Ten Months

Ten months ago my husband and I made the decision that would shape the rest of our lives.

We decided to adopt.

Many tears and much prayer and SO MUCH TALKING went into our decision. We are adopting domestically, we are hoping to adopt a pair of siblings 6 years old or younger.

Ten months have passed since we made that first phone call, throwing our names into the ring so to speak. Ten months. If we had been announcing a pregnancy at the same time as we announced our plans to adopt we would be holding our child now. We would have made a birth plan, picked out names, decorated a nursery, decided between cloth and disposable diapers and so much more. Most of these are things that we're not going to be able to do. Someone else is going to name our children, and they may even be out of diapers before they come home to us. And some days that makes me incredibly sad.

But I am going to teach my children to read, and print their names. We are going to teach them about love and about the Lord. We are going to talk to them about how they want their bedrooms decorated and create a room that reflects them and will be a haven for them. I am going to be the one cheering when they cross the stage at graduation and crying when they are walking down the aisle on their wedding day. I can already see Jonathan teaching them to ride a bike and hammer a nail. I am going to buy cute outfits and give good night kisses. We are going to take dorky family photos in matching outfits. My fridge is going to be covered in art work.

Ten months have passed, and I have no idea how much longer we'll be waiting. Things are moving forward right now, but at some point they'll pause again. And I'm okay with that. This is my journey, this is my path. Someday I'm going to be a mother.

Adoption (and Life!) Update

J & I with our new nephew in the hospital

Well, I'm alive.

And I have a new nephew. He's pretty darn cute!

I don't even think I wrote about Jonathan's brother and his wife (David and Tracey) being pregnant. Probably because when they first announced it I was pretty darn devastated. It was August, they had gotten married in July. J and I had been married six years and been trying to have a baby for five of them. It was like a punch in the gut.

But, the sort of weird thing was, that we had reached our decision to begin the adoption process and made our "we're expecting" announcement on Facebook less than two weeks before they let us know that Tracey was pregnant.

Still a punch in the gut, I can't lie. But so much easier to handle than it would have been otherwise. And, I think if we had made our decision after their announcement we would have questioned ourselves about whether or not adoption was truly the right decision for us, or if it was just a reaction to David and Tracey's news. (Anybody else see God's hand in this? We totally did!) It was tough at times, watching them prepare for the arrival of their tiny human, but it was also exciting. We were finally going to be an aunt and uncle! And so we focused on that, and we focused on preparing for our own tiny humans. And we survived. (More than survived!)

Speaking of our adoption, things are moving along more quickly than we had expected. We finished our PRIDE training course at the end of March. We were told it would likely be a minimum of two months (but closer to 4 or more) before we heard from a social worker about beginning our home visits. Well, we got the email last week looking to start setting up our home assessment, and our first meeting will be this coming Monday. Totally freaking out, but totally thrilled to begin the next step in the process.

And, while we wait for our own children, we're going to spend as much time as possible snuggling and spoiling our nephew!

xo, Sara

Book & a Cuppa

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had signed up to take part in the Book & a Cuppa swap over at Chaotic Goddess Swaps. I was pretty surprised when I got the email with my partner, I had actually been paired with another blogger from Nova Scotia. I didn't think I was the only blogger in NS by any means, but I figure there probably aren't too many of us. So to be matched up with one was pretty neat. My partner was Sarah and I definitely think you should check out her blog, especially if you're a book lover.

I was completely spoiled with my box!

My mug was this awesome Kate Spade travel mug which will be perfect for filling with hot chocolate to take to work for the rest of the winter. (It probably is going to get used tonight simply because it's so cute even though I have no plans to travel anywhere since we're in the midst of another snow storm.) Sarah also sent a couple boxes of delicious looking hot chocolate that I can't wait to get into.

I received book one and book two of Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave series. I am so excited to dive into these it's not even funny!

And then, on top of two hardcover books, the adorable travel mug and the hot chocolate, Sarah also included this book for my future kids. I couldn't have asked for a better partner for this swap.

