Guess What It Is Friday-New Prize Today

For December DTC Group- All you have to do is post to the Yahoo Message Board what you think this item might be. The first person to get it correct will win this fabulous prize:



Here is a blurb about it from Paper Wishes:
A hint of the Far East. In response to popular demand, we’ve created an Asian art collection, filled with beautiful images of the Far East. Flowers, Asian characters, chops, bridges, vintage travel posters, bamboo plants, ships and cranes are a few of the 203 motifs you’ll find. All images are printed onto paper that matches those in Textured Papers #2. Simply cut or tear out the images, then collage them, use them on cards, tag art, altered books and more.

Crazy Week

It's just been an insane week. John worked 48 hours in a row. Usually he works 24 and is off 24 but he traded time. While it's been somewhat quiet around here, I have been crazy busy. I had a deadline for work to get done and our organization website to be updated. We had fire department stuff going on. And we have weekend stuff that we are planning for.

The China adoption rumors are about to drive me mad but they are incredibly addicting. Before I was DTC I was able to cut myself off from the message boards and websites, but now that we are in the waiting game it's incredibly difficult to not be a part of the rumor mill. I was so incredibly saddened by the 5 days of referrals. It sounds like our wait time has increased from 8 months to 12 months. Meaning, we won't get our referral until December. I am still holding out hope and praying that we will get our referral in October. We shall see though.

And My disappointment with EHM Continues

As if my experiences with the Extreme Home Makeover weren't disappointing enough, John happened upon this article on The Smoking Gun website: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0327062extreme1.html

I remember about 3 years ago, the casting department called my organization looking for a widow of a fallen firefighter who's house they could make over. The problem is, they wanted a widow that also had a very sick child. I thought that was a little bizarre. This article takes the cake! Exploitation maybe? You be the judge.

Life is Precious

Oh wow what a weekend. It was like the craziness of a full moon had taken over a new moon weekend. Saturday didn't even really start off calm. I was supposed to go thrift store shopping for baby items with a new friend (who is also adopting from China) but had to cancel because we had meetings at the fire department. I was really bummed because I wanted to hang out with her and see what was out there for babies. Usually I go to the thrift stores for other things. Even though I don't really plan on buying baby clothes for a couple more months, I thought it would be fun to go.

John and I headed over to the fire station and instead of a meeting we ended up getting toned out to a grass fire. We stood around there for a while, came back to the station and had our meeting. We ended up tinkering around with the bay door and broke it.

At 4pm we were going to the other side of Houston to meet up with a family that has already adopted from China and is in the process of adopting their second. They are such a great family and their daughter is just too cute. Since they are with the same agency we are, we had the chance to watch their video in China and see who our guide was going to be. We also got to see what the hotels looked like and some of the sites we would be visiting. It was so informative and so neat to watch their experiences unfold.

They also showed us a picture that the guide had given them of an abandoned baby. He wanted the family to know that many of the babies that are abandoned are wanted and they are loved. The picture showed a baby in a boxed that was tucked in with blankets. There was a bottle with formula, a bag with clothes, and a bag with wipes in them laying at the head of the box. This baby had been cared for for a little while. It was so heartbreaking to see the reality of abandonment. We can conjure up images in our head but until we actually see it, it doesn't quite hit us as hard. Hopefully that little baby is in the arms of a loving family.

We got back home pretty late. We were checking blogs and email when a fire tone came in for a possible suicide. So we headed out to the station to pick up the fire truck. When we got there, the other fire crew had beat us there and had already started working on the guy. There was nothing I could do as a first responder so I went into chaplain mode. Because of confidentiality, I can't give out too many details. I will say that suicide is incredibly heartbreaking for all involved. There was a wife and kids and of course many beloved friends. The irony of this particular case is, the victim and his family were throwing a 40th birthday party for a friend. The house was decked out in grave, ghost, and death decor. I felt pretty bad for the person who's birthday it was.

So many different things can cause a person to choose this pathway. Incredible pain, anger, feeling trapped, bitterness, revenge...whatever the motive is, it's difficult to truly understand why this was their choice. We ended up staying on the scene for a couple of hours.

