Big Girl Wheels

We took Keeva out yesterday to get her a set of big girl wheels. She was very excited but slightly scared. Of course not knowing what size would be best we tried hard to get her to try on the different sizes. She wasn't having any of it. Then one of the store workers came over and I was sure that would be the end, but no, he actually made her laugh...thank you Mr. Store Person. After a while it came down to a choice of a neutral bike, a Barbie model...very cute with a little bike attached to the handle bars that Barbie can sit in, and a Dora model. I was very surprised she wanted the Dora one and not the Barbie. Of course I wanted the neutral model partly because it was the cheapest by quite a bit. But no she had her heart set on the Dora model. Turns out after I finally coerced her to ride all three bikes a tad, the Dora one was the one best suited to her. The Barbie one the distance between the seat and the handle bars was ridiculous, obviously not for my little sprite...so in the end I was glad she didn't want that one. Now I began to worry would she actually ride the darn thing once we got it home. She would never ride her tricycle so I had reason to worry, thankfully it only cost $5 at a yard sale (gotta love yard sales). She did!!! And she did it without much of a fight. Just a second or two of panic and of she went...I did have to keep my finger on the edge of the handle bar but, she did it, up and down, up and down, for about fifteen minutes. I was thrilled and so was she. The first thing she asked this morning was to go out on her bike so, out we went. Mammy knows better than to waste voluntary enthusiasm from nervous Nelly. This time she went all the way to the end of our street and back again. I was so proud..maybe she is starting to get brave. Go keeva.....

Theres my girl...not a great photo but the only one shed let me take

Boys & Girls

So I was saying to Keeva this morning where did she get those beautiful eyes. She said she was born with them and I said but where did she get them from, me or Daddy, and she said again she was born with them. I said yeah but you’re half me and half Daddy…you have my nose, my ears, Daddy’s bum…her response: no I don’t, Daddy’s a boy and boys have those sticky things remember, girls don’t. Then she asked how do boys do poops with the little hole in their toots…..Kids do say the darnedest things.

A Day of Wings and Flowers

When I was about ten I went to Scotland on a school tour and we were taken to a Butterfly farm. I have never forgotten it, there was hundreds of them. It was amazing, all the butterflies with all their colors and sizes flying around us. It was almost like standing in a shower of confetti watching them all flying around us. When I discovered our local zoo was having a butterfly exhibit during July and August I had to take Keeva along. I was hoping it would be as magical as it was for me. It was as magical.....smaller and more crowded but still beautiful. I was afraid they wouldn't have much but there was a lot of different varieties and colors and seeing their cocoons was amazing. Some even had beautiful gold threads. Unfortunately the cocoons were behind glass so I couldn't get a good picture but I got some nice butterfly snaps. The more colorful ones were harder to get though...they seemed to hang higher up!

Keeva even got to color a butterfly which has since taken center stage on our fridge

They even had a cute little garden with toadstools frogs and caterpillars that the kids could climb all over....fun!

What about them??

We were driving down the highway the other day when I noticed the animal control van in front of us. There was a little pug standing up scratching frantically at the window. You could see the distress on his face and imagine his yelps. It near broke my heart. I had read just a short while ago about how with the economic situation that a lot of dogs are being left behind when people have to leave their homes. The shelters both humane and not so are full to the brim. Which made watching this little fella harder. There is no room for all these dogs, a lot of whom probably had loving parents and families but, because of how things have turned could not take the dogs with them. The thought of that poor little puppy heading to the pound where a fate of a big needle and a long sleep most likely awaited him was hard to reconcile. I know after Hurricane Katrina a lot of people came forward to adopt the animals left behind. My sister in law Judy was one of them. But, who's coming forward to save these animals?

