DELAY
Well, it seems I've discovered the actual value of having a blog. Unfortunately, it's a great place to report that we have been informed that, "due to circumstances beyond the control of the US government and our adoption agency," we are going to be delayed in the process by about two months. That means we will likely get our referal - her picture and medical report - in April and then not travel until late-May or June.
The tough part is that this news reached us just one day before February - when we would begin waiting each day for news of the referral's arrival in the US.
We'll keep you posted.
My Apologies
Since I promised to post a general history of how Leigh and I arrived at this spot - just weeks from receiving our referral from China - I dropped the ball.
After getting a book out about the Texas Longhorns, we turned our attention to the Super Bowl and now, 10 days from Detroit, I'm buried.
I will get to it. I promise.
In the meantime, there really are no updates. We should get the referral (her picture and medical report) sometime in February and travel 6-8 weeks later.
Timing being what it is, I am also in a bit of a career transition, making a move to oversee our popular monthly racing magazine, NASCAR Illustrated. I'm still not a huge fan of guys driving in circles, but the sport is full of cool people and is the only sport that continues to grow in popularity each year. Also, the physics of the race - how the cars interact with each other and the track - is pretty cool.
Figuring it out...
Well, this is Post No. 2 and I'm still not 100% sure what I am supposed to put here. I'm not even interested in my own life enough to read about it, so it is hard to imagine anyone else 'tuning in' for a peek behind
this curtain.
Leigh and I checked out Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith last night - another one of those 'before Mary arrives' events. GREAT show. I can't believe how much more we enjoyed LK than we expected going in. We were in my company suite which was a little weird. I'm more accostomed to people around me at concerts chugging Stoli and smoking dope. People sipping spritzers and nibbling on crab cakes was a little unsettling.
Another 'before Mary arrives' activity was the purchase of a '65 Mustang convertible (see image from a sunny Thanksgiving morning). It needs a little love, but is a 'daily driver' if we wanted to motor through rush hour in Charlotte without any recognizable safety features.
The actual reason for today's post:
Between Christmas and making a quick trip to New England for the Patriots-Jaguars game last weekend to see Alvin Pearman - one of my former players who is a rookie RB with the Jags (see above inset of his first NFL TD), Leigh and I have visited with a lot of relatives and been asked many of the same questions over and over again about the adoption.
So, I promise, the next posting will attempt to quell some of the how-and-why curiosity...
The First Post
Leigh and I are giving this a try as a means of keeping friends and family fully updated on what is going on with the upcoming adoption of our first child, Mary.
We have been through almost a year of preparations that included reading a bunch of books, taking tests, visits from Social Services, background checks, a miserable afternoon at INS, meetings with other families "in the process" and WAITING.
Tom Petty was right, the waiting really is the hardest part.
Once all of the paperwork was finished and sent to Beijing, there was little to do but begin decorating her room (pandas on the walls, above and below) and try to be understanding when people ask for updates everyday when there is nothing to report.
Smiling through the fiftieth, "there's really nothing to tell...still waiting" isn't nearly as hard as keeping a straight face when braindead friends and acquaintances have asked if we intend to tell her she's adopted. What is
that all about??
That's it for today's test.
There you go, Leigh, I think I figured it out.
