Regroup

The day started so well. I woke up about 6:20, and the kids were asleep. I was able to read my Bible, write in my journal, drink some coffee and make a dent in the laundry folding before the kids woke up at 7:30. All was good, we ate breakfast, I continued folding. But, then, breakdown after breakdown. Dean whining. Lael screaming. Lael having accidents 3 times in her panties. Grant trying to be controlling of little sister and brother and tons of tattling. It has taken us all the way until now (nearly 2 in the afternoon) to put away all the laundry and tidy the playroom. I hate chores like that that are so quickly undone: laundry and dishes. I hate paper plates, cups, etc...but that would really help. And disposable clothes.

I'm supposed to run a few errands today, do schoolwork with Grant, and finish the bathroom re-do in the upstairs bath (pictures to come- but can you believe I didn't take "before" shots!), plant some seeds we got yesterday. And make dinner.

I seriously need to regroup, re-prioritize (maybe cross a thing or two off my to-do list), and BREATHE and PRAY. I think we're all getting along now, but I *have* to get traction again. It all started so well and peaceful, and productive. Naps. Naps would help. At least for Lael and Dean.

Off topic: while I was folding laundry this morning, I watched TV and saw a Kleenex commercial. I can't help but feel yucky about their new slogan (maybe its not new- I rarely watch commercials...): "Let it out". Let it out?! Um. Why? We all know what tissues are for. Do I really need to have a mental image of a lot of mucus suddenly being set free? Blech.

[Giving a "potty treat" to Lael]

Dean: Are those the things you gave her before?

Me: Yes, Mike and Ikes.

Dean: But what are their middle names?

The List

I don't know what is wrong with me lately. I feel thirsty, but yet do not want to drink plain ol' water. Squirting lemon in it (even just the bottled kind) has made a world of difference. Normally I love water and feel that it quenches thirst better than anything else. Huh.

When I was little, I used to love eating lemons. Cut in half, I'd cradle the citrus and sprinkle salt over the cut side. With a tiny squeeze, a reservoir of salty lemon juice was waiting for me. And after I had sucked all of the juice out, I would sprinkle a bit more salt and peel out the pulp and munch. All that would be left once I was done was the yellow rind. My mom all but forbid me to do it, saying that it would eat away the enamel on my teeth. she was probably right, but I LOVED it. Growing up in Southern California, we had lemon trees in the back garden, too, which did not help the obsession. I haven't done that in a long time.

Today, I've been working on school with Grant (and Dean, too- he's been requesting a bit of "school", so we do a few numbers and letters worksheets and he takes it very seriously...so sweet.) and trying to potty train Lael. It seems like all the other things on my To Do list have been overshadowed by those two activities. She was doing so well for about a week (this was a few weeks back), and then she seriously reverted. It's the Pull-Ups. I hate them and I know that kids treat them like diapers, but I gave it a go because it had the potential to be easier on me. Now we've made a special trip to Target and came home with My Little Pony, Ariel, Disney princess, and Dora panties. After years of Batman, Bob the Builer, Star Wars and Spiderman... this is so sweet. Almost equal to a newborn butt in cuteness is a squishy little bum with underwear on it and no bulgy diaper. Very pinch able! :-)

We are one step closer to having another cutie in our home. Our social worker e-mailed our homestudy to Families for Children today which put us officially ON THE LIST! Our dossier is all set to go, also, after getting every form notarized last night. We went to our bank and they helped us out a no cost. Love that. Today or tomorrow I will FedEx it and they will get everything before the May 1st fee increase. Yay!

Lael is actually taking a nap right now, so I think I'll try to get some thing done besides blogging.

Spring time Education

We may not be urban dwellers, living in high-rise condos but I am finding that we are still fairly sheltered from the life lessons that are learned in a rural community. We buy our produce, milk and meat in a processed form. The veggies are sometimes "ready-to-eat" in perfect plastic containers, free from any soil or imperfections. The meat is cut and ready and looks nothing like the animal it came from. And the milk is in containers. It is no wonder that my kids think its funny that milk comes from cows or that they have to remember what steak is made from- they've never seen it first hand.

So, we're growing some things from seed in our little square foot garden (4x4) and they're sprouting. It is exciting to have the children learn (okay, lets be honest- I'm learning, too) about the conditions that are favorable to seed germination, and which plants grow the fastest, and when we can eat what we've grown. I know that it would sadden people of a few generations ago that these kids have never milked a cow, or tilled the land or seen a chick hatch from an egg. Those things used to be life skills, and now knowing how to type is a "life skill". And I'm okay with desk jobs, and academics, and the convenience of box juices, but I fight off the day when our society has lost the knowledge that used to mean self sustainment.

