs) tend to regard these little pieces of paper on the same level as a visit from Ed McMahon. Basically it says that they strive to make a decision (i.e., provide the I-171H) within 8 weeks of receiving all paperwork and fingerprint clearance. So right now we're waiting on our fingerprinting appointment.

We'll have our homestudy home visit on February 5 and that will complete our homestudy visits. Little steps are good...

Still waiting

We're still waiting for the results of our psychological exams to be sent to our social worker. She wants those in hand before she'll schedule our homestudy home visit. He was supposed to send them over last week. I suppose he's getting us ready for all the waiting that's still to come.

L-M-N-No-P

Caroline dazzled me last night with her latest vocabulary advancement -- thanks to some help from Papa Connie and Mama Norma. With prompting by her dad, she can say her ABCs. Except that O is "no" and U is "shoe." Since I'm completely clueless about toddler milestones and when they occur, I feel okay about considering her a genius.

Spence is on a backpacking trip this weekend (yes, it's 16 degrees and he's crazy!), so Little C and I are staying cozy indoors with toys and silly movies. No hikes, no bikes, no boats. Just fuzzy blankets and hot chocolate!

Juno

Spence and I had a few hours between adoption-related appointments on Tuesday and decided to see the movie Juno. We both thought it was wonderful -- the acting, the screenwriting, the soundtrack. It's a comedy-drama. If you don't know what that is, you'll understand when you see it. It does cover a sensitive subject, so it's not appropriate for pre-teens (Steven, do you hear me?). We give it two thumbs up.

Are we normal?

We cleared three hurdles in our adoption pursuit this week:

1. The Bethany-required psychological exam. It took about 2 1/2 hours and consisted of an individual interview, the Myers-Briggs personality test and a 350-item personality test.

2. Our first homestudy meeting. This was our first real conversation with our social worker, and she's great! We got guidance on filing our I-600A with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is like a pre-qualification step -- you're basically asking the government for permission to adopt. The process includes getting fingerprinted, so once we file the forms we will be anxiously awaiting our fingerprinting appointment. We hope to finish our homestudy visits this month and use February to compile our dossier.

3. Bethany training. In addition to the Hague online training (which we completed a week or so ago), Bethany requires additional training: two 2-hour sessions at their offices with other families who plan to adopt internationally and six email sessions. Last night we discussed grief and loss and adjusting once our child comes home. One interesting tidbit we learned: it is recommended that the adoptive parents be the ONLY caregivers for a while to help the child bond. They weren't specific about how long, but I can imagine how hard that will be. I read about one family who did not allow anyone else to hold their child or change a diaper for three months! Hmmm, I'll have to think about that one. I want to do what's best, of course, but it may take some serious weaponry to hold off the grandparents.

Six canoeists, three kayakers & one beautiful day to be on the Tellico

It's hard to believe nine people would willingly splash down a river in 45 degrees. But there was a lot of capilene, wool, fleece and Gortex between us and the water.

And it's a good thing...

...because most of us...

...spent a little time swimming!

And yes, Todd can roll his canoe back up.