The Deets.

It is with great love and a humble heart that we introduce you to our seventh son.

He's 7.
He's sweet.
And he's dying of a complicated un-repaired heart defect.

My friend Jean had been advocating for him
and one look at that precious little blue face had me doing the same.

But God. 

God is funny like that.
When you think it's someone else......
it
could
be
you.

It could be you that has a dossier already in place & available to re-use.
It could be you with the available medical care & coverage to try and treat him.
It could be you with still-current fingerprints.
It could be you that can get to him rather quickly.
It could be you HE is asking no matter how insanely busy you are at the moment.
It could be you.
Or it could be me.
This time....
it's me.

So here we are.
Racing against the clock and {hopefully} very quickly about to bring home our precious boy. 
Updated home study almost complete, and we should be submitting to USCIS* sometime in the next two weeks.
After that, we hope for some lightning fast approvals.

More soon.
But in the meantime we covet your prayers for him that his life will be sustained until
we
can
get
him
home
and get him the medical care he urgently needs.
 
This child has waited for so long for someone to love him and we hope to have the honor and privilege of doing so no matter how many
days
months
or years
he has left on this earth.

There's one less orphan in the world tonight.
One.
Less.

Soli De Gloria.

7.

Yes.

Social Worker Visit

for our first post-placement report for the boys yesterday.

As I was straightening the house
and yes...it was just a mild re-straightening.

It was not the spit shining the silver and washing down the lawnmower epic clean of 2010 I compulsively launched for our first visits last year when we began this process.
Did you know social workers don't care if your lawnmower is dirty or if the inside of your washing machine has been cleaned of any built up liquid fabric softener? 
No?
Ok. 
Well, now consider yourself informed.

Anyhoo, in prep for her visit I was doing just a mild pick up.
Ya know, underwear off of the floor and emptying an entire can of air freshner in the teenagers room type straightening.

It was all good.

Well.
It was all good.
Until I bent down to straighten the rug and saw this


no?
You don't see it?
Here.
Let me zoom in for you.

Still no?
Hang on.....we'll get closer.


Ahhhh yes,
Nowyousee.


  
Yep.
Yep that's a fork. 
A
very
very
nasty
crusty
dried on food
at least a few months old because I remember when we had that cake
fork.

Seriously?
What the heck?
Am I being punked?



A fork
In my couch.
A fork in my couch?!

I don't quite know what to say to that....

Other than to hit my knees in prayer for their future wives....and pre-emptively write said wives an apology letter.

Dear daughter in law
....I tried.....I really did.
Ever sorry, 
me.

Big GIGANTIC Important Question For You

Alrighty peoples.
I need your wisdom.

First off I will ask that you not take this lightly as your response will forever govern the future of my mothering abilities
or lack thereof. 

I do try to keep this blog as fun and uplifting as possible.....it's how I roll.
But in this I am going to need your utmost serious consideration before you respond.


Ready?

Ok.
Here.
We.
Go.

Question: If your child is swimming in a chlorinated pool everyday after school how many days can we realistically skip the shower?

1?
2?
5?
All summer long?

Fellow mutha's. I need your feedback.
I do believe this warrants a poll.
So vote! Vote today!
Your country, our very nation and our county health department is counting on you.

What If

I love this.

Developed the Disposable Camera Today

that we sent them in the care packages.
{Finally}
And gracious the cuteness that was awaiting me.

Check it.


Wait.


Hold on a second.


What.On.Earth.


What is that my sweet asian babies are inhaling?
He can't even seem to remove it from his precious little face long enough for a photo op.

Wait.
That's better.


Ack.


Never mind.

Pepsi.
Argh.

That is one brave nanny to highly caffeinate all of those children.
Whew.
Gracious.

If You Adopted a Child From China

don't buy these and expect any of your Asian sensations to want to eat them.

It's Thai food.
Which
I've learned
is definitively
not Chinese food.

There's a difference apparently.
A big, big, transcontinental difference.

And though I personally would never, ever make such a stupid rookie mistake ~ ahem ~ I just wanted to warn those who might....
cuz I'm thoughtful like that. 
Your quite welcome.

I have to go now and find a friend that adopted from Thailand to pawn these things off on. 

Sincerely,
The adoption rook

One Big Bundle of Handsomeness

Coming soon to a blog near you.

Happiness

is this


but not this.


That



is indeed the opposite 

 

of happiness.

But this


oh this


is our Saturday happiness.


We can't miss a game.
We are half the team.

Up to bat
Justin M
On deck
Jack M
In the hole
Jacob M
after that
Joey M
Yeah.
It's crazy sauce.

2 months ago they

 

didn't have any idea how to hit, field, throw, or where to run.

Now.


Now they know.

And it's
so
stinkin
cute.

Indeed it is our Saturday happiness.
beats the heck out of laundry any day.

8:15am This Morning

my doorbell rang.

