First Adult Thanksgiving

I’m 28. And just experienced my first Thanksgiving as an adult. (This means that I cooked stuff. A significant amount of stuff)


Our menu included:

• Turkey, smoked. Supplied by Mrs. MHJ.  
• Fresh green beans. Snapped the morning of and simmered all morning in an attempt to get them to taste like Grandpa’s green beans
• Oyster dressing. This dish was risky, but turned out excellent. I figured we live in central Florida, why not have dressing with oysters? Plus, it is a Paula Deen recipe.  
• Sweet potato casserole. Aunt Karen’s recipe. Delicious.  
• Corn Salad. Mom’s recipe and a favorite of H and L.
• Hawaiian sweet rolls. Store bought.
• Pecan Pie. I think this was also a Paula Deen recipe; with bourbon.  
• Pumpkin pie. Supplied by Mrs. MHJ.

My fun in-laws gave us the honor of hosting Thanksgiving this year. We love having visitors! R got to take his dad skeet shooting and they installed some very classy looking chair railing in the nursery.  
 Mrs. MHJ helped me cook, introduced me to Brighton, and we had fun wandering around downtown.  

Shelby Ann quickly realized she was Mrs. MHJ’s favorite and took full advantage. (This is her begging/looking adorable for a snack)  


Things I learned:

• In central Florida, preparations for Thanksgiving include mowing, edging, and weed eating as well as last minute grocery store runs.
• Look at your menu list on the scrap paper before eating. The green beans we worked so hard to prepare were still simmering on the stove while we ate lunch, completely unaware that I had forgotten to serve them. And the sweet rolls are still in the top of the pantry, unopened.
• Turn the air down several degrees before you being cooking, yes, even at 9 am. (This may apply to central Florida only, considering it was in the high 70’s and we run the air year round)
• R is great at cleaning the kitchen. Just kidding….I already knew this.

Nursery Update

This is the overview from the door.

The crib!  Plus crib skirt (green gingham) that I actually ironed, mattress, and Peter Rabbit quilt!

Car seat.

Close up of the quilt from Mrs. MHJ.  The baby rabbits clothing is velvet, super soft.

Front view.  Can you tell that I'm excited? 

  Stroller

Tanner is watching our excitement over the room from the hallway....wondering why there is another room in the house he's not allowed.

Shelby Ann doesn't care.  :)

Home!

While I’ve never imagined myself calling central Florida home, I also never imagined myself living in the state of New Jersey for a month. I’m not going to lie - I started crying when I took the Philadelphia airport exit and realized my grown-up work trip was almost over. You may be wondering….she started crying? this girl has problems. But, in my defense, although I can admit that I’m slightly crazy, I was incredibly anxious over driving by myself from Atlantic City to Philadelphia and attempting to stop for gas at the specific place in New Jersey (so I wouldn’t have to get out of the car, nor stop in downtown Philly) before I crossed the river and where it would be safe (please note that Camden, one of the most dangerous cities in the US is one of the last NJ exits). Let’s just say it was an actual miracle that I made it without an incident. And that my husband really is THE SMARTEST man in the world for sending our gps with me. Plus, back to the crying thing, I also can claim that the news of becoming a mother is still sinking in and this is huge news to me. Perhaps most women react this way, I can’t compare since I’ve never
been pregnant, but when you know that you can’t have a child and then find out that there is a child being born that will be yours - well, let’s just say that I expect to be randomly crying with joy a lot.


I know that a 28 year old woman should probably not feel this way - but I was so happy to return my rental car, take a shuttle to the airport, and check my two bags. I felt free of responsibility. And knew that my husband, who would be waiting for me at the airport, would help carry my bags at the other end.

It’s odd how different home seems - the trees are so different here, still green, and mostly palm instead of pine; my car steering wheel is so much smaller than the dodge charger I had been driving; the entire landscape is somehow lighter and of course the weather is warmer.

