party, party, party

So, this weekend was a bit busy. No time to blog. I will recap, just on the off chance that the littlest Young entered the world this weekend -- that way I have a record of what we were up to as he made his entrance...

Friday night we had out first dinner party in Glenbogle house! Jonathan invited two of his coworkers and their spouses to dinner. We served Velvet Shrimp and those crazy-strong trifles I made. The trifles were good, if you happen to like desserts that give you a hangover! At least they were pretty. And I will definitely make them again, but next time I will cut way down on the framboise!

I ran out Friday to buy some Ciabatta bread from Target and I grabbed some little mini brownies and a package of those frozen cream puffs. So while I did serve the trifles, I also set out a plate of little bite-sized desserts sprinkled with powdered sugar for everyone to nibble on while drinking their coffee. I think next time I will skip making a dessert from scratch and just serve the little mini desserts. They looked so pretty on my glass platter and it was so much easier!

I really had a good time. Everyone was very nice and the conversation never stopped. It's funny, though. I had such visions in my head of how hip Jonathan and I would seem, serving wine and maybe playing some swanky music in the background like Dean Martin or Eartha Kitt. Well, we did serve wine although only one person drank any besides Jonathan and I forgot about the music entirely. Actually, that's not exactly true. I was frantically stirring the Velvet Shrimp sauce when the first couple arrived a little early and we were blasting Weezer's blue album on the boombox in the kitchen. So Jonathan switched it off after letting them in, and we just figured there was no way to recover from that and pretend we really do have sophisticated taste in music!

Once everyone had left, I asked Jonathan why we don't have people over more. I really miss having my friends over. One thing I noticed, that was very different from living in Virginia: when everyone was leaving, we had our front door open for a while, talking to everyone, thanking them for coming, etc. In Virginia, we could never have done that! If our light was on, the bugs swarmed around it. We had one particularly humongous moth that Olivia called Mothra that was always flapping around our porch light in Fredericksburg. She and Katherine and Adrienne would have to duck and run out the door whenever they were leaving, and no matter how quickly they ran out, several billion bugs always managed to get inside.

I love living in Colorado where there are virtually no bugs. But I still miss my friends terribly.

healthcare reform

I really do not feel like blogging right now. I have been watching msnbc all day today. All. Day. Watching the coverage of the House of Representatives voting on healthcare reform. It passed and I am so happy. But I am tired and tired of staring at a screen...

It was very sunny and warm today. Most of the snow has melted. Except in our front yard, which seems to be the last spot in Colorado to thaw.

We are supposed to get another snowstorm on Tuesday!

snow

It is hard to believe it was in the seventies Wednesday and I was on a hike with Jonathan and the kids! It is snowing today.

It began to get windy yesterday afternoon and the temperature started dropping steadily. When I went to my afternoon class, I was wearing a tshirt and sandals with my jeans. By the time I got out of my second class, at 9 pm, it was freezing outside and I was wearing a hat and scarf and winter coat! So crazy...

It has been snowing all day. School was not canceled, because here in Colorado people know how to deal with a little snow, but we have about three or four inches out there right now. But it is nice and cozy here in the house. It is very clean, because Jonathan was planning to have some coworkers over for dinner. He canceled (because of the snow, because one of the coworkers was coming down from Fort Collins and they are expecting a loooot of snow up there) but at least the house is nice and clean, right? And I have a vanilla candle lit and the kids are watching a movie and I am rereading Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher and I just brewed myself a humongous cup of Earl Grey.

I know some people do not like snow, but I just love it! Even in midMarch and even right after a couple of gorgeous, sunshiney days, I love it. It is just so crisp and white and quiet outside. And so cozy and warm in the house. (Besides, I know that it is supposed to be warm again next week!)

six months minus six months equals ...

Jonathan got a call the other day from the woman who will be doing our homestudy for the adoption. And something really has been on my mind. The thing is, we are number twelve on the list now to get a referral. For those of you who may not know, a referral is the photo of our child and his basic medical/family history.

