Pomegranate Facial

Anna is such a good sport! She let me take this picture of her in the middle of her pomegranate feast. As I was posting this she was a little embarrassed, but I told her, "Anna you are so adorably cute, I bet I can show you at least three comments in the morning from people that agree with me."

P.S. Please don't make me a liar. ;)

The Importance of Touch

From the time I was a little girl, I remember having to sit in the middle of my mom's little Toyota pickup truck because my sister was in a car seat so she had to sit in the passenger seat because of the stick shift. I was very squished and complained incessantly about the stick shift always hitting my legs, but secretly, I loved sitting so close to my mom often leaning up against her soft body.

Often times after shifting gears, she would rest her hand on my knee and I would put my own hand on top. Nothing too special when you think about it, but that little bit of warm and loving touch that I got from my mom made me feel very special. It was during those drives in the car, that my mom's special touch made me feel loved.

This was only one of many ways that I remember my mom's physical touch. She would often rub my legs when I had growing pains, and she would reach out and grab my hand from across the table when we were having a conversation. What came out of her mouth was not always as gentle but her physical touch more than balanced the love that I felt from her.

I see so much of my mom in me, and though I'd like to believe that I am not as loud as she was when I was a child, I do hope that I make my children feel just as loved by my physical touch.

I was reading the home training lessons for BSF this week and the topic was about the importance of touch. It said,

"The emotional health of children is greatly enhanced when they have the warm, loving touch of parents and other family members. In infancy, children receive a lot of touching in diapering, dressing, feeding, and carrying. Even though they out grow diapers, baby food, and other aspects of babyhood, they do not outgrow their need for the warm caresses prompted by love and acceptance."

This is so important to realize not only for parents who are not very affectionate people to begin with, but also for all of us adoptive parents. Some of us might have adopted our children as young as one year old, but even these kids have missed out on the physical touch that is so vital to their emotional health.

As children graduate from babyhood, they continue to benefit from hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and affectionate hair tousles. Since they are still at an age where physical touch can be given quite naturally, take advantage of it while you can.

As children get even older, this kind of affection seems unnecessary, even silly to the point that you might be tempted to back off completely. You might even deem it inappropriate. Don't do this, please.

Teenagers are at an age where healthy affection and expressions of love are of great need. If our children can't turn to us for appropriate nurturing and healthy physical touch, they may turn to someone else like a boyfriend or girlfriend for it, and end up suffering emotionally. They may succumb to immoral relationships as they try fulfill their desire for love and acceptance.

A child that grows up without parental hugs or reaffirming touch may grow up to be adults who are limited in sharing love or expressing affection because they simply have never been taught.

I admit that it is easier for me to be affectionate to my children when they are easy to love. When behavior issues are going on or I feel that they are pushing me away, I am not in the mood to give them a much needed hug. Sometimes my goodnight kiss to them is forced on my part because I've let them control how I feel about them at that moment. But I still think that my forced kiss is much more beneficial to my children than no kiss at all.

I think these feelings that I describe can be related to a parent who was raised in a home that lacked physical touch and is now trying to initiate it with their child for the first time. It probably feels a bit forced. Here are a couple of ideas suggested by BSF.

Ask God to help you not overlook your child's need for physical affection. I ask for a simple reminder from Him, which He always gives.

Choose to start and end each day of your child's life with a loving hug.

When your child is fearful or anxious, try to accompany your words of comfort with a reassuring hug or pat on the shoulder.

Plan cuddle time.

Allow time for hands-on fun like piggyback rides.

Take a walk holding hands.

Julia's Mission

All week John has been working on Julia's mission project with her. They spent eight hours together on it. It is the San Miguel Arcangel Mission.

If you click on the pictures you will get a better look at the model. They put a lot of detail into it with real pulleys to ring the bells and a 2 hot glue water fountains.

I think they did an amazing job!

Don't let her fool you

Annalyn and I worked on this 9 block quilt piece yesterday as part of her homework. Annalyn has the neatest teacher that is teaching her class to sew and knit on a homemade knitting loom. Adam and Caleb also had her as a teacher.

Annalyn is smiling now, but this project was incredibly hard for her. If it wasn't mandatory, I think she would have given up on the second block. I admit that I got quite frustrated a couple of times as well (remember, I'm not a sewer) and probably raised my voice 5 times too many. I just didn't think I would have to thread the needle 20 or 30 times, or untangle the thread every couple of stitches.

I do see the blessing though. With all of these class projects Annalyn has going on, we are bonding so much right now. both John and I. It is also keeping her too busy to get herself into trouble. ;)

Homemade McMuffins!

