Above Average Week

I am sitting at my desk trying to plan out the next week's schedule. As I look at the calendar I am a little concerned how we are going to accomplish school and household tasks at all. This week is stuffed and I did not even realize it until this moment. We have no less than 7 medical appointments to go to in one week!

My calendar looks like a giant slalom coarse for down hill skiers.

We normally average about 2 medical appointments per week. I don't know how I was not looking ahead on the calendar to see that is was becoming impacted. It will be a challenge to get school work done and the bases covered, much less make sure that laundry, meals and dishes are squeezed in the cracks that remain.

You would also think that we would have a break for the next several weeks, and that we have seemingly compacted several weeks worth of appointments into one, but as I look into the future I see we are on par for our normal schedule.

You know what they say, a doctor a day keeps the apples at bay! Did I get that backwards??

I'm in Love with these Mugs!

I can't believe they are growing so quickly!

I am one blessed Mama!

A New Kind of Crazy

We have taken the last 2 months and sorted through our possessions and cleaned out our closets in preparation for a yardsale to raise money to meet the rising costs of this adoption. We have come to realize that with any adoption the numbers you plan on and the numbers that you end up with when you are done are two distinct tallies. I am not a fan of this game. I would not do well in the construction business I fear. I want to come in on time and under budget. Doesn't happen in building a house and it sure has never happened in an adoption. This time is no exception as fees are accumulating and expenses adding that we were not informed of beforehand.

Yet, unlike construction you cannot choose to go with a lower grade of flooring or switch out the fixtures. The kid you love is the kid you love and nothing will keep you from going forward.... nothing that is except cold hard cash to pay for the procedural legalities. I think it is the one sad fact that keeps great kids out of great, loving families .... that mammoth gap of fiscal ability to pay for the legality.

We have pleaded and applied for a reduction of fees regarding this adopting given the circumstances and given the fact that we were taken unawares by the multitude of medical needs that would require so much money. We have met a brick wall in every turn, even those working within the system are a little surprised to find no give in their organizations.

So we are working all the angles we know, and one of the least favored by my dearest is the dreaded YARDSALE. Yet, it is our greatest opportunity barring more unpleasant sacrifices that could be made i.e. kidney donation (that's a joke, really). Our friends rallied around us when they heard we were having the fundraiser and donated lots of their good stuff to us. So much so, that our garage was full to the rafters with saleable items.

We were blessed and all ready to hold the sale last weekend when weather impeded our progress so we rescheduled for today. We prayed all week for great weather and we advertised all over the place. Today was beautiful and we had a crew of 3 families come and help us haul it all out early this morning and set it up for sale. Friends lent us tables and even one friend gave us the seed money for the cash box! What great friends!!!

We had a fair amount of traffic but the one thing we hadn't factored in was that we were near to a flea market and everyone stopped there first and spent all their easy cash before coming over to our place. You should have seen our place -- corner to corner display of great, good merchandise all for the taking at rock bottom, out the door prices. There were antiques at real show stopping prices and some great buys along with a flood of run of the mill yardsale items. I was surprised at what sold and what did not and to whom. Then there was the guy who haggled down a $10 item to $3, and before he got it to the car changed his mind and brought it back for a refund. No problem, we sold the thing full price within the hour, but it was funny!

There was also a great chance to sew goodwill within our neighborhood as lots of folks had come looking if not buying. We gave toys to the kids and of course the buttons had handfuls of lollipops to give away as their job during the day. You would think that I would have at least one photo from the day but NOOOOOOO I was too busy to even think about it.

In the end we sold about a third of the loot, took about 5 trailer loads to Good*will and put the remaining third of the best quality loot back into the garage to decide what it's fate shall be at another time, when we are not so exhausted. Nothing came back into the house, except for the kids.

After all this work the eager buttons gathered around the table as we counted the money. Amazingly, even with the spendthrifts, we still made a profit of $600! Woohoo, God is great! We are exhausted.

10 Months

Today marks the passage of our 10 month anniversary with Sweetpea. We are amazed that it has been 10 months while at the same time we scratch our heads and say, "it can't only be ten months, it feels much longer to us". She is elated that today is a special marker. In lieu of celebration amidst our hectic day we popped marshmallows into the cheeks of all four buttons and played a silly round of "Chubby Bunny" with strawberry flavored ones of coarse for we are girlie girls! (The strawberry ones are pink, I cannot vouch for their taste but they sure look cute!) She is delighted to be delighted in even with a small celebration. I hugged her more than usual today and told her that I was so glad that she is a part of our family.

Recently something happened that hasn't happened in a long time and it caught my attention. She caught a moment of an infomercial of a steaming floor cleaner, I'm sure you have seen this lately too, and she joined the chorus of young voices who longed to have such a product. (Okay, I will admit yet another time my children are strange, even to me. Longing for a floor cleaning product at such tender ages can mean a lot of things but it doesn't mean that they like to clean the floors, just that they are acquainted with such tasks once in a while. Why they wish to own such a device rather than a doll or toy is beyond me.) Sweetpea went on to say that she recognized that she had no money to buy such an expensive product right now but that she would have her husband buy it for her when she got married.

This line of thought happened hundreds of times a day when she first came to us. Anything she wanted and was seemingly denied she would intone about this future husband marrying her, getting a job with lots of money at which time she would beg him for the money to buy the desired item. For the longest time she had a story about this husband buying her a hotdog truck and driving it around so she could sell the hotdogs. Eventually she allowed me into the story by creating a job position for me as the mustard dispenser, but not the ketchup, it was too valuable!

So when she made mention of this mythical husband the other day it was said softly almost like a distant echo. I caught it and realized that she had not said that for a very long time, that she was growing out of her need to hold onto her story. Also her past constraints of how she understands the world are beginning to shift, for she lives in a family where the wife is well loved and never needs to beg the husband for money. The wife also does not wish to live in a hotdog truck! It just isn't my cup of tea.

These are really subtle changes in her that I could easily miss. I am so glad that God is using a highlighter to show them to me when they occur so that I will rejoice in what He is doing in her heart.

Yes, we are alive

I realize that it has been a while since the last post. I have been getting heckled. A lot. A lot of heckling from a certain corner and so I have caved to the pressure and amidst my crazy busy life I am squeezing in a moment to blog and say we are still all breathing. I promised. I promised that if my heckler would go far, far away.... like say to Japan I would consider posting. Today the heckler left for Japan and I am keeping my promise.

It's just zany things like this that make this quirky life so very tolerable.

Today.

Today felt like plunging off a bridge into freezing water. No matter how much you prepare for the moment of impact and know that the water is going to be breathtakingly cold, you cannot steal yourself enough against the onslaught. Preparation on par with the grit of MacArthur's troops is equal to this momentous task. And it is done yearly, amazing!

I am of course waxing poetic about matters educational. School. While although we officially started lessons over 3 weeks ago today was the moment of impact where we join the frenzy of weekly cooperative education, at which I teach 2 classes and wear many other hats while juggling the class schedules of the 4 children for whom I gleefully join this circus.

If I sound delusional, or if this does not make near enough sense, one must chalk it up to serious lack of sleep for the last 4 days and the physical exhaustion of a near marathon day today.

But I just want the credit for posting, sense or no sense. I survived this incredibly big day of the beginning of coop and I took a moment to record this sense of victory.

Perhaps tomorrow I shall emerge from the frigid water and inhale a sweet lungful of air - relief.