Wake Me Up When September Ends...

that song keeps playing in my head as i lay here on our couch, right knee and leg elevated above my heart. the good news is, i made it through surgery last week and both the surgeon and the physical therapists say that everything looks good, swelling is minimal and my bending and straightening are both doing well! the bad news is, i'm stuck laying on my back with my leg elevated and iced for many hours of the day! guess i shouldn't complain, but i get bored easily and don't do well without adult interaction. (and i can't drive myself to the coffee shop every day either!) so needless to say, i'm ready for october and the next couple of weeks to fly by! i've had some great nurses and helpers over the last week - heath, mel, my mom, my dad - and for that i will forever be grateful! also, thanks to everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers during my surgery and recovery time.

now, on to some adoption news! i received a call from bettina today and it's time for us to start working on our dossier! basically what this means is that things are progressing and we now have the pleasure of filling out / responding to fifteen (yes, 15!) documents that will then be sent down to cecilia in bogota (she is the lss bi-lingual representative in colombia) for translation to spanish. once the translation is complete, our dossier will be ready when los pisingos is open to new applications. (don't worry, we're already waiting there, you can only turn in your dossier so far in advance as they expire after a year and they don't want to make you have to re-do everything or pay for translations again.) bettina let me know that it typically takes families 1-3 months to complete all of their documents for their dossier, so i'm guessing we have some work ahead of us again! (what else do i have to do right now anyway?!)

well, the twins/tigers game just started, so i must turn my attention to that! one of our new favorite players, orlando cabrera, just got a base hit. yay! why is he one of our faves you might ask? well, he is from colombia! yay!!!

oh, by the way, in case you're wondering how the picnic went last sunday, unfortunately we had to miss it. i woke up feeling awful that day (nauseous & dizzy) and couldn't shake it. needless to say, i was very disappointed. bettina told me that they had a great turnout. guess we'll have something to look forward to next year.

happy fall! (apparently it's arrived in full force...)

go twins!
ang

Waiting...

that's about all that's been going on lately... wish i had something more exciting to report, but i got nothing! i guess the one good thing that came out of my knee injury is that it has definitely preoccuppied me from constantly thinking about the wait. it's been a good distraction, if nothing else. we've now been waiting for about 4 1/2 months and honestly, i can say it has flown by...hopefully that continues!

a few other reedy updates:

• we enjoyed watching our hawkeyes crush the iowa state cyclones today!
• heath is playing fall softball and so far the team is 5-1 (i have to admit, i'm the best scorekeeper ever!)
• my ACL reconstruction surgery is set for 9/23 - i continue to go to physical therapy twice a week & let's just say that's waaaaay more work than i ever thought it would be!
• we are looking forward to our first latin-american family picnic on 9/26 (heath may be pushing me in a wheelchair, but we'll be there!)

hope everyone is doing well! go hawks and enjoy this beautiful fall weather we're having!

ang

Approved!

we received a very important document in the mail yesterday... our I800A forms have been approved by the government and we are officially approved by them to adopt a child (or children - we said we would be open to twins) from colombia! yay! some much needed good news after my injury and some flooding in our basement... needless to say, heath has been #1 husband lately. i'm gonna owe him big time when this is all done! :)

An Unfortunate Incident...

in case you haven't heard, i suffered an unfortunate incident at softball last week. after all my years of playing sports, my luck finally ran out and i injured myself. i was playing left centerfield for our undefeated softball team, the foul swingers. a ball was hit over my head and as i turned to run after it, i decided to try and jump while turning to my left. not a good idea! my right cleat either got stuck in the grass while the rest of my body turned or i twisted my leg as i landed...either way i was in extreme pain and knew something was wrong. after being aided off the field by several of my teammates, i sat on the bench for the rest of the game (well, i did try to bat one more time, but that didn't go so well!). after a visit to the emergency room and sports medicine doctor the diagnosis was: torn ACL and bruises and minor abrasions in the outer bone of my knee. not good! needless to say, my softball season has ended and all sports are out for approximately the next six months. boo! i meet with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow at 1:00 to find out what he has in mind regarding surgery and when it's going to take place. great way to end my summer!

on a positive note, we just got back from our round of fingerprints for immigration and that went smoothly. i guess we can be glad that our little one is not with us yet as i can't even imagine how we would be dealing with that as gimpy as i am! heath is doing a great job as my nurse and is keeping up with the housework as well. he took over for my mom after she did a great job this past weekend!

heading to the scene of the incident tonight...gotta cheer on my team in the finals!

Passports & Fingerprints!

hey everyone! just a quick note to let you know that our passports arrived today and we are officially set up to do our next set of fingerprints on august 5th in saint paul. things continue to progress! everything seems to be going smoothly...fingers crossed this continues!



here is an excerpt from an email from our colombian adoption worker, bettina:



"I just wanted to let you know that I received your original application materials today! Congratulations! Another step completed!

The next step will be to complete your dossier materials – and I will send you those materials when we are instructed to do so by Cecilia in Colombia. Until that time, you’ll be receiving monthly Colombia Program Updates. You’re more than welcome to contact me during this time to ask questions or seek clarification.

Again congratulations on completing another step bringing you closer to completing your family!"



her email gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling, so i thought i would share.



time for bed after a fun weekend with friends. poor heath had to work, so i was on my own! :)



ang

The Application is in the Mail...

hi again! just wanted to report that our official application to los pisingos is being sent to the duluth office of lss tomorrow! all of our 'not-so-natural' pictures are printed off and have been posted on 8.5" * 11" paper (everything is very official!). i did make doubles of the pics in case any of you ever want to see them and have a good laugh! :) seriously...who stands in front of a plain white wall in their house and takes a full body picture??! oh well - just another fun step in our adventure, right? we are also submitting our family letter to the orphanage explaining why we are adopting, why we chose colombia, explaining who we are, etc. hopefully i did a good job and they want to pick us sooner than later!
that's about all for now. we've been waiting for almost 3 months already! can you believe it?
have a good night,
ang

Photo Night @ the Reedy's!

tonight was photo night at the reedy's! i came home from work and guess what heath was doing? putting together the crib! it looks as beautiful as i hoped! i think you guys will all like it, too...now we just have to get rid of the obnoxious blue paint in the baby's room! still pondering what exactly we want to do.
while heath finished the crib, i grabbed the camera and started some of the 'house' pictures. our application for los pisingos requires one of the front, one of the back, 4 random indoor photos and then a pic of the baby's room. needless to say, i went from room to room moving our little piles and snapping pics! not sure why, but this was more difficult than i thought it would be!?!!? seems like it should be easy, but i felt like everything needed to be perfect and that each room had to be shot from just the right angle. i'm such a nerd.
as i was finishing up, i heard heath get in the shower. we all know how much he loves dressing up in a suit, so i slowly approached him and asked if he would like to just put the 'dress up' clothes on right away and get the rest of the pictures over with. he said yes! i quickly changed into my dress and we started a photo shoot of each other! it felt pretty ridiculous posing for a "full length" shot of ourselves in front of a blank wall! that is so NOT natural! oh well, i think we got them all taken care of (thanks to the camera timer, our dining room table & a stack of books!). i'm going to submit everything tomorrow (photos, letter to the orphanage and orphanage application) for review and we'll see what bettina (our colombian advisor from lss) has to say!
pretty sure heath will kick my booty if we have to re-do any of the pics! :)
good night!