The sea of swirly twirly gumdrops...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled travel journal posting to bring you this random thought process poured out into cyberspace by Chrissy.

Things in my brain (the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops) today:

When I take my kids out by myself 

and someone stares at them 

and then at me and then back at them...

I want to stick my tongue out and give them that 4-year-old glare.

I also have this line I am working on perfecting...

(in my best DEEP south southern accent...)

"I know... you think you know me, right? 

I get that ALL the time since we were on Maury!"

Paul and I have this on-going banter.

It goes like this:

(Dinner table time)

Me: "Who are we missing?"

Him: "um...4,5,6,7... no one."

This is precisely what happened when 

God put adoption on our hearts the first time.

Seven isn't that many kids.

I know because I have seven kids.

I do their laundry (well, except for the biggies.)

and I make their food,

and I drive them places,

and I clean up their toys.

No, I don't know what God has in store for us next.

He may be happy with us where we are, 

how we are, 

and the way we look...

but if I know Him like I think I know Him...

He will take us up on our offer of "use me".

There are old-fashioned 

compounding pharmacists out there still.

We have one near our house.

I did not know this until today!

They can make Flagyl into gummy bears.

That's just awesome!

I mean, come on... that's magical!

Sometimes other AP's (adoptive parents)

are real joy-sucking, cotton-headed ninny muggins.

Sometimes I think they want to see everyone else

miserable or make it seem like they 

are the only success story out there.

Yeah, we have ONLY been home 6 weeks.

Things are going well for us so far!

Be happy for us!

Sometimes I want to get a giant trash bag and dump everything from 

every flat surface in the house into it and take it to 

the trash and never look back! 

Then I realize that most of those items in the trash bag 

would be homework, permission slips, 

and greatly treasured Silly Bandz... 

and I rethink my de-cluttering plan.

I am SO ready for fall.

I want to drink chai tea on the deck in the morning 

when its chilly enough to see my breath.

I want to see orange and red sugar maples.

I want crunchy leaves in the yard.

I want to take pictures at the pumpkin patch

and make pumpkin pie

    and pumpkin muffins

          and pumpkin bread

                and pumpkin lattes!

Wait... Starbucks makes pumpkin lattes. Not me.

Some of the best things I have heard this week:

"Your son has the sweetest heart!"

    "I love having your daughter in my class!"

       "Mom... you are so WEIRD!"

          "I lub you too!"

"twinkuh, twinkuh, weedah tah...

ow I bunduh ut ooh ahh."

       "Can we adopt more kids?"

            "Mommy konjo!"

Playing at the school's park on Saturday

It was like a billion degrees in the shade... but my gorgeous daughter still wanted to pose for pictures!

And then her brother showed up.

Formerly known as "the youngest"!

So sweet... this kid makes you just melt.

The oldest - funny, witty, kind and compassionate...

and very, very 14!

My baby boy! He was so cute at the park! 

"Big-Little", the oldest of our new three... beautiful inside and out!

"Middle-Little" - our middle baby girl. She is VERY much a Daddy's girl! 

She is so sweet and precious and just adores her siblings!

And, no... I didn't miscount... I know that's only 6 kids.

I have a pre-teen daughter who refuses to be photographed.

I managed to sneak some photos on this trip to the park,

but she was equally sneaky and deleted them from my camera 

before they made it onto the computer.

Grr.

Random thoughts for this morning

One of my favorite patients died early this morning.

He and his wife were such treasures in our office.

They always had a smile for us, some funny thing to say, 

and a positive outlook despite whatever medical stuff was going on.

I will really miss seeing them.

Life is short. 

We aren't guaranteed to make it to 82 years old.

Life is not fair, either.

In our house I call "fair" the "F-word".

People you love die before you are prepared.

People you love get sick.

Mean people live to be 100.

You watch family members suffer and you can't help.

You want to hold your babies, but paperwork keeps you apart.

This I know... 

Despite whatever hardships...

God is ALWAYS good.

It's easy to proclaim His goodness when something good happens.

It's easy to cheer "Yay God!" when we get our way.

But when things stink?

When things fall apart?

When life just happens?

He is still good.

