I've been Tagged!

Lily and Bett playing tag in the ocean

Tag, you're it! was posted in the comments from my last entry from Kim. Since I have never been tagged before, I had to investigate. this is what I learned...The rules are to link the person who sent this to you and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours. Post the rules to your blog. Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of you post, linking their blog. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. so here goes..

1. I swam competitively from age 6 up through high school and taught swimming lessons in college to support my partying ways. I still love to swim and loved teaching Lily last summer. My favorite stroke was the butterfly.


2. I was a member of Block and Bridle, the rodeo club, when I was at LSU. As you may have noted in the last post, I once worked as a wrangler at a girl scout camp and I used to love to ride horses. It has been many years since I have been on a horse. I love them too much to even attempt to ride at my present weight....yet another reason to work on losing weight.


3. I am a Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist. For a list of others certified, you can visit http://www.agbell.org/ . There are currently just over 300 of us certified in the world. It took me 6 years to complete the certification process and was much more intense than my Masters Degree. I specialize in teaching children who are deaf and hard of hearing to learn to listen using hearing aids or cochlear implants and to talk. I love this JOB!


4. I was nicknamed Sissy as a child and it was even in the elementary school yearbook. Ugh! In the third grade, I demanded that everyone call me by my given name Margaret.


5. I was later nicknamed Rebel Woman in high school for my difficulty conforming to rules and peer pressure. I prided myself on questionning rules and pushing the boundaries. I continue to do the same and am working on changing policy in the state where I currently riside....that is another long story.


6. I never thought that I would be the mother to a son. When Wes and I filled out the MCC for our agency, I automatically put female on the gender portion. He asked why I wanted to limit to just girls and I said because we have all the stuff which really wasn't a good reason now that I think of it. A boy had just never been in my realm of thought. I had just never opened up my mind to having a son. Then, we checked either gender on our form and I started thinking and praying about it. Then our call came for Graeme and I could not imagine it being any different. I can't wait to get him in my arms.


7. I am a Type D or Dominate personality type and so is dear husband Wes. Lots of passionate discussions in our house. I am a bit of a control freak as a result but working on that.

Now I am off to tag these fine people. Some comment back and forth with me frequently and others I am just following their blogs and hope they enjoy playing along. I now tag in random order:

Maia at Flynn Story

Haley at The Happy Hoppes

KRJ at The Mad Race for Macey

Janelle at Wisetales

Donna at Handsful

Kristen at The Sense in It All

Karen at Ladman's Chinese Take Out

Stolen Meme

I couldn't resist. I was practically dared by my blogging friend Maia. I really needed something to cheer me up today! So here goes.....

4 jobs I've had Wrangler at a girl scout camp on weekends, Pharmacy Tech for Eckerd Drugs for years!, Speech-Language Pathologist and Auditory Verbal Thearapist, and Mentor/Presenter for other therapists training in Auditory-Verbal

4 Movies watched over and over Stealing Home, While You Were Sleeping, Hairspray (one of Lily's favorites and I can't even count how many times we have seen it) and When Harry Met Sally

4 places I’ve lived Baton Rouge, Louisiana until I got my Masters Degree; Harlan, KY for my clinical fellowship year....fell in love with the people and stayed 5 years; Augusta, Georgia for 8 weeks for a Neuro-Developmental Treatment course (had a roomate from Hong Kong named Lily); Charlotte, North Carolina for 5 years...Wes will still say, "Remember when we used to live in Heaven...refering to Charlotte) after Charlotte, we moved back to Baton Rouge when my Dad became ill and stayed until just after Hurricane Katrina and now we are in Harlan again where Wes is going to nursing school and then who knows where we will move next! Always an adventure!

4 shows I watch: 24 (we are watching via netfliks and on season 2...LOVE IT!), ER (still a fan after all these years), Grey's Anatomy, and my secret passion is reality TV for when I think I have it bad, there is always someone eating bugs on Survivor or fighting over a middle age, has been rocker on Rock of Love or showing me just how insane a person can really be on Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant. I always feel better about myself and I guess it is no longer my Dirty Little Secret. Can't wait for the new season of Big Brother....let the madness begin!

4 people who e-mail me regularly I am not a big communicator via e-mail but most recently my friend Mel (she and I have been friends for years and she is waiting for her referral from China), Patti (my cousin-in-law who is as excited about Graeme as we are!), Jolice (married to one of my bestest guy friends ever, Emile) and Wendy (adoptive Mom who always sends the cutest pictures of Meggie and MeiMei).

4 favorite things to eat: Chinese - chicken and veggies, Mexican - anything, Wes' stir fry - always delicious, mint chocolate chip ice cream

4 places I’d rather be: Anhui, China meeting Graeme for the first time and bringing him home; Yosemite - hiking in the back country with Wes. I would love to share that with Lily and Graeme. It was beautiful; On a beach...just about any beach with beautiful weather and a breeze watching the kids play; Last would have to be a trip back in time, sitting on a hill behind a friends house in West Virginia as a teenager...young and carefree, living in the moment without a care in the world.

