A Letter to Sophie

Dear Sophie,

Happy New Year our sweet girl. We want you to know that you have been with us in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers. There are so many things that we can’t wait to share with you! When you come home you will find your two dogs Murphy and Daisy. Don’t be afraid sweet girl, they will soon become your best friends. Murphy will wear crowns and beads, just ask your big sister Hannah, she will show you. Daisy is so sweet she will sit with you near the fire and you can pet her until you both fall asleep, just ask your big brother Ben, he will show you.

Your room has been ready since last December! Your crib is filled with soft dolls and toys for you to snuggle while you sleep. Your sister Hannah helped decorate your room. She picked the color and the curtains, when you look out of your crib you will see your big sister sleeping across the room in her bed. If you don’t see her yell for your big brother Ben, he is just across the hall and is sure to be still in bed!

Your closet and drawers are filled with clothes for you to wear. The thought of you wearing one of these cute dresses or little outfits have helped me through a rough day. We can’t wait to see you in the beautiful christening gown Mommy and Daddy bought for you last March in San Francisco.

But most of all Sophie when you come home it will be like you have always been here, because my dear sweet girl you have! With every day that has passed we have talked about you, dreamt of you, and wished for you to come home! So our sweet girl know now and always that we love you. Happy New Year and we will see you soon!

Love always and forever,

Mommy, Daddy,
Ben and Hannah

Happy New Year!

On A Mission!

I am a woman on a mission.....to get all this Christmas stuff put away! We have been gone for about a week and arrived home last night around 3:00 in the mornning! Believe it or not this drive was much easier than the ride up to Massachusetts! Anyway, got home late but I wasn't to tired to notice all the dust and dog hair! Ugh! My kids are hiding as I write this, they aren't sure what I am going to have them do, but they know the signs. Their Mom is close to the edge. There will be not rest until Christmas stuff is put away and the house is clean! Well girls I hope y'all are having a nice relaxing day enjoying all your Christmas loot :)

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Hannah is 10 years old today! She is quite excited to be in the "double digits". She celebrated her birthday with her cousins and Club Libby Lu. The girls all had their hair and nails done and finished up the party doing the ChaCHa slide down the center isle of the store! I hope to post some pictures once I figure out how to do one of those fancy slide shows that Tracy, Colleen and Connie have on their blogs!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone enjoys their day with friends and family. Tonight we went to Mass ( the fastest service I have ever been to!). Towards the end of the service the lights were turned down and the choir sang Silent Night. It was so beautiful, and my thoughts were of Sophie. Yes, this is our last Christmas without her, next year she will be wiggling in her daddy's arms with a pretty red dress with tights and patent leather shoes. Merry Christmas sweet Sophie, we love you.

14 Hour Car Ride=Hell

Ugh! Our 12 hour car ride turned into a 14+ hour car ride! We drove in the rain and then when it seemed that the rain was finished.....In rolled the fog!! But as our very optimistic daughter said " It could be worse! It could be snowing!" Out of the mouth of babes! We arrived here safely and all in one piece. It seems that we only forgot one Christmas gift, not bad! I can't wait to sleep in a little tomorrow, see my family, and have a yummy dinner and visit with Colleen!

We Are Hitting the Road!!!

We are heading to Massachusetts for Christmas. I don’t think we have been up for Christmas since we first moved back from Prague (Ben was only 10 months old). So it has been a while! Our last day of school is tomorrow and we are hoping to get up early and hit the road Friday. But as I look around at my messy house, at the piles of unwrapped gifts and laundry I am thinking we will be lucky to leave Friday by 10:00am!
I am looking forward to seeing my family especially my nieces and nephew. I have not seen them in over a year! Bad Auntie!! I am also having dinner with my bloggity buddy Colleen. I can’t wait to “chat” with her in person! This has been said many times over but I am truly thankful and amazed byt the little community we have going here! The wait for our daughters is terrible, but the people I have met along the way has been just incredible! Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Chanukah too! And here is to seeing our baby girl’s faces in the New Year!!!

They're Just My Kids!

I feel the need to share something that has been bothering me for some time. Many people in the adoption process have children already, but for some reason referring to their children as their “bio kids” has really, really started to bug me. When I first started posting I to referred to Ben and Hannah as my bio kids but felt really uncomfortable about it and stopped. They’re just my kids. Sophie will be one of my kids. I would never refer to Sophie as my adopted daughter and Hannah as my bio daughter. They will just be my daughters….

"Excuse me, could you help me??"

Is there help for the navigationally challenged??? Hannah and I went to see the Nutcracker last night in Raleigh. We climbed into the car with our trusty step be step map quest directions and with plenty of time for traffic and to get lost. Of course we got lost. I followed my handy directions! Called my cell phone companies help line for directions and still got lost! I had Hannah praying in the back seat that we would make it to the performance on time. These were not cheap tickets! Luckily, we were able to get directions to the performance center from some nice people heading to the Hurricanes hockey game. (They said, “Oh you must be going to see the Nutcracker.” Who says hockey fans lack appreciation for the arts???) Of course there were detours downtown that messed me up a little and I had to stop and ask a nice UPS guys to point me in the right direction. If you are counting I have had to ask three times for directions! I pulled into a public parking lot and asked the attendant if we were close enough to walk to the performance center (that makes four). He pointed nicely up the street to a brightly lit building. We made it to the performance with fifteen minutes to spare!

