PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE visit me at my new blog: http://Ellis-Family.blogspot.com

It’s still “Olive You,” but please change the web address in your blogrolls. When you stop by, leave us a comment so I know you’re sticking around through all this chaos. I don’t want to lose any of my good bloggy buddies.

Although we live on a small island, we are often plagued with bad traffic jams. Part of the problem is that the road commission did not plan well. All of our “bypasses” (Cayman expressways) are one lane roads. That doesn’t provide for all of the traffic during high rush hour times, like 5-6 pm and 8-9 am. Luckily, due to my erratic class schedule, I usually miss the bad traffic. Today, however, was a different story. I was zipping along in my little Barbie car on my way home. Suddenly the car in front of me stomped on their breaks. This car was not a car at all. Rather, it was a fritter-mobile…. a bus full of tourists. A millisecond later, another fritter-mobile stopped in the on coming traffic lane. Cars began to line up behind me and in the other lane. Curious, I edged my car to the side of the road to see what was causing the hold up. I figured it must be an accident or a police officer. Instead, it was a big, lazy lizard. That’s right. We had a major traffic jam because the fritters (read: tourists) wanted to stop and take pictures of an Iguana. Typical. Bet you don’t have those problems back home!

Professor: Type I Collagen does which of the following? A - forms fibrils through intermolecular cross-links, B - is assembled into triple helices in the extracellular space or C - is a homotrimer?

Class suggests the answer is C.

Professor: No, no, no! Collagen is not a homo at all.

Future Physicians: Burst into laughter.

Professor: Shakes his head and moves onto the next question.

5 minutes pass - Professor lecturing on another topic.

Professor: Nobody in this land could have Scurvy because there are so many good fruits around.

Future Physicians: Hahaha!

Professor: Clean up your minds class. FDA says we should each be having a bit of fruit everyday.

Future Physicians: Roaring laughter as the professor tries to carry on the lecture.

Christen (thinking to herself): Are these people serious?! I can not believe how immature these people are….. Do they not realize that the prof is getting annoyed?!

Maybe I’m oversensitive or a stiff. Maybe I’m just grumpy because it’s 7:30 in the morning and I am so NOT a morning person. I don’t have that many gay friends and it’s not that I’ve really experienced much prejudice first hand. But for some reason, I was really bothered by this morning’s classroom behavior. I couldn’t help but wonder what these supposedly intelligent people will be like in practice when their first gay patient comes in for help… or a severely obese patient…. or a patient with AIDS or STDs or whatever sensitive and personal situations that we are undoubtedly going to experience. I just hope they learn to grow up and do so quickly. We are a few months away from beginning to see our first patients.

Okay so we all know the couples that are suited for each other, fight in public, are totally incompatible and we never thought were a good match, but…. once your friends get married you support their marriage and hope for the best. After time goes by, you assume you were wrong and rejoice in their successes as a couple. When they decide to get divorced, you feel terrible for them, frightened that marriage is so easily crumbled and, surprisingly, I feel just plain old. I never thought I was old enough to have friends getting divorced.

Two of the three couples are getting divorced because of infidelity. One was the wife, one was the husband. So the theory of men being pigs goes out the window. (No offense to any men reading this, but that is honestly what most women think when they hear someone cheated.) I thought to myself, how could you do that to your spouse? How could you come home and crawl in bed with your partner/friend/lover and lie to their face? One of those people even went so far as to be intimate with his wife for over a month, while he was being intimate with another woman. Gross. I can’t even imagine how terrible my good friend is feeling right now. I am so disappointed and angry for her. Most of all, I am angry because this has shattered my naive, idealism that marriage is for eternity and indestructible. (even though both of us have divorces in our families - for some reason, I thought it wouldn’t happen to anyone I know that is our age.)

