I have so many thoughts running through my head and feel like I have these "awesome blog thoughts" when the keyboard is not around...
instead I am rocking my baby to sleep as the night terrors keep coming,
or watching her little baby face light up as her daddy comes into the room,
listening to her giggle when her doggie licks her hand,
and feel her pull her best blankie close as she snuggles into my shoulder,
My heart smiles when I am listening to my big kids read
or watch them practice their new tricks on the trampoline.
But when I finally get a chance to sit down, without total exhaustion consuming my brain and body, some of those great thoughts have left for good. Oh well...
Today marks 4 months that our lives changed forever...we adopted our sweet and spicy
Aunna Hope Yanjie
What a doll.
What a privilege.
New things for our girl:
--says bite, bike, peese (please), na-noo (thank you), ni-nite (night night), goo-gel (good girl), and a few other things
I have not had time to post about our last trip {2nd} to Shriners yet. I hope to do that tomorrow.
But our girl is growing and a ton of fun!
In the last month or so all of the grandparents have gotten some baby-love. It's so funny, if she senses that you have visited and are about to leave she will come over and hug your leg.
We started demo on our front and back yard about a week before we decided about Ty. Our overgrown yard was mostly taken over by a HUGE tree in the back. This made it difficult for our big kids to play. We knew that we needed to take out everything that was there and start over to make room for much more play space, especially if you don't have feet it was a particularly frustrating space :) Now with two little one with limb difference we were excited to level out the grass in the front, get rid of the multi-hedge thing we had going on in the front, take out the "way too big tree with exposed roots" in the back, and random little patch of grass in the back to use the space better. We love having people over (which usually means tons of kids too). We are excited to get this yard ready for Lightening Hope and Mr. T, as well as our big kids and yours too!
(See the tree in the background on the left of the left post...
...NO MORE TREE!
Some fun in the leaves at our very own house. We have never had enough leaves to rake together and jump in. It wasn't the biggest pile but fun nonetheless. And guess the best part...the big kids got the idea and raked them up all together! So cute to see them working together.
The big kids all finished school well in early December. Considering we started school at the end of June we were ready for a long Christmas break! It has been a very nice break and I have enjoyed my days of sitting with my big kids during baby's naps (she still struggles with possessiveness of my lap and arms), playing board games, going for walks, watching movies, playing in the mud, doing art projects and a nap here and there.
I got ahead of myself and posted the picture of our new little guy too soon...OOPS! So I took it down for now and will post again when we get the okay.
{Some pictures that didn't make the Christmas card}
{Hi there horse! Might have been cute but David is being hidden by our growing oldest!}
After making last month's post I was struck that I just wrote about Lightening Baby's milestones, her personality, our adventures with her, our delight that she has joined our family...then tears as I said to my hubs,"She's our baby...but not our baby." (weeping) I was overwhelmed with thoughts of her mother missing out on her learning to walk and talk and discover the world. This girl is overcoming each and everyday. We are the ones that are watching history being made with her! Her mother is missing it! (Sadness! More tears!) She's missing all of this fun and all of the craziness of having an 18 month old firecracker of a girl. I can't imagine missing those times with my children! Oh my goodness, that would be heartbreaking!
There is so much joy with this girl...everyday she makes us laugh. We can't help but kiss her and snuggle her (when you can catch her). But to think that her biological mother (and maybe father, who knows if he knows she is in this world) are missing it all is hard right along with all of the joy. I know that she will never forget her daughter as her birthday rolls around.
Even in this crazy world I can't believe that a mother would forget her child or that the ache of not being with her would ever end. And so we pray for and thank Lightening Baby's birth mother for choosing LIFE for her. There are other choices to make but she CHOSE LIFE. And look what God did! An amazing girl who will change the world!
You know how people say,"Our kids are just on lone to us. We raise them the best we can but ultimately they are God's." For me that is such a true statement with this little one. I did not carry her in my womb or birth her. But...I have been given the privilege and responsibility to raise her for someone else. For whatever reason her biological mother could not fill that role in her life. I will! It feels different than my bio kids...an even bigger responsibility. Here we go girl, let's live BIG and bless others!
