I've had better

As I snapped a picture of this lovely receipt for Brad to send to our insurance company I was reflecting on the past week's events.

My subconscious must have known I needed a little chuckle because I sighed audibly and said, referring to my week, "I've had better." Almost immediately this clip from the movie Liar, Liar came into my mind and I couldn't stop chuckling.

Thank you subconscious.

From last Saturday to today I have been made aware of the following:

Monday we were told we may be responsible for the $500 deductible to our insurance company because the person who side-swiped our minivan on Saturday claims we hit him.

Because of the accident we also needed to purchase new car seats to the tune of another $540. We will be reimbursed by our insurance but pay the money upfront and send in a receipt.

Jacob needs new shoes to make sure his orthotics will function properly. Another $25. And the payment for his orthotics that our insurance does not cover will be due next Thursday. Likely about $750.

Caitlin's 6th grade class will have the privilege of taking a 5 day field trip this year to Sly Park. While I am super excited for her I am also painfully aware of the $275 which has "conveniently" been broken up into payments, the first of which is due in September.

Drew begins pre-Kindergarten next week and, as expected, will require our first monthly payment of $190.

This list goes on, because this is life with 4 children. But I gotta tell ya, when we are excited to receive these precious gifts:

and eagerly count each penny inside, and try to push away the worry that our child continues to wait on the other side of the world without a family, the frustration of life's expected and unexpected expenses can build.

It is proving very difficult to view our progress in our personal account and the progress in our adoption fund separately. In one we have hundreds of dollars moving around every day and it seems there are attacks on our progress at every turn. And in the other we take tiny steps, pennies at a time, and yet God always ensures that there is just enough for the next step in our adoption process. Every time. It is so hard for me to view the accounts equally and separate at the same time. Sometimes I forget who is actually in charge of both.

I don't recall where I saw it, but someone once said something to this effect:

When we take our eyes off of the resources of our Heavenly Father and instead look around at our own, it is easy to loose hope.

In the moments that I get so caught up in our own budget and the expenses out of our control I forget that I (we) are not the ones bringing our child home from China. I am not the one who will bring the miracle. I am no the one who will provide every need.

I am so glad that Heavenly Father is not asking us to clean up our mess by ourselves. And I am even more grateful that He is not asking our child to wait on the other side of the world in the mean time. He is providing every needful thing (Matt. 6:8). And he will bring His child to the family He intended at the time He intended it.

Back to back

I have mentioned before how fun it is to watch Jacob catch up. I love the way he makes major gains that seem to happen every single day.

 

River Day!

Brad and I were supposed to wake up at 5:30 Saturday morning for an 8 mile run. So imagine my surprise when I woke to my favorite sight of 4 little monkeys snuggling into my bad at 7am...

I figured Brad just needed the extra sleep and we would run a bit later since it was a nice cool morning. After breakfast I could tell that was not his intention and asked what was going on. "It's time for some family fun" was the simple reply I received. We took care of some basic chores and then loaded up the van and took everyone to the river.

 

It was so nice to do something totally unexpected!

Double the fun

We went back to the orthitist after a two-week trial with the orthotic on Jacob's right leg. The verdict: he needs both orthotics. So we are sporting a second brace. They don't slow him down one bit.

With just a few days under our belt with two braces, I can already see a difference in the way he walks. Hopefully this will be the final answer. We'll know in another 2 weeks.

There can be miracles

Sing if you know the song...

After arriving home from our trip to So Cal on Wednesday night I was hoping for a long restful night's sleep. What I got instead was two girls sick with the stomach flu. It was so bad that by 4am we thought we may need to take them both to the ER. Thankfully the virus was as swift as it was terrible and they both recovered quickly.

We were preparing for our second fundraising garage sale that Saturday so I was grateful to see them eating and feeling more and more chipper by the time Friday rolled around. Brad had a large side job scheduled Saturday and I had scheduled for him to make 3 last minute donation pick ups Friday evening. We had also planned for Brad's mom to come Friday evening around 6pm to watch the kids while I set up the sale.

