Thankful During the Wait

We got our "Acknowledgement of Receipt" letter from CIS yesterday in a record setting two days post submission, so we are in the last phase of our adoption approvals! Wahoo! From now until we travel to bring Daniel home should be between two and three months, if all goes well.

I have decided on an excercise in creativity, productivity and thankfulness during the wait. Perhaps the time will be used more wisely in a positive momentum than a negative one. Thus, for day two, here are two goals and two things I am thankful for:

Goals:
1) Clean my house before the end of the weekend (top to bottom).
2) Look for news and e-mails only 3x per day. I know this sounds really pathetic, but it will actually be difficult for me. I am ashamed to have developed a cyber addiction.

Thankfulness:
1) The Museum of Life and Science in Durham is so much fun! We went today and met my little sister, who is in grad. school at Duke, and my mom. G gave me a year membership for 4 entrance passes for my birthday (which was yesterday :)), so we all got in for free. Check it out. It is a really amazing place.
http://www.ncmls.org/

2) My sister-in-law, the most organized and efficient woman I have ever met, sent me 6 cloth diapers yesterday! Now, I have 12 to start our collection. I am hoping to use cloth diapers exclusively. However, we have 2 different kinds. I guess we'll just see which we like best and order more of those after we return from Viet Nam. Here are the kinds we have:
http://www.fuzzibunz.com/
My friend, M, used these with her daughter, and she really liked them b/c they do not have velcro.
http://www.bumgenius.com/
This is the other kind, and they seem so soft and comfortable. We'll see, I guess.

I decided to use cloth diapers for four reasons. First, there are some really nasty chemicals in disposable diapers:
"Of more serious concern are the toxic chemicals present in disposable diapers. Dioxin, which in various forms has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases, is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process used in manufacturing disposable diapers, and trace quantities may exist in the diapers themselves.6
And what about the material that makes "superabsorbent" diapers so absorbent? If you've ever used disposable diapers, you've probably noticed beads of clear gel on your baby's genitals after a diaper change. Superabsorbent diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, which absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome.7 No studies have been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years." (http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html)

Also, I used disposable diapers for Scotty. By the time he was potty trained at a little over 2yo, I really had some serious trash guilt.

I have had friends use them, and if a person has enough, the cloth diapers are really convenient and easy to use. Why not!

Plus, the cost of diapers is HUGE. Buying a bunch of cloth ones once (that can be sold on Craigslist.com if they are not terribly stained) is a small expense compared to the cost of buying them weekly. If your sister-in-law starts sending them to you, EVEN BETTER!

2 days down.