This Reminds me of Haiti

I came home from work on Wednesday and looked out the kitchen window and this is what I found.

 

 

 

Destina has a dress that she wore to the wedding and it needed to be washed, of course it was hand wash only and Destina really wanted to wash it. Before I left for work I filled up the kitchen sink with Wool lite and she went to work washing her dress, when I came home she had washed all of her baby clothes and hung them out to dry as well.  She said to me, “I like to do this, it reminds me of Haiti and I liked to do this there.”  

Self Portrait

Avrie loves pre-school she wishes it was everyday. She always makes sure her homework is done and she asks everyday if it is her school day!

Today she came home from school with her self portrait and I thought she did a pretty good job!

Marie

Before we left on our trip I received an email from the founder of Haitian Roots, a non-profit organization that sponsors children to go to school in Haiti. Her story was very touching and while I was reading through the email, I had a strong feeling that I needed to do something. I could have easily said, “We have done enough,” or “I really can’t afford this right now'”, or “I will look into it more when I get home.” They were all things that ran through my head but the feeling kept coming back and instead of going to bed I woke up Scott and told him what I was doing, then sent off an email to Shannon to let her know that we would love to sponsor this child to go to school.

When we came home from our trip we gathered our family around and showed them the picture of Marie. Kelsie asked if we were going to adopt her, and was disappointed when I told her no we would not be adopting her. Ryan said that he wanted to contribute to help her go to school since he has a pretty regular job. McKenzie offered to help too. It was really fun to see the kids get excited about helping someone else go to school and making a difference in their life. So for us we are willing to make a small sacrifice $22.00 a month (really that is all it will cost to send her to school).

If you feel the bug to help someone go to school go to Haitian Roots and read about this great organization. I know the directors personally and 100% of the funding goes to send these kids to school.

Last Stop on The Road Trip!

Our last stop on the never ending road trip was to drop Katie off at school in the middle of nowhere Idaho, Rexburg to be exact. We had one day to get all of her stuff done before I left her on her own. We started early and the day went really smooth, except the one thing with the jeans, but other than that we sailed through the things we needed to do, we had some help unloading the car with all of her stuff, which was really nice, then we had fun getting her dorm room all set up. We went shopping, several times, and had a nice dinner together before I left. It was hard to drive away but I felt that she was capable of handling all that she had before her.
She has been there for 2 weeks now and getting her feet under her so to speak and I am really proud of who she is as a person. She has made dinner for her room mates, made cookies for other girls in different rooms, she has befriended the quiet shy girls in her room and has taken the time to get to know who they are and find common ground with them. She is making friends and staying caught up on her homework, and cooking. As hard as it is to send off the kids to school it is so much fun to watch and see how they grow, keep up the good work Katie we love you and are proud of you!

Lessons Learned

I thought this picture was pretty cool, with the sun setting in the background....

Ryan didn't learn how to use the waders properly but he had fun trying and hiking in the river and catching fish.

On the second day of fishing Scott finally learned how to hook a fish and not himself.

Destina learned how to shoot a gun from Ryan, the one day expert, I think he has watched too many shooting movies. He learned that wearing a helmet all day makes for a bad hair day.

The boys learned that it was fun to shoot the rocks because the bullets made cool sounds...

We all stood way behind Jayden when he had the gun in his hand that was a lesson learned. The lesson I did NOT learn by watching everyone else was that when you are looking through the scope of a gun keep it a few inches away from the eye, instead I thought I would hold it tight to my eye not a good idea!

Lesson learned!

Some Peoples Children.... what can you do?

Hello all those Gordon Gang followers! This is Katie, Michelle’s favorite 18-year-old college student away from home! (I would say favorite child but that would be lying)

Anyways I kinda sorta hacked my mommy's blog because I am in Idaho, and it is one of the best days ever! My mother’s BIRTHDAY! So I wanted to let her know that I am so grateful for her and everything she does for me! and she is amazing!

