Third Year in a Row…. Bummer

I was contemplating our Christmas correspondence this year and came to the sad realization that this will be letter number THREE with news of Zaza’s adoption… and no picture.  Good grief.  Well, it does bring us closer to 2009′s letter… with Zaza’s smiling face.  At least I pray it will be so.

There are three or four Christian artists who have written Christmas songs about adoptions and/or orphans.  I can barely hold myself together when they come on the radio.  Last year, alone in the van one night, Steven Curtis Chapman’s song All I Really Want for Christmas (see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMz0MmYejQ ) came on and I had to pull over as the road blurred from my tears.  Why, oh, why does adoption have to take so long?

Another great song is Everything to Me by Mark Schultz.  If you haven’t heard it, grab the kleenex box and listen to Mark tell the story of writing it FIRST (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61zdZJ9uZc&feature=related ) then listen to the heartfelt words of the song.  It’s so cool!

If you enjoy watching adoption “Gotcha Days” as much as I do, here is the Hallmark link to their adoption TV clips: http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/shows/adoption.html  My kids always laugh at me when I sit and cry at the computer and watch these over and over.  But they do pull up chairs and watch too.  It’s just such an awesome thing to witness the joining of a child with their forever family.  How can anyone watch these and not be moved?

Goodness, I need kleenex just from typing the links.  Zaza, hurry home.

Keeve is TEN! (double digits!)

A very Happy Birthday to my boy Keeve.  He is the youngest in our family until Zaza gets here.  As most parents with multiple children know, EVERY kid is so different from his siblings.  No exception here… at all. 

Keeve has various aliases used on the computer and on his grammar sheets.  Hey, when you’re homeschooled, your mom knows your hand writing, so you can make up a new name every day.  :o)  He is called DigDog, Q, and Fever on the computer.  Here is the name list from his school sheets: Fire, Kiss the Cook, Bob, Fred, Space Man, W, Crosby #5, Sleepy, Slow Poke, Ferrari, Cool Dude, Mario and today was Birthday Boy!  It makes me smile every time I read a new name.

Keeve is our relaxed child. Take’er easy.  Chillax.  Go with the flow.  But lately a new, livelier personality has emerged.  He’s not taking a beating from his older brother any longer.  One or two purposefully planned retaliations, and he’s holding his own now.  Keeve has soaked in the prophecy from the pediatrician that he will be 3 maybe 4 inches taller than his older brother.  He asks frequently, “How much more than Austin do you think I will weigh when I’m taller than him?”  What do you say to that?  WAY more, honey, WAY more.

He has also started answering my questions, which is not good.  I don’t ask questions to be answered.  I ask questions to make the kids feel like they have a choice in doing what I say… but they really don’t. He’s the only one who caught on to this.  “Would you like to empty the dishwasher now, or after you eat?” I ask.  “I don’t like to empty the dishwasher,” comes a sweet voice with a naughty smile on his freckled face.  I’ve had to rephrase things for him…. “It’s now you’re turn to empty the dishwasher.  NOW means NOW,” said in a sweet voice to my boy with a knowing smile on my face.

Keeve is our most compassionate child.  He prays for those who don’t have homes to get one, and for those who are sick to be healed.  It’s truly heart warming.  He gathers up hockey cards and sticks of gum and mails them to his friends and cousins.  He always licks the envelopes before I see what is inside, but I know he writes letters and includes them too.

So, Happy Birthday to my boy!  What a strong and brave son you are… and double digits too!

My Holiday Planner

Aaahhhh.  Organization at its BEST!  Now don’t go thinking I’m taking credit for this fabulous planner idea.  I attended a conference and took a class on building a website.  The gal that taught the course has a website ALL about organizational tips for the holidays.  Well, this is right up my alley, baby.  Not only did I make myself a binder/planner, I gave them as gifts last year too.  Scrapbooking + organizing = priceless.  Here’s Kris Ann’s website: http://christmasorganizing.com/

The book is pure organizational genius.  It starts with monthly calendar pages and moves through every area of holidaying: gifts, decorating, letters, cleaning, favorites, where you hid stuff for next Christmas, etc.  Of course I decorated mine in wintry blues… my favorite colors that remind me of cold Canadian nights in the snow. 

Last year was my first chance using the planner for the months of November and December and it was the first year in 20 years of marriage that we shipped Christmas gifts to the Canadian relatives ON TIME!  No extra postage because of procrastinating!  Wooo Hooo!

