Operation Rescue Stuffed Bulldog

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

Around here:

I did NOT display extremely poor parental judgment skills and allow my toddler to take his large, stuffed bulldog (aka. "Big Duke") security item into the place where my older kids have swim lessons.

Somehow in the craziness of drying off 2 kids, helping them get dressed, talking with one swim teacher about the next month's lessons, keeping the certificate of 1 child for a swim level completed absolutely dry, taking 2 kids to the restroom, and supervising 3 on the playground, we did NOT leave Big Duke behind at swim lessons!

Big Duke was NOT discovered missing at bedtime.

I did NOT make a phone call the next morning that went something like this, "Do you have our stuffed bulldog?"

I was NOT really having to work to keep from giggling and thinking of this book (Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity) the whole time!

My husband did NOT suggest I just wait until next Thursday when my kids have swim lessons again to get Big Duke since the place is not real close to our house.

When my 2 year old looked at me and said, "But I LOVE Big Duke!" I did NOT completely cave and drive over there in the rain Friday morning.

I did NOT return to my car and text my husband, "Operation Rescue Stuffed Bulldog = Success"!

And after all that. . .

There is absolutely, positively NO WAY at our very next errand 15 minutes later, I let my toddler take Big Duke into the Sam's store!

And into my older son's basketball game the next day!

Seriously, what's wrong with me?!!!

Maybe it's this. Just look at that smile on my little guy's face, so happy to be with his buddy Big Duke in the Sam's Club!
Reunited and it feels so good!! (Don't ever say the 70s didn't bring us any good music when you've got a song like that)

To see other tackles (that probably don't involve stuffed bulldogs) check out Tackle it Tuesday.

He shouldn't be an orphan in Haiti!

I don't usually post over the weekends, but this is important!

I've been following the story of Debra (who I actually met a couple weeks ago at a blogger dinner) who was in the process of adopting a boy from Haiti and after the earthquake it at first appeared her adopted son, Ronel, would come home to the US with a group of orphans to be united with their adoptive families in the US, but just before the plane left last week, it was discovered that Ronel was missing one piece of paperwork, so he could not go. A missionary who happened to be with Ronel the night after he was left behind wrote about the experience and to say it is heartbreaking is an extreme understatement.

Debra's husband flew to Haiti last week and is currently sleeping in the American embassy in Haiti with Ronel, trying his hardest to get clearance to fly back home with his adopted son. But each day it doesn't happen. Debra says her husband is determined not to leave Haiti without his son.

So what can we do to help? Read an overview of the story here and you'll also get some addresses and phone numbers for key officials you can contact to voice your concern.

If enough people speak up and pray; there could be a miracle and Ronel could be home in the U.S. holding his new baby brother. Yes, Debra and her husband had a baby just 6 weeks ago!

Our God is bigger than government red tape!

If only a worry a day kept lice away!

God had a message for me this week. Has that ever happened to you? You know where every devotional you look at, blog you read, conversation you have seems to have the same theme/ Bible verse?

This is what it was for me this week: Do not worry

1.

So by the end of the day on Monday I was like, "Okay, God, I'm seeing a recurring theme here. But really I don't have a big worry problem, so I'm a little confused. Oh! I know there's somebody in my life with a worry problem that I need to pass this on to. Please reveal that person to me."

2.

Tuesday morning I'm dropping my daughter off at preschool and I hear a couple of the other moms from her class talking, their kids and whole families have just recovered from a bad stomach virus. And instantly the worry hits. We have not had this stomach virus. It has actually been a couple years since we've had a bad one run through our whole family of 5, but I remember it well enough to fear getting another! I begin feeling nauseous just thinking about it and barking at my kids to sing the entire ABC song while they wash their hands! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

3.

A few hours later I talk to my mom who tells me that she's now "driving all over the place". She'd been restricted from driving since her seizure and that was supposed to last a couple more months. She claims her doctor is okay with her driving now. But my mom is having a lot of short-term memory issues. When I take her to run errands I have to remind her to lock the front door to her house when we leave and close her car door after she gets out at the grocery or she wouldn't do those things!! So the idea of her driving worries me! I can do nothing to stop her. Every time my cell phone rings, my heart skips a beat as I fear it will be news that my mom has been in an accident. But God says to trust Him and not to worry . . .

4.

Then I pick up my 1st grader at elementary school and he whips out a little note on yellow paper from the school informing parents that there were several cases of head lice discovered in the Kinder/First Grade hallway. . . We have never had lice and I FEAR IT! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

5.

I check my son's hair and don't see anything. The next morning I go to the Whole Foods store to buy the mint spray the school note claimed wards off lice when sprayed in hair, but of course they are sold out. All the other moms from our elementary school got there first! I Google "How to keep away lice" and debate ordering expensive shampoo & conditioner or going to buy some tea tree oil. Then I read something that says these products are not tested well on children and may do more harm than actually catching the lice would! I worry about not buying stuff, I worry about buying stuff. But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

6.

