Tunnel Vision

I'm so freakin' excited sometimes I could jump out of my shoes. Legs bounce and my heart starts beating faster when I think about Mariana coming to live with us. I've heard from so many parents the "get as much sleep as you can now" thing. It made me wonder why that is the thing everyone says before the "it's the most wonderful experience" thing. I know how cranky I get when something messes with my sleep. In fact I spent Monday and Tuesday working straight through the night into the next day and I was pretty crabby about it. And for what? a paycheck? The payoff with children has to be higher. I guess I'm just trying to focus on the good stuff that will come along with her. Obviously, I'm still operating with stars in my eyes. I think I'll worry about all the broken nights sleep, puke and shit cleanups, food throwing across the room etc. when I get to it. For now I'm happy to drive along with blinders on, focused solely on the clear lane ahead.

Mariana doing the Robot

This one is pretty cute too huh? My friend Morgan said it looks like she's doing the Robot.  She looks very young in this one but already dancing, nice. We only have these 3 images. We've disected them quite a bit. I think we might take a few more photos when we're there with her. Considering that Hilary took over 1000 photos (on film mind you) on our honeymoon you can bet this will be one of the better documented little girls you can imagine. 

We spent the day yesterday installing the glass shower doors in the 2nd bathroom. We want that bedroom/bathroom ready for whoever wants to come and stay over. It's done now. Y'alls can all come stay in Brooklyn now. 

Who is this little girl?

I feel like looking at this one today. My buds at work liked this one better because she appears to be smiling. Ok, I like them all. 

I'm still on cloud 9. I had a hard time focusing on anything today at work. I mean who really cares about that crap anyway? Superbowl ad blah, blah, blah. There's a little girl out there who is our daughter and she needs us. She just doesn't know us yet. How weird is that? We're a family and we've never even met each other. 3 people from 3 different places coming together as a unit. I dig it. 

Today I celebrated by going out for hand pulled Chinese noodles with my fellow shop mates. Always a good time. I also got a card from a friend at work, pink naturally, with a little dress on the cover. Funny but it wasn't until I saw that card that I realized on some deeper level that we're going to raise a little girl and what that entails. Sure, pink is for girls right? Well, not really. We don't buy into that stuff  but many others will. That's cool, she could be a girlie girl. Or not, she could be a girl who's into power tools or Power Rangers or chess or dolls or swimming or who know what else. She'll be her own person and I'm so damn curious to find out what that is. What is she like? What is she going to grow up to be like?

Mariana!

Here she is!! What a cutie huh?

Swirling, swirling, my head is swirling. I'm so excited I could burst. I'm actually having trouble even formulating sentences. My mind is racing through thoughts. -Holy crap, still so much to do. What do I do if she won't eat/sleep? We have to update our health insurance. Did i ever update our life insurance? I wonder how warm/cold it is in Bogota this time of year. How do I change a diaper? etc. To quote my Aunt Anna and Jane "she looks so precious hon". I don't think we could have been given a more beautiful little girl. I find myself wondering about the birth parents. We did get some information about them. It must be incredibly hard for them right now. We'll do our best to take care of this little girl when they could not. I hope we don't mess it up. deep breath... breathe... one thing at a time...

Hopefully we can leave in about 3 weeks. We have some paperwork to do and then we have to book flights, hotel etc. We might try to sublet our apt for the 4-6 weeks that we need to be in Colombia. Any takers? We also need to get our travel visas. I hope that all of this will occupy my brain enough that I can not freak out about the task that lay before me. Not only Fatherhood but adoptive Fatherhood and all the challenges that lay there. It's ben a long time coming and it's finally here. Whoa.