Red Light Green Light

Today was kind of like this: Red light, stop and take care of a random out of the blue inconvenience. Green light, stop and enjoy a random out of the blue happy surprise. We're pretty sure the green lights outweigh the red lights, but just to be certain we're ending the day with a slamming dinner of garlic rib eye steaks with a touch of cayanne complimented with a fantastic new cotes du rhone we discovered on our way home (one of today's green lights).

Green light

• My meeting to discuss a new client implementation was scheduled to begin at 1:30 so I didn't need to leave home until after 10:30 to begin the 160 mile drive which means I got to have a relaxing morning enjoying coffee with the hubby. Day off to a good start!

Red light

• About 90 miles into the trip I start to hear the exact same noise I heard oh, say 3 weeks ago, when car #1 died on the side of interstate 87. After a quick (and out loud, even though I was solo in the car) shout of ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I let car #2 slowly decelerate and pull to the side of interstate 87 and die. Only this time I was prepared (having recent experience with this situation) and took note of the mile markers so that I could appropriately inform the state troopers of the location to send a tow truck. Yeah.
  

Green light

• My client completely understood needing to reschedule our meeting (although the 5 Assistant Superintendents and one Superintendent weren't exactly thrilled...) and I think the relationship is OK. And, the tow truck came within 20 minutes and I was able to pull far enough off of the busy interstate traffic to not fear for my life as semi's whizzed past. Ok, this might not sound like much of a green light but given the circumstances I was very happy to be in a safe location with help on the way. The 2 hour ride in the tow truck home was OK as well, Walter is a good man.
  

Red light

• When we arrived at our mechanic (where broken car #1 has been living for the past few weeks awaiting a complete engine overhaul) we received confirmation that car #2 is officially dead. Off to the rental car shop...

Green light

• The weekly update we received from CHI today had some very good news! They confirmed partnership with another orphanage in Ethiopia with contracts in the works to begin working with others. CHI does an amazing amount of humanitarian and developmental work with the orphanages they partner with so this is excellent news for that reason as well as the fact that this will likely result in more referrals. They also announced that birth family visits are back on the OK list! They're going to be extremely well regulated and monitored, but we're happy to follow whatever regulations are put in place for the chance to meet our child's birth family.
  

We think that the last green light might just be enough to overshadow those other red lights that happened today. I'm happy to play red light green light as long as the green lights are adoption related!

Grilling Through

*Update below.

There are certain activities in life that comfort each of us and just seem to take the edge off of any stressful or busy events that may be occurring in our lives. For some it's yoga, others shop, and still others may pray, exercise, cry, scream (I found this one useful while teaching middle school math), or rush to the nearest spa for an afternoon treatment. For us the activity is cooking, and more specifically grilling. We tend to grill our way through things and in more cases than not it seems to do the trick. Right now we're grilling our way through a couple of things.

We're grilling through winter and into spring. I realize it's early March and the temperature hasn't reached 40 degrees for months, but tonight we're going to grill our dinner. I don't care that there is still ample snow on the ground and our porch steps are still lethally slick from the last ice storm. Tonight I will arm myself with grill tongs and a special sage & lemon sauce and grill us some chicken for dinner. Spring is a mere 9 days away, I hope we have enough propane...

We're grilling our way through the babywait. I hate complaining about waiting but let's get real, it stinks. We started this process (and even had most of our dossier docs ready) way back when the wait times averaged 0-3 months. So of course when we announced to our family, friends, and colleagues that we were "expecting from Ethiopia" that was the time frame we told them all. So naturally, now more than 3 months since completing our dossier, the frequency of the question "any news yet?" is growing exponentially. I don't mind them asking, in fact sometimes it helps keep my mind on the thought that it might actually happen sometime soon. But still, I kind of feel like I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy but instead of being bombarded with questions about what day in the next 2-3 weeks I'm going to give birth I'm faced with the very real possibility that I might be in my 9th month of pregnancy for another 6-9 months... Deep breath. And another, and another...

OK, we may need some more chicken and a few new recipes to grill our way through these. Any fabulous grilling recipes or ideas you'd be willing to share? Let's think of the comments to this post as "A Griller's Guide to Spring and Babywait" cookbook of sorts. Please share!

*Update
Thank you Amanda and Andrew for sharing your (what sounds to be delicious and will definitely be tried in the near future) grilling recipe!

She's Hard Core

I really enjoy being impressed. Not that my opinion should mean anything to those that impress me, but it still stands to reason that being truly impressed by something is just fun. It means that something you might have expected to go in one direction took a sudden turn that resulted in an ending not attainable by most. To me this makes you truly hard core.

I've met several hard core individuals recently, and although they vary widely in the industries they represent they are all hands down impressive people who inspire me to kick a little a** every now and then.

Cheers to people who challenge us, mentor us, inspire us, and belong on the wall of Hard Core. And cheers to being challenged and inspired to be hard core, may we all attain it one day.

Wait, Work, Wine

Sometimes I wish that the adoption process was the only dominating "thing" happening in our lives, but then I quickly come to my senses and realize that that this is most certainly not the case nor do I really wish it were. Beyond waiting for our babe to come home there are the daily realities of life, work, finance, and thankfully plenty of other events to celebrate and be happy about. Life hasn't, and shouldn't, stop because we're adopting. In fact we're lucky to say that it has only gotten more interesting (and along with that more challenging) on almost a daily basis. We wait, we work, we wine.

Wait: We've always known that we would build our family through international adoption, so I suppose you could say we've been thinking about the process for 12.5 years now. (High school sweethearts, dating and married for forever already - I think most in the NE refer to us as a freak of nature, being under 30 and already married for almost 7 years...) But have been actively pursuing the adoption process since May 2007 which puts us at the 10 month mark now. Then there's the "official" list which we were added to in December 2007 when we finally completed the hoop-jumping process of document preparation, notarization, certification, and authentication and were actually added to a list of waiting families. So interpret it as you may, whether we've been waiting 12 years, 10 months, 3 months, honestly I can't even place meaning on the number anymore. I take a deep breath every morning and pray for safety and love for our family.

