Future Olypmic Medalist???

Mackenzie has a very big day tomorrow. She starts her ice skating lessons!! Now, ice skating was not exactly my first (or second) choice for her, but once this child makes up her mind it's pretty much set. So, ice skating it is! She is so excited also!! She has been asking me every day if it's Tuesday yet. Our only main concern is the whole asthma thing. Cold weather has always been her biggest trigger so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she will do ok. We also paid a visit to her pediatrician to learn how to use an inhaler with an Aero-chamber. Unfortunately she says the inhaler hurts her nose :( I'm hoping that it is just the smell and that she gets used to it.

Even more exciting is the fact that one of her best friends, "Bird", will be taking lessons with her. Now this is exciting for both of us! Bird's mom is also one of my close friends. I'm very excited that I will have someone to hang with while M takes lessons. Also, exciting because I'm kind of intimidated by the other moms. I know this sounds a little high-schoolish but ice-skating moms always seem so intense and I'm afraid they won't like me. Wow....yeah I totally just wrote that, I sound like such a baby.

Anyway, I'm excited for M's lessons. I really hope that she enjoys them and does well because I want her to find her niche. Also, I really need a way to burn off some of her energy!! That kid is non-stop!! Hopefully I will get a chance to post tomorrow, but it might not be until later in the week.

On the adoption front (because I know that's why some of you are here :) things are plugging along. DJ had his doctor's appointment last week and is scheduled for fingerprinting on Friday. Add that to the fact that the adoption bank account is slowly (but surely) growing and I'm definately getting excited on that front! We have some lingering paperwork to finish up and hopefully very soon we can get started on our homestudy :)

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Christmas Conflicted

New Year’s Resolution….blog more!! LOL!!

Sorry for the recent silence but our Christmas season was insanely busy!!! We managed to make it through the holidays mostly unscathed, presents are put away, tree is still up but its days are numbered!! I’m happy to report that I had many less meltdowns than I thought I would. It was definitely tough though. It seemed like everything that we did around the holidays, part of me was thinking about how differently it would have gone if Jack was still with us. It really, really made me miss my little man. At the same time part of me was also thinking forward to next Christmas. Will we have another little one in the family or will we still be waiting to add to our family?

As I sat back and read that last statement it occurs to me how weird of a situation we are in. I can’t even describe the feelings that are warring within me. I feel so conflicted grieving for my son while looking to add to our family. Despite that I do feel that God is continuing to affirm our decision to adopt.

On a more pleasant note, Christmas was happily celebrated at our house. We had an awesome Christmas Eve service at our church that I played in. It was very interesting because there was only child care for kids 3 and younger so Mackenzie, her friend Maya, and quite a few other kids were in service, some for the first time. The highlight of the service (for me anyways) was when Mackenzie came up to the stage during a song to ask me if she could have a cookie. Everyone got a kick out of it and I almost had to stop playing because I was laughing so hard!! After service we enjoyed a nice meal at a local Italian restaurant with some of our good friends from church before heading home to prepare for Santa’s arrival.

Christmas day was great. Mackenzie slept on the floor in our room and woke us up early to see what Santa brought. Once the presents were out under the tree we realized just how much she had. Luckily Santa is lazy and does not wrap his presents! She actually stopped at one point with presents under the tree and said she would “Save those for later”. We finally managed to get everything opened and put away. We actually spent part of Christmas Eve morning cleaning up her room to make space for everything we knew Santa was bringing.

That next week my dad came into town and on Thursday we went to the Magic Kingdom…along with everyone else in central Florida!! It was soooo busy and despite the “holiday season” not everyone was in a magical mood. We stayed a lot later than we had planned on but had a great day. Mackenzie even rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is a roller coaster that even scares me!!

New Year’s Eve was kind of low-key. We had some friends over to celebrate with food and fireworks. We managed to make it to midnight and bid Adios!! to 2010. I must say I was not entirely sad to see it go.

I’m really looking forward to 2011 and to seeing what God has planned for our family in the upcoming year. Can’t wait!!

Post again soon….I promise…
~Jeny

Beta House and Christmas Pictures

What an incredible evening! If you’ve been hanging around here for awhile you’ve probably read about our trips to the Beta House. Last night we had dinner with them (Shepherd’s Pie) and took them a Christmas tree to decorate. We were also able to do pictures for the girls in front of the newly decorated Christmas tree. We decided to use this opportunity to have a family Christmas picture taken. Surprisingly I don’t think that we’ve ever had a family Christmas picture taken. Usually we put it off so long that we end up taking a last minute picture of Mackenzie to put on the Christmas card. Luckily they turned out really nice.

Of course we ended up with one shot that was the ultimate essence of Mackenzie.

Yup, that’s my kid!

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was good. It was nice to have some time off with the family. I must say the highlight of the day was the black Friday shopping, which for the first time actually started on Thanksgiving (dislike!). We hit up Toys R Us and Target and I got most everything that was on my list. The only thing I had trouble finding was that darn Lalaloopsy doll! I hadn’t even heard of them before a couple weeks ago but now I was intent on finding one…apparently along with most of Central Florida! I really did not anticipate that they would be that difficult to find.

Toys R Us was out of them, Target was out of them, even the Toys R Us express was out of them. I was about to give up when the lady at TRU express suggested I order one online from their website. She even found it and ordered it for me, plus free shipping and delivered right to my door. Possibly the best deal I got all day (er…night….no by that time day again). Although they only had one type left I found out later it was exactly the one she wanted :-)

So basically my Christmas shopping is done. WooHoo!! I have a few little last things to pick up but for the most part it is done…another perk of black Friday shopping. Lights are on the house, Christmas tree is up and the latest “cold snap” definitely has me in the Christmas spirit.

