RAMBLINGS OF A MIXED UP MAMA

This is the ongoing story of faith, love and family as we walk through this life with 3 sons, one daughter, one daughter in law and one grandson

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Good vs. Bad

U*Haul's football team winning their first play off game=GOOD

Mrs. McGyver using her foot to flush the public toilet while wearing clogs=BAD

Living in the Midwest in the Fall with all of the beautiful leaves=Good

Blisters on hands from raking beautiful leaves=BAD

Making lasagna for the family for Sunday Dinner=GOOD

Having oven go out half way into the baking process=BAD

Waking up every morning with a back ache from ratty old mattress=BAD

McGyver wanting to cheer up the MRS by buying a new bed=GOOD

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Caution: Thick Fog Ahead

Have you ever driven down an unfamiliar road at night when the fog is so thick that you can only see a few inches ahead of your car? The kind of fog that forces you to keep your lights on dim and to travel at a slower than normal rate of speed. The unfamiliarity of the road causes you to grip the steering wheel tighter than normal, to hope that you really are staying on the road and not veering off into a field, a ditch... the other lane. When traveling on this type of night you are forced to concentrate only on your driving, all other thoughts must be pushed away. You look at your clock and can't believe that only minutes have passed since you last checked the time when it feels like you have been traveling for hours due to the stress of the situation.
That's where I am at right now with this adoption. The CCAA has been pretty consistent in issuing referrals 6-7 months after your Log In Date (LID). Until now. We just got an email update from our adoption agency telling us that they are revising the timeline. They are lengthening the estimated time between LID and referral. No one knows for sure why the sudden slow down has occurred, at least no one is sharing the information if they do know. We were expecting our referral in December, January at the latest. It now looks like it will be February, possibly March. The time from referral to travel has lengthened as well. To say that I am devastated right now would be the understatement of the century.
I feel like I really am driving down a road completely blanketed in fog. I can't see forward, the fog is too thick. My lights are on dim and still our movement forward is minimal. What lies ahead is unknown because I can't see through the fog.
Please don't email me and remind me that this will happen when it is supposed to happen, that others have had to wait longer (when China first opened to international adoption, during the SARS stage, etc.) All of those slow downs had reasons behind them. This one doesn't. Our agency is only going to receive referrals for those people with Log In Dates through March. We now have to wait for everyone with LID's in April, May and the first half of June to receive their referrals before it is our turn. I never would have imagined that we very well could be waiting until next Spring to meet Dreamsicle. My heart is aching.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Happy Anniversary McGyver

Today is my anniversary. McGyver and I have been married for 21 years. As I have said in the past, he truly is my best friend. I thought it would be a good time to recount how we came to be Mr & Mrs McGyver because it always makes me smile when I think about how we started...

McGyver and I have known each other our entire lives. We were in the same kindergarten class, lived just a few miles apart and became extremely close as we grew up. My dad considered him to be his second son long before we even thought of getting together as a couple. I would set McGyver up on dates with my friends through out high school and he was the one that I always ran to when some smelly boy broke my heart.

After I graduated I left our small town for the big city and college. Soon after arriving at college I realized that the one person I missed more than (gasp) my boyfriend at the time was my best friend McGyver! I would call him in the middle of the night and cry about the unfairness of not being able to talk to him like I used to. I missed him. His emotional stability, his physical presence, everything. He came to see me at college one weekend and when I saw him standing there at my door, I began crying and realized that I loved him. I mean really, really loved him. As I poured my heart out to him about my feelings he gathered me up in his arms and said it was about time that I came to my senses, he had been waiting his whole life for me to realize it.

He then went away to the Marine Corps and after having been in the Corps for almost a year we couldn't stand being so far away from each other and decided to get married.

We got married 21 years ago today. My heart still skips a beat when he walks into the room, he still provides me with his emotional stability and his unending love and I am so blessed to have this man in my life. I love you McGyver. Thanks for the memories.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Brag Time

Quick Post-Just want to let all of the fam know what's happening...

I need to introduce two more people into our cast of characters-

U*Haul's girlfriend will be known as Pixie (she's just the cutest, teeniest, tiniest little thing you would ever want to see). U*Haul and Pixie have dated since their freshman year. It has been such a privilege to watch these two grow together. Since Pixie has been such a part of our lives for so long we celebrate her victories and mourn her losses just as we would one of our boys. So-Pixie is a cheerleader (of course) and her squad took first place at their cheer competition on Saturday-way to go Pixie!

But wait there's more-U*Haul got word last night that he was named to the All Conference Team for football!!!

Chester's girlfriend will be known as Princess-(she has the keychain to prove it) and is just an adorable, sweet, thing. Princess and Chester were best friends during high school, it wasn't until they both graduated that they realized their was something stronger than friendship in their relationship (sounds alot like McGyver and me but I'll post about that tomorrow)

Princess got a letter from Chester that said that his platoon is currently the Honor Platoon!! This is a big deal in recruit life-it means that your platoon is the best and it is something that they will have to fight to keep for the rest of boot camp. Way to go Chester!

