At 9:17am we got an awesome phone call.  It was a call from the local court house to let us know that this morning Alex’s adoption papers were signed!!!  The papers were just sent to them on Friday!  So Alex is now officially Alexander Matthew Kaeul Robinson.  Please join me in a happy dance to “We Are Family” a la Sister Sledge…

I wish we had a nice recent family photo to share, but with me being so sick (yes, still off work), and Matt’s Grandmother passed away on the weekend, we just haven’t had the opportunity.  But I do have a cute daddy and son shot that will do for today.

Before the cut (I had my hair done yesterday too!)…

and after!

It has been officially over 3 months since we started the finalization process of Alex’s adoption.  We unfortunately are still waiting.  A month ago, we sent all of our signed documents to our agencies lawyer, expecting to hear soon about a court date for finalization.  Instead this week we got a call that it is taking months to get appointments for adoption court appearances, which would mean that we potentially would not finalize by the end of 2009.  So instead we decided to simply have the paperwork signed by a judge and have them mailed to us rather than a court appearance.  We will hopefully get things finalized by the end of November this way. 

The other hang up dealt with the city that Alex was born in.  On some of his documentation the birth city is spelt as Busan, which is correct, but on other documents it is Pusan (the way Busan is pronounced).  And the court papers were under Pusan, but his Permanent Resident paperwork is Busan.  So we had to get that cleared up otherwise we would have had a big problem come Citizenship time.   

Anyhow – all figured out now and our paperwork is REALLY now in the mail to be finalized!!

Yep – today is my birthday.  Matt is doing his best to make it a good one – I just wish I could have my annual glass of champagne – maybe next week.  I’m 33.  I don’t know what I think about that number.  But really – it is just a number right?  It is my final year of being in my early 30’s… next year I’ll be in my mid 30’s… I think I will start counting backwards.

But you know what is really special about today?  Today Alex has been with us long than he as been without us.  He has been with us 9 months and 1 day and he came to us at 9 months and 1 day old – but that was in Korean time.   For those in adoptive families, you understand the significance of this day.  I can’t imagine our world without him.

So I’m still sick.  I really thought I was turning a corner over the weekend, I even went to work yesterday morning, but by noon I was dizzy and needed to rest.  Today I was worse again, so I went to the dr’s.  I have had a fever for almost a week so that was enough to be seen (finally). 

I have the flu (surprise surprise), but no confirmation on whether or not it was h1n1.  I also have a secondary lower respiratory infection (aka pneumonia) on my left hand side.  I’ve been prescribed antibiotics, a puffer, and codeine (for the cough).  Of course, this afternoon while I was waiting for my prescription to be dropped off, my fever spiked from 38.3 to over 39 (102).  I’m so thankful my mom was able to get off work early, pick up Alex and take care of him.  I really cannot function on my own.  The interesting thing is that the Dr said when I”m feeling better to go get the seasonal flu shot – he didn’t say anything about the h1n1 shot.  He asked me if I have ever felt so sick – I said no – he said – yep – it’s the flu.  I’m not to go back to work until I’m 100%, let’s hope I can resume duties as normal by Monday!

This week really was supposed to be full of happy celebrations:
Monday – Alex turned 18 months old
Tuesday – Alex has been with us 9 months
Wednesday (well, you will see tomorrow)
Thursday – Alex has been in Canada 9 months
Friday – The first Christmas Open House of the season!
Weekend – Go away for a family get away

So, while there is still reason to celebrate, I just have no energy to do so.  I really doubt we will go away this weekend which is a HUGE let down.  Oh well – my health needs to come first.

Thank you for letting me vent a bit, being this sick is very frustrating!   I need to go rest some more…

This little man is 18 months old today!

(sorry ladies – will provide a proper update once I have some energy – the flu has him me really hard)

I hope everyone had a safe and happy halloween! 

Yummy!

My frist pumpkin!

Hail to the King!

Trick or Treat!

Mmmmm I like treats!

I’m sick.

On Monday I went home from work because of a real lack of energy and lots of aches and pains.  I pretty much haven’t left my bed since.  I even missed the Metallica concert last night! That shows you how sick I was!!  Matt who was sick all weekend was luckily able to still attend and told me how much they rocked.  I’ll just live vicariously via youtube videos.  Matt’s parents came over though and helped entertain our little man – Thank you Pat and Dale!

So I don’t know if it is H1N1 – many of the symptoms, but not all.  I have aches, pains, headaches, sore throat, cough, and the occassional fever – but nothing overly high.  So I’m just trying to stay in bed (wish I had a laptop and a tv in our room!), drinking lots of fluids, and trying to stay away from Alex – which is VERY difficult since he is a real momma’s boy.  I’m using lots of hand sanitizer and not kissing him on the face. 

Anyhow – Hope everyone is staying healthy! You REALLY don’t want what I have…

And so it begins…

For Emily