The Big Meeting

Thanks to those of you who prayed for our meeting with Jonathan's birthmom. This was the first time we've seen her in person since she was discharged from the hospital after he was born. We've sent pictures all throughout the past 15 months. After his birthday, our agreement only required us to send pictures once annually, but we asked her what her preference would be continuing forward. We want to always be sensitive to her. If she wants to see pictures, she can. If she doesn't want to see them, we won't send them. She did thank us for sending more pictures and for being willing to meet with her and let her see him even though we do not have to based on our adoption agreement.

Around Christmas we were thinking that it might be nice to ask if she wanted to see him. It took until now to find a time that worked for all of us. We were able to get some pictures with Jonathan and his brothers together as well as a few with Jonathan and his birthmom. Those are pictures that we'll be able to set aside and far down the road be able to share with Jonathan when the timing is right. Obviously I won't post the pictures here as she deserves to maintain her privacy and not have her picture out on the web.

As we walked away from the meeting, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. We had a good meeting. She was able to see him interact with us, ask questions and know that he is in a great home and loved beyond measure. I'm thankful that she is still at peace about her decision (something both she and her mom, who was there as well, shared with me).

We have been blessed. Jonathan is amazing and it is hard to imagine him not being a part of our lives, but that absolutely would have been true had she not chosen the route of adoption and picked us to rear him. I praise God for His leading in our lives and in her life to bring us together.

My Christmas Tree

Okay, so at this point, if you even remotely know us, you know that I love to joke around that I'm married to the Grinch. He isn't really a Grinch but mainly just rejects the commercialism that surrounds Christmas. So, for the 6.5 years we have been married, there have been no Christmas decorations found adorning our home around the holidays. This year Jonathan turned 14 months just before Christmas. I started telling Mike that this might have to be the last year he can be a Grinch and that next year I would like to have a tree since Jonathan will be more aware of what is going on around him next year. We can develop our own Christmas traditions and as a family we can make sure that our Christmas is not enveloped in commercialism and yes, we can do that WITH a Christmas tree.

So after Christmas I began looking for an artificial tree on sale. I was hoping to hit the good deals at Target or something and find one to stash for next year. Well, I was walking through Walgreens one day and saw a sign on one of their store display trees that said "Open Box Christmas Tree, $14.99". So, I asked one of the employees if that meant that they do actually have the box or if it came without the box. She asked a manager and the manager came back and said if I wanted it I could have it for $5.00. I decided I would take it and kind of assumed they would take off the decorations, but instead they just pushed it over to the beauty counter and told me I could check out there.

In the mean time, the reason I was at Walgreens is that for the month of January, using coupons from back in October, you could get 2 Bayer Blood Glucose Monitors for free and it would spit out $13.00 in Walgreens Money. I believe that over the course of the month I picked up somewhere in the vicinity of 165 meters. For those of you doing math in your head, that is approximately $1072.50 in Walgreens money that I earned last month to spend on diapers, milk, food and etc...

So back to my Christmas tree. I went to check out and my total was $5.35 and they didn't remove ANY of the decorations. Bonus. I handed her one of the aforementioned Walgreens money (AKA Register Rewards) that I got free. She didn't think she could use it on a clearance item but the manager told her that if the register would accept it, she could take it. One quick scan later, my total was $0.35 for my Christmas tree. Almost giddy with excitement, I handed her the change and with one hand on the cart containing my son and one hand carrying my artificial tree, blissfully walked out to the car. I did have some fun getting it in, but the fact that I had a Christmas tree and even more so that I only paid $0.35 in real money for it completely made my day.

Oh yes, and my favorite Grinch's response? He claimed that I defiled his house by bringing the tree in it. I think he really is okay with it though. Now if I could just find a box to store it in for the next year...now if I only had a garage to store the box in for the next year...oh well. Today I choose to be thankful for my tree.

PS...for the life of me, I can't get the paragraph spacing to work, so you'll just have to imagine they are there. It is actually driving me crazy...