Not the 19th~

Referrals came & it looks like we made it through the fifteenth. In my previous post I had wished aloud that we would get to the nineteenth. Maybe I should have kept my wishes to myself, huh? We were through the ninth, so I guess we can mark off six days. Well, at least that is something, at least we have continued forward movement~slow as it may be. The referrals that I have been fortunate to see this round are all so sweet, as always. Congratulations to all of the families who are just seeing their babies face for the first time. Here's hoping that your travel approval come quickly!

Tomorrow will be Thomas's third day in his new position in his new market. He has called me many times since arriving & is doing well. He is not too fond of hotel living. He will be glad when we can make the big move, we can both be in the same state again & we can begin the process of settling into our new place.

Tomorrow is more organizing, packing, phone calls & errands for me. Off to bed for now.

We found a house.

Yep, we officially have a new home to move into. We spent a few days this week in Illinois. One of the days we started out early in the morning with our realtor looking at properties & continued through mid-afternoon. In the end, we found a great home in a great subdivision. It is a new construction, so there are a few things to be done yet as you can see in the above pictures. Mainly just flooring & moving some of the appliances in. They have assured us that it will be done in plenty of time. We will be moving in a couple of weeks. Right now we are busy packing & wrapping things up here.
Our new place is in what they are now calling a "multi-generational community". You know how they have some that are 55+, for senior citizens~well, the one that we are moving to is for the other generations I guess. Here is the description of it:

This multi-generational community is a family oriented and value enhanced community that has the amenities of a village in a convenient location for commuters. Currently planned for 2,995 homes, the community was recently named best overall suburban community & has been the top selling community since sales opened in 2005. The community is comprised of 1,164 acres including over 360 acres of open space including 12 lakes, wooded park areas and 5.2 miles of walking and bike trails. We feature a large community center with three outdoor pools, a large gymnasium, aerobics rooms, cardiovascular and weight rooms, a day care center and much more! The community also features an on-site Charter School and pre-school, five baseball diamonds, three soccer fields, several playgrounds and tot-lots and a skate park.

We toured the grounds & the community center. We can't wait to have some little ones who can take advantage of all of the activities that they offer for the younger ones. However, in the meantime they offer many things for Thomas & I too! We think we have really chosen a home in an area that is a great fit for us & the future of our family. We are anxious to call it home.

We had our moving sale. It was a great success. Thankfully, we were able to get rid of all of the large items & most everything else as well. Some items that were left we took to the local Mission & we have a few items that we still need to take to consignment.Our home here is still on the market. It has had some interest & a few showings, but it has not sold yet. The banks have tightened their reigns & are requiring much more of a down payment, even for first time home buyers so that is proving to make it more difficult for some to get financing. That of course trickles down to those of us selling homes as it reduces the number of potential/eligible buyers.

Thomas's last day here at the store went well. He will start his new position very soon. He is very anxious to get going. During this last trip to look at property we were able to sit in the parking lot of the new store & watch some of the bricks being laid. The construction workers were working very hard. They had accomplished a lot since we had been there only weeks prior. It was very exciting for Thomas & me too to be able to see the progress first hand. We both got a little emotional as we sat there literally watching the walls being put into place.

Sounds as if referrals are about to be on their way! We are hoping for a lot of days. C'mon the 19th I say! That would be ten days & something that we could all feel good about, right? If I were being very optimistic I would say c'mon the 27th as some friends of ours are LID on that day. It won't be long now Lane's! With a LID of July 07, we are living vicariously through others who are a little closer than us these days. It is about time for us to begin the renewal process for our I-171H. UGH! What more can I say?!?! And right here when we are moving to a new state! I don't even want to think about it. It make me nauseated. I fear that it is going to be like Dossier preparation all over again~new state, new physician, new social worker etc. I just keep telling myself, "one thing at a time..."!

Well, off to bed. Tomorrow will bring with it more packing...this moving thing~what a job!

**Sorry about the paragraphs in this post or should I say the lack there of...for whatever reason Blogger will not let me edit & fix that?!?!?**

When ?

The question everyone is asking that we don't have an answer for..."When are you actually moving?".

Well, we do have a tentative plan. Here it is...coming up first is our big ol' garage moving/sale. Then, we will be leaving to head that way for a few days to meet with our realtor there to look at properties. We hope while we are there that we will find & secure a place to live. Depending on how that goes & how long it takes, at some point we will then return back to our home here to begin preparations to get Thomas packed & ready to move. He will stay in an extended stay/lodging type place for a bit so that he can go ahead & begin work. I will stay behind & tie up business here & work on packing. Once I am wrapping things up here, Thomas will get an additional seven days off in which he will come back & help me finish the packing & then we will actually move.

So, back to the original question..."When are we actually moving?". I guess the answer is that we don't really know for sure. We would at this time think it will be in a few weeks, but we couldn't say that for sure. It just depends on how things go.

