just my luck

It seems the "lost" adoption paperwork is actually fine. I received it yesterday and though it won't do us any good at this point it's nice to know that the Royal Mail isn't totally worthless.

On another note - I have the WORST luck, ever. I have to post about the day I am having. For starters - it's raining, again. Shocker. After dropping Kaneu off at school I decided to treat myself to a latte at Starbucks. On the way I accidentally stepped in a puddle and it splashed all the way up my leg. Disgusting and gross are understatements. I trudged along nonetheless. I bought the recent issue of TimeOut and had a nice coffee with myself BUT when I got up to leave I realized someone took my umbrella! I thought I was losing my mind, crawling around on the floor, circling the store and questioning the employees. The (£25!) umbrella was gone. What does a girl do? Well, this girl marched across the street to the store where the £25 umbrella was purchased and bought another one. The new umbrella was £10 and smaller, and I knew instantly it was a waste of money, but they were out of the £25 umbrella, which was a kick ass umbrella. This umbrella lasted me more than 6 months AND dried quickly AND was windproof. I loved it. Sigh. So, after picking Kaneu up from school and explaining to him what was with the new hot pink umbrella we went to swimming lessons and then to a last minute appt with the doctor. I noticed over the weekend that my lymph nodes on my neck were freakishly large, tender and visible. All it takes is a few clicks on Google and Brian was close to diagnosing me with a whole slew of cancers and other horrible diseases. So, to ease our minds I went and am SO thankful I did. It seems that the incision on my forehead where "mini-me/edna" was removed got infected. It didn't look strange until today - and I didn't feel bad until today. The doctor said it looked like I got kissed by a tarantula! I'm on meds and all should be better in a few days. OK, but the kicker to this story is that when we got home a little while ago I realized my new umbrella is broken! Can you believe it? I actually can.

not gonna happen

By now most everyone has heard of the warning and announcement from the US Embassy regarding Vietnam adoptions. It has taken a few days for me to read and re-read the articles. I am still digesting it all. I am not going to really go into all of it because so many others have and frankly I just don't have the energy. But the bottom line is that we will not be adopting a child from Vietnam. I'm sad. I'm sad for us, obviously, but I know we'll be fine. Sure, it's the end of our dream to raise a child from Vietnam, but that pales in comparison to the thousands of orphans who may never know what it feels to be loved and nurtured by a forever family. This breaks my heart, again and again. We are blessed beyond belief with our health, our wealth, our freedom, our choices - these are things I take for granted, and these are things the children of Vietnam may never know. Again, my heart aches.

the royal mail

sucks. It seems that they cannot confirm that my documents made it to the Vietnam Embassy. Is this a sign? I keep praying for God to make it very clear to us that we are heading down the "right" path. I know this kind of stuff happens to everyone but I can't help but feel very discouraged right now. Looks like I'll be spending my day investigating the whereabouts of our paperwork. *sigh*

Back from the USA

It is so great to be home again. I cannot begin to tell you how much I missed Kaneu and Brian. The end of the week was tough because I was really missing them but I had such a wonderful and relaxing time. I packed a lot into the week ... here are the highlights:

1. Surprised my BFF, Diana, on her 34th birthday! Her husband (also a Brian - isn't that cute?) and I had planned it. She knew I was in the state but didn't think she would see me until the end of the week at the babies shower. She was stunned and SO happy. We hit the Richmond nightlife and got a little crazy - we didn't let the fact that it was a Monday slow us down at all. Yikes, nobody was feeling good the next day. I can honestly say it will be a looooong time before I touch a mojito again.

2. Had my "mini-me" cyst removed from my forehead. I know you are thinking "what???" but I had this cyst on my forehead for almost 3 yrs and finally decided to have it removed. It was getting bigger and the running joke was that it had a tooth and hair ... yaddayaddayadda, hence "mini-me". I just found out that Diana had actually named it Edna! Now, that is funny. I currently have 5 stitches and a big ole bandaid across my forehead.

It's real cute ... which leads me to ...

3. I cut a fringe - by myself. I couldn't take the bandaid look and so I thought that if I had bangs that perhaps it would conceal the "plaster", as they call them here in the UK. I have very fine and light-ish hair and so while the bangs kind of camouflage the bandaid it's still apparent that there's a bandaid there. The stitches come out tomorrow so hopefully the scar won't be too bad. Fingers crossed.

4. Got to visit with my Godbabies. I am a bad Godmother because these are the only photos I took of my 3 Godchildren. I was too busy. Hanging out with 3 little ones under the age of 4 is a lot of work. Who has time for photos? This is the newest of the bunch, Davis. He is a chunky bundle of love.

5. Spent 4 days in the Outer Banks. Oh, how I really miss this place. I grew up going to these beaches with my family, spent one very fun (not to mention crazy) summer in college, and got married here. Coming here is like coming home. I absolutely love it and what I loved about this trip was that there were no tourists, no traffic, but beautiful and sunny weather. It was perfect. These pictures are pretty silly. Cara and I were sitting on the beach and the sun was super intense, so I covered up with my scarf. I have VERY sun-sensitive skin. I was wearing SPF 85 and still got pink. I don't know what is more ridiculous - that SPF 85 exists or that I actually wear it! This is the girl that used to lay out with SPF 4.