Although I’m looking forward to Christmas, I’m also dreading it a little. Thanksgiving was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. It was most difficult reading all the things people were thankful for and being consumed with the one thing I was NOT thankful for. Yeah, yeah, I know…I should focus on what I am thankful for but I’m not quite there…yet. It’s something I’m working on…..

Post again soon,
~Jeny

Random Ramblings

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week!! It really seems like it was just summer and already the end of the year is in sight. I have been working on our Christmas shopping list today. Mackenzie is proving hard to shop for because she has given so few clues as to what she would actually like. The first time I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her she responded with “Whatever he wants to bring me is fine.” Wow, talk about the response that a parent really wants to hear!

After some close observation we finally came up with a few items to put on her wish list. Top of the list? Baby doll stuff of course! I must admit that shopping for Christmas is one of my most favorite activities of the year. Especially Black Friday shopping!! Yes, for those of you who are not familiar with the darker side of Jeny, I am one of “those people”. You know one of the crazy women that stand in line in the cold for hours just for the privilege of shopping with hundreds of other cranky tired obsessed parents looking for that one toy that their child just HAS to have! I go for an entirely different reason – it’s the same reason that I clip coupons and stalk grocery store circulars. It’s the thrill of the hunt. I just love looking at that receipt and seeing in black and white how much I’ve saved.

On the adoption front, this week was filled with doctor’s appointments and fingerprinting. The fingerprinting experience was interesting. I’ve been fingerprinted before but had to be re-fingerprinted for the agency. We are still working on our “homework packet”. We’re hoping to have all of that done and submitted soon despite the busy holiday season.

Also, we have added a “ChipIn” button on the right sidebar. This will give people the opportunity to contribute to the adoption fund if they feel called to do so. We are about 10% of the way to the total cost of adoption and about $7,100 from the point where we can start applying for grants. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us get to the 10% mark!!

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Highs and Lows...

Today was a day of highs and lows. Some days still totally blindside me unfortunately. I was in church and halfway to my seat before I remembered why church was packed and there were an awful lot of babies there….

Oh right, the Baby Dedication was today…needless to say it did not go very well.

I managed to make it out of the room at least before losing it. After I pulled myself together I was able to watch from the connections café. I know it’s meant for crying babies but apparently it works well for crying mommies also. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t stop thinking about how we should have been up there with Jack, imagining how it would be if only things had gone differently. Needless to say it was NOT my favorite Sunday…

Since we had another fundraiser today DJ took Mackenzie to the Children’s Miracle Network Golf Tournament so that I could go hang out with some awesome ladies and do some Christmas shopping. Today was our Thirty-One Gifts fundraising party. Let me say if you have never been to a Thirty-One Gifts party, you definitely need to check it out! I had the hardest time trying to decide what to get…or should I say what NOT to get!! There was so much cute stuff to look through. I’d love to post all of the cute stuff that I ordered but most of it is meant for Christmas presents so it will have to wait :-) I am so incredibly thankful to Elizabeth for hosting the party and to our Thirty-One Gifts consultant Ashley Haley for so generously donating her commission from the party to the adoption fund.

Ashley has agreed to keep ordering for the party open until next Sunday so if you are looking for some super cute Christmas presents head on over to her website www.mythrityone.com/AshelyHaley/ . Just remember to select “Elizabeth Hood’s Party” when you checkout.

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Garage Sale....finally!

The garage sale was an incredible success! Thank you so much to everyone that helped out either by donating items, helping set up or by stopping by to show your support. We were wonderfully overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that everyone has shown us.

We managed to sell most of what we had and raised an incredible $1,204.45 despite having the COLDEST day so far this “winter”. I hope to have pictures uploaded at some point, but sadly I’m notoriously bad at remembering to upload pictures. I hope to have more time to focus on little details like that now that the craziness of the garage sale is (mainly) behind us…

We had an eventful evening that night as well. Because the weather turned cold that weekend and she spent so much time running around outside Mackenzie landed in After Hours that night with a pretty severe asthma attack :-( She started vomiting in the evening from the strain on her stomach muscles and it got so bad that she wasn’t able to keep anything down. At After Hours they gave her some additional breathing medicine along with steroids to help her breathing, some zofran to settle her stomach and some i.v. fluids to keep her from getting dehydrated. We spent most of the next day lounging on the couch and watching every Disney movie in our collection. After a couple days she was back to normal and thankfully is now doing great.

We are continuing to plan fundraising events. Our next fundraising opportunity is actually happening tomorrow…or rather later today by the time I will get this posted! One of our friends is hosting a Thirty-One Gifts party and the consultant has generously offered to donate her commission to the adoption fund. If you’re interested in ordering but aren’t able to make it to the event, you can take a peek and order online at www.mythirtyone.com/AshleyHaley/ . Check out the catalog and remember to select “Elizabeth Hood’s Party” at checkout.

We had a really wonderful experience today. We attended a family picnic that was thrown by the adoption agency that we are working with. It was a really amazing opportunity to meet some other families that have gone through the adoption process and also other families that are going through the process. It was great to talk to other adoptive parents and hear some about their journeys. It also continued to confirm for us that this is truly where God is calling us right now. I think the intent of the picnic was lost on Mackenzie though. At one point she pointed toward the church building we were next to and asked if we got the babies inside. It took a couple tries but I finally convinced her that we would not be bringing home a baby that day. I’m always amazed at the stuff that kid comes up with!

Post again soon!
Jeny