Good Morning!

I'm only not naming this post "It's a Glamorous Life" because I've used that title before - it would totally fit! I pulled myself out of bed at 5:40 to meet my friend at the gym. By Friday I'm pretty exhausted and don't really feel like going, but I go anyway. I got dressed and headed to the kitchen for my customary water and banana. As I rounded the corner, I heard James and Ben's voices in the living room. As I was about to send them back to bed, I discovered that they were up because Ben felt sick and they decided the best place to wait out the vomit was on the living room couch, far from a bathroom and without a bowl.


Once I set Ben up on the school couch, next to the bathroom, he started throwing up. The wild thing was that in between he acted like a hyper little kid and was jumping around the couch instead of acting sick. I'm yet to figure that out since I usually feel very bad between vomiting rounds!


As I was texting my friend to cancel on her last minute, Julia showed up to announce that she had wet the bed. I put her in the bathtub and headed down-stairs with the bedding. I decided to be efficient once I realized that Elijah's little 4-wheeler battery needed charging and slid out the back door to grab it real quick. Of course, I locked myself out and had to run around to the front in the dirt to get back in. I was thrilled to discover that JD hadn't locked the front door since he assumed I was heading out right behind him this morning. I envisioned having to beat on the front door for a while before someone heard me. 


By noon, James and Tori had joined Ben in the sick line-up, but by dinner they changed their minds, ate and went back to running around. I was planning on taking the youngest three for pictures, but left Tori since she was possibly sick. I did get cute pictures of Julia and Elijah that I will scan and post tomorrow. 


To hold you over in the picture department, I present my stupid, stupid cat, Lucy, who decided to take a nap on the turkey platter that was cleaned and awaiting putting away. I have a squirt bottle and I know how to use it, but it barely slows her down. 

Here's Elijah when I told him that he was going to have BARE feet in the picture; he immediately got excited and wanted me to show him the BEAR feet and asked if they had claws. When I tried to explain, he cried and requested that he wear the Pooh suit in the picture since Pooh is at least a bear even if he doesn't have claws. Turns out that the Pooh suit doesn't even have feet; this picture is Elijah analyzing if it is going to pass or he is going to engage in another round of crying for bear feet. (In the end, I distracted him with side-walk chalk.)

I 

Some Saturdays I go to the gym, but tomorrow I am sleeping in as long as there is no vomit or urine to interrupt my plan. 

Her Name

We signed, notarized and mailed our referral acceptance today. Addisalem is going to be Isabella Addisalem. Isabella is a root of Elizabeth and means God's Oath; it fits pretty perfectly for the child that we have waited three years for. According to my sister, who has language experience, we think Addis is flower and salem is peace; either way, I think it's a darling Ethiopian name and am keeping it. So, like many of our other children, she has a long name but we are going to use the nick-name Bella. 


(I also fixed my comment issues.  I had changed Blogger to my new email address, but had the comments still coming into my old address. So, if you haven't been able to get comments through in a while, feel free to try again.)

It's A Girl!

Our referral is here - our new child - #10 - she is a precious little girl! I am not allowed to show her picture until we pass court, but oh, how I wish I could! Her little smile is enough to melt the hardest of hearts. She just turned two a few days after Tori's birthday in January and her Ethiopian name is Addiselam. We will probably continue our adopting trend of giving her a first name and using her current name as her middle name. She is 18 months younger than Elijah. When I showed him her picture today, he said, "oh, I just wish she could come home right now." So do I baby boy; I could be on a plane in a matter of days if it were that easy! Alei cracked me up by saying, "I'm so glad she's cute; the rest of us are decent looking so it's nice to keep that trend." I have to say that I don't believe I have ever seen an Ethiopian that I didn't think was darling, but she really takes the cake.


We are so excited. I am amazed at the goodness of God and the road he has taken us on. The realization that he led us to know that we had a child in Ethiopia three years ago, but didn't give the green light until this November, shows how much he loves the orphan and the extent he will go to place them in a family. The orphan statistic is a huge number, but it's made up of sweet little faces like my new daughter, faces that deserve the love of a family! Our plan now if just to pray our paperwork through. We need to start with immigration; we need a fingerprint date and to get our homeland security paper out of the country. 


God is good and we are among the most blessed! (If you live local, I have a picture in my purse!)

Look Who We Found

The good news is that Alyssa found Chip Chip before the cats; she was just taking a leisurely stroll down the hall last night after being missing for over 24 hours. 

