Check out my Friend

I know you are bored with me.  Hey, I'm bored with me too!  Sometimes life just gets the best of you.  I just don't have time to blog these days (lo siento).  It would be full of complaining about my project anyway.  I promise to update you after next week.  Until I come back check out my buddy Laura's blog.  

Most of us wish we had the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia prior to picking up our children, she is actually there AND for ONE MONTH working in an orphanage!  I don't want to spoil it (more like, I'm running out of time to write). Go visit and say HELLO!  

Too Busy...

...to do much posting these days (or apparently look for any pictures).  I know this blog is a real bore.  Not really living up to those New Year's Resolutions am I.  Well kinda of, I have more work on the business side so that is a great thing.  I haven't had any time to think of anything witty or even controversial.  When I come back to writing full-time (hee-hee) I think I'll have to come back with a new and improved blog or something because frankly I'm tired of this boring one, it needs something interesting, a theme maybe!  There goes my ADD again.  I hope I don't get tired of my kid.  LOL  Just kidding...just jokes people!  Oh, I digress...  

...I got a letter in the mail yesterday from The State Department's National Visa Center that said I have a case number!  My Petition has been forwarded to the US Embassy in Ethiopia for a VISA!!!!!!! HOLY SMOKES BATMAN!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna be a MOM!  I think these people are REALLY serious! I'm gonna be a MOM!  

Something like real

huh-oh....this process is getting something like real!  Because guess what?  My I-171H came in the mail today.  Yup! It says, and I quote: it has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an ... (I hate the O word so I'm going to say child)... scary...scary...scary.

Wow...it's official folks the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says I can raise a child to their standards!  I am so honored!  Does that mean they will send me a baby shower gift too?  I hope they send mine faster than I send out my gifts... (Note: Elsa's Mom sent me a lovely announcement weeks ago and I still have her gift sitting on my table!  Hey, did I even say thanks?  I suck rocks man, I admit it...head hanging low in shame).

Brothers & Sisters

Last night I watched the season finale of Brothers and Sisters (love that show). One of the sisters (Calista Flockhart) has been trying to get pregnant all season via natural (lots of fun) and medical assistance (no fun at all) but thus far no luck. She is heartbroken. Her husband, the very handsome Rob Lowe, said those words that no woman who has tried unsuccessfully to conceive wants to hear… “we can adopt or there is surrogacy”. She nearly bit off his head after those comments. Been there done that many times to many people. Not hearing what she felt she needed to hear from her husband she went to her sister for comfort.  As she was explaining the situation and telling her how sad and disappointed she was, her sister said something very profound to her:

“Who cares if the child is adopted or how it comes, the only thing that matters is a child and that lasts forever.”

Can I get an amen? At the end of the show, she and her husband decided that they would choose adoption to begin their family.  Now I can stalk the show to see another family’s adoption journey.  It may only be TV but it will be fun to watch.  Just what I need, another distraction to my already distracted life! :-) 

You Look Like Me So...

...you must think like me also.  I live in probably the most diverse area of metro DC, Silver Spring/Takoma Park (MD & DC) areas.  It is great!  You name it, we have it: age, race, culture, gender, it's all here, there is nothing homogeneous about my "hood."   

One of my favorite past times is to sit at a sidewalk cafe and people watch.  The other day I was people watching with my friend and a man came up to us and just started talking.  We didn't think much of it, we just thought he was enjoying the sun, but then he started talking about foreigners.  Oh boy, I thought, here we go.  He said, he was tired of those (bleep, bleep) Ethiopians and Mexicans taking our jobs.  They should just go back to where they came from.  Once he said that, my friend looked at me and I immediately blanked out.  Yes, I could have started in on him.  I could have educated him.  I could have gotten more fodder for my blog, but frankly sometimes I find there are just some people that are too ignorant for me too even waste my energy on and he was one of them.  So, I blanked out, continued people watching and let my friend listen to his rants and raves for another however many minutes he was at our table.  He eventually left, I didn't notice, and I was just as happy as when he came (my friend...not so much...LOL).  

Nothing New

I don't have much to talk about these days because I'm waiting for approval to come back from USCIS and I'm working like crazy, but I am doing a few fun things:

• I tore the hot tub out, so now I have a whole room to torment myself with decorating...the shoemakers children never have any shoes!
• I'm sick of my blog name...don't be surprised if you click on one day and you are directed to a new page.  Don't you think it is time I have a name that is a little more reflective of my pleasant (heeheee) personality.  I'm still taking suggestions.
• Spring cleaning is underway.  Tell me how it is that you clean one room, then another room becomes a mess?  I'm taking everything I'm getting rid of and putting it in my empty room, but that happens to be my nursery!  We have to get that out of here so I can get started on Baby I's room.  I'm just looking for small motivation here!  

Why Are You Requesting A...?

I thought being amongst other PAP/AP would be a safe space, but I have quickly found out, like in any other community, we have our problems.  I'm sure many of you can relate and have your own stories about confrontations or misunderstandings.  I guess I thought it would be a little different and I wouldn't have to explain myself so much...you know: "why are you adopting from Ethiopia?"  Instead has turned into: "why are you requesting a girl?"  

This is a current conversation on one of the Ethiopian Adoption Boards: Why do we request certain children.  The author said she understands that people want girls, infants in particular because they are cute, cuddly, and have cuter clothes than boys, oh yes also because the infants are new...I can't forget that, but if we trust in God we should take what we get. 

Wow.  On one hand, reading between the lines, I think the author is simply concerned about the overwhelming interest in Ethiopian adoptions now that Vietnam adoptions are closing and China wait times have become extreme.  Families that never even considered Ethiopian children are now saying "let's get one of them instead." So is the switch true interest in Ethiopia and their children or just in the fastest route to becoming a parent?  

Now, on the other hand, I and other families who have chosen to go with an agency that gives the ability to choose the sex of their child has done so for whatever reason they have deemed works for them and who are we to judge them.  We do not live their life or their struggle.  Some families have all boys and finally want a girl, others plan on adopting a boy at a later date, some have no interest in boys or it may be the other way around.  Whatever it is, who are we to judge and it is oh so wrong to throw God up in the mix to try to make someone feel bad for their choices.  Anyway,  guess what?  He is already there.  If there is any judgement to be made he will make it at the appropriate time.    

Now, not that I owe anyone an explanation and you know I don't really care what anyone thinks, but I'm going to tell you why I have asked to be blessed with a baby girl.  I come from a matriarchal family, and am extraordinarily close with my mother, aunts, and was close with my grandmother until her death.  Many of my friends are in amazement of the closeness I have with my family, I want to pass that relationship onto my daughter.  After I was in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and my mother never left my side I knew I had to have a daughter FIRST (as I am also the oldest) in my family.  I fully intend to adopt a son in a few years, but I wanted to bring my daughter home first.  And since I am single and don't have any other children, adopting as young as possible was important to me.  That is my story and I'm sticking to it!