The Deep Cleaning page strikes fear in the hearts of my children.  But, boy howdy, does the house look better during Jesus’ birthday.  It lists every cleaning job possible and then every single room and hallway in the house.  Sweet sanitary music to my ears.  You only do one or two rooms per week and it doesn’t even seem that bad, especially when an energetic mother and her three willing assistants attack the room simultaneously.  Ten to fifteen minutes per room… and the disgusting horizontal blinds even shine.

The meal and baking planning sheets were a Godsend come grocery shopping time.  You just can’t put a price on the value of preparing ahead.  It also adds peace of mind to the season that can be so stressful. I used a plain white binder and slid in the cutesy covers with silver glitter.

For those industrious fellow crafters and planners, here is the complete list of tabs: calendar, planner (weekly countdown of to-do lists), Thanksgiving (meal plans and recipes), cleaning, cards (sent/received lists and copies of past family letters), budget, decorating (magazine pictures, ideas from websites, lists of per-room decorations), gifts (planner with immediate family, extended family, friends, Wish lists, Gift Wrap Center, Gift Closet Stocking Stuffers, After Christmas Purchases and where I put them), food (meal plans, Baking planner, recipes), crafts (gifts to make, magazine ideas), wardrobe (A slot for each family members’ outfits: Sunday, Family Photo and Casual), Shopping Lists, and extras (lists of Christmas Favorite movies, books, music and Traveling checklists).

Join me in Christmas bliss.  :o)

My Third Most Embarrassing Moment

I’m still not to the place in my life where I can write about my first and second most embarrassing moments of my entire life, but I CAN face my fears and post my third most embarrassing moment for all the world to read.  It helps that it is so fresh in my mind.  It occurred only last month at church.

It was a Sunday morning and the service was over.  It is a 30 minute drive home, so I decided to visit the ladies room before our journey.  I emerged from the stall and was washing my hands and visiting with another gal when one of my daughter’s friends came in and a comical, yet horrified look arose on her face when she saw me.  A bit out of the ordinary for her, but not totally surprising to me.

At that point, the other gal pointed to my backside and asked if the toilet seat cover was supposed to be sticking out of the top of my skirt….. sweet mother of Moses…. I’m SO glad she said something before I left the bathroom to have my extra appendage witnessed by the entire universe. 

BUT, I knew my secret would not be kept behind tight lips… being that it was a 15-year-old friend of my daughter who was allowed to live after being an eye witness.  True to form, I received an email the next week from the girl’s mother asking about my wearing of toilet seat covers.  She wished she could’ve been there to see it for herself.  I wish she had have been there too, because she’s the type that would’ve laughed hard enough to need Depends. THEN who would’ve been laughing!?

Thank God for friends who help us in our time of need.  :o)

?#20 from My Sister’s Jar ~ Holiday Celebration

If money were no object, how would you celebrate your favorite holiday?

(OK, I’ve been supremely lame at weekly answering the questions from My Sister’s Jar this year.  Just now I wiped a layer of dust from the lid of the jar.  I only got to number twenty.  But I must say, in self defence, that I read through all the remaining questions and they don’t truly inspire me.  I may just have to make up my own questions from now on.  I’ll never tell.)

Every year our family participates in Operation Christmas Child by filling shoe boxes with toys, trinkets and toiletries for children all over the world.  What better time of year to share Jesus’ love than on His birthday!?!  In years gone by we saved all the McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, but we don’t get those anymore.  Thanks to Coupon $ense, I have a drawer full of free toothbrushes and toothpaste.  All that being said, I would LOVE to spend Christmas following our boxes to the land far away and have my children see the faces of the little kids that are being blessed by their boxes.  I believe it would change their hearts.  It would crack open a sensitivity to those less fortunate.  Packing the box and taking it across town to the gathering location is one thing…. seeing the fruits of their labors would be quite another.

I heard on the radio today about a contest where the winner gets to travel to Panama (Oh, so close to Colombia!) with Samaritan’s Purse and deliver the boxes this December.  That struck a chord in my soul.  That would be ultimately cool to participate in with the whole family.  I don’t know if I would be able to be so close to Zaza and not want to dash across the border yelling her name.  Crazy, I know.  She doesn’t know we call her Zaza.  But it’s the thought that counts.

Someday I hope to spend Christmas delivering boxes.  Someday.

