Huh. We came to the land of Dorothy and Toto last Saturday as two people in love, a married couple with many hopes, fears and anxieties. We leave (this week hopefully) as a little Tredway family, parents with many hopes, fears and anxieties. Amazing stuff, really.

Right now I’ve got this incredibly wonderful babe on my knees. She’s a bit fussy—perhaps she’s going through a growth spurt or something—so I keep my legs swaying, back and forth, back and forth. We’ve achieved a grand total of four days as parents and yet we feel like we’ve loved Livia forever. There is so much for me to write… about the adoption process and how we’ve fared over the last week, about this absolutely adorable pookie, and about our foray in parenthood. Hopefully I’ll have time to write in the next few days. For now we’re praying that we’ll get “the call” to go home to Nebraska and finally get to share this little one with a myriad of friends and family. Thanks to all who’ve hoped and prayed with us.

“The pink bundle flies at midnight!”

I’ve been quite cryptic about the pink bundle on the blog. There are no Adoption Blogging for Dummies guidelines that I am aware of, so we’re making up the rules as we go. The truth is, the world has access to this page… There are some things I share here, other things I don’t want to share, and things that I want to share but discernment says not to. So….

The pink bundle indeed flies at midnight.

All praise and honor and glory to God for orchestrating such an amazing change in our lives. We are approximately two days from meeting our daughter for the first time. We are joyous, anxious, excited, grateful and a myriad of other emotions in the quiet moments of the day.

Soon the pink bundle will be a daily reality. At that point, we’ll introduce her to Blogland with great pride.

There exists a continuum that falls between the points “Planner” and “Flies-By-the-Seat-of-His/Her-Pants” and I have realized that I’m quite close to Planner side of it all. Overall, this is an okay thing… I consider it nice to know what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, where I’m doing it and who I’m doing it with. The difficulty comes when a unknown arises, one that I simply have to become comfortable with. I want to KNOW. I NEED to know. And sometimes, darnit, I just DO NOT KNOW. Sitting within the unknown… It can be tough.

Then again, sometimes I embrace the unknown. I’ll readily admit I love a surprise party in my honor; furthermore I was shocked when I found that some (ahem, Jeremy) don’t love such events! I really love the occasional gift of flowers or impromptu dinner with my husband. I enjoy having friends or family drop by the house unannounced and I appreciate the spontaneity and flexibility associated with my job at Zion Church. Little things. Fun things. Happy things. Daily things… for these I can fly by the seat of my pants.

But big, life-altering things? Someone pass me an instructional book, advice from the ages, a map and a compass and I’m ready to go. And if I can’t have such things? Well, that’s when I hunker down and wait, hoping for the unknown to soon become comfortably known.

[For Nebraskans only…]

If you’re like me and enjoy a good deal, in addition to saving money, pick up a Reel Deal card from Douglas Theatres the next time you catch a movie. Get the card stamped each time you plunk down your benjamins and you’ll soon get a free popcorn, free drink, and eventually a free movie pass. Not too shabby! The key is remembering to pull it out of your wallet each time…

What makes a “good” movie?

I’m convinced that part of our opinions of the merits of a film are due to circumstances surrounding our movie-watching experiences, and not to the actual picture itself.

Expectations play a huge role in forming one’s opinions. Though I didn’t appreciate The Matrix when I first saw it on the big screen, I grew to love it and watched it voraciously prior to the releases of the second and third parts in the trilogy. Reloaded and Revolutions were disappointments to me; my expectations were too high and inhibited my enjoyment of the movies. On the other hand, I went to My Big Fat Greek Wedding expecting a fun, fluffy flick and I had a good fun, fluffy time.

Physical surroundings also play a role. I’ll always associate The Adventures of Baron Munchausen with these nasty tasting calzones from Sam’s Club I was eating while watching the movie. Coincidentally, Adventures also left a nasty taste in my mouth. Watch any slightly humorous movie with Charity and you can’t help but smile—the girl is a major movie laugher! We all know flicks like Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy are best watched in the right crowd, preferably late at night or accompanied by a few drinks (I mean KoolAid for you minors!). And we’ve all had bad movie-going experiences, ones where a kid kicks your chair through the entire two hour screening or someone with major b.o. sits right next to you. All these things can affect your opinion.

I bring all this up because I’ve had several discussions about movies in the past few days that have resulted in the following phrases: “What?!?! I HATED [or LOVED] that movie!!” …And I’ve been surprised by how different my perception of the film is from my friends’ opinions.

– After reading negative reviews, I ended up really liking Troy. My younger brother thought it was terrible. In fact, the scene I was most impressed by (Priam’s request in Achilles’ tent), Andrew thought was the worst. Huh.

– Though my psyche will forever be scarred, I thought The House of Sand and Fog was a decent movie. My friends Sarah and Dave thought it was just terrible. They also actually walked out of Cold Mountain out of boredom—and I really liked that show! Hmmm.

– I despised American Splendor. Everyone raved about this film so I suppose my expectations were quite high. Hated it. Only watched the whole thing because I kept hoping it would get better. Three friends in the past few days have mentioned how much they liked it. Ugh.

– Perhaps this goes without saying, but my parents and Jeremy’s parents hardly ever agree with us on “good” movies. One of my favorites, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, put my mother-in-law to sleep and made my mom roll her eyes. Ah well!

