Our Crazy Adoption Journey

Processing Haiti

2012-01-30T19:16:00.002-07:00

Our trip to Haiti was amazing. It always is. I love Haiti, and I honestly hate leaving, but after a week, I desparately want to see my kids, who are being extra naughty right now. Traveling to Haiti is always hard too. Its hard to love on tiny little babies who are so sick and frail. So often we hear the statistics concerning children's health in Haiti, but it is another story as you hold a statistic and pray your heart out that this child will receive all that they need to have a healthy and happy life. I got to visit with several kids that I've met multiple times in the past. Its great to see them slowly improve each time that I see them. The creche is moving in a month, so we packed up some of the extra items and loaded them up to take to the new building in the mountains. The crazy thing about moving in Haiti is, there are no boxes. In my 10 moves, every time we decide to move, we hit the liquor store and grocery stores for our personal crap recepticals and load up and move. In Haiti, you scrounge all over for empty tubs, coolers or any other vessel that can be loaded, thanks Spiderman toy box, and then you fill it up and go. With all of the people in our group, the loading and packing part went super quick. We also had time to do some crafts/activities with the kids and paint at the new building up in the mountains. I got to visit with our sponsor kiddo, who has been going to therapy and is beginning to walk some. It was great to see.

I also noticed that for the first time since the Earthquake, noticable progress has been made in housing development. Many of the open areas around the airport, are open areas again. The large park by the palace that housed thousands of people last fall is a park again. That makes me very happy.

I had my first real experience with authentic French food. At the guest house in the mountains, the owner was a trained French chef, and I may never be the same. The food was A.Maz.Ing!!!! I'm considering moving to the mountains just for the food. I also learned that the mountains in Haiti can be cool. It was very pleasant during the day, but at night the temperature drops, except, unlike your house, there is not one bit of heat. The water is slightly heated, which is a great thing, and we all had one sweatshirt, which we slept in, but regardless I froze my tail off in Haiti at night.
I truly was disappointed to leave, but I was eager for a hot shower in Miami. Of course, as my luck would have it, our motel had hot water issues, and we had no hot water, Seriously!!! I could have cried.

While we were gone, Gabriella got an ear infection. Of course, nothing makes you feel like mom of the year when your kid gets sick and your several thousand miles away. She's doing great now, and I still get the joy of dealing with her antibiotic laden digestive system, so I don't feel near as guilty now.

I recieved approximately 1023 mosquito bites while we were in Port-au-Prince even though I was literally dredged in Deet. Of course, several of the neighbors to the Heartline Guesthouse developed Malaria. I don't take malaria medication prior to trips as it makes me sick, but currently I'm winning on the malaria lottery, and I feel tired, but fine.

I had this fabulous idea that once we arrived in Miami, we should go check out the IKEA. We have never been to one before. In hindsight, when you are trying to reconcile all the injustice in the world, maybe that's not the best time to visit the IKEA. Seriously, how can we be surrounded by so much, when so many people are desparate for food and shelter. I was thoroughly impressed by IKEA and we wandered through there lost and in awe, but I did find a handy gadget to frothe my coffee whenever I feel like it.

We arrived home Saturday night and collapsed into a pile of exhaustion. Yesterday we celebrated Adlerson's birthday and I heard those eight little words that make my heart bounce, "Mom, I have a science project due tomarrow." Apparently, Aurrora's class was assigned science fair type projects while we were gone. I find it great that the kids were only given a week to complete this project. We had no guidelines as to what this project was supposed to encompass, so I did what any good mom does. We did a project that I entered in the 4th grade science fair, and yes my Grandpa did it all for me back then. I made her to most of it, and I sent her off to school full of confidence that all would be well. Tonight she tells me, her teacher publically ridiculed her project. Yes, I am one angry mom, and the e-mail to the teacher is heading off soon. Seriously, 3 kids demonstrate their project a day, and she knew we were gone, and yet Aurrora still is chosen to demonstrate on the first day and then her project is used as an example of what not to do. So yeah, this angry mama bear needs to go take care of a little business and possibly bathe my children so I'd better sign off.

Ready to Roll

2012-01-20T12:49:00.003-07:00

The bags are packed. The house is clean. The snow is shoveled. Its showtime, literally. Aurrora and Peterson perform in their show tonight, and then somewhere around the kid friendly hour of 10:00, their show is over and we will take all the kids to stay at Miss Anna's house while we are gone. I'm not sure what's more cruel; leaving her with our four kids or leaving them for her to put to bed at 10:00 at night. Mike
will then be getting me up at the ungainly hour of the middle of the night as he wants plenty of time to get to the airport through the snow. I'm pretty sure that he'd be willing to walk the 60 miles to the airport and shovel the run way to go. We have a day to play in Miami before we head to Haiti. After shoveling 7000 feet of snow, I can't begin to describe how excited I am to go to the beach. I'm also super pumped to work in Haiti and see the kids again. I will try to post while I'm down there or at least when I get back.
Have a great week all.

Happy Birthday Dr. King

2012-01-16T12:53:00.003-07:00

Today was our first annual birthday party for Martin Luther King. We had tons of fun reading books, watching YouTube clips and creating a MLK themed art. We had some great discussions about how Dr. King stood up for what was right, even though he faced many difficulties for doing so. We also talked about how change was creating in a non-violent way, and how we can use non-violence to make a stand. We even joked a little about how we boycotted school, since our schools don't recognize the holiday.

The kids were coloring Martin Luther King coloring pages, and then we did a project about our dreams and illustrated it. Peterson and Aurrora technically did most of Adlerson's dream project, as he dreams of his mom never making him craft again :)

The finished projects

Whats a party without party food? You will notice that we have integrated cake pops in the Fisher Price bus, and Yes, in
case your wondering, Mike did make those. They look too cute to be something I concocted. Peterson put up a pretty convincing arguement that he was certain Dr. King must have loved hot dogs and he was hoping we could have them for our party. Sadly, hot dogs repulse me and they are rarely in our house, so he had to settle for pizza and party mix.

We had a great time and the kids learned tons. I think the MLK Party will become a new tradition for our family.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Two Years Ago

2012-01-12T11:18:00.002-07:00

Two years ago Haiti was forever changed as a massive earthquake struck the island. The earthquake will always be a 9/11 moment in my life. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news. The feeling of pure despair is just as raw today as it was two years ago. We instantly began hunting for information on the news and Internet simultaneously. The next few days were a confused blur of seeking information and trying to do anything we could to help those affected. Somehow in that time frame, I managed to go to and function at work and feed the kids, yet I don't remember doing much of either.

My heart breaks for the over 200,000 people that were lost and their families. Over 1.6 million people were left homeless. Personally, I think its easy to let the numbers overwhelm you, but when we truly think of the people that those numbers reflect, its mind boggling.

I recently read that after the earthquake many life-saving amputations had to be performed without anesthesia, because it wasn't available. I think of one very special boy that I met in one of the orphanages that C4C supports, he was orphaned and lost his leg below the knee from the quake. How I hope that he had someone to hold his hand and comfort him as he lost so much.

In the blur that became the days after the earthquake, I had a co-worker tell me, "I just had to shut the TV off. I couldn't stand to see it anymore. It was just too hard." Words could not express the anger and frustration I felt at that moment. Those troubling images are someone else's reality.

We were one of the few lucky adoptive families after the earthquake. Several months later we did receive word that our boys' birth mom survived the quake. Many, many families do not know. Sadly, some families will never know.

I clearly remember watching Peterson, face to face with the TV, taking it all in. My heart broke, as he watched his country in so much turmoil. He had only been home for a few months, and his English was still progressing at the point. I tried to talk with him about what he was feeling, and I was met with a sad stare. Finally, I asked him, "Ou pa tris pou Ayiti" (Are you sad for Haiti) "Wi," his only reply. I hugged my heartbroke little boy, and wished more then anything that it was just a bad dream. Somehow we soldiered on with more resolve to stay involved and do what we could to help in Haiti.

Two years later, half a million people still live in tents. More people then the population of Wyoming live in tattered Colemen tents with frayed tarps on top. More people then the population of Wyoming live with the constant threat of violence and disease that permeates the tent camp. I have been back to Haiti 3 times since the quake, and I have seen tents pitched in the median of busy highways. Can you imagine living their with your children. I have seen tents placed on top of rubble, most likely with the remains of a family beneath the rubble. Sean Penn's tent camp is situated on a former golf course, and 56,000 people live there. Honestly, my animals have better accomodations then many people in Haiti. It should not be that way.

I understand that Haiti is hard. Seeing the images on TV is hard, but knowledge is power, and if we all truly knew, we would work together to create change. Seeing the great needs that are still unmet in Haiti can easily overwhelm a person. I believe that's why many people become apathetic to the situation in Haiti. One person or one organization will never be able to fix Haiti. However, I do believe that God uses many people and organizations to create positive change. So, I urge you, become involved and do what you are able because "anpil men, chay pa lou" Many hands make a light load.

Thanks Dysfunctional Childhood!

2012-01-11T10:14:00.002-07:00

I've mentioned before that my childhood was far outside the norm. I don't mention it often, as I like to keep my blog fun and upbeat, and I prefer to let the past be the past. Occasionally, there are some unexpected benefits that come with a lifetime of baggage :)

Growing up, we lived in an assortment of shabby trailer houses. They were HOT in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. We routinely had pipes freeze every winter. It was truly a delight. To combat that problem, I was taught how to use the fireplace, our only heat, at a very young age....like 6. Yeah, as an adult, I can look back and see that it may have been a bad idea to have an insomniac first grader starting and maintaining a fire, but what doesn't kill you, or burn down the trailer, does make you stronger. And to think, I can almost trust my 6 year old to pick out his clothes, and do a decent job brushing his teeth.

Consequently, since I've had over 26 years of fire building experience under my belt, I'm really good at it. I am definitely a handy one to have around on camping trips because I can keep a fire going, even if its rainy. The downside is that I'm automatically pegged to be lifetime fire tender at home too.

I love campfires. I HATE wood heat. Over the course of Mike and I's 12 years, we have lived in 10 houses, 2 of which we've had to heat with wood. Yeah, I know those are pretty good odds, but it my ideal world, I'd never have to mess with wood heat, because if the mess and the hassle weren't a big enough pain in the butt, I'm allergic to smoke too. Actually, in my ideal world, it would always be warm, so I'd never have to turn on the heat anyways.

Technically, we have electric heat in this house too, but after two consequtive months of $300 dollar electric bills, we decided we'd better buck up and use the fireplace. This house isn't old, or incredibly large, but for some reason its a pain to heat. Handy for us, our neighbors gave us a bunch of firewood before they headed to Houston for the winter, so we have no excuses not to use the wood stove, and even though the fireplace doesn't want to draw, my extroidinary fire skills have overcome. So, yeah, we're warm and cozy by the fireside, and maybe I'll just teach Peterson to take over fire duty and all will be well.

Crazy Busy

2012-01-09T13:07:00.002-07:00

Life around here is always busy. I mean, I do have four kids. However right now, things have become super, crazy busy. Normally, we are the kind of family who might have activities going on once or twice a week in the evenings. I like it that way. I like to gather my children at the table at supper time and visit and hang out. At least that's what it looks like in my mind. In actuality, my Walton dinner times consist of the parents continually reminding the kids to, "chew with their mouth closed and don't eat with your fingers." The kids at a nice mix of toilet humor to our dinner scene and its complete.
Aurrora and Peterson are acting in a play so they have two busy weeks of long play rehearsal. Our kids, especially Peterson love to act, so I put up with the schedule crazies, and continually remind myself that, "its only two weeks!"
Of course, the kids still have their crapton of homework and there's 4-H, to add to the mix. Oh yeah, and have I mentioned that we're heading to Haiti in a week and a half-AWWW!
Honestly, getting ourselves ready to go is the easy part. We have most of our donations packed already, and it doesn't take long to pack the keens and the shorts. The biggest job before leaving is packing the kids up, especially the baby. How can one little 14 lb person need so much stuff.
I know that we will get everything done and all will come out fine. Sure, our kids may have a gourmet meal of cheese and crackers one night, but they will do fabulous in the play, and we will get to see it, right before we leave.
Maybe this trip, I will be so tired, that I can manage sleeping on the plane. Every cloud does have its silver lining.

Taking a Stand

2012-01-06T11:12:00.003-07:00

Before I start my mini rant, I just wanted to wish all who read here a Happy New Year. I"m not one to make resolutions, as then I don't have to worry about keeping them, so there won't be the standard, "Here are my resolutions, now watch me fail Post" Anyways, Christmas was fabulous in our crazy clan, and I have even more things to eat up my time, read Kindle Fire. I didn't accomplish all that I had planned to do over break, but we had tons of fun, and enjoyed the sun and the 48 degrees. So now that we are all up to speed, I will head back to my regularly scheduled programing :)

Martin Luther King Day is a week and a half away. In normal areas, kids would learn a lesson or two about Dr. King and then enjoy a day off in remembrance of his birthday. Of course, I live in a far from normal area, and our local schools will do next to nothing to remember the contributions of Dr. King. Our kids have school that day, even though at the end of the month, a day off is scheduled for a State Speech Meet. When the kids go to school on the 16th, they won't have any fun, educational assemblies where they will learn about the stand that Martin Luther King Jr took.

Yes, that seems strange and wrong to me, and the reason that its done this way is because we are on the reservation. All the other schools in our state take the date off. Last year, when I worked at Peterson's school, I traveled with the classes for a "MLK" celebration at the tribal college. It was appalling. Nothing was mentioned about the life of Dr. King. Instead, we watched a Pow Wow. Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the value of learning about tribal history and customs, I just don't think that the timing was appropriate. I actually complained about it last year, but I got the brush off.

This year I decided that I'm keeping my kids home on the 16th. I believe its very important for all my children to learn about the struggle for civil rights and equality. I wish the schools would take part, as Dr. King's message promoted equality for all people, and I think its important for everyone to learn, but since they won't, I will and my kids will know.

Of course, I'm not going to let my kids just stay at home and watch SpongeBob. I am planning all kinds of fun learning activities for that day. I went to our local, well stocked library(note that the sarcasm font should be used here). I found both books in the children's'section that pertained to civil rights and the struggle for equality. I think we are going to have a birthday party for Dr. King and talk about what his life stood for. I plan on heading over to my favorite stomping ground, Pinterest, to look for some more fun ideas. If you have any ideas on lessons/crafts/ect, feel free to share.

Christmas Zuchini

2011-12-28T16:25:00.002-07:00

I love Christmas, but I hate winter. Now that Christmas is over, we've all had a brief phase of the after Christmas let down. We still have our Christmas tree and decor up because A. I'm tired and haven't found the energy to begin the un-decoration process and B. Our children would stage a huge mutiny if everything came down before New Years, so regardless of how many needles those poached trees are dropping, they will stay up for a few more days.
With that being said we realized that we still had a little Christmas left here. Several years back, when Aurrora was three or four, we used to tease her about getting a stocking full of vegetables for Christmas. At that time she wouldn't touch them at all, unless it was to pick them and give them to the rabbits/goats/ect. The one "vegetable" that she would eat was fried zucchini, which I think may no longer count as a vegetable once its breaded and fried. That was the beginning of the Tradition of the Christmas Zucchini. Some years, we've held over some huge garden zucchini and had giant ones. Some years, we've stuffed entire stockings full of zucchini, but every year we have had Christmas zucchini. When the boys came home, they happily joined in on the fun. I know, its a quirky tradition, but we're a quirky family so it works.
So this year, I head to the store and found zucchini for $1.99/lb. Yes, this is the same zucchini that I would have stuffed in strangers unlocked cars during the summer because I was over run with it. Being the thrifty mom that I am, I picked out four zucchini, paid my four bucks and stashed them in the produce drawer in the fridge. Normally, on Christmas Eve, I would get them out and proceed to do a little zucchini stocking stuffing. Of course, I run on a perpetual sleepy state, since I battle insomnia and a baby that still wants to eat during the night. So, I forgot on Christmas Eve, and I forgot on Christmas morning, and I finally remembered last night as I was falling asleep. So today, three days late, the Christmas Zucchini made their big debut, and with the promise of some deep fried squash, the kids weren't disappointed in the delay at all.

Christmas Vacation!!!