The fact that I am away from home means that I can't really give her a hug and say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!!” and I don’t have the time to make her an awesome card and send it to her. (well i guess i could have but I'm kinda a procrastinator) So I did the next thing that came to mind… took over her blog :)

But I want everyone to know that I Katelyn Gordon have the most wonderful, fantastic, awesome, awe-inspiring, magnificent, amazing, stunning, impressive, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, excellent, marvelous, mommy any 18-year-old college student in Idaho could ever ask for!

Happy Birthday MOM!!! I love you!

P.S. mom… make sure you log out after you blog on other people's computers :)

Road Trip Continued

Yep this was a long road trip. We had a few extra days before we needed to drop Katie off at college so we headed to Montana to meet up with our friends, who were at their family cabin, to have some fun out in the middle of no where! It was great to spend a few days relaxing, eating, playing games, and just hanging out.

Katie learned how to make her favorite cookies and she made a batch all by herself, the first batch that she put in the oven turned out perfect, the second batch she put in the oven the timer didn't go off and we all forgot about the cookies until it was too late and they were just a little over cooked (burnt) but I think Scott ate them anyway.

We got to shoot guns I even tried it, it was pretty fun to shoot things, and Destina had fun too!

The boys went fishing on the famous Madison River while we went to the small town and played at the park did some shopping and ate the best fries ever!

Scott caught a couple of fish, good thing it is catch and release because there was no way I was gutting fish and cooking it or eating it.

He managed to hook his hand, and catch himself, only something Scott would do.

We drove our trucks up a switchback to the base of the mountain and went on a sunset hike with all the kids it was really cool, it opened up into this really pretty little valley, and all the kids had fun climbing on the rocks and dead trees. Ryan thought it was funny to make bear noises and scare the girls.


It was beautiful to watch the sunset.

By far the most fun activity was the 4 wheelers, Katie went on a wild ride up the switch backs and almost crashed the 4 wheeler off the side of the mountain, but she lived to see another day.

Avrie tried to be as brave as her friends but Scott said she was screaming the whole time.


Ryan came prepared with his full face helmet and he was on the 4 wheelers the ENTIRE time we were at the cabin. Jayden got the hang of it and he did pretty good and tried hard to keep up with Ryan, but Ryan said that was the funnest trip he has ever been on (just the Montana part) and he wanted to move there, he was out shooting guns sniper style, shooting bow and arrows, and riding the 4 wheelers, he was definitely in his element.

Celebrating Destina's 8th Birthday!

Destina turned 8 while we were in Utah so for her Birthday we headed up to Park City to ride the new coaster by the Alpine Slide. The whole gang went, it was quite the show. First we stopped at the outlets and did a little birthday shopping then to the coaster and finally to the park where we came up with a cake and pizza.

These 2 did not leave each others side the whole time we were in UT they really had fun together.

Our gang minus me since I was taking the picture!

We knew our time was getting short with Katie and we tried to enjoy every minute.

Avrie earned a new nick name while on this trip besides miss sassy pants we started calling her Avrie Naughtylove Gordon it really was quite fitting. But I am glad to report that since we have been home she is almost back to her sweet self!

And what is going to the park if there can't be a little stunting going on and a game of soccer. Happy Birthday Destina! We Love YOU!

Road Trip Take 2

The real reason for driving a thousand miles was to see these two get married, we met Kyle in February on our trip to Disneyland and knew he was perfect for my niece Madie. They make a really cute couple and we are so glad we made the trip to be there for their special day.

This is a pretty small showing of our family, my parents are gone so it is just the sisters and we really try to be there to support each other.

Destina was able to be a flower girl at the reception, one of the other girls couldn't make it and the dress happened to fit her just right. She had fun attending her first wedding and being around her cousins.

Katie was able to play guitar with Noelle at the reception, they both played and sang and they did a great job.

Our time in Utah was pretty short we had stuff booked all day everyday. Some of that might have included shopping and eating, but we did have a tight schedule for the 5 days we were there.

