Met by chance, friends forever!!

I ADORE this picture

Our adoption journey has brought us so much more than Hayden, it has opened our world and HEARTS to so many JOYS.  While this journey is at times a long, tedious, painful and emotional one, it is also FULL of  MANY rewards.  The circle of friends I have made on this journey has been nothing short of a true gift!!  Some of my dearest friends are because of adoption and I am so incredibly grateful for these friendships(and grateful that Hayden will always have a circle of kids that she knows that are chosen too)  Funny enough some of those friends I have never actually met them or their children in person, but yet I know more about them then I do about friends and family that I see daily.  

One very special friendship that was forged early on in our journey to Hayden(Avery at the time) was when I decided to participate in a China secret pal group.  We were matched up with other mom's adopting from China and each month there was a theme and you sent a gift for their future child.  I think we did this every month for a year.  I was matched with an awesome mom in NH who is actually still waiting for her sweet Hazel to come home.  I loved sending her stuff and look forward to the day when I can send Beth a gift of congratulations on her daughter finally coming home.  I was matched unbeknownst to me with a mom from Louisiana.  Little did I know that she was not only going to be the BEST secret pal anyone could EVER hope for, I would make a lifelong friend.  Angela is an AMAZING mom, she is BEAUTIFUL inside and out.  She is the hostess with the mostess.  She is creative, a shopping fool.  She LOVES and savors food(but don't they all in LA?)LOL

Each month(sometimes more....she doesn't follow rules that well) these boxes of beautiful treasures would arrive for us.  They were always beautifully packaged, there was always a beautiful handmade card inside.  She would always take the theme to a direction you might not have thought about.  I swear half of the things Hayden owns are from Miss Angela.  I knew from the very first gift that we were a friendship made in heaven.  I think only a few months went by before we sealed our friendship and became more than secret pals.  We had talked on the phone, emailed endlessly, dreamed together of the day we would finally be home with our girls(Angela has two darling sons, Hayden is crazy about Ben) We have had some very difficult days of bad news, struggles with the wait and tough decisions to make.  She truly was an AWESOME friend through the wait and I am not sure I would have made it through it sane without her friendship(along with a few others)  We have taken trips together, shopped together, ate together and cheered each other on to the finish line....  And now we are finally able to get together and have our daughters be right by our side with a future friendship in the works!!  Now if we only lived closer!!

Our journeys ended up on different paths and certainly did not end the way they started.  But we both are moms to amazing little girls that are now the twinkle in our eye!! 

We totally met by chance, but I know we will be friends FOREVER!!!

We got to see our friend's over the holiday weekend, and I finally was able to meet Avery Claire(yes thrilled that we still have a sweet beauty with the name Avery in our lives)  we had so much fun seeing each and it was much too short of a visit.  We hope to get to LA in the spring for a weekend visit.  But let me just say it brings a tear to my eye to look at that picture of the 4 of us......we went through a lot together to get to those two little girls......and it was SURE worth it:) 

Thank you Angela for being such an amazing friend!!  You and your family will always be a very special part of our family!!

Naughty or Nice??

If you ask her if she is naughty or nice she will say "I am sooo nice" LOL

"are you finished?"

This was someone negotiating with me for a tootsie roll if she took one more picture!!

Let the Holiday's begin!!

photo by non-other than YLK Photography

Well Thanksgiving is behind us and Christmas is upon us and boy is there so much in-between. 

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with friends and family.  Ours was VERY quiet but enjoyed every minute of it, loved being at home!!  Hayden LOVED every second she got to spend with Taylor and Connor!!

Trying to wrap up the decorating.  We have everything done but our tree, hopefully that will be done before bed on Sunday night!!  Hayden is just beside herself with all of the holiday decorations and festivities.  Just wait until next week when she sees what I have in store for her(oh and you too....it is a secret)

But she has let it be known that the "crack your nuts" (aka nutcrackers) must GO!!!  She pretty much is terrified of them, and I have moved them to a room she seldom visits....she has since discovered their new resting spot and she still wants them GONE!!!!!  She covers her eyes and screams(a bit dramatic and I am certain an actress she will be)

So December wishes abound.  Hoping everyone has had a wonderful weekend!!

So incredibly THANKFUL!!!!

