Distracted - but in a good way... I think

Last week, MTV debuted Good Vibes - a new cartoon that my talented husband storyboarded for. You may already be well-aware of this because I haven't shut up on Facebook about it. I am insanely proud of him - and I'm praying that the show becomes a bombastic hit, because it deserves to. If you haven't already watched it - please do!

Anyway, I've been distracted by that, work and life in general - so I simply haven't blogged.

I've also been suffering from a severe case of baby-on-the-brain, so when our dear friends Ira and Janice appeared with their 5 month-old adorable little munchkin Samantha at the Good Vibes premiere, I died. She is beyond precious and I was completely mesmerized. It exacerbated my condition a great deal.

I couldn't stop holding her tiny little hands and petting her puffy little cheeks.

*Sigh*

Ira said, "So the answer to your question is... to kid." As of today, I think I agree, but sshhh... don't tell my parents. I won't hear the end of it. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

As for the picture, I tried to get Janice's permission to use one of her clone, but she's MIA, so I'm stealing my friends' adorable Star Wars Halloween photo instead. I don't think they'll mind. Look at how cute this one is as a Wookiee!

Girly Girls!

So I have an old friend from summer camp who writes for parenting.com and who also writes her own blog, where she recently posted this:

http://www.karmacontinued.com/2011/03/butterfly-wings.html

I actually teared up reading this because of its overall cuteness and how heart-wrenchingly brilliant and wonderful it is. In fact, I'll admit it. I just read it to my husband, (second reading for me), and started bawling and flapping my hands in front of my face to try to stop the tears from falling. Why we women think that flapping our hands in front of our faces will do ANYTHING is beyond me, and yet, we continue to hope... but I digress.

I loved her post for so many reasons (in no particular order):

1. She's a great writer.

2. Her daughter is so cute and I love that she's going through a super girly girl phase.

3. I love that she drove all over Los Angeles to track down butterfly wings for her daughter at the last minute. (For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of driving in Los Angeles, trust me when I tell you that this had to have been a veritable nightmare for her).

4. Just reading about her daughter's reaction to the butterfly wings brought me to tears... twice.

Anyway, this post, combined with a recent visit with my girlfriend Jacqui and her 6-month old son Nathaniel, has started to push me towards that we should eventually adopt a little girl side of the fence again.

I'm sure that in another day or so however, something will push me right back to where I was before, which will be right in the middle, which will mean the kid debate rages on. Although, upon second reading of my friend's post, I'm really not so sure anymore.

In the meantime, I have to admit that holding Nathaniel wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be, and was actually an absolute pleasure. I even offered to babysit. Getting an adorable tiny person to smile is very, very cool.

So, that's two votes for kidding and no votes against kidding this week.

Adoption Age Restrictions

So, I was having a lovely lunch with my fabulous editor-friend Kelly Cook yesterday, (check out her 'Snob' sites... www.bagsnob.com, www.beautysnob.com, and all the others), and then she drops a bombshell on me that I was COMPLETELY unaware of.

Various countries have age restrictions on adoption. For example, China's age restriction is now 38 for BOTH parents! 38... which means John is officially too "old" as he'll be 40 in August.

WHAT?!? It's absurd. I mean, I guess you have to draw the line somewhere... but 38 is a bit extreme, right?

Anyway, the reason I'm kind-of freaking out is because John and I liked the idea of possibly adopting a little girl from China, (since we both really seem to only want girls - and because we're nowhere near ready for kids just yet). That said, of course there are other countries to look at, but I guess I need to get 'schooled' on what the restrictions are in countries we'd be interested in possibly adopting from if we go that route.

Anyway - the news led me to Google, (not really a Jewgle in this case - just a standard Googling practice of plain, old-fashioned research), and I came across a site - www.older-parentadoptionblogs.com and found the following list:

• Azerbaijan: no age restrictions
• Belarus: minimum +16 over child, no maximum
• Bulgaria: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Cambodia: under 55
• Columbia: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Ecuador: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Ethiopia: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Georgia: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Guatemala: minimum over 25, no maximum (Although I have also heard there is no max limit, so the information seems to be inconsistent.)
• Haiti: minimum over 35, no maximum
• India: between 28 and 40
• Kazakhstan: no age restrictions
• Latvia: no age restrictions
• Liberia: no age restrictions
• Mexico: minimum over 25, no maximum
• Moldova: between 25 and 50
• Nepal: between 25 and 55
• Peru: under 55
• Philippines: minimum over 27, no maximum
• Poland: under 44
• Russia: no age restrictions
• Korea: 25 to 44
• Taiwan: no maximum restriction
• Thailand: no more than 40 years older than the child
• Ukraine: no maximum restriction
• Vietnam: no maximum restriction

Not really sure just how accurate this list is... but I guess it's a good thing that I'm writing this blog - or I'd be oblivious to the fact that not only are there stringent age restrictions for some countries, but there are a slew of other restrictions as well - everything from weight/BMI to income, etc. I knew adoption wasn't easy but the age restriction thing threw me for a bit of a loop.

Of course, we haven't ruled out adopting domestically either... but let's just say we have our reservations about it for a wide variety of reasons...

Okay - enjoy the cute pic.