Road Trip Part One

We headed out on Monday August 29th and stopped at grandma's house for the night, we did a little shopping for Katie along the way and grandma and grandpa run a nice bed and breakfast. We got up the next morning not as early as we would have liked but got on the road and headed for Utah. We arrived at our next B & B aka Julie's house just in time to put the kids to bed. We would have made it there sooner but we had a couple of unexpected stops along the way, our power converter that runs all the entertainment in the car overheated and died so we had to find a new one, once we got the new converter we got on the road and started plugging in all the stuff and soon found out that the old converter also blew out all the fuses to the car chargers so we had to go a looong way until the next town to find new fuses for the car. Once we got that accomplished the trip was a lot quieter all the kids had something to entertain them, besides me.
On Wednesday first thing in the morning we went and had Destina's hair done by someone who actually knows what she is doing, I paid close attention and I think I can now do it by myself. Later we met up with some of our adoption friends. We were bummed that we could not meet with everyone but we had a good time with those that did come. Avrie and Z hit it off like long lost sisters they were off playing and having a good time the entire night, Destina was happy to see her cousins Delanie and BreeAnn and JT and Robbie played a little soccer. I love all my adoptions friends there are bonds formed from our travels to Haiti that I hope will last forever!

First Day of School

School started a little late for most of our kids since we were on a 12 day road trip right before school started and they missed the first week. So today was the first day of school for this gang. Destina made sure that Avrie had on her lip gloss for the first day of preschool. I just love how Avrie follows her around wanting to be just like her unless she is being naughty then she certainly knows how to push Destina's buttons.

Middle school is starting an hour later this year so it was a little strange to have Ryan lurking around in the kitchen this morning, last year he was up and gone before I was up and about. Jayden is being home schooled again this year so he was still in his PJ's for the picture! Kelsie still has an early morning schedule and is out the door by 6:20 and I even managed to get up and see her off today, probably wont happen very often!

Destina was so excited to go back to school and see her friends and she is lucky enough to have her same teacher from last year, whom she loved, so it made it easy for her to go to school today. She came home happy, but a little tired.

And miss sassy pants had a great day on her first day of preschool. She was hanging out with her best friends and came home singing songs and talking about how fun preschool is. She was a little disappointed that there is no preschool tomorrow, this girl is ready for fun all the time.

Good bye My Little Grasshopper

There is a Walt Disney cartoon that was taken from Aesop's fable, in the cartoon the grasshopper fiddles and sings and eats the leaves off trees while the queen of the ants works hard preparing for winter, warns him that he'd better prepare for winter too, but the grasshopper continues fiddling and singing. When winter comes, the grasshopper, blue from cold, can no longer play his fiddle. In desperation, he knocks on the tree where the ants gives her "I-told-you-so" speech and ends with, "So take your fiddle and" - there is a long pause - "and play."
Katie is my grasshopper that was raised by an ant. I am hard working, like things done a certain way, and always get the work done before I go play, I am like the ant. Katie is a free spirit, a dreamer, always planning something fun, would rather play her guitar or be outside doing anything but in the house cleaning or working of any kind. She doesn't worry about what will happen tomorrow and lives for today.
I have had to recognize this quality about Katie, she has many talents and is very creative she works hard when it is something she is interested in and she always has something fun that she can come up with on a moments notice.
We dropped her off at college on Thursday, she is not rooming with friends, she doesn't have anyone that she is close to to rely on, she is pretty much on her own. She was certainly out of her comfort zone but her grasshopper instinct kicked in and after we unpacked her room she replied, Oh, this is perfect, I brought just the right amount of things, I have extra room, all my stuff is color coordinated and just how I like it." Later that night after we said our good-byes she called me and said that she was in her dorm all alone and playing her guitar and a group of girls walked by and invited her to hang out with them. When I asked her how her days have been going she has replied that they are going good.
It is hard to say good-bye to my children, as they become adults and go off on their own. I am filled with uncertainty, did I teach her all she needed to know? Probably not, she was too busy doing things that she wanted to do to listen to me. But I know that she will grow, and blossom into the young woman that she is meant to be, she has faced challenges and knows how to overcome them, she has done things that are out of her comfort zone and she knows how to stay strong in the face of adversity. She knows how to turn a bad situation into a positive one and above all she knows how to have fun, and laugh, in tough situations, (think of the jeans Katie). As hard as it is to see her go off to school and be on her own, I can't wait to see how her life unfolds and I am lucky enough to be her mother and watch her grow.