Today we hit the three-month mark...

...and still nothing.

Funny/cute pic of the week

It has been proven...




by this photo, that excessive TV can make one feel bored to death, extremely concerned, and just plain oblivious to everyday life.

That's right...

...STILL no referral! It figures that, after a tsunami of referrals right before the holiday break, bumping us to the top, there hasn't been ANYTHING in an entire month. I apologize if this has made up most of what I have been discussing lately, but I assure you that all will change once we hear SOME news. I reluctantly take back the prediction I made earlier about us getting our referral before February 1st, but at this rate it looks unlikely. I don't know what's going on at our agency, but I do know that the abrupt halt in the referral-receiving has left at least one family very antsy here in CT!

Fortunately, I FINALLY contacted the donation drive coordinater at one of the elementary schools in my town. She said that she would talk to some other people about how to arrange my drive first, but that she'd get back to me again in a few days. With my midterm and semester grades known, my class schedule for next year figured out, winter track winding down in the next week or two, a steep decrease in homework lately, and now some progress in The Sweet Dreams Project, I have plently of time now to daydream about LG...if only I could know who he is!!

Funny/cute pic of the week...and ANOTHER great video

Being eaten by penguins in Iceland.










Here is the link to a video posted on our agency's adoption forum about orphans in Ethiopia (maybe some of you already saw it?) It's very moving: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1225943761287748070&q=debojit

Friday Update

With midterms and a stress-filled week finally over (a four day week of half days has never felt so long!) and no homework or studying to focus on at the moment, I'm now allowing myself to enjoy my life. I'm glad too- my mom, antsy this week since we're so close to referral and there being no news on the adoption boards, kept saying, "Maybe we'll hear something today!" but I didn't want to discuss or think about our adoption in case it may steer me away from my studying. Now, though, I can relax and feel excited. And it's just now starting to dawn on my: I'll be a sister of three- SOON!!!!

It's really any day now, but the fact that no one from our agency has received a referral in the past month is making us a little nervous. I guess it figures that the referral-getting enters a vacuum when we're pretty much next on the list. But the fact that there were so many infant referrals before our stretch of nothing could mean that we could in fact get a little- and I mean little, as in infant, guy. Also, a lot more people are open to gender now, giving us also a stronger possibility that we may get a girl. We'll have to see, but the image in my mind of my younger sibling changes from day to day!

In other miscellaneous news:

1) The Touched by Adoption director got back to me. She congratulated my family on our adoption and said that I would be, in her opinion, a very welcome member to the group; however, she said that since the program is run by high school adoptees it would be up to them to make the final decision. She said she would talk to the group when they have their meeting on the 28th.

2) I got elected to join my school's Peervention Club. The purpose of the club is to help students feel comfortable in school (talking to them one-on-one about problems and/or stress, helping out new students, leading school assemblies talking about safety, organizing and hosting fundraisers.) First, though, I have to go through Peervention training, in which I learn about the different problems kids may face and how to address them, etc; it's for two hours a week for ten weeks. After I "graduate" from training, I'm an official Peervention member (this will be next year) and we'll have meetings once a month. I think this sounds like a great program and I'm excited to have the oppurtunity to do it. This now means I'm involved in four school clubs, each about helping others. This will be great practice for teaching (my childhood dream job) and for the Peace Corps, which I plan to do after college.

3) None of the schools have gotten back to me about me holding pajama donations drives. I'm starting to get frustrated!! (People who know me know that I get very anxious when I don't have a definite plan about everything :-)) I plan to go visit one or more of the schools next week so I can talk to them in person.

4) We had our first snow yesterday!!!! I didn't think it was possible after the temperature reached 70 earlier this month. There isn't nearly enough for sledding, but it's a relief that global warming hasn't TOTALLY ruined our winter.

5) Sorry about the very long post. I guess I'm making up for lost time- I remember when I started my blog and I kept thinking, is it too much to do more than three posts a day? That was before school started...

Touched by Adoption

First off, I'd just like to apologize for the sparse posting lately- especially on the "newsy" updates. The reason behind this is a combination of two things. First is the fact that I have been very busy lately- midterm exams are next week, and having six 90-minute exams in four days equals a lot of stress for every high-schooler (or at least, the ones who care about school!) Course registration is coming up very soon as well, which means AP entrance exams (luckily mine are done) and sweet-talking teachers into letting me take certain classes next year (okay, not really- but being extra polite to them around this time doesn't hurt either :-)) But aside from that, I haven't been posting since there's not all that much to post about- we continue to approach our referral (it's coming up very soon!) but there hasn't been any more news.

However, there is one thing you blog-readers, especially those who are either adopting or have adopted, might be interested in. I was walking to my school library yesterday when I saw a sign on the bulletin board at the entrance which read, "Attention all Adoptees!" It went on to say that an organization called Touched by Adoption is trying to recruit high school adoptees who can lend personal experience to the program. The organization will arrange programs for other adopted kids in order for them to meet people like themselves. Even though I am not adopted, I'm going to see if I can join. I'd love to help other adopted kids feel comfortable, just as I hope I can make LG feel the same way when he's older. I'll also probably get some good insight into how LG may feel when he grows up. I don't think they have a website, but I will keep everyone updated on how things are going!

Just for fun...

This is for if you have a blog, or are pretending you have a blog: a quiz on "what kind of blogger" you are. Here are my results:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary.If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofbloggerareyouquiz- another site I'm addicted to!!

Funny/cute pic of the week

Teachers can NEVER accuse Kristian of falling asleep in class again...(summer 2005)

This really will be an exciting new year...

This morning my family had our "second Christmas": we opened most of our presents since they were too big to bring to Norway with us. My biggest and best present this year was a video camera! I'm already very excited to use it and I know it will definetely come in handy. You can count on long and very detailed footage from Ethiopia, which I will post here if I can!

The boys were happy with their gifts too, though unfortunately the two biggest gifts they got can't be used yet. Carsten got an electric scooter (which hasn't come yet) and Kristian got a really nice sled (which he can't use since there's no snow, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like he will be able to for a while. Today it was 54 degrees- unheard of for a January day in New England!) The cats were happy too; they got a set of cat toys which they've been playing with all day!