BUSY weekend

It was a busy weekend! I started my Christmas shopping and I finished all in one weekend. I was brave- I don't recommend shopping at Target 9 days before Christmas in the middle of the day! It took me 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. :-)

The holidays have come so fast. This past week Rich put up the Christmas tree and we decorated the house. We have a dept. 56 village collection and I love it. Rich made a tradition to buy a new piece every year.

We went to our neighborhood holiday party today and then came back to finish Nate's room. It's all done with a few exceptions. I ironed all his bedding and got everything in order. His curtain is up and we just need to hang one more piece. Then, I'll dust it and it will be complete.

I came to the realization today that this was my last full weekend at home before I leave to go down to get Nate for my extended pick-up trip. Next weekened I'm going to Vermont to visit my family for the holiday. Rich will stay home due to his work schedule and then I'll be back so that we can spend Christmas day together. Then, I finish my last 3 days at work and I'm off. I'm flying direct this trip out of JFK.

Finally, I talked with Maria this week through our translator. I am starting to feel so sad that Nate will be leaving Maria. She has cared for him wonderfully since he was 2 days old on May 10th of this year. I can't even begin to imagine the bond they have and how truly difficult it will be to say goodbye. I feel fortunate that Maria and I have connected so well. She is such a caring woman. While we were talking about meeting and saying goodbye on the phone, she began to cry. All she could say was how happy she was that we were going to give him such a good home, but that she would miss him terribly. It was clear to me in this conversation how much she really loves him and how much she has given to him and to us. We could not be more grateful to her. I promised her we would forever stay in touch and I hope to get back down to visit her in the next few years. I'm putting together a scrapbook of pictures of the last 6 months since we received Nate's referral. I think this will be the perfect goodbye gift...

Here are a couple pics of our holiday decorating and toy assembling fun (disclaimer: assembling an exersaucer should not be in the top 1 million things to do before you die. :-))