This cutie pie is 8 months old today

We love and miss you little Ben!

Baby Steps

We received a notification from our local USCIS office that they received our I600. I am so upset with USCIS for adding 3 weeks to the processing time for this paperwork by routing it across the USA.
But hey, at least they got it. Now let's hope they don't lose it!

Ah, the things you get for paying insane taxes

Now, years after I have left, and they're well into their thirties, my friends in Germany are finally starting to procreate and/or get married. So we finally have a commonality again that's been missing for several years. Only becoming a mother in Germany is a little different than becoming a mother in the US. Here's a recent conversation with one of my friends.

Friend: "So are you taking one year or three years off work?"
Me: hysterical laughter... coughing... "Um. I can stay home for 12 weeks. Unpaid of course."
Friend: silence

You see, in Germany your employer has to keep a position open for you for three years. And during that first year, you still get 70% of your income. I almost want to cry every time I think about that, but then I remember looking at my paystub at the end of each month to find that 60% of my pay miraculously disappeared. Still, how nice would that be? Sometimes I miss Germany :-)

Lunar New Year Celebration

Yesterday we went to a lunar new year celebration for Korean adoptive families. It was originally scheduled for earlier this year, but thanks to the snowstorms had to be postponed until yesterday. We had a wonderful time and it was just what we both needed at this point.
First of all, the food was absolutely amazing! There was japchae, mandu, bulgogi, kimbap, and other delicacies. Just what I had been craving!
While we were waiting on our friends to arrive, we chatted with some other adoptive families who were just so nice and who confirmed that my emotional outbursts were normal. We also reconnected with some families we knew from the waiting parents meetings, but who have now brought home their children.
As the husband said: "It's so nice to be with people who you don't have to explain yourself to."

And because he is TOO CUTE, here's another pic

Was that me screaming at you? Ooops.

I thought I finally got it into my head that no one other than other AP's get how I feel right now.
I was able to smile gracisoulsy through some odd conversations about my little boy and his estimated arrival and ignore many comments that would have sent me through the roof not that long ago, innocent as they were. But yet today I found myself screaming at a poor guy at work pretty much at the top of my lungs. He said something about how a couple of months of additional waiting wasn't so bad and how his friends had to wait for 9 months when they adopted from Guatemala. So I yelled at him that he can't possibly know how I am feeling and that he is not entitled to an opinion unless he has adopted himself. Oops, sorry about that. I hope they won't fire me for being an emotional wreck.

I know a couple of weeks ago I loved it when people asked how things were going, because they showed interest, but now I just want to be left alone. There are no news, at least none that mean anything to anyone outside of the AP world, and there will be no news for a long time. If there are news, I will tell you.

Bittersweet - New Photos

I was having lunch at my favorite diner (it's such a dump but I love the food) when I saw that we received new photos of our baby. Of course I broke out in tears. I cry a lot these days. The ladies from work and I hurried back to my desk so we could look at them. Again, I cried. He is such a big boy now!

He has two teeth and has started eating rice. He sleeps from 10 p.m. till 10 a.m. (which is great - he used to go to bed at 2 a.m.).

He gets fretful when hungry and drools a lot. His report says that he is smart and cute. I agree.

He likes toys that make noise. Oy!

It's so incredible how much love I feel for this little person that I haven't even met.