It Feels Like Chaos

Dancing in My Kitchen

2012-02-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

We delayed Christmas with my brother and his family several weeks to limit the people who were around our new daughter during our initial bonding phase, so they just came into town this past weekend and they brought my 3 year old some cute dress-up dresses and jewelry that she really loves. Here she is dancing in my kitchen in her new jewelry:

There's been a lot of hard things in my life I've wanted to ask God, "Why?" about. But I guess then I'd need to ask "Why?" here too.

"Why, God, do I deserve the blessing of this little girl dancing in my kitchen?"

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

One of the many ways I know I'm parenting a toddler

2012-01-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

I couldn't pick my favorite intro., so I'll give you all three.

In the spirit of keepin' it real around here:

Lest you ever, ever think I have it all together:

One of the many ways I know I'm in the throws of parenting a toddler again:

This is what the bottom of my purse has looked like for the past several days.

And, to really, really keep it real, I'll have you know that the food contents there loose in the bottom of my purse right on top of my trusty Carmex, are not even the result of just one incident of snack spillage! Nope! That, my friends, is the combined effort of a pretzel snack, a mixed nuts snack, and a Cheerios snack, which all spilled out into my purse in separate occurrences over the past week! I blame the fact that my 3 year old loves putting things back in my purse, but can't properly seal a Ziploc bag!

At least I didn't have ants in there! This time. Yes, that's really happened to me. Ants in my purse. That time I blamed a different toddler spilling snacks in my purse combined with putting my purse on the ground at a soccer game!

Feeling better about your own self yet?

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Ethiopia, Utopia, Eefeeopia or Eathopia

2012-01-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that Ethiopia has been a much used word around here for a few years.

Ethiopia is and always will be etched on our family's heart.

But, it means different things to each of the six of us.

My husband and I fell in love with Ethiopia and not only adopted a child from there, but feel like we adopted the people of Ethiopia as our own, too.

We pronounce it as typical Americans, "Ethiopia".

My youngest child was born there, spent the 1st three years of her life there, it is her homeland.

When she pronounces the word "Ethiopia", it sounds like she's saying "utopia".

My husband says this is because in the Amharic language there is no "th" sound. Most Americans would never consider Ethiopia, utopia, but I've been there and maybe Little Girl's on to something.

We live in the United States; my 4 year old can quickly and easily point to Ethiopia on a world map, but Canada? Not so much!

He calls it "Eefeeopia".

My 6 year old traveled with us on our 1st trip to Ethiopia in August, but just today when she brought home her journal from the 1st half of the school year did I realize she thought she was going to go with us again on our 2nd trip (which she did not and I thought it was always clear just Mom and Dad would go on the 2nd trip), but I had to smile at her unique way of saying Ethiopia. Her journal entry from Dec. 16, 2011 reads: "Over the holiday I am going to eathopia."

Ethiopia, Utopia, Eefeeopia or Eathopia, no matter how we say it, this is true: You have changed us and we are forever grateful!

Everybody's

2012-01-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

There was a huge breakthrough here today! Since coming home from Ethiopia, our daughter has taken the complete opposite extreme from living in an orphanage where nothing was her own to claiming pretty much everything in our house as hers. Especially with clothes and toys she's been real territorial, adamant that they are "(her name)'s!"

This has driven my other kids crazy, in particular my 6 year old and 4 year old. They have many times come to me distraught, "But, she thinks that's hers now!" when she's claimed something they really like. I've had so many conversations with them assuring them that she is just playing with it right now and of course they will be able to play with it again and explaining to them that she has come from a place where she had nothing of her own. But, it's made them be more territorial back to her, when they are typically pretty good about sharing their toys.

It's been one of the hard things.

But, today, my 6 year old daughter was playing dress-up with her new 3 year old sister, the 3 year old was claiming various things as her own. And this time instead of getting upset and running to me about it, my 6 year old taught her sister the term "Everybody's!"

And it's been magic!

All evening the 3 year old delighted in calling things, "Everybody's!" And my other kids are a whole lot happier with that idea!

Praise God for progress!!!

__________________

In other household news, the 4 year old who has been saying for months he's going to be a pastor when he grows up has now informed us that he no longer wants to be a pastor when he grows up, he wants to be a clown!

"Wherever God leads you, Baby! Wherever He leads!"

"Just remember when you're a clown to hook us up with some free circus tickets because those things are crazy expensive!"

__________________

Tonight after all the kids were bathed, my husband was laying on the bunk bed in our boy room quizzing the 8 year old on spelling words for his test tomorrow. I didn't realize that's what they were doing in there and I came in with the 3 younger kids to read a story. Kids were romping on the bed, there were discussions on the book selection, and just some general loud that often accompanies my children.

Then from his spot sprawled on the bed, my husband asked, "Why are there so many people in here?"

I had to laugh at him! "What are you talking about 'so many people'? This is your family!"

I think being in his private office all day has spoiled him and he comes home and has a bit of culture shock!

Six people does have a way of filling up a room, though! Just remember it's "Happy Squished"!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

When life gives you puddles

2012-01-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

When life gives you puddles, you should jump in with both feet!

Yes, I let 3 of my 4 kids wallow in the mud for much of the afternoon today. (The 8 year old had homework to do.)

This picture portrays my 4 year old's personality perfectly!

So, the puddle fun started off innocently enough, but because we're talking my children here, of course things had to turn crazy!

No worries, though, Sister to the rescue!

Then this happened while she was helping him get the boot on:

So, what did Little Girl think of all the craziness?

I know, Baby, your brother and sister are crazy!

Yeah, just laugh at them, that's about all I can do most of the time!

Or join them, that works, too!

Somebody I don't know walked by in the street about the time this happened:

The lady gave me a strange look. What can I say? My kids like to wallow in the mud like pigs!

The bath tub and my washing machine definitely got a work out tonight getting those 3 clean, but the mess was so worth it for their smiles and laughter!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

4 Weeks of Having 4 Kids

2012-01-23T21:41:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday marked 4 weeks since we got home with our new daughter from Ethiopia.

We survived 4 weeks of having 4 kids!!!!

A couple things became very quickly apparent to us in life with 4 kids.

First thought, just a few days in: we need color coded cups!

You know, each kid is assigned a color and that's their cup for the day.

Okay, our kids actually get 2 cups each per day, 1 for milk (that they drink at all 3 meals) and 1 for water (which also doubles as the very occasional cup of diluted juice, gets rinsed and used again as the water cup).

Why?

Because the dishes! Oh my! When each kid was using 4 or 5 cups per day times 4 kids -- well, you really don't have to do the math to know that = too much to deal with!

So, I bought a little set of plastic cups (Nuby BPA Free 4 Pack Fun Drinking Cups, 9 Ounce) and now child #1 = green, child #2 = purple, child #3 = blue, and child #4 = pink.

Feel free to wager on which child looses their cup 1st. My money's on green.

Second thought was: we have too many toys!

Turns out, the more kids I have the less STUFF I want in my house!

The toys were overtaking the place.

And it's not that child #4 brought with her suitcases full of toys, she actually came with nothing, it's just that life with 4 kids made the excess of toys we already had too much.

The downstairs we could keep fairly presentable, but the upstairs with the kid rooms and playroom just couldn't stay clean with 4 kids getting out our multitude of toys and scattering them around. We would work hard to clean up and then in just minutes it would be disaster again.

During a moment last week where I was trying to open a closet to get out clothes for a kid, while 4 kids were all simultaneously calling "Mom!" for various reasons, and there was a pile of random toys in front of the closet door keeping it from opening, I decided something had to be done. I told my husband Friday night, we had to tackle the toy situation before the weekend was over or I was going to go crazy.

I launched a quick PR campaign with the kids to get them on board, started referring to it as "The BIG clean-out," you know to generate some buzz and excitement. It kinda worked.

Then we got distracted Sat. morning when we decided it would be more fun to go the zoo, but we rallied Sat. afternoon after the 8 year old's basketball game and made some real progress!

We cleaned out a ton, moved some toys with a lot of little pieces up high where they can only be played with under supervised conditions rather than scattered at will, took down a train table the kids don't use much any more except to junk up, saved all the trains, track pieces, and train buildings in a 3 drawer unit, and you know what? My 4 year old has had the best time building train tracks on the open floor the past couple of days -- no edges of the table to encumber him any longer!

And I'm loving the open, empty space!

It allows me to breathe again.

To be able to sit down and play with my kids without being stressed over the mess I see around me!

To have conquered some of the chaos, instead of letting it overtake us, makes me think maybe we can do this 4 kid thing. Maybe.

We'll see what the next 4 weeks brings!

Too Tired To Title

2012-01-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

One night this week our 3 year old, only home from Ethiopia a few weeks, was coughing. While she slept I set up the humidifier right near the bed, hoping to ease the cough. Little girl woke up a few minutes later pointing and screaming at the humidifier, deathly afraid!

Epic parenting fail! What was I thinking? She'd never seen a humidifier before, much less one shaped like ours! She woke up to the equivalent of a smoke-breathing penguin standing right next to her bed!

___________________

I have a million blog topics I'd like to write on, but I'm lacking in the time and energy department. I remember a few years back I blogged on wanting a scribe (no time at all to look up where or when that post was to link to it), you know someone to follow me around all day, enduring the loud, messy, and occasionally hazardous conditions of my mothering 4 young children job, and ready to record a blog post whenever inspiration strikes me. All for no pay, of course! Because my homemaker job pays me exactly zero dollars! Now accepting applications!

___________________

For nearly the last 2 months, every day my 4 year old son has told me the same exact piece of information about himself.

He says at some point every day, "Mom, do you know what my 2 worstest holidays are? They are Halloween and Thanksgiving"

"Halloween because there's scarey stuff and Thanksgiving because you have to keep eating the same foods over and over again!"

I promise that I only served Thanksgiving leftovers 3 times after the main meal and some of those were lunches! But, it seems the leftovers scarred my little guy for life!

___________________

I'm currently blogging this while sharing the couch with an unfolded load of laundry. Just thought you'd like to know my priorities are clearly in order!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

Learning English

2012-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

My daughter adopted from Ethiopia is 3 years old. She's been with us 1 month and I thought I'd give an update on the language situation, both to document milestones for our own family history and to share with other adoptive families because I know language was always a big question I had relating to us adopting an "older child" from a country where a different language is spoken.

Before we adopted, I talked to many families who had adopted toddlers and a bit older kids from Ethiopia and granted they were all several months or even a few years into their adoptions, so maybe they'd forgotten the early days, but they all said the language barrier was not really a big issue, that the kids caught on so quickly to English and that they felt they were mostly able to understand each other.

I would say that has been our experience, too. The language barrier has not been the hardest part (although it definitely complicates things at times) of our transition so far. We mostly understand each other and not because we learned tons of Amharic before taking custody. We learned a few very basic words like the words for hello, bye, good job, milk, water, ball, pee-pee, poo-poo, dog, come here, all done, thank you, you are so precious, car, etc.

One word we didn't anticipate being so important, but we quickly asked someone at our guesthouse in Ethiopia what the word was for "dirty". Being that we've parent 3 other children, you'd think we would have thought about just how often little kids try to pick up dirty things and you have to point out, "No, don't pick that up, it's dirty!" or in a public restroom with a small child, and they are touching everything, "Dirty!" is essential! So, "ko-sha-sha" (Amharic word for dirty) has been used and is still used a ton! In fact right now we have a "Ko-sha-sha wusha" which means dirty dog and my daughter loves to point out this very true fact -- the dog has an appointment with the groomer on Friday!

Here at month one I am really impressed at how much out new little girl seems to understand what we are saying to her in English! However, she is speaking back to us still in mostly Amharic. Sometimes she goes into these long paragraphs of conversation and I really wish I knew what she was saying! But, for essentials like "I hurt my finger" or "I want a cracker" or "I'm tired" or "I'm thirsty", it turns out gesturing and tone of voice and facial expressions pretty well communicate even when I don't understand the words!

Two funny stories about language:

First, a week ago, we were leaving an activity for my other 3 children and got into the car, my 3 year old climbed into the area of the car between her car seat and her sister's booster seat and sat down. I patted her car seat and asked her to get in. Still she sat, smiling at her own contrariness.

I patted the car seat and said, "Nay", which means "Come" in her language. But it was totally obvious that she understood exactly what I wanted her to do and was just choosing not to do it. Plus, the car seat battle is a common one (But actually this week that battle has disappeared! However, there are new battles that have come on the scene -- one step forward, one step back . . .).

Then, she looked at me patting her car seat, smiled at me and said, "Mommy's seat!"

My other 3 kids erupted into huge laughter and although I did have to get her into that car seat, I had to appreciate the humor in what she said, suggesting that it was my seat. I mean to be able to make a joke in a language you've only been immersed in for a few weeks is really impressive!

She a stinker at times, for sure, but a CLEVER stinker!

As I buckled her into the seat I suggested that maybe in fact it was "Daddy's seat". She cracked up laughing and then the whole 5 minute ride home she repeatedly asked me, "Daddy's seat?" and then burst into laughter.

The second funny language related story comes from my 4 year old English speaking son. With young boys it seems that talking about poop becomes a fascination around age 4 and doesn't quit for a few years. I've seen this lovely phase in my own boys, friend's kids, and even the little boys I teach in Sunday school. I do not like it and so I always point out the obvious to the offending little boy, "That's gross. That sounds like something we talk about in the bathroom." And then, if he is my own son, I actually make him go into the bathroom until he's done with the bathroom words. If he comes out and says them again, right back in the bathroom he goes. Usually this curtails the words pretty well.

BUT, my smarty pants 4 year old has caught on to several of our 3 year old daughter's Amharic words and today while we were playing he started talking about "caca" and that is what our Ethiopian daughter calls poo-poo. Yeah, I was still onto him, even talking about poop in another language, it didn't get by me! But, nice try, Little Man, nice try!

Four Weeks in our Arms

2012-01-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

It was four weeks ago, exactly, today, when a car drove up to our guesthouse in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, bringing us our new little girl.

Four weeks since she lived in an orphanage.

Four weeks really getting to know this child we've called our daughter since April 29, 2011, and I can say without a doubt, we are more convinced than ever that,

Yep, she's a rock star!

I'm not saying the last four weeks have been without the hard.

Because there has been and will continue to be hard things.

But, that little girl, the one we are privileged to get to call "ours", amazes me every single day! The way she's handled this transition, they way she's handled the long list of hard things from her short 3 years of life, makes her more awesome than any rock star in my eyes!

***Rock stars are typically very picky and opinionated about their appearance, and for the record, my 3 year old daughter is no exception!***

Happy Squished

2012-01-12T22:28:00.000-08:00

The other night I was reading to my 4 year old and 6 year old, they were sitting with me in the rocking chair. My 3 year old came in. She's not much into listening to books, yet. Partly because she's so active, and partly, I think, because I'm reading them in a language she doesn't fully understand.

But, little girl is a bit jealous when anybody is getting attention she's not getting, so when she saw her sister and brother in my lap, of course, she wanted in! I squeezed her into the middle of us and continued reading.

"I'M SQUISHED!" my 4 year old son shouted.

And I said, "Yeah, but it's a happy kind of squished, right?"

Then this morning I was getting dressed and he and his 2 sisters were all riding the same 1 plasma car around the living room and he said again, "I'M SQUISHED, but it's happy squished!"

