But I do want to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July (and for those in Canada, hope you had a great Canada Day!)
God Bless America! Please.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy Fourth of July!
I've been busy doing things with my family and taking tons of pictures--many I have posted over at my photography blog, so I haven't had time to write a thoughtful post.
But I do want to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July (and for those in Canada, hope you had a great Canada Day!)
But I do want to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July (and for those in Canada, hope you had a great Canada Day!)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Where is Summer?
Summer. I really try to like summer and having my kids home all day. Last week was a little rough as we worked out a new routine, but this week has been much better. They've played with each, read, and even helped with the housework. But summer would be a little easier to enjoy if we had some actual summer weather.
Today the kids dressed in red, white, and blue, we packed a lunch and the camera, and headed to the doctor's office to have my TB test looked at and doctor's form filled out. Then we anticipated heading to the park for a picnic and some fun pictures for all the red, white, and blue photo challenges this week. After all it was 67 degrees, a little overcast, with some encouraging sunbursts.
We came out of the doctor's office 10 minutes later to a frigid (for summer) down pour and black sky. Obviously we drove home instead of to the park and I THINK my medical form for my adoption agency is still readable now that the raindrops have dried.
I don't think I have ever been so frustrated; well, at least not at any other point this week. On the plus side I don't have TB, we got some afternoon cleaning in, and I did get a fun shot of my baby girl yesterday.
Take that summer!
Today the kids dressed in red, white, and blue, we packed a lunch and the camera, and headed to the doctor's office to have my TB test looked at and doctor's form filled out. Then we anticipated heading to the park for a picnic and some fun pictures for all the red, white, and blue photo challenges this week. After all it was 67 degrees, a little overcast, with some encouraging sunbursts.
We came out of the doctor's office 10 minutes later to a frigid (for summer) down pour and black sky. Obviously we drove home instead of to the park and I THINK my medical form for my adoption agency is still readable now that the raindrops have dried.
I don't think I have ever been so frustrated; well, at least not at any other point this week. On the plus side I don't have TB, we got some afternoon cleaning in, and I did get a fun shot of my baby girl yesterday.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Trixie Belden, Star Wars, and Adult Novels
We sent Huckleberry to Kindergarten not knowing how to read and a few days later he came home, said, "I can read now" and he could. SnapDragon entered Kindergarten already reading because Huckleberry had been home schooling him for years (he also knew most of his simple math add facts).
So the tricky thing has not been to get them to read, but to find books that are a challenge for them but age appropriate. We were pretty consistent at pre-reading the books Huckleberry would bring home and probably a bit over cautious. To be fair, we almost always said, "yes, you can read this," but it was handy to know what he was reading and fun (there is some great juvenile fiction out there). Ironically, he really isn't very sensitive to adult or sad themes while his brother, who we have not been as successful at protecting, is.
For Huckleberry's 5th grade graduation, Oak gave his uncle permission to buy him some of the Star Wars novels--probably two years after most kids start reading them. The first book he read was the second of a trilogy, so he found it a bit confusing but enjoyed it. The second book was the first of a different trilogy which explained a lot more of the back story and was thus easier to follow.
At the YMCA yesterday Huckleberry was reading his second book and explaining it to the lady next to him. "This is the second adult book I read. I understand it a lot more than the first adult book I read."
On the flip side, SnapDragon was on the third page of Huckleberry's first "adult" novel when we realized he was reading it. I told him he couldn't read it yet (mostly because it is actually too difficult for him at 7 to read and understand). But I offered him my childhood Trixie Belden novels (well, they are older prints I purchased as an adult since mine burnt in my parent's house fire). He started the first one yesterday.
Today as he walked through the kitchen clutching the book he said, "Mommy, reading this Trixie Belden is THRILLING!"
Oh, and now he is on book two.
Now we just need to teach Sunflower to read and we might have some quiet peace in the house again.
So the tricky thing has not been to get them to read, but to find books that are a challenge for them but age appropriate. We were pretty consistent at pre-reading the books Huckleberry would bring home and probably a bit over cautious. To be fair, we almost always said, "yes, you can read this," but it was handy to know what he was reading and fun (there is some great juvenile fiction out there). Ironically, he really isn't very sensitive to adult or sad themes while his brother, who we have not been as successful at protecting, is.
For Huckleberry's 5th grade graduation, Oak gave his uncle permission to buy him some of the Star Wars novels--probably two years after most kids start reading them. The first book he read was the second of a trilogy, so he found it a bit confusing but enjoyed it. The second book was the first of a different trilogy which explained a lot more of the back story and was thus easier to follow.
