(UPDATED) obsessions, chocolate and otherwise...

After my last post, my spirits have been better.  There have been some dear friends making an effort to cheer me up and help me relate to what motherhood will be like.  They are so sweet, just like this chocolate pie I am showing you all a HUGE picture of here on my blog.

Now, about this chocolate pie. It is so good.  Someone made it for a pot-luck back at Christmas time and I fell in love with the flavor of it.  I badgered the poor woman to give me the recipe for it for several weeks until she finally emailed it to me.  I ran right out and bought the ingredients for it and made one.  It is totally easy and in the two months that I've had the recipe, I've maybe made 8 pies for various different occasions, all very well received.

I just wanted to share my obsession of chocolate pie with you.  Just so you know and understand that in my confession I will be planning on making more.  This recipe will be a favorite in my family for years to come.

UPDATE:  link to recipe HERE

Other than that, there's not much to report.  We've did have some snow this week, but it was here one day and gone the next.  It was pretty falling in the night sky though.

Oh, and I'm completely obsessed with Downton Abbey and all things English, lately.

What are your obsessions?

letting my imagination wander...

I was thinking today that I often plan ahead to what life will be like when we have kids.  Charlie and I talk about what we will do in certain parenting situations, how we will make decisions and what we want life to be like once we are a family.  We talk about dinnertime and how we want to raise our kids to be included in things, and how we want them to behave.  We talk about baby names, and whether we want to use the names we've already chosen for the adoptions that did not go through.  When we went to name the twins, we didn't use the name we chose for the original baby girl we were going to adopt.  Now, we've used up three names that we had for girls and don't know if we need to choose more or try to think about using them.  I mean, it wouldn't mean anything to the baby, but we've attached some emotions to those names in those situations. 

But I wonder how soon it will happen, when we'll be parents, and to how many children.  Will we be able to manage to go through this process more than once?  We've had two false starts now, and can we abide going through another round of this even after we have one child?  Don't know. 

We imagine so much, but I can't think too far ahead.  Sometimes it is hard to walk past the room that is all decorated, ready to go, full of clothes and diapers.  We even inherited another carseat this week, once for a toddler and now we have one for every possible age.  I like to plan, and we have the room to store things, so I don't mind hand-me-downs.  And it will help us save money later, which is always a benefit. 

So, I keep imagining things and not knowing if they will ever come true.  The latest situation that was a long shot turned out to be just that: a long shot.  It was over as quickly as it started and even though the situation was up in the air, we could not intervene.   I wish we could have, but we were too far away and it was none of our business.  I believe that the Lord will answer our prayers, but my heart is heavy while we continue to wait.  This has been a long three years and while it has served us in a way to deepen our relationship as husband and wife.  And while it was nice to enjoy Valentine's Day without needing to secure a babysitter, I would have loved to have that honor. 

May the Lord be answering our prayer soon. 

couple things to mention...

Near the Roman Coliseum

In Verona....

Some of you asked for a couple more photos of my trips, but here's the sad truth about it:  I didn't have a digital camera back then!  The few photos I have that are digital were sent from a student who had a digital camera.  I think I should get more off the disk she gave me, but I can't find it.  So, here are two more. 

All that being said, I've been contacted a couple times last week about adoption situations and I'm hoping that something pans out.  We don't know right now.  But, definitely keep us in mind when you come across a situation that you think we might want to get ourselves involved in!  My email address is on this page, so please feel free to use it!

when the world opens up...

Canals in Venice...view from my gondola

Juliet's balcony in Verona

On the streets of Florence with my student Katherine

 

 

 

One of the things that's a trend in education is bringing a global perspective to our students.  When I taught high school art, that seemed really easy.  I sponsored three trips abroad and took students to Europe, which benefited me because I hadn't ever been across the ocean and wanted to see all the things I'd been studying in college.  I saw and learned so much. 

I stood under the Eiffel tower.
I ate pizza in Covent Garden, London.
I cried in many, many cathedrals.
I took deep breaths in the coliseum in Rome, savoring the history.
I bought a cross charm in Notre Dame.
I slept on an overnight train, an overnight ferry and overnight flights.
I woke up with the sunrise over water on a beach in Greece.
I said hello to the Mona Lisa.
I rode a gondola in Venice.
I talked to the dead in Pompeii.
I drug my suitcase up many, many flights of stairs and through multiple airports. 

I loved it all. 

I've been to Spain, Italy, Greece, England and France with students.  On my own I've also been to Mexico, Canada, Belize and another trip to England.  

But trying to inspire a global view with kindergarteners is a little bit tougher.  I mean, they really don't know much about the world to begin with (well, except I do teach at a school with a ton of kids that were born in Hispanic countries) to know that there are so many other countries.  While many of the kids might know they moved here from another country, I don't know that they understand tourism and that travel can be a choice, not a necessity.  It's a difficult concept to impart on little kids. 

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see so much of the world, and I would love to see some of Asia if I could stand to be in a plane that long.  It's just been so great to experience other cultures and soak up the energy from the world. 

I'd love to know where you've traveled.  Do tell. 

yes, I'm writing about this again...

Ok, so I've written about this before, and I'm sure I will write about it again at some point in my life, but let me say I am so indebted to Jane Austen for one of the best books ever written.  Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite stories, whether in movie form or the original novel. 

