Adopting Mamas

Melissa, adopting Madison from China, Deidra, adopting from China, Sara, adopting 2 boys from Russia,  Debbie, adopting Hope and Maggie from China & Yours truly, adopting from domestic foster care in the United States.

Yesterday was a fundraising day for the five families adopting children at our church.  It was a looonnggg and fun day.  9am - 9pm there were a group of dedicated scrap booking ladies with their heads down cropping, gluing, honestly I'm not sure what they were doing.  They only looked up every half hour or so when Sara would announce another giveaway - EVERYONE won at least one awesome giveaway donated by local businesses.  The ladies occasionally got up to partake in the breakfast, lunch and dinner that were provided, of course lots of sugar and caffeine were available throughout the day.

Being as it was my first time at such an event I had no idea how it was going. Like I said heads down - focused - not a lot of interaction.  As the ladies were leaving the rave reviews about the event and requests to do it again soon have been reassuring that this was a very successful day for the scrap bookers! Thanks to everyone who came out.

Not our average Saturday

So what did you do today? 

Our family went to an Adoption Match Party. With exception of T who diligently wrote her ACT exams today.  But I digress, an Adoption Match Party is where potential adoptive families with completed home studies come together with children waiting to be adopted from foster care in a party style event.  If it sounds a little creepy to you I have to say that was our initial thought too, but you can't deny that it works.  After attending today's event hosted by The Junior League of Tampa I think it was a tremendously well executed event.  Forever families are made from every event - the most successful party to date occurred in 2009 where 20 children were matched and eventually finalized.  That is incredible don't you think?  There were definitely families who made connections with children today.  We saw families talking with case workers in between all the games and activities like laser tag, midway games, face painting, balloon animals and the petting zoo.  There were enough activities to interact with the children in a non threatening manner that it wasn't like they were on display waiting to be approached like a puppy at the pet store. That was one of my biggest concerns going into today was how the interaction would occur.

We inquired about two boys today, one boy who was at the event and another who wasn't at the party but we saw his photo on a display board inside.  No idea if either of these inquiries will go anywhere but we have officially started the matching process. We asked about these boys, both of whom have names that start with "J." Now we wait for our adoption worker to connect with other workers to determine how many inquiries each child got and who they think is the best family for each child. If we happen to be one of those families we will get a little more background information on them.  If we choose to proceed we get more detailed info and then we can decide if we want to continue on to meet the child or not.  If neither of these boys is a good match for us we will likely wait to get a match suggestion from our adoption worker. We are still hopeful for a match before summer to have lots of family time before school starts. If that doesn't work out we would definitely consider attending the next Adoption Match event in October.

On our way home we stopped at IKEA - because we were in the neighborhood. We picked up a shadow box to display Michael's old matchbox cars in our little guy's bedroom (thank you Pinterest.) 

Good Friday...and Happy Birthday Saturday

Although I didn't spend Friday making Easter related crafts with my daughters I was very productive.  I spent six hours painting our future son's bedroom.  When we moved into the house it was a lovely shade of yellow, which had worked fine for K but was a bit too feminine for a boy and had become quite marked and grungy looking over time.  The ceiling fan was also pink butterflies - I already painted those blades black.

Soon to be big sister got to make the first swipe of color (Benjamin Moore Gray Horse) In a completely unrelated coincidence R was wearing her Carlos Pena tshirt and yesterday just happened to be the Tampa Bay Rays home opener against the Yankees and Carlos Pena is back with the Rays AND the Rays won their home opener yesterday, in no small part due to Carlos Pena!

It is a great feeling to have this little (SIX HOURS!!!) step out of the way.  We don't plan to do too much to the room other than the fresh paint and a very basic bed, yet to be purchased.  We want the little guy to be able to put his own personality into his bedroom when he arrives,  So his favorite color and his hobbies will dictate the rest of the decor.  I do have a couple of little crafty projects - thank you Pinterest - that I hope to have complete for his room by the end of this month.  Now for the after shot...

Yes it would appear she did ALL the work, and if you ask her she will tell you she did.

 Now about that birthday, today is my mom's birthday.  Wish we could be there with you to celebrate. We love you and miss you. Hope you have a wonderful day. Here is one of my favorite, not so recent, pictures of my mom. Fish for dinner anyone?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!