Life has been busy for me the last couple of weeks. Last week was spring break, and I spent it with my mom. I flew to Seattle to visit her, and we drove together to Montana to go to a wedding and to visit relatives. My hsuband is very busy shipping and watering flowers at work, so I did my traveling without him.

We haven't heard from the adoption agency, so there's nothing new to talk about on the adoption front.

I did have a nice visit with the adoptive mom whose daughter I teach before spring break. She told me that it took two years from when they started with the agency to when they brought their daughter home. That's on the long end of the time frame we were given. She told me about a failed adoption they had three months before their second adoption. They had been matched with a birthmother and met her twice, but when she delivered the baby she decided to parent and didn't tell the agency until she had checked out of the hospital.

The adoptive mom also told me that she had recently spoken to the mom that did interim/foster care for her two oldest. This woman told her that there were four women between January and February that wanted direct placement with the adoptive families. Of those four, three were failed adoptions and the baby had to be returned to the birthmother.

These stories really make me see how difficult the adoption journey can be. I'm trusting God to put me in the right situation, but it's scary to wonder what difficulities I may encounter. Infertility was difficult too, but at least those dissapointments went in cycles and were predictable.

Visiting with my relatives in Montana was fun. I even got some baby gifts to take home with me. It was kind of an impromptu baby shower when some women relatives were getting together for a dinner. My mom's sister(my aunt)let me choose two flannel burp cloths on which she had crocheted an edging. She later let me choose a few unfinished clothes that I can crochet my own edgings on. My aunt knows I like to crochet too.

Later my other aunt's sister, who went along with my aunt to my dad's funeral in February, came to the meal. She had three fleece baby blankets and asked me to pick one out for my baby. I picked out a nice pastel one with cute animals on one side, and plaid on the other. I'll have to get a picture posted of it

We (my mom, aunt, cousin) all think it's kind of funny that she seems so taken with me. The thing is that this woman was best friends with my mom in elementary school. When they were teenagers they had a falling out and it wasn't until the last year that they became more friendly towards eachother (when my uncle was dying of cancer)and let bygones be bygones.

When I saw her at my dad's funeral we talked about adoption. She has children that are adopted, and she was telling me about how fast it was when she got her son over thirty years ago, and how she had nothing ready. She advised me to get ready for my baby. I guess she wanted to help me get ready because even though the woman hardly knows me, she gave me a baby blanket. Amazing!

The wedding I attended with my mom was interesting because the bride is adopted. She is nineteen, and when she turned eighteen, her father gave her the name of her birthfather. She has seen him and his wife and two daughters since then and has gotten to know him. Her birthfather doesn't know the whereabouts of her birthmother.

At the wedding the two half-sisters were candlelighters. The birthfather walked the bride to her father before he walked her down the aisle. At the reception the bride's father introduced the birthfather and his family and said how glad he was that they could come. I thought it was interesting to see how the family handled the whole situation. It seemed to work well for them.

That's all for now, I think. Life is going on like normal, and I often wonder how long it will be before I get "the call" from the agency.