Thoughts of 2007 and beyond

I know, I know, I haven't even wrapped up Christmas yet and I'm already doing a post for 2007 - oh well!!

2007 - what a year! I lost my dad just 6 short months after my mom died, found my friend again, saw other friends become parents for the first time, laughed, and cried. T became conference champ again, contracted MRSA and spent some time in the hospital. L played baseball and thoroughly enjoyed himself over the summer. When my neighbors moved to Iowa I not only lost a good friend but 2 sweet little carpet munchers whom I dearly love and miss. This is the year we were "supposed" to have seen little T's face, the year that we decided to do a special needs adoption and the year that my oldest son announced he was going to be a dad.

2007 - gone in a blink. Yes, it went by fast - too fast! What will I change, what will I do differently this year? One thing I know for sure - I will start living again. I will start doing things and not worry how it will affect our adoption. If a new opportunity presents itself I will not turn it down without even thinking about it. I will enjoy my boys, husband, and new granddaughter. I will trust that God has a plan for me and my family.

Resolutions? Nope, I break those anyways. I'm just going to eat better, exercise more, be more patient, more tolerant, and laugh. Our referral will happen when it's meant to. Life is just too short to sit here and worry about the what if's. Will I still stalk RQ? Of course! But - I won't worry about what is said because there is nothing I can do to change it. Will I bitch about the wait - oh no doubt, bitching is a women's right, isn't it?

2008 is going to be a great year! We WILL meet Little T this year, we will meet our granddaughter this year, T will graduate high school, we WILL travel to China, and L will continue to amaze me with his sense of humor and sense of self. 2008 - an Olympic year for China and a heart-stirring year for our family!!

19 Months and Grandparents??

We hit the 19 month mark yesterday. The latest rumor is that China will refer to the 19 of December 05. That will be just 5 days. And that means they have only referred from somewhere towards the end of September to December 19, maybe 3 1/2 months for the ENTIRE YEAR!!

So, are you ready for our news? I think the title gave it away but we are going to be grandparents!! Wow - its weird writing that. Grandparents. T's girlfriend is 5 months along and is due in May. She is having a little girl. Shocked? We were!! Shocked and disappointed. I think we have accepted it, what choice do we have. He still plans to go to college up in West Virginia and she does to. He can do it but it will just be a bit harder. We went to Big T's brothers house yesterday for our family Christmas and she went with us. Everyone could tell and asked me if she was pregnant. Then the jokes started. Poor T!! His uncles and cousins teased the hell out of him but he just smiled and joked right back. We should have warned his girlfriend about how they are but I think she was okay with the teasing and joking. At one point Big T's oldest brother handed T a full coverage chemical suit and told him he should wear that for now on!! Imagine the jokes getting worse from there. Too funny.

New Years Eve - what are you guys doing? I think we are going over to a friends house and party with them. Or maybe we'll stay home? Who knows, we are still up in the air for our plans...

Exciting Times

I've got to be cryptic here but there are some exciting things happening in our part of the world. No, it's not adoption related (man, I wish it was!) but it is very exciting anyways!! More news coming later...

A Different Way To Think

CCAA just referred through December 14, 2005. That is 6 days worth of referrals. Well, actually it's only 4 days due to the weekend. Sometimes they give LID's for the weekend and sometimes they don't. Either way, 4 or 6 days suck. I was holding out hope that they would actually finish December this month. Ha!! What fantasy world am I in??

I think I'll start thinking of this as how many more days until our LID. From December 14th until May 30th there are 167 days. Hey, that's not so bad!! (cough) 167 - nice round number (gag) So if CCAA continues to match 6 days each month....well...you do the math because I don't want to! It just makes me sick.

Little T - we know you are out there somewhere! Papa George and Nana Edie are watching over you for us!!

Wordless Wednesday - Merry Tossmas

Well....wordless video!!

