Yeah!

I am out of town on business for the week, received a call from U*Haul wanting to know if he could OPEN THE LETTER from CHESTER that came in the mail yesterday and read it to me. That's right-the LETTER FROM CHESTER finally came!! He hasn't lost his sense of humor and sounded like things were going as well as could be expected at this point.

My heart can start beating at a normal pace now, my son is doing just fine.

McGyver To The Rescue

Yesterday I had myself convinced that we would get the infamous first letter from Chester. In all of the material that the Marine Corps gave us and on all of the message boards I am now part of the prevailing thought is that the recruits will send the first letter out on the second Sunday of their boot camp and to plan on getting that letter and all letters after that on the Thursday of that week. Are you following me?
I drove like a crazy woman all of the way home. Small children and puppies were quaking in fear as I raced past them in my eagerness to get to my mailbox. I opened my mailbox expecting sunshine and music to come out of it as I pawed through all things non important in my quest for THE LETTER. The only things in there were bills and about 67 gazillion college information packets for U*Haul. No letter, no postcard, nada, zero, zilch from Chester.

I lost it driving up the driveway, stepped out of my car and into McGyver's big old arms crying the entire time. I told him that we still did not have a letter from Chester, he calmly tells me to "get the recruiter's number". I go into the house rummage through Chester's room to find the business card with the number, bring it and the phone back outside to McGyver who quickly gets the recruiter on the phone and the conversation goes something like this...
McGyver-Wife did not receive letter from Chester today as anticipated, would like his address
Recruiter-it typically takes a week to get there Mr McGyver.
McGyver-it is closing in on two weeks and I know you are not trying to tell me that the United States Marine Corps has lost my son are you?
Recruiter-No sir we know right where he is
McGyver-Good, then I expect Mrs. McGyver will know right where to mail the stack of 10 letters that is piling up on my bar in a matter of hours correct?
Recruiter-I will see what I can do
McGyver-I would appreciate that-Mrs. McGyver takes her letter writing seriously and I know other recruits were successful in reaching their families last Wednesday and those families have begun to send letters to their recruits already, we can't have Mrs. McGyver feel like she is not doing her job in supporting Chester now can we?

Two Hours Later-the telephone rings and I have Chester's address.

*Sigh* I love my McGyver

Cast of Characters

I've been thinking for a while of changing the way I refer to everyone in my family. Going by the first letter of their name is pretty boring. Soooo I am going to change all of that now. I need to get out of my funk of missing W so here goes-let's have some fun.

L will be forever known as McGyver (refer to previous threads if you don't know why)

J our oldest son will be called X-boy (for his love of all things computer game related)

W our middle son will go by the name of Chester (the Marine Corps bulldog is known as Chesty but I don't get a visual image of a bulldog whenever I write that so I'm changing it to a more masculine Chester)

D our youngest son will be referred to as U*Haul (D is very active in sports and tends to run on the slow side-over the years he has had more than one coach tell him that he runs like he is pulling a trailer)

Koli will be lovingly called Dreamsicle (one of my best friends always refers to her that way and it has started to stick).

Anyway-still no word from Chester but I think we will get a post card this Thursday and will be able to send the entire stack of letters that is piling up on Friday.

Today is the half way mark of waiting for our referral for Dreamsicle!

X*Boy has a house of his own but has decided to stay with us for a few weeks. I am so happy about this. I miss him even though he only lives 3 miles away from us and it has been so nice reconnecting with him.

U*Haul has been having an excellent football season so far and it has been a pleasure to watch him.

Due to some recent events here in blogland it has got me thinking about the nature of my blog. This blog definately started out as a vehicle to keep our family and friends updated on the adoption process but somewhere along the line it became more of a way for me to communicate with everyone about our entire family, not just the adoption process. Let's face it-there isn't a whole lot to write about during this 6 month waiting period of the adoption. This blog would have dried up and blown away by the time I would have had anything to report on the adoption front. So this is still a vehicle for our family and friends to stay connected, it has just morphed into something larger. Luckily my little blog is still primarily visited by people I know so I haven't had to deal with negative comments from people I don't know, but if you are just stopping by for a visit-welcome! Stop by anytime, just be nice.

