JUST BECAUSE . . . I LIKE THIS PHOTO

A NOTEWORTHY MOMENT!

Christmas Eve - Alice actually REQUESTED that I took her photo!!

EMOTIONS BEFORE ADOPTING

K commented:
"I am SO darned impressed with your mindset, I wish I had felt that way while we were waiting on Miss E. I feel that way now, it's so much easier after!"

It was a very kind comment and I'm flattered but I don't want to give the wrong impression. I do feel that when the timing is right that Little Sis will be ready to come home, however it will be much easier to believe that after she's home - I certainly didn't have that level of belief while I was waiting for Alice. Also I'm a worrier, I can worry about almost anything.

The stages before adoption settle into distinct phases - discussion & paperwork, consideration, approval (or not, can't tempt fate), more paperwork (for IA), waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting (yes, it seems to go on forever), uncertainty, referral, elation and uncertainty, and then (finally) handover and the beginning of life together. I will probably worry at every stage of this process - I think that I worry more than most and it's not helped by being single - I carry the responsibility alone and don't have anyone to balance my fears or listen to the worries. All through I will worry about the final outcome and how we'll cope, but I'll worry about completing every stage. It's the uncertainty and the waiting that I find hardest of all.

By restarting the process I've returned to the easier part of the process, where I can actually do something to keep myself busy and constructive towards the adoption, therefore also keeping my emotions under better control. There are plenty of things on my 'to do' list at the moment, there always are, but this evening I did a mock up of our family introduction book. Last January, when I passed Panel for Thailand, I celebrated by buying Alice a princess dress and Little Sis a talking photo album (this one).

Tonight I finally filled the album and recorded a narrative to it, it's not complete but it's something to show the SW and Panel too, but by then there will probably be many different photos in it! It only holds 8 photos, I used what I already had on my hard drive:

1. Me and Alice (should probably be me alone but I haven't got a good one - another thing for the 'to do' list!)
2. Alice
3. Boo and Fuss
4. Pud
5. Playroom
6. Garden including the 'Park'
7. The nursery - but as it is for Alice, with her named blanket, pandas, Chinese artwork etc
8. Home
   

Each photo has a short narrative with it, I want Alice to say some of them but that's going to take practice!

THE BEST GIFT EVER!

(P.S. Just for the record - it took a whole bag of chocolate circles to get 1 decent photo!!)

(P.P.S. What more do I have to do to get you comment?)

Click here for last year's 'tree photo'

ATTITUDE!

THIS ONE MAKES ME LAUGH!

. . . what do you think that they're looking at? (It's a rectorical question!)

BUSY WEEKEND

M, C and L came to stay, hurray! We collected them from the station and no-one there was left in ANY doubt that Alice was pleased to see them!! We went swimming, the girls played alot, I cooked a meal and a pud, we chatted, etc, etc, etc. Alice and I had great fun and I think M, C and L did too. It's so nice just to spend time together and get the girls together. GFN popped in for a slice of cake whilst they were here, Alice lent forward and took a big bite of cake straight from the slice on his plate (having not long before that shared a slice with me!)

At lunchtime we dropped them back to the station and then went on to Cardiff to meet K, E and A. We met a chain pub, they had a 45 minute wait for a table and a long queue for the carvery so we rang D*rectory E*quiries and got the number of a very different type of eatery, drove across town and were seated immediately. We ended up with a different type of meal to what we had anticipated, we probably didn't get our food any quicker, but the children didn't have ages waiting around in one place and the food was good, I think it was the right decision to move on and it meant that we got wellies - which was important later on! After lunch we went to a minature train park, we rode in an electric tram, on a mini steam train, a mini electric train and then another mini steam train. It poured soon after we got there, so we very closely inspected the indoor train set, then when the rain had eased off we rode on the tram and trains. 3s and unders were free - despite being 'free' Alice had a wonderful time and is eager to go back. Everyone enjoyed it, K and I commented that when the children are having fun it's double fun, we enjoy ourselves and then we get so much more pleasure seeing our children's enjoyment - every one's a winner!!

Coming home, Alice fell asleep and was very grumpy to be taken out of her carseat, it took a long cuddle to recover. After that she requested an egg sandwich for supper and demolished it, I can't stand egg sandwiches but I suspect that they'll be a favourite of Alice's! I'm relieved that she's being to ask for sandwiches as she will have to have a packed lunch when she starts her new nursery in September.

WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR . . .

. . . aka an end to the photo draught!

NO PHOTOS OF PHOTOS!

Some time soon Alice and I will be the subjects of a newspaper article about adoption.

Today the newspaper sent a photographer. There were lots of limitations on what we could and couldn't wear:

• no white
• no dark
• no denim
• no trousers
• needed to be bright, patterned, DRESSES (or skirts at a push)

The list completely wiped out every option in my wardrobe. So I ended up wearing a mid-blue wrinkly top and (HORROR!) navy, cropped trousers - you never knew I was a rebel?! Apparently the newspaper won't like my wardrobe choices, but if I'd stuck to their criteria they wouldn't have captured my true spirit. The choice for Alice was (unsurprisingly) much simpler, she wore a sleeveless sundress covered in large, bright pink, roses (a bargain from last summer's B*den sale!)

The photographer brought a make-up artist (!) with him. She made me up with 'light' make-up, it seemed a lot to me and must have taken about 30 minutes to put it all on, I only glanced in the mirror and then later discovered how much she used - it looked fine in the photos but ghastly in the bathroom mirror.

I'd expected photos in the garden or the drawing room but they decided to use the kitchen (a lot of clutter was moved around and some furniture too!) and then some more photos were taken outside in the rain! I don't know how many photos were taken but it was even more than I usually manage, overall they were here for nearly 4 hours. I saw some of the photos and there were several that looked great, I'm hoping that the photographer will send me some after the article's been published.

As for the article - it'll be in the DaIly MaIl at some point in the next few weeks - originally I thought that it was going in tomorrow's issue but now the journalist isn't sure, that's one way to get the circulation figures up!!

FAV PHOTOS FROM TODAY

A HINT OF THE TEENAGER WITHIN?

Oh boy! I'm in trouble!!

MY CHEEKY ONE

MAY'S BLOG LINK - WHICH PHOTO?

Comments please - (just refer to photos as numbered from the top) which one would you use?

FAV PHOTOS FROM TODAY

MY FAVOURITE PHOTO FROM TODAY!

ALICE IN APRIL 2009

I've just uploaded some photos from my camera - these are from last week, several days when we were playing in the garden.

APRIL - 2008 & 2009

TODAY'S FAVOURITE PHOTO

D and A came over for playtime this afternoon. The weather was so nice that we spent a lot of time in the garden - the girls played on the bikes, ran round, played in the fountain and shared the camera pretty well.

We tried to get some photos of Alice and I together for Thailand but this is my favourite photo from this afternoon. A lovely afternoon ended in toddler tears - A didn't want to go home and Alice didn't want the toys to be put away.

MARCH - 2008 & 2009

OFFERING ADVICE

. . . I'm just not sure if it should be about parenting or dog training!