Mom proof #3- receipts

Those of you who look at my blog title will notice that I started with Mom proof #3, while never having written about mom proof #1, and #2. I figure as my life continues, I will have many of these, similar to those frequently shown on mugs, cards, random stuff online. You know, the ones that say, "You know you're a mom when..." and then end with some witty reason that you have proof that you are a mom.

I will be mainly writing about my receipts from the day, but I knew it wasn't the first mom proof that I have experienced, and figured that I should throw the other ones in here, and then label it with #3.

Mom proof #1- Pictures
You know you're a mom when you can't help but show anyone you think might be remotely interested pictures of your child.

I only have 8 pictures of our daughter total... so I think this is even worse for me in some ways because I not only want to show pictures, but I want to show literally picture I have! I have one picture of her in my wallet, and I kid you not, there are moments that I think to myself, does this cashier, waiter, random person possibly want to see a picture of her?  I have been able to restrain myself (so far) but the thought does cross my mind.

Mom proof #2- Worry.
You know you're a mom when one out of ten (or less) thoughts is a worry about your child.

I am told that this is normal, and that it never goes away. It seemed to have hit the moment we got the real referral, and it hasn't really gotten much better. Every picture I have gives me a bit of peace, because then I know that at that moment, when the picture was taken, she was safe, happy and healthy. But otherwise, yes, worries flit through my head all the time. I usually take them as a hint to pray for her. My biggest fear is that something will go so wrong that we will never get to see her and/or never get her home. I spend more time than I'd like having to commit this fear to God, over and over again, and trust that He planned for her to be part of our family, and she WILL join our family, here in the U.S. and hopefully soon.

But my mom proof for the day is:

Mom proof #3- Receipts.
You know you're a mom when you see the receipts from diapers, tiny dresses and tiny shoes for YOUR child (as opposed to a gift).

I may not have seen my daughter in person, or had the opportunity to hold her yet, but the items that I have bought over the last week sure make me feel like a mom!

After a period of time that it looked like a dim possibility of traveling to Ghana after Thanksgiving, it has turned around, and now looks more likely than not (though still not certain yet). Also, we got definite confirmation that when we are in the country, we do get to have her with us for that time! So, we have been shopping in preparation for that event.

First up on the list is clothes! I asked my friends with kids and they said to plan 2-3 outfits a day for her... and at the start of the day today we had... one, total. I am sure I will eventually have more clothes than I know what to do with, but as I haven't had my shower yet (its in the works)... we needed to fix that, now.

Tricky thing about these clothes too is that we aren't sure what size she is, so we are guessing based on her age. Even though we have been told she is really small for her age, we got almost all dresses, so if they are a bit big, its okay. Oh, and the fact that by the time she gets home for real, she will likely have grown (considering it is another couple of months from time of travel to Ghana) so these probably won't be worn much after this week (unless she stays small, and the clothes are a little big, but who knows). So, I wanted to keep it cheap. We started with looking at various garage sales.


I am a bit proud of my haggling these three items down from 10 to 8 dollars for the three of them.

Then we went to Target's clearance rack, and got these five outfits:


Add those with the items we bought on the day we found out we were legally her parents:


and the dress I made for her from a shirt that I was no longer able to wear:


(I know the lighting is terrible... but the pictures were taken at night, and Blake needs to replace a lot of light bulbs downstairs lol!)

That brings her up to 10 outfits for the five or so days we have her! Not bad. I also did get an order off ebay with some more outfits, but we will see if it arrives before we have to leave.If it makes it here on time, then we have the 3 a day recommended by friends, if not... we will make do with what we have.

Funny thing is that I want to see her in all these outfits... even if she doesn't need that many outfits due to dirt/spills/accidents, and I have mental images of changing her anyways just to get pictures of her in more outfits to treasure during the time till she is home. But then I wonder if that is treating her too much like a doll for me to just dress up? Anyways...

We also got other supplies:


There are more not featured on here, but I tried to follow the suggestions of my friends... though we still have to take at least one more trip to Target (or somewhere) before we go, because I forgot a bathing suit for her! Sigh, I got swimming diapers, but no swimsuit yet. Hopefully they have some for sale even though it is November...

The hardest item to buy was shoes. We have no idea what size her feet are, and even looking online, we basically learned that shoe size varies by kid. Great. So we ended up going with two different sizes, and hoping that one of them works... or we will be buying her shoes in Ghana lol! Both could be too big, or too small, we aren't really sure at all, but they are very cute!


Every time, at every store, I did feel a bit strange buying this toddler stuff. Especially since Blake and I were together... and don't have a child with us. I wondered what people thought, and (as mentioned above) contemplated telling the cashiers that I wasn't buying for a friend, a shower, a niece or anyone else... I was buying for OUR child. Who we haven't met yet.

It is a good strange. It is also a really good strange to think that if we cross our last hurdle... we will be with her in a week. 1 week. Wow.

Just like with Ireland, it seems surreal. Like it hasn't really sunk in yet. Although, we now have two suitcases that have her items in them (and room for ours as well) in expectation that it is happening.

My biggest and best mom proof is coming... holding my child in my arms! Soon... hopefully, prayerfully soon!