Swine Flu

Well, it looks like we have found the source of swine flu! Actually, swine flu is starting to be a real issue in the adoption world. Not the flu itself so much. Every year 30,000+ Americans die from the regular flu and the only person in the US to die from swine flu so far was a child from Mexico who crossed the border for treatment. Unfortunately, the media is really hyping this up. It is an issue that needs a intelligent response, but as usual reporters are trying to out scare the other reporters and we are seeing the outcome from that. There are already rumours that China is temporarily halting adoptions to the US until this is over. I am not sure if the rumours of China are true or not., but I am very afraid that Kaz may end up halting adoptions until this is over. I can't really blame them since adoptive parents are strangers are coming into the orphanages and one person could spread the disease to a lot of kids. On the other hand, so far, it is not the pandemic with millions dead that the media keeps saying it may turn into.

The company I worked for issued travel warning today and is restricting travel to the US for employees. The fact that it has 25,000 US employees that travel around the US every day makes the email warning we got today confusing. Do we get to stay home and still get paid? A followup email confirmed that US employees can still travel in the US so no vacation for me! UPDATE: It is starting to look like swine flu is a non-issue. I don't think it is going to have any effect on traveling.

June????

That's right- no travel in April or May. So hopefully June?!?! Since today is April, I guess I can make it to June-like I have any choice.

And no, this is not an April fool's day joke.

Paperwork

Even if there is no news on travel, there is ALWAYS more paperwork to redo in this process. I just started my home study renewal process since it will be a year old on May 1st and they are only good for a year. So I get to spend $400 for a piece of paper that says nothing has changed in my life. Some of the paperwork expires every 6 months so towards the end of March, I get to go have my fingerprints taken yet again-twice. You would think they would store them on a computer somewhere, but they don't so every 6 months I get to go to the local police station and get printed for the FBI. Then I get to go to St Louis to get my fingerprints taken again for the USCIS because the agencies don't share the fingerprints and each need their own set(this is every 15 months). My favorite paperwork redo is getting a new birth certificate every year because my birthdate is going to change?? I've never figured that one out yet. So by June 1st I have to redo everything I did a year ago. The good thing is that it gets easier every time.

Update

I should have not complained about not having any news, because I got a call today to update me and tell me I will not be traveling in March either! Arggghhhh! SO I guess I am hoping for April although that seems very far away.

Boring Blog

This blog is starting to get repetitive since yet again I have no updates and no news and no idea when I will travel. It does not appear that I will be traveling in February. So now I am hoping for March travel. I tried to think of something interesting to post, but I really haven't done anything adoptionwise lately. At least the weather is getting nicer! So now I am hoping for an early spring this year and finally getting that phone call to travel!

54 vs 18

Everyone says how horrible the winters are in Kazakhstan, but Shymkent is in the very southern part of Kaz. It was 54 degrees there yesterday. It was 18 degrees here in central Illinois! Yet another reason, I'd rather be in Shymkent than here. The main reason, of course, is the adoption, but I am getting really tired of below freezing temperatures.

2009

My first post of 2009! I wish I had a bunch of news and updates, but all I know is at this point there will not be any children coming off the registry in January. So let's all hope that February is THE month. They have no idea if there will be a girl available in February or not, but I am going to think positive.
I had 3 weeks of vacation in December so I am in a much better mood than I was. I spent a week in Florida and a week in Arizona and a week just doing stuff around the house. I haven't had 3 continuous weeks off work in a long time. It was really nice. I did find out that my wait is now one of the longest for my agency! I'm not real thrilled to have that record, but hopefully my region will start moving soon.