Two blogger mommies well worth the read

I work near the county courthouse and on Friday (Nov 19th) it was National Adoption day and MANY kids were all lined up with their adoptive families ready to go before the judge and finalize their new bonds.  Each had a huge bouqet of balloons and were beaming with smiles!  Beautiful families made bigger on such a special day. 

Of course the idea of adopting is always a glimmer in my eye so when I saw all this happiness in one spot it just reminded me again of the need and where my heart is.  So when I was reading a couple of blogs after my two smallest were in bed, I got to thinking of those families who have chosen for their first children to adopt kids with Ds.  I think every blogging mommy has an amazing story to share.  These two are just so extra chromosomally cool.  They both had family members with Down syndrome growing up and the CHOSE to adopt kiddos with Ds.  Grab a cup of coffee and check out their families:

http://pudgeandzippy.blogspot.com/

http://confessionsofthechromosomallyenhanced.blogspot.com/

Liam's playdough

Liam wants to share his playdough recipe with you.  He knows you might already have it, but just in case!

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup salt
3 cups water
1 T veggie oil
1 T cream of tarter
drops of food coloring or package of koolaid

Mix all together in saucepan and heat over low heat until your spoon doesn't move anymore.  Take off heat and knead.  Store in air tight ziplock.  Enjoy!  One of the colors he made is "steel".  Total boy.

Today and tomorrow

Today was:

Slicing and dicing 40 pounds of chicken breasts into many meals for the freezer

Planting a willow tree and four tall blueberry bushes (thanks to my sweet husband)

Cuddles on the couch with twin small guys

Preparations for winter

Praise

Lots of laundry

Yummy lemon chicken with mushrooms

Tomorrow will be:

Encouragement to my dad during his heart diagnostic procedure

Travels with my sisters

Hugs from my teens (if I'm lucky)

Quiet time to read

Slow start to the week

I have enjoyed a slow start to the week today.  I had planned to join my sisters and mom at my dad's invasive heart procedure today, but that was postponed.  So, I enjoyed a little 'me' time.  Walked two miles in the beautiful sunshine!  Enjoyed a cup of my favorite peach tea hot and slowly.   Downloaded pictures.  Folded laundry at my own pace.  Caught up on some people's blogs and just putzed around the house after I got Tommy and Liam on the preschool bus.  I could get use to this!  I'll head into work this afternoon but also started the Lemon Chicken recipe in our crockpot ("Make it fast cook it slow" awesome crockpot book).  And made a double batch of homemade laundry soap.  If you haven't done this yet, run don't walk to the store and grab the three ingredients and some recycled bottles in your house and gett'r done.  It's simple, a huge cost savings, and the smell of lemon meringue is irresistible.  Here is a cute picture of Liam and cousin Madison on the lil 4 wheeler.  They enjoy spending time together, it's very sweet.

Two things

They weren't happy about the stroller. 

But a restraining device of some sort was in order, Christ the King church hosted a "Trunk and Treat" and had THOUSANDS of people. 

Blah, we don't do large crowds well. 

Tommy never recovered. 

Liam had a blast though!

We ended our evening with visting Hannah and Nate and Aunt Debbie's gang

Did I tell you we have LOTS of candy now?

And I'm on Weight Watchers :)

I love reece's peanut butter cups.

But I love my recent 13 pounds down even more.

What did you do for Trick and Treats?

What works for us Wednesday - Praying for orphans

Rarely is there a day in the past two years that I don't review the pictures on Reece's Rainbow website and pray for the orphans with Down syndrome.  Searching my mind and asking my family questions on how we can open our hearts and home to just one more.  The conditions in the orphanages have been documented and the lack of foster systems in most of the countries leave these children with lack of any form of a family environment.  Most of these children are transferred at age 4 to a mental institution where they eventually die.  There are lots of babies and young children with Ds in the orphanages, lots.  But my prayer and heart is with the older children.  Below are a few that I thought would pull on your heart and perhaps soften it toward giving to an orphan.

Please consider donating to the Christmas Angel project at Reece's Rainbow.  Go ahead, look at this link and spend some time there.  Pray for one.  Pray for all.  "Every child has a gift, they are just unwrapped at different times".  http://reecesrainbow.org/angeltreesponsorpage

These children are all older and heavy on my mind because they have been graced to stay longer in the baby houses of orphanages, but soon, if not already, transferred to the mental institutions.  If you choose to give and pray to Reece's Rainbow, please let them know it's for their "Older Children".  The donations go into a grant for the next family to come forward and adopt.

