Tomorrow is my baby girl's 2nd birthday. Unbelievable that she has been in our lives for 2 years already! She has brightened my days and my life. Don't get me wrong, I love those boys of mine. But having daughter is different. She calls me "mom-mom"! I love it! She calls Dave "dada". She calls Zack "Kack" and she says Josh perfectly "Josh". She doesn't really say Jacob. She calls Sophie "Fo Fo" (We sometimes call Sophie "So So".) She calls Laney our other dog "Layna". She knows who Jacob is, she must just have a hard time saying his name.
We had her birthday party yesterday at the pool in our little sub-division with a bunch of our family friends and their kids. So much fun. Tomorrow I'm having a little playdate with some of her 2 year old friends at this indoor play place. We did the Hello Kitty theme this year. I figure she has many years ahead of her to do the Princess theme! ;)
2 years ago today, I knew for exactly one day that we were matched with her birth mom. I felt like I was keeping the biggest secret on the planet! She wasn't due until October 10th, so I thought I still had some more time to get ready for her arrival. I remember on this day 2 years ago thinking the whole situation sounded too good to be true. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was waiting for someone to rain on my parade and shatter my dreams. I wouldn't talk to her birth mom for the first time until the following day, her birthday, a few hours before she was born. So surreal. To this day I sometimes can't believe that I put on my big girl panties and got on that red eye flight all by myself and went to the hospital in NC all by myself to meet my baby girl and a hospital room full of strangers.....who have now become extended family to me. I can't believe that I was a witness to the most extraordinary event to occur. That this young woman would trust Dave and me enough to place her child with us to raise her....as if born to us.....by adoption. The adoption paperwork says something to that effect that she is legally our daughter and entitled to family land, etc. as if born to us.
I've said this before, but that memory of the 4 of us in that hospital room.....Cambria's 4 parents....2 by birth and 2 by adoption......hugging and saying goodbye will be forever burned into my memory. And the tears. All of the tears that were shed by all 4 of us. It is not something I take lightly. It would literally kill me to have to say goodbye to my child that I had just delivered and give her to strangers that lived across the country. And here, this young woman, who is so much younger than me, chose to do this and was so strong and brave in that hospital room and put on her big girl panties and signed those relinquishment papers with confidence.
I am in awe of her.
I talked to her the other day. We talked a little bit about our birthday party plans for Cami's bday party. She said she still does NOT regret her decision to place her baby for adoption. She said she misses her, but doesn't regret her choice.
We are still trying to get to NC. Turns out it's kind of hard to fly across the country with 4 kids! This fall is so busy every weekend. And we are going to Ohio soon to visit Dave's mom who has stage 4 ovarian cancer and recently found out she is not a candidate for chemo. So with that being said, her time is limited. I explained this to Cambria's birth mom and she understood and said to let her know when we could make it out there to visit. Pretty soon it will be cold and I am not a fan of flying when there is a possibility of snow and ice. I may have spent the first part of my life in OH, but I'm an AZ girl now through and through. ;)
I know a lot of adoptees feel that they are unloved and unwanted by their birth moms. I am so happy that I know the truth about Cambria and her birth mom and her birth father. She was wanted by them....very much and she is loved by them to this day. Also her birth grandmas love her too and sent happy birthday wishes on Face.book. I get a little jealous when some of my adoptive mom friends post pics of cards and letters and birthday gifts their birth mom sent them and Cambria probably won't get anything more than the FB birthday wishes. But it's the thought that counts, right? I know her NC family is all thinking of her, and Cambria certainly doesn't need any more gifts. I am going to make her birth mom a Shutter.fly picture book after I take pictures of her tomorrow on her actual birthday. I will get pictures printed also and sent them to her birth grandmas and her adoptive grandmas and her aunt (D's sister).
I can't wait to see my birthday girl tomorrow morning when she wakes up and celebrate her! Her birth mom made an interesting and insightful comment in the hospital....she said she could have chosen to have an abortion, but instead chose to give her baby life and chose adoption.