I completely freak out my 4 year old daughter checking everyone's hair for lice that she cries out after we've put her to bed at night. I go up to see what's wrong and she whispers, "I think I have lice!" I assure her she does not and head down the stairs worrying that I've ruined her, my neurosis is spilling over and now she's as big of a nut as I am! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

7.

Then there is the adoption paperwork. The dossier paperwork that I naively expected we'd be done with by the end of January. We got 2 different documents sent back to us from the lady who is helping us compile it all. They were not done right and have to be redone. Then our agency makes a mistake and sends us some very important papers with some required signatures missing; I have to call to get the correct versions sent to us. The FBI clearance we've been expecting to come in the mail any day now for 2 weeks still doesn't come. And my husband and I begin to worry. Worry that this paperwork will never be complete, and we'll be stuck in an endless nightmare of exact wording and signatures and dates matching and notaries and authentication and trips to FedEx FOREVER. But God says to trust Him and not to worry.

So stomach virus threat, my mom driving, head lice threat, lice preventative that injures my child's head, causing my daughter's potential neurosis, adoption paperwork that never ends all had me just about undone this week. And do you know what? None of them were actual problems. Just potential problems. Yet I made them problems by worrying about them!

Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I'm working on it!!!

And in the mean time, if anyone has a super secret way of warding off stomach bugs, stopping their mom from driving, keeping away lice, or gaining FBI clearance for an international adoption, please lay it on me!

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart, Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

The First 28 Minutes of My Day

13 Snippets from my morning:

7:00 am - (It is a non-Shred work-out day because I plan to run later in the morning with the jogging stroller.) I wake-up to the sounds of feet pounding down the stairs. I hear my 2 year old telling my husband who is already in the kitchen, "There's dirt in my bed! Somebody need get dirt out!" I instantly know it is not "dirt" in the toddler's bed, but likely poop from an overflowing diaper. Pull covers up to my chin. Do I have to get up?

7:03 am - Realize no other mom is showing up today, so I must do the job. I get up, put on running clothes and begin working on packing 6 year old's lunchbox with all his favorite things, just like the day before

7:10 am - Husband tells me, "He didn't eat any of his lunch yesterday. I unpacked it all last night and just some of the bread was eaten, nothing else."

7:13 am - I'm feeling the joy of packing a lunch that may return to me uneaten. Instead of writing, "Have a SUPER day. Love, Mom" on the napkin for the lunchbox, I write, "EAT YOUR LUNCH! Love, Mom"

7:14 am - Pour myself some cereal and coffee and head into dining room where my 3 children and husband are already happily eating breakfast.

7:15 am - Am OVERWHELMED by the smell of poop! And amazed that everyone is eating and nobody seems at all bothered by the smell! "Does Toddler have a dirty diaper?" I ask (Toddler still wears a diaper for sleeping). "Don't you smell that?!!"

7:16 am - Husband does not, in fact, smell that, but does manage to lean over to check the diaper status of the toddler sitting next to him. "He's not wearing a diaper!"

7:17 am - The realization hits. Toddler got his bath early last night and was put in jammies without a diaper since he'd still be awake for a while. Then when we put him to bed we didn't think to put the diaper on since he usually gets the diaper with the jammies. Suddenly the "dirt" in his bed makes perfect sense to me. My husband still doesn't get it. "Yeah, I didn't know what he meant about the 'dirt'"

7:18 am - Because I have already poured the milk on my cereal and not had even one swallow of coffee, I opt to try to finish a few bites of breakfast before dealing with the situation.

7:19 am - Toddler is done eating, gets out of his chair, and comes over to me. Toddler wants to sit on my lap! Smell is overwhelming! Breakfast is over!

7:21 am - Toddler gets hosed off in the bathtub.

7:25 am - I head into Toddler's room in total fear of what I'll find.

7:28 am - Thankfully not too bad, as poop hunts go anyway (yes, having 3 children it is not my 1st experience with such things). Fairly easily cleaned up, all the while explaining to my 4 year old daughter why there was poop on the floor. Sheets and jammies in the washer on hot with the color-safe bleach. Bathtub needs a bleach treatment, too!

What can I say? It's a glamorous job!


Find more Thankful Thursday & Thursday Thirteen

I never know what I'll find in my washer!

I'm guessing that should be a delicate load!

Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

This Forces Me to Exercise!

I'm not a morning person, but doing my Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred workout video first thing, before my kids wake up, logistically works best for my day.

However, the will-power it takes to climb out of bed and actually do the exercise rather than hitting snooze for the 30 minutes until my toddler-sized alarm clock (that doesn't have a snooze-button) goes off, is huge.

So, I've come up with a little extra motivation for myself.

Before I go to bed at night, when I am in my right mind with all the desire to work exercise into my schedule, I set out my weights, my mat, my shoes & socks.

This serves two purposes. One, things are easier in the morning when I'm barely awake. But the second is more important, it motivates me to get out of bed to do the exercise because otherwise I'll have the disheartening task of putting away the exercise gear later in the morning knowing I didn't actually do the workout!

Seriously, it works! My sleepy, comfy-in-bed mind actually tells itself, "You already have the stuff set out, you have to get up!"

