To Do List

Updated Friday July 1st:

To Do- This week

• Lots of work, of course

It's Friday and I am done at 7:15, working a little longer today.

• Pottery class

Monday night class was great and went in on Wednesday for studio lab time.

• Belly dancing class

This was today while G was at preschool in the am. So addictive, I love it!!!

• Pick up and clean before parents arrive

Mat is doing this today- he is the best husband ever!!!

• Guest/kiddo room ready and organized

Ditto. I love you Maty!

• Grocery store- to include coffee for Mom and Dad

We went last night and I will likely go tomorrow am after belly dancing class to pick up the fresh produce.

• Workout

Only 1 night was intense. We did some lifting and running. Gotta get back in the swing of things before the Oyster!

Since I have many things swimming around my head I thought just writing them down may help. I suppose I am a list maker but that's not always bad right?

To Do- This week

• Lots of work, of course
• Pottery class
• Belly dancing class
• Pick up and clean before parents arrive
• Guest/kiddo room ready and organized
• Grocery store- to include coffee for Mom and Dad
• Workout

To Do- July

• Organize bedroom closet- garage sale pile, keep pile and toss pile. Clean and organize all.
• Start training for the Oyster Race!
• Try and keep our plants alive
• Book organization. The Book Rack (buy back) pile, garage sale pile, keep pile.

To Do- Before Fall

• Finish C for Caterpillar painting, start and finish M for music and think of and paint a 3rd and/or 4th painting.
• Organize guest/kiddo closet- garage sale pile, keep pile and toss pile. Clean and organize all.
• Hope to receive our referral so we can see the beautiful faces of our babies.
• Have a good workout/training regime in place and start to feel healthy.

Dia Frampton - The Cave (Mumford and Sons cover)

Dia singing The Cave!?

Beautiful!

Trying

...to stay positive

...not to cry

...to keep a happy face

With the latest news about our delayed referral and arrival home for the kiddos it has been a bit trying. I am not posting much since I am not super chipper. Just trying to have a good attitude about everything and sometimes that's hard.

Over the weekend I received a beautiful card and handwritten note from my very best friend, Christen. We have been friends since birth (hers) and are still so tight. The only thing that keeps us apart are the hundreds of miles and states that separate us. Christen is already attached to our kiddos and feels the hurt too. Thank you for the card!

Sunday was Father's Day as you know and Mat did oh so well. Much better than I did on Mother's Day. I made him a Shutterfly card - one of the pictures on the card included the one from above. That is the color of the room the kiddos will share. We hope it is the last Mother's and Father's Day that we spend apart from our beautiful children.

Where will we be this Saturday?

The Highlands Street Fair in historic Northwest Denver.

Our good friends Sarah Good and Eric Varner are in Ethiopia meeting their baby girl right now! And Sarah is a very talented artist that makes glass, copper and silver jewelry and other fun things like night lights. Sarah Good Jewelry has a booth at the Highlands Street Fair

and that is where we will be working.

Stop by to say hi and check out Sarah's beautiful work. We will be located on 32nd between Newton and Meade Streets. The Fair is definitely going to be a fun event, lots of shopping, food and fun events for the kids.

Hope to see you there!

~Abby

Adoption Update

Last week we were told that our referral time is now most likely August or September. We were also told that there is a chance that from the time of referral it could be 8-10-12 months before our sweet kids are home. It has taken me awhile to post this. And I am not ready to say much more. Trying to stay positive.

A friend told me about this song. I think of our kids when I listen.

Ben Harper!

The Ben Harper Show!

Monday night Mat and I were lucky enough to see Ben Harper up close and personal.

This was my very first time to see him (I have only been to about 4 concerts) and Mat had seen him open for Dave Mathews (Mat has been to over 100 concerts). Woo hoo, lucky us!

My employer gave us her tickets and we ran all the way to the show ;)

Side note: as most of you know we are adopting our kiddos from ET soon. With our budget being as tight as it is we have cut out the entertainment section of the budget- so we jumped right on this.

We stood in line from 6:15 to 7:30 in the heat on Colfax and it was well worth the wait.

