An overflowing, grateful heart

On  Thursday we announced to Facebook that we had started our adoption journey. It was something
we debated for a while. We are so so so early in the process that it felt a little like announcing a pregnancy before the end of the first trimester. And we have no idea how long the process could take. There is a very real possibility (and kind of a frightening one) that it could be six years before we have our child. However, we are so excited and I am a colossal over-sharer, so we went for it.

And we were blown away.

I've never posted anything that ended up with over 100 likes. And the comments were so unbelievably sweet and supportive. And they came from people I hadn't talked to in years, and people J has never even met. We also learned that an old friend of J's is in the process of adopting internationally. The experiences that led her and her husband to adopt are very similar to ours so we are looking forward to getting together with them in the near future. My staff, my co-workers, and especially my boss are so 100% behind us and I'm pretty sure I can already feel the prayers from our church family.

It is going to be a long, bumpy road and I know that. There are going to be mountains, there are going to valleys and there are going to be prairies when we feel like nothing is changing at all. I can't say that I'm ready for all that - I am impatient and and I am emotional - but all of the support is going to make it so much easier to bear.

Our Vacation; Part 2 (Smithsonian National Zoo)

Back in June my husband and I traveled to Washington, DC. His sister Rachel was getting married in West Virginia so we thought we'd spend a few days in DC before the wedding. Months before we left we had basically decided how we were going to spend our three days as tourists: seeing the sights of DC, the Smithsonian Zoo, and Six Flags America. For our first adventure we decided on the zoo.

After talking to the staff at the hotel and people we knew who had traveled to DC we decided to take the Metro into the city. It was a little intimidating. I'm not from a "small town" by any means but the population of DC is pretty much double the population of Halifax so our public transportation system is pretty tiny in comparison. We were really impressed by how easy it was to take the Metro - it was actually probably less complicated than taking the bus here. We parked our rental car at the station, boarded a train for downtown and less than an hour later we arrived at the zoo.

I had a fantastic time roaming around the zoo and visit all the animals. J struggled a bit since he's still recovering from his broken leg but he was a really good sport!

As soon as we started making our plans for our trip I started talking about the
 "giant baby pandas" so of course I posed with the sign. :-)

Speaking of giant pandas!

The one picture I absolutely wasn't leaving the zoo without. :-)

This is an American Beaver, and they are much small than their Canadian counterparts.
There was a zoo volunteer by his enclosure when we got there and we mentioned being Canadian.
She seemed very surprised when we told her we don't see beavers every day back home... 

And of course, a selfie!

We definitely enjoyed our visit to the Smithsonian National Zoo. The park was clean and the staff were friendly, If you're ever in DC it's definitely something I recommend checking out. (Especially since it's free!)

Sharing our Journey

I think it's fair to say that I'm going to be talking a fair bit about our adoption journey in this space. Where before my blog was a jumble of all kinds of things, I think it's probably going to be a lot about this new chapter in our lives. (And I'm probably going to blog more regularly, at least during the times there is something going on!)

J and I talked a lot about whether or not I would use this space to talk about our adoption journey. The final verdict was yes (obviously) but I will only be talking about our journey. I think Emily at ember grey said it best, I don't want to share a story that isn't mine to share. I will talk about how we got where we got, and I will talk about the process (in part because I found it extremely hard to find blogs/resources for Canadians adopting within Canada and in part because I have a feeling there are going to be times I just need to do that!), but our child will have their own story and how they share it ~ or don't share it ~ with the world will be their choice.  

Please don't think that the only thing I'm ever going to talk about is our adoption journey though! Once I get my blogging groove back I am hoping to also continue sharing book reviews, recipe reviews, and bits and pieces of my life and experiences. This is still my space, and I am still hoping to grow it.

My life changed today

My life changed today.

Or maybe it was yesterday.

Yesterday we made the decision, today we made the phone call.

My husband and I have made the decision to adopt.

And when I say "we made the decision," what I really mean is that we've spent a lot of time in prayer and in discussion and we've come to the realization that we are being led to adopt.

And it feels amazing.

