August already?!

I can't believe it's August already. This is going to be a busy month but hopefully not as busy as July. T has a birthday this week and R has one later this month. J went to school today. His first real day of high school. He's probably playing basketball right now and loving it. A goes back towards the end of this month. She will be a junior in college.

 

 We have decided to have the bone spur in my left wrist removed and that is scheduled for the first week in Sept. I'm not happy about it but hopeful that it will help and no more problems will come up. The ugly boat is coming along nicely and isn't quite so ugly any more. I don't have current pics of it downloaded. But I do have these other pics!

 

After J and I exhausted ourselves trying to get Cooper in the car one day we decided that he needed training. Now he gets into the car on command. Except, I accidently ran him over (I think I "rolled" him) and he's fine but he is afraid of the car again now. Sigh...

Diesel doing his "Princess and the Pea" impersonation on the stack of seats from the ugly boat.

We were going to try to make these cupcakes for R's baby shower since she has taken to calling them Thing 1 and Thing 2 but our cotton candy "melted".

Anytime, anywhere.

The epitomy of laziness.

The dogs brought us an armadillo. We've watched too much Duck Dynasty and Man, Woman, Wild because we looked at each other and said, "Hey, we could eat that!"

We had fun decorating onesies for R's babies. J made really cute basketball ones that he free-handed once he got the circle drawn. He was so excited to do this so he washed and dried them so we could get busy. When he pulled them out of the dryer he said, "Uh, I tink dey shrunk." I told him that her babies are really going to be that small when they are born. Here he is showing how small the onesies are.

I did not free-hand these. I'm not that good. I did trace and fill in. These were made with fabric markers. Super easy to work with and they don't make a thick hard surface on the fabric.

 

Even though R is referring to her babies as Thing 1 and Thing 2 (or baby A and baby B as it says on the ultrasound pics) she is going with a Lion King theme in the nursery. So our friend K helped us with the shower and we made these cute lion cupcakes.

We found Lion King baby shower decor and filled up our cart.

We made this watermelon baby buggy fruit salad.

Here's the table. Thanks K for all your help!

JT's mom made this cute punch.

This is the two preggos. Nephew's wife, M, on the left and R on the right. This was 10 days before M delivered a 7lb 11oz baby boy! R was only 4.5 months along with the twins. Aren't they cute?! My dad was in Haiti or he would have been in there comparing belly size too!

My mom found this great twin stroller at a yard sale and Misty thought we got it just for her. She was sad when it left with R and JT.

I do love a sunset....

...and beignets.

Hey look! We have huge crocodiles in the sky!

We are making plans for a Duck Dynasty themed party. I found these great Uncle Si tea glasses and had to get them.

Diesel is the keeper of the ladder, ruler of all who enter the ugly boat.

Yup, I do love a sunset.

Life, or something like it

How can we be so busy and yet there's still so much to do? We still haven't sold the montero so if you're interested or know someone who is, please let us know.

My parents are having a really busy month. The head of the mission in Haiti that my dad helped start is here in the states. They are always busy when he is here.

T's parents stopped in for an overnight visit on their way back to Haiti. We had a short but nice visit with them.

T is working on the ugly boat. He has the boards cut and sealed for the new floor and ordered a new starter and has been working on the crazy wiring situation. He's flying out to CO the end of the week to help move R's horses back to TN. R will be at 18 weeks tomorrow with the twins. She has started referring to them as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

A is working and enjoying time off of school this summer. She's had a lot more free time this summer than last summer.

J is probably ready to go back to school. He always wants someone around or something to do. He'd at least like to get back to basketball practice.

It was very rainy for a while here. We had over 10 inches in just a few days. Now it's back to hot and humid.

I'm still working on schoolwork. I take plenty of breaks without needing to take a summer break. I'm glad that I can work on it at my own pace. Check these people out and see what a little "medika mamba" does for a kid; http://www.realhopeforhaiti.org/?p=10722 And now I really should get some schoolwork done.

Just busy...

Well I was going to upload some pics but blogger is being stupid again. I may need to rethink this whole blog thing.

Anyway, we've been busy as ever. I was going to do a whole 2012 in review but I never did find time to do that. Sorry. I can't even remember what I had for supper the other day, much less what we did a year ago. I do know that 2012 felt weird. Not bad, just weird.

Onwards and upwards. J is happy to be back in school again. The Christmas break was a bit too long for him and he craves being with his friends. He didn't even mind the homework!

A has not started back to school yet. She is working 2 jobs though.

R and JT will be here next week for a short visit. We are looking forward to seeing them.

I'm still struggling with wrist, foot and back issues. Not bad though. Just would really like some resolve. I started back to school too and am kicking it again. Woot!

I'm trying to convince T to join me in school. He's thinking about it. He's glad to be back to work too. Now maybe we can tell what day it is. He's been helping my dad try to find and fix a water leak. J has been helping them too. It's my job to bring them hot chocolate.

Everyone survived the New Year's Eve party and the tree blowing up. It didn't even really blow, just kind of swooped into flame. Lots of flame. Very quickly. A kept saying, "I'm so glad it rained." Flame travels very quickly and makes and very loud whoosh when it does so. Just sayin'. I have some pics if blogger ever lets me post them.

Oreo is doing ok. Her tumor may have gotten a little bigger in the two week period of trying the antibiotics. So we know it's a tumor and not an abcess. We took her collar off and she's basically happy so that's good. She's such a good dog.

We've had a lot of rain plus dad's water leak so our driveway has been a mess. The sun was out yesterday and it's out again today so that's good. Dad is heading to Haiti today with a group of 12, I think. Keep them in your prayers. They are all excited to be on their way.

