My Adoption Story

**please see edit note down at the bottom!**

Every Friday Kelly over at Kelly's Korner does "Show Us Your Life Friday." The topics vary every week from showing a certain room in your house to missions trips to sharing your favorite charities. This week's topic really hit home for me. I've never participated in SUYLF before, but I felt compelled to do so tonight.

Every link posted before mine has been from the parent's point of view, and I wanted to share my story from the "baby's" point of view.

For those of you visiting my blog for the first time, I am a 21 year old college senior at the University of South Carolina. I have such a fortunate and blessed life, and none of this could have happened had I not been adopted.

My parents decided to look into adoption when my mother was diagnosed with a kidney disease and the doctors highly advised against getting pregnant. So they immediately began looking into adoption. My parents were very fortunate and on October 11,1989 they got a call saying their baby was waiting (me!)

As I got older I always knew I was adopted. My birth mother decided to place me up for a private adoption because she got pregnant at a young age. My parents were very open about the fact both me and my younger brother were adopted from birth and it was never a "secret". I can't even remember a moment that they sat my down and "broke the news" to me. It was just something I always knew. Having said that, I consider my adoptive parents MY parents. I will always and forever be grateful to my birth mother (and father) for having the strength and courage to do the most selfless thing I think a person could do. I never felt unloved or abandoned or unwanted. I know my birth mother loved me so much for her to be able to do this.

Whenever I tell my story alot of people ask me if I know who my birth mother is and if I have any desire to meet her. I answer with 100% honesty. I do not know who she is and at this point, I do not feel this need or desire that I have to find her. It stems back to the fact that I never felt abandoned by her. Whenever it's brought up my parents have said that they have the file and if I wanted to they would give it to me and I could see who my birth mother is. At this point all I know is that she was really young, Catholic, and still lives in town. That's all I want to know (at this point). My feelings may change years down the road, and if the situation came up where she wanted to meet me, I don't know that I would object. At the least I would be able to meet the woman who gave me the greatest gift imaginable and thank her for her selfless decision.

My whole point of this post was to show a successful adoption story! To couples considering adoption, DO NOT GIVE UP!! I know more often than not its a long and expensive process, but I am so thankful my (adoptive) parents were there when they were. Your baby will come when the time is right, and that WILL BE YOUR CHILD. To pregnant women/couples considering adoption for their babies, take it from one of those "babies", we will be forever grateful!! I will NEVER forget that my birth mother loved me enough to give me up.

I feel like this post is very rambly and not well organized, but these are my thoughts. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking just how incredibly blessed I am! I don't want to imagine what my life would be like had I not been adopted. Not to say that my life would have been awful, for all I know it could have been just as great, but it wouldn't have been this life.

This was a difficult post to write, just because I haven't shared something this personal on here before. To all my loyal readers, I appreciate every single one of you. And to new readers, thank you so much for taking time to read my story! If yall have any questions/comments, feel free to email me or leave a comment :)

xoxo

Natalie

**January 25 2013 - I originally wrote this post almost 2 years to the day, but wanted to share it again via Kelly's linkup. All the feelings I expressed back then still hold true today. If anything I believe even more now that adoption is such a special, priceless gift I couldn't be more grateful now. I've even become more open to the idea of one day meeting my birth mother, simply to show my gratitude and thankfulness. Hope you guys enjoy this post!**

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

• Target yoga pants: I went to Target last week and picked up a pair of their yoga pants and OMG you guys! If you like your sleep and just throw on stuff before you go class, these are perfect!! They were only $20 and are SO comfy! They come in a couple of different fits and lengths and are pretty much all I've been wearing all week. I'm thinking of going back and picking up a couple more pairs so I don't wear these out too quickly.


• Crystal Lite Peach Tea: When I lived at home, we ALWAYS had a pitcher of this in the fridge. So I've been addicted to this stuff for years. I just used my last 2 packets up and am already panicking! I've tried other flavors and this is the one I always seems to come back to. If you have a hard time drinking water, mixing it with CL makes it MUCH easier to drink!

