Happy Birthday...Shots All Around!

Happy Birthday to Papa Gregg!  Even if it rained and we lost the gold to Canada, I hope you had a fun day.

Sabrina and I spent all afternoon yesterday shopping for two impossible gifts...a pizza oven that fits on the BBQ (I know it's February, but this is the desert, hell-ooo) and a Wii Fit.  What the hell is wrong with you Nintendo?  We get it, the Wii is a hot gift, but just maybe if you made more then like three at a time you'd sell more of them.  Wii Fit has been out for how long now, and still no one has it?  C'mon.

Gregg took Sabrina to her ten month checkup on Thursday.  She was fine in the waiting room, but when they walked in the exam room she freaked out.  She screamed waiting for the doctor, during the check up, and most fiercely, during the vaccinations.  They have "Nurse Weepy" over there who jabs the kids with the needles.  Problem is, she cries just a much as they do.  I can just see Gregg the Vulcan sitting there while the baby and the nurse are balling.  I'm sure he did some eye rolling.  It's a good thing I wasn't there or he'd have to deal with three of us.

We got up early and instead of making Papa a birthday breakfast drove down to the shot clinic at PETCO so the boys could get boosters.  They need them for their stay at the pet hotel while we're in California.  It urks me that I need to drag them down there and pay for the shots when I used to just get them at the pharmacy where they're only $9 and do it myself.  Apparently that isn't good enough for the Pet Hotel.  I'm sure the real reason is they want you to spend the money there on a vet visit.  So, $80 later...ugh.  At least they're set to go, and Sabrina lent moral support so there were no tears this time.

Chase relaxing after a tough day of shots

Typical Friday Night

After my last fun filled post I thought something a little lighter was in order.  Thank you though for all the comments.  It means a lot.  I got more comments on that post then any other on this blog, including the one announcing Sabrina's birth.  There would have been more but I deleted the ones calling me a hypocritical a-hole.  Sorry haters, but the outpouring of support shows you why this blog will NEVER be intimidated into going private (your stated goal) and will continue to be available to help other adopters in any way possible.

So, that's all I have to say about that.

Moving on...
Here's the typical Friday night.  First a bath, then pajamas and silliness ensues...

Follow that up with nightly story time.  Sabrina has always loved for us to read to her.

Follow that with a good night to Papa and it's off to bed.

Life doesn't get much better then this.

A Note to a Concerned Public

If you've read more then one or two posts on this blog, you probably have a good idea of who I am.  I can be serious.  I can be silly.  I can be emotional.  I'm definately opinionated and quite the smart ass.   I try to mix some humor into my stories.  Whether or not it's actually funny, well you can be the judge of that.  What I do think I have done is open my heart and post the things we've been going through for the past two years or so, at first in the hope that I'd find someone who's been there, and now so that maybe our experiences can help someone else who may not know where to start.  I've met an entire community of bloggers that have welcomed me into their circle.  Ultimately, I wanted a record of what this has been like so someday my little girl can read it and see how our family came to be created.  All honest, all open.

Adoption is a fact of life.  Every one is different, as everyone is different.  I'm so thankful that we connected with a woman that has a good head on her shoulders, who has really thought about what she was doing, and who wanted the best for Sabrina.  Ten and a half months have passed since her birth, and her birth mother, with the support of her family (and I hope to a degree us) is doing very well.  We have a constant email and picture exchange, and we are all very excited to meet up for the first time since the birth next week when we go to California for finalization.  Even more special for us, we will be meeting at her mom's house.  We were going to take them to lunch, but her mom wants to make us lunch so we can all relax and feel comfortable while we get to know each other better, and they can enjoy Sabrina.  We are very happy to welcome each other into our respective families and bond over our common love for this special little girl.

As she grows older, no matter how well we think we're doing, she's going to have questions.  She's going to have times where she may feel some pretty intense emotions about being adopted.  Add to that the fact that she's got two fathers.  I don't pretend to know what this will feel like.  I don't have that experience.  But I do know what it feels like to grow up and know you're different than everybody else.  It can be pretty overwhelming at times.  The lines of communication with us will always be open.  She has friends that have same sex parents.  There is a support system for that.  I have a feeling her birth mother will be there for her.  Hopefully after next week, so will her birth grandmother.  Not to mention the huge adoptive family who took her into their hearts from day one.  She's going to be fine, and I bet she'll be a hell of a strong woman when she grows up.

