I am completely in love with a new children's book that I found (which, coincidentally, goes hand-in-hand with the current selection for the Barren Bitches Book Brigade--sign up, sign up!): And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. I got blubbery in the library reading it while I stood in the children's section. It the true story of two male penguins named Roy and Silo who live at the Central Park Zoo. They have been a couple since 1998 and they have a baby together named Tango. The egg came from another penguin couple named Betty and Porkey who also live at the zoo. When Betty produced two eggs, the zookeeper gave one to Roy and Silo because Betty and Porkey could only care for one chick at a time.

I love the last page: "At night the three penguins returned to their nest. There they snuggled together and, like all the other penguins in the penguin house, and all the other animals in the zoo, and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep."

The book made me want to get in the car and drive up to New York and visit the penguins. Plus I love the illustrations.

What I don't love? Having insurance premiums raised by almost $4000 this year and still not having any coverage for fertility drugs or treatments. That just sucks ass. But I'm not thinking about that right now. I'm focusing on cute penguin drawings. And the fact that I found so many books that I've wanted at the used bookstore yesterday. And because the used bookstore lady loves me so she gave me one of the books for free and knocked $3 off of another. I love walking out of a store with a huge bag of books for $10. And they were great books--Ayelet Waldman, Jennifer Weiner, Anne Lamott.

I'm focusing on blogs. I am not, I repeat NOT, focusing on those insurance premiums. Or how we're ever going to pay an additional $4000 a year towards insurance that doesn't cover fertility treatments.

Before we begin, in a convergence of blogdom and the real world, there will be a second meeting of the D.C. Bloggers on the 19th. You can find all the details at Looking for 2 Lines. I will be there--partying hard with the other stirrup queens. If you live in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia (or have the inclination to drive a long distance) come on over. Let LJ know that you're coming so she knows how many for the table.

On the Edge of a Cliff and Ready to Fly has a great post this week about meeting with the adoption attorney. My favourite line has to be "When we sat down with her, I was thinking 'Now, when I tell my kids about their adoption story, I’m going to have to start with explaining this weird little Chinese restaurant…'." But why I really loved this post came closer to the end when Drama Queen made an analogy between organ donation and adoption: "It seems weird, I keep thinking of organ donation (isn’t that odd?). Someone has a great tragedy, which is death, which leads to other people being joyful and getting organs and hearts and getting to make a new life. I am excited about adoption and being able to be a mom and have children, but the birth mothers will be going through a very difficult time and very scary circumstances. I pray that I will be sensitive to the birth mother/father and their family, because this will be a very brave decision and a scary decision for them. I also must be willing to accept if we go down the road and someone choses not to give their baby up for adoption, even if it’s at the very last minute." It was a very interesting connection that I never made before I read that post.

Steve at A Dad's Journey Through International Adoption has discovered the real reason behind the current delay in Russian adoptions. "But you see, the concept is that this delay is actually meant to improve the waiting parents-to-be ability to be good parents. This whole thing is a clever ploy by the Russians to make us all better at being patient and thus better at being parents." Perhaps now that their clever ruse has been blown out of the water, they can restart the program and hopefully Steve and Stefanie can become parents soon.

Ultimatejourney at Still Trying After All Those Pills is currently ensconced in her first dIUI cycle. I love this post for many of the thoughts including "Yes, of course I'm excited, but my head is in a completely different place than it was when we first started TTC. There's nowhere for me to check my emotional baggage at the door. My mind is swirling with hope and doubt." Please head over and wish her good luck with this cycle.

Lastly, I almost peed in my pants reading American Family this week, not only for their post about the difference in food offerings for their first child vs. their second child, but for M's extremely amusing thoughts on G-d and where babies come from. Especially turning Jesus Christ into a girl and playing "Baby Jesus." This is coming on the heels of the fact that I read this post right after having a long, heated debate with my son about the fact that bears do not wear diapers and he does not need a diaper for his teddy bear (especially when you call me upstairs two hours after you were supposed to be asleep). Tears were pouring down his face as he told us, "don't fib! Bears do wear diapers. My bear needs a diaper. Mommies put diapers on baby bears." And I, a grown woman, having to reason with him that bears (1) like to poop under trees (is this true? I don't know. But it sounded right) and (2) have claws that preclude the ability to tie on diapers. That was the reasoning that finally got him to sleep: that bear claws would be too long and shred apart any diaper they tried to put on their babies. After a thoughtful silent moment, tears still streaming down his face, he stopped calling me a liar and agreed that bears probably don't wear diapers. Just wait until he starts playing Baby Jesus... The entire time, all I could think about was Stephen Colbert's image of the snarling bear from the Threatdown...

To finish back at books and penguins and Dan Savage's adoption story, I love the book club because (1) it is a way for so many people who could never logistically come together in real life come together to discuss a book, (2) reading in a vacuum can be frustrating and instead you're reading with the purpose to discuss it afterwards, and (3) I love book clubs, but it's hard because of the logistics of planning face-to-face meeting time. With this book club, you participate whenever you can. You can even go back and read entries weeks later and comment then. Lori at Weebles Wobblog wrote a closing post about the book tour and sent out a dedication to all the other women marching in the Barren Bitches Book Brigade.