You've come along way, baby...12 months to be exact

One year/12 months/365 days.

I finally reached my 12 month LID...I guess I'm sitting with the big kids now! When I first started this process and I encountered families that had reached and surpassed the twelve month mark, I was in awe. It's a rite of passage, a badge of honor and at the time it was a sign that you were more than half way through your journey and that much closer to your child!

For me it means I'm a year closer to my child and I'm happy to have this much time behind me. January was a rough month for me...kind of like the year leading up to my 30th birthday! Nothing really changed after my birthday, but I don't approach them with dread now. Actually, I look forward to them because I look forward to each new experience and I'm liking the change that maturity brings. I'm hoping the same is true with each passing month or year as I wait for MayLing. Each passing month doesn't mean the wait is less difficult or less painful, but I want to look forward to each new experience and the hope it grows me in some way.

In keeping with tradition...what the heck am I talking about...I don't need a LIDversery to have Chinese food. The locals recommended Pei Wei's Asian Cuisine, but I didn't know it was a chain and in some way related to P.F. Chang's. While it was good, I wasn't really excited about Asian Fusion food. Oh well. I shared my big news with a classmate that I have really gotten to know over the last few training sessions. As someone who lives an alternate lifestyle, I guessed that she would not be negative if I told her my choice to be a single parent. I guessed correctly and she offered any support that I needed. I felt I needed to tell her before class tomorrow (we work at distance campuses for the same company) because I'm learning to build code into a specific computer application. As part of the training and testing, we are required to build something we know well. Well, I probably know more about international adoption than anything else in life--at least until I develop some new hobbies. So, the news will be out amongst my little training group by the end of the week.

The weather has gotten cold in Dallas! Strong storms moved in during the middle of the night and the high today only got to 46*. How's that for bad luck? It's supposed to be cold all week with freezing rain by Friday.

And why do the Texans force corn on me every meal? I swear, corn flakes for breakfast and corn for lunch and dinner. Ugh.