A Season of Change

Spring is definitely in the air. You know it’s Spring in Oklahoma when the severe weather arrives. Sure enough, we are supposed to get some severe storms this afternoon/evening, the first of the year. Thus begins the rainy and stormy season in Oklahoma, from now until around the 4th of July, a season of high winds, tornadoes, wall clouds and lots of rain. Why the crazy weather? Well, as I understand it, during the Spring months the moist gulf air sweeps up into the Midwest and clashes with cooler air and fronts coming in from the West.

Other signs of Spring abound…..lots of redbuds, daffodils and tulips in the neighborhood. Although we saw 3 bald eagles soaring over the bluff last weekend, I suspect those will be the last sightings until next winter. With warmer weather will come the Spring fishing season, thus bringing many fishermen into the cove, as well as pontoon boats and sailboats for the more leisurely weekend crowd. And, who could forget the season of “one bird per buoy” at the dam (an inside joke for a certain blog follower) and the return of the hummingbirds in a few weeks? Yes, change is in the air.

There are also changes going on in the Hamel household as we continue to prepare to bring our little guy home. I mentioned in a previous post about the possibility of making a change of work environment, and this has been finalized. Beginning April 6th I will be working in the Owasso clinic which is connected to the YMCA. My hours will change to 7:30-4:00, Monday through Friday. We think this will be much better for our little guy as it will have me home by 4:30 each evening, thus allowing me to be of greater assistance with housework, homework and evening tasks with our little guy.

We have also purchased a used vehicle in good condition, a 2002 Chevy Malibu which we got a great deal on from a family friend. The vehicle I currently drive, a Toyota Celica has 192,000 miles on it. Since we want to return to China in a year or two for another adoption, reliable transportation long-term was beginning to become a concern. This vehicle was garage-kept and only has 45,000 miles on it. It allows us to have 2 practical family vehicles, with Angie driving the Malibu and me splitting my time between the Celica and 4-Runner. At least we shouldn’t have to worry about reliable transportation for a few years.

We continue to do some home remodeling projects. The master bedroom has been completed with the exception of the closet doors and some furnishings, and we are moving on to the master bathroom. Our little guy’s room still needs to be painted and have a ceiling fan installed. We are also converting the back office into more of a combination office and classroom. Most of my projects are on the outside and include clearing below the bluff (a veritable tick incubator and poison ivy farm!), treating our large deck, a bunch of caulking on the exterior of the house, etc. Lots to do, but we won’t want these projects hanging over our heads and consuming our time upon returning home from China.

Our homeschooling plans continue as well. Our curriculum is set as far as Phonics, Handwriting and Reading. We still have a bit of decision-making to do with respect to Language and Math, although we will probably use the Singapore Math curriculum; we just need to get a better idea of what grade to start him. The Tulsa World did a lengthy 2-part series this weekend on homeschooling which can be viewed at the following address: tulsaworld.com/homeschoolseries.

Angie is a huge Duggar family fan. For those not aware of who the Duggar’s are, they are a family with 18 children who live in Arkansas and have a show on television every week. They have just written a new book and were in Tulsa on Saturday for a book signing at Barnes & Noble, which also included some Q&A, family singing, etc. So…..since Angie was gracious enough to go see Sean Hannity with me a few years ago (on her birthday, no less!), I thought it only fitting to take her to see the Duggar’s. There was quite a large and enthusiastic crowd on hand, and Angie really enjoyed herself. No, that is not us in the custom made t-shirts, nor do we know who they are.....it was just the best close-up picture we were able to get!

Today marks day 38 of our LID-LOA wait. Absolutely no new news or contact since the last blog post 2 weeks ago. As mentioned before, this is really a dead period since we can reasonably expect to wait 90-120 days, although some folks have gotten theirs recently in the 60-90 day range. At any rate, when our LOA arrives we will have 6-8 weeks of frantic preparation before traveling, which I will go into more detail on at a later date.