Life before computers

Joe started his new job on Monday [hear me breath a sigh of relief]. Although the funny part is that he spent the past four months looking for work and driving home one Monday, from his new job, he got 2 offers and and invite to an interview. The first offer was from that wonderful company which let him go with 20 minutes notice and, it was from the same boss for the same position. Needless to say that was a swift no thank you. The next was from a company he has done some consulting to in the past and the interview, which he is still going to go on is in Minneapolis. Anyone know anything about Minneapolis?
So the future is feeling brighter around here that is considering last month we were thinking about putting our house on the market. My only problem now is Joe is taking my laptop to work with him eveyday. I am LOST. It's not even as if I used it that much or at least I didn't think I did....until now. I keep thinking of things [like do they have a French school in the Minneapolis area] and running in to look them up on line. The feeling of helplessness when I can't is actually laughable. What did we do before we had constant online access??? How did we become so addicted to instant answers and what did we do with those questions we couldn't get answered from a book we had in the house. We didn't go running to the library everyday, well at lesst I didn't. Did we just have less questions?
So I'm computerless, save my blackberry which is not easy to post with, and answerless so I guess I'll have to actually do something today. Maybe I'll go play hopscotch with Keeva although I can't remember how to play, with no Google I'll just have to make up my own rules!

I just wanna....

Hang out in my PJ's all day....

Is this allowed, am I a slob? (if you saw my elephant emblazoned ensemble you might say yes) No, I'm pregnant and my tummy is sensitive and nothing feels comfortable but my PJ's. All I ask is one day but, no, men keep knocking on the door...post man, someone soliciting a donation, neighbour......please just one day is all I ask!!! So now I'm dressed and yeah no one has knocked since....typical huh!

Mamma Mia

Growing up in Ireland I was surrounded by the music of Abba growing up.....loved it. Yeah so it wasn't lyrical splendor but didn't the music just make you feel good! Then they brought Mamma Mia to the stage, never felt inclined to go, guess I didn't really understand how they could transform songs into a play. Then they made a movie.....it got lots of hype, interviews with people who had seen the movie where full of "great" "laughter" "tears". Then the critics ran it into the ground...."staged", "rehearsed" etc etc etc... So the only thing left for my Mom and me was to go see it. We LOVED it!!! So did the whole theater....everyone was in hysterics and no one left until the last credit ran. Although the first 10 - 15 minutes I will admit wondering if it was going to be as bad as the critics said. No it wasn't, I never laughed so hard, tears where actually rolling down my cheeks with laughter. Granted teams of people do start running down the beach "spontaneously" singing and some of the vocals are not great i.e. Pierce Brosnan (although he brought me to tears when e first started as he reminded me of the ole fella down the pub who had too many pints and then decides to launch into an old deep throated rebel song) but, he does improve. And, there is the fact that some of the humour is specifically "British" but most people should get the drift.
It's not real life people it's a light hearted, witty, well made musical. Has no one ever seen South Pacific...got accolades I believe when it came out and if memory serves me, plenty of people spontaneously burst into song and run down beaches singing in this classic.
So if you feel like being light hearted and laughing harder than you have in a while....take a chance, you won't regret it.

A Plum Tree Blossoms

A blogging friend is anxiously awaiting the coming home of her little girl from Taiwan. They had this tree painted in the nursery which will sleep little Hannah Clare when she joins her loving Mom and Dad. According to Sarah (a true fountain of Knowledge on all things Taiwan) "The plum blossom is the national flower of Taiwan. The blossoms are common subjects in Chinese art. They are beloved for their resilience and perseverance in face of adversity. Plum trees bloom most vibrantly during the winter after other plants have shed their leaves and before flowers appear" Little Hannah was a preemie so how appropriate to have such a symbol of strength watching over her as she sleeps. Just had to share.

Todays Keevaism

Stumpafied......As in the character on the TV show this morning (can't remember who) "stumpafied me" translation....confused me.

Stumped meaning 8 as per the dictionary:

8. To cause to be at a loss; baffle: stumped the teacher with a question.

The struggle

The hardest thing over the past few months was that Joe lost his job at the beginning of May and has been looking and applying and talking but nothing seemed to be happening. We were becoming quite desperate as our savings were about to deplete our savings. Well just 5 minutes ago he called to say one of the people he had an interview want to take him on as a consultant and they are sending the paperwork today. I cannot tell you how relieved I am. After the end of August I don't know how we would have paid the bills. I feel so relieved....I can begin to breath. He had applied everywhere, Ireland, Dubai, Netherlands, every state in the union and nothing seemed to be coming of it.
This time I'll make sure we have a years living expenses in savings, plus I'm pairing down what we spend...for real as Keeva would say.

