Family

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours was way too hectic for my taste. We will have to do something about that next year--hopefully with Miss Buttercup. Everyone will just have to understand that making 4 different family gatherings is too much for anyone, let alone an infant! I'm still trying to recuperate myself. We are off to the mountains for a little much needed R & R with our friends and little god-daughter for the New Year holiday.........

Well, I finally got around to downloading some recent pics from my camera. Look at that sweet little face. This is from Thanksgiving week of my Niece D on the shoulders of her daddy, my brother. Love that little sweetie pie--wish we could see them all the time whenever we want, but, alas, they are 3000 miles away....that is such a bummer, huh? She is so funny!









....and playing in Buttercup's room...


And we can't forget little D's mommy, my lovely SIL, who is carrying our little nephew (aka Wally, the
bump).....



Wow, I just realized they are all color-coordinated! What a fine looking family! :) Love and miss you guys!

Thoughtful Friends & Christmas Tree Cuties

Well, I received these precious little Vietnamese boy and girl ornaments today in the mail from one of my online adoptive mom buddies. Thanks, Kristen! Three of us met for the first time in person this past Saturday for lunch and just had the best time just hanging out and talking some serious adoption talk. The weather was beautiful and really warm (like in the mid 70's!), so we sat outside and enjoyed the unseasonable weather. Before we new it it was 4 1/2 hours later. It is so great to have friends to talk to who just get it all. I so appreciate the support and friendship that they have given--it means a lot when this wait gets you down. Thanks, girls! I hope we can look forward to many more opportunities, especially after our girls are home...and these cuties are just simply adorable!

Baby Stuff Shopping and feeling wierd..

Well, we (I) finally started our registry at the baby store online. For those of you who haven't experienced it, adoptive parents feel really wierd shopping for baby stuff. (Not that it's stopped me as far as clothes, though!) Figuring out when to register feels wierd. When you are in the store it feels like you are pretending and a buzzer is going off somewhere in the store and everybody knows you don't really have a baby yet. I fully realize it's all in my head, but I have talked to other adoptive moms and they say they feel the same way. And probably dad's too, since every time we are at the store, I say we could go ahead and register, I guess. We are paper pregnant...... and hubby always says--it's too early, we have a lot more time for that. I think he feels the same way as I do. Wierd. (So, no, it's not just me!) I just figured since we had figured out some of the stuff we wanted to get, I might as well get it on the list before I can't remember or find it later. Plus some other parent's have said you start to get lots of good coupons after you start a registry (always a good thing!) Ya don't have the buzzers go off when shopping online either, so it's safer from the wierd feeling! We will definitely go and continue the full registering in person at some point--it's a rite of passage! My eyes go glassy and I get overwhelmed when I go to the store though--there is so much stuff! What do you really need? My very good friend is having a baby girl soon and we shopped off her registry for her baby shower recently and I really thought, hey, I'll just copy hers! She's probably done all the research already. ha.

I *am * happy to report that we finally found a model of the stroller we want to actually try out. I found it online and wanted to inspect one in person before deciding for sure. I had no idea how hard it was going to be to find one! The big stores don't carry it and I could only find it online. Well, we had to go one town over to locate it and figured they wouldn't actually have it (they didn't aswer the phone) and it was a long shot, but we turned a corner and there it was---in the color we want and everything!! It tested out fine, so that is the one. We almost got it, but decided to order it instead. What is so special about this stroller, you ask? Well, I'll tell you-beside the really cool colors, it has a reversible handle so you can have the baby face you or the world. I think Buttercup is gonna need some serious face time with her new mommy and daddy.....and I just want to be able to look at her while we stroll!! :)

....and down comes a little ray of hope....

