Bittersweet!

We had our adoption support get-together last night! What a great evening as our closest friends and family gathered for dinner and to meet our social worker. We had lots of laughs while we reminisced about our friendships and relived some of our fondest memories.

Our dear social worker explained to everyone the process which we have gone through, and what else we have to look forward to . . . it was such a wonderful evening where we felt the love and support of all of those there.
We know there were others that wanted to be there and we truly appreciate you as well!

On the sad note for the evening . . .
we learned that the two children we were interested in will be going to a different family -
and although we were very disappointed we are happy that they will have a forever family and we know that there are two children out there waiting for us . . .
Know this . . . between us and our great social worker we will find them!
We'll keep you posted!

Getting the Kids!

Adopting the kids is kind of like having a baby or in this case a couple of babies!

When you are pregnant, friends and relatives call every few minutes to find out if labor has started or if you have headed to the hospital, however . . . in our case we get the calls to find out if the kids have "come home" yet.

Here's the update . . .

We have . . .
Turned in absolutely all of our information . . .
Finished all of our classes . . .
Had our last interviews and home inspections . . .
Sent our photos in . . .
Our worker has finished the all important "HOME STUDY" . . .
We are having our adoption support meeting tomorrow night . . .
Have found 2 adorable kiddos . . .
and now . . .
we are waiting for the matching coordinator to tell us - it is a match!

We'll keep you posted!

VACATIONS!

Vacations are a funny animal and I love them . . .
however I haven't decided what part of the vacation I love so much!


I spend an enormous amount of time planning each detail of our trips - even driving trips like the one we just returned from to Colorado.


I pack food, clothes for every imaginable kind of weather, print out driving instructions for places we plan to go to (and some we only might go to), call friends and family we might see, write up detailed itineraries and give a copy to everyone we know, and of course I make reservations for hotels, etc. months ahead with a print out of all the amentities and things to do in the area . . .

I just love doing all of that and makes me so look forward to the trip!


Then we head out . . . when I was a kid my dad would start out on a driving trip about 4:00am ( he always said it was to beat the heat, but I think it was because in our excitement to begin the vacation we couldn't sleep later than 3:00am), however James is not quite the morning person I am so we usually get out by 8:00am or so. The drive is soooooo beautiful! I even enjoy the desert (for about 10 miles or so) then we break out our favorite music - full blast, open a couple of Cokes and sing at the top of our lungs! The energy expended with all that singing usually requires a snack, of which I pack many. So . . . we break open the chips, cookies,or trail mix and start munching. Of course by now it is about 10:00am and we are begnning to think where we might stop for lunch and so it goes that most of our drive time is spent planning the next eating event.


When we finally arrive at our destination we carefully review all of my plans for the area and determine that what we really want to do are things other than I had planned for - so . . . we always have to ask for directions, ask for recommendations, and revamp my carefully designed plans!

This time we stayed in Avon, Colorado, just three hours from our good friends in Colorado Springs. We made the trek to their house for a couple of days and then one of them visited us in Avon. We had a great time except for the altitude adjustment that I did not plan for! No one told us that at 12,000 ft above sea level that you cannot breathe and get tremendous headaches. So, the hikes we had planned were out of the question and the good sturdy hiking shoes stayed in the closet the whole week. We did hit the pool and spa a few times . . .but then the thunder and lightening storms began. I personally have an aversion to getting electricuted - especially this close to becoming a mom. Maybe next year I will feel differently . . .

All in all it was a very nice trip with the highlight being the time we spent with our good friends and the beauty of the mountains! We miss them so much since they moved to Colorado.

So is it the planning, actually getting there, or getting home that is the best part of the vacation?? I don't know . . .I think I love it all!

The Office is OPEN!

The plaque outside our office door.

Well, we have spent this past week setting up the new office. We thought we could do it in about 1-2 days . . . it has been over one week since we got the keys and we are still working on it!

After all . . . we went from a 110 sq ft office to about 8oo sq ft - a lot more space to fill up.

About three days after we had the walk-through, some very good friends helped us move all of the former office furniture and "stuff" to the new office. It took the better part of a Saturday and some very strong "guys"! Shirley and I did the important shopping for that day! We couldn't have done it without good friends . . . Thanks "guys"!

The "very nice cherry" office furniture!

This week we have had 6 file cabinets delivered - 2 of which were damaged, and we are awaiting the "pick up" man . . .they have no problem delivering them one at a time, but each guy tells he's not authorized to take back the damaged ones. It is a mystery to me how in these days of $4.65 per gallon gas, companies can afford to work that way - oh yeah- I know they will raise their prices!!!!!

