Author Archives: yearoffunsarah

Sep 11 2013
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Fun for Couples, Reader Suggested Fun

Day 352: I’m Having Their Baby

My sister has turned me on to a show that could be difficult down the road, but for now, I am addicted. It’s called I’m Having Their Baby. You may have heard of it. I had but thought that it was about surrogacy from the title. Actually it’s about adoption.

Each episode follows two to three couples/birth mothers as they struggle to decide what to do with their babies. Many are already matched with adoptive parents, many are not. Most stories go through the birth to two months after birth. The show gives me an insight into how hard the decision is for birth patents, which is invaluable. Not only the struggle with placing their child for adoption but also the struggle with family and friends who do not agree with the decision.

It also will hopefully help me be cautious with my heart. Many of the matched birth mothers/couples end up deciding to parent right after birth or within a few days of birth. For adoptive parents, this means they have not only been off the adoption market while matched but also grown to love and expect a child at the end. Many are present for the birth, even hold and bond with the baby before being told they will not be taking the child home. I cannot even fathom what that is like, but our agency says 1 in 5 matched birth mothers/parents end up deciding to parent themselves.

It’s a hard road ahead and, for now, this show provides some insight and comfort. I think it is probably interesting for anyone, not just those of us hoping to start a family this way 🙂

Sep 10 2013
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Guilty Pleasures, Reader Suggested Fun, Solitary Fun

Day 351: Kinfolk

If you don’t know, Kinfolk is a beautiful magazine that focuses on “discovering new things to cook, make and do.” Emily (of Emily Alt Photography) turned me on to it, even gifting me a subscription as a thank you for the work I do for her (too nice and totally not necessary but I’ll take it!).

Beautiful really is the right word for it. All the pictures are lovely. The layout is simple and pretty. And the stories are funny, sweet and varied. Volume Nine is out today-I’m going to savor every moment of relaxation with this lovely gal.

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Sep 09 2013
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Around the House/DIY, Food/Drink Fun, Fun for Couples

Day 350: Chopped Challenge

The hubs loves him some Chopped. It’s on for like four hours every weeknight and I swear he could watch every episode every night. (If you don’t know the show, four chefs are presented with a mystery basket of ingredients. In the appetizer round, they are given 20 minutes to use all ingredients in one dish. One chef is chopped and they move on to the main course, and then dessert, leaving one champion. Each round had a new mystery basket. Simple yet satisfying). Also we are trying to do a better job of grocery shopping and cooking so we don’t spend all our money eating out every night.

Today I got home first, realized we had no food and gave myself a challenge. Rather than go to a grocery store, I would go right next door to the store that is more like the Kwik E Mart than a store and see if I could find enough ingredients to make a dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh jalapeno peppers, avocados and tomatoes-jackpot! I also grabbed some thin noodles and $3 later (yes $3!) I had an opaque bag of fresh veggies and noodles.

The opaque bag is important because it gave me the idea to present the hubs with the chopped challenge. Once home, I added Greek yogurt and our new favorite hot sauce-Cholula-to the bag.

When the hubs came home, he was excited about trying it. He was confused and challenged by my ingredients. (In fact he ended up cheating and not using the Greek yogurt that I had thrown in as both a challenge and a potential sauce base). He started with the noodles, boiling them, and chopping up the veggies. From here he started to heat and reduce the tomatoes to a sauce with Cholula and peppers. Where things go downhill is his treatment of the peppers. Including them in the sauce-great. Leaving a bunch of seeds in-no thank you.

He mixed everything together and put it right in the fridge, envisioning a sort of cold, spicy noodle “salad.” We gave it a few minutes then tasted it with the avocado. It would have been delicious if it wasn’t also burning our mouths. Take all the seeds out people. We don’t need em!

Really both challenges (corner store shopping and Chopped) were fun. A definite retry to (hopefully) better results.

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Sep 08 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Friends and Family, Solitary Fun

Day 349: Spiritual Awakening?

Some of my friends, the hubs and I are on a quest of the spiritual nature. We, like many urban 30 somethings (ok I’m still in my 20s but am almost there), have an urge to “find” ourselves post quarter-life crisis. We hope to educate ourselves about the historic religions and find nondenominational, spiritual guidance and community. And perhaps an opportunity to serve the community in some way.

As a group, we’ve identified a few places to “try.” Today it was Bodhi in Lincoln Park. I don’t really want to go into too much detail on the pros and cons simply because they are so specific to me. I feel strongly that I can only say for myself whether one place is “better” than another. But what I can say is that the biggest impression I got from Bodhi is how open a community they are. We instantly felt welcomed and accepted.

Next week it’s down to Boystown for a service at the Second Unitarian Church. If you have any suggestions for other places for us to check out in Chicago, let me know!

Also Sunday was a full day-from church to brunch to Cubs to watch Giants v Cowboys at home (I do NOT want to talk about this game). It was so busy I wore three different outfits! So I thought instagramming three #ootds would be a good way to chronicle the day. Here they are: I am sure you can tell which is which (so fun!)

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Sep 07 2013
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Friends and Family, Fun for Couples, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Day 348: More Big News!

The hubs and I have an announcement: we have decided to grow our family through adoption.

We have many reasons for this and some of them have to do with RA. First, though I want to say this path has called to me. From a young age, I have felt passionate about adoption as a way to help women and children in need. It also happens that having RA can cause difficulties getting pregnant, staying pregnant and, more commonly, staying healthy and pain-free throughout and following pregnancy.

The hubs and I went through the process of going off of methotrexate and waiting until it was safe to try (3 cycles methotrexate free). However after just a few months more, we reached a point where I felt like I was heading back to the bad physical place of last summer. We made the decision to go back on methotrexate.

During this period, we also went to an info session at an adoption agency and consulted friends who have adopted. We talked at length about why we want children and if those reasons had anything to do with genetics. We found that while we were naturally interested to see what a child that is the biological product of the two of us looks like, many of the other reasons had nothing to do with biology. After our August roadtrip, we reached out to the agency to begin the process.

I thought a lot about blogging about the pregnancy process with RA as we experienced it, however I also wanted to keep it private so as not to put too much pressure. It is an important issue for young women with RA and one that I am open to discussing now. I just couldn’t let myself get back to what I call “the bad place.” It’s where the motivation to run came from, the motivation to eat well, and the initial motivation to open up on this blog. And it was enough motivation to last a lifetime-no need to experience it again.

Now I am excited to share our adoption journey. Much much more on this to come!

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