Why am I posting this?  Apparently my happiness over having a baby has angered a small group of adult adoptees and holy rollers.  I've been told I hate adoptees; am stealing my daughters heritage and celebrating her loss of identity; the usual "God hates fags" mantra; had profanity filled tirades flung at me, my partner, and my family in general; and Tiger Woods has stopped answering my calls (OK I made that last one up).  I've even had posts featured on select hate blogs.  Ah the price of fame...

This blog is about my family.  It's not a forum for debate, so yes these comments have been and will continue to be deleted.  Compared to the vast majority of comments of friendship and support, there are not very many of these.  So bitterness, profanity, and good ol' fashioned fire and brimstone are going to be removed (the lame attempt to guilt me into keeping them there by starting the comment with "you're prolly (sic) going to delete this but..." isn't working).  I've enjoyed your rants, but if I want to read a page of misspelled grammatical terrorism and irrational hatred, I'll pick up Sarah Palin's new book.

Get Giraffe Over Here

"Charlie"

Sometimes I think I write posts just so I can come up with hilarious titles.  Well hilarious to me...

Anyway, today we took our first trip to the Phoenix Zoo as a family.  I'm sorry to hear about something called "snow" in the rest of the country, but for us here in Arizona it was another gorgeous weekend in the low 70's.  Eat your hearts out New England...

I think Sabrina had fun.  She didn't say much, she just spent the day taking in all the sights, just getting real quiet and looking around with a look of concentration on her face.  Sometimes that means she has to poop, but she did that before we left so I know it was concentration.  Animals that weren't close to us and just layed there (I'm talking to you lions!) were pretty much ignored, but the "action animals" as we called them grabbed her attention.  She really liked the monkey villiage, where you walk in and the squirrel monkeys are jumping all over.  We stayed in there for a bit and she was paying close attention.  So were we, as we remembered those rumors about monkeys and what they do with poop.  I think the highlight was when she got to feed the giraffe.  We walked up to the observation deck and...

Guide:  Hi guys have you ever been this close to giraffes before?
Gregg:  No this is our first time.
Guide:  Well don't worry just stay close to me and don't try to pet them.
Bobby:  Pet them?  Oh we're not going to try to do that.
Guide:  Well some people try to do that while they're feeding them.
Bobby:  Feed them?  I thought you were going to do that.
Guide:  (pointing to Sabrina) No she's going to do it.  Now here's some lettuce.
Bobby:  She's a baby.  Gregg I didn't know--
Guide:  Here you go now don't step past this line.

At this point he put a piece of romaine lettuce in Sabrina's hand and suddenly there were about five giraffes peering over the fence at us staring at it.  I'm standing there hoping they are going to help us get her arm back when they tear it off so we can have it reattached, and if this would interfere with finalization in a few weeks.  Gregg was getting out the camera, so I guess I was the only one wondering what was wrong with this picture.  Don't get me wrong.  I love nature.  I just don't want to touch it.  Which is strange because as a kid I was the one catching snakes and frogs.  Lately, not so much.

Charlie the giraffe leaned way over and gently took the leaf of lettuce from the baby.  She couldn't take her eyes off him.

Bobby:  She likes him.  I think it's because they look like puppets.
Guide:  Ha ha ha!  I never thought of that before.  They do look like puppets.

We feed them some more, and actually it was really kind of cool.  We saw the monkeys, rhino, assorted savannah creatures, komodo dragons, and a bunch of others.  We sat and had snacks by the pond while Sabrina watched the ducks.  It was a really fun family day.  We joined the zoo so we can make some more trips back to see the rest of the animals.  On the way out, we stopped and bought a stuffed giraffe for the baby as a prize for being brave like me in the face of danger from the killer long necked beasts.  This is one of the things I've waited for.  I love my family...

Awww...

Urban Outfitted

Tell me this kid's not a hipster...

As Seen on Those Two Daddies

It's time to begin building my branded empire.  Ever since some idiot sold millions of you a bathrobe, told you to wear it backwards, and made a fortune (you know who you are...) I've been thinking of innovative ways to make money.  I mean, you bought the Snuggie and probably thought it was great until you hung it in the closet next to your bathrobe and said "Heeeeeeeey, wait a minute..." right?  Well that success can be duplicated!

Picture it...you're trying to give your baby a bowl of puffs on the floor while she plays with her toys, but every time she tries to get one she spills it all over the place.

Announcer:  "Ugh!  The tipping!  The spilling!  The pretending you didn't notice the dog hair when you put the puffs back in the bowl.  There's GOT to be a better way!"