2011-12-22T09:57:00.004-07:00

This afternoon our kids' Christmas Vacation begins. I am so excited, and I'm not even one of the kids at school. I know that some families, eagerly await for school to fire back up, as so much time with their kids is hard. I am very thankful that our kids are fun and easy, and a great joy to be around. Sure, they will wear me out, but whats new?
Besides, we have almost two weeks to not have to think about homework. I'm so excited as homework isn't just a pain for kids. It sucks for parents too. I personally think after 7 hours at school, kids should never have homework, but so far the rest of the world hasn't joined onto my train of thought....yet. Its just that I have one honor roll student and one amazing first grade reader, who had to completely learn a new language two years ago, and they are doing stupendous, so why all the homework. Anyways, besides reveling in the lack of homework, I have two weeks that I don't have to get out my cattle prod to get the children out the door in the morning, and I can go back being a bedtime slacker and letting my kids stay up way too late. Hmm, there could be a link between my bedtime slackerness and the morning cattle prod, but who knows :)
In addition to all this merriment, we are heading into town on Christmas Eve to celebrate with my dad. My dad's church always has the best Christmas Eve service, or at least by my kids' standards. They have a time at the beginning of the service where the kids get to come up front and hear a little story and receive a little trinket, and to top it off, the service concludes with the annual holiday light saber fest. You probably know this time as the Candelight Christmas Eve Service. As a mom of two busy, busy little boys, an open flame and a church full of Aqua Net scares the crap out of me. To them it is the highlight of the year. Its all in your perspective.
On Christmas day, my family is coming to the house for dinner. Of course our dishwasher just broke, but with a quick Wal-mart run, and some Santa Paper Plates and Red Solo Cups, we'll be back in business. With a little holiday cheer in the Red Solo Cups, we'll be sure to put the fun into dysfunctional.
Our Christmas break plans, also include a play date or two. I plan on starting a baby scrapbook for Gabriella, and I realized I'm heading to Haiti in one month and I have not started to fill my bags at all. We did buy new backpacks, as my last one died in Haiti. Apparently, if you pack enough craft stuff for several hundred kids and enough food to keep yourself going for weeks, your backpack falls apart. They just don't make those free backpacks from the bank like they used to. I can only open so many new accounts to get the free bags, so I figured it was time to pony up and buy a decent backpack, which was striking fear in my heart as a good backpack is expensive. We totally hit the jackpot at our local sporting goods store(read 70 miles away) and found some great backpacks for half off. Now, I have the kevlar re-enforced beast that I can cram hundreds of pounds of weight inside and pull the tabs on the side squishing it down enough to get through airport security looking exactly like my one personal item. Sure I have a few smashed granola bars when its all said and done, but that's the price you pay.
Anyways, Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a great and blessed holiday.

One Crafty Christmas

2011-12-14T09:58:00.004-07:00

We love Christmas in a big way at our house, in case you haven't noticed from my past few posts. I wanted to encourage our kids to think of others, mainly their siblings in a loving way, so I thought we might try to craft something for each other. My kids are pretty thoughtful and generous, but I thought they would enjoy the one on one craft time with mom too.

Of course, thanks to my addiction to Pinterest and a fully stocked craft garage, I had no trouble coming up with fun ideas that they could make for each other. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that we pulled off the whole operation seamlessly, because if I'm involved there are going to be a few mishaps and a lot of mess, but that's part of the memory right.

To start, Adlerson and I made giant melted crayons to share with the other kids, and he got to keep a few himself too. In my years of working at schools and helping in Sunday School, I've noticed that the instant you hand a kid a crayon, they want to peel off the paper. I don't know why this is, but it seems to be. However, once you hand a kid a whole handful of crayons to peel, they no longer seem able. Ironic, isn't it? Together Adlerson and I managed to get all the crayons peeled, eventually.
I had this great idea to place the broken pieces in a really fun star shaped ice cube tray and microwave it to melt the crayons down into star shapes. Like some of my great ideas of the past,it flopped. The ice cube tray melted and crayon dripped all over the microwave and the counter. We ended up going with the muffin trays and cupcake liners, and we hardly ever find drips of crayon anymore, several weeks later.

Of course, Gabriella had to get into the fun. Since she is such a talented baby, she only needed a bit of help to make little Rudolph ornaments with her footprint, and the kids will enjoy their ornaments on their trees.

Peterson and I made soap. This was probably our easiest project. All you have to do is melt, add scent and pour. The best part is that clean up is a breeze, since you just run you pan under the water until the remaining soap residue rinses away, and your done. It really is a great excuse to play in the soap and water, and Peterson didn't mind a bit.

On Monday, Aurrora and I made sidewalk chalk together. This was the toughest project, but it was handy that I saved it for her. We choked and gasped as Plaster of Paris dust billowed into the air. Once it was mixed up, we quickly spooned it into the tubs with tempera paint to color it. Then it was time to spoon it into toilet paper tubes lined with wax paper. They turned out well, and after some intense scraping, our tubs and bowl are almost back to normal. I don't know if our sink drain will ever be the same, but that's why they make Draino, right??

Anyways, it was alot of fun crafting with the kiddos, and its so cute to see how they are ready to burst trying to hold their secret in. This may become a new tradition for us.

Photo Op

2011-12-12T14:34:00.003-07:00

We love animals, which translates into...We have plenty of pets. This is usually not a problem, unless its below zero or there's a forest fire in which you have to evacuate in the middle of the night, and pack up Noah's Ark. Of course, leaving town is always an adventure because you have to make sure your local high schooler that's caring for your menagerie doesn't give your dog rabbit pellets...yes, that did happen once. Of course the upside to being Dr. Dolittle, is that whenever I get the hankering to set up a Nativity scene with my kidlets, I'm totally set. That was a darn handy move to have a baby this year too. So, enjoy and Merry Christmas. Now, if I'd only thought of this a month ago, I would have had a fun Christmas card shot, but once again I'm a day late and a dollar short.

Christmas Extravaganza-Volume 3

2011-12-06T11:47:00.003-07:00

I realized I needed to finish my Christmas series, so that I can go back to using my blog to expound on the random thoughts which pop into my mind, and trust me, my mind never stops or slows down on creating random thoughts. Anyways, I thought I'd do a post on the Christmas trees. We have several. I'm considering asking Santa to place a couple of presents under each one so that the kids can have a Christmas morning treasure hunt. Mike thinks I'm insane, but I think the big man up North will join in on the fun.

I just love white trees!

Right in the middle of that happy little village is a Charlie Brown tree.

I just love silver tinsel trees. Are you starting to pick up the theme here?

I may prefer to never use the kitchen, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy decorating it.

This is the girls' tree in their bedroom. We had a lovely family outing pouching it from the woods behind our house. However, it can be noted that we didn't need a shotgun to poach trees like my Dad used to use when I was a kid.

The boys' tree. Its so small and cute.

Its a major award!

The main tree. It only takes up 1/4 of our living room.

The Gingerbread Village. This year its managed to escape a midnight consumption by the dog.

You will note that the village looks much better this year because Mike did the frosting. I always explode the bag all over the place and make a huge mess. It only took 12 years for Mike to step up and take over with his Martha Stewart like frosting skills.

Christmas Extravaganza-Volume 2

2011-12-02T10:51:00.002-07:00

Last night, my favorite blog stocker-read my hubby, commented that he's been checking for days... and I still haven't posted my second part to my Christmas series. Being the sarcastic wife that I am, I commented, "You live here, walk around and take a looky loo." He lamented eloquently about how much he loves the sarcastic humor on my blog, which is probably why he married me. Anyways, I rarely cook for my husband, but today, I'm blogging for you, Mike, because I'm that kind of awesome. So without further fanfare, I present Post 2, the exterior lights.

I have an inner Clark Griswold that I discovered in high school as I orchestrated the lighting of 40 foot grain silo. Don't worry, I didn't actually climb to the top and risk life and limb to light the silo. I securely held the ladder at the bottom, as I sent my younger siblings way, way up to the top with lights and duct tape. Yeah, its hard to hold a ladder steady on a round surface, but since I was the roundest kid in the family, I did provide a pretty good base. Upon completion it was pretty amazing, except it did mildly resemble a very large piece of male anatomy. Think about the shape of a silo for a minute. Anyways, enough with the walk down innuendo lane, here's our approximate 10,000 lights for Christmas 2011.

Here's the outdoor Nativity with the Jesus Substitute, thanks to one Christmas in the ghetto. I'm pretty sure, Karma kicks back harder when you steal a Jesus.

Welcome to the Funny Farm!

Its not Christmas without a little Tropics nestled among the pines.

I love Mickey!

The Veggie Tale Nativity. When our old camper fell apart, I took a large piece of plywood and copied this Nativity from a catalog. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it :)

Whats Christmas without Charlie Brown???

Enjoy, and don't worry Mike, I'll probably be posting the inside decor in the next week or so, or at least before Christmas :)

Christmas Extravaganza-Volume 1

2011-11-29T13:06:00.003-07:00

We LOVE Christmas at our house, and so I thought I would share a little of our Christmas with you. We do Christmas in a big way at our house. I love to decorate, and the added excuse to craft is fabulous. I even get the urge to cook at Christmas, and the next thing you know, I'm making tons of Christmas goodies. Deep down I have the ability, I just choose not to exercise it too much or it might become expected of me. I love Christmas music and we have a large line-up of Christmas shows that we must watch every year to make the season complete.
Initially, I thought I would do one post on Christmas, but then I realized that any house that takes two Saturdays to deck inside and out, can not be captured in just one blog post, especially with my 15 minute attention span.
I collect Nativities along with several other fun Christmas items. I have somewhere around 30, some big and some tiny, but I thought I'd share a few of the fun ones here today with you.

What would a playroom be without a Playmobil Nativity?

I'm still pretty proud of the cornhusk Nativity that I made about 8 years ago, and I love the little Celtic Nativity, where baby Jesus looks like a multi-vitamin.

Nothing says,"Welcome Baby Jesus," like a whole bunch of plastic and paper Nativities from the 50's and 60's. The smaller one on the right was my Grandma's.

This is one of my favorite from the Dysfunctional Nativity Line. Yep, that's right, Mary is a single mom in this one, but I'm sure Joseph will be returning soon.

Another Dysfunctional Nativity. That's right, you'll notice that we took the Christ out of Christmas. Actually, I think little baby Jesus may have met the same fate as one of the wise men, who recently hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

Most every Haitian adoptive family will recognize this one. These are my favorite characters from the official Nativity that we've all purchased. I like to refer to the guy with the machete as the security guard, and the voodoo twins are awesome.

Here's the whole Haitian Nativity for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday, Adlerson asked me if God was white or black. Personally, I think he's a little bit of everything, since he made all the different people. And so here we have it, Baby Jesus as a little brown baby, just like my little brown babies.

And if your still bored stay tuned, I hope to post the rest of the inside decor and the exterior lights in the next few days.

Black Friday Madness

2011-11-25T08:43:00.002-07:00

Last night I headed out to our local tiny Wal-mart to take on a little Christmas shopping. I thought this would be such a simple venture, as we are a tiny, tiny Wal-mart in a little town, so I could easily pop in there and pick up my discount kids underwear and jammies and be done. I left my house at a quarter to ten and figured I'd be home around 10:30.

I now realize what a crazy idea that was, but I went last year in the early morning hours and it went pretty smooth. As I pulled up to Wal-mart, and I couldn't find a place to park, I should have known something was up. I didn't mind parking in the farthest corner of the lot because I figured it might balance the Thanksgiving revelry I enjoyed. I skipped into the store, and instantly realized something was off. I couldn't find a single one of the Walmart Discount City hand-me-down carts that normally proliferate our store. I nabbed one basket and set out with my list. I wiggled and shimmied through hordes of people picking out my wares.

Eventually, I found an abandoned cart, which may have been a curse as it made it much more difficult to maneuver the crowds. At one point, I attempted to cut through women's clothing to get around the huddled masses of humanity in the store aisles. This was a brilliant idea, but I ended up getting pinned between a large crowd of people and sale items that skirted the women's section. I had only one option, and sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I picked up my cart, stepped over the stacks of goods that had me trapped and joined the masses in the aisles.

I was overcome by panic, at one point, when I headed to the baby aisles and found it taped off and lines of people waiting. Were diapers being rationed? What was I to do? Luckily, I stumbled into a Wii line that circulated the store and I was able to nab some diapers quickly and move out of there.

I was hoping that if I kept shopping for a minute or two more, the check out lines would dissipate, and I could escape the madness. So I headed over to toys, and ending up buying the big kids each a $12 dollar pogo stick. I figured only one impulse purchase on a Black Friday outing was pretty good. Besides, I'd worked so hard to get that cart, that it would be a shame to not fill it up.

As I headed over to check out, a lovely Wal-mart worker almost sent me to the midnight line, but after a small protest and a quick check in the sale flier, I got to head to the lines that were forming by the dressing room for checkout. By this point, I had completely remembered that I"m not a fan of large crowds of people, that entrap me and prevent me from moving freely. Growing up in small town America, this has been an experience that I've only known a few times in my life. My chest was squeezing in on me, and I had to remember to take deep breaths so that I didn't get dizzy and pass out. I'm pretty sure the store music, started playing Hotel California, and I was beginning to worry that I might not make it out. I wanted to bolt, but I'd come so far that I had to stay the course. I scanned frantically for the cold, adult beverage cart and the valium man to come to my aid, but it never appeared. Don't worry, I will be visiting with the manager :)

Anyways, eventually I got to the check out line, and when Rio rang up for the wrong price, I happily opened the flier and argued my way to the correct price. I stepped out into the cool, night air and began to breathe again. I think it may have been worth it, but I will be thinking extra hard before heading out to the little, crazy Wal-mart next year.

Where'd You Get That One?

2011-11-23T11:01:00.002-07:00

Thats a question I get fairly often in Bumblyburg. Apparently, everybody that "knows" me didn't notice the baby bump last winter or maybe they tossed it up to Mike's delectable cooking and a long winter. Normally, when I get this question, I want to answer, "Babies R Us!" Since I'm nice, I don't generally do that and save that sort of thing for my blog. I think Gabriella might look a little like me and I'm pretty sure it was obvious that I gave birth to her, but what's obvious to me is not what's obvious to the curious onlookers.

In case your unsure, that cross-eyed baby in the awesome, pink trailer-house sink is me :) I see the resemblence between us.

Anyways, after I tell people that I had Gabriella and she was born in May, they usually respond with some sort of comment about adding to my family the hard way, because we all know that adoption is soooo easy. Naturally, I comment back, and its usually nice, but seriously.....Giving birth is a zillion times easier then adopting. So all the crunchie mamas who like to brag that they gave birth without any drugs all the while smiling through the pain, guess what? Us adoptive mamas, manage to hold onto our sanity for several years of pain and heartache. We gained weight that may never be lost again and then people go around and tell us how "easy" we had it, and then if we slap them, its considered assualt. Sometimes life is not fair. :)

When your pregnant, you can eat right and care for your body, and then you get regular updates from the doctor that all is well. Well, when you adopt from a tumultous country, you spend your time worrying if your child is getting all the nutrition that they need, and slowly going mad, wondering if it will ever end.

Of course, like any mom, I would say that the process was completely worth it, and I'm eternally grateful for my children, regardless of any pain that I had to endure to bring them home to me. It amazes me that God could take children born half a world away and knit them so perfectly into our family.

Sure, Most People Consider Us Nutty, But...

2011-11-18T10:28:00.002-07:00

We don't care. We're happy, and excited to announce that another trip to Haiti is in the works. Nothing makes me happier then spending every last dime I have, thanks Adoption Tax Credit, to travel to a third world orphanage and bust my hump, collapsing in exhaustion every night. The best part is that both Mike and I are going. We will be doing some serious packing/moving as the creche is preparing to move to a new location. Who better suited to work at this job then Mike and I as we have mastered 10 moves in 12 years. I've often thought that if I wanted to work with scary truckers for minimum wage, I'd take a job with a moving company...but then again, maybe not.
So yeah, we rarely ever leave the kids and head out on a date, but occasionally we get to leave the country and the four kids to work our tails off in Haiti. Life is good. I'm very thankful for great friends, that are willing to watch our four kiddos. Of course, I will miss them, but I know that they will do fabulous and have a great time while we're gone. And, to show my gratitude and to help Anna recover, I will be sure to bring back plenty of Barbancourt to soothe her nerves.
Every time a trip is in the works, there is always several people(family) that shake their head and wonder as to why we feel the need to head back, because we already got our kids,so why bother(use your best sarcastic voice to read that one)
The thing is every kid in Haiti, that is going without food, love and clean water is just as deserving of everything that life has to offer as my kids. People frequently want to sanctify us for adopting. We wanted to add children to our family, pure and simple. We are not saints. We are just an ordinary mom and dad who wanted more kids. However, I can't look into the sad eyes of the kids who have nothing, and ignore that.
Ironically every person who thinks we're nuts to forgo our retirement account and head to Haiti, has never been there. Regardless of anyone's personal belief's and values, I don't think there are many people who go to Haiti, and can walk away unchanged. As a Christian, I believe that before we spend all our time focusing on rules and pretty buildings, God wants us to devote that energy to helping the helpless. Sometimes when we hear of children dying of simple preventable causes, I think, "why God" and I sometimes wonder if he doesn't look down at all of us and ask us same thing. I'm not writing to guilt anyone, but I think we are all designed with a purpose, and its a beautiful thing when we've discovered that purpose and can pursue it with a passion. So instead of thinking that I'm a crazy, negligent parent to leave my kids and go, feel free to exercise your right to silence or throw unexpired cans of infant formula at me, either is acceptable.

