William & John's adoption story

Two Dads, One Girl

2009-11-22T20:49:00.002-05:00

We've received several emails from friends asking us to continue blogging. I know, I know... it's been awhile since we posted. So, without much fan fair I announce the creation of our new family blog: Two Dads, One Girl. Hopefully you'll find it fun to read. Thanks to all of your who've read this over the years. While in the midst of our adoption search we had consistently about 2000 unique visitors a month - so hopefully a few of you will follow us over to our new blog.

Thanks for you support throughout our adoption journey!

~W & J

Riley Susan Kinnane-Petersen

2009-09-19T19:56:00.015-04:00

We're very happy to report that three weeks ago Riley Susan Kinnane-Petersen came into this world. It was the most amazing experience and I'm quite confident that I will never really be able to explain in words the awesomeness of her birth, or how happy we are to have her in our lives. She is perfect in every way - healthy, beautiful, wonderful attitude, and if her ability to control her daddies is any sign, absolutely brilliant.

On a Wednesday afternoon about a week ahead of her due date, we got the call from R saying that the doctor said she was already two centimeters dilated and that the baby could come at any moment. She went on to say that if she didn't go into labor before Friday, that the doctor had said she would induce her as Riley was clearly ready to meet the world. For a few moments I think I probably stopped breathing. As we were only a week out from the due date we'd told ourselves that it could happen at any point, but hearing the words really hit home. I asked R if she thought we needed to take a flight out that night, or the first flight the next morning. She said the next morning would be fine, we discussed where we'd be staying while in California, we both said how excited we were to meet in person for the first time, and than we hung up the phone.

I took a deep breath and called John who was still at work. "Hello - what's up?" He said in a tone which stated he knew there was only one reason why I'd be calling him at work at this time of the day.
"Tell your co-workers that you're going to be out of work for a little while." I said.
"Really? What's the story? Is everything okay?" he said. I went on to explain to him what R had said; that everything was okay and that we needed to get out there ASAP. Then I jumped onto the internet and bought our flights, changed the dates for our hotel and called my boss to let her know I'd be leaving a few days earlier than I'd expected. Of course, my boss being the consummate friend, mother, and professional had nothing but positive things to say. The rest of the evening was spent running around the house not really doing anything, but seeming really busy.

The following morning at the early hour of 3 am we woke so that we could catch the first flight out to LA. We grab our stuff - two large carry on bags, and two smaller "personal items" (that's what the airlines call small bags) so that we didn't have to check any luggage on the way out there. We didn't want anything to slow us down. Once we landed we ran off the plane and tried to wait patiently for the rental car bus to pick us up and take us to our car. Turns out the long wait for the bus was only the beginning our waiting with the rental company. Between waiting for the bus and then waiting for our car to be ready it probably took close to an hour and a half. I don't think I've ever waited that long for a rental car in my life (which is a bold statement considering I traveled for two years for work). While waiting we called R to let her know that we'd arrived and would be headed her way as soon as we could. She advised that she'd had a few contractions during the night, but that she was feeling well and was looking forward to meeting us.

So, off to the inn that R had been staying at to meet her in person for the first time. We were nervous, but mostly excited. We made decent time and called her when the GPS said we were about 10 minutes away. She was just finishing up getting ready and said it was fine for us to come directly to the inn.

Meeting R in person was amazing. We'd seen many pictures of eachother, but she was even more beautiful in person and her calm demeanor and welcoming smile made us all at ease. Without even asking she quickly reassured us that she was feeling wonderful both physically and emotionally and that seeing us in person just made her feel even more confident in her choice of adoption. We all went to lunch and talked about general things; our families, etc. The food was really good. After lunch we went to the grocery store and, with R, we went to Babies-R-Us to pick out a few outfits for Riley to bring her home from the hospital and the hotel stay. It was great to have her there. Later, when we went back to the hotel R gave us a whole bunch of amazing family clothes that we'll be able to dress Riley in. It will be so great for us to be able to put her in some outfits and explain to her that these were some of the same clothes that her birthmother and birthsister wore when they were her age. R's generosity really is quite impressive! We had also brought a small gift for R. In anticipation of Riley's birth we'd had two identical lockets made and engraved. They were simple copper lockets that had the words "Love Is There" engraved on the front. As those of you who've followed our story know we believe that adoption, and particularly open adoption, is all about love. Anyway, we can certainly attest that in our adoption the love in the air is almost palpable. Additionally, the "wedding" bands that John and I wear are both engraved with the same words. We made two of the lockets so that both R and Riley can both wear them whenever they'd like. Just one more symbol of the fact that R made this decision with thought and love. We also got to meet R's friend T. T is a great guy, and clearly is a great friend to R. We were happy to meet one of the many people who have been there to support, and at times be supported by, R.

We'd hoped to meet her daughter V, but prior to our arrival she wasn't sure if V would be able to visit with us as it was her first week of the new school semester. As luck would have it, she didn't have any classes for the rest of the week so V arrived that night by train. V was everything her doting mother had said she was; beautiful, intelligent, confident, polite, well adjusted - the list goes on and on. Needless to say we were impressed. She hopes to study marine biology, and John has already suggested that she come out to Atlanta to see our truly impressive aquarium. That night we went out to dinner at one of Vs favorite restaurants and enjoyed some great food and even better conversation.

After dinner we dropped them off at the inn and returned to our hotel. R advised that she'd call us if anything happened in the night. R had said and done everything she could to make us feel confident that she was going to follow through with the adoption plan, but perhaps as a result of our previous unmatch and reclaim we were still quite anxious.

The next morning we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to the inn to pick up R and V. As she hadn't gone into labor yet, she was scheduled to be induced at noon. We arrived at the hospital, and after a little bit of confusion about where we needed to enter (emergency vs. standard admission) we made our way up to the maternity ward where R was shown her room. It was a two bed room, but luckily there were no other mother's to be in there. The signage on the walls stated clearly that only two visitors we're allowed. The nurse who showed us the room pointed that out to us, but R worked her magic and convinced them to let us stay.

The nurses at the hospital were all very nice and professional.. and with only a few minor exceptions seemed competent and able to do their jobs well. One small exception was the that first nurse was unable to successfully hook up an IV to R. She made several attempts which was rather difficult to watch, not only because the idea of being pricked multiple times isn't fun but also because R particularly dislikes needles. Finally, the nurse left and called in a more tenured nurse. This nurse was clearly tenured (probably fairly close to retirement) and new what she was doing. I don't think she smiled once, or even looked anyone in the eye. She simply got the needles she needed, grabbed R's wrist and started assessing which vein she would be using. It was clear she was only going to make one attempt and that it was going to be successful. When she found the vein of her choice, she got out the needle and simply said "don't move, this is going to hurt" and with those words stuck the IV in with one quick motion. It worked, and within a matter of minutes the drug that was to induce labor was appropriately being administered. And so labor began...

I won't go into all the details of the labor beyond sharing that it was a) long - basically 12 and half hours, and b) the most amazing and beautiful thing I've ever seen. R allowed us all to be there for every minute of the labor and birth. About half way through R's friend S showed up and stayed the entire time to help. S has a child of her own and having gone through child birth herself really helped the rest of us know what we should be doing.

And so it was that at 12:37am Riley was born.

Just as previously discussed R asked that we be the first to hold and be with Riley. We stood over her as the nurse cleaned her off, smiling, crying tears of happiness, and thanking R. It was an almost surreal experience. I kept looking back to R to see her calming, confident smile. R asked the nurse to give us both the bracelets so that we would have constant access to the baby, and then asked to go to another floor so that she didn't have to be in post partum with other mothers. We were taken to our own room on the pediatrics floor where we spent the next 48 hours caring for Riley. As the pediatric floor didn't normally see newborns (and especially not newborns being adopted by two men) we we're quite the celebrities. I think every nurse came in and introduced themselves and gazed at the beauty that is Riley. At one point we had an entire class of nurses in training stop by. There was, of course, a nurse and orderly specifically assigned to us. We we're particularly pleased with the day nurse and orderly. Not only did they do everything they could to make sure that Riley was safe and adapting to life outside of R well, but they also hooked us up with all the supplies we could dream of for our hotel stay.

We visited with R, who had a bout of nausea after Riley's birth, the next morning and we stopped by a few other times as well. We weren't allowed to bring Riley to her (as one really shouldn't be moving a new born about the hospital), but we did our best to make sure R knew that she could stop by and visit with Riley as much as she wanted. R's daughter V and her friend S stopped by several times as well. It was great for us to be able to take some many great pictures. They will be great to show Riley when she's older.

On Sunday morning R was released from the hospital, and Riley was released into our custody that afternoon. Although all the hospital staff had been great to us, it was such a great feeling to be able to take her back to the hotel. Riley slept through the entire ride to the hotel and I drove more carefully than I think I've ever driven before. The day after being released from the hospital R signed the paperwork required to relinquish her parental rights and place the baby in our custody. And so we went about the next few days cherishing our little one and the moments that R could spend with us. We did take her out of the hotel once to see a local pediatrician for her first follow up appointment. As expected no issues.

R was amazingly generous with her time while we were there. Each day should would come over and spend a few hours with us. Enough time for us to take pictures and talk, and for her to get to know Riley while at the same time allowing us to take those first days to bond with Riley (even though we'd bonded basically instantly upon laying eyes upon her). :) We were also fortunate to have two of my long time friends from high school stop by to visit with Riley and us.

Several days later we were given clearance to return to Georgia with Riley. We packed up our things, and R came by to say goodbye for the time being (we will definitely be seeing her again in the future). R read her the book Love You Forever. It was a beautiful moment. We said our goodbyes and had a few hugs, and then we were off to catch a plane home. Being new parents with a new born we were very nervous about the flight. We'd spoken with our pediatrician before hand who'd said that although not ideal to fly with a newborn it was certainly better than driving long distances. She said just to make sure that Riley was covered so that peoples germs were less likely to get to her. So, armed with several small bottles of Purell, formula, and some diapers we ventured on to the plane. In the airport we carried her in the car seat which worked fine until we got security. We knew that we'd have to take her out of the car seat to get through security, but we didn't know that at LAX there is a specific way the car seat is supposed to go on the security belt. The nice security lady kept telling me, please turn the car seat the other way. I'd turn it, and then she'd say "no, the other way" and then I turn it again. This happened probably nine times - at which point I'd "turned" the car seat in every possible direction. Finally, another security lady moved it one more time and then sent it through. I didn't point out to anyone that the position the car seat was in was the second position we'd had it in. Then we proceeded to to the gate.

As we hadn't been able to book our flight more than a few hours ahead of time John and I were not given seats next to eachother, and worse yet we'd both been given middle seats. We figured that if she threw a fit on the plane that would be the worst possible configuration. In the middle of strangers, crying new born, and no one to help with whatever the issue might be. As we were boarding we asked the gentleman sitting in the window seat next to me if he'd be willing to switch with John. Again, having traveled a great deal I just assumed he would say no, but it seems that the prospect of sitting next to a newborn increase your chances of a positive response. Out of fear or kindness the gentleman said yes, and moved to another seat. We thanked him profusely, and offered to buy him a drink once we were in the air.

We should have known there'd be no issues on the plane with our perfect little Riley (even the doctor had said she was perfect). She didn't cry once the entire trip, she slept for most of it and enjoyed one little meal just before landing. Once again, she was a star. Nearly everyone on the plane congratulated us on our new arrival.

So... after more than three and half years of waiting R brought to us our little baby girl, Riley. She is all we could have asked for, and we feel even more blessed to have the additional pleasure of having R and V in our lives. It really couldn't have worked out any better than it has. As always we are thankful to R for being an amazing person, all of her family and friends for their support of her, and to everyone who has supported us along the way. We couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you for reading.
~ W

P.S. It should go without saying that throughout all of this the IAC was there to support all of us. We stayed in pretty much constant communication with IAC counselor who - just like the entire time - was there in any capacity that she needed to be for R and for us.

P.P.S. Apologies for not updating the blog a little more frequently in the recent past. I haven't decided exactly what to do with the blog going forward. I will continue to blog, but might end this one with a last post which will link over to our new family blog.... or I might just keep on with this one. Part of me really likes the idea of just having this blog as a record of our journey up to Riley's birth.... so, we shall see.

Thank you...

2009-06-05T21:41:00.004-04:00

Being matched with such an amazing birthmother is almost like a dream. She is - to put it simply - great! Knowing that within a few months we could be parents is an amazing feeling; a feeling that can only be trumped by the arrival of our little girl. We're so thankful for her finding us!!

We're also thankful for all our friends and family who have supported, and continue to support, us throughout this amazing journey. Since we posted about being matched we've received countless phone calls, emails, Facebook posts, etc from people (some of whom we've only just met) who are happy for us and how close we are to becoming parents. All we can say is...

THANK YOU!!!

~W

Atlanta Center For Puppetry Arts

2009-06-03T15:54:00.007-04:00

One of the great benefits to living in the metro Atlanta area is that there are some really interesting museums. Just when you think you've seen them all you realize that there's another one out there that you haven't had the opportunity to visit yet. Last week I went to the Center for Puppetry Arts (www.puppet.org) to see a Jim Henson exhibit I had read about in one of the local Atlanta magazines.

The museum and the exhibit were amazing! Walking through the exhibit, it brought back all sorts of memories of the first time I had seen Jim Henson's films. My favorites were Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Fragle Rock, and of course the Muppets. The detail that goes into the puppets - some of which you don't even notice in the films - is really quite something to see. There was also a behind the scenes film that they were showing as well. It was really neat to see how they made some of the puppets, and how their ideas came to life.
It is not a huge museum, but they managed to fit in allot of the puppets from Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. That was really neat to see them in person, after having watched the films so many times.

The museum has been around for almost 30 years, and I hope that it will be around for many more years to come so that we can share some of these great puppets with our child!

JOHN

Matched!

2009-05-12T21:17:00.002-04:00

We are very happy to report that we are matched with a potential birthmother from California. She is all that we could have hoped for! For her privacy we won't go into the details, but intelligent, kind, caring, thoughtful, creative, unique and beautiful are just some of the words we use to describe the amazing woman who has chosen us. We are so thankful that she found us!

As many of you may remember, nothing is final with adoption until the baby is born and the appropriate paper work is signed, but we're so lucky that the potential birthmother we're matched with seems very confident in her adoption plans. The baby (A GIRL!!) is due in early September. We're SO excited!!!!

Thanks for all your support!

