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Friday Update – 10/17/08

Adoption Update: No referrals this week, but several families received their court dates. We also decided this week to expand the ages we were requesting. We are now waiting for two siblings 0-42 months with one being under 18 months.

Life: Matt’s Grandpa found out this week he has cancer. Please keep him in your prayers.

Running and Push-ups: Yep still doing those, being consistent, but not progressing super fast.

Gardening: I finally transplanted my little seedlings and they are going through some major transplant shock. Maybe it is because they want from a nice humid little house to the dry desert air. I hope they perk back up soon.

Random: I finally have decided what I want for Christmas. Solar Panels! Our local utility is finally offering a rebate for the purchase of them (up to $15,000). A system for our house would run around $33,000. With the Federal and State credits we only need about $15,000 more. Now if my money tree would start producing I would be set!

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Friday Update 10/10/08

Adoption Update:  Three referrals this week, two infant girls and one infant boys.  Congratulations to the happy families!  Please pray for the sibling line to get some movement.  I heard that the couple at the top of the line has been waiting since mid-November last year, they must be going nuts.  I hope they get their referral soon.  The wait is hard not only because you are waiting for the joy of getting to bring your children home, but also because as an adoptive parent you know there is two sides of this child’s story and on one side there is heartbreak.  Missy did a great post on this subject this week, please take time to check it out.

Running Update:  I ran again this week!  Hurray for some consistency.

Push-ups:  I am definitely being more consistent with these.  I am going to be buff by the time we get to travel.

I actually did not have a very exciting week so not much else to get you caught up on.  It was cool, then hot, now it is supposed to cool down again.  At any rate the mornings have been absolutely fabulous.  Almost beginning to feel like fall!  I was able to ride my bike around town again to run errands and it was so nice.  I missed it this summer.

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It was a Tom and Jerry weekend

On Friday night we went over to my parents’ house to make a scrapbook for Tom and Jerry of their family, pets, and home, so that when Matt and I travel to Ethiopia we have this to show them so they can get familiar with the people, animals, and places in their lives.  (My mom thought of this great idea.)  I know we could just have taken some snapshots, but this was also a fun family activity that got everyone involved and hopefully made them feel a part of the process.  (Side note: before we travel we are allowed to send a soft photo album filled with pictures of just Matt and me so Tom and Jerry get to know our faces)

Matt and I holding up the cats’ page

My mom clearly trying to explain something to us (She was the only one who had scrap-booked before)

Jason and Michelle working away on their pages (which were awesome, we also did some pages for Baby A, I am pretty sure she will make her appearance before T&J)

My dad even got in on the action, he was our official circle cutter

We still have to do the pages for the nursery (that needs finished first), Matt’s sister, and me and Matt’s (yeah we forgot to take pics of ourselves).

 

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go garage sale shopping, there was a community garage sale, so we had high hopes.  There were several garage sales, but most were extremely small and not much to choose from, we still managed to score some fun stuff. 

A soft touch fire truck 

Tiger xylophone 

12 Pooh books for $1

Jackson getting concerned with why we keep coming home with toys

Matt playing with his hot wheels (yes we know that T&J could both be girls, but this boy wanted some hot wheels and I played with them as a child)  Jackson was totally cool with the hot wheels until someone almost nailed him in the head with a flying car.

We also scored a gender neutral, tiny kid’s bike and I already caught Matt working on it

 

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Friday Update – 10/03/08

Adoption Update:  Five referrals this week, four infant girls and one infant boys.  Congratulations to the lucky families!

Running Update:  I ran one day this week!  I was also going to run today, but woke up with a headache and I am not dedicated enough to run with a headache.  I did walk every day this week.

Push-ups:  I completed the last column of week 2 this week and will be finally moving on to week 3.  The sets are getting harder and harder for me, and instead of advancing a week at a time I have decided to advance a column at a time.  I don’t really care about getting it done in six weeks (obviously, it has already been more than that) so I will take it slowly.  I am sure I will get to 100 before Tom and Jerry get here.

Gardening:  My seedlings are doing great,  I will probably be able to plant most of them in the garden this weekend.  It is still fairly warm, but I think they will survive.