For the little baby in China, abandonment was rock bottom for her. She, unwillingly and by her parents circumstances, had hit rock bottom. Where she would go from there, God only knows. Her life is precious and she deserves to be cared for and loved by a family. For the man who committed suicide, his final act was rock bottom for him. Unfortunately he can't come reverse that decision. It doesn't matter what kind of problems he had or what he was struggling with, his life was precious to those who loved him. He deserved to find the help he needed. The biggest consolation for the family is that he was a Christian and had gone to be God....the one being who believes ALL life is precious.

The Adventures of Dyson Head

Okay I know that I am about to blow my cover and let you all know how truly wierd my sense of humor is but these were just too good not to share with you.

Today we broke down and bought a Dyson vaccuum cleaner. Wow! That was a big investment. I had buyer's remorse as soon as I walked out of the door. The problem started when last night I had to get on my hands and knees to vaccuum with the little wand because the regular part of the vaccuum was not picking anything up. I was so frustrated that when John walked into the kitchen, I held up the wand and said I was breaking up with my vaccuum.

Well we went to Best Buy and looked at some cheaper versions but the Dyson (which I secretly have drooled over for several years) had the word Animal written on it. This vaccuum specializes in picking up animal hair. Now you are talking to me! With four animals, not including my husband, running around I needed some serious suction action going on! I couldn't bring myself to look at a Hoover or the Eureka with the cool yellow duster. They even let us use it in the refrigerator section. I was hooked and therefore bought.

I get home and I was a little down about making a big purchase and I was really down about the whole rumor thing with China, so I called up Rebecca to brag...well I mean really get her opinion on Mr. Dyson. The craziness then began to unfold. She first said that I needed to make a scrapbook page about my Dyson. Then she said I needed to cut his head off the box and leave it in strange places to freak John out. Well, I cut his head out and ran over to Rebecca's house. We couldn't contain ourselves with the digital camera. We have the same sense of humor as does our friend Heidi and my sister Elizabeth. My Mom even gets a good laugh out of our crazy antics. Ok moving on...we just had to pose Dyson Head in differant poses...chasing the dog who was growling at Dyson Head, kissing it, talking on the phone and even skate boarding! We might have to start a whole new blog about the Adventures of Dyson Head. It was so funny and it totally lifted my spirits! We are moving Dyson Head over to Heidi's for some photo ops next.

Thoughts About Adoption vs. Pregnancy and Waiting

There are so many of us in the China adoption circle that are so dissapointed with the news of only 5 days worth of dossiers being matched with children. I don't care what the excuse is, valid or not, this is agonizing news. We are left in limbo about when we can expect our child. Will the referral come in September or in January of 2007? Right now, we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. I thought we would once our paperwork went to China. Didn't see it, because I wanted our log in date. We got our LID and I thought I saw a glimmer of light and then today the news hit and now I am not so sure that was a glimmer that I saw. This whole process has felt like one step forward, two steps back. It seems that each time we check something off of the to do list, our child moves farther away. I can't tell you how agonizing this wait is. We are emotionally pregnant without a due date in site. Can you imagine telling a pregnant woman that she might be due at month 9 or hmmmmmmm maybe month 12 but the longest wait could be 15 months. That's us.

I watch my friends and family members get pregnant after we got our paperwork complete and expect their babies way before we will even get our referral and it's tough. They talk happily with those who have been in their shoes before...they talk about the doctors visit and the ultrasounds and the food cravings. When it comes to us, they don't know what to say or ask except, how is the adoption process going? They don't ask how we are feeling, what are we doing to prepare, what the process is like and what I am craving (which would be Easter candy right now, even though I am watching my calories.) It's hard not to be a part of that 'mommy crowd.' But my relief for that is I do have some friends that really care about this process and I have made new friends in the adoption community that are walking this journey with us. And I am so forever grateful for that.

What I can't stand now is that comment that I think every waiting family hears at least a zillion times when something goes wrong, 'God has the perfect baby for you and you will get her on His time.' Or my other favorite, 'You will forget all about the pain of waiting once you hold your baby in your arms.' At first I did take a little comfort in those words. I said them to myself. Then I realized that those words are actually more inflammatory than they are helpful. No one would ever say these things to someone who has miscarried why should they be said to us when we hear devestating news? I know that God has picked out our child for us, but that doesn't make me want to rush over to China and just hold her any less. It makes me want her more, but when will that be? When is it our turn?

