Time to adopt a new attitude?

After my hard time getting and staying pregnant and subsequent near-death birth five (almost six) years ago, I decided a sibling for my son would come from my heart and not my womb. My husband and I officially decided to adopt 2 years ago on our 10 year anniversary trip to Vegas (what happens in Vegas regarding adoption does not stay in Vegas). I was a woman on a mission and had taken the Chinese adoption forms on the airplane intent to get sweet hubby to decide it was the best choice for our family. He did and it was exciting and romantic to think about expanding our family.
We immediately started the process with a Chinese adoption agency and then we hit a wall. Out of nowhere Chinese adoptions started taking 4 years! We decided to try for the "waiting child" program, to get a child with a minor correctible need, but alas, we found that our insurance company would not cover a child with preexisting conditions. So, we pulled out and decided to go with a domestic adoption agency where we have been on a wait list for about 1 1/2 years. We have had a couple of near-miss adoptions with them, but nothing has quite panned out. I got excited about a baby girl due this month until I found out that her birth mom is a methadone user. Bless that baby, but we will not be able to take on an infant in withdrawall as we already have a biological son to tend to as well and feel it would not be fair to him or the baby.
So, now I have been flirting with the possibility of getting back into the China program since my heart was there to start with. I recently found a beautiful little girl on a waiting child list. A little older than we had considered, almost three, but we got excited about the possibility of Little Man having a playmate in his age bracket. We got our pediatrician's take on her medical charts, which the agency sent us, which included some red flags, got a second opinion from an intl. adoption clinic and it turns out that this sweet little girl (who we daydreamed about for a good couple of weeks) has mild "mental retardation". Bless that angel. I know that she will end up in the best home for her, where the family can devote all of their attention to her. Unfortunately we know our limitations now and that is not us.
Soo, the search continues. I am sitting on a fence and the post is not in a very comfortable position. Who will our daughter be? An infant here in the US or a toddler overseas? OR, will we bag the whole idea and just let our boy rule the roost
since we are hitting roadblocks and certainly not getting any younger? I now officially let it go and trust that the best situation for our family and to the highest good of all will happen, or not happen, easlily and effortlessly as it is meant to be. Amen!

It A.D.D.s up

We got a diagnosis last week that comes as no surprise. ADD-C, the combined kind of ADD that includes innatentiveness, impusivity and hyperactivity. So, now what? The pediatrician said we are on the right track with behavior modification which seems to be helping to keep him on task. He was in no hurry to try medication, thank goodness, as I am not ready for that, but we will reasses in a couple of months.
I have known for some time that my little boy is off the charts impulsive--hence him being a bolter when he first started school. And when other parents have described their ADD/ADHD children to me (prior to medication) it sounds a lot like my boy. Many of theses kids are very bright. A friend said a doctor likened these kids to her with the Terminator, like they come in a room, scan it for details then they are done and want to move on. Another friend whose older son, who is also gifted, was diagnosed and before being medicated he would not look at his dad, even when his dad held his face, because he was so busy looking around the room. My kid is just like that. As our close family friend observed he doesn't stop moving in his mind or in his body. The sticker chart at school seems to be really working for him, thank goodness, as we just had three weeks in a row of smiley faces. Woo-hoo!
It is kind of a relief to get that diagnosis in a way. Sometimes people, who are not experienced with this condition, may think it has something to do with ones parenting, or with the child being defiant, when that is not the case. So, now we know he can't totally help this behavior, it is in his makeup and we will do whatever we can to alleviate symptoms that may not be successful for him, while embracing the parts that go along with it that are positive. I am reading a book, Answers To Distraction by Edward Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D. and they say that people with ADD often have the advantages of high energy, creativity, a good sense of humour and tenacity. In fact when asked asked why there are more diagnosis of ADD in the US than Europe the doctors said one could consider it a case of overdiagnosis in the US, but they really think there are actually more cases here. AND furthermore believe it is in our specific genetic makeup as the founders of this country, and the kind of people who would immigrate here, were not the kind to wait around, they were the kind to take big risks and be impulsive. He proposes that many of our founding fathers may have had ADD! So perhaps it is downright patriotic to have this condition, by cracky! I'm just sayin'.... Why, it is even in our name, Br-ADD-ock! So there ya have it. Onward and upwards.

Pop rocks!

Just sending a shout out to my daddy, songwriter Bobby Braddock. We went to a champagne toast/ "million-airs" event for him at BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) the other night that honored him for being the only living songwriter having #1 country songs in five consecutive decades. They presented him with awards on nine different songs of his that have had at least a million airs on the radio and said if you put it all together it adds up to over a hundred years of airplay! Wowza ... go Daddy, go! Endlessly proud of you! And thanks to BMI for the wonderful event.

Kids Rock Nashville!

Psyched to be co-hosting and guesting on the groovy radio show Kids Rock Nashville 107.1 live from Music City 3:00-5:00 tomorrow, Thursday, September 30th. Please give a listen if ya can. I will try to post it here later, too! Thanks to DJ Jacie for having me on-I think it will be a hoot. She is going to tell a little about my parenting memoir and play a few songs from the accompanying album and we will talk mom stuff including dental health tips for kiddos. (And ya know the missing tooth story of last week will be blurted out for sure)Looking forward to it.
And in the words of my little boy who loves all things having to do with radios/microphones or walkie-talkies ... "Over"!

A week of smileys--minus one tooth!

Celebrating my 12 year wedding anni this weekend and the fact that our little guy kept his smiley faces in kindergarten ALL WEEK LONG. A VERY big deal and the best anniversary gift I could have asked for for the weekend! AND he lost his first tooth this week!
The school secretary has worked there for 25 years and has pulled 9000 teeth! It is rumored that she may be the real tooth fairy! She "tested" his tooth Wednesday to see how loose it was and voila! It was out in a flash. She sent him home with the tooth in a little plastic treasure chest. The stuff magic childhood memories are made of.

No kidding

Gotta share this weird story. So, on our way back from our summer vacation we were at a large North Eastern airport. I decided to go get a panini from a sandwich shop to have on the plane later. Little Man was in tow. The large guy with glasses at the counter said "would your little one like something?" "No, thanks, he has eaten". Then the guys says "I am required by state law to let you know that I am a registered sex offender in twenty-three states". Dumbfounded I asked "Are you serious?!" "Dead serious" he replied. I stood there kind of shocked and then he said "that will be $12.00, or free if you give me your little one." Oh. my. God. I was so freaked. I had given him my debit card before I thought about it which made me even more paranoid that he had my name. My husband and I went back and forth on whether or not that could possibly be true, but if it wasn't ...why joke about such a thing?! Was it a warning or cry for help??
Jim immediately reported it to the head of the corporation who responded promptly. They called the young man in (turns out he was only a teenager!) with a policeman present. They confronted him and he said he was just joking around and had no idea the seriousness of it. They dismissed him from his job and he is never allowed to work at the airport anymore. Sorry he lost his gig, but I guess that was a life lesson for him that some things are just NOT okay to kid about.
Oh yeah, the sandwich shop corporation sent us a nice goodie basket of sweets with a nice apology which was appreciated.
Strange-huh?!

My dad's birthday "flocking"

My dad had a birthday last month and to help him celebrate we ordered a "flocking" as a gag and to help support the Nashville Zoo and their new flamingo exhibit. Little Man considers himself a zoo man and was very into this idea. My dad woke up to about 15 plastic flamingos on his lawn this morning with a sign that reads "you've been flocked" and tells about the new exhibit. The flamingos will roost there for 24 hours and they will leave one behind for him being a good sport. Fun!