Well there IS.  A bowl that's small enough for baby, but won't tip over, and won't slide around the floor.  Kid colored would help.  So Ladies, Gentlemen, and Those Who Have Yet To Make Up Their Minds, Those Two Daddies presents to you...Wonder Bowl.

Now OK I know what you're thinking.  You've seen this bowl somewhere before.  I got a huge lecture from someone that lives here about not feeding his daughter like some household pet or something like that.  He's not seeing the profit margin here.  Just put that out of your minds for a second and consider this.  Rubber base so no slidding around the floor.  Low center of gravity so it's tip proof.  Stainless steel cleans in a jiffy.  And it's pink.  So really, this was designed for a child right?  Stay with me for a minute.

Announcer:  "Wonder Bowl's tip proof design keeps even the messiest messes in the bowl.  No more back breaking cleanups.  No more looking the other way as the baby helps the dogs lick cheese off the floor.  Now how much would you pay?"

That's the beauty of it.  Thanks to Target's bargain section, I get the bowl for a buck, and sell it to you all for three easy payments of only $9.99 each.  I was practically drunk with self satisfaction at how smart I am over this idea and why didn't I think of it sooner.  (Maybe because I typically don't shop for the baby in the pet store?  Meh.)  So production is taken care of, and Wonder Bowl is currently being user tested by the QA Department:

Phase One is a success.  She's probably marvelling at the ease of removing the puffs from the patented space age non-stick surface.

Phase Two sees some puffs on the ground, most likely due to sloppiness of the tester and being distracted by that Elmo.  Notice the bowl has not skidded across the room.  So far it's performing as designed!

Damn it!  Who knew the bottom of the bowl was made out of some tasty material, probably some type of sugar based metal.  Or, perhaps the Wonder Bowl is a success after all, and this test failed due to user error.  Yes, that's it!  If she followed the instructions, which clearly state "Do not eat Wonder Bowl" the puffs would still be safe.  She's voided the warranty.  Seriously, who throws away the snacks and eats the bowl?  Ripley, Chase...clean up in aisle one!

Adoption--Get Creative!

Adoption always carries with it some sacrifices, most often monetary.  But sometimes it can be more then that.  Many of you are also followers of Michelle, and her current adoption came suddenly and unexpectedly and brought some degree of financial hardship with it.  But you do what you can to make those dreams come true.  But what if you had to give up everything to create your family?  What would you do?
While we were couped up in our hotel in California waiting for ICPC to clear, I got on our agencies site and found out one of the waiting families lived within minutes of where we were staying.  So I sent them an email just to say "Hi" and wish them luck.  We ended up meeting Rob and Joey for lunch, and they invited us over for dinner one night.  It was great to meet them and we were happy for the hospitality.  We've kept in touch since, and hope they adopt soon.  So far, they are still waiting.

I'm not speaking for them, but wanted to share their story.  They lived in Florida, where men are men and sheep are nervous.  Probably the most restrictive state for gays in the union.  I actually find it ironic that a state that hates gays so much is most famous for "Hanging Chad" (think about it, I'll wait...) and a duck in a Navy outfit with no pants.  Gays cannot marry or adopt children there.  All they can do is be hairdressers or Governor.  But they wanted to have a family, so they sold their house, left their families, and moved to California.  I'm not sure I could actually make that leap.  They put everything on the line for a baby.

But they didn't stop there.  They were out in California alone and put everything they had to the adoption.  So who do you turn to when the adoption expenses really start adding up?  Candy Spelling of course!

Rob and Joey got a spot on the E! channel show Bank of Hollywood.  It's a show where you walk on and ask for money, and if the panel likes your story, they give it to you.  They asked for roughly $49,000.  Now they were preceeded by a group of pirates that wanted $600 grand for a pirate ship (denied!) and a Paris Hilton wannabe who wanted something like $30,000 to not work and do...well I don't know what she wanted to do I didn't pay attention to her.  (Neither did the judges because she didn't get a dime.)  Rob and Joey told their story and I think did a great job.  It was really touching.  They'll make great parents some day.  The judges agreed, and they won the cash.  That money will help them if they need to travel out of state when they match or help a birthmother with expenses.  I have to say it's a creative way to make the adoption afordable.  I guess reality shows are good for something.  On the other hand, reality TV has made "The Situation" a household name.  Meh.

Hopefully, this will help get the word out about "These Two Daddies" and help them find a match.  I think the show hits the right demographic.  Rob and Joey, I'd be happy to lend you some space on the blog if you'd like to do a guest post to tell your story...just let me know, and good luck!