Doing the Math and Carrying the Babydog

Unfortunately, my mind has turned to math lately. I'm starting to number crunch to figure out what's average for when we might hear good news about a first decree with our adoption court case in Taiwan. I figure that we would have been logged into court around 8/11/08. From log in to first decree, I'm seeing numbers anywhere from two weeks to five months, but average seems to be two to three months lately. If we're in that average window of two to three months, that means we should be able to travel before the end of the year. Traveling before the end of the year is good for all sorts of reasons... other than the obvious one, that we want to meet our daughter as soon as possible. Traveling before the end of the year allows me to use up the two weeks of 2008 vacation that I've been saving, and allows me to use up to three weeks of my 2009 when we return home. People unfamiliar with adoption always surprised to learn that most employers don't offer adopting parents maternity leave like if we'd just had a biological child. My employer offers $4000 adoption reimbursement which is taxed, so it may end up being about $3000. That doesn't go very far. It buys one round trip ticket to Taiwan and a few nights in a hotel. Thanks. The rest of my time off has to be unpaid FMLA. Finalizing the adoption in Taiwan in 2008 also means that we can take advantage of the adoption tax credit and child tax credit in our 2008 taxes, refunded in February 2009... which will pay for my time off for bonding and figuring out how to be a first time mother. This is my blog... so I figured that I need to blog about what I think about ALL DAY LONG right now. When. When. When. And, OOH! That outfit is sooo cute! This girl needs to come home soon, because she's running out of hangers due to Mommy's retail therapy.

This past month I've bought two babycarriers, a mei tai and a wrap. I figured that I should figure out how to use these long before I try putting a baby in them. What's one to do? Practice with the babydog, of course! Sedona thinks babydog wearing is a great idea, because it gives her easy access to lick my face. My favorite of the two is my BabyHawk mei tai, a Chinese inspired design. It has long straps that tie around the parent. One can wear a baby (or a babydog) in the front, in the back, or even on the side. Kevin thinks I'm crazy for putting the dog in the babycarrier. Just you wait. Several months from how his back will be killing him and he'll be asking me how to use that babycarrier thing.



I also bought a Sleepywrap. It is one long sheet of stretchy cotton material. It's comfortable enough, but I think I look like a blue mummy, not a mommy, when I'm wearing it. It looks so bad, I'm not including a photo of Sedona in the sleepwrap. You'll just have to imagine me looking like a blue mummy with a dog inside licking my face.

In other news, Kevin bought us our wedding anniversary present. He suprised me with a Cannon Rebel XSi last week. I don't know much about manual settings on a camera, but Kevin does. He did photography in high school and worked for a little while for a portrait studio that specalizes in high school senior photos. My local friend Jeri has loaned us some of her lenses and he's been having fun learning the new camera, and I'm enjoying learning how to process the photos with Photoshop. Here are a two of my favorites from last week. It's autumn, my favorite time of year! Enjoy!