She was noticeably hungry and thirsty and crammed almost the whole food bowl into her cheeks. Later she ran on the wheel and it all came flying out of her cheeks; it made enough noise flipping around on the wheel that it woke up the boys.

In case you are wondering if I'm sticking to my threat to James that the hamster would no longer belong to him, yes I am. It is now Tori's hamster, but she is being kind enough to keep the name  James chose. James was warned on four different occasions in less than 24 hours to watch the ball and decided to not head the wisdom. I'm quite confident that we would have a repeat scenario in less than a week if it remained his pet. He is allowed to hold Tori's new hamster with permission. Ben will help Tori supervise hers when she gets it out also; Tori is pretty responsible but is just seven.  

Furniture, Camper and HAMSTERS

Although my adoption paperwork has gotten far more coverage, I have been plugging along in my effort to clean out, get rid of and make the house more organized. I have been selling lots of stuff on Craigslist, and buying a few pieces as well. Today I moved in the "new" dresser that I bought Julia. I paid a whopping $25 for the dresser and a matching night-stand. I took Julia's chest of drawers for the new child who is going to share a room with Elijah whether he or she is a boy or girl. 

Tori and Julia now have two beds and two dressers that were bought at four different times and none of them truly match. They are all generally the same color, other than Tori's green dresser and I think it all works fine. 

I put a camper on Craigslist that has been a thorn in my side for quite some time. A few years back, when we had to evict our night-mare renter from our home, he left behind a "fixer-upper" (piece of junk) pop-up camper. Once we took a look at it, I did not want JD to even bring it home. He had grand plans of removing the camper portion and turning it into a trailer to haul our ATV (that now doesn't even run, but that doesn't apply to the story.) I agreed on the condition that he park it behind the barn where I or anyone I know doesn't have to look at it, because I knew it would take him 10 years to ever actually do anything with it.  Anyway, he parked it behind the barn and it was all fine until we had a friend who wanted to borrow our other junky trailer that lived behind the barn. The camper was in the way, so he pulled it out front and center and parked it right where it's the first thing you see when you come down the drive-way. To make matters worse, we had several trees fall behind the barn so JD could not put the dump camper back until he takes down all the trees. So, this camper has been right there in front of everything where I growl at it each and every time I come up and down the drive way. I finally decided to put it on Craigslist as a "fixer-upper" and I've had interest. We had a man come today that claims he is coming back for it. It'll be my favorite $300 I've ever made when it sells!

I mentioned in my last blog that I got James and Ben hamsters from Wendy's neighbor. I also mentioned that the boys should thank me because JD is never the parent who thinks these ideas are a good idea! My theory was that the four oldest all had a turn having a hamster and it obviously helped shape them into the caring and compassionate people that they are today, so we better let James and Ben have a turn. (It also helped that they and the cage were free!) JD reluctantly agreed to let them have them. I lectured the boys on hamster care, primarily WATCHING them if they are out of the cage in any capacity. I also thoroughly went into the fact that the plastic balls they came with can come open and you have to watch them in that as well! 


Well, James, dear James, put his hamster in the ball, forgot about him and played a game boy. Low and behold, when he came up for air, the ball had cracked open and the hamster is no where to be found. What really gets me is the turn in the story that he looked for him a while, came and ate dinner when called, said NOTHING and then went back downstairs to continue playing the game. Finally, Ben came and alerted us to the situation. At this point, the hamster is still missing; neither people nor cat have found him. We tried setting lettuce baits around the basement last night, but Alei's dog, Toby, kept eating it. Tomorrow, JD is going to try and buy a few super-size live mouse traps. It isn't looking good, but I have already told Tori that if we find him, she has a pet hamster. James will have to grow up and move out before he owns another rodent. 


I'll keep you posted on "Chip Chip" the hamster...and thankfully, JD has been kind enough to not give me a huge "I told you so."

Driving for Fun

 Yesterday, I hit the road again, but this trip was all about fun. After Baltimore and D.C. for medical appointments within one week, we hit Richmond to hang out with my friend, Wendy, and her crew of kids. We ate, and played, at Chick Fil A for a few hours and then drug all the kids through Lowe's so we could check out some painting ideas together. We always swap stuff in the parking lot and this trip was no exception. The highlight was Wendys neighbor's hand-me-down hamsters for James and Ben. (Happy early birthday boys, it's not always easy to convince your father to let us have pet rodents!)