~William & John

Park City Ski Trip '09

2009-04-11T09:47:00.001-04:00

It's about a month later, but I am finally getting around to posting about our ski trip! It was awesome! The weather was perfect. Sunny, about 50 degrees, perfect snow on the mountain, and really great friends with us. As described the hotel that we stayed at was literally on the mountain. In the mornings we would just get up, put on our skis, and skied to the lift. It couldn't have been a better location. We'd never been to Park City before, so we were really impressed by the the resort town that had been built up there. Very easy to see why the area had hosted the Olympics a few years back.

As children, William and I liked to think that we were world class skiers. In actuality, what that meant was pointing our (at the time) tiny skis down the hill with no worries about falling. It was with those memories, and a few more memories of us skiing in high school and college that we decided to take this trip. Naturally, as William's earlier post said, we were really excited about going skiing again!

It had been about 7 or 8 years since I had been skiing. I hyped myself up to William and our friends; saying that I was going to be going down double black diamonds by the end of the day. Sadly, that was not the case. It took William and I a few runs to get the hang of it again. And by mid-day, William was leaving me in his ski trails!! Just kidding... well, not really.

Our friend Brady, who is still a beginner at skiing, was somewhat overwhelmed with the fear of falling. She had mastered the snow plow, and every six feet or so would take a turn in the opposite direction to ensure that she would never go very fast. Her boyfriend and William were a perfect match at how fast they could go, so that left me watching out for Brady some of the day. The funniest part is that I would ski down the hill in front of Brady, come to a complete stop, look back at Brady, just to make sure she was okay.......and then I would fall on my face. Haha. I think I actually fell a totally of 6 times. Brady never fell once, her boyfriend never fell, and I am pretty certain I saw William doing back flips off the mountain, so he certainly didn't fall.

Just like our childhood memories there were lots of families and kids on the mountain. We noticed lots of little kids with helmets, no ski poles, a tinny pair of skis zipping past us with parents right behind them this year. The only thing missing on this trip was our little one, we cant wait to start a family tradition of going skiing once a year with our child!

All in all, we had a great trip! Great friends, great food, and lots of great skiing!

Thanks for reading!

JOHN

Callaway Gardens

2009-04-04T18:34:00.005-04:00

Anyone who knows us, or has read our blog, knows that one of the many things we're looking forward to doing as parents is taking our child to museums and parks. Today we went to the beautiful Callaway Gardens (www.callawaygardens.com) which proved to be another great place for kids to explore. Callaway Gardens is truly an amazing place. It's a huge garden that's spread over many acres of land (plenty of open space for kids to play and explore safely in), it also has a golf course and a Butterfly center. It was so nice. The weather, after many days of clouds and rain, was beautiful and it was great to see the azaleas and the butterflies. We started with the Butterfly Center. There were so many different kinds of butterflies; some were at least the size of an average bird. Then we went the to Azalea Trail which had acre upon acre of azaleas. Really beautiful! In the middle of the azalea area was a little man made pond that was full of turtles. They were resting on the shore in groups of five or so. It was neat to see them, as I hadn't really seen that many turtles in one place since I was a small child. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and a place we definitely look forward to taking our little one to some day!

Snow in Atlanta!

2009-03-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

We see it as a a great sign for our upcoming ski trip that it snowed in Atlanta yesterday. Having lived here for the last several years it's really strange to see the snow. At our house we got just about three inches of snow, and it managed to last most of today before it melted away. We made snow men, and basically everywhere you went people were excited. When it first started to snow, and the temperature was pretty high so nothing was sticking to the ground or road, John and I drove around town seeing how beautiful the heavy flakes of snow made the world seem. After awhile we called our friend Brady, and had lunch at a great restaurant that sits on the Chattahoochee river. The first picture is of the snow just as it started to accumulate. That's in stark contrast to the second picture of my mother's drive way (where I grew up), where they have had snow storm after snow storm and have had several feet of snow this year. I guess when you have one or two snow storms a week snow isn't quite as much fun to shovel and play around with. I have many, many memories of shoveling snow. You know you have a lot of snow, when you literally have to shovel your way out of the house!

Skiing.

2009-02-26T20:06:00.008-05:00

John and I are going to go on ski trip in mid March. We are very excited! Although we both skied a lot when we were younger it has been many years since the last time. We're going with our good friend Brady and her boyfriend David. David found a great place for us to stay... if it lives up to it's description it is literally on the mountain.

Being that we live in Georgia you might imagine that we don't really have that much cold weather gear anymore, and you'd be right. John called his mom and asked her to send some of his old cold weather gear. She sent a few sweaters, some gloves, and a few hats... and at the bottom of the box was this picture of John.

As my mother put it when she saw his photo "he's always been beautiful, hasn't he!" He certainly was a cute child. My mom also reminded me that somewhere in the pile of old pictures she sent me was this photo of me at a young age "skiing." It was more like falling, or sitting.. not sure which. Both of the pictures are a little blurry (they are pictures of a pictures), but I think it's neat to see them.

We can't wait until the day that we'll be able to capture little moments in time of our little one... our little one just can't come to us soon enough!

Thanks for reading.
~W

Working out - a family affair.

2009-02-09T14:08:00.004-05:00

I recently joined a new gym (or fitness club as some call it). Having spent most of my exercise life at smaller gyms I am amazed at what this club has to offer. It has almost every fitness activity you could think of! Water slides, pools, weights, spa, basketball courts, and even an indoor rock climbing wall.

It was during a recent trip to the club on a Friday afternoon that I realized one of the neatest benefits to having such a wide array of activities. There were so many families there, it was easy to see that at night and the weekends that families use the club as a family night out! I watched a dad play with his toddler in the pool, I watched 2 families play basketball together, and I got a great laugh as I watched a 10 year old try and keep up with his father on the treadmill. The highlight of the gym is the rock climbing wall. The kids love it, and so do the parents. I've been on it a few times, and it really is quite fun!

As a result of my new found interest of indoor rock climbing, I was doing a little research on line and found this picture of a really cool take on a rock climbing wall. It seems to be a combination of standard rock wall grips, and then some other more creative things to hold on too. (Although it's clearly missing the safety harnesses!)

William doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to be doing some renovations soon to add this into our house!!! (Just kidding)

JOHN

Such a cutie!!

2009-01-28T20:03:00.001-05:00

John was going through some website when he came upon this picture and showed me. It's a picture of a little guy with his mom at some sort of event. I'm glad the parents were thoughtful enough to protect the little one's ears. He's just so cute I had to post the picture.

Thanks for reading. We hope you're having a great day!!
~W

The future is here!

2009-01-11T22:20:00.004-05:00

One of the many things that John and I do to make the time pass during our adoption wait is browse through the toy sections of stores. During a recent look at some of the new toys that are going to hit the market we discovered that the future is here. Like John and I, many of you may remember the little red wagon you played with as a child. You probably got pulled, or pulled around others, in this little red wagon called the Radio Flyer. The Radio Flyer wagon of our childhood was utilitarian at best... If, even for second, you've wondered whether or not we're in the age of technology take a look at the radio flyer of today. This is not the little red wagon of of our childhood. It comes complete with seat belts, comfort seating, speakers, iPod connection, and - you guessed it - cup holders! Wow. We've come a really long way since the days of lawn darts!

Thanks for reading.
~W

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-21T13:16:00.002-05:00

We just wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday season!!!! We also want thank all of you for reading our blog and spreading the word about our hopes to adopt. Our adoption journey has already been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and we don't even have a child yet! The amazing support and love shown by our family, friends, readers of this blog has been more then we ever could have hoped for.

This year we really lucked out, as we get to celebrate the holiday at three different places. That means dessert on three different nights!!!! But, most importantly we are lucky to be able to spend the holidays we people we love.

Below is an old story (1998) we read on CNN about an adoptive family that is finally together for their first Christmas.

Wishing you all the best!
John and William

Adopted twins see their first American Christmas
Two little girls and their new parents
December 25, 1998
Web posted at: 8:59 p.m. EDT (0059 GMT)

(CNN) -- On October 30 at the Miami airport, John and Robin Zarrella wondered whether they would ever see this day.
Nearly six months had passed since a video arrived from Los Ninos, a U.S. agency specializing in international adoptions.
On it were two little girls. identical twins. Based only on the tape, some basic medical records and a leap of faith, John and Robin decided Anastasia and Angelina, orphans half a world away in Russia, should be theirs.
"It was hard to imagine the suffering they had already endured," said John. "Our road was nothing like theirs."
At 2 months old the girls were taken from their mother. They recovered from abuse and malnourishment in a hospital and spent a year in an orphanage.

To protect orphans from falling into bad homes, the governments of Russia and the United States required extensive paperwork. The Zarrellas were fingerprinted, and their backgrounds were checked by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. They took physicals and AIDS tests, and met with a caseworker who evaluated their home and interviewed their sons, 9 and 11. Then came a big break. The Zarrellas could go to Russia to see the girls. Adoption was likely, but not guaranteed.
"After six months of paperwork and a year waiting, we couldn't get there fast enough," said John.
Flying to Russia, they brought three boxes and a suitcase filled with donations of clothing for the orphanage, and another suitcase with diapers and baby clothes for the twins.They touched down in Moscow, where they piled their luggage in two cars. Suspicious of the packages, a police officer stopped one of the vehicles briefly, looking for drugs. They then flew east over the Ural Mountains and at midnight arrived on the edge of Siberia in the town of Chelyabinsk. John and Robin had gone through 10 time zones in 21 hours.

"Our first glimpse of the city came ... through the double-paned glass of the apartment (of) our host," said John.
"Somewhere in the distance beyond the tenements was an orphanage and two little girls who were about to change our lives."
The next afternoon the family held the twins. A caretaker brought Angelina Kseniya first. Awoken from her nap, Anastasia Marie came next. There was some confusion over who was who. A red string tied around Anastasia's wrist told them apart. Tamara, an adoption agency employee in Chelyabinsk, and Mila, an interpreter, told the couple they would sort them out eventually.
"You will see. They are different. When you take care of them every day, you will see," Mila said
"We held them and played with them. Somehow they just seemed to know Mom and Dad were here at last," John said. "It was just meant to be."John and Robin spent an hour with the girls but then had to leave. The children wouldn't be theirs to take until the Russian court approved the adoption. That afternoon they had an early celebration. Their first stop was a local food mart to pick up vodka and pickles, a Russian tradition. They went to the dacha, or summer home, of their driver Victor.

The next day the Zarrellas spent 2 1/2 anxious hours in court. Snow fell as they left the building, but inside they were warm. They were officially the parents of Angelina Kseniya and Anastasia Marie.
"We didn't get much sleep that night, or any other night for that matter," Robin wrote in her diary.
They spent the following day going from agency to agency to complete numerous documents like adoption certificates, birth certificates and passport applications. By the time they finished, it was too late to pick up the girls. They spent one more night apart. The next day on the way to the orphanage, they stopped at a church to buy pictures of the Russian saints for whom the girls were named. At the orphanage they took part in one final event. With champagne, cake and candy, they celebrated with the staff. The gathering served as a symbolic birthday for Angelina and Anastasia.

On Friday the twins celebrated Christmas, still enjoying the gifts of November: a new country, a new home and a new family.

Super Star

2008-12-21T12:55:00.004-05:00

One of John's co-worker's daughter had a piano recital a few days ago. Here is his daughter at the piano, and to quote her very proud father "here is the next super star in training!" We very much look forward to the day when we'll be able to support our future little one in any and all endeavors she takes on!

Thanks for reading!
~W

How cute are these two!?!

2008-12-20T12:42:00.000-05:00

Obviously, fashion is not that huge of a deal in the big scheme of things but I am always amazed at the role that fashion plays in our world today. I always enjoy seeing the new looks that come with each season. With that being said, I found this picture as a looked through a few of my favorite fashion blogs. These two are clearly a little tired (hopefully, after this picture was taken they got to go home and take a well deserved nap!) but they are just so darn cute, and oh so fashionable! I give them the 2008 best dressed under 3 years old award! Hopefully, these little guy's parents engaged them and made getting dressed something fun and creative to do.

Hugs and stickers.

2008-12-14T19:31:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite parts of my job is when I get to hand out stickers to the kids while their parents are waiting. Often, right when they walk in the door they start running to the desk to get their sticker! Today I realized that everyone of those kids always say “May I please have a sticker?” and “Thank you!” Small stuff like that will go along way with those kids, so a pat on the back to their parents! Today I gave one of my favorite clients children a sticker and as they were leaving he walked over to me (he is about two and half years old) and said “Hug.” He then put out his arms for me to bend down and give him a hug. Made my day!!! Such a cute little guy.

I just can't wait to be a dad!!!

JOHN

Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T19:22:00.002-05:00

Nearly every Thanksgiving we spend the day with my aunt Sue. Even before Sue moved to Atlanta we would go to her house in Connecticut, or Omaha. It has always been such a fun and relaxing day for everyone. Like many families, we spend the day cooking, chatting, and watching the Macy's parade on TV. So much fun, and so relaxing! Some years lots of other family members will join us, and others it will just be five or six of us.

Last night, in preparation for Thanksgiving, I pulled out a few CD's for the annual "John Petersen Holiday Hot Mix". I like to think of myself as the DJ for the holidays. So, as I was going through our CDs, I found an Elton John album that I used to listen to pretty often. There is one song called "blessed" on the album and I remember hearing it for the first time about 6 years ago. AMAZING!

This morning, I played the song again in my car and it just fills me with so much hope. I know that our adoption journey has had some ups and downs, but hearing this song again helps to remind me just how excited I am for William and I to be dads.

For those of you who haven't heard the song, here are the lyrics:

Hey you, you're a child in my head
You haven't walked yet
Your first words have yet to be said
But I swear you'll be blessed

I know you're still just a dream
your eyes might be green
Or the bluest that I've ever seen
Anyway you'll be blessed

And you, you'll be blessed
You'll have the best
I promise you that
I'll pick a star from the sky
Pull your name from a hat
I promise you that, promise you that, promise you that
You'll be blessed

I need you before I'm too old
To have and to hold
To walk with you and watch you grow
And know that you're blessed
And you, you'll be blessed
You'll have the best
I promise you that, promise you that, promise you that
You'll be blessed

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog!
JOHN

Just a great picture!

2008-11-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

We posted this picture this picture of John and his cousin Katie's daughter back in October of last year. I was looking through some old pictures and just couldn't not post it again. I love how she just seems to fit right into John's arms. It's amazing to think that in the year since this photo was taken we've had two matches with potential birthparents, and John's cousin has had two more children (TWINS)!