A Cleaning Epiphany

2011-11-15T12:55:00.002-07:00

I know that some of you are wondering why in the heck I'm blogging about cleaning. Isn't this supposed to be a blog about my crazy family. The problem is that some days my life is so full of glamour and sizzle that I choose not to blog about those days, because I don't want to look like I"m bragging. Like today for instance; Adlerson and I froze our tails off in the snow yesterday getting our tank heaters hooked up so the petting zoo that lives at our house stays hydrated. Of course, as soon as we finished, the sun came out. Then today, as I'm hauling the extremely full because we forgot last week garbage can to the curb(read 1/4 mile), I realized I had 3 very angry goats. Of course, their water tank was froze solid, so I had to leave Adlerson inside to "babysit" as I was quickly trying to solve the problem and fight with 300 feet of extension cord. After some creative cord restructuring, and a quick test with a leg lamp night light, we have power to the tank heater, and three happy goats. Of course we couldn't accomplish this before I climbed off the fence and rolled my ankle into a hole that filled the air with the music of a popping ankle and extreme profanity. So, see people would become overly jealous at my glamorous and swanky daily life, so I thought I"d post about my cleaning epiphany.

I hate to clean; almost as much as I hate to cook. I love a clean house. I really, really love clean houses. Dirty houses make me grumpy. Our personal "Alice" has forgotten to show up to work for the past 12 years, so sadly that leaves the process of creating a clean house up to me. I've come up with a few handy hints to make this a slightly less disdainfull process.

1. I make my children clean up their own mess. When my kids turn their bathroom into a truckstop worthy disaster, I give them cleaning supplies and make them fix it. Sure, they don't always do the best job, but at least its not near as gross when I go and do it a few days later.

2. If you have solid floors, get a Swiffer. Oh my gosh, that is like God's invention to heal all the dirty woes. As a bonus, convince your kids that its a fun thing to "play" with and make them take turns to Swiffer.

3. And my great cleaning epiphany: Pick the worse task at hand and do that for the day. I hate long cleaning sessions. The only thing that makes them tolerable is the Blue Moon that I crack while I"m cleaning. I've discovered that if I pick the worse task at hand, and do just that task in a quick burst every day, I can keep the house looking pretty decent, and I don't hate it near as bad. So one day I might sweep/mop, then the next I might dust, and then do the bathrooms, or the kitchen. And then 15 minutes or so later, I'm done and I can force myself to focus on even the most horrible task for 15 minutes.

So, there you have it. No need to thank me :)

When You Assume, You Make an ......

2011-11-13T11:37:00.003-07:00

I've mentioned before the quirks of being one of the only different families in my area. Unless we had a sudden influx of adoptive families that have snuck into Bumblyburg in the middle of the night we have five families here that have adopted internationally. There are two from Ethiopia, two from Haiti, counting us, and our dentist has a daughter adopted from Guatemala. I can't speak for everyone else, but I have noticed that people seem to assume that we are A. independently wealthy, and B. very global and upscale. I'm sure people assume this more for us, because our boys' had just came home when we moved here, so no one already knew our story before hand. In the teeny town where we moved from, everyone knew us and followed our process, so we really didn't stick out as much as we do here.

I choose to let people think what they want, because the irony makes me laugh, and no matter how many times I tell people that I'm just a regular person from a little town an hour and a half down the road, people still don't seem to get it. Sure, I have a Thule topper on my car that's not a mini-van, which automatically gives me a global hippie look. Yeah, I can tell someone to, "go to hell" in four languages, but I try not to do that, or at least too often. I even worked as a translator one summer for migrant health services in the exotic location of Wyoming, so if you ever need a Spanish Pap Smear, I can help. But when I have a mom telling me just how difficult it was to navigate the airport in Hungary with her children, I can't relate. Sure I struggle to get hungry kids through Costco, but I don't think its the same.

So in an effort to make a point, I would like to remind everybody that I'm content in who I am. I am not the well traveled urban hipster, but actually a recovered redneck. Growing up, friends always told me, that the jokes were made about my family. They weren't that far off. Sure I have my hippie side of peace, love and tolerance, but I have also unwillingly taken part in chicken round-ups, so I think there will always be a little redneck to me.

I'm sure someone out there is reading my blog with curiosity at the life of a recovered redneck, so I thought I'd offer a few tips to identify if you too are a recovering redneck.

1. If major shopping trips involve going to "town", a location that is measured by the time it takes to drive there, usually a half an hour to an hour and a half. "Town" has all the amenities that are necessary for life, such as Costco, Target, Craft Stores, and Wal-mart. Depending on where you live, "town" becomes a different location, but regardless "going to town" still takes an entire Saturday and a full car, hence the Thule topper, and generally grumpy parents by the time the day is over.

2. While we are on the topic of "town", you may be a recovering redneck if you remember when Wal-mart first came to "town". For the first year, you were in a euphoric, happy state and the opportunities for cheap crud that you could now purchase. We swore that K-mart would never be able to last. The process was repeated when Super Wal-mart came to "town". However it didn't take long to realize all the ills of Wal-mart and then we found Target, and went back to K-mart so we didn't have to wait 45 minutes to check out.

3. You may be a recovering redneck if you clearly remember your first escalator ride. I was in college, but I didn't ride it repeatedly, like my children do.

4. If your fine dining experiences as a child, consisted of 40 feet of food and a sign that says, "Go nuts, Buddy", you might be a recovering redneck.

5. Apparently the rest of the world has curtains for a purpose; as redneck children, we had no need. That is until we went to college. My roommate and I learned a very important lesson on the first day of college. Apparently, if you have a ground floor room and you need to change, its a good idea to close those curtains, unless you want to attract the wrong kind of element.

I could go on indefinitely about the quirks of a recovering redneck, but I wanted to point out that heading to college was very instrumental in my exit from my redneck roots. I headed out 7 hours from home, the farthest east I had ever been in my life, to the cultured world of Powell, Wyoming. I discovered escalators, air travel and embarked on my first international travel, 3 1/2 hours in Ciudad Juarez.

Twelve years later, I'm being mistaken for global hipsters. I do have multiple stamps in my passport, all from Haiti. My house is filled with Haitian art and an African basket or two, so I guess it is a far cry from the trailer with the large telephone spool table that I grew up it. Actually, everyone in my house has a passport, and we might even head up to Canada some day, its only about two hours away. Literally, I only have one non-operational vehicle and its not being used to store anything. I'm still looking for my trust fund to fund its restoration. So all that to say, feel free to humor me and assume that I'm global and upscale. It makes me laugh, and laughter is a good thing :)

I Can Put on a Good Show, But Really I"m a Total Failure

2011-11-09T10:04:00.002-07:00

I feel like I may have accidentally deceived my loyal blog readers and my family. Sure I can pretend to have it all together, but deep down its a mess. I'm sure some of you may already suspect, but in an effort to come clean, I want to let everyone know, "Yes, I"m a total technological loser!"

Sure I have a blog, a facebook account and even a smart phone. Heck, I've even used i-tunes once or twice so you would think that I have it all figured out, but deep down I struggle with the details of the technological world. As some of you may have noticed yesterday, I can't seem to get a link up on my blog. I tried, and I even clicked that "add a link button" and I added my link, but somehow I accomplished was a copy and paste link, which killed the effectiveness of my diatribe.

Heck, I still struggle with my digital camera. On my first trip to Haiti, I was almost mobbed by a happy bunch of creche kids, who were dying to see their picture on my screen. If Kristi, of Fab Five fame had not quickly showed me how to scroll through my pictures, I might have been trampled on the spot.

I honestly feel like I've had a major accomplishment every time I manage to upload pictures from my camera to my computer or copy pictures and music onto a disc.

Of course I grew up in the computer age, so this stuff should be like second nature to me, but somehow that one computer class I took with Windows 3.1 in high school, just hasn't cut it. I'm aware that if I take the time, I can look through the help section and figure most of my problems out. The problem is that I don't want to take the time. I have the attention span of a 4 year old, which makes me really good at working with little kids and not so good at anything that lasts longer then 15 minutes.

Sometimes I hear people talking about Mozilla and Firefox and I nod and smile like an old lady with broken hearing aids. I have no idea what they are talking about, but they don't know that.

So, they say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, yet I doubt that I will actually take the time to figure out the technological details in life. I'm sure I will continue to hand address my Christmas cards, because I don't want to mess with mail merge. I will probably continue to ignore all of those update warnings that constantly come up on my computer, then it will crash, and I will take it to this wonderful shop that fixes it all for 20 bucks. Literally, I can abuse my computer until it reaches non-functioning status, and they will revive it in one day for 20 bucks. Its amazing.

When you see the quirks on my blog, just smile and remember I may be a technology looser, but I"m happy :)

Step Back While I Get On My Pulpit

2011-11-08T14:20:00.005-07:00

So, Apparently my post looses a little something when the link doesn't work-oops :)
I stumbled across this article on one of my new favorite blogs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&smid=fb-share
I read it and literally felt sick to my stomach. As a Christian and an adoptive mom, I felt the need to speak out.

I had never heard of these people and their books before, but I tend to stay away from the random parenting methods, and follow the instinct that God gave me on how to parent my children. I believe that every child is different and therefore what works for one kids may not work for another. However, I also don't it takes someone with massive parenting expertise to realize that beating children with rods is wrong.

I believe that God uses the parent/child relationship to teach us so much about him. I'm pretty sure a loving God is not walking around with a plumbing emplement waiting to nail us when we do wrong. As a parent, when I look down at my children I see the smartest, cutest, funniest kids that I've ever met. I smile with pride as I watch them grow. I believe thats how God is with us, and it angers me as a Christian, to think that some crazed man is spouting opinions on child abuse and claiming they are from God.

I have a five month old baby, and I can't fathom how someone can follow this man's teachings and spank their babies. I may not be Dr. Spock, but I'm pretty sure that when your life consists, of drool, giggles, sleeping and eating, that you can't be too full of evil, unless we check your diaper :)

It angers me that so many Christian adoptive parents have followed this man's teachings. So many of our kids have such hurtful experiences to overcome without being abused by their new families. In the article, he states that he does not recommend the adoption of older children. I'm certain that all of these kids matter to God, and I can't understand how someone can say they are a Christian and then tell their followers to ignore these children.

I realize I am but one loud and angry voice, but if together we stand and speak out, maybe this man and his "ministry" can be put out of business.

I'm a Stay at Home Mom who Hates to Cook. Does that make me a bad mom?

2011-11-06T15:42:00.002-07:00

The title says it all. I Hate, loathe and despise anything that has to do with cooking. Maybe it was my unconventional(dysfunctional) childhood that included kitchen Nazi's in the parenting department. That may have permanently damaged my culinary psyche. It could have something to do with the Uber Crazy Conservative Church(CCC) that I was raised in. Growing up, the general thought was that the women were supposed to be happy doormats who cooked and tended to the kids while the men went out and had fun. I didn't get down with that much, and I left the CCC long ago, for a little more relaxed church.
As a teen, as I was getting lectured to learn how to cook, my mom would say, "How are you ever going to get married, if you don't learn how to cook." I would always reply, "I'll marry a chef" Ironically, she was mighty angry when I got married, but Mike loves to cook and who am I to stand in the way of what he thinks is fun. I may not understand it, but I"ll enjoy the results.
You would think that since I hate to cook and Mike loves it, that we've obviously completed each other and all would be perfect. The problem is that somewhere in the Stay at Home manuals, that I never received, there seems to be an entire chapter devoted to cooking. Every time, I happen to be at a place where mom's gather, which is quite often because I have four children, the other mom's always want to talk cooking. I always get strange gasps, when they ask me what I"m cooking for dinner, and I say, "Nothing, I don't cook." Technically, I can cook several things, including frozen food, tacos, baked potatoes and bread....yes, you read that right, I can't make jello set up, but I can make bread from scratch if I want to, I know it sounds crazy, but that's me.
I honestly get the evil glares, and that is before I go into the stories of how I once accidentally fed my children raw meat...who makes lunch meat that has to be cooked? I rarely mention that when Mike used to work nights several years ago, and Aurrora and I subsisted on Banquet Dinners, cereal and Strawberry Daqueris...I made hers suitable for little girls.
Honestly, I think I"m doing my children a favor, by not making them eat my food. Seriously, am I the only mom out there who doesn't do the bulk of the family cooking?

October Happenings

2011-11-01T11:44:00.006-06:00

Now, that October is over, I realized that I haven't posted any of the fun family happenings, only the crap from this month and because life is all about fun and crap mixed together, I didn't want to miss the fun stuff, so here's an assortment of pictures and highlights of October.

The month began with Peterson losing his first front tooth. An exciting event when you are six. His tooth was removed with an alternative exit strategy, mainly his brother's fist, who was, "tired of looking at it." He lost two more teeth a week later, but I pulled those out before they was a temptation to our little dentists fist.

We headed up to the pumpkin patch with some great pals of ours. Our little boys were pals in the creche, and they always enjoy the chance to get together and unleash a little craziness, mainly those Haitian driving skills in the pedal go-kart course. Aurrora also has a great time mothering their kids too. Apparently, she explained to Kobe that the donkey was a goat. I guess she was confused. I wouldn't feel quite so bad except we have two horses and three goats, so apparently I have failed her in livestock education, and now she's passing it on.

We carved pumpkins, which is always an exciting event, when our kids are unleashed with knives. The pumpkins turned out super cute and are now only slightly moldy on our front step.

I discovered Pinterest this month, and my life may never be the same. Maybe that accounts for the lack of blogging, but Gabriella does have three really cute and super easy to make sundresses and more projects are in the works. I may never sleep again.

Our family loves to hike, and up until recently we hadn't found alot of good hiking trails close by. Now we have discovered the best trails literally right outside our door. All we have to do is trespass across our neighbor's pasture and we are there. Honestly, we have permission :) The trails our fabulous, no one else is out there, and did I mention they are Right Outside Our Door!

I don't have any pictures of Halloween loaded on the computer yet, and Mike has the camera, but I will report that Halloween was a huge hit. The was the first year, that I wasn't working on Halloween, so Adlerson was able to enjoy the down town trick or treating too. He took full advantage of the opportunity for free candy and even hit the strangers up for candy, "for the little one" as if he was really going to share his double haul of treats. He was a washing machine for the big event, which by the end of last night we learned: if you want to attract A LOT of attention, take one of the only brown kids in town and dress them as a washing machine. By the end of the night, even Adlerson was tired off all the attention and was hanging onto my leg every time people would approach him. Peterson was a pretty awesome pirate, and was begging me to let him wear the giant, pirate hoop earring to school this morning. Aurrora, who will always be a princess, was an Egyptian Queen, and Gabriella was a little clown. Our kids have spent days counting down to Halloween and I worried that they might be a little depressed this morning when they discovered that Halloween was over. However, as the first flecks of snow were falling from the sky, the kids noted, "its almost Christmas" and Adlerson decided his birthday must be very soon, its in January :)

So time rolls on and life keeps happening, but we're having a great time amid the madness :)

Its Box Drive Time Again!!!

