A June to remember

Kyle is the bass player in the back left


As Kyle's graduation gets closer, I am feeling more and more sentimental. I realize this will be a June with many lasts. Lasts that will, and have been making me feel very old, and sentimental. I realized this last evening when I arrived at his very last Orchestra concert. Kyle has been playing the string Bass since 3rd grade. He really never practiced and most often than not his bass would sit in his room collecting dust. But yet there were the concerts - twice a year- always long- always beautiful. I realized that even though Coleton is going to still be in school, and then eventually Paige, I will not be a high school mom for quite some time again. This was the last concert I would hear up here until Cole starts to play. Also, each year they would call out the seniors and they would play a group of songs that were special to them. They have a most talented orchestra teacher that is tireless, and writes a composition for them to play with their special music. Each year I would watch and listen to the seniors of that year, and it would feel so alien to me. Yet this year, while listening to my son and his peers playing together for the very last time on that stage, I found myself feeling 100 different emotions. Good bye high school concerts... at least for the next 7 years...........

Long Weekend

Wow. Memorial day has come and gone. I enjoyed a nice long 5 day weekend. We had a few bbqs to go to this past weekend. They were fun, and we enjoyed the company of both friends and family. We celebrated my little sister's 40th birthday.... she is definately catching up to me. The weather here has been semi -warm, but very windy. The kids did manage to swim on both Sunday and Monday. As you can tell by the counter counting days until vacation, I am so ready to start my summer vacation. June will be a busy month, both at work and at home. Coleton has several events going on in June for which I will have to take days off. Kyle is winding down too.... I'll save this for another post on the emotions that I am experiencing regarding his graduation from HS.

On the adoption front this week it is ending up to be a little exciting. Referrals are starting to roll in for the next batch of people on our list. Our date for wait list is 1/25/08. The referrals are for 10/24/08 and hopefully into early November. I can't wait to see how far into November they will go. That puts us with about 12 people in front of us.....I know just 12 is not a lot.

Here are some picts from the weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY

MY MOM -SHE HOSTED ONE OF THE BBQS
JOHN ENJOYING THE SUN

MY DAD AND DOUG...YOU LIGHT THE GRILL


TAYLOR...THE MERMAID

COLETON...THE FISH

KYLE

COLIN

AN AMERICAN IDOL

I absolutely loved this song and the way that David Cook sang it.



Amazing. This talented song writer Regie Hamm who wrote this song for American Idol, has a link to International Adoption. He and his wife adopted a little girl BELLA from China 5 years ago. She was recently diagnosed with a rare disorder.

Click here to read his BLOG about Regie Hamms adoption.

SOUTH DAKOTA IS IN THE HOUSE.

My son has some house guests this week from South Dakota. He met Jennifer when he went to DC for his journalism scholarship. She wanted to come to New York as a graduation gift. They are staying at our house for the week. She brought her sister and her friend along. Jen is a very energetic, happy girl. She is quite funny. She loves our New York accent and is constantly asking us to repeat words. It is interesting to hear how life in other parts of the country are. I am amazed that we are all so different yet so much alike. In Jen's town they live on large properties.. like her parents have 10 acres, drive pickups, have horses, cows and no trees. She told us it was like living in a movie in my neighborhood (Desperate Houewives like) in a good way as she says. She has never been on a train and they don't have traffic like we do here.

Kyle is playing tour guide, starting with montauk, the Hamptons, New York city, then to Great Adventure, and back to the city for more shopping and sight seeing. It is good to see them all have so much fun. It is also giving us a little preview of life in 15 years when Paige has her friends all over here. Girls are definately different than boys........Coleton says there is a lot of giggleing goin on .

Secret Buddy for May

My secret buddy has struck again. I received these beautiful books... fairy subjects of course. I love them, and will be putting them away for our daughter. I hope she loves fairies too.

Happy Birthday to my Husband

Happy Birthday to my Husband:

He had a hard time with this birthday. Not sure why, but I think I should tell him how much he means to me.

1. He is the best father in the world.

2. Because he doesnt baby sit his children, he is part of their lives in every way.

3. He is my best friend... has been for over 26 years.

4. He is kind

5. He is sentimental

6. He will watch my favorite shows with me.... even though he isn't sure why.

7. He doesnt put me down...ever

8. He helps with the laundry...

9. He goes out of his way to make sure I have gas in my car each week.

10. He will eat anything I cook, and will take me out if I don't

A journey to a little girl.

