Twins

Destina came home all excited because she was dressed just like her teacher today, they were twins. Then when I checked my computer there was a cute picture from the teacher with their matching outfits. Destina loves 3rd grade she is having so much fun, she has a great class full of friends and a great teacher.

Destina is playing basketball and indoor soccer and taking tumbling it has been really busy  at our house the last couple of weeks. She has her first basketball game tomorrow we are really excited to watch her play, she is still a head taller than everyone on her team so that should help her out. She is on a great team with a awesome coach. Her soccer team is doing good too, she is on a team with girls she has never met before and they are becoming friends and playing well together. It is really fun to watch her games.

We will be busy for the next 2 weeks but we are looking forward to some fun games, then Christmas is coming and Katie will be home we really miss her and can't wait to have her home for a few weeks!

National Adoption Month Final Post

I have written a post about Avrie and Jayden and now it is her turn.

She went to a party and came home with this beautiful face painting.
Sometimes in adoption we pick the child but in this case she picked us. We set out to only adopt a toddler from Haiti and 5 months after our first trip and the loss of our first placement we knew that Destina was destined to be in our home. She found McKenzie at the orphanage and followed her around asking her if she was her mama. She never left our minds in those 5 months and when I finally met her in June we clicked, even though there was a language barrier and cultural differences I knew that I was her mother.
It has been amazing to watch how she has blossomed into a beautiful young lady. She is smart, funny witty, caring, and grateful. She loves life and she loves to laugh.  We are lucky to have her in our home. 

Before We Even Sat Down

Before we even sat down to dinner these two were picking the bird clean.  Avrie didn't need any turkey on her plate she just had a huge helping of mashed potatoes and gravy and half the corn. Destina wanted one of the turkey legs and when she sat down she looked at that leg and then at and asked if she could save it for breakfast. She will be eating a turkey leg for breakfast tomorrow.  Dinner was a success and after the week of bad cooking and food poisoning it was a welcome relief! 

Giving Thanks

This is the first Thanksgiving that I have not had a huge crowd over for dinner. We miss our extended family that have moved away, but I must say that it has been a really fun relaxing day. I even made it to a yoga class this morning.
This has been a pretty good year for us there are so many things that I am grateful for, first and foremost I am grateful for Scott and all that he does to provide for our family and the great husband and father and best friend that he is.
My children are right at the top of the list as well, I love them dearly and each one of them brings something special to our family that makes us who we are.
 I am thankful for a great son-in-law he is loved by all in our family, and he puts up with all of us.
I am grateful for extended family, I miss having them close and seeing them on a regular basis.  I miss my sisters and their families but so glad for the friendships that we have with each other.
I am thankful for Hawaii and the opportunity for 2 of my kids to be able to go to school there and for the lessons they learn and the fun times that they have and the people they have met while there.
I am thankful for good friends who love me for me and can see past my imperfections and who make me laugh.
I am thankful for food in the fridge, and a roof over our heads.
I am thankful for my job, I love going to work and I enjoy the people I work with and the beautiful children I get to see each week.
I am thankful that each Sunday I get to work with children who are so sweet and loving and smart, there is no place I would rather be each Sunday than at church with them.
I am grateful that I am not slaving away in the kitchen this Thanksgiving but that I get to spend time with those around me.
This list is not complete there is so much to be thankful for, I love this time of year when families gather and love is extended. Happy Thanksgiving!
We miss you Katie enjoy your day, we love you!!

Better Than Christmas Morning

Tomorrow is opening day at the ski resort here. The excitement has been driving me crazy, it has been non-stop talking about ski reports, and going skiing on opening day for about 2 months now.  There is a house full of boys ready to get up at 6 am to head out for the best/first day of the season.

Just like little kids on Christmas morning...have fun guys!

Food Poisining and a Cold

This week both Scott and I have been battling a cold that has moved into my lungs so with my asthma I have been breathing at less than optimal, with coughing fits in between.  Last night we decided to go out to dinner and we ordered a steak and shrimp meal to share, and the steak smelled bad but I took a bit anyway just because I didn't trust my nose with this cold and all. The meat tasted bad and I made Scott smell and try his he took a bit too and we both knew something was wrong. We had the waiter take it back and he brought us a new one, telling us that he smelled it once he was back in the kitchen and he agreed with us. By the time our new steak was out we could hardly eat it, they took the charge of the steak off of our bill, but we went home with sour stomachs. Scott was up all last night sick and my stomach still feels pretty bad.  Hopefully, I will be breathing, able to eat again, but it will be a while before I go to that restaurant.  Next time I will stay home and make a pot of quinoa, it might have tasted bad but it didn't make me sick!

 

What's Not For Dinner...

A couple of nights ago Destina came home from some practice and made herself some scrambled eggs, she put way too much salt on them but she said that she loved salt. Then began to tell us that when she was in Haiti there were some days that she was so hungry that she would get a handful of salt and suck on it.
Fast forward to tonight, about a month ago Kelsie and I made up about 10 freezer meals so that on busy nights I could just pop one in the crockpot and we would have dinner. This was a great idea I made 10 different things that we have never made before and I have to say, I have not been impressed. There were a few dinners that were ok but I made the last one tonight hoping for something good that everyone would love. Just for added entertainment I made some quinoa for the first time, as a side dish, and homemade french bread, the bread was good.
I told the kids that they all had to try the quinoa, that it tasted like rice and just to put some of the sauce on top of it from the yummy crockpot dinner.  Destina decided to just try the quinoa by itself she put a small scoop on her plate and took a bite as she was standing at the counter and immediately spit it out on the FLOOR! She then said it was gross.  I told her that there were starving children in Haiti that would never have spit that out and that she needed to finish what was on her plate.  She sat at the table sulking but she finished her portion.
Good thing the dogs were right there and cleaned up the floor, but I thought it was funny how quick her reflexes and old habits came back. She has never spit on the floor since she has been home, I guess she would rather eat a handful of salt than a spoonful of quinoa.
As for the crockpot dinners we tried to remember which ones we liked and couldn't remember any that we wanted to make again. I think I will stick to our regular pizza, pasta, and taco's menu at least my floors will stay clean.

