The Sweetest Thing

Shawn and I have been very lucky during our adoption process. We have met the kindest, most creative, most generous people ever. I'm always left speechless at the thoughtfulness of everyone we've encountered.

The other day when we got home from the airport, there was a package in the mail addressed to me and I saw it was from Michelle. I wondered why she would mail something to me since we live only 7 minutes away from each other. I opened it up and inside was the cutest little handmade sweater for the baby! People, let me stress this, she KNIT this!

I was blown away when I saw it. Thank you so much Michelle! I can't wait until we see my girl wearing her beautiful sweater!



Hmmm, Shawn I don't think it was meant for you.

Best weekend **Update**

I had the best weekend. As many of you saw in my last post, on Saturday we went to pick up my copy of Harry Potter. I told Shawn he could do whatever he wanted but to leave me alone as I was going to be reading the book until I was done and that's exactly what I did. I sat outside in my backyard with my feet up, a blanket (as it was a bit cool for my liking), a drink and the phone and of course my book. I stayed out there all afternoon, all evening and I would've been there for most of the night if it weren't for the "incident". I had Jazz outside with me, I don't like to let her out too much but since I was going to be there anyways I figured it would be fine. At about 10 pm I heard some rustling in the flowers. I first, I thought it was Jazz puttering around. I looked up and that's when I saw them. I quickly realized that they weren't my Jazz because she doesn't have a white stripe running down her back. Yup, I had two skunks in my backyard. I quickly scooped up Jazz (with my book in hand) and ran into the house. I then made myself comfortable on the couch and finished at about 1:30 am.

On Sunday, we made our way to Niagara on the Lake for a lovely picnic with Michelle and Mark, Rhonda and Josh and Nicole and Tim. It was a perfect day for a picnic. The weather was beautiful, the company was great as always. Niagara on the Lake is very special to Shawn and I as that's where we got engaged. Nicole surprised us though with custom made pictures that were representative of our blogs. Rhonda's was represented by maple leaves, Michelle's a pumpkin and mine a flower (growing, get it?). It was so beautiful! Both Shawn and I were blown away. Did I mention that Nicole painted these? This picture really does not do it justice. I think I might be hanging it up early just because it's so beautiful. Thank you so much Nicole!



After eating, we walked around the town and went into a couple of the stores. We then went to the gazebo where Shawn proposed.

Mark joining in our special moment.



Just the two of us.



Speaking of Nicole, she and Tim are going to be leaving this week to pick up their son from Vietnam! Congratulations guys! We're so excited for you. I wish you a safe flight and trip. Can't wait til you both get back so we can meet Z as well.

**Stacy, one of the people who I thought would be killed off was, the other one wasn't. Won't say who, just in case.

Tracey, I LOVED the book! It was sad for me because it was the last one but I had to read it to make sure nobody spoiled it for me. I think it was by far the best of the seven books. I really hope JK Rowling does a prequel, even though she said she wouldn't, it would be fun to see Harry's parents growing up at Hogwarts.

Thank you again SB!

Last month our secret buddy sent us a few months gift at once. Shawn and I decided that we would open the presents half way through the month. We opened up July's present and what a treat! This month's theme was At the Beach. Our SB got us some beach toys and a very cute beach towel. Everything in the cutest beach themed bag.

I can't wait to see our peanut playing with her toys and wrapped up comfy cozy in her towel. Thanks again SB, you're the best.

Lucky

I truly believe that Shawn and I are two very lucky people. During this very long journey, we have been very lucky to meet some of the most fantastic people. Our friends have made this entire process much easier to deal with.

This weekend I was able to spend a lot of time with my new friends and what a blast we had. On Friday, I met Michelle and Nicole at Yorkdale. We did a bit of window shopping while we waited for everyone else arrived for all the other waiting mommies. Once again it was a blast! What a great group of ladies, so full of support, patience and understanding, and the way they make me laugh!

We had a gift exchange as well, the theme was summer baby. I don't know who's gift I got but I would like to say thank you very much! We got some beach toys and some swimmers. Very cute stuff.



Paula's mom made these little knit bears for everyone, I thought they were adorable. I wish I could knit.



I really like this picture of Nicole and me. Thank you Catherine for taking this picture, it actually proves that we know each other.

On Saturday, Michelle came over early in the morning and we headed over to this store to find all the grand opening sales. I bought stuff. I bought a lot of stuff. Good thing Shawn was still sleeping and he wasn't around when we went.


Our buggy when we left the store.

The stash.

I couldn't help it, they were on sale for $1.50 a pack. I had to stock up. It was an offer I just couldn't refuse. They had a limit of 10 per purchase, so I went back in the afternoon with Shawn and made him get some for me too. Now I'll never have to buy another pack for a very long time.

The side view.

