National Adoption Day

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The month of November is National Adoption Month and today, November 21, is National Adoption Day.  The significance of this month and day are not lost on our family as we are a family built through adoption.

It is my family that I am truly thankful for and at this time of year really feel the gratitude of how my family came together.  I know for our girls this is all they know and for us our family grew beyond just adding our two girls.

Because a family doesn’t have to be made from blood, just love, lots of it!

Is your family created through adoption?

Day 21, #NaBloPoMo #BlogHer

 

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for the love of furry babies

I grew up with a dog as a member of our family.  In fact there were three before I was out of the house.  My first dog as an adult was the cutest miniature schnauzer I added to my family from an acquaintance.  My husband and I added our first family dog after we bought our first house 15 years ago.

This December will be 1 year since we lost our first dog to old age.  Cody was a majestic Lab-Weimaraner mix.  He was almost 14 when his age got the better of him.  He is the first dog our girls knew as babies and he loved the girls as much as we did.  We added him to our family the summer of 2001 in August.  I can remember him watching us from our back porch as my husband and I labored with sod after 9/11 doing our best to keep our minds off of the current events in our life.  He even traveled with us on our road trip to parenthood.  We drove to Minnesota for our older daughter’s birth and he came along for the ride. We thought why not? He would get to know the baby from the beginning and we would not have to board him for 3 weeks so along he came in the car for the drive that would change all of our lives.

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As our girls grew older we added a 2nd dog to our family, the infamous Princess Molly Bear, a Weimaraner I came across accidentally needing a home and why not add another Princess to our family?  Molly was 5 when she joined our family and Cody and our girls fell in love with her right away!

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Molly was a great addition to our family.  She lived a happy life with us before dog cancer took her away from us too soon in January of 2013.

Our life is not complete without at least one dog in our family and since having two for a few years was something we ALL enjoyed we again have two furry babies that grace our home with their witty, loving personalities.  We now have a German Shorthaired Pointer, Baron Von Friedmann Bear and a Weimaraner Princess Pepper Lou Lou ages 3 and 2 respectively.

pepper and freidmann soon

The unconditional love our furry babies give us is what makes having them so great!  These two are characters and we ALL love them.

Do you have pets?

Day 18, #NaBloPoMo #BlogHer

what is a friend?

friend
noun \ˈfrend\
: a person who you like and enjoy being with

: a person who helps or supports someone or something (such as a cause or charity)

I realize throughout my life I have made many friends.  My friendships go back to those I attended grammar school and high school with.  We have found ourselves reconnected because of social media.  Throughout recent years I have found myself with friends that live in my computer.  What is that you ask?  We met through common interests mainly blogging and adoption.  Why do they live in my computer?  We live across the world and may not ever meet in person.  Why then would I consider them a friend?  Because we have shared interests and converse somewhat regularly and again through social media.

Yet I have in my current life friends.  Friends that I have known through the 22 years I have lived in California, my mommy group friends who I met when our oldest was still a baby,  the friends we made on our shared journey to parenthood through adoption and those who we met when we moved to our neighborhood almost 2-1/2 years ago, and the friends I have made through being with my girls whether it be ballet or their elementary school .  I can say ALL of these people add to our daily lives.

Friends have been able to step in and help and in return I have been able to do the same.  Friends have celebrated with us holidays, birthdays or just a new season and reason to get together.  We are creating fun memories.

I watch my girls form their own friendships separate from those of the families we know together.  I see them create their own independent lives and realize how much they have grown.  When they were little, their immediate friends were the children of the Moms I met from the Mommy Group I had joined. Now they have friends from school, girl scouts, ballet and soccer too.

I thankful we all have these friendships in our lives and share with them interests and time.

friends

Day 17, #NaBloPoMo #BlogHer