Woah! Look at me, I almost forgot Thankful Thursday. Guess I'd have to say today I am thankful that Andy's work shuts down for the whole time between Christmas and New Years giving everyone essentially another week of paid vacation. He is home and we have had lots of fun this week and today causing me to forget the day of the week. Yay!
Today I am thankful that my sister Donna and her family are coming for Christmas. I feel very blessed to be able to spend the holidays with family AND from the comfort of my own home. Yay! Last time she was here it was for this:
Ive been a little out of touch with the world for the past week or so. My family is probably glad that I am coming out of it. You see I have a disease. Its called read-itis. Sometimes I go through a week or so where I get into book after book after book. During these times of read-itis flare ups I am mostly useless. Thankfully for the sake of my home, husband and children - these flare ups end and I can function again. Usually for another couple of weeks. In this week I have read 2700+ pages. Yowzers!
I've missed a few Thankful Thursdays lately simply because I forgot what day of the week it was with all the glamorous daily activities that I do - like dishes, poopy diapers, laundry, and cleaning. And thinking of these things makes me less grateful actually. Especially, like on a day like today when we are throwing mucho dineros into a new washer after our last one broke - and not into one that I would love to have because we don't want to spend that many dineros - looks like I have a lot more years ahead of me of laundry with a less than awesome machine. Ehhh.
I am thankful though that I am not such a worry freak when it comes to my kids. Ruby just had her 12 month well child check and surprise surprise - she is little. She weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs ALMOST. This puts her at the 3rd percentile. But she is tall - falling around the 60th percentile. Nothing about her moods, development or anything else says malnourished or failure to thrive but her weight. I don't think she is failure to thrive because the girls eats like a horse and moves like a marathoner. However, failure to thrive is what the doctor tells me she is classified as with how small her weight percentile is. I know she is healthy and when I discussed options with the doctor she said she believes she is just small too. We discussed how Andy is in the 85th percentile for his height and in the 5th percentile for his weight himself. She is a miniature version of her Dad - even down to the eating and moving elements. But nothing makes you feel like more of a terrible Mom then to hear your child is failure to thrive. I am thankful though that it didn't get me down long because I also understand what a percentile is. It is a portion of a normal distribution. And all this means is that for 3 percent of the population at her age - that weight IS normal. It just doesn't help that she is so long.
I am thankful for the way I feel when I exercise. This week I upped my distance to 25 miles a week - mixed between speed walking and running. I love the feeling of speed walking for long periods of time and then ending with a good sprint for a half mile or more - It loosens and lengthens my muscles and even though they protest I like the feeling. Confession: I like watching a scary movie on the TV while I use the treadmill - I like to imagine myself in there and when the character runs for her life - I feel it too!
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| Corilynn's birthday cake |
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| Corilynn in the Salon station of the princess party getting her tiara fitted. |
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| Finished product complete with all the accessories - a very pretty Princess Corilynn |
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| All the princesses ready for Prince Charming to come |
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| Corilynn crushing on Prince Charming - she could not believe he came to HER party. |
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| All of the princesses with Prince Charming. |
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| Ruby dives head first into her Birthday Cake |
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| Hmmm cake is good! |
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| When you suck your thumb it becomes the only clean part of your body when cake is involved. |
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| Ruby wearing her birthday present from Grandma Mackrory - the cutest little strawberry in the world. |
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| Yeah for birthday card - envelopes! |
Usually these days I don't mind living in Ohio. Usually I feel like this is home. But there are days like today when I still feel unhappy here. I don't think it is the state at all really - what it boils down to is the people I left behind that I miss the most. The friendships that ran deep and strong. Proximity is everything they say - and today I am feeling the distance.
