I finally did it. After 10 months home, I left my baby with a babysitter. To be truthful, the babysitter was her 16 year old sister, so it was not an unfamiliar situation for her. But it was a first. I was gone for five whole hours, and at bedtime to boot. I was relieved to get home at 11 p.m. and find the baby asleep in her bed, and the teenager not any worse for the wear either.

Some folks might say I am being overly paranoid-- certainly it would have been fine to leave her sooner. And maybe they’re right. But it took me that long to feel confident that she was ready to be away from me... more

I just have to link and share this thread from adoption.com that I am reading.

If you're not a member of adoption.com, I highly encourage you to join. It is an excellent resource for anyone from the adoption triad.

Anyway...a member posted the question "Should Adoption Be Limited to Couples With Infertility?"

In the post, the very first comment got to me...it is here, please click the link above for the rest of the post....ok...here's the... more

Click here for Part One, Click here for Part Two

Well, we had finally gotten into the pet store! The boys were thrilled, walking slowly and wide eyed, taking in everything around them. We were the only customers in the store, since they had just opened, so the kids were free to roam from cage to cage, and display case to display case without having to work their way around... more

I wrote a few weeks ago about Pastor Don and what an amazing person he has been in my life. As well as many others.

Over Easter weekend he was still in the hospital. His body very weak and tired. My husband and I began to recall how every Easter he would call our home and we would answer the phone and Pastor Don would say with great job...."Rise and be healed for today our savior the Lord Jesus has risen from the grave to live ever more."

My husband wanted to surprise Pastor and go early on Easter morning before church and have communion with Don.

When we got up I listened at the window like I do every Easter Morning. It seems like the birds just come alive... more

I am smiling to myself tonight, as I type, thinking how this blogging stuff sure keeps you humble! A couple of weeks ago, I wrote what I thought was a really insightful, great post and got blasted. In retrospect, this was good for me as it was a reminder that not everyone sees things exactly the way I do. I guess we all know this at some level, but the responses made this fact pretty concrete.

I believe I may be the lone blogger who is not a triad member. I think it's good that the blogs have one writer that is not an adopted person, an adoptive parent or birth parent. I like to think I may bring a little bit different perspective, but then all the bloggers are... more

We passed with flying colors, and met Jessica that evening. She was very animated when we first saw her, showing us around the foster home and introducing us to the other kids. She showed us her room and explained that it was okay for me to come in, that boys were allowed. She showed us the pictures in her photo album too. We then went out and introduced her to her four-legged sisters, and she helped us walk them around the neighborhood.

That evening, we took Jessica out to eat, and then she came over to spend some time with us at our hotel. We were staying at a LaQuinta, since they allowed pets, and it was too cold to be staying in the motor home without power. We played games and... more

So I went out of town this weekend. By myself. Oh boy. I left K for the first time - ever. Well, of course I have left her for a few hours occasionally. When I go shopping late at night, or for an evening out with the girls, hubby does the daddy - daughter thing, and bonds even more deeply with his precious princess.

This time was different. This time I left her for a whole day. Twenty-three hours and fifty-two minutes to be exact. (But who’s counting.)

I went to visit my sister in Minneapolis. (Yes, for those of you faithful... more

Ok...bear with me. haha

While we've been waiting, actually, before we we've been waiting, our whole adoption process from application to now has been totally taken up with taking care of my 89 year old grandmother.

LITERALLY.

She fell and broke her hip and tore her leg (which led to an amputation 1.5 months later) 2 hours, yes HOURS, after our social worker came over and did our home inspection (she came out and told us what/if anything was an issue to correct before the REAL homestudy) and picked up our adoption application.

Being I've been living... more

Starting with the current rumors....

The SDA is going to open May 1 or May 3 or May 8. All the dossiers (without problems) have been transferred and they will quickly issue appointments. The SDA wants to get rid of the backlog as quickly as possible.

A few families who registered in Feb to June 2005 are waiting for an appointment. Some of these families traveled to Ukraine and failed to find their child, so they are returned a second time.

It seems like the bulk of waiting families registered between July and Sept 2005.

I keep saying... more

Click here for Part One of the story

I went running into our hotel room and woke up Josh, and frantically started trying to get in touch with T. It turned out that the phone in our hotel room wasn’t working right, and none of her calls had been reaching us. UGH! We ended up calling the birth father, and he told us that T. had gone into labor the night before and had been trying to reach us. He gave us the number of where we could find her.

We called the hospital and got T. and she confirmed that she was in labor, and probably just two to three hours away from having the baby. Our original plan was... more