Life Unexpected

It's hard to believe that a week has already passed since our New York City adventure.  I feel like I am still living off of the excitement from that weekend (even though we never did get a chance to meet Matt Lauer!).  I can't even really explain it, but that weekend was exactly what my heart needed.  In fact, I felt like I came back from a 12 day vacation, I was so rejuvenated, energized and encouraged.  One of my friends at work said, "You must have had a really great time!"  It was like I couldn't stop smiling. While we had an amazing time visiting NYC, the Today Show, going to every yard sale on the block, hanging out at the beach and more, that wasn't really what stuck out to me.  What stuck out, was the outpouring of love and encouragement over that entire weekend from my family and friends.  Before I left, one of my youth workers handed me a Mother's Day Card.  It was filled with encouraging notes from a handful of teens who I have become

This weekend for me is all about skipping Mother's Day.  While that sounds somewhat harsh, and I may even come across as a little cold, please know that I love mothers, especially my mom and my sisters, and I believe they deserve incredible praise for all that they do on a day to day basis in taking care of their families.  However, Mother's Day is really hard for people who don't have families yet.  While I feel incredibly grateful for my family this weekend, who has chosen to "skip" mother's day with me, knowing the emotional toll infertility puts on a woman, I realize that there will be many people in church tomorrow who will probably feel a lot of what I feel every year as I sit in church on Mother's Day.  So this prayer tonight is dedicated to you...it's dedicated to the women who are in the midst of struggling with infertility dying to be a mom.  It's dedicated to women who are sitting in the midst of an adoption process that feels like it

Besides having the amazing experience of being on the Today Show, we spent a lot of time walking through the streets of New York City, we took a carriage ride through Central Park, we went out to dinner together, and we even drove over to Hobokan, NJ to visit Carlos Bakery (home of the Cake Boss).  By the time we finally made it to the beach house in Stone Harbor, we were wiped out.  We did a Sonic run for some Diet Cherry Limeades which fueled us for a few rounds of Bananagrams, and then headed to bed. We are Long girls, and that means only one thing on Saturday Mornings...wherever we go, we go yard saling.  It doesn't matter what town we are in, what state we are in, or why we are there, we always get a paper and make yard saling a priority.  We somewhat have an obsession with that!  We saw that there were 3-4 yard sales listed and decided to try to get out of the house by 8am (which is actually a lot later than we usually go).  We had even scoped the area out the night before

If you haven't gotten the memo yet...I am officially skipping Mother's Day.  After receiving the news that our adoptoin wait was lengthened a couple of months ago, I approached my Pastor (my boss) and asked if I could have a "mental health" weekend.  I explained to him that I just wasn't sure I could handle being in church on Sunday, a day that is all about celebrating moms...still not having the dream of being a mom fulfilled yet (that blog will be coming soon).  He fully supported me on this, which was awesome. When my family heard this, my sisters and my mom came up with this awesome idea that we should have a girls' weekend.  We quickly began to devise plans which would include staying in New York City for a night, waking up early to be on the "Today Show," and spending the rest of the weekend at my Uncle's beach house in New Jersey.  My sister Kristen flew in from Boston, and together with my other sister Heather and my mom, our adventure

Today marks our two year anniversary of officially starting the adoption process!  Two years to this date, we signed our very first paper work and "officially" decided we would pursue an Ethiopian adoption.  I remember that day like it was yesterday, totally freaked out about the changes that would come over the next year or two as we pursued starting our family in a totally unconventional way.  Little did I know that the I would be sitting at my kitchen table blogging tonight...still waiting for a referral.  This journey has been exactly the title of our blog..."Life Unexpected."  We have had days when we have been blessed beyond measure, days where we have bawled our eyes out, days where we have dreamed of that day when we would get a call, days where we have felt like throwing in the towel, days where we have been encouraged, days when we have been discouraged, days where we have wondered if this process really has a light at the end of the tunnel, and days whe

It seems as though we are at a standstill in the adoption process.  With the new knowledge in the recent months that we are going to be waiting 18-24 months for a referral, it can feel like this process is never ending.  On May 11 we will have officially been on the wait list for 14 months.  I have tried hard not to dwell on the fact that the we could be waiting for another 4-10 months before we are matched, but some days are harder than others.  Yesterday, we began spring cleaning, and I found myself drawn to our spare bedroom, a room that holds so many hopes and dreams, including the dream to be a safe haven for a child.  Ever since we announced that we were adopting, the closet in that room quickly began to fill with baby Roxy clothes, teeny tiny uggs, cupcake onesies and more...all items that my family continues to pick up for our child(ren) to come.  As I attempted to organize all that we had been given, my heart felt heavy that we still have a long way to go in this journey. I