6. Re-connected with some old friends! I tell you what, Facebook is a beautiful thing and has put me in touch with many people I haven't heard from in years! I was able to spend some time with my friend, Chris, who visited me at the beach. My friend, Missy, and I lost touch in 2000 and I have missed her so much over the years. Well, she found me and over the last week we have been catching up and re-living our highschool and college days. We had so much fun and I am so happy to be back in touch. The photo (on the left) below is from 1993 at Virginia Tech - yikes!!!

7. Hung out with girlfriends at the babies shower. My dear little Abby is having twins!! She is such a tiny thing and it was fun to see her and all the girls over the weekend. We had fun gabbing and catching up.

8. Visited with my mom. We did what we do best - shop! She picked me up from the airport and we went to Old Navy, Banana, Nordstrom and Gymboree. I stocked up on a few basics and got *baby*girl* some jammies. Gymboree was having an insane sale and I could not pass it by. All in all I was very good and did not overspend like I usually do. I'm very proud of myself!

9. Brian sent me photos everyday of he and Kaneu. It really helped me feel connected to their days and got me through the week. I was and am so thankful for these pictures - they are pretty funny and I am so impressed at all they did while I was away -- cheered on the runners during the marathon, ate dinner out (a lot!), saw Elmer "live on the stage"(as Kaneu says), went to the park, kept the house clean, did laundry, etc. I am also so thankful and blessed that Brian is such an incredible dad and husband, for taking such loving care of our little man and for encouraging me to take the trip.

Kaneu and I talked on the phone everyday and during our conversations I would ask him if he wanted me to bring him anything from the US. He always responded with "yes, popcorn". The kid loves popcorn and is addicted. Microwave popcorn is available over here but it's funky and full of wierd ingredients. I like to go for Newman's or Whole Foods "natural". So, it was pretty funny that the first thing out of his mouth when he saw me on Monday morning was "momma, did you bring me popcorn?". Within minutes we were chomping away on hot popcorn and it was only 9:30am.

I have some adoption-related updates but they will have to wait because this girl has got jetlag and needs to sleep :)

spring has sprung!

What a pretty week we have had! I am so thankful spring is here and we are able to enjoy more time outside. The weather here is still erratic - we will have a few hours of really intense sunshine and warmer temps and then it's back to chilly and overcast. Nonetheless the little bursts of spring are wonderful.

Brian and I got to go out earlier in the week to see Sia at Koko. If you have not heard of her you must check her out - I LOVE her!! Her voice is amazing and the concert was a lot of fun.

I am flying to the U.S. tomorrow morning ... by myself! This is a little trip that has been in the works for a while. I wasn't sure if I was still going to go since I was just there in March, but my mom's friend is letting me use her buddy pass and so the flight is affordable and so I'm gonna go. I'm gonna miss my guys terribly but I think a week away hanging out with my girlfriends and having some "me" time will be perfect. I am going to spend a few days at the beach and then will be attending a babies (twins!) shower before flying back to London next weekend. Should be fun!

serenity now

This pictures is one of my favorites. I cannot believe how fast the last two and a half years have gone. I remember this day as though it were last week. Kaneu was about 15 months old in this photo and in awe of everything - walking, leaves, grass, sticks, birds, trees, pumpkins. Just walking down the street was an adventure. Good times.

We had our appointment at the US Embassy Wed morning. Let me just begin by saying that the notarial process here is really, well, kinda like going to the DMV ... but worse because you a)need to make an appointment two weeks in advance, b) take a half day off of work and c) go with the expectation that you will argue or be frustrated and irritated with your spouse. When you arrive at the Embassy you have to wait (outside) to go through security. This waiting can take a few minutes or up to 20 or 30 minutes. While at the security trailer you must hand over all electronics, which they keep for you during your visit - only, yesterday while we were handing over our electronics we learned that they are no longer holding laptops. In the most unhelpful way Brian was told he had to walk to Selfridges (about 4 blocks away) and get a locker to store his computer in and then come back. You can see where this is going? It was one of those days when from the get go nothing went as planned. Once inside the Embassy you take a number and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, when your number is called you go up to the window where a very nice clerk takes the documents and prepares them to be notarized. Then you go sit down and wait some more for your number to be called again. Then you go to another window where the very nice Vice Consulate notarizes your paperwork. Oh, but this is the part where I realize "we"(I) forgot the medical forms. Yes, major f-up on my part. I'd be lying if I said Brian handled the situation with grace and understanding. No sirree. BUT, the very nice lady, Anne, who was preparing our documents gave us her card and said to call her when we wanted to come back and we would not have to deal with the appointment system. Hallelujah for Anne!! We decided at that point to just go home and get the forgotten forms and come right back, except that required finding a taxi, which was not so easy because it was lunchtime at this point. Finally we get a cab, he takes us home and back to the Embassy and we go in and have to do the whole thing over again. All in all it wasn't a terrible trip. Thankfully they have a small play area for kids, so at least Kaneu was amused. He was a star actually. Today I sent the notarized documents to the Vietnam Embassy and we should have them back next week, hopefully.

sunday snow