The other adage that I keep hearing on message boards is that we just need to keep ourselves busy during the wait. Are you freaking kidding me??? What am I doing, sitting in front of the TV all day eating bon bons and crying about my referral? I have a full and busy life right now as it is. I am busy with running a company, being a chaplain, being a wife, and being a friend. I travel and I teach. I scrapbook and I sew. I have tons on my plate thank you very much. I just can't be busy with the baby stuff until we are a little closer to our referral. I will stay extra busy buying clothes now. I think I will start ASAP.

So today has been a bad day for me and for many, many other waiting parents. Of course mine isn't great because I have been stuck on the couch watching Little House on the Prairie because of my knee. I have been stuffing my face with Peeps and that is some comfort. If I could just get a hold of a Cadbury egg, I would be excited.

Please don't feel bad if you have said the above things to us. At one point in time it did help. I guess we are finally get to the part of the wait where it hurts more than it helps. I just wanted to share our honest thoughts.

Today, I HATE the Wait!

Well the rumors have been flying and apparently they have been confirmed today. China has only matched 5 days worth of dossiers. Only one freaking week! WTH???? It's taken them nearly 3 months to match children with everyone who turned dossiers in in May. At this rate I feel like we will be grandparents before we get to be parents! I don't want to hear about the right child will come at the right time...that's all just words to me right now! They are supposed to do a month's worth of referrals, not 5 days! I am so sad and dissapointed today.

Darn it!

I have been doing so good about riding my stationary bike 9 miles every day. I have been working on getting into shape and getting myself as healthy as possible before the baby arrives. Then yesterday I ruined it all! I tripped over the sprinkler in the front yard and messed up my knee. I didn't break it but I think I either strained it or sprained it. Now I am walking like a gimp. This does not fit into my plans!

Life has been a little slow lately. I am preparing to teach for weekend fire school coming up the first weekend in April. After that I will be heading into Indianapolis. But for the time being, I am just hanging out with friends, working, and doing a lot of 'fluff' reading. I need to get started on doing some more reading on adoption and preparing for our child.

Failed Adoptions

I have been so sad and angry for this stranger who lost her daughter (see post below). She had to give her little one back to the birth mother after she had this child in her care for several days. This is known as a failed adoption. In the adoption world, this is equivelant to experiencing the death of child. It's incredibly painful for the adoptive parents.

I can appreciate the pain of the birth mother having to give her child up but I am going to take sides with the adoptive parents. I really, really believe that this system here in America concerning adoption is a flawed system, hence one of the many reasons we have chosen to adopt outside of the country. This situation should have never happened. I personally believe that once the child is born the birth parents should sign the legal documents relinquishing their rights within 24 hours. Once these papers are signed the child can no longer be handed back to the birth parents. No waiting period for days. No putting the parents in limbo wondering if the birth parents will want the baby back.

I hope that this family finds comfort and peace with this situation. Their loss is every adoptive parent's loss. We grieve with them.

It's Here Again- Guess What It Is Friday!

For December DTC Group- All you have to do is post to the Yahoo Message Board what you think this item might be. The first person to get it correct will win two sets of sticker sheets. One is about adoption and the other is about motherhood. To see a blurry picture of what it looks like just scroll down to February 17. Happy guessing!!

A Very Sad Story on a Failed Adoption

This will break your heart: http://noragriffin.typepad.com/ndg/

A Self Portrait

In the photography & scrapbooking world, self portraits in the mirror are a big thing. If you paruse through message boards, you will see icons and signature bars made with photographs of the individual taking an artistic photo of their reflection. I decided to poke a little fun at this by taking my own self portrait in a mirror......inside of a porta-potty. :oD I figured that my friends would get this humor.

The thing that cracked me up the most was the fact of how spontaneous this whole thing was. I was inside this thing when we were on the set of EHM and I marveled at the fact that it had a mirror in it. Seriously?? If you had to use one of those things, I think hair or makeup is the least of your worries. Only in Hollywood. So I stood there for a second marveling over this when the idea popped in my head. Let me tell you, it's not an easy task trying to take a picture of oneself inside of a porta-potty! I did it for you Heidi & Rebecca!