Jackson noticed the water droplets in the seedling starter boxes and attacked, it was pretty funny until he tried to bite through the plastic

Random Stuff:  There are two more tractor tires in the field behind my house along with several smaller ones, I plan on rescuing some of the smaller ones in the future to make a potato container in the spring.  If anyone is interested in rescuing tires just let me know.

A solution to the obesity epidemic in America.

I also learned about the Phoenix Permaculture Guild this week.  They have some interesting classes and a good tree buying program.

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Waking up to good news

The Ethiopian courts reopened early.  They were supposed to open October 9, but we got word this morning that they opened yesterday.  Hopefully this gets things moving again.

Thanks so much for the positive comments yesterday, they were very nice to wake up to.

On a random Ethiopian note, here is a link to an article on Lucy.

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Keep Hoping

Matt and I are still slowly preparing.  It is not so easy for us to keep preparing when we don’t know when Tom and Jerry will be here.  Sometimes it feels like it will never happen and you just shouldn’t bother reading a book on attachment, or prepare the nursery, or even think about child proofing.

Christine recently shared this post with me and the last paragraph really spoke to me at a time when I really needed to hear it.

Do not give up. Lay your all on the table. Everything is worth it. They are already yours, you have just not found each other yet. Keep hoping, keep praying, keep investing…they are coming. Be ready.

I had recently come to the realization that I had lost my hope that this would happen.  I had stopped day dreaming about what it would be like to take Tom and Jerry to the park or the zoo or to watch them play with their dad.  I started to pour all my focus to anything but being a mother or adoption.  I just stopped.  I didn’t want to prepare anymore, I didn’t want to dream anymore.

After a nice long talk with Matt last night and reading that post this morning I am feeling a renewed spirit.  I will allow myself to day dream again, read some books, prepare the nursery, and maybe even childproof the house.  I have hope again.  

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Friday Update – 9/26/08

Adoption:  There were no referrals this week.  The courts reopen October 9 and hopefully things pick up then!

Running:  I walked a lot again this week, hopefully next week I feel up to running.

Push-ups:  I so wanted to keep up with the push-ups this week, but I had a clicking pain in my right shoulder (probably from all the lifting I did on Monday and Tuesday) so I took a couple of nights off from the push-ups, but Matt kept up on his.  He is getting pretty buff!  

Gardening:  The tire gardens are full of dirt and ready to plant!  I just want to get a little fence up to keep the dogs away from the gardens, then the real fun begins.  I did plant a few other things this week.  (Well Matt did the hard work of digging the hole for me.)

Pomegranate Tree

Artichoke Plant

Gerber Daisies, because a girl has to have some flowers

My seedlings

Carter keeping the seedlings company

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One Year

Last year on this day Matt and I filled out our application to begin the adoption process. At the time the whole process from start to finish was taking less than a year and we thought we would be parents by now or very close to the one year mark. It is becoming apparent to us that is no longer going to happen. The fact is with international adoption you have to be willing to accept the changes, because there are always changes, in the process, in the timelines, in your agency, with government rules. So, for now we are rolling with it, staying patient most days, and more positive than negative feelings. We know one day we will hold Tom and Jerry in our arms and the wait will melt away. We happily await the day our family is complete.

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Friday Update – 9/19/08 (late edition)

Adoption Update: No referrals this week. I am really needing to see some siblings referred so I can feel some movement.

Push-ups: We started back on our push-up program this week! We had to start over at week two, but I don’t care, I am just glad we did them.

Running: I did not run this week, but I did start walking again and the weather was much more tolerable.

Gardening:

I started some of my seeds early this week:

Matt and I started working on the new garden beds today:

It was getting a little warm out so we had to come in and cool off for a while and we’ll head back out this evening to hopefully get some more work done.

A big thanks to my cute hubby! You have done so much hard work for me this week and it is very much appreciated.

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Friday Update – 9/12/08

 

Adoption Update: Our agency had five referrals this week, four infant boys and one infant girl, a sibling group of a girl and a boy ages 5 and 7 was also placed off of the waiting children’s list.  Congratulations to all the happy families!  The families waiting the longest right now are the ones waiting on referrals of young sibling sets.  Overall I am still doing fairly well with the wait and fully expect to be waiting into the new year.  In fact, I have always had a very specific date in my mind for our referral date ever since we sent our dossier to Ethiopia, but I didn’t even pick it in our Guess the Referral game because I wanted my referral sooner.  The date that has always been in my mind is February 23, 2009.  So if anyone wants in on the referral game and trusts my instinct, have at it!

