Featured Child

Click over to the Love Without Boundaries blog to learn a little bit more about my little friend in China. If there were a way, he would already be mine. He is featured today! You can also see a number of other children who are waiting for families, and read about the work that LWB does all over China. It is SO hard for me to encourage people to consider adopting him, when my heart is selfish, but will you please take a second and maybe your heart will be touched as mine has been. And I will forever be the Auntie who spoils him rotten, okay? It's a tough job but I have years of experience!

I'm not ready! (but she is)

Y'all, my baby, my tiniest little Princess is starting Kindergarten in two weeks. There is not one part of me that wants her to go. I don't long for the days with no kids at home. I am not excited to see her in her cute little uniform walking into the school. Seriously. I know I am supposed to be looking forward to this moment, in fact I probably should have been for a few years now. But I'm not. Actually, it is more like a building panic that is getting more intense every day we get closer to the 30th. Yes, it's only a few hours and I will have her back by lunchtime. It is only two more mornings than her Preschool last year. I am fully aware how silly this all sounds to the rest of you. I was hoping that this year a new rule would be instituted allowing those of us with really small kids to enroll them based on size and not age. That would buy me at least another year, maybe two. Goose is a peanut. She cannot possibly be ready for this. She is under the false impression that all you need for Kindergarten is a backpack, a lunchbox, and new shoes. Someone needs to hurry up and tell her that she might need her Mom too! For those who are in the thick of the (!exhausting!) infant and toddler years, pay attention to me. You do not want them to grow up. Don't wish it away and don't miss anything. Someday you will send your oldest to school and you will cry your eyes out. You might have a couple more in the middle who will also march up that sidewalk without a backward glance at you. Maybe one will run back for a quick hug, but not too many times before he doesn't need it to get through his day. Your oldest will suddenly decide that he can't hug you in front of his friends anymore. Then before you have time to prepare yourself, your baby will be on her way up that same sidewalk. It comes too soon.

C-R-A-Z-Y, that's me!!

:stepping onto my soapbox:
There are a couple of people who have told me recently (in no uncertain terms) that I'm nuts after expressing my desire to keep building my family through adoption. These are very close friends and family members who ought to know me better, buuuuuut. Last week during our family reunion, people kept saying how great it was for all of our kids to be there together, and every time I wanted to say "not ALL of them are here!" There are some who are thinking that I've gone completely crazy right about now (or a long time ago), and you can go ahead and feel that way. I will never agree with you. My family is big, but awesome. Our house is filled with love. There is enough to go around a couple of times. You will never walk into my home and exclaim over its immaculate condition or stylish decor. It is much more likely for you to gasp and wonder when was the last time we vacuumed, or whose fingerprints are all over the front door. I leave them there on purpose. They will never be so small again. These things ought to bother me more, but they don't. Seeing kids who have pitiful food, torn clothes, nobody to tuck them in, that bothers me. My sink is full of dishes, which means we all had plenty to eat today. We even fed a friend or two. There is a pile of laundry as big as the couch that needs to be put away, so everyone here obviously has something to wear and more than one outfit. I spent an hour outside laughing at kids on the slip-and-slide today instead of mopping my kitchen. So.What. I kiss them all goodnight and hug them at school when they let me. (Preteen boys get a little bit iffy with the Mom PDAs). we make sure they do their homework and read every day, they all get good grades and excel in their chosen activities. I take no credit for their inborn talents, but I do take credit for supporting them in everything they try, even when I think they might be crazy. Ask one of my kids whether they did anything fun with their Mom today, and I guarantee that you will get a YES. Ask any adult who grew up in a spotless house whether they have more memories of playing with their Mom, or watching her bustle around snapping at everyone to keep the house clean. Loving a child doesn't make anyone crazy. Answering the call to help doesn't make anyone crazy. Doing things that don't make a lick of sense just because they feel RIGHT is not crazy either, even when it is HARD. It doesn't have to make sense. It's not supposed to be easy. The timing is almost always NOT perfect, at least in our eyes. Sometime in our lives, we will have to step out on faith and do something that looks CRAZY, simply because we've been led to it and the only way to go is forward, with the Lord leading the way. Say YES. Do what is RIGHT, even if it's HARD. You are NOT CRAZY. Neither am I. /end rant

The Quest for a Perfect Family Photo

I'd venture to guess that a significant number of you started laughing before you read past the subject line of this post. Most of you have children, several of them, and may have recently attempted this impossible feat. I'm still recovering from the experience. Let me add a disclaimer: This was late on a Sunday night, at the end of a week-long family reunion that went well into the nighttime hours EVERY night. My kids fall right in the middle in age relative to their cousins. There are 5 older, 5 same age or younger, and our 5 in the middle of the mayhem. We were all exhausted, it was hot and humid, and I forced them to wear coordinating outfits that included "church clothes." Oh yes, I did. I was the mean Mom, and their cousins were not persecuted similarly because their Moms are nicer. I did it for Noni, and they still love her. This is not a recipe for success, is it? But there IS a decent picture among the hundreds that were taken with 5 different cameras. I don't have the file yet but I promise to share when I get it. Exhausting work, this quest of mine. Someday I will have it, the Holy Grail of photography, where each member of my family smiles naturally at the camera, willingly sits near siblings without pinching them, and cooperatively dresses themselves in clean and reasonably pressed outfits, brushing hair and teeth without prompting. The shoes will match, be clean, and come with socks. There will be no food residue on hands, face or hair. For now, here is reality, and they're still mighty cute in all of their craziness: