Going to Grandma’s house

We are on the road again this Monday morning, starting the 9 hour drive to see the grandparents and the great-grandma.  This is the first time I’ll be making this oh-so-long trip with all THREE kids now and without the esposo.  It’s going to be a long one! At least the sun is shining, and every day I’m so happy that again, today, I don’t have to leave my kids and go teach. Not for another 1.5 months. So, no complaints! Here’s a photo for the road, my happy sweetie.

New Haiti nurse blog

Wow, this is graphic. Don’t click here while eating breakfast. Nevertheless, I’m adding her to the blogroll, since my much-adored author of This isn’t Grey’s Anatomy has returned to Minnesota and is no longer blogging from Haiti. Someday, I promise you, I will do something for Haiti, too. The calling is just too strong too ignore.

Oh, yeah, and this is Mardoche, waiting for a family. I found him on the photolisting the other day and he’s got my heart all twisted up in his little fist. Haitian adoptions are slooooow to stalled right now. Which, in a way, appropriately reflects my life situation at the moment. Still… The dreams are only on hold, I haven’t totally given them up, yet. You never know where life is going to take you when you keep an open heart and mind.

All my little winners

They ran the kids’ races in Duluth this past weekend. Cute, huh? I’m sensing that my posting is going to be a little light these next couple of months. Maybe when school starts I’ll get into a regular blogging routine again, we’ll see. For right now, I feel like I need to focus on the kids and give them as much attention as I can.  They are growing up so fast!!! So I’ve decided that my current goal is to live life more, and write about it less.  Happy Friday everyone!!

Too much to write…

way too little time.

The esposo is now studying again after a 3 week break, and he is also teaching a summer class.  I’m not teaching again until mid-August.  You’d think that being home full-time would leave lots of time to catch up on the blog world, but I haven’t even downloaded the weekend’s pictures yet!  But here are a couple my mom took:

I really do have so much I’d like to write.  About what’s going on, but mostly, about what’s going on in my head. But doing the round-the-clock mom thing has sucked up all my time. I can only write if I ignore the kids, which is not a stellar-mom thing to do. But sometimes I do it anyway.

Thanks to the Engelharts for the Cafe Press Obama Mama shirt!! I guessed their referral date (almost) and won something in the blog world, which turned into a real, touchable, wearable something in the non-blog world. Very cool.

I wish all you blogger friends could meet me for coffee. Really, I do. Every person who has ever commented, and each individually. My group social skills are pretty weak, but I can talk and listen your ear off one-on-one. Being with the kids all day is awesome, and I’d do it this way year-round if I could, but… It leaves you with a big lonely ache for adult company. Starbucks, anyone?

Back on line!

We just got home from Duluth. I brought along the computer, but no power cord! So I have some blog reading to do today!

We had such a great weekend. The kids played on the rocks at the campground at Lake Superior, caught (and released) tadpoles and frogs, and spent time with the relatives, as there were lots of us camping there, and yes, 3 of us ran the marathon.

I finished about 16 minutes faster than the San Diego R&R, at 3:53. The goal was to beat 4 hours, so I was happy, and this time, I don’t feel sick, depressed, let-down, nothing. I just feel good. My cousin’s girlfriend finished right after me, and my dad an hour or so later. It was a great family event. While I was running, I dedicated this race to my family, to Zufan’s birth family, to Anne’s family for the baby they loved so briefly and lost, and to all the families who have suffered loss on both sides of the adoption equation. That made it feel easier. Now that I’ve sort of cashed in twice on the year of training, no more marathons for me until October. I feel like I’ve done what I needed to in that area for now.

I’ll get some pictures downloaded and up later today or tomorrow. Have a great Monday everyone!!

Catching up

I haven’t posted a “what’s going on” post for awhile, so here’s the lastest from 43.09N -89.37W. Zufan is talking up a storm lately.  Trying, anyway.  Her current favorites are “MI MAMI!” as she attacks all who dare come near her precious “Ma-meeee,” ”Agua!!” “Shoes” “woof-woof” “good-girl” (accompanied by clapping and cheering for herself), “Alla” (no, not not that one, but rather the Spanish word for “over there”) “Cheese” “poo-poo” (to tell me she has a wet or other otherwise uncomfortable diaper) “No-no-no-no” and “Yes,” but pronounced as “jess,” like a good Puerto Rican.  She also says “zia jian” (good-bye in Chinese) very clearly, which impresses the orange polka-dot socks right off the grandparents in our community. Very cute. Her favorite baby sign is the turning door handle for “salir,” to go out or get out. I think her language skills are going to be fine and a tiny delay is normal, considering that she’s already been exposed to at least 5 languages in her short life.

