Drama vs. Normalcy

This week we started back at school for in-service. Normally I'd be crazy to say that I'm glad summer break is over! I have had such a crazy, dramatic summer! I don't think I ever posted about because I didn't want to be negative, but I have been working a real crummy job ALL summer! It's a seasonal place and doesn't close until mid-summer. After the hire of a new GM and realizing it didn't work, I was appointed front of house manager. We've had a rough season and I have felt so bad about my staff. They are all young girls and we've become very close. I accepted the job because I thought that I could help and make the rest of the season go, at least better than the first half. I learned real fast that if you don't have any support, you cannot be successful. Every day it was eating at me that I couldn't do anything to make things better. I contemplated quitting several times and Ryan has been very supportive. The problem is that I make good money and right now is not a good time to give up good money! Now that school is starting all of my income from this seasonal job can go into the Arsin fund. So frustrating because nobody should have to go to work and feel like crap!

In-service started this week for the school district staff. Students come back to school next Tuesday, and I'm actually kind of excited! It's nice to be back to normal. Nice to talk with normal adults and be excited for something that really matters. I'm planning to start my after school program through the Boys & Girls Club right away too.

There has been movement in Bishkek too! There was 5 families that have had their dossiers signed off on by the MOE. Now they are just waiting for a court date! Two more families from my agency also just learned that their dossiers left the Embassy and they are on their way to Kyrgyzstan!! This is exciting news and we can only hope that it continues in this direction. There are so many families who have been waiting so long to get their babies home!!

Here's another sneak peak at Arsin - of course he's got a fist again :)

Happy 5 month birthday Arsin!!

Today Arsin Akyl Scheel has turned 5 months old. It is so hard to keep missing these milestones. Last time I spoke to our coordinator, she was thinking that court will re-open mid-September. No time frame though of when our case will be reviewed. We will just have to wait with the 60 some other families! Ugh :(

Hold on baby boy! We're coming soon...

This past weekend I had my baby shower in Racine. My girlfriend Jessica was kind enough to let us use her house. This whole journey has been such an incredible experience and it was great to be able to share some of that with friends and family. I also shared pictures of Arsin. Up until that point we really hadn't shown anyone but our parents. We got some pretty amazing gifts, and lots of words of encouragement. Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support. Speaking of pictures...here's a little sneak peak at our little boy.

Always a fist!

18 Miles

I am leaving this morning for my baby shower in Kenosha. As you know, I am training for the Twin Cities marathon and I have been doing my long runs on the weekends, mostly with Jen. This weekend it didn't work out with our schedules so I had to fend for myself! Luckily I have a great husband who is also a runner. I got up at 7:00 a.m., put out liquid stations (2.5, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 miles). Ryan rode his bike for the first 8.5 miles and then he ran with me for the remaining 9.5. I have to say...this has been the hardest run yet! This morning my legs are a little sore, but mostly I feel good!

In other news, our dossier made it to Washington, and should have gone to the Embassy yesterday. I'm still waiting on the official word, but it's there! What a load off!! Now if the courts could just start accepting dossiers again we'll be all good. Once your case has been reviewed in court, there is a 30 day waiting period. We are hoping for compassion from the courts that they will waive the waiting period for those of us with referrals who have been waiting so many months for them to be up and running again. We miss Arsin and love him so much - we cannot wait to bring him home!

I have been working a ton of hours lately and have not had much time to watch the Olympics. However, I discovered that a young man from Kyrgyzstan won the bronze medal for Greco-Roman wrestling! Check it out! His name is Ruslan Tiumenbaev. My husband and little brothers, Joe and Nick, have been watching and Nick was very excited the other night when I got hom to tell me that Kyrgyzstan was in the Olympics. So cool.

We are leaving shortly and I will be bringing the boys back home. It'll be differently around here without them. Nick has only been here two weeks, but we've had to much fun. It's really a bummer that I had to work so much and I couldn't spend a ton of time with them. Last night they had a bit of a wrestling match in the family room. Here's just a sneak peak...



Last week they also made a video with Ryan and I wanted to share that too!! They got their ideas from YouTube.

New Committee

I got an email today from AA. She didn't exactly have a lot of information to share, and wasn't sure of the exact procedure. She did, however, share that it might not be until September before we would even have our dossier reviewed. I don't know if this is when they'll start to review, or an estimation of when ours will be reviewed as there are about 40 families' dossiers ahead of us. This is totally disheartening! From what I gather, we will still have the mandatory 30 day waiting period after that! I just wish we could know what the heck is going on. It's so hard to not have him here with us!

Today I finally got the final pieces of our dossier!! I scanned the S.O.S. pages and sent them to our translator and tomorrow I will be sending the dossier out. So nice to have this done - AGAIN!

In other news, we got new measurements for Arsin today and have forwarded them to the IAP. We also got a picture of him from one of the families traveling now...although I won't be able to see them until they get back. Thank you so much Kimberly, Elisabeth, and Lisa!!! Enjoy your time with your babies and safe travels home!

Wailin' Jennys

Saturday morning I was up and ready to go for my 16 mile run. Jen came over at about 8 and we went out to set out Powerade for our liquid stations. The run went well, can't say it was exactly easy, but we made it through and felt like champs!!

After my run, I stretched, ate some protein and took a shower. Ryan, Joe and I got ready for our little road trip to Bayfield, WI. We went to Big Top Chautauqua to see the Wailin' Jennys. It was an awesome concert and we had a ton of fun. All of the campgrounds were full so we didn't get to stay overnight...good thing it's only a couple of hours away!

Last night my grandparents came into to town to visit from Kenosha. They are just starting their vacation and will continue to head north from here. They brought Nick (my other brother) with and he'll stay with us now for the next couple of weeks. It's good to see the two boys, Joe and Nick, and how much they missed each other - although they won't admit it!!!

$10,597 in two weeks!

We just got word from our agency that we need to wire them $10,597 for the Kyrgyzstan governemnt fees, documents for our son, and translations for those documents. This is good news (kind of) because it brings us one more step closer to bringing Arsin home. Bad news is, we only have $4,000 in our savings. Ryan and I will be diligently working on how to get the other $7K by the second week in August!

We officially received our I-171H, yay! I actually didn't even know what it was and had to call my Social Worker and ask her what the heck they were sending me now. In previous posts I have saluted Wisconsin Secretary of State for their swift processing of our documents...sorry to say, I cannot say the same for our most recent mailing. I sent all the documents last week on Friday (Priority Mail, with pre-postage Priority envelope for return) and still have not gotten anything back. It's just one hold up after the next! I did, however, receive the MN Secretary of State docs from our homestudy agency. We are working on re-translating our documents because of the date changes on the notarizations and the new requirements for the Embassy. Today I'm going to go through and re-collate everything (again!). Dejavu anyone?

Tomorrow morning I am going to run 16 miles with one of my running partners. It's amazing we've made it this far ;) Really though, we've been training right. I've been good about trying to eat the right foods and staying really hydrated. I also try to do recovery runs...although that doesn't always work out. I'm sure to take days off, which is always good because I get to sleep in until 7 or 8! I'm excited to have made it this far, and tomorrow's run will be the longest run of my life!