Powerful words.
I am feeling very nostalgic and tearful on this evening before her 2nd birthday. I love that little girl so much, even though she is already having 2 year old temper tantrums! Haha!
And maybe someday I will figure out how to post a picture on my new computer.
On a side note, if you've read all my posts, you'd know that D's SIL and I don't exactly get along. Well, I finally got the chance to talk to her a couple weeks ago. There's 40 minutes of my life that I won't ever get back. Sigh.... She called me and literally screamed at me. Yes, this is the chic with the stage 4 brain tumor that has come back again. She sounded anything but weak and feeble and fragile on the phone. I think she thought I was just going to let her scream at me and insult me and not say anything back. WRONG. I took this chance to try and defend myself and make her see that she is in the wrong here and out of line. Oh and she wrote the most hideous and nasty comments to me on a FB post that my SIL posted. My SIL deleted the post and comments. I actually wrote a huge blog post about it, and decided not to post it. I do not like to be mean to people and I feel bad that I said some not-so-nice things to her, but the truth hurts and I am a truth teller. I was hoping that eventually we would all just be able to get along and have things be peaceful between us. WRONG again. I have apologized to her multiple times (even though I don't feel I was in the wrong and still no apologies from her.) Sigh.....
She was so irrational on the phone. It was actually a little bit concerning how irrational she was. She would not listen to reason on any issue I brought up to her and called her out on. I have chosen not to talk to her again. The whole situation is so sad. Anyways, it's over and done with. And then she started picking fights with other members of D's family. So it's not just me. But one last thing....in case you were wondering why she got so mad at me & called me and yelled at me and hurled insults at me.....my real SIL posted a picture of my daughter on her FB page and I commented and thanked her for being the best aunt to my kids (even if she was their only aunt!) and D's SIL went ballistic after she read that. My SIL and I both asked her why she was so mad because she has refused to acknowledge my kids' existence for almost 2 years. Of course she had no answers to the hard questions I asked her. It just makes me sad that Cambria's legal aunt and her cousin refuse to acknowledge her existence. Fortunately, my daughter has plenty of other people that love her- the remainder of her adoptive family and all of her birth family.
Today is my baby girl's last day of being one year old!!
Monday, September 22, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Epic Fail
OK so I just tried to copy and paste a picture from my FB acct to this blog, and of course I couldn't get it to post. UGH!!
Cambria is 23 months old today!! Can't believe it!! I am having her 2 year old birthday pictures taken next week, and I'll get a CD of the pictures from the photographer. So I should be able to post some of those pictures to this blog. Cross your fingers for me for good luck with technology! ;)
Cambria is 23 months old today!! Can't believe it!! I am having her 2 year old birthday pictures taken next week, and I'll get a CD of the pictures from the photographer. So I should be able to post some of those pictures to this blog. Cross your fingers for me for good luck with technology! ;)
Moving On
Everyday I am pulling a little further away from the adoption world. And by that I mean I don't talk to my adoption friends all the time like I used to. Actually I haven't talked to them all the time in over a year. I saw my friends who adopted babies before me do this same thing...pull away and no longer talk non-stop about adoption. They said they just wanted to focus on being a mother and spend time with their baby that they had been waiting so long for.
I am following in their footsteps. Which makes my husband happy. He did not like how I spent so much time talking to my adoption friends by phone, text, email and Facebook. And reading adoption blogs. Oh those adoption blogs became a total time-suck for me. I spent so much time reading blogs and writing my own blog posts. And my posts were almost always filled with the same theme....me whining and sad because we hadn't got the call yet. Then me whining and sad because of our failed adoption. Oh and I almost forgot how much time I spent checking adoption websites that listed available adoption situations. And talking to adoption friends about other adoption friends we knew and their adoption stories. And then I spent so much time looking into new adoption agencies to sign up with and updating our adoption profile books. Dave said I treated it like a part-time job and I was so focused on it. He says I now need to channel that energy into something else.
