Day 87 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

        Today I am thankful that I got to chat with my friend Donna.  Donna is a bereaved mom and an adoptive mom.  She lives in CT. We met online about 15 years or so ago. Donna is a special person.  I use to try to help people adopt from Ukraine after we adopted. I kind of felt that I was paying it forward or all of the people who had helped me along the way. I tried to help Donna and gave her all the information that I could.  There was just something about her that made me feel connected to her.  As we chatted on the phone, we eventually found out that we were both bereaved moms.  Donna lost her four year old little boy Michael in an accident.  I have only ever seen his picture, but he was so darn adorable!  Anyway, Donna and I chatted all the time and vented to  each other about our kids! Donna and her husband adopted Ana from Ukraine,  a cute little 9 yr old girl. Ana is now a beautiful young woman. I hadn't spoken to her for awhile but someone sent me a picture of a rainbow mountain in Peru  https://www.facebook.com/punjabkesaribethere/videos/142146433137933/   This mountain is amazing! !  Please check it out, it will make your day.  Rainbows remind Donna of her little boy.

I try to send them to Donna whenever I see one online.  Donna and I are so much alike, strict and loving moms. Donna, like me, is also very honest about her kids!  Her friends send her rainbow photos whenever they find them online. Donna is a very upbeat person.  She also has a biological daughter named Jenna. I am hoping that Jenna decides to go to PSU.  Jenna is a high school junior now so if she goes to PSU,  Olya will be there as a senior  when Jenna is a freshman and Donna and I can hang out. I am so very thankful for the gift of Donna's friendship.

         Jenna is a fabulous softball player, as well as an A+ student  and has been scouted by many schools. Olya chose to start at a branch campus even though her grades and SATs were high enough to get her into main campus. Olya definitely had a large pool of alumni relatives and PSU asks about that on the application form.  Her parents, all her siblings, three uncles, and four cousins attended PSU!  Olya liked the idea of a smaller place to adjust to at first but she is excited to go to main as a junior. Dan and I went to PSU as well as Joe, Amy, Renee, Olivia for one year, and Olya who is now a freshman at a branch campus.  We say that our kids would bleed blue and white!

We met Donna and her family in person when we went to Amy's best friend's wedding about 10 years ago.  We barely knew Amy's best friend's parents but they acknowledged us at the wedding and thanked us for coming. Olivia even caught the bouquet! The wedding was beautiful but sad for us because we knew Amy would have been a member of the bridal party. We spent the next day  with Donna and her husband.  Her adopted daughter Ana is a beautiful young woman and doing well in high school.
        Today I had a reading with a supposed wonderful medium, Nellie Walter.  My friend Amy use to work with her, they are both hospice nurses but I didn't mention that to her until the end of our session.  I was so excited and so open to connecting with Amy.  I went in with an extremely positive attitude.  I had to wait six months to get an appointment. That was a waste of $125.00.  She wasn't so wonderful for me.  Everyone I know who used her said she was fabulous.  She was very nice and sweet but she didn't hit many marks for me.  She didn't know Amy's name, age range, favorite foods, and had to guess at her college.  First she said Villanova, then asked if she went away to college and I said yes, then she said Pitt.  Finally, she said blue and white colors. She told me that she and her husband went to PSU so she should have said that right away!  I asked her to ask Amy her favorite TV show and she said Starsky and Hutch.  I don't think that was even on at the time Amy was growing up!  Amy's favorite show was Charmed.  She told me that Amy's favorite food was grilled cheese or a cheeseburger.  Not true, Amy was lactose intolerant.   She told me that I must have a slew of grandkids because I told her I had 5 kids.  Not true, I only have two granddaughters.  She said a boy was coming soon, I hope not because Renee isn't pregnant and I sure hope Olivia and Olya aren't preggars! She said my youngest was a Junior in college, not true, Olya is a freshman. She said I wanted to sue the doctor(after I told her how AMy died because she couldn't get it) but that I didn't.  Wrong, we sued and we won. She said Amy wasn't an organ donor, was she?  And I said yes she was.   Soooooo disappointed. She thought Amy was cremated, not true, she was buried.  At the end, she asked me if I got what I wanted from the reading and I said I was disappointed that she didn't get Amy's name or favorite show or favorite food. She offered to give me back them check but I didn't take it. I knew going would be most likely not real.  I am glad I went, I will never pass up an opportunity to try to connect with Amy.  She told me to look for signs and that hearts are signs from Amy.  What does that mean??There are hearts everywhere. Nellie said that we told Amy it was OK to go, we NEVER said that, we kept telling her to fight and not give up. I recorded the session and will listen to it again to see if  I missed any strong validations.