Hair, Bathrooms and Garden (for Grandma)

 My mother-in-law pointed out that I hadn't updated my blog in a few days, so I'm taking time away from more exciting things ( like hair and laundry) for a quick post. HAIR has been my daily routine. I try to do two corn-rows into micro-braids a day, but some days we spend over an hour on just one and I don't get to the second one. You can't see my progress in this picture, but fear not, there will be a hair post when I get done (in about another week)! I really love the look and may be repeating my tedious procedure on another African daughter or two.


(Julia with a friend's super cute baby)

We have also re-painted the two girl's bathrooms. Alei chose this shower curtain and rug and I bought paint that matched; then Alei taped and painted the bathroom. 

The first bathroom went very well, so I sent Moriah and Alyssa to chose the items for the second girl bath across the hall and they came home with this combination. I taped the bathroom, but Alyssa painted it. 

All that fun in the bathroom (and my pointing out that we are about to have two more people needing bathrooms) prompted JD to begin on the empty shell of the downstairs bathroom. Since Gabriel leaves for the Navy in October and the new girls are coming home, we are re-figuring out the bedroom and bathroom assignments. I may end up painting this new one again, because it's a rather ugly color I chose in a hurry four years ago; we'll just consider it a base coat.

I am so thankful for this house. It is the first time we have adopted and not been stressed about where to fit the new little guys! 


My other time-taker is my garden. The time I spend out there is so, so worth it to me. Humor me while I show you a few shots. 


These are the cherry tomato plants that I pick a nice size bowl off of every day. I love them; James eats a few but Julia and I eat the rest. 

I planted these purple peas less than two weeks ago with straight seeds in the ground; they are growing like crazy. Last year I did only two rows and had space between the rows, so this year I put in four. 

I counted about 15 nice watermelon growing. 

The cantaloupe (and watermelon) are from seeds that Wendy saved from her garden last year. The cantaloupe are covered in flowers and baby melons and have grown over the bed on both sides. I'm going to look into freezing the excess honey-dew and cantaloupe this year for the winter. The bagged frozen fruit from Costco contains them, so it has to be doable. 

Here's today's tomato pick. I actually canned three quart jars the other day and broke two in the cannery because I didn't heat the jars long enough. What a waste of tomatoes - I won't be doing that again (breaking them - I'm still going to can them)!

Get a Look at Her...

 The majority of the time I forget what a spectacle our family can be. This morning I was cruising down the road on the way to church (JD had gone on ahead with a car) when a red mini-van passed me in the left hand lane. The lady had her face smashed to the glass and the man driving was leaning way out over the steering wheel so he could stare at me without being blocked by his wife's head. It was so obvious as they were driving next to me that I started racking my brain, wondering if I drove off from the gas station with the pump hanging out of the side of the van or something. Then I realized, it's just because of my stickers. They literally were just trying to get a look at someone who has that many kids. (I wonder what they thought I'd look like? Hopefully, I appeared normal!) 

Along the same line, a few weeks ago we were sitting at the ATM with the doors open while JD deposited checks. Two men walked by the van and one said to the other, "don't you think you are supposed to stop having kids before the stickers have to hit the second window?" I just laughed.


The back of our van - 

Here's something that has nothing to do with a large family, other than the fact that we eat a lot of watermelon. This year, three watermelon plants started growing alongside the flowers in the front flower bed, (I'm assuming from spit seeds). I decided to let them grow and we carefully sweep around the growing vines everyday. 

So far, we have three bonus watermelon growing on the patio; thankfully I also have more in the garden where I intentionally planted them. It made me think, why wouldn't I plant some pretty "food" plants along with flowers next year; we do have a lot of mouths to feed.  

Just Words

We had a really great 4th of July and I just headed for the camera to download a picture to prove it, but apparently the camera headed to PA with JD. We decided just yesterday that JD should head up and spend a little time with his Mom, because she was forced to spend her 4th in the hospital instead of the family reunion that was planned. JD and Moriah got up early and were on the road when I woke up late, 7:45 actually, which is the exact time that Julia's bus comes. I decided it was not a big deal, so got ready and left to drive her. Since the AC repairman was scheduled to come, I had to wake up Alyssa so there would be a vertical person in the house when Elijah woke up and if the AC guy showed up. I was really feeling good about the day because the house was clean and the laundry caught up, so I could focus on school and a few other things that are on my long "to do before leaving for Ethiopia" list. As I headed out the door, I saw a text from JD to call him as soon as I woke up.


