Sitting in My Office & Realizing

Yesterday morning, I was sitting in my office typing an email to one of my co-workers when it hit me.

It was Friday, May 30th. Exactly 5 years ago the day before, David warned me. We were not opening the suitcases & repacking them AGAIN. He was done. There was no more. We were getting ready to go to sleep. Why? Because exactly 5 years ago today, at this very minute, my in-laws were walking through our front door to take us to our last breakfast as a family of 2. They had asked if they could be the ones to take us to the airport when we left for China. It took us 5 seconds to say "yes" at the same time to them.

Why? Because they were the reason we were finally going to be parents. Back in the summer of 2000, they had asked us to come for a visit. Not too unusual mind you, but they said they wanted to talk to us. Huh!? WTF!? That day in 2000 changed our lives forever. They wanted to know what they could do to help us become parents. So. Erin if you want to know the truth, you were brought into our lives because of a simple question from Grandma & Grandpa. But I digress. (As usual.)

Anyway. Now it's Saturday, May 31st. And 5 years ago, David & I were on a plane headed to China. It was a hellishly long flight, & David had never been on a plane with me before. (BTW, he hasn't been on one with me since then either.) We had met some of the families who would become fixtures in our lives from this time on. My feet swell unbelievably when I fly, so I got up to walk around. As I was walking, I remember going to my travel mates, Amy, Sherry, Parris Christina & a few others. I told them that since we "were in labor," this was our time "to push." So here we were 6 or 7 women walking this huge plane doing the Lamaze breathing method saying "we can do this" for about 3 or 4 times. Talk about a bonding experience. Our hubbies thought we were nuts, & we were. We still are.

Tomorrow it will be exactly 5 years that we landed in China. And our lives changed forever.

Thank G-d!

(BTW, when I say exactly, it's because the days this year follow the days 5 years ago. See! I told you I'm nuts. These are the things that drive me.)

So How Do You Take Yours?

We LOVE popcorn here! It's really quite an addiction for us!

My BlogLand friend Magi & her hubby Jim also love popcorn. I have a feeling that their daughter Sera will be enjoying the stuff soon also. Erin can't live without the stuff. It's why movies were created after all!

When I was a child, my dad took this funky silver thing out of our pantry & told me that I was in for a treat. He put that thing on the stove & so began my lifelong love affair with popcorn. Yup! You guessed it by the way. It was Jiffy Pop popcorn. Put it on the stove, shake it up a few times & the most wonderful aroma hits you like nothing else.

Every Friday night we have movie night in our house. Erin gets to choose which movie we're going to watch. Usually it's a Harry Potter movie or Lord of the Rings. Then we move on to popcorn. David takes down our corn popper & pours in the Orville Redenbacher. Erin gets so excited watching it pop. As soon as it's done popping, she starts to demand her butter spray. And then she carries over the huge bowl of popcorn to demolish it on her own. It always amazes David & me how she can eat so little when it comes to food, but when it comes to popcorn, she is just barely willing to let you sit next to her.

While David & Erin love their popcorn loaded with butter & salt, I don't. I prefer the kettle corn flavor or even plain with some garlic powder or parmesan sprinkled on it. How do you like yours!?

Saying Goodbye

Just the other day, a family lost a child. This is a horror that no parent should ever have to go through. Unfortunately we all know it happens & too frequently for everyone concerned.

I have thought long & hard about whether or not I wanted to write about this & came to the decision that I needed to. Maria Chapman lost her life the other day in a horrible accident. I'm sure that you've read of the accident. It's been all over the adoption & blog communities. Her family will need to hold strong to their faith (& I'm sure they most certainly will) as they deal with what has happened & help their son get through this. I don't know how, but I do know that they will. You see, faith is what this is about. Faith that G-d above had His reasons although unknown to us. Faith that love will help the family heal.