Then it happened. The flu struck 2 simultaneously yet again. Little Drew and... me.

Not. Good.

As the evening wore on and I realized this sale was not going to happen I started scrambling for help. With me sick and Brad gone I would need my mother-in-law to watch the kids. My Mom had a business function and the friends that I called were too afraid to risk any exposure to our home. By 8pm I realized there was no way this widely advertised sale was going to happen. I posted a desperate plea to Facebook, said a prayer, and asked my husband for a blessing. By the grace of God Drew slept the entire night. My entire body ached from dehydration but I was no longer sick and able to rest after the blessing from my loving hubby. Considering the severity of both my daughter's experience with this virus, the fact that Drew and I were able to rest and recover immediately after our blessing was nothing short of a miracle.

In the morning, before he left for his side job, Brad came in and let me know a friend had seen my Facebook post and had come over at 6am to help set up. By the end of the day we had 7 different family members and friends (one from out of town who was passing through visiting my parents) come to help us move items in and out of the garage, arrange items for sale, and just be there to support us.

By morning I was well enough to park myself in a camping chair on the driveway to do the actual "selling" and even felt well enough to be up and about. By the end of the sale we had generated another $625 for our adoption. For a sale that almost didn't happen I feel truly blessed.

Nothing will stop the will of our Heavenly Father. He always provides a way.

Grandma's house

My Grandparents were a part of "The Greatest Generation". I sometimes think that they alone were the two people who caused Tom Brokaw to use that phrase. The memory I hold in my mind and heart of my Grandparents is one of love and adoration.

Grandma and Grandpa lived the last 42 years of their life together in a house in Southern California. We visited that house often when I was a child and continued to visit as my brother and I grew, married, and started our families. We even continued to visit after Grandpa passed away and the house became vacant. Our children loved "The Camarillo House" and eagerly anticipated our trips there.

This year my Dad and his sister decided it was time to sell Grandma and Grandpa's house. Our family has put this off for almost 10 years because of our love of the memories made there. With the house finally in escrow, I decided one last visit was in order. Brad could not join us, but there was no way I was going to let that house go without one last stay. So I packed the van to the gills and loaded up my four favorite little people for our last hurrah.

It was the best 5 days of my summer.

Orthotic

Jacob's orthotic came in.

The Orthotist thinks we may be able to just do one leg. With pants on you can't tell he has it on or which leg has the brace.

Unlike a cast, this orthotic can get dirty or wet and can be taken off for sleeping and bath time. We'll see how it goes during his two-week trial.

Milestone!

I absolutely LOVE watching Jacob catch up to developmental "norms". It is so fun to watch him accomplish something new that was difficult for him before.

Because of some developmental issues with Jacob's legs, going up and down stairs has been a bit of a challenge for our boy. When we first brought him home I was surprised at how stiff he seemed when trying to climb up steps. It took several months to teach him how to climb up and down the stairs (something my other littles seemed to learn very quickly and at a much younger age).

I did not realize until his recent checkup that one of the gross motor developmental milestones for a 21 month old is being able to walk up and down stairs in an upright position (holding onto the rail or someone's hand) rather than crawling.

When I discover something that Jacob is unable to do I focus on teaching him. That's how we learned the pincer grasp, stacking blocks, speaking, etc. I thought the stairs would be no different. We just needed to encourage him to try, make it fun and give him lots of opportunities to practice. But his stiff little legs just couldn't do those stairs. And he had no interest in 'learning' this one.

Until...

After removing his 3rd serial cast:

Ta-da!

It was all about range of motion. The casts are working!

9 months home

I can't believe it's been 9 months! Time is flying by these days. And while it does seem to just be "life as usual" now there have been some great changes and developments for our little guy.

