This week I am reading: Becoming Conversant with the Emergant Church and Adventures in Missing the Point

I think I will contact some kind of animal group and ask about it. You would think that if tourists are being mauled to death the government would do something? If for no other reason than to avoid legal action?

Well I suppose it will be good practice for the painfully slow internet we have here if you get hired. :D Having said that... I would give up chocolate AND coffee before I would give up internet. :tongue_smilie:

Huge rubbermaid bins....I just shoveled everything inside them as fast as humanly possible. I "sort" and do the "keep, throw away or give away" as I UNpack. This past summer we packed, moved AND unpacked in 3 days. 3 long days. :tongue_smilie:

Trying. so. hard. to. appear. neutral. :D

My dh says "You always bail me out of group conversations when I have said or am about to say something stupid." :lol::lol::lol: then later he says... "I am impressed by how well you are able to balance so many things...family, career, grad school, homeschool.... and do it well and with so much joy." and even later... "Your vision for our family. Your crazy ideas and willingness to step out of the boat. The amazing experiences our family has had are primarily due to your vision." Our anniversary is Feb 1st. 14 years and counting...

I get a pedicure once a month. It is my favorite hour of the month! This year I am having my toenails painted the birthstone color of that month. :D

Here is a hypothetical what would you do? This island has an ENORMOUS amount of stray dogs running wild. They are everywhere. You have to be careful not to hit them as you drive around the neighborhood (at least I am careful...I have seen A LOT of dogs get hit right before my eyes by locals who seem to not care). These poor dogs are pitiful....starving, ribs showing, many of them have all their fur missing from what I can only assume is mange. I am sure some of them carry diseases and many of them are very aggressive. In fact, in our new employee orientation manual there is a section that talks about taking a large stick with you if you go out for a walk or a jog because you will need it to fight off dogs. My co-worker has been bitten twice by stray dogs and a few weeks ago a tourist was mauled to death by two strays dogs. The government does nothing. I don't know if there just ISN'T a "humane society" like we had in Michigan or if there is one and it just is poorly run or what. But gosh, what do you do with a situation like this? No one wants these dogs as pets. They are disease-ridden and wild. Their "quality of life" is just heart-breaking. I am an animal-lover. My mom is a PETA activist. So know that I say this with a heart for animals.... I feel like the government should round up all these stray dogs and euthanize them from both a public safety stance and "what's best for these dogs" stance. What do you think?

I just wanted to give you a hug :grouphug: and say how sorry I am that you have to make such a hard decision. I would do the same thing in your situation.

I had to read "The Gospel According to Starbucks" in preparation for the paper I have to write on the emergent church. It was one of the WORST BOOKS I have ever read! What a bunch of navel-gazing-post-modern-drivel. I want my three hours back. :glare:

With the salary we make HERE? About 9 months as long as we didn't need to spend our savings on anything else!!

I am traumatized be the IDEA of simple dental work.

I received my MIL's china when I got married (she had passed away a few years before) and I got my own china. I mentioned selling MIL's china and my FIL went ballistic. He doesn't want it...just couldn't believe I wanted to sell it. So it sits in a box.

Thank you all so much for the prayers and support. It is going to be a little crazy but I think we are up for it. In addition to both of us working full time, homeschooling our oldest ds half the day, a new baby, I teach a class at the school twice a week and I am in my last semester of grad school! I graduate on April 25 so I just have to hold my head above water until then.:D Now I am waiting on pins and needles for the adoption liason to call me back.

OK here's where we are at... we talked and prayed and prayed and talked.... And we are going for it. :D Dh said to me "We have always said that if we had the money and the opportunity we would have a house full of kids. Well it's time to put up or shut up." :lol::lol: He has a way of getting right to the point. There is no REAL reason for us NOT to. We love kids. We have said for years that we wanted a big family. We can afford it. The baby is being placed right into our lives without us looking for her. etc. etc. We are proceeding cautiously as this is a private adoption and anything could go wrong. But the adoption liason is contacting the birthmom today to let her know we want to move forward with the adoption so I guess we will go from there! So with God's blessing and provision, in about 5 or 6 weeks we should have Olivia Carolyn joining our family! We have yet to tell anyone IRL and we are going to wait until the details are firm but we are all thrilled including Prema who loves babies!!!

I think this might get the award for strangest/funniest thread title! 1.5 years ago when we moved here and we bought our mini-van we found an old pair of men's underwear in the back seat. :tongue_smilie:

Inside it is video games or these war/strategy type games called Warhammer 40K that involves all these tiny models. Outside they swim or have wars with their nerf guns.

:lol::lol::lol::lol: I emptied them of their contents, stacked them in two tall stacks and put them in my laundry/storage room. :D

I know, right? Like whether or not to adopt again. :D This place is the best. It's one big happy feuding and making up family. :tongue_smilie:

:grouphug: Babies babies everywhere!!!!! best wishes for a safe delivery.

:iagree: I actually thought this was a joke. There are people who really believe the sun goes around the earth?

Neurosurgeon?? I really think I am crazy. Really. Natalie's middle name is Sarah after my mother. I asked dh "Should we name her Olivia Carolyn?" Carolyn is his mother's name (she died of cancer several years ago). I am picking out middle names????????????

So I am standing in the bathroom this morning brushing my teeth and dh is in the shower (probably TMI) but as I am brushing my teeth my dh says completely out of nowhere "How about the name Olivia?" :svengo: No we have not "decided" yet...still praying...still talking. But that took me by surprise as he is always the hesitant one! I am both excited and scared at the same time by the thought of it. If you don't mind, please pray for us that we make the right decision!

Thank you for bringing up these questions. They are helping me think through this issue. Dh and I talked last night. We both agreed to pray about it individually and then talk about it again in a day or two. Luckily she is not due for a few weeks so we do have time to think and pray about it. But my heart......

More details to consider.... Pros We can afford it. It will cost us about $4000 to adopt her (a far cry from the $23,000 we spent to adopt our ds from Korea!) Our job gives us a "child allowance" for each child so this would actually give us an increase in pay (which we would use to give our nanny a big raise!) and it covers insurance for the kids as well as the cost to fly them home, etc. We have the "stuff"... we had NOTHING when we got Natalie...now we have everything! And then there's the obvious things you have all stated... they will be close in age, playmates, close bond, etc. (I don't have a sister and I always wondered about it....) Four IS a nice round number. :D Cons The biggest con is the immigration issue. It's a pain...not an unresolvable pain...but a pain. Worst case scenario is we would have to stay two more school years which is 2.5 years from now. That's how long it COULD take to get citizenship for the 2nd baby girl. We have already committed to coming back for another school year so we would just have to set ourselves up for 2 more years instead of 1. That's a big commitment. But we originally signed for two years and we have been here 1.5 years already and it has FLOWN by. We'll need a bigger vehicle. :D That's not necessarily a con though as I can't stand our car right now anyways. The visit this summer? I would have to put that out of my mind. Her adoption in Malaysia would not even be final yet so there is no way we could take her to the U.S. even if we COULD take Natalie. But, we still don't even know about Natalie so.... The good news is that if we don't go to the U.S. this summer, the school gives us the money they would have used to buy the plane tickets. You are all so awesome. I know a lot of people will say we are crazy! I just called my BFF in Michigan and she said to GO FOR IT. For some reason I feel more nervous about this than I did when we got Natalie...I think it is because I have never had two close together before and I wonder if I can do it? But our ahma lives with us so I have lots of help. OK, now that you have all the info... :tongue_smilie: