Say a Prayer for Emma

Click on the button labeled "Emma's Hope". She needs your prayers/thoughts/good wishes right now. She's one month from heart surgery. Her heart is failing.

Mother of the Year/Wife of the Year?????

Do you think I have a chance to win either of the awards listed in the title:

1. When I plot in my head to send Sawyer to chaperon Ansley on her dates, as 'payback' for her being mean to him when they were little? How bout I only use this approach to potential dates I don't trust? How about I just make her bring her dates inside and let each sibling ask one question of the beau before I let them leave on their date?

2. When I'm happy that my husband moved his office to the basement instead of having it upstairs where the rest of us 'roam'? I truly am excited that he's working from home but it was getting hard to keep 3 kids quiet every time he was on a conference call.

3. When I won't let my 5 year old watch Zack and Cody or Sponge Bob? "But Mom, they're funny!"

So, I'm thinking those awards are not in the cards for me. Perhaps, I'll let the kids help me make chocolate chip cookies and we give them to Dad. That's bound to get me some points!

Here We Go Again

So for those who do not know, we are adopting again! We're quite excited. We are currently waiting on the courts to approve us to be parents to an adorable little guy living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We hope to be able to bring him home by November/December.

If you'd like to follow along with our journey, please go here:

Our Adoption Blog

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone is having a great holiday. We got up this morning and headed over to the local 4th of July parade. Judson actually rode his bike in the parade. AND he won Most Creative for his bike decoration. (and you thought Randy and I were just 'eggs' and weren't creative)

Spending time with Family

Cousin Abigayle (and Aunt Robyn and Nana and Pop) came to visit us this weekend. The kids had a great time putting on plays and doing 'kid' things. Poor Cousin Abigayle does not feel good today.

Things We Like To Do

Play outside!
(Notice the footwear: Picture 1, socks and flip flops Picture 2, barefoot)






Play Dress Up (He's a pirate!)


Go Swimming (Mental note: Sawyer cannot go swimming before bedtime again. Too much to process and he stayed up most of the nite, therefore, so did mom)

Game Ranch

So we took the kids to the Game Ranch again. (We met some friends there) Had a great time, even though it rained a bit. Sawyer actually fed a deer this time. (In between throwing fits, that is) Ansley enjoyed it until one of the turkeys got a bit cranky and scared her. Judson enjoyed it but was disappointed that we didn't get to go on a picnic afterwards because of the rain.

Here are some pics.

This deer would not take NO for an answer. He's 'eating' my shirt!

Emma's 1st Surgery

Click on the button on the right to follow along with Emma today. She's having a T&A today. It's the first step to getting her heart fixed. While for most children, having your tonsils out isn't that big of a deal. It's a huge deal for her. So, keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers today please.

A Trip To the Botanical Garden

Took the kids to the Botanical Gardens today. See what fun we had!

Digging for dinosaur bones and 'swimming'. (Okay, so I forgot Judson's trunks so I made him wear Sawyer's trunks, (24m)) Sawyer has that old Tarzan thing going on with his swimmies pulled up under his arm pits.

Thanks, Annie

For giving me this site: Click and see how rich you are http://globalrichlist.com/

Judson's Daddy Haiku

We Love Our Daddy
Daddy is the BEST Daddy
Happy Father's Day

What's Your Reality?

A fellow blogger (Christine) showed these stats and I thought it was worth repeating here. Pretty eye opening, I think.

If our diverse world were melted down to a village of 100 people, do you know what it would look like?

57 Asian, 21 European, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, 8 African
52 Female, 48 Male
70 Non-white, 30 White
70 Non-Christian, 30 Christian
89 Straight, 11 Gay
6 people hold 59% of the world's worth (all from the US)
80 live in substandard housing
70 are unable to read
50 suffer from malnutrition
1 has a college education
1 has a computer

How does that jibe with your reality? She got the information from this website:
http://www.sustainer.org/meadows/

Out to Lunch

We went out to eat with friends this weekend. Here are the pics Lisa took of the kids. This is Sam. Isn't she a cutie!!!!! Judson was probably under the table at this point.

What are you doing tonite?

What we do, every night: "Plan to take over the world". Ok, maybe not. Maybe we just play outside until we get hot and sweaty. Come in, clean our rooms, take our baths, and watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. (during the commercials, we wrestle with dad) It's pretty funny when Ansley asks, "why didn't they give me an "S", Dad?" while watching Wheel. (She actually walks up to the tv, cups her hands around her mouth, and says, "can I have an S please") Or when Judson actually gets an answer to the Jeopardy questions, which he usually does at least once each night. Oh, what a wonderfully boring life we lead. LOVE IT!

Emma's Having Surgery

Click on the box to your right, Emma's Hope. The surgeon is going to operate! That's right, she is going to have her heart repaired. How awesome is that!

Family Vacation

Oh boy...just got back from vacation and are we tired! We had a great time. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We went to Helen, Ga and saw the Alpine Model Train exhibit.
We went to a 'carnival' in Pigeon Forge (with Cousin Abbey) and rode lots of rides!
We went to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg.Hiked to Grotto Falls with Cousin Mark. (ok, only Judson and Randy did this)
Best of all, spent time with family!!!!!We had a great time and hope to do it again.