Then he explained, "Happy squished is when you're squished with lots of people who love you."

Wishing you a happy squished kind of weekend!

Find more Finer Things Friday here.

It's like she's always been here.

2012-01-11T21:43:00.000-08:00

You know I never understood before when I'd hear adoptive parents who had recently taken custody of a new child say, "It's like he/she has always been here."

Now, I get it. I totally get it!

Our new little girl has only been home about 2.5 weeks, in our arms forever just over 3 weeks ago. And it's so hard for me to believe those numbers are so small, I mean of course I remember time without her here. I definitely remember all the hard days of waiting for her to be able to come home. But, she just fits so well in our family that sometimes it really does feel like she's always been here.

I keep having to remind myself that my daughter lived in an orphanage just 3.5 weeks ago!

I still have piles of random stuff I'm tackling. Things not yet put away after our trip to Ethiopia, new things we got for Christmas that need a place to belong, mail that has entered our house any time in the last 4 weeks, etc., and today I came across the photo book that I took with us to Ethiopia when we took placement of our daughter. It is an exact copy of the one I left in the care center with her after our 1st trip when we met her, the staff gave it to her after we passed court and were officially her parents (which happened on Oct. 20th). This is the book she got to hold on to of her family when we could not be with her. We flipped through the book a lot during our week together in Ethiopia before coming home, talking about her siblings and her house, but then I kinda forgot about the photo book once we were home. It got stuck in a pile. I came across it today and little girl was excited to see it, "Photo! Photo!" she cheered and carried it around much of the day.

Here she is pointing to her referral and update pictures that I included in the book, because it was her family book, of course there would be pictures of her in it, too!

I was so excited for her to be given this photo book while she was in the care center in Ethiopia, really, really wanting her to know she had a family coming for her.

And now she has the real thing. A family, not just pictures of "her family" to hang on to.

In awe of God's goodness!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

The Concept of Mommy

2012-01-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

It has been fascinating to watch my new 3 year old begin to grasp the concept of Mommy.

I noticed some time last week (so about 2 weeks after taking custody of her in Ethiopia, 1 week after coming home) that she started hollering out, "Mommy?" about every 90 seconds. I know from a lot of adoption training that this is a really good sign, to have your child "checking in" with you every so often. But, also it seems like she's just really amazed that someone answers every single time she calls out "Mommy" AND it's always the same person!

***Insert here the reality check that it is exhausting to be the one answering that call for "Mommy" so often, to be so physically there for a child, especially one that is wrapping every bit of her body tightly around you one second and pushing you away the next. But, oh the privilege to get to be the one to teach her the concept of Mommy!***

A funny thing happened yesterday. Well, the not funny part was that my town had some pretty intense flash flooding. We're kinda used to it because we are at sea level and can get heavy rains, but yesterday was the worst we've seen in a few years and it came on pretty unexpectedly. My 3 year old had a follow up at a doctor's office for one of the routine tests we did since bringing her to America. When I left the office the roads had become really flooded and I could not get home. I had already driven through higher water than my nerves were comfortable with, so I just wanted to stop some place safe and wait it out for a bit, but with my 3 year old I couldn't stop just anywhere. I needed a place with decent public restrooms (she has to go potty about every 30 minutes), something I could do with her to entertain her (girl is high-energy!), and a place where I could buy some snacks because I hadn't left the house with much, considering I didn't think we'd be out too long. Also, a place with a parking garage, would be nice, since it was blinding rain!

Only by the grace of God did I think of the perfect place -- the mall! And I was able to get to it via non-flooded roads! So I found myself taking my new 3 year old to the small kid play place at the mall, something I never would have chosen to do with her this early into her transition home, and mostly she did great (only ran out of the play area once -- she thinks it's really funny for me to chase her -- we're working on that lovely behavior!). But, the funny thing was, at one point I was standing near her (actually at every point I was only about 1 foot from her, remember new-to-me child here!), but this time there was a little boy near us and he was crying for his mommy who wasn't especially nearby. My 3 year old took one look at him crying "Mommy!" then she pointed to me and said to him, "Mommy" as if to say, "She's Mommy, she'll help you!"

I thought it was really funny, but made a point not to respond to the little boy's cries and watched my daughter's face as the boy's mommy came over to him, it was like I could read her thinking, "Hmmm, he has a 'Mommy', too and it's a different person than my 'Mommy'!"

Photographing Four Children

2012-01-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

I can get a cute picture of one of my children at a time

maybe even two of them together on a good day

three? well, getting a good picture of three children is hard.

but four? is just ridiculous!

we will keep trying

oh yes, we will

this next one is my favorite:

i think my husband was attempting to calm our youngest and oldest

it didn't work

our 2011 Christmas card might make it in the mail sometime in 2017

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

A picture is worth a thousand words

2012-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

Up front warning: I'm going to torture you with many pictures!

Today my 3 year old decided she wanted her 6 year old sister to carry her. They both thought this was hilarious and my older daughter lugged my younger one all around the house this afternoon!

Sweet sisters!!

My 4 year old son officially initiated our new 3 year old into the house today with a ceremonial pass through the doggie door.

Remember when his older siblings enticed him through it?

Here's the picture from April 2008:

Now she's a Texan for sure -- driving a pick-up truck, only not everybody in Texas gets a brother on top of their truck!

This was homework time one day this week. My 6 year old doing real homework and my 3 year old very serious about her pretend work. She even shushed a brother several times who dared to be too loud during all the concentrating!

Last, this picture represents some really BIG progress in the relationship between our new little girl and our dog. We had heard before we brought her home that many children adopted from Ethiopia are terribly afraid of their new family's dog, so we expected it. And sure enough she has been crying and wanting to be held any time the dog is around, so the dog has spent a whole lot of time in her crate these last couple of weeks. But, there have been baby steps of progress. In this picture, I gave the dog the command, "Shake" and our 3 year old shook her paw and gave her a treat! I cannot describe the progress this all is! For her to even be standing next to the dog (notice the dog is on a leash, though) without hysterics is HUGE and to be touching the dog, well, Madeline, maybe there's hope your days of doggie jail are numbered, maybe?

Happy Friday, my friends!

Choosing our Battles

2012-01-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

Everyone who is in the throws of parenting a preschooler will tell you, choose your battles carefully!

I know this rule well. My 3 oldest children have given me MUCH practice in choosing battles, what's worth fighting for and what's not.

But the whole choose-your-battles deal takes on a whole new level of importance with a newly adopted 3 year old child! Oh, yes it does!!

For example, my 6 year old daughter was distraught last night because our new 3 year old was flushing the toilet when nobody had actually used it! An extraneous flush, if you will. "She's wasting water!!!!" my older daughter insisted to me all upset and bothered, pointing at her new little sister.

Right now, the extraneous flush is not at all on my radar screen as far as issues to correct with our new child, so I told my 6 year old, "Well, when she speaks English you can explain to her the whole part about wasting water."

Now, when my little 3 year old refused to be buckled into her car seat earlier today, well that was a battle we had to fight, it was an obvious one being a safety issue.

But, yesterday I had a grey-area battle, I had to make a grocery-store run, all the other kids were at school so it was just my 3 year old and me, she loved riding in the luggage cart at the airport, so the grocery cart should be a hit making the grocery store a doable thing and it was, except little girl rifled through her big sister's dresser drawers and dressed herself for the day before I could give her the usual 2 Mommy-approved choices she could pick between.

I emerged from the closet where I'd been looking for outfit choices and my 3 year old had on her big sister's pink sparkly gymnastics leotard and some yellow striped leggings! Then to top off the ensemble, she had a woven belt that she insisted I tie around her head!

All I could think was, "Oh sweet mercy, I've taken some interesting outfits to the grocery store with me in my 9 years of parenting small children, but nothing quite like this! I can't take you to HEB dressed like that! And besides it's cold outside!"

Of course she understood nothing of my objections, aside from her belief that the outfit was rockin', there is the whole language barrier, too! So, I had to scramble to find an acceptable outfit that I could talk her into. I knew it had to be something she hadn't already seen in her 2 weeks with us, so I frantically dug through a bin of my older daughters old clothes and found some polka dot tights with a satin pink skirt I thought might just be fancy enough to spark my 3 year old's attention -- it worked!

However, I had a plain long sleeve t-shirt with a cardigan sweater picked out for the top half and she balked at the plain t-shirt, wanting instead to just go straight to the sweater. But, it was a sweater that really needed a shirt under to look right and it was kinda scratchy. I tried my best to pantomime "scratchy", rubbing my tummy and making a frowny face. It didn't work. I showed her the sweater over the shirt on the hanger. It didn't work. So, I let it go.

And you know what? Little girl put on that sweater without a shirt under, frowned a bit and took it off and let me put on the shirt underneath!

Ha! I WIN!!!

AND we got tons of compliments on her outfit yesterday! I resisted the urge to point out, "See, Mommy, can pick out a good outfit!"

Now if I can just win about 15 more years of clothing battles with her!

Extraordinary Days

2012-01-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today was back to reality. Real life. The regular routine of packing lunches, homework, dropping off and picking up at 2 different schools. No more kids in their jammies until 4pm kind of days like so many we've had the last 10 days since bringing home our new daughter from Ethiopia.

But, as I did the many, many ordinary tasks of my day today, things I've done countless times before, the ordinary couldn't help but feel extraordinary! Because of a certain little 3 year old Ethiopian girl I got to have as my sidekick. So many times today I was blown away by the fact that she's home!

It's the first of the month and we are not getting an email with some pictures of her and an update on how she's doing! Hooray! Hooray!

This little girl we've prayed about for so long, who had always been in Ethiopia, is now here, right in the midst of our ordinary family. In my home. In my car. Riding in my shopping cart.

The only way to make sense of any of it is: ONE EXTRAORDINARY GOD!

Our new 3 year old has been sleeping with my husband and me, but last night when I was tucking her 6 year old sister into bed, little sister crawled right in and went to sleep. She slept there next to her sister for about an hour before a certain dog woke her up (Would anyone like a 1 year old goldendoodle? Kidding! Sort of. Offers still welcome.) and then we took her to our bed. But tonight she's back asleep with her sister and may sleep there all night. Someday Big Sister will move to the top bunk, but for now I think they both like the togetherness!

I took this picture of them and couldn't help marveling at the thought of all the times my 6 year old daughter prayed for a sister, all the times her brothers were tucked into bed in the boy room and she would ask sadly, "Who's going to sleep with me?" The month she slept on the floor in her brothers' room so she wouldn't be alone in her room!

God has been so faithful to both my daughters, to our family! May we all continue to see the extraordinary in Him long after the newness of these days wears off!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Proof I really have 5 kids

2012-01-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

For a whole week since Christmas we've watched our 4 children ride around the house on the new red plasma car and finally my husband could contain himself no longer.

Tonight after the children were all tucked into bed he Googled, "Plasma car for adults". He did not find such a thing, but he did discover one interesting tidbit, the plasma car has weight limit of 220 lbs.

Shortly after that discovery this happened:

The same man strapped on roller blades for the first time in many years yesterday. Being the ever supportive wife that I am, I told him, "You better not break a leg and leave me to care for these 4 children all by myself for the next 6 weeks!"

Find more Wordless Wednesday here.

How's it going?

2011-12-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

Our new daughter is doing really, really, amazingly well, especially considering everything she's been through! She began calling us "Mommy and Daddy" from the first moment, without any coaching from us. However, she did cry and scream and pace for a good 2 hours after she was brought to us at our guesthouse, desperate to go back to the caregivers and friends she was comfortable with at the orphanage. She wouldn't let us comfort her for a long time and finally let me pick her up and rock her and then she fell asleep in my arms. She woke up crying but this time let me comfort her right away and the crying didn't last very long. It was really heartbreaking to watch her go through such grief and illustrates the tragedy that is the flip side of every adoption.

We had some really sweet moments with her, too, in Ethiopia. I'll never forget the proud smile on her face as she pranced around the guesthouse showing off the new shoes we brought her. She came to us with literally the clothes on her back and nothing else, and the shoes from the orphanage had holes in them and straps that didn't stay fastened. She slept in her new shoes and hair bow that first night. She insisted on the shoes for several nights, and as it turns out sleeping next to a child wearing shoes is not the most comfortable! Thankfully we transitioned her to slippers once we got home!

The airplane rides home were not too bad. The parts of the flight where seat belts were required were really the only screaming, crying spells and then a kind flight attendant allowed us to use the infant tandem seat belt so she could sit on our lap and be strapped to our seat belt, which went over a whole lot better! Actually the in-airport time was worse than the on-plane time, the wide open spaces of the airports just made her want to run wild, and she was not too keen on our rule that allowed us to survive 3 other toddlers, "You may walk and hold my hand or be carried." We discovered that rule is easier to apply to a child who has not spent the last 13 months cooped up in one room of an orphanage!

In just 1 week she has gone from not even wanting her daddy to get near her (all her caregivers at the orphanage were women so we were warned to expect that) to a total Daddy's girl. She cried when he went back to work on Tuesday, and when he got home she squealed "Daddy!", ran to his arms and wouldn't let him put her down the rest of the night! The last couple of days she's called me "Mommy-yay" and we know that in her language of Amharic, adding "yay" to the end of name is an expression that the person is especially dear to you. It melts our hearts to see the progress in our relationships with her!

She loves her sister and brothers, and immediately began playing with them after we got home. Really it seemed like she was relieved to have other kids around again after being with just adults all week in Ethiopia after leaving the orphanage! At one point the Saturday evening we got home our 3 older children were acting out The Grinch movie they'd seen the night before, setting toys out under their Christmas stockings and then sneaking in with a big bag and "stealing" them. It wasn't just a couple minutes before our new 3 year old was in on the action running down the stairs squealing, "Steal toys! Steal toys!"

She is still adjusting to our time zone; she wakes up around 3:45am every day and sings us what sounds to be Ethiopian children's songs for an hour or two before finally falling back to sleep an hour or so before the other 3 kids wake up!

She's totally potty-trained which is awesome, but we are lamenting the fact that the Amharic word for pee-pee is "shint", so we (and strangers who may happen to be nearby) hear, "Mommy, shint!" every 30 minutes :)!

In Ethiopia we were treated a few times to her dancing, complete with the traditional Ethiopian shoulder shimmy. She's a really, really good dancer! Since we've been home we introduced her to our Wii Michael Jackson version of Just Dance and she loved it, doing complicated moves our 8 year old can't master! The first song, "Billy Jean" ended and she declared in perfect English, "I LIKE IT!"

We are recovering from the trifecta of a new child, jet lag, and Christmas, but really enjoying our new little girl and so thankful God brought her into our family!

I just love walking in the room to find my children 4 to a chair!

Home for Christmas!!!

2011-12-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

Our family of 6 together at last in the airport on Christmas Eve!

So grateful to be posting this from my home where all 4 of my children are sleeping under 1 roof (which means I need to go sleep now, too, while I have a chance -- more updates and pics. later)!

Embassy Clearance!!!

2011-12-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

We got some very big news today! The American embassy in Ethiopia has cleared our adoption case! Our new daughter is finally coming home!!!

My husband and I will fly out this Saturday (his parents are coming into town to take care of our 3 kids here) and then we'll be back home with our new little girl the morning of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve. We will have all 4 of our children together at last for Christmas -- how's that for God's timing?!!