Work: Challenges in this area will never cease (nor do I wish them too, as work without challenge would naturally push us to seek other work) but sometimes it would be nice if there were fewer challenges. My husband loves his work, and my work is our health insurance...oh wait, I mean...nope, my work really is just our health insurance... But the bottom line is that my passion lies with education and his with photography and both of us could think of nothing better than busting our humps to pursue the good of those causes for the rest of our lives. Sure there will be interruptions, breaks, maybe even a change in direction here or there - but the end goal for both of us is pretty darn clear. (kind of, to us at least ~ or maybe not...)

Wine: We enjoy sharing the occasional glass of good red wine that actually warrants looking at and enjoying the color and varying shades of red that change almost instantaneously from pour to pour. Other than that we are two completely different people, which for us is part of what makes things work. We can't wait to be the 80 year old couple who have been married for 59 years yet still argue over what seem to be the simplest parts of a marriage. Like the vines of a strong growing vineyard our marriage will learn to weave through the vines toward the sun.

For after all, it's the sun that's coming.

3 Months

Today marks 3 months "officially" waiting. Deep breath....

PDN Online!

PDN finally published PDN's 30 2008 online today so I finally have a link to this year's "30 Photographers to Watch" (one of whom I might have a little bias towards...) so here's one more (I promise my last for a while) plug of blatant self promotion - check out the 2008 PDN Top 30, of course my personal favorite, and another I really dig. Also, thanks for all of your very kind congratulations - Mike is constantly humbled by the natural sweetness of this community.

PDN's Top 30 2008 - Preview!

The March issue of PDN was sent in the mail today so the official unveiling of PDN's 2008 "Top 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch" is still technically a secret...but what the heck, I'm going to spoil the surprise! The love of my life is in this year's PDN 30! Along with the honor of being recognized by a leading industry mag a number of speaking opportunities are made available to them as well. Mike will be presenting at Parsons School of Design on the topic "Transitions: Strategies for the Young Working Photographer" along with 3 others from this year's PDN 30 and Creatives they've worked with. I'm so proud of him and can't wait for the official unveiling tomorrow so that I can post a direct link to this years complete group, but in the meantime I did get my hands on the invite to the speaking engagement so that will have to do for now. Cheers to my incredibly talented husband!

NY Times On Cooking & Babies

From the New York Times Dining & Wine Section:

Racket in the Kitchen, Ruckus in the Crib

By KEITH DIXON

Published: February 27, 2008

With the right planning and a little practice, there is a way to cook dinner without waking the baby sleeping in the next room.
Check it out, interesting read!

Zufan Stories

A book in Amharic, English, French, and Spanish - FABULOUS! If you're a member of the Ethiopia Adopt Yahoo group please leave a comment on one of the posts as you're eligible for a discount. Ours should be arriving soon so will post a review as soon as we've received it. The Zufan Stories site says:

"Zufan and the Flower is based on a true story. Told in four languages - Amharic, English, French and Spanish - it is the first volume in a series about the adventures of Zufan."

Can't wait for ours to arrive! We've now completed 8 weeks of our Amharic course and will likely extend our lessons after our 10th week is complete. It would be a pity to have our last Amharic lesson be later this month and then not have any exposure to Amharic until we travel (which could be many months), so we're planning on tagging on a few lessons just before we head to Ethiopia - whenever that may be. In the meantime we'll be struggling through our broken practice conversations, adding more neutral colors to the nursery (green and yellow really are lovely), and thanking God that we have a place to stay in NYC as well as Upstate NY as I think we'd drive each other nuts if we had to stay in either location indefinitely...climbing the walls of winter I guess.

Cheers to thriving on flexibility.

For A Cute Bum

We've been thinking about diapers and came across gDiapers. It's a breathable, flushable, plastic-free and biodegradable diaper solution for a cute baby bum. It's like the hybrid Prius but for your baby's bottom ~ flushable & biodegradable! Anyone out there given'em a spin?

Spurt Of Energy

Working on the nursery had taken a bit of a hiatus until today when we finally began putting together/making the window treatments, changing table, and got to organizing (or at least thinking about organizing) where everything will eventually go. We'd been stuck not knowing the age, gender, time line, etc...so just didn't have the muster to continue prepping the nursery till a spurt of energy hit us this weekend. Maybe it was the 8 referrals that CHI received last week, perhaps it was an internal click, or maybe even just when this part of the process was meant to be taken care of. In any case the nursery looks a thousand times better with things finally put together and we're so excited to make the finishing touches. Here are a few picks to give you an idea!

And Bridger just wanted to say hello

GREAT Book

I think it was in the middle of page 14 when I had to flip to the back of the book to see what else Elizabeth Gilbert has written. I plan on reading all of them. Eat, Pray, Love is Gilbert's year long journey to 3 countries and her quest to study the art of pleasure (Italy), the art of devotion (India) and find balance between the two (Indonesia). Really amazing read, just be careful not to have access to travelocity and a credit card while reading the portion on Italy...

Eat, Pray, Love
By
Elizabeth Gilbert

Amharic Art & Our Lessons

Amharic truly is a beautiful language so not surprisingly it serves as the base, or inspiration, for various renowned artists. One of these artists is Wosene Worke Kosrof, an Ethiopian painter who incorporates Amharic into his works. He was born in Ethiopia in 1950 and currently resides in California. In his paintings Wosene distorts the written symbols of the Amharic language to create beautiful works of art that reflect his Ethiopian heritage as well as his life experiences in the US. His biography found on www.wosene.com states, "The Ethiopia that finds expression in Wosene's art is at once culturally specific in its visual vocabulary, highly personal in its interpretation, and international in its outlook, reflecting the complex realities of contemporary artistic practice in a global society."

We'll continue to seek out prominent Ethiopians and learn about their influences on world art, culture, education, science, politics, and more and are anxious to share this knowledge with our child one day. Our child's identity is going to develop much like Wosene's art, influenced by both Ethiopia and the United States and undoubtedly beautiful.

"The symbols bring my culture to me and at the same time I recreate my culture with the symbols, producing a unique international visual language."
~ Wosene Worke Kosrof

Wosene Worke Kosrof Colors of Words II, 2001

As for our Amharic lessons, we're getting there. Not very quickly but we do learn more each week and some of the basic phrases are even starting to flow more smoothly when we practice. We're in the midst of getting about a foot of snow today so that should give us an excuse for some extra practice time while we're stuck indoors. 27 days till spring! So far we can meet, greet, say goodbyes, count, and indicate what we "like" or "have" for a handful of vocabulary words. If anyone ever asks me if I like or have a chicken beware - I know how to respond! (affirmatively at least, we're still working on the "no" responses as there isn't actually a word for "no" in Amharic rather a complex redesign of the subject/verb structure in the sentence...yeah, this isn't going to be easy!)

