Seven Months Waiting!

As of April 23rd, we have been "live" with our adoption agency for seven months.  It has been both the longest and quickest seven months of our lives!  It is really hard to explain how that works, but that is how it feels.  I'm not going to lie, it has not been easy.  It is that constant state of limbo, the indefinite amount of time we have to wait that makes it so difficult.  Seven months is still below the average wait time, so we have that going for us. In celebration of our 7 month "anniversary" of waiting, I want to write a refresher post about what John and I do and like in life.

John is a sports, music and animal loving guy.  He has a strong presence wherever he goes and can even seem a little intimidating to those who don't know him.  He will probably not love me saying this, but even though he looks tough at times, he is a big softy.  He has a weak spot for anything small and furry, as well as babies.  Children find him from across massive spaces and flock to him like he is made of candy.  John is a musician with an endless library of music knowledge in stored in his brain (scratch that - he has a endless library of knowledge in general filed away).  He is the perfect trivia team member and will be great at helping with homework one day.  John wants to be a dad, play music, and curl with the Atlanta Curling Club to his hearts content.  Attainable goals indeed.

I am a 34 year old who still likes to wear skulls and crossbones on my clothes, even though I am probably proving to be uncool doing so.  I love music, writing (I have an idea for a book brewing and an intro started-ish), and trying to keep in shape by walking, jogging, and generally staying active.  I have a bunch of ideas for tattoos I want to get, but haven't worked up the nerve to get one yet.  I treat my cats like they are human and often find myself having conversations with them about life.  I could probably put out at least four albums of songs I have adapted to be about my cats (wow, I sound so cool...)  I am a two time kidney transplant recipient.  Transplant recipient is one title that I have- it helped form who I am, but does not define me.  I am an outspoken advocate for organ donation and kidney disease awareness.  Ultimately, all I want to is complete our family, travel a bit and focus on making a difference in this world... somehow (details to be determined).

We have three cats Spike, Moe and Waffles.  We got Spike (Spike Boatbutt Pickles Farrar) when we first lived together in college..  Spike is now 12 years old!  Can't believe he is an old man now.  We got Moe (Moe Alejandro Moseph Farrar) the following year, so that makes him 11.  Waffles (Waffy Woo Woogs Woofy Farrar) came to us in 2010 right about the time we bought our house.  I saw her at a vet's office and she was literally reaching and screaming for me.  She is my shadow around the house.  She is almost 4 this year!  Time really flies.

Our cats:

From Top Clockwise: Spike, Waffles, Moe : Cat Pile

We are getting closer to finishing our home study renewal documents.  It is quite the process.  We are still home study approved from our last home study, we just had to start on paperwork early, so there is no lapse.  I bought a rock n' play sleeper at the suggestion of quite a few friends, in case we have to travel and live in a hotel for the adoption.  It is beyond me how to put it together though...  I followed all of the directions, but parts are just not fitting.  Sounds like a job for John. 

Tomorrow is the Run 4 Your Life, Donate Life Georgia 5k.  I am nowhere near prepared, but am excited to be involved in raising awareness to the cause anyway.  John will be on the ice curling a lot this weekend, as the Spring season wraps up.  It is almost summer, so Braves games, a vacation to Wilmington, NC and seeing some bands play are all in the works.  As always, we remain hopeful that our family will have a tiny crying, pooping and all out fabulous baby in the near future. 

Gettin Clicky With It! (link heavy post)

Ok, now that blogger has decided I can finally format, I will continue/finish my plan from the last post. It is really just about things coming up on our calendar and a little nursery talk.

First up, we are probably a little under halfway through with updating documents for our home study renewal, assuming the FBI check doesn't take the full 12 estimated weeks.  Last year we got it back in about 4.5 weeks.  My physical is scheduled and the cats need their shots.  John needs to have his physical, but his doesn't expire until some time in May.  After all of the paperwork is turned in, they will come back out to our house and make sure nothing has changed.  All that has changed is that our yard overgrowth is finally gone!  Yay!  Nobody get too proud of us, we hired a company to do it.  John is freakishly allergic to poison ivy/oak/sumac etc. and I am well...who I am, so we hired it out.  I have to say that it was totally worth it.

