5K fun and MORE!

5K FUN!
We set up TEAM BILL my friends!  If you or anyone is interested in running the WildRide! WildRun! Against Cancer with us, go to their website and sign up!  It's $25 per runner and we are doing the fun run.  I'm really proud of my friend Jenny - it's her first 5k!  We will have a lot of fun, of course, and will be doing it in the memory of any loved ones we've lost to cancer.  If you don't want to run, just come out and cheer us on.  We will need some of it when we are beat down near the end of the race.

http://www.methodisthealthsystem.org/body.cfm?id=3744

Take a picture, it'll last longer
The City of Richardson Photography Contest results came in and the ribbon ceremony was Tuesday night - my sister in law Becky got a FIRST PLACE ribbon for her Photo Journalism piece from Occupy Dallas.  A great picture!  YAY BECKY!

She and I went downtown this past Sunday looking for things to snap pictures of and I discovered that the West End Marketplace is closed permanently.  Whaaaaa?  I had no clue, but then I don't really catch any live TV very often.  Sad face here...  I spent a lot of my young years down there and have some really distinct memories of the fudge shop at the entrance, the putt-putt place in the center, and, of course, the arcade downstairs.

I love this statue.

As we were walking around I had a Laverne and Shirley flash, I think.  Didn't they have a basement apartment and you saw feet walking passed their windows all the time?  This made me think of that.  So, I planted myself on the cold pavement and just happened to catch a couple walk by hand-in-hand.  

Isn't it funny?

I love talking about my kids and telling our story.  For those that read that don't know, both my kids are adopted.  We spent several years dealing with infertility and treatments and pregnancy attempts.  We were introduced to adoption by chance (a friend of a friend adopted).  We both spent our childhoods with close friends who were adopted and have adult friends now who are adopted.  We also have two really close friends who experienced being a birth parent whose children were placed for adoption with a private agency.  It was really with us the whole time, we just didn't see it as our plan until then.  We explored private adoption because, like most, we wanted an infant.  However, we did not have the savings account to support  that type of private adoption.  We finally decided on becoming a licensed adoptive home through the Department of Family Protective Services.  (CPS)  Our lovely daughter came home to us at 4 years old on March 30th, 2010.  We didn't expect our family to grow again for a LONG time, but then we were notified in August of 2010 that she had a biological brother that needed a foster home.  We quickly changed our license and our son came home to us on September 7, 2010, he was 10 weeks old.  We finalized her adoption on 10/13/2010 and his on 10/13/2011.  What a lucky day the 13th is for us!!

So the funny part is, I frequently find myself in discussion with people, who don't necessarily know our story, talking about adoption and CPS (a  lot people have a bad opinion - I think they are great!  They love these children and want the very best for them.  I can't imagine a more difficult job.)  Infertility is a monster and if you haven't personally experienced it, I can't really describe it for you, but it is a profound sense of loss.  To most of these people, I say check out adoption.  Maybe it's for you and maybe it's not, but I'm here to say that I could never love my kids any less or any more if our circumstances were different.  When I was a teenager, I used to say I would have 10 kids - um, no.  :)  We'll see if our 4-some changes, I don't like to make many promises.  

Make a new memory today...

~Jill