I almost didn’t get a post up today… I typically write after I get Belane asleep, and tonight I fell asleep with her.

I am sitting here in the dark of our hotel room, listening to the Muslim prayer chanting over the loud speaker outside and to the rhythmic sound of Belane’s breathing (which gets quieter every night as her cold gets better and better).

We had a fun day today. Another family and I took all of the AHOPE kids on a field trip to Vera Wonderland, an amusement park of sorts. It rained a ton yesterday and again this morning, and it was a big muddy mess. As we pulled up at the park, all of the kids started calling out Belane’s name and running towards us. Some of... more

I am on pins and needles and have been ever since I found out that a friend of mine is pregnant for the first time after years of infertility and infertility treatments. In fact, when I found out about the pregnancy from another friend, I told her, "I'm going to be worried until the baby gets here." I am always asking for updates, and tentative to actually think about the reality of it. I am so happy. I am so worried.

I went back over to www.beliefnet.com and found the following prayers that I can adjust to use for praying for my friend. At least now my worries will have some action to them.

Prayer for an Expectant Mother... more

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to Nick's first costume party. He got many compliments on his little lion cub costume. Though he was called a girl at one point and asked what is "costume" was while fingering the Mei Tai. Of course, these both came from the same lady so I'm not too flabbergasted.

However, less than an hour later, flabbergasted was my middle name. I've written about it on the forums to get some feedback but it also needs to be written about here. Why? Because I didn't know this... more

Y'know, when I first met Daughter, it was the middle of winter in Chongqing, and she, like all the kids in the SWI, had some kind of upper respiratory tract infection, which I promptly caught and which promptly developed into pneumonia in both of us.

And ever since then, every time I get a cold, it seems to go straight for my lungs. I feel a little bit like Frodo Baggins at the end of Lord of the Rings with the shrapnel from the cursed blade in his chest. Only, well, not magical.

And My Cinematic Spouse says I sound like Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

On this, the day of Sam and Rosie's wedding, you come and ask me this thing? Kiss my ring. To bind... more

I have been working on an adoption ABC book on and off for a couple of months (yes, I am slow with the kids' books, fast with the blogging...funny how it is when I'm allowed unlimited words how much I can yak...and how when I have to make it short and sweet how difficult it becomes).

I am having big problems with the letters Q and Z.

I need help.

A while back a wonderful poster gave me some possibilities for some of my more difficult letters, like U, X, and Y. Really brilliant. But I'm still stuck... more

With the exception of a few adoptees, everyone I met at the retreat had relinquished a child to adoption. There were a couple of birth/first moms who were also adoptive moms as well. At least two attorneys are active members, and I know mothers who are nurses, college professors, social workers and teachers. What else? There is a real estate agent, a flight attendant and a lobbyist. Ah, yes, I forgot Sandy Musser, our token convicted felon!

After Sandy Musser was introduced, it was mentioned that she is a true example of "walking the walk" as far as family preservation... more

I’m really off track with my weight off check in. The blizzard the other day left me without electricity and an internet connection and I never did write about my actual weight.

I’m at 160 pounds.

The same – but not!

As I reported last week, I’m loosing inches. It's not inches yet, but centimeters, and it is already making a difference.

I can tell as I feel better in my jeans and today I’m wearing a skirt to a work function with my husband – and it... more

John Walsh from America's Most Wanted has teamed up with Baby Einstein creator, Julie Clark to create two DVDs geared toward children's safety.

They've created a fun wacky way to engage your children with the important issue of personal safety.

The first is geared specifically for children five years old and above. The website, The Safe Side, talks about this first DVD this way:

The title of our video is Stranger Safety. However, you will not see or hear the... more

There's an opportunity on the Oxfam website to speak up for Ethiopian coffee farmers. Oxfam America is a non-profit organization that works to end global poverty through saving lives, strengthening communities, and campaigning for change.

With as many as 15 million Ethiopians dependent on coffee, Ethiopia has decided to get its farmers more of what they deserve. The country's government has asked Starbucks to sign a licensing agreement that will allow Ethiopia to control the names of its coffees. That way, Ethiopia can help determine an export price that makes sure farmers see a larger share of the profits enabling them to feed... more

Yesterday I met a few people who are really down on their luck. One of them began to cry and before you knew it her life story came flowing out of her like a novel that someone had neglected to read.

She was a Foster child who had been bounced around a lot in life. She managed to pull herself together and met someone and fell in love. She had all these expectations of how her life would be since she would never allow her children to go through what she had, had to endure during her childhood.

Here she is with two daughters of her own... more