As for all of your offers in our last post to take over the traveling baton, THANK YOU! Please, enjoy your vacations/travels and we'll keep our fingers crossed that your return will bring another batch of referrals!

Will Travel For Referrals

I was warned before our trip last week that going on vacation tends to bring on referrals, and they were right! We returned home to an announcement from CHI that they had received 8 referrals for the Ethiopia program that were given to 6 very happy families. In the group were 3 boys, 5 girls, and 2 sibling groups of 2. Their ages ranged from 2 months to 7 years. Congratulations to the families!

As a result of this news I feel it only appropriate to offer myself as a freelance referral traveler. I volunteer to go on vacation whenever wait times seem to be lingering on the long side in hopes that another batch will come through upon my return.

Any takers?

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas and means to some "birthplace of the gods" or "place of those who have the road of the gods". This ancient Aztec city is home to the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon, that of the Sun being the third largest pyramid in the world. We climbed the Pyramid of the Moon and Mike climbed the Pyramid of the Sun while I took pictures. We also visited the Basilica of Guadalupe, arguably the most important religious site in Mexico. It contains various artworks depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing to Juan Diego and is a pilgrimage site to millions of people every year. We took in A LOT of sun while visiting these historic places, but every red'ish pink'ish piece of skin on my shoulders is worth having experienced this piece of history.

*As a side note, if you're looking to plan a trip to ancient ruins we would highly suggest checking out Tikal in Guatemala or Machu Pichu in Peru. Although Teotihuacan was incredible, visits to these two will absolutely stop in you dead in your tracks, they're just that amazing.

Us at the Basilica of Guadalupe

Jo on top of the Pyramid of the Moon overlooking the Pyramid of the Sun

Let's Call It South

This city is huge and we haven't exactly been able to gain a decent understanding of directionals, so we've taken to our own geographic lingo when chatting about which direction we're going with each other. Essencially if we're heading towards the park we're going south, away from the park (but on the main roadway) we're going north, and everything else is really just relative to where we "think" we may happen to be at the moment. Mind you we have absolutely no idea how accurate these are, but fortunately can converse with the cab drivers enough to ensure we get where we want to go. In the cab on our way back to our hotel this afternoon we decided to just call it south... It really is a lovely city, but is absolutely massive. We lived in Buenos Aires for a year (13 million) and currently live in NYC (11 million) but Mexico City (22 million) is just plain A LOT!

This morning we decided to put off our trip to the pyramids until tomorrow and instead spend the day visiting some more art. This city is absolutely teeming with art, it's fantastic. Again walking from one side of the city to another (which really isn't so bad in 80 degree sunny weather!) we took in the sights at a local arts market, the Centro de la Imagen (photography museum), Bellas Artes (gorgeous theater), the Diego Rivera Mural Museum, the National Arts Museum, and then on to the ruins of Templo Mayor. We had lunch overlooking the ruins and were very happy to rest our feet after a long day of museum hopping. The iced margarita was a welcome treat in the hot sun!

Mike at the photography museum and dancers in the park (at 9AM!)

The historic center and a pink church with sculptures of Aztec warriors

The Aztec Ruins of Templo Mayor

So tomorrow we're off to the pyramids then perhaps on to a dinner and some mariachi. Hopefully we'll continue to encounter the same friendliness in cab drivers we've experienced so far - they've been so willing to chat with us and answer questions, point things out, etc... I love being able to speak the language in the country I'm traveling in. I'm a little worried about how little we will have studied Amharic before our next lesson on Monday night though...we were just getting to the point where we could practice conversations but I have a feeling this little trip may be setting us back a few days! Vale la pena - worth it.

Men In Suits, Dancing

One of the most enjoyable things about traveling is observing cultural norms and their similarities and differences to our own. Not to over generalize as I’m sure there are examples out there somewhere, but from my own personal experience the white shirt and tie crowd in the US aren’t huge on the dance scene. The one exception in my recollection would be from my first year teaching in the South Bronx when my colleagues seemed to talk about going out dancing fairly regularly. I initially found this odd, as to me dancing had always been for the late night prowling crew, not the middle school teaching crew. I eventually realized this was just a cultural norm for many of them (most of Latin American heritage) and that it’s actually ok (and fabulously normal) for people like my dad to go out dancing in the middle of the week and enjoy! I was reminded of this last night in Mexico City when my husband and I topped off the evening at a cantina near our hotel where a salsa band was playing loudly. I smiled when we sat down and watched the couples on the dance floor. Men in white shirts, black pants, suit coats and ties dancing without hesitation, exchanging partners frequently, it honestly looked like the 5PM Wall Street crowd in the US but they were having fun! Forty, fifty, sixty something men and women in full business attire absolutely letting go and enjoying themselves on the dance floor – and this is the norm here. I loved it.

Other cultural norms we enjoy observing while traveling are those of baggage. Not baggage in the luggage sense but baggage as in “what you must be carrying with you at all times to be a local” sense. Obviously there are times when locals aren't carrying their country's "baggage norm" but there always seems to be an overwhelming presence of one item in each country we visit, and it always has a positive connotation, something happy or culturally significant that provides a visual of the streets in a country or region. When we were in Bolivia the baggage norm was the chicken. No matter where we went the locals seemed to have a chicken in tow. In Morocco it was a watermelon. Not in Marrakesh, but in most of the surrounding areas. If you didn’t have a watermelon you just could not possibly be a local. In Italy…wine. Don’t ever go to a restaurant in Italy and attempt a meal without wine – not possible. (we did OK with that one) So now we’re in Mexico and the baggage norm appears to be the lime. HUGE sacs of limes. I think we’ve squeezed a trees worth of limes onto our drinks and dinners since we got here. I can’t help but wonder what the baggage norm will be when we’re in Ethiopia. Based on conversations with our Amharic tutor we should expect to enjoy large quantities of coffee - so perhaps it will be sacs of coffee beans? I can't wait to find out!