So this is how I believe we did it The Fertility Diet by Jorge Chavarro. Having given up hope and all doctor visits I read a snippet in a magazine about this book so, yes I ran out and bought it. All seemed simple enough and straight forward. So I went about making adjustments to what I would have said was a pretty healthy diet. The biggest changes I made where eating/drinking only whole milk (yes this can include ice cream..the full creamy kind...yummy!) This was hard considering I am lactose intolerant. The second was I increased my intake of olive oil, more dipping bread before dinner and I began to eat nuts. I used to occasionally eat nuts but began to have a snack of them every day, primarily pistachio. I also learned not to trust the 0grams trans fat label on foods. Apparently they can say 0g even if they have small amount of trans fat. I can't remember the amount but by reading the ingredients you can see they still have partially hydrogenated oils in the product. Typical! Anyway these are the biggest changes I made. It was three months and the that faithful meeting of x and y chromosomes happened. This book is a definite for any of you out there ttc!!

HELLO OUT THERE!!!

Yes, this is the biggest piece of news we have.......we're having a baby!!!! The newest little George is due to grace the world in February. It was a total surprise but, needless to say we are OVER THE MOON.

So much time....

A lot of time has passed since I last logged on here. Actually a lot of time has passed since I did anything on the net bar check in on the regular blogs I read. So I guess I need to add some updates as to previous posts.

Citizen M: M just actually left us a few weeks ago. Things went very well with M for the longest time but as we got to know her better we realized she was very delayed both educationally and emotionally...we worked hard with her on the educational side, sending her to sylvan, working closely with the school and on homework....the emotional part became very much a drain on me though. Her sister (younger) moved in with us in April. At first we thought this would be great, not so I'm afraid. M regressed tremendously after her sister joined us. I guess we didn't realize she was happy here and M2 disturbed that equilibrium and she was back to feeling she had to cater to and take care of her little sister.
M2 started of very pleasant, full of energy and life. It didn't take long to see how she was only concerned with her little universe and Keeva was a major threat to her. We really felt we could work with her but she increasingly became argumentative with us which, is one thing. It was the fact that she became a big bully to Keeva sometimes hitting and tormenting her that we could not allow to continue so we decided in June it had to come to an end. The one good thing is though that during their stay I got to know the old foster family they lived with whom they had been very happy with. Anytime we saw them together they seemed extremely relaxed and childlike...unlike the little rap star M2 was trying to be since moving to the city. I was able to push the issue that they could go back there as a long term solution as permanency not adoption was more a priority in their case now.
It felt really bad to let them go, like we had failed them after all they were just innocent children who life had dealt a bad hand. All reports though are that they are now very happy.

Joe's Mom: She has been settled in a nice nursing home now for a few months. They did attempt to send her home once but it only lasted two days before she fell and was unable to be picked up. After all she can't walk and weighs 180lbs at 4'9". We couldn't understand why they had sent her home...not being able to walk meant she couldn't use the bathroom, wash, make food and her husband has COPD with emphysema, and weighs 95lbs wet. How did they ever think they would manage. So they took her back with no more objections, we think she realized her quality of life was better in the home so she stopped fighting to go home. We tried for a long time to get my father in law to join her but it's not the kind of place he likes to be. He likes his privacy and can be argumentative at the best of times. Well he ended up in the ER a couple of weeks ago and when my sister in law told them the last time she went to his apartment he was lying in a soiled bed not having eaten on a few days so...he was sent to the home to. He seemed to settle in okay but has begun to fight or I think let go would be more apt. He has stopped eating and is deteriorating fast. Joe just called to say he got a call saying that pop had turned his oxygen off. I think he fought the past year to keep going because he felt he had to take care of Mama but now he sees she is well taken care of he feels he can let go. I don't think he will last much longer in some ways I hope in his suffering he doesn't as hard to admit as that is. I guess it's just a waiting game.

And the game we play is........

well not exactly. It's more where in RI is Marie George. I shouldn't jest but it has become somewhat comical......we keep losing Joe's Mom. She goes into RI Hospital they transfer her to somewhere else then they send her back to RI Hospital. They tell us they are transferring her another place but she never actually leaves there or she goes somewhere totally different. We don't actually find out until someone goes to see her which lately with all the flus and tummy bugs we've had hasn't been too often so there has been an occasion or two where we didn't find her for a day or two. Thankfully she has become so confused she doesn't know where she is most of the time anyway...I guess that's one good thing!