At the YMCA yesterday Huckleberry was reading his second book and explaining it to the lady next to him. "This is the second adult book I read. I understand it a lot more than the first adult book I read."
On the flip side, SnapDragon was on the third page of Huckleberry's first "adult" novel when we realized he was reading it. I told him he couldn't read it yet (mostly because it is actually too difficult for him at 7 to read and understand). But I offered him my childhood Trixie Belden novels (well, they are older prints I purchased as an adult since mine burnt in my parent's house fire). He started the first one yesterday.
Today as he walked through the kitchen clutching the book he said, "Mommy, reading this Trixie Belden is THRILLING!"
Oh, and now he is on book two.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Boring Adoption Details
Since technically this blog is about our adoption process, I should probably mention that we ARE working on our homestudy again, gathering papers, answering questions, and redoing all of our medical work. Which means today I have a doctor's appointment, Oak has one tomorrow, and the kids have an appointment on Friday. Some time this week Oak and I also have to be tested for HIV and have a urine drug test. Then the whole family has be tested for TB--an annoying and possibly painful arm prick where you have to go back in at the exactly right time to be read, I think.
Of course, none of these things are recommended by our doctor so we get to pay ala carte (though I did suggest we lie to the doctor about being high risk so they'd pay for the HIV test, but Oak didn't think that was a good idea). It didn't really bother me 5 years ago since it was part of the whole screening process and China wanted some medical assurance we would be healthy parents. This time it is a little more annoying, mostly because getting the kids TB tested seems ridiculous AND none of this information will end up in China. This is the medical report we need in order for our agency to do a new homestudy so we can apply for immigration status for our to be adopted child.
We also need to do 30 hours of adoption related training before we travel which I have no problem believing is good and necessary. Unfortunately, every book read only counts for 2 hours, so while I have like 45 hours of training, my husband only has 12. If we could just average them out we'd be almost there. We do want to take the on-line class about conspicuous families, but since this doesn't has to happen before we do our homestudy we will work on our training hours after everything else is done--the homestudy and applying for USICIS or whatever the letters are now days.
Of course, none of these things are recommended by our doctor so we get to pay ala carte (though I did suggest we lie to the doctor about being high risk so they'd pay for the HIV test, but Oak didn't think that was a good idea). It didn't really bother me 5 years ago since it was part of the whole screening process and China wanted some medical assurance we would be healthy parents. This time it is a little more annoying, mostly because getting the kids TB tested seems ridiculous AND none of this information will end up in China. This is the medical report we need in order for our agency to do a new homestudy so we can apply for immigration status for our to be adopted child.
We also need to do 30 hours of adoption related training before we travel which I have no problem believing is good and necessary. Unfortunately, every book read only counts for 2 hours, so while I have like 45 hours of training, my husband only has 12. If we could just average them out we'd be almost there. We do want to take the on-line class about conspicuous families, but since this doesn't has to happen before we do our homestudy we will work on our training hours after everything else is done--the homestudy and applying for USICIS or whatever the letters are now days.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
My New Toy
I got my birthday present a whole month early on Friday. It is a new lens for my camera--a 50mm prime 1.8 for those that are interested. It costs about $175 more than our usual birthday presents. My husband even paid the extra $8 shipping so I could have the whole weekend to play with it and that is exactly what I did.
I played with it at dinner:
I played with it outside:
I played with it at bedtime:
I even got the camera out at breakfast:
Then the children had to paint so I could capture an image for my Scavenger Hunt Sunday post (at my other blog).
I needed to take a lot of pictures to capture just the right image, after all it is a new lens and takes some getting used to.
SnapDragon even painted his fake name so I could show his painting on the blog.
Huckleberry wanted to share his painting, also.
Then I took my camera to a friend's baby shower and played some more. It was a wonderful time with terrific chicken salad sandwiches:
And some more bees:
I played with it at dinner:
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| Not bad given there was no light in the hall and I didn't use my flash. They are reading "The Horse and His Boy." They like it a whole lot more than they appear to in this photo! |
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| She has never been so focused and still! Maybe I should let them paint more often. |
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| A Hot Air Balloon |
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| The Pie as his last name came from Huckleberry being Huckleberry Pie in a post a few weeks ago. It doesn't work quite as well with SnapDragon...or Cedar...or Sunflower...or Oak. |
Lots of presents:
And that game where you have to name the baby food...Yuck!
Then I came home eager to check out my photos only to discover all of the computers in the house busy with my husband and boys playing StarCraft and Sunflower "napping." So I went outside and played some more to capture some more flowers...