Dr. Grey or the Real CSI?

Darn it, we missed the last 10 minutes of Grey's Anatomy! We were buried into the couch watching our(or my) Sunday addiction, Grey's Anatomy, when the fire pager went off. Soooooo rude! :o) I was happy to respond though because now we have that magical device called DVR and I hit pause. Wow! Pausing live TV?? How is awesome is that? Anyway, I figured that because the call was a vehicle fire, we would be in and out pretty quickly. No such luck. Murphy from Murphy's Law would wreak a little havoc on me.

We pulled up to the scene only to find that someone had tossed an acid bomb into the back of someone's truck. Come to find out this poor family was also watching Grey's Anatomy when they were rudely interrupted by this act of violence. I am telling you! The nerve of some people!

There wasn't much damage to the truck but we did get to play with the foam unit on the new fire truck. Since it was a criminal act, we had to wait for cops and for the fire marshall to arrive on scene. The fire marshall was on the other side of Houston, so we sat on scene for about 45 minutes and talked Grey's Anatomy, CSI, and other bits and pieces of small talk.

Finally the fire marshall shows up and does his thing. Evidence bagss...little bottles...pictures...sniffing around...statements... It was so much less thrilling than any of the 3 CSI shows (I watch Vegas on a regular basis, used to watch Miami until I got tired of the guy with the badge and cheesy one liners, and NY ). I told him I wanted to know answers and have a suspect in custody in 58 minutes. He just laughed. Reality isn't real and apparently neither is CSI. Oh well, as long as I don't have to meet the cast or watch it being filmed, I will continue to be a fan.

We dragged our tired selves back home to watch the last 10 minutes of my show when horror of all horrors, the pause button only works for 2 hours. We were gone for 2 hours and 3 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DANG IT ALL TO HECK!!!!!!! So if anyone knows what happens at the end of the show, please be kind to your friendly firefighter and fill me in. :o)

Other weekend events that were thrilling but a lot less frustrating were hanging out with Heidi for the day. We even hit up the snow cone store! I have been waiting for this place to open all season long. This place is my diet in the summer. I even managed to throw together a flower arrangement for her. She wanted one for a dining room table, so I told her I could scrape something together for her. ;oP

Guess What It Is Friday!

For December DTC Group- All you have to do is post to the Yahoo Message Board what you think this item might be. The first person to get it correct will win two sets of sticker sheets. One is about adoption and the other is about motherhood. To see a blurry picture of what it looks like just scroll down to February 17. Happy guessing!!

Proud of Myself and Scared as Heck

I forgot to post that I, yes me, Wendy C. Norris, has made two (count them 1...2) plane reservations to fly out of Texas all by my lonesome self!! I will be going to Indianapolis next month and then to Baltimore in May. John can't go with me on either trip, so I have to endure the fear of flying all by myself. I HATE to fly, so I am going to be needing to make a doctor's appointment real soon to get myself some Valium. Happy Pills! :o)

Here and There

Usually after I work something big like a line of duty death or a disaster, the days following I am thrown off. I have a hard time concentrating or getting much done. I think it's because I am coming off an adrenaline high. These scenes are full of 'excitement' and the hours are long, the adrenaline keeps you going. It's almost like my body forces me to rest. So for the past couple of days I have been wondering why I have been in this 'after disaster' mode. I think I finally figured out why today...Sabine Pass.

The EHM was a lot of fun and it was no where near the type of stress I have felt in New Orleans or on line of duty death situations. We did a lot of manual labor and there was some tension between individuals but it seemed more like good stress than negative stress. But there was one thing on that set that kept getting to me. The crew had a ton of white vans that reminded me of the body recovery vans in New Orleans. Of course these vans on the set were used for equipment but they looked exactly like the ones used after the disaster. Every time I saw one, I thought about some of the things we did and some of the things we saw down in New Orleans and St. Bernards Parish. I have been thinking about it on and off for the last couple of days, how wierd it is that something as simple as a white van can be forever burned in our brain as a symbol of an event.

My guess is that being back on a disaster scene where devastation was still in full affect and seeing the white vans got me hyped up more than I thought. I have so much to do but I am having a hard time concentrating. As the days go by I get a little more done. I got a lot more done today than I did yesterday. It just takes some time to get back to normal.