I knew it wasn't good when the first thing he said was, "have you been down-stairs"? Uh, no, why? He told me that we had a flood...something about the AC that isn't working right, and a coil, and the shop-vac, carpet and fan. Great! Somewhere in that conversation it hit me that he had said, "a couple of bad things." I interrupted him to reassure myself that the flood was all I had to deal with the two days he was away, right? No, he then blessed me with the news that our new renters, that we moved into our missionary friend's home just last week, burnt down the garage with fire-works. OK, stopping right there, I just have to tell you that this is the second rental home that we have had renters burn down the garage. Both times, the garage was attached and caused enough overall damage to the house that the people had to move out. I think we're going to need to add "no fireworks" to the rental agreement. (People laugh at the length of our leases, but much of it has originated from the school of hard knocks).


You know, we still had a good day. I didn't have swim team and we accomplished a lot of school, two more sections of Julia's hair and the first coat of paint on the bathroom. Other than that, I did a good bit of water clean-up and tried to convince Elijah that he wouldn't drown in double floaties in the pool, even if I let go of him. 


The really good news is that JD is coming home tomorrow and can take back over emergency situations. I did enough of them as a Navy wife and now enjoy being a retired Navy-wife!

Still Working

 JD is heading down the hall with the wood floor. The progress is fast, but the trim pieces on order will not be in until Thursday, so we will be semi-putting furniture back for our 4th of July company. I am very, very happy with it; I have always wanted wood floor and this is the first time we have ever installed it.

I am working on putting Julia's locs in. Last weekend, I corn-rowed her hair into three levels of ten corn-rows each. I am now removing a corn row at a time and putting nine to 12 locs in that spot. It is slow tedious work; it took me an an hour and 20 minutes today to do two corn-rows. If I try to accomplish two a day, we can complete the locs in a little over two weeks. 


I love the look though!

One More Project

 We are approaching our four year anniversary in our home - we moved in about two weeks before Elijah was born. The funny thing about that is that I have seldom ever lived in one house for four years before, maybe twice in my over 40 years. In the beginning, we planned on the house being totally done before we moved in; in reality, that was totally unrealistic and we moved in with a ton not finished. Now, at the four year anniversary, there is still a good bit that is not finished, but there are also a lot of other things done that we didn't have in the plans. 


There is the large "game room" downstairs that still needs ceiling and some painting. It sounds easier than it is because there is so many building supplies stored in that area. We also haven't installed baseboards or closet doors downstairs other than in the three bedrooms. The only bathroom down there also remains an empty shell, although if the weather remains this hot, the bathroom will get done before the screened in porch. 


On the good side, JD actually finished hooking up the solar panels that he hoisted on the roof about a year ago and they are currently providing all our hot water! The instant-on hot water heater will only switch on as back up. I am anxious to see the savings reflected on next months electric bill, although our current AC load for our 100 degree days may suck up a good chunk of the savings!


Here's the solar hot water tank - it is enormous.

The instant on is only mounted on the wall and doesn't have a tank. It has successfully provided our large family hot water for the last four years and now gets a much needed break.

The largest project that JD has taken on has been building the screened in porch and deck. We are down to needing to build the chimney, add the ceiling and flooring in the porch. It is just going to have to wait for cooler days since yesterday was 106 outside with a heat index of 113!


So, what do we often do when one project is drawing to a close and we are down to only a half a dozen other unfinished projects? We start another! This week's is laying new flooring in the living room and dining room. While we wanted wood flooring when we moved in, we are only rushing into this project because of our dining room situation with the new girls coming home. 
The Amish benches we bought are nice for packing people around the table, but they were so heavy on two rugs (the area rug to prevent the dining room rug from being ruined) that we have avoided sitting there for the last several months. Once one person sat on the bench, it was practically impossible to slide the benches in and out for anyone else to sit down. We thought the only practical solution was to put in wood flooring and then recycle the carpet to the bedrooms down-stairs. 


So, this was the living room a few days ago while JD pulled the carpet out of the dining room - 

Then we shifted most of it to the dining room so that the living room carpet could be pulled up.

Today the beginning of the wood floor went it. 

JD is now putting those little feet things on all the furniture so that it won't scratch the wood. I also am going to attempt to put the china hutch farther down the wall to allow for more room around the table, since we are going to soon be a family of 13! 

If you are wondering my role in all of this flooring, it has mainly been hair. I redid all of Tori's corn-rows, cut James and Ben's hair and am getting ready to do the first section of Julia's new locs! Every now and then I break to swap the laundry. 

Call In Day

Please, please take a few minutes today to call your representative in D.C. and urge them to co-sponsor the bipartisan bill H.R. 4373 - Making Adoption Affordable Act. This is only going to extend the current amount of tax credit that is currently available to those who adopt. If it expires this year, as it is scheduled to do so, it will only make adoption less affordable and leave more children, in the U.S. and over seas, without families.  If you wondering the statistics of it, right now it costs about $25,000 to $45,000 to adopt one child internationally and the tax credit is $11,000; so it makes a big difference in the end cost of an adoption. 


