Gotcha Day

Today is the fourth anniversary of our "getting" Kate.   Some people who adopt call it "Gotcha Day".  In years past we have tried to get together with others who were in our travel group, but this year that just didn't work out.

The girls and I had a special tea party. We still have tea that we bought on our trip. I know, we need to drink it more often. We had Pocky Sticks, which are like long, skinny pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate. You knew there would be chocolate involved somewhere! We discovered them in China, but we are able to find them here too. Yesterday, while at Trader Joe's buying snacks for an upcoming road trip, I came across roasted seaweed. I thought that would be a perfect treat for today's tea. Callie actually likes it. Her Daddy is so proud. They can have it! LOL

                          

Kate's face after trying the seaweed.

Tonight we will be trying a new Chinese restaurant that we have never been to.  We often go to the local buffet so that would not really have been that special.  We plan to come home and watch our DVD that one of the other moms in our group made with every one's pictures.

 It's funny, I didn't cry at all the day we got Kate.  Pretty amazing for me.  But watching that DVD always opens the dam!  I always leave the room for a minute since I don't want Kate to think I'm crying because it's a bad thing.  I cry for lots of reasons.  It's a pretty crazy mixture of emotions when I watch those images.  Sadness for a mother across the world, joy for us, an aching to do it again, the realization that it is humanly not likely, and a hope for miracles. 

Just minutes after getting Kate she fell asleep

What I Love about Facebook

WARNING:  Sappy, sentimental post ahead.

I will admit to being a reluctant Facebook participant.  I had several "invitations" to join and I mostly ignored them for the longest time.  I still think it's easier to send a reagular e-mail to someone, but I've noticed that my Facebook friends stopped answering their reagular e-mails.  So, mostly due to three long distance friends, I signed up.  At first, eventhough it was interesting to read what my local and long distance friends were up to, I still wasn't that big of a fan.  I really love to read a handful of blogs and I usually spend my computer time reading those.

Then one day I thought..."I wonder if Ben is on there?"  Who is Ben?  Ben is my long lost, favorite cousin.  Now, any of you other cousins who may be reading this, don't get your feathers ruffled!  I love you all very much!!  I hate the fact that we live so far away and don't see each other very much.  But Ben.  Ben had all the cool toys!  He got the Incredible Hulk stretch doll (like Stretch Armstrong), he got the Evil  Kenevil guy on a motorcycle that you could pull this thing and he would ride across Grandmother's kitchen floor, and remote control cars!  And he always gave me turns to play with them.  We would play in Granddaddy's "office" and build tents with all of the sheets and blankets that Grandmother would allow.  Then we would catch lightning bugs and put them in jars and it seems like I remember some poor lightning bugs being demolished by a little boy.  In all fairness, I know I remember taking the legs off of some granddaddy long leg spiders. LOL  It was Ben who first introduced me to Alice Cooper and some other (so called) musicians like that.  I have no idea who bought those!  It certainly wasn't my grandparents. :)   I wasn't scarred too badly though.  I have fond memories of all my cousins, especially the ones who were significantly younger and I got to hold them and feed them and pretend like they were mine.  Ben is the one who I actually remember playing with the most as a young child though. 

So.....was Ben on Facebook?  YES!!  And so was another long lost cousin that I never even dreamed of having contact with again.

This post has been in my head for a while now, but I hadn't taken the time to write it.  This week there was a death in our family.  Right away, Ben and other family members were able to be told and we even "chatted".

I'm now a fan of Facebook.

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

Inside is a flurry of activity though.  There are Christmas movies to be watched, things to be sewn, treats to be baked, surprises to be pulled off...It's a shame that the dishes and laundry don't magically do themselves this time of year!

And the dancing!  Oh my.  There is no official Christmas performance for us this year, but apparently my girls don't know that. :)  Most of the sewing is finished, but I haven't even started the baking.  Guess I'd better get off the computer and get busy!

Advent Thanksgivings

During the weeks before Thanksgiving  I saw several ideas for keeping a list of things to be thankful for.  I never did get around to doing any of those ideas, but I decided that the weeks preceding Christmas would be an even better time for us to keep a list of all the things we are thankful for and to remember all of the blessings we have been given. 

Last year, I handed Callie a couple of catalogs and told her to mark some things she would like.  Well let me just say, I'll never do that again.  For over a month, we heard all day long about all of the things she and her sister wanted.  And with every new catalog that came in the mail the list would not only grow, but the things they wanted the MOST would change.  This year I have not officially asked, but you can bet I have lots of ideas and have heard a few wants and wishes.  And almost all of the catalogs go straight to the recycling!

A few weeks ago, I painted a small wall at the bottom of our steps with chalkboard paint.  I decided that would be a great spot to keep track of all our blessings.  Everyone writes on it when they think of something.  So far we have...a warm home, Baba, snow, food, my sister (written by Callie), warm bed, presents and I wrote "my children".  This is day two I think, so we should have a wall full of wonderful blessings by the end of December.

this was taken before we started the list

P.S. For those of you who don't know any Chinese, Baba means Daddy.  :)

  

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. Photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.