Even in the short time with our family this little girl has blessed so many. Her smile is infectious and her wave makes you feel special. She is a smart and determined little lightening bolt.
Hi all! We are so excited to report about Lightening Baby's first visit to Shriners Hospital in Northern CA. From the beginning of our visit we were impressed by their friendliness and compassion for our girl.
There are so many details that I don't want to leave out...but am exhausted so we'll see how much I get down ;)
Our appointment was on Friday afternoon. We had planned on dropping our big kids at my mom and step dad's house on Thursday morning around 9am and get on the road. Best laid plans...
Here's how it materialized. We had not been to real Chinese food since arriving back to Fresno from China. We were so excited to show the woman at our favorite neighborhood Chinese food our little girl. We told her about a year ago that we were adopting and she was excited. When we arrived all was well. We enjoyed our favorite dishes...du du duuuu...then I asked her to speak to our baby girl in Mandarin...BAD MOVE!
We finished our meal and went on to our big kid's activities. We dropped C-dub at youth group and were off to gymnastics with the big girls. Baby girl was super clingy. When we got home and needed to pack the car for our early departure every time Daddy left the house to pack the car baby girl cried. She hasn't done that in a long time.
We all went to bed just fine. Baby girl only woke up once or twice...normal.
In the morning Dad was out the door for an early meeting and the rest of us were to meet up with him at my mom and step dad's house. Lightening Baby was up at 7am (normal) but then laid in bed with me, drifting in and out of sleep, until about 8:15am. Weird. With our planned departure time getting close I got her up and went to draw a bath. That usually perks her right up. She loves her bath and her ducky tub!
{We just don't want to get up}
This is where I started to get a little worried. She was slumped to one side. No noises. No words. No smiles...weird!
I got her out, dressed her and took her temperature. Normal. Hmmm...
A long time friend and the wife of our buddy family in the adoption process text me right around this time of the morning. Blessing. She was texting me back about something earlier in the week. What AMAZING timing! It dawned on my husband that it was probably the Mandarin that was throwing her off. I mentioned that to my friend, who has adopted 8 children from China, and she said that was probably the case. POOR BABY GIRL! Adoptive parent FAIL!
At this point I had already had all of the big kids shower and get ready. It was now 8:40am and I knew that instead of Dad meeting us up north he needed to come home. I sat down on the couch and she fell right to sleep on me...like really asleep! Weird!
Since I had been holding her all morning I was not showered or ready to go at all. I decided to put baby girl in her bed if she was really going to sleep so I could get a move on.
I was able to get the rest of us and our things ready. Dad arrived back home around 9:30am and we were out the door by 10:30am. Whew, that was weird!
So off we went...
After dropping off the library books and big kids we got a few other items at the store...it was noon. :/ Wow, talk about not as we had planned. Oh well. That is why we decided to leave a day early for our first visit. Lightening Baby was not herself still. She slept the ENTIRE drive to Sacramento. Weird again but kind of nice since this was her first long trip since arriving home from China.
Baby girl woke up as we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel. We were blessed in a huge way! Some friends heard we were going to go to Shriners and asked if they could get us a hotel room. AMAZING! I cried when my husband read me that text (about a month ago). It was a beautiful room ACROSS THE STREET from the hospital entrance. So cool!
{Finally at our hotel. One of her newest tricks, that she thinks is pretty funny, is walking backwards. Silly girl could hardly stay on her feet after a 3 hour car ride.}
Baby girl perked up after her long, sleepy morning and was walking and "talking" in the doors, through the hotel lobby and right up to our room, charming everyone along the way. Normal ;) We got settled and then set off for Old Town Sac for dinner. It was a beautiful night. We enjoyed some eats, some free candy at a candy shop and even stopped off for a souvenir. I am a sucker for a memory-maker! One of the cute shops we found was a sock shop. I thought it would be fun to get our tiny girl some tiny socks to remember her first appointment to Shriners for her tiny feet. She was quite happy to carry her bag around the candy shop.
{With her bag of new socks}
It was wide-eyes for our tiny girl into the evening. She didn't feel any sort of sleepy until 10:30pm! Ahh! Luckily our appointment wasn't until 9:30am the next morning and there was a cafe in the lobby for breakfast.
