Graduation!

My daughter graduated from the University of Florida yesterday! Woo Hoo! It seems as if I just dropped her of in her dorm as a freshman. Time certainly has flown-although I times I felt as if she would never finish school. I am very proud of her and her accomplishments. The graduation ceremony was beautiful and moving. They did a wonderful job keeping it short and sweet! No long winded speeches-it was all about the graduates and their families.

Congratulations Liz! I'm proud of you.
xoxo
Mom

'Tis the Season

Feeling melancholic....Like Sammy! This is our Yellow Lab.

I am amazed by what a difference it is to experience the Christmas Holidays as an adult! I used to LOVE the anticipation of Christmas eve-first as a child, then as a mother of two. It was so wonderful to plan and decorate and experience the joy of the season. Lately I've come to the conclusion that what is missing from my enjoyment is-a small child in the house. There is nothing like the wonder of a little one experiencing the lighting of the Christmas tree for the first time, or waking up on Christmas morning and enjoying all the toys. I remember when my kids would wake up before dawn. I remember when I did that also! DH and I really thought we would be in this position by now. What saddens me is that there is a little girl so far away that will not be enjoying the warmth and love of her own family because of our separation.





Didn't mean to make this post so gloomy-but as I sit and watch the usual Christmas season classic cartoons (Rudulph the Red Nosed Reindeer) what is missing is little Ling-Ling. Oh well-next year will be different.





Feeling good-had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now preparing to attend L's graduation. I cannot believe that my first baby will be graduating from college -Go Gators!- it was only yesterday she was graduating from Kindergarten.

Found this list in an adoption blog I sometimes read. You are supposed to Bold the items you have completed or done-I am happy I have so many things to mark off! I guess that means I'm living life to its fullest? Made me feel great!

Enjoy....


1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (several)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (does the one in New Orleans count)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving(does indoor skydiving count?)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (my Raggedy Ann and first Barbie doll)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in Arlington Cemetery
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (Been published in a book and magazines)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's to a joyful holiday season~ It certainly creeped up on me very quickly this year. I really hate being rushed into the holidays and then bam! they are over. This year I am going to make it a point not to "rush" through" and really enjoy the season. I am going to make it about people instead of things. Not much more to say-still waiting...

Yes We Did!

So much going on, yet so little to report on the adoption front. I'll begin with the election. This is the first time in my life that I get involved in the election process. I know my contribution was minimal-but for me it was monumental. I had never before given money to a campaign. I always felt that politicians have so much more money than a teacher barely making ends meet that it was something I would never consider doing. Well. I not only contributed once, but I did so three times. I know my contributions were small bananas compared to what some gave, but I felt strongly enough for my candidate and his ideals that I wanted to make a statement. I attended my first political rally. Boy was that exciting! The crowds, the energy, and the looonggg wait! I am happy that I attended the rally in Miami-it took place in Bicentenial Park-across the street from the Freedom Tower....the irony was NOT wasted on Me! I remember when my grandmother used to bring me to this building when I was a very little girl-I now know that we would come to get assistance-the cheese, the butter, the help for a new family of immigrants: Two women in a foreign country with a little girl to feed! And they did it! And I am a product of that sacrifice-courage.....So as my chosen candidate spoke of helping those that have been forgotten by government of course it struck a cord within me. I really live by the idea of "to whom much is given, much is expected." I canvassed and made phone calls during this election process-never did I ever imagine that I would participate in such activities! and if felt GREAT. I will take a moment to say that my very Republican Cuban Mother and Mother in law think that DH and I have lost our minds and become FANATICS! Fanantics!?!! Is that the word for trully believing in something/someone and actually stepping up to the plate and acting? Finally, I watched election night coverage because it really mattered this time! I had investedd time, energy and prayer.....and the results were very meaninful for me on a very personal level. What a great country this trully is! If one makes the choice it trully is government "for the people, by the people" How exciting that I was able to feel/experience my government in action.

I look forward to the next four years with hope...yes....how audacious to hope! I believe that as Americans we are once again living up to what that ideal really means. I'm proud and I'm happy and I'm hopeful!

Fall....

Fall....if we may call it such in South Florida....is my favorite time of the year. Their is a certain "nostalgia" that I begin to feel when the sun sets a little earlier, when the temperatures are not scorching hot, and when the air softens a bit. Ever since I can rememer I've loved the Fall. Those from the North would tell me "but this is not really Fall!" And I agree-no leaves changing and falling to the ground. We do not experience drops in temperature that merit sweater wearing, nor do we turn off our air conditioners. Yet the fact that Halloween is around the corner and we will be changing our clocks soon is enough for me to feel that melancholic feeling of a year coming to an end. This was a year of extremes for me. It was the most challenging for me healthwise and it was the most rewarding careerwise. It was also the year that I realized I had grown up! I remember talking to my childhood friends about what kind of lives we would have-oh how we would plan on being sooo different from our parents. Little did we know that although we would do somethings differently, in our core we became our parents! I so miss my high school years...the people I was friendly with...the carefree life that then I didn't realize I had. Sometimes I get an ache for those years. I only wish that this season would not lead to the rush rush of the Christmas holiday. I am going to make it a point this year to slow down and enjoy the moments-as opposed to how it has been in the past that before we realize it-the holidays are over!

The Lost City

Today I watched Andy Garcia's The Lost City probably for the third time. It made me feel emotions that I've felt before, yet I've never put into words. As a child of an immigrant mother from Cuba, I have always been very much the loss of this lost city called Havana, yet I am only coming to the realization of the enormity of what happened to my family in my adult years. As a matter of fact, I tried so hard to be American in my growing up years many times denying my heritage. How silly! I guess it was a child's need to fit in. I mention this because I ask myself "How will Ling-Ling feel when she is at the age that I was when I denied my heritage?" For her it will be so much harder-she will not be able to "mix in" as easily as I did due to her Chinese looks. I want to make sure that she will never be ashamed or feel that she must hide her birthplace. Everytime she looks in the mirror she will be faced with it. I do not blame my mother for my feeling the way I did, she was trying to survive in a country that was so foreign to her-having left behind the man that she was in love with (my father) so that I could have a better life. I just can't help but meditate on the heritage that is "lost" to me. In Garcia's movie, he has to leave behind a mother and father that loved him, a lifestyle that was intrinsic to being Cuban. For me, I did not have to make such a difficult choice, yet I commiserate with my mother and grandmother for it had to have been oh so heart-breaking for them. I will never understand their plight-yet I can mourn for a life I never had. I so wish I could go back to those times and experience a slice of life that my mother and grandmother did....I feel strangely nostalgic for her past. I also admire the courage that she and many of my friend's parents had in starting over in this wonderful country. I wonder if I would have been brave or strong enough to do the same?