Chronology

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