Little Miss Thang

Justin's girlfriend Judy gave Katie Starr two new purses and as you can see little Missy really likes them. Here she is with one of them that she insisted she wear while I was giving her a bedtime bottle. Inside was a play wallet and keys. She then pretended that she was leaving with the purse and waved bye bye as she was walking towards the door. I guess that she was mimicking Mommy going to work. Uh oh, pretty soon she will be giving advice and counsel to real estate agents too. That's my girl!!

A Week of Firsts

The past week brought several firsts for our little Miss. A week ago we went to our FCC Halloween Social Dinner and Katie got to trick or treat (OK, maybe Mommy and Daddy trick or treated but don't tell our Starr). Katie got to experience her first lollipop..mmmm... and boy did she love that. As she was sucking the color right off of that sucker she would take it out of her mouth and offer it to us and her Nana and Papa. Of course we all licked right along with her; what fun!

Katie also got to meet some new friends. Molly and her mom Anna came from Texas and Kacey and her mom Julie came from Georgia for a visit. It was so wonderful to finally have our sweet girls meet.

We attended our first FCC Playgroup and it was a blast. That is a monthly event that we will be regulars at in the future.

Last but not least is that Katie spent time with both Grandmothers without us. Katie had a great deal of separation anxiety the first few months home or maybe it was mommy and daddy's separation anxiety. We finally decided that it was time for the grandparents to take care of Katie without us or Justin around and it went very well. Katie had fun, the grandmas had fun and now the parents can rest easy when we need to leave her in their care.

I will wrap it up with the fact that we had our first post placement visit this week and our social worker feels that Katie Starr has bonded very well to us. She had a rocky start with her grief and sadness but our girl is very happy now and that makes us all very happy as well.

I have put together a slideshow of a few photos from our week of firsts...enjoy! Click here for Slide Show

Bad Mama :(

I had a dream the other night that made me realize that I do not write very much about our "number one son" Justin. I dreamt that Justin started his own blog that boycotted mine because I do not write about him. Unfortunately, I am guilty of letting "the baby" steal the limelight. Even though Justin is an adult he is still my baby as well. I need to start remedying the fact that I have been so remiss.

As many of you probably remember, Justin graduated from the University of Florida and then two days later we all hopped a plane to China to adopt Katie Starr as a family. Having Justin with us in China was the best thing that could have ever happened for our family. Since there is such a huge age difference between them they would never have had the bond that they do if Justin had not experienced what we did together. He has been an amazing support to Marc and I since we have been home. Katie adores him and so do we.

Justin is working for a telecommunications company full time and is in the process of applying to law school. He took his LSAT's and he should get his score this coming week. He has been dating the same young woman for about 2 years and they have a wonderful relationship. She is still up at UF so he misses her a great deal but they do their best to visit each other and make their long distance relationship work.

Well now that I have caught you all up on our number one son; stay tuned in the next week for pictures from his birthday. He turns 22 on Halloween. He was my first treat :)

What is wrong with this picture?

I just had to take a moment to post this picture that Marc caught on his camera phone today. We had a party at the house with a few friends and their children today. Since Gabby the Chihuahua is somewhat high strung on a good day I thought for the sake of all concerned that she would be better off staying at my parents house for the day. While Marc was driving her over she decided that the very stylish Britax Marathon would be a comfortable place to sit while being chauffeured. I guess she thought what is good for the new kid on the block (Katie Starr) would be good for her too. All of the girls in our house ride in style :)

Scenes from a Play Date

I find that it is very difficult to find friends who are mothers at this stage of my life. I have lived both ends of the spectrum. I was once the youngest mother at the PTA meetings. Now I should be the oldest. All of my girlfriends with the exception of the ones that I have made through this adoption journey all have raised their children already or have not had children. Thankfully, these friends are wonderful and still are a huge part of my life. I do try to seek out other mothers though that have children around the same age as Katie Starr for the all important "Play date". Katie was on a "play date" this past Monday with her new friend Nina Sophia. Her mom works with me and is a lovely woman. The date was a success!!

Pretty Girls

Playing with the Sunflower Pinwheels

Renata and Nina Sophia

Autumn Moon Festival 2006

Wishes made for loved ones far away...

