My Heart is STILL in Colombia!

It’s true.  We have been home from Cali, Colombia for 23 months with our little Colombian princess.  The adoption journey has had bumps and twists that we didn’t expect, but it has been so wonderful and rewarding.

Tomorrow is GOTCHA DAY number two!

TWO YEARS!!!  Hard to believe it has gone by so fast.  Sometimes our month in Colombia seems like forever ago… and sometimes it seems like last week.  I miss the lush greenness of Cali, the vast array of mystery fruits that were scrumptiously yummy, the glimpses of the Andes when the fog lifted, the bamboo forest we drove by to our villa, the coconut ice cream bars, the afternoon rain showers, the neighborhood boys who would come and ask,  “Is Austin Rick’s son?”, the sweet smell of the flowers, arepas filled white cheese, the stickiness of the night air and the pee-po pee-po LOUD evening serenade of the coqui frogs.

People often ask “Why Colombia?”  Quite a few factors lead us to the beautiful and tropical South American country.

1.) My husband, Rick, went to Valledupar, Colombia for a summer to build a church when he was 17-years-old.  He grew to love the warm-hearted people and the countryside teeming with unknown vegetation, never imagining that he would return to meet his daughter twenty-something years later.

2.) We have three bio kids who do not look like Rick AT ALL.  Ok, one does a little, but I was expecting little chubby, black-haired Indian babies when I married a Cree Indian.  Didn’t happen.  The Irish and Finnish genes dominated and we got two blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids and another slightly darker. So, when we had chosen an adoption agency, I looked through the pages for the countries they worked in….   I held up the two pages and announced to Rick, “El Salvador and Colombia are where the kids look like you.”  “Colombia,” he replied.  And it was a done deal.

3.) Not that I was anywhere near proficient, but I thoroughly enjoyed taking Spanish… back in the day.  Larisa also had Spanish courses and was mastering her second language quite nicely.  So a country in South America seemed familiar… somehow.  (Not distant in my mind, like, say, Kazakhstan… or China.) I related to Ellie from the movie UP…. her dream was to visit South America.  She tore pictures right out of a library book of the fascinating country.

I am as American as you could get.  I LOVE my country… the anthem brings me to tears.  Studying and teaching the history of our great land is a deep passion of mine.  But I have to say that my heart beats in thirds… a third for the USA, a third for Canada, where I spent my college years and the first 10 years of marriage, and now a third for Colombia where I fell in love with my daughter’s people and homeland.  My heart is still in Colombia. <3

The Dangers of Popcorn

Most families have stories that have been told over and over and over… until extinction is unthinkable.  One such story in our house is retold almost every single time someone makes popcorn with the hot air popper.  Yes, we still have a hot air popper, remember those?  I bought it in 1985 when I was heading off to college…. an obvious necessity.

Fast forward to 1987, the year we were wed, in our first apartment in Langley, BC.  The hot air popcorn device had indeed arrived back in Canada with us as a married couple.  Unbeknownst to me the horror that would follow, I pulled the shiny yellow dream appliance from the cupboard and proceeded to pop some corn kernels for my Indian husband…. in memory of his people who introduced us white folks to this delicacy. (That’s not really why… we just love buttery popcorn.)

As per usual, I placed the huge metal bowl under the popper’s spout, poured in the kernels and slid the button to ON.  All was going well until one stray unpopped kernel flew out of the popper, shot down one side of the slippery bowl and out the other.  The kernel reminds me of the song “On top of Spaghetti” with the meatball that goes on a journey.  The tiny golden corn kernel bounced off the kitchen counter and down toward the floor.  Little did I know the pain and agony that was coming.  You see, I was barefoot.  Somehow beyond reason, the little fiery hot kernel landed between my baby toe and the next toe over and lodged itself there for all eternity, sizzling into my skin.  If you have ever burnt the tender skin between your last two toes, you probably have memory tears in your eyes at this moment.  I screamed.  I dropped to the floor.  I cried.  I pried my little toes apart.  I dislodged the burning morsel.  This all happened in a nanosecond, but the results were excrutiating.  The screaming, dropping, crying rapidly brought my husband to the kitchen…. he probably assumed I had chopped off a limb.  But no.  Burned my toes making popcorn.  Ice was applied and tenderly the toes were put up to rest.

Every time the exact same popper is brought down from the pantry shelf, as it was last night, one of my children will mimic me in mocking tones, “Do you want to hear about when I burned my toes making popcorn?”

The moral of the story is:  If the shoe fits, wear it (especially while making popcorn!)