What did you have for dinner?

BTW, I fried the eggs and ham, and Caleb assembled the sandwiches.

Something to Treasure

I am one of the lucky ones. I have a picture of my Anna as a baby, even though we adopted her when she was already seven years old. This is the picture that you see. She is 1 1/2 years old. It is small, blurry, tattered, and printed on paper, but this photo is absolutely precious to me. It is the only real glimpse into my daughter's past that I will ever have of her as a baby. To me, it is priceless.

Anna was so excited the day we took her and Sveta from the detsky dom that she accidentally put her Russian undershirt, underwear, and this hand sewn purse in her bag along with her jacket. Had I known, I honestly would have taken them out and given them back, afraid that the director would think that we had tried to steal something. After all, they told us to leave everything the girls had on that belonged to the detsky dom. Once we were in our hotel and I had the chance to find them, I was very happy to have them in addition to Anna's baby picture. How much more could I have asked for? I had one of my Russian daughter's personal undergarments, and her favorite purse that I could give back to her so that she could show her daughter someday.

Anna doesn't even know how much she will value these things when she is a grown woman.

As for the baby picture.......I am working on getting it blown up into at least a 5X7 so that I could hang it up on our wall for Christmas.

As for my other daughters.....I do not have any of their baby things. No pictures, no rattles, no underwear, nothing. For this I am sad.......... they all wish they had something too. Rachel does have a picture of her mother that she sent to Rachel right before she passed away, but this is all. I am grateful that Rachel has this picture.

It's funny how when I had my first son, I would beat myself up for not taking him to Sears or Wal-mart for his next photo session. You know the ones where it is suggested that we take our kids in at 3, 6, 9, 12 months and so on. Or when I did take him in, I would get angry because he would not smile and I couldn't get that perfect shot I had been dreaming of. I would literally plan our whole day's schedule around getting his picture taken, and I felt justified in being a grumpy, irritable mom. After all...getting your kids picture taken is hard work. "What are you looking at?"

With each child I took them in less and less until I finally stopped taking them in at all. Instead, I took plenty of pictures of them at home. Awww, what a new concept. But, regardless of how many times I took or didn't take their picture, the point is...... I have baby pictures for all of my biological children. In fact, I have hundreds.

I can't go back and change how things are now, I just know that as a mom, I can now teach and offer bits of wisdom to my own children as they grow up.

The first thing I am going to tell them............

1. Don't stress about getting pictures taken. At least you'll have them, but you can never get back that day that you were mean and cranky with your children. It's just not worth it.

What a Talent Show!

Here is another video I made of some of the kids performing a talent show. It is edited for your viewing pleasure. Don't mind the singing in the background, it's just me. ;) There are many clips with different songs so keep watching no matter how tempted you are to hit the stop button.

If only I were a child again.....

the highlight of a trip to Wal-Mart would be getting to see the fish for sale on display instead of the great deal I got on toilet paper.

my biggest Christmas stress would be whether or not I remembered to write down everything I wanted on my wish list instead of making sure that both Jesus and Santa get at the very least, equal mention. In a world that has watered down the true meaning of Christmas down to a pile of presents, it is especially important to me, to share and teach about the birth of our Savior.

I would only look forward to Baboonys'a chocolate pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of how much of everything I can pile onto one plate. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, creamed corn, sauteed green beans, marshmallowed yams, gravy, hot rolls for wiping up the gravy, pumpkin pie, flavored coffee, cookies, See's candy, and peach pie....oh how much my pants would thank me if I only wanted pie.

I wouldn't notice that this was the 86th time that I was watching Toy Story.

I would sleep walk to my parent's bed at 9:30 at night to get cozy with them and be completely oblivious to the hanky panky that's going on.

my idea of fun would be getting to take a bubble bath with two of my brothers and seeing who could squirt the most water on the ceiling instead of relaxing in a bubble bath all by myself. How boring is that?

I wouldn't notice that I stepped in doggy poop when I was playing in the backyard instead of constantly asking to look at and smell everyone's shoes.

I Can Do Buttons

Here I am sewing on a button on a hand me down shirt. Pretty thrifty, huh? I even found a perfect match button for it. :)

But, that's about all I can do in the sewing department, if replacing a button constitutes sewing. Does it? Oh, and I can mend a small hole.

I'm not sure why I am not a better sewer (wait a minute, that word looks wrong)....I mean seamstress.....probably because I don't enjoy it very much.

I guess that means that I won't be able to pass much on to my girls in that department.