Last night we celebrated the Autumn Moon Festival by having dinner with our FCC-South Florida Family at Miss Yip's on Miami Beach. We then walked to the beach with the children with paper lanterns complete with glow sticks as well as balloons and wishes to be released while thinking of loved ones. We wrote wishes for Katie Starr's birth and foster families. We know that they thought of her this day as I am sure that they do every day and we thought of them as well. It was a happy and bittersweet day but one we will remember always.

On the way to the Beach our balloons became tangled from the wind. We released them in a bunch with all of the wishes attached. Here are videos one and two of the release...

The First Attempt to Release the Balloons....

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Ahhhh Sweet Success!!

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A Few Cute Pics of Katie Starr

Katie Starr posing with Cardboard Cutout of Elmo before Sesame Street Live

Happy Katie after the show

First Pigtails - Thanks Aunty Shannon!!

Hamming it up for the camera

Happy New Year - LaShana Tovah!!

I know I have not posted in awhile but I have been recovering from Shingles and quite honestly I just did not feel like doing much of anything. I know that this greeting for the Jewish New Year is late but better late than never I say.

I am finally off the heavy pain meds that I was put on; boy those were kicking my butt and now I am just handling it with OTC meds. I feel much better, thank goodness.

I was not able to attend our family Rosh Hashanah celebration but Marc took Katie and she had a ball as the pictures will attest. The family ate her up. She has quite the effect on all that she meets.

I had to laugh today when I was talking to my friend Mary, who was nice enough to bring us a wonderful Chinese dinner tonight, that being Jewish and having a child from China has us celebrating three New Years each year:) I hope that does not make me three times older.

Here are some pics from the other night...


Daddy and Katie Starr


Katie playing with marc's cousin Jeff


Katie enjoying her Tzimmes with great gusto

Knowledge is Power

The last few days have been a blur for me. On Thursday I went to the hospital ER with a severe pain in the upper left quadrant of my abdomen. The Doctor on call ran a battery of tests and pretty much came back with nothing other than maybe unexplained GI problems or a bad muscle pull. He sent me on my way with pain killers. I began to feel even worse on Friday evening and finally took one of the painkillers. I woke up in the middle of the night in horrible and unrelenting pain that was now radiating into my back. I went back to the ER and still they came up with nothing in terms of diagnosis. They gave me more painkillers, anti-inflammatories and Valium and told me to sleep for two days so the muscle would stop spasming. It all just did not make any sense to me as I had never had this kind of excruciating pain before with a muscle pull and believe me when I tell you that it normally takes much more than a little pain to get this girl to a Doctor let alone a hospital. Well, I listened to the Doctor and took to my bed. My husband is a total prince and with a smile on his face took over everything in the house, which included keeping our VERY ACTIVE Katie happy and out of our bedroom. Well, last night I began to feel an itch on my back and felt what I thought was a mosquito bite. Before long it turned into 4 bumps and then 8 and by evening there were more than a dozen. At this point it hit me...I knew exactly what I had as one of my friends had suffered with the same malady last year..SHINGLES!. I had spoken to her at length last year when she had them and remembered some of the symptoms. I went on the Internet and did what any good Internet maven would do and diagnosed myself..LOL. I called my Doctor early this morning and went in immediately. I told her about the series of events that had taken place over the weekend and what I felt that I had. She examined me and concurred with my self-diagnosis :) It was a classic case of Shingles. I was also fortunate enough to have received a phone call from a friend last evening to check on me and she told me about a very good drug that if taken in the first 72 hours of onset will shorten the pain and duration of this illness. I am on this medication now as well as pain killers as the pain is excruciating. They say it can take 4-6 weeks to ease and that there is the chance of neuralgia (nerve pain) for many months to come. Since I was diagnosed fairly quickly I am optimistic that I will not suffer as long as the average person does.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that Chickenpox is caused by. You have had to have Chickenpox at some point in your life to get Shingles. Once you have Chickenpox it lays dormant within the cells of your body and waits for a compromise such a stress or illness. In my case it was stress due to mostly work related issues I suspect. I am only contagious for this week while the blisters are open so unfortunately my baby is slightly at risk as she has never had chickenpox and has not had the vaccine yet (she was scheduled for it next month) I will do my best to keep her safe from it.

The reason that I am sharing this in such a detailed fashion is that I believe knowledge is Power and that we all need to be proactive about our health as well as many issues in our lives. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I have been able to tell a Doctor what is wrong with me before he/she was able to. I have since called the ER department of the hospital and suggested that they print what the symptoms of shingles are for people that they discharge for unexplained pain such as mine was.