We are overjoyed and in shock! With the bad news from the embassy last Friday and then even more again yesterday we felt our case had the very real potential to be delayed for several months. The last few days we have prayed and cried through the agonizing decision of having me go to Ethiopia to take custody of daughter and stay with her until she cleared immigration, even if that meant several months. We couldn't stop thinking about the Bible's words in Luke 15, when the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go after the 1 lost sheep. We decided I would go shortly after Christmas, not knowing when I'd be able to return, leaving the 3 children who had always known life with a mother to go to the 1 child who had been without parents for far too long.

Then this morning we got the amazing, miraculous news of clearance! We had to call our caseworker to see if she was looking at the say email and ask her if it was for real?!!!

We're so thankful to have had so many praying for our family and now ask for prayers over the transition phase for us all. We expect nothing less than chaos for a long while with kids ages 8,6,4, and 3, but who are we kidding, it was chaos before! Also, prayers over the plane ride home would be great -- 20 hours on an airplane with a 3 year old who doesn't speak English, has never before worn a seatbelt, and we've only parented for a few days -- we're going to need some gracious, understanding flight mates!

Praising God for moving mountains to get our sweet, spunky girl home!

Embassy Update

2011-12-08T20:31:00.001-08:00

We received word that the phone conversation the American embassy wanted to have with a party on our Ethiopian adoption case, finally happened today (after about 2 weeks of waiting for it, did you know there's not much voicemail in Ethiopia?). We are desperately praying that the phone call provided the information the embassy was looking for to be able to clear our case and that some time during their half-day workday on Friday (roughly midnight to 4AM tonight our time) they will send us an email that we are cleared to travel and schedule our exit interview in Ethiopia. If this insanely awesome email comes tonight, we will request an appointment next week and fly out this weekend to take custody of our 3 year old little girl!

Over 2 years into this adoption process and here we sit SO. VERY. CLOSE! I can hardly stand it, the suspense, because there is still a scenario where not only are we not cleared, but our case is sent for further investigation that could take months!!!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride a roller coaster constantly for 2 years?

I think I know what that's like. Good thing I have complete trust in the creator and operator of the ride.

God is good and He is in control no matter the news we do or don't get tonight.

On a to-do list scale, is 1 out of 10 bad?

2011-12-07T20:12:00.001-08:00

There were ten things on my to-do list for today and I just realized I accomplished exactly ONE of them!

But, I got several other things done that were not on the list.

Too tired to erase the things that did not get done and write in the things I actually did just to feel a sense of accomplishment regarding my day.

The good news?

I don't have to worry about making a list for tomorrow! Today's list will just become tomorrow's to-do list!

Life at the Never-Ending Slumber Party

2011-12-06T20:27:00.001-08:00

It's been a never ending slumber party around here the last few weeks.

Night after night after night after night.

My 3 children are sleeping all in the same room.

One in each bunk bed and one on the floor.

The little girl on the floor has her own room.

And her own bunk beds that she couldn't wait to have.

So she could finally have a top bunk to sleep on.

And someday her little sister from Ethiopia would sleep on the bottom bunk.

Only about 2 weeks after the excitement over the bunk beds faded,

the sleep issues began.

And my 6 year old didn't want to sleep alone anymore.

She'd cry and cry at bedtime, which we'd never really dealt with before.

We offered the option of a pallet on the floor in her brothers' room

And the slumber party began.

The other morning when I was wondering why I was so tired?

It hit me.

I live at a never-ending slumber party!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-05T21:19:00.001-08:00

Per tradition around here, I let the kids make the Christmas wrapping paper.

Saturday morning (thankfully it was still warm here before our cold front on Sunday) I rolled out paper on the driveway and gave the kids red and green ink pads to stamp their hands and feet across the paper.

This year the 8 year old was less interested in stamping than he was in managing his younger brother and sister's work. Fine by me! Instead of reminding the 4 year old over and over and over not to put the red hand in the green ink, I sat on the patio, painted my toenails (really!), took a few pictures, encouraged, and let the 8 year old handle most of the project management, which he totally loved.

I finished the Christmas dresses I made for my daughters. They are easy pillowcase dress style, only I didn't make mine with a pillowcase, and I did a fabric tie around the neck instead of a ribbon. My 3 year old has a matching dress and even if we don't get her home from Ethiopia before Christmas, I'm still getting a picture of she and my 6 year old daughter in their matching dresses some day. And I made the hem extra wide so I can let it out and they can wear the dresses next year! But we are still clinging to hope that our new little girl will be home this year for Christmas.

My husband had his annual gingerbread house decorating with the kids. They did a gingerbread village this year with several small houses instead of one big house. I've started purchasing this village kit for them on purpose because I couldn't handle all the drama and moaning of trying to get the roof to stay on that big house when the icing just kept it sliding right off in year's past! Anyway, the kids like each having a little house to decorate!

And we are reading our Countdown to Christmas Advent Devotional Book each night after dinner.

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I'm grateful for the daily chance to reflect together as a family on the true meaning of Christmas -- Jesus! Not Santa, not presents, not parties, but God's love for us, for the whole world!

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:9-16

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers.

Quick Update

2011-12-01T22:07:00.001-08:00

We got a new picture from our agency of our 3 year old daughter in Ethiopia. Our caseworker said she looks very active (some of the pictures were pretty blurry). Yep, that's our sweet, spunky little girl!

An excerpt from the update on her said, "She takes an afternoon nap from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm but sometimes she does not want to take a nap." Ha! Why does that not surprise me?

I should probably go sleep now, while I can, but instead I'll be anxiously awaiting an email from the embassy. We got an email from them last Friday requesting 1 piece of information from our adoption agency. Our agency submitted what they requested on Tuesday of this week, so we are hoping to hear back from the embassy very soon!

___________________

In other news, my 4 year old son is talking my ear off! It is constant, non-stop dialog about a wide variety of subjects, with a lot of "Mom. Mom? Mom?" thrown in for good measure just to make sure I'm listening. Good thing he's really cute and says some hilarious things because otherwise the endless chatter would just wear me out! Just the other day he asked me out of the blue, "Is jello a liquid or a solid?"

That question from my 4 year old!!

"Hmmm," I thought, "I graduated with a degree in biomedical science and I'm pretty sure I don't know the answer to that question. It's kinda both. I mean, are we talking jello that's been in the refrigerator for several hours or jello that's just recently had the boiling water added to it?"

___________________

And something else that's wearing me out, Madeline the puppy is undecorating the Christmas tree! She brings me ornaments all casual like she's bringing me her tennis ball to throw for her and then I realize what it is she really has in her mouth! Seriously, what were we thinking getting a puppy last February? This would have been the first Christmas in a very long time without a toddler to worry about messing with the tree and now I have the dog to worry about!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

Feety Jammies

2011-11-29T19:50:00.001-08:00

Have I mentioned before how much I love feety jammies?

My 6 year old and 4 year old love them, too and absolutely couldn't wait for the weather to get cold enough to wear the "jammies that cover our feet!"

Too bad I can't talk my 8 year old into wearing them!

P.S. I realize the technical term for these pajamas is "blanket sleeper" but in our house they are "feety jammies".

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

My 3 year old lives in Ethiopia

2011-11-28T18:53:00.001-08:00

I was reading an adoption-related article recently, and there was a feature on a particular couple. I don't remember the main content, but what struck me is that near the beginning as the article introduced the couple, it said, "They have one son who lives in Ethiopia." I thought to myself, "Wow, that's cool. I wonder what kind of work he does in Ethiopia, maybe mission work?" Then I saw a picture of the couple and thought, "Hey, that's really strange, they look so young to have a grown-up son living in Ethiopia!" Then I read a bit further and realized their son is actually an infant, living in Ethiopia, while they live in the U.S. Even though we are intimately familiar with this scenario and international adoption, the ludicrousness was still striking. I mean in what world do infants and young children live entire continents apart from their families? But, I know of many families besides us living out this exact scenario right now as they await the approval of the U.S. government to be able to bring their children home.

My 3 year old daughter lives in Ethiopia.

The American embassy sends us emails with her name that includes our own last name tacked right on to the end of her first name, she's officially on our health insurance, her monogrammed hooded towel hangs on a hook in our kid bathroom next to her brothers' and sister's towels. But she does not live here with us.

Yet.

That yet is huge because we are very thankful to have reached a point in our adoption where her homecoming may just be a few weeks away. But it is a very odd, tough place to be living apart from your young child.

I've bought her Christmas presents, guessing what I think she might like, but fully realizing I really don't know my daughter. I've spent a grand total of 3 hours with her, spread across 3 different days, nearly 4 months ago. Isn't a mother supposed to know her child better than that? I have no idea what her favorite color is, favorite animal to have on her jammies, favorite princess for her little toddler panties. What makes her laugh? What is she like when she first wakes up in the morning?

I've been to a few kid parties lately to celebrate the birthday's of my kids' friends, and oh how I pity the mom I'm meeting for the first time at the party who innocently asks me how many children I have and how old they are. There is just no short answer to that question, and what she thought was small talk turns to the topics of orphans and third world countries and adoption roadblocks. It has actually become an interesting social experiment to me (hee! hee!), because in my experience people react in one of two ways at this point, either they are very excited and enthusiastic, interested to hear more and full of questions OR there is a completely awkward silence when the poor other mom has no idea how to respond and looks so completely relieved when we are interrupted by a child who needs something!

I know that most likely this living-apart-from-my-daughter is short-lived, that we will be able to take custody of her soon and begin to get to know about her all the things parents typically know about their children (well not everything, of course, there will always be parts of the first 3 years of her life that we'll never know). I've heard that once she's been home a while, it will be hard to even imagine life before she was here, that this waiting for her to come home will be a memory, rather that our reality.

I also believe that there will come a day when we are not living one day at a time, not knowing exactly when we'll wake up to an email that will give us permission to bring our daughter home, the day when we'll frantically book tickets to Ethiopia on just a few days notice to go get our daughter. There will be a day I don't have to respond to all requests with, "I'll be there next week, if I'm not in Ethiopia." There will be a time when we don't have to explain to family members who want to make Christmas plans with us that we have no idea where we are going to be around Christmas time (even though it's less than a month away) or what life will look like for our family this Christmas.

But, for now, for today, for this phase that we are in, I'd just like to acknowledge the craziness of it, the sheer ludicrousness! And then with that done, I'll go to Target again to stock up on toilet paper, because apparently I have no idea how to prepare to bring home a 3 year old child from a third world country, my experience just lends itself to hurricane preparedness. See? Craziness!

Holiday Images

2011-11-27T20:40:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving morning, my 6 year old washing potatoes with some help from our furry little friend!

Friday we cut down our own Christmas tree. It was a beautiful day and so much fun, likely to be a new family tradition!

Enjoyed some homemade hot chocolate while decorating the tree!

Hung 4 stockings over the fireplace, praying our 4th child is HOME for Christmas!

We're gonna need more circles

2011-11-22T20:25:00.001-08:00

We're praising God for our blessings.

Listing them out,

naming them,

scribbling them down on imperfect circles,

and hanging them up,

on fallen branches from our own yard,

so we can reflect,

so we can remember,

so we can thank Him

from whom all blessings flow.

The very same God who guided the Pilgrims safely to the new world,

across seas so rough they thought they'd surely perish in the journey,

is guiding and sustaining us today.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving

full of counted blessings!

Psalm 107:1 "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." (NIV)

Submitted to the Embassy!

2011-11-17T19:09:00.001-08:00

Today our adoption case was submitted to the American embassy in Ethiopia. Hooray! One big step closer to bringing our girl home!

So, now we wait to get an email from the embassy which typically takes 1 to 2 weeks. The email will either let us know we have been cleared and can schedule an embassy date (for often as quick as 1 week later), which we will travel to Ethiopia for, pick up our daughter and get to come home with her, OR the email will be a request for more information. Lately the embassy has been requesting something on nearly every case, it seems. They have requested an interview with birth parents for relinquishments (even though the interview was already done by the Ethiopian court), requested to interview police officers for abandonments, asked for more documentation or corrections of documents already submitted. Then once you submit whatever the embassy is asking for, they can still come back and ask for something else, or send your case for further investigation with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration). All that to summarize why we still don't know when we can go get our little girl -- could be 2 weeks, could be 12 weeks from now. Please pray we clear quickly!

Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of us, so the email from the embassy will come between 12am and 8am our time -- hmmm, think we'll have any trouble sleeping these next few weeks as we wake up at all hours of the night just dying to check our email and see if maybe we have one from the embassy? And people wonder why pre-adoptive parents suffer from adoption induced psychosis!

Dryer Dough

2011-11-16T21:00:00.001-08:00

I think I've shared here before about my little trick of rising bread dough in the clothes dryer. I run the dryer for a few minutes on the hottest setting, then turn it off, stick the pan with the dough in, and close the door quickly before all the hot air escapes. It works wonderfully to cut rise time in half! However there is a key point about this method:

The dryer must never be turned on while the bread dough is inside!!!

Yeah.

No idea how it happened!

Thankfully the clean-up wasn't too bad and really I had a good laugh the whole time I was scraping the dough out of the inside of the dryer!

And a plus: every load of laundry smelled of fresh baked bread for days afterward!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

A Whole New World of Hair Products!

2011-11-15T21:11:00.001-08:00

My 3 year old officially has more hair and skin products than I've had in the last 10 years combined!

I've studied websites, I've watched some videos, I've got some products, I now know what the terms "pre-poo" and "no-poo" mean, but I still feel pretty unprepared for our new daughter's hair. Somebody tell me it's really not as hard as it sounds! I must say, though, that I think my Ethiopian daughter's curly hair is awesome and I can't wait to style it! I have fought my straight hair my entire life, trying to get just a little curl or body, so learning about curl patterns and detangling is pretty fun!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Those Two

2011-11-14T20:46:00.001-08:00

My kids are friends.

They really, really are.

And for that I am very grateful.

I pray they will always be close.

Those two, in that picture above, can play together for long periods of time without me having to settle anything.

Which is so wonderful!

But, I have to be careful,

because the peaceful play allows me to slip away and do laundry,

or help the 8 year old with homework,

and those two?

Are legendary mess-makers!

Oh yes they are!

They are obsessed with gathering dirt and leaves and sticks and flowers by the bucketful.

That I am actually fine with.

Dirt brushes off.

Dirt is no problem.

But those two, through various sneaky methods (like coming inside for a drink of water to take outside), add water to their dirt concoctions and invariably end up coating themselves, the patio and the dog in mud!

I cannot tell you how many times those two have assured me, "We won't make a mess!"

And I've bought it because they look so innocent and seem so believable.

But, minutes later there is always a mess.

Usually a head-to-toe kind of mess.

"I was carrying the bucket with both my arms around it and it all sloshed out!"

Perhaps, though, these mud soup making (and spilling) days will be what creates a relationship between those two so strong that they'll be there for each other as adults especially in the muddy, messy times!

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers.

Tell me your wall is the same!

2011-11-10T20:11:00.001-08:00

I had the semi-annual experience this week (and no it is not exactly every 6 months that this occurs because no way could I stick to any sort of FlyLady schedule) of feeling sure my house would be less filthy if I lived with zoo animals than with my children! What could possibly make me think such a thing?

The wall nearest my dining room table.

Usually I don't notice it much at all, but roughly twice a year (typically by accident rather than by purposeful cleaning) I get a close look and see amazing, disgusting amounts of food and drink remnants splattered, dripping, and crusted all over the wall!!