Find more Works for Me Wednesday.

**This post contains affiliate links. However, my product suggestions are unbiased. I do acutally use the Shred exercise video and would recommend it to even my closest girlfriends!**

Just don't look at the other side!

Despite my uncraftiness, occasionally I get the bug to create something. The end-result usually ends up far from perfect, but presentable. But the process? Y'all it is not pretty!

This past weeekend I was inspired by this dress at Ruffles & Stuff. And I had a cream-colored t-shirt of my daughter's that for the life of me I could not get the stains out on the front of the shirt towards the bottom. I liked the shirt, it had sequins spelling out "semi-sweet" and was a soft long-sleeve.

I also had a lot of cupcake material leftover from a birthday banner I made for her last party. (Why did I have so much extra? Because an uncrafty person like me is incapable of correctly estimating the amount of material she'll need for a project!)

So with my inspiration, I got out my sewing machine, breathed a sigh of relief that there was still thread on the bobbin because winding new thread on is probably out of my league, sent my 2 little kids for a nap and my oldest to play at a friend's house.

Then I followed this tutorial from my friend The Internet who also doubles as my sewing instructor and turned the stained t-shirt and extra material into this dress for my daughter:

It looks pretty much okay on the outside and I think it won't fall apart when she wears it (the test will come tomorrow when she wears it to school), so I consider it a huge sewing success!

But if you turn the dress inside out and look at the seam holding the t-shirt part to the cupcake skirt part you'll see this . . .
Count them up -- 5 attempts at sewing those babies together! Five extremely wavy stitches, some of which start and stop!

But the outside of the dress looks mostly fine. You wouldn't really guess what was underneath, would you?

This messy process reminds me of a Bible verse I love, "And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Cor. 3:18

When God is working to create something beautiful in our lives the process is often long, hard, and not fun. There may be stops and starts, redos, even, as He sews the fabric of our lives together. But if we hang in there and let Him work, He'll transform us into something more beautiful than we could ever imagine -- His likeness!

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Check out Gratituesday, Tuesdays Unwrapped, and Tackle it Tuesday and Try and Tell.

Not My Son's Toenails!

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

Around our house:

There was NOT a time in the last couple weeks when I was stuck at home with an extremely snotty toddler plus a wheezy-sounding 4 year old and I was dying to do something besides wipe a nose or run the nebulizer machine so I suggested the activity of painting our toenails to my daughter just to entertain myself. She does NOT love having me paint her toenails!

But, after my daughter and I painted our toenails, my 2 year old son did NOT decide he really, really wanted to have his toenails painted. And for the record, my toddler is NOT AT ALL loud when he is expressing a desire for something.

I did NOT cave and decide it was not a battle worth fighting. I most assuredly explained that boys don't wear toenail polish. My daughter and I did NOT just declare that the brown nail polish could be a suitable boy color and paint his toenails to make him happy.

This is NOT a picture of my son's painted toenails!
Now, a full 11 days later, the toe nail polish is NOT still there!

And speaking of still there. . .

Our temperature has been well above freezing for nearly 2 weeks now, in the 70s, even. So, the diapers are most certainly NOT still plastered on the outside of my home to insulate the pipes!


I can't wait to hear what you've all NOT been up to!

Latest Links I Like

• Did you all go buy the Children's Hopechest t-shirt I blogged about last week? If not there is still time, remember for every shirt bought, a shirt and a pair of shoes will be provided for an orphan in Ethiopia. As of Wednesday they'd sold 233 shirts. Awesome, but there are around 5 million orphans in Ethiopia, so clearly there are tons more needing a new shirt and shoes that your purchase could provide. And you get a cute shirt, too!
  

• I love that my circle of friends who either have adopted or are in the process of adopting is growing ever wider! You guys have to check out Jane's post 5 Tips for raising a child of another race. Jane is Ugandan born, adopted by a Caucasian family, and raised in the U.S. and I am so thankful to be able to get to know her through the blog and email worlds!
  

• Lysa's post about the situation in Haiti and the correlation between what the people there are facing and what her 2 boys adopted from Liberia lived for many years is wonderful.
  

• This from Shaun Groves is a must read.

• I love Raise Them Up's post on Soliders, Faith and the Heart of a Mom.

• And this one on What makes a House a Home by Centsational Girl is super, especially the part about the messy piles and fingerprints!

• I must confess to just a teensy bit of envy when I saw this gorgeous shirt on Tea Rose Home that she made ALL BY HERSELF! Oh to have the power to create beautiful clothes for just a couple dollars! That would be a finer thing!
  

Happy Friday!!

P. S. If you're still reading this and would like the rare opportunity to see a picture of my actual face, click over to this post of Beth's at Not a Bow in Sight. You certainly won't see much of me on my blog!

Find more Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

And still I probably haven't heard it all!

You know, there is really no way to encapsulate the random that makes up a mom's day.

But in my attempt to try, here are 13 things I've heard recently from my children:

"Do dinosaurs ever need band-aids?"

"See, here in the front of the book is the Table of Continents."