After-Veterans-Day Bags Have Arrived

Bags For Zaza took a day breather this week and the bags, well most of them, posted this morning.  There’s something for everyone… the career woman, the teenager, the traveler, the book worm, the chic shopper.  I was the delinquent picture sender as I worked past midnight and went to bed mad at the bag.  The flap was too long and went to the bottom edge of the front of the purse.  It just didn’t look right and the length would be a bother when digging inside.  After many futile attempts at tricky solutions, I gave up and hit the sack. 

Fortunately, I awoke with visions of grandeur and a fringy idea.  Here are the results of 7.5 hours of sleep:

For those new to MSJ, Bags for Zaza is an adoption fundraiser to help bring home our little girl from Colombia.  We have requested a daughter between the ages of 3 and 7… and chances are really high that she will have black hair, like her daddy.  BFZ was started by my sister-in-law, Jennie, who is also adopting a sibling group of three kids who happen to be the same ages as our three children.  Incidentally, Jennie is also the one who bequeathed the name Zaza for our little girl.  We hoped and prayed that we could raise $500 for this worthy cause.  Well, we haven’t heard official tally numbers in a while (due to double staffing with our head seamstress and bookkeeper) but I believe it’s nearing $4,000!  Woooo HOoooo! 

A heartfelt thanks to bidders, sewers, auction junkies and YOU for going over, taking a looksie and telling ALL your friends about Bags for Zaza.  www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com.

Blankets of Love

 

Another adoptive family that we know has started an auction site for Blankets of Love to raise funds for their adoption of siblings.  Here is Kristy’s description of her blankets:  “These blankets are made from Anti-pill fleece print with a coordinating fleece on the back. The back fleece is most often a furry fleece that can be short hair or long hair but VERY soft and cozy! There will be some that are from “ultra cuddle” fleece or with that on the back. However, rest assured that they ARE warm!”  I would add that she only uses the expensivefleece that is fabulously snugly and durable and the blankets are HUGE!  Check out the sizes and pictures at her site:  http://blanketsoflove.blogspot.com/ and help bring a set of siblings to their forever home.

I truly wish that international adoption wasn’t so expensive, but alas, it is.  However, when God places a dream in your heart for an orphan He provides the needs in His time and in His way.  It is such a blessing to see where He has the adoption funds “hidden” for each family.  What a privilege to share the joy of adoption with others and give them an opportunity to participate in bringing a child HOME.

Christmas blankets will be a sure hit all year round!  Check ‘em out!

I’ve Officially Hit PB&J Meltdown

That’s Piled Bits and Junk, not peanut butter and jelly.  Slowly but surely we’ve been bringing more stuff into this house than we’ve been taking out.  It eventually got to me and I started looking around at all the stuff… now I’m not one of those pack rats with piled newspapers from 1946 forward, shoe boxes of twist ties and every rinsed out can we’ve ever opened.  Nothing like that.  But toys are so overrated.  They were neatly stored in labeled plastic bins… but I finally clued in that no one has played with them in four blinkin’ years. 

My meltdown was quickly followed by a plan of action.  I gathered the boys, ages almost 10 and 12, into their rooms with garbage bags and empty packing boxes.  Nothing was safe.  I yanked every last Lego and Star Wars figure out of that closet and asked every single time, “Do you play with this?”  90% of the answers were no.  I didn’t even argue if they said yes.  I put the 10% back in the closet, still in their labeled plastic bins.  The garbage bags were filled with broken, missing part and written on toys for the dump.  Embarrassingly, two large bags emerged.  The still-could-be-played-with toys went into boxes for a garage sale. 

Where did it all come from?  That is the question.  I asked the boys periodically where they got certain toys.  Seems they came from gifts or other garage sales.  THERE IS THE PROBLEM!  Why in the world are we buying other people’s junk so we can bring it home to be our junk????  We don’t go garage saling very often, but still.  It just got crossed off my list of family-friendly activities.

And can I just say that my boys don’t need another Hot Wheel car for the rest of their lives?  They started in small plastic tubs…. and as they accumulated… they advanced several times until reaching the largest uner-bed plastic box that we own.  Good grief.  BUT, the mother with PB&J meltdown says, they do play with them regularly.  Don’t tell, but I did get rid of quite a few that had evidently had fender-benders or mishaps with a hammer and/or Sharpie pen.

Whew.  I feel better with the junk gone.  Now to hit the game closet, the craft closet, the linen closet and our closet before the BIG garage sale day when we sell our junk to other people so they can take it home and claim it as their junk.  :o)  This is recycling at its best.

