LOST.

Anyone else ready for tonight?? We are LOST freaks at our house and this season has been marked on the calendar for a while now!

I can’t wait … anyone else ready for tonight?

2nd pot

We’re home from school today with a sick boy.  You  know it’s going to be a long day when you are on your second pot of coffee and it is 10:30 am!  I have never made two pots just for myself!!!

off the plane in Haiti

Wanna know what it’s like to fly into Haiti?  This lady sums it up well.  As I was reading her entry I could actually see the buildings, the singers and feel the heat of the air that she was talking about.

Lose 10 lbs of fat in a year

Everyone’s trying to figure out how to lose weight this time of year.  I always say I wouldn’t mind losing 10 pounds.  In fact, I would feel better about myself if I could just lose the 10 pounds I’ve added since high school.

Today I get an email from my mom and it has a link to some Dr. Cherry guy.  Funny thing is that his name makes me thing of as coke – cherry coke.  I don’t even like cherry coke, but when I read his name I suddenly crave one!  Anyways … this doctor apparently sends out weekly emails about health and my mom gets it.  Today the topic was losing weight.  The article starts out like this …. To lose weight you must eat fewer calories than you burn – no matter how much exercise you do. But weight loss can occur by shaving as little as 100 calories a day. According to weight-loss expert Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD/LD, if you trim 100 calories per day, either by eating fewer calories or burning more, it should add up to a 10-pound loss at the end of a year. (A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories; thus, 100 calories each day for 365 days is roughly 36,500 calories, equivalent to over 10 pounds of pure fat.) And you could double your weight loss to 20 pounds in a year by trimming 100 calories from your diet AND burning 100 extra calories each day.

Did you get that … just burn an extra 100 calories  a day and that adds up to 10 pounds over a year’s time.

Here’s how the doc suggests we do this with our food:

Here are 20 easy tips to cut 100 calories from your diet, offered by Zelman:

*    1. Use mustard or low-fat mayonnaise instead of regular mayonnaise.
*    2. Have a piece of fresh fruit in place of cookies or chips.
*    3. Choose sherbet, sorbet, or low-fat ice cream over premium.
*    4. Use light whipped butter or margarine instead of regular.
*    5. Top your pasta with a red sauce instead of a cream sauce.
*    6. Order a small drink instead of a super-sized drink.
*    7. Use water-packed tuna instead of oil-packed.
*    8. Order pizza with veggies instead of high-fat meat toppings.
*    9. Choose whole-grain bread instead of a croissant or bagel.
*    10. Leave three to four bites of food on your plate.
*    11. Pass on the gravy on your mashed potatoes.
*    12. Skip the cheese on your sandwich or salad.
*    13. Switch to low-fat salad dressing instead of regular.
*    14. Spread your bread with jam instead of butter or margarine.
*    15. Have a side salad instead of French fries.
*    16. Choose skim milk instead of whole milk.
*    17. Eat 1/2 cup less of pasta or rice.
*    18. Remove the skin from poultry before eating.
*    19. Snack on carrots with hummus instead of cheese & crackers.
*    20. Choose fruit canned in natural juice instead of heavy syrup.

And if you want to not only cut back on some eating here are some physical activities to help you out:

And here are 10 quick and simple ways to burn an extra 100 calories:

*    1. Walk an extra 2,000 steps, roughly equivalent to one mile.
*    2. Jog for 10 minutes.
*    3. Do 30 extra minutes of housekeeping.
*    4. Work in the garden for 20 minutes.
*    5. Pedal an exercise bike for 13 minutes.
*    6. Climb up and down stairs for 18 minutes.
*    7. Swim for 15 minutes.
*    8. Mow the lawn for 20 minutes.
*    9. Wash the car.
*    10. Work out at home with an exercise video for 15 minutes

So, which ones will you try?  Me I’m going for the extra 30 minutes of housework, so that puts me up to about 45 min tomorrow!!!!   Just kidding Aaron! 

