Some of you may have heard that our wait for a referral has had another 3 months added to it. That doesn’t mean it still can’t happen anytime now but it means that more than likely we won’t hear anything until the holidays.

To fill the time I’ve decided to make a quilt for the baby. I made one for Lexi out of her baby clothes and I want to do a special one for the baby as well. So I am undertaking a pretty big project involving lots of people (including you, if you want to participate). I organized a group of about 15 moms who are all adopting from Ethiopia. We are each going to make 15 identical quilt blocks, keep one block for ourselves and then send 1 block to each member of the group. Then once we get all of our blocks we can piece them together however we want. The kids who come home from Ethiopia will all have a quilt with a common theme running through them (just like they are all from Ethiopia) but the quilts will be different in their own way - just like the kids are all different.

15 blocks is only about half of the front of a quilt. To piece mine together I would like help from family and friends. I’m modifying an idea I’ve seen a lot of other adoptive parents do. It’s from a tradition in China called a 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I was originally going to just do a 100 Good Wishes Quilt but I liked the idea of tying in some of Ethiopia as well.

If you want to be a part of the quilt, cut a piece of material (any kind as long as it can be machine washed) into a 12 inch square and send it to me. Pick a material that you like - something that could represent your family, you, your interests, you favorite color, a favorite flannel shirt you never wear anymore- and send it too me. I’d appreciate it if you’d include a note as to why you chose the fabric. I’ll save these and put them in the baby’s life book (side note: A life book is the adopted child’s version of a baby book). I’ll use all the piece I receive as a border for the quilt and to fill in the middle if needed. You don’t have to limit it to “1 per family” either. If you’ve got kids and want to do one for you, one for your spouse, one for each kid, go right ahead. If you want to do one as a family, go right ahead. I’m also planning on creating a page on my blog to post pictures of the squares I get.

If you’re a time line sort of person, I’d like to be able to put the quilt together over my Thanksgiving break, so if you could send it before then, that would be great.

If you need my address, just e-mail me or leave a comment and I’ll send you my address.

**Note: This is an open invitation for anyone who reads my blog. If we’ve never met but you feel like you want to do this, please do.**

Okay all my artsy/crafty friends (yeah, I’m looking at you Limor, Steph, Jaime), I need help with the baby’s room. I’ve got an underwater theme going in there with bedding, pictures and stuffed animals but I’m not excited about just painting the walls “water blue.” I want to think of a more creative way to paint but I’m not wanting to do a mural in there. I like the idea of a mural but a) I’m not that talented and b) if I’m going to do that, I’ll do it when my baby can have some input so I don’t have to paint over it in 5 years. I’m having a complete mental block on this. And I think the size of the room is throwing me off as well. I don’t want anything too overwhelming because the room is long and narrow, so it feels a lot smaller than it is.

Any ideas?

This is the coolest stuffed animal I have ever seen. And it will go well in room decorated with an underwater theme, do you think?

Those of you who know me and have been in public with me and Lexi know that I don’t worry too much about her running off. Okay, that sounds like she never runs off. Not true. The kid takes off like a rocket all the time. I just don’t worry about it too much because she’s so loud that I can find her no matter how far away she is.

These might come in handy. At first it seemed a little close to micro-chipping my kid, but then I realized that if Lexi ever were truly lost, she’d really have no way of telling anyone any information that would be of any help. And as a classroom teacher, these would be great on a field trip (as it is, we always put a piece of tape on the kids’ backs with the school name and our cell phone numbers and those have come in handy on a few occasions).

So, I while back I started thinking about using cloth diapers for our new baby. Kevin wasn’t 100% on board with the idea. Start up costs are a little pricey and there are so many options, it wouldn’t be fun to buy one kind and discover you don’t like it, etc.

Anyway, my sister gave me all of her cloth diaper supplies so now we are all set to give cloth diapers a go.

I was listening to NPR today and they had this short blurb on about the effects of breastfeeding. You’ll have to listen to the clip but basically the doctor they interviewed said that there aren’t many more benefits that breast fed babies receive over non-breast fed. There were two medical issues that were benefits (and no, allergies was not one) and the interview also stated that the bonding process was not affect by whether or not the mother nursed. This statement actually made sense to me. I don’t think the bonding process depends on nursing. I think it depends on physical touch, feeding, interaction and general care of the baby.

Okay, before everyone starts yelling at me, let me just say this. I nursed Lexi. I nursed her until she was 10 months and quit on her own (all though, I was planning on her being done at a year - extended nursing is not for me). But this interview does give mothers a ray of hope. Working moms who can’t nurse, moms who never quite got the hang of it, moms who couldn’t for medical reasons. All the moms who feel like they did their baby an injustice when nursing moms or breast-feeding advocates start talking about the wonders of breastmilk and how the best thing you can do for your baby is to nurse and it’s too bad they weren’t able to. Maybe it won’t be such a big deal if a mom chooses not to (or can’t) nurse.

Although, I do agree that when it comes down to it - price, convenience, and the fact that if my body makes milk, it’s probably good for my kid, but I’m not going to worry so much that I won’t be able to nurse the next baby.

For those of us who don’t want to read the entire Dr. Sear’s Library.

Simple and straight to the point.

Has anyone ever used these diapers? I am torn right now about what to do about baby #2. I was raised on cloth diapers, I have lots of friends who use cloth diapers, and before Lexi was born I really wanted to do cloth diapers. But the washing machine in our old house was horrible. I’m pretty sure our clothes were never clean - just sort of swished around in water. And the dryer was even worse. Plus, the cost of buying all those diapers at once was a little overwhelming. But, now that we have a very nice new washer and dryer and we could possibly have 2 kids in diapers I’m beginning to see the cost effectiveness of going cloth. Not to mention I really don’t want the Hendricks’ Memorial Landfill that is made up entirely of diapers.

Back to my original question - has anyone used the gDiapers? How do they compare to cloth or disposable?

…a Tiny Rock Star! Check out this website. Fun clothes. Affordable Prices. Good Cause. ‘Nuff said.

When we bring our child home it is mostly like that he or she will be over 6 months old and already have a name. So we now have 3 name questions. What to name the baby, how to name the baby, and do we change the baby’s name?

What to name the baby is giving us the same trouble as it did last time around - we can come up with girls’ names but we don’t necessarily agree and as far as boys’ names go, well, we just can’t come up with those (so let’s hope for a girl).

How to name the baby? Do we use an “American” name? Do we try and find an Ethiopian name we like? Do we Americanize an Ethiopian name? And that goes along with do we change the baby’s name. I don’t think we’ll change it completely (if we change it at all). We’re leaning towards keeping their given name as a middle name and giving them a new first name.

To be honest, out of all the choices we’ve had to make in the process so far this, for me, is one of the hardest decisions.

But if we do decide to change their name, do you have any suggestions?