The Nicest Present I Ever Got

David has a friend that I've met only once. David and his friend Carl worked together several years ago and Carl made a huge impression on David in a short amount of time. Carl is a very spiritual man who has always been interested and supportive of our adoptions (not a small thing for many men.) What I didn't know until recently is that Carl is an amazing artist. And God put it on Carl's heart to write and illustrate a book titled "Dragons and Elephants". A few weeks ago David and I got a small package in the mail from Carl. It was, by far, the most thoughtful and beautiful present either of us have ever received.

See for yourself...

Carl, if you happen to read this, I want you to know how much we truly cherish our book. It is beautiful beyond words and we will treasure it forever. Thank you so much.

One minute in Our Life

7:35pm, Thursday evening

Dave - At band practice (lucky, lucky man)

Heather - Praying that bedtime comes soon

J.D. - Playing Wii (or Playstation) or some other video game thingy

Piper - Doing homework at the kitchen table

Kai - Torturing the dog

Ash - Taking the baby and his dog (aka "wooden dinosaur") for a walk

That's about it. 7:35pm - one recorded minute in our lives. I would have taken a picture of myself, but I wasn't wearing a bra (or makeup) and didn't want to scare you away. If you read my blog, and have a blog yourself, I'm officially tagging you. Capture a minute of your life with photos and let me know how it turns out.

Crazy Hair Day (Updated)

Today was "Crazy Hair Day" at Piper's school. She opted to wear 8 ponytails and a hideous blue bow in her hair. She's still looked cute, but in a psycho-princess sort of way.


Update: "Crazy Hair Day" was a part of a fundraiser at Piper's school. They're attempting to whip the kids into a frenzy so they'll be excited about raising money. If the children could get 7 sponsors over the weekend, they were promised a nice surprise. Piper called all of our relatives hoping to get at least 7 sponsors and of course, they came through for her. I couldn't believe it when she jumped into the car this afternoon with a Razor scooter. Her surprises consisted of a headband, wristband, bracelet, frisbee, sunglasses, pair of shoestrings and a scooter! Wow. Times sure have changed since I was in school.

The Ugly

I've had a few people mention recently that our family life (ie.adoptions) seems perfect, even simple. They asked me if everything is really as rosy as it appears on my blog. Uh, well... no, of course not. I try to be completely honest and share the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I whole-heartedly apologize if I have made our lives seem a little too "Brady Bunch". To that end, I am dedicating this post to the ugliness currently underway at our house:

Ash is a whiny kid. I abhor whining. I absolutely think it's the worst personality trait possible. We're working on it, but right now Ash's whining is driving me stark raving mad.

Kai likes to make Ash cry. I think Kai believes that he looks a lot better if Ash looks bad (by constantly having fits.) Kai rarely irritates Ash in front of me. He's too smart. He waits until I leave the room to snatch Ash's toy or push him down. Yes, I know, my kids are icons of good behavior.

Ash is a big wimp. He has the pain tolerance of a flea (maybe I should research the actual pain tolerance of a flea before I post this.) Regardless, you get the point. At least 5 times a day, Ash breaks down over some minor or nonexistent injury. Again, it drives me crazy. My motto is "you're fine, suck it up."

Neither of my little boys are potty-trained. Yes, they were both born with defective anatomy so they definitely deserve quite a bit of leeway on this issue. However, Kai starts kindergarten next year so we've got to get things under control sometime in the very near future.

Speaking of kindergarten, David and I were informed last week that Kai must learn his alphabet soon if he is planning to start "big school" in the fall. For some reason, Kai has a mental block when it comes to learning his letters. I've bought 2 videos and some flash cards and am praying that he can catch up.

I hate my husband's job. When he was interviewed last year, he was told that he would be travelling 1 to 3 days a month. Ha! I can't even believe they said that with a straight face. David travels anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks a month. He actually loves the work he's doing and the people he works with, but the travelling is extremely difficult for our family. It's almost impossible for one parent to get 4 kids to all of their extra-curricular activities. I try to be upbeat since he at least has a job in our pathetic economy, but it's nice to vent sometimes.

So there it is, the ugly (somewhat embarrassing) part of our lives right now. If you were thinking that our lives and adoptions seemed a little too good to be true, I hope I've cleared things up for you. We're certainly blessed but we're far from perfect.

Adoption #3

Ha! I fooled you (and I truly apologize if I gave you a heart attack, mom.) I bet you thought I went off and did something crazy. No (new) kids are in our future, so you can stop the proceedings to have me committed. Our newest adoption is of the four legged variety. Our pup was rescued in July and has been looking for a family ever since. A wonderful woman (who happens to carry a collar & leash in her car - just in case) found her wandering the interstate and just couldn't leave her there to eventually get run over and killed.

We've been talking about getting a dog for over a year now. I am a dog fanatic but Kai was terrified of them when he came home from China. Our sweet Australian Shepherd, Indy, moved to live with David's parents when it became apparent that I was either going to kill her or Kai if they had to coexist any longer. Kai now loves dogs and the kids have been begging for one since Christmas. We've been waiting for Ash to get acclimated to our house before introducing a new dog and it finally seemed like the right time.

We've named her Scout (from To Kill a Mockingbird.) It was actually the name we picked out for Piper, but Piper won out in the end. Scout is the most wonderful dog, ever. She is house trained, doesn't bark, loves kids, doesn't jump on people and walks on a leash like a dream. I am totally in love with her. Here's to our newest family member, Scout the dog.