4 Months

Well, today we have been on the waitlist for exactly 4 months. According to the latest update from our agency, the current time on the waiting list is averaging 8 months. While there are no guarantees that it will be exactly 8 months for us, today feels like kind of a landmark for us. Half of the wait (approximately) is now behind us. (At least, the referral wait...there will definitely be more waiting after that, even harder waiting, really!)

We are getting frequently asked, if there is any adoption news. To lots of our friends and family, and at times us, it seems like we've been in this process for a loooong time. It has been a long time, just over a year now, since we started. So, we've gotten good at saying that this is the boring, no update phase of waiting. Just wait. Wait for the phone call that will forever change our lives and bring us closer to our girl.

We have been thankful for a busy summer, it made these 4 months go very quickly. Honestly, I hope the next 4 just as fast...even faster would be great! We have many birthdays to look forward too, the holidays...and then I expect by about January, I'll be really ready to see our little ones face. :)

I bought some cute fabric today to make a little photo  book of our family to send when we get our referral...and got some major cute inspiration from a new fabric store in Battle Ground called Aunt Tam's. I can't wait to get started on Lucy's room. I've kind of been holding myself back, fearing getting it all done and perfect and then still having to wait 6 months to put her in it! I am a major MAJOR nester so it's been a challenge to reign myself in. But...Aunt Tam's has the cutest fabrics and ideas. I told my mom it's my new "happy place". I want to live there! It has a little faux kitchen, bedroom, nursery...all beautiful and colorful and inspiring. If you live in the area, it is a MUST see. To see some of the darling stuff made from the goods at AT's, go here to visit one of my new fave blogs and tell her I sent you. Beth is an amazing photographer! love love love her stuff.

I was "featured" at Creative Parties and Showers!

I have never been "featured" anywhere...but today, I was featured over at my amazingly talented friend Shannon's blog, Creative Parties and Showers. It's chock full of fantastic party ideas! Really creative fun parties people...if you are planning one soon,  you should definitely check it out. My Robot for Hayden's 5th birthday party was featured today! I blogged about Hayden's party here.

Yes, I'm THAT mom.

That's right. I'm a Twilight Mom. Did you know there is actually a website, dedicated to Twilight Mom fans? It's true. The sad thing is, I'll admit, I actually prefer this one. Sometimes when I can't go to sleep, and nothing is on tv, I do visit it. Sick, I know. I can say that I do NOT own a pocket sized Edward, or a Twilight tshirt (yet...never say never).  I resisted reading the "saga" for months. I can be a little rebellious sometimes, especially when it comes to what "everyone" is reading. But finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and I had to see what the big deal was. I picked up Twilight. After 2 weeks of feeding my kids nothing but PB & J while I read the series...I was hooked. Sorry my friends that I gave flack. You were right. I did love it. It fed my inner 13 year old teenage girl longing for love and thrills...and vampires. The really funny thing is...I borrowed the books from my "little" brother...he's about 6 ft, 300+lbs, a truck driving, gun toting, deer hunting, beer drinking man. How awesome is that? (We also share a love for One Tree Hill, but I'll save that post for another day :)

SO, I did it today. I purchase a movie ticket for the midnight premiere of the second Twilight Saga movie...NEW MOON. Yes, Yes, I know it does not come out for nearly two more months. Yes, I know I'll be sitting there with a million girls crying over Edward and Bella. Yes...I know. And, Yes, I am excited about it. And just to show you how ridiculous I am...I will give you a preview. What fun is a post with no pics or video?

Robot Party for my 5 year old baby!! And a good blog link on transracial adoption.

Well, my first born baby boy is FIVE. I totally burst into tears on his birthday because I realized how big he was...how OLD he was. Five is way to old. Where has this half decade gone? ugh.

Anyhow, he has known for months that it had to be a robot party. HAD TO BE. So, I set to work finding robot stuff. I'm not a huge fan of character stuff (ie Thomas, Diego, Disney). I just really hate giving MORE money to those company than is absolutely necessary, you know? So, it was a homemade robot party. I made decorations out of canning jars full of my hubby's nut and bolt and washer collection, fancied up with some metallic pipecleaners. I served veggies and dip and party mix in tin muffin pans. I made robot tshirt (that I scored at Dollar Tree!) that I think turned out pretty cute. I also made I spy robots, which I forgot to take a picture of. Basically, a fleece robot filled with rice and all kinds of little trinkets. Then my mom and I sewed in a little vinyl window, and gave it with a little photo and directions of what to search for...I tried really hard to not give a baggie full of candy to our robot friends. So, they each got a fun tshirt and stuffed robot in the little goody bag.

I found a cake on the Cookie Magazine website. I'm not a huge fan of this mag, but they do have fun party ideas.

 

 

 

All in all, it was a super fun party...Hayden LOVED it. It was the first birthday that we let him invite who he wanted and he was really into it!

p.s. if you've never linked to Kristen over at Rage Against the Minivan...you should. She is hilarious, posting her theraputic posts on motherhood and transracial adoption. She always makes me laugh! She had a great great post today on interesting conversations in thier house. She has a 5 year old african american son, and two biological daugters, 2 and a half and an infant. They are in process of adopting another son who's currently waiting in Haiti for the adoption to be finalized! She blogged about how they are dealing with some conversations in home about the physical differences they have called "but Jafta doesn't match"...good stuff. 

dreaming.

I had my first weird baby dream last night. I had really strange dreams in both my pregnancies with the boys...so I guess this was kind of like that.

Last night, I had this crazy dream, that we had our girl. We picked her up, she was about 6 months old, and we flew home. We arrived at our airport, went through customs, no big deal. Then I realized when we arrived to our house that the customs people hadn't given me this peice of paper we needed to file with the court here at home. We only had 5 days to file this paper, before they showed up to deport our baby (in my dream only...I don't think that's real.) Anyhow, so the next day, I put baby girl, with all her dark curly hair, into my ergo, and we went back to the customs office. I was standing at the counter talking to the helpful lady, when she suddenly whispered to me, "you better get back here behind the counter with your baby and hide!" Of course, I did it, and in came an angry man, waving a blue handgun! He made the lady hold the gun against me and the baby, while he talked with another customs officer, and it appeared, the angry man was shopping for a new gun. He traded guns with the customs officer, and it was over. They let us go like nothing ever happened. Never got my special paper so our baby wouldn't be deported. Weird huh? The good thing in the dream was, during the whole scary thing, miss baby girl snuggled up calmly to me...not a peep while we were being held hostage. She was so sweet, snuggly, dark curly mop of hair. A sign of things to come, I hope! (the sweet snuggly calm baby, not the hostage situation :) Weird dream...but I did like seeing a face to that baby we've been wondering about for months!

And seriously, deporting a baby? That's just weird.