Friday morning we were ready to take on the day. What an exciting day for our girl! This orphan-no-more was about to get some news. We were PRAYING for no surgery and no shots.
In the lobby we ended up talking with a family, over breakfast sandwiches, that we had seen the day before. I noticed a girl in a wheelchair when we walked through the lobby on Thursday. It was her family. Emily had been burned in a house fire when she was 16 months old. 85% of her body was burned. She was at Shriners receiving yet another surgery. Over the past few days Emily had her 110th and 111th surgeries since she was 3 years old. This family has been coming to Shriners for the past 10 years! AMAZING! What an amazing way to start our day. We were blessed by their cheer and love for the staff at Shriners.
Off we went...across the street.
{Waiting against the clinic wall just like dad}
We started out by checking in at the clinic desk and hearing that they were running behind. One of the doctors was called in to an emergency surgery. (We had not yet heard who our doctor would be.) We gave our info and then went to the lobby to wait. There was a small waiting room that seemed claustrophobic. We opted for the larger front lobby that had an open ceiling to the next floor and windows across the entire front of the building. They had magnet toys in each waiting. Our baby girl got the hang of them and enjoyed them very much. They were a good distraction.
{First tears of the day. Each chair that dad sat in our girl wanted.
You can't always get your way little one}
Each area we were in had families milling around. It was fun to see so many children with limb related discrepancies playing, walking and even running. We waited and waited...then I spotted another family from Fresno that we know. It was so fun to have our appointments end up on the same day. Their two girls (both also adopted from China) are 7 and almost 9 I think. They are in gymnastics class with our big kids. We talked with their for almost an hour. They mentioned that the wait is not usually that long.
{Our girl loves dogs. It was so fun to see this black Lab strolling through the lobby visiting children. A great distraction while we waited. We were told by the handler that each animal has a trading card to collect. How fun is that?!}
Finally it was our turn. We made our way back to the clinic, Lightening Baby walking the whole way. Once in the back office we went to the weighing and measuring area. I was looking forward to this so much! I was excited to see how our girl had grown in the almost 3 months that we have had her. I was anticipating a heavier and taller baby. The weighing and measuring were the only peaceful things about the appointment for the rest of the day. :(
** Weight 23.2 lb. Height 30 1/2 in. **
Baby girl gained 1 pound and lost in height. Huh? They must have measured her incorrectly as our last appointment in town, they are prone to doing that. Anyhow that's what she is now.
The next step was to take her temperature. The very nice girl tried using the head wand that they just move across your forehead. (Insert screaming, climbing up me, holding on so tight, crying...) She freaked! My only thought was that she was recalling her last doctor's appointment that ended in two shots. Poor thing! From there we went into our assigned room. She calmed.
We gave a bit of info and the medical assistant said that the PA would be in soon. When she arrived she explained that she would see us before the doctor and started talking to us about our girl while checking her out a bit. Again insert freak out. Baby girl didn't want anyone touching her. She clung to me like "Gotcha Day".
:(
We explained to her about our recent adoption and her last "doctor's office encounter". She was amazing, understanding, sweet and compassionate! After taking a quick peek at her limbs (from 3 feet away) she got closer to check her spine. She mentioned that sometimes a child's spine and something else (I didn't know what it was) would also be affected. I pulled up the back of her shirt while the PA checked, much to our girl's protest. The PA said she looked great. Whew! One check on our list of prayers for our girl. I continued to hold my girl tight while she clung to my neck and waist with her tiny self. Oh how I love THIS girl! It's amazing to me how our love can grow so quickly!
She left the room and I calmed our girl. After she calmed down I put her on the ground to walk around a bit (shoes off). I was hoping that one of the doctors would see how amazing our girl is when she's not scared. She was walking and talking...then the door opened. Baby girl's back was to the door and the PA entered very quietly. We glanced at each other and smiled. She gave me the thumbs up about her mobility. I smiled. I am so proud to be her mommy!
After that short exam we were off to X-ray. Oh Lordy we had no idea what the next hours would hold.