(Julia and Esther)

When we were packing up from our four tables at Chick Fil A to leave, I took a quick glance around. There were about six senior citizen couples that were eating and just staring at us like we were the dinner show. It doesn't bother either of us and we just laughed when Ben got a refill and came back to announce that the worker wanted to know if we were a day care. Just when you think big families are becoming more common, I have an experience that shows me people really are baffled.

                                                         (Alyssa and Elizabeth)

                                                            (Levi and James)

After a few weeks of paperwork and notarizing, it was fun to have a fun day. As far as adoption news, the agency told me that they would have the information I've been waiting for on Sunday. I hope...

Schooling at the Dentist

 I buzzed through you youngest five children's teeth cleanings this morning. Julia and Elijah both did great, although I had to hold Elijah again for the cleaning. They also played well in the waiting room during their siblings appointments.  I really like our dentist; he is an unmarried Chinese man who is very good with kids and interested in our large family. He commented about Elijah being the baby; I told him that position was soon going to be filled by a new child. He then asked if we were closet millionaires. Man, I wish that were true - it would make this adoption so much easier! 

Tori was the only one with a cavity. Guess who just got demoted from the "I'm big enough to brush my own teeth" back into the "Mommy brushes your teeth at night" category?

I made the boys cram in as much school in the waiting room as we could, because Alyssa and I get to head back this afternoon for our cleaning. Then I get a whole month break before filling and sealant appointments!

JD paid big bucks to have the dossier arrive this morning and they just informed me that it isn't there yet; I sure hope it gets there this afternoon or Fed Ex and I are going to be negotiating a partial refund. 

Big Day - Bigger Day Coming Soon

 Today is a BIG, BIG day at our house and I don't even have a picture to prove it. JD and Moriah are at Fed Ex. this moment shipping our dossier overnight to the adoption agency. It is the end of my paperwork trail until time to travel - the end of ongoing medicals, background checks, endless training and notarizing until the cows come home. My last trip to the notary today to "tie" up the last few details was at least 10 more documents. The notary has pages and pages with our last name. Normally, the dossier makes six stops in America before it goes to Ethiopia, then hits the waiting pile to be matched with a child. In our case, we may already have a "soft" referral; hopefully, we will have an update on that Friday. 


Because I didn't get a picture of the packet heading out the door, here's my dossier file. I know this paper work frontward and backwards now; only a few months ago I read through the original 82 pages and felt like crying. By the grace of God, it's on my "big accomplishment of the last few months" list. 

Here's my rarely seen oldest son writing a paper (and eating the little guys gold-fish.) He never looked up and noticed that I started taking pictures of him. We'll see if he reads this post.

We are the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such unhappiness. Peggy Noonan

Travel Clinic

We put in a long day at Bethesda Hospital today with the travel clinic. It's really a nice service to have such one-stop shopping for all our international travel needs. They look up the country you are traveling to and update immunizations and give you any needed medications. JD and I left with three new shots while poor Alyssa got four. We also were blessed with malaria meds and some other emergency medications. 

I am really ready for a break from all things medical, but it is not to be. We have a doctor appointment tomorrow, another Thursday and seven dentist appointments on Wednesday in between!

On the Road

Tori and I made our semi-annual pilgrimage to John's Hopkins hospital today so that they could tell us that she and her liver are still doing great. Today the Doctor said that her results are in the best 1% that she has ever seen.  It is actually always a pleasure to catch up with the doctor and nurses that cared for us four years ago when we did the treatment for Tori's liver damage; it's just a long day because of the drive. 


On Monday, a group of us are hitting the road for Bethesda's travel clinic. We have to get Alyssa started with any shot series that she needs to travel to Ethiopia, as well as the horrible Yellow Fever shot. Poor girl, that is one shot that you don't forget that you got for at least a week! Bethesda is really good about giving us antibiotics and any other emergency medicines that we could possible need while we are traveling.   


In the between time that I'm actually not traveling from hospital to hospital, we have really been enjoying the crazy February weather. It isn't every Feb. that the kids can eat on the deck with bare feet. 

Julia has blossomed into a great Kylie babysitter since Kylie has to be monitored all the time. Kylie really loves Julia, but on occasion seems to give me a look that silently looks like "rescue me." 

Elijah loves the song "Days of Elijah" that plays on my play list. He often sits near the computer and wants to listen to it. Yesterday he got his guitar to play along.

My favorite is at the end when the song says, "there's no God like Jehovah." Elijah sings "there's no God like a Joba" over and over. We desperately need to capture it on video before he learns to pronounce it!

It's so often the little things in life that bring the most pleasure.