Thursday, March 29, 2012

Updates

First off I'm trying to upload a video again of Joe running. The other night we went from this ...


(was trying to upload a 3rd,but Blogger won't cooperate)

to this....

We also got reduced to just one day of therapy a week. My gas budget will be happy.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Pro- What?

This topic has been rolling around in my mind for quite awhile.
I don't normally get too wrapped up in politics and elections....decided to let it up to God and we do the praying.
BUT, there is a topic that has pushed its way into my mind and it has to do with pro-choice and pro-life...of course we/I am pro-Life and I don't think abortions should be a one sided "choice".

BUT if abortions were stopped today....would that suddenly make those women "loving mothers" and the babies "wanted children"?

Would a change in the laws take care of the problem?

Would the social welfare system be ready to handle  1.3 million children (number of abortions per year in the US- 43 million worldwide) whose mothers say "We aren't being selfish, but":
The decision to have an abortion is rarely simple. Most women base their decision on several factors, the most common being lack of money and/or unreadiness to start or expand their families due to existing responsibilities. Many feel that the most responsible course of action is to wait until their situation is more suited to childrearing; 66% plan to have children when they are older, financially able to provide necessities for them, and/or in a supportive relationship with a partner so their children will have two parents.8 Others wanted to get pregnant but developed serious medical problems, learned that the fetus had severe abnormalities, or experienced some other personal crisis. About 13,000 women each year have abortions because they have become pregnant as a result of rape or incest.1   www.prochoice.org

 Studies show that 89% of pregnancies predicted to be children with Down's syndrome  are aborted, I haven't been able to calculate how many children that is per year. If a sonogram shows a major birth defect to be present with a child...very often a physician gives the option of a abortion. If abortions are outlawed...

OK my point here---Who should be standing in the gap? 
Who should be getting their home studies ready?
Who should be ready and willing to take ANY CHILD that happens to be born to a mother that would have made the difficult decision to have an abortion?


THE CHURCH!!!!

Are you willing?  What if God would miraculously move the hearts of the lawmakers and they would ban all abortions?

Be careful how you vote....God might give you a new job!!



 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Who Would've Thought?

 That the metal monstrosity next to the swimming pool...formerly our wood furnace..



Along with a few odds and ends....would have been worth this much at the re-cyclers this morning.



As my hubby said..."now I can pay the new tires for the pickup"
Wonder what else we can re-cycle?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Planning Ahead

 Actually I made this carrier from a pattern I found out there in internet land and made it for my cousin's wife...she is a foster mom. I want to make one to take to Ch*na when I travel, but wanted to make sure it works well. I really thought it felt comfortable, but only had "baby" in it. Excuse the funny look on my face...Hope was snapping pictures and I obviously wasn't quite ready..

I did load Faith in it, but she is just too big...but settling her on my hip was way more comfortable than any back pack I've tried.


The neat thing is that I used a leg of a pair of jeans for the inside and another pair of jeans for the straps and a pocket for the pocket....couldn't figure out how to get a belt loop attached without breaking my machine needle.


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Leprechauns?

Now I know better than to think their are wee folk around...
but who was this? We came home from a family get together to find this
big pink bag with lots of Asian fabrics inside.
At first I thought it was a quilt order, but that proved negative...
Thanks!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Good Night!

Test
Forgot to Review
Look at Test
Uh-Oh!
Try to pick little sister's brain.
Mom interferes
Mom pauses for wisdom
Pauses too long
Mom, Dad united
Fear
Panic
Worry
Panic
Fear
Accusations
Assurances
Calmness
Politeness
Test finished
100% ?(who knows)
Obedience
Good Night mom

Monday, March 12, 2012

Timber!!




 "Fishing" in the pond

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Off to Be Reviewed

I called the home study agency on Monday and was super friendly and super pushy...the draft version showed up in my in-box this AM. Thankfully I had "nothing" to do and reviewed it immediately, had them correct a few little errors with numbers and double checked all the other numbers.
If you never did a home study for an international adoption, there are numbers EVERYWHERE...how much you weigh (in kg please) how tall you are (in meters please) how much $$ you have in your checking account (in dollars please) how much in your savings, how much in your piggy bank, under the mattress and behind the tree in the back yard...
How much we spend on electric, phone and food in a month
Everyone's birthdays, every date we ever met with someone from our home study agency.  Oh I had a BLAST...think of it like the monthly visits to the OB-GYN...only not as much fun.

