I've had this on my mind to do this for about a week now. If it's entirely uninteresting to you, I apologize. It's a chronology of building our family so it skips a lot of stuff in the first few years - in fact, it skips a few years in the first few years... My mind is such a muddle these days I wanted to put some order to my life so here goes:
August 1988 - I begin at Bucknell as a transfer student (miss my sister's wedding which was the first week of classes for me : (
August 1988 - Get my first glimpse of Tad as he is taping balloons to my RA's dorm room door as a practical joke, encounter him a second time while I am holed up at David's house studying German (which I later dropped), eating ham my Aunt Nancy sent home with me, and watching Mary Poppins. He was looking for his laundry detergent. I knew that day I would marry him.
September 1988 - Attend the Tree and Rock Sock Hop with the awesomest band Being Don and Nothingness. Dance my heini off with Tad. (if anyone still has their cassette tape I would give you anything you want for it!!!)
November 1988 - work tech crew for Never In My Lifetime, sprain my ankle, have my first real date with Tad when I am not able to walk to the cast party, and spend the evening with him instead.
April 1991 - we adopt our first furry child, Alex the black lab, then spend the next month trying to keep a growing puppy from being detected in the Gateways and under the desks at classes and in the light booth
May 1991 - We both graduate from Bucknell
August 1991 - I head to Brown for graduate school, Tad moves back in with his parents to hunt for a job (bad job market, bad memory) I take Alex with me which doesn't last long and he ends up with Tad
? 1991/92- Tad gets a job with EAI, he and Alex move to the bachelor pad in Whiteford
December 1992 - I graduate from Brown with an MA in Theater History and Theory
January 1993 - Tad and I are married, I move into the bachelor pad and try my best to turn it into a family dwelling
? 1993- Tad, Alex and I move to White Hall on a dairy farm where I learn how to milk cows and get a job as a Youth Minister at St. Clare RC parish
1994/5? - Tad, Alex and I move to Eldersburg, MD to follow Tad's second job with what was then Automated Weather Source, Sometime that year we adopt Pooka, a golden retriever and now have two large dogs in a 4 room house. Somewhere in here we are declared infertile by a fertility specialist, I quit my job as a youth minister and Tad and I develop a two person performance which we begin to perform locally
March 1997 - We adopt JT, he is 2months old
April 1997 - we find out I'm pregnant
November 1997 - Ben is born, he is a newborn. We now have two babies and two large dogs in a 4 room house
Spring 1998 Tad loses his third job with a small contracting firm, we pack up JT and Ben, leave the dogs with Tad's parents and travel out to Chicago and back for 6 weeks performing our Life of Christ show
Spring 1998 - We move into Tad's childhood home in Bel Air - his parents move out and leave his sister with us, Tad begins work for UPS
September 1998 - we bring Jacob home, he is 3 months old
December 1998 - Jake's birthfather bails himself out of jail and decides to be a dad, he is back in jail within a couple of months where he will remain until Jake turns 16, Jake lives with his grandmother
November 1999 - We adopt Philip from Korea, he is 2 years 4 months old
July 2001 - We adopt Miriam from Hong Kong, she is 4 years 9 months old
September 2001 - Betsy is born, she is a newborn
July 2002 - We adopt Ruth, she is 18 months old
August 2003 - John Michael is born, he is a newborn
August 2004 - David is born, he is a newborn
June 2005 - Lightning strikes our house and causes a fire, we move to Riverside
Memorial Day 2006 - the house is complete, we move back to Bel Air
July 2006 - Nate is born, he is a newborn
September 2006 - Nehemiah is born, he and Adora move in with us
May 2007 - We bring Noah into our home as a private foster-to-adopt
June 2008 - Tali is born, she is a newborn
November 2008 - Noah's birthgrandmother takes him for a weekend visit, we never see either of them again
July 2009 - We adopt Andrea, she is 12 years old
August 2009 - Faith is born, she is a newborn
2010 - Tad leaves UPS, goes to work for AWS again which becomes Earthnetworks
January 2011 - Adora and Nehemiah move to their own apartment
2011 - Tad is laid off from Earthnetworks and begins work with Hire Wave as an Engineering Contractor
March 2011 - Zak is born, he is a newborn
September 2012 - Adora and Nehemiah move back briefly then move on to their second apartment
