(old) Tales from the Backseat

So every now and then the kiddo's do something that just, well puts a smile on your face. What wondering little blessing these kids are. And while not in the car, its just as cute a story.

(as told by J)

E1 came over while i was typing and said there was a spider on his shoe in the bucket, i was like "oh really, that's nice honey, go get your shoes so we can put them on". typing typing and E1 gets the shoe and brings it to the kitchen and says he has to get the scissors for the spider and he picks up the shoe and shows it to me from the kitchen, at that point I am like, that is weird, scissors for a tiny spider??, so i try and convince him he doesn't need them, but he gets them anyways and sticks it in the shoe and says, "there he is". At that point, i am thinking i should probably investigate before he cuts the shoe, so I walk over there and there is a grinormous spider on the side of E2's elmo shoe bigger than a quarter! Holy sh*t! and there is E1 trying to stab him with the scissors. He was big enough that the scissors would have made an effective weapon actually. But i opted for a newspaper ad and knocked him off the shoe and stepped on him under the add. WE had to get a paper towel and clean up after there were guts everywhere!

Peace

So I followed the block of cheese

all around the maze for months only to run into a bunch of boobie traps and then brick wall! What does it all mean? I ask myself. I am being swallowed this week with doubt and confusion. One dead end leads to another and another and another. I am lost and can't find my way out. This project I am doing was suppose to be such a great thing is like a broken vase in the store, I am left trying to piece together something that was wonderful into some semblance of success. Getting a SS# for K was suppose to be simple, but due to some translation confusion, might not be obtainable for quite some time. Anyone want to fly back to DRC and get a new BC for us??? I am trying to plug holes in the dam but can't keep up with the rate at which they are appearing. Add a school full of sterotype dressed up indians and a e-mail blast about how the first Thanksgiving was so wonderful with everyone playing games in harmony and I think I am going to barf. I said I would follow You blindly, and here we are, but where is here??? I followed the cheese, but where is the door? All i see is a wall and behind that, another wall, and another.....what am I missing?

Baking time with Zzz -K

K was ripe for helping out in the kitchen in preparation for the baptism tomorrow. Sure, it started out innocent enough, but then ended up like a ride on the weird side! Leave it to K to make cooking time into an adventure of the senses! First we started with the red and yellow pepper, cool, she wanted to taste test a few, no biggie, then it was the onions, a few bites and she started to tear up. Not to be outdone, a spoon of chopped garlic! Followed by a few pieces of chicken and a jalepeno! Girls going to have some stink of breath when she wakes up from her nap! Montary Jack cheese and cream cheese, followed by artichoke hearts and spinach. After all that, she drank like a gallon of water to wash it down and wanted to help with the dishes. She had so much fun washing dishes listening to the sound of running water that when I turned around, I noticed she had sprung a leak! I couldn't help but laugh, all that water then playing in the water would have made me pee too! It was all way to cute and the most fun I have had in the kitchen in quite some time.

Love is Patient, Love is Kind..

We all know it. We all love it (ok most of the time). But as our family continues on our life journey, we've decided to take it off-road. We always loved camping and the outdoors. Some things going on in life, have decided to steer the family off road. Its a bit bumpy. J and I were a bit take back. But we supported each other. We're forming a strategy and game plan. We know we'll get through it all. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

In years to come, we hope to look back on this "FUN" more fondly.

Sunday Nov 7, 2010 is Orphan Sunday

Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.

Tri for Hope, Sacrifice with purpose

I started thinking about the title of this blog a lot recently. It was T that developed the original title when the blog was mostly running related and every so often I would throw my 2 cents in to stir up some comments, but I never really thought about the blog's title much. At adoration this week, I started wonder where you draw the line between trusting God regardless, performing a logic surficial analysis of the situation before leaping, or over-analysing the situation then making your decision on facts, at which point, are you still trusting God or are you trusting in yourself? How far would you go? How much would you sacrifice to save a loved one? I think most parents would agree that we would run into a burning building to try and save one of our children or jump in front of a bullet for them. But what if that child isn't yours? What if that child is a photo of a child you could sponsor half way across the world through World Vision? Do we have that same instinct to protect that child miles and miles away? What ARE we willing to sacrifice for that child? What about the children lying half dressed urinating on themselves because they are too weak to get up at the orphanage K was at? Are they destine to be nameless faceless orphans that are forgotten? They have not asked to be saved from a burning building, far less, they long for basic necessities and love. Is that still too much to ask? 147 Million, the number of children without parents in the world, 147 Million! We have been blessed beyond words with our three children, blessed beyond words. Without them, our home would be an empty shell. We did not save these children, and nothing makes me more unconfortable when people tell us this. Our kids saved us and because of them, our house is a home and we are a family. To those who much has been given, much will be expected. We have been give much, and for this, much is expected. I will sacrifice more, I will give more, I will do whatever it takes to come to the aid of a love one (any one of the 147 million) and trust in God and not myself that everything will be ok....everything WILL be OK.....