Anxious

I'm normally a pretty level headed person but today I am filled with anxiety. When you first get to boot camp you are usually allowed one phone call to let your family know that you arrived safely and to give your loved ones your address where they can begin to send letters. We missed that call, it came during the middle of the day and both L and I were working. They have to call collect so W was not able to leave the information on the answering machine. We are holding out hope that maybe his Drill Instructor will show some compassion and allow those that were unable to reach someone to try again today since it is Sunday but know that the possibility of this happening is very slim. If we do not receive a call today we should receive a post card sometime next week or the week after which will have his address on it.

Most of the time I like to be as informed as possible about anything relating to my family but this is one time that I wish L would not have told me the truth. Having been in the Marine Corps he can tell me the types of things that W is experiencing which normally I would consider a blessing but not about this. I made the mistake of asking L about how W not being able to contact us would make him feel-L was very honest as normal and said one word "devastated". Devastated is filling me with anxiety. When I play this out I can see what he means-those that were able to give their families their address will receive mail two weeks before those that were unable to connect. Ugghhh. Right now at the beginning of this 13 week journey for W is when he needs our support the most and we are unable to give it to him. It. Breaks. My. Heart. I know that he is a man and in the grand scheme of things this is a small set back but right now it feels pretty large.

On a good note-Tuesday will mark the half way point of the "big wait" for our referral and today I was able to purchase Sonia Lee for half price.

Achey Breaky Heart

Today I am a jumble of emotions. We had to take W to the hotel where he would spend the night before winging his way across the country to start boot camp this weekend.

I am not sure how to describe how I feel. L and I were dating when he left for boot camp and I (foolishly) expected to feel many of the same emotions that I felt saying goodbye to L all those years ago as I said goodbye to my son. Boy was I wrong. I certainly felt a tug on the ole' heart strings when L left but this weekend I felt like the ole' heart strings had been pulled together and tied into a knot, which left me little room to breathe inside my chest. This kid has such a strong spirit that you can literally feel him enter a room before you see him. People want to be around him. He is funny, kind, and as I have said before on this blog-unwavering in his decision of his career path. But I am sad. Coming home after leaving him I spent some time in his room-breathing in his scent from his pillow, trying to feel him. I know that we have done a good job in raising him. I know that he is following his dream and tried desperately not to lose my composure in front of him. Because even in the midst of my sadness, my motherly selfishness at not having my son sleeping in his bed tonight, I am proud.

Proud of the choices that he has made in his life up to this point. Proud of his love for his family and his country. And I feel heart swelling pride to soon be able to call my son a United States Marine.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday! It was a terrific day. I was surprised with cake (with candles)and ice cream, gifts from my staff at work, had a long lunch with one of the other adoptive mom's who will most likely be traveling with us to China, and had a nice dinner out with L. As a birthday present to myself I finally registered at Babies R Us for the things we need for Koli. It has been a terrific day and I am so blessed to have the family that I have.

Redneck Camping

This weekend was spent at home. L wanted to start readying the truck camper for his and our oldest son J's upcoming hunting trip. As I looked at the truck camper, it got me thinking of the last trip that involved me actually inside that camper. A few years ago L decided that rather than pull our 5th wheel down to Texas to visit his father for a vacation, we would simply take his truck camper to allow for more people to be able to help drive. Not only did the 5 of us make the trip (me and L and our 3 sons) but L's sister came along as well. We have a single cab truck so at any given time there were 4 people in the truck camper.