Yesterday our moving company called asking if they could come by tomorrow and do a "pre-move survey."
Which is basically just a walk through of your house to see what junk stuff you have so that they know what packing materials to bring with them on moving day.

Sure, I said.
No problem.
I'll be here.
Come on ovah.

And then
I
forgot.

So come 8:15am this morning my doorbell rang.
And I.....
well......
I wasn't what you would call
"dressed."

Pajama pants
and a tank top with no br......ahem....northern undergarment
does not an outfit make.

Worse yet.
My house.

Oh.
My.
House.

Is not currently what I would call
put together.

That old addage that you have to make a mess to clean a mess is
well
true.
Very, very true.
And seeing how the contents of near every closet and nook and cranny of this house has been dragged out into the open the last few days as I begin to organize for this move
made my house
well
ugly.
Like ugly, ugly.

I don't think my attempts to pretend as though I wasn't standing there inadequately dressed whilst trying to kick the kids underwear under the bed and out of her view worked.

I don't think it worked at'all.

In fact I'm pretty sure they may show up with trash bags instead of moving boxes.
And say, "Lady, look. There is nothing we can really do here. We are happy to gather this all up and throw it in the back of our pickup but that's all we can manage." 

Yeah.

I have to go now and find my dignity.....I know I left it around here somewhere.....maybe it's under the bed.

Your sympathy is appreciated.

A Whole Lotta Twin Love

9 years ago today at

2:00pm


& 2:06pm respectively


I met these two amazing little people.

 

And fell in love. 



And learned to live on a lot less sleep.



And mastered the art of sleeping sitting up whist not dropping newborns.




Happy 9th birthday Justin and Jack!
You are so loved, first by a Heavenly Father and secondly by these two imperfect people that you call Mom and Dad.
We are forever grateful for the double blessing of the two of you!
We may not always or ever have all the answers but we will continue to point you to the One who does and that is the biggest gift we can give you.......well, that and star wars legos....I know you really want those.
One gift at a time I guess.

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!

Mom Style ~ Or Lack Thereof

Well.
I did it.

I.
cut.
their.
hair.

No bigs right?
But in the spirit of full disclosure you should know that I have absolutely zero skillage when it comes to hair cutting.
Zip
Zelch
Nadda
Nope
None
I can't believe a store even sold me clippers.

I do cut Jordan's hair.
Correction.
I shave Jordan's head.
Jordan has gigantic brown eyes and foot long eyelashes like his daddy
so Jordan with a shaved head,
is ridiculously cute.

Shaving I can do.
Cuttting?
Notsomuch. 

But frankly with our ever increasing number of boys in this house
and the ever increasing cost of boy haircuts (crazysauce!)
I am stepping out into new territiory.
New hair cutting territory armed only with clippers and my lack of ability.

And that's when I screwed up.

I shaved Jordan's head first.
And they were watching.

And that's when I found out that they shaved their heads in the foster home.
I knew this of course.
I knew it because of pictures like this

look at all those sweet noggins of shaviness.
But what I didn't realize and didn't know is how much they hated that.

The boys went to school in the neighborhood in which they lived,
not an orphanage specific school.
So you can imagine the ridicule that occured every few weeks when all the orphans showed up at school with freshly shaved heads whist the other kids are sporting "normal" hair cuts and nicer shoes and uniforms.
Yeah.
I know.
~sigh~

So there I sat shaving Jordan's head as they are telling me this story.....
my heart breaking all over again for their years of not having a family and not having that safe place to fall back on.

I, rather quickly....(sorry Jordan), finished shaving Jordan's head and then finished silently kicking myself for not thinking of that; I put down the clippers and we had a little what'swhat about the fact that mommy was not going to cut it all off, just a little bit, I promised.

And being the amazing people that they are
they trusted me...
well...
....kinda
I guess I would call it a nervous trust.


So there they sat while I pretended to know what I was doing


and I'm happy to report
they still like me.


And I am definitely not cut out to be a hair stylist.
It's a good thing they can't see the back of their heads
I'm just sayin.

His Yes. Our Story.

A few weeks ago John and I were asked to shoot an adoption video sharing our story as our church is launching a new adoption/orphan care/foster care ministry.

Wassthat you say?
Adoption ministry?
I'm in.

That being said......however......there were a few things I was unaware of before shooting said video:

1. My voice sounds waaaay different out loud than it sounds inside my head.
2. My hair is supposed to be flipped to the other side of my head.
Apparently when I look in the mirror it is opposite.
Who knew?
3. Nobody's head should be that big and be displayed in front of a couple thousand people.
That's just wrong.
Wrong like donkey kong.
4. My hair is on the wrong side.
5. As soon as the camera turned off I thought of 500 more things that I should have said.....argh.
6. My hair is on the wrong side.
&
finally
#7. We chose honesty.