They Want Our Country - turn off music before playing

Random Thoughts on this Monday

Another blogger posted the following quote "If our poor die of hunger, it is not because God does not care for them. Rather, it is because neither you nor I are generous enough. It is because we are not instruments of love in the hands of God. We do not recognize Christ when, once again, He appears to us in the hungry man, in the lonely woman, in the child who is looking for a place to get warm." Mother Teresa. I think I have expressed in the past, and my friend at work makes it a point to me quite often how in the best of times, I rejoice in the Lord, but as stumbling blocks cross my path, I am the first to get angry and frustrated and forget that God has a plan for me and my family in all of this. In all my distress when K came home, this time around, I never lost sight of the fact that I could see this child was meant to be my daughter and that it would all work out, given time. This is pretty rare for me, that is, to see through the chaos and rationalize with myself that God has a plan for this little girl in our life. I never doubted for on second and I know today, that it was true all along. We began this journey to K in December of last year looking at the photos of 3 siblings from the DRC, while God lead us to the DRC, it wasn't those 3 siblings he was leading us to, it was K, he pointed, we followed, blindly (for the most part), and here we are with a beautiful daughter. At this point, one (and the one being me) would rationalize that blindly following God has been pretty good to us. That is we have 3 of the most amazing kids in the world! (I say world, because they are from all over the world, so of course that is a valid statement LOL!), I have a job that allows me to help people and we are blessed with family, friends and neighbors. What I find interesting in all this is that the more I relate my journey to God's will in my life, family and work, the more people come out of the woodwork and try and talk me out of it, by either rationalizing things away or developing their own theories on why something is the way it is. Where is this coming from I wonder? Does it make them uncomfortable that I profess the will of God in my life? Does it make them even more uncomfortable that I trust the will of God in my life? Is it a control issue? Or are they questioning their own faith and by doing so, question mine? To which I say, Lord, give me the blindfold, I am ready to follow you where ever you lead me.

The Return of Sanity

What a difference a few weeks makes! I was at adoration last night and journaling about my present state of mind and realized that the word that came to mind was "quiet". That is pretty extraordinary in all the chaos and high blood pressure over the past few weeks. We had dinner at a restaurant last night with all three kiddos and apart from one "get back in your chair" episode, it turned out to be a very nice meal and we were all able to relax and enjoy eachother's company. Amazingly, there wasn't even alcohol involved. K and I have been having more and more fun and bonding on our days together. I have to admit it, I was skeptical when our social worker told me to "just push through it". To which I asked her what that meant after I had just admitting to her that our time together infuriated me and was not helping the bonding process. She said I needed to keep at it, setting aside time just for the two of us. Instead of dreading a full day with just K, I found myself looking forward to it this week. We didn't do anything amazingly exciting like the past weeks when we went to the Children's Museum, we just hung out, did some errands together and took a long walk chatting and kicking leaves up as we went. It felt normal for the first time in about 6 weeks. Normal, there world I said it, we have returned to NORMAL! (for now at least!)
The craziest thing I have noticed that with the 3 kiddos, we seem to be somehow finding quality time alone with each of them, more so than with just the 2. Maybe we are doing with more intent now or I am just noticing it more, but it is really nice to have the one on one time. Last weekend E2 woke up at 6:15 and it was clear he was ready to start the day, not spend any more cuddling time. So we snuck out of the bedroom to the basement where we had a fun breakfast together while the rest of the crew slept in. Certainly could have used an extra half an hour of sleep, but afterwards, realized how great it was to just spend some time with E2. Now if we could just squeeze some couple time in (don't tell T about the dance lessons I am working on for us! )

Reconsider Columbus Day - Pause music before playing