Thursday, April 26, 2007

Who do you call what?

My how things have changed over the years. I know when I was a child that I called EVERY adult I met either Mr & Mrs or Aunt & Uncle. There was NEVER calling an adult by their first name - ever.

These days things have changed - in some ways. Doctors are still referred to by their title, and teachers are generally called Mr or Mrs. Sometimes the elderly or heads of companies are referred to by title. I would say that usually the Queen, Prime Ministers and Presidents also use a title when spoken to by adults or children. But us old regular adult folk are referred to by kids by our first names.

Now I am not a parent yet - however, I always stated that I wanted my children to show respect to adults by addressing them by their title. I say this now and I don't know how things are going to pan out when I am in that situation, but my mindset right now is that I want my children to address adults like that. Mark and I are in agreement on this topic also (thank goodness).

Children will call adults whatever you tell them to call them. If you refer to a person as Mr or Mrs or Aunt and Uncle, the kids will call them that. They don't know any different. Just like in high school when you were introduced/met a "Smitty" or a "Rocky" that would be what you called them because that is what they were introduced to you as. Sometimes you would even forget that they have a 'real' name.

Kids (and adults) don't have a problem referring to their child's teacher by their title because that is what everyone was introduced to each other as. Adults even still refer to their doctors and dentists by the letters after their name. Children just follow suit.

I also think that adults feel awkward referring to other adults with their titles and thus they don't do it. The children will then follow suit and call other adults the same name that their parents do.

Again, I say this now, but things might change when the time comes. It will be weird to refer to my friends by Mr & Mrs but I think it is important. But then again, I wouldn't call them that when I was speaking to them face to face. Kids are SMART they know the difference of what they should call someone and what someone else calls someone.

As a mom, they know that they call you mom but that Dad calls you by your first name. They know you are the same person. They figure things out pretty quick.

On another note, I would hope that other adults respect my wish for my children to call them by their title. I don't want the adult to say "oh they can call me Melissa". If that happens, I am not quite sure how I am going to address that yet - but let's just take one step at a time.

I think society is becoming so much more lax then it ever has been, and in some ways that is good, but in other ways with simple respect, I feel it has gone too far in the other direction. I believe that it is important to do the little things that you can to teach your children. They learn so much from and you and they most certainly learn how to treat other people by the cues they observe in their home and in public from their parents.

I am sure there are MANY points of view on this topic - so there you have it - MY view.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

I'd like to thank the Academy!!


Actually I would like to thank Doris for nominating me for a Thinking Blog Award! How wonderful is that!

Thank you so much Doris for the nomination. I am touched and honoured! For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Doris in person, take my word for it, she is a FANTASTIC lady. I have had the privilege of meeting her in person and know that she is as great in person as she comes across on her blog. I am lucky to have her in my life!

Part of the duty of a person who is nominated is to nominate 5 other people for an award.

I am going to try and nominate people who have not been nominated. There are some people who have a password protected blog that I would like to include (Anne Marie & Nicole) but I won't as you can't go and check out their sites. My nominations are listed below - in no particular order:

Dolores at Watch our Family Grow Dolores is a GREAT person. Dolores and I met 'online' back at the beginning of October. We knew we were with the same agency. We also knew we were close in our timelines and then we discovered that we were in the same travel group!! We have met MANY times in person, had dinners, been to each others houses. How wonderful to be able to go to China with one of your friends.

Kate at A Special FamilyKate and I have YET to met in person (being that she is in the UK - it will be a while yet until we meet). Her blog is always thought provoking. She is in the paper chasing stage and has done so much research and is so PREPARED to be a mom.

Heather at Digging a Hole to ChinaHeather and I have met - what a hoot she is. She came north of the boarder to a visit one weekend and Rhonda arranged a dinner "meeting" and we were able to have a great night!

Jill at Nothing Like a Dream to Create the Future Jill and I met in November (I think). I believe she was the 'arranger' of the the very first "Waiting Mommies Dinner". I was invited by Kathy and I will always be grateful that I was included in that. Jill is a beautiful person inside and out and has an adorable daughter and is going to China for number 2!