From our house to yours we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  We are so blessed in our house and we work to acknowledge it daily, but we take today to give thanks for all the blessings we have been given.  One blessing in particular:)

I give thanks for the child that was born in my heart and certainly born to be my daughter. For the amazing husband I have that supports me through thick and thin, and puts up with my craziness:) Who truly is an incredible father.  For my step-children whom have been such a huge part of my life that I don't remember my life before them, and they have brought such joy and love in their welcome to their sister.  I am so grateful for the group of friends that are ALWAYS there for me regardless of the situation.  I have been granted abundance and for that I am grateful!!


No pictures right

I SHUTTER to disagree!!

Everyone that knows me well knows that I LOVE, ADORE, and just get plain EXCITED about Christmas cards(actually about any cards) But one of my favorite things about the holidays is running to the mailbox each day to see what my treasure chest(mailbox) is holding for me.  I just love seeing all the pictures and cards, and reading the letters from everyone with their year in review!!  I SAVE all of my holiday card pictures that we recieve and I have a scrapbook done year by year so that I see all the children progress from their first Christmas picture, and now I have seen some of them graduate high school and college!!!  I know just another freaking tidbit of info you have always wanted to know about me huh?? 

Since I love card season so much I obviously spend a lot of time on our cards.  At one point we were up to about 200 cards going out.  I forgot to mention that I also keep track of our incoming cards and after about 3 years of not receiving a card I have to check you off our list unfortunately.  While I adore getting cards, and I actually enjoy getting our cards done and out....they are expensive and with postage it is just too expensive to keep sending cards out to others that don't send them too. So I think I have cut our list this year down to about 150.  I understand why people don't do them, they are time consuming, expensive and sometimes I think holiday cards just never make it to the top of the list of getting accomplished(that is why I give you 3 years~LOL)  When I see cards I LOVE from others I always make a note of where it came from, and last year overwhelmingly the cards that made the top of my list were from SHUTTERFLY!!!!  You can't even believe the selection of holiday cards they have available!!  So many it makes it really hard to choose.  So I might be choosing 2 different styles this year.  I have always used Shutterfly for their photobooks as well as their amazing calendars (if you haven't done a calendar on Shutterfly I insist you do and give it as a gift to yourself and someone else)  The quality is awesome and they give you choices of the paper quality you prefer.  I am a 130 lb paper girl, but if you are wanting to do photo paper cards they have that as a choice too!!    If you are looking stictly for "holiday" cards you need not look further than right here (run over here and look and come right back) Okay right they are REALLY cute and did you see the prices??  I am here to tell you that the prices are AMAZING and the shipping times are incredibly fast.  So if you haven't ordered you still have PLENTY of time, and if you want to send me a card, just shoot me an email and I will send you my address and I would love to run out to my treasure trove and receive your card!!  Ours is going to be SPECTACULAR this year.  I have EVERYONE in the picture this year(okay not the dogs because they can't behave well enough for a photog to take their picture) but I had EVERY single kid(that is a relative term) home, up and dressed with smiles on their face.  Yes Hayden did great in this shoot because she had her big brother and sister in the same location as her!!! 

If by chance you are sending out invites for a cookie exchange or a Christmas eve get together there is still plenty of time to order some invites from Shutterfly.  Look at how cute the invites are this year, makes me wish I was hosting a party this year.  But since I am not maybe I will be lucky enough to get invited to a fun party with a really cute invite from Shutterfly!! 

Okay now I am going to show you some of my favorites:)

Okay now seriously go order your cards.....no excuses, I am fine if you print your address labels:) 

If you are interested in participating in Shutterfly's blog promotion just head over here and submit an application, EASY PEASY!!

It won't be long....

I know it has been a long time since we posted.....sorry we are having some internet issues at our house and it makes it hard to update, read blogs, email you know all of my lifelines to the outside world.  So we came to the office with David and that gave me the opportunity to do a quick update. 

It won't be long.....is what Hayden says everytime we are in a store and she sees Christmas decorations:)

We are getting ready for the holiday next week.  I have cleaned the house, pulled down most of the Christmas decorations from the attic to start putting up, we even got H's gift from Santa bought, now I just need to get to the grocery and get everything bought for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.  My goal is to have as many decorations up by Thursday, and then hopefully we will put up our tree after we eat dinner.  Let's just say if this all happens it will be a first....But at least then it will seem worthwhile to get EVERYTHING out to decorate if it is up for 5 weeks! Then I need to get on our Christmas cards(I usually mail the day after Thanksgiving, but that is not going to happen this year)  H and I have a little bit of travel planned the first part of December, and our two trips sort of run together so I need to be up and organized or none of it will happen.

