Hattie's Crib

On another special episode of Cribs (again where did that show go?), we tour Hattie Cook's new space.Still have some decorating to do when she gets home but it's definitely close to done. I l think it's a good toddler room with lots of space and furniture to last her through many years. We used a ton of stuff we already had. In fact all of the furniture was stuff we had, just repurposed and fixed up. We spent less than $500! Here's a tour!

Hallway between the girls' rooms, one heart in Omaha and one in China

Old owner's paint shelf repurposed

Chalkboard wall

Reflection

Today started out as not a great day. Let's just say some dominos I was hoping would fall one way, fell the other. And then some of the multiple balls I had up in the air fell and smacked me in the face. The stress of everything going on for us hit hard today. I was at a point where the next person that told me something I didn't want to hear, was going to have to deal with uncontrollable crying or be told to f*** off. It really could have gone either way.

I ran home for 10 minutes to change clothes after work, to go to another work function, where I had to have professional photos taken for any publicity they may need my face for. I don't know why they couldn't keep using my class composite photo from 8 years ago, I totally look the same. I threw something that was sort of clean and professional looking on, and tried to fix a little makeup so it didn't totally look like a mugshot after a hard night out. As I was rushing around I caught a glimpse of Hattie's photo on our travel approval. A much younger Hattie.

I keep losing track in these preparations of the fact she is going to be ours in about two weeks. It's always been this mythical thing that was probably going to happen, but when? Adam sent me a text of the milk he bought at Target.

That's the date we are leaving. The milk is expiring the day we are leaving! Who's going to throw it out and HOLY CRAP that is the day we are leaving.  Both nauseating and exciting at the same time, I am losing track during my days that I am becoming a parent again, very soon. My job is very important to me, where my dog stays is important to me, whether our parents have every possible phone number they could need is important to me, whether my DVR records Dexter and Hard Knocks while I"m gone is a little important to me..........but my biggest job is focusing to become a mother again. Everything does need to be taken care of before we go, but time needs to be taken out for reflection and processing of the situation I am about to walk in to for a second time. As a die hard introvert I need it. So on the way to my work function I listened to my favorite Pandora station the whole way, the station I play when I want to be hopeful about this process coming to a happy ending. I didn't check my email at stoplights and I didn't think about what I had to do when I got to my destination. I drove and listened, to exactly what I needed to.

We're back

It's been about 18 months since I posted anything on this blog. Life changed! A lot has happened since then. In the past 18ish months we bought a house, renovated the new house extensively, sold our old house, adopted a 21 month old, Adam changed jobs, and we are very close to adopting a 31 month old. Oh yea, and I'll be changing jobs when I return from maternity leave. Just the small things.

Anyway, this blog started out to document our first adoption journey back in 2010/2011. I did a fairly good job keeping up with the process for our adoption of Naomi until we went to China. China is where shit got real. See blog post China: Walk on. Our actual time in China didn't really get documented. So.........as many of you know we are about to go to China again, for our second daughter, Hattie. We've been much more laid back this process and haven't been documenting our journey as much. What I am hoping to do this time is actually blog/document our time in China with Hattie as it's happening. Not only to keep our interested friends and family up on what's going on while we are there (no Facebook in China), but also to have a record of exactly how we were feeling during that part of the journey and the time leading up to our travel. Also each sister can have a part of their adoption journey blogged about, thus beginning the lifelong debate of who had it worse. I can hear them saying, blogging was so self involved and 2013 mom.

We are all excited to meet Hattie, and honestly be done with the adoption process and perpetual waiting for our family to be complete. Over the next few weeks you will hopefully get a little glimpse into the chaos and joy of the last minute preparations and process of bringing a new child into our life through adoption. There will be tears, excitement, curse words, love, beer, and a multitude of other emotions I'm sure I haven't felt before. But in the end this girl will be home and with her family!