This is Chelsea.  According to the Reece's rainbow:  Character: cheerful, kind This sweet little girl is almost 3 years old. She was born to a very young, single mom at 34 weeks gestation. She had some minor pulmonary issues in her first days of life as a result of her preemie birth, but she is very healthy now! She was born with an open oval window which may have closed on it’s own.

Chelsea is affectionate, friendly, inquisitive child. She loves to hug and kiss. She smiles and laughs a lot. She is a pet in the group. She loves to play with dolls, puzzles. She is petite and gracious. She is active for a child with Down syndrome and can be strong-willed, get angry and weep if anything is not her way. But she can be easily distracted from a disappointing her thing. She cannot dress by herself and does not want to eat by herself. Her appetite is not very good. She is rather selective and does not like sweets. She is used to a potty, but cannot ask about it.

She started to sit up at 1.5 years of age, then started to crawl. She started to walk at 2 years of age. Now she runs fast, walks up and down the stairs, slides. She exhibits some muscle hypotony. She is delayed in her speech development. She speaks with syllables, but understands what is said to her and is obedient. To the question “where?’ she shows correctly her eyes, ears, arms.

Chelsea will be transferred in the coming year to a very remote part of the country, and will be *out of reach* for adoption. Hope someone will consider this beautiful child and give her hope for a future!

Boy, Born April 17, 2003

Brandon is very active, happy, and relatively high functioning. He is attending preschool classes and lives in a group of children with a wide range of abilities. He has a very happy personality and loves attention from adults. He plays well with other children and participates in group activities. He is healthy and making progress in all areas of his development.

Brandon’s social worker so badly wants him to have a family. She believes that he will do very well in a family environment.

From a staff member that met Brandon in April 2010: Brandon was very friendly, active and sought out our attention. He was very affectionate and laughed and played with us the entire time we were visiting his group. Even though he wanted all of our attention, he allowed the other children to interact with us as well and did not show any signs of aggression toward the other children. The caregivers had nothing but good things to say about Brandon and his development and they are very hopeful that Brandon’s forever family will find him soon!

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.   James 1:27

I wonder

I wonder how Tommy can visit two separate emergency rooms in one day?  His g-tube fell out during the night.  Actually the balloon was still fully inflated and he must have rubbed his belly against our mattress (climbing in during the night).  I was talking to my sister Debbie in the morning and thought I stepped on a spider but looked down to see it was his g-tube.  Heavy sigh.  Long story short, St Joseph ER lacked a credentialed anesthesiologist to sedate Tommy.  When we got to Children's they placed a very thin catheter in the very closed stoma and every 20 mins or so they replaced it with a larger catheter thus dialating the stoma until they were able to place the 18 french mickey back in.  We got to visit the radiologist and she said it looked good, their staff loaded Tommy with toys and stickers and we ventured home that night.  I hope, soon, very soon, there will be a mini-Children's Hospital located within St Joseph.  So that Tommy can still use the existing wonderful skilled st joe's staff, but we would have access to credentialed pediatrics in an emergency situation.  Taking Action for Children and Youth with special healthcare needs is a group working toward this.  Google the Whatcom County Health department and look at the notes, mission statement and passion that has been accumulating for the last 18 months.  I think this next year will hold huge things for genetic clinic and speciality peds at the hospital.  Fingers crossed.

I wonder how Liam can line up his cars and call them his family and name each of us as one of his matchbox cars.  Pointing to each individually he says our names and all six of us are there.  Two being towtrucks, one big and one small.  He names them as Tommy and Liam.  Tommy is the small one he says.  Wonder twin powers. 

I wonder how Hannah can cheer in 40ish cold weather.  I wonder how Nate and I stayed to watch her last night.  It was an away game, in Deming.  I wonder if Colin's saturday job working on snowmobiles with his friends will be fun.

I wonder how I forgot yesterday was the ski swap and I missed a great opportunity to get gently used ski stuff.  I wonder if Liam's hearing appt on Tuesday will show that he has a mild hearing loss.  I wonder if my youngest sister Tami is feeling good with her pregnancy and I have been miserable about calling her.  I wonder where my phone is.  I wonder if the friend I had lunch with yesterday knows that she has greatly influenced some of my decisions lately. 

I wonder what next week has in store.