So, instead of writing an actual blog post today, the 409 and the Mr. Clean eraser and I spent some quantity time.

You'll be glad to know that despite my lack of quality blogging, other people have written some excellent things. I'm only going to link to two because then it's more likely you'll read them and they are definitely worth your time!

This has been circulating around the internet for several days now, but if you haven't seen Jen Hatmaker's post How to Be the Village go read it. It covers the ins and outs of how to support an adoptive family with hilarious honesty! I can relate to so much of what she shared.

Then after you read that, come back here and click through to this delightful post written by blogger Boo Mama about meeting the child she sponsors through Compassion International. We were beyond blessed to get to meet our Compassion son Mathews while we were in Ethiopia this past August and I cannot more highly recommend how awesome it is to sponsor a child! Boo Mama's account of her day with her Compassion child is really sweet and in typical Boo Mama fashion, hugely funny!

Happy Friday Everyone!

A Sick Day

2011-11-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here's what a sick day looks like at our house:

Also around our house, actually throwing up at school in the 2nd grade entitles you to a free day off at the slightest hint of a stomach ache in 3rd grade.

I'm thankful the 8 year old was feeling much better by this afternoon, ate a good dinner, and that there was never any actual throwing up!!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

New Pictures from Ethiopia!

2011-11-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today we got some new pictures of our little 3 year old daughter in Ethiopia. I'm rejoicing in the fact that this month, since we've passed court now and she's legally our child, I can share the cuteness from our new pictures! And also, praying hard for the day we no longer get monthly updates on our daughter because she is HOME with us every day!

Her precious, sunshiney face:

And the face we are going to have a very hard time ever saying "No" to after she comes home:

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Blessings

2011-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

I have so much to be thankful for every single day, picking a few to reflect on today:

The fun my 6 year old daughter and I had doing her 1st Grade Family Turkey project. The instructions were to cut out the given turkey, decorate it creatively, and mount it on posterboard. My daughter chose to make her turkey into a "Rapunzel turkey" like from the movie Tangled. It turned out ridiculously hilarious - purple sequins and long yarn hair!

Matching doll and little girl nightgowns. Thank you Kohl's for a cheap, sweet, will be worn over and over again blessing and smile for both my 6 year old and me! May she never outgrow delighting in dressing like her doll!

Some weather cool enough to inspire me to get our the "winter blanket" for our bed.

And discovering Madeline the puppy is the exact same color as the blanket!

She is really not allowed on our bed, but who could resist such a soft, fluffy blanket? I snapped the picture and then made her get "Off!".

My children's schools and teachers! Because I won't be able to do much once our new daughter comes home, I have been spending a lot of time lately in my kids' classrooms (pre-K, 1st grade and 3rd grade) - going on field trips, reading in the class, assisting with in-class projects, etc, and I am so grateful for the 2 amazing schools my kids attend (the elementary is even a public school) and wonderful teachers they have! Really, I could not be more pleased!

My 4 year old who has said for a while he wants to be a pastor when he grows up (my husband has encouraged/planted ideas), the other day told me, "Now I want to be something like a pastor, you know what it is?" Me: "No, what?" Him: "A priest!" It made me laugh so hard! We are not Catholic and he's never been to a Catholic church, so I have no idea where he got that one! That little guy makes me laugh every day!

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers.

How Does God Feel About Orphans?

2011-11-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

In honor of Orphan Sunday which is this Sunday, November 6th, instead of sharing my own views and beliefs regarding orphans, I want to defer to God's words to all of us:

"Learn to do good; Seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:17

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

"When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." Deuteronomy 24:19

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." Psalm 68:5

"God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:6a

“I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18

"To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more." Psalm 10:18

"Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them." Isaiah 1:23

"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute." Psalm 82:3

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing." Deut. 10:18

"And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do." Deut 14:29

"But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless." Pslam 10:14

"The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, but He thwarts the way of the wicked." Psalm 146:9

"Do not move the ancient boundary or go into the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you." Proverbs 23:10-11

Can we call ourselves followers of God and ignore these verses?

There are 147 million orphans in the world.

"2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left." from Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis

So what can you do?

Love them, pray for them, visit them, feed them, speak out for them, care for them, provide for them, adopt them.

Slowing Down Life

2011-11-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

For a while now, but more in earnest the past two months, we've been trying to slow down the pace of our family's life. We don't function well when more time is spent telling our kids to get their shoes on and get in the car than is spent encouraging them, teaching them, loving them.

We know this.

Also, with our new daughter coming home from Ethiopia hopefully within a few months? weeks? (My standard response now to ALL THE QUESTIONS I'm getting about WHEN?! is "could be 4 weeks, could be 4 months" and that is the sad truth!) it is going to be imperative that we have a slowed down life for a long while as she transitions into our family and our world. Imagine being a 3 year old who spent an entire year in one room of a care center, with the the exception of occasional walks outside to the other care center down the street. Do you think a trip to Target might be a tad overwhelming? How about the observation room at your new sister's gymnastics? Church? A school carnival?

We are very excited to introduce our daughter to a bunch of new experiences, things we totally take for granted as regular, every day stuff. BUT, we are going to have to ease into those things, slowly. And, she is going to need a whole lot of our focused attention, meaning less attention for other things.

Hence again, the need for the slowed down life.

But, I'm going to be honest here. After 2 months of really trying to slow it down, of feeling like I say "No" to outside requests for my time about 50 times per day, LIFE IS STILL NOT SLOW!

So it begins again, another attempt to clear our plates and calendars.

And maybe it's just because I'm really noticing now as I'm forcing myself to hyper-evaluate every request, even if it's just a one time, one hour commitment, but doesn't it seem like the demands are rather relentless?

To complicate things, the demands are for good things so it's hard to say "no".

Really, many come from my church, some even as boldly as "You were recommended for this committee, let us know which time slot every other weekend would work best for you to volunteer." Me: "Huh? They're not asking if I want to sign-up but just which time slot?" Yeah, I wasn't probably as kind as I should have been in my response where I detailed all that my husband and I already do for the church, our family situation with a new child on the way via adoption and that we just couldn't commit to any more. But, thank you for thinking of me!"

I'm sorry if this sounds like ranting, I don't mean it to be. I actually am not one of those people who believes God has me on this earth to just serve my family. I do believe in volunteering outside of my own little world, in Mark 16:15 Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." But, there is such thing as too much.

So in a society that seems to value "busy" and "multi-tasking", I feel like I'm swimming upstream, but thankful for the opportunity to keep trying and asking for God's discernment.

Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Dog Mop

2011-11-01T19:31:00.001-07:00

The good news is that I have a dog that doubles as an automatic, self-propelled mop for spills like orange juice.

The bad news is that once the spill is cleaned up, the furry dog mop needs a bath!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Adoption 101: Choose a Great Agency

2011-10-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've gotten some questions about adoption in general and although I'm absolutely no expert, I'm going to share some key things we've learned about navigating the adoption process.

Seeing as how I've spent the day at all sorts of festivities with Robin Hood, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and a knight, and I'm completely worn out, I'm only going to highlight one key thing tonight and I'll share others later.

Choose a Great Agency

I cannot begin to tell you how key this is.

With everything we've been through adopting from Ethiopia -- slowdowns, investigations, major changes in procedures, unknowns, etc. -- I am so glad we chose well at the beginning. There were many nights we were (still are) able to sleep soundly knowing we could trust our agency. That doesn't mean we haven't asked questions here and there. It doesn't mean we didn't visit the region our daughter was from and poke around into her story. Because we did ask questions and poke a bit, but the trust proved true and in fact, our agency's reaction to our times of asking or poking made us respect them even more!

Also, for us, a key deciding factor in the agency we chose was that they run their own care center in Ethiopia, so the children in their adoption process are transferred out of the orphanages where the care is not as good and into the care of our agency where it is a whole lot better! Now, having so long between our trip to meet our daughter and the time we can bring her home (which is still unknown), I'm so thankful she's well cared for! There is no way I could have left her in Ethiopia if I did not believe that to be absolutely true!

I got further assurance of the care level this past weekend. My husband and I attended an adoption conference and part-way through one of the sessions I realized I knew one of the speakers. She was one of the people who had recently travelled to Ethiopia for humanitarian work and met our daughter, took pictures of her, found out we were her family and emailed the pictures to me. After the presentation we met this lady face-to-face and it was so fun to gush together over how amazing our new little girl is. But also, this lady shared with me that they saw the children walking outside their guesthouse as a group with their caregivers and that they watched through the window for a long time before going out and playing with the kids. She told me how struck she was by how well the nannies interacted with and took care of the kids even when they thought nobody was watching!

So, how do you choose a great agency?

1. Do not go with the agency that claims the shortest wait or lowest fees.

Pretty much all agencies are playing in the same arenas with the same rules, so if someone is claiming to do it much faster or cheaper that would be a huge red flag to me, likely either they are not being honest in setting expectations or they are doing something shady to achieve the faster or cheaper.

2. Pick an agency with a proven track record for the type of adoption/country you are doing.

An agency could be great at domestic adoptions but not have enough experience in a particular country. Some basic Internet searches can uncover any scandals that may be brewing around a particular agency.

3. Talk to other families who have used the agency.

Go beyond the references the agency will provide you because those people are guaranteed to only give you a glowing report. Instead seek out adoption groups in your city, your church or other local churches (remember when we began the adoption process our church did not have an adoption ministry, so we attended meetings and events at other churches) and ask those people what agency they used and what their experience was.

4. Pick an agency where you feel like you connect with the staff.

I picked the OB who ended up delivering all 3 of my biological children, not just because she's a great doctor, but because I loved how sweet and kind she was, yet she still gave honest answers. My theory was, being pregnant and giving birth are very emotional experiences and I wouldn't want to go through them with someone I wouldn't consider as a friend. Well, I'm hear to tell you adoption is a very, very, very emotional experience and we've been blessed to always be treated kindly and with compassion by our adoption agency staff.

5. Pick an agency that offers real post-adoption support.

You are going to need support. We are going to need support, I have no doubt. We attended a 2 day optional training course offered for free by our agency where they provided tons of real help for the issues many adoptive parents face. But most important, I know staff that specialize in post-adoption that I can call on if and when we need help. In fact they emphasized, "Call before you lose your compassion" (meaning your compassion for your new child and the "hard places" they've come from that is contributing to the really annoying behavior).

There are a few other things I could cover and maybe even some big things I'm forgetting, but just like my 4 year old's little session of cutting his own hair tonight (Oh, yes he did! Thankfully only a few strands were snipped - he was "trying to get rid of the bumpy part".), I'm ending it.

** That is our little girl in the top picture, just an earlier picture of her than what I've showed before -- such a punkin'!! **

Halloween 2011, minus one muchkin

2011-10-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

Dorothy, Robin Hood, and a knight

Wishing you the happy of Halloween -- the fun of dressing up, the fellowship with neighbors otherwise rarely seen, and, of course, much more candy than your mom lets you eat on all the other 364 days of the year!

Real life, only better

2011-10-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

Jen Hatmaker wrote this hilarious post about The Fake Family after adding two children adopted from Ethiopia to her 3 kid household. And it was so funny to me because for months now we've been doing the same thing, conjuring up in our minds all these goals we wanted to achieve as a family before our new daughter comes home from Ethiopia.

You know things like: get our puppy better obedience trained, have regular family devotions, raise our voices less, clean out our closets and drawers, prepare more freezer meals, teach the 4 year old to dress himself, somehow train the 8 year old to flush more than 50% of the time, get the older 3 kids using their checklists and performing daily household chores, become experts at Karyn Purvis methods of discipline - "Are you askin' or tellin'?", get the carpet cleaned, Christmas shop early this year, make homemade injera, have daily one-on-one time with each child, replace that light switch plate that has been cracked since we moved in the house nearly 5 years ago. . .

Because she will be here some day!!

It's ludicrous and funny and nuts but the motivation is genuine.

She made us want to be a better family.

Even though it's true of all four of our children, with this forth one, it is most apparent, she is God's child and He is allowing us the privilege and responsibility to parent her. And we want to get it right.

Though I know we'll fall far short of the ideal, perfect family -- no matter what we try I can't imagine our kids not being loud, our dog not stealing food off the table, and my husband and I never forgetting the right attachment-based parenting methods, resorting to blurting out, "What's wrong with you?!" to our beloved children every now and then -- the goals are not bad things to aim for and we'll keep trying for all our sakes.

But the reality is that she'll be coming home to an imperfect family. An imperfect family that will love her like crazy for the rest of her life and stick by her even on the days she'd rather disown us!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road . . .

2011-10-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

I finally made my 6 year old daughter's Dorothy Halloween costume! I was spurred on by my daughter's dramatic statements of, "But you HAVE to finish it by Sunday afternoon because I have Maya's costume party to go to!"

It took way longer than I thought it would, 2 extra trips to the fabric store, part of the pattern instructions I never did understand but just made up my own step, and as always, there was lots of use of my seam ripper for undoing mistakes, BUT I'm really happy with how it turned out! And it was my 2nd project where I sewed in a zipper and it turned out much better than my 1st zipper (which did in fact zip up and down but had some minor cosmetic issues), so progress!

Then after all my blood, sweat and tears to create the dress (no idea where my 6 year old gets her drama, by the way), exactly 45 seconds into the party the kids were painting pumpkins and my daughter got black glitter paint on her dress! Very thankfully it came out easily!

Oh, and I made the hem extra wide so I can let it out for future years. She's going to be Dorothy for the next 10 Halloweens or until she can talk her little sister into taking over the costume!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Translation

2011-10-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone, for your support and sharing in our excitement over the news that we passed court and the little girl we've been in the process of adopting is now officially a member of our family! We've gotten the message out to many friends and family and have been so blessed and overwhelmed by the response. So many people are excited for this little one to come home, and really it is overwhelmingly wonderful to me that one year ago this precious girl was all alone in Ethiopia and now she has so many pulling for her here in America, people who can't wait to meet her and watch her grow up! And I've seen a lot of evidence that she is changing hearts, too!

We are busy doing all kinds of preparations for her to come home, even though we have no idea when that will be. Recently we got the book Simple Language Amharic for Adoptive Families (from this website), and it is awesome! We have an English to Amharic translation book we bought for our first trip to Ethiopia and it was really useful, but also overwhelming. I love the Simple Language Amharic for Adoptive Families book because it just contains phrases you'd be likely to use with an adopted child, so it helps us focus our learning on the most important stuff! It also comes with a CD which really needs to be playing in our home non-stop until we get to go pick up our sweet girl!

And if I'm being honest, I don't cry easily, but this book got to me. A language translation book? I know! But just listen to some of the phrases from the book and think of getting to say them to your newly adopted 3 year old child:

I am your Mommy.
Eh-Nay eh-NAH-tish negn.

You are my daughter.
Ahn-CHEE lee-JAY nesh.

You are going to live with us.
Ahn-CHEE keh-GNAH gahr nohw yeh-mih-TNOHR-re.

We are so happy to be your family.
Yeh-GNH beh-teh-SEHB ah-BAHL beh-meh-HOH-nesh des bloh-gnal.

We love you so much!
Beht-AHM ehn-wuh-dih-SHAH-lehn!

You are so precious!
AHN-CHEE WUH-deh nesh.