Maria had just turned 5. Erin is 5. I can't imagine losing her & what life would be like without her in it. Erin has her whole life ahead of her. Today she started questioning everyone's position in our family. How we are all related to each other. These are the things that a 5 year old is supposed to be thinking about & learning. I read that Maria loved to "wash dishes buck naked." Apparently, this is a 5 year old thing. Erin would also rather go "nakey" as we call it.

Saying goodbye is hard. I wish the Chapman family well. May their faith in G-d help them on their path to healing.

I Hate Preparing for Birthday Parties

Have you heard the news? I absolutely hate preparing for birthday parties. Period.

Why you ask? Well, let's see:

• A July party should NEVER be outside - especially when you live in S FL. Just ask Erin & of course anyone who came to her party last year. David went home & brought all of our fans from home to try & cool us down. It didn't work so we all "glistened" throughout the day. I didn't want a park party, but Erin had her heart set on a bounce party, & my friend Lisa wanted Erin to have her party with her favorite bounce. Besides, how do you say "no" to your only child will turn 5 only once in her lifetime. (I said "no" this year.)
• Erin & I are traveling to Texas for her Travel Group reunion & then on to California for a visit with Bubbie & Zaydie. Don't you think a 2 week vacation is enough of a birthday present? I do. Apparently David disagrees since he asked her what kind of party she wanted. ARGH!!
• All the neat places to hold parties are NOT in the county we live in. I can't justify having her party in Miami because, while I love him, my brother & his family would be the only guests who live there so everyone else would be totally inconvenienced. (I have some dear friends who don't cross county lines.)
• My good friend Michelle told me last week "Oh! I booked Lauren's party for the weekend of the girls' birthdays. It's at YCA." Great. Now I'm stuck because this is a really cool place, but you can't have 2 parties in the place for the same weekend with the same guests. Another ARGH!!!
• Erin loves to run & jump & bounce. We went to a great place for a party last weekend. She wouldn't jump into the foam pit because the poor girl didn't believe there was no water under the foam pieces. (It ripped my heart to see her standing by the foam pit looking as if she wanted to jump in. She literally couldn't the fear is still so strong.)

And now I don't have a clue about what to do! She would like a bowling party but I'll tell you right now, the children just run around & don't bowl. She would like a ceramics party, but how do you keep 30 kids aged 1-11 sitting & painting for 1 1/2 hours?

UGH!! I hate party planning.

The Quake That Touched Too Many

When you first came to my blog, you knew that it was all about my life with my beautiful daughter Erin. She is the light of my life. I can not possibly thank G-d enough for the gift of her. Each night before I go to sleep, I whisper to her that I am so happy we adopted each other. Then I give a whisper of thanks to G-d to let Him know how I appreciate His faith in me with this gift of Erin.

China has suffered. If you watch tv, read the news, listen to what people are talking about, you know that there has been a terrible earthquake with many aftershocks. You can't avoid knowing about it unless you are the type to keep your head in the sand.

As the people of China suffer, so do we. Our hearts cry for the people whose lives have been altered. These are the same people who watched over my daughter for the first 10 months of her life. There are so many people that I know because of Erin & China adoption - friends who aren't friends but rather extended family, children that I have waited to see come home to their forever families. Yet I will also always think about the people who watched over Erin & these other children.

And I know that I can't just sit back & do nothing. If you are so inclined, please stop by Half the Sky to see how you can help. They have set up an Earthquake Fund to get assistance to China's people.

Pay It Forward!! Wanna Play?

I found my friend Viv playing a game, & I think it sounds really neat. I'm all about having fun & playing games, so I'm joining in. How about you? Wanna play?

Yes? Well, here's how you do it.

1. I will send a gift of my choosing to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join the Pay it Forward exchange.


2. You must make the same commitment on your own blog.

So if you want a goodie, please leave me a comment. I'll need your snail mail address so that I can get your gift out. We can take care of that offlist.

Mother's Day Tea in Erin's Class

My flowers from Erin

I'm not quite sure about this dance!

It sure looked like fun!

