Summer fun

We are counting down the days until summertime.

I have to admit the few weeks before summer hits, I feel a sort of Mommy panic,

and the voice in my head sounds something like this, "what the heck am I gonna do for 10 hours a day for 3 full months to entertain 4 kiddos of varying ages"

Here is what I have up my sleeve so far... see this it is a play house in our back yard,

it actually looks more like a haunted house. The kids don't really play in it and it is not really inviting,, it really just seems creepy. So a big part of " Kamp Kiddo" is going to redoing this play house, here is my inspiration picture.

(i found this image here theoartist.blogspot.com/ )

I am already scoping out cr@igslist for a bunch of cheap pavers so we can do a patio all around the play house. I think I can score an aluminum roof from L@wes too. It is pretty roomy inside and has a built in wood play kitchen which will surely get an overhaul..and a kids table. Kobi, my mini me, has come up with the idea of tye-dying curtains for the inside, to which I responded, "i love you kobi". I even found some mini-shutters at a flea market so this will keep us busy for quite a while! I am psyched.

Also check this out... there goes the 'hood , the question is, are my neighbors going to think the clampetts (ya' know, as in the hillbilly's) moved in if we set this puppy up in our back yard just for the summer?

It would be soooo easy not to have to take daily trips to the community pool and lets face it.. putting in a real pool just isn't in the cards these days. I would love your opinion.

Right now this Mama is bustin' her tail on some paperwork so we can go get our little man sometime before the end of the year,

hopefully all of my China paperwork will be done really soon so I know he is not waiting on me(this is one of his younger photos, just too cute)!

Got any more ideas for Kamp Kiddo, I need all the help I can get! Thanks

the beans...part deux

I left off yesterday with my phone ringing...

So I picked up the phone and the conversation went something like this ( of course I was twirling my hair and acting completely nonchalant)

Me: Hey

Him: Hey

Me: So, uh, did you get my email

Him: Yeah

Me: Isn't he just stinkin' precious

Him: Yeah, he's really cute

Me: Can I ask to see his file, you know just to see, maybe I could advocate for him...

Him: NO!

Me: But I just want to look at it, he's been waiting for a really long time, doesn't he look so much like Finn?

Him: Aren't you the same woman that made me PROMISE that if you ever asked me to adopt again that I would have to say, "NO"

Me: Yeah, but doesn't he look just like Finn? And I only made you promise when I was jet-lagged that doesn't count.

Him: No, you made me promise you..more than once.

Me: I just want to see his file, can I ask to see his file. Isn't he just so adorable, he looks like Finn.

Him: Fine you can see his file but we are NOT adopting again, besides we just moved into this house like 3 weeks ago...

Me: Bye honey darling love muffin....click

Him: hello, hello, is anyone there.......

So I don't think I took a breath before I was calling to get his file... and because my agency coordinator ROCKS, I had it in my hot little hands within minutes.... His file is over 2 years old, it has been on different agency lists but by this point it is on the shared list. At first it only came across with the Chinese file,, there is no English translation, which makes me pretty sure that no one has even ever requested to see the file since it has been on the shared list. I just can't fathom. So I try to play really cool with Marc once he comes home, try not to sound as over the top and freaked out as I am. Because on one hand this little guy is precious, we would be blessed to call him our son, but on the other hand, no lie, it get's pretty nutty around here sometimes. I have doubts that I will be able to show up for everyone that needs me...

So I wait until the kiddos are asleep and I show him the file. I tell him, "You can say no, I will totally understand, but I'm just asking you to pray about it first. I also want to make sure that if you do consider it- that you are totally on board. I really need you to want to come home to me and this chaos every night, so I totally respect if this is a solid no. But it has to be solid. I truly am too emotional to make rational decisions."

So a week goes by and we don't talk about it too much, until we take some time out at night to pray together, and my husband, (a.k.a. the best thing that ever happened to me) prays for this beautiful boy, and for God's direction as to whether we should add him to our family. The day before I leave for the orphan summit, I ask him if I should print out some of his info to try to advocate for him. (It seems like a logical place to advocate, if I had to hunt Steven Curtis Ch@pm@n himself down I would have.) He tells me to just wait, wait until I get home.

What does that mean, holy cow he must really be considering this. So instead of being totally excited I start to feel all my iniquities as a Mommy. It really does a number on your head, I'll tell you. One minute I am planning how we will rearrange the sleeping situation in the house and getting all excited. The next moment I am thinking of having 5 teenagers in my house at one time and start to have panic attacks. The next moment I am fantasizing about how great it could be to see all my kiddos play in the back yard, or the trip to China, and even what song I'm gonna use for the adoption video... Then I think about all the scary attachment stuff that can possibly come with adopting a 5 yr old who has been in an orphanage his entire life. So basically I am a wreck. If the decision was all mine I would have no idea what to do.