Yesterday we went for a walk around the neighborhood (we're staying in the Zona Rosa) and enjoyed a ridiculously huge and delicious lunch and then participated in the Noche Romantica (Valentines Day) festivities. Today we walked from one side of the city to the other landing in Chapultepec Park where we visited the Modern Art Museum and Archeology Museum. We then headed to the Historic Center of town to visit the National Cathedral, National Palace, and finally found ourselves at the Gregory Colbert “Ash and Snow” exhibit. Our cab driver told us it was in town and our jaws absolutely dropped. This is a traveling exhibit that spent a few months in NYC last year, but the 4 hour queue (and $20 entry) kept us from going. Not the case in Mexico City – Gratis and Rapido! (free and quick – walked right in!) It’s by far the largest photo exhibit I’ve ever seen, and is absolutely magical. Tomorrow we’re going to the Pyramids of Teotihuacan (the main pyramid is the 3rd largest in the world) and then plan to visit various other galleries including those host to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. This city is so beautiful, colors blasting everywhere, and fantastically rich in history. Loving it.

A monument in Chapultepec Park

Entrance to and insde the National Anthropology Museum

Us outside the Gregory Colbert "Ash and Snow" Exhibit

Paper Preggers Part 2

Way back when we were wrapping up the paper chase and finalizing our dossier documents (ages ago, at least 4 months!) I posted about being paper preggers. At that time my husband and I were comfortable with considering ourselves in a spot comparative to the 3rd month of a pregnancy because we were finally at the stage where the initial document gathering, or "worry stage" was complete. So, we embraced going public with being paper preggers. I'm not convinced it was a brilliant idea.

For bio-preggers moms (it must be ok to refer to them that way if I'm referring to myself as paper preggers, right?) they have the secured knowledge that their baby is living inside of them and that every possible environmental, physical, and psychological need is being met to the best of their ability. With each trimester comes new developments, new visible appendages and perhaps even the gender should the family want to know. For us paper preggers families we aren't privy to this comfort or the trimester updates. And as time goes on the discomfort tends to increase - not decrease. Political, non-political, or completely random events could occur that could somehow affect the adoption process. Of course every paper preggers family enters into the world of adoption knowing full well of these possibilities (hopefully). But to be honest that doesn't help much in the day to day mind of a perspective adoptive parent. After all, we're talking about our family here - try to just hide that in the back of your mind. Hard, right?

So...Were we paper preggers when we first began learning about international adoption? Or when we finished the paper chase? Or now that we've been "officially" waiting for 2 months, 1 week, and 2 days? I might be over being paper preggers. From now on I'm just a mom waiting.

I'm OK with that - new status, mom waiting. Ready to accept and respond to the challenges that we'll inevitably encounter, but in full-swing mommy-mode as well.

Bring on that referral.

The Bat Signal

I sent an email to our CHI adoption consultant today just to make sure she has both of our cell numbers, all of our email addresses, etc... just in case our referral arrives while we're in Mexico this week. I had to laugh at her response:

"Don’t worry, when your referral comes in, we will locate you no matter where you are, send out the national guard if we have to, flares, bat signals……but I’ll call your cells first."

I like the bat signal response enough that I think I'll start using it as my response to colleagues at work when they ask me if there are any updates on our adoption. I usually say something along the lines of, "don't worry, when there's an update TRUST ME you'll know!" But I hadn't ever thought of bat signals before!

Less than 34 hours and we'll be on a plane to Mexico City...I feel more relaxed already.

A First Mother's Story

Below is a piece my little sister wrote about her life experience as a first mother. There are so many different scenarios out there and so many things to learn from each of them. Enough from me...introducing Jewels! (an introductory post about Jewels is below this one)
___________________________________________________

First, thank you to my sister for that absolutely wonderful introduction! I guess that means I should try to live up to pedestal shes put me on! A little bit about me and my adoption histories. I first found out that I was pregnant with my birth son when I was 16, just finishing my junior year in high school. At first, I was scared beyond belief! I was too young to have a baby, not to mention telling my family! Growing up in a Christ centered family this was the last thing they wanted to hear. But, I came to the conclusion that this guy loved me and would help me raise this child growing inside me. Well, I was wrong. The birth father left me when I was about 3-4 months along. I was heartbroken. But for some reason I still thought I could raise this child on my own.

On Thanksgiving of that year, my dad set me down and had a one on one talk. By the end, I realized I was being selfish and needed to think of this child first. That was when I made the choice to give my child a long and happy life with two parents. The adoption process was long, but I wanted to make sure I made the right decision. I ultimately chose a close friend of our family. It just so happened that they were going through the adoptive parent side of things at the same agency I was using. When I gave birth to Theodore (Teddy), and realized it was almost time to give this child over to his new family, it was the hardest time in my entire life. I new I was making the right decision, but the very thought of "giving up" this child whom I had bonded with so closely for nine months was breaking my heart. This was the start of the grieving process.

After the adoption, it didn't take me long to realize that I had made the best decision in the world. I was blessed to have an open adoption and was able to see my birth son first hand being raised by people I already cared deeply for. The bond between myself and the adoptive mother grew so much deeper. I came to have a new, deeper respect for her as I watched her play with and rock my baby boy to sleep. Teddy is almost 8 now and I have the wonderful joy of being able to watch him grow into a young man.

I have also given up a baby girl for adoption. Years ago, I was in a very rough spot in my life. I was doing drugs, living with men who disrespected me, and did unspeakable things that really hurt myself and my family. Luckily, God had a different plan for my life. It just took me awhile to realize it. I ended up going through some pretty intensive treatment programs. While I was in treatment, I found my way back to the Lord and started apologizing for everything I had done. However, also while I was in treatment I was raped by one of the van drivers. I never saw him again after that night but the effects of what had happened will stay with me forever. I got pregnant. Again, scared, alone, not wanting to go through the pain of handing over another child, I thought I was going to parent her. And again, God had a different plan.

As if in the same timing sequence, my dad had another talk with me. And amazingly the adoptive parents of Teddy were going through the adoption processes again. At first I didn't know that they were looking to adopt again so I was closing in on other families. I know it seems silly, but one of the most important things to me in finding a family for my baby girl, was that they would know how to do her hair. She is bi-racial and with the birth fathers dark skin I knew her hair was going to be a handful! I just wanted to make sure she looked good!! Once I heard that my son's forever family was in the adoption process I knew in my heart what I wanted to do. I originally wanted to name her Isabelle (I've always loved that name). One day when I was in church with a friend though, she leaned over to me and suggested the name Grace. It hit me. It was only because of Gods Grace that I had made it through my meth addiction and was alive to give birth to this beautiful child. Grace was her name!