I suppose we could have sat down that day and told a tale that the day that I brought the thought of adoption up to John he jumped in with both feet without hesitation and it was all unicorns and rainbows.
Then we held hands and skipped down the street together while flowers bloomed alongside the road and birds chirped overhead in perfect harmony.

But we didn't.

This was our story.
This was our
pretty typical
story.

And to watch God
work 
and move
and breathe this all around us as we prayed and talked and prayed and talked and prayed and prayed and...
well
you get the picture
was incredible.

My husband,
who at first thought I had lost my ever-lovin mind when I mentioned adoption,
began to have a passion for orphan care.
He began to love them.
He began to work and plan and adore two little boys he had never met an ocean away.

And now
here we sit.
Two more plates at the table
Two more beds upstairs
Two more pairs of shoes by the door
and two little lives that will now know the name of Jesus and have a family all their own because
HE said go
and he said yes.

So if you dare
and you want to see our ginormica heads,
here it is.
(Just remember that in real life my hair is on the other side of my head)




To God be the glory, for it is great things He has done.

How I Manage to Keep it All Together With 6 Boys {The Secret}

The answer is
I don't.

Behold:



That my friends
is a half eaten
ham
sandwich....



on my ironing board.
in my bedroom.

I know not even where to begin with that b/cuz
A: There is no eating upstairs, everyone that lives here knows that and
B: What the heck?

I have no idea where it came from
(the sandwich that is, not the ironing board. The ironing board came from my closet and I have been to busy lazy to put it away the last month or 12.)

Furthermore,
do you see that wrapping paper?
I don't know where that came from either.
Well, that's not entirely true.
It came from under my bed
which is where I keep wrapping paper

but why it is now half ripped next to a half eaten ham sandwich
is....
quite frankly....
making me nervous.

Should I expect to unwrap a half eaten ham sandwich with probable toxic mold consuming it on Sunday?

Happy, happy day to me.

So that's the what's what on the secret to my success survival.
Pure chaos.
Pure ham sandwich chaos.

I gotta go now and practice my surprise face now for when I open that puppy up on Mothers Day.
Pray for me.

In the Muthahood.

Pee first.
Then watch this.
I'm just sayin...

Uncomfortable.

We've been home about 12 weeks.
In our ongoing quest to make the boys fully comfortable here we have found that
at times
it necessitates making them
uncomfortable.

Case in point.
I love saying case in point. 
Does it make me sound lawyerish? 
Do I sound really intelligent when I say that? 
I like sounding intelligent. 
Especially cuz I tend to make up words like "lawyerish."

But I digress...

Case in point... 
apples for snack after school.
Weeks 1-10 at home
you get your very own plate of apples from which to eat.
This makes you very, very happy.

Weeks 11 + at home
I'm putting a big plate of apples in the middle of the table and we can all
~gasp~
share.
This makes you slightly uncomfortable.

The first time I tried this
(which...btw is how I typically serve apples....because hello... less dishes this way.....and hello.....mama likes less dishes)
they immediately started grabbing as many as their tiny little hands and mouths could hold.
Alrightythen.
Choking hazard aside,
I realized at that moment
that I was on to something.

How can you possibly relax and fully settle into a family until you realize that your needs
....apple and otherwise....
will be fully met?

And how can you realize this if you've never experienced it? 

So there we began.
1 giant plate of apples.
And we sit around that table together
chit-chatting about our day
casually and leisurely eating
one
cut
up
apple
at
a
time.

And when that plate is empty for them to be able to see me get up and cut some more
is
a
gift.

Case in point #2
I object! 
Sustained!
You're out of order!
No you're out of order!
You can't handle the truth! 
~Ahem~ 
sorry. 

When we need to gently correct them or speak to them about something they have a hard time physically coming near us.

They
are
scared.
So, so incredibly scared.

I won't go into why
....I'm sure you can {sadly} figure that out....
but insisting that they come over to us when we are speaking to them is yet another way that they are learning correction lovingly.
Check it out.
We're not screaming at you
we're not hitting you
we are merely speaking to you.
And they relax a little bit more.

So for better or worse this is what we have found in the last few weeks.
That making them uncomfortable is actually helping them to heal.

I think this is also such a picture of the love that the Lord has for us.
Our growth is in the valley.
Our growth is when we step out
when we leave what we know
when we are uncomfortable.
Because that's where He is. 
And that's what the boys are learning.
Their past is familiar,
their old ways are comforting
but there's such life outside of that.
There is such love waiting for them beyond that.

Just thought I would share that experience with you
I would tell you more
but I have to go study for the bar exam
and buy a power suit.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

My Thoughts.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Ahem.
Just had to get that out of my system.
Thanks for listening.
Will return to regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow.

I'm off to bake large quantities of brownies.
And then eat large quantities of brownies.

Sonia out.

Our Future.

I dunno....

But if you want a look at our present here was my house yesterday.



That's 11 boys.
In case you were counting.
Is it wrong that this didn't even slightly phase either one of us?
I think we were born for this.
I'm just sayin.