2011-10-27T11:40:00.002-06:00

When I was in Haiti last month, we stopped at a local market to pick up some basic supplies to donate to an orphanage that we were visiting. Our trip leader spent 30 dollars and was able to purchase a small box with several small bags of rice and beans. After inquiring with the drivers, they realized that they paid an average price for these items, even though they would have cost no more then 10 dollars in the states. Thats what makes the Chances 4 Children Box Drive so important. C4C supports many children in both adoption and non-adoption orphanages, and you can help by purchasing the supply list for Box one or Box two and then packing the food into a flat rate priority box and shipping it to Florida. Easy Peasy, and its a great way to get your kids involved too. The Estimated Cost for the boxes with shipping range from $45-65, but if you are a cupon fiend, I"m sure you could assemble the boxes for less. I know that we're in a recession and money is tight sometimes, but the Box Drive is such an amazing cause, and you can always work on a box together with your sister, friend, bookclub group, bible study....you get the point. Obviously, this is something I'm very passionate about, as I can look back through my pictures and see the improvements in the children's well being since C4C started working at their respective orphanage. I can look back on the pictures of Adlerson and see that as soon as he entered the creche, he quickly went from the hopeless, skinny baby to a little ball of chub. For that I will be forever grateful. Any time Haiti appears in the news again, I always have several people that will make comments like, "I bet you are so glad that your boys are home with you" Obviously, I am, but the point is there are thousands of children just like them in Haiti, that are just as amazing and deserve a chance at life. I encourage you to check out the Chances 4 Children web site and support such a wonderful organization.

The Dilemma

2011-10-24T09:35:00.003-06:00

We live in a town of about 5000 people, in which maybe a dozen or so might resemble my boys. While I wish there were more diversity, there isn't and I'm more or less okay with the fact that we attract alot of attention. Also, in Bumblyberg, we have two grocery stores, a hardware store and a teeny, tiny Wal-mart in which to do our shopping. Of course, we have some downtown touristy shops, but for the locals, our shopping is done at four or five stores. I'm okay with that. I don't particularly like to shop. I'd rather be outside, and every few weeks, we drive in to our local shopping mecca to obliterate Costco, Target and JoAnns.

I hate Wal-mart. Sure, Mike may have proposed to me at a Wal-mart, but Wal-mart in general seems to have become ghetto paradise, and I'd prefer to never have to step inside one, but sometimes we need catfood for our obese cat, so we have to head into the abyss known as Wal-mart.
In most places, its the people of Wal-mart that turn you off to Wal-mart. For us, its the Stocker Stalker. The Stocker Stalker is a women who stalks the shelves and stealthily slithers around the Wal-mart sneeking up on you and dispensing suckers to your kids. Sure, it sounds innocent enough, except she uses her CIA powers and she somehow knows all my kids names, and she's constantly hugging on them. I'm sure she's just extra quirky and loves kids, but the problem is our kids.

The boys are both firmly attached, but Adlerson is still a little too friendly with strangers. I know some of it is his personality, as he has been known to enter a business and loudly proclaim, "Hello, I"m here!" The Stocker Stalker doesn't help him learn boundries with strangers, and instead encourages him to beg for snacks, another orphanage behavior we're still working on. As a survivial instict in the orphanage, the kids learn to become very friendly with any adult and to happily take the snacks that they adults hand out. It works there, but the problem is when your at the park, and one second your kid is on the slide and the next, they are flashing the Hungry Haitian Eyes and panhandling picnicers for cookies. That is definitly not cool! Ironically, Adlerson generally takes 45 minutes to eat a tiny bowl of cereal, because we can't hardly get him to eat at home.

So as we encounter the Stocker Stalker, the boys get all crazy, and start expecting treats from her and anyone else they encounter at Wal-mart. We know the manager and talked with him about the Stocker Stalker, assuming it would stop, and we could go on enjoying Wal-mart's House of Ghetto without incident.

The other day, we had to make a quick stop to pick up just a few things, and who do we see, the Stocker Stalker. Mike darted about the store attempting to avoid her, and she used her stealth powers and tracked him down. As she reached in her apron, Mike loudly stated, "NO!" She looked at him like he had ran over her kitten with a semi, and walked off, but not after hugging all of our kids.

So the question is: Are we being too sensative? Is this the price we have to pay in order to buy catfood? How do I convince Target to move to town?

Jackpot!

2011-10-19T13:36:00.002-06:00

Four years ago this month, Adlerson entered the creche. He was a thin and spunky little boy of 9 1/2 months. Several weeks previous, we had been matched with Peterson and we were beyond overjoyed to find out that Adlerson would be joining our family too. We had to wait a month and a half to get his first pictures, which seemed like the longest wait in my life. In hindsight, I'm sure they delayed sending us those first pictures with the hopes that if they waited a bit, Adlerson would fatten up and be in a little better shape. After we finally got our first pictures at Thanksgiving, I remember going back to look through all the November trip photos, looking for more of my sweet boy. This morning, I had a realization, because yeah, it does sometimes take me four years to figure things out. Anyways, I realized that I never looked in the October trip photos for Adlerson, even though I know he came to the transition house at the beginning of the month. Like the crazed waiting mom that I was, I was able to remember a few people who were on that trip, so after a few minutes on the old Adoptive Family Forum, I found their photo albums, and guess what else I found: Never before seen photos of baby Adlerson. Ironically, since he never had the baby chub, he looks exactly the same now, just a little longer.

A Little Rant, and a Litte Public Service Announcement

2011-10-18T10:51:00.002-06:00

I've noticed in the mom circles that there seem to be a large group of people who are very quick to judge every other mom's actions, kind of like the SSMP's from my last post. In case you haven't noticed here are my examples:

Somehow when you give birth, the general public thinks that your lactational status, should be public knowledge, so complete strangers will start asking you if you are nursing. Ten years ago, when I had my first child, and I was unable to nurse, I would feel guilty and offer long explanations to all the nosy random strangers that felt the need to inquire. Of course, then the lactivistas would always respond about how they could hook you up to a jumper cable and neon light, and everyone can nurse. Now ten years later, I'm older, wiser, grumpier and much more sarcastic, so when I get nailed by the lactivistas, I flatly tell them no, and walk away. I feel no need to justify myself and seriously, I'm feeding my kid, who's happy and healthy, so back off.

Then we have the working mom question. I've been both, and I see perks to both options. If you work outside the home, you are generally scheduled a lunch break and two fifteen minute breaks a day. When I was working, that was my only sit down time and I greatly enjoyed it. Now that I am a stay at home mom again, people have asked me, "don't you get bored all day?" "What do you do?" In case your not aware, I have 1/3 dozen children, so I don't have a lot of time for boredom. I'm kind of missing those scheduled breaks that I used to get at work. On the flip side, when the boys came home, an alternate sub-group of judgy moms used to say things to me like, "I don't know how you can head back to work so soon. I'm sure the boys need you." and I would always respond that, "the boys need to eat, so I need to work" Honestly, if my crazy life has taught me anything its that you can't worry about pleasing people and seeking approval, because there will always be those out there who will disagree and loudly proclaim it.

So my message today is: Parenting is the hardest job that we will ever work at for the rest of our lives. The pay isn't great, but the benefits are amazing. Instead of constantly criticizing what our fellow families are doing with their children, lets just trust that each respective parent knows their child and situation the best, and is therefore equipped to make the best decision for themselves and their families.

Amen, and now I will step off my soapbox :)

Confession Time

2011-10-11T11:35:00.002-06:00

I have a confession to make. I am not the safest mom ever. I know that some of you may have passed out in astonishment, while those of you who know me are probably saying, "Duh, I could have told you that ten years ago."
Of course I enforce the main safety rules in life. Yes, my kids wear seat belts and life jackets when they are on the boat, so you can back away from the number for CPS. Its just that when I"m out with my happy munchkins, I notice there are many more moms who are worried to the extreme about their kids safety. So much so, that they don't seem to have any fun. Ironically, their kids seem to get "hurt" the most. When they aren't shadowing their child's every move, they seem to spend the rest of their time staring me down and giving me dirty looks. I have come to believe that they are part of a Secret Mom Safety Patrol(SMSP) who are secretly taking notes and reporting to their headmaster.
I know this all sounds confusing but I'll give you an example. If my children go to the park, they may head down the slide, head first and on their back. I don't care. They are having fun, and I once worked on a Community Playground Committee, so I know there is 18 to 24 inches of bedding at the bottom of that slide. However, the SMSP's child will always go down the slide sitting on their bum and they will never climb the slide. And then the SMSP will report to her superiors about my lack of parenting on the slide.
I have come to enjoy annoying the SMSP's in the world. My favorite thing is to allow my children to swim in the lake without life jackets. The SMSP's children must always wear their life jackets, but my children know that they can't go any deeper then their belly button unless an adult is out in the water with them, which means that once I head out, they get to bail off the dock with reckless abandon because I"m right there if they need help. My two older kids are pretty amazing swimmers because they actually get to swim when they head to the water.
To top it off, I don't make my kids wear helmets because they never bike on a paved area, and they don't wear riding helmets to ride on the horse. I do require shoes, not sandals, because I"m that safe.
Sometimes the SMSP's will comment to me that my child is hanging upside down from the tire swing, and I will respond back that, "they survived Haiti, they will be fine." The SMSP's never seem to like that response. So if you happen to be a SMSP, please cut me some slack. My kids have survived malnutrition, disease, and life in a third world country, and there is no way that a set of monkey bars will take them down. Also, to my SMSP friends, if my child steps behind a tree at the park, you don't have to worry that he is momentarily out of sight and will be nabbed by the villianous kidnappers that patroll the park. There are 5 black kids in town, my two, two sisters and another boy. So all the villianous kidnappers know that you could never get away with stealing a black kid because everybody would be watching your every move.
And, if you happen to be a slightly careless mom like me, come on over, and I"m sure our children can have tons of fun playing together.

Saying Goodbye

2011-10-07T12:53:00.002-06:00

The other morning as I was running, I saw a shooting star. Yes, in order to squeeze in some running time, I have to head out while the stars are still shining, but don't worry, I have a head lamp for light, and live in a very safe area, so my biggest threat are skunks. And, you can bet that running with a head lamp is dead sexy.
Anyways, as I saw the shooting star, I thought about in order for the star to put on a tremendous show, it dies. Its the grand finale for the star. Life is like that too. I'm sure few people noticed that star while it was shining, it was only as it burned out, that we took notice.
Today I got the call that I knew was coming, but was dreading. My last living grandparent was gone. Growing up, I had three grandparents and they have all died in October and all four years apart, so if you are the grandparenty type, I would go ahead and keep your distance from me in four years, I seem to be bad luck.
Anyways, Of course I'm filled with sadness and grief. I'm trying to focus my thoughts on all happy memories and life lessons that I've learned from my Grandma Flo.
My parents were quite young when I was born, and divorced when I was an infant. My childhood was very tumultuous, to say the least. There were many people that invested their time and energy in me, knowing that I was lacking that at home. I could have easily become the trauma child, whose life spiraled out of control into adulthood. However, I'm more or less normal; just don't ask my husband :) My three grandparents played a huge part in filling the void that childhood pain can leave. They had safe, happy houses, and they all became more like parents to me. When so many people were telling me that I was a fat and ugly child, Grandma Flo was sewing me dozens of cute dresses that made me feel fabulous. While my home was filled with fear, theirs was filled with peace and joy.
So to all three of my Grandparents, Papa and Gram, and Grandma Flo, I thank you for how your actions changed my life. I know that while you are gone physically from this earth, the lessons that you taught me, and your love and kindness will be a part of me for life, and for that I'm incredibly grateful. I know that my actions have the same power to change a child's live and I thank you for teaching me that lesson.

On a Lighter Note

2011-10-06T11:33:00.003-06:00

Since my last post was so down and discouraging, I thought I'd take a minute and post something a little more uplifting. Life is like that, even in the midst of the crud, there are truly great moments.
Today we finally completed our re-adoption. I know that some of you are probably thinking, "Haven't your kids been home for two years?" They've been home for 2 years and 3 1/2 months, but were just getting our re-adoption done because we're on it like that. The kids have been legally ours since Haiti, and they became citizens as soon as they entered the US, so we haven't been too motivated to get it done. In a few days, they will have birth certificates from the state of MT, so no more hauling a suitcase of paperwork to enroll our children in school. Between their Haiti documents and all the translations, I suspect that Peterson's enrollment file is much thicker than any of the other kids. Our boys, now officially have middle names, so now I can legally use the full name card to notify my children that they are in trouble :) "Peterson Grat and Adlerson Emmett get over here right now!"

Of course, any time we are out with the kids, somebody has to pull a few shenanigans. We had to wait for quite a while before it was our turn. Our kids waited great and had a great time playing with the bailiff's handcuffs. Several inmates were escorted by us as they exited the courtroom. As one man went by in the orange suit and handcuffs, Adlerson loudly exclaims, "What a cute outfit!" Comfy, maybe, but cute-Hmmm. When they finally called us back to the judges chamber, Adlerson made his entrance by rolling in on the floor. Obviously, the judge was great, and Adlerson stood up and visited and we were all done in just a few minutes. We got to talk about how much the boys have enriched our family. Its amazing to stop and think of all the beautiful chaos that our boys have brought to our family. Yeah, its crazy at times and I"m perpetually exhausted, but I would hate to imagine what our life would be without our funny and amazing boys. Words can not describe just how thankful I am that the boys are a part of our family. I feel so blessed and proud to be their mom. People regularly make those annoying comments about how "lucky your boys our" but I know that Mike and I are truly the lucky ones to have the opportunity to parent such amazing kids. Anyways, here are a few pictures of the big day. Enjoy!

Life's Like That Sometimes

2011-10-04T16:43:00.002-06:00

Just like on "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie finally gets his gun and then it all goes to heck; that is how my life is feeling right now.
Sunday I got the call that my last grandparent had 3 strokes over the last day and her time was very short. Sure, my Grandma Flo has had Alzheimer's for several years, and she's been in the nursing home for the last four years, but somehow you convince yourself that they are still doing pretty well, and she was always happy working in the "fabric store" She worked at Joann's for years, and she always thought the home was the fabric store. It was pretty cute how she would chatter about the customers and "those doors" Ironically, my last post was how I love to craft, and it was my Grandma Flo that got me hooked on creating. She was the original Martha Stewart, as she cooked too. Personally, I would prefer to only enter a kitchen to rinse paintbrushes. My craft room is well stocked with surplus fabric from Grandma Flo. Grandma Flo has always been pretty spunky. She once managed a liquor store in a rough MT town. She was held up by gunpoint, but she dropped the robber with a half-gallon of whiskey to the head, and then she emptied a can of mace on him like it was bug spray. Then she locked him in the back room and called police. The man stayed in the hospital for three days and she was pretty angry that she dropped the bottle on her foot and broke her toe. Its amazing to see that Alzheimer's can rob a person of most everything, but that spunk is still there. She wasn't expected to make it through the weekend, but she's still holding on. I know her time is short, but I"m glad that she got to prove the doctor wrong, and I pray that she will head home when she's ready. I try to maintain a positive attitude and know that its in God's hands, but deep down, death sucks. I try not to be angry, but as the Alzheimer's progressed, we were able to spend less time with her, and she couldn't be taken out to lunch and such, and Alzheimer's units aren't exactly kid friendly. Damn you Alzheimer's!
To top it off, yesterday I got a note that stated I was being called for jury duty 75 miles away in two weeks. A two week notice, seriously???? I've written my letter begging and pleading with the judge to let me out since I have 1/3 dozen children and I don't exactly have time for jury duty. Of course they won't let me know if I"m excused until 5 days before I"m scheduled to be there. I'm hoping for all its worth that I get off, but I guess if I don't, I"ll bring in Adlerson and Gabriella, and hope they turn me free.
I know I'm an emotional wreck right now. Today Facebook farted and kicked me out for awhile and then my spray paint can refused to spray and I almost fell apart. So as I pray for emotional strength and a jury excusal, I have to remind myself that this too will pass.