Which reminds me of this, which always gives me goosebumps:

  " I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.  Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts?  Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”              “Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
            “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
             “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

             “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King I tell you.”

C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Who am I?

I was just thinking about the movie Runaway Bride.

Not one of my favorite movies, but there is this one theme that runs throughout that struck me today.

The reporter in the movie is trying to figure out why this lady keeps leaving men at the altar. He goes around interviewing her past fiancee's and trying to get some insight. One question he asks each of them, "How does she like her eggs?" They each have a same, but different answer. "Just like me..." and then they fill in some style of eggs.

Today I was thinking about this... who am I, really? What do I know about myself, what do I believe, what do I like or dislike, and why?
 I guess I never spent much time figuring that out as a kid, young adult, or into my adult married life.

So... Here's my bullet point list about ME!

• I like cats, in theory. I do not like them peeing in the house, the litter box thing, or their aloof personalities... but I think they are soft and fluffy and I like when they purr. I don't want a cat.
• I think our dog speaks my language. I think I know what she is thinking, too and I often put that into words to translate for the rest of the family. She is big, soft, fluffy and makes me feel safe when I am home alone.
• I like the "idea" of sushi. I thought I liked it, but I really don't like the seaweed wrappers. I like the clear rice paper wrappers or the football shaped rice with the flat shrimp on top, but only if I have seafood sauce to dip them in.
• I don't like sports on TV. I can get into just about any sport live, but on TV... no thanks.
• I am scared I will screw up my black babies' hair and will be rebuked by some awesome-hair-doing black woman in public.
• I like silver better than gold, but I can't bring myself to dip my gold wedding bands in silver because I think it takes some of the sentiment out of it.
• I have recently gone from "you look too young to have 4 kids..." to no-comment... therefore, I must now look old enough to have 4 (almost 7) kids. I dislike that. Immensely.
• I bought an assorted box of chocolates because I like chocolate... but then poked holes in the bottom of most of them because I really only like the coconut filled ones and there was only one in the whole box.
• I have FIG. Food Induced Guilt. Guilt over not packing my kids' lunches, guilt over feeding them some convenience thing for breakfast or dinner, guilt over not knowing what's for dinner every night for the next week, guilt over not having more vegetables on the menu, guilt over not making my own bread, and guilt over buying pizza or drive-thru food whenever that happens. 
• I hate laundry. I hate washing it, I hate drying it, I hate folding it, I hate ironing, I hate putting it away. If there was one chore I could outsource for the rest of my life - I would gladly clean toilets, scrub tubs, vacuum, wash dishes, mop floors... but someone please invent disposable clothing!! 
• I love coffee!
• My husband is my "beauty from ashes" story. He makes me happy when I am sad, knows me better than I know myself and still loves me! He takes care of me and makes me yummy dinners. He is an amazing, award-winning, world-traveling chef and I am so proud of his accomplishments - big and small! He amazes me and I love him!
• We celebrate our 15th anniversary this summer and I am hoping we can celebrate it with an authentic Ethiopian coffee ceremony in Addis Ababa while we pick up our kids!
• I like jeans and sweaters. I like jeans and t-shirts. I do not like shorts. I look funny in capris. I don't enjoy wearing swimsuits. I own approximately 3 dresses and maybe 4 skirts. 
• I move furniture around when I clean. I mean, completely re-organize the whole room. If I am cleaning when you go to bed, you should turn on a light when you wake up or you may trip over a couch.
• I like to read, but I am easily distracted and need quiet. I sometimes wish for a long airplane ride so that I can finish a book!
• My favorite color is navy blue.
• I eat gluten-free.
• I miss my old job working in special-education at the elementary school. I miss my little friends who made me crazy, but made me laugh too.
• I can't wait to be a stay-at-home mom again. 
• I often wish I would be a more "fun" mom.
• I don't like to cook, but I love to bake.
• My favorite feature about myself - my eyes. I like that they are blue some days, green other days, never make me feel fat or short, never need much special attention, and since they are different than most... they make me feel special sometimes!
• I think I would like living on a lot of acres, with chickens and a cow.
• I believe that while all of these things describe me and my personality, my true identity comes from Christ and in Him I am forgiven, wonderfully made, precious, and treasured! It just doesn't get any better than that.