Senja at Search and Destroy Twins Senja is fairly new to the blogging world. She is back from China with twins!! If you have not discovered her blog yet, you are really missing out! She is an AMAZING writer. She is so witty and fun to read. She is also a great person. We have been conversing through e-mail and she is of great support and I wanted her to know it is appreciated!

So there you have it - my 5 nominations!! There are so many blogs that I read and comment on and then many more that I just read. I am too embarrassed to tell you how many blogs are on my bloglines...

Thank you again Doris for the vote!!

Back to the story...

Kathy and Joel & Dolores and Shawn arrived within minutes of each other on Saturday. It was great to see them all! Kathy and Dolores FINALLY got to meet each other! I really has been a long time coming! We were so happy to host this meet up. I would have LOVED to invite all of our bloggy friends, but our house is simply too small!!
This is the dinner table before we sat down. It is already expanded. We have a great conversation before dinner. I was pretty prepared so I was able to join in most of the conversation. Surprisingly enough, we didn't talk too much about adoption at all before dinner. During dinner, adotption did come up - of course, but it was really not the focus of the night. The 6 of us got along swimmingly!
Mark and I LOVE entertaing - we really do!! We are turning into a well oiled machine at it! It is really quite cool! This was the table at the end of the night - I really should have taken a picture of our kitchen!! Note to self - look into getting a dishwasher!! I say that, but our kitchen is too small.

We had some fun with the self-timers on our cameras to take the pictures. I personally LOVE self timers - they really are quite cool when you think about it!



Kathy surprised us with the BEAUTIFUL blanket she made for Pumpkin!! How great is that!! Thank you so much Kathy for the wonderful and thoughtful gift!!
Mark and I are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. Pumpkin is going to be lucky to have these fantastic and thoughtful people in her life!! She is going to have so many 'aunties'. I can't wait for her to be able to share that.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Fairy Tale Detour...

We interrupt the regularly scheduled fairy tale as The fairy tale has just taken a detour - with a gift from our fairy godmother!!

Today I arrived home from work to find a package in the mail addressed to us and FROM us...Very odd indeed! I am not one to dwell on the fact that I don't remember mailing myself a package so I ripped it open. How exciting - there was a gift inside. I have seen a few of these popping up in the 'bloggy' world and then BOOM there in one in my front hall!! There was no explanation but there was a WONDERFUL photo tree with beautiful saying. Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone. ~William Albert Allard~

Thank you SO much MYSTERY GIFT GIVER!! It was so thoughtful of you and such a wonderful surprise for me!
Mark and I had one of these photo trees already (I am thinking we are going to need a LOT more photo albums and holders in the future) with 'Pumpkins' first picture in it! Now we can both take one to work with our "pumpkin" picture in it!!

I must say that Pumpkin is VERY lucky to have such a FANTASTIC couple/person in her life!! Thank you mystery gift giver. You are incredibly thoughtful!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time there was a gal – for ease sake, lets just call her Michelle. She started blogging. Very close to the beginning of her blogging (addiction) adventure, she stumbled across another blog. Again for ease sake, let just say this blog belonged to Kathy.

Kathy and Michelle started conversing. Kathy mentioned that there was another gal whom she conversed with and this gal is close to Michelle in time lines. Again for ease sake, we will call this girl Dolores. Michelle finds Dolores’ blog – with the help of Kathy. As it turns out, Michelle and Dolores and VERY close in time lines.

So Dolores and Michelle start conversing also. When Michelle and Dolores become DTC, they discover that they are actually in the same travel group!! How cool is that!?!?! So all three are conversing with each other. Michelle and Dolores also discover that they actually only live 5 minutes from each other – Even cooler!!

Michelle and Kathy meet in person at a Waiting Mommies Dinner. Michelle sees what a WONDERFUL person Kathy is! Dolores was unable to make the dinner that day.

Michelle and Dolores decide that they are going to meet each other in person. They meet for dinner and have a GRAND time! Michelle is so pleased to see that Dolores too is a WONDERFUL person!

