Easter!

(For those of you who read Tim's blog, the pics will be a repeat. But I am sure you will get over it:)

I have been trying to write a lengthy post about Easter and spring, but Number 3 seems to think it is her job to type. While this may be fun for her, it isn't really helpful for me. So I will post cute pictures of my children instead. Oh well, maybe I will try again later.

I have learned that the more children involved in the picture, the harder it is to get them to all smile at the same time.

Random Moments that Make Me Smile

Today I let Kate watch Handy Manny (he is a bilingual tool man, for those non-parents in the crowd). I plopped her on the couch and said, "Do you want to watch Handy Manny?" as I turned it on. Her response? She waved at Manny and said, "Hola!" (Hello, in Spanish, for those non-Spanish speakers in the crowd.) OK, so it was more like "Oh-wa!", but I will take a laugh where I can get it:)

Every time the commercial for the I-Phone comes on, Kate gets very excited and repeats "Phone! Hello?" over and over. Do you think she is dropping hints for her birthday?

Ben is my movie man. He LOVES movies. (Wonder where he gets that from?) His Dad took him to see Madagascar 2, and when he got home I asked him if it was better than the first one. He replied, "Yes, it was. In the first one, there weren't any bad guys, and the ending was both happy and sad. In the second one, there was a bad guy, and the ending was just happy. So it was definitely better." So just in case you ever wondered what is important to a 6 year old, apparently it is bad guys and happy endings.

Yesterday I was asking Will to use his fork for the bazillionth time. I pointed out that while his hands were functional, they are not utensils. He countered back, "But they are! They are really sporks. See? The fingers are the fork part, and this part (his palms) is the spoon part. Spork!" How do you even argue with that logic?

I'm so thankful...

As many of you know, Tim and I started out in the non-special needs line to adopt from China. At the time, NSN adoptions were taking about 6 months. We didn't really research Special Needs adoption very much, largely because we were uneducated about it, but also because we didn't like the way our agency handled SN adoptions at the time. Plus, Will was still an infant, and I couldn't imagine taking care of a one-year-old Will and a special needs child at the same time.

I won't get into all of the reasons why the NSN line slowed down, but it did, and two years after our log-in date of March 7, 2006, we found ourselves re-evaluating our decision. First of all, Will was 3, not under 1, and that changed things. Second, it no longer made sense to us to insist that our child be 18 months old or younger. Third, our agency changed the way that they handled SN adoptions. At first those changes seemed scary, but we soon discovered that we were comfortable with those changes. And we love the SN director... She is great:)

Last, we had two whole years to research various special needs, read the files of children that our agency were representing, and read blog after blog that described the day to day lives of families who had adopted both special needs and non-special needs children. Basically, I learned that adopting a non-special needs child did NOT mean that the child would not have things to work through. It did not decrease the possibility of attachment/bonding issues, and sometimes there was a special need that did not manifest until the family was home with the child. In other words, there was no guarantee. We had known this... I mean, there are no guarantees with biological children either, so why should we expect one with an adopted child? Evidently we are very slow learners, because it took us more than 2 years of waiting for us to understand all of this. But God was definitely trying to teach us. Thankfully He was patient.

This time last year, we filled out a special needs checklist and sent it to our agency. We met with our social worker, and she approved us to adopt a special needs child. In July, we were finally matched with Su Xu Na from Suzhou, China, and we were overjoyed to show her precious picture to everyone we knew. She was (at the time) 20 months old and had a repaired cleft lip and an unrepaired cleft palate. And she was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen. We met her in October, and she has been the perfect addition to our family. As I type, she and Will are dancing around the house with their Elmo dolls singing some song that they made up about Elmo. She is a joy.

So, why am I bringing all of this up??? Because yesterday, April 3, 2009, the families who had a LID of March 7, 2006, received their referrals. After 3 years and 27 days of waiting, they finally saw the faces of their children. I want to congratulate everyone who was in this batch, and I pray that you will be blessed. But I also want to express my thanks to God, who led us to Kate NaNa, despite our ignorance and our stubbornness. He is good. All the time. And I am sooo glad we are not just now seeing our daughter's face for the first time.

God Things

Don't you just love it when God puts things in place in such a way that you just have to smile? Or maybe jump up and down? As you know, I am a blog junkie, and today I stumbled upon two blogs that had really cool stories, and I just had to share. I don't know these people personally, but I found their blogs through other blogs or forums.

The first one is the story of a family who is bringing home baby number 9 (seriously? - wow). They recently found out that their daughter who is waiting in China is receiving treatment from the ONE doctor in China who their American doctor recommended. Believe me when I tell you that waiting parents have absolutely NO control over this sort of thing. This was definitely a God thing. Very cool.

The second one is about a lady who bought some gifts to donate to an organization in China. Fast forward to when she receives an update about her daughter from the orphanage... there is a picture in the update of her waiting daughter wearing the EXACT sweatshirt that she sent. Somehow it made its way to her daughter. That is amazing to me. God thing.

So, what God things have you all seen lately? Anyone want to share?

Back to the Real World...

A few weeks ago I had a little breakdown. It was very little, but still. Basically I am a person who really needs my alone time. I like to have a minute (or more:) to catch my breath. I might use this for various purposes... maybe I will veg out reading blogs or watching TV, maybe I will get lost in a good book, maybe I will do my quiet time (after 6 years with children, I still have not figured out how to do that consistently without hearing "M o m !" in the middle of it, which totally breaks my concentration. And don't tell me to get up earlier. I have tried that and two things happen - Will gets up with me, and I fall asleep reading my Bible. But I digress... maybe this is fodder for another post.).

