Ground Hog Day and a bit of Valentines Day

No not a weather related post.  Ground Hog Day-the movie.  We did our 4th bank letter today.  Yes, you read that correctly. 4.  The people in the bank are lovely.  I become more and more convinced that these obstacles are to weed out the weak.  Now I pray for movement and referrals.

                                                                          

before

after

Meanwhile, I painted the half bath.  Chalkboard paint.  Love it!  We have Valentine sayings on the wall.  Right now we have love needs no map, it can find its way blindfolded and love is friendship that has caught fire on the walls.  When I was doing it, Bella walked in and said, "Dad is going to freak out!"    (Where she got freak out, I don't know but it is so cute coming out of the mouth of an almost 4 year old.)   "But do you like it, Bella?"   "Yeah, I love it, but Dad is going to freak out."  So I call Jason to make sure he gives her a big freak out when he gets home.  When he walked in and saw it and gave her a good fuss, she was so tickled pink and kept saying, "Mom did it all by herself."  So she was talking about the fact that I could paint a room all by my self, had nothing to do with the color.  hmmmm  I tackle the family room next.

That did not last.

While I was writing it I wondered if I would regret writing the post below about how patient I was going to be waiting for Teddy Bear.  That resolve to be patient lasted all of one day!  Stupid stupid stupid-me (Yes, Bella, stupid is a yucky word.)  Everything I can do is done.  But I cant's get Gladney approval (read-get on wait list) until I have CIS approval.  I can't get CIS approval until I have a written homestudy with criminal clearances.  SOooooo my homestudy is waiting on FBI clearances, which will be coming next week for Jason and Andrew.  But me....they are having difficulty reading my fingerprints!!!!  So I may have to redo mine and the "nice" (read-not very) told me it could take 12 weeks for that.  Am I really being tested this early in the process?  At this point I am feeling like I will be in assisted living by the time this babe gets home!

So ready for Spring!

We have gotten so much snow this winter.  Zach has even been out of school because of roof issues tha thte snow caused.  So what have we been up to???  A girl could go crazy.  Or....

While we were adopting the first go around...I became obsessed with blogs on adoption, the Gladney FBI list, and the gladney yahoo group.  Anything that would bring news.  Even if the news was not particularly good.  There was nothing worse when everything was quiet.  I would live vicariously through the other referrals.  Don't laugh but I had even broken the FBI down into statistical charts.  Crazy.  I know.

Don't quote me on this in a few months, but this time I am going to attempt to put what I learned into practice.  I learned....patience.  Really, I have.  I refuse to I find that I am again stalking blogs.  Waiting for news.  I have told myself...STOP!  It is the biggest waste of my time.  Time that I should/could be doing something so much more productive.  We have finished everything we can do.  Homestudy is done.  Now we wait for our wonderful SW to write it, Gladney to edit it.  Then we submit it to CIS.  Now, I have made some unbelievable friends from all that blog stalking.  So, don't get me wrong.  I will look at other blogs, I will watch and pray and worry.  But I am going to limit myself.  I am going to nurture my mind, body, and spirit in other ways, too.  So this is what I am doing now that we are done with all the paper gathering:

Gratuitous picture just because

1. yoga every morning to help myself get back to a less creaky self because as we add the younger children, I am more and more aware of how old I am!

2. journaling to help tell teddy bear what we were doing before teddy bear got here.

3. finished Bella's adoption book.  Need to work on the older kids' books.

4. nesting in a big and fun way....  so I share some of the blogs that I have subscribed to.  Here are some pretty creative women who have inspired me.  Have fun:)


http://jonesdesigncompany.com/

http://www.hollymathisinteriors.com/

http://www.mysparrowblog.com/

http://pure-and-lovely.com/

http://www.perfectlyimperfectblog.com/

http://mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com/

http://thenester.com/

Double header: Readoption and paperwork

Game #1
Re-adoption of my sweet girl!

We were so excited when we recieved the notice for the date for re-adoption.  (It allowed us to change her name to Bella Zenash Morgan and correct her birthday.  Long story but we have braided what she was called in the orphanage, by mistake, what her ET mother named her, and our family name.)  A reminder for us though-she may look at things differently than we do though, even though she has been home for 14 months.  Bella did not know what to think of this "re-adoption."  I agree with her though.  It is a silly name.  In her little three year old mind, she thought that we might be changing her mind.  When we first excitedly told her about it she said "you aren't giving me back, are you?"  To which I said, while smothering this sweet face with kisses,  "Not on your life! You are mine always and forever, and even when you won't want me."  Thank you, Lord!  I am just telling you this so when you go to tell your kiddo...stop and think and rephrase.

