Quilting

On the level of patience with 1 being the most impatient and 10 being the most patient, I am a 1 1/2... Maybe a 2... Mostly this is when I am wanting something, or expecting something to happen. Day to day things I am a pretty patient person, I mean I teach kindergarten so I have to be right?! But around my birthday I can get a little anxious trying to figure out what my present is. I like to know right now. So one thing this adoption process has forced me to face, is my need to know right now. I can't know right now. It's been hard. Sometimes really hard. This last month or so has been more on the difficult side. So I thought that maybe rather than mope and feel bad for myself, I should do something! 

So I started looking on Pinterest for some ideas. I love Pinterest. It's a bit of a time suck. I love it. Last night I looked at the Animal and Pet board at all the cute little baby animal pictures for like an hour..... Anyway, I digress...

While I was looking for something to create and work on, I found a link to this lady's blog. She made a quilt for her baby girl that she was expecting and it seemed pretty simple. 

(I mostly did what she did, but made some changes too.) 

So, in true Andrea fashion, I decided to make a quilt. Doesn't matter that I have never sewn before, it can't be that hard, right? So I went with my mother-in-law for a quick trip to the fabric store to pick out fabric....

Two and a half hours later we left with all we needed for me to sew a quilt. 

Two and a half hours. 

My stomach was in knots. 

I think I had the beginnings of an ulcer. 

Picking colors is stressful folks! It felt a bit like getting married. I mean what if I pick these colors, put in all the hard work, and then hate it in the end because the colors look like poo?! And, I don't know why I have never noticed this before (probably because I had never sewn before), but there is a freaking ton of material to choose from! And it is all different textures and weights and what-not. I kept picking fabric and my poor mother-in-law would have to tell me why I couldn't use it. 

Once I got it all home I pre-washed it (apparently this is important so that your fabric doesn't shrink when you wash it after you sew it together). Then I got to cutting. Each square has to be exactly the same. (I decided to go with a 4.5 inch block instead of the 3.5 inch block like the blogger I found. )

I did my best... I ended up with a rather large pile of blocks to use. I was pleased with all 182 of them. Yes I counted. I made Jayson help.

The next day I laid them all out in a random order. I didn't want it to be too patterny. 

Then I started sewing the blocks together into rows and pressing each one as I finished it. I got out my trusty iron that I hardly ever use, and used it for one row before it broke. This is my luck, people. I can never do a project with out having to go get random things because the things I have break. It all fairness it was a wedding gift so it is almost ten years old, but still, I hate ironing so it rarely gets used. Ironing is related to that one chore... ya know... the one that must not be named. 

Anyway, here is all of the blocks put together and ironed after I borrowed my friend's who lives down the street. Thanks Angela!

Then the real fun began! I took my blocks and laid them on top of a batting called Warm and Natural. I used this instead of the big fluffy batting mostly because my mother-in-law told me to. But it turns out it was a great choice because it's an all natural fiber and it was really easy to sew together. My mom says that it also hold up really well after it's been washed. 

Then I laid both of those layers on top of the gray minky fabric I picked for the backing and I ironed all three pieces together. This helped them stick together a bit better. 

Then I started pinning, and pinning, and pinning, and pinning, and pinning. 

And then, just for good measure, I pinned some more. 

I used straight pins. 

That kinda hurt. I had to stop sewing one night because I was having a hard time sewing a straight line while holding the blanket strategically so as not to bleed on it. 

No worries though, I didn't bleed on it! 

Yay me!

Up to this point I had been using my mother-in-law's machine. She had been making a quilt but they weren't getting along and so she decided to stop talking to it for a while. I think they have since made up. 

Anyway, my mom had an old machine lying around that she didn't use and so she gave it to me! I am so excited! That is how I know I am getting old, I am ridiculously excited over being given a sewing machine. Anyway, old or not, it's pretty cool! Here is a picture of Ol' Bess. She's pretty cute.

Once I got all of the quilting done, I pinned the satin binding around the edge. I love the different textures that this quilt offers. 

Here are my sewing buddies keeping me company. 

After I got all done sewing the satin binding on, I turned it over to check out the back and found a few places that hadn't been sewed. 

What. In. The. World. 

I have no idea how this happened. I mean you saw how many pins I put in the dumb thing. So I took a picture to text to my mom. 

Side note: I don't know how anyone learns to sew with out technology. I texted my mom pictures, and questions, and called her about 734 times... give or take. So when I sent her this one, I literally couldn't stop laughing at her response. 

