Wow and Hair

I often think in life, "it'll slow down once..." but that thing generally comes and goes and is only replaced by another demand. My current obstacle is that Alei got her first job; she is working at the new CVS that is opening right around the corner. We are incredibly thankful because jobs are very limited in our rural area and she has been dreaming of working there since they broke ground. She also found out in the last few days that only two teenagers were hired; the rest are experienced adults! She also should have her license in just a few weeks, so I only have to run her back and forth for a couple of weeks. What we didn't know was a lot of her training is at other CVSs, which makes sense since they are operational. Last night, after completing several hours of photo developing training at the close CVS, they announced that her orientation meeting would be at a CVS about an hour away from 9 - 11 a.m. Thankfully, JD was scheduled to be home most of today, so I just took Elijah and left at 8:00 a.m. Right after I bought 10 boxes of ice-cream bars at Aldi's, I got a quick text from Alei that the training was going until 2:00 p.m. Elijah and I ended up doing a lot of shopping, (and cramming all our ice-cream in a friend's freezer for the day.) Once Alei actually got out at 2:30 and I checked out, we arrived home at 3:45 in time for JD to take the girls to a 4:30 eye doctor appointment. These are the days that have very limited school and I "plan" for by starting school early in August!

Other than not being home much, poor Tori is quite sick. She's been running a fever and rather lethargic for a few days. Today Elijah seems to have a low-grade fever and lots of snot. I'm planning a doctor run first thing in the morning; the problem is that we rented a gym for Tori's birthday party on Saturday afternoon. I'm crossing that bridge tomorrow after the strep cultures!



I got a question from a nice lady that attended our orphan, foster, adoption meeting the other night at church. She asked about my girls hair. My long time readers know that I have done many posts on hair, but more "complainy" about the time investment than helpful. So, I'm going to do a summery of what I've learned and how.

First of all, when we adopted Tori, she was bald - way bald, like so bald we wondered if her head had been shaved. I basically greased (our favorite Liberian term) her little head and hoped it would grow. Once it was long enough for tiny, tiny corn-rows, I had a wonderful friend from church faithfully drive to my house every other week and re-put in the corn-rows.

In the mean-time, we adopted Julia who had quite the head of hair. Since she wasn't going capable of sitting still too long at a time, I just learned to do simple twists and braids on her. In the hair care department, I've tried tons of stuff. I still buy things when I see how people brag on the wonders they've done for their children's hair. At this point, I don't buy anything that isn't organic, but really like the Organics line that is sold at our local hair store and Wal-Mart.

When I really learned to corn-row was when Dena cut her finger and was unable to do Tori's hair for several months. At first I literally sat by the computer and played Katelyn's You Tube video, paused it and copied it. After several attempts, my fingers figured it out. I'm no expert at this point, but do smile big when people ask, "who does their hair" and then look shocked when I answer, "I do."

As far as the whole "have their hair done at the beauty parlor idea", that is a very real possibility when they are older and we are beyond twist and corn-rows. For now, I wouldn't want to make them sit without breaks and I don't want to pay for it. We are very much do-it-your-selfers. We have been the general contractors on our own house, JD is the current basement finisher, JD fixes our cars, I do the house painting, we cut the boy's hair, you get the idea. Over the years, we have saved a ton doing projects our self, so the girls hair is no different for the moment.

So, I highly recommend Katelyn's how to everything on YouTube. I also joined a Yahoo group - adoption skin and hair care. Those have been the most helpful, along with real people I know that have walked before me in the hair realm!