Coming up this month, I am doing the Donate Life Georgia - Run 4 Your Life 5k Details here with my dad.  I have not been a good runner/walker lately, so it might be a struggle.  April is National Organ Donation Awareness Month, so the race is to raise awareness.  One of my favorite singers Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music fame, is playing that night at Terminal West and I would like to go, but John has a major curling event that weekend and we may house some guests. 

In May, we have the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Walk at Turner Field here is a link to my personal walk page . In case anyone wants to join us or donate to the cause.  It really is a fun event, plus you get to see Turner Field in a way you can't when it is full of Braves fans.  Our team is slow going this year, but we usually pick up some walkers during the last month.  After the kidney walk, my favorite musician Frank Turner is playing a free show at the Candler Park Music and Food Festival... we all know I can't help but add a little Frank into every other blog post or so.  I need an intervention. But really, it is free and his music is so good, you would kind of be crazy not to go.

I found something I need need need for the nursery Octopus hook!.  I know it doesn't exactly match our Peter Rabbit bedding, but we aren't really matchy matchy people.  I am just getting what feels right to my gut.  Hopefully, our local Target has some left, since they are limited term.  The bloggers who designed the product are pretty popular, so they are selling out fast. 

This post is picture-less sorry!  I am doing an April Instagram challenge- our instagram if you want to see pictures.  It is more or less just me trying to figure out a way to use Instagram that doesn't scream "give me a baby", because I do not want to come off that way.  I believe those were all of the topics I wanted to cover when blogger went wacky on me the other day.  Sorry for the link heavy post.  Get clicky with it!

A Baby Shower and a Camel

This weekend I was able to enjoy a baby shower.  Usually, baby showers hurt, because well...they aren't being thrown for us.  Yesterday I went to my friend Amanda's baby shower.  We met in 2000 while going to school at UGA.  We have been through a lot together (and a lot apart at times).  When Amanda told me she was pregnant, we were already well into our adoption journey.  She told me over dinner during one of our dinner and Target shopping excursions.  I had ordered a glass of wine and she said she couldn't have alcohol, per her doctor's orders.  Knowing that Amanda loves a good glass of wine, I assumed the worst. Well, luckily she was as healthy as ever and had a much happier reason to skip the wine.  She told me and I was genuinely happy.  I teared up out of joy instead of sadness or jealousy (Go me!)  I am not going to say I never struggled with the fact that she is pregnant and I am sitting around with a bunch of unused baby stuff, but the feeling is different with her.  Maybe because I just want her family to be happy and she is already such a good mom to her 4 year old daughter.

So, the baby shower.  Baby showers have been hard the last few years.  I go and I smile and am happy for the parents to be, but then I go home and cry or eat as much chocolate as I can to forget that it just hasn't happened for us yet.  This time was different.  I genuinely wanted to be there, I had a good time and didn't feel sadness.  I came home and still felt good about it all.  Something that I feel made all of the difference was that she acknowledged that it has been hard and will be hard for me to be around all of the baby prep and excitement.  She called me aside when I got there and handed me a card.  I thought maybe it was a belated birthday card or another invitation to a second shower.  I had no idea what was coming.  She gave me a thank you card.  It said that she knew it isn't easy, but she appreciated the support during her pregnancy.  Just....wow.  Thank you Amanda, not many people even acknowledge the adoption to my face.  I think people are scared that I will be sensitive if they bring it up (I wont be! Seriously, let's chat about it!).  Really, it is nice to know that people think about it and think of me as "mom to be".

I have a couple of pictures from the shower to share:

Amanda and the diaper "cake"

 

Actual Cake.  It was amazing.

For your comic relief.  This happened at work: 

Camels at work. It ate poop right after this, so we are no longer friends.

 

I had some other stuff to type but blogger is being finicky and frustrating right now, so I am giving up.  Apparently the other subjects were not meant to be on today's blog post.  

As always, we are hopelessly hopeful that our baby will join us soon.