"Pregnant" for 4 months?

Well, not physically pregnant, but when Miss C, Miss D, and Miss A permanently join us on Sept. 17th, it will have been 4 months exactly since the day I first sent an email to the adoption social worker inquiring about them and their brothers.

While it has seemed like a long process, I realize that 3 children in 4 months is quite fast! Half the gestation period of a physical pregnancy and also half the time of our first adoption "heart pregnancy" which was about 9 months from seeing their picture to picking them up.

AND, on top of that. . . we will most likely also have Mr. J, Baby D, and Baby A ("the boys") within the next 2 months!

Six children in 6 months! LOL! This is quite an adventure we are on!

My husband is joking that even though we will have 10 children, he will only have changed diapers for one (maybe 2) of them!

We can't wait for the girls to get here on the 17th. Miss C will be celebrating her 12th birthday just days after she arrives. How fun to be together on this very special day. Our children are SO excited for their sisters to finally be HOME!

We made it (all 10 of us!)

So, we picked up "the girls" today and everything is going really well so far. We met up with them and the social worker at an In'N'Out Burger and had lunch. After the initial shy phase for all of the kids (the 3 girls and our 4 children), they started talking and laughing, and playing and laughing. . . did I say laughing? Well, apparently adding 3 children multiplies the laughter factor exponentially because Jeff and I had one of the most laughter filled 4 hour car rides of our lives (and this is saying a LOT because Jeff used to be a youth pastor!). This pretty much continued ALL night, through dinner and bedtime until we had to just finally bring the night to an end with some cookies, a Bible story, and some bedtime prayers! I guess all of the children like each other . This is VERY good and THANKS for praying.

Obviously we know that there are "issues" but hopefully for these 11 days we can keep it really positive and just LOVE on these girls and let them know that they are totally worth it - they are valuable and loved not because of what they do but because of WHOSE they are (God's!) Jeff and I both noticed that they are quite in awe that a family could actually ENJOY being around each other and not need to fight, manipulate, and argue all the time (this is their default, of course, but they are trying not to and we put the k'bosh on it right away. LOL!).

It is definitely and interesting and strange kind of visit. On one hand, the girls KNOW that we are possibly adopting them but on the other hand this visit is (officially) "just" a respite visit. Makes for awkward conversations. . . I'm pretty much thinking that I'm just going to be fairly open and honest with the older girls and hope they will feel safe enough to do the same. They've experienced a lot in their short lives and they aren't letting anything escape their notice.

While I know that a normal emotion at the end of today should be something like "oh my, what are we doing here?" I actually found myself thinking "why wouldn't we love these girls and give them a family? Why wouldn't anyone? How can we (as Christians) think that just because they have had a hard start in life that they are beyond redemption? Why would we EVER choose to not love your children because it might be hard on or "mess up" our current children? Oh, Lord, help them to KNOW you and your love for them!" I am mostly writing all of this so I will REMEMBER this when it gets really hard - because it will. . . and I will need to remember!

Camping on the Coast

We had such an awesome time on our camping trip to the Oregon coast! The kids look forward to this trip every year (well for some kids this was only their 2nd year but for them, that is a tradition!). We went with some other families who have children about the same age. One family has 4 kids and the other 5 so that made 13 children in 3 adjacent campsites (plus another 2 teenagers who joined us later in the week for a total of 15). They had LOADS of fun riding bikes around the campground and hanging out in "kid's kingdom" which was located somewhere back in all of the bushes where adults are "not allowed." LOL!

Here they are on the beach having a great time burying themselves in the sand and enjoying some driftwood houses to get them out of the wind for a few moments.

And, you can tell we go to the freezing cold river all of the time because here they are playing in the Pacific Ocean when it is only about 65 degrees outside! They were actually down rolling around in the waves!

I love these kiddos!

From Hair Extensions to "Sah'-boo"

Here's what I promised a few weeks ago in my last "hair" post.  Sorry it took so long!

"Sah'-boo" is the term my Liberian kiddos use (well, now ALL of my children use it) to mean "bald head." When they first came home, our Liberian boys did NOT want to be "sah'-boo." Now, they actually prefer us to keep their hair shorter since it is super kinky and hard to keep combed out. So, every couple of months my husband gets out the hair clippers and shaves their heads "sah'boo." Mr. Z would like his "sah'boo" too, but he looks like he is a cancer patient when he's totally bald, so we have to limit him to the super-short "Marine's" look.

During our last head shaving event, Little Missy decided that she, too, would like to be "sah'boo." Well. . . although I have actually come to enjoy doing her hair (and I even learned how to do add extensions to her cornrows thanks to a Christmas gift from my sister), we decided that there's probably no better time to try it, so. . .

Announcing "Little Missy Sah'boo"

As you can tell, she really loves it.  We thought she might be sad after it was gone, but instead she said, "I love it!  and after it grows back, we can shave it again!"  

We bought some cute new headbands and we are enjoying our break from "hair days" for a while!

Pictures, Old and New

Someone asked for some pictures, so I thought it might be fun to show our pictures from last year and this year!  

My, how the kids have grown.  

So, here is our Fall 07 picture 

with (L-R):  Big Jo, Little Missy, Mr. Z, and Speedy Mo.  

Aren't they cute?  

AND. . . 

Here they are now!  

This picture was taken about a month ago. 

 Can you tell who is who?  

Fall 08 

Kudos to one of the best photographers ever!  If you want to know who she is, email me privately and I'll tell you!

My husband's best parenting idea ever!

"thank you, now please get me a quarter."

A few months ago, you would hear me say this quite often to each of my children whenever they decided they needed to tattletale on each other. These days I am having to use it with much less frequency and I must say that this was one of my hubby's most wonderful parenting ideas ever!

It formed in his mind sometime after hearing a whining child say "Mama, you see mawnee?" for the 4,075th time in one week. LOL! We were absolutely beside ourselves wondering what to do about the incessant tattling which was obviously for the benefit of getting the other child in trouble and not really because of anything significant which mama or papa needed to know about.

So, we instituted the "quarter jar." We explained: "You may tell mama or daddy anything you need to about your brothers or sister, but you will need to pay a quarter to do so." The quarter jar is kept on a shelf in the kitchen where it is easily accessible to mama at any time of the day. Anytime the children even started to whine with a "you see. . . " we would say with a cheery voice, " No, I did not see. . . , please get me a quarter!" After a week or so of this, all 4 of our children decided that tattling just wasn't worth it (some of them actually ran out of money that first week!).

Now, lest you think we are just mean and awful parents, there are a few exceptions: They may come and tell me if someone is hurt or is seriously physically harming someone else and they may also come and tell me if they have a problem that they have already tried to work out (but it MAY NOT be in a whiney voice that they come!) IF they are truly seeking help. Sometimes, one of my children will bring me a quarter and tell me something - I guess they figure that sometimes it is worth it.

However, for the most part, the "quarter jar" has been quite a success in adding to the peacefulness of our home. Our kiddos have learned to work it out and have been less apt to try to get each other in trouble when they know it will cost them something.

Here is the funny part - whenever we are going to run errands and I want to get a special coffee drink on the way, I get the money out of my "quarter jar." I tell the kids that mommy gets a special treat for having to listen to all that whining! Ha, Ha!