Karen at the Naked Ovary has a great post up today about the phrase "Just Adopt" - you know, that wonderful two words that we hear so often from people who I'm sure mean well, but just can't seem to think of something good to say. And it's true - we heard it alot when we were going through our few years of dealing with a miscarriage followed by fertility problems, tests and treatments. "Why don't you just adopt?" people would say, to which I generally responded that "you don't just adopt. It's not that simple."

And we all... more

Anna is not a baby. She is three and a half years old, potty trained, talking in pages worth of dialogue and on the cusp of reading. She sleeps in a bed, and is going to "big girl school" in the fall. And if all this doesn't matter, she remains three and a half years old. Anna is not a baby.

My in-laws seem to have difficulty on this issue. They insist on refering to her as The Baby, which I really don't understand on so many levels. (For one thing, she wasn't the baby for almost a year while we had a foster baby staying with... more

One more day before we leave for our trip. I'm not quite sure what to say, except that I'm not anywhere near ready. I have one suitcase partially packed, and well, that's about it. I know where our passports are, does that count? I'm packing for the three of us because my husband has literally been working until 11 or 11:30 at night. I'm sending Anna to school tomorrow (not part of her usual schedule) just so I can try to get some things accomplished. I spent an hour and a half in a battle this morning with her. She did not want to get dressed. I, being the good mom that I am, insisted that she not go to school in the buff and proceeded to enter head first into a battle that you probably heard... more

So, I thought this was going to be a crazy week. We are leaving for a two week trip to Israel this Thursday, Anna has doctors appointments left and right, my husband’s been working late nights to finish a project he’s dealing with. We have to pack, finalize details for our vacation and leave our house in reasonable order before we depart. And I have to go into work tomorrow to finish up odds and ends before the position is transitioned to the person taking over for me.

And then the hard stuff began to fall. Literally. The ceiling came down in one of the bathrooms. Yup. This is really, really, really not what I need right now. It looks like it might be a cracked pipe or something lovely... more

It occurs to me today that I really should be freaking out. I'll probably be tomorrow - but not today. Today, I am only at the point of realizing that I should be. We are going to Israel soon - did I mention that? We will be there for two weeks and an extra Shabbat and are thrilled, excited and all around very happy about going. This is not our first trip by any means, but it is Anna's first visit, and she'll get to meet alot of our family that lives there who haven't seen her yet.

Everything is wonderful, except for one thing. People keep asking me when we are going and I say "Soon" or "In about a month." I think this past week I started saying "In just under three weeks." Well,... more

I think that those of us who are adoptive parents who in the past tried to have biological children really do understand that adoption is a great way to become parents. We love our children sooo much and have truly gone through so many, many hoops to get to this point. After so much heartache, having a child that is ours is a blessing and really never ceases to amaze me.

There is no "but" here, rather an "and" if you will.

And some things are still hard. And sometimes I still cry. And sometimes I still wonder why it is that our life took this path. I consider myself to have come to a place in my life where I am okay - I can talk about things openly. We have also come to accept... more

We live in a fairly young community with a great public school system and many private school options in the area. It should go without saying then, that we are generally riding some sort of "baby wave" at any given time. It was really, really hard while we were suffering losses and going through fertility treatments to watch everyone else around me seemingly effortlessly get pregnant. And with each "baby wave" it was harder, because a whole bunch of my friends people I knew in general would be giving birth around the same time. There is a break for a bit - I guess G-d lets me take a breath, and then the wave starts up again.

We are in the midst of one of those waves again here. Many... more

I don't mind people who disagree with me. I actually like quite a few of them. If you have an opinion, and back it up with well-thought out arguments, then wonderful. But what bothers me is when people simply repeat the first smart-sounding opinion that comes their way without really looking into the matter in question.

People should vote. I don't care who you vote for, but this is an amazing right that people around the world are fighting and dying for and too many of us just don't care enough to bother. And then some people show up to the polls and just pick a box, any box. How long does it take to research a candidate? In this internet age, only a short amount of time. So many... more

So it's snowing outside. In April. April! And no, I do not live in Montana. It was actually well above 70 degrees here just a few days ago and now it is snowing. Big flakes too.

I'm having a problem with this because I'm in the middle of my spring cleaning (hello? spring?) in preparation for Passover. We clean our homes from top to bottom because over the holiday we are not supposed to have any "leavened" food in our possession, hence the well loved (or hated) matza. And of course, the only way to ensure that you've cleaned out all the cheerio crumbs from behind the couch is to actually move the couch. And while you're at it,... more

This has been, by far, one of the busiest and yet somehow one of the slowest weeks in my life. Maybe it's because I'm a huge West Wing addict and I'm not quite sure how I'll get through until Sunday night. And there are only seven more episodes left! I don't watch anything else on TV except the news, and am seriously contemplating what I'll be doing with my extra hour a week after this amazing show ends in May....so sad... What would you do with an extra hour a week?

Anyway, as I was wandering around the Internet, I stumbled on a really cool site - The National Center for the Hebrew Language: Building... more