Turkey

Right before Thanksgiving we were given a huge 25 pound turkey. Because we spent Thanksgiving with my family and went out to a restaurant for dinner, Tom has been sitting in my fridge, thawing. Yesterday I cooked him up, along with some yams, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole,
brussels sprouts, rolls, and cranberry sauce. It was so yummy.

Brunch

We are heading to brunch at my parents house to celebrate my birthday, E's birthday and Easter. I am bringing these lil devils. We were going to use olives for the eyes, but they were forgotten at the store. We used beets instead!

St Patties Day

There are 4 things you must never do: lie, steal, cheat, or drink.
But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.
If you must steal, steal away from bad company.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away...

-Brianne Kelly Darragh

randomness

K. with S. after his surgeries in 2008

• S. is going to begin preschool on his birthday next month, right after winter break! And he is able to qualify for these services based primarily on his medical needs. He is really not delayed enough in other areas to qualify. Which is EXCELLENT news. He is such a little miracle.

• We are fighting yet another cold with K. bringing it home first. She is still a thumb sucker, and I am afraid this nasty habit is introducing all sorts of fun winter germs to our house. Also, we are trying a restrictive diet on K. this week. She has a lot of food intolerance symptoms, and I have wondered if maybe she is gluten, dairy or egg sensitive. It is hard to cut out all these foods, but I hope soon we will have some sort of idea if there is one type of food she should avoid.

• I have NOT been doing much Christmas shopping and am NOT sending cards or letters again this year. I am nearly finished shopping for the extended family, the kids are almost done (just need a few more stocking stuffers), and then something small for teachers and such. I'm thinking homemade muffins? What do you think?

• The kids have their church play this Sunday. C. has a short solo and is a narrator. K. is one of the 2o or so angels, and L. is the stage manager. Should be good times.

• We've had company the last few weeks, in the form of play dates. The idea of having another child over to add to the noise and chaos used to make me a little anxious. It still does, a bit. But I have decided to put that aside for my kids. They are really enjoying sharing their home and family with their friends. It has also blessed us too.

• I am so excited for the date night our church is putting together on Saturday! The teens are babysitting kids while parents can go out and do some shopping, or whatever for several hours. I can't wait. Not sure yet how we will spend those few hours, but it will be great!

• Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words regarding Mercy. We are still healing and struggling through the process. I kind of feel like I did when I experienced a miscarriage. Nobody really wants to talk about the issue, and the loss is great. I appreciate your continued prayers for our whole family and for Mercy.

• Please be praying for my friend Melissa. She reached out to love and support me while I was in Uganda as she was there adopting another Mercy. She has spent her time in country encouraging other adoptive families, ministering to pregnant mothers, and shining a light for Him. She has been in Uganda since the end of August. For last few months she's been dealing with visa issues, a complicated mess. Her family at home misses her terribly. Pray for a miracle for Melissa and Mercy to come home soon.

lowering the risk

INCREASED RISK:

My S. has many neurological complications. He has had to undergo several surgeries at a young age, and has a VP shunt for hydrocephalus. Because of the shunt, he must be monitored closely and undergo yearly visits including imaging at the nearby children's hospital. Children with shunt-treated hydrocephalus are exposed to serious amounts of radiation when undergoing computerized tomography (CT) scanning. I know S. has had at least 4 CT scans in his life so far, he is 2. I found this article interesting and alarming:

The risk is especially high for children. Researchers say that children are 10 times as sensitive to the radiation as adults are, putting them at an even greater cancer risk.

"Children's tissues are more sensitive to radiation, and they live longer than adults do, which means the cancer has more time to develop," says Cynthia McCollough, a radiological physicist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "However, if you need a CT scan, parents shouldn't lose a minute of sleep over it."

The reason parents shouldn't be too concerned is that the individual risk of developing cancer is small.

"One in four Americans will develop cancer in their lifetime," explains McCollough. "That's 25 percent. Radiation from CT scans when you are a baby increases your risk of developing cancer to 25.1 percent."

Since last year, S. has been administered MRI's instead, which do not use radiation. But I AM concerned. Cancer freaks me out. I have had many members of my family suffer from cancer related illness or death. We have cared for a teen from Haiti who lost his leg above the knee from cancer. My mom recently had surgery because of cancer.

HOW WE ARE CHANGING:

I have become more and more cautious of our health in our home. We try to eat a lot of produce, healthy oils, whole grains and lean meats. We are concerned with environmental toxins like PCBs, VOCs, pesticides, and the like. This article has many good ideas. (I wasn't aware that avoiding sugar can help prevent cancer. I did know eating a lot of sugar can cause other health problems.)

1 Eat more vegetables
Vegetables aren’t just delicious and filled with vitamins and nutrients; they also contain a lot of fiber, antioxidants, and beta-carotene. All of these help reduce your risk. Eating vegetables makes your body more alkaline, which is also good for preventing any illness.
For more on why eating a more plant based diet is better for you and the environment, please read another great resource at GoVeg.