Breaking Headline News

Yes, I’ve been absent from MSJ for a week!  Eeeegads!  I do declare that I’ve been a tad on the occupied side.  Here are the latest headlines that should shed light on my week:

Forty-Four Year Old is Elated with Chair.  This, of course, makes my fantastic, new, green, down-wrapped reading chair sound fuddy-duddy-ish, but it’s not!  It even came with an ottoman…. and it matches my bedspread perfectly.  If you know me at all, or even slightly, you may be aware that I am a reading fiend…. a book hound… honestly, I have a wanderlust for literature.  Up to ten tomes can be found on and under my bedside table at all times.  Topics range from Christian Historical Fiction to Adoption to Devotionals for Women to homeschooling to encyclopedias to Arizona History and even Strunk and White Elements of Style.  All that to say…. I can hardly believe that I waited until my 44th birthday to request a reading chair for my bedroom.  It is a little green slice of heaven for me sitting there in my room!

Sixteen-Year-Old Sews Up $50K!  This is a prophetic headline, as my daughter finishes hand-beading and sewing her prom dress that she is entering in the JoAnn’s Prom Dress Contest.  I knew this kid had talent…. but seriously, she can sew straighter lines than I can…. and I’ve been sewing for 127 years!  And Beading!  Be still my bead-loving-heart!  The contest prizes are almost unbelievable!  $50,000 + $1,000 JoAnn’s gift card for first place!  WOW!  Can you say C O L L E G E?  Second place: $20,000 + $500 gift card.  Can you say C A R?  Third place: $10,000 + $250 gift card.  Can you say A W E S O M E   V A C A T I O N    W I T H    M O M?  Ten runner-up prizes of $1,000 + $100 gift card EACH!  Can you say S A V I N G S   A C C O U N T?  The winner is not announced until July or August, but when Larisa wins one of these fantastic prizes, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be broadcasted live here!  A sneak peek:

Children Dragged Through Museum.  This, again, sounds harsh and un-fun.  But no.  Yes, it was my birthday yesterday.  You usually get to do things you love on the day celebrating your birth, right?  Well, I’m a closet history buff who stores trivial historical knowledge in my head.  Take me to a museum and I start to salivate.  Drop me off in an old cemetary with simply a canteen and I’ll be overjoyed.  It was my husband’s idea too, not mine.  When he suggested we tour a Native American museum on the day celebrating his wife’s birth, I was all for it.  A lively, minute docent leeched onto our family and was thrilled that I asked questions and needed detailed information about all the fascinating items on display.  My family slowly distanced themselves from me and my new friend.  Off in the corner I heard my husband tell our children while nodding toward the tour guide, “THERE is your mom when she’s 63!”  Grief!  And on my birthday!

There’s more… but I’ll save some for tomorrow!

Fall is Here – Part 2

Last night I broke out the Fall decorations for the table.  What sings FALL more than a horn of plenty???  I don’t know either.  And who thought of putting the plenty in a horn?  And why a horn?  What type of horn did they plentify?  Makes me wonder, that it does.  So, I don’t really collect Precious Moments, per se.  But I do have a nice little collection for the Fall table with Indians and Pilgrims sharing the bounty, even though they didn’t have a horn for their plenty.  The Mamas on the back of the napkin holder both have tears falling from their eyes…. so thankful.  Been there.  Done that.  I also have the candlesticks, but alas, there were no candles to be found last night at 11:43, so they’re still in the box. 

One day I would like to add to my Fall table arrangement one of my favorite Precious Moments pieces titled, Brotherly Love, which is pictured on the salt and pepper shakers.  It’s just so cute with the gigantic drumstick.

My husband is of Canadian First Nations Native Indian descent (politically correct enough???) and I’m as pilgrim-white as they come. I’ve had these same decorations appearing on my table for over 15 years now.  Once when the display was displayed my daughter looked at each little piece and noticed each little detail that her little eyes could behold.  (Like mother, like daughter.)  She got a sad look on her chubby little face and told me that she felt sorry for me.  “WHY?” I asked.  “Because you’re the only one in our family who is only half-Thanksgiving.”  Meaning: my husband and kids are all Indian and Pilgrim… I’m just a pilgrim.  So thoughtful.  Next time I’m filling out a questionnaire that inquires of my nationality I’m writing “half-Thanksgiving.” 

 

Patience is a V-v-v-virtue

My patience has been tried and tested many times throughout the years, especially when I met and fell in love with my husband.  He’s on his own clock (Indian time) and it runs about 5 seconds slower than mine.  With 22 years of marriage I have slowed down and he has sped up… but never will we be on the same time frame.  Just when I thought I was done getting my patience tested with my dear husband, our dear son Keeve was born.  He is even slower than Rick…. but like his father, worth waiting for.  For goodness sakes, the kid used to take a breath in the middle of “O  –  K!”  What in the world?  Just when I thought I was done getting my patience tested with my dear son, we took a road trip to Lake Tahoe from Phoenix, AZ., a 771.3 mile trek.  Can I just say that I LOATHE road construction! 