On Thursday of this past week, Erin's class had a Mother's Day Tea. It was so sweet. The children had prepared cucumber sandwiches, baked cookies & made iced tea for us. I absolutely loved the projects they did. Each child wrote why they love their mother, made a collage with pictures of themselves & items cut out from magazines with words they wrote describing their mothers & a pot with flowers that they planted.

After having our "tea," Miss Cindy read the book "I Love You Forever" to the children & the moms. It's really a sweet book, & if you haven't read it, I'd suggest getting it. Then the children danced for us.

It was a wonderful morning. Thanks Erin!

She reads! She reads! Holy cow! She reads!

Erin has a very extensive library of books. When I had my baby shower, the girl who gave it for me asked everyone to bring a book so Erin could have a library. Jenn knew that both David & I are avid readers & wanted to intill a love of the written word in Erin as young as possible. Before Erin's first birthday, she had about 50 books. Unfortunately, she never liked to have either David or me read to her. She preferred to "read" her books herself. This usually meant that she would look at the pictures, tell us a story that she saw & turned the pages.

This evening Erin asked me if she could read a book to me. Of course I said yes. I was prepared for her to stumble through the book & get frustrated with the words she doesn't know. One of my favorite books that I've been waiting for her to read is Green Eggs and Ham. It's also one of her favorites. There was a week that I had to read that book to her about 5 times a day every day. She just really got it.

Well. My girl can read! Erin read Green Eggs and Ham to me tonight. She did a great job! I am so proud of my little reader! May she continue to read & develop the same love of books that her daddy & I have!

A Nice Relaxing Evening

Ah yes. I love Friday nights. We eat dinner as soon as I get home & then watch a movie of Erin's choice. It's a nice relaxing evening.

Today I was lucky & got out of the office at 5:00. I invited David & Erin to meet me at the office so we could go to Red Lobster for an early dinner. Erin loves Red Lobster & although she had a hard time with her behavior, I deserved a treat for my miserable week. She ate half of her popcorn shrimp & some french fries. We all left the restaurant, & David went to go shop for some stuff for Star. Erin & I went home with a quick stop at Publix to pick up dessert for the evening.

So now I sit here on the couch watching The Fabulous Thunderbirds, catching up on email & blogs. And listening to David & Erin snore.

Great night, huh?

Cranky

Need I say more?

David went to pick Erin up from school this afternoon. He went out on to the school's playground where she usually is by the time he gets there. No sooner than he walks out the door than he hears the teacher on duty tell the children not to hang off the side of the tall slide. Yup. That was our sweet girl who was hanging around with her feet mere inches from the teacher's face. (What was the teacher doing just hanging around right there when she knew that was what the children were doing?) When Erin saw David, she got down & went over to him. Because she had shown disrespect to the teacher, David made her go back & apologize to the her. And that's when her "mood" began.

It didn't get any better by the time I got home either. We were treated to an evening filled with love & whining. Oh yea. That's just what I wanted tonight. Uh huh. Give me more.

Either way, her whining was sufficient enough that she was told to get into jammies earlier than usual. She chose to not eat dinner. Why? Well, you see, the eggplant parmigan that she tried last night & couldn't get enough of is GREEN, and we all know that Erin doesn't do green. And here I was thrilled that I had finally gotten my child to eat a vegetable! How did this happen? David prepared dinner as usual & put her serving on her plate. Ah ha! He had cut her eggplant parmigan up into bite-sized pieces. When she ate it last night, I was giving it to her off of my plate, & she never saw the color. Oh well.

Weekend Pics

Getting ready to watch our movie for the night.

My friend Jolene makes these awesome hairclips.
She gave this to me, & Erin decided that she had to have it.
It only took 4 years to get her to wear a clip in her hair.
Thanks Jolene!


Day 2 wearing a hair clip.
Will wonders never cease!?

Love Without Boundaries Auction

The "Born In My Heart" Art Auction has already begun. It runs from April 24th - April 29th (Beginning the 24th @ 9:00am PDT).