The Nutcracker was lovely. Hannah and I have been going to see the Nutcracker together since she was five years old. There is a local dance company that puts on the Nutcracker every year. It is very professionally done, but I thought this year we would go see a production with professional dancers. We had a great time and the dancers were all so beautiful!
Now I'm sure you are wondering if I got lost on the way home. Yes, I did get lost on the way home. Just not as bad as the way there! I only had to ask for help once. The nice tow truck driver in the Denny’s parking lot told me not to feel bad about getting lost in Raleigh. He said it is very confusing with the inner and outer belt lines. I am going with that! And for those of you wondering where my actual map was, I have no idea. Even if I did know where it was my map reading skills ....are well let’s just say it’s much easier for me to pull over and ask for directions!

First Things First!

So are you lovin the new blog look or what! Thanks to Heather over at Digging a Hole to China for hookin’ us up! We love it. If you would like Heather to pimp your blog, her adoption fundraising link is the Headmiester blog design near the bottom of our blog.



Now for all of you wondering how girls scout camping went….we had a good time. Hannah and I stayed nice in warm in our new long johns and gloves. The bunkhouse was heated; I actually got up in the middle of the night to turn the heat down! We did not have a good night sleep but we did have a good time. Only bad thing that happened was that I did lose an earring, one of my diamond stud earrings that I wear every day. I did leave my other jewelry at home! So I guess this must mean that Chris will need to buy me BIGGER diamonds that are easier to find if they fall off! Seriously I had to keep myself from totally freaking out and of course having everyone say, “why did you wear your earrings camping??” didn't help much. ( so stop thinking that!) But all in all it was a fun trip.







Now for our big change. Hannah and I both cut our hair short last Thursday. Hannah cut off 12 inches of her hair and donated it to Locks of Love. I cut off 8 inches of my hair and donated it to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program. Both programs provide natural hair wigs for children or adults who have lost their hair due to their cancer treatments. I think I was more nervous than Hannah. I was really proud of her! She was excited to get her hair lopped off and even more anxious to get it in the mail to Locks of Love. So as you can see Hannah and I had quite the week together. We can’t wait for Sophie to join us in all of our girl fun!

To Pooped to Publish!

Hi All. I am one tired girl so I am going to have to put off details and photos of our weekend until tomorrow. I know y'all have been hitting that refresh button a la the CCAA website on referral day! LOL!! See..... now I am making my way towards stupid tired!

Time for me to go to bed!

A Busy Week...SHOCKER!!

A busy week for the TBG girls, first Hannah and I made a pretty big change to our appearance this week. I will post details and photos Sunday.

Tomorrow morning bright and early Hannah and I are heading out to a Jr. Girls Scout badge blitz! We will be staying overnight in cabins that are supposed to be heated, I sure hope so! It is a little chilly here in NC, ok it is freakin cold! I think it is going to be 17 degrees tonight! Basically my Saturday will be spent with God only knows how many chatty 9 and 10 year old girls.....….a teachers dream weekend. Oh, I am not a camper. I know you "“purist" out there will say we are staying in cabins that we are not camping. But to the part of the population that enjoys king size beds with high thread count sheets, this is roughing it!!! For the record I am looking forward to spending the weekend with Hannah. She is excited that I am going, and I am sure it will be fun. At the very least we should have some good stories to share.

As for the TBG guys, they are planning on enjoying as much ESPN as they can, while eating wings, chips and soda in the family room.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Want Some Good Karma?

Could it be that RQ is bad for our karma?? I am beginning to think so! I admit to going to her site on a regular basis, but I beginning to rethink my need for info from this site in particular. The latest group of referrals was not as many days as we hoped, and on top of that the CCAA seems to have matched some people on the 9th, 12th, and 14th. There is no rhyme or reason for these referrals. Based on the number of days that the CCAA has been matching, families who received referrals with 9/14 lids would not have received their referrals for 1 or 2 months! I am happy for those who received unexpected referrals and I am very happy that these little ones did not have to wait another 2 months to be with their families.

I have to be honest a bad rumor on that site and the subsequent comments is enough to push me over the edge! I am sure if there were to be a member of the "RQ court" reading this they would just say stay away if you can't handle the rumors. They would be absolutely correct! But no one in this process seems to be able to handle the rumors. Just read through the comments and you will read comment after comment of people who are being crushed by the latest rumor, or worse the dashing of hope associated with a good rumor.

So today I am breaking up with RQ!! I will have to figure out what should take its place. Any recommendations?? I guess I could call our agency if I have a question. We did write them quite a few checks. But they don't seem to have many answers......that is because they will only tell me something that they are certain about!! I could use some company; feel free to join me if you are bone tired from the rumors and from having your hopes dashed every 4 weeks.