Lots of visitors!

2008-10-27T20:16:00.004-04:00

Although we're not exactly sure why, we've had a lot of visitors to our adoption website recently. We have link to our website from several other sites, but those have been there for sometime, so we can't track the increase in visits back to anyone particular place. We wouldn't be at all surprised if our good friend Bridget has started some sort of online campaign for us. She's been great (we posted about her some time ago) and continues to be one of our biggest supporters. It's great to know that our name and website is getting out there. We've been flooded with good wishes, and even a few college students have asked us for interviews so for papers, etc. This is a great sign! I guess it goes without saying that the more people we have looking at our website and learning about us, the more likely that the "our" birthmother will find us.

Thank you to everyone whose taking the time to read our blog, spread the word of our adoption hopes, or just sharing your kind thoughts!

~W & J

Books, books, and more books

2008-08-29T20:27:00.002-04:00

William just posted a blog about one of our favorite books being turned into a movie (I hope it comes out well!), so I thought I'd add a quick little post to point out a few of our other favorite books. Here's our current top five favorites:

1. Where The Wild Things Are (we've both loved this one from when we were kids)
2. The Giving Tree (makes me cry.. but I just love it!)
3. This Is New York (one of our favorite places to visit, and neat book)
4. Tell Me About The Night I Was Born (This is a great book about adoption)
5. And Tango Makes Three (The story of two penguins who adopt an egg)

JOHN

Where The Wild Things Are.. the movie

2008-08-29T20:00:00.001-04:00

Many of you may have noticed that since starting the adoption process we have collected a pretty large library of children's books. One of the very first books we bought was "Where The Wild Things Are." It's been my person favorite book for some time, and I've pictured myself reading it to my child for as long as I can remember. John also really enjoys the book - it's a close second to his favorite book "The Giving Tree."
We were very excited to find out that the book is also going to be a movie. The movie actually finished filming in November, but hasn't been released yet. From what we can tell there's been a little disagreement between the studio and director. I REALLY hope they get their issues resolved soon. We can't wait to see how it turns out!

Thanks for reading.
~W

Back in the book! #2 (We need your help!)

2008-07-27T16:50:00.003-04:00

We're once again going back into the book. Our second match fell through yesterday when the birth family decided to parent. Although we continue to be very sure that our time will come, we have to admit that this one was difficult. The potential birthmother gave birth on Tuesday to a most adorable baby boy. We hopped on the first plane available and arrived just a couple of hours after he was born. At first, things seem to go very well. Unlike in our previous match, we had never actually met the birthparents in person so we were relieved when we all hit it off immediately. They baby was to be released from the hospital on Thursday morning, and the birth parents were scheduled to sign relinquishments that afternoon. Wednesday night was the first sign that things might not go as planned, and by Thursday morning they had asked to push back the signing of the papers until Monday.

Per the original plan, the baby was released from the hospital to us on Thursday. We all discussed that we'd try and spend time together over the weekend. Additionally, the birth father advised that his mother, aunt, and sister were flying into town and that they would want some "alone time" with the baby. So, we took the little one back to our hotel. He was an absolute pleasure to be around. He had a really great first night "home" from the hospital (but of course we didn't get a wink of sleep). The following night, the birthfather's family arrived in town and we brought the little one over to them to spend the night. As you've probably already guessed, we got the call late the following evening that they had decided to parent. It was heart breaking - BUT we were very happy to hear that they now had the support necessary to provide for the little guy. We harbor no bad feelings for them what so ever, and wish them the best of luck in their parenting journey. As before, we continue to feel honored to have been picked as potential parents for their child. The way we see it we've now received two stamps of approval from potential birthmothers. Also, it was a great learning experience. Having never been through the process before, we now know exactly what to expect at the hospital, and know exactly what one needs to make it through those first few days with the baby at the hotel.

Once again, we're asking you all for help. We are more eager then ever to start our new family! We need you to talk to your friends, family, and associates about adoption. Somewhere, right now, a potential birthmother is considering adoption and all it takes is a recommendation from a friend to move us to the top of the list! Thank you all for your continued support!

~William & John

Southern Voice Article - Baby Makes Three

2008-06-13T18:05:00.004-04:00

While we were in New York city last week we received an email from Matt Schaefer a reporter for the Southern Voice newspaper. He said that he was doing a father's day article and wanted to meet with us so that he could include our adoption story. Of course, we we're happy to oblige. After a few scheduling emails (we we're going to be in New York for a few more days) we agreed that a phone interview would probably be the best thing to do. So it was, that a few days later we found ourselves on the speaker phone completing an interview with Matt. Matt's a nice guy, and had clearly done his adoption research prior to the interview. We talked about our experiences; talking with potential birthmothers, matching, unmatching, etc. After about an hour, the interview was done. For us it was fairly normal, although we haven't had our adoption story featured in a newspaper before, we talk about our adoption journey almost constantly.

So today the article came out - we're famous! Okay, maybe famous is going a little overboard, but we were excited to find out we're the feature story (with our picture on the cover!) The article is pretty good. A couple of minor misquotes, but I think that's pretty much par for the game.

Check at the article at: http://www.sovo.com/2008/6-13/arts/feature/8676.cfm

Thanks for reading!
~W

Back in the book (unmatched)...

2008-05-12T17:56:00.009-04:00

After being matched with a perspective birthmother for the past several months we are sad to say that we are now unmatched. Although we will probably never know exactly why she changed her mind (we haven't heard from the perspective birthmother in almost a month) we sincerely hope that her and the baby are doing well. She was a brave and courageous young lady and we were honored by her choosing us as parents for her child if only for a few months. With that said, the adoption process has taught us many things including that things happen for a reason - our child is out there waiting for us. We are happy to wait a little bit longer if that's what it takes!

What happens now? We're going to need all of you to start up the networking engine again! That's right folks; remember our monthly emails asking you to talk about adoption with everyone you know... they're coming back. So many of you have been extremely supportive throughout this process, and we know that we can count on you now. I know I've said it before, but a large number of adoptions happen each month from the "recommendation" of someone else. By that I mean, statistically speaking each reader of this blog knows someone, who knows someone who is considering placing their unborn child up for adoption. It's exciting to know that there are only a few degrees of separation between us and our possible birthmother. Something as simple as a chain email could easily put a birthmother in contact with us. The many comments we've received from readers have been amazing. It's abundantly clear that our friends, family, and even anonymous blog readers know how excited we are to become parents and that we have so much love to give a child. Now, we're asking all of you to take a moment to spread our story - we know that with your help our dream of becoming parents will happen soon!

Thank you all for reading. More posts to come soon!

~William & John

How to contact us:
email: adoption@kinnanepetersen.com
website: www.kinnanepetersen.com
Agency: www.adoptionhelp.org
MySpace: www.myspace.com/kinnanepetersen
*Facebook users can join our Facebook group started by our friend Bridget-"William and John should be daddies."

b. braithwaite

2008-02-26T18:08:00.003-05:00

We've been spending a lot of time window shopping since we matched. One of our favorite places is b. braithwaite. It's a great little childrens boutique. Particularly amazing for the Atlanta area. Visit and check out their room collections to get an idea of where we'll be getting some of our ideas for the nursery!

So much love to give...

2008-01-12T16:43:00.001-05:00

The holiday season is over - and it was a blast! We had some time to relax (and eat!) and gather with friends and family. As it always is, during the holidays it's great to see and be in touch with so many people. Like many, the holidays always find me reaching out to people who I haven't had an opportunity to speak with in some time. Of course, since we are in the adoption process and searching for a birthmother many of the holiday conversations end up with discussion about adoption. Everyone we know continues to be interested in our progress.

I continue to be amazed with how much support our friends and family give us. They are all rooting for us, and can't wait to see a baby in our house. Without a doubt, everyone always says "you guys will be such great parents. You have so much love to give a child, he or she will be so lucky." Well, although we don't know if luck is the right word, we definitely know that we do have SO MUCH LOVE TO GIVE our future child. We really believe that love is the foundation of any great family. Love is what brings a family together and, if fostered, love will keep a family together. Love is what brought John and I together, and it's what makes our extended families so amazing. We know that raising a child isn't always going to be easy, BUT we know that with the love that is in our hearts we can and will make every necessary sacrifice to ensure that our child grows up to be an amazing person (and enjoy all the fun times along the way!).

Okay - I know that's a little more sappy then you might be used to from me. I can't help it. I guess reminiscing about the holiday season has got to me.

Thanks for reading.
~W

Great Organization - Room To Grow

2007-12-01T13:16:00.000-05:00

I recently discovered this organization online, and I think it such a great cause. Room To Grow is a non-profit orginization formed in 1998. RTGs mission is to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their first three years of life. The first three years of development are particularly important because it's when children are most responsive to and influenced by their surroundings. So much growth happens in the first three years! Room to Grow provides parents in poverty with clothing, books, toys, and other essential items for their growing babies; and offering one-on-one parenting guidance and child-rearing information to ensure their child's healthy and secure start in life. If you get a chance - check out Room To Grow's website at www.roomtogrow.org

JOHN

Picture time!

2007-11-11T15:49:00.001-05:00

As our open adoption journey continues we've decided to update our main picture on our website, and our birthmother letter. To that end, last weekend our friend Brady came over we walked around taking pictures of John and I. We took a lot of photos, and I'm not sure exactly which one we'll end up with - but this one is definatley in the running. Fell free to let us know what you think!

Martian Child the movie

2007-11-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

William and I recently saw the move Martian Child with John Cusack. I read the book Martian Child a few years ago, and thought that it was an amazing adoption story. I was excited when I heard they were making it into a movie. The book is about a single gay man who adopts a young boy out of foster care. The boy has a severe case of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), and additionally truly believes he is a alien from Mars, visiting the planet for a short time. With all the love in the world these two set out to make a family. Both experience the ups and downs of parenting, the true meaning of what unconditional love is, and the joy of learning that we are all different. The movie version has changed a bit (they always do). They made the main character straight, a widower, and changed the ending a little. In the movie they changed a little bit too much of the book for my likeing - but I highly encourage you to read the book... it's a great tale of adoption.

- JOHN

Omaha - Family, Friends, & Frozen Custard!

2007-10-20T19:02:00.000-04:00

As you saw from John's earlier post - we recently returned from a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. For those of you that don't know, John was born and raised in Omaha, and to this day many of his close friends and family still live there. My first trip to Omaha was almost exactly a year ago - at that time we went because John was the best man in one of his closest friend's (Josh) wedding; this time we went to attend the wedding of another of his close friends, Erin. Erin is an amazing young lady, and not surprisingly she married an amazing young man by the name of Jeremy. We met Jeremy at Josh's wedding last year, and beyond his obvious good looks you only have to talk with him for a minute to find out he's both extremely intelligent and compasionate. The wedding was an absolute blast - everything you'd expect from a couple that met in a rehearsal for an Omaha theatre company - and we wish them the best in the many, many years to come.

We spent four days in Omaha so we got to spend some real quality time with family and friends. We arrived on Thursday, and spent the afternoon and evening with John's parents. We ordered pizza (from the famed Valentino's pizza I'd heard so much about), chatted about life, adoption, etc and then watched the most recent episode of Greys Anatomy. It was very relaxing. Friday we spent the morning at the zoo with John's cousin Katie and her daughter Cambell. Cambell is about 14 months old and has to be the cutest little girl on the planet! She's got an amazing personality, is always happy, and is at the age where everything she sees is amazing to her. She loves to point at things, and as we walked around the zoo she would swing her arm around pointing at pretty much everything that moved. She was SO cute! I was also very impressed with the Omaha zoo... I'm told it's rated number three of four in the country - and it shows. It definately puts the Atlanta zoo to shame (although we do have Panda's in Atlanta)... after we adopt we'll definately be taking trips to Omaha, and we'll be sure that our child get's to experience that great zoo!

We also got to spend some time with John's friend Josh... we met up and had lunch at a great little restaurant downtown called M's Pub (www.mspubomaha.com). It was really great. If you're ever there you have to try the Thai Lavosh - yummy! I continue to be impressed with Omaha. Not being from middle america it has certainly surpassed my expectations, and is in fact much more interesting than a lot of similar sized cities that I've been to. We walked all through downtown and I came to realize that Omaha has a very nice artistic community - not to mention the music community. Very impressive! All that aside it was great to spend time with Josh - he's a great guy!

We offically have a new tradition when we're in Omaha - visiting Sheridan's frozen custard shop (www.sheridansfrozencustard.com). We went there for the first time, last year... and this time we managed to sneak in three visits in just four days! You really have to go to get the full affect, but I'll try my best to explain. Each dessert starts with a base of some kind of frozen custard - usually vanilla or chocolate. Then they add various ingredients to make up the final product - the only difference is that they add GREAT ingredients. My favorite is called "wedding cake." I watch through the window as they scoop the frozen custard into the cup, and the litterally blend an entire peice of wedding cake into the custard. John had the season pumpkin dessert in which they blend an entire slice of pumpkin pie into custard. Needless to say, the quality adds up to a great tasteing dessert.

Saturday night John's parents hosted a little get together for the family. It was great to see everyone again. It easy to see why John speaks so fondly of Omaha. He has such a great family... and he was so lucky to grow up with so many family memebers so close. They are all caring, intelligent, funny people. I'm so happy to be part of such a great family!

Sunday, before we left, we had brunch with newly weds, plus Josh and Katie. Having all them together in one place is a total blast... They are all so funny (& interesting). A great time was had by all!

John and I look forward to our next trip to Omaha - hopefully our next trip will with our future baby!

Thanks for reading.
~W

OMAHA

2007-10-15T18:15:00.001-04:00

We got back from Nebraska last night, and we had such a great time.

These were the highlights!!

(William will post tons of pictures by the end of the week when we get them all back!!!)

Jeremy and Erin's wedding

Seeing the family

Valentinos Pizza

Seeing the Zoo with Cambell

Custard Ice Cream!!!

Homemade Banana Bread

Spending time with William driving from Kansas City to Omaha and back again

Breakfast with Josh, Katie, Erin, and Jeremy

Best,

JOHN

Found Picture

2007-10-15T18:08:00.000-04:00

I found a throw away camera that we had with us in NYC, here is one of the pictures of William and I!!!

