I Did It!

Well, here we are, November 30th, and I made it! I managed to blog every day this month, and I'm pretty darn proud of myself! Some days were harder than others, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. Greg is now asking me if I'm planning on keeping up with it, and I would really like to say yes. I definitely will try, but December is such a busy month, and I'm going to have my nephew every day starting tomorrow, so I'm not making any guarantees, but I'm not saying "no" either! We'll just have to wait and see! Anyways, thanks for following me all month long, I'll close the month with a couple of cute kids.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We are in the midst of a busy weekend! We spent the morning at the grocery store shopping for the fixings for tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal with Greg's family, and getting the house re-organized after a two week stint of sicky laziness. Shopping for a gluten-free Thanksgiving meal is pretty involved if you are not accustomed to the diet on a day to day business, but this is year number three and I think I'm getting into a groove with it. We will be having a completely gluten-free menu right down to the apple crisp with gluten free oats, which I have just this moment realized I've forgotten to ask Mimi if she has any of, so maybe dessert will have to be altered! In addition to preparing for tomorrow, my aunt Helen from Scotland is in the states visiting her daughter who has been working in New York City for the past couple years and they both flew in this morning to spend the weekend (at my mum's house). So we've just returned from dinner at my mum's with the whole family, what a lovely time we had! It was Ana's (and baby Stevie's) first time meeting Aunt Helen, and Ian is just absolutely in love with Catherine (my cousin) so it was just a really nice night for everyone! Tomorrow morning we will go back to visit for an hour or so before returning to get busy on the Thanksgiving feast before everyone arrives. Then we'll have to really kick ourselves in gear tomorrow night to get everything done that we wanted to before little Stevie starts coming to spend his day's with us on Monday. Please pardon all my run on sentences, my mind is going a wee bit fast at the moment! It's extremely busy, but really, it's the best kind of busy there is!

What Time Were You Up Today?

Well, I was one of those crazies up at 4:00 this morning standing outside the local Wal-Mart. I go with my neighbors every year, and even though there was nothing I needed to buy, it is always amusing, if not a little disturbing, to see the number of people who drag themselves out of bed at that hour to shop. I ended up snagging some pajamas for the kids, and some clothes that Ian desperately needed due to a recent growth spurt. Nancy and Marcia (my neighbors), then brought me out to breakfast as a celebration for my birthday which was so nice! Marcia then went on to work and Nancy and I continued on to Kohls and Target as I was still in search of something nice for Ian to wear for Christmas pictures. It's quite a challenge now that I need to coordinate two outfits, but such a good challenge to have! I just kept thinking about last year at this time when we were shopping for clothes to stuff in a gallon ziplock to send to Ana in Guatemala. It seems so long ago now, when at the time we were enduring the most agonizing wait of our lives! Anyways, were any of you crazy like me?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I laid in bed last night for a long time just thinking about how very thankful I am for my life. I have a wonderful husband, two amazing children, an equally amazing family, and group of people I call my friends. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and an environment in which I can safely live and raise my family. I am thankful to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Ana home, for the process that allowed her to become a part of our family, and for her caretakers who loved her and cared for her the eight months we were apart. I am endlessly thankful to Ana's birth mother who chose to give her life, even when she knew she couldn't be a physical part of it. It is simply impossible to find the words...

It's amazing to look back on your life, and see that things that made no sense at the time; things that devastated you, play out in the big picture so perfectly. I used to feel sorry for myself, for my infertility. I will openly admit I still go to that dark feeling sorry place now and then, but I can now look back and see if it wasn't for that part, that seemed so awful at the time, we wouldn't have ever had our eyes opened to adoption, and we wouldn't have our Ana! I probably wouldn't have started blogging, which led to so many friendships along the way; and I wouldn't have had my eyes opened to the difference one person can make in this world. There are so many ways to help those in need! Maybe this is my purpose, who knows. All I know is that because of something that darkened our lives for so many years, I feel like I'm such a different person than I was before. And I think I'm better for it. When all along I felt like it was so unfair that I was unable to become pregnant a second time, I was actually receiving the most amazing gift of all. God has blessed me with the ability to become a mother in two different, amazingly wonderful ways. It is a wondrous experience to birth a child, and an entirely different, yet equally wondrous experience to adopt one. I consider myself blessed beyond measure to have experienced both.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Books

Ana's new passion is books. She's constantly bringing us books to read to her, and she'll "read" them to herself as well, opening a book then spouting a bunch of garbled gibberish. When my mum was here last week, she brought her one of Ian's piano books and my mum opened it and started singing, "la la la la". Ana then took the book, plopped herself down next to Milo and started "reading" it to herself, "la la la la la". It was so cute!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I prefer paper, but the procrastinator in me usually ends up using bags.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real Tree

3. When do you put up the tree? The day/weekend after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually after the New Year

5. Do you like eggnog? Yummy!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Barbie Dream House

7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law

8. Are gifts from Santa wrapped or unwrapped? Wrapped

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A trip to the emergency room for an asthma attack!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving, though every year I swear I'm going to start earlier!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mum's quiche and calzones Christmas Eve and Cinnamon Buns Christmas morning

16. Lights on the tree? alternate multi color one year, clear the next

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We've always traveled (though Greg's and my parents are just up the road), but it's harder with kids now!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? Growing up, kids opened a present on Christmas Eve that was always miraculously a new pair of pajamas. We've continued that with Ian, and now I can buy some girly Christmas PJs!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Grumpy shoppers

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We have a mish mosh (is that a word?) When I was growing up, our neighbor Charlene made us a new ornament every year and she has continued it to this day, not only for us, but our kids too! We have lot of lovely ornaments from her attached to a lot of good memories!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Leftovers from Christmas Eve

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have everything I could possibly want

26. Favorite Holiday Tradition? Going to church with our family on Christmas Eve

Toddler Work

I am in constant wonder about what goes on in a toddler's mind. She's really starting to understand what we say to her as evidenced by the running to the highchair at the mention of a meal or the complete breakdown when we whisper, "night night time". I just so cool to see how she's starting to process things. But the busy work is what is fascinating to me. I remember Ian doing these tasks as well, one time in particular, carefully transferring multiple bottles of water from one location, across the room one at a time by way of plastic dinner plate. Tonight Ana spent almost 15 minutes pushing a plastic bin from one end of the house to the other, at each end re-arranging the contents of the box (a DVD case and the little box Ian's slinky came in) before turning around. It's so funny to watch how determined she is to get her "work" done.