We were greeted by a sweet X-ray tech. He was a young guy completing his hours for school. We also explained to him how our morning started. Luckily they ordered her upper and lower X-rays so we don't have to go through all of that again in a few weeks. We started with her standing (trying to stand even though she was screaming and wanting me to hold her tight again). Ahhh! Poor girl!!!
I (the mom) am usually pretty cool in these types of situations. We have a job to do...get X-rays...and we're going to get it done. Even if it's hard it needs to happen for the best of our girl. So I tried to distract her, hold her, stand and sit in crazy positions to get it done. After getting some of the lower pictures done we checked them on the computer. The whole floor heard her I'm sure. While looking at the pictures a more veteran tech made his way into our room. I think he could tell our girl was a challenge to get good pictures of. By this time it had been 30-40 minutes. I was holding our over tired and upset girl.
**Side note: The X-ray tech in training said his friend has the same shape feet as our girl and he played baseball and football growing up. Cool!
**Funny story inserted...our girl loves her suckie (pacifier) which fell on the ground during one of her crying spells in the x-ray room. I asked David to pick it up, he didn't hear me. The X-ray tech did hear and said,"I would throw that in the trash", as he winced. I said,"Oooo, good idea," with a grimace. (More to come about this.)
{Me trying to hold her in the correct position (her screaming and struggling) while trying to keep my back from going out...again. Constant pain all trip but better now.}
After lots of rocking, holding tight, soaking up the smell of her sweet hair and singing Baby Signing Time my precious and petrified baby fell asleep in my arms. Talk about a reminder of Gotcha Day...but now I know her. I know what makes her tick and I know what makes her feel safe. Thank you Lord for that! She finds rest in my arms. What a privilege to care for this sweet and spunky girl!
We got the rest of the X-rays perfectly while she was sleeping. By now it was 12:45p. We were all hungry but had to go back to our assigned room to wait for the doctor. When we got back we heard that he had gone to lunch but that we would be seen first after lunch. (Only a 5 minute wait)
**Suckie story continued. I asked David for a suckie...a new one. He said she had one in her mouth. THE ONE FROM THE FLOOR OF THE x-ray room. Yuck! Shoot! We threw that one in the trash in the exam room. I asked David for the new package of two that we bought on our way out of town. After opening the new package he handed me one. It was dirty and sticky. YUCK again! (From a new, unopened package) Then he handed me the other one from the package. It had liquid in the nipple! YUCK...AGAIN! Shoot. We decided to put those back in the package and return then when we got home to Fresno. So we had to fish the one we threw into the trash out and use it. YUCK a fourth time. Oh well...
The doctor came in, as well as the PA from earlier, super causal. Baby girl still sleeping at this point. (thumbs up) After their evaluation of her X-rays and looking at her feet up close this time, since she was sleeping, they determined that she has fantastic "hind feet" and all of the bones from her ankles up are GREAT! Another check on the praise report! Thank you LORD! The PA was able to share with the doctor what she saw earlier as far as her walking. YAY!
Spine--good
Hips--good
Knees--good
Ankels--good
Such a sigh of relief.
From there we asked about her condition. Was it genetic or from something her mother might have taken? We will never know for sure but he said that with something like this it is most likely genetic. Good to know. Not sure if we will ever see a geneticist. One thing at a time.
The PA went into the hall and found the head of prosthetics and orthotics. He came in and sat on the exam table. It was like a casual conversation with friends. From there we talked about their plan for our girl.
Shoe-fillers...
We look forward to foot molds when we go back in a few weeks for her upper evaluation. They mentioned two options for her feet. We'll see what they come up with. We are SO THANKFUL for Shriners and their compassion and passion to help kids. (Big smile!)
We ended our appointment at 2pm. At 1:45pm dad had to hurry back to our hotel (across the street) and check out. Blessing yet again about our hotel placement that he didn't have to miss any of the appointment to go check out...thumbs up!
And the last stop to our very long day at Shriner's Hospital was to the Medical Media Department. Baby girl and I made it up to the 2nd floor for actual photographs of her hands, feet and face for her file. The woman who worked there was just so sweet. I quickly explained our day to her just in case we went back to screaming...she was great! Another great staff member to make our day a success!
