Mama? Dada?

I miss those words.

I remember when A stopped calling us "Mama" and "Dada". He went straight to Mom and Dad. Did not stop at Mommy or Daddy. I tried to get him to keep calling me Mama but it was a no-go. Sad day.

I call my mother "Ma", have for as long as I can remember, and she called her mother Ma too. John ribs me constantly about this. Impersonations sound something like a bleating goat.

J calls his mother "Mum" in the British style. Faaaaannnnncy! I just can't, I call her "Mom" and J calls my mother Mom too, not Ma.

I can't wait for our new little one to start calling out to us.

Mama?

Dada?

We're right here baby.
Lauren

Etsy, baby!

I got this terrific stroller blanket made for my new baby niece O!

It came out really nice-- soft fleece on one side with the name, great fabric on the other. Check out the shop, she does nice work--

http://www.etsy.com/shop/elisehooperdesigns

I also purchased adorable hats from another shop as new baby gifts--



Made to order in what ever size you need--

http://www.etsy.com/shop/baparsell

For our baby girl I got this stroller blanket/quilt--

Here's the shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/everystitch

Gotta love Etsy!

Lauren

When is a field mouse cute?

This field mouse is cute:


This one is really cute too:

Poor little guy! Brrrr!


This one is decidedly less cute:

Folks! Don't worry, that is not a picture from my home. I don't have the time to make homemade potpies! Am I going too fast for you? Stay with the group!

Besides we have cats! Indeed, whenever we haven't seen them in a good while, they usually turn up in the dining room with a squeaky plaything, a real live squeaky plaything! Sure! It's fun! Then A has to catch the mouse, usually in a piece of, now disposable, Tupperware, and let the poor mouse go across the street.

Ok, let me back this up a bit. My husband's philosophy regarding mice is simple:

If there are no holes in your house, you will not have a mouse problem.

And to his credit, our other two houses have no such holes, or if they did, this fixed the problem:


That's it! Stuff steel wool into the hole and then spray in the hole with expanding polyurethane foam. Easy!

But the problem gets harder when the hole is hard to get to. This is why the new house has a mouse problem. Turns out the hole/mouse port in question is under the front stairs and porch outside. A real tight squeeeeeeze.

First, J thought A would fit through, after all he is smaller, at least this month. But no, too tight for A. The next thing I know I look out the front door and I see this--

My husband, decked out in a head-to-toe tyvek chemical suit, a rope tied to him, his trusty can of foam, and A. I am not sure why A was there except maybe to take the last will and testament? Call 911? Pass him crackers and water when he gets stuck under the porch? I wish I had the presence of mind to take a picture. The last time when J was up a 40 foot ladder with a chain saw to cut off a branch, 4 YO A had the phone (to dial 911) and I had the camera. Then there was the 25 foot high fan install with the 12 foot ladder....but, I digress. We forgot this time, I think the novelty is wearing off or something. (And I have NO idea what the rope was for.)

I can say this, we haven't had a mouse plaything in 36 hours.

And J made it out in time to take me to IKEA!!

Lauren

I messed up!

There goes my streak!

Here's why: we are flat out working on the house. Finally got all of the wallpaper off in Baby Girl's bathroom, J is repairing the crack in the wall and re-plastering the outer interior wall which was damaged. It should be good for paint next weekend!

He is also planning out a plastering experiment to cover the rough stucco in Baby Girl's room. He'll figure something out. I am getting the closets cleaned out and the final touches on the family room.

Lauren

Work is hell!

But there is nothing like it.

Come with me for another trip down the rosy path of my childhood.

Growing up we had plenty. At the same time, as kids if we wanted anything "extra" we were encouraged to get jobs during the school year and/or the summer, earn money, and pay for things ourselves. To this day, ask either of my accomplished brothers what part of their childhood most influenced who they are today and I think they will, like me, say it was those crappy jobs we had. There was a method to the madness, my parents wanted us to be self-reliant, understand the value of money, and learn personal responsibility and accountability. Like it or not, working for the man does that. Plus it is freeing to have your own money, and to do what you want with it, to a certain extent--we were also expected to save for college.

