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: