The Beginning of Baby Sissy's Quilt

We are so thrilled that fabric is starting to arrive for Baby Sissy's quilt. Here is what we received so far.....

Square #1

Square #1 came from my new friend, Jenny.

Jenny and her husband live in Macon which is a couple of hours south of us. We "met" at orientation in January 2007 at the start of our adoption journey. Our dossiers to China were logged into China's system in May 2007 and we joined a May 2007 Yahoo Group. A few months after Mike, Harrison and I switched over to our agency's Waiting Child program, Jenny and Robert switched over. They are waiting for their first child and I am sure that they will be great parents. Jenny has been a wonderful support for me through this process and she COMMENTS ON MY BLOG! Gotta love that!!!!!

I love this fabric for many reasons. One, because its my first square. Two, because of the new friendship that it represents. Three, because its beautiful....don't 'ya think?

Thanks Jenny!

Square #2

Square #2 came from another new friend, Sue.

Sue has two amazing beautiful daughters from China and is waiting for kiddo #3. Her amazing duo have the cutest little cheeks. I have no idea how she and her hubs make it through a day without squeezing them and smooching them all day! Sue's dossier was also logged into China in May 2007 and she is a member of our May 2007 Yahoo group. I really hope that I get to know Sue better because she has been so nice and thoughtful and SHE COMMENTS ON MY BLOG! Gotta love her for that.

:)

I love this fabric for so many reasons. One, because its beautiful. Two, because it comes from someone who I know - without really knowing - is a great person. Three, it came in a super duper puffy envelope, which once you get to know me better will find that my mom taught me how to LOVE great packaging. It's really a disability. Sue, squeeze and kiss those adorable cheeks tonight. Thanks so much for being so supportive.

Thanks Sue!!

Square #3

Square #3 came from my new friend, Amy.

Amy and her hubs were also at our orientation in January. They live somewhere in the greater Atlanta area - which is getting "greater" and "greater" every year. (Jenny, pretty soon I think we will call Macon - South Atlanta). Amy has a little boy a little bit older than Harrison and they also switched over to the Waiting Child program a couple months before us - ok, so she is smarter :) In April, Amy and her family received the referral of a GORGEOUS little girl. They have a private blog so I cannot link it, but trust me she is a super duper cutie.

Amy and I have shared some really lovely emails. Her mother-in-law has cancer so we talked about how Harrison is dealing with Nanni not being here. I know that Amy's M-I-L is thrilled to see her new grandchild and I KNOW she will be even happier watching them come off the plane and meeting her in person. Amy, I want a photo of that moment!

I love this fabric for so many reasons. One, because its adorable...can you see Poo and Tiger? Two, it came from ML's family (baby's initials) and let me tell you, ML is a cutie patootie - so I am diggin anyone she hangs with. Three, it came from Amy who has sent many kind words my way and who I hope I get to officially meet in person one day. Hopefully when Baby Sissy comes home we can get together with the boys and new little ones.

Thanks Amy!!!

Squares #4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

Squares 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 came from my wonderful Aunt Katie, Uncle Jim and my great cousins. The squares came today and were a wonderful surprise!! Actually it was perfect timing -- let me tell you why...

Last night I had a dream. As a bit of history, my mom always planned to come to China with us to get Baby Sissy. She came with us to our first informational meeting, went through all the paperwork, and was our number one supporter. Meeting "Baby China" (as my mom referred to her), became one of my mom's goals through her cancer treatment. Unfortunately, this is one of life's plans that just didn't work out. Ok, back to the fabric and my dream...

So last night I had a dream that Mike, Harrison and I were getting off of the elevator at the hotel to go wait with the group of families to get the babies. It was "Gotcha Day" in my dream. We got off the elevator and turned to go to the group, but Harrison in his typical fashion looked the other way and started to turn away....then, he started to run screaming "Aunt Katie, Aunt Katie." In my dream, my Aunt and Uncle had flown to China to surprise us and to be there to meet Baby Sissy. Of course, I immediately got hysterical and couldn't compose myself. After running up to them, bawling my eyes out and telling them how surprised I was, I ran up to the elevator door to reapply my eye makup and wipe the snot off my face so I would look nice for Baby Sissy. A little crazy and unrealistic of a dream, but it made me wake up with happy and sad mixed emotions.

So, throughout the day I kept thinking of the dream and how strange it was and how I had to tell my Aunt. Then, I get home and get the surprise package. So this is how I have figured it out --- the dream and the package of fabric was just a little reminder. A reminder that while my life in many ways is not how I wanted it to be, in many other ways it is still perfect in its own joyful, blessed and heartbroken way. It's perfect because of the people that I love and those friends and family, who support me in everything that I do. I think the dream was my mom and dad's way of saying that even though they cannot be with me, that family will be supporting me the entire way. Then, just in case I was a dunce and didn't get the message, my Aunt followed through with a nice knock on the noggin sending the fabrics.

I love these fabrics for so many reasons. One, because they are from my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Two, because my my mom's sister and my cousin flew down to be with us during the very last days of my mom's life (my other two aunts did too - don't want to slight anyone if the word gets out) and the support that their visit offered me, my mom and my family is inexplicable. Three, because they are adorable....can you see them, did you actually look? And, there are 5 ----wooo hooo.

