New Activities

Damon and I have made it a goal to try new things and stay busy during the wait so when our good friends, Chris and Suzie, invited us to go raspberry picking this past Saturday we were totally up for it. We arrived at Mitchell’s Farm and the owner told us that it was getting late in the season but there were still tons of berries to pick. It was an overcast morning and was misting rain but we had a really great time and were very successful in the raspberry picking department.

Here are some of the pictures I took.

Suzie and Damon (in the distance) hard at work

Chris and Suzie pausing for a cute shot.

Damon was a berry picking machine.

I am showing off all the berries even though I picked a small margin of them.

Since we had SO many berries I felt inspired to bake something with them. The inspiration to cook is a rarity for me so I thought I should take advantage. When I was talking to my sister recently she had mentioned going to a scone party so I had scones on the brain. Damon found a recipe online for me and off I went. I was a little nervous because the last time I decided to bake it did not go so well. I used a banana nut bread recipe to make banana nut muffins, which would have been fine, except that I didn’t alter the time in the oven. Needless to say, the muffins came out resembling rubber. BUT this time my scones turned out great.

Here are some pics of my scone baking extravaganza.

Perfect berries

Scones pre-oven

Finished product

I am very proud of myself and love that we picked the berries ourselves and then came home and used them in a recipe. This is where you shower me with positive reinforcement so that I will be encouraged to do this again. J We still have lots of berries in the freezer so I’ll have to find some more recipes.

Finally, last week was a big week in Gladney referral world! It was very exciting to read all about “the call” moments for all of the families. Those are some of my favorite blog posts. I know it is way early for me to be thinking about "the call" but with all the referrals last week it makes it so hard not to wonder what it will be like. Will I be at work? Will Damon and I be able to receive the information together or will it be by conference call? Will I cry instantly? (yes) How old will the baby be? So many questions. Time will tell. I am practicing patience on a daily basis and grasping to the fact that my time will come eventually. Congrats Gladney families!

My Internal Shift

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about this internal shift of priorities I have going on inside of me. I am not exactly sure what it all means so if this post seems a little all over the place that is because I haven’t figured it all out yet. I don’t necessarily think that the core of what makes me “Emily” has changed but the things that come in and out of my brain are so different from what they used to be. I never imagined my thoughts would float to Ethiopia so frequently or about adoption awareness or the AIDS crisis or clean water. These are all things that if someone brought it up in conversation then yes I would think about it but never on my own and never a million times a day. All of these thoughts are still fresh and new so I know that it is probably wise to linger on it for a while and see where it all leads me but it is hard not to wonder. I like to think that we all have our own calling in life and it takes certain life experiences to help us figure out what it is. I know I am still on this search but I have a feeling that this adoption journey is leading me somewhere truly rewarding and wonderful. I’ll let you know if I ever figure it out.

I read a poem recently (in something my mom gave me of course) that pushed me to think more about what my passions are and how I want to live out those passions. I thought I would share.

Calling -by Kathleen Pahl

Wake up! God is calling! The Earth, the people, the animals are calling.

The blades of grass, the rocks, the soil are calling.

The air, the now, the moment is calling. God, the universe, the world is calling.

LIFE is calling!

Did you know that...... Your smile is the rising sun?

Your hug is a cradle? Your kind words are medicine?

Your labor is a seed? Your visit is a song?

You have a calling!

It’s not being sugary fake. It’s as real as the blood in your veins.

You may not know what your calling is, but love will lead you to it.

Your calling may appear to be small, but it’s actually huge!

It may vary from year to year moment to moment.

It could be to: learn, help, feel, be, act, sing, write, work, clean, hug,

hold, march, watch, give, receive, bless, dress, cook, hear, text, call,

dance, run, draw, stop, start, move, plant, sculpt, stretch, teach, lift,

rest, mend, lend, make, teach, follow, or lead.

You may never see the end result, but, do it anyway!

You are needed.

Find your calling. Find yourself.

You are needed, Now and always.

Wake up! God is calling!

One Month Down & Tagged

One Month Down! Today we are celebrating our one month wait-a-versary. Whoo Hoo! I was trying to come up with a cute picture of my dog carrying a sign with a 1 on it but that just wasn’t happening so you’ll just have to envision it. J We are one month closer to our little buster!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Tam tagged me. Then a few days ago Leah tagged me as well so I figured I better get to work. I will admit that I did the 25 random things that spread around Facebook like wild fire earlier this year and I did steal from that list. So if you are my friend on Facebook then I apologize for the repetition.

1. My middle name is Kyger. It was my grandmother’s maiden name. When I was in the second grade I changed it to Beth and I wrote it on all my papers. I think my second grade teacher really thought my name was Emily Beth. My mom was probably a little concerned. Now I really like it and that it is unique and has family meaning but at the time I just wanted to conform.