Can I hold you?
Lay-ah-ZESH

We are going to ride on an airplane!
Beh-ah-roh-PlAHN nohw yeh-min-HEH-doh!

This is our house.
Yikh bay-tah-CHIN nohn.

This is your room.
Yikh kih-FLISH nohw.

And then there are the practical things like "Do you have to go potty?", "Stop", "Are you hungry?" and one every parent needs to be able to say to their child, "Please don't do that."

We passed court!!!

2011-10-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

You guys are not going to believe this -- after hearing yesterday that we had a new court date of October 27th, we were all, "Well, at least we can take a break from anticipating/worrying about the phone ringing for a week." AND THEN this very morning I got the call from our caseworker that we passed!!!! Of course I was totally confused and like, "Huh? What about our court date?" Our caseworker said she didn't know why we were given a new court date and then passed the next day, but we definitely passed.

We are officially her family!!!!!!

And today is our new little girl's birthday! She turned 3 years old! Exactly one year ago today she became an orphan. And now precisely one year later, after an extended, unexplained wait to pass court, weeks after all the other families from our travel group passed, it was made official that she is our daughter. Oh God does write the most amazing stories, doesn't He?!!!

Although 3 years old she weighs 26 lbs, which is what our other children weighed as 1 year olds, but all indications reveal she is mostly healthy. We can certainly testify to her preciousness, friendly personality, and spunk from our visits with her! We are so thankful for the privilege of being her family, thankful for all the ways she's already changed us and she's not even home yet! So that's the big question, right? WHEN can we go get her and bring her home?

Nobody would like that answer to be tomorrow more than us. It's been 11 weeks since we had to say goodbye to her in Ethiopia and being home without her has been harder than we ever imagined. The missing of someone who's never been here is inexplicable, really, but so is leaving a child behind in an Ethiopian orphanage. However, we do have to - deep breath in, deep breath out - wait some more. Although she is legally our child in Ethiopia, we must now clear the U.S. embassy to be able to bring her home to America. The embassy process used to take 4 to 6 weeks, but lately as the embassy has begun doing more investigations, it is taking many families closer to 9 or 10 weeks and some even longer, although there is still potential to clear quickly!

We are so excited to be on the last leg now, marveling at God's faithfulness, and dreaming of the day all four of our children are not only on the same continent, but we can tuck them all into bed under one roof! At the same time, we have been through enough adoption training to know that when we step off the airplane with her in our hometown, it will not be "happily ever after". It will be the beginning of another tough journey of adjusting to our family of 6 and helping our new little girl heal from from the hard things of her past.

We really appreciate your support throughout this long, emotional roller-coaster of a journey!

***Just like I don't post my other children's names on this blog, I will not share our new daughter's name, but if you'd like to know, feel free to email me at itfeelslikechaos AT yahoo DOT com (just replace the AT and Dot with the appropriate symbols; I didn't type it exactly because then those pesky spammers would get me!). I have, however, lightened up a bit about sharing my children's pictures!***

Adoption Update: A New Court Date

2011-10-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

We got news today that we have a new court date for our Ethiopian adoption on October 27th. Since we appeared in Ethiopian court on August 2nd we have been desperately waiting for news that we passed, that we are officially, legally the parents of our little girl in Ethiopia. While the new court date was not the coveted news that we passed court, we are relieved to no longer feel like we are waiting indefinitely, which is how it was really beginning to feel!

Our agency assures us that being given a new court date does not indicate anything bad and they do not foresee any issues with our case. The court date gives a set date for our case to be looked at and potentially finalized. (We do not attend this court date, just thought I'd clarify in case you envisioned us scrambling to make the 20 hour flight, nope next time we go to Ethiopia it will be for our Embassy appointment and we won't be coming home without her!)

Please pray our case is finalized next Thursday. Our girl needs to be in a family, with a mommy and daddy instead of just caregivers, she needs the nutrition and medical care we can provide her. And we are so tired of waiting, ready to have our little girl home with us rather than watching her grow up in an orphanage through pictures and updates. It's been 11 weeks since we had to say goodbye to her in Ethiopia. Tomorrow she turns 3 years old.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl, if we had it our way, you'd be home eating cupcakes with us and dancing to some Ethiopian music in our living room -- you are an amazing, adorable dancer! We will wait as long as it takes to be able to bring you home and look forward to all the other birthdays we'll be able to celebrate with you! I pray that you can somehow feel that you are loved and wanted and not forgotten.

Poor Mr. Monkey!

2011-10-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Really, I'm surprised Mr. Monkey made it through several months of our puppy Madeline before losing an appendage.

Good thing that is her toy, rather than a kid toy (although our house could stand to loose a stuffed animal or 40).

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Remember when . . .

2011-10-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Anyone been reading my blog long enough to remember this story?

Something today reminded me of this and I had to search out the blog post; a republish is definitely in order.

I'm grateful the popcorn mess has not repeated itself in the past 2 years, but I'm even more grateful to have recorded the memory. It's not that it necessarily gets easier or that there are not spectacular things about every age and stage I've seen so far, but at the same time, there is just nothing like those toddler days!

***Originally published April 8, 2009***

What it is like having a toddler in the house:

Yeah, it's pretty much like that. THOUSANDS of popcorn kernels strewn across your kitchen floor!
He pulled the bag out of the pantry, took off the clothes pin that was keeping the bag shut, and shook the entire contents onto the floor.
I was just a few feet away and heard him rustling in the pantry but it was snack time, the bigger kids had been in the pantry, too, and I assumed he was getting out crackers.
Then I heard it, a sound like rain and wondered what in the world had happened that it was raining in my kitchen.
The next sounds were from my 6 year old shrieking, "He's doing something really bad!"
I stared at the mess in disbelief. We were having guests the next day and I had many things to clean up already!
Clearly the popcorn kernels became first priority.
I whisked out the 2 sets of hand brooms and dust pans as my toddler began shouting, "MESS! MESS!"
I guess it was a lesson in cause and effect for him. Bag of popcorn kernels + opening + turning upside down = MESS!
I made the mistake of enlisting my toddler and 2 older kids in helping clean up the mess, I guess I thought the work of cleaning it up would deter any of them from making such a mess again, but soon there were popcorn kernels coating the entire 1st floor of my home!
Because you see, kids sweep with gusto and they are not so good with the dust pan!
If you come to my home anytime in the next 8 months you are likely to step on a kernel. Take my advice and wear your shoes at all times!
Thankfully that mischievous toddler is also the sweetest thing, giving the best hugs many times each day. Just yesterday when I got him out of his crib first thing in the morning, all he wanted to do was, "Kiss . . . Sisser! Hug . . . Sisser!" and he did, crawl in bed with his big sister and kiss and hug her!

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers

Very Few Red Carpets in the Real World

2011-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Friday night my 6 year old daughter and I went on a Mother/Daughter retreat with our church. It was at a hotel about an hour away. We've done many dates together just the two of us, but it's the first overnight and I have to say, it was lovely! Sweet, sweet time together.

We will be doing it again some day, only next time maybe not with a scheduled 8am breakfast we need to attend because my girl will sleep in, unlike her two brothers that wake us up at 7am every single day with no regard for a Saturday morning and parents who are not morning people!

Practically as soon as we got home on Saturday afternoon, we had to head out again, she and I, for a birthday party for a little girl in her class at school. My husband almost took her so we could switch and I could have time with the boys but we decided I'd take her to the party at the last minute and good thing because he would not have survived! I knew it was some sort of dress-up party at a place we'd never been to before, but I had no idea how over the top it would be. The moment we walked in the doors and the fumes of nail polish remover mixed with hairspray about knocked me over, I knew we were in for it!

The little girls all got to choose a dress to wear during the party from a rack that did not contain your typical princess wannabe dresses, oh no, these were dresses fit for the academy awards! Like dresses I would probably not even let my daughter pick out for prom! Think full-length sequins, feathers, and fake fur!

They got their fingernails painted. Then they got their hair and make-up done complete with tons of glitter, red lipstick, and blue or purple eyeshadow. I whispered to one of the moms I knew well, "This is the last time she wears red lipstick for a very long time." The mom whispered back, "Yeah, I don't even let my daughter paint her fingernails at home!" I replied, "I know! We just do toenails because I feel like that's enough for now, we are probably going to fight the make-up battle soon enough, why rush things?"

THEN they rolled out a red carpet and had the girls walk down the runway one by one!

Oh, no they DIDN'T. Oh, yes they did.
I was amazed that some of the girls seemed to know exactly what to do and even struck a pose at the end! And I was really relieved when my 6 year old didn't exactly "work it" on the runway but shyly walked down and stood at the end looking cute rather than like a diva!

The party being a one time thing probably didn't scar my daughter, but really what are we as a society doing to our little girls?

I mean seriously, I was just browsing potential Christmas gifts for my 6 year old daughter who wants to be a teacher when she grows up, do you know what teacher Barbie looks like?

Is it just me or is Barbie more dressed for a night club? Have you ever seen a teacher dressed like that?

How about the Preschool Teacher Barbie? Surely, she's dressed more practically to deal with the physical care of little ones?

Nope, a short, short mini skirt!! No way she could bend over to wipe a 3 year old's nose without revealing way too much!

One more, "Barbie I can be a Newborn Baby Doctor". Give me some scrubs! Oh no, a short ruffled mini skirt and pink high heals!

Perhaps I should have had all boys.

A Sure Sign of Autumn

2011-10-13T22:11:00.001-07:00

A sure sign that fall is here! The dog came in from outside with this leaf stuck to her face.

It stayed there for about 30 minutes until I just had to photograph it and then my daughter felt sorry for the puppy and pulled the leaf off!

Reforming a Pack Rat Child

2011-10-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the new bunk beds and dresser arriving for our girl room, we moved the old furniture out of the room.

My 6 year old daughter slept in the guest room during the change-over but loved the emptiness of her room. She was thrilled to sit in the middle of the wide open floor space with a few books and declare it her "reading room"!

This same daughter is a pack rat by nature (confession: she comes from 2 packrat parents but we are getting better and learning life is better with less stuff) and in recent months her room had become too crammed full of stuff. I've been telling her once we re-do the room, we are going to have less in there on purpose and it will be better. She'd get very uneasy about just which things we were going to get rid of. I told her we'd decide together.

So, I couldn't help pointing out to her how nice her room was when it was empty!

Today, I gave her a basket I'd moved out of her room, one she had stuffed full of tons of junk (treasures!) and a trash bag and told her to go through it.

I quickly noticed her "keep" pile was a lot bigger than her "trash" pile and decided she needed some parameters. I gave her a clear plastic box and told her "If it can fit in here, you can keep it."

I left her to her sorting.

When she called out that she was finished, I should not have been surprised to go find the box completely filled to the brim.

Have you ever seen such a box of junk?!!!

But, as she demonstrated, it closes!

And can be tucked away out of sight under the new bed!

Now I just have to hold her to the rule, "Any new treasures have to fit in this box, too, and if they don't fit you have to get rid of something else to make room to keep them."

My Knight in Shining Armour

2011-10-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

It's pretty much Halloween around here every day, minus the candy.

Yes, the dress-up stuff is some of the most played with of all the things in our playroom!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Why didn't we start this sooner?

2011-10-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

Our kids now have a chore charts.

I found a tablet of templates at a dollar store, wrote in the tasks each child needs to do every day, (including various conduct sheets and agendas they must have signed daily for school, homework and their household responsibilities), and then laminated the chart.

Now the kids can check off their tasks each day (with a dry erase marker). And my job as a parent just got a whole lot easier!

Instead of trying to remember all the things they need to be doing and reminding (nagging) them to do the tasks, I only have to remember to say 5 words, "Let me see your checklist"!

Today, my 4 year old wanted to build a fort out of sheets, "Sure Buddy, just let me make sure you've finished your checklist first."

My 8 year old wanted to play his DS game during my daughter's gymnastics, "You can play if you've finished your checklist before it's time for her class." My 8 year old can drag out a task like nobody's business -- slow like molasses. But today? I've never seen him accomplish so much in a short amount of time!

Seriously, why didn't we start this sooner?

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

The Third Child

2011-10-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

When my firstborn was in pre-K, he pretty much never brought home any artwork. I'd wait outside his classroom to pick him up and admire all the adorable creations hanging on the line above so many of the other children's names, but by my son's name? Nothing.

He was too busy doing all the other centers in the classroom and skipped the art center, every day.

I'd prod and question him. "You didn't want to make a pumpkin picture?" "Maybe tomorrow you'll make something." "Daddy would be so excited to see something you made at school!"

Then 2 years later came my daughter into the same pre-K program and she pretty much camped out in the craft station for the entire 3 hour school day apparently, and brought home the following amount of creations EVERY DAY!
And she didn't want to part with any of them. They were all priceless keepsakes!

My house was so full of construction paper treasures and sequins that fell off and glitter and feathers and macaroni necklaces. I'd have to stage elaborate stealth operations to be able to throw away secret piles I'd squirreled away long enough that she forgot about them.

And now 2 years after my daughter's pre-K year, my youngest son is in the same pre-K program. And like his brother, he prefers not to do the craft activities, but instead builds zoos and museums and towers out of the blocks every day and fills his shoes up with massive quantities of sand on the playground.

But, my little 3rd child is blessed to have a momma with the perspective that only multiple children can bring. He gets no secretly judgmental comments from me about the lack of creations. I stand outside his classroom and smile at the other children's piles of artwork compared to the empty space beside his name. And, truthfully, I really am kind of glad. Yay! Nothing to take home! No wet paint or shaving cream getting all over our clothes and the car during the transport home! No figuring out how to display or store or trash the artwork!!!

And we all marvel at the affects of birth order on personality!

Find more Finer Things Friday.

A Big Question

2011-10-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Recently as I was putting my 4 year old son down for a nap, I kissed him and said, “I love you.” He said, “I love you, too.” That exchange happens often, but then he asked me a question that stopped me cold.

“Would you love me even if I didn’t love you?”

It was a good question. A big question for anyone to ask of another human being, much less to come from a 4 year old.

I began my answer to my little guy like many parents probably would, "Of course I'd love you! No matter what, I'll always love you, even if you did not love me."

But because we've been in this process to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia for over 2 years, it's something we've talked about for so long that my 4 year old son probably does not remember life before adoption was a regular family topic of conversation, I was also able to illustrate it for him like this, "You know (insert name of our Ethiopian daughter here)? She doesn't love us right now, she doesn't even know we are her family, but we love her, right?"

And oh how we love her! How we desperately want her home with us!

But, we do not love her because she loves us.

We love her because she was created by God in His image and because hers was the picture He predestined to have flash up from an email onto our computer screen that wonderful referral day.

We love her because that is how God first loved us, when we didn't love Him.

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
1 John 4:9-11

"We love because He first loved us."
1 John 4:19

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Great Devotionals for Families With Young Kids

2011-10-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

Here's something that's working for me lately:

It's a super little book called My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts. It has a Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet and after the verse there is a little story about 2 kids and a scenario of how they apply the verse to their lives.

We've been reading one verse and short story each morning at breakfast as a family and I've really been amazed at how much my kids like it, they even remind me to read it if I forget! The letter per day is great for my 4 year old who is learning letter sounds in preparation for reading, and having the first letter clue is helping my older kids remember the Bible verse even later in the day when I ask if they remember what it was.

