So much to do-so little time!

I feel as if all of a sudden the holidays are right upon us! I have so much holiday related stuff to do, plus I am reorganizing my daughters room and must do a thorough cleaning of the house in preparation for our homestudy on 12/11. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. Our social worker sounds great and I know other couples that used her, I feel comfortable with her.

I was sick through the Thanksgiving weekend and got nothing done around the house, but did get a little shopping done. So much to do so little time. My best friend is helping me on Thursday night organize my daugther's room that is over run with clothes she outgrew!

I hope by next weekend things are a little more under control. I have a few vacation days I am using to get stuff done, for the adoption and for the holidays. I picked the best time to dive right into adoption huh!

On a brighter note, it seems I survived the corporate merger and have a new manager who I hear is a really nice lady. I will know more in the upcoming weeks, but I feel a sense of relief and feel confident I still have a job. I hope so, my company pays up to $5,000 towards adoption assistance!

The three snowmen

Yes this is a wierd title, but I will explain it.

I have been working on the photo and layout for our Christmas card, which is photo of our daughter in her Christmas dress. I upload my photos to walmart and play around online for hours, enhancing the color, cropping the pictures, picking the style and ordering samples to see how the color comes out. I am a nut! Since I have quite a few Jewish friends who do like getting holiday cards, I usually get a "Happy Holidays" greeting and try to avoid religous greetings. I found one I like on the Walmart site. It has blue snowflakes, a nice font, says "Happy Holidays" and three snowmen on it.

Then it hit me. That's us-we are the three snowmen. Me, my husband and daughter. I might as well pick this greeting because I am praying this is our last Christmas as the three of us. I am hoping to be a family of four by next Christmas.

Of course, I am very aware that we should have been trying to get a three month old as well as our almost four year old to pose right now, but it did not turn out that way. I thought 2006 was going to be our year. It turned out to be a nightmare of a year. 2007 will be better!!! By January we should be good to go and placing ads for birthmothers as well as advertising online! We will be a successful adoption story!

So for this year we are the three snowmen, but next year we'll be looking for a greeting with four snowmen!!! :)

I have the best friends...

I really do! Most of my friends that know our adoption plans have really been thinking of us and how they can help us! I am humbled by the outpouring of concern and offers to help in whatever way they can.

One friend is moving today from NY to Ireland. She has a brand new house built. She was going to look into if American couples can adopt babies born in Ireland. I think it's not possible, but appreciate her offer to research it and even suggest it. I have another friend whose sister is a nun. She is serving the church a few towns away and deals with womens services. She is talking to her sister about giving my adoption information to women that may be considering adoption. It's nice that she is thinking of ways to help her. I have another friend who moved to the US from Romania when she was 16 and is still a Romanian citizen. She wanted to see if she can do anything to help us adopt from Romanian which is now closed. She even went as far to stuggest she adopt the baby and I adopt it from her, which I know is impossible. It's almost touching to see her scratch her head and think of how she can help us. I have one friend who told me that ig she were to find herself unexpected pregnant right now, she would want us to adopt her baby. If she had thought of it sooner when her health was better, she would have tried to have a baby for us. I was blown away by this and brough to tears. Amazing friends I have.

I am a little bit upset at my best friend. She was so eager to help me adopt in 2002 and she is so much less eager now. She said it's because I have a child, she thinks it's that couples with no children should have perference. I think that is so wrong. I hope I see that spirit come back. I supported her when she entered an awful marriage she is still in and went on to have another child that she is pretty much raising on her own because her husband has no interest in doing real work involved in running a house and raising a family.

Overall though, I do have the most caring, wonderful and thoughtful friends and I know they will be of help to me in finding a birthmom or supporting me emotionally in the process. I feel so blessed. I have such a good feeling about this adoption.

November is adoption awareness month!!

November is known for many things-election Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving! Every day in November is a day to celebrate adoption awareness!!! I've always loved November, but since I have really learned about adoption (back in November 2001), I have been even more fond of this month because it is Adoption awareness month.