I also need to brag on R. I received ten homemade (and by homemade I mean designed thru an app by him) cards, funny and sweet ones, while at my hotel. The house was clean, even the bathroom!, and the dogs didn’t smell horrible. There were also half a dozen tulips waiting on me in the seat of the car at the airport (LOVE tulips). I know, no one is surprised by this behavior. And, while I’m bragging, and updating about our family, R’s patent was approved by the company for filing AND he had helped a college friend with a design and his name is on a second patent submittal….remember how I said he is THE SMARTEST man?

Bat's Toe

I am tired of being away from R.
Feel sorry for my coworkers because my irritation is growing exponentially.

I thought maybe it would help to make a list of things I've enjoyed while here (in no particular order):

1. R and I found out we received the honor of being chosen by a birthmother.

2. I visited Cape May state park and saw lots of people bird watching.

3. I read The Hobbit. (and am impressed with Tolkien's ability to tell a story)

4. My gracious coworker agreed to hike with me at Batsto park. (if you were confused by the post title maybe it will help to explain that when he said we were going here, to Batsto, I heard bat's toe, or toe of the bat)

5. After rain the technical center parking lot smells like pine. Because there are pine trees everywhere. Did I mention that New Jersey has the season fall?

6. I especially loved the responses of my college roommate, cousin KAA, and sister L & her friends when I told them about our child.

7. I got to play horse and 21 with a couple of my coworkers.

8. I know what a WaWa is. They are awesome. So are actual diners.

9. I've learned a bit about weather.

10. Trivia nights with the customer and coworkers. They call it quizzo, or trivia, and meet at a sports bar at least once a week to play - it's actually quite fun. I get about one question per week, the one book question, ha.

Did I mention that we got the call about our son's due date and get to meet the birthmother soon?!?!

Also - warning, you may be incredibly jealous when you read this - my husband has been sending me "homemade" (made with a phone app of course) cards. I feel so pretty.

It Happened

Wow. I thought about writing....well, I can't even remember what I was going to write about from this past weekend or week, maybe something about the arrival of the Spreadsheet of Hope this week, or ordering Peter Rabbit cribs sheets just because.

But really, the only thing that matters about this week, and for every week after now, is that we were chosen by a birthmother.

November the first. I was testing, our formal dry run test with quality witness. R called the lab number which he has in case of emergencies (because cell service doesn't exist in the lab), and while receiving a call, this call, from the agency was the furtherest thing from my mind, once I heard R's voice say that our social worker had called and wanted us to call her back, I thought, oh. my. is this happening.

I grabbed my cell phone and told my coworkers that I needed to step outside for a call.

Once outside the lab, back on the phone with R, he conferenced in our social worker. The first thing she said, did the crib you ordered come in yet?
:)

Here is where I try not to break my number one work rule: no crying. There are people walking by, I can see hallways of four floors (the hallways open to something I'm going to call an atrium), and our amazing social worker and the excited birthmother counselor are explaining details about the birthmother and father. And. that we will have a little boy. A son. An actual child.

Hearing the sex and due date made it so real. I am going to be a mother. R is going to be a father, a great father.

So. That is what happened this week.

And now the exciting preparations have begun - L is scouting out Auburn baby items, Mrs. MHJ is scouting out chairs and dressers and has ordered a Peter Rabbit quilt (it's beautiful!), and we get to chose a name for our son.

I know that this happened because people have been praying for us, for the birthmother, for our little boy. Thank you. I should do an entire post on how great our God is, but really Job 37 and 38 does a better job of that. Really, I'm just thankful for the opportunity to be a mother; and to have my husband.

Hopefully you won't find this too mushy, and perhaps someday I'll be able to write a beautiful entry about my faith, infertility, adoption, and then receiving that phone call, but I'm afraid I'm not mature enough for that right now.

On a non-sappy note, I enjoyed getting to play basketball this week with coworkers. And, I'm looking forward to teaching my son how to shoot :).