Created for Care

I leave for Atlanta tomorrow for 3 days. I cannot wait. Three days with God, other adoptive mamas and the sunshine. At a beautiful lodge. With amazing moms. I am voluntarily leaving my FIVE children and I cannot wait. Thank you Lord! And pray for Buck. :)

Check it out at www.createdforcare.org. Any other adoptive mamas, join me next year!

Eyes

These eyes...


WOW!!!

What's in a name?

I just got done writing an email to family and some friends about the naming issue our family seems to have. If you didn't already know this, in our immediate {granted, larger than some} family alone, we have a Gregory who goes by Buck, a John who goes by Max, a Zoe with two long middle names and a Laura with 2 {legal} last names. It should have been my goal in life to make my children's names easy and straightforward. *Sigh*

All this to say: we changed the baby's name.

Yes, you read that right. Just like that. Did you know you could do that? You can.

I know it's maybe silly, and I KNOW I don't have to justify it to you all {and this may give me a clue as to who actually reads my ramblings here!} but I know just saying "we changed the baby's name" raises some questions.

WHY? I have to say, baby girl just was not feeling or looking like a Selah to me. And it drove me crazy...CRAZY I tell you...that it was mispronounced (See-lah probably being most common, but also Sell-ah and Shayla have been thrown in there) all the time. To those of you with unusually-spelled names, God bless you. It has been driving me batty. And with that, I know that NO name is immune to mispronunciation. I'm sure even John Smith out there has been called Joan before. But I wanted to bring it down a notch.

And paperwork-wise, it's not even an issue. Once our adoption is finalized in the coming months, we will get a new birth certificate anyway...her new birth certificate will now have a new first name as well. Easy!

She does now have a good story to share about her name as she grows up. I hope that she will see it that way and not in the "my parents sure were nuts" way.

And now, without further ado...

May I introduce...

Mia Faith Olsen

We're in love with the sweet girl AND the name. Oh happy day.

p.s. That's Mia as in Mee-a. Just in case you were wondering and didn't want me to jump down your throat in case you mispronounced it. :)

Deep thoughts from Tate

I have to write these things down or I will forget them...and chances are I will forget them by tomorrow so I better write quick!

Sweet Tate comes up with some memorable lines these days...

As in everything that happened yesterday, last week or even 5 minutes ago was "last year". For example: "Tate, do you need to go potty?" "No, I go last year."

As the kids were watching "Shrek" Tate says to me out of nowhere: "Mommy, when I get bigger, I going to marry you and we have a party and sing 'Moves Like Jagger'". How could I resist??? Buck reminded me that all 3 of my boys have now told me they were going to marry me. :)

Bedtime prayer according to Tate (and I have to write it how he actually talks because all of his pronunciations are SO cute): "Deaw Jesus, Fank you for my fwiends, my bwankie, Dwake bulldogs, food, hot chocowate, Mom, Dad, Max, Chawie, Zoe, Tate and Saywah. Pwease have good day at schoow tomowwow. Aaaaaaaaamen." That pretty much nails it doesn't it?

Happy Friday, friends!

Do you REALLY want to know?

I was helping at the kids' Valentines parties at school yesterday and numerous well-wishing people asked "how's it going with all those kids?" Well, do you REALLY want to know or do you want the "everything's great, let's move on" response? Just in case they really did want to know (which I didn't share with them at the time, by the way), here's a glimpse into our home on Monday night. Buck was out of town so it was all Mama, all the time.

About 8:30 pm: "Can we read a Bible story?" Me: "NOPE!" (sorry, God...Mama's exhausted!)

8:45: Tate finally goes to bed after arguing back and forth that he should get to sleep in my bed because Dad's gone. Selah fussing.

9:00 Selah fed and asleep.

12:00 am: Tate awake because he wet his pull-up. He's very sad and keeps saying "I sorry, Mom, I sorry". Again puts up a fight about sleeping in my bed. Remembers that bad dreams sometimes let him sleep in my bed...pulls out "I had a NIGHTMARE, Mom". Sure kid. Finally get him back to sleep, in a new pull-up, in his own bed. PHEW.

