Note: This is one of my first posts on open adoption written in early 2005 when Craig was 14 months old. Reprinted here with my permission.

It was our first night home. I woke up that morning with the winter sun peeking lazily through the bedroom blinds. With a stretch of my arms and a twist, I rolled over. There he was, my new baby, in his co-sleeper. He was swaddled in the fuzzy blue blanket I had meticulously shopped for a few months earlier. Craig’s lips puckered and relaxed repetitively, as if drinking a bottle in his sleep. I touched his arm gently; he was definitely not a dream.

Behind me, my husband, Jimmy woke up and asked quietly, “He okay?” “Yes,”... more

I love to decorate for the holidays and have even enjoyed coming up with some holiday themed posts for my blogs. Christmas has become my favorite holiday. I don’t mind the shopping and I like coming up with creative and home made gifts for people. I like baking yummy cookies and foods to share with family friends. It may appear that all is well with me during the holidays.

But, Christmas isn’t always easy….

Five years ago, I realized that Christmas would never be exactly the same again. Never again would I only have one child to buy for or think... more

I’m bailing out from “Operation Thankful” a few days early. Unfortunately my main computer crashed (I’m not thankful for that!) and I had my posts for the last days of November pre-written and saved on the computer. And to be frank, I don’t have the time or energy to write them all over again and would like to use the time and energy I do have to focus on some of the upcoming issues.

I’m on my laptop at the moment.(I am thankful for that!) Hopefully, my main computer will be fixed in a few days. My Dad is my repair man, usually fixing any problems that come up, so he will look at it as soon as he has time and diagnosis the problem. I’m worried though! I’m thinking it might be kicking... more

Is anyone else crazy enough to get out there and battle other maniacs (like me!) at the Black Friday sales? For some reason, I just love this and I’m lucky enough to have a husband who doesn’t mind fighting these crazy crowds of maniac shoppers either!

So for the past four years, each day after Thanksgiving, which has been coined Black Friday, we bundle up, get lots of coffee, and brave the crowds at a very, very early hour. So early the sun isn’t up yet!

Shortly, I will be out at the stores battling those shoppers trying to save a buck... more

I wish I had a cute Thanksgiving-ish picture to share today, since it is finally Turkey Day. But I don’t! Instead, I’ll share a recent picture that arrived in my email box of Charlie looking at his life book.

It goes perfectly with yesterday’s thankful post since I wrote about how thankful I was that I created a life book for Charlie. I really feel like that this is very important and I am so glad I made it for him.

But looking at... more

This month, thanks to Jenna’s idea, I have written many posts about how I am thankful for various adoption related experiences and things in my life. It’s been fun and challenging as it is sometimes hard to find adoption related things to write about in a positive light when for birthmothers there is a lot of sadness and grief involved in adoption.

Today, Thanksgiving, I want to write (or list rather) the non-adoption related things in my life that I am thankful for. Some of these things are... more

My title doesn’t mean my big brother in the literal sense. I only have a younger brother. Instead my title is referring to the Big Brother reality television show.

I know, you are probably wondering what in the world the reality show Big Brother has to do with adoption.

It was in its second season during my pregnancy. I didn’t have the time to watch it during the first season, but I had a pretty rough pregnancy and of course, wasn’t going out as much anymore, so I had time to watch it. If you know much about me, you know that I used to be a huge reality... more

As you have probably noticed, I haven't been posting much! I have been pretty sick and just can not seem to shake this cold/virus I have. I have practically slept all weekend, thanks to my wonderful hubby who has taken care of our son, done housework, and checked on me numerous times through out the weekend.

I have already used up the pieces I had written ahead of time in my reserve folder and haven't felt well enough to write something coherent. I am already feeling a little more like my old self, so hopefully tomorrow I can write some! I must get better so I can prepare a delicious Thanksgiving feast on Thursday!

I hope all of you are staying healthy!!

I am thankful for Charlie’s big sister, N. N is adopted too and was about four years old when I was pregnant and making an adoption plan.

She was (and still is) very cute and sweet and I enjoyed the time I got to spend with her during my pregnancy. I knew that I wanted a family for Charlie that either already had children or would be planning on having more children. I have a little brother and although at times growing up, we want to strangle each other, I was glad I had a sibling and enjoyed the brother/sister bond we shared and I wanted that for Charlie. A big sister sounded even better since I had been a big sister myself.

During my pregnancy, N. would always ask questions... more

I am thankful for the phone calls with A. (Charlie’s adoptive mom) that I receive as part of our open adoption. We don’t have any kind of written agreement that says we should have “x” number of phone calls every “x” amount of days, we just kind of talk when we need to, want to, or feel up to it.

In the hospital, we had discussed when we would or should talk again. A. asked if it would be ok to call me the following evening and check on me and I said yes and she did. Then she called me just a few days later after Charlie’s first appointment at the pediatrician.

We... more