One year ago today

February 19th 2006

March 06

April 06

May 06

June 06

July 06

August 06

September 06

October 06

November 06

December 06

January 07


Taken last night after dinner




One year ago today Emma joined our family. It's unbelievable at times that a full year has passed by. We've been thankfully to experience so many "1st's" with her. From teeth to potty training. We've been celebrating all weekend, with a trip to Disneyland, a trip to the beach, and a good Chinese New Year dinner. You wait so long for "the day" to come and it all seems to go so fast. I still remember the first night we had Emma. Before we left for China we were given her schedule. Amoung other things listed, it said that every night around 1am, she wakes up for a bottle. I remember Emma stirring around in need of a bottle that first night. I was more than happy to get out of bed and make her the bottle. After all, I had waited 15 months to make her a bottle. Blurry eyed, I stood over the sink and made her a bottle of formula. I looked over to see what time it was. That's when I felt sad and tried real hard not to cry. Tonight was the night. I was not the only "mama" awake at 1am to feed Emma a bottle. I was sure that her foster mother was also awake. I'm sure out of routine she woke up at 1am almost every night and she was awake that night. Only there was no baby to feed. Her crib was empty. Emma was gone. Even though she had dreamt about how hard that night was going to be, I'm sure it was still hard. I too had dreamt about that night and my crib was full and I had a hungry baby. That's when it hit hard. Adoption is full of emotion. Loss and gain, to be felt by so many. Hard to believe it's been a year.

It's tough being a princess

Hula "The Princess" Bear

Anna Nicole Smith has died.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_en_ce/anna_nicole_smith



whoa.....

livin' the dream...

You ever have those days where you could either laugh or cry? What's happened is already done and now you can either get pissed, sad, and cry or laugh it off and just keep going. Ya, I often choose sarcasm, laughing it off, and then keep going. It's a great way for me to get through life. And so far it's working. Around here, it's called "livin' the dream."

You know...like when the sprinklers go on and half are broke, leaving you with about 3 geysers in the front yard. Or better yet, it's about a gorgeous day out and you're looking outside at the new dog, thinking "what a great dog, she's so perfect for us." Then you peer around the side yard and holy shit. She's made it look like we're in preparation for the 3rd Annual White Trash Party(TBA). There's trash, plants and crap spewed all over the place(had she managed to pull a shopping cart into the backyard, I would have truely been impressed). You go to take a few steps to "take it all in" and fall in a blasted hole that the idiot hound dug. Oh yes, 'livin' the dream'.


Monday night while flying around the kitchen attempting to make dinner, I found myself in a warm pool of urine. Nothing puts a warm smile on my face like wading in a warm pool of piss. Hmmmm. The brainless mutt, who's favorite afternoon snack is her own shit? How about the potty training baby? Me? No....not me, I actually checked my rear just to be sure. I'll never know. But once again, 'livin' the dream'.

It could be worse. I could be my neighbor who just received all her Christmas gifts from her in-laws. Lucky gal....she just opened up 5 different items for her 3 month old son, all with "Baby's 1st Christmas" on it. I'm still laughing at that one.

Emma went to school and didn't pee once. Not even while she was taking a nap. She's only been potty training for about 3 days. I knew this just by pulling up to school and looking at her. She was still in the same outfit as she went to school in. Anyone who's potty training know this. When you pull up to school and they're still actually wearing the same pants.....that's awesome, your kid made it through the whole day with no accidents! I couldn't wait to get home and show Mr. Man. I asked him to look at Emma's outfit. Then I directed him to her pants. Then I pointed out that they matched her shirt(had she pee'd in them, they would have changed her into different pants). Then I made the statement that they were the same pants she went to school in. Still nothing........I'm not so sure he would have noticed if her pants were on fire. Whatever. So after an entire day, including a nap of not peeing herself, she promptly stood in her PJ's tonight after a bath and flooded the kitchen. Livin' the dream!

Here's to the good stuff. Jess had her ultrasound on her heart, and she's fine! We are very relieved. Emma needs to start physical therapy for her legs. I originally took her in for tip toeing. So that's not too bad either. We just had our last post adoption home visit, and the social worker was asking if we had received any bad comments about Emma. Sad but true, the worst comments came from her orthopedic Dr. This guy was a total ass hole! Yes, that is to be said separate...ass hole! I won't go on for days, although I could. Here's just two of the many comments. He walked into the room and was looking me up and down. Then he proceeded to tell me that he had heard that China was changing some of their rules for adoption. He told me that if I was to consider adopting from China again I shouldn't have a problem as my BMI (body mass index) seemed to be good. Then he spewed out more diarrhea from his mouth and when it was almost finally done he peered over his glasses and said, "I heard it's very expense to adopt from China, what was it, about $20,000 (pause) $50,000?"

Was he hoping that I would pull out my 'adoption receipt'? Total assclown. I knew that I (we) would get stupid comments, but from a 60 year old Dr. ? Doesn't he deal with the public everyday? Hasn't he seen adopted kids before? Loser.

We finally sent Emma's foster family a letter with pictures and have received back a letter. Poor woman had been waiting by the mailbox for about 10 months. I'm a slacker. Now that I know that the address I have (which I can't read, as it's in Chinese) works, I plan to use it more often. That's it in a nutshell. We're both working like mad. I just got my life, disability and annuities license. Mr. Man's cell phone is once again ringing off the hook and things are good. As you all are good people, I promise to upload the photo of the Hogette's breakdancing soon.