The things they say

Yesterday I had a lot of errands to run so Joe was home watching Keeva, Citizen M and one of her classmates who had come to play for the day. When I got to check my email last night I had gotten an email from Joe entitled Keeva-ism. It read: Keeva just said to her friend "I saw the movie 'daddy blew up the kids with honey" Precious!

Frozen In Grand Central Station

This is really cool....I don't know how they stayed so still, I know I couldn't have. Click on the title to view the video. Sorry but I couldn't figure out how to show it on here.....

As Americans we send our dollars

sailing down the drain........
My Mom called me saying she was listening to a Radio station from back home in Ireland and they were talking about adoption. Specifically adopting from Vietnam. She found it very interesting that these people in Ireland were adopting from Vietnam and not one of them was talking about the cost. This convinced my mother that it must cost nothing in Ireland. Of course I knew this couldn't be true...so out came the laptop and the search began....
turns out to adopt from from Vietnam in the US it can cost up to $27,000 of hard earned scrimped and saved, begged and borrowed dollars as many of you know. To adopt from Vietnam in Ireland costs $6700 dollars, yes dollars....that's 4,521.80 Euro, barely two months salary for most people. How outrageous is that, in my mind even more so because they pay in dollars the same currency we pay in. I am so sick. The cost is low as far as I could tell because all adoption is overseen by the adoption board so we don't have organizations, and yes I admit these people do wonderful work, getting a bulk of the money. Wouldn't it be better for the countless number of orphans and childless couples out there if we could get the same "deal" over here. It's obviously administrative costs driving it up if the Irish pay in the same currency and have the same time lines as here. I couldn't bring myself to look up other countries. The sad thing for me is I'm Irish and I could pay that if I was there. I used to think it was the costs keeping us out of the international adoption arena now I know it's the people creating the costs.

A mystery face

So who is this mystery face?? Well....I'm sorry can't exactly say who except that she is the newest member of the George household. On January 16 "Citizen M", a lovely tween, joined us for a night or two as she took respite from her adoptive home. Turns out she will not go back there but will stay with us for the unforeseeable future. She is very sweet and gets along with Keeva like a house on fire. Seems strange having a tween around, I'm not quite sure what to talk to her about or what to do with her and we have had a host of 4 year old birthday parties to go to which I'm quite certain has bored the pants off her, poor thing. Thankfully though it's been winter break and, although I was pulling my hair out trying to think of things to do it's turns out to my advantage that all the divorced Dads on the street have the kids this week.......so I have hardly seen hide nor hair of her. They are all great kids so I haven't had much to worry about, thank goodness. Although the hard part is DCYF doesn't let them have normal childhoods, for example my neighbor just called they are taking the kids sledding but in order for her to go myself or Joe has to go which we can't do right now. I feel real bad but it's not possible. Up until a few nights ago she wasn't even able to go next door and play with the other kids unless we went too but, her worker said if we feel we know them well enough she can. This has made things easier on all of us. The neighbors all have to get finger printed and background checks done which, they have all agreed to, if she is to be able to fully participate with the other kids. So that I guess is our biggest piece of news. I wish we could share a photo but it's not allowed. It's fun having her around but my heart is aching more now for a baby than ever. If only adoption wasn't so costly.

Wow has it really been that long since I have been on here.....time to get writing!!!!

Our first domestic adoption disappointment

On Christmas Eve, we inquired about two beautiful little girls who are available for adoption. We submitted our homestudy and were so happy to learn we were considered a potential match. We received their case studies last Thursday and spent a long time reading and re-reading them and read them against our homestudy. We were very nervous but also extremely excited; we really thought we had a great chance. The adoption agency they are with had their committee meeting yesterday to determine the best match for the girls. Turns out we were a great match, just not the best. Out of 12 families they said we were second choice. We are so very disappointed. It's hard to come across such young children in the foster system......it could be a long time before we do again. We really thought for a long time that we could adopt older kids but we know now we want children on the younger side. To have lots of little Keevas running around. It's so funny how we can take these children into our hearts, begin to build dreams around them when we don't even know if they'll be ours. I guess we romanticize them. I think we realize now how hard this road might be, how many times we may get disappointed, have our hopes dashed......I guess we'll have to learn to look without emotion and build a thick skin against rejection.