Jacob is finally catching up with speech! We are so close to the "20 word" minimum by age 2! Each word is music to my ears and I eagerly scribble them all down when it is obvious they are deliberate. So far Jacob's spoken words are: mama, dada, papa, nana, woof-woof (doggy), meow (cat), ball, yeah (yes), no, whoa!, uh-oh, wassah? (what's that?), hi, ow, ball, bubble, and bye. Five of these words have just been added in the past week. Speech explosion! Jacob still enjoys showing off his baby signs and is learning new signs too. Our focus is spoken words but he still uses about a dozen signs regularly.

Jacob is preparing for his first orthotics with serial casting. We had started his first cast back in May but he developed a pressure sore and had to take several weeks off to heal. We just finished cast #3 and look forward to using his new orthotics at the end of summer. If you have no idea what any of that means, check out this post about why we are casting and preparing for orthotics.

On a walk with our exchange student. Jacob has cast #3.

Jacob gets a new cast each week. The cast stays on for a minimum 5 days. He gets one days rest and then a new cast is put on. The casts don't bother him at all (or slow him down) so it's been really easy. We do miss taking him swimming though.

Jacob is absolutely in love with Bella. Over the past 3 months she has become his snuggle buddy. If mom and sibs are busy he will seek out Bella and snuggle up to her. He loves to throw her ball and giggles every time she races to get it and gently hands it back to him. I am so grateful to have a gentle giant.

This summer has been fantastic so far. We are having a blast showing Jacob so many new and exciting things like swimming, camping, and hiking. He still makes his sour face when eating ice cream or anything else cold, but he loves the cool treats of summer and signs for more with intense determination when anything cold and sweet is nearby.

My favorite time of year is just around the corner. I can't wait to enjoy our first fall together...

Exchange student

For the past 2 weeks we have had a Chinese exchange student staying with us. A friend who is in charge of finding host families approached us and asked if we would consider being a host family. She mentioned it would be a good opportunity to learn more about China and Chinese culture. Not to mention the students first language is Mandarin which I am currently studying.

Brad was super enthusiastic from the get-go and could not wait for our student to get here. I was unsure how it would all work out since I know some people don't have the best experience with these types of programs. But I thought it would be worth a try.

We have had the best time with our student! He spoke very little English but his personality came through loud and clear.

 

It was such a pleasure to have a well mannered, respectful, fun, humorous and easy going 12 year old in our home.

So glad we gave it a try.

When Mom reads...

I love to read. I very rarely read for entertainment. I am drawn to books that I feel I can learn from. When I have a "problem" or something I don't know what to do with (think parenting, motivation, finance, sports, cooking, communication, relationships, etc, etc, etc) I go to the bookstore.

I have my own little collection of gold nuggets I have gathered over the years. Some have been given away to friends, some I have multiple copies of just in case of such a need, and some collect dust but I just can't get rid of them incase the need arises for review.

Over the years I have read books on every subject with many different perspectives and have found myself in many of them. Some books I just can't relate to and they get returned to the bookstore.

But my habit is continual: when I don't know what to do, I read. So, that being said, here are my two most recent purchases:

You can tell what's been on my mind lately.

Some days I feel pretty confident about my parenting experience. Eleven years is a pretty good go. I've done the baby and toddler 'thing' four times now. I think I know what's coming and how to respond... But these boys seem to be a little different than my sweet, subdued, highly verbal, emotionally mature little princesses. And every once in a while I find myself at a loss for what to do. I needed a reminder that all of the reasons I LOVE boys (active, imaginative, daring, dirty, loud, passionate, physical, curious, mischievous) are the same reasons they need such different things than my girls did.

And the clean house... Well, if you have children living in your home and you ever have the chance to read a book, read this one. I have found myself guilty of being the world's biggest enabler and guilty of letting my need for efficiency, speed, and "my" way get in the way of my duty as a mother to prepare my children for life. Not to mention I have made my job a thousand times harder by not getting their 8 little hands involved in our home.

I love a good read. I always feel rejuvenated, enthusiastic, and eager after a good book. Let's see if I can convince our little troops to feel the same way about some changes around here...