OH BOY!

Tonight I am crying happy tears and celebrating with virtual toasts of sparkling wine...

Skyping with Lori Rooney and giggling over our virtual toast to the happy family :)

Why, you might ask am I doing such silly things as having a toast on skype? Go here and share in the joy and the beauty of the moment of referral!! Seriously - it's the best referral video! I love happy days... and I love that Courtney!

Springtime - in pictures

Mom's too tired for a real post... so here is our life in pictures from the past month... (by Micah)

I went to Noah's birthday party and got to drink pink lemonade and play with balloons

I danced at Papa & Grandma K's house

I ate Newman-O's

I saw Aunt Danielle looking comfortable...

So I attacked her!

We hung out with Habi. He's cool.

I looked for Easter eggs in my awesome Easter-morning outfit.

Mom got excited about the dogwood getting ready to bloom.

I played with my slide in the yard and wondered why my mom wouldn't stop taking pictures.

I tried to make a basket.

I rode the train at the zoo and loved it.

I watched the giraffes with Habi.

And finally,

I leaned over the fence at the zoo just enough to fall INTO the giraffe enclosure! Good thing there is another barrier of rocks (and that my mom is quick like a ninja and grabbed me).

Springtime = Funtime

Uniquely Amazing

So, I've been thinking lately about how lucky we are. I look at my son and can't help but feel these surges of pure love. It's amazing. I'm sure all parents feel this way, but for us, it's very special because of the journey that brought us to parenthood. (Not to say that we are more special than other parents, but our experience is uniquely amazing to us.)

This brings me to the point of this post. Recently some friends and I were discussing the Sex in the City movie and how it dealt with Charlotte's pregnancy after adopting. She said something like, "My doctor said it [getting pregnant] probably would happen after adopting." My friends had reactions that ran from screaming at the tv to just stopping the movie right there and never finishing it. I remember thinking, "Well, what a load of crap - and what about the beautiful daughter she already has???"

In our discussion, one mom brought up the fact that the statistics show that less than 10% of women who are diagnosed as infertile conceive after adoption. And, seriously, is that why we adopt? Absolutely not. Not here. Not for a minute.

We made the decision to adopt after our second year of trying to conceive. We gave ourselves one year after that, and truth be told, our hearts were just not in it that last year. Our hearts were dreaming of a child somewhere far away. I remember that it felt weird to me to wait for something not to happen every month, when it felt like I should be waiting for something to happen. I would sometimes get excited when I went to the mailbox... for no apparent reason. I think my heart knew how our child would come to us - not by waiting for something not to happen, but by waiting for something to happen - a phone call, a picture in the mail - I didn't know then how, but I knew how it wouldn't happen.

So, when people used to hand us the line, "Oh, you'll probably get pregnant right after you adopt," we'd smile and say something like, "We're not counting on it," or "Well, that would be fine and all, but we're really excited and happy to become parents this way."

The thing is, we're not waiting for pregnancy to happen. We are so extremely happy to build our family by adoption. We. Are. Lucky.

Recently, members of our family learned they are pregnant. We are beyond excited for them. Unfortunately when the calls to announce the good news were made, many people guessed that Kevin and I were pregnant. I felt very small in that moment. I wanted to shout about how we're not TRYING to get pregnant - we are ADOPTING and it is WHAT WE WANT. (I also felt bad for my family members - it was their moment and people were unknowingly confusing it with us.)

Okay, I'll get to the point, rather than rambling and shouting in caps. Our family is not to be pitied. We have an amazing child. We know the path for us is not the easiest, but it is ours. This is our choice and we feel amazingly lucky that our journey led us to adoption, to Ethiopia, to Micah.

We. Are. Lucky.

Home

Picture Source

Here it is... my newest obsession. A home. We may have the opportunity to move soon - as we now have only two bedrooms and with another babe on the way, we feel like we may need three. So, with house prices being so low, we thought we'd start looking. About 5 minutes into 'looking' online, I realized that this was not going to be easy...

You see, when we started our adoption, we had to complete some questionnaires about race. One of the questions was, "How likely are you to move to a neighborhood that is more racially diverse?" Of course we answered, "Very likely." (I think that was our answer.) So, in our house quest, I began to look in neighborhoods that I hoped were more diverse than our current one. I began to realize that our city is not good for this. It's terribly segregated.

When I went to high school it was far away from the city - about 30+ miles. But, our city had a de-segregation program at work, so kids from more diverse neighborhoods were bussed into the county schools. This was good in two ways - the first being that the kids from the city neighborhoods were able to receive a top-rated education, regardless of where they lived. Secondly, because it forced black kids and white kids into learning about each other, hanging out with each other and basically helping to create situations of understanding (at least in my high school).

But, it was negative in one very important way - it was taking much needed funds from the inner city schools and funneling them out to the county schools. The city schools continued to get worse. A decision was made some years ago to end the de-seg program in our city by 2010. At first I was pissed off about this. I had such a positive view of the whole thing (a positive, but very sheltered, and very white, view) that I felt angry that the future generations wouldn't get the benefit of it. But then I learned about the economic factors and how the city schools would get the money back (that they so desperately need) and I changed my tune...

And now it's time for us to choose a new home, in a school district, somewhere in the county or the city. My obsession - WHERE? Do we move to the city (with more diverse neighborhoods) and then send Micah to private schools (which may end up being mostly white)? Or, do we stay in the county and hope that by the time he starts school, our neighborhoods will grow more diverse? I once had an African-American woman tell me, no she commanded me to, "not let him be the only black child in his class." I remember that moment and I am trying my best to honor it.

So, as I continue to fret and worry, here are some recent pictures of our amazing child singing along with his tiny guitar...

P.S. - Kevin took these pictures, so blame him for not getting actual video of this.

Obsess Much?

Okay, so you all know I have an obsession as of late - you know, those vampire books? And, the movie? Micah also has a new obsession, which I will get to, but mine first.

I am pretty much Cullened-out for a while. The party was so much fun - we had about as much fun planning it as we did at the actual party. I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Pocket Edward getting ready for the guests to arrive. Such a gracious host.

Vampire , Red Truck, Black Swan and Bella Sera wines. Our wine glasses each had a book quote on the stem - so you could tell which glass was yours. I think mine said, "Stay very still..."

"Uh, yeah, this is my room."

My friend Becky as Lauren (after she cuts her hair :), my friend Tracey as Victoria and myself as Alice.

What was left of the party-goers at 12:15 a.m. That's my friend Kari in the grey shirt - she's Edward. I still giggle at that!

Okay, so fun was had by all. Now onto Micah's latest obsession (apparently this runs in our family)...

Yep. Curious George. Let it be known that Micah has never once sat and watched a whole movie. Usually not even 5 minutes of a whole movie. Until now. He BEGS us to watch George constantly. And, he can even say "George". He won't say dog (still says, "woof" for dog) but he says "George." We're not the kind of parents that let our kid veg out to movies all day, but this new obsession has come in handy every now and then.

He is also, as a byproduct of his George obsession, obsessed with Jack Johnson (mainly the soundtrack from CG). In the car I listen to the song "Jungle Gym" over and over and over and over. If I try to play something else he says, "NO MOM." (Just to let you know, I do, in fact, play other songs - I don't think my sweet two year old should have complete control over our listening choices all the time.)

So, there you have it. We have our obsessions. Kevin, by the way, is currently obsessed with playing XBox Live - Call of Duty. Weird in my opinion, but he doesn't really get Twilight, so we're even. :)

I have supplied myself with something new to obsess about, but this is a much more important something (actually a life issue), so I'll save it for the next post...