How do you spell Christmas?

In our house we spell it C H R I S T.

Joshua 24:15
"If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, ... As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

3110 down.. thousands more to go.

Day by Day.
Step by Step.
Stride by Stride
Stroke by Stroke
Mile by Mile

3110 miles completed on my mileage journey to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Lately I have been reasonably disciplined on getting on my trainer in the basement. Supplement that with an occasional run, and some treadmill miles at the fitness center.  I am about 100 miles per week.  Even at that pace.  I will still be 39 weeks until I reach the DRC.  Oi!!

Follow that up with the 2704 to Bogota Columbia (that might be adjusted for Bucaramanga).  I've got a solid year minimum of effort.  Of Sacrifice.  Trials.  Challenges.

But that's what this is all about.  I'm not looking for a cakewalk through life.  Yes a break now and then, sure.  That said, the Lord gave me legs, endurance, fortitude, and if offering up some effort or soreness or aches-n-pains via  some miles results in aid to even one person... It will be an effort most worthwhile for me.  And so I ...

Tri for Hope, Sacrifice with purpose

Peace

World Vision Sponsor Kids Holiday Cards

A little behind due to an unexpected flu bug that reared it's ugly head on Saturday, but the kids were able to put together their holiday gifts to send to their World Vision sponsor friends. Having children from four different countries and cultures it has always been on our minds the importance of doing something concrete to support another family from our children's birth countries in hopes that that family may not have to make the same difficult decision some of our children's birthparents did in order to feed themselves or other children already in their home, so with each adoption, we have also "adopted" a sponsor kid from the country they came from. Through World Vision, as we saw when we met our sponsor child in Ethiopia, the families are not given handouts, but opportunities for schooling, businesses and clean and safe drinking water that they themselves run and maintain. In the area our sponsor child from Ethiopia is from, their main staple is false banana, which is a terrible tasting starch with little nutritional value, many of the children are malnourished. World Vision's work in the area has brought in a multitude of vegetable crops and fruit trees that are being grafted and sold for profit by residents in the area such as our sponsor child's grandfather who he lives with. In addition, he is also able to go to school and even showed us some of his school work when we met him after getting over the initial shock of all the ferenges! So the kids spent some time making Christmas cards and a care package for their sponsor child from their birth country and really took the task to heart knowing their friend will enjoy the package they packed for Christmas.

Toy Drive

December 10, 2011

The kids spent Friday night gathering up toys they don't play with to give to children in need. They really did well parting with the toys and made a lot of the decisions themselves without much prompting. E2 jumped right in and helped papa sort through items. E1 was clearly more attached to some of the items even if they hadn't been used in quite some time. Most of the girls things are pretty new as we really have only had girls toys for about a year, whereas the boys toys have been accumulating since they were babies, but all in all, we had a trunk full of toys that will hopefully be loved and cherished for years to come by new families. E1, E2 and K helped papa drop them off Saturday morning before soccer at the fire station. Great job guys!

Refugee Family Daycare

December 8, 2011

E2 and I volunteered today at a refugee daycare for kids learning English. They were pretty much adorable and we had a great time playing around. Having a daughter from the DRC, I could see some real fear and trauma in their faces and could feel the isolation as some of them look at the toys as foreign objects, unsure and unable to socialize with their peers and engage in play. E2, was pretty much a non participant. I had talked it up ahead of time as him being my helper, but once in the room, he made a bee line for the matchbox cars and never looked back. He did help clean the tables after snack time, so that technically qualified as "helper", but beyond that, he was pretty checked out and I think he was thinking and wondering when I might bolt for the door leaving him in the room full of kids that spoke little English. We are on the schedule again for next week but perhaps in a different class room, we will see. They will be doing a Christmas concert the following day which I imagine will be interesting with a class of trauma and fearful children trying to sing in English. A pray is going to be needed before that one. The strangest part of the day happened when we were coming back from the gym and a little girl passed us in the hall, she is like the identical twin of K, same age same built, same face, same hair, it was unnerving, she had a good 10 lbs on K, but still, a bit freaky. Unfortunately, as we left, a killer migraine was coming on and with no excedrin in hand, the 40 min. drive home was a nightmare as the migraine was raging by the time we got home, causing me to collapse on the couch and beg E2 to come cuddle with me which he would for 30 seconds until he decided he forgot something and would get up elbowing me in the stomach.....relaxing time to rest my head....ehh, not so much. Managed to hit the dollar store and stock up for our care packages for our World Vision sponsor kiddos which should be a fun activity for the weekend along with the toy drive.

A December of Giving

This December, we are doing something a little different. As the kids are getting older, it becomes more and more important that we live by example. So this December, we are seeking out opportunities where the kids can be directly involved in showing love, care, compassion and giving of themselves to serve others instead of just sending money. This journey started out as 12 days of giving, but with school schedules, that looked to be pretty difficult, so instead of setting a number, we are going to call it our December of Giving which kicked off tonight. I hope you will follow along with us as we learn by trail and error what work best and what lights the fire of 4 kids under the age of 6!

