Back to waiting, and back from Vegas

"In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all." - Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro), Casino

Vegas taught Marc one thing. He never wants to go there again. Course it didn't help that the conference he was attending coincided with the NBA All-Star Game and Chinese New Year (insert your own joke here). Marc's not an NBA fan so you can imagine how much fun it was. It's easy to see how the band Dirty Vegas got its name.

He stayed at Caesar's Palace and got to see a lot of the cool architecture in the area, but the two highlights were attending a Cirque de Soleil: LOVE performance and the event he organized at The House of Blues Foundation Room. This particular Cirque show is based on the music of The Beatles and appeases every sense of sight, sound and feeling:

For more information, check out www.cirquedusoleil.com/LOVE.

The Foundation Room at The House of Blues Las Vegas is like nothing else. Very Eastern in architecture, very eclectic with a fantastic balcony and atmosphere:

There are also additional photos at www.marcvasquezonline.com/vegas.html.

On Tuesday evening we took a "Baby Basics" class at Liberty Hospital. It was a full evening and while it was three hours of comprehensive information, it did prove to answer quite a few of our questions. We're looking forward to taking other classes in the upcoming weeks to help us get in touch with our baby (when he or she arrives!)

Tomorrow (Friday) Kim has the day off from school due to parent/teacher conferences this week and Marc is taking the day off as well. Together we will be painting the nursery while our handyman friend Chad fixes a leak in our garage ceiling. The duct work has to be ripped out in a four foot section just to get to the source of the problem. Ah, the joys of home ownership strike again!

So, for the time being we're still wishin' and hopin', thinkin' and prayin'. We could really use your prayer as well as we continue this quest. We would also ask you to pray for God to help us deal with the recent increase in job stress we are both feeling.

We'll have photos of the completed nursery next week!

From neutral to overdrive on a bum foot

Last weekend was extremely exciting, motivating and scary. Sort of like biting into a dark chocolate from a box with no map to tell you what's what.

On Saturday, we received an email from Christian Family Services that started like this:

--------------------------------------------
I had a situation come up today that I wanted to run past you. I was working from home but got a call from the hospital. A birthmom that I'd worked with on a previous adoption called to say she had delivered a baby boy. I went to see her and she and the birthfather seem quite firm on adoption.

the thing I wasn't sure about (I don't have your file with me) was if you would like to be presented to her. She is biracial, 1/2 Caucasian and 1/2 African American and the birthfather is full Hispanic.
-------------------------------------------

Needless to say we were freaking out. Could this be it? What an amazing mixture of cultures! Wow, talk about being thrown from the frying pan into the fire. All we could think of was how we had spent so long in neutral and now it was like being thrust into warp speed. Then we read on in the email:

--------------------------------------------
She used at least marijuana during the pregnancy (she tested positive for that after the birth). she has had an ongoing history of drug abuse but denies the use of anything other than marijuana. she did not have any prenatal care (she hasn't with any of her previous pregnancies, either). The birthfather noted he has also had substance abuse problems.

If you are interested in being presented, I need to know, and I need you to complete a profile, Dear birthparent letter and either have your scrapbook done or get together some pictures.
--------------------------------------------

We had a lot to think about, and it's been very hard. If we accept, are we ready for this? If we pass up the opportunity, are we saying this child isn't good enough for us? We don't have our book done nor our Dear Birthparent letter. After talking about it we decided we should pass on this child and leave him in God's hands. We believe we made the right decision because it motivated us to complete our photo book and Dear Birthparent letter and we received this response from Christian Family Services:

--------------------------------------------
Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate you being honest with your concerns. I’ll look forward to receiving your letter and book. Have a great weekend!
--------------------------------------------

Later on that evening, Marc went to help some friends bring home a ping pong table and it was quite an adventure. After it was loaded on top of the van our friends have, we tied it down and brought it back to their house where another friend helped Marc bring the monstrous heavy table down from the van. . .onto Marc's foot:



After hopping around, shouting and feeling like his foot was broken, Marc composed himself and they finished moving the table in. He's pretty sure it was planned in order to give our friends the edge tonight at our first annual basement tournament. :) Seriously though, he's fine and while it looks pretty banged up, it only stings a little when he puts his shoe on in the morning. All good!

This week we finished our birthmother book and Dear Birthparent letter and submitted it to Christian Family Services. We've done all we can on that front and now we wait. It might be a while, and it might be quick! We also began a financial peace seminar by Dave Ramsey that the church we have been attending on and off is offering. It's a 13-week course, and we're already feeling good about it.

Today we're going to head to Target and Baby's R' Us to register. Kim's grandmother has already graciously said she will be purchasing a car seat for us, and so now we just need to get a list of other things we need like diapers, crib, XBOX 360, toys, etc. Should be a good time!

As always, we would ask for your prayers for us as we continue to work to get financially on track and prepare to be parents. We feel a mixture of joy, fear and excitment and we hope to share more great news with you very soon.