One year ago today, a little girl entered her parent's lives, her family's lives. One year ago today, I saw a little girl on a blog across the world, and couldn't wait to give her a big kiss. One year ago today, I became her Auntie Lisa and I instantly adored her. That little girl is Meaghan Grace. It amazes me how much she has grown, and changed in just one year. I thank my friends (M & M) for letting us be a part of their journey to their daughter. They have been an inspiration to us and continue to be a source of support with our journey to our daughter. Please click on the side bar(Meaghan) to read about their journey home with their daughter.





HAPPY GOTTCHA DAY MEAGHAN GRACE!!!!!

My Day

I had a really nice mother's day. It started with my little guy giving me a beautiful card and flower he made. Then my big guy gave me a very thoughtful gift of gardening items. A hat, and little bag for my gardening tools. He is sweet. He knows that I love to garden, and so that was a very thoughtful gift. We then went over to my sister's house for a little bagel breakfast. My parents, and brother and sister in law were there. We stayed for just a little over an hour, because we had a Lacrosse game to get Coleton to. After Lacrosse, we came home and sat outside for a bit, and then we went to the movies to see IRON MAN. It was definately a nice day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

To all the mom's out there Happy Mother's Day!

Pins and Needles

I belong to a gazillion yahoo groups all related to adoption. One of them deals with all things Taiwan, and the people that belong to them are using all different agencies. We call it 'THE BIG BOARD" Yesterday someone on the big board posted that thier agency just told them that Taiwan was halting International Adoptions except special needs. Needless to say, I went into panic mode, as well as many of those on our Journeys of the Heart (my agency) yahoo board.

One of the gals from our Journeys group talked with our agency regarding this information, and
she was told that our agency hadn't heard of this at all. So for now we can breath a little easier. But it does get me nervous when rumors start, because that is how I heard about the horrible slow down in China adoptions..through Rumors. Cross your fingers and toes this really is not the case here, because I can't go through another change at this point. I am still hoping for that Summer referral of daughter.

Writer's block

I actually have nothing to say.

Update on our adoption: I am waiting for the May referrals to come flowing in from my agency(Taiwan). The last batch came around April 8. Let's hope for another nice batch. I am number 14 on the list. So if you break that down to : 3 girls a month, that puts us at about August or Sept. but if we get some months with 5 girls, this happened last year at this time , then it will deifnatley be in the summer. Of course this is all speculation on my part. Noone knows how many girls babies will be available, if any each month.

I have been seeing the commercials for the Olympics, and it is like some cruel joke. Let me explain: We originally were told by our agency that we would most likely get our daughter either right before, or right after the Olympics. Well here we are, and no China baby for us any where near the Olympics, maybe the next 0lympics. Here is the cruel joke.... the commercial says 8-8-08 BEJING. That is my birthday. Ya gotta laugh at the irony.

Speaking of Blogs: I wonder if there is a name for the addiction of reading someone elses' Blogs hours on end. I actually didnt check wikipedia, maybe we should come up with the definition to this " addiction" I know I am not alone out there. Oddly enough, those of us that have openly admitted to the endless reading of other blogs (you know who you are) are all moms, with more than one child, some work, homes to clean, love to shop, busy people. BLogitis? Blogdiction, blalker(like stalker), bloglog, Honeybloggingagain?. What do you think?? Plus I think that other people have so much more to say. I gotta go, I have some blogs to catch up on :)

Life in our house

It is a whole new adventure being a parent to an older teenager. Ours is generally a good kid. Doesn't smoke, or do drugs and hasn't come home reeking of alcohol. So generally he has been pretty good. Yet, he has friends that are a little older, and work in various radio, and news venues. He tends to like to hang with them at their stations and usually until after midnight. Which means that I can't go to bed until he is in the house. Some evenings that is impossible, and I fall asleep with one eye open on the den sofa. I know that I am not the first parent to go through this but it is difficult. As I sit here it is 12:30 am and I am exhausted, so I find myself reading through other blogs and posting on my own. I know that next year at this time, I may be up half the night with a screaming baby, waiting for the teenager to come home.