"Say bad words." She understands.

Anyway, after ripping this particular corner out EIGHT TIMES, I finally got it to sew together nicely. 

And I finally got the sweet thing done! I am so happy with how it turned out. It is really nice and snuggly. It fits nicely in the crib. And I think it will be a nice one to use in the car seat too. 

I think I may be hooked on quilting after this. It is so gratifying to finish a project and know that it was me that made it. It has a lot of some imperfections, but that just adds to the charm right? 

The chore which must not be named...

So I hate laundry.

Like, loathe laundry.

It's the "L word" in my vocabulary.

I would rather scrub a toilet than fold laundry and put it away.

I can get it from the laundry basket into the washer. And I can usually get it from the washer to the dryer before the mildew sets in.

But then the problems start for me.

The folding and the putting away.

I like to blame it on the fact that the bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs while the laundry room is downstairs, but that just makes me sound lazy so I try not to use that one.

I debated even putting this on the blog because I don't want any potential birth moms who may be looking at the blog to get all freaked out thinking I can't do laundry. But then I thought to myself "Self, you are hoping for an open adoption. This hatred of the L word will not go unnoticed forever." So I figured I should just put it out there and hope that it is an endearing quality. Or at least something that helps a birth mom get to know me better. Also, I have no filter.

In my ideas of what hell is, it's a room full of laundry that has to be folded and put away but then the piles never get smaller.

Maybe my hatred of the L word dates back to when Jayson and I were first married and we were poor college students and he dyed all of my white clothes grayish blackish when he washed them after washing the bathroom rugs. Probably not. But I do like to tell that story because it makes Jayson squirm a little.

That's another thing about me, I really like to pester Jayson. I should probably save that for another blog post. He is such an easy going guy though! It really is fun to see how far you can push him before he gets annoyed. Ava has joined in on this with me. Which I enjoy even more.

But I digress. Back to the L word. I think that if I could organize laundry in the same way I organize my classroom, I wouldn't hate it so much. But really when it comes down to it, the job is never done. It's one of those things that unless you do your laundry in the nude, you are never really done. That would just be offensive. So I do my laundry fully clothed and never truly finish.

My nephew is currently into designing things. He is quite brilliant about it and creates pretty intricate blue prints for his designs. His most recent is a robot that "does jobs". These jobs consist of scanning clothes to decide if they are clean or dirty (he hates this chore), folding them, and then he is working on how to make it put them away. I love this kid! I already have an order in for one! I would be more that happy to test out a prototype.

I guess until then I am stuck doing it the "old fashioned way". Or, I could just go buy everyone a new pack of underwear and put it off for a couple more days...

Reflecting on a year's journey

So at this point, we are hovering right around a year's time going through in this adoption process. There are a couple of things that have happened this year that I believe are worth noting:

1) The call to adopt is not an easy one for any party involved.

At this point, we have had close to two dozen encounters with potential birth families. I am guessing for a variety of reasons, our family has not been picked. I truly believe that our match is out there, yet it can be discouraging to go through the process of finding out that there is a birth mom who has our profile in her hand, only to find out that she is going to pick another family.

I won't pretend that the discouragement that I am experiencing is even close to the emotional roller coaster a birth family must experience. To be willing to let another family raise the wonderful, beautiful person growing inside of a birth mom... that is a decision that has no equal to what I will experience in this process. So to all birth moms and families that come across this blog, I want to encourage you as you seek to decide what is the best decision to make for your child. That child is and always will be your child, and the choice you make, whether to adopt or to raise the child yourself, is a noble one, worthy of praise and encouragement.

2) The call to adopt is real, not of my own design.

One of my personal characteristics is that of being an achiever. When this process began, my mind shifted mostly to the logistics of the adoption; how were we going to make this happen? And we began the process to make it happen. It is one thing when you have a plan, and are able to execute it on your own to make it happen, but I soon discovered that while we were in the process of trying to figure this thing out, God in his great glory was working on the hearts of individuals to help us make this happen. Unprompted by me or my family, individuals began to step forward with financial commitments and service commitments to help us raise the funding to be able to adopt when the time comes. This to me, is evidence of God working to make it possible to adopt, and proof that our family is on the right track as we adopt.

3) So we wait.

We will continue to travel down this road as long as it is seen fit for us to be there. We are hanging out in the adoption waiting pool, and over this year's time our waiting has shown us to be very good swimmers. We are ever increasingly looking forward to the opportunity to begin a beautiful relationship with a birth mom, her family, and her child.