I am very grateful to my friends and family who have been there for me with their company and offers of help. You are all very much appreciated.

I am worn out lately and so is my "E" !

The men in my life have been making fun of me because as you can see the "E" on my laptop keyboard is almost worn away and my "S" and "A" are not far behind. The "E" barely works; I have to keep tapping it to get it working. I guess they think that I am online too much...no way..not me!!

I just love our precious daughter's sweet face!

More wonderful news

Emma Grace "Gracie"

There were two more special people to me that received referrals in this latest batch. First check out Emma Grace who will be known as Gracie. I have grown very close to her family and most especially to her mom, Angel. We met her and her husband Rodney through this process and they are members of our local FCC Chapter. They are a special family and Gracie will have three older brothers that will adore her. She is a true beauty and will be in Katie Starr's growing circle of friends :)

The other incredible news is the referral of twins to my fellow blogger, Mary Mia and her husband Rod. Mary Mia and I have been conversing for the past 20 months or so. Even though we have never met I feel like she is an old friend and know someday that our paths will cross. Her identical twins are Rose and Marie . They are absolutely adorable. Congratulations to both families!!

Just Another Day at the Office

As many of you know, Marc owns a mobile Disc Jockey and entertainment business. He has been in business for 27 years and has had his share of stories from some of the parties he has entertained at. He has met many celebrities, as he used to handle a lot of them through an agent that booked him out. Working around high profile people is not a big deal to Marc. The other day though he was hired to do a wedding at an upscale resort in the Florida Keys. What he did not realize was that the groom's sister who was a bridesmaid at the wedding was Alecia Moore (aka PINK) and her husband, Carey Hart, extreme motocross world champion was a groomsman. He was pretty much unfazed until the wedding got into full swing. Pink came over to him and handed him a big wad of cash to play overtime and said to keep the party going all night and there would be more where that came from. OK, no problem..LOL. Later in the evening she came over to him to discuss what music she wanted played and Marc had most of it already lined up in his DJ Computer. The fun began around midnight when she stripped off her gown with no undergarments underneath and began to get other woman at the party to do the same. They all ended up in the pool. They partied until the wee hours.

Marc's statement to me the next day was that he now knew why she had pulled the wad of money out of her pocket in the early evening.... She did not have a pocket available to pull it out of by the end of it! Just another day at the office....

The Moments We Cherish

It has been so hectic around here I really have not had much time to blog. It seems that we are always going somewhere and last week was no exception. My sister and her family came to Florida and we all took a trip down to the Keys. We split up the trip between Key Largo and Key West. It was a lot of fun. We spent our days swimming at the pool or the beach as well as sight seeing in Key West. My sister found a butterfly and nature conservatory that was awesome. It was so cool to watch as Katie realized a few moments after entering that there was all of this motion from butterflies and birds all around her. She had such a sweet, open and serene look on her face. We purchased an acrylic encasement of beautiful butterflies from all over the world. They were placed there after their 10 day life span was over. On it is inscribed the following statement which we absolutely loved:

We Don't Remember Days; We Remember Moments

I realized during the week that our lives have changed so much. It is not that I did not realize it before but when you go away from your home and routines it becomes very clear that life is not "easy" anymore. Since Justin is an adult our life was very carefree before and we were able to go at our whim. Now we need to be mindful of Katie Starr and keep to somewhat of a schedule for her as well as do things that will be entertaining to her. There is much more planning and packing. It is not always easy but moments that we are living with her are so rich and make life so worthwhile. Having our daughter forces us to see things all over again in a fresh new way and almost always with humor. Something as simple as eating an ice cream cone on a hot summer evening brings such pleasure. Watching her splash away in the pool with total abandon brings us such joy. Seeing her interact and fall in love with the people we love and have them fall in love with her brings such happiness.

Life as we knew it is over for now; that is very clear. Our new life is all about cherishing the moments as viewed through the eyes of our precious girl.

What is more fun than a present? The box it comes in :)

Playground Fun

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Our sweet little ladybug

Our Aunt Shirley and Uncle Paul came for a visit and took a bunch of pictures. I love this one of our sweet girl sitting on the ladybug chair in her room. Thank you Uncle Paul for the great shot.