Cayden’s sick

Cayden’s sick.  I hate having a sick child.  I picked him up from bible study and he immediately told me that his ear hurt.  He had a sad look on his face and his eyes were red and his cheeks were red too, which is a common sign that he is on the way to being sick.

We headed to Wal Mart so I could get a few things and then were off to the clinic.  As I was getting them out of the car to go in to Wal Mart, Cayden looked at me and said, but mom my ear hurts why are we here and not going to the docotr.  So, I loaded them right back up in the car and aplogized for being selfish and trying to get a new DVD player real quick before we went home.  UGH!  Selfish mom moment of the week!!

We went to the clinic and sure enough very red eardrum and very red throat.  We didn’t do a strep test, b/c he is getting antibiotics anyways, but she said he could have it.  Poor guy, he has cried all day and has felt so badly.

I pulled up to the drive through at the pharmacy and he told me it would be an hour and a half.  My mommy bear voice came out and I told him I have a very sick, crying baby and I can not and will not go home and come back.  He then changed his tune to 30 minutes and I was happy.  I didn’t mean to be a meany, but seriously …. 90 min for amoxicillin.  whatever!

While we waited we headed over to Sonic, because a diet coke and cheese sticks can cure any mommy stress for me and an apple juice slush makes any sick kid feel better.  Sonic treated us right and we were all happy for about 10 minutes!!

The kids are in bed now and I have a few hours to get some cleaning done.  I’m off the upstairs closet to purge and organize.  Did I mention that my BFF Amy from Dallas sent me a random surprise in the mail this week?  Oh yeah, I now have my own label maker!!!  I love that girl!

I’m off to sort – keep, garage sale, give away, trash …. and of course piles to label!!!

my children here.

I feel like wherever I turn I’m getting great insight from people that are causing me to look at things through a different lens than I have been using. As you know from my previous post that I have been rather consumed with my kids in Haiti. Please don’t think I’m psycho and going nuts here, but I just think of them lots, which is good, but I need to focus on good things and not all that I am missing.

This sweet lady left a great response to the sappy mess I wrote about the other day. She said they adopted one of their children when she was older and although they missed a lot of “traditional firsts” they also experienced so many other first. Hand dryers, cotton candy, and even discovering Jesus. That was great for me to hear. There will be goodness given to us in the form of first’s with our kids.

Then today I read the Weimer’s blog and they are talking about one of their daughter’s from Ethiopia experiencing the automatic hand dryer in the bathroom for the first time and I smiled at the thought of Amos putting his hands under one for the first time. It is a first I look forward to now. I can almost see his face light up and scream with delight like I remember him doing when the bugs were on the light at the dinner table. I still remember his little voice! Thank you God for that memory.

Today I open up bloglines and my new friend Stephanie who is also working with ROTH has posted a beautiful poem that I needed to read. It is just what Lori and I were talking about last night on the phone. She was encouraging me to remember my kids that are home with us now. She said that as adoptive parents we can become so consumed with waiting on our children that we miss out on things going on here with our kids. I was moved and encouraged by her words. Great words of advice. Thanks!

Here is the poem that Stephanie wrote.

Checking on three sleeping children tonight
Tucking them in, making sure they’re alright
Thinking of one who is so far away
Remembering that I need to cherish today

Let me not miss this moment of my children’s lives
The ones that are sleeping under my roof tonight
They need to know that my love is here
Hugging them closer, holding them near

Let me not miss this moment of my child’s life
The one that is living in a world torn with strife
He needs to know that someone does care
Someone who longs for the chance to be there

The light in her eyes – the curl in his hair
The smile on her face – the joy that he shares
Each one so precious, so special, unique
Each one a gift from our Father to me

Let me not miss this moment of my children’s lives
The ones that are sleeping under my roof tonight
Help them to know that God’s love is here
Hugging them closer, holding them near

Let me not miss this moment of my child’s life
The one that is living in a world torn with strife
He needs to know that the Father does care
And that He is the one who is already there

Each day goes faster, the moments slip by
Let me not miss this moment
Of my children’s lives.

