An update

Just thought I'd update my loyal readers ;-) on the two families I wrote
about a couple weeks back.

Mike's cousin Art was discharged from the hospital on October 14th,
happily less than a month after his accident. As of last Friday, they
report that "His burns are continuing to heal well and he is feeling
better each day. He has a good energy level and appetite and, most
importantly, he is thrilled to be home. The healing process is going
quite well..."

My friend Steph Emailed me earlier this week with an update on Joanne
and her adoption saga: "Joanne and Duncan and baby are back! They were
given their Sentencia quite suddenly about two weeks ago and flew home
within a week. I went to see them on Saturday--everyone is great,
adjusting to a family life."

Terrific news on all accounts! Isn't it great when things looks so
bleak and sad and frustrating, and then everything works out? Sorry, I
have nothing profound to say about this except thanks for all your
thoughts and prayers for these friends/family members.

Now in Nursery!

Grace turned 18 months old on Saturday, which means today was her first day in Nursery at church. So how did she react? Well, I carried her to the door, and I hadn't taken two steps into the room when she launched herself out of my arms and ran to the toys yelling "Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!"





(This is the best shot I could get with Mike's cell phone)









(In the interest of full disclosure, 20 minutes later, when the novelty of the toys had worn off and she realized Mom and Dad were nowhere in sight, she wasn't quite so thrilled. Sister Goodrich brought her to me and said she did fine until they sprayed the hand sanitizer on her hands before the had their snack.)

We're on a roll today

Jonathan decided he wanted tuna fish for lunch. So I asked Matt if he wanted tuna fish too. When he said no, Jonathan said "Are you sure Matt? It's good for your colon!"

What ARE they teaching in second grade these days?

Is that like zed in Canada?

Matt was trying to arrange the magenetic letters on the fridge in alphabetical order, but he ran into a little trouble after "k." When I asked him what letter comes next, he thought for a minute and then suggested, "Menno?"

Antique Technology

We went to a local farm/pumpkin patch today for some good old autumnal fun, and when we arrived I discovered that my digital camera was not inclined to cooperate. So I ended up having to invest a ridiculous amount of money in a Kodak FunSaver disposable camera in order to, well, save the fun. (More on all that in a later post.)

This evening, Matthew brought the camera to me and asked if he could take a picture with it. I told him we had taken all the pictures on it, so it doesn't work anymore.

"Are the batteries dead?" he says.

"No, it's just out of film Matt."

Wait for it...

"What's film?"

ARGH!

So here it is, with another 2 weeks having passed since I posted. How
did that happen? In my mind, it's only been one week. Strange how time
moves at different speeds when you have kids. I'd like to tell you that
we've been SO busy and then rattle off all the interesting things that
we've been doing that have kept me from blogging. And I believe we HAVE
been busy, but apparently we haven't been busy doing interesting things
that I can rattle off. We've just been busy living, strangely, and
somehow, that does take up an awful lot of our time.

So, I don't have anything fun, interesting, amazing, or amusing to
report. Matthew has said funny things, and I've enjoyed them in the
moment but forgotten them before I could record them. Jonathan has
impressed me with his math skills at the same time that he's depressed
me with his writing skills (still working on that). Graceanne continues
to be my mostly willing dress-up doll while starting to show those clear
indicators that she is the sister of 2 older brothers (i.e. she loves
matchbox cars and action figures...).

Thinking back, we have done some fun, interesting, amazing (well--maybe
not amazing) and amusing things, but they're sort of the "you had to be
there" things--walking to Matt's preschool open house and watching his
"glow-up" sneakers flashing down the sidewalk, going to the boys'
friend's birthday party and being incredibly impressed with their
behavior, having my brothers come visit on a GORGEOUS mid-70-degree
October day and playing frisbee and baseball in the yard...just living,
y'know?

But I'll try harder to stick to my once-a-week posting rule. Really.
Even if it's just a post to say "hey, we did some living again this
week." =)

Another Post for Today

I know I just posted a little while ago, but I felt like I needed to do
another one. Two different families with two different types of
difficult circumstances are on my mind today, and I wanted to share
their stories with all (5) of my blog readers in the hope that you'll
include them in your prayers or send uplifting thoughts their way or
whatever it is you do to help others in times of crisis when there's
really nothing you can do to help.

First is Mike's cousin and his family. On September 23rd, Mike's cousinArt was severely burned (over 30% of his body--chest, arms, hands) in an accident at his home. He has already had one surgery for skin grafts but faces anotherone next week and possibly more as he begins the long road to healing.Burns are a terrible injury to heal from, and in many cases the
treatment is as bad as the wound itself. Art and his wife should be
celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary this month, but instead, he
will be spending it in the burn ICU of a Dallas hospital. Thankfully,
his parents are both in a position to leave their home in Florida and go
to Texas for an extended time to help in any way they can. For more
information on Art and his progress, you can visit his Caring Bridge
website at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/artfoster.

