Par-Tay

Two parties. Same time. What do you do? Divide and Conquer!

Party #1

Pretty fun until you stop and realize you have welts and bruises and scratches all over your body. After a bath and good nights sleep, they are planning on what they will do at next year's party!

Party #2

Much more reserved but equally as fun for the participants.


Turner got to sing.
Sawyer got to play drums.
(no pic of drum playing)

Race

Judson's first race.



3K in 20minutes and change.

This is what happens WHEN

You go from Tiger to Wolf!!!!

Judson's Blog

http://judsonstories.blogspot.com/2010/05/scout-camp-spring.html

What We've Learned

You know they say, Kids are great teachers. Boy, is that the case in our house.

Take #1 for instance:He's the first. He taught us to see life through a child's eyes. He taught us to look at what we thought we knew and believed and PROVE it. Awesome. BUT he almost killed me those 1st 6-8 months! I didn't think I'd survive. I mean, he was collicky. He would only breast feed. He ate EVERY 2 hours. I didn't think I would make it. Little did we know he was preparing us for
This guy.

#2

You know, you think you can prepare for birth but then things sneak up on you and make you have to do more prep. We knew he had Down Syndrome and we knew he had a heart condition. We prepared for those as best we could. We did NOT know he had Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension until maybe 3-4 weeks after he was born. We did NOT know PAH has a very slim survival rate and he was given no chance of survival. (probably best we did not know that, huh?) So we had a year of around the clock feedings and medicines through a feeding tube, that I had to insert regularly through his nose because the stinker kept pulling it out. We had multiple doctors visits per month. We kept busy trying to balance his health with #1's need for support and attention.

What did he teach us? (and continues to teach us) Enjoy every moment because you never know if it will be your last. Enjoy the small things and don't worry if it takes longer to get the big things. They will come in due time. You know what else? He taught us we could handle more in our lives than we ever thought. He taught us how much time we wasted on unimportant things. We knew once #2 was out of the woods, we could adopt and handle whatever came our way.

So then came

#3:OH MY. What has she taught us? Let's see. For starters, don't take yourself too seriously. Don't think you are ready for Parent of the Year award, cause you are going to have to prove it daily. She challenges you in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. She makes you work for it. And you know what, that's okay. She has helped us become better parents. I don't think she'd award us Parent of the Year yet. She still has a lot of work left to smooth our rough edges.

Because of our first adoption experience, we felt we could handle another one. That led us to:

#4OMG, he may have taught us the most important life lessons. "Don't Worry, Be Happy" Seize the Moment. It's okay to laugh a LOT. It's okay to sing whenever you feel like it. (this has a secondary benefit of angering #3 who does not like perkiness) It's okay to dance (using your shoulders like they do in Ethiopia) even if the music you are dancing to is inside your head and no one else can hear it. If you are super happy, the best thing to do is the Ethiopian click with your tongue. Basically, just enjoy what life has to offer you. Don't spend too much time planning, just enjoy!

So that is what we are doing. ENJOYING!
Thankful for each day and each child and the lessons they teach us!

Swimming @ Wee-wah's House!

This is Wee-Wah (aka Olivia)

No Pics of Sawyer. He was at school.

Blessed

This was taken before we went out to eat breakfast on Mother's Day. The kids had a great time at the restaurant and did very well. To top it off, someone paid part of our restaurant bill, anonymously. How nice was that!!!

Just so you know. This was like the 900th picture Randy took. In each of them, one or more people might be smiling but not all 5 of us were looking at the camera at the same time. It's tough getting all 4 kiddos looking and smiling at the same time.

Mother's Day *edited*

From my Tamirat! (Yes, I cried)

I am blessed enough cus I have mother.
I am greatful cus you are my mom.

A mother understand what achild doesnot say.
The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will
always find forgiveness.

No body know of the work it makes /to keep the home together. No body
know of the steps it takes\ no body know but mother.Being a mom is a
bless thing.

Before I got you mom, I had no idea getting mom again cus I lost my
mom and I was blieve there is no way getting mom again. But a God will
he give me, he change mybelieve, he give what I lost through you. And
thank's for being my mom.

Happy mother's day mom your son !!!!!!!!!!!

A Day at the Park

We met Sawyer's class at the park for an end of year picnic. Boy was it hot!!!
I had one mom argue with me that Ansley was from Korea. (Umm...I am pretty sure my husband went to Taiwan) Check out Sawyer's freckles. (Where does he get those)
Click on the picture and then click again to enlarge it.

