Cool picture...

I took this the other day as the hyacinths around Mayah's stone were about to bloom. I thought it was really cool. We were originally supposed to bring her home in the spring and I remember being so excited to show her all the flowers. I have almost achieved my goal of having something always in bloom around her stone. I still need a late summer bloomer. Any ideas???

"Mayah's Fund" website is live!

Please check out the website for the fundraiser we are doing in Mayah's honor

www.mayahsfund.blogspot.com

We are selling notecards to raise money for this sweet little girl who was born with a heart defect. Her name is Baby Zhou.



Notecards are $20.00 for a set of 8 and are for a REALLY good cause. For more details and ordering information go to the website. I added a link to it on this blog along with a link to the blog we had for Mayah. I updated it a little...hope you enjoy it. By the way, if you are family or one of the few non-family members who frequently visit this blog, I will ship for free!

In case you were wondering...

During our tour of outhouses across Southern Indiana, we came across some curious sights. Maybe this can clear up some questions you've had rolling around, deep (very deep) in your subconscious.

Call me crazy, but I'd bet I'm not the only one who doesn't know what a farrier does. Actually, at first I thought it read "furrier service" and then quickly assumed it had something to do with taxidermy (Get it..."FURrier"). Well, nothing could be further from the truth. According to Wikipedia, a farrier specializes in equine hoof care.

Ever wonder what happened to the "Mystery Machine" from Scooby Doo? Well here you go. Someone just parked it out here in the middle of the woods. A fine piece of history.
Yes, it is not uncommon to still find some Confederate flags hung as window treatments. Never mind that Indiana was on the Union side of the Civil War. Apparently this never goes out of fashion in the back-woods of our beloved state.
And what do we make of this? Some sort of primative idol or just a friendly face to welcome those passing by? We may never know.
Notice the reflectors on the side of this outhouse. I hate to think of what might have occured for someone to feel the need to add this safety feature.

Okay, okay, we didn't REALLY go on a tour of outhouses. Chris and I got away to a B&B just outside of Nashville, Indiana this past weekend. Our first time away WITHOUT the kids since coming home from China. We were totally unplugged from TV, internet, etc. The place was very peaceful and relaxing. Except maybe Chris was a little too relaxed because now he has Type II influenza. Not just the sniffles, this is the real McCoy. That's what we get for trying to take a vacation!

By the way, the above shots were taken with my new-and-very-fancy camera... a Nikon D80. In fact, the reason I have not posted any new pictures lately is that it is SO fancy, that the memory card was too powerful for our computer to read. We bought a less fancy memory card and now it is reading them just fine.

Remembering Mayah

One year ago today, our daughter's spirit silently yet miraculously left this world. It's amazing to me that this happens every day....souls ascending into eternity... while we shop for shoes and decide what to have for dinner. As others I'm sure can attest, losing a child makes you think a WHOLE lot about heaven. The trouble is, we don't know much about it. Do we go to heaven right after we die, or are we in some spiritual slumber until judgment day? I know we are not married in heaven...and somehow the relationships that we experience there will be even better. Now that's hard to believe. I do believe the Bible suggests that those who have died are in some way cognizant of what's going on down here. So how do we really honor Mayah? Do we celebrate her birth date or death date, or both? Should we feel happy or sad? Do we talk about her out loud? Besides, what can we really say? The only real "memories" we have were our dreams for her future. It's incredibly frustrating to me that she lived long enough to have a personality, a favorite toy, a bed time routine, but we never got to experience those things with her. Some moments I can be so totally surrendered with God's plan for us and for her, and then other times I'm so angry. Angry that God permitted this tremendous buildup of love and emotions for her over a period of 9 months, and then allowed her to die within weeks of when we would finally meet. And please don't tell me it was less painful that way. If you could only hold your child once, would it really be more painful than never holding them at all? Sometimes I feel like I'm not allowed to say that I've lost a child....like I have to go on to qualify it, "Well, I never actually met her and she never lived in my house." How strange does that sound. Sometimes it's just way too complicated to explain to people I will probably never see again. But failing to mention her feels equally wrong. To say that I only have two children, or that Alina was our only adoption. This is not an accurate picture of things. She was our child. We signed a legal document stating our intent to adopt her. We just never got a chance to bring her home. When I first thought about writing something on this day, I wanted it to be positive and uplifting. I wanted to talk about all the things she has taught me, about the fundraiser we are doing in her honor, and about my prayers for her story to inspire many people to adopt. And there will be a time to write about those things. But not today. Today I want to be sad. Today I feel like it's not fair. And today I miss her terribly.