We have had several people look at the house already & apparently one family that is very interested. We hope to have an offer from someone soon. If not, that's okay. We are not in any huge hurry to sell it. However, it will just be one less thing for us to not have to deal with once we are moved.

Things are going very well so far with the whole transition. Yesterday was officially my last scheduled work day at the hospital. I was overstaffed & put on call due to low census in the Unit in which I work. They called me at 4:30AM yesterday. I am not going to go into the specific details, but I will say that the end of my employment with that hospital after being there for just shy of six years did not end the way that I would have hoped. However, I will say this; I am taking one huge thing from there with me; well a couple of things really. First, a lot of knowledge. I did learn a lot while I was employed there & I am grateful for that. Most importantly though, I made friends & got to know a few people over the years while I was working there that I feel like now are my extended family. You guys know who you are! (At least I hope that you do!) I will treasure those special friendships always. I will definitely keep in touch. As soon as I have it, you will have my new address, phone number & email...& I will expect you to use them! :o)

Thomas's last day at his store here is tomorrow. They are having a little surprise something for him in the morning that they have invited me to as well. (SHHHH! It's a secret for now!) He is ready to move on, but as with most things that you have done for six years~it will be an emotional day as he makes his exit & moves on to new things. He had a vacation week scheduled for early October. Since he won't be taking it then, he was fortunately able to move it up to this week so that he can be around & more available to continue to prepare for & have our sale, more packing & to go look at homes for us to move into.

To those of you who have been a part of our lives while we have lived here locally & for all of you reading this~we will miss seeing you on a regular basis, but no worries! We will stay in touch! Email, long distance, cell phones, the train, auto & airplanes...it will work out great, we will make sure of it!

Round Three

Quick update. Terry is not pregnant. Per our request we are sitting out this month. Lots to do. We will pick up where we left off, plus add in some drugs & try again in a month or so. Depending on how that goes, we will then decide if we will try again with Terry & if so, how many more months.

We are researching some fertility clinics in the area where we are moving. We are thinking about the possibility of giving InVitro Fertilization a couple of shots; with me not a surrogate. There are some great clinics in & around the Chicago area. It is now or never. I will be 36 November 25th, so we can't think about this possibility very much longer. We don't want to look back at some point & wonder if we should have tried it, so we are thinking about giving it a shot in or around April 2010. We need to get moved & settled, plus I want to be in the best health that I can possibly be in. I have about fifty more pounds I would like to lose to be at my goal weight. So, with those things in mind & of course we will see what happens with Terry & also where we are in our timeline with Mia's adoption at that time as well. For now, this is the plan that we have in our minds though.

Moving is coming along. Our home isn't even listed on the MLS yet, there is no sign in the yard & we haven't even had the realtor open. However, there was a family that wanted to see it the day after we signed the contract to list it with a realtor. We allowed them to show it & apparently this family is very interested. They are "sleeping on it". So, hopefully come Monday morning we will have an offer.

We will be having a huge moving sale. We are pricing items for that this week. We are heading to Illinois in a few days to meet with the realtor to look at properties. We will stay there a couple of days. Hopefully before returning home we will have a place secured to move to in Illinois.

Hopefully within a few weeks most all of this will be done & behind us. We will likely be moved, far from settled~but, at least moved!

Brief update~

I gave my official resignation at work today. That really made me realize that this is really happening! We are so ready though & so excited!

Thomas has been in contact with his new region's HR department. He is scheduled to start in Illinois September 27th! NO KIDDING! Isn't that right around the corner? At first they said something like the 15th!!! Oh my! Obviously, we won't be totally ready to move by then, so we are not totally sure how this will all play out just yet. However, his company has an awesome relocation division that seems to so far be ready to handle just about everything that you can imagine for us...from selling our house for us to finding us a new one to moving us & on & on! They apparently do it all.

I am off now for a few days. It will be nice to be able to sit down & make a game plan with Thomas as to everything that we need to accomplish & when. We are just going to sit the priorities & go from there. It will all work out fine.

We don't know anything yet from Terry (SIL/possible surrogate) yet either, but it should be in just a couple of days when we will know something. We will definitely know at the latest Sunday, but probably before then.

We did find out that they don't plan to actually grand open Thomas's store until March 2009. He will get an office in the market office there in a near by town so that he can start conducting interviews.

That is about it for now. I will let you know more as we find out more details.

We're Moving!

Thomas got the job! Yep, we are home from Illinois...amazingly safe & sound~more on that a little later & yes, we are moving. We will soon be calling Huntley, Illinois our home!

As I think I might have mentioned in a previous post the store is not even built yet, however, while there we took a look at the building site & it is well on its way. The sign out front says "Coming Fall 2008". So, it is likely not far off from being completed.

We don't have a ton of details yet. Thomas got the call to offer him the position on Friday just shortly after noon. It was so neat as he was home on his lunch hour when his cell phone rang. So, we got to get the news together. It was a very special moment.