"NO! I don't want clean teeth!"

"Yes, I do want dentist drill holes in my teeth 'cause I didn't brush. I do!"

"Does anybody ever run out of kisses?"

"Tomorrow starts my Stanford testing at school and we're supposed to eat a good breakfast. You should make me eggs! I know, one day I can have scrambled eggs and the next hard-boiled eggs -- but you'll have to make those the night before."

"Knights don't have capes!"

"What do I have to eat to get dessert?"

"Is it almost Christmas?" (Me: "Um, no, Christmas is 11 months away")

"Are stinky people real?"

"I want just pants, no diaper, no underwear! Just pants!"

"No, you can't be Spiderman even if you are wearing the Spiderman costume, you have to be Spidergirl."

"Mommy, do you love Isabella (that's our dog) even though she has bad breath?"

Find more Thankful Thursday & Thursday Thirteen

First Kiss

My firstborn's first kiss.

It's been 5 years and he still hasn't called her!


Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

Potty-Training 102

There are countless articles out there on how to potty-train your child. Pretty much every parenting magazine you pick up will have one.

They will say something like, “Determine readiness, buy a potty, buy a doll that wets, buy your child underwear, let your child teach the doll to use the potty, cheer wildly when the doll uses the potty, give your child a lot of liquids to drink, encourage them to use the potty, when they do give them a “potty party”.

And that is where nearly every article I've seen leaves you. Assuming you have achieved the chain of events described and your child has actually used the potty, you are still far from having a potty-trained child.

And so I wonder where is the next course, Potty-Training 102?

I cannot even begin to describe the amount of material that could be covered in such a class! There is so much craziness that goes on between a child's first use of the potty and being deemed "potty-trained"!

I love the preschool form you have to fill out at the beginning of the year with the question, “Is your child potty-trained?” and there is a check box for “yes” or “no”. Preschool administrators ought to know better, we don't need a check box. Moms need an entire paragraph to be able to answer the question of if their preschool child is potty-trained.

There are all sorts of variations I've seen in my own kids, friends' kids, and the kids I've taught in preschool at church.

“He'll go pee in the potty, but not poop.” “She still wears a pull-up but will occasionally use the potty.” “You have to bribe him to sit on the potty, but once there he may go.” “She is potty-trained, but needs reminders to go.” “He's potty-trained during the day, but still wears a pull-up at night.” or “You must sing a song, while running the sink faucet, and bribing him with matchbox cars before he'll go.”

From my experience potty-training 2 children and in process with the 3rd, Potty Training 102 has 3 phases (all involving M&M rewards):

• 1st phase - Get child very used to going in the potty by having them spend a lot of time there; read books while they sit on the potty, sing songs, even let them watch a TV show while sitting on the potty. With all the time on the potty (and increased fluid intake helps, too) they will become more relaxed about using the potty.

• 2nd phase - You take the child to the potty at fairly regular intervals, like every 30 min. or every hour. They don't sit there very long, but just try. Accidents become less frequent during this phase.

• 3rd phase - You stop reminding your child about the potty and he begins telling you he has to go.

During the transition from stage 2 to stage 3 the accidents actually increase. I know very personally, because that is where my toddler is in the potty-training right now.

When you stop reminding them about the potty even though you know they need to go, it is hard, you are letting your child fail, but they have to learn just how long they can hold it before they need to get to the potty. They need to learn to initiate getting to the potty by themselves.

I'll never forget the hilarious email my 1st son's 3 year old preschool teacher sent out to all the parents after some of the parents complained that their kids were having accidents at school when they rarely did at home.

She said, "If you are regularly taking your child to the potty or reminding them to go, you are the one who is trained, not them."

I am grateful my little guy is actually telling me when he has to go now and that we may actually enjoy some diaper-free days (he'll still wear a diaper at night for a while) here around the Chaos House before child #4 gets here, anyway!

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Find more Gratituesday and Tackle it Tuesday.

Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway.

And the winner is . . .

Kim from Mom Tried It.

Congratulations!

If you didn't win, I do highly recommend the book as well as the other books by Tom Davis.

Proceeds from the book go back to feeding orphans, in fact buying one book will feed an orphan for a month!

It is my dream, too!

The other morning my 4 year old daughter suddenly looked at me and asked, "Mommy, when I get big am I going to look exactly the same as you?"

As I turned to her and began an attempt to answer the question, tons of thoughts raced through my mind all at the same time.

I hadn't put on make-up or gotten ready for the day yet and I'm sure I looked terrible, so I was thinking she's probably asking and hoping the answer is "no"! So, I asked, "Do you want to look like me?" in a very incredulous voice. Still her reply was, "Yes."

But the part that hit me like a ton of bricks was the thought, "So this is the age when she'll care." Four years old. My daughter whom I have not yet met. The one I'm adopting from Ethiopia.

For my biological daughter the answer is easy. I told her, "Sweetheart, you won't look exactly the same as me when you grow up. You may be about as tall as me and may look a little like me, but no, you will not look exactly like I do. And that's good. You'll be your own beautiful person."