Parent's Worst Nightmare

Many know Stephen Curtis Chapman from the songs they hear on the radio. Others know him for the financial help he gives families adopting internationally through his Shaohannah's Hope foundation. Yesterday, he experienced the worst thing a parent could ever go through. His 5 year old daughter was killed in a tragic accident. If you would like to find out more, you may go to this site. http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/

Try, Try Again (May take awhile to load videos)

Funny the abilities each of our children has. Take Athletic ability. Ansley has a natural flow and rhythm about her. Things just come easily for her when it comes to athletics (unless it requires hand-eye coordination). You show her something and she can do it. Judson has tenacity on his side. His body doesn't necessarily move like a well oiled machine but given enough time, he'll get it. He won't stop trying. Sawyer has the true 'love' of the sport. He'll watch and cheer and not get bored. Whereas the other two, get bored if they are not playing and don't even know when to cheer. He has a lot of ability too.

Here's Judson turning back flips on the bungy jumping machine. He has been working on it for months. He never gave up and never got discouraged. Now, he wants to learn the front flip. I'm sure he will. (Excuse the quality of the videos. I took them with the small camera instead of the Rebel)


Here's Ansley trying out the Krazy Kar that the neighbor gave us. She immediately took to it, making it turn and go which ever way she wanted. Judson is still struggling with it (but will get it).


Sawyer loves it but just isn't strong enough to turn the wheels.

From Another Blog

Well Look At That

Everybody noticed.

Everybody stared.

Eventually even me.

We stopped at Petro-Can to fill up the car and had to wait until a lane cleared by the pump so we could pull in. We'd passed several other stations without line ups, but here we sat. Joe collects Petro-Points and refuses to gas anywhere else. It's one of his, um, quirks. I didn't notice anything at first, then I saw a young guy about twenty staring intently at something. I put my eyes on his gaze and slid along to see the object of his attention. "Oh, stop," I thought to myself. He was staring at a man, about the same age as he was, with Down Syndrome who was pumping gas into a car.

"Surely," I thought, "people are used to seeing the disabled amongst us being out and in the community doing every day things."

Then I noticed that everyone else was staring too. Really looking at this guy. This was more than "Wow look at the disabled guy pump gas." This was something else.

So I took in the whole scene. He was pumping gas into a car. The car was empty. Forgive me for what I thought, but I thought that his mom or dad was probably in the service center going to the washroom. He finished pumping gas, went in to the little kiosk and paid.

Now, I understood what people were looking at. staring at, seeing. He got into the car, on the driver's side.

Started the engine.

Drove off.

Even I reeled at that. I had heard of people with Down Syndrome driving, but I'd never seen it before. My automatic assumption was that he was a passenger. That because he had Down Syndrome he'd never ever be in the driver's seat.

They weren't staring at him. Those people at the gas station. I think that something different was going on. They were re-evaluating everything they ever thought about someone with Down Syndrome. They were ripping apart pre-conceived notions. They were having prejudice challenged.

Admittedly, so was I.

Just when I thought that I had it all together, some guy with Down Syndrome drives me off the road. Makes me realize how deep my own prejudices run.

I wonder, though, about the effect he will have. On me, it was immediate. I reached inside myself and raised the bar - set expectations higher - not for them - for me.

But I wonder if that twenty something guy who's stare I'd noticed. Should he ever get the news that his wife is carrying a baby with Down Syndrome, will he remember the guy with the car, pumping gas. The guy who drove off. The guy who is living a life, unpredicted. The guy doing things, unexpected. The guy who dreams, unencumbered.

I truly hope so.

Yumm-O

We went to my new favorite restaurant last night, Meskerem. Who'd of thunk my family would be loving Ethiopian food? I mean, if you know my kids, you know what a picky crew they are. If we go to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Ansley eats steamed rice and that is it. The boys eat nothing. If we go eat at or favorite Mexican restaurant, they will eat chips and Ansley eats the tortillas. If the restaurant doesn't have french fries, my crew won't usually eat. So what's up with this restaurant? I don't know but if anyone has a recipe of injera (that doesn't take 5 pounds of teff flour and 3 days to make), send it my way please. I think it has to do with the novelty of the injera AND the pleasure of not having to use utensils!Sawyer ate his weight in yellow split peas. Ansley concentrated on the injera. (which is best described as a sour dough crepe) AND Judson (the pickiest eater this side of the Mississippi) tried Lettuce, Tomatoes, Green Beans and Carrots. Oh yes he did! I was almost giddy when Judson started trying the food. He didn't consume a lot but he tried it all and said he liked it.Now Momma, she likes the veggie platter, with collard greens, split peas, cabbage, green beans. While Daddy, he likes the zil zil tibs. Oh yeah, we loved it! Who knows, I may get brave enough to take them to the vegetarian Indian restaurant just down the street. Gotta love living in a metropolitan area with such diversity!