International Adoption Book

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Safe Travels, My Love

Matt is officially off to Iraq today... SAFE TRAVELS, MY LOVE!!!

Good News...

Several years ago we bought 1.7 acres of bare land in Northern California from my great-grandmother. She was tired of paying taxes on land she would never use; most of the other family members really had no desire to own the land either and strangers weren't offering her anything she was even remotely interested in considering, so we happily bought it (for such a dirt cheap price that even today I feel terribly guilty). The area is stunning and Matt and I had ideas of retiring there.

But, we began adopting and, most recently, we wanted to adopt our 3rd child internationally. So, in November 2007 Matt and I sold the property in order to help bring home our next child. We had enough capital gain on the land to cover about 1/2 of our expenses.

The purchaser offered us our full asking price plus 10% interest if we would carry a note for 18 months. Knowing that the wait to bring home a child was lengthy we complied with her request. Sadly, the purchaser made only 5 payments, of which only 3 were for the full amount, before coming up with excuse after excuse for not paying the note.

Needless to say, after giving the purchaser more than 4 months to catch up on what was owed, we began the foreclosure process. It has taken several months and nearly $2,000 to get here, but we finally saw the light at the end of teh tunnel. The property was set to be auctioned off last week for nearly $10,500!

BUT, as is usual for me, something went awry: The original purchaser SOLD the property out from under us, TOOK THE CASH and RAN!!! Yep, she sold the property to an inexperienced 20 year old who didn't know that title checks were needed or that he should verify the legitimacy of purchasing the land... The poor kid got SCREWED!!!

I couldn't believe the gall of this lady... And, to be honest, I would love to track her down and sue the pants off of her for messing with me, my family, making me loose out on adopting another child, for screwing with a KID and, most especially, for getting away with EVERYTHING she did!!! I ABHOR people like that. It's those kind of people that make humanity so lacking in trust and trustworthiness... SO SAD!!!

Anyway, back to where the good news comes in. On March 4th we got a call from our foreclosure agent who explained what had happened, which, of course, made me panic because I could just imagine all that I would loose. Thankfully, the new turn of events just put the auction on hold for an additional week. The new owner had to be notified, in writing, of the foreclosure and he had to be allotted a certain amount of time to come up with the appropriate funds to legally purchase the property, if he so chose. The new date for the auction was set for March 18th at 11:00am... Which will never take place because the new owner was able to come up the money, which I will have in my hands by Friday (Monday, at the latest).

Needless to say, as soon as that check gets here my happy little self is making a nice little investment in preparation for our next adoption (after I take myself out for dinner in celebration, of course... Cuz after this fiasco I deserve it)!!!

PS... To all my bloggy friends... I'm so sorry I haven't had great opportunities to read your sites or to update my blogs, but know that I'm always thinking of you!!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

I Gotta Take Care Of My Momma!!!

These last few days (and weeks) have been a big rush where we've accomplished nothing... And a lot!

We got the kids established in school. C is attending 1st grade now rather than kindergarten because there is another 6 year old girl who is in 1st grade in a local school. We were struggling to give C the opportunity to learn further communication skills, social skills and educational skills while not forcing her to travel for 3 or so hours each day. We, in fact, had determined our best route for C was to simply mainstream her in our local school with an interpreter and hope for the best. Fortunately, though, there is a family living nearby who is deaf (C and I actually met them last night... I'll tell you all about that further down). Their daughter is the child with whom C is attending school. M is in the school here in town, but we decided to place him in kindergarten instead of 1st grade (which is where he was at back in Washington). He's finding the grade to be too easy, but at least he won't be made fun of when he repeats 1st grade (which he desperately needs). In addition, he gets to be in the same classroom as one of his cousins!!! That was pretty exciting for M. He's still a bit embarrassed about being placed back in kindergarten but I explained to him that the teacher really needed his help for the little kids. I think that helped boost his ego a bit and made the "demotion" a bit easier to handle. Both C's and M's teachers are fabulous and are both working hard on behalf of our kiddos... And the kiddos are really enjoying their placements.

My parents are still in Mexico... Having way too much fun, I'm sure. We're staying in their house while they are gone but will be moving into their guesthouse as soon as they return (Dad needs to get the gas line for our new gas fireplace hooked up and bled before I can use it). I have the TV and internet scheduled to be connected on the morning of the 16th and only need to get the gas tank filled, the hot water turned on and the phone connected before I can be comfortable up there.

Matt got off perfectly fine. He arrived back in Washington on Friday afternoon. One of his (our) friends picked him up and took him to the car rental place on post so he could have transportation for the week or so before he deploys. He's staying with yet another friend who is being wonderful by helping us out in this way. It's saving us loads of money and gives Matt a more friendly environment to hang out in instead of being lonely for the next 10 days or so.

Last night we attended a Deaf Social. We had a blast!!! It was great fun being able to sign and practice my receptive skills. I (quite literally) learned about 60 new ligns, though, to be honest, I can only recall about 25 or 30 of them... Not bad in my book! That just goes to show me that I can learn far more when there are others with whom I can communicate rather than simply trying to learn from a book. My biggest challenge is to learn how to use ASL while speaking. That is a huge challenge!!! We were at the pizza joint for just over 2 hours and by the time I arrived home my arms were aching from signing so much and my brain was fried from trying to think in both English AND ASL. But, again, I had a blast!

M and C spent most of the day with my sister and her family yesterday. They had way too much fun. The fun continued for M since he was invited to spend the night with them, too... It was his first sleep over at someone else's house and he loved it! He did come home quite shaken up with his asthma so we're struggling to get that back under control. He always gets a big asthma attack when we're here for any lengthy time, so I should have started his treatments as soon as we got here to help prevent this very thing. But, I was being a neglectful mother and didn't get it done. So, now we're playing "cure" instead of "prevention".

Anyway, last night my brother-in-law invited M, C and me to go to the snow with their gang. I preferred not to go because baby makes me super car sick (and the road to Tahoe can be terrible in that arena). But, I said M and C were more than welcome to go since this might be the last time they get to see their cousin (my brother-in-law is off to basic in a couple of weeks so Little Man might have to stay with his mother who, sadly, won't allow him to visit his step-family).

My sister and her gang showed up to pick up my niece and C. I was surprised, to say the least, when M walked in the door and said, "I not going, Momma." He generally loves the snow and will grab any opportunity to play in it. My sister pipes up with, "I'm not too sure he's feeling very well." I took one look at his face and utterly agreed... His asthma had blown out of proportion and he's now feverish. But, he didn't tell anyone that he was feeling poorly. His reason for not going to the snow with Auntie, Uncle and the kids was based solely on the fact that Daddy had a conversation with him before leaving for Iraq.

So, what did M say to Auntie when she asked if he wanted to go with them?

"Is Momma going?"
"No, Baby," Aunte replied.
"Who going to stay with my momma?"
"Nobody, Honey. Mommy's going to take a nap and rest for a bit while we're playing in the snow."
"Oh, I can't go. Daddy told me I need to stay home and take care of my Momma. He say I can't go to the snow."

Sure enough, his daddy did give him the whole "Man Of The House" speach and poor M has taken it almost literally (although I think the fact that he is sick and that he had been out of my presence for longer than 24 hours played a part in his decison making, too). So, I immediately called Matt and told him that he needed to clarify M's job of "staying home to take care of Momma", which he did!