Legacy of the Adopted Child

I found this beautiful poem and thought what a sweet way to celebrate our journey as well as acknowledge the birth mothers of all the adopted children. I thought I would post it this month, to celebrate Mother's Day and Adoption Mommies to be day! Please enjoy.

Legacy of an Adopted Child Author -- unknown
Once there were two women, Who never knew each other. One you do not remember, The other you call mother.
Two different lives, Shaped to make yours one. One became your guiding star, The other became your sun.
The first gave you life, And the second taught you to live it. The first gave you need for love, And the second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality, The other gave you a name. One gave you the seed of talent, The other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions, The other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile, The other dried your tears.
One gave you up... It was all that she could do. The other prayed for a child, And God led her straight to you.
And now you ask me Through your tears, The age-old questions Through the years.
Heredity or environment... Which are you a product of? Neither, my darling...neither, Just two different kinds of love.

A great way to spend today

A few years back, my little niece decided to pursue dancing, (of course not without a little persuasion from her "Aunt Ivy" and a few bribes that she could sleep over any time she wanted!) While I have watched her blossom into an incredible ballerina, today I went to see my eleven year old celeb. practice. For at least 30 minutes she had no idea I was there, so I was privledged to watch her from a different perspective, a serious young dancer, now practicing with seasoned professionals for an upcoming recital that she had to audition for. The studio was very hot, the dancers at least 2hrs into a 3 plus hour rehersal, and lot's of taped toes and ankles. I saw a serious girl now, all eyes on her instructor and older mentors. Her movements fluid and graceful, as beads of sweat seem to make her face gleam in the light. I stood there in complete amazement at this child's complete attention to every detail. While most kids would be home on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Nik was pouring her heart into learning this new routine. I wanted to run up and give her this great big hug, but of course didn't want to embarass her but more importantly distract her. Then as if we were both thinking the same thing, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at me!. Yep that's the little girl I am used to seeing, I laughed and it just made my day. I guess it's worth sharing, because while I would go to every performance, I never fully understood the hard work and her committment, until I watched today. Thanks Snickerdoodle, for putting a huge smile on my face!

Oh, and then it was onto the Battle of the Siblings as we headed to the Tennis Courts for some even hotter competition. Gee, I felt old, seemed like yesterday when I could run all over the courts, guess it was the fact that I was in sandals that slowed me down today (good excuse, but I was told I looked like I was swatting at flies). Yep kids say the most delightful things! So I am keeping this to remind myself and them, what good sports we all are, and that humor really should be part of every day!

I love you Jake, Syd and Snicker!

Aunt Ivy

I just love quilts!

Right click on the quilts for a close up picture

Thanks Melinda for making these beautiful quilts! I took some of the squares from my collection from the One Hundred Good Wishes Swap group on Yahoo, and with the amazing talent of Melinda Keppler had several crib quilts made. I received this photo today. I love it!

The first is a lap quilt that Melinda made after I sent her the border and backround. The fabric is darling and called Memoirs from China Mei Mei, with little sisters playing and celebrating life. She coordinated all the rest and what a great job, such a fine talent. Like I said I can't even sew buttons (hence velcro and zippers LOL).

The next phot is the very girly animal quilt done with the most adorable baby animal fabrics. Of course the back is PINK, and check out my favorite of the german shephard holding a stuffed cat in his mouth. That was my addition, since my pup walks around with some stuffed animal all the time, kind of like a kid with their stuffed toy!

Oh this really made a stressful day actually pretty nice. By the way I still haven't looked at my agency email. I think I will wait on that one.

Okay, now I can have another cup of coffee.

Thank you so much Melinda and Laura too!

Hugs to you both,

Ivy

It's that time of the month again!

Yep, it's that time of the month again, meaning the first week of every month when we all find out how quick or slow the CCAA has progressed in April. For me, this means my palms are sweating, my heart is skipping a beat and I am sure I will make Dani completely crazy for at least the next few days trying to make sense of why the wait keeps getting longer. As I write this blog entry an email awaits me from our agency notifying all of the dates the CCAA has matched up to and usually the Provinces the children from which this group of children came from. I don't know whether to delete it, or open it out of pure curiosity. But my curiosity may turn into this pain of disappointment if they haven't finished October yet.

Every month I try a new approach, emotionally that is, like empathy, jubilation (haven't felt that since they did 2 entire months of reviews), anticipation, apathy, logic, distractions (shopping is a good one), lately, someway to calm myself versus the above surge of adrenaline that I no longer get from java. It's all part of the process I keep telling myself. But would someone please convince my heart!

I guess I want some sort of symmetry here versus ambiguity. I want so desparetly to be holding our daughter sooner rather than later. Since I have never been a Momma before, I don't even know if these emotions make sense, but yet month to month I do try and stay focused on the end result, finally having the child we so desparetly and patiently waited for! Yes, that makes this entire wait worth it. So for now, yep I am hanging again, by a Thin Red Thread,

and will lay off the coffee for a bit.

Ivy