Random Early Morning Thoughts

• My phone had decided to fritz out for the last couple days. It randomly drops calls, won't hold charge for longer than a couple hours, and it takes hours to get texts. FRUSTRATING!
• I finally signed up for skype! Leave your skype name in a comment or email it and we can chat :)
• My pharmacy application is FINALLY sent it! I procrastinated as long as I could. goodness only knows why
• I went to the library for the first time this semester Tuesday night. My friend Kate and I sat there for 3 hour talking about how much we do NOT know for our biochem class and wanted to go get mexican
• we went to Monterrey's afterwards :)
• the jingle at the beginning of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson makes me happy everytime I hear it!

• My mom signed us up to do the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston in April. Have I even started running yet??? NOPE! :O
• Did anyone else watch Castle Monday night??? If so, WE MUST DISCUSS!! This is quickly becoming my second fave tv show after SVU
• SVU star and fellow Kappa Mariska Hargitay's 47th birthday was on Sunday. I can only hope I look half as good as she does at that age. She's gorgeous!!
• I really want to go see Black Swan, but I feel like my mind has to be completely empty of everything else so I can take it all in. When that will be, who knows!
• Let me know if you like this style of posting!! Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Project 10 Pan

Hey yall! Over the past year I have become a HUGE beauty junkie, as you can see by the more frequent beauty posts and reviews! How big of a junkie you may ask? Well, in between June and December 2010, I spent enough JUST AT SEPHORA to qualify to be a VIB, or Very Important Beauty Insider. Goodness only knows how much more I spent at other places! ANYWAYS, the point of this post was to introduce

Project 10 Pan!!

I figured I would jot this post down to explain project 10 pan, mention the items I am going to include, and invite anyone else along that would like to join with me!! Pretty much what this is a way to get rid of some products that are in your too-large collection. For me, not only do I have a ton of makeup products now, I have also managed to accumulate a large collection of hair products that take up pretty much my entire cabinet in my bathroom. So, the basic premise of this is to downsize.

My goal throughout this project is to use up completely 10 items in my collection. This is going to include makeup items (concealer, blush, mascara etc), facial items (cleanser, spot treatment etc), haircare (shampoo, conditioner, mousse etc), "body"care (lotion, bodywash, lip balm etc) and basically anything else I end up using that is deemed fit.

So I put a tab at the top of my blog to keep track of my progess. Instead of making separate posts for each item I use up, I figured it would be easier for me to be able to keep track of and easier for you guys to find instead of giong through all my posts (not there are that many haha) looking for what I've used up. As I finished each item I will be posting a picture, how long it took, and my thoughts on the product.

So.....I figured I would get interactive with this and invite yall to come along on project 10 plan! If you would like to participate, simply leave a comment and under the P10P tab I will put a link to your blog. This way we can all see what were using and that our money wasn't ill-spent!

O...one more thing....during P10P I am promising myself that I will NOT purchase any new beauty products until I use up at least 10 items! Its gonna be SUPER hard, but the whole point of this is to save money and use stuff up you already have!!

Bath and Body Works Haul

B&BW Haul by swtcarolinagrl on Polyvore.comA couple months ago I got a coupon from Bath and Body Works where I could get up to 5 of their 3-wick candles for $10 each. I held onto the coupon until the very last day! FYI they have another one of these coupons on their smaller candles at the store that will be good until April I believe.


What I picked up:

Frosted Cupcake: A decadant combination of rich buttercream frosting, sugar and fresh vanilla bean, finished with the essence of cake batter.

Peach Bellini: A light, delicate blend of white peach, sweet orange peel and yellow mandarin, finished with jasmin and sweet black currant.

Kitchen Spice: An inviting aroma that blend hazelnut, marzipan, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla notes.

Stress Relief Vanilla Verbena: Relax, unwind, and infuse your home with the scent of Vanilla Verbena. Vanilla Absolute has a soothing effect on body and mind.