Three rooms of very nice cherry office furniture was delivered and assembled without problem - except they forgot the keys to my desk file . . .

The phone and internet system was set up only to find out from our computer guy that we needed three more "lines pulled" (whatever that means) and after pretty much a whole day of his work and waiting, we had to have a guy come to "pull the lines" and then wait for another day for the computer guy to finish . . . and so it goes . . .on and on . . .

You get the picture - speaking of pictures - it is my job to find the accessories which includes the plants, pictures, decorations, etc. Normally I love this kind of thing , but I have been to a half dozen stores looking, and generally just not finding the exact thing, so . . . one more thing to keep doing.

We are waiting for the "glass guy" to cut and install the glass countertops for the "very nice cherry" office furniture so that we don't get scratches, etc. on them. That should be another few days.

Notice how there no official names for these worker guys. There was the "computer guy", the "telephone guy", the delivery guy", the "pick-up guy", "the wire pulling guy" and then there were the "strong guys"- seems like they should have a more official names, huh?

Well, I gotta run now to read the manual on our new phone system, so that when you call you might get an answer!

Miss Work?

Well, no I can't say I miss work - at least not yet.
Why it has only been about 16 days since we had our "last day of working" staff luncheon, but . . .

I do miss seeing my cute little kiddies, good friends at work, and having our girl chit-chat over lunch!

Summer's have never seemed this way before, however since I know that we will not be returning in the fall - it just doesn't seem right!

Everything changes!
Miss you guys!

WOW . . . We're Getting There!

Thursday was our last of the ADOPTION interviews. As I told our adorable social worker - "It all seems so surreal!"!

We had our individual interviews and it seems that we are getting closer to the kids all the time. Tommorow we go to our last mandatory training class and as I have said a dozen times to others - if they made everyone go through what we have had to, there would be no unwanted children and lots of well trained parents in the world!

The classes really are great and we do have some wonderful people in them and fantastic trainers! We really are grateful for the opportunity.

Next we have to prepare a "Life Book" of James and myself. This is to include a wedding picture (which I dare anyone to think that is really me), current pics of us, family members, our home, their bedrooms, Tigger, our cat, Brodie, our bird, their school, the beach - you get the picture! For those of you "scrapbooking types" feel free to offer your advice.

Last, we have to have a meeting (read: party) of all those who are part of our friends and family who support us in this decision and also wish to support us when we need a sitter or just to listen when we start doubting our parenting skills!

After that, which should be in a couple of weeks, we are free to bring home the kiddos - whoever they might be!

So tonight we went to one of those neat kid's bedroom stores and bought our little boy a cool loft bed with drawers in the stairs, under the bed crawl space for playing in, shelves, and a desk - all in one piece. Every little boy's fun bed!

We have the bed for our little girl's room coming this weekend - white iron and brass princess bed! Every little girl's dream!

Oh . . . to be a kid again!

We're Back Again!

School ended and we left for San Diego the same day. We had one of those great timeshare "villas" for a week . . . but the real purpose of the trip was to go to the US Open with our good friends, Cary and Shirl.

We had been planning this trip for many months, so with great anticipation on Sunday morning of the US Open we headed to QualCom Stadium to catch a shuttle to Torrey Pines. (There were no other options - I dislike shuttle events!)

Now, James and I had been to a few tournaments before, and in fact, James had been to the US Open in Olympic Golf Course several years ago, so we thought we knew just how to strategize getting around the course and see all of the players that we wanted to see.

What we didn't factor into that equation was the thousands of other people with the same strategy! The first few hours we were there the gallery seemed like that at any tournament - LA Open, Buick Open, etc. but . . . when Tiger and the other leaders teed off in the early afternoon, people came out of nowhere. That "run ahead" idea we had became a "crawl" your way the next hole event!

We finally settled on the 17th hole where we stayed for about 2 hours. James and Cary were right out there in the sun - as close to the green as possible, while Shirley and I were content to stand under the shade of a tree and try to peek through the crowd.

We got a few glimpses of the limping Tiger, an "up close and personal" Phil Michelson sighting (where I yelled "Hi Phil!"), and got to watch the swings and putts of a dozen other outstanding golfers.

Although it was fun and we love being with Cary and Shirl . . .
I believe next year we will be watching from the comfort of our family room on our LCD TV getting all of the golf analysis at the same time!

We're back again!!