Nine years ago today a tiny baby boy was born in Guatemala City. She was very poor and decided that the best thing she could do for this little one, her
twelth baby, was to put him up for adoption. We were well in to our second year of adoption hell when this little boy was born. We wanted a baby girl. You see I have five other children. Four boys and one girl. I really really want a baby girl. I had decorated the nursery for a girl. I had tons of cute little dresses and lots of ruffles and pink. I was ready for a girl.
When our first referral fell through I was devastated. We had already spent a week in Guatemala with this baby girl. She was very much our daughter. But the grandparents did not know that their young daughter had a baby. When they found out, they wanted their granddaughter brought home.
After that we were in regular contact with our adoption agency. One day the social worker called. I got so excited because I was sure they were calling to tell me that they had another baby girl for us. No, she said she was just checking to see how we were doing. They had ten babies born that month. One was a girl, but the mother took one look at her and decided to keep her. The others were all boys. Then she said, "We even have this little boy that no one wants." How could no one want a baby? I didn't understand that at all. It seems that the other families who were with our agency were also waiting for baby girls. I thanked the social worker for calling and went back to my meeting.
I had a hard time concentrating on the meeting after that. I kept thinking about this "little boy that no one wants." How sad was that. I finally went back out in the hallway and called the social worker back. I asked a bunch of questions like, was he healthy? How old was the birth mother? (We didn't want another 18 year old mother.) Are you sure no one wants him? She patiently answered all my questions. Then I went back into my meeting. But five minutes later I jumped up again and went back out to the hall. This time I called my husband. Now we had planned to name our baby Dakota. At first it was Dakota
Rayne. Then it was Dakota Ariel. I called my husband and asked, "So what do you think of the name Dakota Garcia?" He said, "That's a strange name for a girl." Then I said, "She's a boy." Immediately he reminded me of all the ruffles and lace and pink that filled our nursery. Finally he asked if I got a picture. He said we would talk about it when we both got home. I called the social worker back and asked her to send a picture.
When I got home from work that night, there was a picture of a baby boy waiting for me in my email. We both took one look at him and said "He's ours." The very next day we drove out to our adoption agency and signed the papers to accept his referral. We still had to wait through five months of paperwork and
bureaucracy of two governments. In October we flew down to Guatemala and spent a few days with our new son. Then in December we got the phone call we had been waiting for. All the paperwork had cleared, the adoption papers were signed and five month old Daniel was now our son. We got on a plane as quickly as it could be arranged and went to get our son and bring him home.
Flash forward now nine years. That beautiful baby boy is now a
handsome young man. He is busily playing with
legos as I type this, his favorite toy. He loves math and does not really like reading. If he is not playing with
legos, he is on his
DS or working on a rocket with his daddy. He loves to build and launch rockets.
Nine years ago his favorite foods were bananas and formula. Today his favorite foods are chicken nuggets and
mozzarella sticks. He was wearing a size 12 months. Now he wears a size extra large in children's sizes or a small adult. Nine years ago today his future was pretty unsure. No one really knew what would happen to him. Today he is happy and healthy and wants to be an astronaut when he grow up. He is a great kid at times and he shows us his Latino temper at other times. He has a stubborn streak a mile wide.
Today is a good day to reflect back on the last nine years. A time to say thank you to the wonderful woman who decided that the best thing she could do for her son was to place him for adoption. A time to say Happy Birthday to my baby boy. You're not such a baby any more.
I sent off an email about another house I saw on the internet. And I waited for a response. Someone finally got back to me and set an appointment to look at it. We got to the house and guess what??? The realtor was waiting for us. When she knocked on the door, they said they were having a birthday party. Could we come back another day. The realtor told them we had an appointment and we needed to see the house. It was an okay house. It had almost everything we were looking for. But it would need a lot of painting and minor repair work. The biggest problem was that it was a block from the busiest street in town. And it was three blocks from the projects. No I don't think I want to live there.
I have started packing. There really isn't much else I can do. So I pack and I wait. Please let the waiting go quickly. Please let me be in my new house very soon. I don't want to wait any more.
