We Moved

We have a new blog, that I am promising to keep more updated!

http://lotsandlotsofkids.blogspot.com

You can see us as we go through our daily lives with five kids, a mom in grad school, and a dad who handles it all very well!!!

Snot

"As snot flows through the noses of my kids, so are the days of our lives..."

Ok, so I have a while to go before I can write good enough to have more readers, however, as most of you can imagine, when one of the kids gets sick, they all get sick...

In the past three weeks, there has been sneezes, coughs, runny eyes, runny noses, stuffy noses, grumbly voices, throwing up, coming out of the other end, fevers, and now - pink eye.

Took Kylie and John to the doctor today and they both have pink eye. The only place I can figure they got it is from preschool. Kylie has now been to preschool all of two days and look what happens! And John has a double ear infection. You know how you wait and wait, wondering if you should take your child to the doctor? You dread the phrase, "It will just have to run its course." I waited too long...

Kaycee just has the nose that has been running from the middle of August till now - Leonard swears she has at least a gallon come out a day...

The gunk that comes out of Kylie's eyes are green - it would be a pretty color for paint, or a shirt, but not coming out of my daughter's eyes...

But I think we are on our way to recovery now! Thank God for doctors and medicine!

I think I have been called...

Adoption has touched my life more than I could ever have imagined. I think it all started before I was married to my husband.

I remember getting a call from him at work (we were just dating at that point - it had only been about a month or two.) He was so excited - his mom had just called and his sister and brother-in-law had just referred their first son, who would soon be called Quinn. It was something I will always remember.

A few months later, we were meeting Quinn for the first time. Here was this little boy, who had been taken thousands of miles to a strange land, with strange people. He was all smiles, with bright beautiful eyes. It was an incredible experience.

A couple years later, the next amazing experience happened. By this time, my husband and I were experiencing a mild form of infertility. At the same time, my sister in law and brother in law traveled back to Russia to bring home a little boy and a little girl. What an experience that was...and I only know a little.

We started looking into adoption from China but then became pregnant soon after. Even though we didn't adopt at that time, I knew it was still in my heart.

Well, of course, as you are reading this blog, you know we have since adopted our daughter Kaycee from China. She has been home for two months and is doing wonderfully!

Before you think I am going to called to adopt again, keep reading...

I really feel called to start a ministry for orphans. I have prayed and prayed. I have started research and more research. I have talked and talked to my husband. But this is the first time I have put it into writing.

I want to help families get past the obstacles of funding their adoptions. Even though we have adoption debt and it isn't a small amount, I still feel led to help others.

I wonder if there is some way to help even one more child find their forever family? I have started research with Shoahannah's Hope. They are an incredible resource! They have information on how to approach your church about a ministry, etc.

I am scared to death, but am feeling very led to do this...

Right now, as I writing this blog, keep in mind my two year old son is trying to bite the snap off my shirt...hhmmm, what is missing in HIS diet?

Here the three little ones are working on a project with their nanny! Looks like fun to me...

Anyway, in my household, here is a note about the laundry in a normal week...

There are seven of us - seven people will create the following dirty clothes:

49 pairs of pants/shorts/ or skirts

49 shirts

35 pairs of underwear (two are not potty trained) however, we have at least 70 changed diapers a week

21 pairs of socks - it is summer, the little ones and I don't wear socks in the summer - only three of us do

42 towels ( we try to use them more than once)

14 washclothes

6 sets of sheets

That is 216 pieces of laundry - per week - in a month that is 864 pieces - in a year it is 10,368 pieces of dirty laundry...of course there is probably more, as four of us will start to wear socks in the winter, we will wash coats, jackets, etc...and of course, don't forget we have a teenager. Yes, he is a boy, but there are days where he will wear two or three sets of clothing - depending on what he is doing, and we have uniforms, doll and Barbie clothes, stuffed animals that maybe has some thing unidentifiable on it...what else? I am sure there is something else!

What about toilet paper? When people think of big families and the expenses, usually they think about what goes into the body, not necessary what comes out of the body! Toilet paper seems to "run" out of house...no pun intended!

"

A catch up blog...

Kaycee had her first ENT visit yesterday. And all we had was wonderful news about her hearing and her ears. First of all, Leonard was the one who took her to Children's Hospital. This was something by itself...but dad did really well.

Anyway - back to Kaycee's ears...

As we knew, without hearing aids, she is profoundly deaf. She really does not hear anything at all. HOWEVER, with hearing aids, she has normal hearing. PRAISE GOD!!!! What a great gift!!!

So we are making an appointment to get her a hearing aid but more important, we are making an appointment to allow her to hear!

Next...three days ago, school started. Jacob is now a freshman, a 5'10", 140 pound FRESHMAN!!!!! Cannot believe that! In addition, Nathan is in 7th grade! Kylie will start preschool next week, and mom is feeling very sad!

AND, last but not least - I just turned in my final for my child development class - whew! Just in time to write another paper for my class that starts Wednesday and try to figure out what I am going to do in my second class that starts Monday!

Check out my next blog. So many people ask...how do you do it...read my next one and find out :)

The past...

We received a huge treasure yesterday. The lady that is over the foster care system in Kaycee's province sent us a cd with 5 photos of her as she was growing up. Included with these pictures were also the foster care write ups, which includes things like when she got teeth, etc.

I cried and cried...

In Kaycee's short little life before she was with us, she was...

abandoned at 1 month old, stayed in the orphange for about three months, went with one foster family for a little over a year and then with another foster family for about four months. I can't imagine what this little girl has gone through..my heart hurts so bad for her.

Also, she has two very deep scars on her upper arms. They should have been stitched. They are the same type of scar located at the same place on each arm. In one of the photos, the scar is somewhat fresh. It was when she was about 9 months old. I can't imagine what it was...it makes me sad.

I think that the reality of her before us has hit me. Here she was, all alone, can't hear and she is being shuttled around from house to house, bed to bed, etc.

I know God was with her, He was also by her side. I just wish I could have been there from the beginning also.

tales from the red couch

Today is the Consulate appointment. Actually we don't even go to the consulate, our facilitator does. She is there now. We have to stay in our room from 11:30 to 12:00. If we receive a call...that is not what we want. It means there is something potentially wrong with our paperwork.
Speaking of paperwork...our agency gave us the wrong paperwork so I had to go to the consulate yesterday to get it fixed. So the chances of us having a phone call are pretty good. In addition, our agency gave her the wrong Chinese name. They used the wrong character for her name. So all of the paperwork I filled out, has the wrong name on it...AAGGHH!!
BUT on the other hand, Kaycee is a bright little girl. She is full of laughter and life. She has learned a couple of new signs. No one can tell she is deaf. However, I watched her play with some other kids and she stood back away from everyone else. This could be because she was in foster care and was the only child or it could have something to do with her hearing, or maybe it is just her personality.
Anyway, everyone says she is a beautiful baby! We met one Chinese man on the plane flying here that was amazed we would adopt a baby that was deaf. "Did you know she was deaf when you adopted her?" It was a very sincere question, not meant to hurt. But it goes to show that she probably would not have had a very good life here...
We went shopping last night for minute and will try again today. When we left Fuzhou it was 101 degrees and about 49% humidity. Here it is only 93 degree with 47% humidity. But really, you can tell, it is much more bearable here than in Fuzhou...
We took pictures on the "red couch" last night. The little boy she is with is John Jones. He is absolutely adorable, Darla. He has cheeks you could pinch forever and this morning I waved to him and he just smiled and gave a huge wave back!
We miss everyone dearly and can't wait to get on the airplane back.