Have grant will travel

I want to tell you something but your natural response will probably be to scroll down or click to another page. But will you, for me, read on to the end? Please?

Did you know that there is close to $100,000 in grant funds for the children on Reeces Rainbow? Individuals, families, private partys and donors have all contributed money to help save these precious little children that most of the world considers unworthy of a family. But the Lord says in His word that HE loves the least of these and that we should love and care for them as well. Each one of those kids deserves a family regardless of (if not BECAUSE of) their medical conditions. In stead of being loved deeper and nurtured more, they were rejected.

As I sit on my couch typing this, a 5 year old little Ukrainian ex-orphan is sucking his tongue and watching Electric Company as he subconsciously linked his arm through mine. And here we sit together. Being an adoptive family is not always easy. There are challenges. But there are also victories and what's more- there is love. And redemption. We are BLESSED and now I want to challenge YOU.

Go to this page. Look through the faces. Each of them has a grant, so don't let the funds be the reason you can't be that baby's mommy. And you've seen my family and my kids, so don't let Down Syndrome be the reason you can't be that baby's mommy. Then after you've looked over that page, I've got another challenge for you. One thats even bigger and more risky.

Pray. Ask the Lord what HE might be calling you to. Open your heart and listen to His voice to see if He's asking you to take the next step. Maybe He's not. But maybe He is.

Adopting isn't easy. There will be challenges. But there will also be victories. Love... and redemption.

Look at the page. Pray about it. I challenge you.

Top 10 reasons having toddlers is like being a frat party

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Three are in the bathtub.

9. There's always that one girl, bawling her eyes out in a corner.

8. It's best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone's going to start banging on the door.

6. Probably 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You've got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There's definitely going to be a fight.

3. You're not sure whether anything you're doing is right, you just hope it won't get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you got there.

Ok, first of all, I never went to college (unless you consider the semester of correspondence Bible college while wedding planning :)) and definitely have never been to a frat party (praise the Lord)! But after reading this which I totally stole from Suburban Snapshots (via Renee on FB), I have two thoughts- 1) I never missed out on college life, I'm apparently experiencing it now! and 2) Do these people know who I am? Because they've SURELY been to my house!! And to read more similarities between toddlers and frat parties, check out the comments on this post as well! Too funny.

Happy Fathers Day Jake!!!

A little fathers day video from his gang!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Fathers Day Jake, we love you!!!

Shame on Mommy

I have a book called "Taking care of the ME in Mommy". Its awesome and I recommend it to any moms out there who haven't read it. Its very hands on and really encourages moms to take care of themselves (spiritually, emotionally, etc) so that they can take care of their families.

Too bad I haven't headed this advise in the physical sense.

We had a super fun sprinkler playdate at a good friends house yesterday. While the babies were napping in the house, the kids were playing in the sprinkler, playing in the baby pool, painting, pretending, and having a blast. Us moms did... what we do. We chased kids, slathered sunscreen on them, filled up sippy cups with water and monitored turns with the popular toys. A typical playdate in the sun.

Until it was time to go and I started feeling a little light headed. I knew I hadn't had enough to drink or eat and should have slowed down a little to do so.

My more than sweet hostess ;) helped me as one by one I striped the kids down, hosed them off, dried them off, dressed them, loaded them into the car and then started with the next one. Four kids and one smiley little baby later, we were headed down the road.

I knew I was dehydrated so I was slowly taking sips of water but with each sip was feeling more nauseated. So halfway to my house I pulled over so that the water could *cough cough* come back up. Not fun. And to make a long story short, my angel/friend, Rashelle, who had been with us at the playdate pulled up behind me, assessed the situation-- her friend hunched over in the front seat of a suburban with 5 kids in the car wondering whats going on-- and called 911.

The next thing I really remember was laying in the back of the suburban with three EMT's poking an IV into my arm and asking me questions which I apparently was giving really odd answers to.

EMT: "What is your name?"
Me: "Haylie"

Hm. Now you KNOW I'm out if it, I didn't even know my name!!

EMT: "What is your medical history"
Me: "I don't know, ask her" (Pointing at Rashelle)

EMT: "Could you be pregnant"
Me: "Probably, I already have 5 kids"

LORD HAVE MERCRY, thankfully I'm not!!!!!

EMT: "Where do you want to go to the hospital?"
Me: "Ask her" (Again pointing to poor Rashelle)

EMT: "What day is it?"
Me: "I dont think I would know the answer to that anyway"

Pitiful.

