About Me

I have adopted 4 children from a specific orphanage in Eastern Europe and I want to see more children redeemed from that orphanage and brought into families. I want to make sure that the children who are still left behind in that place are never forgotten.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Stuff Only At My House

As I start to type, I realize that the title of this post may end up its own "category". I bet that a lot of the stuff that happens here is not "normal" any where else. Here are just a few of the things that happened here today, but I'll let you decide which things are good and which are not.

1. I realized that Crystal is back to stuffing food and hiding the wrappers at times. We had another discussion about how there is always food here and that the stuffing can cause her to get choked. If we didn't know that she was eating and she was hiding to "stuff" then she could choke without us there to rescue her (which I've had to do a couple times). She says that she doesn't know "why" she does it, but unfortunately I know because I've had more than a few with those behaviors.

2. Zeeky had just had lunch before he went outside. He then had a popsicle about 30 minutes after going outside. I went to have them come to the door because I was giving another snack out and found him eating some dog food that was soggy from last night's rain. He knew he shouldn't and stopped immediately upon seeing me, but was mad that he had to come inside. He was always placed with Crystal, go figure. I think any little thing makes them resort back to fearing that they may go hungry again sometime and back to their food behaviors. I really wish I knew exactly what all happened to them before they came to me, but then again maybe I would end up in big trouble for choking the adults who didn't take care of them.

3. I was thrilled and so proud of myself today. I used magnets that had a sticky side and industrial velcro to stick my white board onto the inside of the pantry doors. Our addition isn't going to be done by the time we start back to homeschooling so I am really working hard to get things to where they will work until our school room is done.

4. My brother and his wife brought their 3 little ones over. We had 15 kids here and way lots of fun! How many people really had 15 kids at their house today and thought "this just proves that we need to adopt again soon!". lol

5. We had several little boys and my brother having a "ball pit ball war" in my sensory room. I bet my brother sleeps very good tonight!

There were lots of other things that probably didn't happen anywhere else either, but I'd hate to make this post last for days. I think the most important thing that happened here is that even with some odd things thrown in the bunch and issues that kids have that they should have never had to face before they came, we still love each other so much. I am glad that I get to be the one to teach them what life SHOULD be like. I am blessed to be the Mommy of this whole crew and get to enjoy the fun and help them through the hurts. I am blessed! I wonder what tomorrow will hold with my crew?

Friday, July 16, 2010

Mom of Teenagers

Yes, it has hit me hard lately that I really do have teenagers. So shocking to imagine myself at 30 years old as the mother of teenagers. I have had teenagers for quite some time. My oldest two are 17 and 18 years old, but it never hit with them so much. I mean special needs children have some great benefits of not making you feel as old as "typical" teenagers do really.

Now my 15 year old is another ball game! I am really feeling old. He got dropped off at the county fair tonight. We gave him a CELL PHONE! He called me (on time by the way which is very important) on the cell phone to check in and to set up where he was to be picked up. That is all very scary to me! I am very blessed with a very good teenage son. I am very proud of him and so glad that God chose me to be his mom.

Raising a teenager is interesting. They are stuck somewhere between "grown up" and "child". They still need guidance and structure, but also need to have some freedom to "hang out" and have fun. It is like a balance beam routine. You are contantly trying to figure out if its time to give them a little more freedom or not. You want to be their friend and their parent. You want to be sure that they can trust you and confide in you, but that they also respect you. You want to give them freedom, but not enough to get into to trouble.

Tonight he is home safe and sound. He seems to have had a good time. He has learned a little more about the world he is a part of and he is still confiding in me so we are good. I am very blessed and glad that I have my Heavenly Father to help me through this strange journey. I will need His help a lot because I am counting and at one point in my life I am going to have 7 children between the ages of 13 and 18 all at the same time. That isn't counting any other children who may join our family in the mean time! "Lord help me" is going to remain my plea!

Just Starting Out

I've wanted to start a blog for quite some time, but really have no clue what I am doing. :) I finally got a little push from some friends to get it started. Please be patient because as you can imagine time can be a problem.