I still am on several email group lists and Facebook pages of adoption professionals and adoption support groups. Some of them I've told we have adopted a baby, but they did not delete me from their list for some reason. Up until recently, I still used to read every adoption situation that came by way where they were looking for adoptive parents. Before I used to say it was for my friends that were still waiting for "The Call". Now the truth is that pretty much all of my friends have adopted their baby by now. Some have decided their time was up and they were moving on with their lives without adopting. (To me, I could never have given up that dream.) One friend sold all of their baby stuff and then recently decided to try and adopt thru foster care and are almost done with the certification process. I'm happy she didn't give up. She took a break and then came back around with a different approach. Instead of domestic infant adoption, she is doing foster-to-adopt. She really wanted a daughter as much as I did.
Adoption costs have gone up so much in the past 2 years since we've adopted Cambria. It is unbelievable how much they are charging now. It is highway robbery. Another adoption friend that has gotten the short end of the stick so to speak with adoption of a daughter said these high costs are too much for them. She has also explored foster-to-adopt.....she has fostered 30+ kids and it has never been "her turn" to adopt. Sucks so bad. She also wants a daughter as much as me. Anyways, I think they are finally calling it quits and getting off the adoption roller coaster...without her bundle of pink joy. I am so sad about this.
Now I only read a part of the available adoption situations, sometimes I don't even open the email. {GASP!} I still talk about adoption and Cambria's adoption situation (how I strongly feel she was meant to be my daughter), especially to people who are considering starting on the adoption journey. Before I would stop what I was doing to read about a possible adoption situation. Now I just want to live my life as a mother.....and not necessarily as an adoptive mother. Just spend time with my kids. What is the point of spending so much time reading about adoption cases and the adoption scammers. Yep, those girls are still out there scamming poor naive adoptive parents. We had our fair share of adoption scammers too. Lonely sad bored girls who would rather spend all their time talking to adoptive parents about a fake pregnancy than getting out in the world and spending time with real people or getting a job and earning some money. Who on earth would want to talk to an adoptive mom all day long about an adoption plan when they weren't even pregnant? So pathetic that this is how they have to get some attention. But I digress.....
At one point, I really wanted to give Cambria a baby sister. I love having a daughter so much that I wanted another one. Dave said no. I was really sad about that and didn't want to admit we were actually finally done growing our family. Now I am at peace with that decision. I am so busy with our 4 kids and doing fun things with them and not-so-fun things like homework, that I can't honestly see adding a 5th child to our family. It's just another chapter closing. And it's time I move on with my life and pursue other things.
I really wanted this blog to not be solely an adoption blog. I wanted it to be a family blog about ALL of my kids. But I am terrible about posting pictures. And who really wants to read about what we do every day or every weekend as a family? Today Zack had baseball practice. I took my other kids to the gymnastics place for open gym time with their friends. I went to Target and bought detergent & spray & wash to do laundry. Jacob went to the movies with his friend and his mom. Zack went to his friend's house. Then we picked Zack up and his friend came with us to Crac.ker Bar.rel for dinner and then we took them to the indoor batting cages to get some extra batting practice. They have their first fall travel baseball team tournament next weekend.
Wow wasn't that so exciting?! Lol! So I think I will be lucky to get one blog post done from now on.
I am going to go now and try and post a picture of Cambria from our mommy & me dance class this week in a separate post!
I hope everyone has had a fantastic summer full of fun.... I know we did! Now the kids are back in school and it's back to reality. I am praying for some inspiration on this blog.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)
I am following in their footsteps. Which makes my husband happy. He did not like how I spent so much time talking to my adoption friends by phone, text, email and Facebook. And reading adoption blogs. Oh those adoption blogs became a total time-suck for me. I spent so much time reading blogs and writing my own blog posts. And my posts were almost always filled with the same theme....me whining and sad because we hadn't got the call yet. Then me whining and sad because of our failed adoption. Oh and I almost forgot how much time I spent checking adoption websites that listed available adoption situations. And talking to adoption friends about other adoption friends we knew and their adoption stories. And then I spent so much time looking into new adoption agencies to sign up with and updating our adoption profile books. Dave said I treated it like a part-time job and I was so focused on it. He says I now need to channel that energy into something else.