On a funny note, last night we took the dogs for a walk and for the first time since we moved to the new house, Ashes (our cat) went with us. It's a long walk around the block but she managed to follow us about 3/4 of the way. We were almost home when she gave out and decided to lie down in the street. I had to carry her the rest of the way and let me tell you, she does not like to be held. It was quite a feat to get that cat back to the house!

More Extreme Home Makeover-Our Saturday Trip

Saturday we brought the firetruck up to the EHM set. We also brought our Class A uniforms. We really wanted to have a good firefighter presence for both the show and the public that were there. It seems like firefighters only come out for other firefighters when a firefighter dies. It was important for us to come out and support these guys during a happy event.

Saturday went so much better. After the crazy 100 mile ride in the fire truck (it's so not comfortable) we arrived ready to go. We did more work with the production crew and getting the fire station ready for reveal. We had a great time talking to the photographers and videographers, the production crew, and the Port Arthur FD.
We helped bring the furniture inside, assisted with finishing up special projects, and helped with the public.

Apparently this is dangerous work. I ended up with bruises everywhere, a gash on my head, and scratches on my arm. What the heck?? I didn't do anything to warrent these semi-injuries. But somehow I ended up with them.

Moving on....One of our captains brought t-shirts and patches to hand out to the crew. Apparently fire t-shirts are a hot commodity with them. They were loving us. One of the firefighters ended up giving his badge to one of the head production guys and after that we were treated like gold. We even got to eat lunch with the cast and the crew.

Again, I was dissapointed that the cast members were not a part of putting the final touches on the building. Ty didn't even show up. We stayed long enough for the reveal but we didn't stay for the surprise, which they revealed an hour after the firefighters got to see the new fire station. So unless Ty showed up with the surprise, he wasn't even their for the reveal. Mike and Pauly were the ones who did the 'Move that bus' moment.

One cool thing before I forget...my picture, my fire department and a quote that I said are in the Beaumont newspaper. Here is a link.

I can't reveal too much about the show or put up many of the pictures that I took until the show airs (April 13). We had to sign all of these forms and legal documents stating that we can't post vital pictures or information. I totally don't want to be sued by ABC. LOL So here are some not so vital pictures from our time in Sabine Pass:

Guess What It Is Friday! (Sort of)

For December DTC Group- All you have to do is post to the Yahoo Message Board what you think this item might be. The first person to get it correct will win two sets of sticker sheets. One is about adoption and the other is about motherhood. To see a blurry picture of what it looks like just scroll down to February 17. Happy guessing!!

Reality is not Real

Yesterday I spent the day on the set of Extreme Home Makeover. They are in Sabine Pass, TX rebuilding an auditorium, and the fire/police station. I was excited about the chance of hanging out on the film set, especially for a show that I liked. I don't watch it that often anymore but I still admired what they did. Man was I dissapointed with the whole thing.

I am not going to go into detail about what I did there. I am going to save that for another post (probably Sunday because we are going back to the set on Saturday). What I will say is how dissapointed I was with the cast, especially Ty. I was dissapointed that the cast didn't stay there during the remodeling. They have like 3 other filmings going on at the same time. So they come in and do their 10 minutes of shooting and then fly off to their next shoot (or wherever else they go). I was there for over 12 hours and we saw the cast twice. ALL of the rebuilding was being done by the hired construction company and their employees.

The cast weren't very friendly, except for one. Their famous bus got stuck in the mud (more of that on the other post too) and me and the guys from my fire department got them unstuck. We did not get a thank you from any of them.

Ty would only take a picture with us after we reminded him that we got his bus unstuck from the mud. Nice huh??

Basically the set was a big construction site. No actors hanging around. What was so ironic to me was, the public sat in their designated viewing area to watch the building while down the street the Army Corps of Engineers were rebuilding another city building. Nobody could care less about the work they were doing. Nobody wanted to sit and watch the Army Corps rebuilding. It's crazy that stardom and celebrity makes something important.

I came away from the experience disinfranchised about the whole thing. I thought the cast would be nicer. I thought they were more involved with the project. I thought it would be differant.

Reality isn't real. I am so over celebrities...not that I was ever that into them to begin with.