Even if it doesn't effect you right now, it very well may directly effect your friends or family in the future if the bill does not pass. If you don't know your representative's name, you can find it at  http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and enter your zip code in the box. You then can reach your representative by calling the Capitol Operator at 202-225-3121. 


Thanks - do it for the kids like Selah that need a Daddy that can loan out his sun-glasses.

Finally Pictures - Selah Mercy Kalkidan

 I am so excited to post that the smudge has been resubmitted and cleared in court, so I am able to present my legal 10th child, who will be named Selah Mercy Kalkidan. Selah means pause and reflect and Kakidan means promise. I just felt such an urging to include Mercy and Truth in the girl's names that both will have two middle names. Since she is often called Kalki in Ethiopia, we will be calling her Selah Kalki for quite a while. She supposedly turned five in May, but the adoption agency on both sides of the ocean thinks that she is younger than five. I think she is probably turning four, just like Elijah, but we won't be choosing an age, or birth date, until we have a bone scan done and can get as close as possible. 

She has quite the personality and maybe a bit of a strong will (won't be our first!) She is definitely outgoing and enjoyed the attention of a Mom and Dad for the first time in her life!

She has absolutely beautiful eyes - 

 And a darling smile, although the poor baby is going to have to endure pretty serious dental work to fix her teeth. I am afraid they are all pretty decayed. 

 She worked intently with the toys I brought, but unless I had a towel to wipe the sticky bubbles off the wand, she had me blow them for her. 

She likes to sing, dance and yell for fun though!

All the pictures that we took the first day, Selah is wearing JD's sun glasses. After that, we were smart enough to leave them in the room. I did buy her her own little pair for the trip home, she will be thrilled.

We can't wait to get you home, Selah, we can't wait!

If I am understanding correctly, Isabella did actually pass court last week or this, but they are waiting on a letter from MOWA (ministry of women and children) to catch up with her packet. I'm quite sure I can not post pictures of her until that letter is approved. Hopefully soon, because I want to start the ticking clock that means we can bring the girls home!

Still Waiting

 We are still waiting...every day I hope for news of passing court. In the mean-time, Alei bought Elijah this new shirt. He wanted to be sure that the camera could make out the words, so he held his breath and puffed out his chest as much as possible. 

I have started putting the kid's names on the walls in their rooms since that I have figured out how to fully operate the borrowed Cricut I have had in my procession for some time. It's an awesome machine, maybe one day I'll buy my own. I have a big plan for the family room down stairs that I'm excited to begin, but first I have to repaint the wall.

We have our second swim meet tonight, thankfully it's a home meet since I have to get Julia in bed at a decent hour for summer school. I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that off the next few swim meets; sometimes my only hope is that Mommy clones will become available!

Adoption Update and More Waiting

Let me just start my update with the reality warning that if you adopt, you get to practice patience. You see, the norm. for Ethiopia is that legally the child is yours when you leave court and you are then able to post pictures of them. We were told a few days before we traveled that one of the seals on one of the 3,000 documents for Selah was smudged and that while all would be fine for court, we wouldn't be able to post pictures of her for an extra few days until it was re-submitted. We later found out that they would just resubmit it when they returned for Bella's court date. 


The week before last we were told that Bella had a court date last week, although they didn't know for sure what day. Every day last week I waited, prayed and hoped and heard nothing. When Friday rolled around, I called and emailed and still heard nothing. I called this morning and was told that although they had called for an update that morning, the lines to Ethiopia are down and they will not be able to find out anything until they are up again. She assured me that she would call as soon as she hears. 


So, again, we wait. Today has been three weeks since we appeared in the court room in Ethiopia. I am just hoping that no news is good news at this point and hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon!


Until then, want to see how cute they are from the back?

                                      

Only Once

Since we don't do parties every year and 13 is a big deal, Alyssa had an all night birthday bash. She really did a lot of the work, including turning the play room into a teen sleeping area. My toughest job was feeding them all and washing the six loads of towels that 15 girls used for three rounds of swimming and showering. Honestly, I didn't even realize that we owned that many towels!

I wish I had taken a good picture of the decorating - Alyssa, Moriah, and their friend, Emily, did an awesome job. 

I didn't pull out my camera until this morning, however, when these two sweet girls were reading to my little guys.

I then got brave and headed down the stairs with my camera. Yeah, it was a mess and it extended far beyond just this room.

Look at the girls on the couch - I thought only puppies, or piglets, could sleep like that!

The party ended at 11:00 a.m. and Moriah was sound asleep on the living room couch around 9:00. She didn't move while the girls said good-bye and slept until after 2:00 this afternoon.

Crazy girls.