A dog!

So, Will and I had just decided that we would wait to get another dog until E was a little older. With the addition of baby M I was feeling a like that was enough adjustment for us for the summer. I didn't want to train a puppy and the last time we talked we both really wanted a puppy to avoid all the issues we had with our beloved but somewhat neurotic Lucy. Although we did agree that if the right dog came up at a local humane society that we would consider it.

As you can guess the dog issue has come up again. It all started when our friends Meghan & Mark brought dinner over for us after we arrived home from Ethiopia. Well, they had their dog in the car and E just had to go hear their "motor run" when they left and saw the dog. I have never seen his eyes light up so much as I did that day. It was heart breaking because I just didn't think this summer would work and then that will take us all the way to next summer.

To make matters worse E saw 3 dogs when he was at the park with his Uncle Will. He told his uncle that he "likes dogs and wants a dog." That clinched it Will and I were definately going to have the dog conversation again. Well, Will had been telling me since being home with M that he wasn't sure he could survive the summer without a dog...he loves dogs as much as E. We talked about it again and decided that if the dog wasn't a puppy and was the right dog we could easily adopt a dog from a local humane society. It wasn't that we didn't want a dog, we just didn't want to train a puppy this summer. I knew house training a puppy would be too much for me.

So, it was time to start looking for a dog. (In case you didn't know, this is our pattern, talk about something and then do it...we don't wait around and hem and haw about it we just make a decision and do it.) We decided we wanted a medium sized dog, it had to be gentle, great with kids, a bit lazy, trainable, good temperment and cute would be a hug bonus!

Today we found him. I had been checking out the local humane society websites to see what dogs they had when I stumbled onto Hunter, a hound, lab, boxer mix. He is adorable and everything we wanted in a dog. We are so excited and will be bringing him home on Tuesday. We can't wait....we will be renaming him as neither of us love the name Hunter! We will let you know what we name him and post pics after Tuesday!

E's musical debut!

Here is E singing "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed"

I have ....

some blogging to add from our trip and will add those entries as soon as I have the time. Keep checking.

Attachment....

So, this time around we aren't secluding ourselves for 6 weeks like we did with Eli, mostly because we have Eli and he needs to see and be around people. We are staying close to home, limiting the length of visits and long visits are reserved for people like my brother Josh, who lives in Ohio and we haven't seen in a while, and my cousin who lives in California and we only see every 6 months if we are lucky. I know most moms I know poopoo the whole idea because they didn't do that with their child....it wasn't necessary because you carried your child for 9 months and they heard your voice and listened to your heartbeat 24/7....but with adopted children it is different. You have to facilitate positive attachment. Sometimes I think the way we did it with Eli was so much easier because we just had a hard and fast rule that we didn't break. It sucks because so many people don't understand it and just think we are being overprotective. What people don't realize is that the attachment we form with Max now affects the rest of his life not just the next couple of weeks. It's hard to explain this to someone that hasn't ever adopted because raising adopted children is just different.

Okay I said my peace now maybe our decisions will make more sense to everyone and if not at least maybe they will try to understand that it is just different than with bio-children.