Thanksgiving et al

We went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving. It was great! She cooked for Scott, Mia, Brian and I. We ate well. :) I have so much to be thankful for, especially my family.

We had dinner with some friends last night, and did TONS of shopping early yesterday! We had a great Black Friday... and then met my friend Kay today and did a little more. :) I should be about 90% done with my Christmas shopping. I even got a new Christmas tree. It's fake, and it has lights on it already. Mindy's ex kept my old one... oh well. No biggie. So, I think we might put it up tomorrow. I think Lil M will get a BIG kick out of it!!

On the shopping front, we actually went to Wally-world this weekend, and Meijer. Got everything we wanted, even. We also went to Kohl's, but not until today. I had a gift cert for Dick's Sporting Goods, and finally got myself a new running jacket, waterproof... let's see if it really is! We found the vanilla orange spice fragrance at Bath & Body that we used the entire time we were in China. Boy, does that fragrance bring back happy memories!! :) Oh, and the big thing this weekend was a new table and chairs for Sis... it was a fantastic deal at Kmart... that was awesome. It's already up and looks great. She needed a table *so bad*.

Lil M had a great time... she had home-made ice cream last night for the first time, and loved it! It made her completely spazz out, 'cause of the sugar high. It was funny. We don't do a whole lot of sugar... so, it is obvious when she does have it! I couldn't very well let her NOT have home-made ice cream!! :)

Gobble, gobble.

Peace.

Blog Buzz question

Q - To Commit your heart or not? There is much debate in the adoption world about when you throw your heart into the mix. . .upon first sight of that referral picture? Or not until the court date? Homecoming Date? Share your thoughts and experience!

A - For me, I think that I gave pieces of my heart during each part of the adoption process. First, as a single mom, I had to put part of my heart and faith out there when I first decided to adopt. Then when the paperwork was sent to China, that was a big moment. I felt like I put a little piece of my heart out there, because I wasn't sure if my daughter was born yet, and if she was, I wanted to lift up prayers for her. Then, when my paperwork was logged in, I felt the same way (albeit, was only 2 weeks later than when it was sent, but it was a landmark date, as everything relied on that date). This didn't change during the wait, because I prayerfully considered her "name"... that was a HUGE decision for me. I didn't realize what it would feel like to name another human being.

When I received my referral, I definitely gave another piece of my heart to this child that would be mine. Same for when we traveled. I think that the rest of my heart has been given to my daughter over the year (plus) we've been home together. The day we arrived home, was pretty monumental, emotionally, for me. To realize it was really official. She is an American Citizen, my Daughter, and will always be with me. But I felt more fear at that time, that I would mess something up... so, it took me a little while to be able to relax and really open my heart all the way... not too long, of course. She's amazing. She didn't always want to be held, which was tough for me, but most of the time she is very willing. When she yells Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!!! Or wants to give Mommy kisses *just because*, it just melts my heart... and that's when I realize that at some point she got ALL of my heart, not just the parts I thought I had put out there. :) Kind of sneaky that way!! LOL

Peace.

Red Letters Campaign

I found a neat site today called the Red Letter Campaign. It has has quite a few adoption bloggers and other neat sources, out there. I have added their link to my site and I hope you will also consider following my blog, as I've added it to their list of adoption sites. :)

It's also about time for me to update my blogs' "style" lol. I am going to try my very best not to lose anything, i promise!! If I can't figure something out, I'll keep it as is. Please remember my other blog that Sis and I co-author...

Single Mom By Choice or Circumtsance

Nothing else to do, except keep reading and sending me your little tidbits of wisdom!!!

Peace.

China TV

For your tv viewing pleasure:

http://www.chinasprout.com/tv

weekend

This weekend we went to see Sis and Chase. It was good. Lil M was pretending to play with bubbles last night, and when Sis sends me the little video I'll have to post it. It was too cute. :)

When I was putting Mia to bed, I ran into a hard drive that was sitting next to the couch (from Mindy's old house... that I knew was sitting there, but forgot), and I totally messed up my knee. I mean, I almost fell over I hit the damn thing so hard. My knee swelled up and turned black and blue. Oh great. And we're supposed to do the Turkey Trot thursday. :( It still hurts pretty bad today, and going up and down stairs isn't big fun.

I'm feeling fairly anxious today, too, for some reason. I keep trying to tell myself everything is perfectly fine, but it still comes and goes. It's definitely gotten better since I started my new job.

Oh, and Friday I sent a couple of requests to adoption agencies about a couple different countries. I'm trying to figure out if adopting a 2nd child is an option... or will be at some point? The two countries I'm looking at do very few adoptions a year, but they do accept singles. Regardless, it would take a couple years again, and so I figured I'd better start if that's what I want to do... If it did take 2 years or more, Mia would be 4+ and I think I could handle that. I've really been trying to figure out if finances will work, if I could actually parent 2 children... so, I'm in the prayer / investigation stage right now. Prayers are welcome. :)

Have a great Thanksgiving week... I know I definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year. Thank you God.

Peace.