No news yet

I still don't have any adoption news, but thought I'd update the blog with a new post anyway. Sorry if it turns into babble.

Thanks to those of you who have left comments. It's nice to know there are others out there who are going through the same thing or have in the past. Something about comfort in company.

And welcome family members! I finally decided I'd waited long enough to tell my extended family about the adoption. I wanted to do a big "TA-DA!" announcement when I had my referral and photos of my little girl. But I caved in to my own excitement and let everyone know about this new little member of the family today. I probably should have done that a month or two ago, but I think I was waiting until it felt a bit more real to me. Not that I have any reason to doubt that I'll have a little girl home in my arms in a few months... but it just still feels so far away and unreal at this point. Maybe having more support and excitement from the family will help me feel more like a waiting mom and less like this is an abstract exercise.

Meanwhile, life goes on. We're about a third of the way through our semester. I'm getting ready for my 2nd round of tests in the freshman classes. We're about 2 weeks away from Midterms. I get to start talking about volcanoes in my Natural Disasters class next week. My favorite part of the semester. I schedule an unusually long time for that subject, as those of you who know me will understand. I get to sneak in a few of my own photos from Hawaii, Iceland, Ecuador, and Mt. St. Helens, which is fun. Well, it's fun for me anyway.

I'm chair of the Speaker Symposium [Lecture Series] committee at work. Our first speaker is scheduled for Monday, so I'm in 'what did I forget?' mode. I've got the theater reserved, dinner plans and hotel reservations made, a reception planned, a person to pick him up at the airport, and have organized as much publicity as I can handle. It'll be fine, it's just in my nature to get nervous before major events I'm in charge of. Thankfully I've got a great group of hard-working people on the committee so even if I did forget something we'll pull it together just fine.

The acquisitions editor of the book company contacted me today and said she wants to talk to me about the reviews of my prospectus and first chapter. I'm nervous about reading the reviews. I've done those types of reviews for other books and have been a bit hard on some of the authors. Especially when I review first editions. I expect no different from the reviewers of my book. I get to find out how thick my skin is one week from today.

So, that's my life right now. Work, more work, and anxiously awaiting my baby girl!

Welfare call

I got a call from Courtney yesterday. I was hoping it was THE call when I saw the Colorado number pop up on my caller ID. But no such luck. She said she just wanted to check in with me and see how I was handling the wait. IAN isn't used to having a waiting list (and I'm not used to being on one!) so I really appreciate her concern. And being kept in the loop...

Courtney said that IAN's director is traveling to Ethiopia soon. The goal of the trip is to try and affiliate with a third orphanage so they can start placing more children. She said they're hoping that will reduce or eliminate the wait time for referrals, but that nothing is finalized yet.

Movin' up

We have waiting list movement! The #1 family on the waiting list has officially accepted the referral of their baby, so I've moved up from #3 to #2 on the list. I have no idea how long the wait will be from here, but at least there's tangible progress.

In the meantime, I caved in and started to purchase baby equipment. My practical reason for starting on the purchases is to space out my expenditures a bit. Of course, it's exciting and fun to start getting things ready too.

I now have a beautiful crib purchased on eBay. It converts to a toddler bed. I also have a brand spankin' new car seat. I went for one with "infinity slide" shoulder straps that can be used facing forward or back, for 5lb to 50lb kids.

I figured those are things I'll need whether the baby is 1.5 months or 1.5 years old. (At this point, anywhere in that age spectrum is a possibility.) Once we find out the age of this little tyke, I'll start asking those of you with small kids lots of questions about what I should be purchasing for that age and beyond. My buddy Matt has already made me aware of the importance of diaper pails and baby washcloths. Message received.

It's been a busy few weeks since I checked in last time. I've been sick for nearly 3 weeks now. I think the original bronchitis is finally starting to go away, but now my allergies have flared up with a vengeance. I can't catch a break! School started last week, so I'm busy getting used to my fall teaching schedule. We started labs with the freshmen this week, so we're officially now in full swing.

I'm also working with Pearson/Prentice Hall [publishers] and am writing a freshman-level historical geology textbook for them. The acquisitions editor said she really liked my first chapter and is looking forward to reading more. The prospectus, table of contents, and first chapter go out to about 50 reviewers next week if all goes well.