Potties and Princesses

Well, first off, good news...Alina has finally put the potty seat to good use. It's a good thing I am not very germophobic. Besides, I think it is very fashionable as a hat and God knows it doesn't see much action in the actual potty arena. Alina did go pee-pee in the potty one time, but I assure you it was quite by accident.



Our youngest has also discovered the age-old girl past time of "dress-up." Here she is showing off her pretty "cris-cross-applesauce" sitting posture

Meagan went out on her first date... with daddy. Our church sponsored a Father-Daughter dance and it was a huge hit. Here daddy is going in for a dip, I think. As a side note, my hubby was quite the dancer in his day...especially when break-dancing was all the rage. Come to think of it, our dancing moves seemed to peak in the late 80's and unfortunately we have not acquired any new ones since that time. Well, luckily it doesn't take much to impress a 6-year-old.

Pictures of Meagan's big sleep-over-birthday-party still to come...

Theological discussions with a 6-year-old

Meagan is a deep thinker. People say she's shy, and she is, but she's also very much taking everything in....chewing on it and forming her own opinion about it. She is also already a master debater. For example, the other day she was crying and emotional about nearly everything. I was trying to have a serious conversation with her about controlling her emotions and she just wasn't getting it. I said, "Meagan, do you agree that you cry ALOT?" She replied, "Yes mom, but do you agree that you yell ALOT?" Touche' indeed. Ok, so now you know what I'm up against. We try to talk about God, read the Bible, etc. fairly frequently. Meagan is going through a phase where she is skeptical about everything, including God. It seems like once Santa Clause was out of the picture, there went the Easter Bunny and God. Funny thing is she still believes in the Tooth Fairy. Go figure. Maybe if God left money under her pillow she would believe in him too. So, while most other six-year-olds are happily saying their prayers and drawing pictures of the "pearly gates", mine is disputing how God could have created the universe out of thin air. Last Sunday at church, the minister was very excitedly describing heaven... no more sadness, perfect love for one another, etc. I whispered to Meagan, "Hey, he's talking about what heaven will be like...isn't that cool?" She responded with, "How does HE know?" We had another funny little discussion last night. We just happened to be reading about Moses and the plagues on Egypt, in particular when Moses turned the water in the Nile into blood. Meagan said very solemnly, "Mom, that was Jesus' blood in the river." I guess since Christianity places so much emphasis on Jesus' blood, she figured all references to "blood" must have something to do with this. I said, "I don't think it was Jesus' blood." She then gasped in horror, "Then WHOSE blood WAS it?"

Disclaimer: If you tell Meagan that I revealed any of the above information, or even that you viewed attached silly picture, just know that it is ALL OVER for me. Indefinite period of silent treatment, in the "dog house", guilt trip, whatever you want to call it. It will not be a happy time for mom. If you love me at all, think before you speak.

First Big Owie

I had yet another of what I like to call "bad mommy moments". Nini was playing with some picture frames I had on the floor (don't ask why they were on the floor...I think I had been debating for a few weeks where I should store them) Anyway, Nini decided to put her hand through one of the frames, breaking the glass. No stitches, but it bled a WHOLE lot. And the nice folks at the Immediate Care center only charged $141.00 for a dose of Tylenol and this fancy bandage. What a bargain. Nini is pretty ticked off about the whole thing because these just happen to be her "sucking" fingers. I hate it when my sucking fingers have owies on them.

Here are more b-day party pictures