4 things I look forward to this year: LOA and TA, Traveling to bring home Graeme, Bonding with Graeme, Spending as much time with Wes, Lily and Graeme this summer as is possible!

A little hard work

We spent today rearranging the house. It is time to convert the guest room into Graeme's room. It is a much bigger projectthan initially anticipated. We are rearranging closets and furniture. Lily is moving from a toddler bed to a big girl bed in her room. It was a little sad to take off her crib bedding. I am storing it away for a year or two....just in case. Hopefully tomorrow we will begin to paint in Graeme's room. The walls in there are a medium green with a dark green trim (the way it was when we bought the house). We are painting them a light, powder blue with white trim. It will be quite a transformation from the dark green to white. It is exciting to see it all come together.

We are also collecting the last of the quilt squares. My friends and family have been sending some wonderful fabrics along with geat wishes for Graeme. I will have to find time to photograph those and add them to the blog. I hope to start his quilt soon. It took me 2 months to do Lily's and I am sure it will take me that long to do his. I have really missed sewing every evening since I finished hers. I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful weekend!

I can't Imagine...

When we first accepted Graeme's referral, he instantly became our son. He is not yet our son legally but in our hearts, he is ours. I don't quite know how to explain that to those who have not adopted. It is almost like it is our moment of conception. We know we have a baby and we worry and wonder and hope and dream. We are buying clothes and planning his room and waiting, waiting and waiting to travel to bring him home. We can not even ask for an update until we have waited 3 months. I hope we don't have to wait that long. We have already sent him one care package and are getting ready to send another care package. He is our son and a part of our family! We talk about him every day while we WAIT!

With that said, I can not imagine what Tymm and Laura or Jason and Stephanie are going through. They both had referrals for baby boys from the same orphanage in Ethiopia. Within a week, they have both found out that their sons have passed away. I am filled with grief for these families who I have never met. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this unbelievable time.

What a Day!

We started off our day with a play date with Lily Wen's bestest friend, Lily D. Lily and Lily had a great time playing dress up, chatting about High School Musical and watching Hairspray. They spend so much time together at school and daycare. It was fun to watch them play together at home. I really enjoyed some Mommy to Mommy time with Lily's Mom, Heather too!

Then, we got a phone call that changed our day!
Bailey was less than thrilled with the information but she is adjusting!
Introducing our newest family member Gus! Lily calls him Gus Gus like the mouse from Cinderella. A friend called and they knew how much I loved and missed my Bassett Hound. They had an 8 month old puppy that they needed to find a home for because they are expecting a new baby any time now. Gus is one Big baby! He is alot like Bandit (the Bassett I loved and cherished from 3 weeks of age until he passed away when he was 14 years old) in that he is a 50+ pound lap dog.

Gus on his first day in our family!

Mommy, Lily and Gus, Gus

Look at those ears!

Now we just need Graeme home to run some of Gus' energy off!

waiting for LOA

We are currently waiting for our LOA. We really don't expect it any time soon but we are hoping. I knew this would be the hardest part of the wait. After you see his picture and read the information about him, well the wait becomes impossible. I think about him constantly so I thought I would repost his pictures to remind everyone of how cute he is and so you could all start praying for us to get our LOA soon so we can bring him HOME!

Thinking about Graeme

I have spent a lot of time today thinking about Graeme. I have spent a lot of time since seeing his picture thinking about him. I have the most quiet time as I wake up in the morning or just before falling asleep at night. As I wake up, I think about him going to sleep and hope that he has sweet dreams. I hope he giggles in his sleep like Lily does. As I go to sleep, I wonder about his day and hope that he is well fed, happy and loved. I also think about him quite often throughout the week. This week was especially interesting. As some of you know, I am in private practice with a few friends and we provide speech and language therapy for children through our states Birth to Three program. This week I evaluated not one but two, two-year-old boys. One of the boys was just 2 months older than Graeme. As I was going through the evaluation, I really wondered about our son and where he will fall in all of the different areas. I have spoken to many friends about the services he will need (it helps to have friends who are also therapists!) As I did with Lily, I know every detail of the pictures that we have of him. If I were an artist, I could paint him in my sleep. Now, I want to know what the picture doesn't show me. I want to know about his personality. Is he quiet or boistrous? Is he strong willed like the rest of his family? What makes him cry and what makes him laugh from deep within? These are the things I think about the most these days! I just can't wait to KNOW him!

Geaux Tigers!!!

We are so excited that LSU won the national championship. Even with all the fuss, the victory is nice. Wes, Lily and I are all still adjusting back to reality after spending time in Louisiana. It was a lot of fun to watch that game last night but I definitely stayed up too late!