So what kind of jobs? Thing 2 laid asphalt. And was briefly a hotel dishwasher--the dishes NEVER STOPPED. Thing 1 was the neighborhood lawn mower/newspaper boy/handyman(boy). I was the world's worst cashier, very briefly. I scooped ice cream, and still have the wrist pain to show for it. Worked at the clothing store The Limited and spent my check utilizing my 30% discount. But my all time worst summer job was the one I had at a tuxedo rental store. I did "break-down". On Monday mornings there would be a gigantic pile of those plastic garment bags from rentals over the weekend. People rent a tux, the shirt, the shoes and when they are done they throw the whole pile into the bag and zip it up. Now, it was summer and I have no idea where these bags came from but they were HOT. And they had been stewing. Pull down the zipper and confront the reality of man. Man stinks. And often drinks too much and vomits. Sometimes man leaves a few bucks in the pockets though (thanks for the $200, Mr. 52 long!). After taking everything out and sorting it all my next job was scrubbing the necks of the shirts and laundering them. My brother Thing 1, I got him a job there too, got to polish the vinyl shoes, with Pledge. Yup, my brother started out as a shoeshine boy. Eventually I got "promoted" to being able to take measurements. I got to take inseam measurements of hot men. I mean hot. Literally. Like, as in, sweaty.

But I learned two things, the value of an education, and what everyone of those sweaty dollars meant to me. I liked money, the freedom, the rewards. But I also learned that I had to work hard to get it.

So here is the reason for my post. Recently, there was an economist who won the Nobel Prize--the Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank: "for pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans."

I found the whole idea of micro-lending to be fascinating. It really is "seed" money that you pay to an enterprising individual to get them going. To elevate them. To give them a means to work, earn, provide. And repayment rates are very high. It has been found to really create lasting solutions to poverty.

There is an organization, Kiva, that helps people like you and me make these loans. It creates "syndicates" of investors, with each often lending as little as $25 to a person and their business venture. You scroll through by country, person, or business type and find people you want to invest in. Click a button, pay on Paypal, and voila! Once the total needed has been raised by aggregating several people like you and me (usually less that $1,000), someone in Costa Rica, El Salvador, or Nigeria has the $ they need to create a corn grinding mill, make sarongs to sell, start a grocery store, cattle ranch or a construction business. Repayment starts within a very short time, a month after the person gets the money, is paid back in less than a year, and is paid monthly. As soon as your account has $25 repaid in it you can cash out or re-invest in someone else. 100% of your investment goes to the entrepreneur. You can choose separately to support Kiva itself. They don't ask for much, a few bucks.

Let me tell you, it feels terrific. It is wonderful to know that, rather than give money to salve the result of a problem, you are providing a foundation to actually solve a problem. Hard work for these people will hopefully pay them dividends. I have $100 in play right now with four investees. I have been paid back in a regular and timely way.

Andrés Madrigal Fallas is 19 years old, single and lives with his mother and 5 siblings. His family has a farm and then grow coffee and maintain a pasture. The whole family works on the farm and his mother has a grocery story. Now they are not using the pasture, so he wants a loan to grow and improve the land. The cows are for meat and he wants to continue to buy and sell cows to support his siblings and his 9 nieces and nephews. This is his first loan with FUDECOSUR, but his mother has had another loan from the same institution for her grocery store. Andrés' sister is the secretary of the commission and appears in the photo.



Amanda Yanira Monteroso Rojas lives in Tacuba in the district of Ahuachapán. She is 24 years old and lives with her husband Carlos, who is 20 years old and works as a farmer. This young couples' dream is to strengthen the income of their business. Currently, she provides milling services for her customers. She works in an area where many people have tortillerías and/or pupuserías, so they need someone to mill their grains. Amanda works every day and has three years of experience. Now, Amanda is asking for this loan so she can invest in her business so that she will be able to establish it better and obtain the higher profits that will be of great use both for them and their baby who is on its way.

Take a look at the site and consider letting $25 bucks ride on creating a bright future for a person or family. Put people that want to work to better themselves, to work. Or give the gift of investing for Christmas!

http://www.kiva.org/

Lauren

Keeping it simple today

Family is not limited to DNA, it’s only limited by love.

I found this sentiment on another adoption blog and it really resonates with me. For a person that has spent almost every minute of her career working on DNA and genomics it is somehow reassuring to me to acknowledge that while to a large degree DNA makes us what we are it does not make us who we are. And the same goes for families.