I worry that my generation of fast food, celebrity obsession, immediate gratification and endless choices of Starbucks and quick internet are going to only make the divorce rate worse. I mean what do they think that people are like Starbucks, if you don’t like what you got - just order something else? I fear that the divorce rate is going to be higher than the reported 50% very soon. Considering that our friends have all only been married for five years at the longest and already three sets of them are getting divorced, that is not good odds for the percentages to get any better in the near future.

I am completely confident that Frank and I will never fall victim to these circumstances, but how dare you make me (even for the slightest moment) doubt my marriage, or marriage in general?

The whole thing is just sad.

On the desktop of my computer background is a “widget” with the current weather back home and here on the island. Below is what it reads:

Grand Blanc, Michigan
Low of 0 degrees

Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Low of 89 degrees

Need I say more?!

While we were visiting Michigan, Frank surprised me with his openness and willingness to talk about the adoption. He brought it up to everyone who asked. He brought it up to his Mom saying something like, “Christen - Maybe you should explain to my Mom how the adoption is going to work so that she understands.” It was really random, but made me so happy. And there we sat, the three of us, discussing the Russian adoption process, referrals, paperwork, cost, travel and more. This is the woman who once said to us, “why would you want to adopt?” Like she didn’t know the reasons behind it and we had never spoken of it before. I was really dumbfounded when Frank confronted one of my big fears by saying, “We know that you won’t have the same bond with our kids as you do with X.” (X being our nephew, who my MIL is SUPER close to…. like borderline intrusively, close to.) I want her to be comfortable with our kids and loving with them, but I don’t want the relationship X has with her. I do fear that she will treat our kids differently, though, because of some of the things she has said in the past. Also, because she compares our life to my SIL’s life. There is a vast difference in income level, education and a lot of other things. Anyways, she was a little shocked by his statement and quickly responded by assuring us it would be no different. She said she’d love our children because they are our children and that any grandparent would fall in love with a child once they see their own child being the Mom or Dad. I hope that’s true in the future, but for the time being it calmed my fears. She sat through the whole explanation and asked some questions. She seemed genuinely excited for us. I was really pleased and my heart swelled thinking that Frank is excited enough to bring it up all on his own.

While we were visiting his Dad and my SIL’s family in northern Michigan, the adoption subject also got brought up. My SIL actually asked me about it. She wanted to know when it was happening and then went on to tell me how she’d been reading up online and watching Baby Story shows on TLC. I was really surprised at how much information she already knew about the process. She even told me about a family she knows in her town that have adopted three children from Russia. Later on that week, Frank brought up the adoption to his Dad. This was shocking because his Dad is not very actively involved in our life. He’s kind of out of the loop on most things, including where Frank went to college. (but don’t get me started on that!) Anyways, this time Frank explained it to his Dad himself while I sat there listening. It was truly astonishing how knowledgeable he’s become. Frank’s Dad was very positive about it and even told us he thought it was a great gift for our family. He said he is impressed with how willing we are to take the road less travelled in all aspects of our life.

Overall it was a very positive thing. Frank’s family seems up for the journey and all of them seemed to have the same lingering question… “WHEN?” It became clear that a lot of my fears were somewhat irrational. Wondering if they’d be supportive, wondering if they’d love our children, wondering if they’d “get it.” I was wrong to doubt them before I gave them a chance. However, the best part was that Frank wanted to talk about it himself. He wanted to share all the information and let people start getting excited about what is to come for our family!

I’m blonder and cut about 4 inches off. Added some layers and bangs. What do you think?

Here is a before picture from a post below:

Before we left to go home for Christmas break, we took some pictures of the crazy light house here on the island. These people hired security to walk around their home and sit at their gate greeting people. They had a Santa Claus each night taking pictures with children. We watched lights being hung in tall trees with giant cranes back in November. We had no idea it would turn into a mini Bronners, Christmas wonderland. Here are some pictures we took:

They set up a bunch of little houses filled with different things - like angels, elves, caroling dogs, reindeer, etc.

Coming up, scenes from home, Michigan wildlife, Pistons game, Christmas pictures and my new hair!