It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...

Gopher?

I have a story for you my friends, quiet an interesting one if I do say so myself. Before I actually start with the story I feel as though I need to give you a bit of background. First of all: it's summer. And I'm a teacher. Need I say more?

No, really I've been blessed with what, so far at least, has been a nice, relaxing summer. Sure I'm gathering paperwork for the adoption, attending a few trainings, and writing an autobiography, but really? In the scheme of things? This summer has been sooooooooo nice. And relaxing.

Most of this relaxing has to do with the fact that I have time (ahhh, time!) to read. I love to read. In fact, when I was little I would check out stacks of books at a time. And read them within a week. But, back to this summer. Last year I started taking my books outside to read. I make my cup of coffee, get my granola bar, set up my Adirondack chair under my tree, place my footstool nearby and plop down with whatever book I happen to be reading. (The fact that I'm under a tree is important! Take note.)

Now, if you know me you will realize K and I live out in the country. Surrounded by fields. Way far away from any type of forested area. And also? We don't have much in the way of trees on our property. So I take advantage of the one we have in our backyard.

Earlier this week I was reading as described above and hear a "thud" behind me. Naturally I turn around (thinking is was a cat of course) and what do I see? A gopher running away from me towards the garden! Do you know the "thud" means? The gopher had to have been SITTING IN THE TREE the whole time! Yikes! I don't know about you my friends, but that was a bit spooky. Moral of my story? Check all trees for gophers. Because you know what? They can climb.

A Turn of Events

In my head I've been keeping this blog current; writing about important life decisions, recording funny anecdotes, and just keeping up with life in general. But, as is evidenced by the date of my last post, this logging of events is decisively all in my head! Although there is a lot I could write about, I'll try to keep this post based on one topic: children. Or, more specifically, decisions we have made in regards to children.

As you know, K and I have been trying to expand our family for several years now. Last year at this time we moved to Dr. Delightful who prescribed a more "natural" way to conceive. We also had agreed that IUI and IVF procedures were not for us for both personal feelings and money issues. Quite frankly, at the end of April we were done with keeping track of temperatures, timing everything, and shooting me up with drugs. The whole process was getting old and every month brought a new heartache. And actually, a year earlier we said we would try the whole Creighton method for a year and then reevaluate everything.

These feelings led us to be more open with each other about the idea of adoption. We had been adamantly sure that this wasn't the direction for us, but with month after month filled with disappointments we began talking about it again. It turns out that we were both more open to the idea and felt perhaps that this was a path we should further explore. After doing some research and spending time in thought and prayer, we made inquiries to several agencies. We picked one of the agencies, submitted our application and began taking the necessary classes in June.

We are still deep within the initial steps on the path toward adoption and I would be lying if I said we didn't have any doubts. However, I will say that we feel called to be parents and feel this is the path God has chosen for us to expand our family. It is awesome to be able to forget about taking my temperature at 6am, forgo with the whole charting of cervical mucus, and answering "no" when dr's ask me if I'm taking any prescriptions. It is daunting to imagine that our future children are potentially living somewhere within the U.S. right now. What do they look like? What do they like to eat? Will they like living with us? Will we be good parents? How will we work through any past issues?

These questions (and more) and the topic of adoption in general are at the forefront of my thinking over the summer months. I'm using my time this summer to continue doing research, filling out all sorts of paperwork, and getting the house in order for our expanding family. (It's during times like this that I feel fortunate beyond belief to have summers off..sigh, gotta love that!)