5 minute DIY "LOVE" craft

Have a infant?

Don't have much time?

Still wanting to make something?

Well then, this craft if for you!

Selene's first Valentine's Day

It is as fast and easy as your infant will let it be! For their part all they have to do is get 1 foot painted at a time and pressed down. The other squares are simple and fast!

What else can we cram into November?

     This month has many things going for it. The list is long and each day in the month has a plethora of individual things as well.
The list includes:
Latin American Month
National American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month
National Epilepsy Month
National Red Ribbon Month (anti-drunkdriving)
National Stamp Collecting Month
National Georgia Pecan Month
National Pepper Month
National Hospice Month
National Peanut Butter Lover's Month
National Raisin Bread Month (mmmmmmmm)
National Diabetes Awareness Month (which the previous 2 can lead to, lol)
No Shave Novemeber
THANKSGIVING (keeping my maternity pants around just for this)

but most of all, the one closest to my heart is

National Adoption Awareness Month

     Most of everything you will read will be about protecting the orphans as God instructs us to do. You will also read a lot from adoptive parents and their struggles. Its good to find comradery and to get a feel of what it will be like to adopt. But I feel like that part of adoption is already so available to read and we should focus more on the adoptee themselves and the birthparents. Yes, of course I bias towards the birthparent aspect, but there are so many bad stereotypes about us floating around out there or we seem to be on a pedestal. Strangers view me as a recovered drug addict when they find out I placed my child for adoption and adoptive parents look at me like I have freakin angel wings and a small shed of tear in my eye. 

     People, we are normal everyday humans!! Not all of us are on crack and we could have raised our children, but there are many reasons why we are not. I'm also not a Saint. Yes, I made a family complete but I was only doing the best for my child, not because there are people who can't have a baby in the conventional way and I wanted to bless them. I also don't hold back my emotions, I become a hot mess on certain days when I think about my first daughter. There are also days where I *gasp* barely think of her. It has been 7 years people, I'm not so fresh. I don't beat myself up for that. Of course I always think of her (I have her pictures in every room) but its not the overwhelming "what have I done" as it was when I first placed her. 

     I also find some adoptive parents blog's rather annoying. Mainly because even though they say they are there for the birthparents, really they don't think twice about us other than the fact that we gave them their child. And then it becomes all "well I'm the one who raised her.... blah blah blah". Um HELLO we are not deadbeat dads that you are trying block form visitations until we cough up child support. We didn't abandon our child (though that is a valid emotion for adoptees to feel) so we could live how we want and sow our oats. Keep us in our child's life, even if it is through pictures and letters left at the agency. Even if your child's birthparents were cracked out whores, leave updates for us.

     Better yet, lets get the ball rolling on better laws all around. Give birthparents more time to choose to parent or place after they give birth. Let the babies go home with the birthparents for a night or two so they can really get a hold of their emotions and rethink why they are placing. WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO CHANGE OUR MINDS and we are not horrible for doing so. Make promises adoptive parents make to keep in contact legally binding (I'm not saying the courts can take the child away for not keeping in contact, but maybe fine them each time?). SOOOOOO many birth moms that I know have shattered lives becasue what was promised to them was broken before the first year, hell lots the first month, after placement.

     EVEN BETTER, know someone who is thinking about placing? Why don't you come along side them instead of pushing or pulling either way and help them to get the all the help to be able to parent so they really can feel as if they are making the best possible choice for the child no matter what they decide. 

/end rant

 Well.... that must have been on my chest because I feel better about this month! ha!

Seriously though, adoption is great and I'm a big supporter, just wish there wasn't a need for it for everyone involved in the triad.

Birthdays just got a whole lot harder.

     Everything with my sweet Selene is going great. She is an awesome baby even if she doesn't like to be put down and fights her naps and staying asleep. I'm soaking up every minute of her. Most might think I'm going overboard and to be honest I probably am. But when I give her kisses and share her "firsts", I kiss her for my C as well. I wonder with every milestone, every celebratory month birthday just what was C like at those stages.

     Today brings about a new stage. 7 years ago today I brought forth into this world such a beautiful angel! How can this be?! How can it be 7 years already? Though I've physically spent time with her at 11 months old, 2 years old, and at 4 1/2, she should still be this tiny little babe when she was just all mine in the hospital. I used to laugh and roll my eyes at my mom when she would say I should still be a little girl to her. Now, I get it, I get her. I will forever be my mom's baby and my C will always be mine. Heck even Selene is growing to fast and she is only 11 weeks old!

     I was just starting to do well on C's birthdays. The past couple of years I've really been able to enjoy this day, celebrating it by myself. I had stopped bawling my eyes out and only cried a little. Now that I have Selene, and knowing just what I missed out on for the past 7 years, I cant help but bawl my eyes out. My heart is heavy and I find myself getting angry. I still believe she is where she is supposed to be and that adoption was the right choice for me/her at that point in my life. I'm angry that there is a need for adoption; the need on both sides. I'm angry that I didn't get to have all these "firsts" that I'm having with Selene with my first child. I'm angry at the person who took that all away from me.

And I have GUILT.

     I feel guilty that I didn't keep her, that I didn't work 3 jobs just to provide her with a life living with me. I feel guilty because now I have Selene and I kept her. It doesn't matter that my life was completely different 7 years ago. That if I kept her, my life wouldn't be the same as it is now. That I may be in a worse situation now than 7 years ago if I did keep her. I know I shouldn't feel guilty for having another child, but I do. Its a good thing I was prepared for these types of feelings. I thank God for my counselor who warned me about these feelings or else I'd  be a hot mess right now. Still working on getting used to this new chapter in my life, not only as a woman, a new mom, but as a birthmom as well.

     Now to wait for my little one to wake up from her nap (may it take another hour, please) so I can make a birthday video to send her her big sister.

Sweet Sweet Selene

     I know I'm not good at all at keeping up with this blog, and for those that are interested in it, I'm sorry!

     This pregnancy was a rough one compared with C. Maybe because I'm a little older (oh my, I'm pushing 30... eeekk!) or maybe its because C's pregnancy needed to be easy with all the other hard crap I had to deal with; who knows. Emotionally, I was doing well until the last week and then all the fears I had with C came flooding back, but I was prepared for them, so that helped. Also the day after I had this new bundle of cuteness I got a text from K that they told C I had the baby and she responded with "She did?! You mean I have a little sister now?" and she threw her arms up in victory! I broke down sobbing. That is what I was praying for but dared not to hope that C would think of her as a little sister and love her. That also helped any anxiety I was having of C feeling replaced.