And for my future daughter, the answer is the same, but oh, how much more complicated the issue is!

Most likely her skin will be brown, mine is an extremely pale peach. Her hair will likely be curly, either a little or a lot, mine is super straight. We will be different races.

And, oh, how I wish that didn't matter. But I know there will be times when it will. There will probably be different ages and stages of my future daughter's life when it will be a very big issue to her. And, very sadly, I fear there will be times when people out in the world will make that an issue for her.

I pray that she will see herself as the beautiful, cherished, loved child that she will be to us.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I share in your dream!

Find more Mom-Monday here.

The Perfect Valentine's Day Gift!

Would you like to know what my husband and I are getting each other for Valentine's Day?

And getting for our kids, too?

These shirts! Check out the awesomeness here!

And the best part?

For every shirt we (or you or anyone) buy Children's HopeChest will provide an orphan in Ethiopia with a new pair of shoes and a new shirt!

Would you like to join in on the blessings -- a new shirt for yourself or someone you love plus a shirt and shoes for an orphan?

The store opens at 7AM on Friday, Jan. 15th and the first 25 people who purchase a HopeChest Project T shirt will receive a free autographed copy of Tom Davis’ book- Scared

Find more Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

Today I Needed to be Thankful!

I am thankful for the times I remember to be thankful because it sure does make things better!

13 other ways I was thankful today. . .

Thankful that even though I wiped Toddler's snotty nose every 4 minutes all day long and wondered how it was possible that one small person could produce so much snot, I know it will pass, he will get older and not catch every single cold that comes around.

Thankful that someday he'll even be able to wipe his own nose!

Thankful that dinner was edible. Added 1/2 teaspoon of salt to recipe and then noticed it actually called for seasoned salt. So I just add 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt, too, and hoped for the best! Turned out just fine!

Thankful for 1st grader's great report card!

Thankful Toddler only had one accident today and it was while he was sitting on his "special seat" (folded up blue towel) so my couch was protected!

Thankful for the warmer weather!

Thankful my 4 year old daughter still lets me pick out her clothes nearly every day! Today a smocked dress, ruffled leggings, a white cardigan sweater, hair in pigtails with purple bows. Please let me be able to get away with this next year in kindergarten, too!

Thankful I didn't lose my cool with the bank representative I spoke to on the phone about the now week-old issue where the bank cannot provide the very simple notarized letter we need for our adoption stating we have an account with them, have had it for over 10 years, and are in good standing. Why can't they provide what we need? Because it is against their policy to draft letters! Hmmm, you are a bank isn't that a big part of what you do? All we can get is a standard referral letter that they order from the corporate location in another state that isn't even really what we need (including tons of info. we don't need and lacking the key notary signature), oh and they're going to charge us $10 for it!

Thankful for the fun I had describing to my husband the next step in my battle to get a simple letter from my bank -- I'm going to take my snotty-nosed, potty-training toddler in with me every day to the bank, set him on their upholstered couch, and stay until someone gives me the 2 sentence letter I need! Between the pee-pee and the snot, somebody's gonna cave and it's not going to be me!

Thankful that even though I never got around to mopping the floor today nobody is firing me from my housewife job!

Thankful for all your comments on my recent posts. I have loved reading them!

Thankful for organizations like Compassion that serve the hurting, like so very many in Haiti right now.

Thankful that because of them and others like them (Red Cross, World Vision) we are not helpless to provide for those in desperate need.

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway! **

Find more Thankful Thursday & Thursday Thirteen

What are they doing?

My 4 year old and 2 year old were just standing there like this for several minutes in our backyard one day last week.

I couldn't help laughing when I realized what they were doing.

Let me give you a clue. Here's what's in the white tub by the tree. Tons of acorns my daughter had collected that morning while she was on the playground at preschool.

As we brought all the acorns home from school I asked her what she was going to do with all of them and she said they were "squirrel food".

So a few hours later when I saw the opened tub at the base of our tree and two of my kids standing a few feet back from it, I realized they were waiting on the squirrels!

I guess my daughter thought she'd open the tub o' massive-quantities-of-acorns and the squirrels would just come running!

***Check out my giveaway I posted about yesterday***

Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

Dare to Care

Over the past 8 years as I've volunteered working with abused children I have had several opportunities to tell other people about what I do and more times than I can count I've gotten the following reply, "Oh, I could never do that, it would be too upsetting to hear about children being hurt."

I've never responded with more than a forced, polite smile but what I want to say is, "What?!! Innocent children are living lives of abuse day after day and you're worried about injuring your mind by hearing about it? If you would endure the discomfort of caring about their pain you could very likely help change their life for the better."

And the truth is it is hard and life-changing to step into the lives of hurting people. It will keep you awake some nights. It will change how you spend your time, your money, and who your friends are.

But I can guarantee that when you enter the world of the least, the last, the forgotten, you will find Jesus!

I'm not sure I can really describe the wild emotional ride my husband and I have been on as we've entered into the journey of adopting a child from Ethiopia. I feel like in the process of learning about the orphan crisis and the heart-breaking true stories of so many children around the world, and deciding to adopt one child, my heart has grown several sizes.