This Kid...

Started off our adoption journey. I have shared his story before but maybe not how we came to the decision to adopt the first time.  I had always known I wanted to be a foster parent or adopt a child that was in the foster care system. I dated a guy in high school who's family did foster care and I knew that I wanted to do that as well.
After I had Ryan just 18 months after I had Kelsie, I did not plan that, I thought for sure we were done having kids. But Scott and I both had a nagging feeling that this was the time to get started down the foster care road. I had met a lady at swimming lessons that was a foster parent and in the process of adopting and she told me it had taken years for her to have a child placed with her that came up for adoption.  That got me thinking that I did not want to have 4 kids then a straggler, a child who was so much younger than all the rest of the kids. We started the licensing process when Ryan was about 16 months old, we finished when he was 18 months old and Jayden was placed in our home about 3 weeks later.  I now had a 9, 6, 3 year old, an 18 month old and a newborn. Life was crazy it took me 10 minutes to get all the kids in the car.  I thought this would be great now Ryan would have a buddy with all the girls in the house. They could not be more different in personality and likes and interest, but Jayden was everyone's little buddy. 
My mom was concerned about having a "hispanic" child in the family, but the first time she held him she fell in love with him. (She passed away before we started the adoption process for the girls but I know she would have loved them just as much as she loved all of her other grand kids.) My whole family embraced Jayden and they all loved him. He was the cutest little guy ever. He was so good and when Ryan was being terrible and getting into things and destroying every thing in his path I was so thankful to have sweet Jayden. 
He is 13 now and trying to figure out how to be a teenager, I am trying to figure out how to handle this teenager, they are all different and none of them came with instructions, we have hit some bumps in the road but our family would not be complete without our Jaybird.  He brings his own unique talents, quirks, and challenges and we love him dearly even if he drives us crazy most of the time.
I have loved watching the relationship develop between Jayden and Destina, at first he lost his spot as baby of the family and had to now put up with younger sisters and was clearly not happy about that. There were some struggles with that but lately I am seeing the 2 of them laughing and talking and getting along and hanging out, sometimes.
His journey to adoption was so much easier than the girls but he is no less a miracle in our family than they are.

One of the Best Things About Adoption...

Is this girl! I can't imagine our lives without the 3 kids we adopted, but this one keeps us on our toes. It has been a while since I have done beads in their hair and now I know why...it takes forever!  I started on Saturday afternoon and stopped at her bedtime, then spent about 4 more hours on Sunday. The braiding goes pretty fast if that was all I was doing I would have been done in no time, but those darn beads, it takes me about a minute per bead to twist it onto the braided hair, my fingers have blisters as well. The best thing about beads is we hear her coming and going.  We both sat pretty good for the long process only having a few moments of whining,  there was one point that I wanted to shoot myself for doing beads but once I started it is a little hard to just quit and give up.  She was all smiles when we finished and loved her new hair.
Last night as I was watching tv, I overheard her talking to her dad, she wanted to be able to have the computer that is in her room hooked up to the internet so she could "check a few things" and dad was trying his best to deflect her request, she was so sweet and persistent she just would not give up telling him all the reasons she needed to have the internet wire hooked into her computer. Dad finally gave in, she was so happy to be able to "check on her work" on the computer in her room.

Just a note... it was 58 degrees and sunny today, a nice break from all the rain we have had in the last 2 weeks.

National Adoption Month What Not to Say!

November is National Adoption Month - Adoption is such a great thing and has truly blessed my life and the lives of my family and friends. Adoption stigma has changed over the years and instead of it being something to be ashamed of it is something that should be celebrated.  With trans-racial  adoption there really is no way to hide the fact that some of my kids are adopted. This is a funny video of some of the wacky questions and comments that adoptive parents get. I have had some of the same questions asked and sometimes I just have to smile and grit my teeth.

Halloween

I was really bad at taking pictures this Halloween, I took a nap while the pumpkin carving was happening, and then missed getting pictures of the boys in their crazy costumes. I love how Ryan is trying to decide what to dress up like about 30 minutes before he is leaving, and he dressed up in one costume that I had to veto, wish I would have had a picture first, but it involved some of his younger sister's clothing.
I took Avrie to the community Halloween carnival, Kelsie has volunteered there for the last 2 years, and Avrie had a good time, but Destina decided that she was just too old to go.

 Her favorite part was getting her face painted, they did a great job.

Avrie couldn't figure out why so many of the teenagers knew her name, but most of Kelsie's friends were also volunteering there and at almost every booth they would say "Hi Avrie" she thought that was pretty cool that so many people knew her name.

Last night was kind of rainy but that didn't stop them from going out and trick or treating, so glad Scott was home to take them around in the rain but at least it was pretty warm.