National Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. 

If you'd like more information on how to foster or adopt a child, please see the links on the right side of this page.  The Dave Thomas Foundation has excellent information on how your family can help a child waiting for a home.  Here are some facts about foster care:

•Children enter the foster care system through no fault of their own. As victims of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment, they are removed from their home because their birth family is unable or unwilling to provide a safe environment for them.

•More than 129,000 children in the U.S. foster care system are available for adoption. Their parent’s legal rights have been permanently terminated and children are left without a family.

•Children often wait five or more years to be adopted, can move three or more times in foster care and are frequently separated from siblings. More than half of these children are nine years of age or older.

•Each year, more than 20,000 children available for adoption turn 18 and leave the foster care system without a family.

•Adopting from foster care is affordable. Most child welfare agencies cover the costs of home studies and court fees, and provide post-adoption subsidies. Thousands of employers offer benefits for employees who adopt and adoption tax credits are available to most families.

•Every child is adoptable. Many children in foster care have special needs. All of them deserve the change to grow up in a safe, loving, permanent home. Post-adoption resources are available.

•Adopting from foster care is permanent. Once a child is adopted out of foster care, the birth parents cannot attempt to claim them or fight in court for their return.
 

Every child deserves a family.

4 months. . .

I haven't posted in a while since there's been no real activity on the adoption front.  But that doesn't mean I've been up to nuthin'!!

Just got back from a week-long beach getaway to Siesta Key, Florida, with my crazy Korean friend S.  She is such a trip to travel with!  We don't get to see each other too often as she lives in Phoenix, but we try to travel somewhere once a year.  Siesta Key was adorable.  It's a little island off the coast near Sarasota and has this cool, "tucked away" feel.  Once you cross the bridge, it's like being on a little tropical island.  You can practically hear the Jimmy Buffett soundtrack in the background!  We ate lots of fish and Indian food (they actually had a really good Indian place right over the bridge) and sat on the beach.  It was so nice to get away for a little bit.

I'm also the proud (addicted) owner of a new iPhone 3Gs!  I can't believe I lived without his thing for so long!!!  The apps are so cool and the e-mail features are highly functional.  This device is just light-years beyond my trusty old Sidekick.  I felt bad leaving T-Mobile after 10+ years, but their hardware just doesn't compete.  I'm practically attached to the thing!  It actually came in handy in FL because the Google Maps and Yelp app made it so easy to find restaurants and shops.

I also just installed a new, 500GB, external hard drive I picked up at Costco for $69.  My old hard drive is starting to sound wheezy and doesn't always connect on start-up, so I'm trying to prevent data-loss heartbreak before it happens.  With all this technology, I feel soooo 21st century!!

My lust for all things baby and nursery seems to have died off kind of suddenly.  The nursery is almost done - I'm just waiting for the nightstand, which got held up in shipping, to arrive sometime this week or next.  Once that's in, I'll put down the little shag rug I got for the room and we'll be done.  I have a small handful of items left on the stockpile list, but nothing I need immediately.  I am, however, lusting for two other things!  I really would like a new camera, as our old Kodak digital is pathetic.  I think the iPhone actually has a better camera on it.  I'd lurrrve a digital SLR, but they are so expensive!!  Costco has some nice packages, and I'm hoping prices will come down before Christmas.  My other wishlist item is an adapter for the iPhone for my car.  I don't really want a new stereo deck, just one of those adapters that allows you to plug the phone in to an auxiliary jack on the system. 

Can you tell I'm addicted to the iPhone??????

Nursery update. . .

We got our crib in the other day! It is very pretty - and was quite easy to put together. It seems well made and sturdy, so I'm happy I spent the money on a quality brand.

I also put up the wall decals and artwork. The pictures are a little dark, but it gives you an idea:

The decals are really cute in real life. The room may seem a little sparse, but I want the space to be really calm and serene - not busy. All that's left to add is a small night table and lamp next to the glider; the dresser will go in the closet for now.

I had also added some small corner shelves near the changing table. I thought they would provide a nice little storage space for smaller items:

The curtains are done!!!

Behold, our family room before painting and new curtains. A nice room - just kind of boring and vanilla.

Since we had so much time to kill this summer, what with waiting for a baby and all, I thought I would take on a little project to give the room a little more flair.

Well, I'm finally finished with our family room curtain project - hurray!! The construction of the panels went smoothly, but I did learn some great techniques and tricks along the way. The installation of the hardware was another story, though. . .

I used a local handyman contracting firm that had great reviews and an excellent BBB rating. The gentlemen they sent out was very nice, but not terribly well-equipped. He had basic tools and, fortunately, a mitre saw in the trunk of his Volvo (seriously), but no small hardware, parts, etc. I guess I was expecting a dude with a van lined with tools and little bins of parts and hardware - you know, prepared for anything. I was also a little ticked when they told me he would show up at 9 am and that didn't happen. I gave a detailed description of the job (mount curtain hardware on 19' wall) to the office when I booked the appointment, but the guy calls me at 8:30 and asks me what the job was?!? So, he has to go to the shop and pick up an extension ladder, delaying his arrival almost an hour. Not so much. . .

The rest is a long and tragic story involving 2 trips to Lowe's (1 of which was unecessary as it turns out) and 6 hours of labor - I won't bore you with it. With the exception of some disappointment over a center sconce piece not working with the other hardware pieces, it turned out OK. Here's the final result:

The paint is almost undectectable in these pictures because of the lighting. In the afternoon and evening, though, it makes the room much warmer and more elegant. Darling hubby seems quite pleased with the results and keeps telling me how great the curtains look. It really does tranform the room; every time I walk in it feels like a new house!!

Nursery is starting to take shape!!

Now that my family room curtain project is finished, we emptied all the sewing equipment out of the nursery. Our glider and ottoman arrived from Babies R Us, so I went ahead and put that together. It's so comfy and cushy - I hope it will be great for those long nights when we have a little one!

I also assembled our changing table. I got a great deal on it at Target ($71.99!), so I was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it felt once it was assembled. I didn't want to spend too much on something we'd only use for a couple of years. The picture below shows the room with the changer and glider. It's a petite room, but all that's left to add is the crib (on the wall where I'm standing to take the picture) and a small nightstand to the left of the glider. I'm really loving the wall color; it looks so pretty in the afternoon light. Please ignore the large plastic bags on the right of the picture - those hold my family room curtains, which are rolled onto tubes and stored in the bags.

Next up for the nursery: I pick up our crib tomorrow!! It arrived before the dresser and nightstand, but the box is quite large and we would have made two trips to pick up the stuff in our truck no matter what. Hopefully, the other pieces will arrive soon and I can put together the rest of the room. I also have some wall art and cute decals to decorate the walls. And I'm going to add some simple shelves and brackets for storing books.

The family room curtains go in tomorrow - hurray for this project being complete!!!! The handyman will be here at 9 am to help mount the hardware and put up the panels, so I'm looking forward to getting some pics of them when it's all complete.

In closing, I'd like to send out a big congratulations to my fellow blogger, Wendy, and her husband Steve, who's adopted baby daughter was born this morning!! I wish them every blessing and hope they have a smooth transition from the hospital to home.