So now the game plan is ... our adoption agency gets to review this 45,869 character- 17 page long document of our life's story...make sure the novel has all the right wording...it takes 2 weeks to do that and a check...see side bar.

A word on God's provision...I teach CPR and first aid classes...I normally have 1 or 2 a month some times 3 or 4.  I will have taught ELEVEN classes from Feb 9 to March 9 (tomorrow). I didn't call people and remind them that they needed to renew...they came after me...no I didn't quite come up with the  $1500 that we needed for the check that needs to go tomorrow...mostly because the bills for the bloodwork for our medical exams came due at the same time, but we came close. Will wait to see what He has in mind for the next month...gotta catch my breath first...

Monday, March 5, 2012

Frustration?!

OK, what do you do with this kind of conversation?
"I"m frustrated"
"Oh, why?"
long conversation getting no where....then...
"I studied 3 hours for my history test and just got a 97%, I wanted 99%"
Am I over reacting if I feel like banging my head against the wall?
Yes, I know the spelling test was a disappointment...spent a lot of time
learning the vocab words,but neglected to study the spelling
words...maybe because they were just...flowers? 81% oh that is a "C" !!
I know that in his head he is equating his value/worth with getting good
grades, even though we try not to emphasize the grades at this house.
Guess tonite he just had to check once more if he is still valuable.
I told him I will love him even if he gets straight "F's" He didn't
believe me...wonder if he will try it?


Saturday, March 3, 2012

To God Be the Glory!

Today we got the Child line stuff in the mail. Both of them!
Then I realized that we don't need to have notarized state police
clearances for the teens, so I spent the extra $20 and did an online
version. I didn't realize the results are immediate if there is no
record. Always learning something new. Don't know what will happen with
the package sitting in the Harr*sburg PO. Can you get refunds on money
orders?
So now I will see if I can get some enthusiasm out of the home study
agency on Monday and get this thing on its way!
Have a blessed weekend

Friday, March 2, 2012

Friday at Last!

Made it!
What a week! I know that other moms have away-from-home jobs and they do
this every week, but this week looked like a hurdle last Friday evening.
Saturday clipped along nicely until we got a phone call from our SW who
was hard at work on our home study. "I'm not finding the boys' criminal
records clearances"
"Umm, no, we didn't need to do them, they are not 18"
"Uh, yes you do, if they are over 14 we need the State Police clearance
and child-line child abuse clearance, I think we can get them expedited,
I'll let you know on Monday. Oh, and what date did hubby go for his
medical? The date says 1/10/11. I hope that is wrong"
Quick search of my copies showed that hubby's Dr had indeed wrote the
wrong year on both medical forms...although she had the correct date for
the blood work.
Thank goodness she saw that BEFORE we authenticated and notarized that
document.
So I tried not to worry about paper work and clearances over Sunday.
Monday we hit the ground running....Joe's birthday party at school, much
food to prepare...therapy appointments and home after 4PM.
Did get a call from our SW during the day with instructions on how to
expedite paperwork for the clearances.
Tues AM saw me at the PO the minute it opened...sent everything off
Priority with tracking numbers.
Raced to Ben's school to teach CPR and First Aid for mini-terms.
Home by lunch time, took a 30 min nap (luxury) Quilted a bit on Faith's
quilt
By 6PM back down the road to teach another CPR and First Aid re-cert
class for the first aid team at hubby's work...home by 9PM
Wed- Teach again...girls to dentist in the afternoon ...Check the
tracking #'s for the 2 packages...one delivered, the other ...they
delivered a NOTICE and are holding my priority package at the PO??!!
Hope that status changes because it also says if no one picks it up in
15 days they WILL SEND IT BACK TO ME! quiet evening.
Thurs- Teach in the AM Finish quilting Faith's quilt. Joe to
therapy...slap supper on table (sorry guys) and teach another small
class 6:30 check status of my package...still the same....find a phone
# will call in AM. Market job boss called "Can you work tomorrow?"
Fri- Have a few minutes before the class starts- call phone # for state
PD...no answer...teach class... try calling again...still no answer.
Make and sell hoagies the rest of the day...so relaxing! Check
tracking # again tonite...still the same message. Two nice checks in
the mail for CPR and First Aid classes from last week...yaay!
Not sure how working moms do this...I wouldn't make it...(when written
down this list looks piddly)! The children pitched in wonderfully and
everyone had clean clothes and food to eat. Next week I have 4 classes
scheduled and I'm thankful for the Lord's provision...maybe the $1500 we
need to get our home study approved will show up in the checking account
after all!