Ridiculously Cute

 Leif is ridiculously cute.  Off the charts adorable.  And he knows it!

 Leif loves life.  He loves to wear other people's shoes.  He loves to copy everything his siblings do.

 Leif loves to watch me roll the oats in the morning, and hops from foot to foot while waiting for his bowl. 

 Leif especially loves the camera.

 While Leif is enjoying his oatmeal, he is unaware that far away there are little guys who don't get all the oatmeal they want every morning, with cream and maple syrup.

   This little fellow is 4 years old.  He weighs 11 pounds.  I don't think he gets oatmeal every morning.  I do think Leif would share with him if he could.

 More than anyone else, Leif loves his Daddy.  Daddy helps him with everything, including holding up his pumpkin.

 This little guy has no idea what a Daddy is.  I think Leif would share with him if he could.

 Almost as much as he loves Daddy, Leif loves his brothers and sisters.  They make music for him, and he tries to keep up with them.

This little guy will probably spend his life in a crib, and may never walk.

While Leif is busy being ridiculously cute here, he is unaware that there are millions of little boys and girls who do not have what he has.  A family.  They don't have a Mom to whisper "Jesus loves you" or a Daddy who likes to wrestle.

But we know.  And we know that the Lord expects us to do something about it.  It is not for us to ask God why He allows children to be orphaned, neglected, and abused.  Instead we must ask what he wants me to do about it.

At Cracker Barrel, teamwork is expected.  "If you are not helping a guest, you should be helping someone who is."  How can that translate for Christians and orphans?  If you are not adopting a child, you should be helping someone who is.  I know that the truth is most people cannot adopt.  But it is also true that everyone can somehow be supporting orphans.

Pray for the families who are adopting.

Financially support those who are adopting.  (It does add up...every table I wait on leaves me a tip, and by the end of the night it adds up...it works the same for families trying to raise money for adoption!)

Pray for the orphans.

Donate money to the organizations that support the orphans who will never be adopted.

Pray. 


Please also pray for us as we are trying to adopt Elsa in Estonia; pray for the process, and the finances.

Moving Forward!

 Wednesday we received our home study!!  I spent Thursday making sure the 9 page immigration application form was just right. Friday morning Jamie and I signed it, he prayed over it, then later Leif and I went to the bank for a money order, then to the post office to mail our home study, the I800a, a copy of our marriage license, copies of our passports, and the money order for $890!   Now we wait for a notice in the mail telling us to go into Boston for our fingerprints.  After that, we wait approximately 2 months for the approval, Lord willing.

Once we receive approval I can plan the first visit to visit Elsa!! This first trip will be less than a week, and should cost around $2000, so that is my current fundraising/saving goal.  We really want Nikita to go with me, which will add approximately $1200 for her plane ticket.

In the meantime, life goes on.  The weather is a bit chilly but beautiful today, so Jamie and I took Leif and the triplets to Old Sturbridge Village to see a display of vintage automobiles, all pre-1920.  

 Can you see the horn on this red car, just to the right of Jamie?  And the kerosene lanterns on the sides are so cool.

 Leif and I posed under an apple tree.

The flowers are beautiful.  We are so thankful that we have membership there (from Christmas gifts last year).  There is always something new to see, as well as always fresh chocolate chip cookies in the store.

School!

 

The triplets have been in school for 2 weeks now, and we are still tweaking our morning routine.

Amelia likes to help with the backpacks.  I would get them ready the night before, except I am supposed to write in their communication books every morning.

Leif tends to put himself into the middle of the morning preparations.

 We put their clothes into a bin in the hallway, each with their name, so the kids can get dressed as soon as they wake up.  This is supposed to prevent mismatched or dirty clothing.  So far I have had to send Amelia up each morning to change.  She has a favorite pair of jeans she thinks she can wear every day.  

Once they are all dressed it is time for some oatmeal and orange juice.

Sometimes they are ready and waiting for the bus 30 minutes early.  And sometimes the bus is ready and waiting for them!  Do you see the fourth musketeer, thinking he is going to school too?  He wants to be everywhere they are.

 Now that I suddenly am bored all day, I have been trying some new recipes.  The croissants were delicious!

 Of course, Leif does his best to alleviate any boredom I might encounter.

 Leif enjoyed the carrot cake, even though I had not frosted or cut it yet.

I also have been knitting hats to sell as a fundraiser for our adoption of Elsa.  I have 9 done so far!

Jamie is not teaching at the college this Fall (no one signed up for the class) and had no classes over the Summer, so we are quite behind on the amount we need for our adoption.

Dante returned to school today!

He was so tired when I brought him home.  I am driving him to and from school for a few weeks, since we have to be careful how we lift him in and out of the carseat until his sternum is completely healed.  He was so happy to be there today, and was standing at the door at 7:15 this morning.  We left early and I drove him around a little bit to kill time, since he was so determined to get there!  I am glad he was able to go back already, because he had become quite the couch potato, watching Kai Lan on his iPad.

My days are really far from boring, although I do find myself with more time to clean and find quiet time.  The teens are so independent with their work that I have time for Leif and he is such a joy.  I do plan to spend some time this year taking them to some museums that would have been difficult to go to with the triplets.  They are all high schoolers now; Alexander is a senior.  I really want to make the most of this time with them before they start graduating and going off to college.

This is "The Year I Will Stay Organized"!

Oops, this is gonna have to be my April 1st post, who am I fooling??
  :)

Back to Abnormal

Last Thursday Dante had his ASD repaired via open heart surgery.  Jamie and I traded off the time in the hospital with him, and we all were ready to get home yesterday.  Everyone at Children's Hospital Boston is so amazing, and Dante recovered very quickly.  I tried to use my time there well, knitting 2 dishcloths, 2 pot-holders, and 1 1/2 hats.  I am hoping to sell some knit hats as an adoption fundraiser, I have about six made so far. 

