Apparently, there is a film festival in Moscow where Zombie Chickens are being featured in TWO, yes TWO seperate films.  From the Mixed up files of Mr. Thomas A Wicker:

 

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/05/25/104.html 

 

The first chicken-zombie horror comedy and the latest film from notorious "Kids" director Larry Clark, "Wassup Rockers," will be among the oddball offerings at the Drugoye Kino film festival, which opens at Rolan (in Moscow) on Thursday.....

 

That film is followed by "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead," a spoof horror movie set in a fast-food restaurant. Directed by Lloyd Kaufman and produced by Troma Entertainment, a company that specializes in gory low-budget movies, "Poultrygeist" was shown out of competition at the Cannes film festival this month. It has yet to go on wide release.

 

So I am beginning to wonder what was really in those drinks at Ruby Tuesday's in Mebane that night in March.

My company has several charitable ventures throughout this year.  For the month of May, there are 2 things going on.  First we are doing our annual "Stuffed with Hugs" event.  Our guests are welcome to come in and stuff 200 bears in each store for free and the bears are donated to a different charity (last year, kids with parents serving in Iraq, 2 years ago, kids effected by the tsunami in Southeast Asia, in 2002, kids of first responders in the NYC area, etc).  They also sell purple satin hearts for $1 and the proceeds go to different children's charities (cancer research, diabetes, research, autism awareness and the like).  This year the proceeds from the hearts & the bears are being distributed to the JCICS (Joint Council on International Children's Services).  One of their main functions is to oversee international adoptions, educate adoptive parents, check up on orphanages, etc.  So obviously this is going to be near & dear to my heart. 

 

For more information, check out www.buildabear.com or http://www.jcics.org/babw.htm

 

Heather

OK, so after a consensus of our closest friends, here's where we stand:

Jenn is unemployed, Thomas is unemployed, Christina is a perpetual student (and therefore underemployed), Stephanie is unemployed, Lenise is about to be unemployed, I'm underemployed, our friend Tony is about to be unemployed, Bob and Scott are both close to getting their bachelors and are therefore job hunting.  So after some alcohol and a long rather bizarre conversation with Lenise, Thomas and Christina, here is what we are proposing.

 

We're starting our own form of a crime syndicate: the Russian Zombie Chickens....our main source of income would be counterfeiting Russian Rubles, converting them into Euros and buying up property on the Italian Riviera which we could then rent out to the newly minted Russian Billionaires.  But we would also have legitimate ventures in retaurants (The croak 'n cluck: southern, french & russian fusion cuisines (fried chicken legs, fried frogs legs and vodka), a craft gallery (Jenn's beadwork, Christina's jewelry, Stephanie's pottery & my whatever) and then as a fall back plan we'd be professional guidance counsellors, since, as Christina put it, we may not know what we're doing, but we're damn good at telling everyone else what they should do.

 

The name comes from Thomas' attempt at sounding like a Russian chicken that has just been strangled.  The noise was so hysterical that we asked him to do it again but  after we resurrected the chicken and strangled him anew, he didn't cluck as well the second time around (per Christina "He needed more croak in his cluck" {hence the name of the restaurant}).

 

Also apparently, it's not against US law to counterfeit foreign currency and as long as we're not converting it into American dollars, the US government won't come after us. I will admit that I am suspicious of this piece of information, but since Thomas is our regulatory affairs guru, Lenise is the economist and Christina is working on dual degrees in Russian politics and bio-terrorism, I will defer to their judgement.

 

I strongly recommend that if you have any talents you would like to add to our burgeoning enterprise, please feel free to drop us a resume.  However, we will only be accepting candidates that are strange enough to fit in with our crowd, but not so strange that they pose any real threat to anyone or are on the verge of being committed to an insane asylum.

China has made some pretty major changes in its adoption policies lately.  Fortunately, we should not be affected by these, our dossier was in before they go into effect.

 

To read all the latest, try this website:

 

 

Also, these changes have a lot of people talking. including Paula Zahn (http://transcripts. cnn.com/TRANSCRI PTS/0701/ 05/pzn.01. html)

However, her panelists were apparently rather uneducated about the families adopting.  So let me clarify here and now: we are not looking for a 'china doll' nor are we adopting from China because we are under some delusion that Asian children are smarter than American children.  We are adopting from China because they have one of the more efficient processes with low occurence of corruption.  We attempted to adopt through US channels and, for those of you who know us, know it was a complete disaster.  We also have family who are Chinese & Chinese-American, so while our daughter will not look like Mommy & Daddy, we know Hope will look like cousins Grace, Christopher & Sam and Uncle Shao-Min.   We are confident that she will feel like family throughout her life as much as any biological child would. 

 

We are very much looking to 2007 and this should be the year where we receive our referral, and hopefully this time in 2008 is when we will be travelling to China.

 

I wish you all happy, healthy, peaceful and productive 2007!!

 

HLM

This means that after 8 months of work, our dossier is officially on it's way to China!!!! Our LID (logged in date) is when the clock starts ticking.  We will then wait 12-13 months before receiving our referral, and then we'll travel to China 6-8 weeks after that. 

