Odd Odds-n-Ends Wednesday

Let's see, Alex survived his 5.5 minute ear tube surgery, and I survived 30 minutes of recovery terrors... no kidding, 30 solid minutes of him thrashing about while I tried to keep him from whacking his head on something. And of course, the more I restrained him, the more he wanted free. Thankfully, after the 30 minutes, he settled down and enjoyed a popsicle and a cup of apple juice, got dressed and we left. He took a nap in the car and while I ate breakfast, filed my nails, and drove (sign, then drive;), and we had a lovely day together. We visited our adoption agency (hoping to nudge our packets from them so we can really get started) and of course he charmed them all, had lunch together, and went to a new Chinese grocery store for something Faith had been looking for the last time we went to one. I attached a few pictures of Alex... they're from the summer, not from the surgery, but I love them and they show his serious and his fun sides... just like Wednesday :o)

When we got home, we got all the info/forms/etc. from the adoption agency to really get rolling and are now entrenched in what to do next and getting it all organized. Birth/marriage certificates, tax forms, financial statement, fire inspection, driving records, police clearances, physicals, book reading lists, employment letters, child abuse clearances... and a few new ones too: child support clearances, residential history, duty of candor, etc... and the fees, don't forget the fees... $23 here, $25 there, $9 for this, $30 for that (and then comes the homestudy fee... add a couple of zeroes). Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!!!

And here's the coolest... shows just how disorganization can truly pay off... to the tune of about $16k!!!

In January 2008 - not last month - we called to have our 401k from Giant rolled over into our current account... straight rollover, no money out, no tax fees, etc. They sent us the check made out to Fidelity, so we could just turn around and send it and the form back to Fidelity (dunno why it has to be that way). We sent it back and thought that was that. Well, evidently they sent it back to us in March because it was missing something... and it slipped thru the cracks. No kidding, a HUGE check sat around our house from March 08 to February 09, that we thought was safely tucked away in our 401k (which in this past year, wouldn't have been so safely). So Wednesday, while I was with Alex all day, Bill had some time to himself and was poking around in our files, getting ready to do the taxes and found the check they'd sent back to us. We both thought we were in HUGE trouble with tax penalties, etc. thinking it was supposed to be re-deposited/rolled-over within the 60 days or whatever. So we immediately called the number on the letter with the check and thankfully because it was made out to Fidelity, the guy just looked it up on the computer, said, ah yes, it's listed as outstanding. There were NO issues with taxes or anything... Thank You God!... and in fact, the guy said, well if ever there was a good time to be OUT of the market, this was it... you probably just saved yourself about $16,000 in money that wasn't lost! Tell me, who but God could've thought that one up?... who but God could use our chaotically crazy houseful to save us $16k?!? Now... if only we could use it for all those "fees" above... but quite obviously, God's got our backs... so not to worry.

Ok, that's enough odd odds-n-ends for now. Let's Roll!!