We got the pictures done with minimal tears and our Lightening Baby was smiling and happy by the end. The woman even gave her a Beanie Baby to end her day. She said that she wanted our girl to end with something good to remember. Sweet!
When we left the Medical Media room we found this...
{The toy room!}
{There's my girl. Her electric smile is back and she sure loves to scoot around.}
Golly, what a L-O-N-G dayyyyyyy! We headed to lunch (2:30pm) and then we got on the road. We hit traffic in every.single.city on the way home. I thought she would sleep from exhaustion all the way home...NOPE! Fussed, cried and all together not happy. I sat in the back with her and we made it home after about 4.5 hours. There was an accident ahead of us so we hit bumper to bumper traffic just north of town.
But good news was that once we got to my moms and step dad's house to get the big kids she was tired but her sweet self again.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and concern for our family and our Lightening Baby. She is a fighter and we are excited to see what God has for her!
It has been two months since Lightening Baby was placed in my arms. Wow! Somedays it feel like she's always been a part of our family and some days it seems like we just got home from China in a whirlwind of figuring her out.
She brings so much joy to our family; we are so thankful!
Here is what she's been up to.
She says:
-mama
-dada
-co (for her brother)
-go
-li (for light)
-ball
-up
-whoo shoo (when she's getting a poopy diaper changed)
-kiki (for her oldest sister)
She signs:
-please
-banana
-more
-baby
-horse
-more food me outside
-diaper
-hot
-help
-book
-food
-Baby Signing Time
-cracker
-milk
-drink
-water
-pacifier
-all done
-please water
-giraffe
Baby girl is learning so much! She is playing in the dirt in our from yard in these pictures. I have gotten the idea that she didn't go outside a whole lot. Grass was new, and scary at first, to her. She has gotten more daring in the yard, which is fun. Now, when the door is open, she wants to head out. It's nice that the weather has been so nice.
Enjoying the play structure in just her diaper. Pretty darn cute!
She enjoyed the play structure at Dry Creek park last week. We went with some friends but she slept the whole time. When it was time for the big kids to head off to piano we stayed and I let her explore a bit. She likes to go down the slide and LOVES the swings!
Her walking has really picked up! Just last week I said to someone that she still uses crawling as her go-to to get somewhere quickly. The very next day she started walking a whole lot more. Since then she walks around the house quite a bit and when holding her she tries to get down and walk. It's so fun to be a part of her development!
We are still trying to figure out her needs and what is too much for her. Last week was a hard week. We are usually a family that is on-the-go A LOT! So figuring in a 1 year old that used to be an orphan takes some doing. Please continue to pray for our family of 6 as she leans to us for comfort, support and love.
Night times continue to be hard for our littlest. We pray for peaceful sleep for her...and us! We are trying to get her to bed by 7:30p after a bottle and snuggle. She goes down great but is restless by 11:30p. Last night she was up at 11:45p, 1:00a, 1:45a, 3:30a and finally at 4:55a, after fussing, I got her up and slept on the couch with her until 7am. Holy Moly! One good thing is that we don't have to go on a walk everyday to get her to nap. She goes down easily in her crib for an afternoon nap after lunch.
We are excited to travel to Shriner's Hospital in a few weeks for her lower extremities evaluation. They were unable to get her lower and upper scheduled on the same day so we will return in December for her upper evaluation. We are excited to get their perspective.
Mondays, for the past month, have been very difficult. I'm not sure why. The big kids have had extreme difficulty with their attitude in school and I have lost patience! Please pray for tomorrow! We are all hoping it goes MUCH MUCH better! :)
Other than that the big kids are doing really well. They are enjoying their activities and LOVING having a baby in the house.
One thing I have been trying to get Baby Lightening used to is staying in her seat after breakfast while the big kids each read her a book. It gives us all a small break from running after her around the house. It is also a great way to build her vocabulary as well as teach the big kids patience, flexibility and how to not just read a book to a baby but point things out, explain things, make sound effects...
The other day we took a package to the post office. This is the same post office we mailed many-a-package to our agency and our baby. It was fun to be there WITH her! Instead of holding the package we were sending they are holding her! So fun!