In nearly every orphanage in China, children in need of heart surgery wait to be healed. In an effort to help as many of these orphaned children as possible, Love Without Boundaries began the "Born In My Heart" art auction five years ago. This is an annual event that serves as a special tribute to the miracle of adoption, and also as a fundraiser to help provide these essential operations to children who need emergency heart surgery. You can help to save the life of a child by taking part from April 24-29. Every penny raised will help to heal precious children and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive, and perhaps even find a family of their very own. So please bid often and bid generously!Auction items will begin to launch at 9am (Pacific) on Thursday, April 24th. Nearly 300 items will be added throughout the day, and the auction will close Tuesday, April 29th (again, with items closing throughout the course of the day). They will have some absolutely incredible items this year, all donated by LWB's fabulous supporters!

You will be able to access the auction from the Love Without Boundaries website homepage at: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/ beginning April 24th.

Please take a moment to have a look at all the beautiful items up for auction. Any donation no matter how small will make an incredible difference in the life of a child.

The Facts & Nothing But The Facts

According to Erin that is!

I was sitting here just doing nothing much on computer when Erin came over & started talking.

Mama likes:

• coffee
• soda (read coca cola NOT pepsi)
• chai
• cappuccino
• iced tea (don't get this one since I don't drink it)
• apple dippers with carmel
• Starzy (the dog)
• Troi (the cat)
• Daddy
• Me
• Herself

And Dada likes:

• models
• to play cards with me
• building things
• computers

And Erin likes:

• models
• watching tv
• Troi & Star

Now I know that there are other things we all like, but for now this is what Erin thinks. I wonder what we'll all like tomorrow.

Birthday Scrap With The Gals

The Poke Cake

Lisa checking out which pics to scrap

Mich & Jamey hard at work on their scrapping

Friday night my friends Lisa, Mich & Jamey all came out & celebrated my birthday with me. What did we do? Well, we are the ScrapSistas (formerly known as the ScrapSkanks mind you)!

We went to this marvelous little boutiquey place called Paper Niche. Friday nights they offer an evening with dinner & scrapping till midnight. Of course, they hope that you'll spend money on the supplies they have there. And goodness knows that this place has great items. In fact, while I was chatting with the owner & some employees, I even mentioned how pleased I was that they sell items I've been seeing in my scrapbooking magazines. I think that's pretty awesome. In fact, some of the stuff I purchased was found in those same magazines. Yay me!

Jamey made an awesomely yummy cake for my birthday! I'd only heard of a poke cake before, but now I can see why people make them. Super moist & definitely hit that sweet spot! Mich gave me a great 12 x 12 ladybug scrapbook. I've been wanting to do a scrapbook about Erin's hobbies, & now I have the perfect book to use! Lisa did all the driving & gave me the evening out. I love my Sistas!

The only bad thing about it was that Viv couldn't be with us to celebrate. Sheez! This whole living in Canada is putting the kibosh on our parties. Of course, I know that her spirit was with us partying the evening away.

Thanks my friends!

*******UPDATE******************

For those of you who wanted to know what a Poke Cake is:

You bake the cake, & as it's cooling, you poke holes in it with a toothpick. Then you pour either jello or pudding over the top so it seeps into the cake itself. After that, you can either frost the cake or not.

Flowers Flowers & More Flowers

From Viv, Corey & Kerri

From Daddy & Nancy

2nd Bouquet from Daddy & Nancy

(On behalf of the florist)

Let it never be said that I can ever have enough flowers! Last week my office was overflowing with birthday flowers. In fact, most of the flowers are still blooming beautifully in my office.

Okay, So We Didn't Quite Make It. Oops!

Presents have an interesting problem in our house. They can never seem to wait to be opened till the right time. Oops! This has been a problem for them since David & I got married. The presents just can't hold out. They want us to ooh & aah over them. They want to be used/read/viewed immediately if not sooner.

My birthday is this coming week, & David has been carefully planning on what to get me. Nope. No diamonds, jewelry, purses or such for me. I just really am not too interested in all that - unless we're talking about Coach or Dooney & Burke. My wants are really quite simple. This year David told me that I wasn't getting any scrapbooking supplies since in his not so humble opinion they're only consumables. (Has he noticed that his models are "consumables" also? Nope.) So I had to remind him of that lovely invention called a wish list. Duh!

