Slow Down & Breathe

 I just love summer! 

No alarm clocks, late nights out on the patio with the tiki torches lit, the scent of fresh cut grass, BBQs with good friends,  kids collecting fireflies in pickle jars.....ahhh!  I can get used to this!  

It's been a tough few weeks emotionally, but we've been handling it quite well, in my humble opinion.  I'm the kind of girl that prefers to be distracted rather than face things head-on at times.  No, I'm not avoiding completely,  just coping the way I know best.   Yes, I've had my moments days of grieving.   Truth be told, that little boy that we named Nathaniel will ALWAYS have a place in my heart.  In the meantime, we have just kept his bedroom door closed and tried to carry on as best we can.   It's what we have to do right now to stay afloat.  

Must. Stay.  Distracted. While. We. Wait.

How?

Well,  I find myself learning how to do new things.  For example, instead of obsessing about the photos I see online  of waiting children, I've started to do some research on how to can veggies.   Our little veggie patch in the community garden is starting to sprout and we're loving it!   I can remember how awesome it was to have garden green beans, homemade tomato sauce,  dill pickles from our garden all winter long.  Not sure I can pull all of that off the 1st year of planting, but I'm sort of on a mission to try.  Why not?   Fresh salsa, anyone?

The girls have been playing in a $10 kiddie pool that we got from Walmart.    Ah, who knew $10 could bring so many hours of entertainment?    With that said, I've been able to really work on my Pampered Chef business while they are  home and I set an all time recruiting record for myself  last month.   The Lord knew I needed to just slow down and focus on others, I guess.   Brilliant, actually!   Working with my growing team along with a packed cooking show schedule these days has really been sort of therapeutic and has kept me from getting into a "funk" over our circumstances.   Great stuff!

Oh, and need I forget that our neighborhood yard sale is this weekend?    Holy moly, getting ready for it has practically been a part-time job in itself!   We've spent lots of time filling up boxes of goodies we will be selling for cheap, just to raise $ to help toward our adoption expenses. 



Speaking of the adoption, we have no updates since the last post.  We still sit and wait for LOA (letter of acceptance) from China which should come in about 32 days from now on average (but who's counting???) When we get that letter, we can be matched with a different child IF our not-so-fabulous agency has their  privileges back to match kiddos.    If not, we will have to look into switching agencies.  Not exactly the way we planned things, but at this point, nothing surprises me.