Thankful

I think this is about the longest I have gone with out doing a post on my blog.  There are many things I have wanted to blog about, I just have not made the time.  One of those, of course, was Thanksgiving.  We had a very wonderful and pretty much ideal Thanksgiving spent with family, good food, and relaxing.   I asked the kids to tell me some of the things for which they are most grateful.

String Cheese said:  My whole entire family, myself, and Jesus; my talents; that Jesus created this Earth; that I have a house; that I'm not an orphan; my clothes; very very thankful for all our prophets, and also the presidents of our country; the pilgrims and the Indians who were friendly to them; and the pioneers who crossed the plains.

Deedle said:  Food to eat; my clothes; myself; our brains; holidays; my house; my warm bed and warm blankets; the mountains; and nighttime.

Loumy said:  My toys; healthy food so we don't die; Heavenly Father so He can make us have our bodies; I'm glad you adopted me so I wouldn't die; my sisters; my brothers; my mom and dad; my friends; legs and arms and heads; stoplights; and headlights (he was giving me the list in the car, if you couldn't guess).

I am grateful for many things.  Right now I am particularly mindful and grateful for my good health.  It is such a blessing to be strong, capable, emotionally stable, and free from pain.   The photo below was taken 4 years ago at this time.  Loumy had just been sealed to us.  I was so happy.  You can't tell very well that I am still very yellow-skinned and -eyed from my months of colistatic jaundice after being hospitalized with Hep A.  I still could not eat much of anything other than saltines or chicken broth with out being in severe pain.  I lost my hair within a few weeks of this photo being taken.  Around that time I also began to spiral down into a deep and terrifying depression which was not controlled for about another year. 

 Four weeks ago I had strep throat that lasted an entire week.  I was good for seven days and then was hit with a stomach virus that wiped me out for another week.  My mom and sisters came and helped me out with Miles because for a few days I could hardly move out of bed and was getting dehydrated.  It brought back all kinds of frightening memories of the months of lying in bed in excruciating pain, unable to care for my home or my children.  I am grateful for all of the things I learned from going through those experiences, but ::whew:: am I HAPPY AND THANKFUL to be healthy and strong right now.  Thank you thank you thank you Heavenly Father!

And speaking of health, I am extra grateful for the blessings all of my children have had this year, but especially the health and strength that this little one has been blessed with.  What an extraordinary amount of blessings in just eight months time:

Along the same lines, still, I am grateful that Chancho's annual Thanksgiving football game with his brothers and friends did NOT end how it usually does.  They actually just finally decided they'd played along enough, rather than having to quit because somebody needed to be taken to the emergency room for a blown out knee or something like that.

Jessica's Design

Because I really want to post about this and I don't have time, please read this post instead and vote for my niece!

Deedle and the Coming of Christmas

I used to get annoyed when I saw people putting up Christmas lights or hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I would think, "What's the rush? Can't a girl just appreciate each holiday as they come?" But as I've grown older, my feelings have begun to change. Time just goes too fast. 25 days is not long enough to enjoy the Christmas spirit. And, although I'm not putting up my tree or turning on the lights outside just yet, I am definitely happy about the Christmas music that 106.5FM is already starting to play.

Chancho received some gift certificates to Chili's from his work so we decided to go out to eat as a family on Saturday night. It was already dark and Chancho turned on the radio. It was Christmas music, the first I've heard this year. The kids started getting all excited. The air was cool and it just all felt so right. String Cheese asked, "Is it okay to start listening to this before we even have Thanksgiving?" Before I could answer, we were interrupted by Deedle who exclaimed, at the top of her lungs:

"SWEET GEEEEZ!!!"

Chancho and I quickly covered our mouths, stifling our laughter. I have no idea where she came up with that phrase but it seemed to work for the moment because, afterall, she had just seen...a Christmas tree in a home's front window in the first week of November. After recovering, we suggested that perhaps next time she could exclaim something more like, "sweet cheese". Although "Sweet Geez" was one of the funniest things I've ever heard, it sounded a little too much like she might say the Lord's name in vain. Deedle Deedle Deedle. You make me laugh every single day. I love you.

Public Speaking Tips

Two weeks ago I was trying to get ready to go speak to a large group of young women and their parents. I was getting nervous. I had about 14 outfits strewn across my bed and I wasn't feeling totally confident about my topic. Loumy was in my room observing me put on my makeup. I hadn't said that I was nervous and I was still maintaining calm and patience (which is not always the case when I am trying to prepare for a public speaking event). Suddenly my just-five-year-old-extremely perceptive-son said to me, "Mom, I've got some good tips for you if you're nervous and sweaty."

He said it so confidently and in a more mature voice than I've ever heard. I stopped what I was doing and thought, "This is going to be good." So, I sat down on the bed and grabbed the outline of my talk that I was getting ready to give and turned it over to the blank side.