Anyway, Spring Hill must still be smaller than I feel like it is because apparently a heat exhausted woman on the side of the road warrants a fire truck, an ambulance, two police cars, my dad in his car and my friends Jodie and Rashelle each in a minivan! What a scene.

So they took me by ambulance to the ER (Jake and my mom met me there) and by the time I got there the oxygen and IV were already helping enough to make me totally coherent again. (Also they said my blood sugar and blood pressure were both a little low when I was in the ambulance.) But one more bag of IV fluid, bottle of gatorade, and negative pregnancy test later (just to be on the safe side ;)) I was up and walking and ready to go home.

And I'm fine now though I still get light headed really easily. They said it would take a couple of days to be fully back up to par. And that once you've hit the point of dehydration that you can be really easily susceptible to it again. Awesome.

So let it be a lesson to us all... its hot out there!! Don't be like me and think "Suck it up, Amy. Be tough. You're fine." Drink something for crying out loud and take care of yourself. So you can take care of your family. Otherwise you just might land yourself in the ER having someone else take care of YOU.

Goodbye Internet

Two posts in one day- Its a big deal, I know. :)

My computer is still down... kind of. I was able to clean the virus off and can now open up my desktop and files. Which is awesome!! But for whatever reason, I can't get on the internet. :( I have tried and tried and tried and... you get the picture. Its just not working. I'm no computer techy but I'm guessing the virus either damaged... something, keeping me from getting online OR its changed some of my settings ??? and I don't know what or how to change it back.

ANYWAY.

For the last few weeks I've been using Jake's computer when he's home. Or making the occasional pit stop at my grandparents house to use Papaws computer. (Thank you, by the way, Papaw!) But this week Jake is going to be at summer camp and unless I go to Papaws house and have 5 barbaric baby-leashes wrapped around my ANKLE so that I can TYPE and my children don't break everything in their HOUSE....... I don't think I'm gonna have internet access for all of next week. :)

So bloggerland and facebookland... farewell. See ya next week!!

Happy Birthday Pavel Micah :)

Yesterday was Micah's first birthday with our family. And though it was a crazy day (for lots of reasons) and we're celebrating in a couple of weeks, all day I kept looking at him and thinking about how much he's grown in the last year. We first met him on May 20th. Court was June 1st, we left Ukraine that same day, his birthday the 4th, and he came home to me by the 27th. (What a crazy, unforgettable few weeks that was. You can visit our adoption blog here to read all about it.) And in the last year, Micah's come so far.

His speech development is still really slow coming but there IS SOME improvement. He's been kinda-sorta stringing two words together. Like, he'll sign "cup" and say/grunt "Cuh Muh" which means "Cup Mom" :) Love it. And sometimes he's been saying the full word Mom instead of Muh or Moe.

His understanding of English is great though and kinda blows my mind if you wanna know the truth. He understands every little thing we're saying and it isn't like we say it slowly or exaggerate certain words. We talk to him the same as the rest of the kids. Up until a year ago he'd never even heard English! Crazy to me.

And man has this boy grown. He's gotten taller and heavier. He's tan as could be- I can slather on the sunscreen but he just keeps gettin' darker. And blonder. :) The severe eczema patches from orphanage neglect are gone. And dare I say it- his intestinal problems are getting better. We had the long awaited appointment with the GI doctor and he says that having a parasite for years on end (which is what we're assuming) can keep your body's enzymes from properly breaking down and digesting... and a bunch of other medical jargon which basically means: he's lactose intolerant! :) Which is GREAT to know! So he's on Almond milk, lots of probiotics and we're still doing some more testing to see what else is going in those little bowels. :)

But the biggest change to me is his laugh. I've been going back and watching all the little video's from our trip to Ukraine... and its funny to me how different his laugh is now. Then he used to laugh uncomfortably, like he didn't do it much. And it was kind of a higher pitch. Now he's got this deep gut laugh that bubbles up naturally whenever something strikes him funny. I LOVE it.

I sure love my little man. This year has been a wild ride but every day I grow closer to that point of forgetting he was ever not mine.

I've heard a lot of adoptive parents talk about the biological mom on their adopted children's birthdays. Does she think about her baby on this day? Where is she now? What is she feeling? And yes, part of me wonders this. And I am sad for her that she's missing out on this loving, playful little guy. But the other part of me is looking ahead to the future. His future. I think about the day that God said to me that my heart was as a woman in labor pains. He knew. He had a plan to redeem this mini man of God.

I can't wait for Micah's 10th birthday. His 15th. And 20th. What is God gonna do and where is He going to take him? We'll see. I believe with all my heart that God has BIG plans for Pavel Micah.

Happy big five buddy. You are LOVED.