I still am on several email group lists and Facebook pages of adoption professionals and adoption support groups. Some of them I've told we have adopted a baby, but they did not delete me from their list for some reason. Up until recently, I still used to read every adoption situation that came by way where they were looking for adoptive parents. Before I used to say it was for my friends that were still waiting for "The Call". Now the truth is that pretty much all of my friends have adopted their baby by now. Some have decided their time was up and they were moving on with their lives without adopting. (To me, I could never have given up that dream.) One friend sold all of their baby stuff and then recently decided to try and adopt thru foster care and are almost done with the certification process. I'm happy she didn't give up. She took a break and then came back around with a different approach. Instead of domestic infant adoption, she is doing foster-to-adopt. She really wanted a daughter as much as I did.
Adoption costs have gone up so much in the past 2 years since we've adopted Cambria. It is unbelievable how much they are charging now. It is highway robbery. Another adoption friend that has gotten the short end of the stick so to speak with adoption of a daughter said these high costs are too much for them. She has also explored foster-to-adopt.....she has fostered 30+ kids and it has never been "her turn" to adopt. Sucks so bad. She also wants a daughter as much as me. Anyways, I think they are finally calling it quits and getting off the adoption roller coaster...without her bundle of pink joy. I am so sad about this.
Now I only read a part of the available adoption situations, sometimes I don't even open the email. {GASP!} I still talk about adoption and Cambria's adoption situation (how I strongly feel she was meant to be my daughter), especially to people who are considering starting on the adoption journey. Before I would stop what I was doing to read about a possible adoption situation. Now I just want to live my life as a mother.....and not necessarily as an adoptive mother. Just spend time with my kids. What is the point of spending so much time reading about adoption cases and the adoption scammers. Yep, those girls are still out there scamming poor naive adoptive parents. We had our fair share of adoption scammers too. Lonely sad bored girls who would rather spend all their time talking to adoptive parents about a fake pregnancy than getting out in the world and spending time with real people or getting a job and earning some money. Who on earth would want to talk to an adoptive mom all day long about an adoption plan when they weren't even pregnant? So pathetic that this is how they have to get some attention. But I digress.....
At one point, I really wanted to give Cambria a baby sister. I love having a daughter so much that I wanted another one. Dave said no. I was really sad about that and didn't want to admit we were actually finally done growing our family. Now I am at peace with that decision. I am so busy with our 4 kids and doing fun things with them and not-so-fun things like homework, that I can't honestly see adding a 5th child to our family. It's just another chapter closing. And it's time I move on with my life and pursue other things.
I really wanted this blog to not be solely an adoption blog. I wanted it to be a family blog about ALL of my kids. But I am terrible about posting pictures. And who really wants to read about what we do every day or every weekend as a family? Today Zack had baseball practice. I took my other kids to the gymnastics place for open gym time with their friends. I went to Target and bought detergent & spray & wash to do laundry. Jacob went to the movies with his friend and his mom. Zack went to his friend's house. Then we picked Zack up and his friend came with us to Crac.ker Bar.rel for dinner and then we took them to the indoor batting cages to get some extra batting practice. They have their first fall travel baseball team tournament next weekend.
Wow wasn't that so exciting?! Lol! So I think I will be lucky to get one blog post done from now on.
I am going to go now and try and post a picture of Cambria from our mommy & me dance class this week in a separate post!
I hope everyone has had a fantastic summer full of fun.... I know we did! Now the kids are back in school and it's back to reality. I am praying for some inspiration on this blog.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Done With Blogging?
