I am in a purge the house mode. I have been giving away sacks and boxes to Goodwill for most of the summer and it doesn't even feel like there is one bit of difference. Where does all of this stuff come from? I think that it must march in while we are sleeping, filling our closets and shelves with things that get me thinking, "What is this?"

As I was cleaning out a bookshelf, stuck into a book that I had read years ago was a photocopied paper that is titled "Words that describe feelings" It doesn't have any type of notation of who wrote this list, or who had typed it on a typewriter. Reading through it, I found that it was worth keeping and posting about.

Depression... more

Adjustment - Agegnehu has exceeded all of our expectations for adjustment into our family and into the general public. He is a very pleasant boy and is generally happy unless he is tired or hungry. Everyone enjoys being around him.

Attachment - Agegnehu is very attached to all of his family members and recognizes them readily. He is also becoming familiar with other, extended family members. Upon visual or auditory contact with dad, mom or sister, he becomes very animated in physical and verbal cues, including smiles and happy sounds. He also makes movements to be picked up and held by these individuals. He will crawl rapidly towards them and pull himself up on their legs. He... more

I'm done! I finally finished this last night after everyone was asleep. I remember thinking about doing placement reports while I was filling out my dossier. When the actual time came around, I balked. After filling out all of the other applications and forms, why did I have a block regarding this one? Maybe I'm just out of practice? Maybe back then it was just a dream and now my baby is a reality? To help me out, I used the template provided by my agency. It seems a little mechanical to me, not like my usual style of writing, but I can live with that. Due to translating and such, they like to keep the wordings somewhat simple to help with that. I'd better get used to... more

Actually, he is almost 10 months, but he's 3 months to us. We celebrated our homecoming anniversary with our very first family vacation to the beach. If you take away getting there and coming back, the trip was amazing. If you do add in the travel time, it kind of averages out to worthwhile but not happening again anytime soon.

The Ethiopian government requires post placement letters from parents at 3 months, 6 months, one year and yearly after that until the child turns 18. Along with specific photo requirements, they want to hear about his... more

Well this post sounds boring doesn't it? I couldn't really think of a title to jazz it up, but I felt that the topic really is important, so I had to put it in here sooner or later.

There is a lot of information out there. The web, articles, television and gossip. How do you know what is true and what isn't? How can you tell if a study is a pack of lies, or a pack of truths or something in between? Here are some tips from Redbook magazine, August 2006 issue.

How big was the study? This will help you in seeing the validity of a study because larger studies tend to be more accurate. A smaller number of participants... more

According to a study that is quoted at www.lifescript.com, a first time father's age has a correlation to the health outcome of his baby, if the man is over 40 years old.

According to research published in a recent issue of the journal Epidemiology, babies born to middle-aged dads are more likely to experience weakened health than babies born to men in their 20s. Danish researchers looked at data from more than 70,000 live births between 1980 and 1996. Their results indicated that first-time fathers between 45-49 years of age were more likely to have infants who suffered from weakened heart rate and respiration, poor reflexes, and... more

The fashion part is just a joke, gals. Although, who knows, maybe we could all start a new trend! The wearable, hip, responsible birth control. Again, just joking.

As I've written before, I read a lot of magazines. This summer I kept coming across little articles and some ads for these things called CycleBeads. I didn't really pay them too much attention, since this blog is about getting pregnant, not trying to prevent pregnancy. Then I read part of their slogan, which reads, "Plan or Prevent Pregnancy Naturally". This sounded like... more

For those of you that know me in person, and those of you who have read some of my other stuff, know that there are days that I wish that I could be Ayun Halliday. Or, mostly, that we were buds and I could hang out with her. Or that I could drop my kids off with her to enjoy some altered reality in NY, instead of their real reality in WA.

Ayun is announcing the UK release of her book, The Big Rumpus (as it is known in the US), by doing a virtual book tour, visiting different blogs throughout the month of August. By following her tour, I was introduced to Tertia, the writer of So Close.

The... more

This week was a rough one. Hormones and stress don't mix too well in my life and this week was a rough blend of both. My moods are normally pretty uneven, but on weeks like this they give new meaning to peaks and valleys. Anything that seems like it might work, is worth trying for the sake of my soul and the sake of my little family.

Tuesday morning already started out crazy, then a tiny little phone conversation threw me over the edge. Nothing bad, nothing really at all, just an interaction that I overreacted to, which is not at all uncommon for me in hormonal times like these. In the magazine that I was reading, there was a blurb about How to Break Out of a Bad Mood. I pounced... more

I am currently reading Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. "Stories about Life, Death and Overcoming the Loss of a Loved One." This book typically is not the sort of thing that I read, but I've been grieving a lot lately and was looking for anything that might help while browsing the stacks at my local library. What I have enjoyed the most are the quotes leading into certain stories. Here are the ones that I have liked reading.

Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. ~Inspired by an Eskimo Legend

Death... more