Soon he will have company……he just doesn’t know it yet….
It has been waaaay too long since I blogged, but I seem to be in a bit of a blogging funk. Where you have a lot going on, but it is a lot of the same things. I have been pondering a few posts, we will see how that turns out for me. Tonight I am going to just go with the general life update.
Adoption: The same. Waiting and more waiting. Our information was submitted mid-May and we were told it would take 3 months to hear anything, making an ETA of mid- August. I think we have to renew something soon…I can’t believe it has been that long. I will be checking into that this week. So it could be interesting…a pregnant lady trying to deal with immigration. You can imagine how that is going to end. 
House: We met with our contractor last week to discuss progress and we set a hard deadline of 9.15. Hopefully that will pan out. They are turning on the air conditioner next week, then will be laying our hardwood the next. Our cabinets should be done by…you guessed it….mid-August. I am still slightly optimistic we will just make it in our house by the skin of our teeth. We shall see…
Move: Well…it is what it is. I can’t say I am loving it, but our circumstances have been a little crazy to say the least. I think this will improve once we have a stable place to live that includes an air conditioner that can keep up with the outside heat.
Pregnancy: Great! This is the one area of my life that keeps me getting up in the morning. Knowing that…mid-August…we will have a smiling little girl who I can squeeze (but not too hard) daily and pamper forever…or at least until she is a teen. 
I will say, I am grateful for our child every moment of every day and can’t wait to welcome her home. AND watch daddy change his first diaper.
Aside of all the loveliness of endless waiting and the paperwork barrage, I can’t help but think about our child in Colombia as often as I think about our daughter. Being pregnant has definitely made the wait a little easier, but in an unforeseen twist, it has also made it harder. It is harder because I can imagine the joy that I will have when I meet our daughter for the first time and feel like that joy is so far off with our adoption. I know that time goes quicker that I know and I don’t wish it away, but the wait–can be agonizing all around. I just try to be thankful in the moment knowing my time will come one day. Besides, I am the one who prayed a hundred prayers per day, after turning in our paperwork for our adoption the first time in SEPTEMBER of last year, God please help me to be patient during our wait and show me how to best use my time during that wait. Well he heard my prayer and answered it in the most tremendous, yet unexpected, way. I can only have faith that He will do so again.
I mentioned at our last meeting that my colleagues got together and threw me a surprise shower. They had been acting a bit bizarre all day and some things should have tipped me off, but what can I say…..they are good! It was a hilarious shower as they did a name that baby and a neat Disney game. They really put a lot of thought into it and it was a very fun time! I can not ever express how grateful I am to have made the friends I have though my job!
The Motley Crew!
Gwen Loves Cake!
Waayyy too many rings needed!
Who's that baby?!
Winners of the Disney Princess Game!
When I was out my final meeting with our department a couple weeks ago, I completed the Birkman personality test. This is only like the fourth personality test I have completed in the last year….as you well know if you are adopting from Colombia. It stated that I react to losing control in a certain way……mostly my inability to make a decision to try to retain control. They called it “analyzation paralyzation”… um, yeah, I would have to agree with that personality trait. So it started last Tuesday….
We were in our “infant safety class” and about 10 minutes into the class, I started having a panic attack. It was full on. Baby M was kicking and punching my ribs combined with my general panic about becoming a parent, labor, and everything else that was slight irrational typical of *pregnancy panic*. I excused myself from the table, went to the restroom and tried to regain my composure. I swear I was in there for like 15 minutes. I almost made my husband leave at the break, but we knew one of the couples, so I didn’t want to look like a wimp. After we left the class I decided to give myself a 24 hour panic grace period, then pull it together. And I did..keep it to 24 hours…pull it together..well it remains to be seen. I did finally order most of our furniture for our nursery, but still getting there. That was slightly therapeutic to make a decision and remove something from my plate. Since I have no house, I am not exactly in a hurry. I know it won’t get here before I go into labor, but neither will my kitchen cabinets. So it is par for the course.
I often reflect on my anxiety issues and laugh. I will be the first one to admit, getting pregnant was a long road, which in the end I couldn’t control (more on that later), I wanted it so badly…and now I am panicking?. I just try every day, multiple times, to thank God for our daughter, my husband, our adoption, my friends (who gave me a great shower this weekend) and our life…in between panic attacks.
I have been away for meetings most of the week, but these were actually very fun! We were able to catch a Daughtry concert and see some celebs at one of the big meetings. As you can see, the meeting in between celeb sightings was very intriguing….
Kim paying close attention..