Well, we are about to start a brand new adventure in our lives. We are buying a house. We looked at a few houses. One had holes in the ceiling and nothing in the kitchen accept an old sink. Another had a five foot hole in the floor. One the ceiling was falling down and the girl said she thinks the roof might leak. (Gee, ya think!!!) We found one house that we kind of liked. I was not sure about the long narrow living room. And it did not have a bathroom on the main floor. (I just can't make a dozen or more trips up and down stairs with these worn out legs.) But it was in a flood plain. (There are a lot of areas around here that flood.) 
A kitchen that is bigger than a bread box. (If you haven't seen my current kitchen let me tell you, two people can not stand in it at once.)
A nice size dining room.
A half bath on the main floor. The upstairs has three bedrooms and a full bath. It has a basement but it isn't finished. Bob wanted a finished basement so he could have a "man cave". He thinks he can make it work for some of what he wants to do down there. The only problem is the low ceiling. Gee, that's not a problem for me. Oh yeah, he's a bit taller than I am, (like 10 inches or so.) He will get the third bedroom for his space along with the books and computer equipment. And there is no garage. So I guess next year's tax refund will go toward building a garage.
The biggest thing I love about the house is the huge backyard. And the beautiful deck. I can already see the plants growing on and around the deck. And the parties we will have. There is a nice picnic table built in to the deck. And an archway over the steps to go down into the yard.
There is a place for the washer and dryer on the main floor. But our brand new washer and dryer are too big for the space. (You know, the ones we bought in April with our tax refund.) So I will move a small desk into that space to make it my sewing area. And the washer and dryer will have to go to the basement.
The other day we went on a field trip to the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame. It was a great place to learn some of the history of aviation in New Jersey. I had no idea that our state played such an important role in the history of aviation. One of the things I learned is that the only two astronauts to be related to one another come from New Jersey. They are identical twins, Scott and Mark Kelly. Many of you have heard of Mark because of the horrible shooting incident involving his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Mark just recently returned to earth after commanding the space shuttle Endeavor on it's final voyage into space where he was able to visit with his twin brother Scott who is the commander of the International Space Station. They grew up in West Orange, New Jersey.
There was a nice display about Women in Aviation.
Dakota's team came in second place.
The kids were especially interested in the Guardian of the Garden. If the guardian was a young girl, she would sit up in her shelter with a basket of rocks. If any animals came along trying to have a snack, she would throw rocks at the animal or bird to chase it away. If the guardian was a young boy, he would have his little bow and arrow and practice his hunting skills while he was protecting the garden. If he got lucky, he might bring home dinner as well as protecting his garden.
We saw the houses where they lived. We saw a sweat log where they would take the sick.
And we saw how the women worked around the village. 
She was practically laying on top of the sheep during part of the shearing. But he just lay there and let her work. He seemed so comfortable with the whole process. Of course the most exciting part for the kids was when he decided to poop. They were fascinated with that.
With the haircut all done, we walked around to see the other exhibits. One of the first places we went was to see the woman who was dying wool.
She was using all natural materials to dye the wool. She used marigolds for yellow and onion skins for orange. She also had some beautiful purple that came from a tree in South America. Then we went to see how they washed the wool. The water was pretty cold. Put the kids still had fun playing in it. After that we watched them card the wool. The kids got to try their hand at carding.
We watched the spinners as they spun the raw wool into yarn. 
And then the kids got to try their hand at weaving the yarn into cloth.
It was a great day as we saw the wool come off the sheep and then follow the process through to see it become a beautiful cloth.
They are having a beautiful quilt display right now. We loved all the wonderful handiwork.
The best part of the whole day for the kids was the tour of the summer kitchen. She made biscuits and eggs with sausage. The kids were so excited about the sausage that they ate every bit of it before the eggs were even ready. She also had biscuits made from acorns.
Everyone had to try their hand at making butter.
And here it is all ready to eat. Sometimes they added salt to the butter but my son thought it was great without the salt. He informed me that this was the best butter he had ever eaten in his whole life. Now he thinks we should make our own butter at home.
This was the old post office that Israel Crane had built in the General Store. Until he built this General Store, the closest store was seven miles away. That doesn't sound like much today. But if you were walking, that's a long way to go to buy something. With this new store, people could shop right in their own neighborhood.
While at the General Store, everyone got to make a sachet. Dakota put his in his pj drawer.
They also got to write a letter with a quill pen. Then they sealed it with wax and a special seal.
I think it's fair to say that everyone had a great time today. As we were leaving I saw several families stop back by the summer kitchen for another tasty treat.