Game #2

Paperwork phase is to weed out the weak,  the not sure if I want to do this,  the faint of heart, buy a puppy, instead.  Excuse my language....it sucks!  Like labor pains, you forget.  We are in the paper gathering phase on steroids.  The wait seems to get longer each breathe I take and we don't get any younger...so we are trying to do this stage quickly.  But, for our bank letter I required 3 redos.  First one, signature of signer and the notary were the same; second one, dates did not match.  So, what I have decided...it actually is a pretty good indicator of what parenting can be like:)  But we are excited.  Bella has taken to praying for her little brother or sister (but who is kidding whom...brother...because we are open to either), Teddy Bear.  By the way, for all of you who are rolling their eyes...Teddy Bear was her second choice.  Allergies was her first.  So from now on we will refer to brother or sister as Teddy Bear. But Allergies????  Where did that come from????

Hair-A Public Service Message

Most of the adoptive parents that I know (of Ethiopian children) spend a ton of mental energy and even $ on their newly adopted child or children's hair.  When we first got home I went to a salon that specialized in braiding, cutting, and caring for black hair so that I could learn how to braid Bella's hair.  A beautiful black woman helped me.  She took one look at Bella's hair and said, "Oh honey, her hair is more like yours than mine."  Really?!  What does that mean?  "It means.  You don't braid her hair.  You can, but it won't stay in for more than a few days."  So, we do occasionally braid it.  We do put it up in pony or pig tails.  We keep it down and "free."  But on those days when it is free, we have to bring some semblance of order to it.  Easier said than done.  At first I spent a small fortune on different product hoping that they would be a quick fix.  I have found a couple products that I love.  But today, I found magic!  Really!  This mom has become somewhat of a rock star in my house.  She used the same SW for her home study but we never got to meet until after she adopted her baby.  Go check out her blog.  She was a superwoman before but now.....

She posted about hair products and Sally's Beauty Supply Shop.  I went out and purchased.  I LOVE Sally's.  How did I not know about this store!  Prices are great and the products I purchased work.  So my first purchase was the tangle teezer.  Why does it work???  But it does!  It costs $9.99.  So worth it.  It took me 10 minutes to comb/brush through her hair.  I had panned on doing it during the football game today.  It should have taken me until half-time.

I used it with Hawaian Silky to help detangle.  Wow!  Bella had a few dreadlocks starting (underneath neck area) and using this stopped them.  The combination of the teezer and this was seriously easy.  Her hair is really long, when wet it reaches mid back.

Then while I was there, I found another product that I have not used yet but will try.  Bella uses Wen as a cleansing conditioner.  It works very well.  Love it.  It is expensive, though.  Because her hair is so long we also go through it pretty quickly.  Well, Sally's sells the generic form.  It is about 1/3 of the price of Wen.  They also sell sample size packets for $1.49.

I have not used it but I will let you know if it works as well as Wen.  It may depend on your child's hair texture, but they are worth a try.  Not a big investment.  And if they work as well for you as they did for me....you will have so many more hours in the day to do laundry, dishes, or even read a book:)  Thank you Staci!

Heart Beat

One of the coolest things I heard in Anatomy and Physiology (have not taken the time to verify this on line) was that when a two hearts get in proximity they can match their beats. As a transplanted heart gets close to the heart that it is replacing they synchronize.  I may be saying this the wrong way from a medical perspective.  But I trust that I have no one reading this who is a doctor.  I have thought about this as a few times through our adoption of Bella.

The first time I thought of it was when Jason and I got our EKG for the medical part of our application.  Coincidentally, we have the same abnormality (minor though it is).  Apparently, it is not a commonly occurring abnormality and our doctor got a kick out of the fact that we both have it.  Hmmmm.  synchronicity.

The second time was yesterday.  To understand me completely, I have to go back to a year ago.  When Bella first came home she loved to be snuggled and read to, but there was always an under current of awareness.  When my older three kids were babies, I could hold them and they would relax completely into me until they fell asleep.   At church, they could be perfectly still and quiet if I was holding them.  Think falling asleep while being given a massage.  It's not because you are tired but because you are that relaxed. That is what I mean.  She could fall asleep if she was tired.  Like when I rocked her at night.  I actually did not think about it too much.  I put it down to her age, really.  But then yesterday, I was reading/answering emails (thank you Ellen) in the morning.  Bella woke up, came downstairs, and climbed onto my lap.  I held her, rocked her slightly in the office chair, and continued to read/answer emails.  She was perfectly still.  Before I knew it she had fallen asleep at 9:00 in the morning.  Not a tired sleep.  A relaxed sleep.  Hmmm. Synchronicity.  She woke up in a few minutes and said, "I love you, mommy."  Definitely synchronicity.

Out of the mouth of babes #1

In an effort to remember the cute or not-so cute things that kids can say, I am going to record them.

Bella and Eliza love getting Willow on the sofa.  Maybe because it drives me crazy.  Try wearing black pants when you have a Golden Retriever.  Now try sitting down on a sofa with said black pants.   Anyways.  When Willow, ten years old, was having trouble jumping up on the sofa, Bella told Eliza, "Willow is running out of batteries."