Again, it was hard to hand over a baby I had bonded so deeply with for 9 months, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I had to get my life back on track and this baby girl needed two parents who could give her all of the love, attention, and worldly possessions that I could not. Grace is now 3 years old and is such a wonderful handful! I cant imagine not having a relationship with Grace and Teddy. They are the reasons I want to succeed in life. To make them proud. And the relationship with myself and the forever parents has grown so much, that I can't imagine my birth children with anyone else. They are such wonderful, Godly parents who are raising my babies to be respectful, honest, God fearing children. I would not have done anything differently throughout either of these adoptions.

I pray that my sister and brother-in-law can meet the first family of their baby. I know first hand the lifelong effect that it can have. It is such a special bond that I would never give up for anything. Best of wishes to everyone going through adoption process now and in the future!

~Jewels

The First Family

Perspective adoptive parents adopting from Ethiopia have been notified that even if possible they may be discouraged from meeting with the first family of their child. Adoptions in Ethiopia have increased at lightening speed over the past year and one of the results is the introduction of new regulations and policies (by both the US and Ethiopian Governments). We will adhere 100% to the guidelines set in place. However, we've witnessed first hand how encounters between the first and forever families can have a priceless influence on everyone involved and sincerely hope that given the opportunity we'll be able to meet the first family of our child.

My sister is a first mom.

My little sister has had a powerful influence on our life. She's faced a barrage of challenges and been forced to redeem herself on more than one occasion. She's also given the unmatchable gift of life to two glorious children, and her life experiences have provided countless women with the inspiration to forge forward in the difficult paths they face. And through it all she's maintained the inspiration to be true to herself.

She is the first mother to two children who now live with their forever mother and father. She was young and unprepared, yet mature and strong in so many ways. She made the difficult decision to make one family's dreams come true, and they're now in their 7th year of an open adoption. I truly believe that the forever family’s ongoing connection with my sister has had a highly positive influence on the children. The first family connection can be priceless, and it just feels criminal to intentionally prevent. We continue to hope from the depths of our heart that we’ll be allowed to meet our child’s first family if at all possible.

I’m hoping my sister will agree to a guest appearance (if I haven’t upset her too much by the “little sister” references) and share some more about her experiences. We learn so much from each other in our adoptive family blog world, but the perspective of the first mother is something often unpublished.

Introducing Jewels – The newest contributor to the McGregor Journey. Stay tuned!

More Importantly...

The Forsbergs and Jocelyn are flying to Ethiopia this week to be united with their babes! We wish them safe travels and health throughout the next week - and hope they post lots of pictures!

Booked!

Mexico City - We leave one week from tomorrow. YEAH!!! I think I actually stopped thinking about "the wait" for a moment or two...nah, not possible. Anyone out there who has been to Mexico City please feel free to share suggestions for which pyramids, historic sites, art galleries, museums to visit. 8 days and we're off! (Oh no, did I really just start ANOTHER countdown? Lord help me...)

Slippery Slope

The travel bug is a slippery slope. It starts with the desire to spend a long weekend somewhere "close by" abroad, and quickly burgeons into a full fledged "where should we spend two weeks?" conversation. It's clear - we need to go somewhere for a few days. But the fact remains that we're not really go-somewhere-for-a-few-days kind of people. We tend to travel, LOTS. We need to be responsible and NOT go overboard but the fact that I just want to be in Ethiopia RIGHT NOW may be influencing my judgment. Just a little bit.

So, cross your fingers and wish me luck that I'll find rhyme with my reason and responsibility with my reservations and book a nice, quaint, nearby vacation. FYI - I'm not holding my breath... And, evidently when I'm writing about things that I'm trying to personally convince myself against I tend to use capital letters. Interesting.

Best Education Ever

I had an ahhahhh moment this morning and am only slightly embarrassed to say that it came while watching a Mathew McConaughey interview on The Today Show. Meredith Vieira was trying to get him to talk about how he'll need to settle down once his baby arrives, and he calmly explained to her that travel and culture have been his "best education ever" and that he has a feeling that a passport is something his baby is going to acquire quite quickly. I couldn't agree more, and better yet this explains why I've been so antsy lately. Sure sure, waiting for a referral may be contributing to some of this antsyness, but to be honest my husband and I really are patiently waiting for that call and are ready to take as many deep breathes as needed as the wait time extends.

The main contributor, I now understand, is a decline in the amount of traveling we've done recently. I too consider travel and culture my best education ever, and my mind is aching for some travel! This year our goal was for me to save all of my vacation days until after my maternity leave, that way I'll have 6-8 weeks home with the baby and then 3 additional weeks of vacation to use later in the year. Truth be told...there's no way I'm going to make it another 3 to 9 months without going SOMEWHERE!

So, off to find the quickest (close by so the flight isn't too long, minimizing the number of days I'll need to take off work), cheapest, and most fabulous place we haven't been yet. We've been to some parts of Mexico but never Mexico City, and most of Central America but never Costa Rica. These would both be relatively short flights for us, so we'll see what I can find!

Travel. Best education ever.

Two, Dos, Deux, Due, Zwei, Hulet

English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Amharic - It's all the number 2.

Two months waiting.

Hulet months waiting.

It could be any day between now and September!

Karma Takes a GIANTS Swing

NY Giants - Super Bowl Champions Baby!!!

God bless the NFL. Cheers to a new week!

City Saturdays

Yesterday we took a "city day" which basically means museum/gallery hopping, wine bar hopping, lots of walking (it was 50 degrees and sunny in Manhattan yesterday!), and inevitably dinner with friends. There are few better ways to spend a day. We started in the East 30's and visited the Morgan Library (Pierpont Morgan, of the Morgan family - you may be familiar with JP Morgan...) where they're currently showing an Irving Penn exhibit that was amazing. If you live in the area it's definitely worth a trip. We got to check out Mr. Morgan's personal library where the guard showed us where there's a secret staircase that leads to an underground passage stretching all the way to Grand Central Terminal! Because if you don't have your own secret passageway leading from your house to Grand Central Terminal how important could you possibly be? Amazing.