We were heading down to spend Christmas with my father in law and happened to pick the evening of my company Christmas party to leave. We came up with the plan that L and I would attend my party and his sister S would meet us outside of the entertainment complex at a pre determined time with the truck and camper and we would leave from there. My Christmas party is always held at a very swanky venue which causes us to have to dress up for the event. As the time drew near for us to leave, many of the people that work with me started looking out the windows, watching for the Clampett mobile to pull up and for us to make our exit. L's sister called us on our cell phone to tell us that she was getting close, we made our get away just as she was pulling into a no parking spot. We both quickly jumped into the truck, sister in law jumped in the back with the boys (in the camper)and took off. Because of how I was dressed I was forced to change out of my Holiday outfit into my sweats in the cab of the truck. This led to a few truckers having a show they didn't bargain for as I wrestled out of a cocktail dress and nylons and into my sweat suit but I decided to make myself feel better by reminding myself that I would never see them again (that is until we stopped for gas and one of the trucks pulled into the same station).

Over the course of the next 26 hours we all took turns driving or riding in the front or sleeping/watching movies in the camper. It was during my last turn to be up in the bed above the cab of the truck that trouble struck. As I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly started hearing the distinct sound of metal pinging against metal. I asked the boys who all happened to be in the back with me if they heard the noise and they all said no. After many sessions of "shushing" to get them to really listen they all agreed that something sounded kind of strange. We had two way radios both in the cab of the truck and in the camper so I two wayed L to let him know of my growing concern for the funny "pinging" noise that I was hearing. By this time it was raining quite hard outside and he convinced me that what I was hearing was hail hitting the camper roof. I wasn't completely convinced and jokingly told the boys that if the front of the camper came off to make sure they grabbed their Momma by the foot before she rolled onto the hood of the truck. We all laughed and shortly after that arrived at my father in laws home. It was nearly midnight so we just grabbed our gear and headed into his home to sleep for the night.

In the morning we got up to go to breakfast and planned on taking our truck so that we could all ride together. When we approached the truck we quickly realized that the ping, ping, ping I had heard for the last 4 hours of our trip was actually the rivets popping out of the metal in the top of the camper!

At this point I was fairly convinced that the boys and I would be making our way home on an airplane while L and his sister would drive the truck home since there was no way we could ride back there. Well, my Mr. McGyver had a different idea. McGyver and McGyver Senior (his dad) put their heads together, shoo'ed us all away for a few hours and "fixed" the camper. We returned to find a 2x4 drilled into the bottom of the camper that rests on the truck cab, metal strips climbing up each side of the front of the camper that were riveted into the sides of the camper to hold it and another 2x4 on the top of the camper that had the ends of the metal riveted into it for support. If I ever get my pictures to upload onto this site I will post a pic for your viewing pleasure.

Imagine traveling half way across the country to get back home in this contraption. It stayed together-although I refused to allow anyone to ride up in the top bed of the camper all the way home. We received many honks, witnessed carloads of people in hysterical laughing fits as they drove by us and watched one car almost get into an accident as the driver craned his neck too far trying to watch us instead of the road.

That was my one and only time of Redneck camping, next time we want to make that trip-I think I'll fly.

I have, have you?

Shortly after my father passed away a year ago, my Mom's house burned. To. The. Ground. This house was my childhood home. The only place I had ever known to call home, the place that carried all of the memories of our family. All of that was lost one sunny summer afternoon. The feelings of despair and unrest that coursed through my body as we sorted through the rubble are surfacing again as I watch the devastation that has happened along the coast. My mom lost her home and most of her belongings, but we knew she would survive. She immediately moved in with us, we were able to provide her with shelter and food and comfort and most importantly, hope. We were able to begin making plans to rebuild her home, her life, her future within a very short time. She still had the land on which her house had stood. Her well was still good and she had her family.

There are so many people, so many families, that have lost their homes, their memories, their loved ones over the course of the last week. Uncertain futures, pleading for food and water, grieving over their losses. Imagine that feeling folks. When you are finished imagining what that must feel like, do something.

Please Give-give until it hurts. Please. I have-have you?

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