So who knows what makes a good movie? Academy Awards are given out year after year, and year after year people argue why one deserves the statuette and why another does not. I guess we can all just agree to amicably disagree.

Hee hee… Jeremy and I mimicked a cell phone commercial last night on our walk around the neighborhood. The subsequent photo (not posted here) shows him warily looking around, to make sure no one is looking. Such love, such sacrifice! My husband of six years willingly places himself under the Dip sign for my amusement. Isn’t he great?

As we enter summer, two thoughts are on my mind… 1) Summer television is horrendous! There is nothing decent worth watching on poor man’s cable. (If you know of anything interesting, email me pronto.) My favorite reality show ever, The Amazing Race, usually airs in the summer months. Alas, this year it’s set for the fall line-up. Wait… Wait a minute… It’s not set for fall, it starts July 7! Yippee!!! TAR aside, tv right now stinks. Which leads me to 2) what can we do for FREE this summer? There’s only so much time one can spend gardening, walking around the neighborhood, and playing board games. Your suggestions are welcome!

Here’s wishing you all a happy Wednesday. I’m gonna go look at the Dip picture again for a good chuckle.

It’s time for a budget. An honest, true-to-life, livable budget. So when Jeremy asked what I wanted to do last night, after we ate a healthy dinner of Hamburger Helper, I said, “Get ice cream.” Usually “get ice cream” refers to us jumping in the Altima and heading down the road a mile to Ivanna Cone in the Haymarket… Love that Ivanna Cone! But a budget-minded Tredway must begin to think differently. So we first brainstormed inexpensive Friday night activities. Know what won out? A visit to our favorite three year olds.

At 8:11pm we had no time to lose; the boys would soon be put to bed. We quickly drove south of town and enjoyed half an hour of rowdy fun with these very crazy, highly entertaining miniature geniuses. I call them geniuses because they’re already learning to write their letters, they can recall names of their little friends from daycare, and well, because they’re just so darn cute. When I asked them what my name was (“Becca what?”) one replied, “Becca and Jeremy.” And when it, alas, came time for bed, I got a very sweet drooly kiss on the lips from the other one. Now I know these little guys aren’t perfect, but you can’t beat ‘em for great entertainment on a Friday night!

Whatever money we saved Friday I blew Saturday night. But I think it’s okay because time spent with my brothers is a rarity and our time together this evening was well worth it. Andrew and I battled rain, winds and washed-out roads on our way to Omaha while storms once again ravaged the poor small towns south of Lincoln. Once there, Adam introduced us to a very yummy Vietnamese restaurant and I enjoyed the best chicken curry since my days in St. Louis at Pho Grand. Though not my first movie choice, Chronicles of Riddick was fun and engaging… And kudos goes to the Omaha AMC theater for the best bathrooms in any movie theater anywhere. One thing about sibling time… It’s so nice to enjoy being with your siblings. I consider myself really blessed to have brothers that are cool and fun.

Don’t know what tomorrow holds, besides our usual attendance of the late service at church. What I do know is that it is our sixth wedding anniversary—and such an event deserves a blog entry of it’s own!

Brandywine Gardens has been creeping along in the mild June weather, not growing dramatically… until now. Yesterday we hits temps in the ’90s and I imagine if I had perched on my back deck all day, I would’ve seen the plants grow before my eyes. They LOVE the heat. Granted, the veggies looked a wee wilted by the end of the day, but cool night breezes and a healthy watering cured all that. This photo of one zucchini was taken several days ago—it has probably doubled in size since then. My delphinium are the current pride and joy of my gardening efforts, though I can take absolutely no credit for their beauty. We happen to have fantastic soil that’ll grow just about anything that can grow in Nebraska. We planted the dels and now they’re just gorgeous. If anyone has good recipes involving tomato, cucumber, green pepper or zucchini, drop me an email… I think the Shire will have such fruits coming out our ears in a few short weeks.

It’s been a teary weekend for me… Last night I watched In America, knowing full well I could end up with salty cheeks by the time it was over. I managed to contain the sobs I felt like releasing and only used one tissue — not too bad! (Sidenote: I really liked the movie… Definitely worth seeing.) This morning Tobey preached at Zion. Besides doing a heck of a good job for the second week in a row, he shared some memories related to the tragic death of his sixteen month old niece. As he began this particular illustration I braced myself against empathetically tearing up and yet, when he uttered the words “Daddy, I’m home” as a metaphor to his niece’s entry into heaven, I lost it. As did all the women around me, and a few men, I’m certain. Though I managed to keep the weepy eyes to a minimum, my nose betrayed me and a tissue-dig in the purse was inevitable. Finally, I picked up a book at the library this afternoon entitled, Child of My Heart: A Celebration of Adoption, by Barbara Alpert (Berkley Books). Two pages in and I was racked with intense emotion over the reunion of a birthfather and his biological daughter. I’d share the sweet story here but my keyboard would be positively sticky by the time I was finished. Instead I’ll relay this wonderful passage written by Jamie Lee Curtis, adoptive mom to two children, Annie and Tom:

“I like myself more now that I’m a mother. Annie brings out all my good. And all my weirdness. I can be this nutty wacko mommy for her. You know those markers, the ones you use to highlight sentences? Well, Annie’s my highlighter. She emphasizes the best in me. It just stands out when I’m with her…”

“I don’t care how my family was created. I can tell you what I feel for my children. I love them more than anything in the world I could ever love.”