And the Award for Biggest Jackass goes to...

 I was nominated for something other than World's Worst Mother! Vote for me!? What'll I win? I wonder. Maybe I won't win anything. Maybe just being nominated is winning?

Leaving now to vote for Claudia.

And the Award for Biggest Bonehead Goes To...

I have to confess, back in March of last year, the lovely Liz gave me this blog award...
I had hoped that it meant I would soon be enjoying an awards banquet like this. Alas, the gala ticket never arrived. I sat down to pick seven other bloggers whose blogs I thought were 'Brillante'. (Is that a typo by the way? What is the country of origin for this award? Is that Italian for brilliant? How worldly!) While trying to make my choices, I was instantly transported back to fourth grade. I thought about how my mom threw me a super cool roller rink birthday party. She let me invite whomever I wanted. It was a blast. What if she told me I could only invite seven friends? The horror! The sadness! Who would be left out! Not possible. Well, for that reason I wrote to Liz, thanked her and said if I didn't acknowledge it, it was because I didn't want to leave anyone out. Really, I think so many blogs are brilliant for so many different reasons. I didn't want anyone hearing about the party they weren't invited to.

It seems, however, that the Queen of Hilarity has now bestowed on me this...

Charlotte, thankfully, has mentioned several of the women I find fabulous. I thought that perhaps it would be okay now to mention some additional Queens of Fabulousity*.

One of the things that these Fabulous women have in common is that they were the first Fabulous blogs that I found.

When we started the adoption process, I thought it would be a good idea to have a blog. That way, when people wanted to know what was happening (my family) they could just click and read. I would then be able to avoid the generic group e-mail. I thought that eventually, if we faced any difficulties and didn't feel like talking about it, we could just say, "Read the blog". So, ready to begin, I sat down and started perusing all things blog.

I landed on this woman's blog...


This is Katy. (Lori, I have completely pilfered this picture from your blog. I hope you don't mind, and I have something to say about you later).

I started reading Straight Magic. After about ten minutes, I threw my hands up in the air, shut my laptop and exclaimed, "Oh forget it!" This woman's blog is exactly the blog I would want to write if I were just more interesting, intelligent, insightful, humorous, etc. I got so discouraged. I almost started a blog with only one published line of words. It would read..."Yeah, what Katy said."

Feeling strong enough to open the computer again I landed here...


Holding Still. I have one thing to say about Erin, Put down "The Weaver's Craft," and pick up the 'Holding Still.' Erin writes beautifully about the challenges that come with the adoption of two sibling boys. I'm sure you have been over there already, but if you haven't... Go.


Next I found this woman....

Who is this woman I thought? She is so beautiful, and her blog is so interesting, and she runs marathons, and look at her kids! And she is worried about Haiti. I was just taken in. Does she live in Spain? What does her blog title mean? She seems very cosmopolitan. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she just happens to be living in Wisconsin, not Spain. She is basically awesome. Esperando A Zufan! And really, how cute is Zufan!


Elsa's mom. Wow...


The posts I want to direct you to are password protected at Habesha Child. I landed on E's mom's blog after she had come home from Ethiopia. She was so brutally honest about the difficulties she faced in country. I thought to myself, this woman is amazing. She is just putting it out there. I was also surprised at how people, through their comments on her blog, actually helped her, literally, to get through it. If you ask her, I bet she will give you the password so you can see how powerful a blog, and its comments can be.

And now last but certainly not least...

Drew and Carey. The fact that these folks were so physically attractive (my husband after meeting them in person last year sat down in the car and stammered...they are so.....beautiful), was certainly enough to draw you in. Who knew that they would also be such incredible people. With their blog they created something magical, and also something absolutely awe-inspiring. Their blog continues to inspire as they move closer to their adoption of the beautiful 'T'.

So they were the first. They are Fabulous for many reasons. Oh and back to Lori, read her August posts that describe her meeting her daughter for the first time. Oh and Beth's too please, read these. (See there was no way I could just pick five). These honest, brave bloggers are truly fabulous.

There are so many bloggers that I am grateful to, and that I admire. Check my blogroll. These just happen to be the first seven women that I found. All of you are invited to skate, every single one of you.

* Here are the rules to receiving this award:
You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous bloggers in a post.
You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post. (Didn't do this, aren't my addictions obvious on this blog?)
You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.
On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.