2 Go organic
Organic food not only tastes better, it doesn’t have all those pesticides, antibiotics, steroids and growth hormones that can make you very sick. A lot of people say to me organic costs more. One trick is to go to your local farmer’s market right before closing. The vendors are practically giving their products away. Plus, eating organic is much cheaper than getting sick, missing work, and having medical expenses.

3 Sweat more
Sweating releases toxins through the skin. Fewer toxins in your body, the lower your risk of getting sick. Go for a hike, take a power yoga class, or sit in a sauna on a regular basis.

4 Do a liver cleanse on a regular basis
If you’ve been getting my newsletters for a while, you know I’m a fan of doing a SAFE cleanse at least once a year. Along with sweating, a liver cleanse will flush out the bad stuff that’s stuck in your liver.

5 Taking care of your mental health
Stress can weaken your immune system. Thus, making you more susceptible to getting sick. So whether it’s meditating, therapy, a spiritual practice, exercise, or all of the above, please take care of you!

6 Avoid sugar, including sugar substitutes, and dairy
Sugar feeds cancer. Eat some fruit instead. And dairy is mucous forming, since it’s mucous too. Try milk alternatives, such as hemp, almond, or rice. You can get really creative and make your own.

7 Deep breathing
Cancer cells won’t thrive in a highly oxygenated body. So take out that yoga mat and breathe.

8 Don’t store or cook your food in plastic.
Highly heated plastics release dioxin (carcinogens) into your food and ultimately into the cells of the body. In fact, avoid using plastic altogether.

AVOIDING PLASTICS:

More recently I have become careful about the use of plastics. I have become a plastic tossing fool the last few days. I am not throwing them out, since who knows how long this phase will last? I hope it will be a life long, healthy living choice. But I will keep my Tupperware and Rubbermaid in storage for a bit to be sure I really don't want to keep them. Or maybe find another non food storage use for them? I am trying to not bring any more plastic into the home. That is my intention.

GIFT GIVING:

Then I think about Christmas. And toys and gifts loaded with plastic. Read this article if you are buying toys for children this Christmas. Or avoid toys all together and give something different.

Some great ideas:

memberships

classes

trips or mini vacations

books

gift cards or certificates

Taking care of things at home

When I am a gazillion miles away.

My husband came home with a lot to do, and I am so glad that he had a few days off to deal with things before starting work again. In the last week he has:

• Mowed the lawn
• Cleaned the roof and gutters
• Fixed the fireplace door
• Scheduled and went to two parent teacher conferences
• Dealt with insurance companies and bills for a prosthetic leg for big K. (praise God all the fees are covered!)
• Gotten sick with a cold.
• Cooked and ran errands

THANK YOU for being such a wonderful husband and father J.

I so thankful to my mother in law who has been staying at our house since AUGUST. She is one trooper of a grandma. I am also thankful for my parents for taking kids for overnight visits, for friends who have taken kids to do fun activities, brought over a meal or two, fixed our oven, refrigerator and gave a discount on the repairs for the fireplace door. I am so grateful for your prayers.

Since I really have no idea of when I will return home, I decided to spend a little bit of my time here planning and making lists. I am a list maker! I need some ideas and imput from you.

1. Ideas for easy, healthy meals. I don't really need recipes, just ideas. Throw them out at me, I don't mind. Even if it's just "spaghetti and garlic bread", it may be something I hadn't thought about.

2. Ideas for Christmas gifts for my children and family members. We are on a budget ($25-50 a person) and I won't have much time at all to shop. I most likely won't be able to make gifts either.

3. Ideas for chore assignments for 5-6 kids ranging in ages 13 to 2.

A good morning.

^Update:

^{We did hear from our lawyer, confirming that things are moving up!!! He asked us to wait another week to see how things work out, and meanwhile he will be working on our case!}

^{Happy St. Patrick's Day. I don't believe I have a drop of Irish in my blood, but it's still a fun day. The kids were excited to dress in green, and C.'s school is doing pajama day today.}

I am feeling very happy and hopeful today. I am optimistic that we will be seeing our little girl in the near future. No word confirming this from our lawyer, but I am trusting and holding fast. Please keep praying for our adoption!!

Psalm 145

^{1 I will exalt you, my God the King;}

I will praise your name for ever and ever.

² Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.

⁴ One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.

⁵ They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

⁶ They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.

⁷ They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

⁹ The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.

what's new with us...

The kids have no school tomorrow or Monday, so C.'s class is having a "friendship celebration" today. She wanted to go shopping for some Valentine cards, but I found a cute idea in the Family Fun Magazine for hand made cards. She loved the idea and we spent several quality hours together making 30 cards for her classmates and teachers.

We have had a cold work it's way through the crew, but nothing too bad thankfully. E. got the worst of it, and got a yucky sore under his nose. (doesn't he look so sad?) L. missed school yesterday because of a sore throat and headache.

