It's A Wonderful Life

Hyrum was one of the lucky children in China to be supported by a fantastic group called Love Without Boundaries.  This organization does everything from medical intervention for orphans to supporting with food, clothes and supplying foster care.  Along with that support also comes advocating for the children that are available for adoption.  It is through their blog that I learned about Hyrum.  When we got back from China I requested any information or pictures they had of him as he grew.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was asked to write an update on Hyrum. I was happy to do whatever they asked of me.  I don't have a lot of time or brain power to write well but I figures someone would edit for me.  Thank heavens that a great lady Barbara is more talented than me because she cleaned up what I had sent her and published it on the LWB blog. It occurred to me yesterday that my little boy was going to be a star.  How cool is that?!  He...

We finally got a court date for Olivia's finalization!  It has felt like such a long wait.  We were hoping to have it done the end of October but that is not how people work.  The more people in a process the slower it goes.  But we finally conquered.  We meet the judge Friday December 9th at 9:00am.  We are going to take Olivia out and buy her a new outfit then the day of finalization we will go out to eat.  We gave her the choice of what she wanted to do to celebrate and she chose to go to Chuck-A-Rama.  She is so excited.  We get notes all the time about how much she loves us and how much she loves the family.  I am so grateful for this.  One day she will believe how wonderful she is and feel like she deserves happiness. The nightmares are coming very frequently now.  It is clear where her fears lie as she tells us her dreams. I hope that these will come to a stop fairly soon after all the legal work is done.  She des...

It seems that most of the time I sit down to write a blog post these days I don't know where to start.  Life, or children, have got me going so many mental and emotional directions that I can't stop to organize my thoughts.  So I guess I will just ramble a little about the goings on in our home the last few weeks. We had our first post placement for Hyrum and Bria and the final post placement for our Olivia.  We sent all the paperwork in to China and got that off my plate.  I don't know who thought that there would be anything substantial to write in a post placement after being home for 30 days.  I can tell though that whoever it was had no idea what it is like to bring a new child into the family that doesn't know the culture, proper behaviors, language or have normal attachments.  If they did they would have asked for the first visit and paperwork to be done no earlier than 6 months.  I really thought that we were done with paperwork whe...

OK, I realized it has been a while but I didn't realize how long it's been since we posted. Life around here has gotten extremely busy. We have had 7 doctor appointments in under two weeks with two more next week.  That will make 9 appointments or procedures in 15 days.  We already have one surgery scheduled for the beginning of January to separate Bria's little fingers and clean up one hand and foot.  Our next appointment we will get the results of both children's MRI's.  Hopefully we will get a full feel of what is going on and know where to start.  We found out that Hyrum has another special need.  Because of this the MRI was a great blessing in knowing where he stands physically. We owe so much to Shriner's Hospital. They got Bria in to see the doctor within a week and while there for Bria's club foot I mentioned the new info we found out about Hyrum.  I asked a couple of questions knowing they would have better info than I could get off the In...

Wow, I had no idea how easy I had it before these new children came home.  I had a 5 year old as my youngest and didn't realize that I had some freedom.  I could choose to clean the house or do laundry.  I could make my bed in the morning.  I could even shower before 1:00pm.  I have been thrown back into the land of the young mother.  This brings back so many memories and a new understanding of what I have been through in the past.  I remember the days that dragged into months of holding a child and another one needing me so I picked them up with one hand and held two children at once. The times of sitting in the rocking chair with two children on my lap and the neighbor showing up.  Of course my house was a disaster just like now.  The times when there were toys strewn all over the house and dishes on the table from breakfast long after lunch was served.  The days of dirty faces and sticky hands all over the place.  Mirrors slimm...

While we were waiting for our last flight in LA from China, with some very tired children, Bria began to cry and couldn't be consoled.  Doug started walking around with her but it didn't help so we picked up our stuff and tried to find a new location that would distract her.  We went down the elevator and as I was getting our things situated Doug felt something warm on his stomach.  I looked around and saw something dripping from the bottom of the front pack. Yep, Bria wet his pants!  Ressa came home for the weekend and we pulled out the ice cream.  It takes a special occasion to have ice cream at our house. She served up a very small portion for Hyrum and a good sized one for herself.  They sat down to eat and Ressa tried to give Hyrum a bite.  He didn't want it.  He wanted a bite out of her bowl.  It didn't take too long for him to make it clear that he wanted her bowl not his. Thinking it was the color of the bowl that wa...

Names have been changed to protect the innocent, or not so innocent.   This story had to be saved and enjoyed. One day when they are 18 they will laugh and laugh at this and so will we. Any mother of a child of significant age will know the joys of a tantrum.  Well, it's been quite a while since we have had one because of the ages of children we have, until recently.  Since being home from China we have been able to enjoy many a tantrum from the newest additions.  Today we had some backtracking by one of the older kids, no it was not Ressa.  We got the best tantrum, EVER! One of the children was having a hard time with something another child was doing. They decided to take action and began hitting and being mean to the second child.  Second child came to me to let me know of the injustice.  Well, of course I want to know about this kind of behavior. Child 2 "Mom they are hitting me and being mean because, (who knows, I didn't get that far)." M...