Thomas has been working towards this career goal for many years now. I am so proud of him!

We really liked the area & are thrilled to be so close to Chicago. There is the neatest train system called the Metra. You just hop on & Chicago, here we come!

While we were there we ate at a Chicago Pizzeria. Wow, now that's some pizza! One piece & done! I was stuffed. However, we were like "This left over pizza is coming home with us for sure!" Luckily we had a cooler with us with water & such for the road, so we refilled that with ice & our pizza made the trip home. It was the best for lunch on Friday for Thomas & I after we returned home.

We think that we we have a few weeks before we have to be there. Thomas has to hire probably at least 400 associates, so he will have a lot to do long before the doors open.

We have a million things to do now. Of course, getting our house on the market being the first. The second is starting the process (which actually we have already done) of finding a home in Illinois. We are also in the process of getting ready for a HUGE moving sale. What an undertaking. We knew the time was drawing near, so that process was already begun as well. Now it will just be a much larger sale than what it might have been if we were not moving.

Well, for the not so fun part of the trip....we had a wreck on the way up there. Really, no kidding. Long story short~I was driving. The front right wheel touched the white line & honest to goodness until the whole thing was over I didn't know what had happened. I couldn't get the car back on the road & when I did the car spun around & went into the other lane (thank goodness there was no oncoming traffic!). Then I attempted to correct back to the other lane & the car was literally skidding sideways down the highway at 55 miles per hour. I was still trying to get the car into the correct lane & straightened out as there was a big drop off on that side, plus I was just waiting to get t-boned by oncoming traffic. Finally, I got it back over but the car was in a tail spin. I couldn't get it turned around & we flew backwards over the shoulder & into the ditch & down into this little field. Thank goodness it wasn't too bad of a drop off! It had rained so the grass was slick-so we slid & we don't know how~but the car didn't roll. If we would have been in our SUV...oh my goodness! We would have turned over no telling how many times! Anyway, I don't know what to say about the whole thing other than it is a miracle that we are okay &...you are not going to believe this, but I drove our car out of that field & other than lots of mud, grass & just overall mess our car seemed okay. We took it to the next Tire & Lube Center & they took the tires off & cleaned all of the muck out of the rims & checked things out. Thomas looked under the car & it looked & ran perfectly. So, we of course called 911 to get a police report just in case we did end up having an insurance claim. We walked down to where the accident started, the place where my tire touched the white line...you know how there is usually additional asphalt poured up to meet the road or at least gravel grated up where the road & the shoulder meet? Well, NOTHING for about a couple hundred yards except for about a six inch drop off & a small gully where rain had washed out a little ditch beside of that. So, my tire probably dropped off the six inches which I couldn't have recovered from anyway at 55 miles per hour & then hit that gully & boom-we were done. So, the Police called the Department of Transportation & made them come immediately with a stat road crew to repair that. He measured our skid marks & took photos. He assured me that other than riding the white line that I did nothing wrong & that anyone that would have had that happen the same thing would have most likely occurred. He said that it had to be fixed immediately as that the next person that came along probably wouldn't be so blessed as to not have any oncoming traffic in the other lane or that they might have went over the other side where there was a big drop off. Thankfully we are fine, (my back & neck wrenched a little, but seem okay now), no one else was injured & the car is fine~so we are just grateful! Really, like my Mom said God just wasn't finished with us yet as that could have been & should have been such a different ending! I mean it was a really bad accident. It lasted a few minutes. It wasn't just boom & over. I mean, the fact that we didn't get hit by oncoming traffic & that we didn't roll over...it is just a miracle. Plus, the fact that we drove out of there. I mean, the car? Who cares? BUT, it is wonderful that it wasn't hurt. Many times after that happened during our trip & even now we have just been so thankful & thinking about where we should have been at that time...laid up in a hospital bed, or in the morgue, or making funeral arrangements for the other...etc. It just is amazing that we are okay.

This week, around Thursday or Friday should be the big day...the day we will find out if Terry is pregnant or not. We are hopeful as always.

Referrals came a lot more quickly than expected, huh ? We just love seeing those babies sweet, sweet faces! Congrats to all who have finally for the first time laid eyes on their baby! Come on big batches & keep them coming quickly, right everyone?

The last couple of weeks have brought a couple of baby showers for my good friend Kristin. First, one that we had for her at work & then one that a friend of her family had for her. They were both great. Kristin, Thomas & I are so happy for you, Matthew & the new little one on the way! Thank you for including me in your showers. I had a good time. Oh & the catering yesterday~YUM! That cake...you weren't kidding about how great it was! So good! It was a nice time! Kristin is due in November about a week before my birthday. I keep telling her that she is going to have to keep that little one cookin' just a little longer so me & the baby can share the same birthday. (Just kidding...I would never wish being nine months pregnant on anyone any longer than absolutely necessary!)

Off to do laundry, finish unpacking from our trip & gather more items up for our moving sale!