***********************
"Its been a good experience seeing what she likes and what she wants.
She is a really fun second sister and I'm glad she's her." Jumping Joy-7
She wanted to "write on the blog" and I'm so glad she did. :)
A few friends have asked me what we do with our kids as far as household jobs (chores) and paycheck (allowance).
First things first...vocabulary is very important! (at least it is to me)
The word CHORE just leaves a bad taste in my mouth! Yuck! Why would I want to start off our "working at home and taking care of our home" with a bad taste in my mouth. One definition is this:
CHORE -noun
3. a hard or unpleasant task
With that in mind, the first thing I did was take that word right out of our vocab!
Instead we use HELPING JOBS as a way to describe our family taking care of our home.
We are a family, we live together and
WEALL HELP!
We also do not use the word or idea of ALLOWANCE. "Dad goes to work to get paid and so should you...kids." We got the idea of a PAYCHECK from Dave Ramsey's kid program of save/give/spend. There are also stories and CDs geared towards kids learning about money in a healthy way. Find those here. We use a chart from his program (a small white board on the fridge) to keep track of FINES and BONUSES during the week. We do PAYCHECK on the weekend.
Here are just a few of the things that we give fines and bonuses for:
**they change with what we are working on with our kids** BONUSES:
helping without asking
holding the doors for others (when we're out)
happy grocery helpers
good manners
kindness
encouraging words FINES:
lying
hurting with your hands or words
complaining
leaving a mess
taking too long of a shower
wasting food
{Fines and bonuses range from $.10 to $1.00}
Here (above) is an example of almost a week's FINES and BONUSES. I write the kid's letter next to the listed item as many times that that thing occurs within that week. I erased my kid's letters as to not run them under the bus. :) I started out putting the FINES at the bottom but now it's just where there is space.
**It's kind of hard to read in the picture so here are the FINES and BONUSES listed:
Baby's laundry +$.30
Fingers in mouth (to be clear that it putting your fingers inside someone else's mouth) -$.25
Shower (too long of a shower) -$1.00
Using your body to hurt another sibling -$.50
Helpful +$.25
Encouraging words +$.25
Leaving stuff out (at home in areas that I have repeatedly asked them to be cleared from) -$.20
**I really make the above up as I go. If I have asked a particular child to do something over and over and over again and there is not a change it goes on the chart as a FINE and if they continue to have a hard time with it, depending on what it is the FINE goes up as the weeks roll on. If I have been working on something over and over and over again with a child and I can see that they are working hard to improve at it then I put it on there as a BONUS. Whatever makes sense to us at the time.
Each child starts out with a set amount for the jobs they are assigned, then bonuses and fines are tallied, and paycheck is given. With this money the kids buy any extra thing they would like, after taking out their SAVE and GIVE money, like toys, games or extra clothes. They have opportunities during the week to earn extra money as well.
Our big kids are pretty close in age and ability so they had gotten the same amount of money until our oldest turned 10. At that point we added 10 YEAR OLD JOBS (a few extra jobs) and he gets paid a bit more for doing more work.
Our kids are currently 11, 9, 7 and 1. Our 1 year old (recently joining our family through adoption) does not yet do HELPING JOBS or get a PAYCHECK. I will probably start that at about 3 years old. There are so many ways that toddlers and preschoolers can help. That might be another post :)
HELPER B:
1. start and empty dishwasher
2. sweep dining room
3. water plants
4. dishes helper
5. bathroom #2
HELPER C:
1. laundry helper
2. set table
3. wipe table after meals
4. wipe out microwave
5. bathroom #3
10 YEAR OLD JOBS (Friday and Saturday):
1. take out recycle
2. sweep front and back porch
EACH MORNING:
1. brush teeth
2. eat breakfast
2. fold and put away laundry (if there is any)
3. make bed
4. get dressed
Those are the jobs that we have a need for and that I either don't want to do or would take my time away from other things. There is only so much time to go around. You might come up with different jobs that suit your family. The point is that they are HELPING JOBS because they help our family to be more successful in helping others while learning and growing together.