Beautiful Moments 9-30-11

2011-10-01T20:25:00.002-06:00

As the last post of the Beautiful Moments series, I wanted to stop and say just how blessed I am. This has been a great series, causing me to focus on all the things that are right in the world, and on somedays, I had so many great moments, that I had to think which one I was going to write about. Sure, my life has inconveniences. Somedays my kids take a dose of the naughty juice and act like little pistols. Sometimes, my landlord forgets to pay the house payment for a few years, and I have to move again when the house goes into foreclosure, but for the most part, I have a great life. I have a wonderful husband, four healthy and fabulous kids, a roof over my head, food on my plate, and money to pay most of my bills. What more does a person need?
Anyways, yesterday started rough. Adlerson must have gotten into the naughty juice and things were a little rough around here. Then, I picked the older kids up from school, and they had hardly any homework. That's enough to turn around a rough day right there. After they had finished their homework, which was less then 15 minutes, all three older kids headed out to play and frolic in the yard. We live on nine acres, so there is lots of room for fun. Since I had a little unexpected free time, I headed to my bat cave. I LOVE to craft. There is hardly a craft out there that I haven't tried or don't dabble in. Knitting may be the only one. Anyways, my craft room is a converted single car garage bursting with creativity. Thanks to Pinterest, I could easily become a crafting hermit that never left my craft room, except for coffee. In reality, the four kids keep me from being lost in the creative twilight zone, but yesterday as the big kids played in the yard, and Gabriella giggled on her play mat, I opened up the garage door to my room, and had over an hour of uninterrupted craft time. I started a quick project and finished it all in one session. That never happens, and it was wonderful.

Beautiful Moments 9-29-11

2011-09-30T10:39:00.002-06:00

We move alot. We don't mean to. Heck, we don't even want to, but somehow, that seems to be the cards that have been dealt to us in life so we smile and try to look at it as a way to enjoy our furniture in a new setting every year or so. We completed our tenth move about a month and a half ago. Within a week, we were pretty well settled in, with the pictures on the wall, and we even had the trampoline put back together. We only had one thing left to finish to be totally done with our move, and it sat and sat and sat. Several years back, back when we had one kiddo and thought we were so busy, we decided to build Aurrora a swing set for her 5th birthday. We had thought that we were all settled and we were going to live in that house forever. Like optimist that were hoping to add to our family, we even made the swing set with three swings, at varying heights for the multiple ages of our future children. We lived in a lumber town and used cheap, local wood to make a beast of a swingset. We even had plans to add play stuff to it every year. Thankfully, we never added anything except a little basketball hoop to the side, which our boys "removed" for us :)
Anyways, when we left the house that we were never going to leave, we HAD to take the swingset, and so we keep taking the beast apart and reassembling it at every place we move to. The kids love it, and then they have something new to fight over. You see, the middle swing is slightly higher and its the most desired swing, thus causing the most contreversary at our house. Yesterday, we finally forced ourselves to get it back up, so after a few new supports and some dropped screws, our kids are ready to swing and argue, and we are happy to have it done.

Beautiful Moments 9-28-11

2011-09-29T09:03:00.000-06:00

I posted the other day about how great it was to hang out with my old pal from junior high, as she's in town for the week. The only thing better is getting to hang out some more which we did yesterday. Gabriella slept most of the time while she was here, so I only had one kiddo to chase while we visited. The great thing is even though we only see each other about once a year, we can just pick up where we left off just like we were still kids. Great friends are wonderful even if most of them live so far away :)

Thinking about adoption?

2011-09-28T13:12:00.004-06:00

Here's a great story about a little boy that will soon be available for adoption. Check it out:
http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com

Beautiful Moments 9-27-11

2011-09-28T09:14:00.002-06:00

Yesterday as I picked the kids ups from school, Aurrora uttered those 7 little words that make my heart sing, "Mom, we don't have any homework today!" Our local school district gives an insane amount of homework, to which I believe that most is busy work. They aren't given class time to work on it, and it makes me grumpy. I understand the responsibility that is taught with homework, but I also think kids would benefit from having more playtime versus that hour of homework a night. I also think we wouldn't have such a problem with childhood obesity, if we didn't strap our kids down with so much homework. Anyways, enough of my rant. We thoroughly enjoyed an unexpected homework free night, and we got to work on Aurrora's Halloween costume instead of math and spelling words-Yeah!!!

Beautiful Moments 9-26-11

2011-09-27T09:37:00.004-06:00

I've posted before about my battle with the baby/adoption chub. Since mid summer, I've been hauling my rear out of bed at 10 minutes to six, so that I can pound out some miles on the pavement. I started out walking four miles a morning. As a family, we have been walking for years, but somehow walking with children is more like crowd control then exercise. Anyways, I gradually started adding a little running to my morning walk. First I'd run downhill and on the level spots, and pretty soon I could go a little farther. I know what your thinking. Runners are long and lean, and I definitely don't have a runner body. I'm long :) Yesterday I ran five miles without stopping. Yeah, it was dark when I started and I had to use my flashlight, but it was awesome. I may be slow and I know nothing about runners form, but I'm pretty sure I don't have it. I even had a close encounter with a skunk and it was still awesome. I have a little time to organize my thoughts and prepare myself for the day. As an added bonus, I burn off enough steam that I'm able to focus my ADD mind a little better.
Even though I am up to running five miles at a time, I have only lost the baby weight, and not the adoption weight. I have come to accept that my body is just meant to be that way. I come from a long line of stout people. We may be chubby, but we are seriously buff. I can impress my six year old with my biceps, and I was the arm wrestling champ of the 7th grade. I did also get bullied about the chub in the 7th grade, and I was called "Ogre" I may or may not have bumped a few people off their chairs and flat on the floor during that time also. Growing up, childhood chub was not a prevalent as it is now, so our class only had a few chubby kids. Sadly, out of our fab four of chub, I"m the only one thats still alive, so I guess its my duty to hold the fort. So if I never lose another pound, I will continue running just because it makes me feel awesome.

Beautiful Moments 9-25-11

2011-09-26T10:49:00.001-06:00

A little sunshine + a solo horseback ride + a pickup game of baseball in the front yard = pure awesomeness!

Beautiful Moments 9-24-11

2011-09-25T11:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was another beautiful late summer day. He headed to our local shopping mecca to buy the necessities and enjoy the day. A friend of mine from way way back was in town, so we all got to hang out at a really fun BBQ with lots of bees. We realized that since we've been friends since the 7th grade, that was 20 years, and then we felt really old, but we had a fabulous time.

Beautiful Moments 9-23-11

2011-09-24T09:47:00.000-06:00

I've posted before about fall and my mixed feelings about its debut. Yesterday, we didn't have to think about fall because summer returned again. We all got to wear our shorts and our flip flops and sit outside for an insanely long time, causing us all to eat a deluxe meal of wraps very late. We may not have been able to go swimming, the lake is too icy, and we may not have been able to go to the park, thanks so the insane amount of homework that 5th graders receive here, but we still got to sit outside, finish the homework and Play!!! It was wonderful.

Beautiful Moments 9-22-11

2011-09-23T10:07:00.000-06:00

Full belly baby laughs are the most beautiful sound ever. They have been known to cause parents to act like drunken idiots just to keep the laughs coming. But, seriously, what better reason to don the crazy momma hat then to hear your little one bust a gut. Gabriella had her giggle pants on last night and it was euphoric :)

Beautiful Moments 9-21-11

2011-09-22T11:19:00.002-06:00

School is back in session and life has become routine which means that on Wednesday nights there are Kids Club activities for our kids at church. Not only do our kids have a fabulous time, there are activities for all three big kids. This means date night for the parents, because we have tactfully declined all offers to volunteer and help. We pull up to the curb, slow down and kick out the children for an hour and a half of uninterrupted conversation. Because we like to live it up on our weekly date, we head to the store to do a little shopping and then go sit in McDonalds and drink coffee, because we all know that the only edible food from McDonalds is their coffee and ice cream. Anyways, even though we still have Gabriella with us, its like an almost real date, and its fabulous, and they have it every week during the school year. It doesn't get any awemomer then this!!!

Beautiful Moments 9-20-11

2011-09-21T10:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a day that started like any other. Adlerson and I did preschool and set out to accomplish the tasks and errands for the day. One thing was missing; Adlerson's attitude and it was amazing. Seriously, my son is a 32 pound four year old with a 400 pound mouth. Its been known to get him in trouble regularly and drive his momma crazy. Don't get me wrong, he's a sweet and delightful boy, but we've also been known to refer to our prince as Scut Farkus, of Christmas Story fame, because Adlerson has the same laugh and attitude. There are days that I worry that he will have a monogrammed chair in the principals' office once he starts school. Yesterday was amazing. He was so good, I honestly thought he must be getting sick. He's well today, so we can only hope that this is the new thing. I'm game!

Beautiful Moments 9-19-11

2011-09-20T11:43:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I blogged about how my great moment was watching/hosting the African Children's Choir. It was such a great experience that I realized it was worth two days of great moments. On Sunday night, the boys ate and visited with us, but then it was late so they had to head to bed, and so did our kids. Yesterday morning, they all had some time to play before the boys had to head out. Like a good mom, I let my kids skip a few hours of school so that they could stay home and play. It was great. Our kids were great and everyone had tons of fun. It was such a delight to watch them playing so nicely with their new pals. The only downside was the tears that came when it was time for the boys to go. a

Beautiful Moments 9-18-11

2011-09-19T11:07:00.002-06:00

The African Children's Choir came through our town last night. As soon as we knew that they would be coming through, we signed out to host a couple of kids and their chaperones. I know that I just got back from Haiti, and I brought a little souvenir from the kids, my sore throat, but we tend to live life at full gear. So yesterday, we changed the sheets and moved our kids out of their room, while our children waited and waited and waited not so patiently. Evening finally came, and the concert was amazing. We had to drive in two cars so that we'd have enough room to haul our guests home, but Mike and the crew finally made it home, and it was delightful.

Beautiful Moments 9-17-11

2011-09-18T11:44:00.002-06:00

When I left for Hait, it was summer. When I arrived home, it's now fall. I have mixed feelings about that. I love a reason to toss a few pumpkins around and think about creating some costumes for my kids. I do not like that fall leads to winter. I've been e-mailing and texting an eviction notice to old man winter, but somehow he refuses to leave. I have come to believe that winter is like camera's with film. They were useful at one point, but their time as past. Anyways, yesterday we realized that we had three apple trees that were hanging with apples. So we summoned the minions, and spent a Martha Stewart like afternoon picking apples. It was tons of fun, and now....what to do with a wheelbarrow full of apples.

Beautiful Moments 9-16-11

2011-09-17T17:42:00.002-06:00

Pure and simple, yesterday's finest moment was seeing Mike and kids after a long day of travel and climbing into my warm and fuzzy bed. Pure bliss!

Beautiful Moments 9-15-11

2011-09-16T14:24:00.001-06:00

Leaving Haiti is a complicated event. One part of me anxiously awaits seeing my family and a hot shower. The rest of me wants to stay and keep working. The plane ride back to Miami is an emotional roller coaster. Yesterday was no different, but I was lucky to witness an amazing event that made me smile through all of those emotions. I was seated next to the older children, about 12 and 13, in a family of 5 that was immagrating to US. I clearly remember the day, we received our manila packet full of papers for our boys so that we could travel home with them. I thought about how much time, effort, and money would have gone into their process. I was able to visit with them with my crude Creole. I watched their fear and excitement as the plane took off. Together we filled our their customs forms, and shared a pack of gum, as our ears began to hurt from the flight. I thought of all the experiences and opportunities that awaited them in America. I hoped they would be met with the love and warmth of people that make America great. As we exited the plane, we said our final good byes, and I wished them good luck. I was thankful that I got to witness this part of their journey. Immigration is a Beautiful Thing!

Beautiful Moments 9-14-11

2011-09-15T14:51:00.000-06:00

Being in Haiti is like traveling in a time warp. One day can fly by quickly, yet have more emotional ups and downs then a month. Yesterday's high point was wrapped in one of those emotional roller coasters. We traveled to an extremely poor orphanage yesterday. I was there last year, and a met a sweet boy, who was extremely malnourished and sick. Last year I held his sick little body, and cried at the injustice of the world that leaves an innocent boy dying in an orphanage with no one to care and love him. I prayed for that little boy with all my might, begged God to heal him. Today, I can happily say that I once again I got to hold him, and he was smiling and alive. He is healthier. He is happier. His life is far from perfect, but it is better and I'm thankful to work with Chances for Children, who has helped to make his life better. I know that the problems in Haiti are daunting, but I know that God placed me on this earth to do my part to help. I know that if we all do what we can, little by little changes can be made. So, I challenge you to find that cause that God created you to be a part of and get to work.

Beautiful Moments 9-13-11

2011-09-14T15:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was an amazing day. We got to visit the kids in Kenscoff and see their new orphanage which is being built. Currently the kids live in a small building with some exterior rooms. We got to play with some fabulous kiddos. We enjoyed the cool weather and a spontaneous ice cream discovery and the best part was when I got to meet our sponsor child, who is a beautiful and amazing little boy.

Beautiful Moments 9-12-11

2011-09-13T05:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday had many highlights, and its hard to narrow them down to one, yesterday, I got to visit with a little boy who I met one year ago, but today he was much more healthy. It was great :)

Beautiful Moments 9-11-11

2011-09-12T04:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was an amazing day. Twice last fall Mike and I came to Haiti, to bust our rears getting the Chances for Children's new creche ready. When we first got there, boxes were everywhere and there were a ton of cribs and beds that needed paint. We were a little overwhelmed, but by the time we left in November, things were finished up and ready to go. Yesterday, I got to visit the creche, and it was fabulous. There are a handful of really great and fun kids. There was the most cutest and chunkiest Haitian baby that I have ever seen. Seriously, this little guy is a month older than Gabriella, and he is twice her size and sits up-Absolutely amazing! On a side note, while we had a fabulous time playing with the kids, razor wire and beach balls don't mix :)

Beautiful Moments 9-10-11

2011-09-11T20:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a long day spent traveling. 3 flights and many hours to arrive in Miami, but yesterday, my last flight was a super quick from Tampa to Miami, and there were literally, only 8 passengers on board. It was heaven :)

Beautiful Moments 9-9-11

2011-09-10T05:11:00.000-06:00

Todays post is short and sweet as I sit in the airport, getting ready to head to Haiti. Yesterday, as I hauled my bum out of bed to hoof it down the road for 4 1/2 miles, my fabulous hubby, checked me it, paid my baggage fees and confirmed everything for todays travels. What a fabulous travel agent. As a side note, multiple people have questioned my sanity as to why I could "leave such a little baby" to head to Haiti. Its not like I'm dropping the kids off with the local pedophiles. They will be at home with their loving and capable father, watching cartoons and eating corn dogs, because Mike rocks.

Beautiful Moments 9-8-11

2011-09-09T10:09:00.002-06:00

Our kids are very attached to us. I know I"m very fortunate considering the boys' background, and for that I"m thankful. Even though Peterson is firmly attached to us, he rarely says, "I love you too, Mom" after I tell him that I love him. He does occassionally, but not often. I am not worried about it at all. I figure it's his macho male behavior :) Yesterday, as they were leaving with Mike, I gave both Peterson and Aurrora hugs and kisses as they headed out the door, and told them both that I love them and to have a fabulous day, just like I do every day. Yesterday, I got an "I love you too, Mom" from Peterson. It was great.
To top it off, as I picked him up in the afternoon, he teacher was telling me that they have started their writing journals, and the kids were supposed to dedicate their journal to someone. Now, most six year olds would probably dedicate their journal to Spongebob, but my boy dedicated his journal to all the people in Haiti. What a sweet boy!!

Beautiful Moments 9-7-11

2011-09-08T09:52:00.002-06:00

This will probably come as a shock to all of you, but sometimes in my glamorous and amazingly fabulous life, I become exhausted. We are very blessed and I"m incredibly thankful, but sometimes after we get the big kids to bed, I collapse into a pile of mush onto the couch, unable to do anything that requires any effort. Yeah for a blackberry and mindless entertainment at 9:00 at night. Occasionally, Mike and I can manage a conversation, but some nights, we're left with grunts and nods.
Anyways, last night was one of those tired nights, but Gabriella was happy and ready to roll. Gabriella has no set schedule because we are too tired and lame to even attempt to schedule our kid, and then we wouldn't be able to remember it anyways, so she goes to bed when she's tired, not necessarily when the other kids go to bed. Anyways, as I collapse into mush on the coach, she sat with me and giggled, cooed and smiled to me for at least a half an hour. It was the pure bliss to hang on the coach with such a happy and cute :) baby. What a great ending to the day!

