The Crazies are Back

I believe when a dream hits a recurring stage (2x in my book) it's time to let it out and set it free. And you lucky readers are the recipients of my full-on crazies.

The dream: multiplying babies at various locations throughout my work day; all waiting for me to bring them home.

Dream One: Two babies are sitting all alone in the shuttle seat adjacent to me. They succeed in getting my attention by waving and giggling to me. I wave back, wondering how they got there and why are these infants commuting? Where exactly are they going?

As I exit the bus, the driver won't let me off, telling me "You're not leaving them here." Who is he talking about?

Driver: "Miss, please take your babies. Now."

I am now awake and vow to never close my eyes again.

Dream Two: A meeting at work is underway and my mind is drifting. Something in the corner of the conference room catches my eye. It's a mini-pyramid of diaper-clad infants (two on bottom, one on their shoulders - all seated on top of one another). They're all smiling with pacifiers.

I LOL and look around the room. Does nobody else see this? By the time I look back in the corner, the babies have brought in three friends. It's now a 3-2-1 pyramid of babies!

I stop looking in the corner and simply excuse myself from the meeting, head down with eyes focused on the floor.

The president abruptly stops speaking and says: "Tamara, please take your babies. Now."

There will not be a Dream Three, because now I really will never, ever close my eyes again.

Anniversaries of Note...

40th Anniversary of Sesame Street

Even Google is in on the madness leading up to November 10, 2009.

On 11/10/1969 we were introduced to Bert & Ernie's gang. Cookie, Big Bird, Mr. Hooper, The Count (who I always found a bit frightening), Oscar, Mr. SnuffleUpaGus (sp), Grover (who shares a birthday with our nephew), Elmo, Zoe and all the other little furry creatures who helped us along through the early years are all gearing up for the big day. There is an amazing SS documentary out there, that is worth a NetFlix, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET. I highly recommend it.

20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 11/9/1989

"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!" Former President, Ronald Reagan

"I, I will begin again. I will be with you again." U2

Wind of Change, The Scorpions performance

The Wall - Live in Berlin...a live concert performance of the Roger Waters rock opera celebrating the destruction of the Berlin wall.

Beethoven's 9th symphony with the word "Joy" changed to "Freedom", Leonard Bernstein's concert

The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier, more than 87 miles long, built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely enclosed the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. source: Wiki

4th Month Anniversary on the Wait List!!!

The most personal of all the big ones happening right now.

We are four months in and more excited everyday! The big redecorating moves are about to happen very soon, with each room moving down a room to serve a new purpose. Dining table moves to open area; office moves to dining room; office becomes the nursery. Whew. Yes, lots to do.

And do you know how we celebrated our final fabulous dinner in our official dining room? With one big fat snafu.

I'm a baker, not a cook. So, when I come across a simple, creative recipe that I know I can master, I'm all-in. The short story of this very long saga is that when I attempted to replicate the fabulous ham I made last Easter I didn't realize that what I was basting, prepping, and counting on to make our final dining room experience unforgettable was in fact, not a ham at all. I had purchased a side of pork!

Yup, plain ole pork that I have no simple, yet creative recipes for. The same pork that I have no intention of ever ordering again. Our guests drove over an hour for the ham I raved about, to end up sitting at our table with four adults staring blankly at "ham" that was not pink, not spicy, had no skin and had less flavor. And did I mention that 15 minutes per pound doesn't cut it when you're cooking PORK? Thankfully we all had enough after a few bites and didn't dig too deep where IT WAS RAW! ha! If you can't laugh....

and laugh we did, with some very fabulous chocolate cake. Thanks Aim!

A sign that it's okay to give up the privileges of a separate dining room and get on with the move.

Baby Training 101

At 14 years old I was required to take Drivers Ed as part of my college prep curriculum, for the obvious reason that I was about to turn 15 and apply for my learner's permit, followed by the sought-after driver's license at 16.

At 15 years old I was required (by the 'rents) to take the PSAT course in hopes of boosting my SAT scores to those suitable for a fine institution and in turn, leading to a successful career.

At 16 I signed to a modeling agency and was thrown into a very rigorous "runway walking" training in order to land my first job. (yes, you read that correctly)

At each stage in our lives we are prepped, trained and officially certified. You all know where I'm going with this....

At what point are we certified to properly care for a child? NEVER. EVER.

(unless you count creepy Baby Alive, who taught us if you crank the baby's arm she'll pee her pants)

Enter...my brother. He had the genius idea of "Baby 101 Weekend". When he had his second son in April, he asked us the expected age of our son when we bring him home. I estimated the earliest would be six months, most likely older. In April, my brother picked a date in October (making his son six months) and said "You guys are coming down that weekend and are on full-duty. We'll stay home in case you need anything, but we're acting as if we're not there. You're doing the feedings, the burping, figuring out why he's crying, entertaining him, changing him, the whole shebang."

At 8:05pm on Friday, 10/24, we bounced off the train in a flurry of excitement for our upcoming training. Fast forward to the scene on Sunday, 10/26: drooling on each other while slumped over bracing one another up in our respective seats.

