Dear Uncle Jimmy,

I will miss you so much. Some of my best childhood memories are with you: our walks to Hawkinberry Hollow where we fed Bob Manning's chickens, took donuts to Big Boy, sat on the giant rock, drank water out of the spring using our collapsible cups, used our walking sticks that you made from a broomstick with a nail in the bottom, and of course the infamous abandoned TV that you climbed in and let me "change the channels." We had tons of fun in the Mama Mia room, covered in drawings that the kids all made you. We recorded radio broadcasts, and even played in laundry baskets. Your energy and creativity were a child's best friend.

When I got older, you picked me (and my friends) up at the bus stop, always bringing us our favorite goodies (usually donut holes from Foodland). You always made me laugh, and after I moved away, you made my visits home more fun. Lucky will always appreciate the popsicles you fed him, and his favorite dirty old balls that you saved for him.

You were the heart of this family, and life is not going to be the same without you. I am heartbroken that our child will not get to know you, but we will do our best to make sure the legend of Uncle Jimmy lives on. I take some comfort in knowing that you are no longer in pain, and hope that you finally have peace.

Love,

The Princess

Found!

My brother is my hero. He camped out at Mom's house from Monday until Wednesday night when he captured my little Nilesy. And it wasn't easy- he had to contend with barking neighbor dogs, Enemy Orange Cat, a multitude of bugs, a centipede, and a crazy old raccoon trap that Uncle Jimmy keeps for just such an occasion. But Mark persevered, ultimately catching Niles by lying in wait (or sitting in a lawn chair as it were) in the garage with food as bait. Niles came in, Mark cat-whispered him closer, tackled his a%$, and hit the garage door opener. Score!

I think we have finally solved the mystery about how Niles got out of Mom's house. We were back in WV last weekend to pick him up, and Pete was walking Lucky around the house Saturday morning. He noticed that the screen was off of the bedroom window. The same window that we had opened the weekend before when we went to sleep. I talked to Mom about it, and she said that there were no screens out of any windows when she left. Then I remembered a noise that woke us up during the night. I thought it was the window falling, so Pete got up and shut the window. But now I realize that Niles must have jumped up into the window, knocked the screen out in the process, and fell to the ground.

Case closed. Thankfully with a happy ending!

When it rains, it pours

Niles, one of our cats, ran away last weekend. We were in WV visiting family, and we took Lucky, Niles, and Sadie with us. Niles has always been a bit of a recluse, especially when in new environments. So when we didn't see him on Sunday, we did not think much of it.


Then the time came to pack up the car to leave. We could not find him anywhere. We searched room by room, cat treats and irresistible canned food in hand. No luck. It became clear that Niles had escaped.


Eventually Sunday evening came and we had to make a decision. Pete left, and I stayed behind to look for Niles.


I did spot him Sunday night. I turned on the porch light and saw his green eyes reflect off in the distance. I grabbed a flashlight and treats, and ran out the door. Unfortunately he ran too, and he is much faster than I am. I spent the night waiting by the back door, but he did not return.


Monday afternoon I had to leave Fairmont to come back home. It is a very busy time at work right now with graduation next week, and I could not miss another day. It was incredibly difficult to leave without him, and I felt awful about it.


My brother, Mark, however, was kind enough to camp out at the house and resume Operation Get Niles Back. He has really gone above and beyond the call of duty, I couldn't ask for a better person to be there in my absence. But I'm worried about the toll that the situation is taking on him.


Mark did have a Niles sighting last night (Tuesday). He came to the deck and ate some food. Even though Niles is still out and about, I feel much better knowing that he's got something in his belly and he knows where to come back for more.


My plan is to return to Fairmont Friday after work. Hopefully Niles will be ready to end his little adventure by this weekend. I miss him terribly.

In adoption news, we did have our meeting at the agency last week. Though nothing concrete came of it, I left feeling much better. The International Program Coordinator reassured us that we are the "perfect" couple for this program, and that we have no reason to look into other options right now. It does sound like our wait will be longer than we had initially been told. She predicted January-March 2010, based on what the orphanage said most recently. Overall, I got the sense that they are advocating for us more that I realized, but I think they do a poor job of communicating with us waiting families.

She will be going to Colombia on Friday as part of a Homeland Tour with several families and teens and the agency Director. The director plans to meet with the orphanage higher-ups to discuss the status of the program and presumably the lack of referrals to our agency. They return on June 26, so hopefully we'll get an update soon after that.

Bad Week

Though I try to keep things positive on this blog, in reality there are a lot of bad days. This week has been a prime example.

I am struggling to keep it together every day at work. It's been over a year since we started the adoption process, and I don't feel like we are any closer than when we began. I'm starting to question our choices, wondering if we are in the right program, if we have the right agency, should we have stuck with fertility treatments longer, and if there is really anything I can do about it at this point. Overall, I've been feeling like I don't have the strength to wait any longer. It just does not seem possible.

I made an appointment with the agency tomorrow morning. I have a lot of questions. I'm hoping I can get some honest answers. I'm tired of being patient. I'm just plain tired.

Anniversary/Memorial Day Weekend

Can you believe it, we've been married for five years! Time has really flown by. Since our wedding on May 25, 2004, we have moved to a new state, started our careers, bought a townhouse, added a second cat to the family (perhaps our biggest mistake, haha), and traveled to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and lots of fun places in between. We've had our ups and downs, but we have learned to communicate well with one another. Most importantly, we have a solid partnership. We never could have made it through our family-building roller coaster without that.

So what did we do to mark the occasion? Well, not much. We did just go on a cruise, after all! Pete spent most of the weekend working hard to build a new flower bed. And I worked hard to fill it with lots of pretty things. I finished Monday evening just in time before the rain started. Unfortunately it hasn't stopped raining since. Once the sun shows it's face again, I'll take a picture so you can see the finished product.

We did manage to take a break to go out to eat on Saturday night. We went out with our friends Bethany and Mike to an Irish pub/restaurant. After dinner, we walked around Bethesda and got ice cream. It was a beautiful evening and a lot of fun!

Unfortunately Pete left for Tucson, AZ on Monday, our actual anniversary. He'll be gone for two weeks this time. They are doing rotating shifts, so he'll do 2-3 weeks in AZ, and 2-3 weeks here until they finish the project in the fall. Much better than the long-term stint he did in Las Vegas last year.

to put it in perspective, here is the view from our patio

Loraine's visit

Pete's mom, Loraine, came to visit us during the first weekend in May. She brought her great-niece, Jenessa (age 7) along for the trip. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire weekend, but we made the most of it.

we were able to sneak in a quick hike at Great Falls


Jenessa had her face painted at the Pet Fiesta at Reston Town Center

on our way to DC

in the Butterfly Pavilion (Natural History museum)

baby quilts that Loraine made for us (love those duckies!)

Great Falls

We celebrated Katie's birthday a few weeks ago at Great Falls Park (yeah, I'm way behind on my posts). The "Great Falls" are where the Potomac River falls over jagged rocks and flows through a narrow gorge. There are overlooks, hiking trails, and a picnic area. It was a gorgeous day, and we enjoyed grilling out and spending time with friends. One of the highlights was finally meeting Mark & Jessica's daughter, Elena! She was a doll; so happy and easy-going. We all had fun doting over her. Here are pictures of the falls, the group, and Elena.

from left: Bethany D, Sean S, Katie S, Mike D, Jessica R, Mark R, Gayle G, & Pete G

how CUTE is she?!?