As my last birthday passed I began to hear an odd sound. It started off in quiet whispers but is getting louder and louder as time passes on . It is so loud now that I recognize it for what it is....my biological clock warning me the alarm is soon to sound and final call is fast approaching.While we made the decision years ago to not have more children, I've waxed and waned with my feelings of maybe, possibly, reopening that door. I have researched adoption, even special needs adoption. I have researched foster parenting. I have researched genetic science if we did want to open the biological door. With two neurological defect pregnancies in my 20's I doubt I have it in me emotionally to chance our genetic match up in my late 30's.But tonight as my oldest roamed the mall with his friends, I had the chance to just sit. That is all. Just be. This is VERY hard for me. But I did it. I watched children come and go and play and I marveled in how they could make toys out of chairs and each other. How rolling around in the grass outside by the fountains at Park Meadows mall was as exciting to them as a trip to the Lego store.I marveled at their sense of joy and peace in just being. ...
A Pink Frosting Birthday
A Pink Frosting BirthdayWe really lucked out with the weather that day. When the rain began, I worried it may ruin our backyard birthday party. Our daughter Stella and friends were celebrating her third birthday, and she was quite ready for cake. Soon the sun burst out and a brilliant rainbow arched above. Parents pulled out cameras and snapped away. The rain dried up as fast as it came. Cake eating could commence!Stella, the birthday girl, was proudly wearing her favorite lacy, pink Barbie dress and couldn’t have been more excited to notice she matched the Barbie cake I had so painstakingly crafted that morning.These kinds of baking projects always look easier than they are. The inverted 8 cup measuring glass produced a gorgeous skirt-shaped cake. Unfortunately, Barbie only sank up to her thighs in the soft white cake mound. It turned out to be easier to make another cake than to cut off Barbie’s legs. I know, because my husband and I tried! Needless to say, wire cutters, pliers and a steak knife weren’t up to the task of rendering a shorter Barbie. I then hastily prepared a small cake to place on top of the first cake. It was soon trimmed to size and set into ...