Reid and Stefani Adopt

Yesterday I had the opportunity to babysit my neighbor's 5 year old. And yes, her name really is Cinderella. During dinnertime, long after Cinderella had gone home, Reid asked me how the babysitting went. "It was fun," I replied. "I worked on our Christmas advent calendar, and Cinderella made her own. We worked on learning the difference between n and m, which is good, because she wasn't pronouncing them right. Then we played reading and math games on the computer." Reid, listening in amusement, shook his head. "What?" I asked. "Well," he replied, "when you babysit, you take the time to teach them stuff. If it were me, I'd find a cartoon we both could enjoy and watch it." "We watched a little T.V. too," I said, with a smile.

This picture is Reid's jack-o-lantern. He'd been telling me that he'd lost all of his creativity for making jack-o-lanterns. I suggested doing a ninja-turtle pumpkin. (The ninja-turtles are some of Reid's favorite childhood cartoon characters.) That seemed to do the trick. He did a very elaborate jack-o-lantern, and I think he even enjoyed himself! The cat is mine. I wanted to make something less conventional this year, but not too complicated. This was an idea I grabbed from the internet...(yea for google!) Reid and I, well, maybe just me, like to milk all we can out of holidays. For Halloween, I made spooky green sugar snap pea lips with shaved almond teeth and a red pepper tongue, bug juice, complete with a gummy worm, monster mash with olives for eyes, and a pumpkin roll h'orderve.

Reid and I created this blog to share our journey through adoption. When I was just a little girl, I remember hearing a song that had the phrase "When I grow up, I want to be a mother..." My tender feelings about being a mother have made my experience with infertility very difficult for me. Ultimately, we felt impressed to turn to adoption. This has been, and continues to be, a journey of reflection, a time to cross-examine my beliefs about God, and a roller coaster of despair and hope.