We're going to Vietnam!!!

The past two days have been crazy and full of emotions, both happy and sad. Friday I got up and checked my email, and my heart started pounding out of my chest when I saw an email from Hanoi Adoptions--nope, not that receipt email I've been missing, but the current holy grail of Vietnam adoption emails--the I600 approval! I was shocked, thrilled, panic-stricken, amazed; I really didn't expect to see this for another month or two. I'm sad though for my friends in the VN adoption community who have been waiting for their approvals alot longer than I have. I was hoping to see a whole slew of approvals when I got mine, but unfortunately that didn't happpen.

So I'm thinking, wow, I have alot to do, but surely it will be a couple of weeks before they can schedule the G&R ceremony. Wrong again! "Call your travel agent and see how soon he can get you there", says our caseworker later that day. Travel agent says, "How about next Saturday?"
"Holy shit!" says Sue.

On the other end of the emotion spectrum, I attended the wake and funeral of my dearest friend's mom who has been very ill for a long time. Such a nice lady--I spent countless hours at her house when Ronda and I were in high school, and I'm so sad for Ronda and her family. I hope her mom is in a better place where there's no more pain and suffering.

You need a visa to enter Vietnam, so this morning, before the funeral, I had to get all 7 of our visa applications filled out, photos attached, sent Don to the bank to get the cashier's check for the application fees, and got them all ready to go so Don could run them over to Dubuque to the Fedex office before they closed at 2pm. so they can be overnighted to the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco. We had to pay extra to have them expidited, the they should process them in 2 days, and overnight them back to us, so if all goes well, we should have our passports and visas back by Thurs. or Friday. I hope.

I got home from the funeral late this afternoon and started back in on the travel planning, and I get a call from MY mom. (She's 83 and had heart surgery last year) Not feeling well, but oh, I'll be alright. She didn't put up a fuss when I said she needed to go to the doctor, so I knew then that she was feeling REALLY bad. Of course, this was at 4pm on a Saturday. So, long story short, I ended up in the emergency room with her--she had a kidney infection and was dehydrated, so she needed some IV fluids and IV antibiotics. So I just got back from taking her home. Of course, the medic alert necklace that she is *supposed* to be wearing at home seems to have mysteriously disappeared. So I wasn't too keen on leaving her there by herself when she's sick without that necklace.

Tomorrow I get to attend a baby shower for my niece, Kelley. She's 26, but it seems like such a short time ago that *she* was just a baby. It seems so strange that she and I will both have new babies soon.

Now I have to get to bed. Lots to do tomorrow!