Beautiful Moments 9-6-11

2011-09-07T11:11:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a craptastic day with a capital Crap. I was honestly thinking yesterday, that I would have work really hard for something to blog about because the day was so rotten. I don't really know what set it off, but anything that could be broken, did. If it could be spilled, it was. Somewhere around 11:00, I was trying to console an eternally hungry and crying baby, while trying to finish up a little preschool with Adlerson, and all the while drowning in a mountain of laundry and trying to complete a semi-important phone call. As the receptionist at semi-important phone call land picked up, my doorbell rang. I think I uttered the words, "Oh crap, someone's at the door!" and then I accidently hung up on the lady. Then I headed outside with a baby in my arms, balancing a bottle with my chin opening the super sized garage door, so the "nice" repair man can finally get the mower fixed. Then Mr. Helpful repair man states, "there's a camper in front of the door." To which I may have sarcastically replied, "there's two doors, shimmy it out."
My day was like that all day long, and to top it off, our little annoying mutt that the kids love so much loafered away last weekend, and we still hadn't heard anything about her. We had driven all around the neighborhood, called the animal shelters and everything, but we'd heard/seen no sign of her. Since she had been gone for three days, I resigned myself to the fact that she was either picked up by a person or she had been eaten by a bear/mountain lion and I would have to explain this all to the kids.
Yesterday evening, our super cute grandparent neighbors came over in their mule, the motorized kind, to see if the kids would like to ride around with them and look for the dog again. I had little hope, but I figured it couldn't hurt, and riding in those things are super fun.
So by now, I know your sitting on the edge of your seat, biting your nails. Yes, they found the dog and it was a great ending to a crusty day. And now with a super, reinforced doggie fence, there is no way she can leave the compound now.

Beautiful Moments 9-5-11

2011-09-06T13:53:00.002-06:00

Even though my children are practically perfect in every way, sometimes they're naughty. I bet no one saw that one coming. We don't have any major issues that many other people in the adoption world have to deal with, but some days start out on the wrong side of the bed at our house, and the day continues down that path.
Yesterday was one of those days for our little boys. When our little boys get tired, they jump onto the crazy train in a big way and things go nuts quick. I don't know how tired children can act like they have been hooked to a jumper cable, but that is how our boys are. It seems to defy natural law, but I guess we're just special like that.
Anyways,yesterday was one of those naughty, crazy, not listening kind of days, and I felt pretty bad when I finally had to send Pete and Repeat off to bed to restart the day. We had plans to go for a ride in the horse cart in the afternoon, but we had to cancel due to all the craziness. For Peterson, even more insulting then losing a horse cart ride, which he loves, is having to go to bed in the afternoon, because we all know that only babies take naps, not six year olds.
Anyways, due to the change of plans, I decided to saddle up and go riding alone. I had a great time out all by myself!! Then, when I got home the boys were back up, but they'd left the crazy train at the station. Its amazing what a forced nap will do. Anyways, they all came out and took several turns riding, even Aurrora, who is generally scared of horses. Now, I am very careful to not force my hobbies on my children, as I want them to pursue things that they enjoy and not feel like they have to partake in my hobbies to win my approval. However, when they were all acting so nice and having such a great time doing something that I enjoy so much, it was heavenly.

Beautiful Moments 9-4-11

2011-09-05T09:52:00.002-06:00

Today is our 12th anniversary and yesterday we got to go on a date. I know the first thought that your thinking is how could such a glamorous young couple like us be married for 12 years. That's a long time. We got married pretty young, hence the reason this glamorous young couple has a middle schooler. No, no one had to sign for us to get married, but it was a good thing that we didn't go to Vegas for our honeymoon, or I would have been denied entrance to all the cool places.
Anyways, yesterday we went on a real live date, while my sister watched all the kids. This rarely happens, as the last time we were on a date, I was having intense labor pains, but I refused to leave, because we hardly go out.
All that to say, our date was wonderful. For over an hour, we got to have uninterrupted conversation. There was not a play place or a paper wrapped hamburger for miles around. We didn't have to tell anyone to chew with their mouth closed, or not dip their fingers in ketchup. It was an absolute delight. So today, my sister is my hero for taking our 1/3 dozen children, and Mike rocks for setting up such a great date.

Beautiful Moments 9-3-11

2011-09-04T09:46:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a fabulous day. We went to the fair and saw all kinds of exhibits, even camels. We munched some junk food, rode the rides, watched some rodeo, and my kids kicked some serious can in the kids pedal tractor pull. Peterson may be short, but he is one bundle of power, and he seriously delighted in wowing the crowd with his awesomeness. We got home super late, and we were operating in tired stupor mode as we got the kids to bed. A few minutes after we got everyone in bed, I heard noise coming from the boys' room. Then I saw it. Adlerson was sound asleep, but he was smiling and laughing big belly laughs all while he was sound asleep. It was pure delight!

Beautiful Moments 9-2-11

2011-09-03T07:08:00.001-06:00

Yesterday our kids didn't have school. We had a fabulous day at the park, going to lunch, and freezing off our tushes in the wind. We had a pretty laid back morning, and as the kids got up in the morning, the joined each other on the coach, snuggling in together. It was the cutest thing ever, as all four kids sat on the brown, velvet rocking loveseat from 1970, happy and content. Don't judge me by my coach. When you proudly own a brown, velvet couch from 1970, what's the worst thing your four kids can do to it; Paint a velvet Elvis on said couch.
I can't figure out how to get the picture from my phone to my blog, but you can picture it. It was the cutest thing ever.

Beautiful Moments

2011-09-02T17:14:00.000-06:00

So Kristi of Fab five fame offered a challenge to blog about a beautiful moment every day during September. I'm going to do my best to join in because we all need a little reminder to count our blessings. Yesterday, I was able to finish transforming the weed patch that greeted me at the door into a flower bed again. I love playing in the dirt and growing flowers, and with a few smartly placed pots, some transplants from the old house and several bucket fulls of weeds, I have one fabulous flower bed at my do. What about you. Feel free to tell me about your beautiful moments.

Life as a Conspicuous Family

2011-09-02T15:29:00.004-06:00

Everywhere we go, we stick out. Not a little, but a lot. We are a very noticeable family. I live in an area with very little diversity, like almost none. Peterson is the black kid in his school. Yeah, there are a few biracial kids in his school, but there isn't anybody who looks like him. We live in the middle of a reservation, which sounded like a nice diverse place before I moved here. Sadly, there is a lot of bigotry between the two tribes that live her, as they were historically enemies of each other that the government placed together, with the hope that they would both eliminate each other. I don't claim to understand tribal culture much, but I do know that no matter how crazy a family is, mine is the one that always seems to be noticed. There are a few other multi-racial adoptive families around here, however I never see them anywhere, and our town is pretty tiny. I understand why. Its hard to be barraged with questions and comments everywhere you go. It wears you out, and it bugs the hell out of me that people will talk about my children like they are some exotic pet, and they are standing right there, listening to it all. It seems that people have the expectation that all families should look like this:

However, its not 1950 anymore, and there are alot more families around here that look like this.

Families are all different. The important thing is that they are based on love. Its all I can do to remain civil to a person who has many children, with multiple fathers and they feel the need to question my family. Sadly, it happens all the time around here. I try to remind myself that I can tactfully educate someone today, but when someone hollars out as you walk by,"where'd you get your kids?" I can only do what any good mother would do, and pick up the pace pretending that I didn't hear them.
It seems that many people can't fathom why someone would choose to adopt black children. It breaks my heart that people think that way, but many do. Obviously judging by the 3 month old baby, people can figure out that I have some amount of fertility left. Its pretty obvious to most people that Aurrora is also our biological child. (We were asked if she was Haitian once though, by a nurse) Many people seem to have the thought that adopting black children is a last ditch effort to add children to your family, right before you become a crazy cat lady. The question that seems to run through most people's mind, is why would we adopt when we could have had another? It angers me that they are so caught up with the skin color of my children that they miss the pure fabulousness of who they are.
I did once have someone ask if the boys were my biological children. I honestly laughed at them, and possibly offended them, but seriously, could someone as blond as me, have children that are as dark as my boys. In case your not aware, the red heads with the good tans, are the biological kids.
Not all the attention that we receive is negative. I know for the most part, people are curious. Some people think are kids are the coolest thing since sliced toast. The problem is that when random strangers want to fawn over our children, our little boys are happy to put on a show, and then we have a whole batch of crazy happening in the Wal-mart. I've never been a person that wants to be the center of attention, but our family is, almost all the time. Another downside to the constant movie star attention, besides the staring, and the fact that no action of my children goes unnoticed, is that I can never be even mildly rude to someone, without forever being noted as the angry white mom with the black kids. Now, I don't really consider myself a rude person, but it would be nice to have the option. Even nicer, would be if everyone treated my family as the same as any other.

Packing My Bags

2011-08-30T11:43:00.002-06:00

I'm going to Haiti on a mission trip in a week in a half. I realized about a month and a half ago, that since I quit my job, I had to do something about my retirement account. I'm sure responsible people, roll it over into 401-K's, but since I may or may not be considered responsible, I decided emptying it out and heading on a trip to Haiti, sounded more my style. My personal travel agent, Mike, found some great deals on tickets, so I head off in a week from Saturday. Mike will be staying home with the kids, so send him all your prayers and happy thoughts :) This is the first time I've traveled alone, but I'm pretty sure I've got it figured out.
It will be my 5th trip to Haiti. Once again, I'm traveling with Chances for Children and a team of volunteers from around the country. Since we will be visiting several orphanages that Chances for Children support, I volunteered to plan the crafts/activities for the kids. So along with the peanut butter, formula, and all the other supplies that one would tote down to Haiti, I've managed to cram in chalk, beads, bendy sticks and all kinds of fun crafts. Like a good mom, I enlisted my kids help on most of the prep work. At first, they were very excited, but since we will be visiting somewhere around 130 children in several orphanages, they tended to lose interest in their "jobs." I reminded them about how they were doing something great for the kids in Haiti, and then I bribed them with popsicles to keep working, and then I reminded them what a good thing they did. So all the prep work is done, and my duffel is already packed.
Apparently, the word on the street is that American Airlines is only allowing one checked bag to Haiti-"Have you no soul American Airlines!"
Anyways, My bag is packed to slightly over 50 lbs, because I know that my luggage scale reads high. My carry ons are starting to have all kinds of stuff crammed into the corners, but I still have room for my clothes.
In some crazy way, it becomes a competition with myself to see just how much stuff I can haul down in my bags. I've considered stuffing my bra with formula cans and filling my pockets with pedialyte packets. That way I can get the full body scan for sure :)
We will be staying at the Methodist Guest house and I hope to update my blog while we're there so stay tuned!

Coming Out

2011-08-27T21:45:00.002-06:00

Mike and I were both raised in VERY conservative Baptist families. Mike, much more so then me, because we all know that my family put the fun in dysfunctional. We are both Christians, just not Baptists. Growing up, Mike was raised with a very strict set of beliefs which happened to look down on women wearing pants in church and rock music, among other things. Then I came along, I've always been pretty liberal, even as a suppressed Baptist kid, who was toting my KJV bible and wearing a forced skirt to church. And now 12 years after I entered the scene, Mike innocently informed one of his relatives that yes, he is liberal too, and a proud Obama supportor. I realize that world may have just fell off its axis, but rest assured God loves us pants wearing, liberal folks too, and I'm pretty sure that Jesus was considered a liberal of his day.
Now the family has gone silent, but we still love them anyways :)

But I learned it at church

2011-08-19T17:21:00.000-06:00

Today at lunch, I offered the kids some cherries, and Adlerson replied, "Hell yeah!" Now, I've been known to get excited over food and the cherries are very yummy, but I explained that "Hell yeah" is not an appropriate response. Peterson then mention, "they say hell at church. Is it appropriate there?" Apparently, my sarcasm is contagious. We had a long, drawn out conversation about the context of the sentence when we say Hell. To which Adlerson replied, "Zing Zings(one of his many imaginary friends) mom let's him say, "hell yeah" whenever he wants. Well, that's when I pulled the, "I don't care what your friends can do, this is my rule" card. We'll see how long it lasts.

Moving

2011-08-09T16:38:00.002-06:00

Some people grow up, get married, buy the happy, little bungalow and settle in for the rest of their lives. I envy those people. I may even dislike them just a bit as I get ready to move once again. My grandparents were married for 52 years and lived in 2 houses. Mike and I, however, will soon celebrate our 12 anniversary and we're getting ready to move to our 10th residence. We've owned two houses, one which we lived in for five years, but the rule for us seems to be that every time we add children to the family, we will have to move again.
We never intended to be those people that move around all the time, and we have the amount of stuff to prove it. Typically, frequent movers have 6 pans, and a few clothes to move. They seem to be minimalist. We, however, have the accoutrements of four children, a small menagerie and a playground. Yeah, we move the playhouse, the swingset, and the trampoline because we are insane.
We had hoped to stay at this house a little longer, until we figured out what we were going to do when we grew up, but as our luck would have it, it wasn't in the cards for us. While we faithfully paid the rent, our landlords enjoyed a nice bump in their paycheck, but they somehow forgot to pay the mortgage for 3 years, and let the house go into foreclosure. Now the house is for sale, and owned by Fannie Mae. Since I don't want to move when the weather is crappy from October to May, we've decided we should move now.
The upside to all of this moving craziness is, we are really good at moving. I mean we are great at moving. It looks like we will start this weekend, and in a week or so, we will be done and have all the pictures on the wall, and then we will collapse in exhaustion and wait for the next move.

The Downside

2011-08-05T12:06:00.002-06:00

We have added 3 children to our family in 2 years. Some people can add to their family, without adding to their waist, but I am no one of them. They say, you are what you eat, but I figured it would not work for me to eat a skinny person. I have been slowly gaining over the years since my thin college days. Apparently, living off of my own cooking was a great diet plan for me. However, the adoption process was the worst for putting on weight. A pregnancy only last nine months, and your guaranteed to loose half the weight that you gain when you deliver. And, if you enjoy some yummy Haitian fruit juice and catch giardia, you really don't gain a thing-oops TMI :)
My grandpa used to always say,"if you can see your feet, your fine" The problem is that I'm pretty sure that if your feet are pushing a size 11, you have an unfair advantage.
So in an effort to recover the waist that I've lost, I've been dragging my lard out keep of bed at 6:00 in the morning to pound out four miles on the pavement. I've managed to keep this up for 5, yes cinco, consecutive days, Yeah me! And, I found the funnest app for my phone that makes dieting almost fun. Amazing, I know. So here's to victory on the 4000 diet I've been on in my life.

Gabriella Ayiti

2011-08-02T14:21:00.004-06:00

Since I'm updating my loyal handful of readers, I thought I would elaborate a little more on the newest member of our family, Gabriella Ayiti. For my non-creole speaking readers, Ayiti means Haiti in Creole. I frequently get the look when I explain my daughter's name, the look where people think-Don't you know Haiti is a battered and broken third world country, so why would you name your kid after that? Well....

Besides, my kid, my name-lump it :)

Without further ado, here is our sweet adorable baby!

As a side note, I would like to mention, that whether by birth, adoption, the cabbage patch or the stork, all of my children are cherished and loved equally as the wonderful blessings that they are. Nothing drives me more nutty then when people comment about having another child of my "own" All of my children are my own! Whoa, I feel so much better now that I have that off my chest :)

Reviving the Blog

2011-07-29T15:01:00.003-06:00

I've taken just a little break from blogging, like maybe a year and a half, but I've decided to perform a little blog CPR and and revive the blog. I"m sure my half dozen loyal readers are dying to know what kind of craziness we've been up to for the past year. So here's the short of it; We moved once, traveled to Haiti twice(just Mike and I), had a baby, and I quit my job, so now I have time to blog :) So now that everyone is all up to date on our happenings, I thought I would share today's events with you, so you can be seething angry like me :)

Anyways, today was the 4-H rabbit show for Aurrora. This is her first year showing rabbit, so we didn't know to expect a 3 hour show; Yes, I said a 3 hour show at the smallest fair in the world. Literally the fair is composed of about 3 buildings that all open to a central grassy area that is smaller then my front yard. There were about four vendors, including the Republican women and the Gideons. So, you get the picture, it all seems to be a nice, little small town fair. Well, long about hour 2 1/2 of said rabbit show, as my boys were frolicking with all the other kids in the grass, and I was tending to our 2 month baby, Gabriella, and helping Aurrora get ready because its finally her turn, some women comes up to me to inform me that my boys were "bothering" the vendor. This whole time, I can still see my boys as they are running with the other children on the micro lawn. It was at this point that my blood began to boil, and I got instantly angry. This is not the first time that an ordinary action of my child has been brought to my attention by an annoying person simply because they are black in a white area. But anyways, back to today, so I step out to the grassy area with the women, and noted to her, that my boys were simply running in the grass, and I thought it was ironic how it was only the black children who were "bothering" the vendor, when all the children were playing as a group. Then this women had the gall to tell me, "maybe you should watch your children." At this point, I snapped. I"m generally a lover not a fighter, and we try and teach our kids to be problem solvers and work out our disagreements, but deep inside I wanted to punch this women. Instead, I told her to "mind your own &^$# business,**&%&^!!!!" Yeah, junior high Tifanni surfaced and handled the problem, and then the women was gone very quickly. Of course, since this is the tiny fair, and everybody loves to sit around and gossip, I"m sure I've already been labeled as the "angry mom" but living as a multi-racial family in a white area, I"ve long ago quit worrying what people think of me, and sometimes, you have to take care of business.