We stood front and center/left, luckily we got there early to grab the good spot as it was PACKED. The Orbans were the opening band and we loved them, talked to Cliff the bass player after the show and he gave us a beer cozy.

We would love to see them again, awesome music.

We just barely made it into this picture.

We were just a little to the left and back a few behind the guy in the blue shirt who you can see right up front. Most of these pictures I took from his website (thank you Melissa Nicholson)- they turned out much better than ours, go figure ;)

I wish I could explain this show well but I know I won't do Ben Harper justice.

The man is so genuine and sincere. You can see the emotion on his face and in his eyes.

He received an insanely explosive welcome from the crowd and you could feel the ground and building vibrate...I know I am a bit of a concert going rookie but I believe this was a magical show for everyone. It was for me/us. An example...

there was one song in particular that Ben Harper was visibly emotional about- he said he would need a minute.

What does that song REALLY mean to him we wonder.

He sat up at the very front of the stage in this picture - he is so amazing!

Thank you to Ben Harper and the band for a truly phenomenal show.

I would encourage you to check out his tour schedule....he is not only the best performer and a truly talented musician but he has a good heart and soul...it emanates from his music and his words.

~Abby

What is wrong with this picture?

Now that G goes to preschool for a few hours 2 days a week I am lucky enough to occupy some of that space with "me time". So before I went to my chiropractor appointment I decided to go hang out at Barnes and Noble for a bit (never a favorite bookstore of mine). There are 3 things that I check when I walk into any bookstore. The section on adoption in Family. The section on Ethiopia in Travel. And International Cuisine/Ethiopia in Cookbooks. I couldn't find any books on adoption as I searched through the family section and the massive shelves on pregnancy. So I went to customer service and she said, "We have a small section mixed in with Divorce." HUH?!?! Sure enough 4 or 5 rows down from the start of pregnancy and what your baby may or might not do in the first year was Divorce/Adoption at the bottom by the dingy and dusty carpet. Hmmm.

I posted this picture on Facebook and got quite a few responses. Even as I was taking the picture I knew it would be a post as soon as I could get 20 minutes or so. So how is it as an advanced society that we live in (sometimes) that we run into something like this? A huge bookstore that caters to thousands every day... is going to mix two completely separate subjects? Divorce: sad, scary and sometimes a necessity... but mostly an ugly battle.
Adoption: pure and wonderful magic, beautiful and the most precious gift.
One of these things is not like the other...

To look at it in a practical and logical way- it doesn't fit or make sense, as my cousin stated on FB it's not even in alphabetical order. To get emotional about it as I do because I am adopted myself and am in the process of adopting our 2 kiddos that are over in ET- I'm appalled. A friend from HS who is also an adult adoptee was offended...as am I.

So much to think about...

I just finished reading a friends blog. Her heart poured onto the page. She was sobbing while writing I'm sure, I was crying while reading...her blog tells you about their last day in Ethiopia and saying goodbye to their kiddos.

I keep saying the "2 trips to ET" is what is best for the kids. All of the kids in general that are being adopted. Because of the 40 some odd families that ruined it for the rest of us and changed their minds. The government had to think of the children's needs and make sure that it could never happen again. So, again I say it's a good thing. But how miserable it really is going to be. I keep on my mantra, it's best for the kids. But when they are too young, vulnerable, unsure, and scared...that's not good, how will they understand that we will be back for them? We can put ourselves back together, as hard as it would be, but what about our kids and our friends kids? My emotions don't quite fit in my body as it is...that's why poor Mat loses when I can't keep it together anymore (last night). How am I going to stand it when we are the ones to leave...

Our friends lifelong friends Laura and Bryan whom we met at our International Adoption training are the ones who are leaving ET today (this was their 1st trip, blog post above). Also in the group, Wendy and John have been home with their absolutely gorgeous twin girls for 2 months. Kate and Brad have been home with their beautiful son Moses for a week now. Sarah and Eric leave in about a week to meet their sweet girl Baby Lida for the first time. Which means a lot of love. A lot of heartache while saying goodbye until we come back. And...it feels like it's getting closer for us as our our friends go through it all in each different part of the process.

Love to all of our friends who are going through this emotional wonderful and sometimes scary rollercoaster. We think of you often and you are in our hearts.

~Abby