Then off to enjoy the rest of the day, slowly meandering our way North to our friends apartment for dinner. I loved that at every location we stopped into there were strollers outside and happy families enjoying the day doing the same thing we were doing but with children! Can't wait to be one of them. When you're in a city the size of NYC it's also hard not to notice the sheer quantity of stroller designs - wow there are a lot of options. We love our Stokke Xplory...now we just need the Bean to put in it!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday - GO GIANTS!!!

TGIF

Our weekly update from CHI arrived today with the following scripture - good note to end the week on:

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

Amharic Book & Ethiopian Kids Songs

Zodi (our Amharic instructor) is the author of the book she uses for her tutoring sessions and it is now available online! If you're interested in learning some Amharic vocabulary here's how you can purchase her book: Go to http://www.authorhouse.com and click on the Bookstore link.
Then type "Amharic script" into the search and it should lead you to her Amharic book, "Amharic Ethiopian Script: Lakech One". (Or try clicking HERE but not sure if the direct link will work for everyone)Also, my mother in law sent us a fabulous new CD of Ethiopian kids songs that comes with a book that provides a basic pronunciation and translation guide. We can sing along with two of the songs already (both counting songs, hooray our number pronunciation is OK!) and will hopefully learn a few more over the weekend. It's called "The Life of Childhood Amharic Kids Songs" and is exclusively distributed by Abshiro Kids. FUN!

Where Did My Karma Go?

We generally enjoy fairly good karma, so I'm baffled as to why karma seems to be out to get us this week. Tuesday evening we arrived home to our outdoor water pipes having frozen and burst resulting in a constant stream of water under our deck and 12 inches of standing water in the basement. Thursday afternoon I was on my way home from Atlantic City for work, and 183 miles into the 199 mile trip our brand new (new to us anyhow) Subaru broke and left me stranded on the side of a major interstate waiting for a tow home. We even went out for dinner tonight because I was a little stressed after spending almost 2 hours on the side of a road with huge trucks zooming by me at 80 mph...and they got my order wrong. Pipes bursting, cars breaking, and the restaurant industry seemingly out to get me - where did my karma go?

I'm secretly hoping that this is karmas way of preparing me for the ultimate karmic moment of happiness...a referral call. How cool would that be! Here's hoping for the return of my karma tomorrow - TGIF!

Atlantic City Baby

Work has landed me in Atlantic City this week. As a project manager my perks are few, but I must say that having Atlantic City as one of my clients is...wait, that's still not a perk. I don't gamble. I don't smoke. I'm not retired and enjoying my golden years on the Jersey shore. I've met with my clients in Atlantic City many times (lovely people) but this afternoon I finally put my finger on my main aversion to this city... there are no children anywhere.

Until the past year or so I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much more positive the general vibe of a place can be when there are children around. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved children. I would pick up my life and move to the other side of the globe tomorrow to provide a loving environment to orphaned children if I could figure out how to make it work. I just don't think I realized how they fit so naturally into almost everything we do. Obviously there are scenarios not entirely appropriate for children (for example, gambling in a smoke filled base-beat-thumping neon spewing room... ok it's starting to make sense why there are no children in Atlantic City...) but those scenarios are extremely few and far between.

My husband and I are so excited to introduce our child to our life, and to re-experience life "with child" for ourselves as well. I have a gut feeling we wont be planning any family vacations to Atlantic City in the near future... good thing I'm getting my fill now! OK, Off to the slots, oh wait, I mean off to the nearest smokeless thumping-beat-less place for dinner.

It's Atlantic City baby.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Stacie - Enjoy!

Listed in no particular order...

8 things I'm passionate about:
1. International Adoption
2. Traveling
3. Public Education (Jo is Teach for America alum)
4. Photography
5. The Outdoors
6. Being Informed and Taking Action
7. Languages
8. Food & Wine (LOVE to cook!)

8 things I want to do before I die:
1. Go to Ethiopia and meet our child
2. Return to Ethiopia...a few times
3. Learn to read & write a symbolic language (working on Amharic now)
4. Learn to fly an airplane
5. Travel all 7 continents (4 down, 3 to go)
6. Climb Kilimanjaro
7. Adopt 1, maybe 2 more children
8. Have a solo photo show at the Met or other major museum (Mike)

8 things I say often:
1. The adoption is progressing nicely, we're just waiting for our referral.
2. What do you want for dinner hun?
3. She ain't done yet
4. Bode NO!
5. Bridger NO!
6. Sure, why not?
7. If you order merlot I'm leaving.
8. How do you spell...?

8 TV shows I recently watched:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Don't Forget the Lyrics
3. Singing Bee
4. Family Guy
5. The Simpson's
6. The Today Show
7. David Letterman
8. The Office

8 Songs I never tire of listening to:
1. Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
2. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's
3. Cello Suite #1 - J. S. Bach
4. Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo Ole's version
5. Adagio Sostenuto from Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven - Played by Bela Fleck
6. Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
7. Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles
8. Ripple - Grateful Dead

8 things that attract me to my friends:
1. Socially/Politically Aware
2. Willing to take risks
3. A love for dinner parties
4. They
5. Put
6. Up
7. With
8. Me

8 Things I learned in 2007:
1. The word "Apostille"
2. Real Patience...still working on it though
3. How to prepare Ethiopian food
4. Where our septic tank is, and what happens when it backs up
5. How well Subaru's hold their value
6. Bridger is not faster than a groundhog (though he tries...)
7. Most cheese contains rennet making it not a vegetarian product
8. If you pick your mailbox up on Monday the snowplow man will knock it back over on Tuesday

I'm tagging Laura (Cloverlandfarm) and Amanda and Andrew - Have fun!

Researching The Candidates

Off the topic of adoption for a moment...

"Glassbooth is a nonprofit organization that is creating innovative ways to access political information. An informed and interested democracy is a powerful thing."

First assign points to issues you find important in the upcoming election then take a quiz where you assign values ranging from strongly oppose to strongly agree to various policies/ideas. Then find out which candidate is your best match! The really cool part is it then goes on to inform you why you fit or don't fit with each candidate based on candidate quotes and/or voting record. It's a great way to learn about those in the running to be our next President.