Finally I skipped dinner to put my pictures on the computer and play with the pictures themselves. Tomorrow I'll have even more pictures with a trip to a farm and a church leadership BBQ in the plans. I'd better go eat some dinner and go to bed so I'll have the energy to make it through the day.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
5 Big Noses
I have been working on a post for weeks on my thoughts of biology and adoption, but it is now like a 1000 words long. We entered adoption with happy naivety that biological ties did not matter, and in some ways they do not and cannot. But in other ways even 1000 words cannot cover all of the complexities (trust me, some blogs have posted those 1000 words and more).
Thankfully, so you can be spared from my rambling discourse, my daughter, Sunflower, gave me a perfect illustration of how things that do not matter to me can still matter to my child. An example of how fitting in with similar physical traits can be an intrinsic desire.
"Boo-hoo-hoo, I don't have a big nose. You have a big nose. Daddy has a big nose, but I don't have a big nose. Boo-hoo-hoo!" Massive pout and continued half-cry.
"Ummm, when you get bigger, you'll probably have a big nose," I answered while trying not to laugh and not really thinking about whether that was the correct answer.
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" with happy clapping and shaking.
For most, and even for Sunflower, this is just a silly little story but it can represent so much more. It shows the innocent desire of a child to look like her parents, to match. Sunflower does "match" and will unfortunately some day inherit one of our big noses.
I will not be able to answer my adopted child the same way because we will not know. Maybe her nose will always be small (which seems probable) or not, but not knowing is just one more thing she will have lost in her short life.
It is a loss no matter that small noses are preferred in society, no matter how often we kiss her nose with affection, no matter how beautiful she grows to be...one more loss that adds to the complication of adoption.
(Do I need to go into the corollary of how Sunflower decided big noses were desirable because her parents have them and how easy the same assumption can be made about white skin--especially in a society that reinforces that attitude--no matter what we say and teach?)
Thankfully, so you can be spared from my rambling discourse, my daughter, Sunflower, gave me a perfect illustration of how things that do not matter to me can still matter to my child. An example of how fitting in with similar physical traits can be an intrinsic desire.
"Boo-hoo-hoo, I don't have a big nose. You have a big nose. Daddy has a big nose, but I don't have a big nose. Boo-hoo-hoo!" Massive pout and continued half-cry.
"Ummm, when you get bigger, you'll probably have a big nose," I answered while trying not to laugh and not really thinking about whether that was the correct answer.
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" with happy clapping and shaking.
For most, and even for Sunflower, this is just a silly little story but it can represent so much more. It shows the innocent desire of a child to look like her parents, to match. Sunflower does "match" and will unfortunately some day inherit one of our big noses.
I will not be able to answer my adopted child the same way because we will not know. Maybe her nose will always be small (which seems probable) or not, but not knowing is just one more thing she will have lost in her short life.
It is a loss no matter that small noses are preferred in society, no matter how often we kiss her nose with affection, no matter how beautiful she grows to be...one more loss that adds to the complication of adoption.
(Do I need to go into the corollary of how Sunflower decided big noses were desirable because her parents have them and how easy the same assumption can be made about white skin--especially in a society that reinforces that attitude--no matter what we say and teach?)
Monday, June 20, 2011
School Peace
I am so excited! It turns out there is another family* sending their child to the in-district school with new programming where we are sending Huckleberry. This is very reassuring to me. We are not really close to this family since our outside church activities haven't crossed, but we have known them for years and really respect them.
If terrific parents like these are sending their daughter there, we might not be making a horrible mistake. (I know they are better parents than us because their children actually finish their AWANA books while our Huckleberry had 1 page left in his.)
Their daughter is nervous about going to a new school apart from all of her friends, but they are convinced it will be a better education. They are glad we are sending Huckleberry there.
Huckleberry is very happy to know someone going there. He says it changes his confidence that it is where he wants to go to school from an 81% to an 86%.
I am very grateful for this gift of peace from God. Now if I can just not mess up the whole enrollment process somehow.
*For those in the area wondering what family--they are the family with almost 6 year old twins, boy and girl, and two older daughters. I see you nod, yes, they are better parents.
If terrific parents like these are sending their daughter there, we might not be making a horrible mistake. (I know they are better parents than us because their children actually finish their AWANA books while our Huckleberry had 1 page left in his.)
Their daughter is nervous about going to a new school apart from all of her friends, but they are convinced it will be a better education. They are glad we are sending Huckleberry there.
Huckleberry is very happy to know someone going there. He says it changes his confidence that it is where he wants to go to school from an 81% to an 86%.
I am very grateful for this gift of peace from God. Now if I can just not mess up the whole enrollment process somehow.
*For those in the area wondering what family--they are the family with almost 6 year old twins, boy and girl, and two older daughters. I see you nod, yes, they are better parents.
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