I highly recommend this for anyone becoming a first time parent. We are more ready than ever.

Thank you Amy, Scott, Jack and Theo for the most valuable life training EVER.

xoxo

Gladney & Diapers.com

Have I mentioned how pleased we are with our agency? They're at it again.

A local Children’s Hospital recently donated several infant incubators to Gladney which are being sent to Addis Ababa. Gladney has secured free shipping on multiple crates to ship these incubators. They would like to fill the remainder of the crates with diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, and baby carriers from http://www.diapers.com/. They deliver diapers, wipes, and other baby necessities at great prices with fast free shipping (if you order $49 or more).

If you would like to help by donating items, you can enter the Referral Code “Gladney” on the shopping cart screen and you'll get an extra $10 off your first order of diapers with a $49 minimum purchase. And Gladney gets a $1 credit each time you order. Remember the Referral Code: Gladney

When ordering items, please have them shipped directly to Gladney at this
address by November 15th:

Gladney Center for Adoption
Attn: Scott Brown
6300 John Ryan Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76132

Here is a list of the products the children and in-country caregivers need which you can find by clicking on the links below:

Babyganics Germinator Hand Sanitizer - 250 ml - http://www.diapers.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=16258

Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers - Extra Large Case - (sizes needed size 1 through size 3) - http://www.diapers.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=3

Huggies Natural Care Fragrance Free Baby Wipes - 360 Count Refill - http://www.diapers.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=8145

Baby Bjorn Baby Carrier Original - City Black - http://www.diapers.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=7710

Trick or Treat

15 years ago last night, Kai and I went on our first date....awwww.

So, when I got the list for October shows at work, I saw that Living Colour was playing on 10/30 and immediately put our names on the list. Little did I know that this past week was going to be one of the most exhausting ones EVAH and I would be completely worn out by Wednesday.

It seems everyone in the tri-state area is in bed with the flu and it's knocking them down for a minimum of three days. Oof. I'm popping vitamins and taking preventative measures like you wouldn't believe, including slathering hand sanitizer on all exposed skin each morning after my germ-infested commute and then again before heading home. I think it's working.

We had an amazing time at the show last night, but I awoke realizing my body had finally had it. I slept 12 hours last night and then took a two hour nap this afternoon. This is unheard of. This being said, there will be no Halloween parties in our future this evening. We're soaking in the cozy rainy evening at home and the orangy glow of the Empire State Building. The warm & fuzziest bit of all is that next year at this time, we'll be out and about trick or treating with our little guy in full costume!!!

Hold on to your hats...We are #6

Running late and must jump in the shower but had to post this. I just received a message from one of my new adoption-blogging-BFFs. They got their referral!!!! After a quick scream, outburst of laughter and tears, Kai came running in to see what was happening. I told him. His response..."and now we're six?" That's when I screamed again, since it hadn't crossed my mind initially. Woohooo!!!!

A Gladney humanitarian aide video. Our agency rocks.

7

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Another referral has been issued, which pops us up yet another spot on the unofficial list.

This is happening at warp speed, considering what we had imagined. My guess is that because the courts have reopened, cases are being heard and this may have caused a little dam to have opened. This is purely hypothetical, but seems feasible, no?

A few have mentioned 'a Christmas baby'. That is a near impossible scenario, but something to address so everyone is in the loop on our remaining steps in the process.

• get The Call, aka The Referral: the phone call from our caseworker stating they have matched a baby boy with our family (that's what we are #7 in line for)
• receive pix & medical records of referred infant and forward to international adoption specialist to guide and advise us with decision and (most certainly) accept the referral...yay!!!
• wait for our court date in Ethiopia (approx 1-2 months from accepting referral)
• once we pass court (not uncommon to have multiple court attempts) we'll receive a travel date from our agency (2-3 weeks from passing court)

So what does all this mean? It means we must GET BUSY. So much to do.

Yes, the stroller. If anyone has any suggestions for a one-handed operational model, please forward your info. We don't have a car and have no plans of getting one, considering where we live a car tends to be more of a pain in the neck than it does a luxury. This stroller will be our car and taken very seriously when making this purchase. Any city mom out there who has shlepped up & down the train stations and in & out of the subways with baby in one arm and stroller in the other, knows what I'm talking about.

I've been doing loads of research on this and keep coming back to the Inglesina. They even have a clip on YouTube, demonstrating the one-hand function. At first, I was prepared to plunk down the ridiculous dollars needed for a Bugaboo. Thinking, if a manufacturer is asking this much for a stroller, it MUST do everything I need. That was a hot minute of insanity and when I came back to my senses, I found the lovely Zippy Inglesina. Turns out the Bugaboo isn't that fabulous in the one-hand collapsing function. It is a beautiful stroller, just not for us.

So, the requirements for a commuter baby's wheels? One hand function and all terrain build (for city sidewalks, potholes), lightweight with loads of storage.

We are open to suggestions.

Thanks all! And a huge congratulations to everyone receiving their referrals. Our thoughts go out for a peaceful final wait. Come on court dates!!!