Following yesterday's whine I needed a little reminder today that it's important to make sure that every day includes a little laughter. Since we've already established the importance of the "Have Patience" song, I figured it was time for a little Marry Poppins and the "I Love to Laugh" song!

Referral Waiting

There are so many pieces to this process that require waiting and being patient, and each new wait tends to be more difficult than the last. First the home study, then the dossier, then the fingerprints, then the I-171H, then the authentication, and well, you get the idea. Before now the waiting was usually for a week or two, maybe a month, but always within the foreseeable future. We knew that the document, form, or whatever it was we were waiting for would eventually arrive. I should have expected that the referral wait would follow the trend and be slightly more difficult then the last waiting stage (US authentication and dossier to Ethiopia) but for some reason I thought that once we finished all of our paperwork and were officially "just waiting" that it would somehow be easier. HA!!!

Apparently I'm not very good at "just waiting". Especially when the wait times are so up in the air right now and could continue to change at a moments notice. Realistically, we could get our referral call in a couple of weeks. But, realistically, we could get our referral call in in a couple of months...or more. We continue to learn new levels of patience and faith daily. We've been learning to cook Ethiopian, taking Amharic lessons, reading scads of books on adoption parenting and Ethiopian culture, and even have the nursery well on it's way to being ready for little Bean. That last part of course is on hold for now until we know the gender since there's only so much decorating you can do in a nursery without knowing if it's going to be for a boy or a girl. So we continue to wait for our referral, patiently.

We've been dreaming about adopting internationally for years, have been actively in the process for 8+ months, and officially on the wait list for almost 8 weeks. But, it all seems like a drop in the bucket when I sit back for a moment and think about how much so many lives are going to change or be affected as a result of all of this waiting.

I think I'm going to officially remove the word "wait" (in all forms) from my vocabulary now... :)

"Our lives begin to end the day we become
silent about things that matter."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Abyssinian Roots

Hillary Clinton visited the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem yesterday, (click here for the article) where she was officially endorsed by highly influential and revered Reverend Calvin Butts. Although I love a good round of political talk and opinion sharing, that is not why I decided to mention this in today's post. The reason I bring this up...

My husband and I moved to NYC 6.5 years ago and the first church we visited was the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. I have no idea why - not sure if it was the choir, the community, or the fact that it was mentioned in every single NYC guide book, but needless to say it's where we went. And, subsequently stood in a line for over an hour prior to taking our seat for the service. It was extremely powerful, and we went back - several times. The word "Abyssinia" denotes the historical reference to the country of Ethiopia, home of the Habesha people. So now, 6.5 years later, we are waiting for our little Habesha. We always knew that we would grow our family through international adoption but the country specifics weren't certain until early last year. We didn't select the Ethiopia program, it selected us - and the match was perfect.

Welcome to the Super Bowl NY Giants!!!

Go Giants!

Yes, we're true Minnesota Vikings fans at heart but we also currently reside in the great state of New York so will be cheering loudly for the Giants tonight as they tackle the Green Bay Packers for the NFC Championship title.

GO GIANTS!

Rock Star

Last night we had some friends over for the night and one of them brought their Xbox Rock Band video game. We had a blast playing it into the wee hours of the morning and were officially rock stars for a night! My husband and I don't own video games so the whole setup was new to us (which puts us in the minority as evidently this is the hottest thing on the market right now) but we did our best to catch on quickly. For those unfamiliar with Rock Band (which is probably not many of you as I think Mike and I were the last people on the planet to play it, or so our friends told us) there are actual guitars, microphones, and even a drum set involved. The goal is to sing/play your instrument as close to the beat of each song as possible - the result is group of friends rocking out for the night to songs I hadn't heard in years. Great fun. I have a feeling these sorts of evenings are going to be few and far between once Bean arrives, but I also have a feeling that we're not even going to notice...there will be another rock star in the family and we'll be learning lyrics to a few new tunes - lullabies!

We're IN The Range!

The range I'm referring to is the minimum to average time spent waiting for a referral by CHI families, which currently hovers from around 6 weeks to around 16 weeks. As of yesterday we've been officially waiting for 6 weeks. We're IN the range! Below is a graphic depiction of us in the range as represented by a box and whisker plot. Darned Microsoft Excel wouldn't let me create a proper box and whisker plot so I did my best to draw one myself.

Disclaimer: Seeing as I don't have access to all of the official CHI wait times allowing me to find the actual quartiles for a proper box and whisker plot the graph below is purely a guestimation and in no way represents anything official or stated by CHI. It's just my very optimistic blog-influenced guess. Enjoy!

Amharic Lesson #2 And More Food

On Monday we had our second Amharic lesson with Zodi and we were finally able to put a sentence or two together. She's prioritizing vocabulary for now and will help us with sentence structure / verbs later on, but it's fun to be able to say a few complete sentences in the meantime! We're slowing gaining the ability to pronounce words (relatively) correctly but there is definitely A LOT of studying in our future. Can anyone recommend good DVD's/CD's in Amharic? Listening to the sounds throughout the week would definitely help us - we'll gratefully accept all suggestions!

Last night we went to The Ethiopian Restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side and the food was fantastic. It might be my new favorite in NYC, or at least tie for first with Meskerem. Mike and I took our best shot at a few of the Amharic words we've learned (nothing too tricky, just "thank you" and "hello") and the waitress actually understood us! I was so relieved when I said thank you to her in Amharic and she responded with a huge smile - my pronunciation doesn't stink! We have 8 lessons to go, so hopefully by the time we've completed the course we'll be able to practice some basic conversations while dining at NYC's Ethiopian restaurants - this is definitely not going to help our attempt at losing some babywait, but it's for a good cause so is justified...right? Thank goodness for the treadmill.

Crib Mattress

We spent yesterday morning educating ourselves on the virtues of crib mattresses and then ventured out to the shops to purchase ours. The literature on the web recommends finding the heaviest one if you're going with foam because that means it's the most dense and wont conform to your baby's shape which could result in suffocation and increased risk of SIDS. For inner-spring mattresses (most common) we were recommended to find one with a coil count above 130 and a steel gauge below 15, as well as some form of border wire or rods in the corners and sides for perimeter support. Bottom line, the firmer the better. One of the consumer review sites we read also said that a quality mattress will cost somewhere between $90-200, anything less than $90 likely being too soft and anything more than $200 likely having unnecessary bells and whistles.

