National Adoption Month

from google.com

Today is the last day of National Adoption Month. I have not posted about adoption every day or even posted every day. I do think about adoption every day. I will admit that some days I feel sad. Sad we don’t have children. Sad we are infertile. But mostly, I feel blessed. I feel blessed that Jake and I found each other. I feel blessed that we get to go through life and eternity together. I feel blessed that no matter what happens, we can face it together.

from google.com

This month especially, I have had more opportunities to share our story and our desire to adopt. I don’t know if that is because I am getting better at sharing our story (I am a private person and tend to be shy) or more opportunities happened to come along this month or I noticed them more because I was watching for them.

 I have learned so much on this journey so far (thanks to all the bloggers out there! Sharing your story really helps!). I know I will learn more as we continue on the journey of adoption. Thanks for joining us!

from google.com

Sunday Thoughts

from pinterest.com

The Day After

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had delicious food, great company and the Cowboys won. (That  makes for the perfect Thanksgiving!)

Somehow this:

always turns into this:

and we had lots of plates that look like this:

We are thrilled to have leftovers! I got food pictures but no people pictures! I need to work on that!

I am not a big Black Friday shopper. I really enjoy sleeping in that day. My brother Tom started the Day-After-Thanksgiving tradition of eating Pumpkin Pie for breakfast. I’m not exactly sure when the tradition started. I think it was when we visited relatives in St. George, Utah one year.  Anyway, I tried to continue the tradition but just couldn’t quite eat the pie at 6:00 am. (Yes, that is sleeping in for me.) So here is what I ate at 10:00.  I think it is close enough to count. It was FABULOUS! (If you haven't tried pumpkin pie for breakfast you should!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

from pinterest.com

To you and yours- Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy your friends and family and count your blessings!

Sunday Thoughts

from kellymccaleb.typepad.com

Always Be Prepared

I had a shock the other night. I was woken up from a dead sleep by the smoke alarm chirping- about once a minute! I went downstairs to get some new batteries and found there weren’t any! Actually there were batteries-just not the size I needed (of course).

Why oh why does this always happen in the middle of the night? WHY are we out of batteries in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?

So I got dressed and debated on waking Jake before I left. I was shocked that he wasn’t up already. He is a very light sleeper and usually I sleep through things and he wakes up to take care of them. He is really great that way.

I debated for a few minutes (or few chirps!!) and then woke him- I will be honest I was hoping he would just go to get the batteries- I’m not proud of it but we are being honest here. I told him I didn’t want him to worry because I was going to the store for batteries.

He rolled over and went back to sleep. I went to Wal.mart and got the batteries. I came home and started to change them. The chirping DIDN'T stop!! I changed all the batteries (I am so glad I got more than just two batteries!) I checked to see if all the connections were clean. They were. I checked the internet. One place suggested vacuuming the smoke alarms. So I did that. IT DIDN'T HELP! I checked the internet again and it suggested cutting the power (our smoke alarms have both batteries and electricity). So I went to the breaker box and looked for the breaker and none of them were labeled smoke alarms.

By this time it has been a couple hours and I was really frustrated. I didn’t know what else to try so since Jake was still sleeping (and the internet was out of ideas); I went down stairs to try and get a bit more sleep hoping that eventually the chirping would stop –you know by magic or something. Just as I was settling in; I heard Jake get up. Suddenly the chirping stopped. I went up to see what happened. I thought the batteries had FINALLY connected.

Jake had the Carbon Monoxide monitor in his hand. THAT IS WHAT WAS MAKING THE NOISE! I spent all this time working on the wrong problem!!!!!

Luckily the rest of the weekend was much better and I got a great story!

Open Adoption

Amy Hutton of Amstel Llife has a great article on open adoption and how her open adoption works. Read her article here.

She is a great advocate for adoption here in North Carolina and her story has been in the local paper. You can read here story here.

Sunday Toughts

Happy Veterans Day

Today is Veteran’s Day. My grandfather was a Marine during World War 2. He never talked about his experiences during that time. My dad got his journal after he passed away. While he was alive my grandfather was a man of few words. His journal was the same. There weren’t a lot of details. Grandfather was on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.

Jake’s brother was in the Army and in Kosovo during that conflict. His uncle was career military. We have a gentleman in our neighborhood that was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge during World War 2. We have many people around us who are serving or have served our country.