Carried Away body lotion: key fragrance notes are lush raspberries, white jasmine, and whipped vanilla

**Photos and descriptions from Bath and Body Works***

Quote of the Day

Waking up this morning, I smile

Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.

I vow to live fully in each moment

and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion

-Thich Nhat Hanh

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

1. Slatkin & Co. Candles

These candles are my new obsession!!! I'm pretty much burned my Frosted Cupcake one to the bottom since I've been lighting it almost every night. All their candles smell amazing and easily fill up a big room (or entire apartment) and burn really clean (no canyons in your candle). I just went to Bath and Body Works and restocked on my favorite scents.

2. My Keurig

Here we are 2 weeks into class, and my sleep schedule is still outta wack! I find myself staying up to 2 or 3 in the morning when I know I have to get up early that morning! So my Keurig coffee maker has been a miracle worker!

3. Pilot G2 Pens

My mom bought me this 20 pack of G2 pens for Christmas and they are getting put to good use now that classes are officially underway! These are my absolute favorite pens in the entire world and will not take notes with anything else. I used to be a big hi-lighter but with all the fun colors in this kit, taking notes isn't too terribly horrible!

What are you loving today?

Golden Globes 2011 Fashion

So the Golden Globes were last night and aside from the occasional fashion 'wow' moment and inappropriate yet hilarious jokes from Ricky Gervais, it was a pretty boring show. Nevertheless, some ladies came out on the red carpet with a bang while others should have taken a last look in the mirror before jumping in the limo.

**Blogger was driving me crazy with picture uploads and spacing, so these are my best of the best and worst of the worst choices**

The Good

Eva Longoria

Eva Longoria looks a-freakin-mazing last night! This lady knows her body and how to dress it. I think this is a perfect example of how to do sexy without having 12 cutouts in your dress *cough* January Jones *cough*

Olivia Wilde

This was my favorite look of the night! This could have been your typical princess dress but the darker color and color of the sequins/jewels were enough to make is unique. And I love that Olivia left her hair a makeup relatively simple, making a look that could have gone "prom princess" much more modern. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

The Bad

Heidi Klum

O bless Heidi's heart. She really has no excuse. She has an awesome body, hosts a fashion reality show competition, yet still manages to show up to an awards show looking like this! This dress would be appropriate for a casual summer cocktail party by the pool, NOT the Golden Globes! And the hair looks dirty and like she didn't have time to run a comb through it. The makeup was just as bad. If you got a look up close it really looked like someone had dunked her into a pool before she showed up.

The Ugly

Helena Bonham Carter

At this point, of HBC didn't show up to an awards show looking like this, I would be worried. We all know when she goes to a red carpet event she's gonna do pretty much anything for a shock value. But unlike Lady Gaga, whose stuff is SO out there its intriguing, this is just a big hot mess. From the piled-up hair to mismatched shoes, its hard to take HBC seriously when she shows up looking like this!

Verizon is getting the iPhone!

After waiting for what seems like FOREVER, Verizon is finally getting the iPhone! When I got the iPod touch last Christmas, I immediately became obsessed with the thing and now it goes everywhere with me. The only factor is it missing naturally is the phone component. And having to carry both my cell phone (which I don't use for internet access) and the iPod is slightly annoying. So now I can FINALLY combine the two!!!

The Verizon iPhone is available to current Verizon customers beginning February 3rd and available to everyone else beginning February 11th. Get excited!!!

Thought Process of the Moment

*warning this post is SUPER LONG*

I said my next post was going to be my New Year's resolutions and thoughts, but this post keeps simmering in my head and I need to type it out before it drives me nuts. For those of you who haven't followed this blog for very long (or have forgotten what's been written...goodness knows I have!), this is basically my story:

I was never one of those people who knew what they were going to do with their life from a young age. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I decided that a career as a pharmacist seemed like a good match. At USC, the pharmacy program starts with 2 years of "undergrad" then halfway into your sophomore year you apply to pharmacy school, which is essentially grad school.

