Fun In Florida- Day 4

Yep! The beach again. After 2 days on the beach we wore my aunt out and she stayed home. We went to a touristy beach this time full of activity, Clearwater Beach. We basically played in the water, soaked in the rays and had a nice picnic lunch. The water was a little cool, but warmer than the first 2 days. Wearing my rashguard I was able to swim in the water. Once you're in you're numb anyways, so....lol.

Sid walking on the pier:


View of Clearwater Beach from the pier:




Pelican on the pier. He's smart. He waits for the fisherpeople to catch fish and feed him instead of getting his own food:

After spending the entire day at the beach we drove an hour to an outlet mall. We didn't have much time there b/c my aunt was expecting us for dinner, we didn't have our cell charged and couldn't call her to say we'd be later than expected. So we hurried back and had another awesome dinner on the deck.

Fun In Florida- Day 3

Day 3

What else? THE BEACH! My aunt took us to Honeymoon Island where we took a ferry to another island called Caledesi Island, rated the number 1 beach in North America. Absolutely beautiful.

With my aunt, waiting for the ferry:


Check out all our gear. We packed a lunch and brought our snorkel sets:

On the ferry:

The view from the ferry. This is the beach we were at the day before:

The beach:

The water was way too cold and I went in once but my husband had a blast snorkeling. We spent some time walking along the beach together (the sand is like talcum powder) and searching for interesting shells. My favourite shell that I collected was a sea urchin. There were tons of them. I found a couple of sand dollars too.

Pelicans in the water:


Sid playing in the water:

After a fun day in the sun we went home, showered and went to Olive Garden for dinner. Mmmm! Another great day.

Fun In Florida- Day 1 & 2

Happy New Year all,

I've been overwhelmed and sick since returning from our trip.

As many adoptive parents have experienced this week, I had a total meltdown yesterday afternoon. On Monday we were sent an email from our agency regarding the new policies and court procedures set in place by the Ethiopian government. This is going to make the wait for a referral longer and also lengthen the amount of time it will take to have a successful court. I was so sick on Monday that I couldn't even process or comprehend this information and Tuesday afternoon I came back to reality and simply bawled until I couldn't breath anymore...then I cried some more. This sucks. I have also been told that the wait for a referral is now 8 to 10 months instead of 6 to 8 months. I do not see how we will get through court before the closures in August or how we will be bringing our baby home this year. Happy Frickin' New Year. Yet again another disappointment to get over, I have to re-adjust my thinking and toughen myself up for an even longer wait. 2010 it is. How are we supposed to get through this...how am I supposed to continue my regular life and pretend to be happy when really I'm not, I'm miserable. It is a good thing I don't really want to be around people b/c they really wouldn't want to be around me.

I am going to B.C. for the weekend to attend my niece's wedding and have to clean my entire house to allow my husband's family to use our house for the weekend (and we're not even going to be home). I need to take a break and share about our time in Florida.

AHHHH, Florida. I didn't think about adoption for days. I left my life and had a wonderful time.

We left on Christmas Day (airmiles doesn't have much more available at that time of year) and thankfully our flight left close to on time...I think in all it was about a half hour late. It was announced that they were asking us to wait 20 minutes for another flight attendent to show up or else they were going to cut 16 people from the flight. We had no problem waiting, lol.

We arrived in Orlando and then drove to Tampa/Clearwater in our rental car without any trouble, except it rained (actually poured) for about an hour. We were quite worried about this, but that was the only precipitation for our entire visit. The temperatures were actually unseasonally warm for the week we were there.

When we arrived at my aunt's house we celebrated Christmas by opening gifts just before midnight (got it in in the nick of time, lol). My aunt gave me a digital photo frame (for pics of baby, of course) and gave my husband a book on Africa.

The next morning we set off for the beach. We ended up at the causeway where the locals go. It is not a touristy beach full of crowds. The water was quite cold and we waded often, but mostly we sat in the beach chairs, chatting and soaking up the sun. I spotted 3 dolphins making their way through the causeway to the open water so Sid and I ran down the beach after them. So beautiful!

This beach also had fun shells and tons of pelicans to watch as they bomb the water, diving for fish. I love watching those pelicans! I think I could watch them all day. What a great way to spend Boxing Day!

We had a traditional Christmas dinner that night (Boxing Day) and the coolest thing was we ate dinner outside on the deck. It was so warm with a light breeze.

Truly a relaxing and fun day. It was so great to not think about work or adoption for once.