And the game we play is........

well not exactly. It's more where in RI is Marie George. I shouldn't jest but it has become somewhat comical......we keep losing Joe's Mom. She goes into RI Hospital they transfer her to somewhere else then they send her back to RI Hospital. They tell us they are transferring her another place but she never actually leaves there or she goes somewhere totally different. We don't actually find out until someone goes to see her which lately with all the flus and tummy bugs we've had hasn't been too often so there has been an occasion or two where we didn't find her for a day or two. Thankfully she has become so confused she doesn't know where she is most of the time anyway...I guess that's one good thing!

The things they say

Yesterday I had a lot of errands to run so Joe was home watching Keeva, Citizen M and one of her classmates who had come to play for the day. When I got to check my email last night I had gotten an email from Joe entitled Keeva-ism. It read: Keeva just said to her friend "I saw the movie 'daddy blew up the kids with honey" Precious!

Frozen In Grand Central Station

This is really cool....I don't know how they stayed so still, I know I couldn't have. Click on the title to view the video. Sorry but I couldn't figure out how to show it on here.....

As Americans we send our dollars

sailing down the drain........
My Mom called me saying she was listening to a Radio station from back home in Ireland and they were talking about adoption. Specifically adopting from Vietnam. She found it very interesting that these people in Ireland were adopting from Vietnam and not one of them was talking about the cost. This convinced my mother that it must cost nothing in Ireland. Of course I knew this couldn't be true...so out came the laptop and the search began....
turns out to adopt from from Vietnam in the US it can cost up to $27,000 of hard earned scrimped and saved, begged and borrowed dollars as many of you know. To adopt from Vietnam in Ireland costs $6700 dollars, yes dollars....that's 4,521.80 Euro, barely two months salary for most people. How outrageous is that, in my mind even more so because they pay in dollars the same currency we pay in. I am so sick. The cost is low as far as I could tell because all adoption is overseen by the adoption board so we don't have organizations, and yes I admit these people do wonderful work, getting a bulk of the money. Wouldn't it be better for the countless number of orphans and childless couples out there if we could get the same "deal" over here. It's obviously administrative costs driving it up if the Irish pay in the same currency and have the same time lines as here. I couldn't bring myself to look up other countries. The sad thing for me is I'm Irish and I could pay that if I was there. I used to think it was the costs keeping us out of the international adoption arena now I know it's the people creating the costs.

A mystery face

So who is this mystery face?? Well....I'm sorry can't exactly say who except that she is the newest member of the George household. On January 16 "Citizen M", a lovely tween, joined us for a night or two as she took respite from her adoptive home. Turns out she will not go back there but will stay with us for the unforeseeable future. She is very sweet and gets along with Keeva like a house on fire. Seems strange having a tween around, I'm not quite sure what to talk to her about or what to do with her and we have had a host of 4 year old birthday parties to go to which I'm quite certain has bored the pants off her, poor thing. Thankfully though it's been winter break and, although I was pulling my hair out trying to think of things to do it's turns out to my advantage that all the divorced Dads on the street have the kids this week.......so I have hardly seen hide nor hair of her. They are all great kids so I haven't had much to worry about, thank goodness. Although the hard part is DCYF doesn't let them have normal childhoods, for example my neighbor just called they are taking the kids sledding but in order for her to go myself or Joe has to go which we can't do right now. I feel real bad but it's not possible. Up until a few nights ago she wasn't even able to go next door and play with the other kids unless we went too but, her worker said if we feel we know them well enough she can. This has made things easier on all of us. The neighbors all have to get finger printed and background checks done which, they have all agreed to, if she is to be able to fully participate with the other kids. So that I guess is our biggest piece of news. I wish we could share a photo but it's not allowed. It's fun having her around but my heart is aching more now for a baby than ever. If only adoption wasn't so costly.

Wow has it really been that long since I have been on here.....time to get writing!!!!