my nemesis....conquered

i am finished with my delightful scrap-book as of ten minutes ago....so these pictures are hot off the presses....now, i don't want anyone to get the wrong idea....i have a lot of respect for you ladies (and possibly some very confident men) who enjoy this hobby.

i get it...i mean what's not to love about cutting out countless pieces of paper to realize you are just one piece short of what you really needed so you get to run back to the scrapbook store for one 50 cent sheet of paper, or laying out an entire set of pages and finding one misspelled word that you already wrote in silver ink so you are forced to do the whole thing over again, and your cat constantly climbing up onto the table, counter, roof (wherever you think you can finally get away from him) and walking through paper glue and biting the corner of a picture, or sliding a finished page into the plastic sleeve and the plastic sleeve slides under all the pictures and rips them off the page, or having piles of paper, stickers, glue, scissors, etc. laying all over your kitchen table for weeks on end as you work on this glorious masterpiece.

all that to say...that i'm excited to be finished with this. i really am proud of it and it's so strange to think that this will go from our hands into the hands of someone who will be our birth mom. chris and i have talked a lot about the pictures we've chosen to put in this and would laugh about the context of the photographs and then wonder what someone else will think about them...if they'll notice something about "us" that we didn't notice or pick up on something that really speaks to them that we couldn't possibly have imagined and most importantly if they'll get a glimpse into who "we" are and if we seem to be a good fit for their child.

our home study report is still not officially filed...BUT...the reason that this book will be turned in tomorrow is that we received an e-mail from our social worker on monday requesting that i bring our book down if possible by tomorrow, the 26th, because there is a couple that she's very interested in showing our book to. they are due in march.

they are due in march. they are due in march. those are five crazy words that don't really have any finality for us....as of right now. but they could. and that has really gotten us thinking this week about how real what we are doing is. when we started this process at the end of september that's all it was....a process....and now we're being confronted with a possible end to that process. not that adoption is ever over....it's our reality forever....but those preliminary hoops, so to speak, could be coming to an end. we'll have to wait and see. the anticipation is so exciting and so very cool....we just can't wait to see how it all plays out!

we did go and register yesterday.....and just in case anyone was wondering babies r us has a special registry list for parents who are adopting....it's even labeled "domestic adoption registry list." and the strangest thing.....adopted babies need the same stuff that non-adopted babies need....who would have thought?

but i digress....below are a few snaps of our finished book.....

funny thing about journeys...

it has been so encouraging for maggie and i to read your comments, to feel your love, and add even more members to our journey. we've just about worn out our mouse double clicking on the comments link below each entry. this child will not only be loved in our home, but given the outpouring of our friends and family, it's obvious that baby terryn will be loved by all of you as well.

thank you for loving our child and us...it hasn't gone unnoticed.

for those of you who call my beautiful wife a friend, co-worker, acquaintance, sister, daughter, pass her on the freeway....i implore you to speak honestly and truthfully when she proposes another round of "name that baby". please remind her this child will be on playgrounds, in school buses, classrooms, sports teams, and one day enter the work force...i think you understand where i'm going with this. speak up now, or you'll be forever culpable to the endless ridicule...who could live with that?

i promise i'm working on this scrapbook.....

everyone asks, "sooooo, how are you coming on your scrapbook?" my response is, "sooooo, i've got about four pages done. but, that's better than nothing right? it's so hard for me. i've never really enjoyed this past-time. i'd much rather take the pictures and then put them in frames or blow them up really big and put them on a wall. my mom and my sister got the crafty (and i don't mean church gym craft sale crafty) side of the creative d.n.a. and i like to think that i got the good taste side (they both have that too--they have everything!)....humble, i know. so, i keep running into these crafting road blocks where i look at a page i'm working on and think it's missing something or it's too much or i can't think of a good caption for a picture or i can't think of what to do next or i take a facebook or etsy break and then lose the mojo. but, to prove to everyone that it is getting done i've included these pictures to show you that it's definitely a work in progress.

we're patiently awaiting our home-study to be finished. we haven't received the report in the mail yet. once we do and "sign-off" on it we'll be officially on the "list" and then i'll really feel the pressure to get this book in. but, we have nothing going on tonight....it's snowing like crazy, i'm making a pot of chili, chris is watching some really interesting cop/prison in-mate/how to remove fish hooks from your hands/how things are made/gang activity in antarctica/mating rituals of llama's, etc. television so i'm hoping to accomplish a lot.

and....not to make a promise i can't keep....but chris has told me that he's going to make a debut on this blog soon. stay tuned for witty writing from my funny husband.....maybe he'll let you know what he thinks about the names i've chosen.