The good part is that I now passionately care about people and things that before I spent maybe a few minutes in total my whole life worrying about. But the bad part is that along with the capacity to care for and love people who are suffering half-way around the world from me, comes the fact that I hurt for them.

But you know what? The hurt I feel is good because it motivates me to do something to make things better for them.

"Once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

A book that has been key to "opening my eyes" is Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds by Tom Davis and in honor of the 1 year anniversary of this blog I'm giving away a copy of the book to one of you! To be eligible for the prize all you have to do is agree to read the book if you win it. If you are interested, leave me a comment on this post with the words, "I will read it" somewhere in your comment. I'll randomly select a winner and next Monday I'll announce who it is here on the blog.

Tom Davis graciously provided the book for this giveaway in order to get the word out about the work his organization, Children's Hopechest is doing bringing God's hope and love to orphans around the world. If you'd like to find out more about Children's Hopechest and what you can do to help check out his blog here.

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Find more Gratituesday and Spiritual Sunday.

Blogoversary!

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

It was NOT ME who let my 1 year blogoversary pass without even mentioning it!

It was NOT ME who didn't even know what a blogoversary was a little over a year ago (for anyone still in that boat, it is the anniversary of when you began your blog).

It was NOT ME who had the thought that beginning a blog over the holidays (Dec. 28, 2008) is rather inconvenient when it comes to celebrating an anniversary.

It is NOT ME who believes because it is my blog I can observe my blogoversary whenever I want.

Therefore I will NOT be celebrating this week with my 1st ever giveaway, with the details announced tomorrow, so check back then!

It is NOT ME who has loved sharing in this community with all of you readers this past year and so I will NOT be giving one of you something that is sure to change your life (in a good way)!

Oh the shame!

The past 2 days I've managed to talk about dying my hair and potty training on this blog.

And just when I thought it could not get any more embarrassing around here, this happened. . .



7 short paragraphs of explanation:

For the next 3 days it is going to be really cold in our neck of the woods, like in the 20s! And I know for those of you facing -50 degree F windchill tomorrow (predicted for North Dakota) that would be balmy, but for us it is COLD, colder than it's been in 20 years kinda cold! So we are not used to having to worry about our pipes freezing.

And my husband and I are not plan-aheaders, so we don't have any of those fancy foam faucet covers on hand and now that the city is all in a frenzy about the freezing temps. we knew all the stores would be sold out of such things. But thankfully I heard on the radio that diapers were good insulators and that you could cover your outdoor faucets with them and secure with duct tape.

Diapers! Now that is something we do have around this house -- and have had in active use for the past 7 years straight!

So when my husband got home from work last night he strapped on the iPod, armed himself with some diapers, and set to work.

When I walked out later to see his creations I cracked up.

Seriously, we have no shame left at all!

The exterior of our home is now adorned in Elmo themed Pampers!



P. S. I would like to take this opportunity to say a sincere apology to my neighbors.

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart, Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

Pondering Potty-Training

At least the stuffed bulldog is potty-trained!

Remember my toddler's new year's resolution? Well, we're nearly 1 week in and there has been significant progress, but we are still very much in the thick of the process!

So from the trenches I share with you. . .

13 Signs You May Be a Potty-Training Mama:

1. Your 2 year old jumps up in excitement after filling an entire toddler potty with pee-pee, grabs the potty bowl in an eager attempt to dump it into the big potty but accidentally dumps it in your lap instead and you manage to still clap & cheer, "Hooray!!! You went pee-pee in the potty!"

2. You have made up a song that goes, "Pee-pee in the potty, pee-pee in the potty, let's go pee-pee in the potty!"

3. And you sing it loudly whenever your toddler demands.

4. You have also enlisted your older children to join in the chorus!

5. You can quickly calculate the amount of time before your toddler will need to go pee-pee based on the minutes since he last went combined with the critical factors of when he last drank something and volume of beverage consumed!

6. You have washed the car seat cover more times in the last month than in the previous 2 years combined!

7. You begin to think really mean thoughts about the mothers you've heard say, "She just potty-trained herself one day!"

8. You spend a good portion of a day wondering if and worrying that your house smells like urine!

9. When your neighbor stops by you debate asking her if she thinks your house smells like pee, but ultimately you chicken-out.

10. You create a "special seat" which is a folded up towel your toddler must stay on whenever he sits on your couch.

11. You begin rewarding your older children with M&Ms when they go potty in the hopes it will inspire your toddler to do the same!

12. You begin treating yourself to M&Ms when you go potty!

13. When you go potty and your toddler wildly claps and cheers, "Hooray, Mommy, you went pee-pee in the potty!" it occurs to you that nobody else in the entire world would ever praise you for that accomplishment and you are overwhelmed with love and thankfulness for that little potty-training toddler!


Find more Thankful Thursday, Thursday Thirteen, and Thousand Words Thursday at Cheaper Than Therapy

I May Dye

Today's Works for Me Wednesday is a backwards edition where rather than posting a tip, the blogger asks the reader a question. And this really could not come at a better time, because I need help!

