A First Tooth and "Single" Mom

So, did I tell you R has her first tooth? Last week we really noticed it cutting through. It is the bottom center right one. It is adorable, of course. Doesn't she look like she is like 3 years old in this picture? My baby is rapidly turning into a big girl right before my eyes!

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Blah. This week, A's gone until Friday. When he accepted this position/promotion at his work about 4 years ago, we knew that it meant travel. When we didn't have kids, it was actually kind of nice to have some time to myself to work on projects, relax, etc. without him around. By the end of the week, I would miss him and would be so glad when he got home.

Well, now not only does his job require the regular travel it always did, due to some company changes, he now has to go 3 weeks out of the year to the home office. The is the 2nd time he's been gone since R came home. (The first time was my first week back to work in the spring, and my parents helped me a lot that week so it wasn't too bad.) This week, he's gone all week, so I'm totally on my own.

I shouldn't complain. At all. And I'm not, really. It makes me totally appreciate and admire even more all those single moms out there. I don't know how they do it! It's the little things that make me also appreciate what A does everyday for me and for our girl. Besides that, I just miss my husband! At least he will be home for our anniversary on Saturday. :)

Job v. Passion

Yeah, this is my third post of the night. Let's just say not having power leaves me with a week's worth of thoughts to share in one night.

Last week, I was talking to another teacher, C, about adoption. She asks me a lot of questions about the topic, and although she has never said this, my feeling is that she and her husband are considering adoption as a way to build their family.

I was telling her about our experience in Ethiopia and about how life-changing it was for me to go there. She said to me, "M, I've never seen you teach, and I'm sure you're a great teacher... but when I talk to you, I wonder if you have ever considering doing more for Ethiopia and adoption instead of teaching. I wonder if that is your calling."

This blunt statement, my own secret question to myself, rather shocked me. C forced me to think and talk aloud about something I've been wondering for the past 7 months and have revealed to no one. And so I feel I might be at a crossroads. Teaching is my job, and I do love it... However, adoption and Ethiopia are my passion.

I will say to you what I said to C. Education is safe. I can teach (or do something in education b/c there is no way I'm grading essays for another 22 years) for 30 years in my nice safe little job, have summers and holidays off, get a decent retirement and good health care, and be perfectly content to do so.

Or, I can do something insane, something I never imagined. Something not safe. Something that in no way secures my financial future... Who even knows what that "something" is.

What I do know is that my heart is in Ethiopia, that it breaks for all those children we left behind. That I think of the suffering of my child's homeland and wonder why I just had to buy that one more pair of shoes last week.

I know that the decision to adopt started as a whisper at first, a fleeting thought in my mind, just as this did. I feel this conversation with C took it to the next level, just as a similar experience talking to another co-worker made me realize that that whisper about adoption was serious...

And that is that.

PS-- R has been home 7 months today! I love you baby girl!

Thank you, M

My dear friend, M, gave me the most amazing gift this morning when A and I dropped R off at her house for the day... a children's book of R's adoption story that she had created for us!

Let me back up a second. M is the most talented of writers. When we were in HS, we used to try to outdo each other with humorous stories. Every once in a while, my story would be better than hers, but she would usually "beat" me. For years, I have been telling her she should try to get her writing published because of her exceptional gift.

The story she wrote is beautiful, and for someone who is not an adoptive mom, she explains adoption on a child's level in a way that a reader would have a hard time believing she hadn't adopted. (I guess she's been listening to me long enough.)

She stole the title of my blog for the title of the story, but that's fine with me! There is a reason this blog is titled as it is...

Well the sneak not only kept it a secret from me that she was writing this story and creating a book for my family but also kept it a secret that she DID submit it to a publisher! She will know in a couple of weeks if it will be accepted or not.

Anyway, M, I love the book, I love you, and I love that you might be sharing it with the world. I am so proud of you are pursuing this!

Thank you.

We, like, have power and stuff!

Thank you God! When I arrived home this afternoon, we had power! What an amazing thing to be able to go about my day with every light in the house on!!