My plan is actually to start back over with the letter "A" after we get through all the letters and keep cycling through until I get really sick of it or my kids memorize all 26 verses or they all move away to college (we'll see which happens first)!

It's a really easy way to do family devotions with young kids and I love that my kids are starting their day with God's word!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

***I am an Amazon.com affiliate and will receive a small portion of the proceeds of any sale completed through one of my links, however I was not asked to do this review and am only recommending the book because we truly use and enjoy it as a family.***

Hello October, we've been waiting for you!

2011-10-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Some Semi-Coherent Thoughts

2011-09-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

We have not gotten the coveted call this week letting us know our adoption was finalized by the Ethiopian courts and are still praying for good news really soon. We may or may not be pestering our poor caseworker to the point that she likely complains to her coworkers about us. Somehow even though we know she'll call as soon as she has news, we (and when I say we, really it's my husband, no really it is!) can't resist emailing her mid-afternoon asking if she has any news. Yep, we are now officially THOSE people.

____________________

There have been other calls this week, though. For instance in one half hour time period my mom (who suffers from Lewy Body Demetia) called me 12 times to ask what time I was coming to pick her up. I answered the phone about 4 times and patiently told her, "At 10AM, so that's in 50 minutes." "At 10AM, so that's in 48 minutes." "At 10AM, so that's in 45 minutes." "At 10AM, so that's in 44 minutes."

And then I just stopped answering the phone. Does that make me a bad person?

'Cause I was trying to get the house vacuumed and simultaneously console the dog who I'd just picked up from the vet for her spay surgery (Yep, we did it; who were we kidding, we're no dog breeders!) The good news is, Madeline is fine and all the drama around her being in heat is over forever. The bad news? The vet wants me to "keep her quiet and calm for about 7 days." Huh?? How do you recommend I do that?

But as I attempted to ignore the ringing, knowing it had to be my mom again but also wondering a tiny bit if maybe it could be our caseworker, I couldn't help telling God I didn't appreciate his sense of humor!

____________________

In a moment of weakness, or perhaps just complete denial of all the tasks already on my plate, I suggested that I could make my daughter's Halloween costume. She wants to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, mostly because when they have costume day at school she can take a basket with a stuffed dog (Toto) in it. I've yet to go buy some blue and white gingham material to make her apron dress, however I did score some red sparkly shoes at Target that are sure to leave a red glitter trail anywhere my little girl walks in them, but at $12 for ruby red slippers, who's complaining?
____________________

Another shoe highlight of the week: Today just before 2pm after a full morning and early afternoon being out and about various places, as I changed my 4 year old into his swim suit for swimming lessons, I reached to help him take off his shoes and just had to ask, "How long have your shoes been on the wrong feet?"

Seriously, how is it that as preschoolers my kids do not notice at all if they walk around with their shoes on the wrong feet, but let there be a slight wrinkle in their sock and they demand I take the shoe off, smooth the wrinkle, and put it back on before we can ever leave the house? I don't get it! But the whole-shoes-on-the-wrong-feet thing is a finer thing you miss when they grow out of that stage.

____________________

Happy Friday!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

What we do . . .

2011-09-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Newly emblazoned on a wall in our home, complete with my horrible, downward sloping writing:

Maybe we don't really do penmanship so well in this home, but all those other things seem more important anyway.

Now I remember why we have a dog!

2011-09-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

As much trouble as our puppy has been over the past 7 months since we got her, and believe me when I say the trouble was much more than I anticipated, I'd do it all over again!

I've often asked, "Remind me again why we have a dog?" But, then a few weeks ago I was vacuuming and came upon this scene of my daughter hugging the puppy (now nearly a dog), I snapped a picture, and when I looked at the picture after uploading it to the computer, I thought, "There it is! The answer. That is why we have a dog!"

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Adventures in Tooth-Fairying

2011-09-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost 2 teeth. 1 I don't know what happened to it and 1 my mom flushed down the toilet.

Thank you,
(signature of my 8 year old)

For the record, he should have said, "my mom accidentally flushed down the toilet." Long story.

But, it probably won't be the strangest experience of the tooth fairy's night, right? I mean you talk about someone with some stories, if you could ever catch her I'm sure she could tell you some good ones!

Pins and Needles

2011-09-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

Our adoption journey has brought us here.

One phone call away.

One phone call will be the difference between us officially becoming a family of 6 or the agony of another setback, more delays, more unknown.

One phone call bearing news that we have officially passed court in Ethiopia will set us squarely on the path to having our little girl, who now lives in an orphanage in Africa, home with her family, our family, by Christmas (Thanksgiving, maybe even. Oh, we are daring to pray boldly)!

The only thing I can compare this to is waiting on medical test results – cancer or not? The experience that every time the phone rings your heart races and you feel simultaneous dread and excitement! Your legs cannot get you to that phone fast enough, but at the same time your hand does not want to pick it up.

But, aren’t we always just one phone call away? On any given day one phone call can come out of the blue and change the entire course of our earthly lives.

We cannot be tossed by the waves of this ever changing world – the economy is up and it’s down; you have a job, you lose a job; your kid is the teacher’s favorite, or the teacher wants to set up a conference to speak to you about your child’s behavior; he proposed or he left you; you’re going to live or you’re going to die.

The truth is that there is something bigger than all of it. Someone bigger.

For weeks in the preschool class I teach at church, our theme has been “God is BIG and He does BIG things!” As I say the word “Big” to their precious little faces I hold my arms as wide as they will stretch. Now some of the children imitate the gesture. All of the Bible stories revolve around that theme.

But, our stories, the stories of our earthly lives, shout the same message!

So, from our seat here atop the pins and needles we are choosing to trust The Author of all the stories from the beginning of time. And we are thankful that whether the phone rings or not in our ordinary home this coming week, whether it brings good news or bad when and if it rings, we already know the ending of the whole book.

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.” Job 19:25

Random Life

2011-09-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

My 6 year old daughter wants to be a teacher when she grows up. I caught this scene of her holding school for one of her dollies and her little brother!

Yes, that is long underwear she's wearing, it was a chilly 90 degrees here this week compared to our 104 degrees!

________________

My 8 year old forgot to bring home his lunchbox one day recently. I didn't make a big deal about it, even though absent-mindedness is an issue we are constantly working on with him, I'm actually surprised this is the first time that's happened. I just told him to bring it home the next day and in the mean time we had an extra lunchbox I could use to pack his lunch. My husband, however, said, "If he left his lunchbox as school, then tomorrow he should just buy his lunch like a normal person."

My 8 year old's response cracked me up, "The normal people eat out of a lunchbox, the crazy people eat from the lunch line!"

The food really is disgusting that they serve! Nobody should have to eat that stuff!

________________

A police officer came to visit my 4 year old's preschool today to talk with the kids. My little guy thought it was pretty cool and filled me in on every single detail of the visit. That boy can talk your ear off! Then he asks me, "Do you know what a girl police officer is called?" I'm thinking, "Uh, police officer?" but I say, "What?" And he says, "A police officeress, you know like a waitress is a girl waiter." I bust out laughing and say, "What? Did the police officer tell you that?" And he says, "No, I thought of it by myself."

The same kid today when his swim teacher asked him where his big brother and sister were replied, "Those people are at school." The kid is too much!

________________

In case some of you are not regular readers and a bit skeptical about if it's really chaos around here, let me share the fact that a tooth has been sitting on top of a Kleenex on my kitchen counter for a good 3 days now.

Why is it there?

Because a certain 8 year old lost it and keeps forgetting to put it in his tooth fairy pillow and I keep forgetting to remind him.

He also owes the tooth fairy a note about the tooth he lost and swallowed a couple weeks ago during an unfortunate incident where my husband was helping him with his tooth brushing because we're convinced he doesn't brush well enough, and the 8 year old was complaining, "Dad, you're brushing too hard!", and sure enough when my husband finished brushing, my son was minus 1 tooth he'd had (although it was really loose) prior to the brushing! We couldn't find that tooth anywhere so I guess he swallowed it!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

How to Prepare for a Trip to Ethiopia

2011-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

This post has been a long time in coming; the stories have been told about our trip, now it's time to get practical! Before we ever traveled, I learned so much reading blogs from others that traveled before us and appreciated how prepared we really were for our trip as a result, so I want to pass on the blessing.

For my first bit of advice, I wish we had begun getting ready for our trip sooner! Every step of this adoption journey we've been kind of reluctant to jump too far ahead in our planning because we didn't want to set ourselves up for too much disappointment if things happened slower than we expected. So, we figured we'd begin doing the practical things to prepare for our trip to Ethiopia when we got our court date, well we only got 2 weeks notice from the call with our court date until we needed to get on a plane to get there!

I realize many people can accomplish a lot in 2 weeks, no problem, but we already have 3 children and just to keep daily life going like wash, cleaning, childcare, meal prep. takes up a lot of time! Also, we were taking 2 of our children with us and arranging care for the child we were leaving behind, so the preparations were harder. But, we managed, I just wish we'd started sooner!

One thing I did start long ago that helped was that I kept a Word document saved on my computer and during our nearly 2 years of being in the process of adopting from Ethiopia any time I'd read or hear a suggestion from someone regarding Ethiopia travel I'd copy and paste into into my "Ethiopia Travel" document. This is key because I guarantee once you get the call with your court date, your mind will erase any suggestion you've ever heard before!

I'm not going to list obvious things like camera and underwear, but just hit the things are that are a bit different than regular vacation travel for you to think about as you plan for your trip to Ethiopia (I'm focusing on 1st trip where you do not take custody of your child here because that's all we've done so far).

So here's my list:

Gather the donations you plan to take over early (check with your caseworker about what items are most needed at the time -- I imagine diapers and wipes are always in demand)

Go ahead and figure out how to fit those donations in bags that weigh less than 50 lbs.

We got a few of these duffel bags: Outdoor Products Mountain Duffel in size large, from Amazon.com and loved them! They worked great for stuffing in a bunch of donation items (the Gladney care center returned our bags after the donations were unloaded and we used them for souvenirs on the trip home) as well as holding our own personal stuff. Also, we had a few rolling bags I found at TJ Maxx (see picture above)

Pack a lot of hand sanitizer. I was glad I'd taken a big pump dispenser of it, we just set it next to the sink in our guesthouse and told the kids to use it instead of washing their hands after going to the bathroom. Granted there were 4 of us using it, but we almost used the entire big bottle during our trip! I also had a small bottle I refilled and kept in our backpack to use when we were out places.

Pack tons of little packs of Kleenex because pretty much no public restrooms in Ethiopia have toilet paper!

Also, related to the unclean water situation, I was really glad to have some pre-moistened facial cleansing wipes that I used to wash my face, you just really don't want to be using that water on your face!

Good shoes - We traveled right before official rainy season and it was already pretty muddy, and rained nearly every day, so I was really glad to have some waterproof hiking shoes like these: Teva Women's Sky Lake Hiking Shoe only in color blue shadow.

Lightweight rain jackets - we wore every day but also took them off and stashed them in the backpack every day (the rain was very intermittent), so a jacket that folds up small is great!

Snacks - I like these protein bars: Clif Bar Energy Bar, Chocolate Chip, 2.4-Ounce Bars, 12 Count (Pack of 2) and we ate them a lot in Ethiopia (there are decent restaurants, but for in between meals, or times you wan to skip a meal out, these are great), my kids love the Clif Kid Zbars. My daughter is allergic to eggs and thankfully I had heard ahead of time that the guesthouse served eggs pretty much every morning for breakfast, so I had packed some breakfast bars and Pop Tarts for her to eat. Also I brought some chocolates from home and they were a wonderful dessert for us and the kids back in our room! I packed way too many snacks in my carry-on for the airplane ride, though. We flew Emirates and they fed us a ton and especially the kids got these snack boxes with more goodies than they could eat! We did go through a lot of bottled water on the plane, though, and were happy we'd gotten plenty of those from the airport shops to bring on board the plane with us.

Warm jammies - It wasn't quite as cold in our guesthouse at night as we worried it might be when we saw the average nighttime temps and knew we weren't going to have heat. We took long underwear to wear under our jammies, turns out just one layer of warm jammies would have been fine for us while we were there!

USD money for the guesthouse and your driver (for BJoe's Guesthouse and our Gladney-arranged driver we paid them in American money at the end of our stay) already separated into envelopes so you can make sure you have enough left at the end of your trip and so you don't have to worry with counting up money/figuring payment while on your trip. You should be able to find out ahead of time what your daily rate will be, then just multiply it by your days there and add on tip.

Pocket Amharic to English language book - most people in restaurants, etc. in Ethiopia speak pretty good English but we were glad to be able to try out a few words with our driver and also translate and speak a few basic words with our toddler-aged daughter we're adopting!

Comfortable, conservative clothing - We did not wear any shorts during our trip, mostly due to the cooler temps., but I didn't ever see Ethiopians wearing shorts or short skirts and I don't think we would have felt comfortable out and about in them due to that. Best to stick to jeans, long pants that don't wrinkle and long skirts. Our days started off cool , but then many days the afternoons were warm, so we were glad to have a sweater or sweatshirt with a lighter weight layer under.

Slippers for around the guesthouse - our room didn't have any rugs and the floor was cold, also the bathroom tended to get pretty wet and didn't dry real fast (and you have limited towels so we didn't want to use those on the floor) so really some slippers with a hard bottom would be nice

Battery operated travel alarm clock - you may not have one in your room and there are many mornings you have to be somewhere at a certain time.

Flash lights - electricity seemed to go out quite a bit in Ethiopia, especially any time it rained even a little bit, so be prepared with some flash lights

Electrical convertors

Medications - we took a lot of it for just in case! Definitely take the prescription Cipro for traveler's diarrhea, you can ask your regular doctor or a travel med. doctor to write you a prescription (better safe than sorry). Then just over the counter stuff like allergy meds, Benadryl, Pepto, Immodium, Tylenol, Neosporin, rehydration packets, a first aid kit.

A few weeks before your trip you might want to start some probiotics. We took some but probably did not start it soon enough to really help, but we did not get very sick during our trip, just some minor stomach issues.

A phone that will work in Ethiopia. We knew our guesthouse gave us a cell phone to use during our stay but my husband still worked to get his Blackberry configured before we left so we could use it in Ethiopia if needed. Our guesthouse did give us a phone but the battery was not so good any more and even with charging it regularly there were times we tried to use it and it did not work. The Blackberry, however, did work for phone calls, but not for emails like we though it would.

Also, if you adopting a toddler or older child with our agency you are not supposed to give a photobook of your family to your child prior to you passing court, but if you leave a photobook in Ethiopia with the agency staff, once you pass court a case worker will sit down with your child and show them the book and explain that you are their family. So, create that photobook before you even get a travel date, it will be one less thing to worry about in the weeks right before you travel. Then remember to stick that book in your luggage and hand it off to the staff in Ethiopia.

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting! I'll update later if I think of anything!

Ethiopia is trickier than most trips to plan for, but it is such an amazing place and well worth some extra trouble!

Grocery Logistics

2011-09-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a Works for Me Wednesday post in forever and it's time.

Right now we are in the thick of planning for life with 4 kids, so I'd welcome any tips, hints, revelations you've had about managing life with many kids (and I do realize what constitutes "many kids" is different for everyone -- we can have fun debating that in a different blog post).