Hey, at least I think I make up for it in cooking. Now there's something that I am passionate about!

Sveta's Paperdoll

Sveta (with Julia's help) had to dress up this paper doll for a class project. There it hung on her classroom wall until today when she brought it home. Isn't her dress fancy?

Since I would be knee deep in paper by now if I kept all of my kids artwork, I've instead started taking pictures of them so after the artwork is long gone, we will still have something to look at down the road.

Donut Daddy

One morning last week, John woke early for work to find that William was already up, dressed and straightening the house up like a very responsible boy.

So John took him to the donut shop to pick out donuts for William and the rest of the kids. This made William's day!

Of course, I was asleep when all of this was happening, so when John came back into the bedroom to tell me he had gotten donuts for breakfast and to kiss me goodbye, he startled me awake from my dream. I was quite scared for a second because paranoid me thought that he came back to tell me he got in an accident or something. {feeling dumb right about now}

Instead, he wanted to let me know that he got me one of the strawberry-cream cheese filled croissants that I love. If they were handing out a best father/husband award today, I'd have given it to him. :)

Caleb Studying his BSF

When I walked passed Caleb's bedroom door last night and saw him doing his BSF, I had one of those "proud mama" moments. He is responsible and always gets it done.

Our Christmas Card

Pretend that I mailed it to all of you. :)

For any of you who are thinking of spending money to have cards made, why don't you think of doing it yourself in Print Shop or something. That's how I made these, and they will probably only cost me about $.30 a piece.

Also, in case you are wondering how the kids got paired up ------I had the girls draw one of the boys' names out of a cup.

Let's Play...........

Can you guess what this is? If you can guess right....well, I'll declare you the WINNER!

I'll give you a hint. LOL. We find it all over the house.

Experiencing the loss of a pet

I didn't want to prematurely post this, but since it has been four days since we have seen her, I think it is time to admit that our Rosie is gone.

As you can probably already guess, Sveta has taken it the hardest. I can remember the day that the girls brought Rosie home, like it was yesterday. Dolly, our dog became like Rosie's mama, and their cat-dog relationship turned out to be a wonderful thing that my kids got to witness. Dolly, in a way, has lost the kitty that she took upon herself to take care of, and this makes Sveta very sad.

Rosie and Dolly have been a special part of Sveta's life. She spent time with them everyday when some of my other kids barely gave any notice to them. They were like Sveta's best friends as you can see here.

In fact, Sveta was the one who noticed that Rosie was gone. I didn't know until the second day, that Sveta thought that Rosie ran away because she didn't feed her enough. "Oh no Sveta, you didn't do anything wrong. Of course you fed Rosie enough, just look how fat her tummy was."

After going door to door and driving around, I have come to the conclusion that Rosie is gone. Sveta asked that we pray for Rosie, which we did, but she still mentions her everday. When I was looking for the video of her with Dolly and Rosie, and played it, Sveta wanted to watch too. Her emotions were both happy and incredibly sad. As you can see, the video is adorable and shows just how much Sveta loved Rosie, but at the same time, it is sad to watch because you know that is all you have left of the kitty you though of as a best friend.

I really do not know what to do except just be there for her and acknowledge her loss.

The Start of Something New

This November marks the sixth month that Rachel has been with us. Her adoption also became final two weeks ago.

So much has happened in those past six months, and I finally finished a video made especially for her to reflect how much her being a part of this family means to all of us.

Rachel came to us with so much heaviness in her heart that was evident in the pain that we saw in her eyes. She had so much to get off her chest that many bedtimes were spent with her sharing about all that had happened in Ukraine. I could never pretend to know exactly what she went through, but I did tell her that I believe that her birth parents did the best they could given the poverty, alcoholism, and abuse that commonly resides in homes in Ukraine, and most certainly resided in theirs. With very few resources to address unemployment and addiction, families are most times left to fend for themselves. Without the hope that only God can give, Rachel understood that her parents probably didn't know how to provide better for her and her brothers. Though we will not find out the truth behind the reasons that Rachel was adopted (at least not on this earth), I am certain that because of this hope that her birth parents did the best that they could given their circumstances, she has been able to forgive them. She no longer feels like she did something wrong, or that she wasn't worth them fighting for her.

I mention all of this because as I made this video of her, I was taken back by just how warm and inviting her eyes are now. I usually have a knack for picking out just the right song for all of the videos that I make, but this time I had a request that made this task a bit more challenging. Rachel really wanted me to use a High School Musical song. After listening to all of the songs for both part 1 and 2 I decided to use the song, "Start of Something New."