November, adoption awareness month

November is adoption awareness month and adoption is something that we care deeply about. A couple months ago I wrote an email to the family who is adopting J's bio cousin along with 2 other older boys. Pray for them! What an undertaking. We spent 4 years "in process" with J and he's only been home for 3 years. It grieves my heart when I think about that and how different things might have been if he'd gotten home sooner but I have to choose not to dwell on that. For whatever reason(s), it took four years and he came home when he did. And if we choose to let Him, God will work it for good. I really believe that.

Anyway, I was thinking about all the things I wrote in this email and how much J has changed and how much all of our family has changed since J came home. There is still this undercurrent of sibling rivalry for lack of a better term between J and A. I have some theories about that but am choosing not to share publicly at this point. R got married about 4 months after J came home so they never spent much time together, although R was with me in Haiti the first time we met J. They may share a bond from that. I don't know. T and I have struggled at times in our relationship and in agreeing on how to parent this child, who is absolutely nothing like parenting bio daughters. Hey, I'm just keeping it honest and T and I are in a pretty good place right now. It can really pull at a marriage though.

The one who has changed the most is J. I was telling this mom who is in the process for 3 older boys (I think 2 are teens and one is pre-teen) all the things to be aware of and it made me see how much J has changed. I shared the funny stuff like automatic doors, flushing toilets, faucets, lost in translation, escalators and elevators, to the mundane like having to tell him ahead of time not to push any buttons, switch and switches or turn anything on or off before we walked into a room. If we had a penny for each time we told him to chew with his mouth shut we'd be rich!

And I shared how J would rage and cry and tantrum and you just knew that it was so much deeper than anything that was going on in the here and now. How I would hold him, pray over him, speak scripture over him while he raged. How I would dread getting calls from school (who have done a phenomenal job with him!) to find out what he'd done this time. And how J would trust us on a new level after one of those episodes and shed a little light on something from his past.

I shared with her how their maturity level is so far below their chronological age and how they have no concept of personal space and how J had a strong entitlement issue. He seemed to think, here I am, you waited four years for me, now I'm in America where everything is free so give me what I want while I kick back and watch tv. It still seems like ownership is way more important to J than doing something with what he owns. In other words, he likes owning toys, electronics, clothes, etc. but the owning of those things is more important to him than playing with the toys or wearing all the clothes. He never learned to play as a young child and though he occasionally played with toys it grieves me that he doesn't know how to truly play. Not at all the way our girls did. They played imaginatively over and over with their toys. They had favs that they carried with them. The same toys could be a totally new scenario the next day. Not so with J. Once in a while he would play with a toy and then never touch it again. I asked him about that a time or two and he would say, "I already played with that." So sad.

I talked to her about intense fears and how a lot of the negative behavior stems from irrational fear. I told her about his lying and what we did to get past it.

And now J is 15, doing ok in 8th grade with some ESL modifications, is a nice guy and pretty well-liked by everyone who meets him. He's going to be in a Christmas play at church. It's about a 30-40 minute play and it's just him and 3 others so he has a pretty big part. He is getting tired of the practices but doing really well with his part. I can't wait to see it.

I think adoption has a lot of hurts, lost expectations, and strain but it is also very rewarding. It's been so much fun to see the world through J's eyes these last three years. Everything is new and fresh. He's blossoming and doing well. I have no idea what the future will hold for him but for right now it's wide open. And after all, we are all adopted into God's family when we make a decision to follow Him.

And now, a thankful list. I'm thankful for God, family and friends. I'm thankful for generally good health, as my mom likes to say, we're in pretty good shape for the shape we're in. I'm thankful for modern conveniences and the multitude of ways to stay in touch with those you love. And chocolate. And the seat warmers in my van!

Trip pics!

Oh, it's a gorgeous day here in TN! The sun is out and the temps are just right. We had an awesome trip and saw and experienced lots of really neat things but it sure is good to be home again. I mean, look at this sky from a couple weeks ago. How awesome is that?

Or this?

I put more food in the tin before I left. Diesel has discovered the joy of eating right out of the tin.

We started out near Mobile, AL close to T's sister's place. This is nephew's redneck boombox.

We went to Lambert's Cafe, home of the throwed rolls. Obviously, there's a lot to see there.

He caught a roll! They startled us with pretending to squirt mustard on us and pretending to spill a pitcher of tea on us. It was a big party atmosphere here and we all enjoyed it.

Nephew and his fiance.

From Mobile, we headed towards Louisiana and went on a swamp tour.

Click on this pic to blow it up. There's a big gator sunning himself.

Some damage from Isaac.

The swamp. We learned that a swamp is a flooded forest and a bayou is a waterway.

This was at the state park we stayed at. You can see the boardwalk in the back of the pic. They have over a mile of boardwalk which shows all the different eco systems in LA.

Tickfaw state park.

Turns out those little stumps are "breathers" for the cypress trees.

Me and my young guy.

Me and my older guy.

We were fascinated by the swamps.

This is the fishing pond at the campground/state park. There was a small gator in it.

The pyromaniacs.

We made it to the French Quarter in New Orleans. It sure reminded us of Haiti.

Only cleaner.

Two redneck goobers with their hands in the fountain.

Jackson Square.

They wanted their teacher to know they saw the Mississippi river.

Street performers.

The boys got picked to be part of the performance.

One of the guys jumped over the whole group. And since I have a dumb phone and not a smart phone, I missed the pic.

We played a lot of cards and T and I shuffled a LOT of cards because these two couldn't shuffle to save their souls.

Our last view of the Louisiana swamp.