Last night, the boys brought home a fuzzy caterpillar and we put it in a nice clear vase with some cling film over the top. I thought we might watch it for awhile and maybe see it transform into a moth or a butterfly. Already, when we woke up this morning, he/she was attached to the side of the glass with a soft whisper of webbing around him. It wasn't what I expected- barely there, and spiderweb-like. In fact, much like a cobweb- not a perfect pattern. All of the illustrations I've seen in books have hard cocoons and this is no such thing. Clearly, he's not done, either, because he is moving around placing new strands of web. Fascinating. I wonder if we'll get a moth or a butterfly.

Application Recieved!

I just got an e-mail from Wendy at Families for Children. They received our application yesterday and looked it over and said it "looks great". Woo Hooo!

And, last night our social worker, Julie, came by the house for her final pre-adoption meeting with us. Some questions were asked of Eric and me and she spent some time talking one on one with the kids. Oh they were hilarious! They love visitors and each one of them had a difficult time waiting for their time to talk, squirming a bit until it was their chance. They wanted to tell her what their favorite things were and what they like to play and which subjects they like learning about. I was so proud to watch every one of our beautiful children showcase their manners and allow insight into their individual personalities. Then, we gave a tour of our home and discussed a few "what next?" steps. Fairly easy. Probably a lot of jitters and worry for nothing.

Sometime next week, we will be on the "waiting list" (as soon as our home study draft is received) and will have our dossier to submit to Families for Children and our fingerprinting appointment for the I600A. Then, wait. Wait. Wait.

I know I've been terrible about posting photos. Sorry. I still want to take some of my garden and a few of the house. Anyway, here is a new family portrait we took a few weeks ago so that we'd have a recent one for our application:

Officially applied

Well. Another big deal checked off the adoption To Do list. I mailed off our application and papers to Families for Children, our placing agency. They are based out of Utah, and will be the ones to carry out the business side of adoption for us with the orphanages in Taiwan. I hear so many great things about them and am thrilled to work with these people who show such a love for the Taiwanese children and a passion for seeing them matched with families. But, anyway. We filled out the application, sent off two copies of our photo "scrapbook" pages that I went on and on about earlier, our $500 application fee, and a letter of introduction that sums up our family and our desire to adopt in one page. The letter of introduction may at some point be read by the birth family, which is still a strange thought to me.

Someone out there right now may be finding out she's pregnant. Or is having trouble deciding whether or not to keep her baby a secret. Or is struggling with the decision to have the baby at all.

Wow.

We had a great Easter. Eric and I worked in Lael's room for first service and emphasized the Beauty of the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ. The key word was "beautiful". I don't know how much 2 and three year olds are able to absorb, but we gave a primer on the meaning of Easter, anyhow and they had fun and were loved.

I didn't mind so much about the cold weather, as we didn't purchase specific Easter outfits that required warmer spring weather. Our church is on the "casual" side and we wore what we normally might. Not that I'd be opposed to getting things just for Easter, but this year I was glad that we didn't- we wouldn't have been able to wear it.

And speaking of weather, I think we'll be back to spring temps on Wednesday. My sprouts seem to be surviving the frost with a tarp during the night, a light misting during the day and a little unveiling in the afternoon sun to. I see radish, spinach, and broccoli all peeking through the surface. Thankfully, none of them are black or wilty looking. They may have just survived. There are, however, a few areas where nothing has come through and I can't determine if they just didn't germinate or if those seedlings were halted by the cold. Or maybe they are late bloomers and nothing is wrong at all. Or maybe I planted those seeds too deep.... And so go the doubts of a first time gardener.

In other news, I think its entirely horrible that we are having ants at the same time Grant is studying the 10 plagues of Egypt in school. Makes me shudder. Blech. We've got a pest control company working on the issue with some great organic products. I just fear that it will turn out like last time. Tell me it won't. I really want all this natural stuff to work, instead of giving in 5 months from now and using the toxic stuff. ***Edited to add***: The guy came back out today and we just went with the tuffer stuff. I feel guilty about it and all hypocritical (just like last time) since I'm such a fan of organic and chemical free... but I'm also about not having ants on my food. And, I've got the added pressure of our social worker coming to inspect the house next week.

"Um, yeah, please trust us with a new child...our house is just infested with insects that are crawling the walls and getting into the food". Double Blech. Hopefully they'll be gone by next week.