John

Habitat For Humanity

2007-10-04T19:25:00.000-04:00

One of the things I've been able to do to pass the time while we wait to adopt is various kinds of community service. This week I had the opportunity to be part of a Habitat For Humanity project. For those of you that are not familiar with Habitat, it is a non-profit organization that works to build homes for some of the less privileged. Habitat For Humanity takes donations from all kinds of places (corporations, philanthropists, etc) and then uses the money to buy land and materials to build a house. The entire house is built by volunteers. On top of that, many of the volunteers do do not have building experience. My mother - who was a carpenter - has been volunteering with Habitat for years. It is absolutely amazing to me that over the course of seven weekends an entire house is built. My group helped put up the siding - we managed to get all the siding done that day. It's a great feeling to know you've played a small part in helping a family have a great place to live.

If you want to learn more about Habitat For Humanity you can check out the orginizations website at: www.habitat.org

Thanks for reading.
~W

Adoption Blog Carnival

2007-10-01T17:53:00.000-04:00

While looking online I recently discovered something called an "Adoption Blog Carnival." As you might imagine, we are not the only people who are touched by adoption that are blogging about our process, thoughts, experiences, etc. The carnival creates a way that people can share thier blogs with others. We joined the carnival this month - there are a lot of great blogs out there, from people who are still trying to grow their families, and from many more people who already have adopted and just want to share their experience. Take a look at http://makingofamom.blogspot.com if you want to see a list of some of the other blogs in the carnival.

Thanks for reading.
~W

Nebraska here we come!

2007-09-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

Our friend Erin is getting married in October. She lives in Omaha so in addition to attending the wedding we will be spending a few additional days with friends and family. Omaha really is a great little city! Plus, we're really looking forward to the cool, Nebraska, fall weather.

JOHN

Smart Ideas

2007-08-16T22:02:00.000-04:00

I was reading the New York Times this morning, and there was a great article titled "My Dad, American Inventor." The article talks about how more and more fathers are taking on more and more of the day to day kid challenges, and in doing so are creating new products for their kids. My favorite product discussed in this article is the BabySport nipple (www.babysportonline.com). Tommy Habeeb was at a park with a cold bottle of water and no way to offer that water to his todler who was slung across his chest. After some rough starts, he came up with a nipple with a twist bottom that can fit on most water bottles. SO SIMPLE, SO SMART.

Another pretty good invention mentioned in the article is called "Toteatot." It's basically a car seat with straps that allow you to safely secure it to your suitcase. Again, simple and smart. This picture below explains it all!!!

JOHN

Anniversary Time

2007-08-16T21:45:00.000-04:00

Aug 20th marks our 6 year anniversary as a couple. I can still remember when I first met William, and all of the thoughts, hopes, and dreams that came flooding in with a simple handshake. For me, William is everything I dreamed of finding when I was younger. He is everything I could hope to be, he makes me a better person everyday, he can make me laugh at all times, and continuously amazes me day by day.

I wont embarrass him on our blog, but I knew immediately after meeting him on our first date that he and I would end up together. I knew then that we would one day be fathers, creating an amazing family together, and knowing that a hug was always waiting for me when I walk in the door. It does not get better than that!

Ok, so I will embarrass him a little bit with some Celine Dion lyrics.... I first heard this song in the car with William during the holidays. I quickly ran out and bought the CD... I played this song over and over, so many times in fact, that there was one time I found the CD hidden in a spare bedroom, but William said he never touched it..... I could not say it better than these lyrics how much William means to me.

I cant wait for the next chapter in our lives as parents.

"These Are Special Times"

In these moments, moments of our lives
All the world is ours
And this world is so right
You and I sharing this time together
Sharing the same dream
As the time goes by we will find
These are the special times
Times we'll remember
These are the precious times
The tender times we'll hold in our hearts forever
These are the sweetest times
These times together
And through it all, one thing will always be true
The special times are the times I share with you
With each moment, moment passing by
We'll make memories that will last all our lives
As you and I travel through time together
Living this sweet dream
And every day we can say
These are the special times
Times we'll remember
These are the precious times
The tender times we'll hold in our hearts forever
These are the sweetest times
These times together
And through it all, one thing will always be true
The special times are the times I share with you
These tender moments
When heaven is so close
These are the moments that I know
These are the special times
Times we'll remember
These are the precious times
The tender times we'll hold in our hearts forever
These are the sweetest times
These times together
And through it all, one thing will always be true
The special times are the times I share
Are the times we share, are the times I share... with you
Special times I share with you

Best,
JOHN

Summer fun (in the future with a baby)

2007-08-11T20:45:00.000-04:00

I don't know if you agree, but John and I love summer. I know we've mentioned several times in the blog about going to museums, and theatre, etc (because even at a young age there are SO MANY fun things for kids to do at museums), but we are also looking forward to helping our future baby explore the outside. Summer is such a great time - even if it can get a little too hot from time to time. For us it also brings back so many fun memories for John and I, and hope of some of the fun things we'll be able to do with our child. We both love being outside, and we can't wait to share our passion for being outside with our baby. Although a great plus to living in Georgia is that we can go outside year round, it's even nicer in the summer. Almost every day we take walks through our neighborhood. Growing up, my grandmother would take me on walks and point out every tree, bird, caterpillar, and ant. It's really amazing that with the right guide, and a little perspective even the most mundane walk can become an adventure in learning about the world we live in. I just can't wait to teach our little girl (or boy) about all the wildlife the lives in our little surburban neighborhood.

Growing up on the coast of Maine I have a lot of great memories that involve water, and the beach. My father has always had boats and airplanes, and on top of that loves having family and friends visit him on them. My Dad is always asking for me and John to come and visit, and once the baby comes we plan on spending as much time as possible on the boat with my dad. Luckily it's big enough so that we can all stay the night on the boat without feeling too cramped. Below is a picture of my dad's newest boat that I took with my camera phone... not a very good picture - but you get the idea. This picture is actually the first time this boat was ever in the water. I flew up to Maine for a few days to help my dad take delivery of the boat he ordered. It turns out that "taking delivery of the boat" isn't to much work. They put it in the water - presumably to make sure it doesn't sink - and then test the engines, electronics, etc. All in all it's pretty exciting. Looking at this picture makes me realize I don't really have any pictures of his new boat. My dad was really focused on making sure the engines worked properly, and I made sure that all the TVs, the shower, microwave, etc were working. As I recall everything worked perfectly except for the satelite radio - but that was just a reception issue. I'll have to email my stepmom and ask her to send some good ones!

John also has great summer memories of his childhood. He tells great stories about the many times that him and his father would go to his uncles cabin on "the lake." I gather that John and his cousins (Nick & Ryan) were pros at riding the inter-tube and water skiiing. I guess they managed to do some pretty amazing tricks! Like me, beyond the exciting things (boats, planes, etc) he has lots of great memories of just exploring the outside. Anyway, the point is we're really looking forward to taking our future child outside to the beach, to the forest - to explore!

Thanks for reading!
~W

WeeRide

2007-08-11T20:10:00.000-04:00

In a recent NYT I read a great article about all the new baby/toddler seats for riding bikes. They article reviewed several, but by far my favorite was the WeeRide. I love that it's in front of the rider. The article did say that it's much safer then the old seats that are on attached on the back of the bike. I think it's also better, because if the little girl (or guy) gets cranky you can see exactly what's going on without having to pull over. I also really like that it's got the enlarged holding pad in the front. Not only can the little one hold on and feel as though she's driving, but she can also just lay her head down and go to sleep if she gets tired during the ride. Plus, to us it makes so much more sense to have the baby up front. In the old carriers the baby would just stare at the riders back, but with the WeeRide the baby gets to see everything. Love it!

~W

Family visit...

2007-08-11T19:31:00.000-04:00

After we adopt we're really looking forward to having our family and friends from out of town come and visit us to meet our new baby. It's so comforting to know that we have so many great family members and friends that will be around to support us and our baby. If the saying "it takes a village to raise child" is true - then we a REALLY well prepared to adopt!

Thursday night my cousin Nick and his friend Sarah were driving through Atlanta on their way to Florida. Luckily, it worked out that they were able to spend the night with us and have breakfast with us in the morning before they got back on the road (they had already driven 13 hours!!!). Nick was helping Sarah move all of her stuff down to her new home in Orlando from Nebraska.

Both Nick and Sarah are recent graduates of the University of Nebraska. Sarah was accepted into a very competitive graduate program in Orlando. Out of the the thousands of people who applied she was one of only 30 people chosen! Wow. Nick is basically a genius, and could get a job anywhere. I seriously think that his business card should read "Professional Genius." He's also a pretty amazing athlete, so after graduation he was asked to be an assistant coach at the University. They have great program at Nebraska so this will be a great resume builder for him. I have no doubt that in a few years he'll be the head coach for an amazing team. So, yes folks we have yet another teacher in the family. That makes 5 of us with either coaching / teaching degrees. Nick will be fantastic at this, as he is one of the nicest, most patient, mature people I have had the pleasure of watching grow up.

As I mentioned before Nick and Sarah are / have been very active with college sports. You can check out Nicks YOUTUBE video on the post below this of him and some of his teammates pole vaulting!!!!

It was great to see them both, and am so proud of Nick and Ryan for the guys they have grown up to be. With great family and friends, like Nick and Ryan around, our future child is sure to be succesful in whatever she/he chooses to do.

Best,

JOHN

Nick's vaulting video

2007-08-11T19:04:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK CITY HERE WE COME... AGAIN!!!!

2007-08-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

This year seems to be a good year to visit New York City. After we adopt we're so looking forward to traveling with our child. There are SO many great places for kids in New York - museums, parks, theatre, etc. Luckily, William has to go to NYC at the end of this month for some meeting and I happen to be off for two days, so I will be traveling to NYC to spend time with William. He will be working during the day, but we are planning on having some great evenings while we are there. I'm looking forward to doing some walking around and enjoying all the city has to offer! We are also thinking about seeing a show. We were thinking about seeing "Wicked." William has read the book that it's based on, and my cousin Matt and my aunt Sue just got back from London where they saw it, and said it was fantatsic.

JOHN

Baby room

2007-07-18T16:25:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before on this blog, our adoption coordinator has told us that to make the wait easier we should not go out and fully decorate our baby room until we actually have a baby. She insists that all of the necessities (crib, diapers, etc) can be bought at the last minute. This has proven to be very difficult for us. Probably because we're just so excited to be parents, we've gone ahead and done a few things to the baby room. As I wrote earlier we had some great wallpaper put up (picture frames that the baby will be able to draw or paint in as he or she gets older), and we had some new shelving built in. The shelving became a requirement because we've been slowly buying books since we started the adoption process. We've got close to a hundred childrens books already - so at least we know we'll have plenty to read to the baby (at least for a little while.)

So, as you can see - what was supposed to be an empty baby room has started to fill up a little. We've justified our "little additions" by not buying a crib, or any baby specific furniture - yet. One can definately tell that it's a childs room -but it's also clear to anyone who comes that a child hasn't moved in yet. Our search for a birthmother continues - with any luck we'll adopt soon, and the baby room will be filled!

Thanks for reading.
~W

iPhone

2007-06-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

William finally got his iphone!!!! So after months, and months...and months of hearing about all the magical things that the iPhone can do, William now has it.

I was telling him about the long lines, and having to sleep overnight in front of an apple store to get one, but he ended up walking into the mall and getting his phone in about 15 minutes last night. He had already programed everything on his apple laptop, so all he had to do was plug in the phone and download everything. So within about 20 minutes he was calling people and telling everyone that they were talking on his new phone.

That night after William was done testing every feature on the phone, William gave me a quick seminar of all the cool features it has. In the end, all I grasped was that it is a touch pad, my picture will show up when I call him, it has a quick link to YOUTUBE, he can check his e-mail, play music and movies...and I AM NEVER EVER TO TOUCH IT. (Joke - I can touch it, but I probably won't. LOL)

I am amazed that the directions for the iphone are still in the box, and that William just naturally knows how to do all of this "technical" stuff.

I on the other hand still cant work our TV remote control when William is out of town!!!

Best,
JOHN

New York was a blast!!!!

2007-06-27T16:17:00.000-04:00

As William mentioned in one of the earlier blog entrys, William took me to New York city for my birthday this year. It was so much fun!! We walked all over the city, and ate at some many great places. My favorite was a new restaurant called PUBLIC (www.public-nyc.com). It is in the Soho area of the city, and if there ever was a perfect restaurant this is it. The theme is something between that of a public library meets a community prep school. I LOVED IT. We had brunch there, and I could have stayed all day. (check out more of the pictures on their website)

We saw the play Spring Awakening (www.springawakening.com). This play has now become my favorite musical. I didn't think any play could beat RENT, but this is it. This musical has won 8 tony awards and won best musical. The music was written by Duncan Shiek. He had a hit about 5 years ago called "Barely Breathing." I have still been following him, and buying his later albums. I think he performs some really great songs. I could definitely hear his voice throughout the musical. I will let you discover the musical on their website if you wish, but I am telling you...find a way too see this musical!!!

William and I had a great time with my parents. We arrived on Thursday, and they arrived on Friday. It was my mother's first time visiting New York city. Amoung other things, we took a few great, long walks through central park (which was right near our hotel). Obviously, we have adoption and "baby on the mind," and we started counting the Bugaboos (www.bugaboo.com) and other strollers in the park. I counted around 35 in about 30 minutes. Lots of color combos and we saw one with a tiny umbrella for the kids. By the way, Bugaboo has a new stroller out called Bugaboo Bee. It is a collapsible stroller, easy for in and out of the car. Although we love our stroller, I'm still very interested to see how we manage to get it in and out of the car. William and I cant wait until we adopt, and get to take our little one to a park, just have a lazy day of playing, smiling, and laughing!

Speaking of being outside, the weather was perfect while we were there. The last time we were in the city in June it was quite hot, but this year it was great. About 70-80 degrees with a nice breeze. My parents really seemed to enjoy themselves. My mother loved the park. She also thought Times Square was amazing with all the people. Times square is the quintesential picture of the hustle and bustle that is New York City.

OK, so here is my funny "dad in NY story." My dad wanted to show my mother the Trump Tower....here goes...