That is about all going on with us this week.  The weather has been amazing here and so we have been trying to head to the park for a bit of playtime each day.  So that is all the pictures I took this week, but I will update with my little elf helping me with decorating this week, and then we should have some great pictures with the kids on Thursday. 

It is going to be a week of being GRATEFUL!!!

 Doesn't Miss Priss look tall here??  Maybe just her legs look long(they are not however)

 Miss Michelle(emmilee designs)made H this owl dress. Don't forget her etsy store.VERY cute stuff          

                                            Just discovered a ladybug:)

                 Promise she is not stomping the ladybug!!(just didn't want it to crawl on her)

         She is a sliding fool!!That is pretty much all we do at the park!!

                                                          WHEEEEEEEE

Home Sweet Home

Well I made it home Thursday night and good gracious it was so good to see my husband and my girl!!!  It felt so good to get up and have breakfast with Hayden, clean our house, do laundry and run errands....I know I am a freak!!  I love mundane, although it doesn't feel mundane to me.

Hayden did really well, she didn't nap while I was gone, and convinced Mary Poppins that she should sit at the dinner table in a big chair with no bib, and ate an entire box of fruit snacks(but who's counting) other than those few things she did a great job of being a good girl. I am so proud of her.

Once home she seemed to be a bit more whiney and clingy(totally expected) and I do think she took a little aggression out on me by hitting me 3 different times.  That is VERY unusual behavior for her, but we seem to be on a much better track now with those feelings.  I did some ERGO time with her(carrier pouch for those who don't know) and I have spent a lot of time rocking her while talking so she was forced to make good eye contact with me.  We also talked through that mama ALWAYS comes back!!!  So we had a much better day today!!! 

So we still have the big February trip to contend with, but I am feeling so much more confident about getting through it.  I feel like I am such a contributor again...I know that sounds weird, I think being a SAHM is one of the hardest job in the world, and you have to be that person to stay at home.  I LOVE being at home, but I will say I have always had odd feeling about not contributing financially to our household since I left the working world.  I know I was contributing in other ways, but I do love that I can offer what work gives us as well as being able to stay at home and be here for Hayden.  I am VERY hopeful that I can have the best of both worlds!!!  I also think it will be good for Hayden to see mommy doing other things, especially when she is older.  So hopefully this all works out the way we are planning. 

We went to do our grocery shopping and for some reason they had a clown there, which scared Hayden to DEATH!!!  It was SO bad we had to leave and David had to go retrieve the full cart and finish the shopping.  CLOWNS ARE CREEPY!!!!!

We went to the park today(she is only interested in the slide) and Hayden was thrilled to have her brother join us.  I am not sure I have made it clear that Hayden thinks that her brother and sister are the MOST amazing people on the planet, and I actually think the feeling is mutual.  We couldn't be happier with the way our kids embraced Hayden from the moment we saw her first picture!!!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Update

Quickly just wanted to drop a little update. There were NO tears from either me or Hayden yesterday when they dropped me off, she just wanted to know we would skype and I would show her my "blathroom". David always gives her a tour of his room when he travels:) LOL

She did great last night, and sailed through today with Mary Poppins. She was a bit weepy tonight, but she was also tired!! So she is doing okay and so is mommy.

I had a 12 hour day where we just kept moving. I have been fitted for my uniform(stylish I might add)I have been properly vaccinated for yellow fever so I can fly India and Africa(oh joy) the FBI now has their 4 set of fingerprints from me:). I made a few new friends, heard about all the changes that have occurred in the last 5 years!!
More importantly I have gone potty all by myself and even showered alone and was ready to walk out the door in approx 40 minutes....wow it has been awhile since I have only had me to get ready.

I can't wait to go home, but it certainly is not anywhere close to the mountain I had made it in too, but I agree with David that Hayden made it easy, she is fine and that makes mommy know
that we have done a good job of facilitating a healthy attachment with our little rock star!!

Thank you everyone for the texts, voicemails, emails checking on me today!! It made my day to know how many of my friends thought of me and wanted to check in!!

2 more sleeps and I will be back home!!! But for now I am holding the remote and am looking forward to visiting with more of the other flight attendants tomorrow.

Again in case you missed it, I was able to go potty alone!!! LOL!