A big reason that we have our kids do so many HELPING JOBS is that I am not going to be a person that marrys off kids who don't know how to take care of their house and their things!
We switch the job lists each month. I want each child to gets used to doing a job for enough time to get good at it but not too long that they get bored with it. As if someone can get bored with helping around the house. HAHA! Switching jobs every week isn't enough time for the kids to practice getting good at a task.
Our big kids also each have a LAUNDRY DAY. On that day they are tasked with doing their laundry start to finish. They load it into the washer, add the soap, choose the appropriate water temp and load size, switch it to the dryer, fold it and put it away. Not all of our kids can reach into the washer to transfer their clothes to the dryer so someone assists them with that. It works really well! I don't mind doing laundry but this is a great help to keeping things moving during the week and not having it take over our weekend. Oldest (boy) goes on Wednesday, one big girl on Monday and one big girl on Thursday. The girls all share a room so they just put their dirty laundry into one hamper and by splitting up the week they end up doing about the same amount.
We started LAUNDRY DAY with the kids when they were 9,7,5...
And finally, finally last week I heard this come from one of the girl's mouths to the other's ears,"Are you putting clean laundry into the hamper? I don't want to do more laundry that is already clean!"
{Finally!!! I have been saying that for years}
**I am not going to wash clean laundry. It wastes soap, water and time! Only put dirty laundry into the hamper. If you just tried it on and decided not to wear it PUT IT AWAY!
I do the laundry for the hubs and me. The baby's laundry gets tossed into everyones and if they fold and put away her laundry without complaining they get an extra $.03 per piece.
LAUNDRY DAY for the kids is different than the LAUNDRY HELPER job listed in HELPER C list. The LAUNDRY HELPER washes and puts away all towels from the week.
DEBT doesn't happen very often around here because we usually don't let the kiddos buy anything unless they have their money with them. And if they don't have enough they have to wait.
If DEBT does occur and they borrow from us it is a small amount. In the case of my recent IG post one of our darlings is in debt to us. That child has to do one extra job each day (or almost everyday) until it is paid off. Instead of charging interest we just try to make it unpleasant in a mild way by adding jobs ;)
That's all I can think of right now...let me know if you have other specific questions :)
We hoped, from the beginning, that our journey and story would help others and spur them on to taking big steps of faith in their own lives. One way we did that was to use
as a fundraiser. The software we used for donations is Aplos. They were so awesome in helping us set up the "back office" side of things and make sure that all ran smoothly for donors and Beard Growers. It was also very easy to navigate and follow from our side of things. {I think} they mainly help non-profit organizations with accounting software and donations.
Check out our story on their website below! (six installments in all)
We had our pediatrician appointment one week after we arrived home. One of our main goals for that appointment was to asked for a referral to Shriner's Hospital in northern California. As many of you know, some of you may not, Lightening Hope has limb difference on all four limbs. We are hoping to get some sort of prosthetic for her to make long-term mobility easier for her. Although she has not let the shape or size of her feet stop her so far, over time, as she grows and gets taller, it will be harder for her to balance.
After not hearing any news from either Shriners or our doctors office I called last Tuesday to our doctors office. Their response... "You already have an appointment."
"Huh?!"
Apparently the appointment was made and no one told us...
At least we didn't miss it!
On November 14th we will be at Shriner's Hospital for the first time.
Two huge blessings with this date (which we didn't pick)
** 1. it is a Friday (which is one of David's days off since he works long hours on Sundays)
** 2. it is before the holiday craziness where I feel like we will miss two months of progress in getting her situated!
{Here are pictures from our last few...days...I think}
Although in most every picture we are happy, smiling and having a GREAT time with this new adventure, there have definitely been some rough moments, hours, days and weeks!
Please continue to pray for our transition and kids who are feeling displaced.
Adoption is an amazing experience for all involved but also hard in many ways!
As with any new family member being added there is an adjustment period. We are trying hard to depend on God for strength and ideas on how to best parent these four amazing world changers! Thank you to all who have supported us and continue to!
We went to the zoo for my birthday...with grandpa-pa.
Today we got the pleasure of riding our friend's horse and learning about grooming. So fun!
