A Month of Posts

Things I have been replaying in my head to blog about:

1) Someone sent us a $50 gift card to Kroger in an unmarked envelope with a card that said " Thinking of You" a couple of months ago. It wasn't anyone's birthday nor were we grieving anything. It was such a cool, thoughtful surprise and obviously the person wanted no thanks for the gesture. Instead of just accepting the gesture and thanking the air, I tried desperately to figure out who might have sent it, short of sending the envelope for handwriting analysis. I wondered if the person who sent it was just being nice or if I somehow communicated at some point to someone that we were hungry or destitute and then I felt guilty. I have finally stopped inspecting the envelope for forensic clues. I have come to the conclusion that if the person wanted a thank you note then they would have signed the card, still I wanted to thank you if you if the sender was one of the five people who read my blog. Thanks.

2) L's language explosion. She is a fully formed human being at this point. I still marvel at this fact. At 21 months, she talks in multiple word sentences with several sentences strung together... in Spanglish. "But now, where is Dada going?" "Is he goin' oficina?" "Adios Dada driving in the coche." Her latest favorite phrase, "But why?" followed by parental explanation, then "Ohhhh, that's why because" and "I do it all.by.my.self". And this latest parent/child interaction, "I want to eat now please" to which I sighed rhetorically, "hmmm, what am I going to feed you little girl?" to which she replied, "ummmmm....food?" with a unmistakeable look of disgust on her face at my obvious stupidity. Is she already going through puberty?

3) Having the desire to find a job that pays a decent amount of money with benefits and involves absolutely no stress, no risk of people berating you at will, no expectation that if people are berating you, that you must listen to it and/or respond in calm, supportive, person-centered ways and no chance of having to remove crying, traumatized kids from their parents' or people who promised to be their parents' homes. I have come up with the following professions which probably don't meet the money and benefits criteria; fortune cookie fortune writer, ice cream taster, and the person who delivers Publisher's Clearinghouse checks to million dollar winners. Please add to the list and let me know of any openings.

4) Finding myself surprised on a couple of occasions lately when people make comments which indicate that they make an assumption that we adopted D and E because we couldn't have our "own children" and what a miracle L is since we didn't think we would ever get pregnant. This surprises me because it isn't true and surprises me that it irritates me. And it surprises me that I then feel like I want to retort with a bunch of personal information about our how it all actually happened. Why is this? I It's crazy to me that people wouldn't assume that adoption could be a first choice. I want to let them know that adoption, actually was our first choice. I think it's an insult to my adopted kids. Which I guess shows my prejudice about those who feel that genetic procreation is always a first choice. I know it's easy for me to say since I've had the best of three worlds - one wonderful kid adopted internationally, one phenomenal kid adopted domestically and one amazing kid cooked in my own uterus. Three for three. I consider myself lucky to have had all of the experiences that led me to my kids. I truly feel that the paths to parenthood all include a mixture of different kinds of pain and sacrifice and it just never occurred to me to think of one of them as less ideal. Perhaps I m reading too much into their assumptions.

5) This week is "big box of blueberries on sale week", which comes but once a year. This year we purchased 28 pounds. I love summer produce.