Lauren

Laugh-In, Laugh-Ing

My husband J has a quick wit. He makes me laugh and I place a real premium on that. Indeed, we laugh a lot in our home, A also knows his way around a bon mot, clever impersonation, and can use irony properly in a joke. He is one really funny kid.

I do a personification of our dog Ranger--he has a voice, a personality, and he is extraordinarily funny, a real wise guy. Everyone goes back and forth in dialog with "Ranger". Once A asked me how I know what Ranger wants to say. I replied that is, in fact, the real talent. And it is!

There are several ongoing shticks that we all do. It really never gets old.

Growing up my entire family constantly cracked wise. Very funny! It kept you on your toes though, no one really minded being the butt of the joke but every one minded if their joke fell flat. We are a competitive bunch. To this day there are stories that we make each other re-tell and re-tell and we laugh just as hard the billionth time. My Dad was hilarious. He could take a joke too, not many dads can do that.

Back to my beloved. J made me howl recently and apparently has been sharing the joke with everyone at work, much to everyone's delight and my chagrin.

Time to confess: I have been buying clothes for Baby Girl. And like just about everything I do, I have been...obsessed. I am buying big sizes, not close to the age we suspect she will be. This is rationalized in my mind as follows: So I don't cut it too close and miss the mark. But of course the real issue is why am I buying outfits for the next three years? I won't answer that, sorry. That I'll save for therapy.

Confession number two: You may have been able to determine from previous posts that I am really feeling the 60s. And the 70s. The "mod" decades. Bright throw-back colors and patterns for the nursery, danish modern high chair, zany graphic diaper bag. So the outfits, well, they fit the theme of the day.

One night J sees a mound of clothes on the dining room table.

He charges into the room where I am and I start to cringe because I figure, the jig is up and I have some 'splainin to do. He asks--

"Why are you dressing our daughter like Jo Anne Worley?"

I do a spit take and start gasping for air I am laughing so hard.

Cripes. The man is right. Sometimes the man is right.





And yes, that is fun fur.

Lauren

P.S. I also have a huge jumper problem. I love little A-line jumpers.

High pass filters

So when I think about gating I have to think about what, exactly, I want to filter.

Well, sometimes I want to keep the dogs from the cats, or more precisely the cats' food.

Sometimes I want to keep Skyler away from the cat litter box. This is an unfortunate failing of his, he loves cat leavings. It is like a smorgasbord for him. Or all-you-can-eat buffet. Yeah, I know. Hence the gate.

With the baby I want to keep her off the stairs, and sure, why not, out of the cat litter box too.

But do I want to gate the dogs from the stairs? The cats?

This is the gate we use currently to filter out the dogs from the area where the cat food is:It is metal, looks pretty good, is easy to use but childproof, fits a wide opening and the cats have a pass through that is not big enough for a mobile human.

In our house the litter boxes are downstairs so the cats must be able to pass easily, we all remember what it was like when Ole Pepe didn't care for using his box anymore.

Lauren

Some updates

Hoping for a referral any week now. However, our I71H will take a couple more weeks. I wrote to the Boston USCIS office and they actually replied! It should be in hand before we need to accept a referral.

We got a LOT done around the house this weekend. The family room is almost finished and Aidan's room finally has some shelves and some order to it! Art and new light fixtures are making their way up.

We head to Canada for Thanksgiving this year and we are hustling to get the house ready for baby girl before we go. I say that meaning two things--that her rooms are ready but also that we don't have any lingering DIY stuff hanging over our heads. We learned the last time that once babies come home the ability to do lots of jobs around the house dramatically approaches zero.

Lauren

Introducing the mandate

So as I have mentioned, J got his motorcycle. It is actually pretty cool if you set aside the fact that it actually is a motorcycle and he will risk life and limb on it.

It's a Triumph Scrambler. It has a cool old-style vibe to it. Here's J with his new toy--

After this pic he left for a ride. J works with some great and wickedly intelligent people. One of them, J2, seems to have all of the same interests as J: scuba, great craft beer, chemistry, scotch, motorcycles. J2 got himself a Ducati. Seems that now that they have bikes, then can go on mandates! Or man-dates! Today they headed up to R's, another guy from work with some of the same interests, who hasn't bought a bike...yet.

Ah, Man crushes! Bromances!

He's having fun. And now he gets to buy lots of gear and we aren't talking strollers and high chairs here!

