One last (?) picture -- here's how Amanda's room ended up looking. We took the day bed out, to make room for the changing table. I'm trying to learn how to do some digital scrapbooking, so that's why this picture looks kinda fancy! Woo-hoo! I included an extra cut-out of the wall words above her bed, because they are so special and true! Hopefully they'll be a reminder when she's in her terrible twos and I'm frustrated!

Migrating my main blog...

Okay -- the truth is that I am a terrible blogger.

I started a family blog before Amanda came into our lives, and did an o.k. (sporadic) job of keeping it kinda updated for friends and family.

I was also keeping Amanda's blog (called the adoption journey) separate so that it could have wider visibility without revealing too much of our personal info. This was mainly for my Babysteps bulletin board friends, so I wanted to keep it about the adoption, and not the entire family.

When the fires came, only 2 weeks into our lives with Amanda, I used the adoption blog to keep everyone posted, because that's where people were going anyway at the time to find out about the massive change(s) in our lives.

Then I was in a quandary -- I'd more or less abandoned the family blog, but I didn't want to put much more non-Amanda news on this one. What to do? So I took the easy road and did nothing.

Now it's time to separate the two blogs again -- I'll use this adoption blog to post updates related to the adoption of Amanda, and I'll (try to) start updating the family blog more regularly.

If you want the link to the family blog, put a comment here, or send me a U2U or email, and I'll give it to you!

I'm still amazed at the number of hits to this blog -- 1200 so far. sheesh!

Update on the 100 good wishes quilt

I am pleased to report that I am DONE with the quilt top for the 100 good wishes quilt! Yeah!!! I'm going to have it quilted by someone who has a long arm quilting machine, hopefully in a month or two. I feel like it's a bit of a cop out, not quilting it myself, but realistically, my crafting time is pretty sparse these days. Not only do I have to fit it into a good time for Amanda, but I have to convince Jason to come up to the craft room to play so that I can keep an eye on him too. Much easier said than done.

The quilt is big enough for a twin size bed. We ended up taking the "big girl" bed out of Amanda's room, to make room for a changing table for now. So while the quilt is (nearly) done and ready, it will have to go in storage for a few years until she's big enough to go into her big girl bed. If Jason is any indication, the quilt may still only come out occasionally at first, until she is potty trained...

This quilt is definitely the most special quilt I've ever worked on. Thank you to the 100+ friends and family who sent me fabric and/or wishes. And for anyone who is sad that they might have missed out, I still have several fabrics that I used from my stash that are up for "adoption." All you have to do is send a wish for Amanda on a card no larger than 4"X6", and I'll assign a fabric to you. (See my previous post regarding ideas for the wish.)

So, with no further ado, here's a picture of the completed quilt top! I've included close-ups of each "quadrant" so that you can find the fabric you contributed. Thanks so much!!!



Here's the bottom right of the quilt:
Here's the top left of the quilt:

Here's the top right:
Last but not least, the bottom left:

Jason finally gets his return visit to Sea World

We finally made good on the promised return to Sea World for Jason. It was 6 weeks ago that my social worker called me on my cell phone while Jason and I were at Sea World to let me know that a 3 day old little baby girl was available, and we had to race back to Orange County to pick her up. She is now our darling daughter, Amanda!

Jason felt gypped that he didn't get to spend the whole day, and especially wanted to go back to see the aquarium. He loves the "skeleton fish", which are little transparent fish. The fish tank they are in involves a light you can push that makes them really transparent, and you can see their bones.

Anyway, here are pictures from the trip!
Here's Jason (unfortunately, I didn't get a picture in front of his favorite skeleton fish...)


Here is one of me and the kids -- I've got Amanda in her wrap. She's a bit more "exposed" than normal, so we could see a bit of her face in the photo. It's hard to get Jason to take pictures very seriously, so most of our photos are of him making goofy faces. I'm learning to get over it...


My Mom and Dad came with us -- it was fun to share the day with them (and wonderful to have extra arms for taking care of the kids!)




And here's a close up of Amanda in the wrap. I just love her lips!


She is allowed out of the wrap -- she just is so incredibly content when she's in it that for somewhere like Sea World, it works out really well.

Back to "Normal"

It's nice to be settling back into something that resembles our normal life. Jason is finally feeling better - he started on antibiotics on Friday, and they kicked in by Sunday. We had to back out of going on the JDF walk with some good friends (sorry guys -- we really missed you!), but Jason was feeling spunky again by the afternoon, and we were able to go to a Halloween/Birthday party. Here is a rare picture of the four of us all together (usually Paul or I am behind the camera, but a kindly neighbor saw me setting up the shot with Paul and the kids and offered to take the photo!)

Jason has really been looking forward to dressing up like a cowboy for Halloween -- so much so that it was one of the "essentials" that made into the van when we evacuated last week. The emotional trauma of losing his Halloween Costume would have taken years of therapy to work through!

He's also somewhat settling into the idea that Amanda is going to hang around forever. He vacillates between being nice to her and ignoring her, but at least he's noticing Amanda every once and a while these days! I actually caught him gently rocking her in the swing (the operative word is gently!). I ~think~ he's starting to like her!

"There's got to be a morning after..."

I know it's hokey, but I can't get that song from the Poseidon Adventure out of my mind! Today is the "morning after" (well, the air didn't clear until this afternoon, so the "morning" analogy gets lost a bit, but you get the point!)

I looked out the window about 4 pm, and saw clouds! I got so excited, I told Jason to come see -- blue sky and clouds! He cynically replied -- "no, it's just smoke mom" but I made him get up & see, then he got excited too.

We've been hearing the fire fighting helicopters for days, as they fill up their tanks from a nearby reservoir. But the smoky air wasn't safe for either Jason or the baby, so we've stayed indoors for neatly 48 hours now (ask me if I'm going crazy yet!). So with the clear air, we ventured out to watch the helicopters at work. We hung out next to a guy who is a freelance photographer, taking photos for the sheriff's department, who gave us a lot of inside scoop about the helicopters, where the fires are now, etc. Here are a couple of photos from our outing. It was fascinating to watch the helicopters at work -- what surprised me is that they make quick trips -- there were only 3 different helicopters in flight at the time we watched, but they came very frequently -- sometimes two at once. There wasn't more than a minute or two of time between at least one of them dropping down to fill up. I've learned that there are two different types of fire fighting helicopters -- one has a hanging bucket that they dip into the water and carry to the fire. The other has a hose that sucks the water into a tank in the belly of the chopper. Apparently these hold a lot more water. They take longer to fill up -- the bucket ones pretty much dip and run. It's a quick cycle.

Amanda's meeting with her birth mom

Wednesday morning's "goodbye" visit with her birthmom went very well, from what I can tell. As supportive as I was of the meeting, I was a nervous wreck yesterday morning while getting me and the baby dressed to go.

So, with an incredibly shaky tummy (mine), I took the baby up to the appointment with her birthmom. A friend came along to hold my hand, which I really appreciated! The social worker came and met us in the cafeteria, took the baby and a "thank you" letter we'd written to the birth mom, and returned with the baby less than 15 minutes later! Amanda's birth mom even let the social worker take 2 pictures with the disposable camera I'd sent along of her and Amanda. The social worker didn't give me many details, because she wanted me to leave since the birth mom was still upstairs filling out some medical background that we'd asked for (totally voluntary), and she didn't want us running into each other.

I'm so glad that the meeting happened, but I'm so glad it's over!

Thanks to everyone who has been following our story, and keeping us in their prayers!