I think I am just about done with blogging. I don't have the passion for writing and spilling out my thoughts like I used to. I think it happens a lot after people hit the 2 year mark after adopting. I've seen so many bloggers stop writing after the baby turns 1 (whether they are the birth mom or adoptive mom). Cambria will be 2 in September. Incredible. The ultra-fast passage of time blows my mind.
I feel like I have nothing interesting or insightful to share on this blog at this time in my life. Same with Facebook. I pretty much just share pics of my kids on there. And I suck at posting pictures on this blog. I'm so sorry.
Today was the first day of school for Jake and Josh. Again, no pictures to share. Oh sure, I took them and Instagrammed them and Facebooked them, it's just a pain for me to post them on here for some reason. Zack starts school next Monday. Jake and Josh both had good first days. Josh had his 1st day of 1st grade today! Jacob 4th grade. Zack 7th grade.
I think I started blogging 4 years ago this month. Yep, I think it was August of 2010. We had been waiting for "The Call" for months and it felt like an eternity. I wish I could see the future.....I would have told myself to hang tight and preoccupy myself until Sept. 2012! Lol.
I haven't talked to Cambria's birth mom too much lately. An occasional message or comment on a picture on Facebook. She doesn't have a cell phone right now, so we aren't texting or talking on the phone like before. Plus she doesn't usually ask me many questions about Cambria anyways. Her birthday is coming up, so I'm trying to figure out what to get her. I've already gotten her kids a couple things to include in the package. I still need to get pictures printed to mail to her with her birthday present. I might make a photo book album on Shutter.fly for her. Cambria's birth father has been liking just about all of the pictures of her I've posted recently. I'm glad he can see her and watch her grow up from a distance and know that she is happy and doing well.
My first friend when I moved to Phoenix way back in 9th grade is finally pregnant with her first baby....at 43. I'm so excited for her. She's having a baby girl and is due the day after Cambria's birthday. I'm surprisingly not jealous at all. Usually if someone is pregnant with a baby girl, I get a wee bit jealous! I love having a daughter and would love nothing more than to adopt another baby girl to give Cambria a sister. However, the hubster says no way- 4 is enough!
Well, it is really late and I should go get some sleep. I hope to have some inspiration soon and be back at blogging.
I feel like I have nothing interesting or insightful to share on this blog at this time in my life. Same with Facebook. I pretty much just share pics of my kids on there. And I suck at posting pictures on this blog. I'm so sorry.
Today was the first day of school for Jake and Josh. Again, no pictures to share. Oh sure, I took them and Instagrammed them and Facebooked them, it's just a pain for me to post them on here for some reason. Zack starts school next Monday. Jake and Josh both had good first days. Josh had his 1st day of 1st grade today! Jacob 4th grade. Zack 7th grade.
I think I started blogging 4 years ago this month. Yep, I think it was August of 2010. We had been waiting for "The Call" for months and it felt like an eternity. I wish I could see the future.....I would have told myself to hang tight and preoccupy myself until Sept. 2012! Lol.
I haven't talked to Cambria's birth mom too much lately. An occasional message or comment on a picture on Facebook. She doesn't have a cell phone right now, so we aren't texting or talking on the phone like before. Plus she doesn't usually ask me many questions about Cambria anyways. Her birthday is coming up, so I'm trying to figure out what to get her. I've already gotten her kids a couple things to include in the package. I still need to get pictures printed to mail to her with her birthday present. I might make a photo book album on Shutter.fly for her. Cambria's birth father has been liking just about all of the pictures of her I've posted recently. I'm glad he can see her and watch her grow up from a distance and know that she is happy and doing well.
My first friend when I moved to Phoenix way back in 9th grade is finally pregnant with her first baby....at 43. I'm so excited for her. She's having a baby girl and is due the day after Cambria's birthday. I'm surprisingly not jealous at all. Usually if someone is pregnant with a baby girl, I get a wee bit jealous! I love having a daughter and would love nothing more than to adopt another baby girl to give Cambria a sister. However, the hubster says no way- 4 is enough!