"Do you mind if I write them down?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. "Are you ready?"

Pen in hand, I nodded.

Loumy then proceeded to give me some awesome advice.

"Number one: if you are sweaty, put some water on a thing around your neck. (he waited patiently as I wrote and then proceeded) Number two: You should practice what you're going to say. Number three: if you're nervous, just calm down! Number...is this number three? ("four" I tell him) Number four: if you have a daughter or a son even if they're not with you, you should talk about them, like what they love and stuff."

He again waited thoughtfully until I finished. I looked up at him and he shrugged, "That's all I got. Are those good tips?"

They were fantastic tips. And the best part of him giving me the speaking tips is that it totally put everything back into perspective for me. I suddenly didn't really care about what I wore and I felt calm knowing that no matter how things turned out during my speech, I would be coming home to this little person who loves me unconditionally.I thank God everyday that we found each other, Loumy!

Birthday Boy

Chancho turned 34 last Wednesday. Tia said that I rarely post photos of him on my blog. The main reason for that is because he despises being in front of a camera. When I want family photos taken I do not tell him until about 15 minutes before it is time, then I suddenly say, "Hey, can you put this on because we're leaving to have our family pictures taken." But, since it was his birthday, I took the opportunity to snap some shots of my handsome husband and will share them with you all. We ate at Famous Dave's, opened a few presents, and sang Happy Birthday with candles on a pie.
I am so grateful to have Chancho in my life. I cannot imagine my life with out him. What a lonely, empty, sad world that would be. He is my best friend. He always makes me laugh. He has a kind heart. He always reminds me that I am never in any struggle alone but that we are a team and will be forever. He is a wonderful father. There is nobody that I would rather spend time with than my Chancho. What a miracle and a blessing it is to be married to this man.

Chancho, I love you madly!

November is National Adoption Month

As any of you who read my blog regularly or know me are already aware, adoption is very special to me. November is National Adoption Month and I would like to share a couple of videos that have touched me.

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Halloween Week

WHOO-EE! This is a lot of photos for one blog post!

Festivities began on Thursday night with pumpkin carving. Chancho did the most work for sure. Here he is carving the face on String Cheese's pumpkin. I think String Cheese liked the guts of her pumpkin a little too much! Deedle liked the guts a little bit too little.
Loumy tried to draw a picture of how he wanted his face but then just got out a book and showed us instead.Friday morning Loumy dressed up in his Mace Windu costume for his preschool party. After dropping off Loumy, we raced up to the school (late of course) for Deedle and SC's Halloween parade. Patti held my little skeleton while I took photos of the girls. I also snapped a shot of friend Jenna...... and this cool "old man". I think any parent who would cut their son's hair like this for Halloween must be super cool (I know her and she is).The kids were thrilled to basically have two Halloweens since they partied all day Friday and still had the best-still-to-come on Saturday (the trick-or-treating, of course). The weather was very cold this week, even with some snow. This morning, however, we woke up to sun and a little higher temperatures.

The highlight of Halloween week for me personally was going for a bike ride down on our trail with the entire family! Chancho spent quite a bit of time fixing all of our flat tires and hooking up the trailer for Finn and that type of thing. And if you are wondering whether or not Loumy is riding a girls' bike, he is NOT. It just happens that it used to be his sisters bike and it is purple (just like Mace Windu's light sabre). But it no longer has any girl stickers, rather is now be-decked in Star Wars stickers and is a full-blown Star Wars bike for a BOY. And don't any of you dare tell Loumy otherwise! It was so gorgeous on the trail with the sunshine and the fall leaves and the river...but after about one second I dropped all of the batteries out of my camera and could only find 3 of the 4 so these are the only shots I got.

When we got home, it was FINALLY time to start putting on costumes and makeup. String Cheese would not allow me to do her face white again, but she still looked awesome. The kids were amazingly patient while I took their photos, even though they were super anxious to get their trick-or-treat on.
Deedle, by the way, is an Ice Princess or a Snow Queen. But not an Ice Queen. All month people have been asking her what she is going to be for Halloween and when she told them, "Ice Queen", much to her dismay they would respond, "An Icecream? How cute!" The "icecream" accusation inevitably led to much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. So, I convinced her to call herself "Ice Princess" or "Snow Queen" instead (depending on her mood) and that helped us avoid the "icecream" landmine. I thought the geisha was quite original for SC this year, but at the parade at school I saw 4 of them in second grade alone. Funny how that works. SC didn't care one bit, so I didn't either.

At last the kids were off. Finn and I stayed home to pass out candy while Chancho took the kids around the block. I snapped this shot of one of our neighbors. She always dresses up cool to take her grandkids around for treats.

We finished off the night by going over to Chancho's parents to visit and do a little more trick-or-treating with Uncle Brian (aka Cookie Monster) and Myely-the-amazing-Lobster-dog.
I hope ya'll had as happy of a Halloween as we did!