The swing kit arrived last week and the boys have been LOVING it! It has been great to sooth senses, burn energy and help my sanity. Also, the weather here has been great (believe it or not). Last week we had sunshine, temps in the 50's and no rain/snow. So we went outside to play for several days in a row. The kids helped Daddy do some yard work while the little guys pulled the wagon around, played in the sand box, and ran in the grass.

K. had her seventh birthday the other day! She is such a sweet, beautiful little girl. We celebrated with ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins, and spent the day together. She got to spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma's house the night before.

S. went potty in the potty chair a few times the other day! This may be the start of something... sorry, no picture to go with this one!

Thanksgiving day and after

We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends this year. My parents decided to spend the weekend on a mini vacation and my newlywed sister and her husband didn't wish to make the 4 hour drive up. We were invited to two family's homes, but having temporary memory loss I forgot about the first invite and accepted the second. I messed up and felt terrible. Because the first friend is so sweet and understanding, she forgave me and moved on. I love her! We spent the morning cleaning up, watching the parade on tv, and giving the boys a nap in the early afternoon. We left around 3 and spent the remainder of the day with our friends. The turkey dinner was DELICIOUS, almost as good as my mom's. We ate until we could eat no more. I was encouraged with kind words by a wise Christian woman.

This was E.'s first thanksgiving. He loved all the food and had seconds! After dinner, E. was getting pretty tired. He didn't want to share a toy with S. He wanted to make a lot of noise around the sleeping baby. (who I got to snuggle and love for a little while) I told him to have a timeout. He screamed, a newer tactic he's been using for a while, mostly in public because he knows how annoying it is to everyone. We went upstairs away from people, and my husband comes up, 3 flights of stairs, to see what is going on. He could hear him from that far away. I was really embarrassed. E stopped screaming when daddy came upstairs, and sat somewhat quietly for a few minutes before coming to apologize. Later, when he was being disobedient again, I gave him that mama look, and he sat down on the kitchen floor saying "I needa timeout!". He was very tired by the time we got home at 8:30. He gets overwhelmed after more than a few hours of excitement. S. was a trooper, and I am so thankful he was being so easy going!

Today I woke up at 3:45 am. I met Sarah at her house for Black Friday shopping. I seriously considered not going, but she talked me into it. I have only gone BF shopping twice in my lifetime now. We had a good time. I spent more than I had planned, but most of my purchases were non toy, sensible items. S. is done, K. is finished, L., C., and E. are partway. I got J. a few things too! We are making Christmas a bit simpler this year, which I love.

This coming week is going to be busy. My mom has surgery for her cancer. I am going to go stay with her on Wednesday. Then, on Friday three fun girls are going to have a birthday celebration/adoptive mom chat fest/movie night/relaxing soak in the hot springs up in Canada! Hurray! Thankfully the cost of this mini girl's vacation is under $80 but to me it's priceless. My hubby is so wonderful for giving of his time so I can do this sort of thing occasionally.

Unfortunately I have no photos of our Thanksgiving. I am getting to be terrible at remembering to take pictures. I brought my camera...

Veteran's Day

I am also very thankful for the many veterans in our country! We have several in our family. Thank you so much for all you have done for us... we appreciate you (and your families).

Thankful

Thanksgiving is 30 days away.

I am going to count my blessings, every day.

Will you join me?

Day 1: I am so thankful for beloved friends!

E. and his "Gracie" at the beach last August.

missing camera and Independence Day

We've had a busy week, with appointments, trips to the Children's hospital (fungal follow up) and spending time with friends and family.  I met some girlfriends the other night for dinner and had a great time.  Since then my camera has been missing, meaning I couldn't take pictures of E's first 4th of July.  Bummer.  I know it is somewhere around here, since my hubby, J., was looking at the pictures I recently took, but it hasn't turned up yet.  

Yesterday J. worked and we spent the afternoon/evening at a friend's house.  They had a lot of people over and it was good to catch up with old friends.  The kids had fun.  L. went to a soccer game with his buddies, and didn't get home until late.  I was glad that J. could pick him up on his way home from work, which was around midnight.   The little boys and the girls got their jammies on around 9:30.  I was ready to call it a night.  Then the whining about missing fireworks started.  Someone said, "This is E.'s first fourth of July and he has to miss seeing fireworks!"  Oh the guilt.  

So I loaded them in the minivan, and we drove to the bay.  We couldn't find a place to park, since we got there so late, but we drove on the main street through the heart of the action.  People were lighting off their own fireworks, at the same time as a professional show.  It was amazing and I felt like we were driving through a battlefield!  The little boys were mesmerized and started making their own sound effects after a while.  E. kept yelling "Bang, bang, boom, boom!" This morning on the way to church S. was telling Papa all about it and said "boom boom boom!"  It left quite the impression.  After we got home those kids were asleep in record time.  They are napping now, after a busy morning at church.