OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Limping Along

As previously stated, we are dealing with some family challenges the last few weeks. Since the definition of an idiot is someone who keeps doing the same thing over and over, and hoping for a different result; we are going to have to try some new approaches. Times like this make me question all kinds of things and I really think if I could start over again, I would raise my kids like the Duggars - no TV, no kids online and no peer groups. 

Meanwhile, JD has hit a very demanding period at work. He is generally working 12 plus hours a day and is very inaccessible during the day. We have made life work decently, for the most part, this last year only because he has been able to work some days from home; but that isn't happening right now. For me at home, I have had someone throwing up, or claiming to be sick, steady for the last 10 days. I kept James and Tori in the sick zone all morning, but they never threw up and cleared when they wanted lunch. Selah is now claiming to be sick, yet hungry. Honestly, I get weary of trying to figure out who is actually sick, and who just wants out of school and to lay in front of the TV. I take vomit very seriously though, so Selah landed herself in the zone. 

Moriah had her wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday. After Alei had me watched some Youtube videos of kids coming off the IV anesthesia, I was at least prepared for the craziness displayed by Moriah. I really wish I had brought someone to video her as I drove, but in the end I only got one minute of the over one hour of talking. For starters, she was sure that I was driving on the grass and hitting every mailbox that we passed. She would lean forward with her eyes wide and say, "oh, Mom, please get out of the grass. Mom, you just hit another mailbox and you aren't even stopping." She questioned where we were going and where we lived. At one point, we passed a white house with a horse farm and her eyes got wide and she said, "is that the White House? Why are you taking me to DC?" 

The one video I captured was Moriah fretting that they removed her front teeth as well. I captured her saying, "I think they lied to me, I asked them if they were only going to take my wisdom teeth but they also took my front teeth. I know because I can't taste them anymore." She would then comment on how all the cars were double (she saw double everything) and how I was still needing to drive on the road instead of the grass and why did I keep hitting trees and mailboxes; then she would swap back to despair about them taking her front teeth. She then exclaimed, "did they take my hair too?" 

Finally, as I turned on the drive-way, Moriah was telling me how this was private property and I was trespassing. When I told her we lived here, she told me she had never see it before. We passed James in the drive-way (on rock duty, but that's a separate post) and Moriah asked why there were two boys in the driveway. I told her that it was James. She said she had never seen them before; then she turned to despair and said, "Mom, he doesn't have a mother, he's an orphan. He needs a mother!" The good news is that even drug induced, my children are concerned for the orphan. Once Moriah's meds wore off, she remembered very little of the drive and was visibly shocked at her one minute video. We've all had some good laughs over it.

Tuesday, I missed the coolest pictures of Elijah and his school class launching the rockets they made during science. The camera didn't have the memory card in and I took some pictures that I was really excited about but were never really captured - very disappointing for me!

Tomorrow morning I am taking all the non-vomiters and speaking on Ethiopia to a home school group. I'm armed with my pictures and a few souvenirs and I'm excited. And I've already reinserted my memory card.

3 comments:

  1. I understand "limping along" and I understand "family challenges." I also understand how isolated one can feel because they cannot share family challenges even though one desperately needs support and prayer. Here's a hug and a blessing that you feel close to Jesus during this challenging time.

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  2. I hope your week improves and the sickness ends! We've had a rough week too. I pray your presentation goes great and you feel better, just to get out=)

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  3. I'd pay good money to see that video of Moriah :)

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