 

 

1. One book that changed your life:
Narcissus & Goldmund by Hermann Hesse

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
It was on Fire When I Lay Down on it by Robert Fulghum

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:

Something REALLY REALLY long!

4. One book that made you laugh:
Fluke by Christopher Moore

5. One book that made you cry:
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

6. One book that you wish had been written:
How to figure out what you want to be when you grow up!

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Abstract Analysis

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Bear Necessities by Maxine Clark

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:

Chazown (it's been sitting on my night table for awhile now) by Craig Groeschel

The 13th document finally arrived from Washington DC.  Our dossier will be assembled and copied over the weekend and merrily on it's way to New York City Monday.  From there it will be reviewed, translated and sent to China.  Via con Dios.

 

Here's a VERY quick recap of everything going on here these days:

 

- I started at Build-a-Bear on Wednesday July 5th.  We've had a ridiculous amount of training, we're set to start floor leading on Saturday and Sunday and then we're on our own.  I think officially I'm in charge of the store for the first time by myself on Tuesday morning!! YIKES!

 

- We now have 12 of the 13 documents for our dossier.  The final document arrived at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC today.  Hopefully, it will be safely back here within 2 weeks and we will FINALLY submit our dossier around August 1st.

 

- Our first attempt at artificial insemination a) did not go very smoothly and b) did not take.  I guess we get to try again in a few weeks.

 

- We saw a Ozomatli in concert last night.  They are a combination Latin/Hip Hop/ House band from Los Angeles.  definitely something we wouldn't normally go to, but it's what a good friend of ours wanted to do for his birthday.  I liked the music, something different, but Greg wasn't so impressed.

 

-We saw Pirates of the Carribbean tonight, it was awesome!! I can't wait for the third installment.

 

That's about it from here for now.  More soon, I'm sure.

 

Heather

We have finally gotten documents 12 & 13 (the homestudy and the I-171 form).  They have both gone through the State Secretary of State authentication level and are now on their way to their respective Chinese Embassies (the homestudy to the one in Texas and the 171 form to the one in DC).

 

Given past experience, we should have both documents back within about 2 weeks (July 15th), at which point I will photo copy everything and send it merrily along to our adoption agency.  It will spend a couple of weeks there being reviewed and translated and then it will be off to China (roughly August 1st if everything goes smoothly).  This all means that we will have our referral next August (at the current rate of application processing) and we will be travelling September/October 2007. 

 

We also made our first attempt at artificial insemination.  Not a pleasant experience, but if it works, it will have been worth it.   If it didn't work...we'll have to see if we try this again so soon.

 

I also start back at Build-a-Bear on Wednesday.  I'll be an associate manager at the Crabtree Valley Mall store, not the store I've worked at previously, but with the manager I've worked with previously.  We also have a new assistant manager starting that day too. Elisabeth was my manager at Family Christian, and we both came from BBW and BBW pulled a coup and got us both back at the same time.  I now have 4 FULL days off and I'll start bright and early Wednesday morning. I can't wait.

 

That's about it for now.

Ok, so we have 11 of the 13 documents that are set and ready to go into the dossier:

Here's what we've got so far:

 

Marriage License - obtained from the Orange County Courthouse, sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well... (you will see that phrase frequently).

 

Criminal Conviction statements (1 for Greg & 1 for me) - obtained from the court clerk here in Durham County,  sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well

 

Letter of Intent - written by Greg & I, then notarized,  sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well

 

Financial Statement - written by Greg & I, then notarized,  sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well

 

Letters of Employment (2) - written by Family Christian and IBM, notarized, sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well

 

Phystical Statements (2) - physicals at Duke, notarized there,  sent to Raleigh for authentication, then sent to the State Dept in DC and then the Chinese Embassy in DC as well

 

Greg's Birth Certificate - obtained from Ohio, sent to Columbus for authentication, then sent to the Chinese Embassy in New York.

 

My Birth Certificate - obtained from New Jersey, sent to Trenton for authentication and then sent to Chinese Embassy in New York.

 

 

There are 2 documents left: Once the homestudy is completed in Texas, we get it and send it back to Texas for authentication and then send it back to Texas to the Chinese Embassy in Houston.

 

The I-171 form: Once the homestudy is completed, it is sent to the INS, it is then combined with the application (and $680) we sent in back in December and the fingerprints we had taken in April, they then send us the I-171 form, we photo copy it, attach a notarized letter stating that it is an exact copy, send the notarized copy to Raleigh for authentication, to the State Dept in DC and then to the Chinese Embassy in DC.

 

We then take some photos of our house and get passport photos, package the whole thing up and send it to our agency.  Who then send it for translation and then it goes to the CCAA and then we wait about 10 months until our referral.

 

On top of all of this, I am supposed to interview with Build-a-Bear to be an assistant manager at the Crabtree store, however the district manager was supposed to meet with me yesterday.  The remnants of Alberto came through, flooded the creek and caused the mall to be closed.  My new (current) manager has already accepted the other assistant manager position with Buld-a-Bear and will be leaving Family Christian in a little over 2 weeks.  We shall see what happens.

 

Keep you posted.