Two posts in one day?! Why, yes! I forgot to post earlier that we got some very encouraging news from our agency on Friday when I called to check in--she said that they were expecting to get quite a few baby girl referrals in the next couple of months and that it looked like our wait may be cut a little shorter as we will hopefully be moving up the list at a nice pace. Let's just hope and pray this will all happen as they predict--especially for those on the top of the list who have been waiting on pins and needles, I'm sure, while no referrals have been coming for the last couple of months! She even said we should even plan on starting our dossier in Jan sometime, so that's good news!!! Just when I was thinking this might never really happen......a little ray of hope! :)
P.S. and I can happily report that the Christmas tree is now fully decorated, and with wrapped presents underneath too. Things are looking up!

Playing Hooky Meeting Some EXTREME people

Well, just wanted to post some pics and share a brush with TV we had in our city last week--Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in town most of the previous week and a half or more rebuilding a home in our downtown area for a very deserving family. The mom is a SW who works with kids at a charter school, her husband is blind and they have two kids. Whenever I watch the show I always get teary at the end. The whole city was caught up in the bewildering process where they completely demolished the house and rebuilt it in one week. Now, being in the industry of design and dealing w/permitting, I know this had to take months of coordination to get approvals and inspections lined up in such a short span of time. (And quite frankly it has always made me wary about the quality of the finished product!) The City officials must have pulled through though and the house looked pretty sturdy. It turned out very nice and I was happy that they made an effort to make it look a little vintage like the rest of the neighborhood, however, a bit fancier. One of my coworkers got caught up in the excitement and talked a couple more of us into taking a few hours off work in the middle of the day to take a shuttle to the house and help yell, "MOVE THAT BUS!" It is very near our office and we figured we wouldn't often get this opportunity, if ever again. It was quite a circus over there at first--there were thousands of people there to cheer them on. It was so interesting to see some of the process of producing the final moments of the show.........let's just say it is very slow and the move that bus is yelled quite a few times throughout the day to get as many versions as possible, as well as the crowd, over and over again. After the family was inside, (which we unfortunately missed that actual moment, due to some transportation issues, darn it) most of the cast of designers and carpenters were outside shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pics--except Ty, it seems he causes such a frenzy, he can only keep a distance and wave at the crowd or people just lose their minds! Whenever he looked out at the crowd, everyone started cheering and the girls were screaming! Too funny. My favorite is actually Ed, the carpenter. In fact Maggie and I got our picture taken with him and he was EXTREME-ly nice......and adorable-love the accent! okay, I know, I couldn't help it! Heh, heh! P.S. the episode is supposed to air Jan 21!

It's beginning to (slowly, very slowly) look a lot like Christmas...

Well, we finally got our tree up--but not decorated yet! Ha, ha. It has lights, but no ornaments yet. You could say we like to savor it, but really we just haven't been able to get that far yet (or perhaps we're just being lazy about it!), but wanted to get it all sparkly at least. It's pretty funny, though- we had to put the tree up in Buttercup's room thanks to our tiny, make-shift upstairs living room. We are living on the upstairs level of our house while completing the renovation of the downstairs level (which is not going very forward at the moment, unfortunately, due to some trouble getting a contractor to come over to give us an estimate on plaster removal). Our upstairs has a kitchen and basically is set up as a two-bedroom apartment. Since we haven't put up a crib yet, her room is the only room with a spot for a tree. We can see into her room from our mini-living room, so it works! The cats are loving it as a nice nap spot underneath. Hubby said we should take a pic, but then thought she may want the tree in her room every year if she sees it. Hopefully we can resume the big tree downstairs in the real living room next year and have a baby tree in her room too. :) No news on the adoption front. We are still at the same place on the list that we have been since we got on the list and hoping for some news this month on moving up a couple notches, unlike last month. Urrrgggghhhhh. Happy thoughts.....happy thoughts.......
This is what Buttercup is getting for Christmas this year. (notice the proximity of the peeking tree branches :) ha) ...A litttle asian dolly, a cute pink and green knit beret and matching pink socks. We may even wrap them and put them under the tree because she will be with us in spirit as we celebrate this year. They will be waiting for her when she finally gets home. I hope and pray it is by Christmas next year.



I think this doll has the sweetest little face! This wait is hard.