Happy New Year!

Wow 2004 is coming to an end! Can you believe it? This year has really flown by.

In January of 2004 Cle and I set out on our adventure of investigating adoption agencies and look at us now! Well versed in all of the adoption lingo and the ins and outs of the process and waiting for our little bundle.

The year 2004 has served as a platform for new beginnings. I am not one for New Year's resolutions. I learned long ago (I guess about 4th or 5th grade when they used to make you write them in school) that they never really stick. However, as I approach 2005 and my 30th birthday I am in great anticipation for what lies ahead. I am very optimistic about the coming year and would like to have a more positive outlook on my life and the world around me. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband of 5 1/2 years, and a great group of family members and friends. I have a greater appreciation for my many blessings and I feel a greater need to give back and as Oprah would say "use my life".

I am reading a book for my book club this month, called Brick Lane. I was really inspired by a quote from the book and would like to pass it on to you all. Brick Lane is a novel by Monica Ali and it tells the story of a Bangladeshi woman (Nazneen) who lives in London with her husband through an arranged marriage. She doesn't know English and she lives in sort of a compound with other Bangladeshi families. In a conversation with one of the older Bangladeshi woman (Mrs. Islam), Mrs. Islam admonishes:
"If you think you are powerless than you are, but everything is within you, where God put it"

I leave you with those words on this last day of 2004, Peace and Blessings to you and yours!