GREETINGS FROM SEATTLE

Vanessa and I are visiting Seattle and Portland, on a last minute trip to see old friends on their birthdays. "Auntie" Sarah and "Auntie" Katja have turned another year older so we came to celebrate with them. There are many babies in the mix and we are loving every minute of it.

Here we are, four college roommates, finally getting around to building our families after 23 years of knowing each other. Seems like yesterday we were teasing our bangs to great heights and learning to drink coffee on the weekends.

Duncan grew in his mommy's belly as his mommy took me to my last round of chemo, every single week. He'll be 5 in February. Vanessa thinks Duncan is her boyfriend. Vanessa would have turned 6 a month ago if she had been allowed to grow immediately after conception. So who is older?

Van and I only had a brief amount of time to visit friends. See us here with Loretta, Wally, Jessica and Myriah. Loretta and I shared a small office for 8 years. Why I am alive and cancer free is a mystery. I feel grateful, as always, to be here and to be a mother.

Without realizing it, various members of Jack's family were already converging on Seattle. Nanners and I got to rendez-vous with cousins, aunts and uncles at at MacDonalds with a hobitrail. We got to share our BIG NEWS with the family directly:

DRUMROLL, PLEASE... On Friday the adoption agency called to say they have a little 8 month old baby boy.


Daddio and I have spent the weekend in contact with the birthmom and today we heard that she wants to match with us for sure. We are so excited! There's much in the works, so please keep us all in your prayers. If the match goes through as planned, we will have this beautiful child in our home in December.