2:30 am: Wake up to Charlie standing at my bedside (I have no idea how long he was standing there)...get this...fully dressed for his Valentine's party...dress shirt, tie and hair slicked back. "Charlie, it is 2:30 in the morning, go back to bed!!" Chars: "Mom, are you sure your clock is right? I just woke up and wanted to get dressed." Me: "YES MY CLOCK IS RIGHT! Go back to bed." I fell back asleep (assuming I actually woke up in the first place to have this conversation). Heard Charlie's squeaky bed so I am guessing he got back in bed too...don't know if he got undressed or if he slept in his Valentine's clothes. Oh well..

4 am: Selah wakes up to eat. Get a bottle ready, sit in the rocking chair to feed her. She took about 3 ounces and then started coughing (poor thing is still getting over a little cold). Well, the cough got the best of her and she spit up her ENTIRE bottle, right down my shirt. When she started coughing, I had lifted her up so her head was on my chest and that just made the whole spit-up fiasco go straight down my shirt, drenching me, my jammie pants, everything. Selah felt lots better, I'm guessing but I had to change before going back to bed. Selah slept for about 20 minutes and then realized that she was still hungry...after all her whole bottle had just come back up!

5 am: Fed Selah for the second time. Oh my goodness...

6 am: Max is up and ready for a fun day at school! "Morning, Mom, did you sleep good?"

So...do you REALLY want to know?

Just for the record, it's not always like this, I promise...but this is a glimpse into life as I know it occasionally. Just be careful when you ask how it's going. :)

Life in pictures {again!}

I think someone could figure out what's been happening in our world lately just by scrolling through the photos on my phone. So here's a glimpse of what's been going on:



SMILES!!! Lots of them from this gorgeous girl.



Selah Faith was baptized in a very special and memorable service at our church. Memorable partly because our pastor announced to the church that she was from India?! Nope, not that we know of. :) Oh well...
Our prayer for Selah is that her light will shine for Jesus all her life!



A beautiful reminder that spring is around the corner! Thank you to my dear friend Heather for this bright spot in our snowy world!



Date afternoon with my Max. LOVE hanging out with this guy...he is one awesome 9-year-old.









Someone turned SIX!!! Our sweet (oldest) girl celebrated her birthday with treats at school, pizza and cupcakes and a soon-to-come party. Zoe brings joy and sweetness to our family every day. Thankful on this day (and every day) for her birth mom who brought our girl into the world. What a gift!



Since Dad was out of town on Zoe's actual birthday, she got her traditional "Dad's Birthday Pancake" the next day. We eat a lot of breakfasts in our undies around here (the kids, people, the kids:) ).



And someone else turned 2 months old! Our youngest girl is growing. At her 2-month checkup she weighed 11 lbs, 6 oz (50%) and 23.5 inches (90%!!!). She grew 3 inches in 6 weeks...and I could tell by how her little sleepers seemed to not fit practically from one day to the next. :) She is VERY alert and smiley. Her hair has its own personality...I love it!! She is sweet, sweet, sweet. So thankful for this little life!!



Although we're busy, our busy life is filled with love and hugs and smiles. We're blessed indeed!!
Happy Friday, friends.

Laura Joy

Perspective

I've been thinking a lot about perspective...how everyone views their own world through their own perspective. And everyone's perspective is completely different based on their experiences and views. It is hard to fully understand someone else's perspective and it is hard to sometimes relate when perspectives don't match up.

There was a tragedy in our community this weekend. It was unthinkable, unimaginable. Not one but two teenage boys in our community took their own lives. The mom of one of the boys is a teacher at my kids' school...his dad the principal at the school the boy attended. Reading his obituary today, it seemed like it could be the obituary of any of my or my friends' kids at age 15. A great kid...active in sports, active in his school, well-liked, outgoing, lots of friends, active in his church youth group, loved the Lord. But this 15-year-old boy had some sort of unimaginable pain...pain that he felt there was only one way out of. This makes me scared for my kids, for other kids I know and love. What can we do? It is heartbreaking. It is perspective-changing.

We can't expect life to be easy, fair, or fun all the time. But this is heavy stuff. This is not random, this is close to home and it is scary and unbelievably sad. As moms sometimes, it often feels like these are the "hard" times, when our kids are young and growing and learning, potty-training and having sleepless nights from bad dreams. But trust me, I realize now this isn't the hard stuff. The hard stuff is dealing with life and death choices, and helping our kids see that they are loved, that they are worth it. I have no doubt that the parents of these boys taught them those things...and that's what makes this even scarier. I am not trying to be a downer...just explaining what my perspective is these days. I know these two families and the whole community would appreciate any prayers sent their way.