Well my year off with my daughter who I adopted from China is over.......I went back to work on Monday and I have to say YUCK.........It means the end of that period in my life which I will never repeat again. This time last year we only had a picture of our little girl who we named Lauren. We had information such as weight etc and age but that was it so the sky was the limit. We were stressed beyond belief because we had to figure out how to pack as little clothes for us as possible and as much baby stuff as possible into luggage that we would have to cart around for the two weeks in China. Let me tell ya I am the kind of girl who packs everything but doesn't wear half of it so extra stress! Then the "Journey Of A Lifetime" happened and the next thing I knew I was in China being handed a baby who would the next day become my daughter... Gosh I think of all the emotions and the experience of being half way around the world with a bunch of people you really didn't know who all were there to receive their kids and also didn't have a clue about being a parent too! Then the 13 hour plane ride home with a baby which you still didn't really know but some how had to figure out how to keep calm and happy on the long ride home.....Finally the year off bonding and figuring out this weird thing called parenthood. It all ended on Monday and this really special time is over. I will not be adopting a sibling for Lauren because the wait is entirely too long now and I don't want to be a piece of dust in a dress by the time I get her or in a nursing home if ya know what I mean...LOL. I am sooooo thankful and blessed to have my little Lauren in my life.

Now we are back and work and yuck am wearing a wig.....We all know that I have been the UBER wig shopper. I think I have over 10 wigs now and like 3 of them....Unreal....I settled on Jamie by ROP in Maple Sugar. I feel it is a little too light for me now though. I had been dying my own hair golden blonde and a month ago I bought a package of dye that said it was golden blonde. I put it on my head and 1/2 hour later I was auburn! I just about died! Then I realized what an awesome color!!! Whoo-hoo a fiery redhead! What a hoot! Deciding to go into a wig when I went back to work was what I did. I decided rather go back in a wig rather then all of a sudden three months down the road show up with a different hair texture and style way off my own hair. When I ordered the wig I wasn't auburn yet. Now I feel the blonde is too blah....LOL. I have had the wig trimmed and it just feels like a wig as usual and I get blasted headaches from the thing.....I feel so paranoid in it. I have even made my husband wear it so I can see what it looks like from other's perspectives. The back looks ok...LOL. It is just when it is on me I feel like the "Wig Police" are out and I am on their radar....I think I blurted out to everyone that I know when I went back to work that is was a wig and I have Alopecia just because I felt it was so blatantly obvious...DUH.....Bizarre how the wig when you hold it in your hands looks like not much hair but when you put it on it is like Amazon Woman. I will wear it another week and then try to have it cut a bit more..

You know telling everyone has in a way liberated me. They all know I wear the wig at work and now I am actually thinking of changing it to another one I have that I like but isn't as good a quality just to mess people's heads up...LOL Maybe I will switch to another one next week. I mean what the heck. You know It is kind of cool that I can change hairstyles in the blink of an eye so why not do it...LOL. I seriously can never keep my mouth shut about things like this.....LOL...

Today I had the first set of Kenalog injections. I was preparing for the absolute worst!! I mean I was preparing for a pain comparable to that of 100 killer bees sinking their nasty stingers into my head! It was a breeze! The head was a little tender after but the shots were a piece of cake. Found out he mixed it with freezing.. Well that is ok it works for me! We will see what we will see with these shots. If they work great and if not well atleast I tried something and will have no regrets. That is the most important thing to me is to live with no regrets. We did IVF twice. One time we got pregnant and lost the baby. The next time we had nothing. It was horrible going through that but I have absoutely no regrets and know I atleast tried. Soooo the shots whether they work or not are part of my Alopecia Journey.

sooooo there ya have it...... all my crazy thoughts out on the page.... Talk about "keyboard diarrhea".... You know running off at the keys.....LOL

Happy New Years everyone too!