Update for the Week

This past weekend, we visited the kids in Phoenix and went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was fun and everyone had a good time, except for Nuva, who was unable to make it... However, actually seeing the kids and spending time with them was a great relief from the madness and bureaucracy of getting them here. Nikishna asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas, but they couldn't think of anything. They said "Nothing, really. We just take whatever people give us." It made me sad.... They also said some other boy or boys in the home killed their Beta fish by pouring mouthwash in their water. Argh! We have talked to the social workers about checking them out for Christmas and have started the process. The Hopi Guidance Center needs to fax over a copy of our homestudy to the Arizona State Social Worker, which makes me nervous, because Hopi's follow-through hasn't been consistent. In August, they told us they could have the kids with us "within a week" then it turned into "by the end of September" and now we really do not know. We may do a state to state transfer from Arizona to California, which would take about 60 days once Arizona files the paperwork.

Here's some pictures (hopefully the link works):
http://picasaweb.google.com/nikishna/PhoenixZoo

This week was interesting, because we had to move offices (due to the budget cuts) as we will now be on the main campus. It was a little difficult trying to do regular work and pack up everything at the same time, but we should be settled in the next two weeks or so.

Today we went to Disneyland in the evening time. It's all decorated for Christmas - wee! Nahui liked the carousel, of course, as well as the Casey Jr. Circus Train.  She is starting to understand that we are having a baby (she rubs my belly with her little hand and says "baby"). I think it will work out well. She definitely needs sister and she's very loving towards small babies - despite her violent tendencies towards other toddlers, whom she sees as direct competition (although the violent tendencies are kind of fading, I think!)

Total digression:
I am worried about our tangerines... Our tangerine tree is in full bloom, but we forgot to pick them today before it got dark. Last year, we were freaked out by rustling outside our window late at night. We turned on our bedroom light only to discover two little old neighbor ladies stealing our tangerines! I was okay with it at first, since we can't eat all the tangerines ourselves, but when they were finished, I saw that they had 5 bags packed with tangerines!!! Yeesh! I didn't mind them taking some, but I did  mind them creeping around in the middle of the night and stripping the whole tree... The next morning, there were none left on the tree - luckily I'm having a bit of insomnia right now, so I can protect the tangerines this year...

Lastly:
I was all sad, because I discovered an identical blog "Yolie's World" with an "e" at the end, which is actually waaaay better than mine. However, it was destiny - the other Yolie was adopted as a child, but is now about my age and has a nice family. She has some very useful insight into the feelings on the side of the children who get adopted, so I'm learning a great deal from her.