So There's This Thing Called Facebook

     I have recently started this blogging thing again and I have quickly realized why I ever started it in the first place. I just like to have a place to out my thoughts down and maybe put in a picture or two and blogging was a way to do that and also let my family that lived a few states away keep in touch. Then Facebook came along and I started doing that, so blogging felt a bit redundant at times, so I slowly moved away from it. Now I'm back bitches!!!!
     Some of that is because on here I tend to behave myself a bit more, I am consciously aware that this space is more for my entire family unit and our memories and I won't be as prone to put political stuff on here, but it's mostly because I like having a bit more space to talk about the subject I'm blathering on about and a bit more time to use for adding pictures and maybe some video.
In the recent past that old FB has given me grief. I do tend to be opinionated and I just can't seem to stop putting things on my wall about my political views or issues that get my blood boiling, no matter how many times I promise myself I will keep things light and about me and my family. Then, I go ahead and post something and invariably someone forgets the number one FB rule, "If you don't like it, you just don't leave a comment" and I just sort of black out and either start defending myself (which leads to HUGE issues) or I just start un-friending people. Listen, I started the whole un-friending after a huge personal issue came up over FB and a political view got way out of hand so now, I just tell myself, "If this person and I are that diametrically opposed and they can't keep their fingers off of their keyboard, then they don't need to be looking in on my life."
     On the positive side of FB, I have 133 friends on there that I have contact with. They make me laugh, wish me well when I am sick, wish me Happy Birthday, watch my children grow, laugh at my stupid jokes, tolerate my political crap, listen to me rant about animal cruelty, put up with my extreme geekery, love me despite my back yard water feature, support me in dark times. Some of my FB friends are real life friends, some are family and some are just people I met online and never met in real life but whom I have been online with now for so long, that I would just walk right up and hug and start chatting away with (you know who you are).
     I'm going to keep doing both, blogging and Facebooking. You will more than likely get an overlap of pictures, because my kids are old and sodded and will only allow me to take so many anymore (the ingrates). Read along if you want. I'll just be here doing my thing, because it makes me happy. You know, like a room without a roof.

Liam and His Kung-Fu

When we moved here, we realized it was time to start Liam in a year round activity. For awhile he wavered between martial arts and gymnastics but, eventually his love of fighting and whooping ass took over and he chose Kung-Fu. I wasn't sure, at first, how it was going to go, he is Liam after all. A bit clumsy, a little goofy, sometimes a bit difficult to focus...but, to my surprise he is thriving! He loves it.
He goes into class, behaves himself, focuses and really enjoys the things he is learning there. He too works hard at his chosen craft. In October, he tested for, and passed for his yellow stripe on his belt. That was quite a moment for him, his first big solo achievement in life. He had worked hard for it, practicing kicks and blocks every night, making sure he knew his bow and the stretch routine. You know that is all very hard work and dedication for a little guy but he did it and he was happy about it.
Sometimes his Si-fu Mr. Yes even tells me that he uses Liam as an example to the other boys as to how they should be behaving in class! He goes three nights a week and he is always happy to go. I am also happy about the fact that he has made a gaggle of friends that he calls his "peeps" and they all get along and seem to help each other out and have fun in class and after.

USAGC 4

We moved to Florida 6 months ago and in that time, my little gymnast has had to work hard. You see, there was a gap in her training due to the move and that is hard for a gymnast anyway. Then when we started at her gym, we learned that they did not have the program she was used to being in, in New Jersey, that she would have to train and compete in the USAGC branch. USAGC, for those of you who don't know, just really means that the judging is more picky, that every little wobble or bounce gets a deduction, every little turn of the foot they don't like gets a deduction, if your hands aren't held right they give you a deduction...It also means that there is no longer the luxury of picking your own music for floor routines, or designing your own floor routine-everyone does the same thing. It's tougher all around. Also, she just had to catch up on skills.
Well, she has worked and worked and worked. She has listened to her coaches, she has tried and failed and tried again. She has made us proud by managing to work so hard but still have fun and keep loving her sport. She comes home after every practice completely worn out but smiling and laughing and telling us stories of her gym mates and tales of her training. She leaves that gym exhausted and sweaty, smiling and ready to get back in there the next practice. The thing I love most? When she goes to a competition, even if she falls on the beam, or she doesn't get her squat on, she says, "That was a great competition! I had fun. Thanks for letting me go." Every time.
I still remember taking her to her very first gym practice, she was three years old, a very shy and still chubby little thing that refused to go out onto the mats unless I went with her. She would reluctantly go through the motions for the first few times but soon enough, she started to really just want to get there and get out on the mats and start jumping and tumbling. She never looked back. I can't tell you how many less we have gone through but I can tell you this, I hope we have hundreds more because she loves this and even if she never makes it to the Olympics, it has been good for her spirit and it has made her strong in her body and her mind. I have to give credit to gymnastics for helping my little daughter go from being a tiny, weak baby to the strong muscled young lady with an 8 pack that can haul in more groceries than I can.

Yesterday Was National Adoption Day

The Saturday before Thanksgiving every year is known as National Adoption Day. If you are an adoptive family, like mine, this is something you just kind of know. If you are an adoptive Mom, similar to me, this day can fill you with mixed feelings. Those mixed feelings stem from the fact that most people take this day and use it as a big advertisement for Adoption, almost as if to say, "Hey! Look, this is what everyone with a beating heart in their chest SHOULD be doing." I am here to say though, that adoption is not something that everyone should be doing.
Adoption is something that you should do only if you have considered it carefully and purposefully. Because, you see, the end result of adoption is having a child, and being that child's parent forever, no matter what, and that is quite a big deal. The biggest deal of all, as far as I'm concerned.
Adoption is rough. Adoption is messy. Adoption takes time, lots and lots of time. Adoption is expensive. Adoption has issues with bonding, both child to parent, and parent to child. Adoption is amazing. Adoption is life changing. Adoption is life. Adoption is love. Adoption is the miracle in my life that gave me the two greatest kids on the planet. In short, adoption is just like making a family in any other way, messy and full of growth and love for everyone involved and you, nor I would have it any other way.
Even though I feel this way about adoption and being a parent, I do not feel that adoption should be advertised and pushed off on everyone on Adoption Day. And I have an even greater problem with Orphan Sunday. I feel that a greater purpose would be served if we could just show adoptive families as we are.

Families just like everyone else, just with a different start. Let's just let people know that if biology isn't working, there is something else out there that can work for them. And at the end of the adoption road there is love eternal. That is what National Adoption Day means to me.