I am grateful to them all. They are willing to put their lives on the line often in faraway places to protect our country and help fight tyranny around the world. Their families live in foreign places or have their loved one gone for LONG periods of time.

To all the veterans: Thank you!!!! To their families: Thank you!!!!

Thanksgiving is coming!!!!!

from pinterest.com

We love Thanksgiving here. Jake and I grew up with some different traditions and not just in the food area.

I grew up far from relatives, so we had just our immediate family and some close friends for Thanksgiving dinner. We had homemade cranberry sauce (it has big chunks and is GREAT) and the stuffing is dry and DOES NOT GO IN THE BIRD.  My mom is not a huge gravy fan but my dad is so on Thanksgiving we had gravy.  We didn’t have mashed potatoes but a different kind loaded with cheese.

Jake grew up close to both sets of grandparents and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. Thanksgiving dinners were filled with family. They had cranberry jelly (from a can with no lumps) and his mom made a stuffing that is sort of like a casserole (and really a meal by itself!). There was tons of homemade gravy and mashed potatoes. They also had dinner based on when the Dallas Cowboy game is (either before or after).

We have a combination of the two. We eat Jake’s mom stuffing (it is SO wonderful!!) and eat around the Dallas Cowboy game. We do have both kinds of cranberries (we each think our kind makes the meal) and mashed potatoes (some years with the peals and some years without). Our gravy comes out of a can (way easier and always perfect!!!) We eat the leftovers for several meals and enjoy every bit!

We enjoy our time together and talking about what we are thankful for. Some years we go to my parents and some years we are here at home. Our church has a dinner on Wednesday and we have gone to that the last couple years.

How do you celebrate?

A Documentary

I got this information in an email today. I watched the trailer for the documentary Unlocking the Heart of Adoption. It looks interesting. The trailer shares sad stories on all sides of the triad. I don’t know how the whole documentary is but if nothing else it will make you think and spark some conversation. I try to remember that everyone involved with adoption has a different story and one adoptee’s story is only their story. Adoption has changed so much and these stories seem to be from a time before open adoption was the norm.

Here’s the information as it came to me.

 Unlocking the Heart of Adoption bridges the gap between birth and adoptive families through diverse personal stories of adoptees, birthparents and adoptive parents in same race and transracial adoptions revealing the enormous complexities in their lives with fascinating historical background.

To view the trailer, see what others have to say about Unlocking the Heart of Adoption and purchase the DVD go to: www.unlockingtheheart.com  And if you are on Facebook, please go to www.facebook.com/pages/Unlocking-the-heart-of-Adoption/10150113790230214?v=wall&ref=pdemand Like the page.  Thank you!

It will be on November 9 at 3pm EST on the documentary channel. I am hoping it will air again so I can see it.

Sunday Thoughts

from pinterest.com

Positive Adoption Language is really important. Like many things there have been changes in adoption both in how adoption works and what words are used. Here’s a great chart that will help us use the positive language. As with everything, each family is different and may have slightly different terms for everyone involved. If you are unsure- ask!

 

Positive Adoption Language

The words we use while talking about adoption can send unintended messages. When writing about or discussing adoption, please consider using language from the right-hand column.

Negative Terms	Preferred Terms
Giving up her child for adoption	Placing her child for adoption
Real parent; natural parent	Birth parent, biological parent
Adoptive parent	Parent
His adopted child	His child
Illegitimate	Born to unmarried parents
Adoptee	Child who was adopted
To keep	To parent
Adoptable child; available child	Waiting child
Foreign adoption	International adoption
Track down parents	Search
Unwanted child	Child placed for adoption
Is adopted	Was adopted

---

From itsaboutlove.org

 

National Adoption Month

from google.com

It’s National Adoption Month! Many other bloggers will be telling their stories and sharing their thoughts on adoption.  Since we are still on the journey to our first adoption we don’t have the same perspective as those who have already adopted. We are on that roller coaster where we get contacted and hope this is the one! We hope everyday that we will get a call or an email.

I have always heard “hope springs eternal” and I have been surprised at how true that is. Every day I hope today is the day and I am able to get up the next day and hope the same thing!

I read on another blog about 30 days of Thankful. With Thanksgiving this month I thought that would be great. Check out the tab at the top to see what we are thankful for this year!