Sometimes

Sometimes I really want our baby to be here and sometimes I really, really, really want our baby to be here. Today is the latter scenario. I think it's because we went swimming. I got a picture in my mind of a bright pink swimsuit with polka dots and the little brown arms and legs that would go with it. Not that I don't appreciate the lime green frog swimsuit with pasty arms and legs to go with it....

Psalms Just for Me

I love that the Word of God comes alive in the midst of hard things. I read this last night: 

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love... (Ps. 17:6-7) 

I talked to a wonderful woman today whose Ethiopian baby has been with them for almost a year. She reminded me that God often chooses for us the hard paths of love. Their story was hard. But it has an incredible ending called A Beautiful Little Ethiopian Girl Who is Their Own.

I have a Handsome Little American Boy Who is My Own who is Not Sleeping When He's Supposed To. Time for me to go change that.

Addis

I was able to be a part of something wonderful last night. Addis was baptized. This spiritual landmark reminded me that one year ago, her faith was being demonstrated quite another way: cancer and chemo. One morning, Addis and I were in the parking ramp. She was bald, thin and going in for another round of chemo. We prayed and then Addis said this: "God is so nice to me." 

As I burst into tears, I told her, with a smile, "Don't ever do that to me again!!" She knew what I meant. She was brave beyond her years. She was a picture of a life laid down for Christ's purposes. She was almost more than I could bear at that moment. And I loved it.

 

Grant Applications

I'm applying for adoption grants. How does one sound competent ("I can take care of an orphan")and desperate ("Please give us financial aid") all at the same time? 

Dinner at Cub

There are dinner low points. One of them was at Cub. We needed groceries but I had the boys by myself. We needed to eat dinner. I decided we would combine groceries, dinner and boys. I bought 4 chicken legs, a footlong corn dog, a yogurt drink and two bottles of chocolate milk. I plopped the boys in the eating/customer service/make your own pictures/rent a rug doctor section of Cub, cut up the corn dog, blew on the chicken legs, opened the milks, got the napkins, instructed Eli on choking prevention and said, "Find me when you're done."

I got all the way through produce, lunchmeat, regular meat, deli and dairy before they found me. Eli's status message to me was this: "Mom, we all have stomach aches."

Things I Have Washed

I washed the winter coats and snow pants this week. I washed them because I got a phone call from my husband who said, "I'm at Sam's house but we can't find Sam or Levi." With a call like that, I had to do what any mom would do. Empty a closet. 

Out came the mittens, scarves, snow pants, coats, hats, facemasks and heavy socks. Then Joel found Levi so the 4 foot pile of winter wear sat in the hallway for 2 days. When the regular laundry began to mix with the winter clothes, I decided it was time to start washing. 

I had everything done--washed, hung out in the sun, taken downstairs, nearly folded and in an airtight Rubbermaid container when I found The Lump. Hoping it was another hat, scarf or even package of kleenex, I reached in. It was a brownie. From February. In plastic wrap though not airtight. "ELI! I just washed a brownie that was in your snow pants!!"

"Oh yea," he replied. "I remember putting it there."

I washed 2 bathmats this week as well. 

I decided to fall down some stairs today. 

All is well.

Accelerated Science

I invented a new science program today. It is not for the gifted. It is for the pathetic. And that would be me. 

I have skipped, with a due amount of guilt, every single science experiment in our book. Until today. To make sure I did it, I called a friend of mine who has not one, not two, but three boys. I invited them over to do science with us as long as my friend provided lunch. She was more than happy to trade lunch for a half a year's worth of solar system science experiments. 

We did relative size of the planets (Earth is a tic-tac; Mercury is a sprinkle; Neptune is a jelly belly, etc.), we melted chocolate with magnifying glasses, made craters in flour and demonstrated a solar eclipse in the bathroom. 

And then, just for fun, we made a salt relief map of Ethiopia. I stopped short of requiring the kids to make a salt relief infant in the capital city.

Guilt gone; headache abating.