Getaway=Crazy Adventure

2010-03-01T22:19:00.002-07:00

With three kids a weekend getaway to our nearest "big city", becomes chock full with all kinds of wackiness. It all started 84 miles from home, when I was in a town that I've never once been to, and complete strangers were recognizing us from the write ups in our local small town papers. We continued on another hour to our destination and ran into more people that "know" us. When your family is as obviously recognizable as ours, everyone thinks they know you, while we have no idea who we are talking to. We are starting to get used to it.
Anyways after a few belly flops into the motel pool, we all headed to bed. The next day, we woke up a little early, as we weren't used to the Pacific time change. Since we were out and ready to shop before the stores opened, we decided to take a little drive and see what we could find. We found a great building in the shape of a milk bottle, which we had to pull off the interstate for, so we could take a picture. Upon getting back onto the interstate, we somehow got sucked into some sort of airport wrap around and spend 10 minutes driving around in the airport twilight zone.
We made it back to the real road and took the kids to the children's' museum. The kids had a fabulous time. Mike did inform me that the sand table was an autopsy table so I refused to play there. Later that day at supper our kids started into a lovely rendition of---If your happy and you know it, shake your butt. It might have been funny at McD's, but we got a few looks at the Spaghetti Factory. We promised the kids another round of swimming, so we headed down to the motel pool, and there was only one other family there. Being my normal self, I try to strike up a conversation with them, and then all of a sudden they stopped talking to us and pretended we weren't there. Yeah, I think they figured out the brown kids belong to us, and since they were from Sandpoint, ID(total skin head country) apparently we made them uncomfortable.
Sunday, we took the kids on the gondola in the park, which all of the kids loved. Pictures, will come, I promise. The boys thought the escalators were great fun and wanted to up and down them over and over. After the 3rd time of going up and down, we tended to attract some funny looks. We completely disobeyed all of the "Do Not Feed the Ducks" signs. Adlerson would mix up his words, so he kept saying we were going to,"eat duck." To top it off, the kids got to feed their bread sacks to the garbage eating goat(its a sculpture attached to a trash compactor) We found all kinds of bargains and an amazing Mexican market, complete with tamales. Apparently we shopped a little too hard because Mike forgot to turn his headlights on until we were several miles down the interstate, but no harm was done, so we can laugh :)
We had a great weekend, but there's nothing like being back home!...and hopefully the gal that fed our dogs while we were gone didn't feed them too many rabbit pellets. Apparently, there was a little mix up :)

Haitian Breakfast

2010-02-14T16:10:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was our Haitian style breakfast to benefit Chances 4 Children. Mike and crew made crepes and we had fruit and sausage too. There were all kinds of yummy toppings to top your crepe, but there wasn't any syrup with ants in it, like we had in Haiti. Nobody says that you have to be entirely authentic. Anyways, my co-workers and our principal really helped put the breakfast together, and we had tons of silent auction items. Several classes of kids colored Haiti coloring sheets and one class made the cutest tap taps ever, so we had some pretty cute kid art there. We had some Haitian music over the loud spearkers to complete the morning. We served 156 people including our friends Nate and Kristi, and their crew. The newspaper stopped in and so we might have a story out next week, and the best part----The grand total---drum roll please......over $2000 all for Haiti!!!!!

Happy Birthday Adlerson

2010-02-02T16:21:00.002-07:00

I've made this post before, but this is the first time that I've gotten to post after-party photos. Ever since we were matched with the boys, their birthdays made me super depressed. Nothing, like a big, fat reminder to let you know that your kids are growing up without you. This year, with our kids home, made Alder's birthday fabulous. We just had a simple family party, because both the weekend before and after his birthday were jam packed. The great thing about now having three kids, is that you always have enough kids for a party. Adlerson was a little shocked when he woke up to discover his house had transformed for his birthday. He quickly got into the birthday mode, and loved taking treats to school. We played party games in the afternoon and then went to his absolute favorite place in the world-Pizza Hut. Of course, he ended up with plenty of new toys, including a giant fish tent that has taken up residence in our living room. We always blame the grandparents for the excess of toys, but I think we may be just a smidge guilty ourselves. But, your only three once :)

Trying to Digest it all

2010-01-22T21:22:00.002-07:00

Since the earthquake, there has been such horrific, heart breaking news. There have been stories of hope through it all. I have seen such amazing generosity and caring in people, and I've been totally disgusted with some people. I can't imagine all that those who are working in the relief efforts are going through as they work through this tragedy. My prayers go out to everyone. The bad news is everywhere, but as for the good news. 21 children from our orphanage made it to their families yesterday. They were on Larry King last night and also in a piece done by Soledad O' Brian today. As we watched the videos of the children being reunited with their families, our boys were so excited to see their friends come home.

I'm totally disgusted by the response I received from the powers that be at my school concerning a fund raising drive for the creche. For those of you that don't know, I work at a K-1 school, and I was told that kids this age can't relate to the tragedy in Haiti, so instead they are doing a booksale to buy dog food for the shelter. Now I"m all for supporting shelters. We just got another dog from the Basset Rescue, but am I the only one that finds this offensive to be doing right now. On the up side, almost every other staff member in my school, offered to help me with a fund raiser, so I think we'll be doing a Haitian breakfast soon. Mike is a master at krepes, and I think if I sweet talk him, he'll make beignets too.

I want so much to go to Haiti right now. I know that I would be absolutely worthless there, as I"m not a medical professional, so I know that for now I must stay here. Hopefully there will be a group that heads down to do some rebuilding soon, and then we can be of use down there.

So tonight as I head to bed, I pray for those trapped who are still hanging on, for those waiting for medical treatment and food and water. I pray for those who have lost loved ones. I think of the rebuilding process. It will be hard, but the Haitians truly have the resilance to make it happen. I pray for those who've lost it all, yet still have hope, and I think of all my fellow adoptive families who are going through and emotional hell desperately trying to get their children home.

Haiti Family

2010-01-15T16:34:00.003-07:00

Since this awful earthquake happened, I've had many people make comments inferring that I shouldn't be so upset because my children are home. I am incredibly thankful that my boys are safe and sound with us. My heart breaks for all the people who are still in the process. I pray that all those families that are waiting will recieve news about their children's well being.

Even though my boys are here with me, their birth family is still there. Their birth family is such a part of our family, because without them, our family wouldn't be here. I know the boys were so loved by their birth mom. She had endured so much yet she exuded such peace. I hope that she is safe and well and her needs are being met. The hard part is that we may never know. My heart aches for the people of my boys' homeland. What beautiful, strong, artistic people. I love Haiti, and I want so bad to help.

Thankfully all of our creche's children and staff are okay. The buildings are damaged, but they can and will be rebuilt. We found out last night that there was only 1 weeks supply of food remaining and the shipping container with more supplies, had been looted in port. Chances for Children, which funds our creche, is hoping to be able to get some donated cargo space on an airplane so that they may get some emergency supplies for the creche. You can read more at www.chances4children.org, or www.chances4childrendonations.blogspot.org

Please consider donating what you can. All the money goes directly to support the wonderful children of Haiti.

What I want for Christmas-by Peterson

2009-11-07T17:11:00.002-07:00

Today I made the mistake of asking Peterson what he wanted for Christmas. I didn't realize that a little boy who owned nothing 5 months ago could have such a long list. It went something like this.

(mom) "Hey Peterson, What do you want for Christmas?"

(Peterson) "I want bon bons, cookies, orange pop, popcorn, music, a photo of Java(the dog)" At this point, I thought we were doing pretty good, as he was just asking for cheap stuff, but he contiued.."Television, cartoons, computer, masheen carts(those car carts from the grocery store), chapo(hat) and a piano and a horse. His list went on for literally 5 minutes and I"m sure that I forgot a few things.

The crazy thing is he stopped before he started onto which toys he wanted. At least he didn't ask for a b.b. gun.

Life has been Crazy Busy

2009-10-16T15:04:00.002-06:00

I thought that once summer ended, life would slow down a little. Unfortunatly, I"ve been wrong. Peterson and Aurrora are both doing soccer. They're last game was supposed to be this Sunday, but since they cancelled the game last week, they decided to make it up, so we have another week of practice and games-yay.

The kids have been getting their fill of visiting old creche buddies. Last weekend, we had a fabulous time with our pals, the Laurie's who have two boys from our creche. We celebrated Richnightder's birthday, ate Haitian food and had a wonderful time. It was a long drive filled with a few mishaps along the way, mainly some crazy weather and a mightly suspicious accident scene, but the kids did great. Tomarrow, we will also be visiting some old creche buddies who happen to be in town. Its so fun to watch the kids get together and play. Their creche buddies are like their family.

We painted pumpkins today. The kids had a great time and I had to blow dry the pumpkins because they were so full of paint.

Happy Fall Everyone!

Confession Time

2009-10-01T21:12:00.002-06:00

The boys have been home now for a little over three months and every once in awhile, they start to open up and tell us about life at the creche. Peterson has shared the same story with us twice, so I"m thinking that it must be true.
Apparently, at one point, Madam Lafore(the creche director) was sitting on a table passing out Cheecos(Haitian cheetos). Now when you have one orphanage dirctor and 60 kids and one bag of cheese puffs, chaos may ensue, especially if Peterson is involved. Our little fellow, who is super duper small for his age confessed to pushing over the table that Madam Lafore was sitting on, thus sending Madam Lafore and the Cheecos onto the floor. While Madam Lafore was pretty darn angry, Peterson did manage to get his fair share of Cheecos off of the floor.

Peterson has also been a little obsessed with Christmas lately. He saw Christmas decorations at Costco and is just convinced that Tonton Noel will be coming sometime soon. The crazy thing is he told us tonight that he was scared of Tonton Noel last year and he smacked him on the butt. He did enjoy the bubbles that Tonton Noel brought. All I can saw is it takes some kind of gumption to smack Santa's butt.

Ya Gotta Love A Haitian Accent

2009-09-24T20:45:00.002-06:00

Our boys English is coming along very well. They still speak lots of Creole, which makes me glad, because I hope they never lose it. They also speak a lot of English, but their accent tends to add some extra fun to our lives.

The other day we decided to take the kids to their favorite restaurant-Pizza Hut. Now, Peterson dropped his fork about the time that the pizza came and was obviously pretty distressed about this. Unfortunately, I think the other diners thought he was extremely upset since with his accent, instead of dropping his fork, it sounded more like he dropped the f-bomb.

Today, we happened to be in the grocery store and passed the frozen food area. The kids love ice cream, and as soon as they saw it, they began chanting,"ice cream, ice cream" all through the store. Since our kids are Haitian, they aren't very quiet at all, and lucky for us, the chant for ice cream sounded more like our boys needed some Preparation H.

Hmm-What fun will tomarrow bring??

Fair Fun

2009-09-08T09:42:00.003-06:00

Saturday we took the kids to the fair. It was actually our 10th anniversary, and we had lots of fun. To top it off, we were able to leave the kiddos with my dad and go on a real date on Sunday. Other then a little crying from Alder, the boys did really well.
Anyways back to the fair. The kids loved the fair. Peterson LOVED the rodeo, probably a little too much as he's now trying out his rodeo moves on the dog. We checked out all the exhibits, ate some great fried twinkies and did the rides. Our kids were so good and even took a little power nap in the stroller. What more can you ask for.

More Fun Times

2009-09-02T20:50:00.002-06:00

So life has been as crazy as always, but we did manage to survive the move. It didn't seem to phase the boys, and our only mishap was the egging of our u-haul truck and our poor couch may never be the same again. We still have a few bigger things to get, but there is no rush, so we have settled in. Aurrora has started school, and thankfully we have Mike around, so we've eaten no more raw meat. Aurrora did discover that Alder is almost exactly the same size as one of her giant baby dolls, hence the ruffled dresses. Oh, the ammo that we will have to blackmail that child once he's older.

Moving and Single Momming It

2009-08-19T21:41:00.002-06:00

So as I've posted before, we are in the middle of moving. Honestly, for all of you folks still waiting to bring your kiddos home, this is something that I wouldn't recommend doing right after you come home. Unfortunately, we didn't have a choice but we are managing. It has been mighty crazy here, and I've been the part time single mom for the past six weeks which adds a new level of excitement around here.
Most of you know, I hate cooking. Maybe its my cooking Nazi mother or my wild outdoor spirit, but I would literally prefer to shovel horse manure then cook. Usually this isn't a problem as Mike, loves to cook. But as I posted earlier, I"ve been on my own for most of the past six weeks. So we've been eating our fair share of pancakes and tacos and Costco frozen food, and somehow we've managed. I know your thinking, "Why don't you go to McDonalds?" That would be great, but the nearest McD's is 60 miles away. The problem is that Mike has cooked so much for so long, that I don't know how to cook tons of things. Does anyone know how to do rice??? because I don't.
Seriously, I can make lots of baked goods, but I feel bad feeding the kids nothing but cookies. I have mastered the fruit smoothie, which makes me feel better after feeding the kids nothing but processed frozen food.
Anyways, last night I figured we hit the ultimate low. Between having 90% of our stuff packed and my cooking incompetence, we had chicken nuggets, oranges and microwave popcorn. Yes, you read that right, I fed my kids microwave popcorn as part of their meal. I am tired of chicken nuggets, so I ate just microwave popcorn. Seriously, I"m starting to feel like I"m in college again, which by the way was a fabulous weight loss plan. However, even though my boys were dipping their oranges in ketchup, somehow we managed to do even worse tonight. We were gone all day and got home late, so I thought I'd do cheese and crackers for supper. That's an entree right up my alley. I sliced the cheese and grabbed the new package of lunch meat out of the fridge. When I opened the lunch meat, I noticed it had a funny smell, but I checked the date, and since it was still in date, we proceeded to eat it. Then I noticed the little sticker on the package that had cooking instructions. What kind of lunch meat comes with cooking instructions??? Then I saw It....the teeny tiny print that said Raw. I don't know how Costco could deceive me that way. How could something look like lunch meat, which is so processed in can live for years, yet somehow be unprocessed.
I called Mike for verification, and yes, I did indeed feed everyone raw meat for supper. So please God-now would be a perfect time to send Manna from Heaven because Lord knows what I might cook tomorrow if you don't.

Fun Times

2009-08-13T07:52:00.004-06:00

The problem with a big sister, is that she always uses you as her personal dress up doll, but no one seems to mind so thats good.

How do you like the blue eye shadow-I think it's the boys color :)

Check out Alder's boots. They used to be Mike's and Alder literally wears them everywhere. Its too cute.