The flooding rains have quit finally, which baffles Zufan. We walked outside yesterday and she asked, “Agua?” looking at the sky. The power has been out 4 times in the last week. Here’s a tree right outside our builiding:

The little guy’s forehead has healed up nicely. You’d never know he carried around two nasty pebbles in there for 4 months. He also got a new bike, and has been cruising around on two wheels. He had no issues with riding his sister’s hand-me-down princess bike, which he used all last season, but it was in pretty rusty condition, so here he is on the boy-bike:

Yesterday we got our 6 month post-placement visit done! Yeah! The most exciting thing about this is that the house is clean! I mean, as clean as it gets. Which isn’t all that clean, but wow, it feels EXTREMELY nice to have it as organized as it has ever been. I gave tons of stuff to the give-away table in the community center, so now we can see the carpet again in a couple of areas. I also found my favorite long-lost running shorts. Where, you ask? In with the DOLL CLOTHES. Esposo folded clothes one day. Maybe I should be flattered? Or perhaps insulted? Depends on the point of view I guess. Anyway, we have a long way to go yet before it’s as down to bare minimum stuffage as I’d like it to be. I need a housekeeper to keep my sanity. Dream on, huh?

And finally, today I’m packing, because tomorrow we are travelling again, this time to Duluth, MN for Grandma’s Marathon. Below is last year’s winner of Grandma’s Marathon, Wesley Ngetich, age 34, a 2:12 marathoner and father of 3, who won’t be back to defend his title because he was killed this past January at home in Kenya.

  

My dad, however, is running the 26.2, as he has every year since I was in junior high school. Since I just ran the Rock’n Roll less than 3 weeks ago and my wimpy self is maybe not 100% recovered from that, I’m not running it with him… I don’t think… I mean, that would be just nonsensical and irrational and sorta hard on my body, so I wouldn’t do that… Right? But I have a number just in case I change my mind. I’ll be checking back in from Duluth. Hasta entonces!!

Just a picture this morning

Nothing else matters

Anne and Steve’s beautiful 2 month old little girl, waiting for them in Ethiopia, has died.  I’m shocked. I’m mad at the universe. Some things just are NOT RIGHT, and there is nothing, nothing to do, nothing to say, that will make it OK. Her new daddy was leaving on THURSDAY for Ethiopia to be with her. In three days. I feel like I’m blinded by their pain. Right now, nothing else matters. Reality is so harsh. Sometimes life is just too hard.

The hair post

So far we’ve only done 3 “styles”  — and only one has required any amount of work.  Let’s take a look. First, there is the wash-and-grease-it into tight little ringlets, and let it be.  This is mommy’s favorite style because it requires no talent on my part, and not much patience on hers:  

The big disadvantages are that people think I’m not doing much with that child’s hair (true), and it has gotten long enough now so that it gets a little funky (puffy here, flat there) after a hard day of playing.

The second style is the headband. Mommy also loves the headband, because it disguises the funk when style 1 has had it.  It is even easier than style one, ’cause we can get up and go and slap a headband on — if I can find one: (cute puppy, huh?) 

The big disadvantage is that we go through headbands like they’re wipies.  Zufan takes them off, plays with them, and we lose them.

The third style was the ponytails:  

Looks nice, doesn’t it?  That was the only advantage.  I didn’t do the parts myself and I needed help getting the ponytails in, and then her hair oil made them all break within an hour, so I re-did them on my own, twice in one day!  They frizzed out after less than a day, so for four days straight I held her down or chased her around the room while my cramping up fingers put new rubber bands around them, trying to salvage the awesome parts in her hair. It was WAY more effort than it was cute. And it was pretty cute.

So now, what to do. I know Anne does a killer twist. That’s so cute, but I think I need a class or something for that one. My Ethiopian friend offered again to braid, but said we’d have to try to hold her still and it could be tough.  We’ll try that at least once, but since my pre-arthritic fingers can NOT learn to braid (I can’t knit, cross-stitch, latch-hook, or even write my own name legibly), and I really don’t want to depend on anyone, I’m thinking… maybe we could lock it?  I’ve always imagined that I would have a little boy with dreadlocks, so why not the girl?  We can still decorated it with clips and snaps. That takes a little maintenance, but at least it is the sort that I could do.  The esposo agrees (though not too enthusiastically, as he’d rather someone in our family learned to braid it), and we would get it professionally started.  But maybe she’s too young yet.  Advice?

Happy Father’s Day

Yes, I know a couple of them are scantily clad on this photo. At least it’s the little ones! Hope you’re all having a great Father’s Day!