BBQ with friends

A couple of weekends ago I was able to get away for a few hours. Gerard was battling three kidney stones again so I left him home. Anna and I drove to Kellie's house in Connecticut. I was surprised as to how easy the ride was for us. Kellie was a wonderful host and prepared a BBQ for us.

I had told Anna earlier in the week that we were going to a party with some of her friends...ones she has never met. Well Anna, Hope and Ella played like they were best friends. As we got out of the car Anna ran right into the party and started to play immediately.

As I came up the driveway I spotted Melissa! I was so happy to FINALLY meet up with Melissa, Michael and Colby. How is it possible that we have not met before. We talked about her paper chase because she is hoping for a second child. It is somewhat shocking to know that we have been friends for so many years even though we have not met in person. Colby is a cute as a button. He is much taller than I had envisioned him. I hope to be able to meet up with them again this summer.

Kellie and I talked up a storm about our up coming vacation. I have ordered a bathing suit that is way too much money and I am not sure if I will be keeping it. We decided that we are going to participate the Disney cruise Fish Finders. I still need to make my hanging pockets for the door. I think I have everything that I need for our gifts. When I put together our Fish finder gifts I will post pictures after our cruise. I had hoped to post pictures of the BBQ but I do not have permission to post pictures of every one's child so I must refrain from doing so.

The weather here is suppose to go from cool to HOT. I am hoping for a beach day later this week. We have bought the beach badges but we are still unsure if we will be able to enter our favorite beach because the beach access is still gone. I am hoping for pictures later this week.

Why blog?

For the past couple of weeks I have felt too rushed to blog. I find this amazing because usually when I am the most busy is when I have blogged the most. I love F@cebook but at time I think it interferes with blogging. I may take a few steps back from F@cebook for a while. It is a very hard thing to do because I find checking FB is a habit not necessarily a good habit.

On the other hand I do think that blogging is a good habit. I have been reminded over the past two weeks of so many reasons why I am blogging. The first is to be an inspiration for other to adopt. I was asked by my friend Sarah the other day if I would adopt again. I think even I was surprised by my answer. Which was yes. No we are not in the process of adopting again or is it something that we even have talked about but the scares of waiting and worrying have diminished so much that I think it would be okay to adopt again. I think my expectations would be different somehow or maybe not.

So the other day I was picking Anna up from school and I was listening to talk radio. This is something that I do if I think the conversation sounds interesting. I had heard the word adoption so I was intrigued. The person was an author who talked about her 4 failed adoptions and the pain that it caused her. What I found to be most interesting is that at the end of the show she relieved that in fact she had a successful adoption and that her pain had been lessened. She spoke about how writing her story helped her as I think it helped me as well.

Anna is still having a hard time with the triplets. She cries if the car even starts to drive in their direction. She has learned to tolerate the empty car seat that I have in my car. She tells me that she does not like them, my Mother or Aunt Jenny anymore. I know this is hurting my sister and my Mother very much. My Mother actually asked if she has done something wrong to make her feel this way. On nights that I work Gerard was dropping her off in the morning. She has started to question where she is going now which is so different. I do know that this is a phase and a period of adjustment is needed. I am so thankful that my sister is so understanding.

What Anna seems to be so upset about is when the babies cry and how they smell. Not the stinky smell but the smell of the lotion. Now I know that you all must think that it is a crying nightmare at my Mother's house with three babies but honestly they do not cry at all. I do think that seeing her care for so many babies at once has triggered something inside her. I think we are fortunate that the babies that we are around William (Sarah's baby) and the Girls (Jenny's babies) are all well taken care of. I love that both Sarah and Jenny are so tuned into their babies needs that they almost never cry.

What I think has been particularly good for Anna is seeing how loving Julia, Nate and Gabe are towards William (Sarah's older daughter and nephews). I see a difference in how Anna reacts towards the girls after we have spent time with them.

I know this is way too long and I am sorry. I got a new cellular phone the other day. The store clerk was able to recover my pictures and videos. I could not imagine how sad I would have been to loose them. So Anna was flipping through the pictures and somehow connected to the pictures on the blog. She was amazed at the pictures that I had of her. I love that my journey with her has been documented even though there are many spelling errors and poor grammar.

So I am back on the saddle again.

Has it really been a whole month?

How did an entire month slip away without a blog post? Well I guess a recap is in order. I have finished my classes. I worked hard and got an A in both. Now that they are done I am taking the summer off. So my classes will not resume until September.

The triplets are home and doing well. My sister is just plain exhausted. Thank goodness she can tell them apart because no one else can. We were lucky enough to have 2 sleep overs this month with one of them. The first to spend the night with us was Jillianna Marie (She is the baby baby). Anna was not jazzed about it. Jillianna is still so little that she requires feeding, diaper changes and tons of sleep so once I got her settled Anna was better. This was about 2 weeks ago.

Our second sleep over was the other night. Anna did much better. We had been out getting their pictures done and out of the blue Anna asked if one could spend the night. Jenny is wonderful when it comes to Anna and her anxiety about the babies so she let her pick which one got to spend the night. This time she picked Jacqueline Catherine. I thought it was funny because I think she picked her because she was the one that was not crying at the time. For this sleep over I was allowed to hold her a little bit longer. So I am guessing it will be Jennalynn's turn next.

In the last month I have seen Anna both regress and grow emotionally. I am fielding a lot more questions about her birthmother. Every time she brings up her birthmother she tells me how much she loves and misses her. I love that she loves her as much as she does. I keep reassuring her that is okay to miss and to love her. She talks about going to see her birthmother and I also support that too but when she is a little bit older.

There has also been a lot of talk in our home about going to the beach. Next week I have to make a point to drive over and see the progress. We may not be about to use our favorite beach and may have to decide on another beach for the summer. I also need to buy our beach badges. We have so many plans for the summer. A couple of us are thinking about camping on the beach in Virginia. I am leaning towards renting a house there in August. Time will tell.

The Disney cruise...AHHHH! We have made our final payment. When I looked at the calendar at first it seemed so far away but in reality it is not. I have to admit I am having a hard time sleeping if I go to bed with the cruise on my mind. We still need to finalize our airfare. I told Gerard we need to step up our savings toward the vacation.

That is basically it. My camera has become a little dusty over the past 3-4 months. I did manage to get a picture of each of the kids for the blog so here they are.

 

Jillianna 2 months

 

Jennalynn 2 months

 

Jacqueline 2 months

 

Hans 3 years 11 months

 

Anna 5 years 7 months