We just finished cleaning out the fridge and freezer. Probably should have done that LAST Monday (tomorrow is trash day), but we were hopeful that we would get power back quickly and that we might be able to save something. What a waste!! Makes me really think about all that stuff we spent money on and that is now sitting in a trash can in my driveway.

There are still about 40,000 in my area without power, so all this mess is far from over for a lot of other people.

Still No Power

We stayed at my parents' tonight and will just get up early tomorrow for work! My brother (on his way to his girlfriend's place) drove through our neighborhood, and we still do not have power. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe Thursday??? Who knows? I'm not optimistic that'll it'll be soon.

Here is a cute picture of R. It has nothing to do with this post. Who doesn't like pictures?

Still Without Power

We are staying the weekend at my parents' house because we still do not have power at our house. The number is now 65,000 without power in my area, and restoration of it is going very slowly. The power company is saying that we will have it back by tomorrow night, but considering that they only restored power to about 7,000 last night, I'm not too hopeful that will be the case!

We lost power because we had a "dry" category 1 hurricane (the remainder of Ike) blow through the state on Sunday afternoon. Our county was one of the hardest hit in the state, and things are still a mess. It was one of the weirdest weather occurrences I've ever experienced. The wind was incredibly strong for something around here, but there was no rain. Bizarre.

Our neighborhood looked like a war zone when it was over, and we were lucky. We have 4 huge trees in our yard, and they all were fine with only some large branches down. The only damage was some shingles off the roof of our shed in the back yard. Other people in the area and in our neighborhood were not as lucky!

We are hoping to have power soon, as it is hard with the baby. We are only at my parents' for the weekend because they live about an hour north of where we do, and it is just too difficult getting the baby to the sitters' houses and getting to work this far away. At least we can do some laundry today!

Blackout!

We currently have no power at our house and haven't since Sunday night. In my area, there are still about 200 thousand homes without it, so I'm not thinking it'll come back on anytime soon. All the areas around our neighborhood have power, so we are probably a low priority. We did not have school Monday, we did yesterday, and we did not today. I am thinking that tomorrow is doubtful because the recovery process is going so slowly.

So, currently, I'm at my friend, M's, house so R and her daughter N can play together and so I can check my email and online banking.

See you when we have power again!

9/11

Today marks 7 years. Where were you? Me, I was in the first few weeks of my teaching career. I remember the day quite clearly. My lesson for seniors that day was a Brit Lit poem... A student came into my 3rd period class yelling, "Miss M, Miss M, someone bombed the Pentagon!" I remember not believing her, thinking she had just heard something wrong. After all, who could possibly attack the Pentagon?

I proceeded with my lesson, but my students begged me to turn the TV on. I did and saw horror I could never possibly believe. The first tower had already collapsed. Suddenly, poetry wasn't important. My students and I watched the coverage in horror. I saw the second tower collapse on live TV, like a lot of Americans did. I watched the news coverage the entire rest of the day and tried to help my high school students deal with what was happening.

I knew no one killed on 9/11, but that doesn't mean I don't mourn them and feel such sadness for their families. I think of the children who will grow up without their mothers and fathers... and all that has happened in these years since then.

The day after 9/11, I drove through the country (I used to work at a HS in a farming community) to work as the sun rose in the sky. The sunrise was a brilliant, bright mix of reds, oranges, yellows, etc. I remember thinking as I gazed at the sky that God was mourning this attack just as our nation was. I can still picture that and remember how I felt...

Work Stuff, Photo Books, and A Hurricane

Well, since the end of last school year, I have been dreading returning to work. I work on a team with one of my closest friends and 4 other teachers. Three of them, my friend H and I had a lot of problems with last year. They are young and selfish, and they do not have the best interest of our students at heart. H and I talked a lot over the summer about how to deal with them and work with them... We knew it was only a matter of time before things got bad again this year, and today that happened.

I have a lot going on in my life. I feel like I'm a good teacher and teammate. I am respected by my principal and co-workers... Except for these 3 teammates apparently. I won't get into details because it is so silly that I can hardly really explain it. I just feel so frustrated because it is ONLY September, and we have so much of this school year left.