If any of you have followed Rachel's story, I believe this song is absolutely perfect.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Enjoy your day, your family, and the tons of food I am sure will be spread out before you as you celebrate all that you are thankful for. I know I will.

2 Peas in a Pod

Andrew and Jonny are always playing together. They are inseparable. They are often mistaken for twins whenever we go somewhere.

Confessions of a growing girl

I'm not one who likes to take my kids shopping with me. I prefer to go alone or with only one or two children max, get my stuff done, and hurry back home. I buy clothes and shoes that the kids can later try on at home, and if they fit, great, if not, I just take them back and try again next time I have the chance to go shopping.

Now , I hope you know I am referring only to clothes. I take all 10 of my kids to Costco, no problem. :) It's just that I have found it is too much of a pain for me to have them take forever just to pick out clothes that are too expensive, totally inappropriate, and or something I just would never allow. It's so much easier the way I do it.

So why I decided to take four of my girls clothes shopping with me this past Sunday, I couldn't tell you at the time.

The shopping actually went quite well, and I even found myself a couple of shirts for when we go to Ukraine. It was fun trying on clothes with the girls, and I admit that they behaved better than I thought they would. I just hate when they get in a sour mood because they can't find something in their size, or when I won't buy them a $21 shirt. It was really nice to not have them complain, and I got to show them how much money you can save when you buy just off the clearance racks and use a 15% coupon on top. I saved well over $150, and I was reminded how important it was that the girls were there for me to teach this too. Who else is going to show them how to shop wisely?

Before we went home, I took them to their favorite store Dollar Tree. Just as I was moving the cart to the checkout lane, Annalyn comes up to me and shows me a broken snow globe. Almost in tears, she apologizes to me. "Thanks for telling me Annalyn, but now we have to go find the manager to tell her. The right thing to do is pay for what you broke."

It was a great lesson for all the girls, especially Annalyn who humbly confessed and offered to pay for the snow globe she broke. The manager nicely declined Annalyn's offer, and so we left.

I could end the story right here, but I haven't even gotten to the good part. What could have been the reason that I decided to take four of my girls shopping? I had almost decided not to. I think that only God knew at the time, that it was not the shopping that was important but it was the talking that would later follow.

On the drive home, Annalyn out of the blue said, "You know Mom, I wasn't even going to tell you about the snow globe. After I shook it and it broke, I set it down and walked away. But I started to feel really bad, and I knew it would be better to just tell you. And you know what, I think I did the right thing. I'm glad I told you."

This started the conversation about how breaking something and not telling the store about it is similar to stealing because either way the store loses money. After hearing this, each of my girls shared how they had, in the past, stolen a pack of cough drops, gum, and a rock (yes, one was dumb enough to steal a rock, one of those pretty, shiny, polished rocks). I even told them about the time I had shoplifted and got caught. They asked so many questions, and they were all ears to what I had to say. It is such a rare opportunity where we all share common ground that brings us together as we listen to each others experiences. It was a great drive home.

Oh, and we shared a pack of sour Jolly Ranchers that we all picked out together. (and yes, I paid for them.) :)

God is Our Strength

This is me just passing along another video titled 99 balloons, that really brought me to tears. If nothing else, it will make you stop and appreciate every day that you have with your children. Each day, even when there is continuous whining, countless diaper changes, doctor's appointments, one more load of laundry, and three more bills to pay that just came in the mail, it all means nothing when you look at the grand scheme of things. And the grand scheme of things is that we have our children, our family, and one amazing Heavenly Father.

Why an older child? part 2

Many posts ago I talked about networking, and it is finally happening much in the way I envisioned it would. :) Sarah and Annie both decided to share about "Why an older child?" and it was so wonderful to read about what led them down the path to adopting their children. One started out thinking about a little toddler from China, while another fell in love with a picture and followed her heart.

It really amazes me that each of us share the common thread of adoption, yet have totally different stories to tell. But where the three of our stories come together in unity is that we each feel that God led us down a special path that ended with older children becoming our sons and daughters.

Thanks for sharing you two.

Things that can only make a mom laugh

One afternoon William and I were snacking on some hot Cheetos while pizza was cooking in the oven. Andrew walks into the kitchen, sees what we are eating, and asks William, "Why didn't mom get out the cold Cheetos? I only like the cold ones."

Jonny and I were watching a movie one morning after everyone had either left for school or work. Half way through it, he asks me while he cups my chin and directs my eyes to look at him, "Mom, can you save my seat?" "Yeah sure Jonny," I said to him. How cute to see him copy what his older siblings do, even though there was no one there to take the seat that I was supposed to save. After he went potty he came back and said, " Good, no one took it.

