Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Oh, to be in Athens… 8/18/2004

Having been a gymnast myself for the better part of 16 years of my life, I always look forward to the gymnastics competition during the Olympics. I have to say that this time around I really wish I could have actually been there for the team competitions for both the men and women. I say this because the U.S. media coverage of the events was pathetic. Not only did they limit us almost exclusively to the U.S. performances, but we didn’t even get to see all of those. The commentaries focused exclusively on whether or not the U.S. teams could get the gold, and when in both cases it turned out we didn’t win gold, their tones implied that the gold-winning teams were hardly deserving but rather got lucky because the U.S. teams made some minor mistakes.

We were allowed to see a few routines by some of the top competing teams, but very little. The bit that I saw of the men’s Japanese team (which took the gold) was truly phenomenal, and I desperately wanted to see more – to see what they had done to earn the team gold medal. The same can be said of the women’s Romanian team. Both of these teams truly deserved to win the gold, and – in my opinion – we as viewers deserved to see their performances.

In my mind, the Olympics are about celebrating the best of the best and not merely celebrating when the U.S. is the best. Every Olympian competing has an amazing story, and those brilliant performances should be lauded and enjoyed.

Adoption Process – Week 1 8/13/2004

We are now one week into the process of adopting and it’s already been quite a whirlwind. We had to send out applications (along with application fees) to each of the two agencies we are working with. One is an Arizona-based agency that will assist us with completing our Home Study Certification, which is required by the state as well as by the Ukrainian government in order for an adoption to take place. The Home Study Certification is the process by which we are evaluated for our acceptability as parents. Next week they said they would call to begin scheduling the home visits, of which I believe there will be two.

The other agency is assisting us with all the documents that have to be prepared for a Ukraine adoption. This collection of documents is commonly called a dossier. This agency will also be assisting us with the in-country part of our process. Most of the stages they will be involved with will come in a bit later on, but some of it will get going sooner.

Both agencies are critical to a successful adoption, and we hope (and trust) that we have chosen well.

Other things we did this week included getting our fingerprints taken for a state level clearance and starting the paperwork for the Home Study. The largest portion of the Home Study paperwork is a lengthy autobiography and boy do they want details! In any case, we hope to trudge through the remainder of the autobiography this weekend. The other thing we did this week was to call our doctors and schedule the physical exams that are required – again by both the state and the Ukrainian government. The exams aren’t for several weeks, so it’s good we scheduled them now. Bloodwork will be required as well.

I think that is about everything we did as far as “requirements” go. We also enjoyed talking a little about boy names that we like, we ordered some books on adoption from amazon.com, shared our news with family and some friends, and generally starting adapting to the reality that our lives are about to change very dramatically.

Hmm, no wonder we’re both exhausted!

I get to speak these long-coveted words… 8/12/2004

I can’t even begin to express how exciting it is to get to announce that in approximately 8-10 months Steve and I are finally going to be parents!!! On Sunday we officially made the decision to adopt and have pretty much hit the ground running. I couldn’t believe the emotions that accompanied this decision: joy, excitement, relief, astonishment, a sense of privilege, and so much more (all good and some downright dizzying). Somehow I think I had expected the process towards adoption to be a continuation of the pain and trials of dealing with infertility. But it feels so very different. I think when you’re dealing with infertility, you often think that you might “have to adopt”, but now that we are there, I see it instead as us “getting to adopt”. What an awesome thing!

Steve also expressed his feelings on this decision and I just want to thank God for bringing us to this place and showing us which way to go. Soon we will have a child to love and care for and laugh with and who will become a part of us.

Woooohooooo!

Minor retraction…or maybe not 8/7/2004

The other day, I accused the creators of the show, Amish in the City of doing a “hideous” job. I have since watched another episode and find that I was mistaken. The show itself is not badly done, but there are two things in particular that bother me: (more…)

Mac users are all going to hell 8/6/2004

I handle basic tech support and system maintenance issues at our office, and our ITS department is located in another state. They handle most fixes but I help on this end however they need me to. So today, after we got the network working again (long story), we’re waiting for the windows updates to download and install on someone’s computer, which takes eons for some bizarre reason (or is that normal???) and we got onto the topic of keyboards, and somehow through the conversation I mentioned “my Mac at home.” Boy, some kind of can of worms that was. (more…)