I can’t say too much….I might have dozed off myself a few times…it was very warm in there toward the end. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it. In the end it was a great time, we saw Ben Stiller, Daughtry, Michael Jordan, Miley Cyrus (who is surprisingly good in concert), Gene Simmons, Kris Allen, and some Latin Pop singer. My co-workers also threw me a surprise shower. I knew they were acting kind of bizarre the day they were trying to pull it off, but more about that later. I will wait until I get the pictures. You will see what I mean….they are the best kind of crazy. I often wonder what I did to deserve such great co-workers who I can honestly call true friends. God is good!
Double chin, Rich, & Kim
Daughtry
Miley Cyrus
MJ
I posted a few months ago about some quilts that I was really trying to get finished. I felt that if they don’t get done now, the likely hood of the ever getting finished was slim to none. With the help of my MIL, they are finished!!! I am so proud! I never thought I was very crafty, but who knows….maybe I have channeled my inner Martha. Without the jail time. I am off to meetings for the rest of the week. I am tired just thinking about it…
Baby Quilt #1
Baby Quilt #2
Nursery Quilt
Non-pink quilt!
PS-Yes, that is my poor husband who is playing Vanna!
I had a shower this weekend back at home with some great friends and family. Everyone has been so generous and kind to come and give us such great gifts! It was a great time and I truly appreciated seeing all my friends that I have known for FOREVER……not to mention my family who has put up with me for all these years. I am truly blessed to be loved by everyone who was there. Keeping in tradition I have another fun little throwback from the ghost of pictures past. Interestingly enough everyone who was in my wedding was also at our shower this weekend. That is how great all my friends and family are. For my your viewing pleasure there are two photos below. The first picture was taking in March 2003 at my bridal shower, the second picture is from this weekend. I must say everyone is still lookin’ good!
2003
2009
There comes a time in every girl’s life where you have to get your hair done, no matter what the price. Well, I paid the price. It could always be worse, but this is a dooser. I called my normal salon and her first available appointment was three weeks away…What?!?!? Since I have a pretty flexible schedule, I have never waited longer than one week. I have a number of events coming up very soon and I can not have roots, which are easy to accumulate now that my hair grows at the rate rabbits proliferate. I skimmed the yellow pages for salons–you can imagine–there were tons of options. Not. I picked what I deemed the best of the worse and took the plunge. While the woman who did my hair was very nice, I could tell early on that I was getting skunked…aka..small town hair. You know what I am taking about ..if not, see Exhibit A below.
Exibit A
Don’t act like you haven’t noticed it on other women. The wayyyy too much contrast between your high lights and your low lights. It is like a rite of passage when you are from a small town. So instead of small town hair, I just call it being skunked. It is like these people think it is okay to stripe your hair. Has anyone ever heard of the natural look? Sigh. But alas, all is not lost. I will just make an appointment at my normal salon at the end of the month and get it corrected. Now all I need are feathered bangs and I will fit right in!
Today we closed on our house. It has been a long haul to get it sold, but hallelujah we did! I feel very fortunate to have sold our house as the other houses in the neighborhood have been on the market longer and are still for sale. I tell myself that sometimes life just works out the way it is supposed to. I wish I could remember that with our adoption! Anyhoo, after our 10am closing we had Japanese for lunch, which I ate too much of, then we went to Home Depot to get our outside lights. We found out yesterday that our cabinets will most likely be done sometime mid-August, which does not beat my due date as we were hoping. So it looks as if we will probably not be moved in before Baby M joins our family. Thus, it is time to go to Plan B. MOVE EVERYTHING OUT OF THE DUPLEX THAT IS NOT NECESSARY TO EXIST. So over the long weekend, that is most of what we will be doing. Moving. Again. It builds character. I wanted to have this *perfect* nursery when we finally had a child….it will be perfect all right….a perfect pink pack-n-play. Which is fine. I always said I was moving back to “the city” ASAP, but I don’t know if I can move again for a while. It has definitely been a challenge and I need to let the memory of the pain subside. I have some ice cream calling my name that can help do just that!
Sometimes in life, I feel like events happen to us like a tidal wave. All in one big smack. But I am starting to think, that is just how life is…feast or famine. Let’s look at some examples. Tidal wave number one: in one week my husband started a new job, he was activated by the military (which since has been rescinded), and I found out I was pregnant. Tidal wave number two: in one week I turned 31, we had our six year anniversary, and we found out the sex of our child. This week, tidal wave number three will break shore. Not all of our tidal waves are bad, in fact they have all been good. But there were many after shocks in between, that were VERY unpleasant. But we have made it. So what is on tap this week you ask? Our adoption information has been translated and will be submitted to the ICBF early this week, my husband will turn the big 3-0, and we will close on our house–almost five years from the day we bought it. This week proves to be very busy and eventful, but I think that this is just how it is. I wonder if before (6 months ago) we lived in such an easy environment that we didn’t realize how calm life was. Since December, it seems like things have been more insane now than when we were in college. It has been one wild ride, but so far…it’s all good.