-shg 01.30.08

Stephanie will be putting together a book of poetry to help off set some of the costs for their upcoming adoption.  Bookmark her site and check back often!

143 million orphans

I found this video on The Weimer’s blog. They have recently brought three children home to their forever family from Ethiopia.

Perspective

I found this today on Kurt and Kayla’s blog and they are adopting from Ethiopia.

Dossier drama

As some of you know when I arrived home from Haiti I heard that some of our dossier was not right and wouldn’t be able to be used.  It was not that big of a deal, because we could just have our Psychologist retype our letters and leave out a few things at the top.  Not a big deal, but just a pain to redo and wait on.  So, today I received the letter back from the state with the State authentications and was about to FedEx it to Chicago when I realized I didn’t have new translations for these letters.  UGH!  How could I have already forgotten the way things must be done.

So, the letter will not be getting to Chicago tomorrow, but more likely Friday.  I’m hoping that I can get these new letters scanned and sent to our translator and get the translations back quickly since not much needs to be changed.

I’m a sappy mess

Today has been a teary-eyed day for me.  It seems as though I have had all four of my kids on my mind ALL day today.  I have no idea what has brought on this day of complete sadness, but I have been rather down today.

If I think too hard about Story and Amos not being here I can get very sad.  You see, I already consider myself the mom to both of these kids.  I am in no way their mom yet.  Legally I have no binds to them and they don’t have any to me.  BUT in our hearts we are family.  They boys are siblings to them and love them with all the love that 4 and 2 year old boys have for someone they have never met but know that they are brother and sister in Haiti, which happens to be far, far, far away.

I was trying to explain my feelings that I was having today to Aaron and I haven’t found the right words to explain it.  It is almost as though I feel guilty for loving on Deacon and Cayden so much while Amos and Story are still in Haiti at the rescue center.  It feels as though I’m not being faithful to them.  I feel as though if I start to have too much fun here that I’m doing something wrong because they aren’t here with us.

We tell everyone that we hope to have them home by Christmas.  In my heart I want that and try to believe it with all that is in me, but my head is telling me different.  My head is telling me to hold on and prepare for a long wait.  My head is telling me to be realistic and don’t get your hopes up.  I have seen people wait 2 years to bring their kids home, and I have seen people wait 10 months.  You just NEVER know what will happen.  I beg God to make it sooner than 2 years.

I was looking through all my pictures tonight and ran across lots of videos off of my camera of the kids.  I cried through each one.  Why do we so easily forget things about our kids as they grow up?  My kids are only 4 and 2 and I was reminded tonight of how dang cute they were when they were younger.  I had forgotten about Cayden’s little 2 year old voice, or how Deacon’s hair was crazy out of control when he was about 8 months old, or how Deacon would clap his hands as Cayden sang his ABC’s.  I also forgot the gibberish that Cayden used to talk to himself and everyone else.  I am loving Deacon’s age now (2) and looking back at these pictures of Cayden it reminded me of how much I enjoyed his 2nd year too.  So much changes between the 2nd and 3rd birthday.

Of course watching these videos and browsing pictures brought me right back to where I always end up and that is Haiti.  I have two kids sitting in Haiti that I’m missing out on their life with each day that passes on.  We found out about Amos in August of 2007 and he was 27 months old.  We missed the first 27 months of his life.  I’ll NEVER have those.  I’ll NEVER see him walk for the first time, or say his first word.  I’ll NEVER see him eat a banana for the first time, or clap his hands for the first time.  That is hard for me to deal with.  Something that’s even harder for me to deal with is that I’m missing out on Story’s life each day too.  She will change so much when I see her again in May.  The first year of a child’s life it seems as though they change week to week.  I am so sad about missing out on her first’s as well.

I can tell that this year is going to be hard on me.  My dossier has only been in Haiti for 18 days and I’m an emotional wreck today.  How will I do it?  Will my heart survive this wait?

Cayden & Deacon – the summer of 2006

Amos & Story – Jan 2008

Gosh I miss these kids …