Do you know what bologna beans are? baby carrots (don't ask)

I happened to walk in one of the girls' rooms as Sveta was changing into her pajamas. She seemed fascinated with her armpits. I asked what she was looking at? "Mom, look. I got lots of hair on my armpits now." When I took a closer look, I realized that it was just the fuzz from her sweatshirt. Sveta was so disappointed when I burst her bubble.

Tonight while helping Jonny to change into his pajamas he asked me, "Mom can these grow up like yours?" He was referring to the dots on his chest. :)

Make it your adopted child's home too

I spent a good part of yesterday working on pictures. I hung a lot of frames up in our stairwell that I had put in our closet back when we remodeled our home. I hadn't hung them back up yet because none of them included our two newest additions to our family.

So, I printed out a bunch of new pictures that include Annalyn and Rachel. After hanging the pictures up, even though they are now included in them, it is now more evident that we don't have any baby pictures of them.
It must sadden them even if just a little bit because it saddens me. If only there was a way I could produce a picture that I could hang up on the wall to represent how much love I have fore my girls now....enough to display the pictures of a baby that at the time wasn't even my child yet, I think would be an awesome gift. I know it isn't necessary for me to do this in order for them to know that I love them, but it is something that I would like to do for them if I could. I got word of this site that does regression photos and I wanted to pass it along in case anyone else feels like I do.

These have got to be one of my faves!

Yesterday Adam and I baked Ranger cookies. They are sooo yummy! They are a lot of work because the recipe calls for a lot of dry ingredients and they take muscle power to mix together, but they are so worth it, and my big strong Adam did most of the mixing anyways. :) Plus, they are choke full of healthy oatmeal, nuts, and coconut.

If you love cookies like I do, then you will enjoy this recipe. Feel free to throw in some chocolate chips too, but IMHO they taste better without them.

Also, if you have a recipe that you you and your family loves, please share.

Ranger Cookies

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter softened
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. oatmeal
1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped nuts (I prefer pecans)

Cream sugars and butter together. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until smooth. Set aside. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture and stir well. Add remaining ingredients. Stir (this is where the muscle power is needed) well. Drop by tablespoon on cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Enjoy!

A little bit of love can go a long way

Love is a choice. Especially with our children. Adopted or not.

We should not base our decision to love our child because of their ability to love us back.

How do we know that they are not trying their very best? I tend to believe that love is imitated and given an adopted child's past, most likely surrounded by abandonment, neglect, abuse, and overall distrust for adults, I don't know how they would have had the chance to learn the way that we are called to love......the way God intended us to love.

But, I am not even sure that we adoptive parents all have healthy relationships. I'm not sure that all of us know how to love our adopted children.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

Sometimes it just so happens that initially our love is not reciprocated by our adopted children in the way that we would expect, and that sets the tone for how we will perceive their future attempts at loving us. Often times their attempts from that point on seem fake, if not forced. Over time we become insecure that this fake show of affection is because they don't really love us, or want to manipulate us in some way, but really they just have not been taught.

Whatever it may be that we are feeling, I am sure that our children pick up on it. They may not know how to naturally initiate an affectionate hug, but they are not dumb. In fact, they are pros at picking up on subtle signs of rejection and taking it to heart.

This may not be our intentions, but eventually, both of our insecurities and feelings begin to feed off of each other, only exacerbating the issue.

But who is the adult here? Who chose who?

Really,
How much effort would it take for you to reach out to rub your child's hand? Wish them well on a test? Invite them to sit next to you on movie night? How much effort would it take for you to act like you are interested, invested, supportive?

What if.......
your daughter is helping around the house to the point that you feel like she is trying to take your place only because this is what she was expected to do back in her home country?

your son pushes you away every time you sit down to feed him because he associates food with his birth mom leaving him alone for days at a time because she thinks that he will be fine after eating a good meal?

your daughter just keeps waking you up in the middle of the night because she yearns for you to come and snuggle up next to her?

your daughter doesn't comb her hair because she wants you to notice and put pretty bows in it?

If we could only show them the love and affection that they so desire from us, then maybe just maybe, they would have something to imitate.

I'm not sure why I decided to post about this, probably because of what I have been reading the last couple of days from the adoption community, but I want to leave you with this last bit of thought.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we as adoptive parents could look at adoption the same way as God does?

Ephesians 1:4-6 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

These toes are so yummy, Mama!

This is Jonny biting his toe nails. When I was little, I did the exact thing, although he is a little more flexible than I was. It's okay because it means just one less thing for me to do.