I am . . .

doing the math. . .

born in 1976 subtracted from 2010, but I haven't had my birthday yet this year . . .

33 years old!!

Am I the only one who seriously has to go through that logic to figure out their age? I truly don't remember most of the time!

Oh, but back to my issue in desperate need of help. I have never officially dyed my hair. Nope, not even as a teenager. I am a hair wimp, which explains why I've had the same hairstyle for years and years now! I have used the John Frieda temporary color glaze every once in a while for the last couple years and it has masked the gray well enough to allow me to delay the permanent dye this long.

But now?

I'm seeing gray more often (like more than I can pluck out in one sitting), and the John Frieda just isn't working for me anymore! I totally blame my 3rd child, or maybe my 1st. The combination of my 1st and 3rd is definitely what did it!

Enough with the blame! I need help!

Help that doesn't involve the salon because I'm way too cheap and time-crunched to spend over $100 and 3 solid hours every few weeks on my hair!!!

I have no sisters, so I'm counting on you, dear blog friends!

Is there any drugstore product you recommend? My hair is brown with some reddish tints and sadly, some gray-highlights that must go!

And are there any tricks to applying the stuff?

Any advice you can offer is much appreciated!

1st Grade Math!

Is it just me or has 1st grade math gotten harder since I was in school?

Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

Convicted By My Three-Year Old!

When I tuck my daughter into bed at night, I sit on her bed and pray with her. I keep it simple because she is so young. We usually start by thanking God for one or two things and then praying for one or two things.

For example, if she was sick recently we would thank God for making her well and pray for all the children who were still sick. It was pretty funny one day last year when my daughter had been talking about how much she loved her preschool class (which was called the Bunny Rabbit class), and so I began our prayer time with, "Thank you that she gets to go to the Bunny Rabbit class." and my daughter finished, "And pray for the children who don't get to go to the Bunny Rabbit class!" Yes, indeed!

Then there was the night last summer when we thanked God for our home and then prayed for the children who don't have homes. When we finished praying my then 3 year old daughter suddenly looked straight at me and said,

"Mommy what do we do about the children who don't have homes?"

I said, "Well, we give money to help them, you know like Juliet we sponsor in Uganda." This was not good enough for her.

"But what do we DO, Mama?"

I understood her feeling. I, too, am not totally satisfied just supporting charities with my money, but want to give more of myself, get right in the thick of the work with my own hands and heart. But I was at a loss in how to answer her, so I said, "Well, what do you think we should do?"

And my little girl replied, without hesitation, "We could share our home with them."

Her answer took my breath away. But seriously? The answer is so obvious, preschoolers get it! A supposedly sharing-challenged demographic!

I think we as adults have become so desensitized to the atrocities of this world that we can hear about homeless and orphaned children without ever thinking, "We could share our home with them." I am so thankful for the innocent love and minds of children!

Mark 10:15 "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall by no means enter into it."

So, there you go, 1 of the reasons out of about 500 why we have decided to adopt a child from Ethiopia. If we cannot even face our own children and say, "We did all we could," how can we stand before God Himself one day?

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Check out Gratituesday.and Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Is it all over?

For this post-holiday Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!) I am NOT going to bombard you with a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks!

I am NOT a little sad to see the Parade O' Christmas go away. Good thing the real Jesus never leaves us!

I was NOT too cheap to buy any wrapping paper this year and did NOT resort to wrapping the kids' gifts in white paper with small wrapping paper accents when last year's supply of gift wrap began to run out!

I did NOT impose the rule of taking turns opening presents on Christmas morning to help everyone savor the gifts more. NO WAY would I sneak a little patience training into Christmas morning!
I did NOT eat way too many of the homemade doughnuts we make every Christmas morning. It is NOT a good thing we only make them once a year!
I did NOT enjoy hanging out with these 3 adventurers all day, every day during the break and am NOT kinda sorry school starts back on Tuesday!

And behind them on the back of the couch? Most definitely NOT clothes waiting to be put away!

Last, I did NOT ring in the new year by sharing some big news with you! If you missed it, click here to read up on the new chaos!

Now, I'm NOT planning to spend the rest of my Monday patting myself on the back for getting all the Christmas stuff packed away and wondering just how I'm going to get the kids out of the pajamas they've grown so accustomed to wearing all day during the break and into school clothes on Tuesday morning!

New Chaos!

It's a new year!

2010 (although I'll continue to date everything 2009 until April or May).

I began my real life new year not by making a resolution for myself, but for my 2 year old. Because we all know it's more fun to change other people than to change ourselves! So the resolution imposed on him is this: he will no longer wear diapers except for sleeping. I'm sure I'll be blogging more later about his resolution.

But for now, I'm going to kick off this new year in my blog by sharing some other, even more life-changing news.

We are about 3 months into the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia!

I couldn't agree more, that's crazy!!!

So why are we doing it?

Because we have an empty bed, an extra seat at the table, clothing in a wide variety of child sizes, leftovers after nearly every meal, and room in our hearts to love another child.

