Following Our Blog

Ok - so for the past hour, I've been trying to figure out how those of you who do not already have a gmail or yahoo email address can follow our blog without having to set up a whole new email account WITH gmail or yahoo.  (Why did I think this whole blogging thing would be easy???!?!?)
Apparently, you only need to set up a Google account.  A Google account doesn't mean a new email address, it's just their way of having access to you.  I didn't realize this when I started, and thought (ignorantly) that all one had to do was go to our blog, click on the "follow" button and be on their merry way.  So I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we do hope you take that extra step to set up a Google account and "follow" us - we'd love the support!

And if there are any fellow, more seasoned, bloggers out there who know of a different way, or know of something I can do to make it easier -- PLEASE let me know!

Still learning!

Our Thermometer

So, this is our newest wall decoration in our dining room.  I made a thermometer to help keep us encouraged in saving money.   As we receive donations (garage sale stuff included!), each donor will have a leave with their name on it.  The leaves are as a form of gratitude from us, and I want our kid to know how many wonderful people helped to bring them home!! 



Yes, the top of the thermometer says $25,000.  OUY!  We won't know for sure until we decide on an agency exactly how much money we're going to need, but $25,000 seems to be the average from all the research we've done so far.  Once we have picked an agency, we'll know for sure.

 Got to start somewhere, right???  "1 down, 24 to go"  sounds so much better than "1 THOUSAND down, 24 thousand to go"  :-) 



My very first blog entry!!

Happy Spring! The weather was so fabulous here this weekend, we planted 3 citrus trees in the backyard, and cleaned out the garage!
Craig and I have made some pretty important decisions regarding the adoption.  We know we want to adopt domestically.  We recognize the need for adoptive families internationally, but that ocean is just too vast.  The adoption process itself is overwhelming enough, to add foreign laws, agencies, travel costs and uncertainties is just more than we're willing to take on.  We also decided that our only preference for our baby is healthy!! (As Craig says, "10 fingers and 10 toes, please!) We certainly don't care about gender.  I have just as much blue scrapbook paper as I do pink.  Nor do we care about race/color/ethnicity (choose whichever PC word you'd like).   I have never felt the need to have children that look like me, and I'm certainly not starting now!
Our next step is choosing an agency.  A week ago, I spent days on end being completely overwhelmed reading adoption books, blogs, message boards and websites about how to choose agencies, how to know if the adoption agency is a fraud, agency success stories & reviews from birth moms and adoptive parents and WAY too many horror stories.   The only thing I am certain of now is that I know less than when I started.
Baby steps, baby steps... we will find the right fit...baby steps.....