Click on the Stop light!!!

http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm


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18 Months

18 months
78 weeks
549 days
13,176 hours
790,560 minutes
47,433,618 seconds

What else is there to say? Thank goodness Christmas is right around the corner otherwise I think I'd just go crazy!!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Decorating for Christmas

So I decorated for Christmas last weekend. Big T didn't want me to start so early (huh? early?) but I did. Wow - I didn't realize what a huge project I took on. I got him to go up in the attic to bring down the totes filled with decorations. He had the boys help and they kept coming and coming and coming! Soon I had 10 totes stacked up against my front door. As I started to wade through them memories flooded back and the tears started to flow. You see, the majority of these were mom and dad's.


I've mentioned before how much my mom loved Christmas and how much she loved to decorate. Well, she went above and beyond people! She would decorate each and every room in the house! Even rooms that weren't used and that people wouldn't see. It didn't matter. It was Christmas, a time to celebrate, a time for good cheer, a time to give, and a time to DECORATE! Ha - I can still remember daddy fussing about having to drag all that stuff in from the barn. He absolutely hated that part! We went to visit them in 2006 and all the totes were sitting on the front porch so Big T and I decided we would put them out in the barn. Well, daddy didn't like that one bit and he fussed and fussed. He said that he would take care of it and he was none too happy that Big T and I were doing it until...until I pointed out to him that it was JULY!!! He then smiled his wonderful smile and said I guess you're right!



I set up mom's Christmas village on my grandmother's buffet. This was one of her favorite Christmas decorations. She would get the angel hair from the store and spread it out on the buffet. Then she would lovingly take each little house, each little store, each little tree and create a wonderland right there in our dining room. I can remember her very first Christmas village. It had little pine cone elves that stood all the way around the entire village. Each elf held a lantern that lit up. It was as if they were guarding the village against harm.


Another one of mom's favorite decoration was the nativity scene. Big T was surprised I kept my mom's since I had one of my own. I set this up on our mantel. It looks so nice with the lace runner she gave me. I could always count on my sending me a new Christmas decoration and a new ornament each year!! Above the mantel I have the wreath and hanging Santa Claus and Snowman she gave me.


My Aunt Connie (actually, she was my mom's aunt!), whom I never met, used to make ceramics. She made this beautiful ceramic tree that lights up from the inside. Hmm...I'm not describing it too well. There are colorful pieces of plastic called globe lights that go in holes on the tree. When the light in the middle is turned on it looks like the Christmas tree is lit up. Here's a picture of one. This is similar to mine but much smaller.









Anyway, its old and its cracked and I'm not even sure it still works. Did I throw it away? Nope - brought it home. I'm going to have Big T take it to the garage (oh no!!) and see if he can fix it.



I also kept some of their Christmas ornaments. There are some that are older than me! We won't put our tree up for another week but I can't wait to get them out and tell the boys all about them!! Decorating the tree has always been something we've done together. Big T and I fuss with getting the lights on and then we get out the ornaments and hand them one by one to the boys for them to put on the tree. Trust me - we had some very interestingly decorated trees when the boys were little and could only reach so high!!

Sweet Face

Bitching and Sad

heh - that's right, its time for another pity party. I'm sad that my friends have moved away and I'm sad that we still don't have little one yet. I've been dreaming about her for so long and it just seems that this dream keeps getting fuzzier and fuzzier! Then I see where other people who were logged in well after us get a sn referral and though I'm extremely happy for them and the child I also feel like hey - its not fair! I've been waiting for almost 19 months now and here they are just logged in THIS YEAR and they already have a referral or they aren't EVEN logged in yet and they are paperchasing but they have their referral. Oh - that is so bad of me. I know. Again, I'm VERY happy that they have their daughter or son but I guess I'm jealous too.

aaahhhh shit....I just want our daughter!!!