Lauren

Gear is fun!

Loving this wacky Swedish high chair by Svan right now--

It is designed really well. It adjusts from every age right up to adulthood! And it can be placed right at the table without the tray. The tray has a plastic cover that can be removed for washing.

In our new house we chose not to do an eat-in kitchen. Although the kitchen was big enough, we instead made a sitting area with easy chairs for reading, chatting or sipping what-have-you. There is also island seating.

Instead we mainly eat in our dining room, the house is open concept and we love the dining room-- lots of brickwork and glass. We have a modern cherry set, our chairs look like this but in cherry--


I think the high chair will match really well and work out great. PLUS, I found it new on Ebay for less. My mother is getting it for us--Thanks Ma! Sorry about that wise crack before...

Lauren

mmmm coffee, magnifica!

Coffee. Such a simple pleasure. And a bitterly necessary tool. The filthiest habit on earth after cigarettes. Ever try to get out a coffee stain?

I remember when I started drinking coffee. It was senior year in college. I had a new adviser, we had been meeting on a regular basis over the year. He was the Chemistry Department Chair and extremely famous and very busy but he made a lot of time for me. I was in the process of applying to graduate programs in biology and finishing up a tough year of classes. Somehow coffee waltzed into my life, took hold, and never let go.

Now, I am a tightly wound person on a slow day. I talk really fast, and I think faster than I can blurt it all out. I am animated. And loud. Give me coffee and stand back. Way back.

So, being a coffee virgin, so to speak, my first dabblings in the Land of Joe hit me hard. In one of our meetings, I had been talking a blue streak, all the bells and whistles: hands flying, high and low tones, laughs, loudness, asides, flying from topic to topic like a bee on a bender. This wonderful, highly-esteemed man stopped me. Dead. He said. "Lauren, WHAT is going on? Is there something you need to tell me? Whatever it is, it needs to stop!"

Uh yes. I have started drinking coffee. Why? Why? Why? Is there something wrong????

It wasn't a pretty sight. Poor guy. But coffee made me sharp. Really, really smart. My mind worked like it never had before. Coffee wasn't going anywhere.

I love everything about coffee. The smell when you open the bag. The science of varieties, cultivation, geography. The different roasting strategies. The glossiness. The smell when it is brewing. The ritual of making it. The ritual of drinking it--the type of mug, what to put into it, drinking with someone, the Saturday morning cup. John is a diner mug diehard; me, I like a mug pretty and large.

I like espresso best. Where'd I have that first? Well in the eighties you had espresso in only one place, Europe. Or Little Italy. In 1984 when we graduated, J and I took the obligatory trip to Europe. All summer traipsing around, sleeping where ever, eating great food and drinking the best coffee that can be had on this blue marble. J: doppio espresso, twist of lemon rind. Me: doppio cappuccino, sugar. (Yeah I like coffee light with sugar. Crass, I know.)

Lucky for me, I couldn't stand the stuff while pregnant. The smell would hit me first. I did not want to be anywhere near coffee. In fact, not knowing I was pregnant at first, I came to work complaining that I had to leave the Au Bon Pain without my big gulp 30 oz iced coffee because the smell made me so nauseous. My male co-worker said, right, you're pregnant. I didn't believe him but the heaped anchovy salad I had a dinner was the final tipoff; we bought a test at the CVS next door.

I like to drink a lot. But only in the am. I do not drink all day. I don't need a cup in the afternoon. I don't drink coffee with meals or after a meal, generally. Decaf? Uh, no. No. Iced? Love it. I'll drink iced until the first snowflake. Ever drop a dollop of hazelnut gelato into a hot cuppa? You will now, you know you will.

So until recently I bellied up to StarBUCKS to get my quadruple shot cappuccinos and iced lattes. They sure knew what they were doing when they named that place. Starbucks is designed to do one thing very well--separate you from as many bucks as they can. Coffee is merely their tool. And an excellent tool it is. They make great coffee.

Being a crack financial whiz, at least on the spending side, I did a little calculation once:

$5 x 250 work days per year = $1,250.

Ever do this calculation? Scary, right? But it led us to make the best decision, the most life-affirming thing we have ever done (Sorry, A!).