So we've got a good portion of our paperwork done.  I'm now in the process of getting everything authenticated at the state and federal levels, which basically involves shipping things back to the states from which they came and then sending them to the Chinese Embassies in New York, DC or Texas.  It's a beauracratic tangle.

 

We've also got some interesting news at work.  My manager, who has been there less than 1 month, has left with no notice.  We waited a month while she was closing her previous store down, she was at our store 2 weeks, when her grandfather was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer, she went to Florida to say her good-byes and help with the funeral arrangements.  Well...she decided to stay in Florida and help take care of her grandmother.  It's unfortunate, it feels like we were just getting comfortable at full staff....and now we have another change to go through.  With any luck, we'll bring the assistant manager from the Southpoint store over to manager our store, I'll go to Southpoint as senior sales associate (right, because despite the fact she was hired as an assistant manager with the title and salary, they haven't been doing the expected volume, so whoever fills her position, will have my salary and title, oh joy) and one of the guys at my store will step up into my position.  On top of all of this, the District Manager for Build-a-Bear is in town interviewing for a full-time Assistant Manager position for the Crabtree Valley Store.  The catch to all of this is that the AM from FCS at Southpoint is interviewing for the job too.  He's also looking for an associate manager for that store, which is the position I turned down in February.

 

I think that's all for now.  I'll keep you posted as we finish up our homestudy (another story for another date) and as things move forward at work.

 

Ciao

Yay, the Nursery is complete except for furniture.  It has taken us 2 and half months, priming, painting, wallpapering, installing chair rail, painting the decorations, buying and waiting for the new carpeting, but it's FINALLY all done.  Now, we only have about a year before Hope actually arrives.

 

Now we just need to get the homestudy out of the way and figure out what we're doing about the fertility stuff. But I'll post more on that at some other time.

 

Ciao

 

So yesterday we travelled all the way to Charlotte for 1/2 hour to get our fingerprints taken for INS.  It was 5 hours in the car down and back for 35 minutes at the Application Support Center.  We spent almost $700 and waited about 4 months for yesterday to arrive and it seems like such a let down.  At least it's one more thing checked off. 

 

We also finally have our homestudy scheduled.  It turns out that China requires 4 meetings for the homestuday and we are lucky enough to be able to count the information session and phone orientation as 2 of them.  So we only need to meet with the social worker twice, once at her house in Greensboro (scheduled for Tuesday April 25th and once at our house (time and date tbd). 

 

Our application is complete and in and it looks like we have all of our financing in place, so we should move along at a quick clip for the next month or so.  Once the homestudy is complete, it needs to be sent to INS and they will complete our I-171.  Once we have that, we begin the authentication process, so I take all of our documents down to Raleigh and get them authenticated at the state level and then we ship them off to Washington, DC so they can be authenticated by the State Department.  I'm contemplating taking a day off and driving them up to DC so I can get them authenticated without having to wait for FedEx et al.  I also think they might get done faster if I'm standing there waiting for them.  I guess I have some time before I have to make that decision. 

 

We also have our test results back from Duke fertility.  Actually everything looks fine, and there doesn't appear to be any reason for us to not be able to get pregnant.  It's weird.  But we'll meet with Dr. Couchman again on the 18th and figure out where we're going from there.  It's quite possible we may go back to trying the old fashioned way and talk to her again in 9-12 months.

 

Finally, the nursery is just about done.  All of the trim is up and painted, we've pulled the carpeting up and the new carpet will arrive and be installed on Tuesday (April 18th).  Once that gets in and I get all of the decorations up on the wall, I'll post some more pictures.

 

We also have some vacation scheduled.  We're going to....Disney World.  Yes, we are off to Orlando again, Memorial Day weekend.  Some friends of ours are going through the time share spiel at the Marriott in Orlando and they invited us to go along.  Since the lodging is free, and we're going to drive down together.  It seemed like a good deal and while we've done Disney  (a LOT in the past 4 years), we are looking forward to getting away for a few days and speding time with Lori & Tony. 

 

That's it for now.  Off to the showers.

 

 

 

So today was a big day on a couple of accounts: we mailed in the application so we can begin the homestudy process and I had the HSG (go to webmd for details on that wonderful experience).

 

So now we're 10% financially into the adoption, and we begin getting ready for the homestudy (I see lots of cleaning in our near future).  It's pretty exciting, the BIG application is pretty much complete, it's just some of the little things left.  We need criminal background checks and criminal conviction statements and we need to sign a couple more pieces of paper.  It's a pretty major step, everything else in the paperchase should be small in comparison.

 

We're also going forward with looking at some of the fertility issues.  We met with Dr. Grace Couchman at Duke a couple of weeks ago. I had the HSG today and while I'm a little uncomfortable tonight, the results looked good.  I'll have a blood test on the 4th and then we'll meet with Dr. Couchman on April 18th and decide where to go from there.   She seems pretty sensible and also pretty optimistic.  Worst (or best) case scenario is that I'm pregnant with twins and due at the same time that Greg has to go to China to pick up Hope.

 

That's about it for now.
Heather

The branding of individuality ceases to be effective when the individual in question is a goof.

 

 

hmmmm.....