I really got some great stuff (to me) this year! I absolutely love Val Kilmer & have been dying to get a copy of his movie Real Genius. He is so young in it & it really showcases his ability to do comedy. Then there's Tombstone with Kurt Russell & Val Kilmer along with a host of other actors I enjoy. Of course, David couldn't totally stay away from scrapbooking as a whole & got me 2 books that I've been wanting. Now all I have to do is actually find time to read them & put into practice what I get out of them. I also got a number of other books. This is going to be so cool!

Thanks David! I love that you so totally get me!

Great News!

Today David took Erin to her very first eye doctor appointment. We had been concerned lately because she has a tendency to hold things very close to her face for reading/viewing. She also tends to lean over a paper when doing homework. Since the two of us both wear glasses we wanted to head off any potential problems. Needless to say, I went to my sources for the name of a good eye doctor. My friend Lori gave me a recommendation to her daughter's eye doctor.

David hates taking Erin to her appointments since I'm the Keeper of all Information Deemed Important. He called me 5 times in 15 minutes for various pieces of info. I was really concerned about how Erin was going to do since she, like all other children, hates going to the doctor. David did his usual great job to prepare her for what was to come (read eye dilation here). Yes. She had a hard time but did really well.

According to David, the eye doctor was really pleased with Erin. She has no vision problems at all. He said that she's just picking up some bad habits with leaning in close to see things. Then he told David that he doesn't get to give this kind of news often enough.

Thanks for the recommendation Lori!

Has it really been 5 years?

Yes. It has. 5 years ago today at 2:45 pm I got THE CALL! 5 years ago we saw our daughter's face for the first time!

Of course, it was April Fool's Day, & I had been depressed for weeks. It had been 14 very long months since our DTC (Dossier to China) which is now known as LID (Log in Date). When Emily Jou called, her first words were "This is the call Tammie." I got so angry that I yelled at her "This is a rotten thing to do. How could you be so mean?" And I hung up on her. Talk about nuts! Thank G-d she realized what happened & instantly called me back "No Tammie. This isn't a joke. You have a daughter! Are you ready?" WAS I READY!? Hell yes!

This whole thing took place at my office. The lady who hired me, had just come in & heard/seen what was going on. Everyone there was in tears as I sat back & took the information. Because I couldn't receive attachments, I had Emily send the picture of Chun HuaXu to David. After all, I got The Call so he should get The First Peek. It was the most humbling moment of my life to hear my husband cry & tell me "She's beautiful Tam."

After we finally got our call, we had to deal with SARS. Ugh! We waited14 months to get our referral, & now China wasn't sure they wanted to let us in so we could bring our daughter home. All of the rest of The Waiting Hearts which include my dearest friends Sandra and Gretchen had been there right along with me. This was probably the most exciting time in our lives. We had spent 14 months emailing, having weekly chat sessions, cyber showers, scrapbook supplies, the sniper that hit the VA/MD/DC area. You name it, we went through it.

I wouldn't change a thing. After all, here we are 5 years later with the most perfect child for our family.

The Bouncing Mamas

Checking out our pedicures before we bounce.

Would you expect anything less?

Mich getting in the frame.

Lisa relaxing while she snaps away.

Lazing around the bounce with her camera.

I've fallen, & I don't want to get up!

Yup. Who else would get into a toddler bounce house?

Did you really expect us to leave our cameras out!?

You asked for pics of us in the bounce! Here we are! It always amazes me that I love to get into the bounce houses with my friends & our kids. I've gotta tell you that if you have the chance to bounce with your kid, you should! It's fun from a whole other perspective.

Random Pics

I've been remiss. A few weeks ago Erin went to a birthday party for her friend Olivia who was turning 2. She played with her friends, & I played with mine. The kids bounced, jumped & had a blast. The moms got into the bounce, snapped pics & had a blast.