Sneaky Fever

Does this look like a little girl with a fever?

No, she hasn't slowed down a bit. But, she started running a fever yesterday afternoon. It was up again this morning when she got up. Usually, she gets very clingy and fatigued when she is feverish. Not today! She has emptied every toy box, drawer, and baby bed. We finished this project this morning. Her bow collection is growing rapidly.

I am glad she is feeling good, hopefully that means this will be short-lived b/c we head to Ohio tomorrow after C's last soccer game for my sister's backyard bridal shower.

Adoptive Mommas

My "neighbor" that lives a town over finally got her referral from Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday! I am so excited that there will be another Kyrgyz princess close by that AP can grow up with. So, to celebrate little miss E's referral, I thought I'd share these thoughts on adoptive moms that I saw on another blog.

Being an adoptive mother is not for every woman. She must possess not only the natural mother instinct but an understanding and appreciation of the situation that brought a child into her arms making her a mother. The adoptive family came to be by choices made, choices made by the first parents and by the adoptive parents. This bond the adoptive mother has with her child grows over time, like the child did within his first mother’s womb. Day by day, touch by touch, with each tear, kiss, and memory made they became a family. Adoptive mothers have that special knack to let love grow.

Adoptive mothers know that she’s a mender of wounds, not just of the physical skinned knees with a band-aid and a kiss, but of the heart. She gives love, acceptance, and permission to ask and talk about the day he was born and of his first parents. Adoptive mothers are embracers, not only of the child with many hugs and kisses, but of the child’s heritage and history. She embraces the facts of her child’s past with strength for herself and the child.

She’s not only a memory maker planning family vacations, activities, and birthday parties, but also a memory keeper. Details of a birth, photos of the hospital, and of the parents who brought her into the world are kept along side the newspaper clipping that announced it all. All these things are kept in a special book that tells the whole story.

She’s a tier of shoelaces and of hearts. She weaves lives together into a tapestry of a new family, with many different brightly, colored threads showcasing their individualities and family origins. Together they create one unit attached to each other.

Adoptive mothers are experts at finding lost objects, but understand and validate the profound, deep loss left by adoption. She allows the tears to fall and grief to be felt, allowing the mourning of the mom not there. She is secure in knowing that she’s not a replacement, but a finisher of a race for someone who, for whatever reason, could not run any longer.

This role is not for the weak of spirit, or the easily wounded. Loving a child not born to her but calling him her own, but this is what she does, it is her calling.
She is a mother.

Three down...A Gazillion to go

Not really a gazillion, more like 14 or so. We had our meeting with our post placement social worker last night so that she can write our third post placement report to send back to Kyrg. That means that AP has been here almost 18 months! The reports are due every 6 months for the first three years and then yearly until she turns 14. The reports are very important, especially right now. If you don't follow Kyrg adoptions, then you wouldn't know that there is a "hold" so to speak on adoptions right now while they "restructure". They are in the process of examining adoptions that have taken place to make sure that everything is above board. We want to do all that we can to show that we are taking great care of AP so that adoptions can continue to happen and her little orphanage buddies can continue to find forever families.
On another note, our social worker with our homestudy agency recently changed. We now have a beautiful lady that was adopted from Korea to the US as an infant. It is so neat to sort of see things full circle. She is very happy, self confident, has a loving family, and is passionate about adoption. These are all the things I wish for AP and C. I hope that they will see the fact that they are adopted as a blessing and not a curse. I know that it is not all smiles and roses, but I would love to see a passion for adoption in them that they embrace. I would love to see them feel secure enough in who they are and where they came from to share that with others. Maybe I'll call up our social worker's mother and ask how she did it...

Moms Day

Happy Mothers Day! No matter what stage of motherhood you are in, I hope you enjoyed your day of appreciation. These cute kiddos woke me up with a card they signed.

C made a poem with his hand prints on it. He gave that to me on Saturday, though, because the anticipation was killing him :)

I won't see my mom until next weekend, but we talked on the phone. Tonight we had Boompa and Baba over for Mothers Day dinner. I tried to recreate the Bonsai Burger from Red Robin. I found a recipe for Aloha burgers. They were very good, but didn't compare to the Bonsai.

Baba helped C put together Hungry Hippos. C had a good time playing his new game. We all joined in for the last round.

Girls Night Out

AP got her first pedicure yesterday.

Then last night my girlfriends and I treated ourselves to some "just mommy" time. We tried out a new place for manis and pedis. This first pic is B, whose baby girl should be here in the next 3 weeks!

After the nail treatments, we enjoyed Mexican food and Marble Slab Creamery then headed back to B's house to see her way cute nursery. I enjoyed the mental break and hanging out with my girls. We all went to high school together and 4 of the 5 of us went to college together. We can always pick right up where we left off last time and enjoy each other's company. I tried to talk them all into starting blogs, we'll see... I love you guys!

This morning we had a soccer game bright and early. This was C's best game yet. He is much more of a morning person than an afternoon person.

Boompa came to cheer C on. Of course, AP thought he was there to entertain her :)