December 5, 2011 - Animal Shelter Volunteer Night

N helped on the Saturday before to pick out items to donate off the animal shelter's wish list. T packed up the gang after school Monday and we headed out to the shelter. The boys went with papa first to walk a few of the dogs while the girls and I settled in in the kitten room playing, cuddling and socializing the new kittens. The staff brought K and N an older kitten that one of the team thought was too far along to becoming feral and would be difficult to adopt. The girls both took turns petting the kitten. The vet was very happy at how the kitten responded to them and their touch. The boys stayed a bit in the kitten room after walking the dogs then headed into the adult cat room as that room was more active and the boys enjoyed playing more with the cats. One of the cats hopped on Teds lap and refused to leave, I said I think he thought, if I don't move, maybe this sucker won't realize I have permanently affixed myself to his leg. The girls and I headed over after a bit and loved on the older cats, one missing an eye and others clearly abused before they came to the shelter. One was an unbelievable look alike of my cat zoiee it was almost creepy. I think at one point the kids thought I had actually taken her to the shelter and that she hadn't died. After some poop scooping, it was time to hit the road as there was homework to be done. Overall, it worked well with the 4 kids and they listened to the instructions and followed what they needed to do for the most part, the only almost catastrophe was when E2 ran into the adult cat room and left the door wide open trying to get me to help with his jacket... luckily, no one escaped, at least I don't think so.......

World AIDS Day - Spread the TRUTH!

Turn off music before playing

Today's Therapeutic guide to Parenting

Rules to Live by, at least for November 30th, 2011 at 1:02 am

fun before frustration
sympathetic before sarcasm
accepting before anger
serene before screaming [yelling]
thankful before tirade

Others?

Lost. But almost back in the Saddle

After an Epic period of inactivity (I'm not a complete and utter fitness maniac, far from it), we are talking just over 2 months.  Wait I take that back.  If you ignore the 6 runs (mostly under 6 miles) that I did upon returning from Colombia, its been over 3 months.  I've decided to  stoke the fires and try to get back into some kinda shape.  No not really training for anything.  Just need to get that piece of the Trivial Pursuit pie back into it place.  Balance.  You know.

While I've still not really broken through on the running, I have managed to get into a quasi routine into taking some cardio classes at the fitness center.  Plus I've dusted off, and pumped up the tires on the trainer in the basement.  I've road enough that all my "old" saved Prison Break Episodes are over.   I can't bring myself to ride to kids movies, though I enjoy many of them.   So I borrowed "Lost" Season I.

I've never watched a single episode.  I was also interested, but it seemed like one of those series where if you missed a bunch of it, well, you'd be lost.  So now I've got my video's to watch.  And I'm getting the blood flowing again.  Hopefully enough to get the metabolism up just in time of the Holidays season grazing.  

So I was Lost.  But now I'm found.  Ok ok. that was bad.  How about this.  I'm back in the Saddle again...

With a cough cough here and a sniff sniff there...

We are still here if anyone is still reading this! LOL! It has been a tough fall with the battle of the illnesses around here. Poor N is so behind on her vaccine schedule, the first round hit her with about a 104.5 fever as a result of the MMR vaccine (we believe) but whose to know for sure given that a virus was going around that same time with the same high grade fever?? All I know is that none of the rest of us got it so I'm blaming the MMR. Exactly 4 days after she had the Varicella vaccine, E2 got shingles, oh that little man was in a heap of pain, 2 nights with ear plugs for mama and very little sleep trying to comfort him as he cried through the night. Turn out, not all that uncommon for someone who had the chicken pox when he was a month old! We also had our first conference with the early childhood center for K. Their IEP evaluation was really accurate and they are really getting a sense of what works and what doesn't work for her. I am continually amazed by the whole Early Childhood Center staff and program. They really "get" her and have put some many things together , I am just blown away. Maybe it's my engineering mind, but I never felt the explanation of "insecure attachment" was the be all to end all explanation of her behaviors we were given by her therapist. For example, one of the things we could never figure out was why she would just out of no where, bite another kid. It made sense when she was in some sort of disagreement with the person but the random acts never made sense to just explain away as her feeling insecure. As it turns out, she has trouble reading faces. She gets happy and sad, but emotions like excitement or surprise, so reads as mad. WOW! Its like the light went on and in my engineering brain, it all makes sense. She wasn't randomly attacking these kids, when she saw them running for a toy all excited, she very well perceived their expression as mad and a threat so she was protecting herself! There have been many more of these nuggets over the past few weeks and I feel like a lot she is making more and more sense to me and how she reacts to situations. Its all good stuff.

I am trying to put together some form of a 12 days of giving for the kiddos for December. I got the idea from another Congo mama who did it last year, but am having trouble coming up with 12 things that would be meaningful and interactive for our young kids. There are certainly not a shortage of needs, but many of the volunteer activities are better suited for older kids. Like they love animals but I figure an animal shelter would let a 3 yr old around stray animal? Looking for some creative ideas if anyone has some.