Ray Winder Field

It was Happy Sad Day at Ray Winder Field on Sunday, September 3rd. It was the last day the minor league team, the Arkansas Travelers, were playing at the vintage baseball field that, according to t-shirts, has been around for 75 years. If you haven’t been there, it’s got all the charm of its 75 years: the old wooden seats and the intimate, humble space and, of course, the requisite organ that will surely be transported to the newer, fancier stadium being built in North Little Rock. It’s also got some “modern” conveniences—or oddities—like the bathrooms that are a solid sheet of metal. Good for hosing down, I suppose.

I’m not old enough to have a 75-year history with the place. In fact, I’m a Johnny-come-lately. I started going to the Travs games in the 1980s when I was in college. My fondest memory of those days is the Beer Man! who serviced the rowdy crowd on the bleachers behind third base and passed away some years ago.

Luke has a more entertaining history with the Travs at Ray Winder Field. He’s the only person I know personally that has won a Clunker Car—a two-toned Chevy Chevette that, after driving around in it and referring to the unused car as “his OTHER car” in a bragging-cuz-I-got-two-cars kind of way, he sold for 100 bucks.

Luke’s also the only person I know who’s called Bingo at the Travs game. In between bellows of “B-12!” and “O-65”, he’d call out, “Soooomeeeboddddy bring me some Naaaaaachos!” and he’d have 5 orders of them in 5 minutes.

I think Henry will remember his short, 4-year history at Ray Winder. At least, I hope he does. He might drive past it one day and think, “That elephant sanctuary sure reminds me of baseball.” That’s one of the ideas floating around for using the space. But I hope Henry remembers the last game. We scored some box seats through friends of Luke’s—this was major since an hour before the game we couldn’t find any seats and gave up and headed home. We got a phone call during the 2nd inning about the seats and went rushing back. We sat 5 seats down from the Governor and First Lady. Not that we voted for him! Ever! A man in the first row gave Henry a ball he caught that had an awesome black smudge on it from maybe a bat. We later had the ball signed and dated by Bill Valentine, who Luke explained to Henry is “Mr. Travelers.” Henry was also given a set of trading cards by another nice stranger and Luke caught an opposing team’s cap that a player threw into the stands and gave that to Henry (Mr. Travelers also signed that but I doubt he knew it was a Cardinals cap). It was definitely a happy day. The Travs won, by the way.

So long, Ray Winder Field. So long to being a block away from organ music, the 7th Inning Stretch, the scary donkey/horse mascot and 5 orders of nachos. It was fun!

Timeline of Adoption So Far

Here’s a timeline of adoption events to date, for those going through the process, or thinking about it, or just curious:

Spring 2004 – Started talking more seriously about adoption and started looking into agencies.

August 2004 – Completed and turned in the preliminary application.

September 2004 – Attended the required adoption workshop.

October 2004 – We completed the formal application. This included essays, reference letters from friends, doctor’s notes, letters from employers, police reports, proof of insurance—I can’t remember what all, actually. Everything had to be notarized. Then all the notarized documents had to be certified by the Secretary of State’s office. Some had to be re-notarized because the notary neglected to put his/her expiration date or some other thing like that. And then re-certified.

December 2004 – Home study interview was done. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned for that day!

January 2005 – Pre-filing the I-600 A with Immigration. I think this is when we went to Memphis to get fingerprinted. We waited a long time for this. They mis-filed our application so they never scheduled an appointment for us. After investigation, we got on their schedule but they forgot to tell us that they changed locations. Still in Memphis, thank goodness, so we eventually got there.

February 2005 – Home study was completed.

May 2005 – Our dossier was complete! And sent to India.

July 17, 2006 – Referral! A year and a couple of months after completing the dossier, we received notification of a referral which means that they had a child in India who was available to us should we accept the referral. We received only medical records.

July 19, 2006 – Henry called our social worker and accepted the referral. She was born March 1st and is at the Indian Society for the Rehabilitation of Children in Calcutta, India. The name given her at the ISRC is Gargi. We have named her Tess Amelia Starr. A few days later, we received her picture—the only one we have.

September 12, 2006 – NOC granted! Another big hurdle since this can get seriously delayed. This is a No Objection Certificate and means we are allowed to adopt her.