While I am at the Orphan Summit I call Marc and tell him I am going to advocate for this little guy. He tells me, "No, I think we should do this". Then I start to panic. That night I go back to my hotel and my agency coordinator who ROCKS, has asked for an entirely new file for this little guy. So I have new photos, personality, and medicals...dated within days. We continued to go back and forth, mostly me just flipping out about all the "what-if's" , and Marc finally just tells me to do it. stop worrying. once we start the process we can just stop thinking of all the negative stuff and move forward. He kept repeating himself for the whole next week. We both did a little wavering a little each way... but we finally came to the conclusion that we couldn't possibly say no...and once I called my agency coordinator who ROCKS, and told her to lock his file all. the. fear. left. , and I started to get just crazy excited. I may have even gone shopping within the hour for goodies for his first care package :) So we are now over the moon happy to show off our newest addition.... I hope and pray that he loves being part of our family as much as I know we will love him. And since I know y'all already just scrolled to the bottom to see these precious pics...

Seriously, doesn't he look like Finn? This is the first photo I saw.

Now he has grown in the 2 years since his file was released,, here is a newer photo. He has changed so much and lost those baby cheeks, but he is still as adorable as ever.

Spilling the beans...

so I can't believe you all... seriously I thought I was being so sly and subtle... obviously not. I thought I was going to have a few days to put together a nice thoughtful post :) Y'all seem less surprised than I am. Honestly if you were to have asked us last month if we were going to adopt again, our answers would have been, " NO". We have commented to each other over the past few months that our lives felt blissfully complete. We have the perfect mix of fun and chaos. I had long wondered if I was ever going to be one of those people who just know for sure that their family is complete,,, I admit I have a bit of envy for people that are living their plan. We felt that way for the last few months and I appreciated it.

Fast forward a few weeks.... Many of you know that I have a passion for these kids who wait for their families... I LOVE to help families find their children or help people get started on the adoption path. Well, I have been purposely trying to step away from looking at all the sweet faced photos of the waiting kids. It breaks my heart so, and I felt like I needed to move on a bit. Besides, I just went through our big move and I am having fun making our new house a home... and even bigger projects like growing our non-profit www.bloomproject.org which I am sooo stinkin' excited about.

In the past I have done my share of "underground" advocating for kids that touch my heart... and sometimes it works, there is no greater joy than helping put families together. So during the past year I had advocated for the most adorable little boy... His little face always just touched my heart, maybe because his younger photos look so much like our Finnley. Anyhow.. a good six months have passed and I haven't been in the adoption "loop"... Then I decided to sell something on craigslist...and it changed the course of our perfect plan :) The most adorable woman, with southern charisma that would put Paul@ Deen to shame came to my door. Within seconds she spotted photos of our family on the wall and started to tear up. Long super cute story made short, she wanted to adopt and I wanted to help her.

So I started looking at some of the waiting kiddos again... When I pulled up one site I saw his face again.... I had seen his face waiting for at least a year... I couldn't believe it... I felt ill. WHY? WHY? is this perfectly adorable little guy still waiting for his family. I read a 2 sentence short bio and I just didn't get why his family hadn't found him. Heartbroken, and yapping on the phone with one of my best girlfriends about how adorable he is and throwing it around that I should just go get him, I started getting butterflies. So I did the first thing that came to mind... copy and paste his photo into an email to my equally emotional hubby..Subject line- "I'm just saying" then typed up something along the lines of : "Doesn't Jack need a brother? I think he might. What do you think? Poor Jack, I think he needs a little brother. It's only fair. I look at this face and really i'm not kidding, he can call me Mama. "

And then I wait, wait for my man to completely ignore my email and instead the phone rings.

Since my fingers are cramping up and kiddos are biting at my ankle for a snack...I will continue the story tomorrow,,, I may even have a photo of the most adorable little guy to show off too :)

?

Life is sweet

Oh how I LOOOVE this time of year... we went to pick strawberries today, one of our very favorite things to do.

We had to team up... Jack & Mina, Kobi & Finn, Mommy & Camera.

Then we had to drive clear to the other side of town to another strawberry farm, because the experience wasn't the same without peach slushies.. Finn kinda liked hers....

Jack too..

A day like this screams for homemade ice scream... strawberry ice cream, with our fresh pick o' the day... It's no Mocha chip,, but it's pretty darn good

The crew lines up quickly to "help" finish off the last bit, what a nice Papa to share :)

I love the simple things.

Furniture redo

I will confess that I love a good project as much as the kiddos. I have a major cheapskate side to me, that along with my DIY attitude and I have been a busy girl this week. I couldn't resist when I saw this blah little china cabinet on craigslist a few weeks ago for $40....