Be careful son, don't give yourself a cramp. ;)

Why an older child?

The very first time we decided to adopt back in January 2005, there was no question that we wanted an older child. Sure, it was mainly due to us already having six biological children and not desiring to have another baby, but also partly due to the fact that older children have even less of a chance of being adopted. Because there were no diapers involved with an older child, that appealed to us too.

Now that we actually have our daughters home, life with them now is even better than I had imagined it. Had we adopted our daughters when they were younger, I am not sure we would have been blessed with learning as much as we have about them. A baby can only remember so much, and yes that's good because maybe they won't remember what happened to put them in the orphanage to begin with, but it has been such a Godly experience to have our girls open up to us and learn to trust us at their most vulnerable times in their lives, that I know I would not have gotten these special moments had they been younger.

They each, have such amazing stories, it is hard to not be affected by each detail they share. I have often felt like I was there with them as they relive the pain and the sadness through what they tell me. I am in awe, how strong and how willing each of them came into our home, trusting that life has more to offer than what they had been previously handed. I am honored that they have basically handed me their lives and asked me to fix them. My girls have cried in my arms as they bared their soles, and they have yelled at me in sheer frustration. My girls have questioned my authority finding it hard to believe that an adult can be trusted and my girls have snuggled in my arms free to be a little girl again. They probably think that they are the lucky ones to have a loving family, but it is I who is grateful that I am now a part of their lives. I am so blessed to be their mom.

I want to encourage anyone out there that is thinking about adopting an older child, specifically a daughter, to take that leap of faith and follow your heart.

With that said, I know it may seem ironic that we are now in the process of adopting a much younger, little boy. In addition to the many reasons that my husband shares in his one and only post , I can only add that this is what God has laid upon our hearts at this time. The key again, is following wherever God leads you.

Do you ever get in one of those moods?

Sometimes, I just get in one of those goofy kinds of moods, especially if the week is going well, where all I do is find little ways to joke around with my kids. I totally crack myself up. Some of my kids say it is a sign that I am going cookoo. :) Do you ever do this? Annie? Sarah?

1. John bought a Barry Bonds Bobblehead (say that 3x's fast)that nobody really wants anymore, but for whatever reason I haven't gotten rid of yet. When Adam is at school, I sneak it in his room and usually put it on his dresser or something. Then a day or two later, I find it somewhere in my room. Well, now it is in his closet hiding under his socks. I'm sure he'll find it the next time he takes a shower. :)

2. Anna brought me home a note from her teacher asking for a can of green beans to make Pilgrim Stew. When Anna was doing her homework, I quietly placed a can of black beans next to her. I walked away to hide my goofy smile as she said to me, "Umm Mom, my teacher wanted green beans, not black beans."

"Anna, green beans, black beans, red beans, they're all the same. I'm sure she'll be thankful that you brought any beans at all."

She looks at me funny and said, "Okay mom, but I think she is going to know the difference."

I winked at her, as I gave her a can of green beans. Boy, that was fun. :)

Kids Can be Cruel

So, I am at church last Wednesday night attending an Exploring Christianity course with a group of people where one of them happens to be the mom of one of Annalyn's classmates. Later in the evening just before we left she tells me,

"Did you know that when I was in class helping out, one of the kids in your daughter's group made the comment that, Oh, it's because she's adopted."

My heart sank. How could this happen? I thought that I had taken all of the precautionary steps to avoid such comments from stinging my children's ears. Why hadn't I seen this earlier? Why hadn't Annalyn shared this with us?

I truly felt like a failure. How could I have not seen it?

Annalyn has been having a hard time with not talking or playing around when she is not supposed to and I had previously been chalking it up to her impulsivity and lack of self control. I never once thought that maybe, just maybe she was talking and playing around to try to win over some of her peers by being a social butterfly as if to prove that being adopted made her no different from anyone else.

A lightbulb suddenly went on. Even if the two were not related after all, I needed to, we needed to, address the feelings that Annalyn must be having as a result of hearing such cruel comments. I don't know why we thought that having this talk was something that you only do once.

After church that night, John took Annalyn aside to talk to her. She was surprised that we knew what had been said to her that she truly believes that God tells parents everything. She admitted to feeling embarrassed and unworthy after hearing the comment from a girl in her class. I'm not sure exactly what was said by John, but later when Rachel and I walked into their room at bedtime, Rachel asked Dad as he was leaving, "Why is Annalyn so happy?" I looked over at Annalyn and saw that she had the biggest grin on her face and knew that they must have had a great talk.