We took this information and made our first stop at Target where we were very disappointed to find only two options, neither of which met the specs we were looking for. I know that their online store has quite a few additional options however without knowing exactly which mattress we wanted we felt uncomfortable making the purchase online, site unseen. So we headed to JCPenney and then SEARS and again found little to no selection, but on the advice of a saleswoman at SEARS made our next stop at Babies "R" Us. There we found an entire wall of crib mattresses, complete with lengthy descriptions and the ability to feel each of them prior to purchase. We settled on the Serta Perfect Balance Organic Crib Mattress and called it a day. Be warned, there are ALOT of bad crib mattresses out there!

Babywait status:
- Babywait (referral) = 5 weeks and 5 days.
- Babywait (treadmill) = 9 consecutive days, at least 30 minutes per day!

Melkam Ganna! (A Day Late)

Malkam Ganna (Merry Christmas in Amharic) from the McGregors! Christmas is celebrated on January 7th in Ethiopia and we were happy to participate in a few Ethiopian-themed events:

- We had our first Amharic tutoring session and it was fantastic! Our tutor, Zodi, is wonderful. We're really looking forward to being able to communicate (at least a little bit :)) with the community while we're in Ethiopia. During the session Zodi made the comment to me that Amharic is in my blood - The size of the smile on my face must've been record breaking!

- We met Cloverlandfarm and her husband for dinner at Meskerem, an Ethiopian restaurant in Manhattan. They're adopting from Ethiopia as well and are an absolutely lovely couple. We're hoping to go to a service at Zodi's church together sometime soon. Their services are conducted completely in Amharic with English subtitles so should be very interesting!

- I enjoyed another exciting correspondence with our CHI adoption consultant today regarding our time line: Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia on December 31st, 2007 and we've been on the wait list since December 4th, 2007. The 2-3.5 month estimated wait time to receive a referral is based off of the day we were added to the wait list, so... 1 month 4 days down, 2 months 11 days to go! (I'm a former math teacher...you have no idea how hard it is for me to refrain from posting a thorough analysis of the data and corresponding graphic representations of all of the "estimated" wait times.)

- We're on day #4 of operation "babywait be gone!" So far, so good.

So, it was a busy day but we adore participating in activities that help us to feel that much closer to our child. Our child certainly isn't waiting for us, in fact little baby McGregor has no idea we're coming. We're the lucky ones waiting for little Ashton/Isabel to be ready - and when s/he is we're on the next plane to Addis Ababa!

Great Online Resources

I found two great websites today while doing a little research that both include some interesting reads regarding adoption parenting, attachment & bonding, etc...

Enjoy!

A4everFamily: A wealth of information for adoptive parents & families.

University of Minnesota International Adoption Medicine Program: "The first clinic in the United States providing for the health needs of internationally adopted children through its clinic services, research, and education."

"Babywait"

Presenting the adoptive mom's equivalent to "babyweight"... "babyWAIT"!

Official definition (well mine anyhow):

Babywait: The additional pounds an adoptive mommy puts on while waiting for the referral of and union with her child. The official amount varies depending on the actual amount of time waited and circumstances that evolve during the wait. The wait, and subsequent babywait, can have negative side effects however those are quickly outweighed by the delightful feeling one enjoys while munching on snacks and catching up on the latest news on the blogs. You can tell if you've fallen victim to babywait if you are in the process of adopting a child and notice that your favorite pair of jeans aren't quite fitting the way they used to.

The solution to babywait?

1. A quick referral, court date, and travel date. (duh)

A more reliable solution to babywait?

One Month

On December 4th, 2007 our dossier was approved by CHI and we were added to the wait list. We've been officially waiting for one month! Now that the holidays are over things have really picked up for both my husband and I at work so I have a feeling the coming days are going to fly by. We went out for a celebration dinner last night (my husband received exciting news regarding his work but it hasn't been officially announced yet so unfortunately I can't share details...grrr) and while at dinner I asked him what he thought we should do for Valentine's Day this year. The moment the word "Valentines Day" came out of my mouth we both silenced and squinted our eyes while we thought to ourselves, is Valentines Day REALLY already next month? It feels strange enough accepting that we're actually in the year 2008, but to think that we're already making plans for February is simply astonishing.

Where did the last year go? Oh yeah I remember... it went to the police station for documents, the doctor for documents, friends for letters, social worker for documents, accountants for letters, adoption DVD's for lessons, the FBI for fingerprints, various notaries for stamps, 5 counties for certifications, 3 states for Secretary of State approval, and to the post office about a thousand times for the mailing of said paperwork! And a partridge in a pear tree.

One month down, lots of waiting to go. LOTS to do in the meantime!

Happy New Year!

We were fortunate to enjoy New Years Eve with fabulous friends, an Ethiopian feast, and good times all around. We used our new cookbook to prepare a meal of veggie sambusa, mesir wat, tibs wat, and a berbere spiced potato/carrot/cauliflower mix and enjoyed Ethiopian honey wine with the meal.

Our good friends searched high and low in Manhattan for Ethiopian honey wine and finally found it at an Ethiopian restaurant within a few blocks of their apartment. As they conversed with the owner of the restaurant and explained to him why it was so important to bring an Ethiopian honey wine to their New Years festivities the owner became very excited about their friend's adopting from Ehtiopia and offered family to stay with in Addis while traveling as well as his daughter in Manhattan as an Ethiopian baby sitter! We are truly fortunate to live in an area where one can "stumble" into such grand Ethiopian resources! We're going to join our friends for dinner sometime soon at the restaurant and hopefully strike up a new friendship with the owners.

Cheers to our dear friends who gave us the African cookbook, our fabulous friends who sought out Ethiopian honey wine and found it as well as an entire family to get to know, and of course, cheers to the new year!

An Ethiopian feast

Our first kiss of 2008!
(Yes, that is Dick Clark on the TV in the background!)

Amazing hot chocolate sticks dipped in warm milk for dessert....mmm good!

What would new years eve be without sledding? Nothing could keep our boys from testing out 6 fresh inches of powder on our 6 foot sledding hill...I think someone's looking forward to being a daddy and having an excuse to go sledding again!

Here he is climbing the hill
(Yes, that is a cardboard box he's using as a sled)

Now prepping for the big slide


Down, down, and away!!!


Ok, I eventually joined in on the fun...