I also picked up some stickers (half price), funny shaped scissors (on sale 2 for $1.00), photo boxes (3 for $5.00), ribbon (2 for $1.00). My it was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I invited some of our friends over for a scrapbooking party. Rhonda, Cari, Nicole, Michelle, Suzanne and Laurie and her husband Austin came over for the day. We had all levels of expertise, our resident experts were Nicole and Cari and thank goodness they were there. We were able to learn an awful lot from them as to how to place pictures, what tools to use, paper to buy, embellishments etc. I couldn't believe how much stuff Nicole and Cari had! I never would of thought of how to use any of it if it weren't for both of them. Thank you ladies!

Rhonda also came with a gift for me/peanut. It's one of the charm bracelets we had both been looking for! We both wanted a bracelet that would commemorate our wait for our girls. I thought I was out of luck regarding the bracelet as most jewelers kept saying they didn't have anymore. Well Rhonda managed to find one and got one for me. Thank you very much! You don't know how much I appreciate it. Right now, the bracelet is naked, I have to find some charms that are meaningful to both Shawn and I.


Then last night at approximately 3 am I woke up to the sound of beeps, they wouldn't stop and they wouldn't let me sleep. So I got up to try and find the source of the beeps. It wasn't on the main level and I deduced that it was coming from the basement. This really surprised me as we don't have anything down there. Turned out that it was the carbon monoxide detector beeping. Not good. I went back upstairs and Shawn of course was still passed out. I woke him up to tell him that the detector was going off in the basement. He suggested that we plug in the detector from the main level to the basement to see if it would still go off. We plugged it in and it didn't beep so the good news is we weren't being poisoned. I just wish that detector had gone off at 3 in the afternoon instead of 3 in the morning. Needless to say, I'm very tired right now. Sleep does not come easy to me, once I wake up it's hard for me to get back to sleep. I think I fell asleep close to the time I had to wake up. At least I'll be in bed soon and hopefully the new detector will work properly.

Secret Buddy strikes again!

This is a bit late but I wanted to thank our Secret Buddy for our May gift. It came while we were out of town so it was a nice surprise waiting for us when we got home. This months theme was Ladybugs, Pandas and Dragons and our SB got us the cutest things. She got peanut a cuddly stuffed panda, a ladybug picture frame, a ladybug lunch cooler and a dragon puppet. She also sent us scrapbook stickers with a Chinese dragon, pandas and ladybugs. She also sent along a very thoughtful card with very kind words for me.



Thank you very much SB! You don't know how much we both look forward every month to the package that you send. I know you've put a lot of thought and care into everything for our peanut. I can't wait to find out who you are (hopefully later than sooner according to the talk in the group) so I can tell our peanut all about you.

Busy days

This weekend once again has been jam packed. Yesterday Shawn and I went to his cousin's Alanna and Allan's place to celebrate their first anniversary. I remember their wedding like it was yesterday, I can't believe it's been a year! It was a lot of fun.

Today we were finally able to meet another one of my bloggy friends Tracey, Mike and their adorable Papaya. Also joining us were Lisa, Craig and Kaileigh, and Rhonda and Josh. It was so great to be able to meet Tracey as she received her referral for Rian just a few weeks ago. We met everyone at the Pickle Barrel for brunch. Papaya is an absolute doll! Both she and Kaileigh played very nicely together, it was very sweet to see two such amazing girls together.

Tracey also gave the baby adorable presents, little pink socks (I am a sucker for baby socks, always have been), a Twist 'em toy, and a little pink food container with spoon which will come in very handy when we eventually travel to China. Inside the container were two chocolate ladybugs. Thank you very much Tracey, I know our peanut will love everything as much as we do.

Thank you everyone

Once again I have to thank you all for all your kind words and support. Most days I am now doing better, but then you get a holiday or a special occasion and I'm back at square one. As Michelle reminded me "they" say all the firsts are the hardest to get through. I hope next year is a bit better because I'm not sure I can handle this every year.

I am very fortunate to have found some amazing women through this crazy world of International Adoption. On Saturday night I had the honour of meeting even more mommies in waiting and some mommies that have returned home with their babies this year. A very large group of amazing women got together at the Pickle Barrel for a great evening of food and talk. There were of course those that I've met before, Michelle, Kathy, Rhonda, Cari and Nicole. I got meet Catherine, Jill, Beth, Liz, and many, many others. Nicole got to show off pictures of her adorable Z. I can't wait til she travels to get him so we can go visit.

Jill gave everyone a a little tin can containing white tea and a fortune cookie. My fortune was "You will soon choose between two jobs"...interesting. From Liz and Ava we received the cutest little ladybug shaped tupperware. There was also a gift exchange where we drew numbers and got one from the pile. I drew number one and got the cutest pj's and found out later that it was from Kathy, kind of appropriate I think that I ended up with that one.