Getting out of town was like pulling a jack rabbit’s teeth.  First a stop for a necessary book  from the Christian book store for a reading assignment for son #1.  Then a necessary stop at Old Navy because their flip-flops are two-for-$5 for our daughter. Then came a necessary stop at Costco for gas.  Then a dark parking lot stop for a quick change of clothing for moi.  THEN Rick decided he needed his back-up driver to take over.  Sheesh.  We weren’t 12 miles from home, after 72 minutes, making our first driver switch.

It should have been a large red flag to me that road construction signs started in Phoenix.  They continued ALL the way to the cabin.  Seriously, June 10-17 is road construction week across I-10 and up the 395 in California.  There were miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep (take me back to high school poetry with Mrs. Clark) where one lane of the two lanes was blocked with cones…. for no apparent reason.  There was one particular 12 mile stretch where I was the third car behind the little old balding man, Mr. Fudd,  in his pristine butterscotch pudding colored 1972 Toyota Corolla who was out for his 40 MPH Tuesday stroll on the 75 MPH highway.

“Am I not being a patient person?” I started pondering.  “Am I supposed to be learning a lesson here at 40 MPH on Hwy 395?”  Considering that we just passed TWO years, SIX months, THREE weeks and TWO days of waiting for our little daughter from Colombia, I assumed I was a patient person.  However, Mr. Fudd brought out the worst in me.  I never said anything out loud.  OK, that was a lie.  I spewed a few turtle, molasses, snail and growing grass comments under my breath.

Tonight as I pray for the 3, 857th time for my son’s spouse, I will add an extra emphasis on her virtue of patience.  She will need it her whole married life, as I’m finding out I do.

My 100th Post at My Sister’s Jar

Lake Tahoe

Being the blogster that I am now, following blog etiquette, here are my 100 Things You Never Needed to Know About Me. (I tried to come up with information that would even be new to those nearest and dearest to me.)

1.  I have no Mexican dental work in my mouth. (Yeah!  We made it home safely and Rick is thrilled with his Mexican crown.)

2.  Even though I took two years of Spanish, my Spanish is extremely limited.

3.  I can count to 10 in five languages. (completely useless)

4.  I currently own 3 Spanish language learning systems… and use one regularly.

5.  I read Only When I Laugh in the past two days and was aghast when I discovered my grandfather’s name and story about him included.

6.  I consider reading therapeutic.

7.  I can sing the theme songs for the Brady Bunch, Beverly Hillbillies, and Gilligan’s Island.

8.  I don’t watch TV at home at all.  (We don’t even have it hooked up.)

9.  I loathe dusting.

10.  I abhor cleaning horizontal blinds…. which cover every window in the house.

11.  Watercolor painting is of high interest and relaxation to me.

12.  I’ve never had a manicure.

13.  I consider pedicures an Arizona necessity to avoid cracked heals.

14.  I have traveled to England.

15.  I have traveled to India…. curry lamb or curry chicken.

16.  I spent a summer in Kathmandu, Nepal… cooking for a missions team of 36.

17.  My dream vacation is to cruise the Mediterranean with extended stays in Greece.

18.  I have a list of 100 things I would like to do in my life.

19.  On my list of 100 things I would like to do in my life, only 68 are filled in.

20.  My eye color is green with gold polk-a-dots… but that doesn’t fit in the little space on my driver’s license.

21.  I have a birth mark on my left upper arm that looks like upside down bunny foo foo.

22.  Miss Potter is my favorite movie of all time. 

23.  I have watched Miss Potter at least 15 times.

24  I bought Miss Potter at Walmart the day it came out on DVD, having never seen it before.

25.  I have only owned Miss Potter for only 11 months.

26.  I have a pair of little white rhinestone-studded leather sandals on my computer desk for Zaza.

27.  I have four children, but Zaza is not home yet.  She’s waiting for us in Colombia, so she can be adopted.

28.  I met my husband on the first day of Orientation Week at Trinity Western University in BC.

29.  I was not real impressed when I met my future husband on the first day of O Week at TWU.

30.  I attended Rick’s High School Graduation with him.  (In Alberta they don’t have the ceremony until the results are back from their provincial exams…. in Sept.)

31.  I have over 100 guppies… but not for long.  VBS is next week when I give almost all of them away.

32.  I have two chickens named Olivia and either TJ or Sidney.

33.  I used to have three chickens, but we had two Rhode Island Reds and we don’t know which one died.

34.  I am not really a dog person.

35.  I have a Rat Terrier named Trixie.

36.  I am definitely NOT a cat person.

37.  I am drawn to royal blue.

38.  The colors of the sea are my favorites.

39.  When not loving blues and greens, I love hot pink.

40.  I have an Elvis bathroom in my home.

41.  I no longer have Elvis pictures that keep showing up on the walls in my bedroom.

42.  I love my husband.

43.  My husband loves me and Elvis.

44.  I painted the walls and ceiling in the Elvis bathroom red.

45.  I have a bathroom that looks like it belongs in either Graceland or a brothel.

46.  I have never been to Graceland, but I have been to Mississippi. 

47.  I lived in the lower mainland of BC for four years and never went to Vancouver Island.  (We were starving college students.)