And So it Goes

Mom: Ansley, that dress looks nice on you.

Ansley: Thanks. It also looks good on me.

Mom: Yes. Yes, it does.

Re-Cap

Busy weekend. Can you believe I didn't even take a picture? I'm slipping!

FRIDAY

Nana and Pop came for a visit. Hooray!!! Tea parties and playing outside and stories and all sorts of fun stuff. Of course, Nana always brings stuff. This time she brought Judson some new books. One of the books was HG Wells, The Time Machine. (Young Readers version) Judson started on that Friday night and was finished with it on Saturday. Ahhh...he is a chip off the old block. I love reading. Randy loves reading. Both grandmothers love reading.

SATURDAY

Randy ran in his first 5K race. His goal was to run in less than 30 minutes. His time was less than 27 minutes!!! His new goal (because he is hooked) is to run it in less than 25 minutes. He also wants to run a 10K.

Sawyer had a baseball game, so Nana and Pop got to see him play. ("play" being a relative term)

Then Nana and I got to go shopping. I mean, really, did any of my millions of readers think it wasn't going to happen?

SUNDAY

Nana and Pop had to leave today. We spent the better part of lunch trying to decide which one missed them most. Not sure who won that game.

We had a great weekend! Now back to reality.....

For Posterity

I do believe today was the first day Sawyer told a flat out lie. Not the stuff where you point to a sibling and say 'He did it' to keep yourself from getting in trouble. This was a thought out process to get out of doing something.

Me: Sawyer, we have to get ready for school.
*long pause*
Sawyer: No school today. Miss Kris (his teacher) is too sick.

*As far as I know, Miss Kris has not been sick.*

Glass Half Full

You know those folks who are always happy? The ones who always see the glass as half full? The ones who can be quite irritating because they are always perky? This is one of them!!!
Yesterday, Turner and I headed to Hobby Lobby. He told me he was a big boy and could walk. So, only having one child, I said, "okay". (see, I don't always say "NO") He did very well. Skipping and hopping and generally doing as I asked. (not touching breakable items) Of course being TWO, he did lag behind quite a bit. On our way up to the check out, he started singing. (as he was lagging behind). He sang very loudly. "If You're Happy and Know It". We continued to walk with him lagging behind and singing. When we got to the checkout, he stopped singing. He looked up and the people in line and the cashier started clapping. He hadn't even realized there was anyone else in the whole building.

What Do you See?

What do you see when you look at this picture? I know what other people see. They see a child with Down Syndrome. They see a child of Asian descent. They see a child of African descent. They see a child that looks All-American. If that is all they see, then they miss the big picture. If they only focus on the differences, they miss the things that make them the same. They miss the most important things.

You know what I see? I see children. Happy Children! Children sharing a moment. Each having their own lollipop, yet sharing it together with their siblings. You see, they are siblings in the best sense of the word. They have their lollipops and they have each other. That's all they need at that moment in time.

We Like to Pose

Here is Ansley wearing a few of her favorite things!!!

First, we have a little Poppy Dip twirl number.
You can see it has twirl-ability

Next we have Ansley in her Poppy Dip pants paired with her Rosey Posey hat.
A lovely, patriotic ensemble.

Our final outfit (for today) is this lovely dress with yet another Rosey Posey hat.We like 'posing'!
'specially in pretty clothes

Abby

You might want to click on the button to the right that says "Praying for Abby". She is not doing so well and needs our thoughts and prayers and good karma and anything else positive we have to send her way.

It's ALL Good!

Happy Saturday!!!

Fun Friday=New Bike

Why Me?

That's the question I get most often from this little girl. Why Me? Yesterday, she was all smiles because she got to do what she wanted. What was that? Whatever Judson was doing.

Today. Why me? Judson and Daddy are running. (as in training for a race) Ansley cannot train with them. So, slamming doors and crying and wondering "why me" is all she has left to do apparently. Such is the life of a mistreated 5 year old.

Things We Love to Do

Play with our friends!!!!

Play Outside (with our friends if possible)

Easter in....

Remember to click on the pics to make them larger

We hunted eggs

We pulled the wagon

Hula Hooped (is that a word) and Blew Bubbles
Took Obligatory Pictures
Drove the Golf Cart

Visited
And Spent Lots of Time in the Car...