America runs on Dunkin DUNCAN!

Today we were able to see our 'little man', Duncan, and 'baby girl', Gossip. It's been a week since we've seen the kiddo's and we missed them terribly.

The day started off perfect (oh... and ended that way as well). Kensington slept throughout the night - well, Chris woke her up three times to feed her, but he got her before she cried for food. After her feedings and diaper changes, she quickly fell back asleep. He claims to have "figured this out".

This was the first day I'd been out of the hotel (and now beach house) before 10am. I have this weird thing about coffee. On my 1hr 45min trip into the office each day, I normally stop at Dunkin Donuts twice for an extra-large light & sweet coffee. If I have anything cold to drink in the morning before coffee, I can't drink coffee. If I don't have coffee before 10am, I can't drink coffee at all - but, if coffee is the first thing in my system in the day, I can drink it all day. It's the small OCD in me. Anyway. Today I had coffee from DD for the first time in a week. And they did it just right - Hallelujah!

We got up at the crack of dawn and drove to the truck stop at the NJ/PA border (yes... to those future adoptive parents reading this blog... Walmart, Chinese Buffets and Truck Stops will be a part of your story as well) where we met Dee. She watched Kensington while we traveled into PA to get our FBI screenings and a quick drive-by the house to see the kiddos.

When we got to "The Packaging Place" with the huge UPS symbol on the door, we went in and handed the guy behind the counter our registration paperwork and told him that we were there to get our screening. "we don't do that here."

I gasped! "The UPS website list you as a screening location and we called on Wednesday and were told to come in today."

"Sorry. We don't do that. You can check the UPS store in Mt. Pocono if you want." (which happens to not only be 20 miles west, but one of the places that said they were booked until Monday).

Chris and I were devastated! We traveled all this way to get the screening done and this isn't the place. I pulled up the UPS site on my Blackberry. "Chris... it says it right here. Eagle Valley Mall. Wait. The mall only says 'Eagle Vally Printing', nothing here says Eagle Valley Mall"

We traveled across the street into the other shopping center, and around the corner, in the back, we saw the REAL UPS store, and not just an authorized UPS shipper.

It ended up taking less then 2 minutes a person to get scanned. We told the UPS employee what happened across the street at she informed us that they have had constant issues with the owner of The Packaging Place. She told him that while she understood not wanting to send people to UPS if they are just shipping/faxing/copying items... but if people come in for FBI background checks, to please send them across the street. He refuses. All I have to say is - Karma!

After getting scanned, we called Interstate with our transaction numbers, along with Steven from Rep. Siptroths office with the same information and then headed to our home to check the mail and pick up a couple items.

We opened the garage door entrance into the house and we greeted by a very excited Duncan! After giving him a stuffed goose that we bought, we walked up the stairs into the house and was hit with a horrible smell. It's not the littler box. We walked around the house and it was something in the kitchen, but couldn't tell what it was. There was chicken in the trash that gave off a small odor, but there was something else. Something that smelled like death. And so it was...

Not visible to the us at eye level, but if you looked in the aquarium, at a certain angle, you you see two dead Tinfoil Barb fish (that were on the verge of dying before we left because the school of Blood Parrot Fish refused to let them eat) floating on the top of the water. It was the sickest thing ever! After spraying a can of Fabreeze, we rock/paper/scissored to find out who was going to fish (pun intended) out the dead creatures. I lost. Actually, with the smell in the house, we both lost.

We grabbed a couple more of the smaller outfits for Kensington, checked the answering machine, and were out the door.

As we were headed back to NJ, we got a message from Interstate letting us know that they have the scans and that it would take approx 24 hours to process through all of the systems (so they say), and we should be cleared by Monday afternoon. So... just a couple more days until we can bring Kensington home.

We got a lot of calls, emails and texts messages from people concerned about us. Thank you all... Know that we are fine. Know that Kensington is fine. Not being cleared by PA in time was a PA agency over site and an inconvenience, but not an issue in the adoption itself. I'm just happy that we'll be in PA within the two week period of her birth to see our pediatrician. We're looking at this in the best of light - it's just an extended vacation at a beach house (yes... with snow on the ground - and have you seen us. We're so white that people know we don't do beaches).

Kensington got her second bath today, and learned how to say "Daddy". Okay. I made that part up - she didn't have a bath today :)