One thing that is a challenge for moms with many kids is feeding everybody. I've already seen this with having 3 kids. Just the logistics of keeping enough food in the house can be tricky. For example, right now with the kids we currently have, we go through 6 gallon size jugs of milk EVERY WEEK! My kids love milk, which is great, I think, for their health. They drink it with every meal and my 8 year old often asks for refills. I like to limit my grocery shopping to once a week so I get a lot of comments from the checkers with my 6 gallons of milk, but at least I've figured out a way for all of them to fit in my fridge at the same time! Although, I'm not sure how it's going to work when we add another child to the household. Perhaps we just need our own cow!

Also consumed with the milk, we go through a lot of cereal. I'm not too proud to admit that my kids only get a home-cooked breakfast once a week, on Saturday, and the other 6 mornings it's cereal! At least they get home-cooked dinners 6 nights per week, and the cereals I buy are fairly healthy -- Cracklin Oat Bran, Life, Multigrain Cheerios -- are all regulars at our house. For me, I like the Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal (both the kind with almonds and without, actually I mix the two kinds for the perfect ratio of almonds to not -- too much information?), eat it every day and never get tired of it! So, I was thrilled to learn a while back that Amazon.com had Kashi cereal in their grocery that they could ship right to my door with no shipping cost and I could even get a discount on the cereal if I subscribed to get the delivery on a regular basis! The contents of a delivery:
For me this works great. I pay less per box than at the store (or at least it priced out at less when I last compared), I don't ever have to worry about running out because I have deliveries scheduled periodically, and it's one less item for my grocery shopping trip every week! (And one less item, especially something bulky like cereal, is key when your cart is already full of children with little room for groceries -- which happened to me every week during the summer, and yes my kids are all 3 big enough to walk, but the trip goes quicker if only 1 walks and 2 ride.)

Since discovering the Kashi cereal, I've set up some more things in Amazon's subscribe and save. I only do items that are cheaper or the same price as at the regular grocery and things we use regularly. So far, my daughter's non-prescription allergy medicine, our bath soap, my husband's razor refills, and Clif bars are all on our list. And I'd love to add more, but so far our other frequently used products are either not there or they are more expensive than the grocery, so I'd rather just stockpile a bunch when I make a store run.

**** Disclaimer: I am an Amazon.com affiliate and will get a small portion of the proceeds should you make a purchase after using a link on my blog, but I assure you I would not recommend something if I was not happy with it after using it myself for months! ****

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Swinging in the Rain

2011-09-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Wanna know what it's like to finally get some rain after months and months without?

That's my 6 year old daughter, she couldn't wait to get outside in the rain, and a few minutes later I looked out the window to see her swinging in the rain!

Of course, with the rain also comes this:
But, I'll still take the rain and praise God for it!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

If we build it, she will come

2011-09-18T19:19:00.001-07:00

About four years ago when my 3rd child started walking and wearing actual shoes, it became very clear very quickly that we needed a system for managing the shoes or we'd never actually get out of the house with 6 feet in shoes (10 including our own feet)! So we got the shoe shelf/locker system I blogged about here going in our breakfast room (our laundry room is too tiny to be a mudroom but the good news is that our family is too big to use our breakfast room for it's intended purpose so we eat all our meals in the dining room, leaving the breakfast room free to be a mudroom in addition to a homework and arts & crafts center) and it worked beautifully!!! Really it has been a sanity saver!

But there were only 3 locker sections and we will hopefully have 4 children living in our home pretty soon, so a new system was needed. Also, we really liked that the hooks were low in our old shelf when we got it because our preschool-aged kids could reach to hang up their own coats, but fast-forward 4 years and now my 8 year old's jackets are nearly too long to comfortably fit.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money so at first I tried talking my husband into building one from Ana White's plans (Have you ever been to that website? I wish I was good with woodworking because oh the things I'd build!), but I couldn't sell him on that idea. (He had all kinds of logical reasons it wasn't a good idea, but really I think he just didn't want to.) So, I went back to brainstorming, our adoption slowed down, and it wasn't a high priority project. But, just as things picked up with us becoming a 4 kid family, and outgrowing our shoe shelf, I came across this blog post on The Polkadot Chair and I thought it was brilliant!

So, we headed to the Ikea (not coincidentally on the weekend kids ate free in the cafe) and bought 4 of the narrow Billy bookcases. We came home, my husband and I built 1 shelf and then my husband and my 8 year old built the other 3 shelves and it turns out the 8 year old is old enough to be a real helper for these types of projects, now (I've finally been replaced as the Ikea furniture co-builder around here! I gleefully turn over that title!). We left out the middle shelf during the building to have hanging space for coats (in the instructions the middle shelf seems important but our shelves worked fine without it). Then my husband screwed the shelves together so all 4 became 1 unit. We adjusted the height of all the interior shelves where we wanted them to best accommodate shoes & backpacks, secured the whole thing to the wall (this is a very important step 'cause you never know which crazy kid is going to climb the thing and wouldn't want it toppling over on them!), and then my husband drilled holes for the hooks and screwed them in. The Polkadot Chair put her hooks into the back of the shelf by adding some plywood reinforcement to the flimsy backing material, but we thought that sounded too hard and our old shelf had the hooks in the sides so that seemed fine to us. It worked great and actually allowed us to put hooks on both sides so there is double the hanging space in each locker. And we hung one side's hooks of each locker down a bit lower and the other side higher so we can accommodate both preschooler height and 3rd grader sized jackets!

I love how it turned out! So functional!

I searched the Internet for buckets/baskets that I liked to hold random kid stuff in the shelves, but I couldn't find anything I liked for less than $20 each (multiplied times 4 kids = $80 = too much!). I did, however, find sewing tutorials to make my own fabric buckets! The project definitely seemed out of my league, but I was excited to try.

I ordered Amy Butler Lotus fabric in cherry from Etsy.com (make sure when looking for fabric there you search on "supplies" rather than the default "homemade" which will just find things made out of the fabric). That fabric I used for the outside, for the lining I cut up a vinyl tablecloth I bought on sale at TJ Maxx for $2.00, of course when I bought it I had no idea what I'd use it for, just knew you can't even buy waterproof material that cheap! And now if anything nasty gets inside the bucket I can wipe it clean.

I also saw the idea somewhere I don't now remember to use chalkboard fabric (oh the genius of the person who invented chalkboard fabric!) for the labels -- that way in case we decide to change a child's name we can just erase the old and write the new. Kidding! But the chalk labels are easier than monogramming since I don't have a monogram machine. Plus I like the look of the chalk labels and I have a chalk pen that writes a bit brighter than typical chalk and doesn't erase as easily but can be erased with a wet rag. The kids' names are written on the labels, I just took the picture before writing the names since I don't like to put their names out here on the blog.

I combined this Internet tutorial with this one to get my instructions to make the fabric buckets. And then I wanted my own specific measurements so I tailored the instructions for what size I wanted, but I figured out halfway through my first bucket I'd made a terrible mistake in my geometry calculations! Thankfully, I was able to fix it and I'd only cut out my material for the 1 bucket so far, so the mistake could be corrected for the other 3 buckets. And that wasn't the only instance I had to use my seem ripper in this process but through trial and error I was able to do them and I'm really surprised at how good they turned out! It was a fun project and I'm so glad to get rid of the plastic beach buckets we used in the old shelf, I never liked those!

So, never mind that we don't have her bed set up yet, we have a place for our new little girl to put her shoes and really that's most important right? NOW can she come home?

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Waiting Out The Rainy Season

2011-09-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

We are having a drought here in Texas the likes of which haven't been seen in over a century. Our state is literally burning up it is so dry. I walked my children in to school last week through a smoke filled haze (from wildfires about 30 miles away) so thick we could hardly breathe.

The irony in the fact that the Ethiopian rainy season is what is currently holding up our adoption process, is not at all lost on me.

I think in the last update I gave on this blog weeks ago regarding the status of our adoption, I said we were really hoping to pass court before the courts closed for the rainy season. But we did not; we got that news on August 17th.

Our MOWYCA letter was submitted to the court (the letter missing was the reason we didn't pass court when we appeared in person in Ethiopia on August 2nd), but the judge did not get to review it before she left. So we will not hear if the MOWYCA opinion was positive or negative until the courts reopen in October.

We took the news pretty hard. We were really clinging to the hope that the extra week the courts stayed open was going to be our miracle and we'd be able to get back on a plane and go get her soon. Our whole travel group spent that extra week (plus the 3 days of the next week when there was still hope we'd passed and the court clerk was just writing up the court decree) on pins and needles, emailing constantly, "You heard anything?" "Nope. You?" Until we each got the call from our caseworkers that we didn't pass before the closure. Not passing court until October is what we expected before we traveled to Ethiopia, but honestly that was easier to accept before we met our little girl, bonded with her, and just want her home!

So now we are wildly praying to pass court quickly after they reopen on October 3rd and for a speedy embassy process (currently averaging 9 weeks) so we can bring her home.

In the mean time we are trying to focus on productive mode. Without a doubt there are a lot of things we can be doing now that will make life easier, better when we do finally get to bring her home (November? December? Oh WHY is the embassy process taking so long now?!!). I'm taking another bonding and attachment class at a local church (spans 6 different weeks) -- just feel like I cannot be prepared enough in that area. Also, I have been kinda scared to do much around the house to prepare for our new child, because I thought it would be too hard to face her bed and her things every day if we ended up not being able to bring her home. But, I'm prayerfully pushing through that fear and think it will be a great distraction for me to do some of the fun things like buying girly bunk beds and redecorating my daughter's room to be a space for two little girls. And, oh, don't even get me started on being able to dig out all my daughter's old toddler dresses and wash them and hang them up in the closet -- oh, the joy!

"What if our blessings come through rain drops? What if our healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near? What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?"
song Blessings by Laura Story

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 10

2011-09-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

I didn't sleep much at all that night in Mekele, partially because due to the bed situation, my daughter was sleeping in the double bed with my husband and I and the girl moves a ton in her sleep, but also because it kept storming all night and all I could think about was if the weather was going to clear up enough for a plane to be able to land in Mekele to get us out! Then there was also the LOUD chanting from the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians that started in the pre-dawn hours and went on for a really, really long time! It is quite an eery sound.

We really needed to get back to Addis that morning because we had an evening flight back home to the U.S.!

We didn't even bother with attempting a real breakfast, the restaurant food the night before was too terrible. I had a few breakfast bars in our backpack. The weather was horrible, basically a white-out of rain, clouds, and fog. For some reason our cab driver to the airport insisted on speeding down the wet streets as we wound around a hillside and at one point we narrowly missed a collision with a dog in the road.

We were one of the first passengers to arrive at the airport that morning, hoping to secure our spot on the first plane out. But, the weather was just too bad, a lot worse than the day before when the plane couldn't land. There was this statue right across the street from the airport we'd taken a picture of it the day before and at many points during the day on Sunday, the fog was so dense we couldn't even see it!

We waited around the airport pretty much all day. They kept making announcements to the crowd in languages we didn't understand and we'd have to go search out this Ethiopian Airlines supervisor guy who spoke English to give us our update.

Aside from not making our flight back to the United States, we were also worried about the prospect of staying another night in Mekele. We were running out of our Ethiopian Birr money (we couldn't use a credit card at the hotel) and there was not a place to exchange money in that airport, and even if we took a cab to town, it was Sunday and we didn't know if any place would be opened. Our snacks we brought in the backpack were rapidly running out. Emirates airlines gave us complimentary vouchers for breakfast and lunch in the one restaurant in the airport but all they had was eggs and coffee for breakfast and my daughter is allergic to eggs. And for lunch? Egg sandwiches! You've got to be kidding me!

There were no opened stores in the airport and no other restaurants or stores anywhere within walking distance outside. I started rationing our snacks, not giving the kids something as soon as they said they wanted one, but trying to make them wait longer. I developed a whole new level of empathy for what many mothers suffer through every day when they don't have enough food to feed their hungry children. It is not a good feeling, and for me it was only an afternoon, for many it is their reality all the time!

Finally late afternoon they were able to get a larger plane to come from Addis that was able to land even through the thick clouds. We watched through the window; I can absolutely say I have never been so happy to see a plane land in all my life!

The little Mekele airport, however, was not so used to large planes, most planes that land there are small ones that just lower their own stairs straight from the airplane. So there was much to-do as the airport personnel rolled out a really old looking stairway to unload the passengers and then just a couple guys worked really hard to get all the baggage off the large plane and re-loaded.

We took off at 4:50 pm headed for Addis (an hour and a half flight) but our flight back to the US was at 7:30 pm, and we'd been told to arrive 3 hours before that flight to clear security and customs. We had been told by another couple that on their first trip they had gotten to the airport 3 hours early and only got to the gate 30 minutes before takeoff. We truly thought there was no way we were going to make it, especially considering our bags weren't even packed up back at our guesthouse, but we were praying!

We landed in Addis at 6:10 pm., our driver was waiting for us at the airport, we dropped my husband off at the International terminal to beg for mercy from Emirates airlines, and the kids and I raced back to the guesthouse to pack (thankfully it was only 5 minutes from the airport). It was a hilarious scene in our room at BJoes Guesthouse! Blaine (a lady who works there) came in and offered to help. Blaine, our driver, the 2 kids and I just started throwing everything into bags. Occasionally someone would ask me, "Where should I put this?" and I was all, "Wherever it will fit!!!!!" Meanwhile my husband was calling me on the cell phone asking how soon we could get there because there was a chance we could make the plane but we had to hurry!

When we got back to the airport (at 6:55 pm for a 7:30 pm flight) my husband had an angel waiting with him in the form of an Emirates employee supervisor. The guy is our new best friend! He held the baggage check open for us so our bags got on the plane, literally held up a badge and walked us through a long line of people to the front of the security line and customs, and then escorted us to our gate where we boarded (at 7:28 pm) just minutes before the door closed! We were so happy to get on (my husband had checked and the flights for the next 2 or 3 days were full) we would have sat in the cargo area, but they'd upgraded us to business class for the Addis to Dubai leg so that was a really, really nice treat after all the hassle of the previous 24 hours!

They gave us hot towels, toothbrushes, served us gourmet food, and the seats reclined all the way! It was heavenly! Oh, another plus? Due to the upgrade we were all split up, but a flight attendant worked it out so our two kids could be together. It was only a 3 hour flight before we'd stop in Dubai (I never used to call 3 hours short, but compared to 20 hours, it is!), so I thought the kids would be okay not sitting near parents and I knew my 8 year old could help my younger daughter. I checked on them a few times, but it was really funny because the flight attendant for them was different than mine, but she kept coming over and asking me things like, "They didn't eat all their food but they said they are done, is it okay for me to take the food away?" It was like I had a nanny right there on the plane. And after 10 days in Ethiopia spending pretty much every minute with my 2 older kids and my husband, it was really nice to sit BY MYSELF for a few hours!!!! In the meantime, after being moved by the flight attendants four times, my husband actually ended up in first class where he had his own "room", really just some partitions. After not having changed clothes (our shoes were really muddy from Mekele), showered, or shaved in about 48 hours, he got some odd looks from the other first class passengers.

It has been 5 weeks and I'm still praising God for allowing us to make that flight!