Once I got into college, I had a pretty hard time adjusting to what was expected of me and how to prepare for courses. I went from an all A's high school student with a 3.97 GPA to struggling to make B's and C's in college. If you've ever taken a college science class, you know the mindset is that if most of the class are making C's, the teacher is happy. Long story short, my grades weren't what they were needing to be to guarantee a spot into pharmacy school.

To make this long story short, I applied to pharmacy school here at USC my sophomore year but was rejected without even an interview. Since I completed all the pre-pharmacy requirements, I had to make the decision to switch my major to biology. At this point I just saw this as a temporary fix until I applied for pharmacy school again.

As I continued in my college classes, my grades didn't do much to improve. I don't know if it was the fact that I was denied getting into school and having no motivation or what, but I continued to make mostly C's and a couple B's in my core science classes. I did however greatly improve my PCAT score, which is the pharmacy admissions test. So when I applied to pharmacy school again, much to my suprise I got an interview call the very first day! At this point my GPA was right at a 3.0, so getting an interview this early was a complete shock!! I thought my interview had gone very well and felt like I made good conversation with both people I interviewed with.

After my interview I didn't hear from the school in the next couple weeks which made me nervous. Around mid-February I got a letter saying I was being put on the wait-list. Naturally I was discouraged, but immediately went to the dean and we talked for a good 30 minutes about my chances of getting in and anything I could do to further my chances of being accepted. I left that meeting feeling very confident that I would be in Pharmacy school in the fall of 2010.

As the rest of the semester finished up and summer was here, I never heard from pharmacy school. I had heard stories of people getting calls just days before classes starting saying they were accepted. Of course, I heard nothing. I finally got a letter in MID SEPTEMBER saying that I had, once again, been rejected from pharmacy school. Keep in mind that classes started around August 20. I obviously knew that I hadn't gotten in once classes started, but the fact that the letter didn't come until a couple weeks later really left a sour taste in my mouth.

So now I'm sitting here, just days away from starting my senior spring semester at Carolina, getting a degree in something that was not my original intention, having absolutely NO idea what I want to do with my life. Right now I'm set to graduate this summer since switching degrees caused me to be just a tad behind on the biology track. I've decided to apply to pharmacy school once again, but I can't help but feel that my heart just isn't in it anymore. I guess it's the fact that I've already been rejected twice, and that makes me wonder if this is really what I am supposed to do with my life. AND this time my GPA is lower (just under a 3.0 at a 2.9), so I am seriously doubting whether or not I'm getting in.

On the other hand, I have NO IDEA what I would do with a biology degree. The only work experience I really have is as a pharmacy technician since I've done that for almost 3 years now. I've thought about graduate school, optometry school, cosmetic chemist....this list goes on and on. But I'm really not completely set on one direction. AND I'm going to have to take essentially a year off if pharmacy school doesn't pan out.

Basically, I feel completely lost in my life. I'm only applying to 2 pharmacy schools this year because (1) the way USC's program is set up I don't meet most of the prereq's for most of the schools across the country (and taking those classes would put off my degree even further) (2) I was so apathetic about pharmacy school this year that I let the deadline for USC's application pass (by 1 day, but I still haven't told my parents, another stress factor). And one of the schools I don't even wanna go to.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me I am not the only one that has been in this situation before! If you have any advice for me, PLEASE tell me! I'm tired of talking about it to my parents, who just stress me out. If you have any career advice/recommendations, send them my way!!

If you have made it all the way through this post, congratulations!! I promise the new year will have more upbeat posts, but this blog is for me to document my life, and right now this is the one thing dominating my thoughts. All I can guarantee is that 2011 will definitely be a life-changing year!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 by swtcarolinagrl featuring bracelet watch jewelry

As you can see I was a very spoiled girl and got WAY more than I expected!!! New year resolutions and thoughts on the way in the next couple days!