In fact, this is something that we'll be discussing with all of our children.

Lickity Snickity Snickerdoodles

Didn't Jonny do a great job of rolling his dough into a ball?

Andrew made a nice round ball. So did Sveta.

Jonny loved licking his hands clean.

So did Dolly. :)

Snickerdoodles are ready!

Sveta says, "Yummy!"

In case you are wondering where the rest of the kids are, they are with John up at BSF (bible study fellowship) where they go every Monday night. He takes all of the kids that can read, memorize the verse, look up a verse in the bible, and complete their weekly bible study. The ones that can't, get to stay home and spend time with me. :)

Driveway Artists

What better way to spend the afternoon than playing with sidewalk chalk? The girls ground up the sticks of chalk into a fine powder so that they could mix it with water and make chalk paint. Beautiful job girls, just don't sit on my couch until you march yourself upstairs and take a shower. :)

Mama Love

I love nothing more than when one of my kids wake up in a good mood. I'm talking about the kind of giddy moods that make a child's breath smell sweeter, their kisses feel like magic, and their laughter sound like music to your ears.

The Benefits of a diagnosis

I got an email a couple of days ago asking if there were any benefits to getting a diagnosis of FAS. It's not like there is a cure or even a pill that keeps it in check. Also, it doesn't cause a person pain and it certainly shouldn't change the way you feel about your child, resulting in you loving them less, so what would be the point in getting a diagnosis, you ask.

For one, not knowing for sure, and, or, always wondering if I was imagining certain things, would wear on me over time. I think I would drive myself crazy wondering if everything I noticed that was different was just in my head or something related to FAS.

For us, a diagnosis was crucial in helping to understand exactly what it was that was causing her delays and outrageous behaviors. I don't want to call it her excuse, but in reality, it kind of is. It helped us to find where her weakest areas are and get her services to address these areas.... without a diagnosis I believe, she would still be struggling and our understanding of her disability would remain a mystery. Without an IEP, we would definitely all be frustrated (including her) lacking the knowledge of how to address our daughter's individual needs.

Here is a picture of what she used to write on her own. I call it her busywork because she likes to look like she is doing something important, yet it is simply copying the one sentence she learned when she first began to read. A pretty basic and rote activity. Without an IEP, I believe Sveta would still be doing this on a regular basis.


With her IEP, she is challenged, and is expected to work to her full potential. This was what she recently wrote for the district writing assessment. She is very proud of her work and you can see the sense of accomplishment that she feels.

The Wall of Fame

This is a wall in our bedroom. Admittedly, there is not much free wall space that gets looked at more than this area, and so the kids as they draw us pictures, tape them up on this wall.

You can say that their works of art have become our bedroom decor. Nice, huh?

If you click on this picture or any of the pictures posted in this blog, you will get a closer look.

Rachel's Adoption Day

I got a call yesterday asking how many of our kids we would be bringing today. This judge helped us with Annalyn's, Sveta's, and Anna's adoptions and really wanted to meet all of the family this time around. She wanted to make this day special for us since the majority of her cases aren't much to celebrate. She said this day was special for her to be able to witness an adoption of an older child into a wonderful family. That just doesn't happen very often anymore.

Here we are walking to the courtroom.

The judge had balloons, cookies, snacks, and toys for all of the kids. It was definitely a celebration.

Here we are right after the court session ended and Rachel is legally ours.

Each kid got to pick out a prize from a wagon they wheeled in. It was nice to see that Andrew who has been kind of rough playing lately picked out a soft, white teddy bear that he cuddled all the way back to school.


Some of the kids including Rachel, let their balloon go to signify Rachel letting go of her previous name and family to officially become a member of our family.
Here is Julia, Rachel, and Jonny acting all goofy and sentimental. They asked me to take this picture. I am partial to the sweet smiling faces that I have the privilege of smiling back at.

Imitating Mama

Here are pictures of some of my girls wearing new glasses. No, they don't need them, but they want them. Since their eyes are fine and don't actually need glasses, I asked our eye doctor if he had any sample frames that he would be willing to give us. This has been happening for the past two years, and I just got three new pairs when I took Jonny to the eye doctor. They don't have a prescription, but they look real.

At first, I thought they just wanted them for attention, but honestly, looking back at the time when I first got my glasses, it was not a glorious moment. I was embarrassed and hated them, so I can't imagine my girls actually enjoying them for just the attention because I think it would be mostly negative.

