tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77121210722330401442025-08-03T12:44:14.589-05:00aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-33504557153335399462012-09-16T23:08:00.000-05:002012-09-16T23:08:00.872-05:00

I am sorry that I have not been blogging  or responding to comments since last September.  My mother passed away in early Fall of last year and I have had a horribly rough time dealing with the loss.  I appreciate all of the prayers from family and friends that were aware of this situation.  I am just now trying to get back on with my life as I handled my grief by refocusing

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-9866565202598287572011-09-18T08:00:00.005-05:002011-09-18T08:00:08.719-05:00

As you go through the infertility rollercoaster and then the adoption crazy train, sometimes you begin to feel like this is all about you as a childless couple desperately wanting to become parents.  But Adoption is really a family affair.  It impacts not just the prospective parents and the child to be adopted.  The immediate family of Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins are

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-16176175599901484122011-09-11T08:00:00.002-05:002011-09-11T08:00:01.203-05:00

One of the reasons, our adoptions were so quick is that both boys were premature... Cole's birth was 6 weeks after placement with birth mother and Will's birth was one week....  Cole was premature by 5 weeks and Will by 7 weeks.  That is one of the risks with private adoptions.  The other risk is the birth mother's in private adoptions are more likely to be older birth mothers (30

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-69779264828189525642011-08-28T08:00:00.001-05:002011-08-28T08:00:02.545-05:00

We had talked with our birthmother before we ever left for Kansas… but after meeting with her, we knew that she was one that we would enjoy working with. God confirmed our initial feelings when we prayed to Him about Will’s adoption.   This adoption was the easiest one of all... and the reason has to do with God being in control from day one.  The adoption in Kansas was different

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-89542723521476482912011-08-21T08:00:00.002-05:002011-08-21T08:00:08.186-05:00

We did of course research (as we had learned the negatives of not researching in our first adoption experience) all of the information about the “supposed” medical situation.  It is a horrible condition for any child to be born with and I pray for parents that are loving children who have that cross to bear.  We talked with our friends in the medical field, read the doctor’s reports on

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-15636820309341903172011-08-16T16:23:00.000-05:002011-08-16T16:23:29.085-05:00

Just wanted to take a moment of your time and give an update on my weight loss issues... I have come to realize that my plateau as it is called is not because of my body needing a break but because I had lost faithfulness towards my diet and was coasting.  This resulted in my basically stabilizing at 38 lbs to go and then actually gaining weight.  This was the status of my last post.&

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-3046914990809319372011-08-14T08:00:00.002-05:002011-08-14T08:00:01.978-05:00

Our third experience was even more pleasant.  In this situation, I had just e-mailed the facilitator our one year pictures of Cole so that she could forward them to the birth mother and  as a foot note  to my e-mail stated that we were considering adopting again.  I was thinking in a year or more not as soon as God was thinking.  Once again, God’s timing is perfect and

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-57908747473058615622011-08-07T08:00:00.001-05:002011-08-07T08:00:09.597-05:00

The negative of our adoption experience was the travel and that was only because of where and when our son was born (Palm Springs is not exactly inexpensive) and flying on Christmas Eve and coming home 7 days after New Years is not inexpensive.  The good news is that you can take an infant on a plane if he is over 14 days old.  The bad news is you have to keep a lot of well meaning

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-75545915567688484812011-07-31T08:00:00.002-05:002011-07-31T08:00:06.450-05:00

Cole's adoption cost more than the budget due to last minute travel from Dallas to Los Angeles, expensive hotels (17 days in Palm Springs the week of Christmas and New Years), Louisiana attorneys, additional attorneys because of Louisiana laws, additional Social workers because of Louisiana laws, and incidentals.... like food while we lived in California.   Exactly six weeks after I

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-28079382296523430072011-07-24T08:00:00.001-05:002011-07-24T08:00:01.510-05:00

After being matched, we started working directly with the adoption facilitator. We, of course, this time researched the facilitator.  They had an excellent reputation, were highly rated by the Better Business Bureau, several adoption experts and several of our friends had worked with them also.    We found the facilitator very easy to work with... her goal is of course to support

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-43288736557258264832011-07-17T08:00:00.003-05:002011-07-17T08:00:10.456-05:00

Within two days of receiving all of our paperwork and our “dear birthmother letter” (this is a letter that adoptive parents write to the birth mother that details their  relationship, their parenting style, their family details, and includes pictures… think mini scrapbook), the advocate had found a couple of potential situations that she wanted to send our information to.  We were

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-28480996171553191022011-07-10T02:41:00.002-05:002011-07-10T02:41:00.433-05:00

Our second experience was a different experience all together…this time, God was in control.  We had learned a lot about researching the reputation of those we got involved with by this time (this was about six months later).  And I had made several internet friends who were going through or had just gone through the same adoption process, so I was able to get more than references

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-21281034688101252242011-07-07T07:58:00.000-05:002011-07-07T07:58:35.280-05:00

Over the last several months my journey to physical fitness has taken several stumbles and then it hit a major roadblock.  This has forced me to honestly re-examine both my motivations and my priorities. When I started this journey, I was strongly motivated by my Dad's death at the young age of 67 due to a heart condition.  At the beginning of this journey, I realized that my boys