Every Time It Rains, Lord Don't It Pour

2009-08-01T18:51:00.003-06:00

Thats an old George Straight song that used to play on the cassette player on our old ugly van until Watkins luck kicked in.
Some people have calm and simple lives. Most of Mike's family are those kind of people, but somehow when he married me, it all changed. I have the Midas touch of chaos, and we've been reveling in it for almost 10 years now.
Now, don't get me wrong, I"m not whining. I just find the humor in all our craziness. Someday, I think I"m going to tell all these stories as a comedian on Comedy Central.
Anyways back to the car stories. A couple days ago, we headed north to meet our social worker for our postplacemnt report. Considering that we are in the process of moving, and Mike started his new job about a week and a half after the boys came home, our boys are doing amazingly well. So we stop off to take the crew to the bathroom before we meet the social worker, and we smelled it-you know that smell that comes from a burning vacuum cleaner. That was our car. Then we noticed the grind. Yeah, our brakes were going out, and we were a hundred miles from home. Now, we've had the car for 9 years, so we can't complain about the brakes, but what timing. Every time we hit a stop light, people stared at us when they heard our grinding brakes. Don't worry, we got home, and its now in the shop.
Then of course the following day, Mike heads off to work for a few days. Now, we have this old ugly van that I have always loathed. Apparently the van took offense and now its transmission is out. Mike coasted home in low, and since it still goes into reverse, I think the van may have a second life as a demo derby car.
So, we used to have 3 working vehicles, and in the course of a few days, we are down to one. As luck would have it, the one we have left is our truck. Our truck is old-very old. Its a 1973 Chevy to be exact. It was my grandpa's who maintained his cars perfectly, except for the exterior. So the truck has less then 100,000 original miles, runs perfectly, but has some rust-alot of rust. Today we piled the crew into the truck, which is a single cab, to go to the lake. Something about 5 heads in the Rustmobile, and we were turning heads, even in our town.
Now on a side note, Mike let Peterson sit in his lap and drive down the driveway. He absolutely loved it :)

Real Food

2009-07-27T17:12:00.002-06:00

Tonight we are having real food. That's right no Costco frozen food, no pizza, mac and cheese or any other unhealthy quick meal. I suppose you are wondering why this is blog worthy, but since the boys have been home, we've had real food 4 times. Two of those include tacos, which are pretty darn quick to make. Don't worry, none of us have wasted away to normal since we haven't had real food, but we're just tired of factory food. Thank God for fruit. Why all the processed food, you ask?? When you give birth, family and friends show up at your house with casseroles, baked goods and baby blankets. They ooh and ah over your little one and offer to help mow your lawn and do your laundry so you can rest.
Now when you adopt your kids, there is no casserole, baby goodies or offers to help. Instead, you have family that drop by and tell you that if you expect to sell your house you need to get everything packed up and paint the walls white. Seriously, this happened five days after bringing our kids home. People still ooh and ah over our kids because they are dang cute and then they say things like, "Wow, you actually got them." like they thought you were being scammed, because they saw something on dateline once.

Anyways, between keeping up on daily life and trying to pack up my house, cooking just hasn't happened. Mike is working at his new job, so he's gone quite a bit of the time, and we all know he's the Betty Crocker around this place, so we've eaten lots and lots of Costco food. Anyways, Mike is home today, and we are having real home cooked food, complete with garden potatoes and zucchini-yeah!!!

Photos of all our Latest Adventures

2009-07-24T17:50:00.006-06:00

So life has been pretty busy around here, between starting to pack up and move and squeezing in some summer fun. We have managed to go huckleberry picking twice, which the kids loved. Anytime you can walk around in the woods and eat as many sweet berries as you like, its a good thing. We've been to the lake several times, but I've forgotten the camera. Peterson loves the water, and Alder is a little more apprehensive. They've been out on the boat once, which they also loved. We went to the waterslides on Monday, which is tons of fun for all of us. Mike literally had to drag us all away with the promise of food because no one wanted to leave :)
Being that its been uber hot here, the kids ran through the sprinkler today. Well, Aurrora and Peterson rode through and Alder and I ran through. The boys are doing great, and are tons of fun. They don't seem to be bothered at all by moving. Peterson always wants to go to Papa's piti lakay, because its so empty that you can run laps in it. Once all five of us cram in there, I'm sure we'll be ready to tear down the ways in the piti lakay, but it certainly won't be boring.

2 weeks home!!

2009-07-15T22:14:00.004-06:00

Actually about 2 1/2 weeks home, but I'm a little behind on everything. The kids are doing amazing.

Peterson is my animal lover. Our sweet lab that he used to holler at in Creole, he now tows around by the collar non-stop. Good thing she's old and patient. He absolutely loves the cats and the rabbits and feeding the goats all their banana peels has become a huge hit. Considering that each of my boys eat at least 4 bananas a day, our goats should be doing good on Potassium. Peterson rode his first horse yesterday, and he's been on the horse cart several times. Of course, in true style for our family, we had a harness malfunction today and got in a little wreck with the horse cart. We'll all fine, except my cart, and the boys don't seem bothered by it, so all is well.
Peterson is still dancing and singing. Today, Aurrora taught him the funky chicken, which is hilarious.

Alder was once the sullen baby that hung out at the creche. He's totally become a little ball of laughter. Our biggest trouble is that Alder is generally too wound up to sleep at night, so he sits in his bed and laughs and squeals for about an hour before he'll go down. Alder talks all the time now, and he's starting to venture off and play.

Aurrora is doing well with all the changes. The first few days were a little rough for her, but now that the boys are more comfortable with her, they play together really well. She gets to stay up extra late, for some non-brother time with her parents which she loves, but its wearing me out. Her birthday was last Friday and the boys had a ton of fun with that. I think they somewhat understand the concept of a birthday, as they didn't seem upset that there weren't presents for them, and they were all about the cake. Peterson is still singing Happy Birthday, but it beats the Barney song.

So, in two and a half weeks our kids have experienced their first 4th of July, gone to the lake twice, tried tons of different foods, rode the carousel in town, went to three different parks, visited old friends from the creche, and they've eaten approximately 50 lbs of bananas.

Seriously, Life is never perfect, and our kids have rough days too, but considering all the adventure around here between moving, crashing horse carts and hitting deer, our kids are doing amazing

Laughing til I cry

2009-07-06T21:25:00.002-06:00

It seems to happen about every evening at supper. Peterson is absolutely the funniest kid every. I know every mom probably says that, but they haven't met my kid. He's a hilarious. He litterally gets me laughing so hard I cry several times a day. Tonight at supper, he kept making the funniest faces. Then of course, there is his dancing and singing. Move over Jerry Seinfeld because I seriously think he can make a career out of making people laugh. I've heard that deep belly laughs make a good abdominal workout. If that's the case, I might have abs of steel before the summer is over.

Do They Speak English??

2009-07-04T11:54:00.002-06:00

This is the first question I get from almost every person that meets our boys. It drives me nuts. Does it matter what language they speak? Can people not hear us communicate in Creole? Can the love of a family only be expressed in English? Now, don't get me wrong, English is my first language, and its a dandy language, but I just wonder why so many people seemed concerned if my children are speaking it. I acutally had someone say to me,"Are they going to learn English, if you keep speaking Creole to them?" Like somehow, they would do so much better if they had absolutely no idea what was going on around them. Its not like their entire world turned on them a week ago or anything.

The kids are doing amazing. Alder's tantrums are becoming less frequent and shorter. He's sleeping and eating well, and he's become the happiest little guy ever. Its so fun to see him come out of his serious shell and have fun.

Peterson is spending less time in Ti Kabicha(time out) He's starting to realize that playing with the radio all the time is off limits, but he loves playing the piano. He's currently watching Looney Toons and hollaring Frape-pa bon(Hit-not good). Both the boys are very attached to us and very leary of strangers, which is nice. For those of you non-adopters many kids come home and are unnaturally friendly with strangers.

On a side note, this morning we were heading to our local small town fire hall breakfast for the 4th of July. A deer jumped out of the trees and we hit it. We've hit so many deer we've lost track, but I think this is somewhere around 7 or 8. Anyways, as he hit the deer, Aurrora says,"Bingo" To which Peterson replies,"Bingo kouri(run)" I'm thinking he thinks the word for deer is Bingo. I"m just glad the the sight of Bambi in flight didn't bother the boys and the car is fine.

Life with 3 kids

2009-07-02T16:45:00.002-06:00

is going pretty well. The boys went to the doc today and got a handful of shots, but they took it pretty well. Considering their entire world was turned around a week or so ago, they've done fabulous. Naptime is a little difficult as I have to sit with the boys til they go down, which they haven't done yet today. Thank goodness for the laptop and wireless internet.
They are both getting pretty confortable with carseats and such. They've even learned that food off the floor is poubel(trash).
Peterson is totally hilarious. The boy sings and dances like nothing else. Its the funniest thing ever. On our way home, he had such fun on the moving sidewalks and escalators that total stranger were laughing.
Alder is starting to come out of his shell as a happy little guy. Now he does have one heck of a temper and he's been known to pitch some serious tantrums, but they are getting shorter and less often. He's been jabbering alot lately, and he's even started eating.
Aurrora is adjusting to it all fairly well. At first she was a little put out that the boys didn't want alot to do with her, but her and Peterson have been playing alot lately, and that seems to be getting better. If only we could get her to stop telling us how to raise the kids.

Home!!!

2009-07-01T22:33:00.002-06:00

As of yesterday at about 9:30pm, we are officially home. Yesterday was an extremely long day, but all and all, the boys are doing incredibly well. We are tired, but well. I will try to post more later when I have a chance and pics.

And We're Off!!

2009-06-19T05:50:00.002-06:00

After one crazy day yesterday, in which I could only stutter and flit from one thing to the next, we're ready to go-more or less. I have to head into town today for a few more errands. We head out this afternoon to the airport and we fly out tomarrow to Miami. In just a few more days, our whole family will be together. Its been almost exactly a year since we were down there last, which means Mike has spent the last two Father's Days in Miami, waiting to fly to Haiti-How cool is that. Its hard to believe that after two years of adoption, everything has come together in a day and a half.

To top it off, we become Godparents this weekend to Jerome and Richnidghter, our friends' boys. Obviously, we won't be there for the baptism, but do I still get my wings and a wand :)

You'd have to Expect this with us!!!

2009-06-18T15:16:00.002-06:00

So we've been waging war with USCIS and haven't heard anything for a week and a half until today. Yesterday Mike tried to call USCIS, but they closed at 3:00. He started calling first thing in the morning, and somewhere around 11:30, he got through. Apparently, our file was approved by USCIS on June 10, and our visa appointment is tomarrow. Now, I guess USCIS didn't feel the need to inform us as the parents of this info, even though they had our address. Now we've e-mailed them three times, and I guess they never thought that this was important enough to pass on.

Of course, the fun part is that the orphanage director is out of town and hopefully Sadrax, the creche social worker will be able to attend for us. We spent the afternoon filling out and e-mailing forms so he can represent us, but if not our visa appointment will be rescheduled for next week.

This afternoon has been a whirlwind of activity, and it hasn't quite sunken in that we'll be off to get our boys very soon-probably Sat, but our new found travel agent is actively working on that.

Now the fun part, is that we live out in the sticks. I have to go to town tomarrow which is an hour, so I can go to the bank. Then Aurrora is supposed to have friends over in the afternoon. I've got the critters all lined up for feeding and thankfully we've already packed all of our donations, so its just our regular stuff now. So I have to run and move the sprinkler, so I can get everything watered before we go.

Please Pray

2009-06-17T12:17:00.002-06:00

We are asking for your thoughts and prayers as we still wait for that coveted I-600 approval. We were told over a week ago, that our file was readily approvable, yet we've heard nothing. We've fired off a couple of e-mails, yet still nothing. To say we are struggeling is an understatement. After countless tears and prayers, still we wait. I've been trying super hard to keep a good, reverent attitude. Honestly, sometimes its pretty darn hard. I don't know why its taking so long, so please pray for that approval, and for us to not lose every bit of sanity while we wait.

Houston We Have A Problem....

2009-06-15T21:03:00.002-06:00

Mike is too upset to bake. For the past week, our lives have been nothing but an emotional roller coaster as we wake up every morning, hunting for that mythical e-mail from USCIS that says we are approved. Generally, somewhere around mid afternoon, we give up hope for the day, fire off a few e-mails to our social worker and have a little break down. All of these emotions are extremely exhausting. I've actually slept through the night two whole days in a row, thanks to the emotional exhaustion. That's pretty good for this insomniac.
Anyways, back to my point. Mike LOVES to cook and bake. That is generally how he deals with problems, which doesn't work so well, since then we eat all the food. When his mom took the "love thy neighbor" verse too literal, and flew the coop with the neighbor man, Mike went on a crazy baking bender.
Literally, he had made cookies and cake and he was pulling out his pans to make brownies, when I stopped him. After 12 weeks in Angry Bakers Anonymous, he did come out of it.

The problem is that now I"m seriously concerned. Mike is upset and he doesn't want to bake or cook. Besides the obvious consequences, that I will have to cook-ehhh, Its just seriously off for Mike to not want to cook.

So we all need to pray that our USCIS approval comes tomorrow, so we can bring our boys home. Mike can start cooking again, and I can quit sleeping.

I realize I may be a little testy, but your just stupid!

2009-06-13T17:08:00.006-06:00

So I will be the first to acknowledge that waiting on USCIS, while trying to sell a house and plan a move sometime in the future has made me a little grumpy, but some people are just dumb.

Today I went to a kiddie birthday party of Aurrora's best friends. Now, we are really good friends with their parents, even though we don't always see eye to eye, but some of the other party parents, its another story.

One certain diminutive parent, comes up to me and asks me about the adoption. We go to church with this guy, yet he still asks,"How old are they." To this I respond that they are 2 and 4. He then remarks,"that's a good age. They'll become citizens very quickly." Now, I wasn't fully getting his remark, but I proceeded to tell him how our children are coming in on an IR-3 Visa and they will be citizens when the arrive in Miami. To this he answers,"No, when they lose they French accent and start speaking English." At this point my blood was boiling a little and Mike wandered off and left me with little idiot dude. I did inform him, that while our boys will be Americans, they will always be Haitian, and I hope they retain as much of their native language as possible.

After this little happy conversation, I also wandered off to look at the flowers, but it seems that a sequel would be in order for our little friend. Everyone was sitting around chomping cake and admiring Breyer horses, when our little friend decided to get political on me. You know how it is, when they take on that superior attitude and start talking about immigration, and Hispanics and such and such.

Seriously, a few minutes prior, this crazed little fellow was talking about how racism is so bad, yet he is totally racist.

Anyways, as our little dude is on his soapbox, I got MAD. I did make sure and remind him that America is the great melting pot. Unless he is full Native American, his ancestors also immigrated. In case he wasn't aware, I did let him know that the US doesn't have an official language, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with flying a Mexican flag or any other flag in front of your house. I did let him know that I fly a Haitian flag along with my American flag at my house. Mike threw in his two cents worth too and had to hold my fists back. Okay, I didn't throw any punches, but I thought about it and I'm pretty sure that I could have taken him since he's short and old.

When our little friend, who happens to be retired, responded as how you can't even get a job in Miami unless you know Spanish, I told him to learn, and that,"Yo hablo Espanol tambien" I"m sorry, but I"m just pretty darn proud of that comeback :)

Regardless, my kids are cuter then his and he can just shut his yap and go back to Southern Redneck Ville and hopefully Aurrora will still be invited to next years party.

Peterson in School

2009-06-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

Corpus Christi Day

2009-06-11T15:33:00.002-06:00

I have absolutely no idea what Corpus Christi Day is, but it must be special because the Haitian government and the embassy feel the need to close for it. I"m sure they are heading down to the beach with plans to skip tomarrow and have a nice long weekend. Obviously, we haven't heard anything on our file, even thought USCIS told us our approval was coming soon, and that was two days ago. Hopefully somebody shows up for work tomarrow to sign our file, so we don't have to wait the whole weekend to hear something. I"m so ready to book tickets and head out. Its been almost a year since we saw our kids. Tons of kids have been coming home recently, which is fabulous, but in my sad depressive state, it also reminds us how we are still waiting. I"m seriously starting to feel like the donkey with the carrot and the fishing pole. Here's to news soon and have a Happy Corpus Christi Day!

Peterson is Too Cute!!!

2009-06-10T17:16:00.005-06:00

A fellow mom who was down in Haiti last week sent me this video. I could listen to it over and over again, listening to my little man's sweet voice. Currently we still haven't heard anything from USCIS. I've heard they generally e-mail in the morning, so lets hope and pray that tomarrow is our big day.

On a side note, has anyone noticed that if you type USCIS in a word document, spell check always tries to change it to sucks or uzzis-Maybe its a coincidence or maybe not :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOqKsg6jg5w

so, I'm still sort of a blogging goober. I can't figure out how to put the video itself on the blog, but if you copy and paste it, I think you'll get there :)

Almost There

2009-06-09T15:38:00.002-06:00

So we got an e-mail from Haiti USCIS this morning that stated our file was "readily approvable" but they didn't have my fingerprints, so they needed us to e-mail them a copy of our I-171H. Of course, we scanned it and sent it in record time, and we got another e-mail shortly after, saying something to the effect of. Your approval will be coming later or soon. Now, I"m glad to know that we have approval coming, but how soon or how much later. Can't they just put their Herbie Hancock on the line, and be done with it. I have checked my e-mail so much today, that I"m pretty sure I"m starting to develop arthritis. It is currently 4:40 Haiti time, so they have 20 minutes to sign it out today. Honestly, I'm sure they'd want to stay late just to finish up my file. So hopefully we will get our approval very soon, and be traveling just as soon :)