**I would've taken a picture but our battery died and I've been too lazy to plug it in. I'll get it charged tonight and edit this post when I take the picture.**

It was a lot of fun getting together with everyone. I'm glad I was FINALLY able to make it (it had always been one thing or another before that prevented me from attending). I can't wait until the next dinner in July!

Another wonderful get together

Last night we were lucky enough to join our bloggy/adoptive friends for a wonderful evening. Kathy was my very first bloggy friend and for months we tried to get together but one thing or another that prevented us us from meeting.

Michelle found out that Kathy and Joel were going to be in town for a seminar so she invited us all over to her place for dinner. After many attempts we finally were able to meet and what a fabulous evening we had! It was worth the wait to meet Kathy and Joel, they are a truly fabulous, funny, wonderful couple.

Michelle made the yummiest salad best veggie manicotti. If I'm singing the praises of vegetable you know it had to be good since veggies ain't my thing. Then for dessert it was fruit and chocolate, you can't beat that. Both Mark and Michelle are very gracious hosts and of course we had a great time with them as we always to.

Kathy then surprised us with this adorable blanket that they made from scratch. It's an original Kathy and Joel creation! It is so soft and very warm. I know the baby will love it as much as we do. Thank you very much, we both love it.



Thank you all once again for such a wonderful evening. We had a blast!

My Secret Buddy Rocks!

My secret buddy sent our April gift with our March gift and I decided to open it in the middle of the month to break up the month. This month's theme was April Showers bring May Flowers. When we opened it yesterday and we love it! Our secret buddy sent us the most adorable ladybug umbrella with buggy eyes on top. Our SB also sent us a jewellery box with little ladybugs on it. I'll make sure that it gets filled with goodies for the baby!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, you've made our made our month once again.

Thank you Secret Buddy

When we got home today there was a note from our postal worker letting us know we had a package at the post office to pick up. Both Shawn and I were scratching our heads wondering what it could be because neither one of us had ordered anything recently. So off went Shawn to the post office to pick it up. Wouldn't you know it, our secret buddy did not only send our March gift AND April as well, she also sent a very special gift for me.

I was very surprised to see something addressed specifically for me. When I opened the envelope there was a beautiful sympathy card with a lovely note from SB. She let me know that she had read my blog and learned that I had recently lost my mom and let me know about her experiences and loses. It was very touching and comforting. The package contained a memorial plaque that I now have next to my mom's picture in my family room. On the plaque is a rose, SB if you're reading this, the rose was my mom's favourite flower. Of course being the emotional basket case that I am I started crying when I realized what everything was. I am so touched that you thought of me and have honoured my mom's memory this way. I can't wait til we meet so I can thank you properly.

Mom and the plaque.

After I dried up my tears, I opened up March's gift, the theme was "Light up the Night". Our secret buddy sent us two very cute lights in the shape of flowers and some candles in very colourful candle holders. She even included the light bulbs! How thoughtful is that? I'm so excited to put up (or have Shawn put up) the lights in her nursery.

We will hold onto April's gift, I will resist the urge to open it early ;).

There was another recipient of my SB's generosity that was unexpected. Because she sent everything in one box, Jazz got in on the action as well. She loved playing in the box with the little peanuts of styrofoam. So on Jazz's behalf, thank you very much! You've really outdone yourself.

Special presents

On Saturday as Isabel and I were at our local Superstore picking up the party supplies when we saw the most adorable little dress. Isabel knows that Shawn and I have made the decision to not buy anything for the baby until we get closer to our referral so she decided to buy the little dress for her niece. It's a beautiful little dress with ladybugs on it. It even has the diaper cover up underwear too. I know Tita Isabel is going to enjoy shopping for her niece.

Later in the evening, our friends Khal and Sara also brought something for the baby, a Dora Activity Ride-on. Of course Shawn and Khal were forced to put it together because we had many little anxious people waiting to take it for a spin. Thank you very much Khal and Sara, I know the baby will love it, seeing how Tara, Lucas and Shayla were going crazy over it.
Tara and Shawn putting the toy together


The completed project.


Going for a spin.

I asked Lucas if it's been safety tested and he responded that yes it is, he safety tested it himself. I have my own safety inspector. How cool is that?

Our Secret Buddy Strikes Again

Last night when we got home, there was a notice from Canada Post letting us know that we had a package waiting for us at the post office. Shawn went today to pick up the package for me and it was from our Secret Buddy. I have an awesome Secret Buddy! This months theme was Tub Time. She sent us a hooded towel, wash cloths and tub toys, including a rubber duckie! I have to make sure that Shawn doesn't take the toys and start playing with them first. It all came in a cute cloth bag with little yellow duckies. Everything was (as Lucas would say) so cute!

Thank you again, I know our munchkin will love it!