Still catching up...

1. Friday Follow and Blog Hop...

This week Friday Follow is hosted by the Mission Monkey Raffle Winner and Heather & Jessica from Saving Money Living Life .

Blog Hop Friday is hosted by My New Life As Mom, Chubby Cheeks Thinks, Take A Mom's Word For It, Bree Bee's, This Adventure Our Life and Belly Charms!

2. I got an award last week, they really are happiness in jpg form. This one is from Cris at GOODEness Gracious. Check her and Miss Add out as soon as you get a chance!!

The Rules:
*Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.
(Thank you Cris!)
*Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.
(Pie, Husband, our life together - that was hard!)
*Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.
(I will do this part over the weekend...grabbing all those urls right now seems WAY too complicated)

3. Next week is going to be all about vacation. In the mean time here's a little glimpse of the view from our room...it did not suck.
4. Sometimes you just have to keep your hands free for other things.

OFFICIAL Mom

UPDATED - Thank you all so much for your sweet and wonderful comments. You guys are the best!!!

On July 12, 2010 at 9:30 am Husband, Pie and I went before a judge and finalized our adoption.

Wordless Wednesday - Supermodel Edition

Really...that's how you're going to behave? We met all of your demands. Your room is filled with Similac Soy Formula scented candles, there are dozens of things that are either shiny or make a crinkle noise, and there are exactly 100 green M&Ms in alphabetical order. What's that? Yes, I know your parents sing you the ABC song every day and you'll totally know if they aren't in the right order. Seriously, don't be a diva.Ah...that's the smile we've been waiting for...Now play coy......And back to the smile....Now blow kisses to the camera...what? Is that a confusing direction?...You could at least pretend you're enjoying this...

For realz yo...

I'm still trying to get settled from the vacation madness and the unbelievable amount of work waiting for me when I got home. Fingers crossed we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

In the mean time, make sure you check out Ericka at Alabaster Cow's guest post. And my guest post over there.

Blog swap...all the cool kids are doing it...

Today...a little late which I'll tell you about tomorrow...

I'm blog swapping with Ericka at Alabaster Cow. Her site is hilarious and honest and if you aren't following her I don't think we can be friends anymore...I'm just kidding...but seriously I'm not. Go follow her now!

___________________________

PENANCE

when i was ten my dad left me at church.

you'd think that was a real punch in the gut especially after having to listen to a sermon that involved cartoons in no way, shape or form but in all honesty, it didn't bother me. my dad is lucky if he remembers to wear pants. thank god my mom does a quick double check before he leaves the house.

when my friends' parents yelled out "hey mel, think you forgot something!", he patted at his shirt and pants and when he retrieved his keys, he scrunched his face in a "you guys! my keys are right here you silly bunch!" kind of way. and then he saw me, standing by the pillar with the penny. the penny was encased in mortar between the bricks in the pillar. i used to scratch at lincoln's face wondering how long it would take me to pocket the coin and then...well, i never really got that far in my penny fantasy. i was too concerned with the worry knotting my intestines at the fact that my dad was doing his own version of ditching a flaming bag of poo on a doorstep except the doorstep was church and the poo was me.

my dad and i are cool now. i mean he's like one of my best buds and all.but i've made sure to mention his abandonment plenty of times since then.

"do you want another pork chop?" "i dunno, you going to leave me at church again?"

"a d?? on your math test??" "i'm sorry but i started reliving that time you left me at church and i panicked."

"hey jeopardy's on." "what is you left me at church?"

it's been a pretty decent go-to joke in my repertoire and i've had no complaints. i think i've done a great job sending my dad on a major guilt trip and for that i've been pretty proud of myself. that is, until i gave birth to this:

now the joke's on me.

___________________________

Ericka kills me every time she writes. Her posts are always funny or insightful or filled with the raw honesty most of us don't have the stones to put out there. Plus look at the gorgeous little lovie! I am beyond proud to be swapping with her and even more so that she thought I was worthy of it.

Holiday Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-ad

1. Friday Follow and Blog Hop...

This week Friday Follow is hosted by Dania & Frances from The Kiddie Fashionista,
Michelle from Momma’s Pixie Dreams, and Tiffany from My Crazy Kind of Wonderful.

Blog Hop Friday is hosted by My New Life As Mom, Chubby Cheeks Thinks, Take A Mom's Word For It, Bree Bee's, This Adventure Our Life and Belly Charms!

2. I got two awards this week. Hooray!! I love these, simple acts of blog support. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside. From Jessica at Mommy’s Sippy Cup I was awarded:

And from The Mommy at Twenty Little Toes I was awarded:
I will follow the rules and pass these along shortly, but I wanted to thank these amazing women immediately! So thank you!

3. I promise to do my very best to keep up with the follows, but I'm leaving for vacation this afternoon. Woo hoo!!! I'm not sure how much I'll be posting today and over the next week...we'll see. Either way you'll miss me like crazy right? Right!? But it's just as likely that I'll soak into my margarita and forget the world beyond this house...

4. And of course, some Pie.
Huh?

I don't know what that means, but I think it's funny...

Hope you all have a great weekend and a safe 4th of July!!!

Open Adoption Roundtable #17

***UPDATED*** Feel free to comment one and all. I probably should have mentioned that you don't need to participate in the OAR to give me your two cents. I'm always happy to hear what you think...

So this is my first OAR...and of course I had to start with a tough one. The question is from Susiebook at Endure for a Night.

From Susiebook: Are there any things that you don’t want the other members of your triad to know—or that you don’t want to know about them? I’ve heard first mothers talk about not sharing their birth stories with adoptive parents because those are for the adoptees and for themselves only. I've also heard of adoptees concealing their reunions from adoptive parents so as not to cause them pain. What don’t you want shared in your adoptive relationships?

My Answer: There aren't things I purposely hide from my daughter's birthparents. There are things, however, that I don't feel compelled to share. We are about to go on vacation I don't think I need to mention that. I'm sure we'll share pictures of Pie's first sand/ocean experience when we get back, but I don't feel like it's necessary to keep them informed of our movements. We always share the milestone things, doctor's appointments, firsts, funny things she does, and we're happy and proud to do that. They also know about our life outside of my daughter directly. They know we'd like more kids. And by like more kids I mean we'd kick old ladies and knock down puppies for more kids. We're very upfront with them.

We already talk to my daughter about her being adopted. We'll fill in the story as she gets older and can understand more. We will always be completely open about that with her. Plus she will have her birthparents in her life, so she can get their side of the experience directly from them. She will not have to rely on us to make assumptions on their behalf, or try to decode the how and why of their part in the triad.

As far as the birthparents go, I know they hide things from us. We hear things through mutual friends that they don't tell us. Things I think are important. I assume, though, that they are not hiding things to be malicious or the be dishonest. I don't know if that's an extension of their youth, or if they simply don't feel it would be important for us to know. I think things related to their stability are of interest to us. If they are going to be involved with my daughter, I want to know that they are stable. I want to know that they are in a good mental state. I want to know that their behavior won't be damaging to my daughter. I don't know if that's fair or not, but it seems like a reasonable enough request.