Then there was a "Bloggy Summit lunch" Michelle and her husband Mark attended and got to meet Kathy's husband Joel (and some other FANTASTIC people). Again Dolores and Shawn were unable to attend. Kathy and Dolores started to wonder if they would ever meet in person.

Michelle was now on a mission to get Kathy and Dolores to meet. Michelle had met both of them and discovered how lucky she was to have these PHENOMENAL women (and their hubby's) in her (their) life.

There was a planned dinner for Kathy, Dolores and Crystal (Dolores and Crystal are BOTH going to make the next waiting mommies dinner) and Michelle to FINALLY meet. This time, Dolores was the only one that was able to attend!!! Michelle, Kathy and Crystal were ALL ill!! What are the odds!

Then there was the next Waiting Mommies Dinner – This time Dolores’ husband was having his birthday and she was unable to attend. Michelle thought – this is getting crazy – she must step in and DO SOMETHING!

Kathy and Joel were due to attend a seminar in Michelle and Dolores’ city. Michelle took quick action and invited Kathy and Joel & Dolores and Shawn to dinner at her home in the hopes that these FABULOUS couples could finally meet in person!!! SUCCESS!! IT HAPPENED!!! At long last, Kathy and Dolores (and their spouses) were able meet in person!!!

NOT the end...

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Thoughts

I have really slacked off on posting lately. There are many reasons for this...

We have been busy - that is really not a reason - we are and have always been an incredibly busy couple. We are so lucky to have so many great friends and family that we are always on the go.

Another reason for the lack of posts is that there is really nothing to say...I am sure, as readers, you only want to read and see pictures of our friends and family so much and it is really not exciting to you. You are looking for something with substance and meaning or something funny and entertaining. Sometimes I just don't have it in me to post stuff when there is not substance to it. I am also one of the LEAST creative people that I know and I can't just whip off a thought provoking post or a really funny well written post either. I am MUCH better at communicating in person rather then the written word.

This blog is supposed to be about our adoption journey - well we are certainly taking the slow boat to China and things are progressing at a snails pace. There is nothing to report on the adoption front. Nothing is happening. I don't know when something will happen. No we will not get our baby before summer or Christmas. We probably wont get our baby before NEXT summer or Christmas. We are HOPING to get our baby for summer 2009!!! YES 2009! No I am not kidding. Yes I am serious. No there is nothing I can do to speed it up. Yes we're sure this is what we want. No we can't pursue two adoptions at the same time. Yes we would like a speed up. No there probably won't be a speed up. Yes the wait will continue to grow. No I don't have any new news.

Other reasons for the lack of posts is that I feel censored on this blog. I don't really say what I want to all the time. There are things that REALLY irritate me and thoughts I would love to express about this whole process that I can't voice in an open forum like this. I do worry about the 'blog police'. Even if I went password protected, there are things that I still wouldn't post about. These are things that I can only share with a select few and that I wouldn't be willing for those thoughts to be put on paper as I would fear the repercussions of those words. So as much as this is a journal of our adoption, our wait and our thoughts - this is a edited edition of the live version.

So there you have it - a little snippet of what is going on in my head these days. I am going to try to post more often, but if I don't I don't. Rest assured when there is "something to report" about the baby - I will post it here and you will hear about it - until that time, things might be a bit sporadic...

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Busy Saturday

Mark and I, once again, had a busy weekend...well really just a busy Saturday.

We started out by going to Mom and Phil's to celebrate Tracey's birthday. Mom and Phil have been away and this is the first weekend that we could all get together for her birthday lunch. We had a great afternoon with lots of laughs! Here are some shots of the day!

Madison
Josh








We came home for a quick change and then we were out the door again to meet up with Rhonda and Josh, Dolores and Shawn and Heather and John! Heather and John were in town all the way from New Jersey! It was so wonderful to meet them and spend time with everyone.

