The family treats damage as a challenge & invites it home...

For several years, really as long as our 9 year old was aware of her place in our home, Boo asked for a brother or a sister. Mostly a sister, but she stated in no uncertain terms that she'd take what she could get. What she was really saying was she wanted someone to play her games with, someone to dress up, someone to keep her company and stop her from being bored. I tried, for as many years, to explain that's not what siblings do. Siblings invade your space, ruin your stuff, sit their narrow little butts between you and your boyfriend, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. They also have a tendency to spill your secrets. But our daughter was having none of that. She was persistent, she was relentless, she presented, for a 9 year, what amounted to logical arguments and counter arguments for any and all of our objections.

Finally one night, after Boo had asked The Question once again and was now on her way to dreamland, I turned to hubby, "having another child wouldn't be so bad, would it?" With that question, which was actually more of a statement, our path was being set. Discussion after discussion followed. We are so blessed, why couldn't we expand our family to a child that deserves a break? We have a lot to share, starting with ourselves. It seems logical that we should welcome a child into our home. We than came to the realization that we were of the same mindset about what type of child. I didn't want to get pregnant again. There is nothing better than holding a sleeping baby in your arms, kissing that little bald head and smelling that J&J baby smell. But really, babies weren't for us. I'm 7 years older than my sister. The two of us growing up had separate childhoods, for the most part, and we have only begun to get close. Plus there's the issue of my age and fitness. No, I don't want to say I'm old, and there are plenty of women my age that do get pregnant. God love 'em, I just don't want to be that one. Going abroad didn't make sense with our work situation, so that gave us the direction we needed. We hit upon adoption of an local (to the state) older child with the force of the light bulb going off above our heads, aka a waiting child. A tiny, LED-type that grows brighter and brighter the longer it's on.

We've gotten to the point in our discussion that we are doing something about it. Questions were tentatively asked of friends and acquaintances, calls were made, internet searches were done (& boy howdy, googling "adoption" is a blog post in and of itself), but finally we came upon a local solution. We contacted the agency and with a simple form we have started down the path to, hopefully, a conclusion of our trio turning into a quartet.

*Fingers are now crossed*