To make a long story short, the "teammates" were upset about some things on a behavior plan for a student but said nothing about it when the plan was being created with the student, his dad, the team, and the school's therapist on Tuesday. Today's team meeting, the three of them attacked H about the plan. I wasn't there because I was training other teachers in the district on our new writing program. (I know I am making this long.) I don't really know the details, but I do know that H called me in tears during her lunch. My thought is that they chose to attack H today because I wasn't there. One of them actually told H that she should not be calling a parent when there is a behavior problem in her class. Instead, we should just talk to her and the teachers the student had before. They said some other things, too, just as bad.

I am a parent, as is H. One of the things I know is that if R is ever a problem in school, her teacher should contact me to let me know about it. Like the parent mentioned above, I would be happy that the teacher cared enough to tell me and wanted to work with me to improve my child's educational experience. This idea that we should NOT contact a parent is completely absurd and makes no sense to me.

So, tomorrow, I get to go in and face these people, after they attacked my dear friend yet again. I must remain professional, but it makes me feel ill knowing that all the things we had to deal with at the end of last year are happening again, and there is seemingly no solution to this problem.

On a total side note: I made some photo books on snapfish.com and got them in the mail today. They basically are to give to her grandparents, but I of course bought a copy for us, too. I LOVE IT! My friend M has been making photo books for a few months now, and this is the first one I've attempted. I love scrapbooking, and the photo books are nice because they are so quick and easy to make! I just might be addicted to it! At snapfish.com, the 8x11 books are 40% off until tomorrow if you use the code "sale40" when you check out. I decided it was a good time to try it out! :)

Also, my brother in FL is fine. The hurricane did not directly hit the Keys so he is ok. Thank you for your concern and prayers!

Hurricane Ike

I just got off the phone with my dad, who is always watching the Weather Channel. He was watching the update on "Ike," which is now projected to be a category 4 hurricane when it hits Marathon in the FL Keys on Tuesday. In that we live thousands of miles from there, why does my dad call to update me on this? Well, my brother, J, lives there, as does his friend and his wife and one my dad's good friends.

My dad said J told him that if it will be a cat 4 when it hits, he will evacuate to mid-Florida and stay with another friend's mom. If a cat 4 hits Marathon, it will be wiped out, and everything will be destroyed. This makes me feel so sick and horrible inside knowing that it is very likely that my brother and others we know down there will lose their homes. Dad says they have not been hit by a hurricane more than a low 3 since the 1930s.

I am hoping and praying that the storm decreases before it hits.

Funny Picture and a Temper Tantrum

A few weeks ago, my friend M had a Mickey Mouse birthday party for her middle daughter. Being the super-awesome mom she is, she even bought mouse ears for the kids to wear. Here is a picture of M, her daughter N (one month younger than R), R, and me. I thought it was funny because both girls look so serious... and yet, they are wearing mouse ears. (Do you like their matching BF dresses? Adorable!)

On a side note, my daughter threw her first (major) temper tantrum yesterday. I didn't know 9 month olds had temper tantrums, but apparently they do. I just know that soon, A and I will be those parents in the grocery store with the screaming toddler who wants the cookies we won't buy... M says she knew from the first time she looked at a photo of R that she would be a "screamer." At the time, I was hoping she was wrong, but last night's display of screaming, crying, kicking, arching of the back, etc. has proven that M was indeed right!

Despite this, she is the absolute light of my life. Like A said the other night, "We have been given a great gift" in the form of this small girl. She is so awesome.

There once was a girl

Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good,
She was very, very good,

But when she was bad,

She was horrid!

-- Longfellow

(This sorta sums it up, doesn't it?)

Two Steps Forward...

R took her first real steps yesterday. She took 2 steps at two different times over the course of the evening. Tonight, she practiced some more. She is starting to catch on and understands when we say, "Walk to Mommy; walk to Daddy." She is, like, the most awesome baby in the world!



My friend H sent me this picture of R from this summer. It has nothing to do with her walking, but I think it is super cute. (The feet in the picture are H's daughter, who is also a darling baby!)




Also, an update on my aunt: She received more results today. The lesions on her brain look like they are getting smaller so the doctors are more sure it is not cancer. However, there is a possibility it is MS... more tests to come. Please keep her in your prayers!