Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore

***edited**
first Happy Mother's day next week. I totally thought it was this weekend. So much that I sent all of my mother's day cards out yesterday....what a OCD freak.

Then I have no idea why I thought that the booting off part of Dancing with the Stars was on Wed. I know it is on Tues, but somehow I was confused this week, and thought it was being interupted by the weather. But then when I looked at TIVO it showed that it had taped it. So I was convinced that TIVO is so smart( and it is) and that since the weather wasn't on everywhere else in the country that it still just taped the network and not the local version of what was on....okay just work with me here. Yes it was a very blonde moment, and my husband said he didn't say anything to me so that it wouldn't hurt my feelings and he knew I would figure it out. DUH!!!!

I am so over due in updating. Time just seems to fly by. I would say that is a great thing while we are waiting, but it isn't flying by that fast. But here is what has been keeping me busy.



I have lived in TX for 17 years, and grew up in the Midwest, so this tornado thing isn't something new to me. But I must tell you, for the last two weeks(actually for the last 2 Wednesday-I know this to be the case, because I keep missing who gets booted off of Dancing with the Stars for god sakes) But last Wednesday we were fairly certain that there was a strong possibility that we were going to actually experience a tornado first hand. So we grabbed our stuff(for me that included my purse, cell phone, our dossier, our scrapbooks that I loaded into trash bags, and some sneakers-Not sure exactly what "D" grabbed-I am sure more practical stuff) The sirens started going off, the sky got a strange green hue to it, and the wind picked up. But it still didn't feel that scary as "D" was here, and he was calm as usual. We didn't actually get into the closet except to make sure we would fit with all the cushions we had put in there. It all passed by pretty quickly, and I think there ended up being only one tornado that actually did only a little bit of damage, and it wasn't even that close to us.
But then yesterday rolled around, and while I knew that storms were forecasted, I was not the least bit worried. Well that was until I saw the GIANT band of RED headed towards us, and the reports that there were rotations reported, and that there was torrential rain, and up to 100 mph straight line winds. OKAY friends I am now home by myself, and I am FREAKING out. Freaking out so much that all I grabbed was my purse(with my phone) flashlight, and this wind up radio thing. So I call "D" to tell him to not leave the office(which he had and was sitting in traffic) He tells me to be calm, and just a make sure I have a flashlight, plenty of cushions, and to crack a window. Well about that time I see our patio table and umbrella go flying pass the window and into the yard, and the trees are sideways, and it is raining so hard that I can't see the houses across the street. The lightening was terrible so we decide that we should hang up, and I told him I would call him back to give him an update to when he would be getting the brunt of the storm. Well about 3 minutes later the siren that is right in our neighborhood went off, and needless to say, that was all she wrote. Thankfully we don't have our daughter yet, as I would have scared her to death. I just started crying like a little girl. I thought this was really going to happen, and I was going to have to do it all by myself. I have never seen it storm like this before. I mean we have 30 foot trees in our front yard, and they were leaning so far over I thought there is no way for them to not just snap like a toothpick. The icing on the cake was when the electricity went off, and now I could no longer hear or see the TV to know what was happening. That part really sucked. I just sat in our downstairs closet on my cell phone while crying on the phone and chastising my husband for always working too late(like that was useful-I apologized later) and he just stayed calm as a cucumber, and kept telling me that I would be safe, and it would be okay. He was right, it was okay. When it was finally over I needed to go to bed as I felt like I had been through a tornado, I was mentally exhausted.
So this was the first time in nearly 40 years of living, I really thought this was going to be a scene out of The Wizard of OZ. But here I am no worse for the wear. This tornado thing really sucks. I think that once again we were very lucky, and our area escaped with minimal damage.
However we did get much needed rain. I think they said that there are still 200,000 without electricity.

Okay, the next thing I want to share with you is the attachment/bonding seminar I went to last week. It was presented by Lutheran Social Services. The facilitator was Dr. Karyn Purvis, and it was the best 8 hours I have ever spent. She was a great speaker, and just a wealth of information. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak I highly recommend it. If you can't see her, I recommend her book The Connected Child, and you can go here to get it. She is the director of Child Development at Texas Christian University. I learned more in that 8 hours than I think I ever learned in a semester class in college. I think her book would be helpful to any parent who might be having behavior/sensory issues regardless if they were adopted.

On the referral front. I am happy that we are finally into November, I really just want to get into 06' This may be the first month that I felt that referrals wouldn't go as far as they did. The referral thing is just so relative. This is the like the gas situation we have going on right now. Remember when gas started inching towards $2.00, and everyone was freaking about it?? Then it passed $2.00 and went to $3.00, so when gas went back down to about $2.30 we thought it was so cheap(ridiculous thinking on our part) Well when we had only 2 days of referrals last month, the 6 days this month was such a relief...even though 2 of those days were weekend days. Same sort of thinking, they have us thankful that they produced another measly batch. I am not complaining, as 6 is better than 2, but I think it is time for them to stop taking vacations, and get to work. I must say that I am pleased to see how young the babies were this round. I have really seen some beautiful pictures in this batch.

We are off to the East meets West conference this weekend. I would like to not go as it is being hosted by Great Wall, and I really have mean, negative feelings about this agency because of their involvment in this adoption. While I appreciate everyones personal opinion on this particular situation, I must tell you that I feel great pain for this family, and I feel like they their treatment was reprehensible. Everyone seems to be pointing fingers at this mother, and I ask that you to try as hard as you can to stand in her shoes, consider all of the circumstances, and then point the finger at the agency first. This is what they are suppose to specialize in, they have been doing China adoptions for a long time, and to claim that they have never had this happen or they don't know what to do is irresponsible. This could just as easily been you or me, and then I think everyone would change their mind on whether their treatment was fair. So having said that, we are still going to this seminar as I think it will be full of good information. There will be an orphange director there to speak to us...the part I am most interested in. But we have spent a lot of $$$$ to register(it was not cheap at all) so we will still go. But I will never tell someone that I think that they should use this agency. For all of us in line, I tell you to read this to arm yourself with the proper information so this doesn't happen to you.


Happy Mothers Day to all of you.