Eric’s Birthday

by ⋅ 2 Comments

Eric’s birthday was yesterday. Rather than give him a gift he didn’t need, I planned a mystery trip. Our destination was San Jose’s Tech Museum for their Star Trek exhibit.

At first I only clues I gave him was it was a trip for just the two of us and we would be traveling over 100 miles. He was guessing Virginia City – especially when I asked him if we can chains for his car and did he have any gloves?  lol

Then I gave him a few more clues including the fact that this was not something I’d do on my own. LOL After that he was convinced it was a Renn Faire.

We started the morning by dropping the kids off at G & G O’s house – Nancy asked me if I had found my ginger tablets. I take ginger for nausea from motion sickness and I was worried that the IMAX movie might be too much for my tummy.  But THEN Eric was convinced we were going to Fort Bragg or on some equally windy road.  When I reminded him that being on the ocean also made me sick (don’t I sound like a fun person to hang out with?!?! lol) he wondered if we were headed to Alcatraz Island?!

After dropping off the kids we headed to a local favorite for breakfast and ran into our friends Ruth & Jim…who enjoy Star Trek about as much as Eric does.  Of course, there really wasn’t any surprise to this except for Eric.  After a quick breakfast – I was worried about our tickets that has a 12:30 arrival time! – we headed home to change vehicles and I used the bathroom.  But really I was hiding in there waiting for Jim & Ruth to arrive as we were dropping off our car so we could ride with them. lol  Eric was pretty surprised then too!

Eric really had NO idea where we were headed until he say the GIGANTIC poster on the side of the museum (photo taken after our visit as we were running late when we arrrived):

eric birthday star trek 004

eric birthday star trek 002

eric birthday star trek 001

We enjoyed the day and I hope Eric did too.  By 5:30 I was just dragging – trying to watch Star Trek on that huge screen was visually exhausting!  It was nice to know Jim would get us home nice and safe.

I hope we can have more mystery trips in our future!

Baby Boy Sweater

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Tomorrow I’m going to my cousin’s baby shower.  Tuesday night I decided that I needed to knit her baby boy a sweater.  Yes, there were times I was sure I wouldn’t make it – but I did!  What do you think?

003

Aren’t these buttons adorable??

004

And, because I just think this picture is adorable:

001

Sissy watching TV with Big Brother.

Why my heart needs a reality check!

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Well, I just waved goodbye to J3 and Daddy as they left for school.  Not only was J3 up early today, but he showered and went to bed without complaint last night!  I’m trying to be happy for him as he is thrilled to be back with his friends.  But I’m so frustrated!  I want him here with me!  But just wanting something to be a certain way isn’t enough reason to keep doing something that isn’t working.  It wasn’t that homeschooling wasn’t working – it was!  But J1 has really directed a lot of his anger at J3.  The name calling, the shoving, and all the unpleasantness – it just was not working out.

My head knows that giving the two of them some distance is a good thing.  My head is VERY, very thankful that we have an option for him to be with Daddy in a wonderful Christ-centered school at no cost to our family.  My head recognizes that as much as I want to homeschool everyone – I truly have my hands full with J1 and J2’s special needs.  And, now that we are most likely going to be adding more appts to our week, I’ll be running around even more.

But my heart is sad.  It wants to keep trying.  It wants all my little chicks safely in my view.  It wants to believe that I will somehow develop supermom skills to simultaneously change a diaper, refree a disagreement, teach phonics, prepare the science experiment, clean house, update my work spreadsheet…and all with a song on my lips and a smile on my face.  My heart needs a reality check!

Lest I forget…

by ⋅ 2 Comments

I journal for many reasons but a big one is to help me remember!

On Tuesday, September 5, 2007 we received a phone call from OR DHS letting us know that the boys had a baby sister.  What I remember about that call was that I was sitting at my desk talking to the caseworker and I turned around to give Eric one of those “do-you-have-any-idea-what-type-of-phone-call-I’m-on” looks.  When I turned to him, he was on his knees and his face was in the couch cushions.  I’m not sure if he was crying or praying … but it was an overwhelming moment.

If I’m completely honest with myself, Eric and I thought our family was done after J2 joined it.  Then we received the call about J3 in 2002 and how can you say no to a sibling?  Then Joshua was born.  We did our best to adjust to a larger family than we thought we’d have.

After Joshua died, I definitely felt our family was ‘off’ at 3 kids but I knew no one could replace him, so why try?  Plus the grief  journey is so hard I really had not energy, time, interest in changing things.

Then that phone call.  I never hesitated to tell the DHS worker that, should reunification not be possible, that we would want to be considered for adoption.  But at the same time I worried if we could handle it.

Even with my concerns, I really wanted her home with us at Christmas time.  In October I was blessed by photos from her foster mom:

princess_serious

But it was going to still be 6 more months before we got to meet her at 8 mos old.  I remember how she laid on the floor and kicked and kicked.  She could not roll over and could not sit up.  She was still dealing with lots of reflux and other issues from her birth.

On March 30, 2008 we brought her home from Oregon.

Then the real waiting began.

Now, just over two years from that initial phone call…..she is truly ours!  Praise the Lord!!