The second family are friends of a friend. I've only met Joanne twice, but she is a lifelong friend of my good friend Steph from college.
Joanne and her husband Duncan have been in the process of trying to
adopt a baby from Colombia. Near the end of July the received
notification that they were to become the parents of a baby girl. A
little over 3 weeks later, they were on a plane to Bogota, and 3 days
after that, they were presented with their beautiful 4 month old
daughter. (Brief pause as I tear up a little--adoption is close to my
heart.) They expected to be in Colombia for 8 weeks while all the
legalities were taken care of and the adoption was finalized. So, they
SHOULD have been coming home right about now to begin their life as a
family of 3. However, 2 weeks after their "Gotcha Day," (and 2 days
after Duncan had to return home to go back to work) the courts in
Colombia went on strike, and they remain on strike to this day, with no
end in sight. At this point, Joanne has been alone in Colombia with the
baby for a month now, she's receiving misinformation or no information
at all, and the entire adoption is in jeopardy. It's hard for me to
accept (and even harder for Joanne and Duncan, of course) that they
could spend 3 months bonding with and caring for this baby girl, only to
in the end have everything fall apart over the formalities and face
having to return home without her and leave her to (hopefully) be
adopted by someone else. I just can't wrap my brain around that
concept, and I find myself raging in my head against the unfairness of
it all. So I thought maybe if I passed the story along to others, I
could somehow feel in some small part like I was able to do something to
help, when there's really nothing I can do to help.

So friends and family members, please send your prayers, your thoughts,
your good psychic vibes out for these two families that they will
receive the physical and spiritual help and support they need during
these difficult times of trial. Thanks.

Best $14 I ever spent! (A Multimedia Friday Special)

For the first time in her 17 months of life, Graceanne actually enjoyed a bath! Here's the proof:

(Apologies for how dark the video is--I took it with my digital camera, and the light in the bathroom isn't that great.)

Many of you may not realize what a big deal this is--it's just a baby splashing around in the tub after all. But Grace has HATED baths her entire life. Every single bath she's had, whether in the infant tub, the kitchen sink, or in the big tub, with or without her big brother to keep her company, she has screamed and cried through the entire thing. Just a week or two before this video was taken, I had to give her a baking soda bath for a diaper rash, and it was all I could do to keep her in the tub and sitting for 10 minutes. She cried, she wailed, she clung to my arm with a desperate and pleading look on her face. It was torture for her and us.

But the pool, many people ask. How did she like being the pool over the summer? Loved it. She'd get her little swimmy diaper on and splash in and out of the little wading pool, and she'd pour water and she'd laugh and giggle. So I finally figured hey, let me try getting one of those little blow-up baby tubs (thanks to Abbi for the idea--I think she mentioned that she had one for Damian), and VOILA!!! The video above was taken during her very first bath in the blow-up tub. Mind you, it took her 5 or 10 minutes of the usual reaction and me just being calm and encouraging, but suddenly, something clicked, and now ALL IS WELL. Oh happy day!

And here's a couple of recent pictures of the boys, just because they're cute. (You can barely see Matthew's scar...)

LAME

So yeah, it's been two weeks since I posted. I blame it on being
ridiculously busy, which is every blogger's excuse when they don't post
for a while. I have stuff I want to blog about; I just haven't had time
to put it together. And I don't have time now either, but I wanted to
get something up here so as not to let another week go by (remember, my
goal is to post at least once a week). So this is just going to be a
quick update on what's been going on.

Matthew's mouth is MUCH better. He got his stitches out the Monday
following the incident, and although he was worried that it would hurt,
he said it was fine. Looks fine too. Yes, he has an obvious cut on his
lip still (a healing cut for sure), and he will in all likelihood have a
scar there, but we're doing our best to minimize it, rubbing Mederma on
it a couple times a day. (We still have to get some Vitamin E--thanks
to Mom Foster for that tip.) Oh, and I actually got that shirt clean!! =)

Cub Scouts started back up for Jonathan last week. He's a Wolf Cub this
year, so he has what I consider the iconic gold and navy blue kerchief
now. Only had one meeting so far--just enough to get his popcorn order
forms, so all you grandparents and aunts and uncles that are reading
this, get ready for the phone calls! (Oh, and any friends, either here
or out of town, who need a good source for popcorn, let me know!!)

Graceanne proved she's one tough little chick yesterday. I found the
lab slip for her lead test (you know, the test they're supposed to get
at 12 months? Yeah, she's 17 months now.) tucked away under some papers
on the "landing strip" in our kitchen, and decided I'd better get that
done so the doctor can have the results for her 18-month visit at the
end of the month. Now, Mike took both boys for their lead tests, so
this was a new one for me. However, I imagined that taking any toddler
to have two vials of blood drawn out of their arm would not be a very
pleasant experience. Boy did this little girl prove me wrong. They had
her sitting on my lap with my left arm crossing over her chest and
holding her right shoulder, and my right arm holding her right
hand/wrist out straight so that she wouldn't bend it. I felt sure I was
going to need a third and possibly fourth arm to hold her down once she
started flailing. WELL. Not only did my stoic little one not flail,
she did not cry, she did not flinch, she did not squeak, and according
to the techician, she didn't even blink when that needle went in and the
blood was drawn. She just sat and sucked on her binky and WATCHED. *I*
don't even watch when I get blood drawn! I didn't even watch this; I
looked at the ceiling. That's my brave girl!