Friday, February 25, 2011

Eight Months!


8 months.  I'd like to whine and complain about how up until a couple of months ago we thought we'd have a referral by now.  I'd like to wallow in the fact that we will not have a baby home by this summer like we thought we would.  But then I hear myself.  And I want to slap myself.  Is waiting with no real end in sight hard?  Yes.  But then I remember that although I can't see the end, the end is actually out there.  And I hate whining.  I never want to paint the picture that the adoption process is all sunshine and roses or that I never really struggle, but the truth is that it could be so much worse.  Rob and I have a great life and are immeasurably blessed, and while we're both ready to be a family of 3, I don't want to wish away our last months as a family of 2.  So I choose to focus on the positive.  Because in the end, happiness is a choice.

So, you might be wondering what we've been up to for the last month.  We attended a dinner for waiting families at our Agency.  It was really great to be able to meet other people in our same situation.  We have another dinner coming up in a couple of weeks that I'm really excited about.  We've also been slllooooowwwwlllyyy been working on the baby's room.  We painted the room yellow, put up white wainscoting, finally admitted to ourselves how much we hated the shade of yellow we'd picked, and re-painted the room a much creamier yellow.  We still need to put a final coat of white paint on the wainscoting, so I'll save a picture of the room for another post, but I'm loving how it's turning out.  Other than some cake decorating, we've had a relatively slow month.  I think it was the calm before the storm because almost every weekend in March is already full.  As it turns out, busyness is a pretty good thing when you're waiting on a referral that isn't likely to come any time soon.

Now, for the official 8 month post, I'll turn the blog over to Rob to introduce you to his sister.


This is my sister M.  She is currently enrolled at UT studying to become a veterinarian.  He career path, coupled with the fact that she just can't seem to live without pets, is a good thing.  Our hope is that Auntie M's love and access to animals will mean that time spent with her will be special, and our child will grow to love Auntie M the way we love her.

Monday, February 21, 2011

While We Wait: And the Hobbies Continue...

I'm back at it again.  No news on the adoption front, so I must throw myself into something that keeps me from going crazy :)

I offered to help out with my friend Lauren's baby shower, and when I was asked to do the cake, I jumped on it!  For the last month I've been plotting and scheming on how to do a cake that went along with Mack's jungle animal nursery.  Here's what I ended up with:

Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  The dots are fondant and the yellow border is buttercream.  The animals are just toys I picked up at Kroger, and the "risers" they're on are mini cakes covered with fondant. 

Overall, I was pretty happy with the final product, but doing these things on my own has made me realize that I really want to take actual cake decorating classes.  I signed up tonight for the Wilton classes at Hobby Lobby, so starting in April, I'll be taking one class a week through the end of June.  Hopefully by that point I'll have a little more confidence in my abilities and won't consider every cake an experiment!

For Lauren's gift, I made her the hooded towels that I love so much:


Love, love, love these color combinations.

Now that the shower is over and the cake is finished, I'm feeling a little bit of a loss.  You know, what's next?  Well, 1) we're still working on the nursery; and 2) I've never actually decorated our Master Bathroom, so now's as good a time as any! 

Happy Monday, Friends!