The bane of my existence

Toads!

Every spring since I have lived in this house, the toads come out of hiding and congregate in my pond to have an orgy! They are pretty much here from May thru September, sometimes into October. The first year it happened, I was totally grossed out, but now I have just come to accept it; my alternative is to fill in the pond which I don't want to do. These creatures only come out after dark and and most nights there are two or three of them, but some nights there are so many it looks like a science fiction movie! They are ugly and excessively loud. These are not cute little green frogs, these are ugly, gray/brown/black reptilian looking creatures. The noise they make while calling their mates is indescribable! Not a nice little "rrrbbbittt", more like a "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and this goes on well into the night, until day break. My little Scottie dog Rosie absolutely flips out when she hears them, crawls under chairs, shakes, and just wants to hide. All the neighbors know when the toads are in my pond as they can hear them as well. One night last summer, my neighbor and I had had enough of them and after a little liquid courage stood over the pond and caught at least 10 of them, put them in a bucket and carried them to a creek and set them free. The one thing we forgot to do was mark them with spray paint to see if the same ones made it back to my yard, because they were back in full force a few days later. Well these things being not the smartest of God's creatures, sometimes find their way into the pool instead of the pond and I am forced to fish them out in the morning. I take the long pole with the skimmer net on it and scoop them up and flip them over the fence into the alley. I am just waiting for the day when some unsuspecting driver finds a flung toad land on his windshield and gets an up close and personal view of "Mr Toads Wild Ride"! Well this morning was no different and of course found one in the pool. This time I think he landed in the neighbor across the alley's yard, maybe he'll make that his new home. I have attached a picture below of the one I fished out this morning just so you can understand my absolute disgust at these amphibians. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of them, I am welcome to suggestions!



On the adoption front, it appears that several agencies are going to receive their accreditation certificate on July 4th! WHOOOHOOOO. This is what we have been waiting for for the past seven months! It should not be too much longer before I get my courtdate, but I am beyond speculating when that might be. I just hope Katia and Pasha like toads!



Jane

We're lining the animals up two by two!

I am sick of rain! It has been raining here in Dallas nonstop for the month of June, there is flooding all around us, my pool looked like it was about to spill over until I drained several inches of water off of it today. I am sick of fishing toads out of the pool! One went to toad heaven the other day and thank goodness Jose was here to do the yard and he got that one out, I wasn't about to touch it. The pond is spilling over. The dogs hate to go outside in the rain, heaven forbid they get a drop of water on their paws, they might just melt! Daisy I can understand (Hurricane Katrina survivor, had her share of water then) but the other two are just being doggy divas. They look so bored, I wish they could color, that's a great rainy day activity! The air conditioning in my house went out today, I am waiting on the AC people to call me back to let me know when they can get over here and fix it. We may have to go stay at a hotel if the weather gets too hot and they can't get over here until next week. There's not much you can do outside with all this rain, so after looking at Katia's room, I decided I didn't like the quilt I originally got for her and found another one that I like better; look below and I posted some pictures of their completed rooms, her's with the new quilt.

Nothing too new on the adoption front. My agency is not very forthcoming with information so I glean most of the updates on reaccreditation from other's blogs and various chat sites. It does appear that 12 agencies have gotten word that all their paperwork has been approved and are awaiting their accreditation certificates. As soon as the certificates arrive, they will forward them on to the regions and hopefully courtdates will be set. There is some indication that the certificates will start arriving next week, so we all have our fingers crossed that this is the case. Keep those good thoughts and prayers coming.

Love, Jane

Katia's new quilt

Pasha's finished room:

I couldn't resist posting this silly one:

Rosie on Toad Patrol over the pond

Rumors

There is a rumor circulating that a few of the U.S. adoption agencies have received word from Moscow that they will be getting their reaccreditation certificate very soon. If this is true, this is very good news! But the rumor mill is a very scary place. I have been down this road before with promises made and yet they never came to fruition. It does appear that this one has some merit to it as there is more than one agency reporting this; we will see.

I also got a call from my agency saying that the court is wanting some updated documents, is this a sign of good things to come? I hope so!

Do you understand why we call this thing called Russian Adoption a rollercoaster ride? Stayed tuned for any further updates!

Jane

Nothing New

I really wish I had some news to share, especially good news; but I don't have anything. I am still endlessly waiting for this re accreditation of my adoption agency. I have begged to get some updates on the children, measurements, weights and pictures; I am hoping they will at least come thru with that. I am so afraid these kids will not remember me or worse, feel like they have been abandoned yet again. This is so unfair to them. There is also the possibility that a Russian family could come forward and try and adopt them. This is a remote possibility as these kids are older and most Russian families want infants or really young toddlers, but it is something that concerns me. Even though I signed papers indicating my intent to adopt, Russians have precedence and they are not mine until the Judge says they are mine. I really don't think I'll hear anything this week as it is a holiday week in Russia and everything seems to shut down. Please continue to pray and send good thoughts that this will end soon, this really is becoming unbearable.

Jane

Edited to add:

Here are some statistics about orphans in Russia, this is why we need these kids home now!!

The statistics are alarming...

More than 700,000 orphans are living in 2,000 state-run orphanages.

Of those, 95 percent have a living parent unable to or unwilling to care for them.

That doesn't include the estimated 2 million to 4 million homeless orphans living on the streets and in railway stations.

More than 80 percent of Russian orphans in state care fall 2 or more years behind in school by the time they are 12 years old.

Of those who are not adopted and leave the orphanage between the ages of 16 and 18:

50 percent of the girls become prostitutes
40 percent of the children become addicted to drugs or alcohol
40 percent commit crimes
10 percent commit suicide
Just 1 in 10 former Russian orphans becomes a functional member of society.

132,500 children are abandoned to the state in Russia every year, up from roughly 67,000 in 1992.

Nearly 4,640 Russian orphans were adopted by Americans in 2005, down from a record 5,865 in 2004.
13 out of every 100 children adopted by Russians are eventually returned to the orphanage.
40 million children in the former Soviet Union are living in poverty.

Sources: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Commission for Children at Risk, Human Rights Watch, European Children's Trust, Rosstat Agency