48.  I have five male cousins.  That’s it.

49.  I grew up in West Coast suburbia in an Anglo Saxon, conservative Christian, Regan-loving-Republican, wooden spoon-spanking, fun loving home with a dad, mom, sister and brother.

50.  My teenage life of crime and mayhem consists of TPing and cruising the El Camino Real.

51.  I got a ticket for parking in a handicap spot.  $50 in 1984!

52.  I used to model for White Stag in Jantzen Beach, Oregon…. when I was five.

53.  I bought my very own purple Schwinn bicycle with a glittery purple banana seat with my paychecks from modeling.

54.  I take any opportunity to go fishing.

55.  I was flown into a fishing lodge at Margaret Lake, Alberta and fished with the chiefs of the surrounding Native reserves.

56.  I caught 6 or 7 large pike at Margaret Lake.

57.  I was the only one who caught any fish when I fished with the Indian Chiefs.

58.  My husband gave away all but one of my fish that I caught at Margaret Lake.

59.  I was left sitting on a gas drum at a dirt airstrip on a remote Native Reserve, Fox Lake, one summer evening.

60.  My husband tells me that he will never again leave me sitting alone on a gas drum on any remote Indian reserve.

61.  I have been to a tree stand designed to attract bear.

62.  I don’t appreciate tree stands.

63.  I have been a Christian for 37 years.

64.  I accepted Jesus as my savior by my bedside with my mom.

65.  I believe all US teenagers would benefit from going on a missions trip to a third world country.

66. I can usually sing a song about any word that my kids come up with.

67.  I have straight hair that is the envy of the 14 year old girls at our church who use straighteners daily.

68.  I teach my kids at home… we plan to homeschool through college.  (heh heh heh).

69.  I LOVE summer break.

70.  I had plastic surgery on my upper lip to repair a scar.

71.  I never had braces.

72.  My mouth is full of porcelain crowns… made in the USA.

73.  I have eaten chocolate covered ants… crunchy and chocolatey all in one.

74.  I have eaten ox tail soup… it was good if I kept my eyes closed.

75.  I could never be on survivor. 

76.  I’m wimpy.  Strange things make me gag… like stinky shoes, or a hair in the sink while I’m brushing my teeth.

77.  Believe it or not, I ran faster than my kids in a timed race at a rest stop three years ago (and won $5) I feel a rematch coming on.

78.  I don’t bet.

79.  I will never have a tattoo, or dreadlocks or piercings other than ONE hole in each ear.

80. I will never go bungy jumping, or sky diving, or cliff diving.  Remember, I’m wimpy.

81.  I’m not a thrill seeker, unless you include finding a sweet antique on sale from an un-educated garage sale giver.

82.  I collect Precious Moments nativity pieces.

83.  I am addicted to Diet Pepsi.  A half filled chilled can sits in front of me.

84.  I’m eyeing the corner of the backyard for a raised bed vegetable garden.

85.  I’m completely overwhelmed by the thought of digging and running the plumbing to the corner of the backyard for the raised bed vegetable garden.

86.  Sunflowers make me happy.

87.  I use my dictionary and thesaurus regularly.

88.  I am a card-carrying Coupon $ense gal who cut her grocery bill by 50% in 4 months.  Wooo Hooo.

89.  I taught Special Education, which prepared me for marriage and mothering in many ways.

90.  I’m the mother of the fastest 10 year old hockey skater in the nation.  And proud of it.

91.  I’m sad that my daughter doesn’t wear ruffles and lace anymore.

92.  I’m excited to bring Zaza home and introduce her to ruffles and lace.

93.  I’m still looking for the perfect bedding for Zaza’s yellow room and purple bed.

94.  I absolutely LOVE going to Lake Tahoe every summer.  It’s the BEST!  47 days until we go to Tahoe.

95.  I think God did a great job with the creation deal… lakes, trees, birds, flowers, pinecones, especially flowers, rivers…

96.  Scrapbooking is my game.  Tonight is scrap night at Darla’s house.  I’m there.

97.  I have my original wedding band from 21 years ago.

98.  I have my original husband from 21 years ago.  While in Mexico this week, a street vendor asked me what I was looking for.  I said, “My husband.”  He said, “Jus’ get a new one.”  No way.  21 years of training!  Hello!!!!

99.  I wish I lived somewhere that was always between 70 and 85 degrees, with a stream close by, a large English garden, a green house, vegetable garden and towering trees surrounding my Victorian home in the country.

100.  Roadtrips make my travel-loving heart pound in glory.

www.LindaCrosby.com