And then, after that, our homestudy will be on its way to completion. At that point, we will have all our papers in to Catholic Charities and Julie will have met with us for all three required visits, leaving her to write the actual assessment of our ability to parent. Crazy, huh? So far, Julie has been wonderful and kind and patient (we had to reschedule an appointment or two and I've had countless questions for her...). But, it's still nerve-wracking. I'll be glad when all we have to do is wait- maybe in a month. My preference would be to get our dossier to Families For Children by May 1st. The program director doesn't yet have details, but the agency is trying to offset the increased cost of document preparation and translation fees. So, any dossiers submitted after May 1st will have this yet-to-be-determined fee. I understand, but is hard to accept because the rest of the process is already so expensive. And, if I'd seen this coming, we would have really kicked it up a notch last month....ahhh well. We'll do what we can now.

SNOW!

It was 87 DEGREES earlier this week, and now we're having flurries!!! Normally, I think this was quite funny (and fun), but I'm now trying to do this whole gardening thing and I worry about my precious little sprouts. I may find that by the end of the weekend (which is expected to remain chilly) my seeds will need re-doing. I hope not. I'm pretty proud of the little bits of green coming through the soil. I think they're fighters. Hopefully they will beat the odds and the blue tarp tossed over the top of my patch will keep them alive and frost-free. I've got my green thumbs crossed!

Weekend Pictures

Weekend Update

Great weekend!

We've finally slowed down on all the crazy home improvement stuff. Not that there isn't more to be done, but it isn't essential stuff, so we'll take the time to do some fun things along the way.

Saturday morning, we got up around 7:00am and I immediately went into the garden to plant my seeds. Now, I'm not a "morning person" (I'm also not a "night person"- I really feel like an average "middle-of-the-day person") so this was kind of weird to not linger over breakfast and to just get out there and be productive. But, it was mostly pleasant and the weather and the birds chirping were great. I planted rainbow carrot mix (some will be orange, some yellow, some pale white... all with subtle variations in carrot flavor), spinach, four seasons lettuce, radish, nasturtium flowers for pretty sake, broccoli, and...maybe that's it. I still have a few empty squares but I'll wait to figure out what else to add. A few things can't be planted until the weather is warmer. Possibilities include: tomatoes, corn, bell pepper, cucumber, peas, sunflowers. Now I want the seeds to start growing so that I know I haven't screwed it up. I'm a fairly smart individual, but I also know that this whole gardening thing is such a stretch for me. I will report back.

After that was tidying the garage which had gotten OUT OF CONTROL. Now there is a start toward organization, at least. We have a lot of paint, and a lot of boxes of nails and screws. Why do we have 2 boxes (1 *very large*) of 6d 2" bright finish nails?! You'd think we were carpenters.

Travis and Amy watched the kids and Eric and I went for a quick meal at Moe's southwest grill and had some time to ourselves.

Sunday, we went to church and heard a lot more about the Luis Palau City Fest that will be coming May 19-20. So exciting to see all these different denominations and congregations coming together to make change in Nashville- in the individual hearts of people, and in the community! I'm expecting very good things to come of this united event.

The rest of the day was fabulous, too. Can't beat the weather right now! Seriously. We rode bikes around the neighborhood. Dean, took his training wheels off yesterday. Friday night he told us that he wanted to try a "two-wheeler" and Eric and I looked at each other and thought, "If anyone can do it at 4, its Dean". And he did. Really easily, too. His legs are still on the short side, so he needs help getting on, but otherwise pedals like he's one of the big guys. :-) Lael got her first helmet (Princess themed, of course), and Grant got a new bike with his own earnings (his previous bike was run over by a car since he left it in the road, so we made him pay for half the bike). Then, we ran to Costco and bought a huge inflatable waterslide for some springtime/ summer fun. The jury is still out on whether it is practical for routine use (the thing took about an hour to pack up and put away, and will probably raise our water bill) BUT it is sure FUN. Our new backyard is smaller than the last one, and while we could fit another trampoline in there (we had one at the old house), it's nicer to have something that isn't a permanent fixture. This inflatable thing has a storage bag and we can shove it in the garage.

Anyway, today's Monday again. We've got school work and errands and things to do. Eric went for his physical this morning. I have to go back to my doctor's office to re-do my urine drug screen (not because I failed, but because it was somehow mishandled on the way to the lab). Then, Wednesday, we have a family portrait appointment so that I can finish up our scrapbook photo pages for Families for Children. And, I spoke with them last week about papers that needed to be done and asked the question of when we'd officially be on the "waiting list" for our daughter. As it turns out, the only things they require are: the home study report from your local social worker, the application, a letter of introduction, and the photo pages. Everything else in the dossier can be gathered along the way as long as it is all in prior to receiving a referral of a child. And, with all of the new interest in the Taiwan program, it looks like we will AT LEAST be waiting a year for a referral. My how things change! When we started looking into this last summer, the wait to referral was at three months. So, it looks like the soonest we'd be home with a new family member will be next fall/winter. Apart from filling out these initial forms, the timing is totally out of our hands and we'll trust God for His perfect plan.