Recently, with a day off of school and Charlie at work, I had a Jane Austen day.  I started with the BBC miniseries of P&P and then the 2005 Kiera Knightley version of P&P.  I love both versions, and there are pros and cons to both. 

Here is what I've learned, though, as I've watched these movies more than once, and after a recent re-read of the novel:  Mr. Darcy loves her first.  You're probably saying, "DUH."  And yes, I knew that, because he proposes to her and she refuses, but it didn't really occur to me that it happened that way.  I think I always just thought that they got together at the end, but I like that it isn't Elizabeth Bennet pining for Mr. Darcy the whole book through, but rather that man in the story is ensnared first.  I like that, and I imagine that was pretty gutsy for the time being. 

All this to say that I these Regency era stories are something I quite enjoy and I quite often run into women my age that feel the same way.  Of course, there's always the argument about whether Colin Firth or Matthew MacFadyen is the better Mr. Darcy, but I like them both for different reasons. 

So, here is a poll of sorts...do you like Jane Austen?  Which one is your favorite?  Feel free to comment and share as much as you wish!  I can't wait to hear. 

dreams

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the twins that we didn't get to adopt in October.  I think about them and dream about them.  Want to know a secret?  When laying down to sleep at night, I used to allow myself to think about my fantasy adoption.  Like, what would happen if we got a call to adopt twins?  I would think about the names for them, about how we would tell our families and the world.  I would let myself dream about it, and then it happened.  We did get that call.  We did live out those three weeks where I was flying high and walking it out.  We did choose names, we did put together a nursery, we did plan the surprise for our parents. 

Now I don't know what to dream about. 

I mean, it is NOT really my fantasy to adopt triplets, which might seem like the only thing that could top twins.  Triplets is one baby tooooo much (although, let me say, if the agency called and had triplets, I'm sure we'd take them. )  So I don't want to dream about triplets. 

Dreaming about adopting one baby just doesn't seem like enough.  In reality, it is what will happen.  We will be matched with a mother having one baby and I know I'll be excited, thrilled, jubilant, amazed and grateful for the baby placed in my arms. 
 

 

Today on the drive home it was raining and I felt like crying and letting it out.  Letting go of all my hopes and dreams for those girls and trying to move forward in a positive way.  Last year I wrote a prayer journal, and while I haven't bought one for 2012 yet, I hope to continue that practice.  On New Year's Eve, Charlie and I attended an hour long prayer service at our church, and I wanted to focus on bringing in the new year the right way.  I made a list of people and topics I wanted to pray for and did so.  There were times when it was emotional, times when it seemed REALLY quiet in there, and times when I just felt peaceful. 

I continue to want to move forward, but be thankful for what I have in front of me.  There has been family drama the last couple of weeks, and while it isn't between me and Charlie, it has made us grateful for each other in many ways

Here's hoping that 2012 will bring us more togetherness, a baby, and an outlook that is filled with the love of Christ. 

goodbye, bad memories

Well, here we are in another year and I don't know exactly what to say about it.  In my mind, I think that 2011 was really horrible to me, but that's because all I can remember about it is that we didn't get the twins.  I lost babies in 2011, just like in 2009.  But, in 2011 I also got a new job and my husband took me on a cruise.  We began renovations on the attic bedroom and bonus room, doing it on a slow pace that matches how we can afford it.

Yes, I know good things happened in 2011 and I have posted about this before.  I need to look on the bright side. 

The photo above shows us in progress on what would have been the nursery for the twins. We switched our larger guest room with our smaller nursery to accommodate two babies.  We painted the nursery a coffee color, and kept the white furniture we already had, planning on adding an additional crib once we brought the babies home.  We are pretty much prepared for a baby at this point, having been excited twice and done little bits of shopping both times.  We're ready. 

The nursery is more put together than this photo shows, but because I was putting up curtains when we were interrupted by the phone call from Jennifer saying she was going to parent the twins, I never took more photos.  I promise I will, because we have a really great rug in there now, and some great turquoise curtains on curtain rods I installed myself (no husband necessary!) 

I've also read two posts lately that I feel the need to comment on, one by All You Who Hope about feeling scared to try to get pregnant again and feeling guilty about wanting more children when there are some of us out here still waiting to add to our families.  My opinion on this, and my comment to her, was that no one needs to worry about wanting more children in regards to this blogger.  It isn't that I don't want others to have children, it's that I want them TOO.  And I hope this opinion is shared by other "waiters" out there.  Thankfully, there is a God in heaven who fills my heart up with joy for other women, taking away most of the sorrow of being childless.  There are only small moments where I cry and whine and whimper, and most are in the privacy of my own home 

The second post was at A Familiar Path, talking about friendship and the desire to say "no" most of the time to invitations from friends.  She was talking about being a homebody, not minding having people over, but often shunning invitations to go other places.  I get like this sometimes, just wanting to crawl into a cave and have alone time, but my thoughts about friendship were more on the "who" front.  And how to choose good friends.  And how to nurture "couple" friends.  I have so many thoughts on this, it might branch out into a whole post.   While it seems so easy to have friends, like marriage it takes work to be a good friend.  More on that when I can organize my thoughts. 

I wish you all a Happy New Year.  For those who are waiting, like Charlie and I, I pray that 2012 will be the year of adoption miracles. 

Onward and upward, right?