I also met a fellow Inskeep this week through the blogging world who is also adopting through CHI.  They are still in the paper-chase phase, hopefully soon to be in the waiting stage.

In the meantime I have been doing some shopping for Tom and Jerry, mostly on etsy.com.  I love that place!  (side note, my friend Sandi just started her very own etsy store, so go check it out)  Here are some of my more recent buys:

 

Clock for the nursery:

Some embroidered diapers:

For some reason this one is my favorite, it makes me smile every time:

Running and Push-Up Updates:  Yep still not much happening in the exercise department, but Matt and I did discuss why we thought neither of us felt like working out.  It is HOT and we are sick of the heat!  For those of you who don’t know Arizona summers can be a little long and wearing, like long winters are to some of you.  This end of this week we finally started seeing temps in the 70s again!  Albeit only in the early mornings, but hey it is a start.  So I think exercising will pick back up, even though I am sure September has one more heat wave for us, it always does.

Gardening:  My little garden is still going strong and there is okra galore!  I need to do some more pickling.  I am also starting to get a few more tomatoes and it looks like I will have some jalapenos before long.

 

This week also marked the seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  My dad participated in the memorial held here in Maricopa.  (he is the one in the front of the group of bagpipers) 

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Congratulations!!!

Bill and Sandi got their referral today!  (Go here for more info.)

 

Sandi and I met online when we both had first begun our adoption journeys.  We chat a few times a week about pretty much everything, she has even taught me how to knit and given me tips on becoming a parent (always willing to answer my silly questions).  I am so very excited for her and Bill and I know without a doubt they are ready to bring their boy home!

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Friday Update – 9/5/08

Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals and probably none for the next couple of weeks.

Running and Push-Up Updates:  Same as last week.

Gardening:  I still have a ton of basil and didn’t want to dry it all to preserve.  A friend recently had asked me if I was going to make pesto with all that basil, I had never eaten (to the best of my recollection), let alone made it.  I found out it was pretty easy to make and I could freeze it for future use.  I tried this recipe and this recipe.  I made my pesto, froze most of it and then made myself this pasta:

It was pretty yummy!  I didn’t use cherry tomatoes because I had some full size ones from the garden to use and I forgot the peas, I don’t think they would have made a difference though.

Random:

I went to walk out the front door yesterday and about walked into a spiderweb that covered the top half of my door with a big fat spider sitting in the middle.  I had just been through the night before and there was no spider, but we did have a ton of bugs which were attracted to the porch light, so the spider was just being smart as to where to build her web, of course it ended up being a fatal choice.

 

 

She was pretty ugly and gave me quite a fright!

 

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Friday Update 8/29/08

Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals and probably none for the next couple of weeks.

Running and Push-Up Updates:  Let’s not talk about exercise this week.

Pets:

Carter has a favorite room in the house and it is the nursery.  Hopefully he is willing to share when Tom and Jerry get here.

Carter with Sammy

Carter in the crib

Gardening:

This week I chopped back my basil and decided to dry some for future use.

Me and the basil (not all this basil could be dried, you just pick out the good leaves and no stems)

One of the three spiders that we later found in the basil while pulling off the leaves (yikes I was holding three spiders and didn’t know it)

The dried basil (I also filled the little jar that fits in my spice rack)

 

 

 

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Friday Update 8/22/08

Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals. 🙁


Highchair I scored off of Craigslist for Tom or Jerry (of course, Jackson gave it a test run for us)

Running Update: I didn’t run at all this week. I still have been staying up too late watching the Olympics to bother with getting up early to run, but I have been riding the exercise bike this week. It is so much nicer to exercise in air conditioned comfort.

Push-up Update: We did them this week, well I still have one more set to do, but we did them! We did repeat week 2, so we are a little behind, but I thought it would take more than six weeks anyway.

Matt got a new-to-him toy this week:

Jackson was excited about the box

Carter was excited about the foam (he loves to eat foam)

Matt was excited for the new toy and that his wife let him put it together in the house because it was so hot in the garage

Random stuff from the web:

I was looking for something to do with old magazines and might have to give this a try.

All I have to say on this story is, “Seriously!?”