We added this little baby to our family:




The Delonghi Magnifica. Paid for itself in only 2/3 of a Starbucks-free year, 3/4 if you count the cost of the beans. It makes espresso at the push of a beautiful little button. Stores the beans, grinds the beans on order, brews and dumps the waste. All automatically. You add water and beans, take out those adorable little cakes of used goodness once a week. I toss those pucks into the garden for mulch. You can set the strength, the water volume, the size. Want frothed milk? Flip a button, put some milk in a pitcher and froth to your heart's content.

Now I don't have to plan my commute to run by a Starbucks. I don't have to wait in line and struggle to pronounce my order properly--Quadruple shot venti cappuccino? Double extra shot grande? I do NOT have to look at some pimply goth kid with a bullring in his nose and holes the size of Texas in his ears, the ears his momma so kindly made for him. Nope, I can pad into my kitchen, grab my favorite mug, and hit the button 4 times.

This summer we even hauled it up to Maine with us on vacation. Our guests loved it. It was magnifica!

Lauren

I'm an online Mom

I have never really liked shopping. Of any kind. I don't like stores, lines, incompetent cashiers (even though I was once a highly incompetent cashier), I'm just not patient. It is a flaw. There. They say the first step is admitting you have a problem.

And I despise browsing, or window shopping--that is simply all the pain without any of the joy.

Food shopping is the worst. Aisle traffic brings out in me...well, you can picture it I bet.

But I do love buying. That I love.

So the increase in great internet shopping is a dream come true for me. There is scarcely a day that some well-priced, often free-shipped item isn't waiting on my stoop. I send gifts directly from the source. Better, I can get gift cards for online shopping and give those! I do most of my food shopping online too, delivered right into my kitchen by a lovely, polite Roche Bros. guy. No impulse food buying/binging, and recipes are planned and all needed ingredients on hand. Love it. So calm. So civilized.

Here is a new one, brought to you by my brother J (new dad to those two cuties below)--

www.diapers.com

Yup, he assures me that you can get a drop shipment of diapers, he does a month at a time, to your door, for less than the best prices you can drive to. Free shipping. Tax free too. 1-2 day delivery. And no screaming kids.

I am so there.

Check it out! Formula too.

Lauren

School is liberating

I think if you spend any time in a third world country you will be bombarded with emotions, and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Which problem to solve first? Poverty? Civil rights? Disease? Corruption? How can you triage? How can these people be best helped? What can I do?

I think there is one key that turns this lock the most effectively in the long run. Education. In the big picture an educated populace can build sustainable economies and stable governments, practice prudent family growth strategies, afford rights to women, children, different creeds and ethnic groups. Develop agricultural practices that can feed a country's people. Help in the war against disease--both in finding cures and in preventing transmission.

It may be a slow solution to develop, but it is steady, reliable and self-fulfilling. It expands exponentially. Teach them how to fish, right?

There is a non-profit organization founded by two adoptive mothers in Ethiopia. It is called Ethio-American Family Services. They run an orphanage in Ethiopia and do so many good works. They have set up an educational sponsorship program because in Ethiopia it costs money to attend school, indeed, in most cases more per child per month than an entire fmaily has to survive for that month. Food or school? You know what goes first. And it inevitably leads to downward spiralling at the country level.

For a tax deductible $32/month--all of which goes to the program: the school ($25) or the in-country Ethiopians running the program ($5--creates jobs), or to wire the money ($2--wish this wasn't true) you can send a child to school, you will choose your child and you can stay in touch.

Our son A is sponsoring a boy out of his allowance, Fitsum:


Fitsum is 8 years old and a 2^nd grade student with good academic performance. Fitsum wants to be a doctor when he grows up. Both his mother and father have passed away. Currently he is living with his grandmother, a janitor who earns a monthly salary of 30 USD.



A chose Fitsum because he liked that he wants to be a doctor. They will write to each other and A will get to meet him when we travel to Ethiopia to bring home our daughter. This will also help him understand the world his sister comes from and form the basis of a bond.

Please visit the website:

http://ethioamericanfamily.org/children

Consider helping or pass the information on to others that may be able to help. Maybe your child's school can sponsor a child as part of a global outreach program? Maybe you can give someone the gift of sponsorship for Christmas this year?

Lauren

Best seat in the house!

Ok, maybe the car...

Jazzy, new, ahem, European (Dutch) car seat that a fellow adoption friend turned me onto:

The Maxi Cosi Priori Convertible Car seat!



