Fun week

Hawaii has a kind of cool tradition of having Huge Gigantic celebrations for the 1 year birthday. I mean giant. Like big inflatable bounce house and hundreds of guests type parties. It started as a celebration of a child making it through the first year when infant mortality was much higher back in the days of yore.

Our little cousin Melody celebrated her first birthday in high style this week. Her parents rented out the entire Waikiki Aquarium and all the guests could wander around the aquarium for awhile, then head out to the courtyard for dinner. It was a really cool idea because there were kids and adults of all ages, and everyone had a great time! There was an amazing Jellyfish Aquarium exhibit. I am trying to convince Cris to build one in our living room.


We also got our travel packet in the mail. Lots of info about all the PAPERWORK we have to bring with us. surprise, more paperwork and documents. Still no word on travel, but i am pretty much settled in for a long wait. Knowing that I will probably have a long wait to travel doesn't make it any easier to wait, but at least i don't think i'm going to travel soon, and then keep getting delayed.



Also, you guys should check out this program Celebrating Adoption. It is a group of awesome photographers who offer free photo sessions to adoptive parents within the first year of the adoption. There is a participating photographer who lives here on Oahu. I already contacted her, and let her know that we would be traveling around September, and she is going to set us up with a free photo session. The base session price is $180, so that is awesome. The prints are expensive, but I think it will be worth it to get some great pictures of our girl.


One of the attendings in my dept at the hospital is hosting a baby shower for me and one of the other residents who is due in September. She sent out an invitation, that was not so clear about the fact that we are adopting, and I can't tell you how many people came up to me yesterday and were like "you're not even showing....when are you due?" and "congratulations! how far along are you!" It's so funny because I got a lot of kind of ignorant responses when I answered excitedly that we were adopting. I think it just catches people off guard. It doesn't really offend me, just makes me feel a little awkward. anyway, I'll probably have to get used to people making silly remarks.


I have been so excited to see lots of referrals and travel dates and families united in the last month or so! Congratulations to everyone! And hang in there, Lulu and Ella's referrals are on their way! soon we will be celebrating seeing their cute little faces.