Thankfully there was no airplane drama in Dubai, we had a two hour lay-over and then the direct flight home (and back to our regular seats in economy)! Even with the crazy end to our trip and even though I was so glad to be going home, to get to take a real shower where I could let the water hit my face, to be reunited with our four year old son, it only took a couple hours before I missed it. Ethiopia. There is something magical about that place, mostly about the people, and I just want to be back there. Of course there was also the fact that it was about 70 degrees the whole time we were there and we came home to 103 degrees (and our air conditioner had quit working while we were away)! But mostly, being home it sunk in, she was not here. We were minus a family member, a little 2 year old girl we'd held in our arms and left behind.

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 9

2011-09-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

We woke up really early to get to the airport for our day trip to Mekele, Ethiopia, a city in the Northern part of Ethiopia, about an hour and a half plane ride from Addis Ababa.

Our little girl is originally from Mekele, so we really wanted to see it and to fill in some of her history to be able to share it with her later.

Our plane was delayed, over and over again leaving Addis, due to weather (mental note that the beginning of the rainy season isn't the best time to be flying around Ethiopia) so we hung out in the airport all morning. Nearly everyone in the gate area waiting with us were Ethiopians so it was an interesting glimpse into their culture, watching them interact with each other and their children.

We finally arrived in Mekele early afternoon instead of the early morning we were supposed to get there. The airport in Mekele:One of the guys who runs the Bana Orphanage, where our daughter spent a month before going to the care center in Addis Ababa, was supposed to pick us up at the airport, but since we were so delayed we had to call him and wait a few minutes. My children entertained themselves walking on top of a rock wall outside the airport. It was a wall that got higher and higher off the ground, getting pretty high in middle. In the United States, I really won't have worried about my children walking on it, but here in Ethiopia where medical care is less than a fraction of what it is in the U.S. and now in Mekele which is even a smaller, more remote city that where we'd been in the capital of Ethiopia, well I had to make them stop. I just couldn't help worrying that if they fell and broke an arm or needed stitches we would not have access to medical care to fix them. I take so much for granted in America, we live within a few minutes drive from some of the best medical facilities in the world!

Our ride arrived. We hoped in and took off through the gorgeous landscape of Mekele. It was really green and lush (likely due to the rainy season) and much more pastoral and peaceful than Addis.

The Bana guy didn't speak much English but he communicated to us that he needed to make a quick stop in town. We waited in the car while he ran in and came out with a lady we had never met before but she is a social worker with our adoption agency and usually works in Addis but was in Mekele for a few days to oversee the transfer of some new children into the care of our agency. Her English was great and we learned so much visiting with her. She told us the driver could take us to a location that was key to our daughter's history and so we went and stood in the very spot, it was emotional to get so close to some of the details surrounding our daughter becoming an orphan (details we are not sharing here out of respect for our daughter's privacy), but I'm so glad we got to go there. We took pictures and were able to add more detail to her story, things I'm so thankful we'll be able to share with her as she grows up.

Some beautiful children in Mekele:

A church in Mekele:

A road leading to a little village:

A house in Mekele:
Then we headed to the Bana Center Orphanage where our daughter spent 1 month (well actually the center is in a new building so it wasn't exactly the same place). We met some sweet kids who were there and passed out some toys and candy to them. We toured the facility -- a baby room, an older kid room, a gathering room with a TV, a kitchen/cook area, a shower area (that was really muddy), and an office.

In the office the social worker went through the files and was able to find the page on our daughter from when she was in the care of that orphanage, there was a little picture stapled to the page and we were so amazed at how different our girl looks now, how much healthier and it made us very thankful for the good care she has gotten while in the center run by our agency!

Before we left home we'd printed out the earliest picture we have of our girl, hoping one of the care givers at the Bana Center would remember her, one did! We also printed out the most recent picture we had and we showed the caregiver what she looked like now. She and the man that heads up the orphanage loved the pictures and asked if they could keep them -- absolutely!

We didn't have much time before our flight back so we headed back to the airport. We got through security and waited about an hour at the gate before there was an announcement that the flight was cancelled because the plane coming from Addis Ababa had circled the airport in Mekele 5 times and couldn't land due to thick cloud cover (it was a turbo-prop plane), so the plane had to go back to Addis and now we didn't have a plane to fly out on.

We were stunned. We had not packed much of anything since we expected a day trip. Thankfully we had a guidebook and called the hotel it recommended, it was also the one where our agency's social worker was staying. We called and hopefully reserved a room, with the language barrier who could be sure, but we hailed a cab and headed that way. We did have a room, but had the hardest time explaining that we needed two beds rather than just a king-size since we had our two kids with us. Finally, they offered to bring in an additional bed. I expected a roll-away bed, but no, they came and basically built another bed right there in our room!

Let's just say for the record, the nicest hotel in Mekele, Ethiopia is far from "nice" by most American standards, but at least I don't think we came home with fleas or bedbugs! Yes, Axum hotel, I'm talking about you!

We only had intermittent running water, the electricity went off several different times, the ceiling in our bathroom was leaking, and the hotel restaurant which was supposedly the best food in town, was barely edible! We longed for an American hotel with a gift shop where we could buy toothbrushes (mental note to self: even if you are just flying for "day trip", go ahead and pack a toothbrush; if said "day trip" happens to be within Africa, pack provisions for several days!), but instead we chewed some peppermint gum, said many prayers for clearer weather to get back to Addis in the morning, and went to sleep in our clothes!

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 8

2011-09-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

Over breakfast at our guesthouse we and the other families staying there agreed it was going to be a hard day.

The day had already begun on a sour note, as Cipro was passed around at breakfast (several in our group had upset tummies from the week in Ethiopia, Cipro is the prescription antibiotic for traveler's tummy -- don't go to Ethiopia without it!).

The agenda for the day was to have our last visit with our kids at the foster care center, our last visit before having to leave them for months, and then there were the scheduled tours of the government-run orphanages, places where we knew we'd see kids in circumstances much worse than the care center where we'd been visiting our kids.

The morning's visit at the care center was good, I tried not to let the dread over having to say goodbye, the sadness of knowing I wouldn't see my little girl again for a long time, mar the time we did have together.

Our girl had latched onto a little Ethiopian Amharic language dictionary we'd been carrying with us. We had it out in her room at the care center trying to speak some basic words to her, but she loved the book and kept pretend reading it, flipping through it's pages over and over. We let her all the way up until we had to go, and then she didn't want to give it back, I didn't want to just grab it from her, thankfully I remembered the stickers in our backpack. I traded her a sheet of stickers (we weren't supposed to give them gifts, but I thought stickers hardly counted) for the book, she promptly began sharing stickers with the roomful of kids and it was a lovely distraction of our actually leaving. She wasn't supposed to know we were her family (just too incredibly hard for a little one to think of us as mom and dad and then have us leave for months), and I don't think she did, so I just said a quick goodbye and gave her a quick hug and rushed out of the room before the tears could start for she or me!

For about 18 months since there was the change to the Ethiopian adoption process and two trips were required, I had worried about that moment. What would it be like to meet my daughter and leave her? How do you do that exactly?

Well, I can tell you, although it was hard, leaving her was not as hard as I expected, however being home without her all these weeks since have been WAY harder than I ever expected, nearly unbearable.

We left the care center and went to Kaldi's Coffee (the best coffee in the world and my kids think the best milk shakes!) to decompress. Kaldi's seems like a Starbucks knock-off (even the logo is similar), but it's better! Ethiopia knows coffee! We have craved a macchiato from Kaldi's every day since we left Ethiopia!

Next we let the kids burn off some energy at the Hilton Hotel playground. There are not many playgrounds in Addis Ababa, so the kids were thrilled to be able to run, climb, and play free for a bit before we set off on the orphanage tours.

A few months before our trip to Ethiopia we had become involved in helping the kids at the government orphanages. I don't want to say exactly how, and it is still not nearly enough, those kids need so much more, but the agreeing to give, on an on-going basis for this particular cause in the amount we did was a stretch for us, more than was comfortable for us to give was a faith-building moment. A big step in our challenge to ourselves to live on less so we could give away more. I say this not because I want pats on the back but because I want to testify to the blessing of giving beyond what is easy. Anyway, we were excited to see these kids, grateful to already be involved in a small way towards helping them.

First we went to the government-run orphanage for boys age roughly 7 to 18, called Kolfe. There are over 160 boys there, sweet, sweet boys. We were so impressed by how articulate many of them were, how good their English was, and how polite they were.

Here's my 8 year old son with some of the boys at Kolfe:

We especially connected with a 12 year old boy named Moses, he was so friendly, kind and articulate, wants to be a pilot when he grows up. He has lived in an orphanage as long as he can remember. The boys were just so happy we were there to visit them and so excited to show off their soccer field (a completely mud covered yard), the monkey who was running loose in their cafeteria!,

their beds (several rooms row after row after row of bunk beds, only one blanket and a mattress to call their own),

and their gymnastics abilities (back flips off a rock wall). There were no parents, really very, very few adults at all, except us and the 8 others in our travel group. For a few minutes I filled in the role as mom, worrying they'd get hurt during the back flips, yet cheering wildly and yelling "Gobez" (means "good job" in Amharic). We asked the back-flip boy if he ever fell on his head. He said, "Yes". I immediately thought of the fact that there was no mother to comfort and care for him when he got hurt.

Here's a sign that hangs in their cafeteria, it says "We are orphanage but we can do everything just like others."

This scene was particularly hard for me, the caving, leaking ceiling in their orphanage cafeteria right above the words, "God is love." on the wall. It reminds me of the quote,"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid God might ask me the same question." -Anonymous

I have thought about those boys at Kolfe every day, usually many times per day, since I met them. I wish I could adopt them all.
The girls orphanage had over 300 girls with again, no obvious adults. Sweet, sweet giggly girls. We were not allowed to take pictures there or at the baby orphanage, but I remember them, their faces. One latched on to me immediately hugging me with both arms for most of our time there, only stopping for a few minutes to braid my hair! Our 5 year old daughter was very popular there as the girls loved carrying her around. Our 8 year old son was popular for a whole other reason he was not particularly comfortable with as the girls giggled and whispered that he was beautiful!

At one point when we were outside seeing the garden the girls are very proud of, I lagged behind our guide and travel group, just a small circle of the girls and I. There was one girl who spoke really good English and was translating for me. There was so much I wanted to say to those girls, things like, "You are so beautiful and precious and special." Things I worried they'd never heard in their entire lives. I felt very helpless, wanting to somehow change the outcome, knowing the statistics that many, many of the girls would age out of the orphanage, end up on the streets, and fall prey to prostitution or sex trafficing. I noticed all the girls in that group were wearing wooden cross necklaces (very commonly seen on many in Ethiopia) and I said, "You know God loves you, right?"

The girl who had been clinging to me looked up into my face, her own eyes shining, and she asked, "You love Jesus?" And I said, "Yes, very much!" She said gleefully, "Me too!" and buried her head back in my chest. I was so grateful to have Jesus that day, He is truly their only hope, mine too.

The baby orphanage undid us. So many babies, two to a crib, some with arms and legs not much thicker than my finger! The caregivers were doing the best they could, they are just too outnumbered. All the babies needed to be changed, fed, held, and loved. We'd pick some up and cradle them in our arms, talking to them with our faces close to theirs and they'd stop crying, some even smiled and cooed, of course we eventually had to put them down and then the crying began again. I wished I could stay, wished the orphanage was near my hometown, I'd go over every day and feed babies, change babies, and hold them. Oh how they needed more loving arms to go around!

It was a hard day, but one I wouldn't trade for anything. We prayed a couple years for God to "break our hearts for what breaks His." It's been done a thousand times over, but each time, and most definitely that Friday on Day 8 in Ethiopia, I feel like I know Jesus more, like that's exactly where He wants me to be. Changed! May we never be the same, in Jesus name, may we never be the same.

I think of this song by Sara Groves:

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers.

and Wordful Wednesday here.

What my children need to know about September 11th

2011-09-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

It seems really odd to me that my children will never really understand September 11th.

That infamous, tragic September 11th was 10 years ago, my children were not alive yet. I know this logically, but conceptually it's just hard to imagine people who don't know what that day was like because they didn't live it. People who can learn about the facts but it will be without the memories of their own personal horror and fear and sorrow and experience that day.

I think of what I, now as a parent, want my children to know about September 11th, but more deeply I think of how I want to parent my children knowing their generation may have their own September 11th.

Would my children as young men and women have the courage to run up the stairs of those burning buildings?

What if my daughters as grown women, married with 2 children and a 3rd on the way were suddenly widowed?

What if my children came face to face with an evil so strong it threatened many, many lives?

How would they respond?

What would be their strength? their peace? their comfort? their hope?

And am I doing enough today to teach them about the only God who will never leave them, who loves them with an everlasting love, who can slay giants, who can save and redeem their lives so that they're ready if and when their world is rocked to the core one beautiful, sunny day.

For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." Zeph. 3:17

It Sleeps Four!

2011-09-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

We've been planning a bunch and executing a little, some changes to our house so it can go from being a 3 kid home to a 4 kid home.

Part of the planning involves picking out and buying bunk beds for the girl room. We had the choices narrowed down, but had not bought anything yet when my 6 year old daughter called down from the playroom recently, "Come look at my new bed!"

She just saved us a bunch of money!

And we move those games and that shelf can actually sleep 4!

Kidding! Kidding! My children will all have actual beds with mattresses and everything! (Just gotta clarify in case, you know, our caseworker is reading or some other adoption official.)

It Feels Like Chaos

Dancing in My Kitchen

One of the many ways I know I'm parenting a toddler

Ethiopia, Utopia, Eefeeopia or Eathopia

Everybody's

When life gives you puddles

4 Weeks of Having 4 Kids

Too Tired To Title

Learning English

Four Weeks in our Arms

Happy Squished

It's like she's always been here.

The Concept of Mommy

Photographing Four Children

A picture is worth a thousand words

Choosing our Battles

Extraordinary Days

Proof I really have 5 kids

How's it going?

Home for Christmas!!!

Embassy Clearance!!!

More Embassy Questions

Embassy Update

On a to-do list scale, is 1 out of 10 bad?

Life at the Never-Ending Slumber Party

Christmas Traditions

Quick Update

Feety Jammies

My 3 year old lives in Ethiopia

Holiday Images

We're gonna need more circles

Submitted to the Embassy!

Dryer Dough

A Whole New World of Hair Products!

Those Two

Tell me your wall is the same!

A Sick Day

New Pictures from Ethiopia!

Blessings

How Does God Feel About Orphans?

Slowing Down Life

Dog Mop

Adoption 101: Choose a Great Agency

Halloween 2011, minus one muchkin

Real life, only better

Follow the Yellow Brick Road . . .

Translation

We passed court!!!

Adoption Update: A New Court Date

Poor Mr. Monkey!

Remember when . . .

Very Few Red Carpets in the Real World

A Sure Sign of Autumn

Reforming a Pack Rat Child

My Knight in Shining Armour

Why didn't we start this sooner?

The Third Child

A Big Question

Great Devotionals for Families With Young Kids

Hello October, we've been waiting for you!

Some Semi-Coherent Thoughts

What we do . . .

Now I remember why we have a dog!

Adventures in Tooth-Fairying

Pins and Needles

Random Life

How to Prepare for a Trip to Ethiopia

Grocery Logistics

Swinging in the Rain

If we build it, she will come

Waiting Out The Rainy Season

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 10

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 9

Journaling our Ethiopia Trip - Day 8

What my children need to know about September 11th

It Sleeps Four!