Cotter’s Corner

Yeah, I've not been posting here a lot. But man, I can't believe it's almost September. Time is really flying for some reason. It's like the older I get, the faster it goes. I'm hurtling to my death at an alarming rate now. Ugh!

Anyways, soccer is going good. I still get bad cases of "old man legs" for the days following our games or practices. One day they will adjust… one day. The good news? Just playing soccer and my wife's new attitude toward healthy eating has me down from a STAGGERING 257 pounds (right before we left for China) to a svelte 228 at the moment. And I show no signs of slowing down. I would actually be lower if I ate better lunches, but, I don't like to deprive myself. So, I'm not going to.

Also in soccer we've gone from losing 17-1 or 14-0 to where we are tying 4-4 or 1-1. Improvements? Yes. But we're also playing a team now that is a little better suited to our skill level. No, they don't suck, but they aren't an elite team either. And that little psychological boost helps. We are really improving as a team, but it's disappointing to see some of the team who never show up to practice and then whine because they don't play as much as they think they should during a game. Sad, sad. Oh, and I've made a team page, go check it out at: http://www.lebanonceltic.com

Since I'm in catch-up mode let me tell you that Ellery is doing well. We we're told that we WOULD have to adopt her here in the United States (after a meeting with the uber-expensive lawyer wherein she told us it was a formality). So, we're adopting her here in the U.S. too. Yay! Which isn't a big deal other than adding even MORE to our ever-expanding debt load.

Other children are doing well. School is started back now so Robyn is re-gaining her sanity from having to deal with them and their life-altering (not really) problems of being bored. 

Okay!

Robyn reminded me that Saturday was two things: First it was the two month anniversary of us meeting our little darling marshmallow and second it was her birthday!

Now, before you go thinking me to be a horrible parent you need to know that I *knew* it was her birthday. We had the parents over, but the party was kinda low-key. Ellery hasn’t been feeling the super-best for the past week and a half or so. It started with her getting a slight cold, which turned into darn-near pneumonia and now the biggest issue is that her little cute tongue is covered in sores and ulcers. And we have no idea why. It’s pretty painful for her to eat, but she still gamely tries to muster up a good attitude. I also notice that she’s got a little trouble talking as well. I think Robyn is debating taking her to the doctor today if they don’t look any better. Whew, you’d think after having two kids prior to Ellery we wouldn’t be the “nervous” parents who take their kids to the doctor for every little thing. But you’d be wrong there.

Wow, this roller coaster ride jut won't stop. Seems that we were good to go until we learned that the Chinese Consulate wouldn't make an appointment for us. We were initially told that shouldn't be a big deal, until we learned that they were not taking appointments on the day we thought (they stopped taking them the day prior) and were already completely booked and wouldn't take one more. So, we go from running around here packing and busting our asses to waiting for another whole MONTH. The earliest we can do it now is February 21. So, talk about your big let downs. I just found out, and when Robyn wakes up in the morning she isn't going to be a happy camper. She was giddy with the prospects of us getting our little girl earlier than we had imagined. I too was pretty happy because the short notice would have not allowed me to OCD and obsesses about the travel arrangements and plans and whatnot.

Damnit. 

This is not a drill!

This is not a drill! 

We learned not 5 hours ago that we will be leaving to go to China on Friday. That's right people, in 4 days we will all be on a plane heading to China. OMG! Hang on to your hats people, it's going to be interesting! More info when I have time to type it.

Our adoption agency has managed to secure some new pictures of our little girl for us! They are posted just to the right of this message, or for those who hate that, I will inline them here for your viewing pleasure.

Looks like we are going to be traveling Jan21(ish). We think. Maybe.

Which is about how this whole process has been, nothing definite, everything kind of fast-and-loose, which goes against my over analyzing tendencies. But, I'm going to continue to STFU since I just want to get there, get her and get home. In that order.

I'll post more when we find out more, but for now it's more hurry up and wait.

Oh yeah, and the pics!

She is ALMOST smiling in that last pic. Also, her face has some red candy stuff all over it that they gave her, but, doesn't matter. She's SO beautiful, we cannot wait to get her home.