I'm not sure really how to start this post. I've tried a few different lines already. I have a lot of tender feelings in my heart right now. As I have mentioned before, we have an exchange student, Chantal. She came here with such a different perspective on what to expect here in America. Overall I think she expected to come here and have an American vacation and so when life hit at full speed, she had a hard time adjusting to it. Our culture was different, our rules were different, and our school was hard (especially when you are told beforehand that it is going to be so easy you wont have to work much at all). For several months our relationship with her was tenuous and shaky. We liked her - really liked her. She liked us but kept looking for the greener grass elsewhere where perhaps she would be able to get that American vacation she wanted. It was seriously hard on us. We were putting in a lot of effort to help her adjust and to be happy here. Everything we did seemed to go unappreciated and unnoticed. However slowly she did learn to get an American perspective on things and she started to adapt positively. She has a natural talent of making friends because she is beautiful, funny and has an infectious laugh. She has a natural talent for incorporating herself snugly into people's hearts. And she did just that with us. Every time things were hard on us - especially when we would work really hard to help her feel happy and loved here and she continued to say she wanted another home - we kept trying to see the positive and so naturally we fell quite in love with her and she became like a daughter to us.
It has been such a rewarding experience even with the difficult parts. Especially because in the past month she has become truly happy with our family. If you were a fly on the wall of our home you could see that she was happy and would think that she had always been part of our family. The kids went crazy whenever she came home from school and she would snuggle and love on them all the time. She and I had girl chocolate parties on my bed as we talked about life, boys, Germany, and more. We would laugh on the couch together and talk about friends and school.
As you might be able to tell - the story is about to take a turn. Despite how good things were and how Chantal was finally happy and adjusted, her parents decided they wanted her to move to another home. They didn't like us for whatever reason. From the beginning they didn't like our religion so I believe it was still an issue for them. She didn't want to move however and even though she told her parents how she felt they insisted. It has broken our hearts because it feels like I did all this work to prepare the most beautiful cake and just as I get the chance to enjoy it - I have to give it away. Thankfully she will be staying local because a friend's family from school will be taking her. This means that after she is adjusted to the new host family (and hopefully it doesn't take her as long as it did with us) she will be able to visit. She talks eagerly of it. I am going to miss when she lays her head on my lap so I can play with her hair and she can talk about her day with me. I am going to miss the funny ways she perceives things and how it has taught me to see things differently too. I am going to miss seeing her amazing talent in making cards. I am going to miss so much I couldn't write it all down. Lyman cried for a while when we told him she was moving.
Hosting an exchange student is hard. Really hard. Helping to raise another person's teenager is hard. Really hard. In the end I know that I have gained a daughter. I also know that she will never doubt that she was loved here. I am sorry for her to have to go through more lonely times adjusting again to another family but I cant very well say to her "don't listen to your mother". I am a mother. Her natural parents don't understand us or appreciate us and so I cant expect them to see any other perspective then their own. I am not sure I could if I were in their shoes either. Host families do not get paid for offering their home and hearts up to a stranger for a year but our reward is great and even with all of this I know we will host again someday.
Last night I was snuggling with Corilynn and holding her like a baby on my lap. Its a thing I like to do whenever one of my kids is about to have a birthday. This is because whenever I hold them in my arms like a baby I think back to the time I made myself remember what it felt like and how they looked in my arms brand new. I hold them in my arms at their birthday to see the difference in their growth. It always makes me think they are growing too fast and makes me wish I could make time stand still. As I held Corilynn last night and talked to her about stories from when she was a baby I felt so much love for her gangling little limbs struggling for room as I held her close against me. I listened to her bubbling laugh and sweet little voice declare that she would NOT stop growing for me because she wanted to turn 4. I seriously love that little girl. A mother's love is not something that can be described in words so I cant even begin to express them now. Ohh and thanks for crawling into my bed early this morning for a snuggle. I didn't even mind at all - not today - not when it meant I got to hold you in my arms once again at the exact time you came into my life since you were born in the early morning hours.
Happy Birthday sweetheart - you can turn 4 - but that's it. You have to stop growing after that.