Rhonda made the reservations and asked for a round table - as it is easier to talk to everyone and there was going to be 8 of us. The lady on the phone asked if we were having a meeting and Rhonda said - 'Something like that'...well we ended up with a PRIVATE dining room!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!! It was wonderful! We had doors at the end of the room that were closed and it was private and we could be loud and not disturb everyone else.

And we talked, and we talked and we talked! We arrived at the restaurant at 7:00 and didn't leave until 12:15!!! We closed the place! We were the last table in there. I am sure the staff were hoping that we would leave so they could go home!


There were also presents! Heather and John brought the ladies a present. The first is a key chain with a little shovel so that we can 'dig our own hole to China' and the second it is a mug with our blog header on it! How cool are BOTH of those gifts!! We were all stunned when we opened them! Thank you so much Heather and John for the VERY thoughtful gift!


Then there was a gift from Dolores - We had already received a gift from Dolores before and she was giving us another one. We are very lucky to have these wonderful people in our lives. From Dolores we received a beautiful bracelet and necklace in a very pretty bag! Thank you Dolores and Shawn for the VERY pretty gifts - you MUST stop giving them though...

I had a gift for Heather however it was left at our front door...It will be in the mail next week Heather!

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Weekend in Review

Once again Mark and I had a very busy weekend. We are very lucky to have such a wonderfully large family and the opportunity to spend time with them.


Friday was Saige's (our niece) 2nd birthday. We all gathered at Jenn (Mark's Jenn) and Paul's house for Saige's birthday dinner.









Jenn has asked if I could make a cake for the celebration. I thought I would surprise her and try a 'special' cake! Well she was surprised. I actually surprised myself as I have never made a cake like this before! I think it turned our pretty good if I do say so myself!! Mind you, it took about 1 1/2 longer then I anticipated to decorate...not something I am going to do every week!




Here are some other pictures of the day. Saige was MOST impressed with her Dora bandana and wanted to put it on right away. Isn't she just the cutest thing!!















































































Saturday found us visiting Mom and Phil for dinner and a night of card playing! We had a great dinner and a great night was enjoyed by all!

Sunday we were off to Hortense's for yet another dinner!! Didn't I tell you how lucky we are!! We had a great night there and there was more card playing!! Uncle and I even won!!

So far this weekend I have been waking up about 6:00am - WITH NO ALARM! What is with that?? Friday, Saturday, Sunday and this morning I was up that early. I figure that by tomorrow - when I have to set my alarm again - it will be a CHORE to get up that early!!

To top off this wonderful weekend, Mark and I are lucky enough to have today off also. How great it is to have a day at home to get caught up on things when you were out all weekend!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Birthday Doris!!

Happy Birthday to DORIS!! Doris is a wonderful person and I have had the pleasure of meeting her in real life too!

Enjoy your day!

Friday, April 06, 2007

4 Months LID!!

Well today marks 4 months since the 'official' journey began!! We ARE 4 months closer...I just wish I knew 4 months closer OF WHAT!!

While it is true that we have done these 4 months and won't have to do them again, I do wonder how long the wait is going to get.

On a positive note it is an extra long weekend (we get Monday off too!) and we are going to be doing LOTS of family stuff and that is ALWAYS a good thing!!

Happy 4 months to Dolores & Shawn too they are our travel mates!!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Stuff...

Well today I was wondering what I should post about...it has been a while since I posted however, there didn't seem anything "postworthy" to post about...

Things can change quickly...I had some catching up to do. I am SO far behind on my blog reading. While whipping through Bloglines, I discover that it is Kathy's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHY!!! Kathy is a friend and the wonderful person responsible for the blog make over!


Then I realized that I hadn't checked the mail. We received a wonderful Easter card and two little boxes of Smarties from Doris, Dan & Daisy. I am embarrassed to say that the Smarties are already gone! The card however remains and it proudly positioned in our living room. Thank you so much 3D for thinking of us!

Also in today's mail was more quilt squares. I have updated Pumpkin's Quilt site. Guess what? We are up to 50 squares!!! WHOO HOOO!!! We are half way there!

So for a day when I didn't think I had anything to blog about, I think we did o.k.!