So I had spent over an hour putting my daughter, whom I adore, to bed. I came out of her room and basically begged my husband to put the kids in the car and take them to his parents' house. I was tired. I spend every waking hour with them or doing something for them, and I needed a break. Now, don't get me wrong. I am doing exactly what I want to do. I do not regret being a SAHM, even though I sometimes wish I had an office where I could lock the door and pretend I was out to lunch. But imagine for a moment that you had your dream job. And now imagine that said job required you to be there 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your co-workers are with you 14 of those hours, and they even go the bathroom with you. Sometimes they wake you up in the middle of the night for an emergency "meeting". Seriously. Who wouldn't need a vacation every now and then?

I know some of you will think I am exaggerating, and I am, but only a little. When Tim is home, I am still at work. When I leave them at home with him, I am usually doing something "work" related like grocery shopping. The point is, moms are always working. And moms who work outside the home have to do it all in less time, on top of their "regular" jobs. So forgive me when I get a little stressed out and need a break.

Anyway, Tim took the kids to his parents' on Friday night and they stayed until Saturday night. I was so excited about this alone time that when he got home from work I had the kids fed, dressed, diapered (or pottied), water poured for the trip, and bags in the car. I did my happy dance as they pulled out of the driveway.

You would think that I then did something fun, but alas, no, my floors were covered in food from the meal I just fed the kids, and the bathrooms were covered in... well, I have 2 boys, so you get the idea. So I grabbed my MP3 player and cleaned my heart out. Then I watched TV on the computer to catch up on my shows (which is often how I watch TV).

I slept all night without interruption - no 4 year olds telling me they have to potty - and got up really late on Saturday. I had planned on doing something relaxing with my day. A movie? Lunch with a friend? Apparently I have lost the ability to to do something for myself, because I ended up cleaning up the stacks of paperwork that have accumulated since Kate came home. Stacks of bills, adoption paperwork, tax related stuff... you get the idea. Then I tried to hang some pictures in my house, which I am terrible at (Shel, where are you?!). The good news is that my dresser is now completely cleaned off, but I feel like a failure at relaxation. On the one hand, I really didn't want to go anywhere, but still. I am trying to focus on the fact that I will now feel more relaxed here because that is one more job I can cross off my to-do list.

This morning I was awakened at 6:45 by a 4 year old who was crying because he wasn't wearing the pj's he wanted. Then, Ben started throwing up (a bug from Kate) and other fun stuff. I spent the morning running between Ben, who obviously needed me, and Kate and Will, who did not want to get dressed for church. I dropped them off for church, ran home to clean up Ben (who had thrown up in the van, thankfully in a bag), and set him up on the couch. I fixed lunch, and when Kate got home she helped by spreading the diced tomatoes all over the kitchen table for me. Will helped by having a temper tantrum because his potato head was missing a part (thankfully, Tim dealt with that one). I have already washed dishes twice today and done a load of really gross laundry. So, I guess my vacation is over. Oh well, back to reality.

My SIL Wendy took this picture of Kate over the weekend, and I thought it was really good. Hopefully she won't mind me sharing... For the record, I did miss my family, but do you think I could send them all away next weekend too?

New Mommy Help

I am so very blessed with good friends. Unfortunately, many of them live VERY far away, but thanks to the modern marvel known as the Internet, I am able to keep in touch with them and get a glimpse into their lives. These are some godly women who keep me grounded, and who keep me from losing my mind when I am mired in temper tantrums and sleepless nights.

One of these friends has a passion for new moms. She is one of those people who I can call when my kids are acting crazy, and I can say, "Is this normal?" and she will give me a truthful answer.

This past week, she unveiled her new blog, New Mommy Help. So if you are a new mommy (or maybe an old mommy in need of a bit of encouragement), head over to her site and wander around a bit. She has 4 kids who are just precious, and she really is a great mom. And a great friend. Now if I can just figure out how to see more of her in person...

A Ben Post

I was reminiscing with Ben the other day and told him the following story.

Ben has always been a pretty easy kid. When he was a baby, he only really cried if he was hungry or tired. Or if it was about 7pm. Like many babies, Ben would get very grumpy around 7, and could scream bloody murder for an hour and no one knew why. You could walk him, rock him, read to him, whatever. Nothing helped.

Except for Jeopardy. Tim and I looked forward to 7:30 because we knew that as soon as Ben heard the Jeopardy theme song, all would be well with the world again. He would stare at that blue screen and be so happy. It was really pretty funny.

Once, my mom was keeping Ben for a couple of nights while Tim and I were out of town. She called me during one of Ben crying sessions and asked me if this was normal. She couldn't figure out what to do. I looked at my watch and said, "Turn on Jeopardy." I think that she thought I had lost my mind. How many babies like Jeopardy? And Ben didn't really watch much TV, so why would he like a game show? I finally convinced her to give it a try, and he calmed down immediately.

Running to the TV when he heard the theme song...

Saying "hi" to Alex...

Don't want to miss a single question....

These were taken when he was about a year old. He was well past the screaming stage, but he still loved his Jeopardy. For the record, he now thinks it is boring, although his Mommy still likes it. (And aren't these the cutest PJs you've ever seen?)