Many thanks for all of the good thoughts sent to our little almost 3 month old.  We're making some progress but we have quite a long way to go.

Our baby, our beautiful little 9 week old baby, is in intensive care on a heart-lung machine after open-heart surgery.

We're adopting and we're excited.  Our homestudy is approved, the paperwork signed & our photo profile is finished.  Once the profiles are sent out it could be a week or it could be months until we meet our new baby.  

Some of this is familiar to me from when I was pregnant with my daughter, now almost 2.  I've been bitten by the cleaning bug and have ordered the various baby necessities that we don't already have around the house.  I'm pumping to keep up my breastmilk supply in the hopes that I'll be able to provide a portion of our baby's nutritional needs.  We've discussed names ad nauseum - probably enough to give my husband reasonable grounds for divorce.

Some of this is new though - very new.  My husband & I are white and the program that we are adopting through is an African-American infant program.  Adoption alone brings up issues of class and privilege - Madonna's recent adoption is a perfect example.  Transracial adoption adds another level of complexity regarding race, ethnicity & culture.  Can parents raise strong, emotionally healthy children of a different race?  What about international adoption?  

I thought I'd (finally) post a quick intro after enjoying this site so much!

I am a SAH (but occasionally conflicted) mother to an 18 month old daughter.  I'm a nurse by training with a strong interest in progressive politics, public health & environmental issues.  We (self, husband, child, assorted pets) live in the Puget Sound and thoroughly enjoy our liberal "bubble" as we call it -- the beachcombing, hiking, camping, snowboarding and snowshoeing simply can't be beat.

We lost our first baby at 22 weeks after my water broke prematurely so I take personally all the unsafe attempts by Republicans to control women's reproductive health.  Quite honestly with a bill such as South Dakota's in place I would have risked my life and my fertility during my first pregnancy.

Glad to 'meet' you all!