Thursday, May 15, 2014

PAPERWORK - Home Study complete!

Welllll.... the day has come that I can say... Our home study is DONE!!!!!
After we update our expired medicals... BUT... nonetheless...
The whole ginormous thing has been forwarded to our placing agency in Alabama who compiles the documents for Ukraine (our dossier).  Our medical papers really seem like no big deal at this point.  It's like, oh, you need me to print out the forms to update and call the office to fax us the originals and take all the above to two different physician offices and make sure that every line is filled in and follow up on the faxing and mailing of the resulting documents and provide addresses and ultimately send the originals and keep copies?  Noooooooo problem!  Got it.  Check.  Done.

So now we will wait on word from our placing agency on starting the dossier documents.  I'm excited to get it rolling!  I'll keep you updated!  This is a big step in a long road - it feels good!!!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Goodbye Smartphone Day 7

One week in and I'm feelin' good.  The transition away from my smartphone  has made it's full realization and while it's been pretty anticlimactic, there are a few things that I noticed that have been a surprise.
First of all, I humbly realized just how hooked I was on this device.  Think about it.  Our basic phones were already our phones, watches, calendars, notepads, calculators, alarm clocks, cameras and stopwatches.  Then we added data to them and they became our phonebooks, weathermen, teachers, babysitters, maps, portable televisions, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gaming devices, magazines, radios, video cameras, tiny freaking portable computers oh my gosh you name it the list goes on.  All with the simple download of an app.  Every question answered immediately.  Every miniscule need for entertainment fulfilled instantly.  Never in my life has this simultaneously blown my mind and terrified me quite like it does now.
I also realized how little I really need a phone at all.  The first couple days my new old phone sat there doing next to nothing and I got a little creeped out at its silence.  I kept wanting to make sure it was still on.  It was.  I get very little calls.  Boo hoo.  No but really, I realized just how few direct contacts I get in a day.  All that "feeling in the loop with people" was really me looking at group messages.  Remember when we used to get those mass texts, saying "I appreciate all my friends and just wanted to tell you all that I love you" and you were like, "aww, that's nice" but were secretly slightly annoyed because it just simply wasn't as personal?  Now we base the bulk of our contact with people we consider our good friends on these mass messages.  Now, I'm not saying that group messages are bad or that those mass texts were not... somewhat meaningful. I love facebook.  I love following people's baby bumps and keeping in the loop with people I love who are far away.  It's not a bad thing per se, but it made me want to call some of these friends I haven't seen in a while... to actually talk to them...
The next bit of business is that I moved my phone charger from the bedside stand to the couch.  I know, I should have warned you about the earth shattering news that that was.  Whyyyy did I need my phone attached to my hip even at night????  When I should be sleeping???  Whyyyy did I not realize how silly that was?  If someone were to call me - I can hear it from across the room.  If I just don't feel like shutting my eyes yet or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep (as happens often), I don't turn on my phone, I think.  It's somewhat scary and yet I like the familiar territory and the whole processing life in my brain thing.  Like, nice to see you again thoughts, it's been a while.  And after a little while I take a melatonin.  And then go back to sleep.  I'm kindof in love with this turn of events.  I'm not going to lie pinterest in the middle of the night was a necessity while nursing but it's just not anymore.
Thursday night I felt a little deficient as my last bit of facebook newsfeed addiction left my body and Zack and I looked at facebook together.  It was so much fun.  I highly recommend the activity.  We were not on separate devices looking at it "together", we were actually looking at the video that someone posted of the national anthem in minor key and flipping through that person's baby pictures and commenting on where that person ate supper together.  I'm sure a lot of you do this but I never did and that makes me a bit sad.
Hey, enough of me rambling, I have a book to read.  Here are some videos to inspire you further.  They've  been circulating so I know you've seen them.