Well, it is really late and I should go get some sleep. I hope to have some inspiration soon and be back at blogging.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Long Time No Blog
I haven't blogged since July 1st! Sheesh!
Cambria is 22 months old and is full of sass! I love it! So different already than raising sons! She has finally hit the word explosion phase. I was starting to worry a bit that she was behind on talking. And now she says plenty of words! Her newest word is "goggles". (I was packing up the pool bag to take the kids to the pool today!)
One more week of summer vacation remaining here in these parts. This summer went by so fast. Zack's All Star baseball team won their district championships. We went to the state tournament this month. They played against the big city boys....and lost. Sadly.
Then last week we took Zack and Jake and 2 of Zack's friends to Santa Barbara where they went to a Ni.ke baseball camp. So cool! What a neat experience. Many thanks to my parents for watching my little kids and dogs for us while we were out of town.
Today I had a pool party for my friends and our kiddos. Super fun. Even when they had to get out of the pool for lightening! YIKES! But then the rain and lightening stopped and the sun came out and they were back in the pool. Yahoo!
And as for our open adoption....not too much to report. Cambria's oldest birth-sister turned 6 this month so we sent her some presents and also included a couple things for her birth-brother too. Between her birth parents, she has 3 birth sisters and 2 birth brothers. Plus my 3 sons makes 8 siblings for her. I'm jealous. I only have one sibling.
My MIL had major extensive surgery for her metastatic ovarian cancer. After a brief scare and being placed on a ventilator, she is doing better and is out of the hospital. Praise the Lord!
We are trying to cram in a bunch of last-minute things before school starts next week!
I'm happy to report I have the back-to-school shopping and haircuts checked off the good ol' to do list!! ;)
Sorry no pictures again. Hopefully next time.
Cambria is 22 months old and is full of sass! I love it! So different already than raising sons! She has finally hit the word explosion phase. I was starting to worry a bit that she was behind on talking. And now she says plenty of words! Her newest word is "goggles". (I was packing up the pool bag to take the kids to the pool today!)
One more week of summer vacation remaining here in these parts. This summer went by so fast. Zack's All Star baseball team won their district championships. We went to the state tournament this month. They played against the big city boys....and lost. Sadly.
Then last week we took Zack and Jake and 2 of Zack's friends to Santa Barbara where they went to a Ni.ke baseball camp. So cool! What a neat experience. Many thanks to my parents for watching my little kids and dogs for us while we were out of town.
Today I had a pool party for my friends and our kiddos. Super fun. Even when they had to get out of the pool for lightening! YIKES! But then the rain and lightening stopped and the sun came out and they were back in the pool. Yahoo!
And as for our open adoption....not too much to report. Cambria's oldest birth-sister turned 6 this month so we sent her some presents and also included a couple things for her birth-brother too. Between her birth parents, she has 3 birth sisters and 2 birth brothers. Plus my 3 sons makes 8 siblings for her. I'm jealous. I only have one sibling.
My MIL had major extensive surgery for her metastatic ovarian cancer. After a brief scare and being placed on a ventilator, she is doing better and is out of the hospital. Praise the Lord!
We are trying to cram in a bunch of last-minute things before school starts next week!
I'm happy to report I have the back-to-school shopping and haircuts checked off the good ol' to do list!! ;)
Sorry no pictures again. Hopefully next time.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Summer Update
Cambria turned 21 months old last Monday, and Zachary turned 12 last Tuesday.
Unbelievable how fast time is whizzing by.
Summer vacation here is half over. 5 weeks have already gone by. I am trying my best to make it super fun for my kids. There has only been one day this summer that we've just stayed home all day.
At this point, I could use a few more of those kind of days!
Zack had his birthday party on his birthday....the first time ever. It was at the pool at our neighborhood athletic center....so beautiful there. Between his friends from school and baseball friends plus a few of my other kids' friends, there were 28 kids there! And of course they had a whiffle ball game in the grass!
