Steph's Tips for Keeping Busy During "THE BIG WAIT"

I have become as expert at keeping myself busy while waiting for my adoption process to reach its full maturity. Here is a list of what I have tried (for better or worse) and things I will try in the coming months:

1) One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt-excellent project can draw it out for months-or years depending on how fast family and friends respond

2) Painting-baby's room, whole house, pictures whatever keeps the hands busy

3) Crocheting-I did 4 baby blankets in one particularly tough summer of waiting

4) Babysit other people's children- not only is it good practice but then after they start screaming and go home I don't mind the quiet in my house so much!

5) Read read read-adoption, attachment, on Ethiopia

6) Blog blog blog- great support, find other people who truly understand what you are going through

7)Try new hobbies-I became a certified Zumba instructor and now teach classes 3-4 nights per week. This has been the greatest for my sanity and I am helping other people get fit while I work on my own fitness!

8) Belly dance-course I used to be a "professional" but now I just dabble to keep myself up on my skills. Good way to kill a long Sunday though. I am throwing a belly dance themed baby shower for my good friend next month!

9) Pierce something! Yep this was great-had my nose done last year-unfortunately I lost it one day teaching gym class to my little ones and the hole closed before I could get back to the piercing place. UP side=now I can get it re-pierced. It doesn't hardly hurt at all to get it done.

10) Closely related to number 9-Tattoo something. I had my first tattoo done last year (took 3 hours-only the last 20 min. was really bad) I am thinking of going back and getting tally marks tattooed for every month of waiting...jk. But I do want more work done.

11) Spend time with your partner. My DH and I have been really enjoying our quality time together. Movie dates, dinner out, long walks. We are trying to get in all the dates that we should have done before we got married (we were a long distance couple so most of our dates were via phone).

12) Scrapbooking-I am SOOOOO not artsy but I am enjoying putting our photos that have been hiding in closets into a fun format. I hope someday to use them to share about our family with our little one. Esp. since we live 3000kms away from most of our extended family.

13) Speaking of closets-clean some! Getting sorted and throwing out collected crap gives a person a feeling of accomplishment. I recently threw out my "fat" clothes-ok, actually I donated them but same principle.

14) Do something that scares you. I joined a theatre group last year and performed with them. Scared me to death- I will shake my half-naked self in front of anyone but DO NOT ask me to speak- YIKES. But I did it and it was so FUN.

15) Take trips. It would be fun to go somewhere exotic but not everyone can afford that. But make small trips fun. I took some girlfriends across the border for a quick overnighter shopping trip sans husbands. It was great!

16) Save up to go somewhere exotic. Seriously-just the saving part can be fun. I have put some of my Zumba earnings aside to attend the International Zumba COnvention in Orlando, FL this summer. Some girlfriends are coming with to split hotel costs and whamo-affordable trip! I got hotel room for $99/night. Flight from Minneapolis for $200 round trip. Can hardly wait :) although Florida in August???? Hmm

17) Have something to look forward to...friends visiting, look for local events and do a countdown to those -having some activity that actually arrives on the promised timeline can do wonders for a person.

Need more ideas? Let me know. Have some great ideas to share? Let me know those too.

Here's to all of us engaged in this long wait...