Leavin on a jet plane

As many of my friends on here know I am resuming my job as a flight attendant.  I have 20 years of seniority and when I took a voluntary furlough 5 years ago to pursue our adoption I was not sure if I would ever return to flying.  Well our adoption plan was suppose to be 12-18 months from start to finish when we started our paperwork for China, and well the story goes that 18 months into that wait we knew that the wait was going to be far longer.  That is when we switched to Taiwan and we came home with Hayden almost exactly 3 years to the day we started our journey to adoption.  Well the moment I held Hayden I looked at my husband and said "I am NEVER going back to work"  We are VERY blessed that I can stay at home.  By the time we came home with Hayden it didn't appear that I would ever be recalled anyway, we were merging with another airline and the airline industry was suffering so.  But as far as I was concerned it didn't matter because I had no desire to go back to work and be gone from home and Hayden anyway. 

Fast forward to Aug, 2010 I celebrated my 20th anniversary with my company(I have been accruing seniority during this furlough) I find out that they are recalling and I have the chance to go back to work.  So after much talk and thought and talk and crying, and talk, and thought and crying we made a mutual decision that it was beneficial to our whole family for me to try and go back and stay until I can officially retire(hopefully in 4 1/2 years)  That will give us lifetime access to medical/dental insurance and pass privileges.  All things that are extremely valuable in this uncertain world and economy we live in.  The plan is for me to fly VERY little by dropping and taking available leaves of absences at least until H is in school.  But with this decision came the obligation to travel to our corp HQ for 3 days in November and 22 days in the spring for re-qualifications'.  I have known this info for about a month now and I have cried more tears than I knew I was capable of crying.  I know millions of mommies go to work everyday and I know that the 18 months I have been blessed to be home with my daughter is just that "a blessing" But all I can say is I have no idea how you working moms do this....do what you ask??  LEAVE!!!  It is not about control, H will in fine hands with her daddy and Mary Poppins that we have hired to come into our home.  It is just about being gone from her, hearing the funny things she says, being there when she wakes up, rocking her before her nap, having our lunches with our friends.  It is all of it!!  I am heartbroken to be leaving.  I am nearly catatonic at this point as the date is looming close.  I am doing my best to not express all of my anxieties around Hayden as I don't want her to be upset.  Boy is it hard to not just bust out bawling when I look at her.

I keep reminding myself that as a family pre-Hayden we had traveled all over the world.  My stepchildren have flown EVERYWHERE!!!  Without access to those travel privileges we will not be able to offer that same luxury to Hayden.  Taking her back to Taiwan or visit Shiyu in China will be a huge undertaking financially, and one that won't happen frequently.  So I say I will pull up my big girl panties and get on with getting this training done and behind me. 

But just know if you are seated next to me on the plane en route to Corp City........no I am not sobbing because someone died, I am sobbing because I already miss my girl!!!!!

I swear we really have found Mary Poppins(english accent and all)  Hayden loves her, and she literally plays with her all day long!!!  She will be well cared for and very LOVED!!!  I have nothing to worry about.  Daddy will work from home and have Mary Poppins keep an eye on H and keep her occupied.

Because I know you are not interested in my "oh woes the me" and you are more interested in what Hayden is up too....here is that cute little lovebug. 

     It is all about the BIG spoon or fork or bowl at our house.

                                         Her hair looks so long in this picture. 
                                        Glad we finally had it trimmed.

Someday she will KILL me for this....her costume had just arrived and she had to try it on...but only over her jamjam's.  Oh now there is a "glamour do" if there ever was one!!

This is Jack, and he is one of my dearest friends little boy's.  He will be 4 in January and getting a new sister in December.  He is the SWEETEST little boy and is so GOOD to Hayden.  We had just finished lunch and where we ate had a big playground.  Jack was so sweet he held Hayden's hand the whole time, helped her on the slide.  Totally took his job responsibility very seriously!!  You can see even as we walked out he held her hand and was even going to walk us to our car. 

We LOVE you Jack T, you are going to be the BEST big brother:)

Do you believe in destiny??

Do you believe in destiny??  We do!!

Referral Anniversary

Then: 11-03-08

Now: 11-03-10

Our life has been nothing short of AMAZING and full of LOVE in the last 2 years since we first set our eyes on our beauty. 

At 5:25 that day I took that call and saw this picture and knew that we were meant to be.....

How did our family get so lucky to be picked to be your family??  DESTINY my dear.

We LOVE you more than words could say Hayden Magee.