Thank you Sarah!


xo,
Sara

Snow Day Binge Watching

We got our first real snow fall of the season last night. I think we ended up with about 17cms where I live just outside Halifax. Wednesdays are my day off so thankfully I didn't have to attempt to drive in to work. I hate driving in the snow, I had a couple bad experiences (including a 360 on the highway a couple years ago) and so now I get panicky every time I think about having to drive in the white stuff.

Somebody in my house absolutely loves the snow though. Our beagle, Daisy, gets so excited to run and play in it. She sticks her nose right in the snow trying to smell it and she has this cute little two foot hop she does when she's trying to get through the deeper snow. I'm kind of glad she likes it though, because if she didn't I wouldn't get out to enjoy it either. And it's really not that bad, as long as I don't have to drive anywhere!

If you're stuck inside today other because of snowy weather or just being under the weather (I swear I've had a never ending cold since Christmas) I do have a few TV series recommendations for you. These are shows that we've watched from start to finish and have really enjoyed for one reason or another. Here are three shows I recommend you check out the next time you're looking for something to watch.

1. White Collar

We just finished the final season of White Collar over Christmas and I completely bawled my face off during the series finale. This show is about a con-man turned CI named Neil Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and his partner at the FBI, Peter Burke (Tim Dekay). Neil helps Peter solve white collar crimes in order to keep himself out of prison. The show has a great mix of humour and action and the relationship between Neil and Peter feels very real. The supporting cast are excellent, especially Peter's wife, Elle (Tiffani Theissen) and Neil's partner-in-crime, Mozzie (Willie Garson) being my favourites. White Collar is available for streaming on Netflix.

{ USA Network }

2. Burn Notice

Burn Notice is another USA Network show. (Apparently I really like their programming or something.) It follows the life of burned spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) as he tries to find out who was responsible for burning him and why. It's been a while since we watched this show, and we've watched several series since, but it's one that still stands out to me. It was action-packed and kept you guessing until the end. Each show had Michael helping out someone, but also gave us another piece to the puzzle of how and why he was burned. I also bawled my face off during this series finale... (I'm a crier, it's just who I am.) And again, this show has awesome supporting cast, especially Mike's spy buddy, Sam Axe (played by the one and only Bruce Campbell) and Mike's mom, Madeline Westen (Sharon Gless). Burn Notice is not currently available on Netflix, but it was in the past so hopefully it will come back. If not, I'm sure you can find it somewhere else. (Like Amazon.)

{ commonvee @ tumblr }

3. Chuck

Chuck is another series that we watched a while ago, but it's one I continue to recommend to my friends and family. This series is more of a comedy than the other two, but it definitely has it's share of action too. It follows the life of Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), after he downloads a computer program/database into his own head and becomes a CIA asset. Full of lots of cute, awkward moments this is another show that is really made complete by the supporting cast. Chuck's best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez) and Adam Baldwin as Major John Casey are two of my favourites. Chuck is currently available on Netflix, and you should definitely watch it.

Hope this helps you out if you're looking for something new to watch. I think I'm going to spend the rest of my snow day binge watching Arrow.

xo,
Sara

An Early Christmas Present

My husband, J, and I made the decision to adopt around the middle of August 2015. It was a decision years in the making and one that we didn't make lightly. There were a lot of late night conversations, a lot of prayer, and a lot of tears. We know that this isn't going to be an easy process, and it's definitely not going to be a quick process. There is definitely going to be a lot of waiting. (After five years of trying to conceive, I think we're pretty good at waiting, but this is a whole new situation so it's really hard to say!)

During our intake interview (a quick phone call with a social worker) the process was explained in brief. After the intake interview would be an information session. After the information session would be a 9-week training course. After the training course would be the home assessment. And then after the home assessment would be the real wait. There was no time line for how long anything would take. The social worker who completed our intake interview told me that she didn't know of anyone who had waited for more than a year to get accepted into the training course, and during our information session they explained that the seats in the course were prioritized based on certain conditions. Based on our desire to adopt two children under the age of six we figured we were in for a bit of a wait. When we were being cautiously optimistic we hoped to hear something about our course mid/late February and when we were feeling less optimistic we expected we'd be starting our course in the early spring. 

