This year has proven to be an exciting but challenging one for our family. It has been a year since we’ve moved into our house and we are so happy to be back in Maine and reconnecting with our family and many of our friends. It has been an adjustment for me especially to go from 3 years of not having a lot of people around me, working from home, cooking dinner every night (because I had time!) and having the time to do whatever I wanted to do for the most part. I am now working outside of the home (and loving it), I have daily contact with my kids and close family and of course time for my new granddaughter, Avery. In between all of that, we have continued to improve minor things around the house and help the kids with various projects at their houses. We are going to be going to Florida in late January to visit with Danny's parents. It will be nice to have a little down time and spend some time together. One of our favorite things to do in the summer is walk on the beach so hopefully we'll get an opportunity to do that while we're in Florida. We don't get too much time for just us lately. It seems like we had so much time to spend alone together before we moved back to Maine, that we've forgotten a little bit about us. We are planning a big project in the house next year. I've decided that my bedroom is just too small and I'm too spoiled to deal with it anymore. Danny came up with a great plan to complete the basement downstairs (which is 1/2 done already) and move our bedroom down there. It will be a HUGE master bedroom and we'll expand the bathroom down there too. Danny has adjusted well to life outside of cable (thank GOD!!) and stays busy with his job at IDEXX. Our favorite thing to do is hang out with our family. We are thankful to have such a busy and rewarding life and are blessed that our family remains close.
Dan and Tiffany are doing very well these days. For those of you who haven’t seen their blog lately, things are moving along smoothly. They have finally received the “You are officially waiting” message from the adoption agency. It’s hard for people to imagine what goes into the adoption process. The red tape seems endless! They are truly in love with Ethiopia and they could not imagine getting their baby from anywhere else at this point. They belong to a Yahoo group for people adopting from Ethiopia using the same agency. They have learned a lot of valuable information from this group. They’ve attended some adoptive parenting classes this past fall and have also learned a lot from that.
Dan and Tiffany are looking forward to putting the baby’s room together over the next several months. Since they don’t know if the baby will be a boy or a girl, it might be a little hard but I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work. They are going to make awesome parents! I cannot wait to see them walk through the airport with my grandchild in their arms. I’m sure it will be a very emotional time for all of us. The wait time for a referral is 1-6 months. Most likely we are looking at late summer though so by this time next year, I will be flooding this site and your emails with pictures of both of my grandchildren!
It helps to know that we have a lot emotional support from our families and friends during this process.
Melissa and Gavin are doing very well. They have fallen into their new parenting roles with ease. Melissa was lucky enough to take more than 3 months off to be with Avery. She will be going back to work at the beginning of the year. Gavin’s sister Gretchen will be watching Avery for 3 days during the week. Gavin’s schedule will allow him to be home with her for a couple of days during the week. He does a great job with Avery and I’m sure as she gets older, she’ll get to do lots of things with her Daddy when they are together during the week. Melissa is dreading going back to work because as all mothers know, leaving your baby to go back to work is very hard emotionally. They are lucky enough to have a family member be able to watch her so Melissa and Gavin are thankful for that. Okay….now on to our lovely little granddaughter Avery Grace: There is truly not one person or thing on this earth that could have prepared us for the way we feel about her. She has brought a new light into our lives and has changed my outlook on everything. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives. She is my first thought when I wake up in the morning. I think that having our kids so young was a good thing overall but we didn’t have time to enjoy them as much as we would have liked because we were struggling to be a responsible mother and father at such a young age. Now that we are older, we are able to re-live all that we missed in a sense. She is truly a joy to both of us. I love her when she’s screaming and laugh at her when she is mad and straightening her whole body out because she doesn’t want to be burped. I think only a grandmother could laugh though. It amazes me that she has already formed such a distinct personality. We cannot get enough of her and look forward to watching her grow in the coming months (but not too fast!).
We all feel that this year has been a year of milestones for our whole family. It’s nice to have the love and support of so many people. It helps to keep us grounded and appreciative. Although things are never perfect in our lives, the good far out weighs the bad. We are truly lucky to have had such an awesome year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