2. I am terrible at taking pills. I actually take a drink and then shove the pill in my mouth and hope it goes down. I have only met one other person who is like me in the pill taking world. If all pills could be chewable or like the yummy bubble gum liquid medicine we got as kids then I would be thrilled. I really want to start taking fish oil pills but all the ones I have found are just too big. It is a true conundrum.

3. I ran the NYC marathon in 2003. I wore a t-shirt that said "David's niece". My uncle David ran the NYC marathon over 20 times and one of the 1st times (I was probably 3) he wore a t-shirt that said "Emily's uncle". It cracked me up when I was running and people would cheer and say "go David's niece?" and you could just sense they were perplexed. It entertained me for 26.2 miles. My uncle passed away in April 2006 and I think of him often. I know he would be really excited about our adoption.

4. Damon cooks dinner every night. Since we have been married I could probably think of maybe 10 times when I have cooked and that might be a stretch. I do aspire to cook but at the moment I am fine with reaping with the benefits of being married to someone who enjoys cooking.

5. I LOVE the Olympics. When they roll around I am totally addicted and can’t get enough. This is probably because of my love for sports and also because I get caught up in the personal stories of the athletes.

6. I love to have coffee in bed on the weekends while I read the paper. I know with a child on the way those days are probably numbered. I will enjoy them while I can.

7. My family rocks. They are awesome. I also really lucked out in the in-law department. I know Damon's parents would do anything for me and I love them. I am blessed.

Okay, so here are the blogs I am tagging.

1. Tracy at Always and Forever Ours

2. Claire at My Inner June

3. Christine at The Mathews Family

4. Lindsey at Africa Bound Andrews

5. Kristi at We Love our Lucy

6. Amy at Peanut Journey

7. Valerie at My Own Crafty Wonderland

I’ll be eagerly awaiting your posts. J

Central Ohio Folks:

Enkutatash – Ethiopian New Year Celebration

Saturday, September 19th from Noon – 4pm

Whitehall Yearling High School

Kids under 12 are Free / $10 in advance and $15 at the door

Damon and I will be there enjoying the food and festivities so come on out and support ETSS!

Information Seekers

I have mentioned before on this blog how my mother is a librarian. As a child I would get annoyed when I would ask my mom a question and her response was always, “Let’s look it up in the encyclopedia.” I knew that she knew the answer but she was trying to teach me a lesson about seeking out information. She would gleefully go pull out the encyclopedia and we would read about whatever it was. Was it weird that we had a set of encyclopedias at home? I always wondered if that was a librarian-only house thing. At the time I wasn’t too hip on this lesson because I just wanted to know and didn’t want to “waste time” looking in the encyclopedia. I am now grateful for her desire to impress this thirst for knowledge upon me. Any time I told my mom about an obstacle I was facing or a new interest that I had, I would soon be bombarded with books or newspaper articles or websites that provided information about the topic. When I told my parents that we had officially made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia they were extremely excited and it was only matter of days before my mom was up to her old tricks. She started reading several blogs, looking for children’s books about Africa and finding books to buy and send my way.

She sent me this book about a young couple from our agency that decided to adopt. I read it in one afternoon.

(image via fromashestoafrica.com)

She sent me several children’s books like this one that I absolutely love.

(image via amazon.com)

When we were in New Mexico my mom had this book with her and told me to take it home and read it. I just finished it this morning.

(image via amazon.com)

My mom visited last weekend and brought the latest issue of Adoptive Families magazine and told us she ordered the subscription for us. She just can’t help herself.

To know that all of this information is out there really helps me feel connected to a broader group and this journey isn’t nearly as lonely as I predicted. I like to think that the success I have had so far in discovering my own list of Ethiopia and adoption related information is due to some of those old encyclopedia lessons from my childhood. That is part of why I started this blog in the first place. I found Paige’s blog and EOR. I found Amy and she told me all about the group of families here in our neck of the woods that have adopted or are in process of adopting from Ethiopia. This group has already provided us with new friendships and with people like Amy who are willing to pass on the information they have gathered. We are all paying it forward if you will. It is such a privilege to feel connected to this larger community and truly all the information and support lessens the anxiety of this process and all that is unknown. My prayer is that anyone out there who is considering adoption has someone in their life to encourage them to go out and seek the information they need to lead them down this path.

I also can’t end this entry without mentioning that I now feel like an official blogger. Why you ask? I have been TAGGED by Tam. This must be one of the true inductions into blog world. I will get to work on that for my next entry!

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. " - Kofi Annan