Upon arriving at the Trump Tower William is the first to walk into the revolving doors...so William has pushed the glass revolving doors and the whole things starts to move. William is then inside the glass revolving door and still pushing forward so he can exit. What is supposed to happen next, is the next person in line waits for the next section of the door to come around and then he gets in and pushes the glass as the whole thing revolves. The first person then exits...you all know the drill. SO, my dad was standing too close to the back of William. (I am behind my dad) My dad gets wedged into the revolving door, half way in with William, and half way into the next revolving area he should have been in. So, we have William, and the people coming out of the building pushing the door, and my dad is getting more and more wedged in the door. I am behind my dad wondering how this has happened? The only thing I can think to do is push my dad forward into Williams revolving area, for fear that if William and the others keeps pushing they will end up crushing my dad. After pushing my dad forward he smacks into the back of William, who gets freaked out because he then gets pushed up against the glass wondering why my dad is in the same revolving space that he is. Then I go through the revolving doors like normal laughing my head off. William is still dazed and has no idea what just happened. My dad acts like that is his usual way of entering revolving doors. I then gave a 5 minute lecture to my mom and dad about how revolving doors work, and that you have to wait for person in front of you to get moving / out, before you can enter. For the rest of the trip William decided to avoid revolving doors as much as possible.

Here is the picture of the revolving door. Mr. Trump is lucky, if not for my lighting fast reflexes he could have been sued!!!

We had an amazing time, and it was the perfect birthday present from William.

Best,
JOHN

A trip to New England.

2007-06-09T12:33:00.001-04:00

It had been a little while since I had made it home, so I took a trip back to New England and visited with family and friends. First, I flew into Cape Cod, Massachusets where I got to see A LOT of my family. I actually got to see some of my aunts who I hadn't seen in over a year. Needless to say, it was great to see them. They all asked about how the adoption process was going. They all seemed surprised that we're still searching for a birthmother, but I assured them that when our time comes it will come. Hopefully sooner than later!

After the Cape I went on to visit some family friends in New Hampshire. I also hadn't seen them for sometime. I first met them whe I was attending boarding school in Dublin (www.dublinschool.org). One of my close school friends was a girl by the name of Sierra, and over time I essentially adopted her entire family as my own. After college I actually moved back to New Hampshire and lived with them for a little while. I got a job, and spent the rest of my time as a mentor to Sierra's little brother (Jesse). For years I have called Jesse "my psuedo little brother." He, and his other sister Sasha, have really grown up so much over the last few years. I'm so proud of them both!

After New Hampshire I drove to Maine to visit with my parents. My Dad and stepmother still live on an a little island off the coast of Maine. It's always great to see them, and the island is such a neat place. There are only 600 year round residents! There are no big grocery stores - just a couple of local markets, and a restaurant that's part of an Inn. This time of year all the summer people come to the island. This increases the population to about 2000, which drives my parents crazy. They really like the pace fo the island, so when the "summer people" come and try to, in some cases litterally, speed things up they get pretty annoyed.

I was there most of the week, and it was pretty low key. We did take my dad's boat our for a quick trip around some of the surrounding islands, and then over to the main land to grab a bite to eat. Not only do I enjoy being on the boat, but seeing my dad - who LOVES being on boats - enjoy himself is great too. Basically, when he's on the boat he's happy no matter what's going on. I can't wait until we have a baby and he, or she, is old enough to go on the boat. Here's a picture of my dad and I in the yard.

Visiting my mom and stepfather was also great. They are both doing well and staying busy with one thing or another. A couple years ago my mother started volunteering for a group that supports gay youth in the MidCoast Maine area. She really enjoys it, and is now the group counselor. She invited me to their weekly group meeting. I was REALLY impressed by the youth members that were there. At this particular meeting there was a radio host there interviewing my mother and the youth about some of the challenges of being a young GLBT person in rural Maine. Everyone did a great job, but I was particularly impressed with how well spoken the youth members were. It was clear that they had put a lot of thought in to the world around them, and what needs to be done so people can accept people for who they are. I have no doubt that they will be leaders wherever they end up!

My mom's house was the last stop on my trip. John wasn't able to join me on this trip - so at this point I was really ready to get home and see him (and the rest of my Atlanta friends and family). It's always fun to travel and see friends and family - but it's also always great to get back home!

Thanks for reading!
~W

G-diaper update

2007-05-28T21:39:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have read most of the blog you are familiar with the G-diaper (www.gdiapers.com). For those of you that aren't, I'd encourage you to read the blog, BUT essentially they are diapers that are a cross between a cloth diaper and disposable diaper. I'm happy to report that Gdiaper recently expanded it's product line to include diapers that are not only solid colors, but also diapers that have pretty patterns (such as girly girl swirl, and Gone Hawaiian). Needless to say - when our baby comes he, or she, will have more then just solid colors to wear.

~W

NYC Here we come... again

2007-05-06T09:12:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to put a few updates on our blog. William and I are meeting my parents in NYC in June!!!! We cant wait. We are going to take them to a broadway show, do some eating and soome shopping!!!! Very exciting. William and I are going to be there for four days, and my parents are going to join us for the last two. It's the first time my mom has been there and we're very excited to show her all the exciting places that we love. We're going to see the broadway show Spring Awakening (www.springawakening.com). It's recieved great reviews and the music was written by Duncan Sheik.

My parents also report that they have been baby sitting my cousin baby Cambell recently, and my mother told me that of all things she loves to play with the tupperware. William says that when he was a baby he used to love to play with rocks... so I guess flashy toys don't always win!

~JOHN

Modern baby furniture??? Maybe not this modern...

2007-02-08T19:08:00.000-05:00

Along the same lines as yesterdays post - today's search for baby furniture brought me to an interesting furniture maker from the Netherlands called Piet Hein Eek (www.pietheineek.com). PHE uses reclaimed wood for all of their furniture pieces. They hand select each piece of wood to make original one of a kind furniture. I usually think that time consuming, hand made goods are better then most but I'm not sure this time. When I showed these pictures to a couple of my our friends the first thing out of their mouth was "splinters."

I guess I can appreciate the aesthetic value of these unique pieces, but I don't think we'll be buying these pieces for our future child.

JOHN

Gold Stroller

2007-02-07T20:58:00.000-05:00

Since we've been in the adoption process (currently we're searching for a birthmother) I've become accustomed to keeping an eye out for interesting baby items. I figure, if we buy a baby item here or there... it can't hurt. I had heard about this baby stroller made by Mamas and Papas from a friend of mine. It is a limited edition all gold stroller. There was only ten of these made, and I think Stella McCartney and Gwen Stafani each have them. I was worried about showing this to William, as I figured I would then be highly encouraged to track down the remaining eight strollers and buy one. Luckily, he didn’t think it was quite as cool as I did! Plus, we already have an amazing stroller... so I guess we don't need two.

JOHN

Nike+

2007-01-06T21:02:00.000-05:00

Among the many, great gifts that I received this holiday season my favorite was the Nike + iTunes set (http://www.nikeplus.com/). The set included a pair of Nike+ sneakers, the Nike+ sensor kit, and a new iPod Nano (www.apple.com/ipodnano). I've had an iPod for sometime, but the Nike+ system only works on the Nano, so John had to get me another one for it all to work. For those of you who are not familiar with the Nike+ system it's a really interesting system that sends information from your shoes (as you run / walk / or both) to your Nano. The iPod then tracks all the information - how fast, far, often, etc that you run. This is interesting enough, but the best part is that all that information is loaded in to the Nike+ website where it charts all of your activity. The website also has features which allow you to set and track goals, meet other runners, and challenge the runners you meet to contests/races that are instantly tracked by the website. Needless to say that I have become completely obsessed with this. I have joined about five different challenges, and am happy to say that I am in the first or second place in three of them, and in the top five of the other two. I check the website constantly (that might be a little of an exaggeration) to see my standing in the races. I have also managed to run almost every day since I received Nike+ as a gift. So... with any luck when we finally adopt our baby I'll not only be able to set a good example (exercise is a good thing - LOL) but I'll also be a little bit healthier too!

Picture of John

2007-01-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share this picture of John... I love it. I took this picture the other night while he was waiting for me to get ready to go to dinner with some friends. I got a new camera for Christmas, so anytime I see a shot that I think looks good I snap it. I think this picture is very "modelesque." Yes, he looks a little serious... but I think that adds to its feel. LOL

Interesting Christmas gift - a better future

2006-12-22T14:29:00.000-05:00

Every holiday season I face the same daunting task: buying gifts for people who already have everything they want (or are just really picky - LOL). Normally John is one of the more difficult people to buy for, but he was very easy this year. He's been looking at a specific piece of Gucci luggage (www.gucci.com) for about a month now - so this year he was the easiest to buy for. For some reason, this holiday season, I couldn't settle on the perfect gift for my stepmother, Susan. Just like the rest of our family, Susan is an amazing person. Intelligent, kind, caring, and thoughtful are just a few of the adjectives I would use to describe her. She reads quite a bit so I thought perhaps a good book would be the best choice, but that I realized that with the quantity of books she reads my chances of sending her a book she hasn't read are fairly low. In the past I've sent various gift baskets with various edible goodies, but for the last few years they have taken to going on a 20 plus day cruise in January... so I figured if I sent food there was a high risk that it would spoil while my parents were traveling. She speaks highly of the various spa treatments on the cruise line (www.princess.com) so I did entertain the idea of purchasing an on-board credit for them... but that became a little bit of a logistical nightmare, so that idea was cancelled as well.

Then, it finally came to me. I should point out that part of her amazing persona is her passion for politics and environmental causes. I to my favorite online search engine (www.dogpile.com) and typed in the simple phrase "save the rain forest." I was happy to find about seven sites that boasted the opportunity to "save the rain forest, by paying to preserve one acre at a time." I looked through the various sites, and then double checked a few other sites to ensure that I wasn't buying into a scam. I finally settled on purchasing an acre in Susan's honor from the STARO (Save The Amazon Rainforest Organization). I picked STARO (www.staro.com) because it appeared to me to be much more personal then the other organizations.

So, I purchased an acre of rain forest for her. I think she'll like it... and I feel like my gift is a little more special then the other things I might have given her. Whether you buy into the global warming issue or not - I've always believed that it just can't be a good thing to cut down all the trees! Plus, you get a neat full color certificate.

Thanks for reading!

~W

Busy.. still here.. still searching... Happy Holidays!

2006-12-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

Here it is a couple days before Christmas, and I haven't even written a blog about Thanksgiving yet!! So, I guess I should start this blog by appologizing to everyone who reads this. I will try my best not to let so much time pass between posts.

It's turned out that in addition to seeing lots of old friends and family that live a far, this is a great time to spread the word of our search for a birthmother. Over the last three weeks I've been to what seems like hundreds (although I'm sure it's probably more like five or six) holiday parties. It's been so great to see people who I haven't had the chance to see in such a long time - plus meet lots of new people who've come into our circle of friends and co-workers throughout the last year. I think over the last couple of weeks I have talked to about 50 new people about our want to adopt. I continue to be happily surprised with how much support people have in our adoption search. People always seem genuinely interested in the steps we've taken so far. Our website (www.kinnanepetersen.com) has had a lot of traffic lately - so I think the people we've been talking to recently have been taking the time to review our website. The more people that know the better. Adoption is a truly amazing thing - and the thought that one of the people we just met might being a person that ends up referring us to a possible birthmother is really exciting!

Anyway, I have to get out and do some last minute holiday shopping. I'll try and write more soon. In case we don't talk to you before - HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

~W

A trip to New York city

2006-11-11T17:21:00.000-05:00

As many of you know John and I LOVE New York city. So, when my company decided to have a departmental summit in Times Square John and I decided to extend my stay by a few days and get in some good shopping and some great dining. It's been a few months since either of us had been there so we were excited to see some of the new shops and restaurants we'd read about. My summit was a one a half day event. We arrived on Wednesday and the summit finished at about 5 pm. John wasn't due to arrive in the city until the next morning, so knowing that John doesn't love most Asian food, a couple of my friends and I arranged to go to Tao (www.taorestaurant.com). Tao was great, and in retrospect I think John would have really enjoyed it as well. The environment was almost surreal - very modern, great lighting, and a giant Buddha in the middle of the room with a water fountain at it's base. One of the center tables had a giant glass top which was held up with a tub full of water, rose petals, and floating candles. Needless to say it was extremely beautiful. The food was good too - we had a sampling of sushi and various other Asian dishes. The sushi was among the best I've ever had.

On Thursday John took a mid morning flight and spent most of the day shopping by himself. The summit wasn't due to end until 3:00 pm, and par the usual it ran a little over. By four o'clock I finally made it out of the summit and made my way to the W Hotel Union Square (www.whotels.com) - where John and I were spending the rest of the weekend. I really enjoy most of the W Hotels. They have a very modern feel, nice bathrooms, and great service. Anyway, we checked in to our room and about two minutes later John's cousin's wife, Jessica called us. Jessica was in the city for an interview so we got to meet up with her. We didn't finalize our plans until about a week before the summit, so Jessica didn't have a chance to change her flight, but she did have just enough time to meet with us for about an hour. It was great to see her! She said that her interview had gone pretty well, and as it turns out the company made the right decision, because about three days later we got a call saying she'd got the job (congratulations!!!!). Naturally, a lot of our discussion involved our plans to adopt. Everyone, including Jessica, is curious as to how are search is going. We can't wait for the day that we can tell her (and everyone else) that we're matched and going to have a baby in the house soon!

Thursday night John and I went to Craft (www.craftrestaurant.com). My friend John-Paul had read about it. It was decent, but not great. They had somehow misplaced our reservation, but since we were eating fairly early they we're able to fit us in. The food was pleasant, and the environment was nice - but I have to admit that we probably won't go there again. Not only was it over priced (which is to be expected of a lot of NYC restaurants) but the service really was lacking. If the food had been amazing it might have made up for it. Alas, the food was just good and didn't make up for there inability to provide friendly service. It was very close to our hotel... which was a definite plus.

John had managed to get to most of SOHO on Thursday so we spent much of Friday shopping on 5th Ave, or Madison Ave. It was great. Not only are the shops great, but it's amazing to see the thousands of people that are there. If you haven't been to NYC before then you might not really be aware of what the term "melting pot" means. You figure out what it means very quickly in NYC. The people on the streets of NYC are from everywhere. Every state, every city, every country.

At some point on Friday I started to realize that I was coming down with a cold. I should make a point of saying that I NEVER get sick. I really, don't. I mean, yes I get the occasional upset stomach from eating the wrong thing... but I really don't get colds, or the flu, or anything like that. In fact, I've never even had a headache... although I'm told that I'm not missing anything. Anyway, since I never get sick I'm acutely aware when my body isn't working the way it should. Being that it was cold, and I was in the middle of million people on the streets of New York, I should have told John that I wasn't feeling well, and gone back to the hotel to rest. Well, I didn't. I was having too much fun in the city, and decided that it was just the beginning of cold and I'd be fine.

