[Linny]

Okay. I'm back from the south and here I am. Have been posting a few places, and though of another question.

We took our youngest baby with us. She travelled well. As it turned out, our youngest and oldest child went with us. My oldest is stationed near the area we had to go to. (If in question, read my previous post.)

While many of us here have already adopted and are awaiting the call for our next, we are pretty much in the groove of caring for our child/children. This question could be answered by those folks who visit here that haven't adopted their first time too.

QUESTION:


"WHAT WOULD YOU PROBABLY BE DOING IF YOU HAD NOT CHOSEN TO BE A PARENT?"


I know most of us are more than grateful to the Lord for putting our children in our homes. But, I'm sure there are times when we think about the 'careers' other than parenting we might have undertaken.....


Looking forward to hearing from each of you.....


Sincerely,


Linny

[faith_amom]

I would probably be in a "ha ha house" because my biological clock was ticking so loudly!!

Seriously, though, if I wasn't a mother right now, I would be working as a technical writer (the person who writes user's manuals, like how to program your VCR). I had a hard time figuring out "what I want to be when I grow up," and I sort of fell into this career. I earned two "awards of excellence" during my first year as a writer and then one "award of merit" during my second year. We got "the call" after I had been working as a writer about 2-1/2 years.

Since I had always planned to be a stay-at-home mom, I assumed that walking away would be easy. It wasn't. I had a real knack for technical writing, and I absolutely LOVED doing it. And, because there are so many poorly written manuals out there (we've all tried to use them!!), I got lots of appreciation from coworkers, my manager, and customers. I heard at least once a week about how much they valued me, what a great job I was doing, etc. Then, I quit to stay home, and all feedback was "Waaa!!" and "Why isn't dinner ready yet??" AARRGGHH!!

It has now been two years, and I have adjusted to my life as a mother. I am where I want to be, but there is a part of me that misses all of the appreciation I used to get at work. But, the job will be there later, and my son will only be little once. So, I am where I am supposed to be.

- Faith

[lovestory]

I have always wanted to be a Mom. I started babysitting at age 12...and have loved little ones ever since (and before then, too.) I went to college and worked various jobs after graduation...so for 10 years (we didn't adopt our son until I was 28) I tried to find my niche, and never really did. Well, when our son was placed in my arms...it was found.

If we had never adopted...I would probably be going from job to job right now, going crazy. (Instead I get to go crazy with continues questions like 'what?' or 'what is that?' or 'what are you doing?' I will take this ANY day. )

Stephanie

If I was not a full time mom I imagine I would still be floating. I hopped from job to job and changed my major in college SO many times that I am still far from graduating!!! My mom had told me maybe I was "meant" to be a mom, and sure enough I have never thought twice about my choice to stay at home with my kids.
We were 23 when we adopted our first child, needless to say up to that point we were still out having a good time. I think as a couple if we didn't have kids we would still be out there. I have numerous friends that are just now settling down and getting married. I have been married for 8 years and we are starting to work on baby number 3!!!! I am that old married woman and so happy about it!!
Bailey

[Linny]

You know.......I started out as a deaf ed major. Then I decided to go just special ed, elementary. Then I got married and my folks told me I'd never ever finish! Ooops, they were wrong!
However, my dh got stationed in Okinawa, Japan and the college didn't have a teaching major.....so I majored in Psychology! (Boy, did it come in handy later on!)
We, too, were 23 when the first baby was adopted. Then 25 and baby #2 came along. I sub taught in Japan for one week----right after the baby came, then realized I needed to be home. When we moved to the mountains, I was an EMT for one year. Then we moved back to the midwest.

In the meantime, I worked at a bank, and aided and sub- taught at a behavior disordered school. I went back to try to get my teaching certification......but we had just adopted our first older child (which became a nightmare.....read the 'failed adoption' post, if you like).....and this continued schooling became impossible.
However, like many, I found that balancing kids and work was a near impossiblity. I left the BD school to teach at a Christian school. After 18 months of trying to 'balance' and the addition of two more children, I left to just 'stay home'.

We've since adopted an infant within the last year, and hope to adopt just one more baby!
There are times when I think about 'the career thingy'......but I believe I'm meant to be right here. And, now at 45yrs old, I think we'll be raising children for quite some time!

Sincerely,

Linny

[mommylovesjosh]

Our quest for children started 7 years (to the day!) before our son came home. I got pregnant on our second anniversary had my first of many ill-fated pregnancies and 7 years and a day later our a-son was born. Before our first pregnancy, I quit my job, moved to a remote town (my husband got a church there, he's a pastor), way far away from family and friends, and decided that I would wait to be a stay-at-home mom and not find another job. I loved the prospect. It was something I always wanted to do. Well, 7 years later I was thinking that I could have become a doctor or something quite important! I probably would have started hairdressing school or gone for esthetitian training this past fall if our son hadn't come home. I am SO glad that I am able to be with him 24 hours a day! Ok, sometimes it's nice to go to the store on my own, but this is what I was born to do! I LOVE this career!

[Again!]

I couldn't resist this one... :>

If I hadn't adopted children, I would be doing brain surgery.

Well, actually, I get to do that anyway. But now in the evenings, I also go to baseball and basketball games, and I can tell you a LOT about Yu Gi Oh cards and lip gloss and how important it is to have a date for the dance, and why every boy should get to be a cowboy! And I have the pleasure of watching my kids grow in so many different ways. But hey, brain surgery is pretty fun as well! I wasn't unhappy before the kids came, but I sure am enjoying having them. Guess that's why I'm adopting AGAIN!