What do Homeschooling Mothers Do ALL Day?

They shred old dust-ruffles so their children can mummify Barbie.  What do you think we do all day???  I have a few words of advice for future dust-ruffle shredding moms:  #1.  Don’t wear black.  It looked like I dusted a haunted house with my front side when I was done.  #2.  Wear a face mask.  Seriously.  I just finished reading a novel about girls who were getting sick working in the cotton mills…. NOW I understand.  I’ve blown my nose 27 times since the shredding.  #3.  You only need the frill of a single size dust ruffle to mummify at least 8 Barbies.  I did a queen size ruffle and we did 6 Barbies…. I have enough left over to do 12 more.  See?  This is such helpful information for future moms of mummifiers.

Why all the mummies when Halloween is over?  You ask.  We are studying Ancient Egypt.  The younger kids are doing the same topic as the high schoolers right now and we will be culminating the unit with Egyptian Night.  You know, phun, phood and pharaohs.  There will be an embalming demonstration with live volunteers from the audience, costumes, reports and of course, ancient Egyptian food.  (Not surprisingly, Katie “found” an Egyptian chocolate cake…… hhmmmmmm.)

Here is a photo of Keeve practicing the mummification process.  He figured out that Barbie wouldn’t fit in her sarcophagus without a haircut first.  That was yesterday.  Today six homeschooled children were given permission to cut off Barbie’s hair.  You should’ve seen the smiles!  Then they dipped the strips of cloth in papier mache so everything would dry in place.  What a mess, but it was fun.

The boys were with me in Goodwill when I purchased the dolls.  They asked what I was up to.  I said real loudly, “These Barbies are for YOU!  Which one do you want?  I’m not joking!  Come over here and pick your Barbie.”  They looked from me to each other and back to me and then ran toward electronics.  :o)

No More Hot Wheels under the Purple Bed!

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of, dream about, pray for and long to hug and kiss our little Zaza who is STILL in Colombia waiting for us.  Nov. 7th officially marks our 9th month of waiting for our adoption referral.  When we initially heard 2 to 30 months….. we hoped and prayed it would be closer to the 2.  Well there’s still five months to go on the “closer” side. 

The Colombian courts close from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15, much to this adoptive mom’s chagrin.  When we do receive the referral, we get the profile checked out by a pediatrician familiar with international adoption and the we give our answer.  (YES!… duh!)  Then we travel within two weeks.  So FAST, it’s scary.  The clincher is that depending upon which region Zaza is living in, we could stay from 4 to 8 weeks in Colombia.  It’s all up to the courts. 

Sadly, there is now not enough time before their Christmas break to fit in the 2 weeks plus 4-8 weeks.  So it’ll be 2009 when we meet our girl.  Yes, we started this whole deal in 2006…….  I can’t say that waiting makes it sweeter… just longer.

Anyway, we’ve been in process so long that our USCIS approval needs and extension and an update to our homestudy.  Since our agency closed a few months back, we had to find a new social worker in AZ who is Hague compliant.  (Hague is the new international regulators/rule makers for adoptions.)  So this Saturday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. we meet our new case worker and she tours Zaza’s prospective home.  Not a big deal if you keep your house clean and tidy all the time.  BIG HAIRY DEAL if you only keep the downstairs clean and tidy.

Zaza’s room is ready for her…. has been since January.  The walls are painted yellow.  Her vintage, wooden, carved canopy bed from Auntie Connie is painted purple.  The ribbon-encircled lamp is glowing on her curvy, vintage dresser from Auntie Julie.  The lavender butterfly rug from Auntie Donna is snug by the bed.  The blue turtle from Auntie Jill is sitting on the shelf.  The Beatrix Potter book from Auntie Darla is sitting next to the blue turtle on the shelf.  There are even frilly dresses on pink hangers hanging in her closet from Auntie Jilly too.  Just last week Mom and I found a darling, carved wood, two-drawer bedside table… from Grandma.  I still need to repaint it and find knobs, but I had to run up and put it in there to envision Zaza opening the drawers to hide her treasures.

However, our son Keeve decided to keep the bed warm until Zaza gets here.  So, with the 2:00 visit only 48 hours away, Keeve and I cleaned up the Hot Wheel tracks, rolled up the city road rug, put G.I. Joe back in his box, and put Lightning McQueen in the garage sale pile.  It looks like a girly-girl room again and there are officially no more Hot Wheels under the purple bed.  Whew.