Friday night we went to see a off Broadway musical called The Evil Dead (www.evildeadthemusical.net). For those of you that are 80's film buffs you've probably heard of this before. It was a not so great movie about a man and his friends who discover a book that releases deadly spirits into the world that they later decided to turn in to a musical comedy. It ended up being very funny. Before the show we ended up going to dinner at this great, little, hole in the wall, French restaurant called Chez Napoleon (www.cheznapoleon.com). It had maybe eight tables. When we walked in most of the tables were empty, and the French bar tender asked if we had a reservation. We said "no", and he rolled his eyes. He asked us if we had a show to go to and after we said "yes" he rolled his eyes again and said he could probably fit us in. He showed us to a small table next to the door. John had decided that he wanted pasta, and this being a true French restaurant there wasn't a pasta dish to be found. He ended up ordering the Cornish hen, and I had duck l'orange. I loved it, and John found it acceptable. The entire staff was French, so that added to the authenticity.

When we woke up Saturday morning, I new I was very sick. Even though I had slept the entire night I felt exhausted - BUT being that we were in New York city I rallied and John and I went to breakfast at The Mercer Kitchen (www.mercerhotel.com). The Mercer Kitchen is the restaurant in the Mercer hotel. John went there once several years ago.... and we've made it a point to have breakfast there every time we've gone to NYC together. We essentially order everything on the menu - and leave completely stuffed. It's SO good! Unfortunately, by the end of breakfast I was exhausted... but again I managed to continue on with only a little complaining. We spent the rest of the day shopping in SOHO.

Saturday evening we flew back to Atlanta. My friend John-Paul from work was on the same flight, so it was fun to hear about his time in the city. He's spent a considerable amount of time in New York, so he has several friends who live there. It was great to hear his stories of the city - he always manages to have an exciting time. By this time my cold had taken over.. and I managed to spend the next several days in bed recovering. I guess, I've learned my lesson.

John and I have made many plans of trips with our future child. Although this trip was more of shopping and eating trip, there are so many great museums in the city. The last time we were in NYC we spent half the day in the Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org). The city has so much to show children! I think there are literally 6 children's museums in Manhattan alone. It goes without saying that we won't be without fun, educational, places to take our child.

~W

John's best friend's wedding

2006-10-21T11:57:00.000-04:00

On October 12th John and I flew to Omaha to attend Josh & Katie's wedding. John was the best man which proved to be lots of fun because we were invited to all the fun stuff that's only for the wedding party and close relatives (rehearsal dinner, breakfast, etc). The wedding was beautiful... and fun. So many great people. When I say "great" I mean "GREAT!" Ever single person I met was genuine, honest, and caring. I think it speaks volumes to the kind of people Josh and Katie are. Birds of a feather flock together - and clearly this wedding party was no exception.

Although I feel as though I've known Josh and Katie for years, it was actually the first time that I'd had the chance to meet them in person. I've heard so many "Josh" stories that at times I forget that he wasn't at my college. LOL The night we arrived was Katie's bachelorette party, so we invited Josh to have dinner with us and John's parents. It was a nice, little, Italian restaurant called Vivace (www.vivaceomaha.com). Being that it was two days before his wedding, I assumed that he'd be a little nervous - but he was not the nervous groom. He was clearly completely confident in his decision to marry Katie.

I met Katie the next night at the wedding rehearsal. I had seen pictures of her from their college years, and John has always described her as beautiful, but she was truly stunning. Again, I guess I assumed that like most brides to be that I've known she'd be running around the church like a mad woman... clearly frazzled and and the verge of a nervous break down. Well, not Katie. She was dressed wonderfully, completely poised, and although she clearly had a check list of things she need to accomplish, she went from task to task with a smile on her face and appeared to do it all without the standard panicked sense of urgency you might expect. As you might imagine we didn't get a lot of time to talk until the rehearsal dinner. They had the reception dinner at another great Italian restaurant called Lo Sole Mio (www.losolemio.com). The food was very good. Although I can't remember what it was called, I had a chicken and pasta dish that was very good... and the portions we're huge. My plate alone could have served at least three people! Anyway, during the rehearsal dinner I had the chance to talk to Katie - as I expected she was an intelligent, thoughtful person.

It was abundantly clear that Josh and Katie were perfect together. Which is a good thing since they have been dating for something like 15 years. Essentially, every speech had some sort of crack at how they had been together for a "long, long, long" time. When you think about it, they have actually dated almost twice as long as the average marriage lasts these days. I think many people would be envious of a relationship that has so much love and passion that 15 years into it they still have the want to celebrate their love for eachother.

The wedding went off without a hitch (or at least if there were any issues I couldn't tell). John had been a little nervous about the speech he had to give, but he proved to be a great orator as his speech was received very well. He didn't trip over any of his words - and most importantly, people laughed when they were supposed to!

The rest of the weekend involved us meeting up with what ended up being essentially all of his Omaha family and friends. Among others we got the chance to see his cousin Matt run, and qualify for state. I was very impressed. On Sunday, before we returned to Atlanta his parents had his grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and second cousins over. There must have been twenty people. I think everyone had a blast. Two of John's cousins Max & Scout had everyone playing this timed game where you have to try and put as many plastic shapes into their respective holes as possible before the time runs out. It was great to see almost everyone participating and competing. Scout (the youngest person playing the game) holds the record at 14 pieces placed within the given time. Yet another example of how age doesn't always hold an advantage!

As you might imagine, through out the weekend there was lots of discussion about our want to adopt and our respective search for a birthmother. John's parents are doing a good job networking. I think every member of the family asked us how our search is going and offered to continue to help. I was also surprised by how many of the people at the wedding asked us about adoption. Word really does spread quickly (plus, we always bring it up if people don't ask - LOL). It's great to know that we have so much support in John's home town. The number of babies and toddlers that were present at the wedding was really amazing. Of course, John and I had to make sure that we introduced ourselves to all of them!!! So much fun!

~W

A BIG thank you

2006-09-29T18:36:00.000-04:00

If you've read other posts in our blog, or visited our adoption website (www.kinnanepetersen.com) you may have noticed that the open adoption process involves a "search" for a birthmother. One of the most important ways that we are "searching" for our birthmother is through our friends and family. The IAC (www.adoptionhelp.org) tells us that over 10% of birthmother matches come from knowing someone that knows someone who is considering placing their child. A story we hear over and over again is about a couple who had been waiting several years to match with a birthmother. They were just about to give up on the process when their hair dresser - who they had previously told they were looking to adopt - called them and said that "one of her clients daughters was considering adoption" and that she'd "like to give their names to her." Well, you guessed it - about two weeks later they matched with their hairdresser's client's daughter. At first I assumed this was a once in a life time event, but it turns out things like that happen quite often. Last month four perspective adoptive parents at our agency matched because of a "network referral" - aka an adoptive couple who knows someone, who knows someone who is considering placing their child.

So, at the suggestion of the IAC we A) told everyone - and I mean everyone - we know that we're trying to adopt, and b) we try to keep everyone up to date by sending emails (about once a month) reminding them that we are still trying to adopt and that if they hear anything to please let us know.

At this point you might be wondering why I titled this entry as "a BIG thank you." Well, I chose that title because in the months that we've been searching for a birthmother it's become even more clear that our friends and family are among the most caring, and amazing people on the planet. I had expected that our adoption plans would be accepted well with our family and friends. I had expected that they would keep their ears and eyes open for birthmothers. I never expected the extent that so many of them would go to help spread the word. From what I gather it looks like our original adoption announcement (that we sent out to about 50 people) has now been forwarded to over 1000 people. From talking to our mothers it sounds like they haven't had a conversation in the last four months that hasn't involved at least a small discussion about how their son and his partner are looking for a birthmother.

The list goes on and on - so many of our friends have done so many great things to help spread the word, and further our efforts to find the perfect birthmother. There is one friend who has truly gone above and beyond. Our friend Bridget, who I first met in high school, constantly amazes me with her willingness to do so many amazing things. Not only was she the first person to forward our email on to others, but later she amazed us by regularly sending out an announcement on her MySpace page to all of her 124 linked friends asking them to look for potential birthmothers. Recently she actually started a web group called "William and John should be daddies." If that wasn't enough, when we actually went to the web page to see what was going on with our newly inaugurated group we discovered that it already had 57 members!

The fact that everyone, and Bridget especially, has done so much to help us makes us so proud. It's amazing for us to get so much proof that our friends and family not only think we'll make great parents, but also care enough to help us in our search for a birthmother.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR HELPING US!!! We know that with your help we'll have the family we've dreamed of very soon!

~W

Traditions

2006-09-07T20:23:00.000-04:00

A recent conversation that I had lead me to think about some of the traditions that we'd like to have in our new family. Many of the traditions that come to mind involve some kind of holiday. Growing up Christmas had lots of traditions - and we hope to continue at least some of them with our future child.

The Christmas traditions started in the beginning of December. Every year my mom would purchase an advent calendar - one of those "count down to Christmas" calendars with little doors that open. Every night, after dinner, my mother would take the calendar off the wall and I would carefully open the door to see what was behind it. Most of the time the little door would reveal little pieces of chocolate shaped like Christmas trees, presents, etc. I loved it! Occasionally, I'd try and convince my mom to let me open up other days as well. I guess she new that opening up other days would ruin the fun because - as I recall - I can't remember her ever letting me open up an extra day.

One Christmas tradition I don't think we'll be able to continue (at least not in Atlanta) involved picking the Christmas tree. As I think I've mentioned before, I grew up in a rural part of Maine, and my back yard was literally acres, and acres of Christmas trees. Every year my parents and I would put on our snow suits and trek out into the woods to find the perfect tree. When I say perfect, I mean perfect. It usually took hours. I'm probably exaggerating, but as a child it sometimes felt like we walked miles. We'd spot a tree that looked good. Make a mental not of it, and then move on to see if we could find a better one. Then, when we'd seen so many trees we could hardly remember the first we'd decided - as a group - which tree was the best. We'd hike back to the chosen tree (through the snow) and my dad would cut down the tree. Then we would all work together to carry the tree back to the house. This was often a difficult task because not only we're we usually fairly far from the house, but we were also trekking through a foot of snow. After we got the tree into the house, and onto it's stand, we'd all sit down and have a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to recreate this tradition in Atlanta. First - no snow. Second - I doubt that the city of Atlanta would appreciate us cutting down trees in the park. hahaha

Perhaps one of our favorite traditions is the actual decoration of the Christmas tree. Later the same night that we cut down the tree we'd all work together to decorate the tree. All of our Christmas decorations were kept in an ancient, wooden box. Every year, my mom would un-pack the box one ornament at a time. A lot of the ornaments actually doubled as family heirlooms, and as such would have stories that went along with them. My mom would re-tell the story of how this ornament had been made by my great grandmother, and this ornament had been purchased for my first Christmas, etc, etc. John and I both look forward to decorating the tree with our future child... we can't wait!

There are lots of other traditions we're looking forward to continuing, many of which don't involve holidays - having pancake breakfasts as a family, etc - but the holiday season certainly brings back lots of memories... and lots of hope for the traditions we hope to start soon!!

~W

Cooking With William

2006-08-19T13:30:00.000-04:00

One of the things I'm trying to do between now and the time the baby comes is get a slightly better hand on cooking. Now, that's not to suggest that I can't cook anything - but really I don't cook a lot. John and I have often discussed the importance of having home cooked meals, and sitting around the table eating as a family... so in order to keep up my end of the bargain I'd like have a fairly eclectic list of things I can cook. Hopefully, I'll be able to cook healthy, TASTY meals that will help persuade the family to want to sit around the table at dinner time.

My family has been very helpful. My stepmother sent her family recipe book to me, and I've tried a few of those items (some are really easy, and some are really hard - I've decided that part of my family must have a little master chef hidden in them). She also bought me a great book called "How To Cook Everything." Which is - I think - the best beginner cook book ever made. It's well written, very comprehensive, and is very easy to understand.

A new thing I'm doing is having friends over so that we can cook together. Last night, we had our friend Jennifer over. She thought it would be fun to make her famously delicious chicken Parmesan. She thought it would be yummy, and fairly easy to make it. Turns out she was right. I had a blast cooking with her - and besides spilling oil all over the kitchen - I think it went very well. It tasted very good, if I do say so myself. Hopefully, our future child (when it's old enough to eat that sort of food) will agree, because I plan on making it again in the future.

~W

Cousin Katie's baby is here!!!

2006-08-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

The newest addition to the family is here! My cousin Katie gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, baby girl. Cambell Jane Keber. She weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. We can't wait to meet her!

Cambell Jane Keber

Community Service Update

2006-08-15T18:54:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that I have officially been accepted as a volunteer at the Northside Hospital program. As you might have read in the earlier post I had filled out an application to become a volunteer a couple of weeks ago. As per standard procedure, shortly after they received my application they called me to set up an appointment with the Director of Volunteer Services - Maryanne.

Going into the interview I wasn't really sure what to expect. A couple years back, part of my job was to do all the 2nd line interviewing for my department, so to say that I'm familiar with the interviewing process is a little bit of an understatement. My old department hired about 50 people a month, and turned down 3 people for every one we hired - if you do the math that's A LOT of interviews. But those were all interviews for specific jobs - I was interviewing to donate my time to the hospital, and I wasn't really sure what kind of questions they would ask, and even more importantly what they were trying to determine in the interview.

As it turned out the interview was much more of a meet and greet then anything else. Maryanne, the director, was a nice lady who is probably in her early to mid 50s. I'm not sure, but I think she was at one point a nurse... she's got that "I care about you, but I'm very busy so I'm going to get to the point" nurse attitude (that I personally love). Her main concern was that I understand that volunteering at Northside is NOT like volunteering for Habitat For Humanity, or the Salvation Army. The main difference is that unlike other programs where you volunteer occasionally and you aren't really committed to the program, the Northside program is a COMMITMENT. Much like a job. In the program you have to commit to a weekly four hour shift, and a minimum of 50 hours of service. So, essentially she wanted to make sure that I understood that if they accept me into the program I would be expected to work for a minimum of 3 months.

I explained to her that I had read all the hour commitment information before even applying, and that I wouldn't have wasted her time - or mine for that matter - if I didn't think I could make at least that kind of hours commitment. She appreciated that I had already taken the time to review the documentation, and the conversation quickly turned to what kind of volunteer position I'd like to fill.