Dante was in an out of it for a while, just sitting on his hospital bed tugging at all the wires and IV's while watching Kai Lan on the iPad, but on Sunday he came out of his fog and started doing the interactive games and eating like crazy.  He was ready to go. We do have to go back to Boston in a few weeks for a sedated echo to make sure all is well.  They tried one on Sunday with just an oral sedative, but my little fighter needs to be out completely if they want to see anything.

Now we are home again, Leif has mostly forgiven me for leaving him so much and life is getting back to normal.  Which is anything but normal.  I am not really sure what normal is, unless I look at it from a typical American perspective.  2.5 kids, sports practice, the latest fashions, eating out once a week.  That is certainly not us.  I prefer my abnormal life.

For far too many people, normal is not a good thing.  Countries where it is normal to put a less than perfect newborn in an orphanage.   Orphanages where it is normal for those imperfect newborns become children so neglected they are emaciated and withdrawn.  Doctors in our own country whose normal standard procedure is to encourage scheduling an abortion while giving a prenatal diagnosis of down syndrome.   And an estimated 90% of those parents follow that advice because they don't know what else to do. 

Being hopeless has become normal. 

I think we as Christians should be rebelling against the world's version of normal.  Why should we expect our lives to be calm, controlled, and predictable? 

If you think about it, why do we put on the Full Armor of God, if we are not expecting a battle?

Dad's Cereal is Leif's Cereal

It has been a busy week here, one of the last two weeks before school starts.  

I bought 5 packs of socks and dyed them so each of the youngest five can easily tell which pair to wear.  It drives me nuts that you cannot buy colored socks in large sets, they are always a mix.  When I buy all white it is hard to keep them matched because we need 4 different sizes for the 5 kids.

 Amelia helped me make tomato sauce.  We also made 12 quarts of salsa- 6 medium and 6 hot. We have spanish rice once week for dinner, and chips with cheese and salsa are a favorite lunch, so we go through a lot of salsa.  I will make at least one more batch before Dante's surgery next week.

 Tuesday Jamie and I took Sunny to court and "re-adopted" her.  She has been finalized for two years as far as Taiwan is concerned, but Massachusetts in one of the states that requires re-adoption in order to change the birth certificate.  We took just her to make it special, and went out to breakfast afterwards.  The judge gave her a stuffed panda and was super nice.

 Dad fixed himself a bowl of granola this morning, and Leif was kind enough to let Dad have a bite.

 Jamie finally decided it was a 2 spoon bowl, but then walked away for a moment to help someone else.

This is Leif's victory grin.  

I still have a lot to do before next Wednesday.  The girls need some school shopping done, and I have to sort through all their clothes first to see what we need.  I have mixed emotions about Amelia, Sunny, and Micah going to public school for the first time.  We have not even gotten a date for their IEP meetings yet, and I fight the urge to call and say never mind.  It is likely that I won't even be here their first day, if Dante is still in the hospital.  I know they will like school, but it has been a hard decision.  It is not easy to find curricula that is at their developmental level without being too childish, but ever since we officially made our decision I have come across so much stuff that would have been great for them.

Jamie has taken the lead with the teens schooling this year, in that he has laid out what they will be doing.  I cannot believe they are a sophomore, junior, and senior!  

Right now everything in my mind is divided to before and after Dante's surgery.  I have picked up a bunch of extra hours at Cracker Barrel this week, trying to get ahead for the week I will not be working while I stay with Dante.  There is so much to get done before Wednesday, since when Dante is discharged we will be jumping right into the school year in addition to his recovery time at home.

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We are still waiting on a final piece of paperwork for Elsa's home study.  Please continue to pray for her and for our adoption process.  Satan is fighting adoption on so many levels around the world right now, and God's children need your prayers.

Adoption and Dante Updates

I have not done a post on our adoption in a while, so it is time for a reminder that we and our daughter-to-be are a family in need of your support!

Our home study was completed last week, but needed some revisions.  Jamie and I had not done the required training for a Hague country.  We had to go online and take 5 adoption courses to meet that requirement.  Even though most of it was review for us, it is a very impressive set of courses that would benefit any family adopting a child.

And here she is!!: 

Once we have our revised home study we will send it to Immigration in our government for approval.  We will be given fingerprint appointments also.  With that approval we will be able to officially have Elsa put on hold and travel to her country for the Preview Trip.  

So much of this process is "hurry up and wait" on our part.  I will be so thankful when we get this hurdle done. The wait for approval should be about two months.  Hopefully less.

In the last 2 weeks we have had to pay $200 for the home study review, plus $149 for the adoption courses.  When we file the immigration paperwork (next week?!) we will have to send along a cashiers check for $890 to pay for the filing of the forms.

Please continue to pray for Elsa, and for our finances.

Don't forget, Christmas is coming and one way you can support us is through the purchase of adoption awareness t-shirts!  There is a link on the sidebar.

And Dante.  Here is a photo of him being told his surgery is in 2 weeks.  Actually, that is an older photo, but he is scheduled for open heart surgery on Thursday August 25th.  We have been told that the hole in his heart is in such a way that the catheter approach will not work.  I have every confidence in the surgeon and team who will be working on him, it is his time in the hospital that has me worried.  Dante is not going to appreciate the IV and various wires that will likely be attached to him for the duration of his hospital recovery.  Jamie and I are going to alternate staying in the hospital with him, although if Dante's recovery goes longer than 5 days it will run into school starting.

Please pray for a calm, quick recovery for our boy!