Missing You

My neighbors left yesterday. I'm so sad. I'll miss them terribly!! When little one finally gets here we plan to take a trip to Iowa - where they moved too!! Jeez...all the way to Iowa!! Hey J - what were you thinking??

Anyway, I've been missing them and also missing someone else. I know you read this so I just want to say that I love you!! Please know that you both have been in my prayers and to call me if you need anything.

Short Weekend

Well, it wasn't really short because I was off Thursday and Friday too. We went to my brother-in-law's house Saturday and had a great time celebrating the Marine Corps Birthday! We brought D and H with us because they are moving to Iowa on Thursday and we wanted to spend some time with the rugrats. We are both going to miss them so much!! Oh - we'll miss C and J also! ha! I'll post pictures this week.

I volunteered to scrap some pictures for my agency CCAI. I did one book and sent it back in August and they sent me another huge box of pictures to scrap. I finally finished it this weekend!! This time I created 2 12x12 books and 2 smaller ones. I'm so happy to have that done! It seemed to have taken forever!! I really enjoyed doing it though because it allowed me to see all those beautiful little girls faces!!

Adoption news - none, nada, zip! Don't ask. China referred up to December 8th of 2005. Remember a referral is a picture of your daughter along with the basic information like date of birth, weight, size, etc. It took them 6 long months to get through November so there's no telling how long it will take to get through December even though December is smaller than November. Our agency received a new SN list last week so maybe we'll know this month, though I really doubt it. We should see her face in December or January. Only time will tell. I know that mom and dad are watching over little T right now and that puts a smile on my face.

One other thing happened this weekend - Friday night. T wretched his other knee at wrestling practice! He was doing the last sprint of the day and when he turned he just fell over. He has to go to an MRI tomorrow and its swollen. He's on crutches and has a knee immobilizer on it. Ugh - just before the regular wrestling season starts too!! November is just a hard month for him I guess...

One year ago yesterday

I was traveling yesterday - back up to Wisconsin - so I wasn't able to post.

Anyway - yesterday marked 1 year without my mom. Wow - a year already. I miss her so much! This time of year was her favorite. She always decorated each room. Poor dad had to haul the stuff up and down stairs and help her put it up, out, on! I ended up taking most of her Christmas stuff home with me and I'm looking forward to putting it out.

Mom had such a funny sense of humor. She would laugh until she had tears in her eyes at some stupid joke she heard. She was the type of person who would do anything to help out a friend or stranger. The world was such a better place with her.

There's more I want to say but I'm unable to now for many reasons...

I love and miss you mom!

Another Month

Yep, 17 long months waiting for little T. When will this insanity end???? Who knows. We just sit and wait. and wait. and wait. and wait. and wait. and wait!!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Karen over at Livin' in the Moment.

Rulez:

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.


1. We are adopting our 3rd child from China! (well duh!!)
2. Christmas is my favorite time of year.
3. My husband and I meet in college and his line was "Where's my orange juice?"
4. Styx is one of my favorite bands.
5. I love to play blackjack!!
6. I grew up in a small town where the water runs north.
7. Both my boys are my pride and joy!!

So now I get to do some tagging. Lets see -
Jonni, Stacy, Carla (who just posted a picture of her beautiful baby!!)

Happy Halloween!!

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Wordless Wednesday

 

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Interesting Conversation

Sorry guys - I meant to post again last night but I was out late partying!! HA!! NOT!!

Anyway, last weekend I went to my girlfriends babyshower. I was talking to another mom when she asked me if I was adopting from China. I said yes very slowly. She then goes on to say that her friend can't adopt from China now because she's single and how unfair it was. She said that China should be happy that we even want to adopt the girls and give them a better life. Those girls are just so lucky and my daughter will be so lucky that we've adopted her! WTF??!!! I told her that we would be lucky that China will allow us to adopt one of her girls and she said why - all they do is throw them away anyways. Jeez,I just shook my head and walked away. She tried to talk to me later but I just ignored her. Unbelievable!!