Wordless Wednesday

This little girl...

I often think Grace's name should have been Joy. The word joyous would be a very accurate description of Grace. On Friday she and I were getting ready to leave for Grandma and Grandpa's house for the day. I had taken a shower, gotten dressed and was in the bathroom starting to put on a little bit of makeup. Grace is just fascinated with this whole makeup thing, and was sitting on the side of the bathtub watching me. She said, "Mom, why do you wear makeup?" I told her that I had "some things on my face that I needed to cover up." (Those "things" BTW are the lovely dark circles under my eyes, and I was putting on some concealer.) Grace then said, "Mom, you don't ever need to wear makeup...you are sooo beautiful and you don't need it." She was so genuine the way she said this to me, and the comment even brought tears to my eyes. I sat down on the side of the tub, sat her on my lap and told her thank you and that was such a nice thing to say to Mommy and how much I loved her. I'm not saying that parenting is the easiest job in the world, in fact it's the hardest and most challenging one I've ever had, but it's the most rewarding one and the one I've been called to. The days that I feel down about the wait, I'll remember this bit of joy from Grace. I think I'll write down this sweet little statement Grace said and put it away someday to re-read when I need it. Hmm...like when she's 14 or 15 and not real thrilled with me. I know that someday we'll go through those adolescent struggles, but for now I'm enjoying this joyous little girl. :)

Some pics from this week...

Miss Grace picking up a giant ice chunk from the frozen tundra. She'll stay outside forever and play, she doesn't seem to care how cold it is outside.

Making an Easter card.

Miss Grace wearing her purple sunglasses in a new way...upside down. Grace is a sunglasses girl.

Let's see...not too much new and exciting going on here this week. I feel like we've been hermits staying indoors so much because of this never ending Winter. Grace was outside to play one sunny day (see above pic). Other than her normal preschool schedule, swimming lessons and gymnastics, we got crafty and made some Easter cards, and played with some friends.

Wednesday was my Mom's bday. Today Grace and I are driving down to see Grandma and Papa to take them out to lunch and to celebrate Grandma's special day. Grace's Grandparents are just about her favorite people in the world (other than her mommy and daddy I think) and she loves to spend time with them. And so do I. Happy Friday and whoohoo the weekend is almost here.... :)

Thank you!

I'm in a hair bow exchange for my November 06 yahoo group, the "November Nightingales." Today we received 3 darling bows (2 green and 1 pink and white), from Cyndi and Dean. It was so nice to have something to open that says "Spring." Thank you Cyndi and Dean, we love the bows and can't wait to see our Lily with them in her hair. :)

My alter ego

Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Goofy Your alter ego is Goofy! You are fun and great to be around, and you are always willing to help others. You arn't worried about embarrassing yourself, so you are one who is more willing to try new things. The Beast 69% Cinderella 69% Peter Pan 69% Goofy 69% Sleeping Beauty 63% Pinocchio 44% Cruella De Ville 44% Snow White 38% Ariel 38% Donald Duck 25%

The stork has landed...

Looks like referrals are here for March and CCAA has referred another 8 days worth of dossiers. Up to Jan. 4, 2006. I'm pleased with 8 days, we are moving along and that's always good. The best part of it ( at least from our perspective) is that they are finally to our LID year of 2006!!!! Congrats to all the new mommys and daddys!

So how did we get here?

I get asked the question frequently... how did you come to adoption, or what led you to adopt? I think in one of my first posts I talked about ...that I had been an infertility patient for about 7 years and after all kinds of tests, procedures, and even surgeries, I was unable to have anymore children. I had what the docs call secondary infertility. I came to accept that I would most likely not become pregnant and have another baby and felt very fortunate and blessed to have my son Nick.

About a year went by and I met a co-worker at the school I worked at and found out she had 3 children adopted from Korea. Shortly after that, I met a woman who had 2 little girls from China. I asked both of these women many questions and started to research adoption, both IA and domestic. I attended several adoption seminars. I learned about China and all the circumstances that led to so many orphans there and felt very strongly led to China and it's children. I realized that it was something that Dan and I could do...adopt and be parents again, but all through this period of time I was so aware of my age(then 41) and I had lots of comments from family members and friends about why would I want to have another child? Why at this time of your life? Honestly, people thought we were crazy for even thinking of it because of our age, and all kinds of other made up reasons. Nick was 15 years old at that time and it would be like having 2 different families--a much older child and a young child. The entire time I prayed for an answer...what should we do? Are we supposed to be parents again? Dan and I loved Nick so much and we loved being parents, we also were very aware of the fact that there were (are) so many children in the world that needed families. I was pretty resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to happen and it was just a silly dream of mine, to adopt a baby from China. I kept praying though. It was like I needed to be given permission to adopt. Time went by and I was reading the newspaper one day. There was an adoption seminar at a church not to far away from us. At the last minute I decided to go. On the drive to the church I prayed to God again, for an answer, to please show me what to do. To make a long story short, I went to the seminar and the theme of it was Adoptive Families with Older Children and much Younger Children!!!! 6 different families were there with their teenagers or even college age, or grown children and their much younger adopted children. They each spoke about adoption and what a gift it was for them, every single member of the family. Mostly I learned that there are no right or wrong families, there are all different kinds and it's all good for everyone involved.

I had my answer, and couldn't have had a louder or more dramatic sign. I cried in the car all the way home. I felt like I was told very directly and specifically, "You need to do this." The next week we signed up with our agency in the Chicago area. BTW, we didn't have all the money to adopt Grace when we started, but we had some. And the money later came on it's own. We are very blessed, I'm just happy I got the "message." :)

Edited to say: In hindsight, I don't care for one minute that people may think we are crazy. Yes we are crazy, crazy in love with our kids. :)