Brighter than the sun

Its a Colbie Caillet song.

And I woke up singing it this Easter morning. It made my whole day a happy one, especially when I paired the song with my new yellow shirt!
Today was one of my favorite Easters and I cant even explain why it was, it was just a wonderful day.
Unrelated:
As a kid, like any other kid, I wanted a younger sibling, but I knew that my mom had a really difficult pregnancy with me so I didnt want her to have to go through another one. Therefore, I came to the logical decision that my parents should adopt a kid, and that way mom didnt have to go through another pregnancy and I could be a big sister. Obviously, my parents didnt adopt, but that just made me want to adopt so much more. I cant explain it but since I was probably about 7 years old I have wanted to make adoption a part of my life.
For some reason, perhaps its all the young kids that my current coworkers have, I have thought about adoption almost constantly for the past week or two. I know that I am not in a place right now to adopt, but I decided that I want to make sure I know the process that I am going to have to go through.
And for those of you thinking that I dont have control of my life, I know that, but I also think it doesnt hurt to plan, even if it never works the way you think it will.
So last night as I was looking at the process of adoption from another country, I made the decision on which countries I would like to adopt from. I would like to adopt from South Africa- they allow same sex couples adopt (one of the only countries that I saw that allow that) and India- but you have to be at least 30.
Other interesting pieces of information about adoption that I learned. Some countries require that you have some sort of residency as you go through the adoption, some dont care (South Africa) and others insist that you live in that country permanently (Italy) others just want you to be there a little while (India insists on a week of living with the prospective adoptive child).
There are rules not only from each country but also what state you live in. And so far I've found no place where the rules are the same!
There are age limits, some places just require you to be 18 (South Africa), while others require you to be 30 (India). Some places say there can be no more than 43 years between you and the adoptive child and some say that if you are a couple adopting your combined age cannot be over 90 years.
Some countries allow only married people to adopt and they even have rules on how long a couple has to be married before they can adopt- some places its 3 years, others its 5. Some people allow single people to adopt and a lot of places DONT let single men adopt.
There is also something called the Hague convention which sets up standards for intercountry adoptions.
So obviously I have just scratched the surface but I am excited, terrified, and hope that I actually get to go on the journey of adoption.
But again, you dont have to remind me that life doesnt always go as planned, why not? Because I planned to get married at age 23. And while technically I still have 12 months and 15 days to make that happen I just dont see it actually happening. I also planned on having passed all my CPA exams by now (I havent passed 1). So I really get that life doesnt happen the way one might plan for it to, and sometimes you just gotta give yourself more time, but that wont stop me from planning!
Depending on which life track that I get to take, I hope to adopt sometime between the ages of 25 and 30. If I manage to find a man to marry Im fairly certain that I could be convinced to push those ages back just a little bit. But the bottom line is that already, 15 days shy of my 23rd birthday Im feeling the pull to become a mom- even though, logically I know its AT LEAST 3 years away. Yes, I know I just said that I may try to adopt when I am 25 and thats 2 years away but lets be honest and know that the process will likely take more than a year and so while I may start the process when I am 25 I'll likely not actually have a kid til I am 26.
Just throwing this out there, but for a long time, I wanted to be married at 23 and have my first kid at 25 and lets be honest now, it will be a HUGE, mega, ohmygosh surprise if I have a kid before I am 26.
Ok, so hows that for shaking up my normal posts? hah.