Honestly, especially by their comments, I think they are trying to be as much like me as they can. Even Julia, has joined in, probably to fit in with her sisters, and that's okay. Have you heard the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think it is sweet that they want to be like me, but boy, does it put on the pressure. Not only do I have to watch out for them imitating how I look and dress, but I also have to watch out for how I act so that they don't start imitating my bad habits like yelling from the kitchen to one of the kids that is in the shower. ??? What am I thinking when I do that? It's not like they are going to ever hear me.
Or when I am in a hurry and get snappy with one of the kids just because I can. These are things that should never be imitated.

Life just keeps on moving right along

Besides plugging along with our home study to adopt from Ukraine, this is what our week has been like.

Monday, after helping out in Andrew's class, I quickly drove up to the courthouse to file paperwork to get a court date to finalize Rachel's adoption. They pleasantly surprised me when they asked if we could bring the whole family this Friday. The judge that did our other girls' readoptions specifically asked if she could be our judge for Rachel too. She also had one request ---that we bring in all the kids so that we can make it a whole family occasion. Hopefully, we can accommodate her, but a couple of the kids (believe it or not) want to go to school because of something going on in their class. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see who ends up going with us. As it is, I am not sure what we are going to do if we take everybody because that means we need to take the van, and sometimes it is very hard to find parking since we can't park underground. I guess we can go early and park further away from the courthouse and just walk.

So, after zooming back to the school to get Andrew, I met with his teacher for the first of 10 parent-teacher conferences. It went well, and the only thing that she would like to see improve is his willingness to retell stories or answer questions about the story she just read. His answer too many times was, "I don't know!" We both know that he does to know. ;)

Tuesday, just a trip to Walmart and the eye doctor to pick up Jonny's new glasses. I would post a picture of him sporting his new spectacles but they are exactly the same as his last pair. :( Jonny really wanted red ones.

Wednesday, Anna went to the dentist. No cavities, so I took her and Jonny to McDonald's for lunch. I let them place in the play place for awhile before I took her back to school. It's at times like these that I see just how "little" Anna still is. She is still making up for so much lost time, but there is no rush because we will let her take as long as she needs.

When I took Anna back to school, I stopped by the book fair to buy some new books for the kids. Out of at least 100 books, the one Annalyn wants most is titled, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."
When I bought her the book, I had a chance to thumb through it, and it made me a little sad to think that she will probably relate to a lot of what's in it.

Thursday, Jonny has speech and I have five parent-teacher conferences.

Friday is Rachel's readoption date and more conferences in the afternnon.

My Oldest Son

Adam is my oldest child. At twelve years old, it's sometimes impossible to get him to let me take his picture. He is just way to cool for that most of them time. In fact, I am the one who is uncool for taking photos anyways. He knows I'm more than likely going to blog them.

That is what is so cool about these pictures. He let me take them of him just doing what he does. This is my wonderful and fun loving son Adam just being himself. You gotta love him!



This is a bit annoying, but he tells me that he is being considerate by not dirtying a cup. How thoughtful. :)


Adam is eating a crabby patty left over from Halloween. They're actually pretty yummy if you get a sour one.


I remember doing this when I was a younger. I always thought it felt good to know that I had the power to suck my nose in for so long. I think he gets it from me. :) At least he has never sucked on a cup so long that it gave him a hickey all over his chin. I did that when I was eleven and boy was it embarrassing, especially when the hickey turned green then yellow.

A long trip down Memory Lane

After some thought, I have decided to consolidate my old website into this one. I am doing this little by little. If you are interested in reading, just go back to the oldest post. There are some really nice videos I made of our family. Sadly, they do not include all of our children as some are pre Rachel and Annalyn.

Beep, beep, beep

Long time no blog. Well it seems like a long time anyways. :)

Today was another one of Caleb's orthodontist appointments. We were pleasantly surprised when he was done in 20 minutes instead of the usual three hours. This gave us plenty of time to go visit with my mom before the stores opened. She had chocolate rice crispy treats for Caleb and Jonny. Yum.

I bought four new pillows today. Does anyone else buy pillows on a regular basis? I do because a couple of the kids still wet the bed on occasion and get the pillow all wet. Need I say more?

We also went to Costco, and I begged the cashier to keep it under a certain amount. You would think that she would have at least tried to keep it within fifty bucks or so, but noooooooo. The register total just kept increasing every time I heard a beep. Chicken breasts ---beep. Peanut butter---- beep. Pita chips ---beep. String cheese -----beep. Ground beef ---- beep. Gold Fish -----beep. Capri Suns ----beep. You get the picture.

I did manage to buy John's Christmas present amongst all the groceries. :)