Limbo

I haven't been posting too much lately, for no particular reason other than that not too much has been going on. It feels like we're in a kind of limbo, waiting for the effects of the actions that we've taken over the past couple of months.

We're now finished the home study process in our ongoing adoption saga, and have been approved as adoptive parents (yay!). We've decided that our first choice is to adopt through our local children's aid society, and I contacted them a few weeks ago to get things rolling only to run into a bit of a brick wall. Apparently, before we can be considered as adoptive parents, we have to attend an information session, which isn't too big a deal as it's a one-night thing. Then, because we've already done our training and home study, we can meet with the social worker right away and start being matched with potential children. Except that the next information session isn't until October 19th. So we wait.

In the meantime, because we did our home study and training through a private adoption agency, we also have the option of submitting a profile for that agency to use. What that means is that we need to put together a little book with pictures and a brief rundown of our life story, explaining why we'd be good parents, and give it to the agency. Then, when a birth mother comes to the agency, they provide her with the profiles of couples that meet whatever criteria she's set out, and she chooses which couple(s) she wants to meet with, and eventually which couple she wants to give her baby to. So we're currently sorting through our pictures, and waiting for some to come in from our folks (turns out we don't have to many pictures of ourselves, since we're always the ones behind the camera!), and trying to decide which ones should go in the profile.

Until we get all of that done, we wait. And surprisingly enough, I'm okay with that. I'm learning a lot about patience in this whole process, and trusting that just because things aren't necessarily proceeding the way I'd like them to doesn't mean that they aren't proceeding in the best way possible.

Living in 40+ degree heat - a balanced perspective :)

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I normally hate drinking water, but I'm so thirsty that I'm getting my 8 glasses a day.

I'm thirsty because I'm sweating buckets - yay for being stinky!

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We have no a/c in our apartment, so sleep has been next to impossible.

I actually look forward to going in to work in the morning, because it's air conditioned.

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It's too hot to eat anything that isn't essentially a liquid.

I've lost weight.

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I'm not getting any housework done, because any prolonged movement puts you at risk of heat stroke.

I've discovered several new TV shows that I enjoy, and have caught up on my reading.

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I haven't had to use moisturizer in a week, because the air is so humid it does the job for me.

I haven't had a good hair day in over a week.

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Obviously speaking...

I've been working in the corporate world for 3+ years now, yet the propensity for business-type people to state the obvious never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday I was in a workshop designed to help train performance managers, and one of the 'experts' delivered this line with all seriousness, as if were a pearl of great wisdom:

"To be a leader you have to get people to follow you."

Does that seem like a no-brainer to anyone else?

Thoughts on Walmart

People often ask us why we've chosen not to shop at Walmart, and I've always found it difficult to articulate the reason. Not that we don't have one, it's just that I'm not an economist so my vocabulary in this area is rather limited. I came across an article the other day that summed it up pretty well, though (you can read it here). It basically comes down to 2 things:

1) Walmarts do initially create more jobs, but they're not "good" jobs, and in the long run they undermine the local economy.

2) Those low, low prices come at the expense of fair wages at almost every step in the production and distribution process.

In light of these two facts, TC and I have chosen to support local small businesses whenever we can. Things may cost a little more, but that's only because we're closer to paying the true cost for the item. As a bonus, we're a lot less likely to buy things that we don't really need. We've been doing pretty well, too. Since January, we've only purchased one thing at Walmart, and that was because it was the only place we could find it.

Please understand that I'm not condemning those who shop at Walmart. The fact that we don't is the result of a decision that TC and I made, based on our understanding of the world and the role we have in it. Not everyone would agree, and that's okay. But I am curious to know what you all think about Walmart. Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Are you completely okay with shopping there? Do you avoid it altogether? Or are you somewhere in between - shopping there but feeling slightly guilty about it?