Passing

2013 has not turned out to be our year so far. First, our adoption match failed. Then on April 5th, Marlon's dad passed away after a long battle with Parkinson's.  It wasn't unexpected, but losing someone you love is never easy.  I am relieved that his struggle is over and know he is smiling down on us from heaven. But he is terribly missed and I am sad that he'll never meet our child.  We'll be sure to tell them all about him.  My father-in-law loved to tell stories, he had an off-beat sense of humor and would get to laughing sometimes.  He liked a good scotch, westerns and reading. Motorcycles and sailing were entertaining for him before Parkinson's took its hold.  He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and son.

My hubby is doing OK, the best one can do after losing their father.  We went down south for the memorial service and spent time with family.  Marlon's brother Joe and sister-in-law, Stella came back to New York with us. They live on the west coast; so since they were here, they might as well stay for awhile.  It was good for the brothers to spend time together, to talk and remember their dad.  A week later, we had a toast to him with a good scotch. Marlon had posted on Facebook for everyone to raise a glass to his dad at the same time as we did. It was a nice tribute. Our friends were all posting their drink pictures in honor of his dad. It was really touching and I felt like it was a good send off.  We finished the bottle of scotch at the bar and the bartender gave us the bottle as a memento.  He would have loved that.

Now we are now settling in to the new normal without his dad. That is so sad to think about.  We'll keep his memory close to our hearts.  For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. ~William Penn 

Keepin' Busy

Thank you for all for your love and support. Your calls, texts and messages have meant a lot to us and have kept our spirits up during this disappointing time. I think we are finally feeling better and we are going to dive into launching phase 2 to find our baby.

We haven't done much networking other than this blog to find our child.  Let's call it what it is, advertising. The idea does make me cringe a little. We had planned to start in the new year, but we began talking to the expectant mother in January and didn't think about it again. Now, it's time for us to do a little more leg work on this adoption. We got so close and frankly, we are tired of waiting.  Besides, it is a good distraction from feeling sorry for ourselves.

In the next month or so, we'll be rolling out our new personal profile website for pregnant women looking for adoptive parents. Wordpress is kicking my butt, but I am catching on quickly with some help from a friend.  We are designing touch cards to leave every where from doctor's offices to coffee shops. We're even getting a toll-free number and our own domain name! We're going try our hand at advertising on sites like Craigslist and Adoptimist and maybe some college newspapers.  We are also planning a fundraising/networking event in NYC on May 17th from 6-9 pm.  SAVE THE DATE, it involves cocktails!

You might be wondering how you could help. Our match before was made through a friend of the family. It didn't work out, but it was worth it. We learned a lot and will probably do things a little differently next time. If you hear of anyone that wants to make an adoption plan for their newborn, please do not hesitate to speak up on our behalf. If you'd like more information about our adoption preferences, please email me.

Coming to your mailboxes one day soon, will be a letter from us and touch cards for you to hand out as well. If you want cards to hand out and you don't think I have your address, email me. Give these to your health care professionals, your hairdresser and waitresses when you pay the check. Post these on community boards, really give these out any where you think people will see it. Word of mouth is a powerful tool.  Share our story, whether it is re-posting my blog, our personal website or telling someone about us in the grocery store.

Finally, we'd love to see our NYC/tri-state area friends at our fundraising event on May 17th. More details on that to come soon.

If you have any other ideas for networking, you guessed it, email me!  Thanks to B, a father in one of my adoption forums on Facebook, for giving so many stellar networking ideas. Really dude, you rock!

I am done stuffing my face with saltines and my peanut butter and honey concoction. I literally had to dust myself off. Our game face is on and we are ready for anything that comes our way.

April Fools

Marlon and I had a nice anniversary getaway weekend in the Berkshires, MA.  Even though our adoption was falling apart, we tried to stay in the moment, relax and have fun. We sure did need it.

We always go somewhere for our anniversary to celebrate. Most of the time we take a week of vacation, but since we are adopting we have to save our vacation time. So, a weekend has to do. Anyway, Marlon picked the Berkshires because it was close enough for a weekend trip and he wanted to see the Istvan Banyai show at the Norman Rockwell museum. So, I reserved a car and a B&B and we were off to celebrate 19 years!

The Norman Rockwell museum was so interesting. His paintings really told a story of a moment in time. The museum had his original works, as well as, a display of all of his Saturday Evening Post covers. It was amazing to see time past through his covers. I was even fascinated by the mailing labels on the covers and how addresses evolved over the years.

OK, I am getting to the April Fools part. So, Mr. Rockwell did a couple of April Fools covers for the Saturday Evening Post. I just loved the one from 1943 of a couple playing checkers. We stood there picking out everything that was "off" with the cover. It was like one of those "what's wrong with this picture" that are in magazines. The detail that went into this painting was just amazing. I also love his sense of humor.  If you interested, click here for the answers to the April Fools cover.

So no jokes here, just sharing Mr. Rockwell's work.

On a side note, I did play a great April Fools joke on my co-workers a couple of years ago. It still makes me laugh. I am executive assistant and act as the office manager for my department. Everyone comes to me for anything that comes up and I've been known to put up a sign or two.  On April 1st, I put an official looking sign on our copier that said the copier was now activated with voice command. (I got this idea online somewhere.) I sit within earshot of the copier, but you can't see me because of my cubicle wall. My first victim was up and I hear, COPY, COPY until they realized they had been pranked. I am in my cube laughing hysterically with tears streaming. I was thoroughly entertained all day.

Happy April Fools!