I'm for the Glove-maker's Son...

I'm nearing the end (thank God) of a book called Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith.  I was going to go off on a profanity-laced rant in this post, but I've had some time to think about it and had a drink and I'm a bit calmer now.  This book (ostensibly a novel) is used to push forward the theory that William Shakespeare, the glove maker's son from Startford-on-Avon, was not the man who wrote the world's greatest poetry and drama.  According to her book, the Earl of Oxford is the best bet to be the man who wrote Shakespeare's words.  I have two problems with this theory, first she goes through the whole book saying there was no way the Avon Shakespeare could have known what he did about gentry life.  It makes a case that it is nearly impossible for ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  My other problem is that it takes away a lot of the legend from storybook England.

I believe in storybook England.  It may not be right at  the surface all the time, but I'm sure that somewhere on a plane between sweet green earth and steely grey sky in England there exists this entire other world created by the country's artists and writers.  I believe in Manderley and Pemberley and Thornfield.  I believe in Haworth Parsonage and three sisters sitting together on dark Yorkshire nights writing stories that became masterpieces.  I'm for Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood.  I believe in Arthur and his Knights.  I'm for Chaucer, More and Keats.  I'm for the Glove-maker's son.

Milestone

I don't often brag...but this is just too exciting to let slip by without saying something.  I have successfully (mostly) knitted a sock.

This is part of the reason I took up knitting in the first place.  My first attempt was a few months ago and I gave up in the middle of it, but this time I persevered and, after the heel turning, most of it was smooth sailing.  Yes, the toe is messed up and I had to consult my Knitting for Dummies to figure out how to correctly kitchener stitch.  But, I think I've got it now.

 By the way, yes, the sock is two different shades of blue.  I ran out of one color when I was mostly done and ran to the store and grabbed what they had just so I could finish.

Opportunity Lost

Do you ever have what seems like a really great idea?  You get excited about it, you plan for it and you even make two or three false starts because you're so eager you get started before the moment is right.  Then, when the right moment comes...nothing happens.  There is something standing between you and your great idea.

I had this happen recently and it totally sucks.  Three years ago, when Nathan and I decided we were going to pursue adoption, I went to my little bookcase where I keep my notebooks and pulled out a yellow one.  It has a padded cover with a really bright design of flowers and butterflies and is really pretty.  "I know what I'll do," I thought.  "I'll keep a log of everything we do as we begin the process of adoption.  Then when the baby is a little older, I'll give it to them.  It'll be a sort of, this is how much Mommy and Daddy love and planned for you."  I even wrote the two names we had picked out for the baby on the inside cover...and then crossed them out and wrote new names...Nathan and I go through names like paper towels.

Starting the process took longer than either one of us anticipated.  We checked out a couple of agencies we thought would work and they didn't and then we both lost our jobs so the moment was far from right to start planning a family.  When we signed the papers with Angel Adoption I came home and started digging around in my nightstand, where I thought I had left the notebook last.  It wasn't there.  So, I went through the little notebook bookcase.  It wasn't there either.  I have no idea where it is now and we've started the home study, so it seems like much too late to keep a notebook chronicle of everything we've done.  I hate it when stuff like that happens.

Trapped...and having a bit of a deja vu moment

It is now about 2000 degrees outside with the humidity.  That's a rough estimate of course...and Nathan and I are trapped in our bedroom.  Why?  Because earlier this summer our air conditioner went on the fritz.  Generously, my mom and dad loaned us the window unit they had in their own bedroom so that we might sleep a little more comfortably at nights and have some place to retreat to during the day when the heat was overbearing.

So, here we are.  And yet, it all seems a little too familiar...rather like this past winter when the gas company wouldn't turn on our heat and we were reduced to living in the bedroom with space heaters until they got everything sorted out on their end. Oh, the circle of life...

Marketing

Not long after we signed the contract with the adoption agency we are going with, we received a couple of packets of information one from our agency and the other from the group the agency operates under, who are going to be doing the homestudy.  We had to fill out in all kinds of information about our personalities and why we want to be parents and then we had to ask friends and acquaintances if they would be comfortable answering questions about us as people and as parents as our references.  Thanks everyone, by the way!

But to me, right now, the hardest part is the information we have to give for the other packet we had to fill out, the parent profile.  It feels kind of like an essay test.  Tell us about your home, your lives, your family and your habits.  And then, write the "Dear Birthmother" letter.  I'm a writer by nature but this is unlike anything I've ever attempted before.  We are basically selling ourselves and our lives to women and families who are making the agonizing decision of who they want to raise their children.  I did my best. 

Also, we had to come up with pictures.  Pictures of the house, the cats, our families and us.  We have to have 15+ pictures of ourselves.  We personally have very few pictures of ourselves.  We had to go pillaging our friends and families' cameras.  Even then it wasn't enough so we asked a friend of ours to come take pictures of us at the house.  We have everything but the pictures nailed down enough to send in a preliminary draft.  Bring on the closeups!