Speaking of baseball, Zack's team won their district championship! Again! 2 years in a row! Now they go to the state tournament in a couple weeks!
This year the middle school kids had to apply to get into the Honors' academy at his middle school. The principal let us know Zack got in. Not really surprised. But still. He has decided to go to the Ba.sis school here instead for 7th grade. Which was a bit surprising. Only a few of his friends are going to Ba.sis. I'm not sure how much any of you know about the Ba.sis schools. Goo.gle them...check them out. Academically, they are amazing. Good education & a lot of the students get into good colleges and get scholarships. The only thing is...he won't be able to play on the high school baseball team-if he would make it. Do we think he is going to get a huge baseball scholarship or play in the MLB? Nope. But I think it is important for kids to stay active and not play video games all day (this problem already has a huge obesity problem) and being on a team sport provides exercise, friendships, and keeps the kids out of trouble. With that being said, Zack wants to be a vet first, or a doctor second. He would have a better chance of getting into a great college (and maybe with a scholarship) and then getting into vet or med school by going to Ba.sis than by going to our local high school (which isn't that fantastic, I am sorry to say). 2 of my college roommates send their kids to the Ba.sis school in their city (same class even! How ironic.) and they love the school.
Anyways, Z can do travel baseball still. Big changes are in store for us next month when the new school year starts!
As time goes on, I become an even lamer blogger than the month before!
My daughter is developing quite the little personality! She is loving and funny and giggles and loves to play with our dogs and her brothers....and she is pretty strong-willed! She knows what she wants and wants it right that minute! Lol! She loves blueberries. She hates to have bows and barrettes in her hair Sigh....because I bought her a million! HA! She likes to color (Scribble?!) and uses her left hand mostly...... I have found out that her birth sister and birth aunt are lefties! (So are my son Z and my mom, so she fits right in. As if she didn't already!) I firmly believe God knew exactly what he was doing when he connected birth mom all the way across the country in NC with us.
Dave's cousin has a daughter 2 days older than Cambria. And my BFF's niece is 1 day older than Cambria! Anyways, Dave's cousin is pregnant again. And if I were being completely honest.....I got that jealous feeling in the pit of my stomach again! UGH! When does that go away? I mean, at some point in life, ya gotta quit growing your family. I mean, unless you're the Dugg.ars.
I am exhausted at the end of each day from trying to be a good mom to 4 kids and 2 dogs and a wife and taking care of this household, etc. So why am I jealous? Is it because I had the hysterectomy so that ship has really sailed? Anyways, I know it is ridiculous for me to feel that way. Maybe it's because the end of family-building signals "We're getting older" as my husband likes to say!
And as I typed that last paragraph, I just remembered I have laundry in the dryer that isn't going to fold itself!
Goodnight & hopefully I'll have something interesting to talk about soon.
Unbelievable how fast time is whizzing by.
Summer vacation here is half over. 5 weeks have already gone by. I am trying my best to make it super fun for my kids. There has only been one day this summer that we've just stayed home all day.
At this point, I could use a few more of those kind of days!
Zack had his birthday party on his birthday....the first time ever. It was at the pool at our neighborhood athletic center....so beautiful there. Between his friends from school and baseball friends plus a few of my other kids' friends, there were 28 kids there! And of course they had a whiffle ball game in the grass!
Speaking of baseball, Zack's team won their district championship! Again! 2 years in a row! Now they go to the state tournament in a couple weeks!
