A Crazy Lady

A close friend of mine has six kids.  I have thought many times about how crazy I would be if I had six kids.  Then I realized that one of hers is away at college…. so there are only five at home.  (See, my math skills from kindergarten are still functioning!)  Five kids still seems like a lot in my mind.  That’s a lot of mouths to feed.  She also homeschools… and that is a lot of kids to school.  Then it dawned on me that I have four kids.  That is only one less than five kids.  I’m so close to being crazy in my own mind… it’s a little scary. 

That was just one of my brilliant realizations as I was away from my four kids at a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend.  See how relaxed and focused I can be if uninterrupted? 

God has been showing up in all the details again… yes, again.  Remember a few years back when I had the word/topic of “honor” brought before my blinkin’ eyes six times before I realized the God moment???  Well, praise be to Baby Jesus and the angels who watch over us, this time it only took THREE times for me to catch on to “Praying for my Children.”  Our pastor spoke on intentional prayer last weekend… especially about parents praying.  Then my Dad showed up on my doorstep with another book in hand called The Blessing of Obedience, an amazing autobiography of a man and wife who prayed and heard from the living God.  THEN… I had already caught onto the subject, but simply to confirm my new direction of focus, I spotted only one workbook of interest at a second-hand store this weekend…. The Power of a Praying Parent.  And I bought it for $1.49. 

The six childrened-friend was also away with me and I mentioned this pattern of focussed prayer for my children.  She acknowledged that it may be what is needed NOW in my life to fend off what might have happened had I not listened in church, read my dad’s book and found the used workbook … all on prayer for my kids.

Amen.  That’s it.  Amen.

Happy New Year!

From the SIX Crosbys to you and yours!  May the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Linda be ever present in your thoughts and abundant with blessings and guidance in 2012!  Make this next year ROCK for Jesus!

Family Pictures….. ugh.

This pretty well sums up our family picture attempt.  We laughed.  We cried. It moved us, Bob.  (sorry… Veggietales does it to me every time.)  The sun was too bright.  The shadows were too dark.  We squinted too much. And on and on.

It started at 10 a.m. when I realized that it was the only day in the following six that we had a chance to take a family picture when the sun was still up in the sky.  I picked light blue for everyone to wear… but this did not go down without major whining from the chillins.  Good grief. Calm Down.  We did have to borrow a shirt for Larisa from her cousin… and jeans for Keeve from his cousin.  I’m very thankful our cousins live across the street and are relatively the same sizes as most of my kids!  Also, my sister-in-law, Julie took the photos for us. 

After the clothing issue was settled (at least in my mind) and the fronts of all the shirts were ironed…. we moved on to hair.  Two haircuts were had by the shaggiest members of the clan. And showers were had by most.  By then it was noon.  Off to the park… where the sun was shining so brightly we could barely open our eyes.  It was awesome!  Not really.

That was as good as that pose got after 17 tries…. good grief. Calm down.  The shadows were just too harsh and we moved to the shade, much to my husband’s chagrin as he loves sending pictures of green grass in December to his friends and family in the frozen north.  We moved to the back of the community center cement sign… so it looks like we’re in the hood.

Finally, at least most of us are smiling half-normally.  And a family photo shoot would not be complete without some planking……

2:00.  Bam!  Family pictures done for another 12 months.  Only took four hours.

Sorry for the Delay….. I’ve been BUSY!

We ended up flying to Cali, Colombia on Wednesday, Nov. 24th because there were no more seats on Thanksgiving Day!  But then we received our darling Nora ON Thanksgiving Day… four-years to the DAY that we started this adoption process.  We were on the waitlist with ICBF for 34 months all together… waiting.  But oh so worth the wait!

Because we accepted the referral so late in Nov. (the 19th) we had to make a mad scramble to get to Cali right away so that we could finalize the adoption before the courts close on Dec. 16th.  WOW!  On the Monday after we accepted our referral, I left at 3:00 am with my Dad for the Colombian consulate in Beverly Hills, California.  ….. a seven hour drive one way….   My time spent at the consulate was highly stressful…and that’s putting it mildly.  To make a long story short, I cried in front of 45 Colombians, but we did get our Visas in 3 hours!

Our three flights from Phoenix, connecting in Houston and Panama, to Cali were almost uneventful.  We had a luggage mishap, but after much prayer and supplication and even fasting (well, only because I slept through the sandwich on the last flight) our bags all arrived safely.  We were met at the airport by Magnolia, the most magnificent guide EVER, and taken to a nice hotel/apartment in Cali.  She picked it out and it was perfect for us for the first few days.  We received Nora at the ICBF building the next morning at 10:30 and she is a charmer from the get go!  We all cried, but she was all smiles.  She ran past two of my kids straight for me and kissed me and called me mama.  Oh, melt my heart in a nano second!

We watched the video of the whole thing last night and we all cried again.  Then we rewound it a few times and laughed hysterically at the sobbing and snorting noises we made involuntarily.  Such a sweet moment!

No, Nora doesn’t speak any English at all.  But she thinks we understand her when she talks a mile-a-minute, probably because Larisa and I have a minimal amount of Espanola under our belts.  I have enough to order breakfast and request plates and paper towels.  Larisa is pretty efficient at translating some of what Nora says.  Larisa asked Nora if she wants to learn to speak English and she said, “Probably not.”  Oh, little muchacha, you’ll be fluent in three-four months!

Nora fits into this family in so many ways, it’s truly amazing!  She loves to sleep in, and loves do crafts, and loves to change her clothes several times a day, and loves to try new foods, and loves to wear lots of jewelry!  She fell in love with several pieces of clothing that we brought, including some bling-bling sandals that have been sitting under my computer screen for four years (and they fit her perfectly!) and a smart little double-breasted jacket that is too warm to wear right now, but too cool not to wear!  (In the first picture.)

We moved today out to a single story house in the country that is roomy, clean and beautiful.  It is in a gated community with a swimming pool, play ground and ball court.  There is a grocery store and some convenience stores.  Ice cream is very convenient!  We will be here for two weeks and we already love it!

Monday morning we have our bonding meeting (to see how our time with Nora went!) at 8:00 am and then our papers go to court.  I’ll do better keeping up on the blog now that we’re here at this relaxing place.  Ciao!