I came into work today and there was an Asian Cabbage Patch Baby waiting for me from some of the people that I work with. Sweet little things, I really am blessed.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Misc. Ramblings

I just returned from San Diego, had a great time but so many funny things happened on this trip that I just had to share...
On my first night in San Diego I was walking down the street when someone literally came running up to me, threw her arms around me, squealing"Mary, OMG, I haven't seen you in forever-why didn't you tell me you were coming to this conference?" after disentangling myself from her grasp-I looked her in the eye and a look of sheer horror washed over her face as she realized that I wasn't Mary.
I was window shopping and had a bird poop in my hair-okay so that part was gross- but when I realized that I was running down the street trying to get back to my hotel as quickly as possible while muttering to myself about how gross this was I was bent over and running sideways I cracked myself up.
I broke the heel off of one of my shoes walking to the conference while crossing a train track and had to limp back to the hotel
The woman and man seated in front of me on the plane had their headphones turned up so loud that they had no idea they were speaking to each other loud enough for the entire plane to hear them, and oh what a conversation it was! Apparently they had not seen each other for a while, let's just leave it at that

The conversation I got into at lunch one day with some other conference attendees about the craziest things that had happened to them while at work-let me just share a few...

One woman had an employee bring in the entire tank of her toilet to show off how she had country painted it
Another one rounded the corner of a row of cubicles after she heard dogs barking-her employee had set up a child's play fence and had 3 puppies in the middle-she just couldn't leave them at home by themselves.
Yet another opened up the coat closet to go home, only to find one of her employees slumbering peacefully on a bed of coats

Fun, fun, fun time

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Tidbits

I have done much whining on this blog, and I am sure much more will occur in the future, but today I'm blogging about good stuff.

Chester called Thursday night! Totally unexpected but so, so heartwarming. He sounds good (when he was little he used to have a raspy voice which would melt my heart, he sounds like that right now only deeper voiced) He is handling boot camp very well, said it is not as hard as he had expected. He will be up at Camp Pendleton for the next four weeks so we will not hear from him very often but that one phone call will take me through two weeks I am sure! I am heading out to San Diego tomorrow for a week so I am glad he is further up the coast now so any stalking tendencies that I had in the past are far gone from my mind (in a previous post I had made the decision to attend the conference in Florida instead of California but it was sold out so it is off to San Diego).

When I picked up the mail on Friday we had a letter from waiting for us as well! So one phone call and one letter in the same week makes for a very happy mama!

Friday night U*Haul had a football game. Not just any football game but the game that would decide whether or not his varsity team would make the play offs. THEY WON! So for the first time since 1997 our football team will be in the play offs for high school football. He had a fantastic game, I could watch that kid play ball all day long. It was bittersweet to watch though. Last night's game was the last home game for the graduating seniors and watching those boys take their final walk across their home football field was pretty emotional.

Good things all around.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Update on Chester

As many of you know, I have been feeling pretty blue about the lack of communication we have had with Chester. We received another letter yesterday which brought the total number of letters we have received from him since 9-11-05 to three. It has been hard knowing that the other moms who I have been in contact with who have sons in the same company as Chester have received 8-10 letters. Well, the mystery has been solved. Mr. Social Director of the Year has been unable to write to his momma because he is writing to all of his friends! I am actually okay with this. They have begun to let me know that they are hearing from him and he sounds great. If he is comfortable enough to write letters to his peeps and doesn't need to cry to his momma then I should probably stop worrying about his emotional health and relax. Letting go is tough stuff but I'm learning.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Referral Time Again

Every month I anxiously wait for the referral information to begin pouring in on the adoption sites. I do this for two reasons:
1. Because I must do my part to keep Kleenex in business. Every time I read about people receiving their referrals I cry. People post the most incredibly sweet announcements about their babies and sometimes include pictures. This gives me goose bumps every single month and makes me burst into tears. It really helps keep me moving forward knowing that each month brings us a step closer to Dreamsicle.
2. To torture myself. No really. I mean it. It looks like this latest batch of referrals only goes through the middle of March. We are getting very close to referral since we have a LID of June 20th. BUT-this latest batch of referrals has me more than a little worried. If you calculate what the referrals will look like for November then December based on what happened this month we will not receive our referral until January. I know that this will happen when it is supposed to happen. I know that if there is a delay there is a reason but right now I'm just sad. Blech. Makes me want to cry. But not for the same reason as reason #1.

In other news....
I went to DC on business last week for four days then added a four day trip to New York City for pleasure onto the back of it. I met up with my friend from Savannah Georgia and we had a fantabulous time! She visits NYC often so she was the perfect tour guide. We saw the musical Wicked which I loved. We shopped and ate and walked all over the city, just had a blast. I bought many pair of cute shoes but I do have to say that I am most impressed with you New York women. How ya'll can run around all day long in high heels and still have feet left is beyond me. Don't get me wrong-everyone looks fantastic but I tried to be cool for one evening by wearing my brand new pair of high heel shoes to dinner. By the time we were walking back to the hotel I was begging for a taxi! You guys rock. This midwest girl had to go back to her flats and will gently break all of her shoes in over time.

About Me

I am a Christian woman, the wife of an outdoorsman and mom to a computer loving twenty something guy, a Marine, a Sailor and a three year old Princess who rules the roost and has all of us wrapped around her little finger. Add into the mix a daughter in love and the cutest grandson in the world and you have our big old house of love