Let me back up a bit. What will typically go down is this: somewhere in Korea, a young woman has made the ultimate decision. She has received counseling and care throughout her pregnancy from the organization that handles our child's adoption. She will give birth to the perfect baby boy. After she relinquishes her rights--such a cold, clinical term for such a moment, reminds me of how the doctors called my miscarriage a "spontaneous abortion"--after she relinquishes her rights, the baby will go into a foster home where a foster mother will take care of him until his adoption.

In Korea, they are currently waiting six months before sending pictures to our agency here in Colorado to give the agency in Korea time to possibly place the babies with Korean families. They are trying to encourage domestic adoptions in Korea.

So what that means for us is that our son will be six months old when we see his photograph for the first time. It typically takes six more months for all of the paperwork to be finalized and for him to be flown here to us, so he will be about a year old when I finally have him in my arms. That is the average timeline.

Now, what has been on my mind is basic mathematics. If we are twelfth on the list at our agency to receive a referral, and our agency usually processes two referrals a month, that means we should get a photograph of our son in six months ... are you following this? And he will be about six months old in his photograph ... so ... that means he could be born right about ... now.

I cannot get this out of my head. That my son may be born already. That he may be born today. Or tomorrow. That my son's birth day will pass by and I will have no idea ... no idea that one of the most important days in my future life just slipped by me. A day that I will be cherishing, blowing up balloons, frosting Sesame Street cakes, hanging up pinatas and taking countless photographs of my son...

So my little plan is to try to blog something, anything, every day. Just so that I will have some sort of record of what I was doing on my son's birth day. Maybe. Unless he has already been born. Because I want to know. If I can. I mean, say he was born on March third. I have no idea what I was doing on that day! Was I grumpy? Was I happy? Was it raining or snowing? Did I blog on that day? Probably not; I am not very consistent! (And I just randomly picked that date, March third. What if that is really his birthday?)

So, little star, where ever you are, I am thinking of you all the time.

I heart facebook

I spend way too much time on there. But sometimes it pays off. I found two old friends who I have been trying to reconnect with forever. And I am just so happy to be reunited with them. :)

So if I am not blogging regularly and claiming it is because I am busy with parenting or studying for school or even cleaning my house (har-de-har har) please know that I am lying to you. Because I am probably just spending too much time on facebook, harvesting my farmville crops or doing some jobs for my mafia. Anyway. Just thought you should know that.

Thank you for listening to me vent about that woman at the doctor's office. Sigh. I appreciate all of your kind words. And please don't think I am angry at her still or losing sleep over it. It is just such new territory for me, this whole adoption process. I have been asking my friend, Shannon, lots of questions (on facebook, of course!) because she adopted her son last year. And it has been very helpful to get her perspective on things.

say what?

I had a physical yesterday. For the adoption, Jonathan and I need to get some forms signed by our doctor saying we are healthy enough to be parents. So I was sitting there, having blood drawn, and I told the woman taking my blood that we are adopting.

"Oh! From the United States of America?" she asked me.

I just smiled and said, "No, from South Korea. We are getting a baby boy and we are so excited blahblahblah ..." but inside I was thinking, What the hell? Why on earth would you ask me that? So than I asked her is she has any children. She told me she doesn't. I felt like saying, "Then why don't you adopt from the United States of America?"

I am just wondering if I am being too sensitive. Maybe reading all of those books on adoption has put me on the lookout for insensitive comments. But seriously. Seriously. Why would she have felt the need to say the United States of America? Like I wouldn't know which United States she was talking about?

All of the books I've read about international adoption are full of horror stories about people telling total strangers that they should have adopted domestically. That there are "plenty of children in this country who need good homes" or some crap like that. I told myself that people really aren't that awful. No one would actually say that to someone. Right? Not in this day and age... Right?

But maybe they do. Maybe this one strange comment from this woman drawing my blood is like me dipping my toe into the waters of rude people who will feel free to give me their two cents on my life. Maybe she didn't mean anything by it. I know I can be sensitive, but I also don't think I am an idiot, and I think she did mean something by it.

It is certainly a wake up call to me. I am so excited to have another son that I am just bursting to talk about it! I want the world to know. But maybe not everyone will be happy for me. And that is hard for me to wrap my head around.