Adoption Petition Granted!

Poor little thing is officially part of our little New England whack pack as of last Tues. 10-21-08~
Woo hoo! We were there for all of 30 seconds! Why did I bother to do my hair??

This last one is a little hint of what Tessas going to be for Halloween! :)

OUT OF THE CLOSET, I LOVE EDWARD!!

Yes, another post! I was going to do one GIANT post yesterday and decided to break them up into three separate ones since they differ so much. This is just for fun!

I'm much too old for this stuff, seriously!

I bought the book Twilight only because it was on every stupid end cap at Borders right before our trip to Ethiopia! It looked nice and big to carry me through the long flight. Well, I never got past page one the entire trip as I couldn't think of anything but our girl and everything else. On the flight I couldn't even watch one of my favorite movies "Out of Africa" (what are the odds)!

After coming home and seeing "Cool Jules" totally obsessed with this whole series I thought, " I should read it when I have a spare minute." Well, low and behold, serious illness knocked and apparently I answered. When you're in and out of bed for the better part of five weeks you have some free time! And so it began...

I opened up Twilight and read it in THREE DAYS! A first for me because it typically takes me months to read small books! I can only read a few pages at a time before falling asleep!

During day two of reading Twilight I quickly realized that I had to have the second book before I was done so that I could start it right away.... So, me and my Kleenex took a field trip crusty nose and all (practically in my bathrobe.) The most horrible part was that I couldn't find it anywhere in the store and looked it up on their computer, guess where it was... the Young Adult section - I'm pathetic! And so, New Moon began... I was devasted by this one.

I should have learned my lesson and just bought the whole series when I ventured out but I didn't. Later that day I hit Amazon for my purchase of the next two in the series as it only took another three days to read New Moon.

Breaking Dawn did not disappoint and I was all bug eyed reading most of it - especially Isle Esme!

It ended up taking me two weeks to read all four and the last one was over 700 pages. MP LOVED my obsession because it kept me off his back and gave him plenty of weekend time to watch whatever he wanted on TV at night without the typical compromise/bickering! No pestering about how long the lawn was going to take, no nagging about taking us out to lunch! None of it! I was 100% committed and even read while cooking dinner for the little monsters.

And now, Cool Jules is going to a post production party because her husband Marshall worked on the film! Tonight she may very well meet some of the actors from the film. In short, I hate Julie!

I'm never like this and haven't had a crush on a fictional character since Don Johnson in Miami Vice, and Tom Cruise in Risky Business (around the eight grade - I'm almost 37 now folks)... I feel like a twelve year old and almost cried when I finished the last book. I've even resorted to re-reading Twilight while cross reading the Midnight Sun book which Stephenie Meyer wrote (partially) and posted online only. Midnight sun is Twilight from Edwards perspective (love it.)

Twilight the film opens on November 21st and I'm trying to decide how and with whom I was to see it! I hope Michelle or Rhonda get around to reading/loving it too so we go together. Rhonda, I still owe you dinner and a movie, remember!!!

I need to be stopped! My obsession is out of control! There! I admitted it, I feel better.

And if you don't have anything nice to say, don't leave a comment! :)

My Edward...

Awassa Youth Campus!

We went to this wonderful fundraiser that our friends Parke and his wife Chris (above with MP) told us about on Monday. He and his wife are friends of a woman who's son is the co-founder of this organization, John McKay. He was raised just a half hour away from my po-dunk town.

What are the chances??!! It was a wonderful first night out for MP and I since coming home and what better first date could we have had!

They're currently doing a small tour doing presentations and fundraisers.

We stayed in Awassa one night while in Ethiopia and it's the closest city to where Tessa is from!

Again, what are the chances of them coming here and us having a strange connection through friends that we just found out about! We met the co-founder John McKay and his lovely Ethiopian wife who are expecting a child in April. They plan to go back to Awassa to live and raise their child after the tour and continue to grow their campus.

MP bought this for me last night after a bit of begging!!! I LOVE IT!! I've been kicking myself for not buying any artwork while in country and now I have an original piece... the artist is in art school now in Addis thanks to the support he recieved while attending the Awassa Youth Campus!

The sights and sounds of this video are everything we saw and experienced! It is a wonderful reminder of what Ethiopia is like to see and live... exact in every detail!

http://www.awassachildrensproject.org/

Just some ABC cuteness and a little bickering with brother Nicki -

Random pictures ~ still sick!

Blurry but beautiful beyond words, how I love my furry guy!

Princess Tess~ Auntie Kiki and Uncle Jim gave this to her and she LOVES it!

Nature walk w/Grandma and Gradpa P.~ it was so pretty! Edward, where are you?

Auntie Cindy met Tessa and I out for Pete-i-za! (Pizza)

Snuggling and horsing around on the bed~

Auntie Nancy and Uncle Don came to visit with their BEAUTIFUL boy Chaddon~

Taking pictures with Grandpa at the lake~

Both sound asleep while MP was away - I found them like this on my bed!!!

Yesterday we spent the day in our PJ's ~

TAG~

Ok, Jen, I was really enjoying reading your blog and I loved meeting you in person last month but I'm afraid it's all going to end! You see, at first I thought that I didn't have anything "weird" or "quirky" about myself to put on here, and then when I really got to thinking about it the list got SO big that I don't know how to choose the seven winners! :0

I realized that you must have sensed that from our first meeting and that you wanted to exploit me for who I really am; A FREAK! So, Jen, thanks for the tag, I hope the rest of your adoption journey is alright because I'm not following your family anymore! ;)

In NO particular order...

