Bumper stickers, spring storms, and adoption.

Yesterday I passed a semi-junky pickup truck on MoPac, and the bumper sticker read, "Guns kill people like spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat." I had to ponder that one for a while. Was this guy in favor of spoon control?

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Saturday I went to go see some of the free SXSW musical offerings at the Dog and Duck Pub. Some friends of mine were playing, and they had a tent set up out in the parking lot and good beer on tap. When I left the house to go down there, it was about 78-degrees and a tad bit muggy, and off to the west, there were some pretty gnarly looking clouds heading our way. By the time I got to the Dog and Duck, it was sprinkling. Soon, the clouds were directly over us, the wind had picked up remarkably, and the temperature was dropping by the minute. Then the rain came. It was hard and sudden, coupled with loud thunder. Everyone huddled under the tent while rain blew sideways, knocking over anything that wasn't held down or weighty. It was exhilarating, and a little scary. This continued for about 20 minutes, and then as suddenly as it came on, it left. And a huge rainbow remained, arching up toward the state capitol. The temperature had dropped about 15 degrees, and it was chilly, despite the bright sun. If the bluebonnets raging, and the mountain laurel if full bloom hadn't already clued you in, this storm clearly announced that it is springtime in central Texas.

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Today I was told by my adoption agency that I should really plan on being in Vladivostok until the 26th. Get out your calendars kids: that means I'll be in Russia for NEARLY A MONTH. It all has to do with this mandatory 10-day waiting period they require after the adoption court date, and then the time it takes for a courier to go to and from Moscow to file the paperwork needed for us to leave the country with the baby, and then a couple of extra days built in there...just in case.

The only upside is that most of this time we'll have the baby with us, which will allow for some really important bonding time. No t.v., no phone. Just Mom, the baby, and me. I really think it will be good because her world is going to totally change. She needs to get used to us and trust us before we take her on a gazillion hour plane ride half-way around the world. And, luckily, it's not as miserably cold as it was when I went in December. It's actually been getting into the 40s during the day (with still quite a bit of snow and into the teens at night, but still...it's better than -12 like it was last time I was there).

The down side to all of this time stuck in Vladivostok is that, well, we'll be stuck in Vladivostok. Bad food. No t.v. Cold weather. Unfriendly people. Unfamiliar language. Not to mention the expense of paying for a hotel room for weeks on end. I think that's part of the whole "10-day waiting period": It forces travelers to stay there longer and pump their dollars into the sickly economy. Meanwhile, I'm paying a housesitter to live in my house and take care of my 2 cats and a fish. And then I come back to the stingy American "Family Medical Leave Act," which provides me with 12 weeks UNPAID maternity leave. And while mothers who give birth are able to claim short-term disability insurance, and receive at least some of their income, if you adopt, you get no such help (despite the fact that I carry short-term disability insurance). In other words, May and June are going to be very lean months.

But that's okay. Because we'll just be hanging out at home, getting into a routine and learning about each other. It's so crazy that I'm about to be someone's mother!! The concept is just huge.