Because there are 147 million orphans in the world and the reality of that breaks our hearts. We cannot adopt them all but we can decrease that number by 1.

Because at the same time our daughter crawls into bed and prays for a sister, there is a little girl in Ethiopia waking up to another day without a family to love her or care for her.

Because we are blessed with clean water pouring out of the faucets in our home, abundant food, quality medical care, and excellent public schools while in Ethiopia 60% of the children are stunted because of malnutrition and half the children will never attend school. Ethiopia’s doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000. Ethiopia has struggled through periods of famine since the 1980s with over 1 million deaths since that time.

Because as we were learning about Ethiopia we fell in love with its children; they are some of the cutest kids we’ve ever seen!

Because after 2 years of hearing Him whispering and shouting in many, many ways, we are so very sure God is leading us to this.

Because He adopted us!

"In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:5

We are excited and nervous about this new adventure and would love your prayers. We are working with an agency and drowning in paperwork, but hopefully in the next 9 to 15 months we’ll travel to Ethiopia and bring our new daughter home.

And we all just thought it was chaos before!

Our Adoption

In September 2009 we began the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia!

I couldn't agree more, that's crazy!!!

So why are we doing it?

Because we have an empty bed, an extra seat at the table, clothing in a wide variety of child sizes, leftovers after nearly every meal, and room in our hearts to love another child.

Because there are 147 million orphans in the world and the reality of that breaks our hearts. We cannot adopt them all but we can decrease that number by 1.

Because at the same time our daughter crawls into bed and prays for a sister, there is a little girl in Ethiopia waking up to another day without a family to love her or care for her.

Because we are blessed with clean water pouring out of the faucets in our home, abundant food, quality medical care, and excellent public schools while in Ethiopia 60% of the children are stunted because of malnutrition and half the children will never attend school. Ethiopia’s doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000. Ethiopia has struggled through periods of famine since the 1980s with over 1 million deaths since that time.

Because as we were learning about Ethiopia we fell in love with its children; they are some of the cutest kids we’ve ever seen!

Because after 2 years of hearing Him whispering and shouting in many, many ways, we are so very sure God is leading us to this.

Because He adopted us!

"In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:5

We are excited and nervous about this new adventure and would love your prayers. We are working with an agency and drowning in paperwork, but hopefully in the next 9 to 15 months we’ll travel to Ethiopia and bring our new daughter home.

And we all just thought it was chaos before!

Adoption Details

Agency - Gladney
Requesting a girl age 0-30 months

Adoption Timeline

Sept. 9, 2009 - 1st Request for information from agency
Sept. 26, 2009 - Returned info. form and initial fee
Oct. 6, 2009 - Orientation over the phone with Gladney worker
Oct. 8, 2009 - Returned Request for Application from Gladney and fee
Oct. 14, 2009 - Service Plan Call with Gladney
Oct. 22, 2009 - Mailed I-600A application to CIS
Nov. 7, 2009 - Mailed group 1 of Gladney application documents
Nov. 17, 2009 - Doctor physical for my husband
Nov. 20, 2009 - Mailed group 2 of Gladney application documents
Nov. 30, 2009 - Doctor physical for me
Dec. 9, 2009 - New passport for me
Dec. 12, 2009 - Began working with KBS Dossiers to compile our dossier to be sent to the Ehiopian government.
Dec. 17th - Health check-up and sign-off on all 3 of our children children
Dec. 17, 2009 - Mailed group 3 of Gladney application documents
Dec. 23, 2009 - Fingerprinted for FBI clearances
Dec. 28, 2009 - Mailed off request for FBI clearances
Jan. 8, 2010 - Homestudy done by Gladney
Jan. 25, 2010 - Gladney Approval for Adoption
Feb. 19, 2010 - Fingerprinted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (CIS) for I-600A
Mar. 9, 2010 - I am re-fingerprinted by CIS because 1st set couldn't be processed
Mar. 10, 2010 - Receive news that Ethiopia will now require 2 trips to finalize the adoption
Mar. 11, 2010 - Receive FBI clearances for both of us
Mar. 15, 2010 - Get notice that CIS still cannot process my fingerprints and considers them "unclassifiable". I must obtain police clearance letters from all cities I've lived in over the past 5 years and bring them to and appointment on Mar. 25, 2010 with a CIS officer
Mar. 16, 2010 - I apply for police clearance form 2 different police departments
Mar. 25, 2010 - Appt. at Dept. of Homeland Security regarding my "unclassifiable" fingerprints. Hopefully, prayerfully, the issue is resolved, and we will be getting our I-600A approval in the mail soon to be able to bring an orphan into the U.S. then we'll be on the wait list!!!!
Apr. 8, 2010 - Final I-600A approval!
Apr. 12, 2010 - On the waitlist!!!
Apr. 29, 2011 - Referral for 30 month old girl!!!
July 15, 2011 - Received court date of Aug. 2nd!
Aug. 1, 2011 - Meet our daughter for the first time
Aug. 2, 2011 - Court Date in Ethiopia