Best parts:

• Fits weights from 5-40 lbs first facing backwards then facing frontwards. With A we needed 2 or 3 different seats to cover that range!
• Reclines so baby girl can relax on long trips.
• Side Impact Protection with energy absorbing foam.
• Matches the interior in the Big Tuna, also now known as the Flexus.
• Purchased for far less on Ebay, NEW, with free shipping.
• Too small for Ranger.

Ebay: The last legal high.

Lauren

We are number one!

We are first in line for a referral and should get a referral within a month!

I confess, I have been going a leeeetle nuts buying clothes for baby girl. I just could not hold back any more. Gotta buy some tiny hangers, this stuff is piling up!

We are Fingerprinted

Turns out they don't use ink any more, just water, a glass plate, an imager and a computer. Pretty cool. We are in the system now so we better stay on the right side of the law! Hopefully we will now get our I71H within a month.

Celebrated by buying this Maclaren Stroller:
And this crib set:




I also bought a whole bunch of Chinese paper lanterns. I came up with a lighting installation design idea where I cluster them like grapes. Should be cool I think and visually interesting. I bought all of the colors in the crib set: in brights--fuschia, mango, golden yellow, and also chartreuse, turquoise.

Recall that my design inspiration is a bold graphic fabric I purchased in high school. I actually purchased it because one of my friend's mom had a color combo like the one above in paint and fabric in her kitchen. I really liked it, it was "mod", and when I saw the fabric that was similar I grabbed it and used it in my dorm room (my dorm room was totally happening!). And you know what? I still love that fabric and the combo. So I figure if I still like it, I won't stop liking it any time soon, and hopefully baby girl will like it too!

I've been stripping the wall paper in baby girl's bathroom, not fun but not hard. I hope to finish this weekend. Then John will repair the walls a bit and I will paint. This nesting is so much easier to do without a baby on board!

Lauren

20 years...

Married today.

And most of them were good!

A terrific son, a baby on the way, our health, a place to hang our hats, and a lot of laughs. Who can complain?

Tomorrow we get fingerprinted for the immigration paperwork--

Lauren

What is race?

I'll tell you one thing right up front, race is one hot potato of a topic.
But what is race, really? How is it defined biologically? In society?
I am a genomicist/geneticist and would like to note that it has actually been established that with the exception of genes for skin color or eye shape, etc, "race" is a social construct. As a society WE have attached other significances to these differences than the ones derived from their evolutionary advantages.
EVOLUTION DISCUSSION ALERT: These differences in most cases are based on evolutionary advantages conferred in the presence of a particular selective pressure–like too much sunlight. There have been studies that show that as prehistoric man migrated from Africa to Europe, skin color became lighter and this is believed to be related to the need for vitamin D which is derived from sunlight. The farther north you go the less sunlight per year and so the skin needs to have less melanin in order to absorb as much sun as possible. The converse is obviously true as well. Indeed as we take home our African babies we will find that they really need Vit D supplements to stay healthy in climates too different from the one they came from.
Back to social constructs: Unfortunately, they are as real as the genes in our DNA but in a different, more pervasive and thorny way. But they are definitely changing. When I was 6 in the 60s, there were really no biracial marriages or families to speak of. This has come a long, long way in my 40+ years. 40 yrs before that? You had segregation in every facet of daily life. Blacks and whites did not mix in any way.
I like to think we soon-to-be biracial families are helping that rate function. Every meaningful journey is made of individual steps. Societal change is slow but inevitable. Just like genetic evolution. But I do think the slope of that line is changing for the better. I think our kids will look back in 40 yrs and be astounded by how far, and how quickly, the change has taken place. I think they will be proud to have been at the forefront of that change. Will it be hard on us, and more importantly them? Yes. But it will also be very important and lead the way for these social constructs ending up in the evolutionary waste bin.
Lauren

Things are moving...

Our dossier is in ET and being translated.

We got our fingerprinting appointment--10/23. With luck we will get our I71H a couple months after that.

Also, we are officially third on the list for a little girl!! Courts in ET have reopened, so things should start moving again. They close for the month of September.

And, oh, J got his motorcycle. I just couldn't take his sad face any more looking every night on the internet for the bike of his dreams. In the end, he bought new and made a great deal (Yay J!!) A Triumph Scrambler. I'll post on this later.

Lauren