Neither a Trick nor a Treat

I promised this news yesterday, so here it goes. On Friday, Larry went to the mailbox and pulled out an envelope with the return address of USCIS. He thought that he was getting the golden ticket. Alas, it was a false alarm. Rather, it was a form letter asking for clarification in a few areas. These areas included:

1. They wanted more clarification regarding the age of the child we are requesting. A quick fix...not really to difficult to manage.
2. They wanted more information regarding the agency in charge of our home study. Again, not a big deal.
   
3. Located by a box marked "other" was a request for more information regarding the custodial arrangements for my biological daughter. This is proving quite tricky, since I don't have a daughter. Unless they are talking about the four animals that live with us. If that is the case, then they clearly live with me.

So, that last request has tripped us up. I'm pretty sure that I have never given birth. It's my understanding that I would most likely remember that. At this point, calls have been made and the situation is supposedly under control. We should have another packet off to the USCIS office by early next week.

And in my "the glass is half full" world, at least someone has started processing this paperwork. Luckily we have a lot of our dossier paperwork together already. So we will be ready to move forward when that golden ticket finally gets here.

Tonight was Halloween, one of my favorite nights of the year. We live in a neighborhood bombarded with trick-or-treaters. I know I handed out close to 1000 pieces of candy. Several of the people in the neighborhood dress up or go all out with the decorations. This year, we had a Harry Potter theme (imagine that). Tobie proudly wore her wizard's cloak, but had to go inside. I don't think she enjoyed everyone petting her. I dressed up as Tonks, from the Harry Potter books, complete with pink hair and magic wand. Here a picture of me and my buddy Kyler and one more of Tobie.

I do not normally wear so much eye makeup.

Please stop making me dress up!!!!

The Big 5-0!

Yeah! This is the 50th post. In honor of that, I thought I would post some photos. We have some news--neither great news or horrible news, but that will have to wait until after tomorrow.

Tobie's ready for Halloween. If you look closely, you will notice that she has moons and stars on her "cloak." She is looking forward to the baby coming soon, so her mother will stop dressing her as a character from Harry Potter.

Here's the most recent purchase for the baby's room. A dinosaur rocking horse. I actually thought it was a dragon when I bought it, but apparently I was wrong.

Owen's grandpa got him (or her, but that's another post) a onesie with Mommy's favorite driver! Thanks Grandpa!!

Do you remember that scene?

Do you remember the scene in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when little Charlie rips open the bar of chocolate, hoping to find the infamous golden ticket? He rips open the wrapper only to have a serious letdown when he discovers only chocolate and no glimmer of gold. Well, that's how I am starting to feel every time I check the mail. Sure we get plenty of mail, mostly bills and the dreaded credit card offers, but no golden ticket from USCIS...our I71H. What a bummer!

Alas, Charlie eventually found his golden ticket and I know that we will as well.

Fortune Cookies

Fridays are day at work when we typically order out. However since a majority of my team's job responsibilities revolve around crisis intervention and psychiatric emergencies. Luckily, today we got to eat together as a unit, deciding on Chinese food. I open my fortune cookie to read:

"All of your hard work will soon pay off"

I'm hoping this is true, even though it came out of snackfood.

An unexpected ray of sunshine

I've been wanting to mention this for the last few weeks, but I wanted to make sure I had approval from my sister. Now that I have approval, I am so excited to let everyone know that I am going to be an aunt!!! That's right; My sister and her husband are expecting a baby girl in January. I simply could not be more excited! She told me the big secret by asking me if I thought Owen would be ready to be a cousin when we brought him home. My response was "of course," and then I realized what she was telling me.

I cannot stop shopping for this little girl. She and her cousin already have matching t-shirts and BLING pacifiers.

Our family has had a rough couple of years, but things seem to be getting better. And I think this little miracle and our bundle from Vietnam are the icing on the cake. I don't think January will get here fast enough.