From the monthly archives:

January 2010

The Ride.

by Christi on January 28, 2010

I knew from day one that adoption would be quite a ride.   Heck, I knew we were in for a ride seven years ago when we first realized that having another child on our own would be a challange.   But I don’t know that you can really be prepared for the ride.   It kind of feels like going to Disneyland.  Yet each day, the entrance has been moved.  And the opening time changes.   And all of the ride have been moved.  Some rides are broken, but you don’t know that until you’ve stood in line for a good long while.   You get on what you think is your favorite kiddie land ride, only to realize that it’s the biggest looping winding coaster you’ve ever been on, it was just disguised as a kiddie ride.   Or it’s broken.  Or it’s closed.  Or, haha – the line existed, but the ride did not.    And when you sit down for lunch, and think “ahhhh” I can take a few minutes and relax, recharge and ready myself for the next ride, and than your chair starts to move becuase SURPRISE it’s a ride too!    You think that you just want to take a break and not come to the park one day, but you paid so much for the entrance tickets, that you have to go.   And you just keep showing up, not knowing what is going on, and riding the rides.   You get some fast passes and think great – this is the ticket – and you come back and they tell you the ride doesn’t accept fast passes.   You get on the monorail thinking you are going back to your hotel, but it keeps skipping that stop, and dumping your right back in the park.   Your friends and family are all so excited for you – you’re going to Disneyland!  Everyone loves Disneyland!  Yay!   And they keep asking how fun it is and you think, it’s exhausting, it’s confusing, and every time I get to the front of the line, the ride breaks or is a totally different ride than you expected or someone else got your seat.   But you don’t want to confuse them by telling them that sometimes Disneyland isn’t fun, because they are so excited for you.   And you can’t really describe what it’s like to ride the rides anyway, so you just say it’s great.    You know that someday you might be in the right line at the right time for the right ride, and it’ll be great.   Or maybe it won’t.   Maybe you’ll never get on that ride that you’ve been dreaming of.   But the monorail will finally take you back to the hotel and you say goodbye to Disneyland and head home, so you’ll give up on the rides, and just be happy to go get back home.  

So for now I will continue to work on patience, and keep getting in line for the rides.    At some point it will be the right ride.  And it will be a fun one, and it will make the entire journey through the park worth it.

{ 1 comment }

A long but fun weekend…

by Christi on January 24, 2010

We had a loooooong weekend.   Long but fun.  Bella had a dance competition out in Gilbert that kept us busy all day on Saturday.   She did great – her duet got a High Gold, her solo got a High Gold, her group number got a Platinum, and was also awarded the “Way Too Cute” award and placed 5th overall in the 8 and under small group category.  Not too shabby!

This morning we met with a local adoption agency that works with Korea.   They had a particular little boy for us to learn about, and I think we both felt right away that it wasn’t the right fit for us.   There were a lot of issues that turned out to be bigger than we were told about.   But I think every part of this process is a step in the direction we need to go.   Maybe learning what isn’t right helps lead us to what is right.

This afternoon we were able to go celebrate our niece Molly’s first birthday.  She’s so cute, and just started walking – which is SUCH an adorable age.   I think she had a great time at her party with her friends and cousins.   Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I didn’t get any shots of the birthday girl.  :(    I’m usually good about keeping my camera in my purse, but left it sitting on my desk.

Here are some pictures from Bella’s competition…

Bella’s Solo “Catch Me”

Duet “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”

{ 1 comment }

Catching Up!

by Christi on January 7, 2010

Now that we are wrapping up our first week back to the normal schedule, I’m almost feeling like I’m caught up on everything.  No, wait – I’m NEVER caught up on everything, but I’m not behind on anything critical.  I don’t think.  Well, I probably am, but I can’t think of it.  Anyway…

Some photos from Christmas!


Excited about her stocking.  As a child my stocking was always one of my very favorite things.  I’d bypass the tree and RUN to my stocking and see what kind of treasures I’d find.  They were never anything big or fancy, but somehow a big sock full of little things seems really fun.   I think Bella’s favorite thing in her stocking this year was a small geode.  She loves rocks and crystals so things like that are always a huge hit.   Santa even left her a little book on gemstones so she could read up on them.


Truth be told I’m really happy I didn’t pay more than retail for any of the zhu zhu pets.   They aren’t exactly a high quality well made toy.  Heck, I wouldn’t be shocked if they were recalled soon.   One of her two stopped working within an hour.  Sucks when Santa gives you a broken gift.  But she has had fun playing with them.

The American Girl Doll.   I’ve really resisted this whole American Girl thing for as long as I could.  But recently when I was looking for good books for B on things like problems with friends (it seems the girly drama starts YOUNG) the American Girl books were really fabulous.   Bella also took an after school class this year about American Girls (really it was a history class cleverly disguised as an American Girl class – but that is sort of the point to them, right?).  She loved it, had fun, and proudly took her knock off Target doll to class for their year end tea party.    So we discussed and debated and decided an American Girl was probably a better gift than five little things.   So far she loves it and truth be told I’ve dressed it up a time or two.

For Christmas my Dad gave Bella a beautiful antique four poster bed.  He found a bedroom set on Craigslist, and while he did not need the bed, he loved the rest of the set and when he realized the bed was a full (what Bella has) he bought the set.   Got an amazing deal as well.   Anyways, it’s a BIG bed, so we decided that we would move Bella into one of the other bedrooms that is a bit larger than hers.   She came up with the color scheme she wanted and decided where she wanted her furniture set up, and we went to work…

Blue is Behr's Pooh's Favorite Things and Green is Ace's Season's Promise.

Helping to paint!   I was a bit worried about the green when it first went on, but when it was all done, we loved it.

It’s bright, colorful and fun – a lot like her.   The yellow furniture she has was my furniture growing up .

I have quite a few more pictures, but the upload tool and I are not getting along at the moment.  Well, that and I should really actually try and get some sleep.   :)

{ 0 comments }

A New Year

by Christi on January 3, 2010

The past few weeks have been really nice.  Rick was off work the same two weeks that Bella was off school, so we had a lot of great family time, enjoyed the holidays with friends and family and managed to get some projects taken care of at our houses, as well as help a few friends with theirs.   To say I am not looking forward to getting back to the “real world” would be an understatement.  But, I’m not sure I have much of a choice!   I need to re-size some of the photos and put them up here on the blog.   All in all it was a wonderful holiday.    While Bella can be an exhausting whirlwind of energy, I am really going to miss spending the entire day with her as school starts back up.  

I’m hoping to have news very soon that our adoption homestudy certification has been approved.   In the next week or two I am going to send a letter out to as many local OB/GYNs as I can – I figure it can’t hurt.   It’s pretty intimidating to be trying to adopt, with no agency doing the placement for us.   I feel like we are truly looking for a needle in a haystack, and I try not to get overwhelmed at the thought of just how the odds are probably not in our favor.  I keep thinking I need to place an ad in the Pennysaver – like in the movie Juno.  :)    Though I’m not entirely sure it still exists…  maybe the Arizona State University State Press or New Times.    Anyway, time to get more of our own networking out there.  :)    New year, fresh start!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

{ 0 comments }