I spent the morning priming and painting and came out with this.....
I really like it and it fits right next to the TV so I can hide all those hideous cable boxes and video game consoles in it... why do I love technology but hate any traces of it to be seen ??? Don't mind the framed photos, I had to swipe the frames from my master-bedroom to fill the cabinet... I will put some family photos in there soon.
I started this little tradition a few years ago...when we go on vacation, I fill a baggie full of sand and bring it home as my souvenir, label them and you have a little collection... oh & it's free!

Please don't tell my pip-squeaks that they are painting the back of a cabinet... they work really hard but I wasn't really in the mood to have drippy paint splotches all down the front of my furniture.. We painted & recovered 4 different pieces in the last few days so they have been busy :) They get so excited when they come home from school and see me immersed in a project...they can't wait to jump right in.

One year ago today..

We finally held you in our arms, you were scared and solemn. We expected no less.
My heart was nearly ripped out watching your pain, I wish I could take it all on for you.
We had stared at your referral and update photos for months, we had only seen your solemn face and we were fully prepared for a long grieving and healing process.
That little pouty lip... it get's me every time.

You took to your Papa right away.

Especially when he brought out the Cheeri@s

I thank God for Cheeri@s on this very day.

They were salve to your broken heart.

We never expected this...that within hours,, you would start smiling and giggling and quite literally never stop.

Papa and I eyed each other in amazement all evening... we were completely unprepared for the joy that exuded from you.
And today, one year later. You are still the most JOYful little girl we have ever seen.

You are such a blessing our little Miss Finnley JOY Xiaoqiao

I just have to stay on the the Orphan Summit and the impact it had on my heart. My girlfriend and I started a non-profit orphan ministry a while back and we have been searching for some clear direction and insight, we found that and so much more this past week. I can't wait until we roll out our new and improved plan for helping the orphans of the world. Elizabeth just wrote a fantastic post on her blog so I will direct you over there as I could never match her eloquence. She is such a beautiful person inside and out.. I am blessed to be walking through this with her..for now we have our new look a.k.a. our new sleek logo. www.bloomproject.org

Having spent the last two days completely immersed and surrounded by a community of people with a love for the fatherless I am feeling overwhelmingly:

Inspired to be a better mother

Motivated to give voice to the vulnerable child

Thankful that God has broken my heart for what breaks his

I've got myself a special little buddy...It's after nap time and there are about 10 kids running wild in our backyard, but this one, she likes to hang with her mama....

Oh and have some snacks...

And this mama is a sucker for this cute little face and pudgy little arms.

This next photo... I will be showing to her speech therapist...maybe, just maybe it's hard to figure out how to talk when your tongue is 3 sizes too big?

This past weekend was the first weekend that we didn't jam pack with projects in our new house. It felt like home as we ran around to multiple soccer games, swim lessons, meetings, quick trips to urgent-care, chores you know- relaxing weekend kinds of things. Now I know I haven't been posting recipes lately... but I did cook a bunch this weekend. And thought I'd share some with you, because I have a couple new favorites.

Crispy Fish Tacos - SOOO good, I will definitely make these again

those taco's go really well with,

These Margarita's - don't judge, these are the best Margarita's you'll ever make, you know if you like that kinda thing.

Grilled Lamb - My favorite way to cook is on the grill. This is one of my very favorite recipes.

Chicken w/40 cloves of garlic -I also made this, I think it is more of a hearty fall or winter meal though..

Happy Monday :)

I can't tell you how lucky I'm feeling this week. I get to go away for a few days with one of my most beloved inspirational girlfriends. We are going to MN for the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit. We have started a grass-roots style non profit orphan ministry, bloom project , we have already done some really great things but we have some big plans to be greatly inspired to reach orphans worldwide. It's gonna be a great time, how many people get to spend a few days surrounding by people that share their same passion.

Our Kobi celebrated her birthday this week, we love this stinkin' kid. We painted the birthday rock in front of her school which is a fun and messy tradition. For her special day she opted for a trampoline in lieu of an all out b-day party...thank you Jesus. All the kids have been enjoying it and I love to hear them giggling and playing outside.
This little twerp just has my heart. She struggles with her speech and is quite delayed. We are working very hard on it. She does amaze us with her ability to communicate with out using (recognizable) words. See her sweet little angelic face... now watch it in the next few photos, can you tell what she is saying..

"HEY""

"WHAT ABOUT ME?"

The work at our new home has been rewarding, tiring, and unending. Good thing we have quite a crew of workers. Mina and Jack could do yard work all day, they crack us up.Oh, were you taking my picture? Let me pose for you..We also celebrated our anniversary last week. I'm a lucky girl and I had no idea how much I loved this man the day I married him.