1. I'm deathly afraid of insects of any size shape or form! Deathly, but they always find me. The other day I felt my leg itch and went to scratch it, I felt a lump under my pants and pulled the car over immediately and almost crashing with the kids in tow. I jumped out and started to scream while shaking my pants uncontrollably and wouldn't you know, a HUGE cricket fell out from up near my bum!! This stuff only happens to me, and all the time!

1A. Because of number one, I won't open my car windows until I've been driving for awhile and am sure any bugs near my window opening from being in the garage are sure to have fallen off. I never leave my windows open when parked and have recently stopped opening my moon roof!

2. I like to order Kung Pao chicken without the chicken but with a side of chicken fingers! The small pieces in the kung pao look weird to me!

3. Things in my Ref. or cabinet all have to face forward and belong in a special place/grouping!

(Do you recall the Julia Roberts movie with the psycho husband?? I'm not quite that bad!)

4. Turning the radio down to a whisper is a must the minute I enter a parking lot! I can't seem to see if the radio is at a normal level!

5. I do almost anything possible to avoid leaving the house at night/in the dark (except for social occasions). It is UNHEARD of to do ANY shopping at night for me! Poor night vision is what started it and it became "a thing"...

6. I prefer to be alone and am sensitive to constant noise (unless it's my talk radio)! This began when I started working from home before having any children and I went from hating the solitude to coveting it!

7. I'm obsessed with dressing comfortably! I have my "comfs, aka sweats" and LOVE to be in them. Another work from home related problem! Jeans are an acceptable everyday alternative.

If any of you prefer to stop reading my blog after reading this then I understand! :)

The list goes on, and on...

I wanted to do fun and goofy things only, there's really a whole lot more to me than this stuff!

I'm tagging the following people for different reasons... if you've already been tagged please accept my apologies!

1. Danni

2. Mrs. B.

3. Laurie

4. Rebecca Winter

5. Erica

6. Tiffany

7. Amy

"Our" daughter~

There are so many things that I haven't talked about in regards to our trip. So, so many. I think it takes time to process everything and I have to admit that I don't know if you ever fully do (for me anyway). We've been home for almost eight weeks and there are so many thoughts and feelings and memories that I want to share. I want to share them mostly because I have this dreadful feeling everyday that a tiny bit of our trip is escaping from me. I'll notice that I haven't thought about our trip all day sometimes and that scares me! I want it to be raw and fresh on some weird level... I don't want to lose it.

Of course I love sharing pictures of us home etc. but I have to do these posts every once in a while for my own sake more than anything.

This house, yes, this house is where my daughter spent the first three years of her life...

The birth family visit is something I can't get my head around. It was all a fog, and so surreal. I don't know what I'd do without the precious video of it to remind me of every little detail and the way they looked at me so curiously, trying to get in every detail of us. There were many people (about twelve) all inside their modest but fastidious hut with a dirt floor and fire pit in the center for cooking. The walls were mostly lined with school papers and newspapers all pinned up as if they were wall paper, edge to edge, seam to seam. The beds (one of which we sat on during our visit) were made of branches and covered with blankets. It was just one room, just one.

We had a tough time meeting Tarikua... really tough. And I'll admit, love doesn't always come, even with a child who isn't trying to tear your neck to shreds! What I'm trying to say is while we had a tremendous turn around with Tarikua at the airport coming home and ever since, we settled in here at home and things were great but not like now. It has been awesome to watch our lives intertwine with hers to become a family. The first week home it kinda felt like babysitting, everything was new and a surprise to learn her. That's basically what you do, you learn one another. While I loved her, I wasn't in love with her.... that's hard to say and I hope you don't take it the wrong way.

About two weeks ago something shifted in me... it was huge and I remember thinking several things as it was happening. It was slow but within a few days... I just felt this incredible tug every time I looked at her. Like I do with Nicholas, like I feel that "I can't live without her" feeling... I crave her hugs and her body is no longer new to me and has become so completely and utterly average! I don't need to stare at her beautiful fingers as much or look at her hair or any of that, she's just my average kid! Beautiful and mine! I know every detail and I KNOW HER! To know her there's only one thing that can happen, to love her, every single bit!

I had this feeling and heard the words but it was actually true now, "she is my daughter." And it feels like that, it feels that way so strongly I have no words.

Towards the end of our birth family visit with Tarikua's mother one of the questions we had for her was; "how do you want us to raise your daughter?" Her reply, "she's your daughter now, raise her as your own".

It broke my heart to hear her say that. How tough she was ~ she had decided the future for Tarikua, her daughter, and it was to be...

What a blessing and a gift to have had this birth family experience for Tessa, my daughter. She's a daughter to both of us ~ from one end of this beautiful earth to the other, she has two mom's.

Pass the tissues ~

We're all sick... me the most! It's been going on for almost two weeks but it really hit hard last Friday night during the debate! So, just some pictures to share this post. Family movie time on Sunday, we all got on the floor with blankets and popcorn. This lasted for about 15 minutes before the first person got up to get something etc. etc...


Partners in crime...


Even Snoopy felt sick and tired during the debate...

Before...a few weeks ago!

After...a couple months away! (I couldn't resist when I came accross this photo on my computer)!

While driving today I looked in the rear view and saw this. So I whipped the car to the side of the road and grabbed the camera always at the ready in my purse! This was for real, not staged!

Bye for now -