How We Roll. And Why We Roll.

Two years ago we went here. It was so nice- such easy living- so we're going back.

No trip is complete without bulk nuts-because we're nuts.

We're going heavy on the whole grains, organic peanut butter, and green tea- all of which we will not be able to buy where we're going. Not shown are the books (yes, we're bringing a Kindle loaded with books, but we have 3 voracious readers to accommodate), two yoga mats, two hammocks, one portable toddler cot, baby dolls and toys, art supplies, one ukulele, Spanish workbooks and flash cards, curry and berbere spice, and this:

What is this? This, my friends, is a home made portable fishing rod that Babba made loaded with 50 pound weight. He's also bringing various hooks and lures, and a pair of gloves (he's anticipating catching fish with potentially sharp fins).

This is a man with a fishing plan.

We travel because if we don't we'll go stir crazy. We travel because we get bored with ourselves and our normal life. We travel because that's what we've done every year for the past 10 years. We love the world, and it's important for us to remember that.

We traveled last year to Thailand and while we were there this happened. We're hoping this year's trip won't be dominated by such awful grief and terror.

It's been unbloggable because up until a few days ago it was still a possibility, but now that it's over I can tell the story: right before Thanksgiving we received an e-mail from our homestudy social worker. The e-mail presented us with a little background information on a two year old boy who needs a family through Department of Social Services.

Our social worker asked us if we wanted to be considered.

On a whim we said YES.

The boy sounded delightful.

We fell a little bit in love with the idea of him.

We knew it would be a long shot though.. We knew we wouldn't be chosen. Neither of us have ever been chosen for anything. But still....just the thought that it was a possibility shot us to unknown territories on The Adoption Freaky Scale. Anytime the phone would ring we would both instinctively jump with racing hearts. Then, after the call wasn't our social worker or DSS we would each deny that we thought it was going to be them.

We were in real pickle about what to do. Should we stay here and wait for the phone to ring or should we still plan a trip this year? If we stayed home it would have been the first time in 10 years that we didn't go somewhere. We really didn't know what to do. Since we hadn't heard anything back from Department of Social Services we decided to go. So a few days ago we asked to not be considered for him anymore. Adoption is really tough stuff- for everyone involved- including ourselves.

We've been waiting for 17 months to adopt another child into our family.

It's a weird mindset to be in.

We need a break from thinking about it and from

waiting for the phone

to ring.

Hasta luego, amigos! I hope to blog a bit while we're there.

p.s. did you know that today as National De-lurker Day? If you've never left a comment before you should. All the cool kids are doing it.