No, it's not an exaggeration either. We were notified Monday that our agency had a girl for us to consider. Robyn and I saw her picture and fell in love. She's beautiful. And perfect. Here is what we know about her: She is 17 months of age (right now). She was abandoned in the city gardens by her mother (who left a note) and discovered by a policeman. She is albino and (from what we can tell from the pictures we have) has violet eyes (not completely red, so there is some pigment there – which is good news if it's not just a bad picture or trick of the light). She's healthy and happy and needs a family. We were allowed to choose her, and choose her we did. She's simply beautiful and if you look at Robyn and my pasty white skin, you'll see that she's going to fit right in.

I've shown her picture around here at work and it always make me laugh when people go: "…wait… She's Chinese right? Why is she blonde?"

From the indications that we have now (which may be completely wrong, btw) it appears that we will be traveling in early January. We're taking the whole family with us, I know, it's an EXPENSIVE proposition, we're really going to have to work on our financials to get this done, but none of that matters. I just want to hold my baby girl. 

So the family and I went to Asheville this year on vacation. It was kind of "last minute" because we still haven't heard anything from China and we were pretty sure we'd hear something this month. Alas, we did not and it appears it may take a little longer, so… we wait. And instead of waiting and missing all the kids "off of school" time, we decided to head over there to Asheville instead. We stayed at a pretty reasonable cabin in the hills and we were ten minutes away from Biltmore. Which everyone enjoyed touring. No, not cheap – but nice. The behind the scenes tour was awesome as well. Now we're back and ready for China to tell us to come over there and pick up our little girl!

So, the wife and I have exhausted what we think are all of our (legitimate) options to get my son in school at Wilson Central. We were going to try and cheat, but, we kind of ruined that for ourselves by some things that we did before we realized we did them. So, that leaves us with what the existing plan is – move. Moving. Ah yes, I liken it to having someone stab me in the face, repeatedly. No, it's not what I want to do. We have FANTASTIC neighbors and we live in a FANTASTIC neighborhood, but because the Wilson County Schools board requires that I send my son to their "prison" school, the wife and I decided that we had to take drastic action. We wrote letters, we begged and pleaded, but all of it to no avail. We're moving away from all of our friends and the great neighborhood we live in now to move to some place that will allow my son to attend a good school.

It completely sucks. But at this point we have absolutely zero alternatives.

We put our house on the market on Monday and we're looking in Mt. Juliet for a house. I'll be closer to work, which will be nice (and closer to the train station I use most often). So, that will all work out well. However, we've had tremendous growth in our existing area and it looks like we're going to turn a nice profit on our existing house. The gambling comes in picking a new neighborhood and hoping it experiences the same type of growth/return on our investment.

More as we learn of it, but, things have just gotten a WHOLE lot more interesting for the Cotter family. 

Lots of good things going on this week (well aside from the wife and my daughter being sick). I got my review yesterday and it went smashingly. I was told that I was doing an excellent job and I received a nice raise to go along with the praise.

Hey that rhymed!

Anyways, that made for a good Monday, but then I also stuck to my guns (after not being able to wake up to run early) and I ran Monday night as well. Running felt good. In a desperate attempt to get myself ready for the Fangtastic 5K. My friend Paul is ready to run it and is encouraging me to do so, as well. Of course, he’s knocking off 10-13mile runs on the weekends now while I’m struggling with less than two miles. My strategy has been to increase my speed and punish myself a little in the short term so that I can perhaps run slower – longer. We’ll see how it works out. I’m still in the “getting my wind back” stage now. I was able to run until my legs gave out before, but now the huffing and puffing has more dominance over how long I run. However, I’m getting there.

No news about China yet.

No news cars yet, however I’m making a definitive listing of what I want and I’ll be pouring over that for the next few months. And I’ll be sharing the boring details here. Oh, and I’m not buying new or anything – so no more calls for Dave Ramsey to come and whap me on the head. It’ll be used.

I’ve got a whole post about how pissed off I am with the Fox show Prison Break coming soon. So, don’t miss that!