Choice

Today, instead of focusing on all the little things that are going wrong; the little things that normally have the power to completely undo me, today I'm focusing on the positive. Which includes these two little camera hams.

Ham #1

Ham #2

I've heard it said so many times, that you know you are on the right path when everything starts falling apart.

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On Monday we have our (hopefully) last homestudy meeting. All our homestudy paperwork, excepting the one form from Alberta (a whole 'nother story) is either sent away or done. We are just waiting on our HIV test results, which take 3-4 weeks, to complete our physicals AND we finally got through the hundreds of pages of educational material.

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Adoption wise things are going great.

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Everything else?? Well.......let's see.

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- My two year old is in the running for most challenging child of the millennium. Every waking moment of the day is spent either whining, crying, trantruming, breaking something, or whining, crying, and tantruming because I won't give him the something he wants to break.

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-A person close to me, who I normally would consider a close friend, is lashing out at me and my parenting choices. Unfortunately I'm related to this person by marriage and she is the Queen Bee of the family so things are....interesting.

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-My house is falling apart. Not really, but with so many little things breaking and leaking and "oh crap is that water coming in the living room ceiling?" it sure feels like it.

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-My normally very even-tempered, easy going husband is irritable!? I don't know if he's just extra tired from work or if it's because the Dr. told him he has high blood pressure so he's trying to give up coffee. Since he's put up with years of my cranky moods, I'm cutting him some slack.

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-There has been a complication with our homeschool funding which, if not resolved, would mean that we would be out $400 in funding. I've been paying for lessons and materials out of pocket since Christmas hoping that the issue would be resolved.

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- I hurt my back

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- Caley has always been a child with high attachment needs. She had been moving past this, but has regressed in the last few weeks. Which means that she is constantly hanging off me, trying to climb me and generally not helping my sore back.

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-She is also missing her two best friends, the daughters of the "friend" who is lashing out at me. This makes me feel like crap.

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Just little things. Many, many little things. It's a good thing I don't have to be strong enough to deal with it all. It's sure a good thing we've got Someone in our corner.

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Otherwise, I'd go nuts!

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Whispers and Dreams

Praising God for good news out of Ethiopia!

Hopefully now they will receive the support and help that they need to ensure that there is no exploitation of birth parents or children in the adoption process without closing the program.


Since I was a child, I have had the image in my mind of parenting an African child. When Brad and I were married, we joked that I would have to give up that dream, unless our mailman turned out to be black. It was all very light hearted and then, when we started the adoption process, it was something that stuck in my mind.

Obviously right now, we are not pursuing an African adoption, but the image is still there. Like the whisper of a promise.

Before we ever conceived a child, we know we would some day have a son named Matthew. When our first was a girl, we were thrilled, but still convinced that someday, there would be a Matthew.

It is the same feeling. Just as our family wasn't complete without our Matthew, there is a spot waiting for another little boy with big brown eyes and chocolate skin. In God's prefect time.

Everyone needs a little corner of the world

I sometimes lay awake at night fantasizing about putting an addition on the house with a master bedroom and a sun-room/homeschooling room. It would have windows all along one wall and bookshelves along another and a door leading out into the backyard for the days when you just can't stand to be inside 4 walls.

Then I'm usually beset by guilt thinking about the millions of people in the world who lack a house completely and how I should be so very grateful for what we have. Until the guilt though, it's a fun daydream.

Since an addition to our house is quite unlikely, I've been trying to find ways to create homeschool spaces within what we have.

This is a look at the corner of the kitchen by the back door

I covered a magnetic cork board and a wooden board with fabric to display art work. The wooden board has 4 screws with clips to hang bigger/bulky items.

The front forward bookshelf was my first ever Ebay purchase and holds the kids library books, books on the subjects we are covering and some books I think Caley might find interesting.

I quite often find one or both of the kids hanging out in this corner thumbing through books (or strewing them about on the floor, depending on his mood)

Homeschooling is great!