A week before Christmas Eve I took a break from wrapping presents to quickly check my email and was completely shocked to find an email from community services inviting us to a training course. I actually couldn't even open the email - I handed my phone to J and told him to read it first. We were invited to a course beginning January 11th. 

That's today. 

We're attending our first session tonight, I'm scared and excited and a lot of other emotions that I don't even have names for yet. I'm looking forward to connecting with other families in our area who are in the same phase of this journey and I'm looking forward learning more about this process and about what to expect as our journey continues. But I know everything isn't going to be easy to hear, I know there are going to be heart breaking stories and scary stories shared in this course. And while I can't claim to be "excited" about that part, I know that it's necessary and so so so important to know as much as possible.

This journey is like nothing I've ever experienced, but I love knowing we're a little bit closer to bringing our children home.


xo,
Sara

Book & a Cuppa Swap

I am a reader. Ever since I was little, I've loved reading. I love curling up with a good book and spending hours losing myself in it. There's really nothing better. And it doesn't matter to me if it's a paper book or my Kobo, I just love a good story. That's why I'm so excited about the swap that I just signed up for!


I love swaps in general, but with this one you're exchanging a mug and a book with another blogger. I'm excited about shopping for my partner, and I'm excited to see what I receive.

Signing up actually got me to start thinking about books I might want to read and I realized I'm sort of out of the loop. I spent probably a good hour between Goodreads and Amazon looking up books that looked interesting and adding them to my to-read list.

 If you think this sounds like fun, you need to act fast. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up!

 Oh, and if you have any must-read books to recommend I'm all ears. :-)

 xo,
 Sara

Phone Photo Dump: Dec. 31 - Jan. 6

Growing up I was always the one with my camera out, snapping away. Didn't matter where we were or what we were doing, I always had my camera. My friends used to call me The Paparazzi and J's uncle used to call me Flash. I got away from taking pictures the past few years, but since I upgraded my Blackberry for an iPhone I've been snapping away again, only now all my pictures are on my phone.

One of my favourite parts of blogging is seeing a little bit of other blogger's lives. I figure by sharing the photos from my week (or at least a handful of them) I can share a little piece of my life more easily. These aren't the only pictures I took this week, but they're definitely some of my favourites.

1 & 2 were taken New Year's Eve. We decided to use my new selfie stick to try and take a "family" picture. Daisy (our beagle) and Sydney (our cat) weren't particularly cooperative. Daisy doesn't usually get that close to Sydney, we think she's actually a little afraid of her.

3 & 4 are what most of the pictures I take every week look like. Daisy likes to sleep, and she's pretty adorable when she's all curled up on the couch with us. Every time I take a picture of her like this J laughs and makes a comment about how I must already have enough pictures of Daisy sleeping. But can there ever really be too many pictures of an adorable beagle flaked out?

5 isn't exactly a picture obviously, it's a text message I took a screen shot of. It's from one of my staff. I know you can't read it but he basically thanked me for being a lovely person to work for. Most of my staff are university students and I always try to be accommodating to their changing availabilities and flexible with time-off and shift-switch requests. Dorky, I know, but it's nice to know they appreciate it. (I took the screen shot to text to my husband because I was that excited. DORK.)

6 - 9 were taken on New Year's Day at my parents' place. We had dinner there with my brother and his fiance. Two of the cats (the boys) stayed pretty close to dad while he was cutting the ham. My brother brought his BB8 over to show off, and Maggie (mom and dad's third cat) wasn't quite sure what to make of it. My brother was also in charge of dessert, he and his fiance worked together and made a delicious carrot cake from scratch. He enjoys the baking and she enjoys the decorating so they're a good match.

11 - 13 were taken on my father-in-law's 60th birthday on Sunday. 11 & 12 were taken at the church (he's our pastor) during the party we threw for him and 13 is of him opening his new iPad from my mother-in-law and all his kids. (J is one of six kids so if they all go in together getting big ticket gifts is do-able.)

14 is probably my favourite picture from the week. Daisy is totally a daddy's girl - she loves getting as close to J as she possibly can!


Happy Friday, enjoy your weekend!

xo,
Sara