Long overdue

"Oh, where, have you been, Shelly Girl, Shelly Girl, oh where have you been, Charmin' Shelly...?"

Old song, supposed to be Billy Boy. Nevermind.

Like a thorn in my side I've been putting off posting here for a million years. Which is sad because so much has happened with us worth sharing. So many little memories lost because I couldn't make myself sit down and write them out here. *sigh*

Big news over here is that we're expecting another baby! *picks you up off the floor* Another little miracle will arrive around the end of January. We're thrilled. Well, aside from the bout of gestational diabetes that showed up again, we're thrilled. I wasn't thrilled with the holidays falling right in the middle of my "no/low sugar" diet, but nobody asked me. *wink*

I think the last time I posted was talking about Abrielle worries. I decided to not worry anymore, and just leave the poor kid alone. She eats when she wants to eat, and while she's tiny, she does have "tiny genes" working against her, and she's really healthy as a horse, so I'm happy. She just turned two last week. Can't believe it. She's talking up a storm, and we are having full-fledged conversations with her. Our eyebrows are constantly raised at what she is understanding and saying to us. She's a smart cookie. She also goes potty on the "big girl" potty now. Has been since this summer. Evidently I was potty-trained pretty early too, so I guess my side of the family isn't too surprised to hear about this trick, but boy was I shocked to see that she was asking to be put on the potty at so little of an age.

We celebrated FIVE YEARS HOME this summer as well. Wow. Ya know, though, while this was a huge milestone for our kids, it didn't strike me as such... They feel like they've always been with us, and a part of us. The first thing I tell folks about them isn't "that they're adopted" - it's that Adam hates math, and won't change his socks, Liana is a second Mama to Abrielle, and Aleksa is on a major horse-kick that means she crawls around on the floor for long periods of time thereby putting holes in every pair of pants she owns. Normal kid stuff. While their adoptions aren't secrets, I try hard to just let us be a family doing normal family stuff, and if their being adopted is somehow relevant to whatever, then I'll bring it up, but otherwise, we're just trying hard to "be us."

Perhaps that's been my hang-up about this blog lately. I just want to be us. Just want to be a family without having to analyze everything and wonder if they'll have life-issues because of certain things having happened to them. It has just felt good to be the Fishers and not have to wonder who is thinking what about whom.

Anyway. That's the deal. I probably won't post much anymore, but I thank you for checking in, (if you're out there!), and thank you for being my friend on this wild ride of international adoption. There are happy endings in older kid adoption. We're proof of that. I hope our story has helped your own somehow. If you are on facebook, I'd love to add you as a friend so we can still "keep in touch." I have enjoyed the two-sidedness of Facebook very much. Instead of dropping a note in a bottle, like it feels like I do here, I actually get to "see" and interact with others. Much more gratifying.

Take care!

Shelly