Cathartic journaling of an adoptive mom.
Latest Posts
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Ideation
Among my strengths, there’s ideation. Which can be overwhelming for others – so I filter a lot of my ideas of development and improvement. It had become increasingly painful to FaceTime every day with Ivy. By the way: Ivy sounded like Evé -> Romanian Ivi not Aivi. Honestly, how many interesting things can you talk…
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Beauty in the storm clouds
The silver lining. I love the silver lining. As I sense a wave of embracing the present all around me, that sweet acceptance that allows the mind to clear. Although not much has changed yet, in our current situation, I find this worldwide quarantine to be an excellent experiment of the mind, an X-ray of…
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Thoughts from isolation
Understanding the stages of grief is a start. But whenever I talk about the stages of grief, I have to remind people that the stages aren’t linear and may not happen in this order. It’s not a map but it provides some scaffolding for this unknown world. There’s denial, which we say a lot of…
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Courage and resilience
Most of us can recognize good leadership when we see it. The past few weeks world leaders grappled for the right and timely decisions. There was no perfect plan. But inaction was worse. While our circumstances change very little these days, our emotions experience an erratic rollercoaster. Alas, every day is in our power to…
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Encouragement
When Jackie and Ivy took the first picture together, Jackie smiled a beautiful toothless smile. Her two front teeth were still invisible. Today, a month later, both front teeth are half way out, white and straight. Jackie looks older and wiser. I just got a call from our adoption case manager. Strangely, we feel more…
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Adapting
We’ve taken the maintenance of our relationship with our youngest daughter to FaceTime. Not my favorite. But it’s better than nothing. Most of us live in denial. When that doesn’t fly anymore, we try and live in the future. The present doesn’t make sense. It takes a great deal of mental discipline to focus on…
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How is this quarantine affecting you?
Conrad and I are happiest away from crowds. We don’t have a TV and we don’t keep up with the news. So the pandemic was not on my radar at all, whatsoever. Until one morning when I found out from my social worker, during an evaluation visit for our adoption process, that the schools are…
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Timpul e relativ
…Iar atunci când îl aștepți să treacă, un an poate fi resimțit la fel de apăsător ca 2 minute. Doi ani am așteptat activ să adoptăm o fetiță, o fetiță anume, de care am aflat din întamplare că a intrat în sistemul de protecție, și anume, sora biologică a copilului deja adoptat de noi cu…
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Quarantine during the adoption process
We were on our last lap in the adoption race. While we still had time, unaware of a ticking clock, we made the best of it. But for now things are put on hold. Like the rest of world. Shoulda’ Woulda’ Coulda’ are pointless, though a few times (moved by intuition) I tried to push…
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After the darkest night comes the sweetest morning
Conrad was in terrible pain. A throat infection (his allergies make his throat sensitive – especially in the Spring) spread to his right ear. We are at the end of our wits energy wise. And yet, as a parent, when you think you can’t go any further, you muster up enough energy to push on…
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Connection
Specialists say that kids want to obey their parents so long as they feel connected. Honestly, this was the case with Jackie from day one. We made an conscious effort to connect; that was our sole purpose during the matching period. And we kept at it. Even and especially when she felt completely comfortable to…
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Driving
I can’t remember the last time I was so tired. It’s Friday night. A few hours ago I drove Ivy back, along with her foster mom and teenage daughter… After a day of driving there and back in the morning, to get Ivy’s medical certificate for the adoption final file. I was just 15 km…