It's a great month to recognize all birthmothers, also called first moms! It's their unselfish act that makes adoption happen. It's also nice to recognize our adoption professionals-attorneys, agency staff and social workers, for all the hard work that they do to create families. And of course, adoptive parents deserve a hand. Many face numerous obstacles in their adoptions whether they be international or domestic. The sacrifices and uncertainties are all worth it the first time you lay eyes on your new child!!

Through the years adoption has received a bad rap. The media tends not to be fair at times and draws negative attention to failed adoptions, scamming women pretending to be pregnant or abusive adoptive parents. The truth is these situations occur very very rarely and over 90% of the adoptions are successful and result in happy families. Adoption changes lives in a very positive way. It's not a secret anymore. Children old enough to understand they are adopted are told of how they came into the family. Kids are more accepted in transracial adoption. We have made so many advances when it comes to adoption. There is still more to go. More people need to be educated about adoption and more European Governments need to re-open or ehance their adoption process so that children in orphanages can stop living in an overcrowded environment and find permanent homes. I'm thinking of Romania in particular which is now closed with a growing orphan problem. I would also like to see the costs of adoptions fall so that it is more affordable for families. I think agencies charge an exorborant amount of money.
That's why we are pursuing a private independent adoption.

I am excited to annouce our homestudy date is December 11, 2006!! It feels so real now!!!

Where do you find motivation to lose weight?

I'm still looking for motivation to lose weight. I should have found it by now. I watch the Biggest Loser and those people are so amazing, they do inspire me. I hear of weight loss success stories from people I know. I know what I have to do to lose weight and yet I don't make it happen. Every day I say I will start tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Days turn into weeks and months.

My bowling team is having the biggest loser competition, it only started two weeks ago. I have mananged to gain both weeks!! I have nobody to blame but myself. I have had a crappy year with two miscarrages and two other surgeries, but I know I can be doing better. Today I walked for 30 minutes around my neighborhood as soon as I woke up. I then had eggbeaters and an orange for breakfast. Trying to reduce the carbs! I want to exercise at least a half hour every day and work my way up to one hour. I will have to make the time. In between work, taking care of my daughter, taking care of my house, socializing, etc. I have to make it happen!!

Wish me luck. I know if I can lose 10 pounds or so in two weeks, I will be motivated to stick to it.
I know I will be much healthier and happier minus the excess weight!

I can't wait for Election Day to be over!!!

I can't stand it. I got 5 recorded messages from candidates today alone. I have been averaging 3-5 calls a day for a week now. Laura Bush even left me a message which delighted my daughter-she thought it was really her calling. I can't tell you how many pieces of mail I get from politicians!!! Please make it all end! Let the good guys triumph!!! I know who I am going to vote for! I researched all the candidates major points. No phone call or ad is going to persuade me.
Stop wasting money!! Stop clogging my mailbox and answering machine.

I will go out there tomorrow like a good American and cast my votes!! My daughter and I even watched a rare Charlie Brown video called "You're Not Elected Charlie Brown!!"Now that's why I call celebrating Election Day!!!

So remember to vote!!! It's your chance to be heard!!

A wasted day....

Well I lost the battle I have been fighting for the last week with a sinus infection. I finally caved in, called in sick and went the doctor. She told me to take sudafed, robitussin and gave me a perscription for amoxicillan. I feel bad, I layed around all day. I have so much to do around my house, but I just felt like crap! Hopefully the medicine will work and I will start to feel better. The coughing killed me last night.

When I get bored, it's not a good thing. My mind starts to get creative. I just said-what the hell-let's have fun with my daughter's Dora house. So here's a picture of Dora's parents going at it!!! I know I am immature, but I have also known to be funny as hell. Who has not taken dolls and posed them in sexual positions? Come on-you know you did! I was being tame. You should see what my brother and father do with my neices Barbie dolls-enough said!!!