This year the middle school kids had to apply to get into the Honors' academy at his middle school. The principal let us know Zack got in. Not really surprised. But still. He has decided to go to the Ba.sis school here instead for 7th grade. Which was a bit surprising. Only a few of his friends are going to Ba.sis. I'm not sure how much any of you know about the Ba.sis schools. Goo.gle them...check them out. Academically, they are amazing. Good education & a lot of the students get into good colleges and get scholarships. The only thing is...he won't be able to play on the high school baseball team-if he would make it. Do we think he is going to get a huge baseball scholarship or play in the MLB? Nope. But I think it is important for kids to stay active and not play video games all day (this problem already has a huge obesity problem) and being on a team sport provides exercise, friendships, and keeps the kids out of trouble. With that being said, Zack wants to be a vet first, or a doctor second. He would have a better chance of getting into a great college (and maybe with a scholarship) and then getting into vet or med school by going to Ba.sis than by going to our local high school (which isn't that fantastic, I am sorry to say). 2 of my college roommates send their kids to the Ba.sis school in their city (same class even! How ironic.) and they love the school.
Anyways, Z can do travel baseball still. Big changes are in store for us next month when the new school year starts!
As time goes on, I become an even lamer blogger than the month before!
My daughter is developing quite the little personality! She is loving and funny and giggles and loves to play with our dogs and her brothers....and she is pretty strong-willed! She knows what she wants and wants it right that minute! Lol! She loves blueberries. She hates to have bows and barrettes in her hair Sigh....because I bought her a million! HA! She likes to color (Scribble?!) and uses her left hand mostly...... I have found out that her birth sister and birth aunt are lefties! (So are my son Z and my mom, so she fits right in. As if she didn't already!) I firmly believe God knew exactly what he was doing when he connected birth mom all the way across the country in NC with us.
Dave's cousin has a daughter 2 days older than Cambria. And my BFF's niece is 1 day older than Cambria! Anyways, Dave's cousin is pregnant again. And if I were being completely honest.....I got that jealous feeling in the pit of my stomach again! UGH! When does that go away? I mean, at some point in life, ya gotta quit growing your family. I mean, unless you're the Dugg.ars.
I am exhausted at the end of each day from trying to be a good mom to 4 kids and 2 dogs and a wife and taking care of this household, etc. So why am I jealous? Is it because I had the hysterectomy so that ship has really sailed? Anyways, I know it is ridiculous for me to feel that way. Maybe it's because the end of family-building signals "We're getting older" as my husband likes to say!
And as I typed that last paragraph, I just remembered I have laundry in the dryer that isn't going to fold itself!
Goodnight & hopefully I'll have something interesting to talk about soon.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Ovarian Cancer
No, not me.
My MIL has stage 3 ovarian cancer. We found out on Monday. Wait~ scratch that. I knew she had it back in April when Dave's sister was visiting and said "have you noticed how Mom only eats 2 bites and says she's full and her tummy looks really big and full and she says she's bloated.....
Bloated. Right then and there I knew. SIGH..... But she waited until 2 weeks ago to go to the dr. and had a CT scan. Apparently she's had symptoms for 4 months. SIGH....
I told my mom & she texted me back and said, "You had your ovaries out last summer when you had your hysterectomy, right????"
Yes, yes indeedy I did. Thank God. Well, one of them had to go....it got its eviction notice because it had the abnormal mass on it...that was getting bigger. We debated about whether to remove the other one..... menopause vs. worrying about getting ovarian cancer in that one. The decision was made for me. My endometriosis was so bad (stage 3) that the other "healthy" ovary....well, the fallopian tube that goes with it was totally caked with endometriosis..... and so the whole reproductive system came out in one neatly caked together package! Seriously. Uterus, tubes, ovaries....all stuck together.
Lovely image, I know.
Menopause is actually a pleasant thought compared to ovarian cancer.
She is having surgery July 8th to remove the mass. Then she is supposed to do chemo to treat the cancer that has spread in her abdomen.
I'm so busy these days with summer vacation. Wait....isn't summer vacation supposed to be just that...relaxing? Bahahaha! Not in my world. But anyways, my point was I've been so busy that I think I've lost weight without even trying! I haven't been mindlessly eating boxes of crackers and cupcakes.
Gotta go- I have about a hundred things left on my to-do list and it's almost bedtime!
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