I had written on my application that if at all possible I would like to work with babies. The only problem is that the baby rocking program is one of the most popular programs, so openings are slim. So, she put me on the waiting list. I'm currently second, but she said chances are good that I'll make it. Evidentially, by the time my orientation is completed (next month) a couple of the current participants are moving and she expects those slots to open soon. If spots don't open up, I told her I'd be more then willing to help in any other area until one does.

I can't wait!

~W

Downtown Disney

2006-08-04T19:09:00.000-04:00

During the past week I've been in Orlando for business meetings. It has been a very productive week, and I finally got to meet some of the great people who I've been on conference calls with during the last few months. Normally, when I travel for work I travel alone - well, what I mean is that I travel to the destination alone, and then end up working with what at times ends up being literally hundreds of people. This week I was actually traveling with some of my associates - one of whom is my boss, Mike.

Mike is a good guy - he's fair, and has been with the company for nearly twenty years, so he has a lot of great experiences and knowledge to share. He's also a father of five! He's got two boys, and three girls - the youngest of which is 6 years old. I wasn't surprised when he asked me if I'd like to join him on a shopping trip to Downtown Disney.

In case you're not familiar with the GIANT, magical, world of Walt Disney; Downtown Disney is essentially the out door shopping mall of Disney. Shopping mall isn't really the best description because it's really much more then just a shopping mall. First, there are kids everywhere. It's one of the few places in the world where kids are not just allowed - they are expected! And, even better then the huge population of kids...they are all happy! After being there for about an hour I realized that of the hundreds of kids running around, I didn't see one child that didn't have a smile on his or her face. On the road connecting the outdoor shops there are statues of every Disney character you can think of. There are clowns and people dressed up in Mickey mouse costumes everywhere you look. It's really amazing.

Mike had three things he HAD TO GET. He explained that if he returned home without the items he would lose his "best father" award, and even worse would have a house full of upset little girls. His two youngest girls wanted just two things: 1 - princess flip flops, and 2 - princess puzzles. Although it might be a little difficult to find princess things in the real world, in the world of Disney one thing you are never without is princess stuff. Disney has princess everything...and I mean EVERYTHING. Princess flip flops, princess dress shoes, princess shirts, princess wands, princess cups, princess dolls, princess glasses, princess pins, princess jewelry, princess bottled water... if you can think of it, it comes in princess form. So, it actually didn't take long for Mike to find such common place items as princess flip flops and puzzles.

After Mike found the flip flops, I heard a noise coming from across the square so I told him I'd meet him there after he'd finished buying the princess items. What I discovered across the square was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It was - of course - the Downtown Disney hoola hoop contest. There was a DJ playing up beat dance music, and a referee who was "judging" the contestants. Any child who wanted to could take part in the contest. It was basically a last man standing event. The referee would count down from three, and then the music would start playing for one minute. If during that minute you dropped your hoola hoop, you're out. Then the remaining "contestants" reposition and the music starts all over again.

The best part was that there were no age constraints on the game... so there were twelve year olds, and there were two year olds. This proved to be a very fun, and even funny combination. Of course seeing the two year olds attempt using a hoola hoop is about the sweetest thing you will ever see... but seeing a two year old pick up his hoola hoop and bounce into every contestant so that they have to start over is very funny. This cute little boy, who I guess was probably close to three would quickly drop his hoola hoop, and then pick it back up and try to link it with the older boys and girls hoops. At first I thought that the older kids would get upset that the little boy was disturbing their hoola hooping, but - maybe because of the magic of Disney - they just smiled and let the little guy run a muck. He had a blast, and it was at least 15 minutes before his mom decided she'd take him to one of the other events. Again, you'd think that a three year old being taken away from his play pals might upset him... but he just smiled and walked on down the road with his mommy. He was so cute. I wish I had thought to take pictures - I didn't bring a camera, but I wish I would have thought to snap some quick photos with my camera phone.

After the shopping, we went to the Downtown Disney Wolfgang Puck dining room to meet up with another associate of ours who had flown in later that week. She's a mother of a 15 year old boy who was on his first official date with his first official girlfriend that night... so needless to say she was a little anxious to get back to her hotel to call her husband to find out how it went. She seemed to be a really attentive mom - so it was great to have her share some of her stories. Her son sounds like a pretty amazing person for someone his age.

Anyway, shopping and dinner turned out to be much more fun then I could have ever expected. Being around all those kids, and at the same time being part of a loving couple hoping to adopt a child was really a huge feeling. It brought great hope for the future, as well as great memories of my family and our vacations to Disney when I was just a kid.

As always - thanks for taking the time to read this post.

~W

Community Service At NorthSide Hospital

2006-07-30T16:16:00.000-04:00

Today I called NorthSide hospital to see if I could join the community service program there. NorthSide is not only one of the best hospitals in the country it's also one of the busiest hospitals in the country for child births. One of the biggest needs they have is for people to help with, and hold, the new born babies. It turns out that to volunteer at NorthSide you have to complete an application, and if the application is approved you have to join the NorthSide auxiliary association. The auxiliary is the members only volunteer organization that does all of the volunteering at NorthSide. The one thing I found strange is that if you want to join the auxiliary (which is required to volunteer) you have to pay annual association dues. It's a minimal fee, and certainly well worth the opportunity to help with babies - but still I thought it a little odd that a hospital would require volunteers to pay for the opportunity. I guess NorthSide doesn't have a volunteer shortage.

Anyway, they have said they will send me an application. I can't wait to get started. I've been doing community service of one kind or another since I was in high school (actually I think I may have participated in various community service projects in elementary school as well), and I look forward to being able to work with babies as well. Like Kahlil Gibran (philosopher, poet, novelist) said "it is when you give of yourself that you truly give." It's a little corny, but I think it's true.

Thanks again for reading.

~W

Baby sign language

2006-07-25T18:16:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous blog John and I have been reading lots of books about raising children - more specifically we've been reading a lot of books on how to successfully manage raising a baby. Now, that's not to say we don't have practical experience - both of us have spent a decent amount of time around babies... but we figure things change - and clearly they do. In telling our parents what the various baby books say both of our mom's have been known to say "it's a miracle you survived..." A perfect example: when I was a baby all the doctors in the world agreed that you absolutely had to put a baby to sleep on it's stomach. Putting a baby to sleep on it's stomach helped to ensure that the baby wouldn't die of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Today, a mere 28 years later, all the doctors in the world agree that YOU MUST PUT THE BABY TO SLEEP ON ITS BACK. That's just one example of many of how things change.

One thing that hasn't changed is that long before babies learn to speak they learn to make certain movements in attempt to communicate what they want. From what I've read the idea of baby signing has been around for a very long time. In recent years baby signing has become extremely popular. Parents can now take baby signing classes, so that they can learn the movements are easiest for a baby to learn. It's also being reported that baby signing actually helps make children better communicators. This makes sense to me, because the way I see it a baby that starts communication several months earlier then others gets lots more practice. As my mom always used to say "practice makes perfect" and in this situation I guess it's true.

So, to make a long story short I recently added a baby signing book to our collection of child raising books. My hope, is that by the time the baby is old enough to start signing I will have figured out enough signs to be able to teach the little girl / guy how to tell me it's tired and hungry. I can just imagine John and I practicing the signs now. I wonder how one says "I'd like to order the Caesar salad" in baby sign language? (Laughing)

Learning to paint

2006-07-24T18:07:00.000-04:00

I just had to post this hilarious picture that a friend of mine sent me at the office. You know these kids had lots of fun!!!

Wallpaper

2006-07-22T10:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I really didn’t think anything could top the cardboard playhouse that I found…..BUT THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I HAVE SEEN YET!!!

Graham & Brown makes this wallpaper that is filled with different picture frames of all different sizes. Our future child can just start drawing and coloring right onto the wall into the frames. When I was kid, my parents really taught me to be creative, sitting and watching TV was not really an option with two teachers for parents. They really tried to get me to do more thought provoking things like drawing, painting, putting on plays or puppet shows. I even got to try my hand at cooking when I was seven. (That did not go well by the way. haha)

My father would have lost his mind if I started drawing on the walls, but I always wanted to. A big blank white wall in your bedroom when you are a young kid…seems to scream out for a little crayola!!! William tells me that when he was 4 or 5 he took a small paint brush and painted "duck feet" all over the wall and floor in his room. Needless to say, I gather his mom was not too impressed with that particular art project.

I already know what wall I want to put this on in our child’s room. Though, William is going to have to hide the crayons, as I know I will find myself drawing away as we wait for the baby!

JOHN

Rocking babies

2006-07-11T19:42:00.000-04:00

Is it a bad thing that I'm obsessed with babies in rockers? First, I'm amazed at how well they work. Again, this week I witnessed a crying baby be instantly soothed by being put into a baby rocker. Or maybe, they are better called baby soothers since so many of them don't really rock, but rather just vibrate or jiggle a little. The rocker I have posted here is actually a Kate Spade rocker (www.katespade.com)... John really likes it and it has a lot of functionality - it can both rock and vibrate to sooth a baby to sleep.

My mom tells me that when I was a baby the thing that got me to sleep the best was driving in the car. Evidentially, when I was really, really throwing a fit the easiest way to get me to sleep was to put me in my car seat and drive around town. I can just imagine my poor mother, tired at 2 am having had no sleep at all finally deciding to get up, get dressed and strap me into my car seat for a long drive through town. I guess that just goes to show that a little white noise and vibrations (from a car, or a rocker) does miracles for soothing a cranky baby.

~W

Happy Birthday John!!!

2006-06-28T20:10:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the year again - that's right, one of the happiest days of the year when people from all over the country gather to celebrate (laughing). Yup, you guessed it - this past weekend was John's 29th birthday. John's parents (Pat & Jeff) flew in from Nebraska bearing gifts for John, and as luck might have it a few family heirlooms for when we get a baby. They brought a couple of John's first outfits - appropriately in yellow and green so we can still use them regardless of whether the baby ends up being a girl, or a boy. They also brought one of John's first blankets. It's very nicely made, and my favorite part is that it has John's name and birthday stitched into the back. I can just imagine a baby all wrapped up in it, snuggling up in one of the very same blankets John snuggled up in when he was just a few months old. So it's great to have our first few pieces of clothing for the baby... although we have to be careful to make sure we don't end up jinxing ourselves. We'll have to make sure we let the family know that we're not accepting any more gifts until we're officially matched and the baby is on it's way.

Back to the party - John's aunt Sue was kind enough to offer to host the party for us. Her house is located just off Peachtree (the main street the runs through Atlanta) so it's fairly convenient for many of our friends who came from all over for the party. We ended up having between 35 and 40 people show up. It was great to see everyone. The crowd was fairly eclectic. It consisted of old friends and new, a few people who are clients of Johns, and a few of my friends from business development where I work. I was really impressed by how well everyone mingled. That's not to suggest that I wasn't expecting people to get along, but it seems like usually there's a couple of people who just don't feel comfortable talking to people they aren't that familiar with. By the end of the night it seemed as though everyone had had an opportunity to have a conversation with everyone else. I think people had a really good time, and some good conversation. Actually, a couple of John's friends who moved out of town several years ago managed to make it so it was particularly nice to see them.

The food was good... a little bit of everything. The standard cheese platters, along with some Sushi (John's parents had never had Sushi before, and actually I think they made it through the party without having any, but we finally convinced his mom to try some at dinner the following night), some great fruit salad, shrimp cocktail, basil chicken, sirloin, etc. It was very nice to have a good mix of food, there was definitely something for everyone. Of course, the birthday cake was one of the main attractions. My friend Brady (from high school) suggested that we get the cake from a local bakery (www.henrisbakery.com) that her aunt's business uses often. Her suggestion turned out great. Not only was the decoration nice, but it tasted amazing. When we picked it up earlier in the day John's mom opened the box in the back of the car to see what it looked like. I kid you not, when I say the smell of the cake was literally one of the best things I've ever smelled. My mouth is watering just thinking about it (I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little bit of a sweet tooth - BUT I don't think I was the only one that was impressed).

Speaking of sweets, there was one more item on the menu that is included in basically every function that John attends. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but John has an infatuation with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (www.krispykreme.com). John has said many times that if you haven't had a Krispy Kreme doughnut you just haven't lived. I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I do agree they do make some great doughnuts. Krispy Kreme is fairly famous - at least in most southern states - for serving their original glazed doughnuts HOT. They actually have a neon sign on the outside of the buildings that they light up when ever they have hot doughnuts available. Anyway, you should find some time to get one if you haven't had one before. Oh - when I said that Krispy Kreme doughnuts are basically at every function John goes to, I wasn't joking. If we're invited to a party - and it's even slightly appropriate - we'll end up bringing Krispy Kremes. I think John secretly has a rule that he can't have Krispy Kremes unless there's some kind of social gathering... so he finds a way to bring them with him. LOL

Our party favors ended up being fairly eclectic as well. A couple weeks before the party John put together a list of some of our favorite summer songs. My job was to physically create the mix CDs, so I went to work creating the playlist on iTunes, and burning the CDs. It turns out that iTunes will only let you burn 7 copies of a playlist. I'm not sure exactly why, I guess it's there to prevent music pirating. So, every 7 CDs I had to change the playlist slightly so that iTunes would let me burn the 30 plus CDs we needed. John also drew a really interesting CD cover - so the CDs ended up looking almost professional. John later ended up officially calling the CDs JMP's Summer Hot Mix. A name I soon hope to forget. (Laughing)

In addition to the CD, John's aunt has a friend who recently started a magazine called WorthWhile. The magazine is essentially focused on helping people find enjoyment from their work - aka, making work worth while. Anyway, knowing that there would be a fairly good number of young professionals at the party she gave everyone an issue. And, of course to top off the party favor pile we had everyone take a brochure for our adoption agency (www.adoptionhelp.org). We figured that we had to have at least one plug for adoption at the party.

Thanks for reading our blog.

~W

P.S. I forgot to mention earlier that John's birthday was the first time that I got to meet his friend, and client, Edie. She actually commented on one of our previous posts in this blog. She is everything John described and more... and definitely a very funny person. Hopefully, I will be able to convince her to spend lots more time with us in the near future. I don't know if she wants the position but in my eyes she's got "baby sitter" written all over her!!! (Laughing)

A cardboard house.