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-9712619902138915542011-07-03T23:11:00.000-05:002011-07-03T23:11:53.788-05:00

It has now been 4 months of doing Zumba ( I did take a couple of weeks off during that time so it was 3 active months)... result 10 lbs down but I look and feel like lost 30 + lbs. Down 3 in bust, 4 in waist, and 2 in hips. Also during that 4 months, I did not actively diet or follow my water regime so Zumba is all that I did to keep the weight loss going.Now it is time to diet, follow my

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-64099659479474185842011-07-03T08:00:00.008-05:002011-07-03T08:00:09.853-05:00

In my post last week, I discussed our first domestic adoption experience with a creature named “Laurie Arrogon”.  If you haven’t read that post… please do so as it will clarify why I call her the “plague”.  After reading about our experience needless to say... I would avoid her like the plague.  At this point I got smart and researched her … within five minutes I found out the

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-49764383435183705372011-06-26T08:00:00.007-05:002011-06-26T08:00:02.692-05:00

Our first experience in early 2008, was a horrible mistake (this kind of thing can happen when you are driving and not turning the control to the Lord) and we got involved with a birth mother in California that was being represented by a person named... Laurie Arrogon.  She operates two adoption facilitation companies (Adoption Insight and Adoption Wise).  The mistake we made was that

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-74762635549057794652011-06-19T10:12:00.002-05:002011-06-19T10:12:00.260-05:00

Sometimes, songs bring back special memories of happy times.  Sometimes, songs become like life or vice versa.  And sometimes they do both.  Today I saw a video of Carl Perkin’s singing  Blue Suede shoes and My Dad danced &  sang as I closed my eyes.   “Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready now go cat go!   But don’t

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-59494724281572618692011-06-19T08:00:00.001-05:002011-06-19T08:00:09.733-05:00

After much prayer by Bill and worry by me, we decided to attempt to do a domestic adoption as the situation was supposed to be three to four years before we would have a child selected for us (this is called a referral) and another year to two years before we were coming home with our toddler…if we had stayed on the path we were on.  However, we found out that due to Bill’s age (he was just

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-60186932886284342402011-06-12T08:00:00.003-05:002011-06-12T08:00:08.719-05:00

We made the decision to begin the adoption process the week before Christmas 2006.  On Christmas day, we told our parents.  I can remember very clearly how happy my dad was as he felt that the fertility treatments were causing too much physical stress on me.  I am so thankful to the Lord that He led us to that decision and to telling our parents on that day (as originally we were

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-71352022652088999652011-06-10T08:00:00.003-05:002011-06-10T08:00:14.385-05:00

All through my school years, I was the only Samantha in my class and the only one in my school.  Not until college, did I actually have a friendship with another Samantha… and she went by her middle name of ‘August’.  So I was totally floored when I read on Wikipedia that the proper name ‘Samantha’ ranked among the top 200 names for girls since 1965 and among the top names for girls

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-43716368897590409662011-06-05T22:12:00.000-05:002011-06-05T22:12:20.765-05:00

Accountability...(per my worn out copy of Webster's dictionary) is the quality or state of being accountable.  As an accountant, I should be used to the reality of accountability.  But once again, I have forgotten all of my accounting and have reverted to poor decisions.  The last two days, I have not improved upon my day one score significantly.  But I still feel that I can

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-67131770443571320072011-06-05T08:00:00.002-05:002011-06-05T21:55:17.601-05:00

After intensive prayer for almost two months, we felt that God wanted us to begin the adoption process.  We should have started it several years earlier yet we could not afford financially to do both adoption and fertility as they are BOTH very expensive.  None of the fertility treatment from the basic drugs to the IVF treatments are covered by insurance so all of it is self-financed.&

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-4782743213366684602011-06-04T07:24:00.001-05:002011-06-04T07:24:00.880-05:00

I have never really liked to have my picture taken.  It probably has something to do with my issues with my size.  Until I started my weight loss "get healthy" journey, I was a 5'8" 292 lb "Fat Girl"  (I have never minced words with myself... I was FAT and I was not ashamed of it.).  The issue is finding before pictures. Luckily, my doctor requires a before picture and I was

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-8847977208287501052011-06-03T08:00:00.004-05:002011-06-03T23:21:10.009-05:00

While reading about the proper name, Samantha, on Wikipedia… I had an ‘aha’ moment….  Maybe my mother was wrong… Maybe I was right when as a young girl, I thought the world revolved around Samantha… I just had the wrong one in mind.  It was the fictional character of Samantha that our culture was revolving around.   In 1964, the fictional character Samantha Stephens was the

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7712121072233040144.post-26345471162823429702011-06-03T07:24:00.000-05:002011-06-03T07:24:17.909-05:00

I must be clinically insane... to attempt a 30 day challenge while trying to potty train a two year old.  Okay, I just had to get that "vent" out before I became accountable for my actions or in this case lack of actions on day 1. Now for the official results of Day 1: 100 push-ups -- completed 60 minutes cardio -- 1/2 completed  only 30 minutes done 1 hour quiet time -- not done Diet

aSpoonfulOsugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06194989673073907844noreply@blogger.com0