Thanks McManus Gang!

Is It In His Blood?

My hubs is a cop. I could also use a variety of other slang words to describe his job. Fortunately, he is not the type to get offended and thinks that its funny when I complain about his "pig" friends who are disturbing my traffic flow by sitting on the side of the road.

One of the many things that I admire about Mike is that he LOVES his job. I mean really loves it. I think he must be insane. We can be out somewhere are all he has to do is hear a siren and he gets all excited to see whats going on. One night at dinner I told him that I just don't understand. I don't see an attorney walk into the room and get all excited. His response? "That is because your job is boring and miserable." I sat for a moment...should I be offended, hurt, ticked off, or should I just agree? You guessed it, I agreed! As a caveat, I love the people that I work with and am very proud of the career that I have, but the fact that I sit on my can all day really drives me nuts.

Mike's twin brother Jeff is also a cop. They are so alike and so different in so many ways, yet they chose the same path. In my office hangs a picture of Jeff and Mike around Harrison's age posing in front of a City of Roswell Police car. Was it their destiny? Funny thing ... Jeff's entire career has been with the City of Roswell.

Mike's Dad, Harrison's PaPa who died over a year ago, was also a cop. He was a Major with Fulton County, which I understand is a fairly big wig position. I can tell you one thing, he perfected throwing around that hairy eye look that a cop gives.

So, is this any indication of what is to come?

I hope not. Why? Just because I would like to wrap my baby in bubble wrap, even when he is 40.

Harrison's Preschool Graduation

Lately my days have been really busy. I have been working ridiculous hours and then sending the boys out of town on the weekend so I can work so more. I know that I have fallen short on being a great wife, mother and friend of the year this year. Typical with my schedule, I had forgotten (I know that is bad) that Harrison's graduation ceremony was the same afternoon I had scheduled myself to teach a class. Great, now what?

Fortunately one of my colleagues agreed to start the class for me and I would go to graduation and run a little late. Mike, Nanna - Mike's mom, and I all rushed to the school to get a good seat. We must have the best seat so we always come early. We usually create a spectacle of ourselves trying to determine which side he will be on. This year, my super smart hubs read the graduation certificates so we go the right side! Go hubs!

As we are waiting, I am looking at my watch, pulling out my Blackberry and doing all of the obnoxious things that coo coo work-a-holics do. Then, the doors opened and time stood still. For the next 30 minutes, my life was blissful and I had not another care in the world. What happened? All it took was to see my Little Mr. as the "caboose" of the line scanning the crowd for me. He couldn't find me at first, so I stood up and waived. Guess what he did....he winked. One wink and I melted. He then gave a shout out to his Nanna and took his position.

Keeping with tradition he threw in a little action into the routine. No crazy dancing this time, just constant winks and the pointed finger. He did it once he got on stage and realized that I got a kick out of it - along with 1/2 the room, and he continued to do it about 80 more times. So much in fact that he couldn't even sing the first song because he was winking, pointing, and throwing his head and hip around. Unfortunately I was so hysterical and moonie eyed that I couldn't catch it on camera. Then, my batteries went dead so I turned to hubs. He said don't worry, I have the other camera - took one picture, and his went dead. Yup, back to bad, unprepared and delinquent parenting.

I don't have a good representation of the entire event, but I can't express how proud I am of Harrison and what an amazing moment for me it was. Time simply stood still. After the graduation, we went to the lobby for cake, hugs and kisses. As I bent down to tell him how much I love him and how proud I was of him, he said "Mom, don't you have to go back to work?" Yup, moment over!

A Beautiful Sunday!

This post was originally from May 4th, but I forgot to post it.

This past week had been really tough for me. With Mike on night shift, I find that I often can't fall asleep until 1 a.m.or so. Mix that with a horrible week at work, working every weekend for the past 4 weeks because I am so behind and of course, the 7 month mark of when my mom died coming up was very draining. Oh and I forgot, my friend Heather and I started on this crazy morning shake from Jackie Warner's Workout show on Bravo - its actually really good, but I miss my morning cereal. I've just been bummed out and living in my own little pity party at times. We all have.

So instead of moping around, we decided to spice things up a bit and go to Falcon Field. Boy, was it a perfect day. The weather was stunning and much to our surprise there were planes galore! Pa really had a super time looking at the oldies. Apparently the Snoopy looking airplane is an old WWII plane that he had never even seen in real life. We got to see this one land and the pilot gave us a wave as he drove by.

The boys were the hit of the airport with their Pearl Harbor Society Hats.

Harrison was even invited onto a private jet. Of course, I had to stick my head in after him as it will likely be the only time I get inside of one. Boy, it was swanky. A tad tiny, but super duper nice. It sure would be fun to cart our hineys around in that one day!

I really think the pictures say it all. Look at the smiles on everyone's face. Since I am late posting this because my pictures would not upload, I can tell you that we surprised Pa by blowing up and framing one of the pictures for Memorial Day. We used the first picture on the top, which wethought was kind of artsy. Pa was very touched.

Zoo Atlanta and My Little Monkey

For Mother's Day, I bought myself a family membership to Zoo Atlanta. It turned out to be the perfect day to go. There were not a lot of crowds and we had so many wonderful moments with Harrison. Here are a few shots of my little monkey....