2006-06-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

Today, I found this amazing cardboard fort/house that you can build and then decorate. I discovered it on the new Design Within Reach website for kids - DWRjax (www.dwr.com/dwrjax). Although, I know that there will be hard times and challenges while raising a child, I can’t wait to do creative stuff like this. I picture us together on a Saturday afternoon putting the cardboard house together. It’s a blank canvas just waiting for all of us too put our creative touches on it. I really look forward to doing art projects like this; to teach our child about art, famous artists, and amazing museums. I was thinking last night, that I want to teach our child about famous artists and their work. Like Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, I think it would be great to lie on our backs and paint. We would learn to paint pictures upside down to really feel and understand how Michelangelo painted his most famous work. Yes, that might be a few years away but I can't help but imagine some of the great, fun ways that we can teach our child about things as he grows older.

JOHN

G-diapers, and other diaper thoughts.

2006-06-13T21:06:00.000-04:00

So, in investigating all things baby I've discovered something that I think is great. It's called the g-diaper. It's essentially a cross between a disposable diaper and cloth diaper. Basically it's a diaper that has a cloth exterior (that comes in a few different, bright colors) and a disposable interior that does all the absorption work. An added feature is the disposable part inside is flushable. The website goes on and on about how it's better for the environment because it's much less waste as compared to throwing away an entire disposable diaper. I have to admit that although I like the fact that it's better for the environment, I'm much more impressed by the fact that I wont have to throw away diapers in my house. Yes, I know that Diaper Genie (www.playtexbaby.com/diapergenie/) supposedly locks in all the "smells," but with my limited experience I've noticed that they don't really stop the smells. Yes, I know smells are par for the course as far as baby's are concerned, but if you can minimize the bad smells why not?? I figure just flush it and forget it. I sent the link to several mothers I know (mainly my mom, and a few of my friends) and they all said that they think it's a good idea. I haven't convinced anyone to try them yet... they use the excuse that it's not worth the effort to switch at this point, but I'm wearing them down. Maybe if I get them some g-diapers for a birthday or something they'll start using them??

On another note, John and I have been reading more and more about "diaperless babies." When John first told me he'd read an article about parents who don't put any kind of diaper on their baby, I thought it was a joke. Turns out it wasn't a joke - it's now some sort of movement.

Here's an overview of how it works -
Step 1: Stay-at-home parent (aka me) let's the baby run around naked all the time.
Step 2: Stay-at-home parent (aka me) watch baby like a hawk.
Step 3: Stay-at-home parent (aka me) learns the tell tale signs that baby is about to go to the bathroom (on the carpet, on the sofa, love seat, or any other place baby might be- LOL).
Step 4: When stay-at-home parent realizes baby is about to go the bathroom he picks baby up and runs to the bathroom where he holds the baby over the toilet while the baby "uses" the bathroom.

Supposedly, this process not only prevents the "un-needed waste of diapers" but also has the child potty trained "considerably earlier." Now, I think we all know that it doesn't work out that way. First of all, I imagine that regardless of the stay-at-home parents attentiveness there are a lot of what I'm now terming poop related incidents. I envision myself rushing to the bathroom with baby in my arms only to not quite make it and end up covered in what should have ended up in the toilet. Now don't get me wrong... the first time would be both funny, and extremely cute - but I imagine that it would, rather shortly, not be not so much fun. Second of all, the house would definitely be worse for the ware. I mean, certain stains just never come out of the carpet and upholstery. Thirdly, what about trips outside of the house? Am I supposed to bring my baby naked to the grocery store? For that matter, the supermarket is fairly big...could I even make it from the produce section to the public bathroom in time??? I don't think so. One article on "diaperless babies" even suggested bringing a "closeable bucket for baby to use" when going out in public. After reading that I decided that at least some of the pro-diaperless baby folks are crazy and that I'd stick to something a little more traditional. I think g-diapers are about as progressive as I'm going to get for right now.

~W

And Tango Makes Three.

2006-06-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

Over the last few months John and I have been collecting various children's books. We've come to realize that even children's books have come a long way since we were children. Our childhood favorites (Where The Wild Things Are & The Giving Tree) just had a cover, and then pages with ink on them. I've become infatuated with the kind of children's book that have a "touch and feel" aspect. If you haven't seen them they are really quite interesting. They come in the standard baby book style - extra thick, card board pages with lots of colorful pictures with the added benefit of various pieces of cloth and other textured material that actually feel interesting. For instance, one of the books has a dog and most of it's body is made out of a fur like cloth...so when you read a book to a child, beyond just seeing the picture of the dog the child can actually feel it, or even pet it. Anyway, I love them - so with any luck our child will end up being at least half as interested in the "touch and feel" books as I am.

We've also come to realize that books really do cover almost any topic these days. When we first started working with the IAC (www.adoptionhelp.org) they gave us several brochures that featured children's book that had main characters that were adopted, were in a family that is adopting, had a friend that had been adopted, etc. Children's books now cover basically any social issue you can think of. We were also very happy to find out that there are books that feature characters that are from same sex families. I guess it speaks to the fact that having two dads (or two moms) isn't unheard of anymore.

We'd read about And Tango Makes Three about a year ago in the New York Times. It's a really interesting TRUE story of two male, chinstrap penguins in a New York zoo who are determined to raise a chick of their own. When the zookeeper discovers that the two male penguins have built a nest and are sitting on a rock that closely resembles an egg he decides replace the rock with an actual penguin egg. Well, as you might have guessed the egg hatches and wouldn't you know it you have a baby penguin being raised by two male penguins. The book does a really great job of demonstrating the message of how important it is to accept differences and at the same time showing the message in a very well written story. On a side note I was happy to find out that two male penguins bonding for life doesn't just occur in zoos. In point of fact, Natural Geographic assures me that it happens quite often with penguins in natural environment. We highly recommend this book to everyone as beyond having a great message it's really just a fun story to read.

If you haven't already guessed it John and I are fairly avid readers... well, actually I guess John is an avid reader, and I just enjoy reading. John, like my mother, almost seem to make a job out of reading. That's not to suggest they don't enjoy reading, or that they see it as a task, but rather that they are so passionate about reading that it's a consistent part of their daily lives. Sometimes John will read two or three books in a week. This would have shocked me, except that growing up my mother had a book with her at all times. I, on the other hand, don't read two or three books a week. I'll admit that many times I'll only read a few books a month. For me keeping up with the daily newspaper and reading the current "best seller" book keeps me happy as far as the reading department goes. I guess it goes with out saying that we're both really looking forward to reading to our child.

A birthmom's words of encouragement

2006-06-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

Today we received a very nice email of encouragement from a woman who placed her child up for adoption several years ago. Among other things, she said "I'm really impressed with your first post... it sounds like you really have a good understanding of adoption in all its forms, and that its not been a forbidden word in your lives." Those words mean so much to us. It's great to know that someone whose actually been a part in the adoption process appreciates us.

The way we see it, birthmothers are truly amazing individuals. Being in the banking industry I frequently have to present on corporate ethics. I occasionally find myself telling people that there may come a time in their career where they may need to make the harder, right decision. By that I mean that at some point in their lives they might be faced with a situation that has multiple solutions, and that the right thing to do is to take everything into consideration and then make the decision that provides the best possible outcome, even if that decision is is the harder decision to follow through with. When I imagine a birthmother I think of someone with amazing integrity. A person who clearly understands the true meaning of making the harder right decision. I mean, think of how much love a person must be capable of if - out of love - they pick another couple to parent their child. Birthmothers truly are admirable people. With that said, you can understand why we were so excited to get those words of encouragement. I know it's sort of a leap but, in the back of my head I'm thinking if she likes us then certainly it won't be long before a birthmother chooses us.

As an update - we're still waiting to hear from what will end up being the birthmother of our child. It's exciting, nerve racking, and at times agonizing being in this waiting period. Every day I wake up thinking today could be the day that we get our first contact with our future birthmother. It's a great feeling - but I'd give that feeling up in a heart beat to hear from a birthmother! :)

Thanks again for reading this!
~W

Bugaboo

2006-06-10T10:17:00.000-04:00

We were given a Bugaboo stroller (www.bugaboo.com) by my company as a "Good luck in your adoption" present. When I brought the box home, William's eyes became glazed over and a huge smile broke out on his face, he then immediately started tearing into the package. William's Bugaboo obsession seemed to have started the minute we decided we wanted a baby. I would overhear him saying what color and combinations he wanted for the stroller, what many things the stroller could actually do, though sadly making tea was not one of them, and where he would take our future baby in this contraption. By 10:30 pm we had a fully assembled stroller and he had watched the info DVD 4 times already. The best part of the night was as I was getting ready for bed, I walked out into the living room and caught William checking out his new proud toy in the mirror as he walked around the house pushing the stroller. Just another reason I know he is going to be a fantastic dad, as he is already playing the part. I managed to catch him off guard with this photo.

At this point neither of us knows exactly how to disassemble the stroller, and though we have watched the DVD many times and read the entire instruction manual, we look forward to figuring out how it will exactly fit in the station wagon or the SUV. For right now the Bugaboo, along with a few childrens books, sits in the baby's room waiting for our future baby.

JOHN

What we've done so far...

2006-06-09T17:02:00.000-04:00

I've been struggling on how to start this blog... should I start with our love at first site story that includes me getting lost on the way to our first date? Or would it be better to just jump forward to about a year ago when after years of discussion John and I decided to take the first true steps toward adopting a child? Well, since the title to this blog is "William & John's adoption story" for the sake of posterity I'm going to skip the most of the sappy love story and jump forward to when the thought of adoption became less of a thought... and more of a hope and dream of starting a family. Let's just say that our first date was on a Saturday night for a dinner at a nice restaurant (www.onemidtownkitchen.com). By the end of dinner John had invited me to go to New York city for the weekend and I accepted. A month later, I moved in with him and here we are two months away from our five year anniversary. It's an amazing feeling when you know you've found the person your going to spend the rest of your life with.

John and I have always wanted to have kids. Both of us agree that even before we met each other we knew that one way, or another, we'd have children in our lives. The discussion about having children was, literally, one of the first discussions John and I had. So, it came to be that in July of last year John and I decided to start seriously exploring our options for having a child. Clearly, being two men, a strictly natural birth wasn't going to be an option. For what ended up being a few minutes, we discussed the idea of surrogate but quickly agreed that there were just too many issues involved with having a woman, whether a friend or not, give birth to our child. After that, I immediately suggested adoption. Thinking about it I realized that throughout my life I had been surrounded by people who had been adopted. Some of my best friends growing up were people who were adopted, and on top of that we know several people and even a few family members, who have adopted children both domestically and internationally. So...we agreed that I would do some research and determine if adoption was the best choice for us.

I'm lucky to work for a great company that really provides well for the people who work there. Among the many benefits that are offered they have a complete "Life Care" website that provides lots of unbiased, information about basically every life issue you could possibly think of. I went to the website and found that there was an online, interactive, adoption class that provided "everything you need to know when considering adoption." So, I took the class assuming it would be about 10 minutes of my time and give me a least a mediocre understanding of adoption. What it gave me was a complete understanding of the issues involved, and the evolution of, the multiple kinds of adoption that exists today. The key phrase being "multiple kinds of adoption." Perhaps it was my ignorance, but I had no idea that there was anything beyond domestic adoption, and international adoption. I had never heard of closed adoption and open adoption, or the various things we had to take into consideration because we are a same sex couple. The class ended up being an hour and a half, and by the time I was done I was absolutely sure that a) adoption was the avenue we'd use to grow our family, and b) that domestic Open Adoption was perfect for us. I'll spare you class summary, but in case you've never heard of open adoption it can be summed up as an adoption process in which the birth parents and the adoptive parents choose each other, and agree on varying levels of continued contact throughout the childs life.

After the class, I went to John and told him about what I'd learned. He agreed that open adoption seemed to fit us wonderfully, and we decided to go about selecting an agency. Again, I'll try and spare you the brutal details but by the time we finally found the right agency two months had passed, and I'd called and checked into at least 30 different agencies in the US. We ended up going with the Independent Adoption Center (www.adoptionhelp.org). I was immediately impressed with the IAC - everyone I spoke to was (in contrast to so many other agencies I'd contacted) very polite, amazingly real and caring, honest, non-judgmental, and very knowledgeable. I later learned that the IAC is one of the oldest agency's that work soley with open adoption, and many of the IACs founders are essentially the founders of open adoption in the United States. Michelle - the IAC counselor I had been primarily corresponding with suggested that we come in for a weekend orientation class at the end of September to get to know the agency. Well, we did, and by the time the orientation was over John and I had decided to sign with the IAC.

After review and signing all the IAC paperwork our lives started to change. We had to attend another orientation, only this time the class was longer (two days) and much more "intensive." We had to make decisions about what kind of birthparents we were willing to work with, have interviews with Cheryl, are assigned counselor, and discuss all the details about how to create a Dear Birthmother Letter and corresponding website (www.kinnanepetersen.com). They explained that although they couldn't tell us exactly how long it would be before we got a baby, that it was now a matter of when... not if we got a baby. We learned that all the tasks ahead of us would lead to a day that we get "in the book" (meaning we're approved, and potential birthparents will start getting our information). We also got pages and pages of checklists. There were check lists for everything. Checklists for things we needed documented in our medical exams (the ones that prove we're healthy enough to raise a child), checklists for all the paper work we need to complete, checklists for all the things we should include in our letter, checklists for our website, checklists for our homestudy, checklists for.... well you get the idea - checklists for anything. We realized that we had at least a good two to three months ahead of us before we'd be in the book.

We finally did get in the book. It took almost six months. We agonized over everything... I mean, the things we were doing were to get us a child.... everything had to be done perfectly the first time. It would have only been 4 months, but we decided that a baby really deserved a bigger place to live... so we moved out of our one bedroom home and moved into a fairly large three bedroom home in a great, small community that's within walking distance of two of Atlanta's better schools. It also gives us something to focus on while we wait for a birthmother to contact us. John has a particular nack for decorating - or for that matter making anything look it's best - so this new home will provide us with plenty of things to do while we're waiting. The long period of time between the orientation and getting into the book also gave us time to read what seems like hundreds of what I call "baby raising books." Our favorite book so far is What To Expect - The First Year. It's a really thorough book and basically talks about everything you need to know in the first year. With every book I read, I want even more to be a father. I can't wait to become the worlds best stay at home dad... although from what I've read, if I really want that award I might just have to create it myself. LOL.

So, here we are: Amazing caring couple, check. Amazing agency, check. Amazing home, check. Now all we can do is wait for a courageous caring birthmother to choose us. That's a good place to start. There's definitely more to tell, so in the coming days I'll try and go into some more of the stories that got us to this point.

Thanks for reading.
~W