Other than our parents we haven't really told anyone yet. For now it's just us, until we know we're approved. (If I can keep the excitement to myself!)

This afternoon I called the Nova Scotia adoption line. I spoke to a kind woman who took our names and contact information. She gave me the basics and I was told we'll be contacted within 10 business days.

The waiting has begun.

I hung up the phone and cried.

I am scared.

And I am excited.

My life changed today.

Our Vacation; Part 1

J and I just got back from 8 days in the US. J's sister Rachel was getting married in West Virginia and we decided to use the wedding as an excuse to actually go away. The town Rachel was getting married in was less than 2 hours from Washington, DC so we thought we'd spend the first couple days of our vacation being tourists before things switched to wedding mode.

Our flight from Halifax to Philadelphia was J's first time on a plane.

Getting from the airport to the hotel ended up being our first challenge. We had borrowed a GPS to use only it hadn't been completely updated with the area we were travelling. (My dad felt awful!) J talked to the guy at Budget about renting one, but he suggested we head to Walmart and just grab a cheap one to save some money. We got directions from two different people but ended up hopelessly lost before finding the Walmart. To make matters worse, it was dark and it started raining. Not just a little rain, but torrential rain with thunder and lightning. It was super scary.

We eventually made our way to a gas station where J ran in to try to get directions. The clerk at the gas station didn't speak strong english, but we headed in the direction he pointed. We ended up stopping for directions again at a Starbucks. We found a shopping centre and the first store we came across was Best Buy. It was getting late, so rather than try to find the Walmart we just ran in there hoping they'd have something cheap. The staff there were wonderful, but we definitely ended up paying more for a GPS than we planned. At that point we just wanted to find the hotel though so we didn't care.

By the time we got to the hotel we had been on the go for about 11 hours. Luckily, the staff at the hotel (the Metro Points in New Carrollton, Maryland) were awesome. They were friendly and helpful and we were checked in and on our way to our room in no time.

I am definitely missing having a king-size bed to sleep in!

Fortunately, the non-updated GPS ended up being pretty much the only hiccup of our whole trip, and things definitely got better from there. We decided to visit the Smithsonian National Zoo our first day but it's going to take a whole post of it's own.

Still here!

Hello!

I'm still here, I promise.

I've been absent due to a major lack of planning. I was getting ready for vacation, on vacation, and getting everything ready to go back to work after vacation,

J and I had an amazing time on our first real adventure, but I'm not sure travel is totally for me. You would not believe how stressed out I got every time we were driving in Washington (so many more people so obviously way more cars), and when we went through customs coming home. (And all we brought home were a few souvenirs and a bottle each from the duty-free store!)

I'm working on a recap of our trip and hope to share it with you soon.

My Week in Pictures!

Not a whole lot happened over the past week, but I think it's important to document even the not-so-exciting weeks. They're definitely part of life. And a good part - I can't imagine how exhausted I would be all the time if I didn't have those weeks where I spend the majority of my evenings at home on the couch with J!

1. Our church celebrated it's 15th anniversary on Sunday so after church we all stuck around for lunch and of course some group pictures. It was great to hear some of the memories of people who were responsible for the "birth" of the church. I've only been going since shortly before J and I got engaged but he's been there since the beginning. (J's dad is our pastor, I'm not sure if I've mentioned that here before or not.)

2. One of my many purchases during my shopping spree last week. I love the way this top flows, it's very flattering. I'm looking forward to wearing it on our vacation in a couple weeks.

3. I still love these sunglasses. I wore them to church yesterday and got a ton of compliments. J still doesn't like them, but he's not the one wearing them. ;-)

4. I may not have any kids to let lick the beaters (which I totally plan on doing) but if I'm making anything with peanut butter I always let Daisy lick the spoon. I made peanut butter pie for the church potluck and it was a big hit!

5. Thursday night I just didn't feel like cooking so J and I decided to use one of our Christmas gift cards and headed to Boston Pizza for a last minute date minute. After supper we did a bit more shopping for our trip. (We splurged and bought us both a t-shirt from East Coast Lifestyle to wear when we're in the US.)

Hope you had a great week!