Digging to China

We have dug through a mound of paperwork and appointments and evaluations for the past year -- enough to make it to China -- and have found the treasure! A little guy named Min Yi Liu who is waiting to join our family. He will be 1-year-old on September 23rd, and we anticipate being able to have him home by his first birthday!
Nick and I have felt a desire to adopt since even before Abi was born. We just never felt like it was the right time. However, last May we both knew it was time to start on the journey of adoption. While the prospect of adding another child to our family is both terrifying and exciting, we know it's what we've been called to do and wouldn't miss the opportunity of loving him for anything.
We'll share more details of our journey soon, and when the appropriate paperwork is final with China, we'll be able to share pictures of his chubby little cheeks and spiky fuzz of hair.

Livin' on Tulsa Time

This weekend, we made a trip to Tulsa. Despite not being able to find a radio station that played "Livin' on Tulsa Time" all the time like Nick wanted, we did find a lot of things to enjoy as a family: the zoo, the aquarium, the Kaleidoscope Museum, and the Leapin' Louie's Lagoon in the hotel.

Petting stingrays and baby sharks

Brandon was perfectly happy there was a "one-finger" rule when petting the aquatic life!Cami enjoyed "doctoring" Daddy in the doctor's office in the Kaleidoscope town. And checking groceries. And playing dress-up on-stage.I need one of these jail cells at home!Postman B stayed busy delivering packages all around Kaleidoscope.And I got to enjoy a hairwashing at the salon.

The kids could have spent all day at Leapin' Louie's!

The zoo wore everyone out!

My little icicles at the snowhouse.

They got to "pet" lots of dead things at the zoo.

He Knows Me Well

Precious, lump-headed Brandon made a Mother's Day gift book for me at Mother's Day Out today. He answered questions about me, proving just how well my sensitive little man knows me.

• "My mom's favorite color is ... purple."

• "My mom looks very pretty when she ... goes to church." About the only time I'm not in stinky workout clothes. :o)

• "I like it when my mom ... puts me to bed." Such a sweet snuggle time with him!

• "My mom makes me laugh when she ... hits Daddy's head." Don't know about this one! Swear!
  

• "My mom's favorite thing to do is ... clean up the carpet!" I love that kid!

All Since 7:45 p.m.!

How and why do these things happen to that boy?!
Brandon is now sporting a jumbo egg-sized knot on his head. Nick surprised us with a picnic dinner at the park to watch the sun set and play on the playground. I was looking at the kids, including Brandon, thinking, "What a delightful bunch, munching on their dinner, making small talk." All of a sudden, Brandon simply disappears from the picnic table! Sounded like a watermelon cracking when his head hit the concrete! How?! Why?! Because these things happen so often, I've taken to carrying several instant cold packs in the car.
We're getting the kids ready for bath, while repeatedly promising Brandon "I won't wash your bump!" and we find a tick on his "weenie." After much struggling, Nick was able to remove the tick, and a conversation then begun about "what are those things with round balls in them under my weenie? Does Abi have those? Why not?"
All in one night.

Be Still My Heart

I think I'm in love!

My steam cleaner died a few weeks ago, and I can't go very long without one. A dog, a cat, and three kids necessitate at least weekly quick clean-ups. So, since the Bissell and Hoover models don't seem to last very long, I decided to look at the next step up. I googled "steam cleaners," and a link to the commercial-grade Rug Doctor came up. My heart skipped a beat, my pupils dilated, and my palms started sweating .... I was in love! Then, I found it at Kohls.com for 33% off, added an online promotional code for another 15% off, collected enough Kohl's bucks to buy the kids jeans for next fall ... and set off on the inaugural cleaning. At risk of embarrassing myself, here are the fruits of my labor -- from about 25 square feet of carpet!!

Choo Choo!

Saturday night, Brandon dreamed about being in a magic train that could fly over the tops of the trees ... "just like we did on the train today, Momma!"We rode the passenger train out of Van Buren, and Brandon's favorite part was driving on the tall trestles, literally taller than the forest around us. However, we couldn't get Brandon to understand that we were still on tracks. He was absolutely convinced we were flying -- the blending of his two favorite things, trains and planes.
Abi's favorite part was the bathroom with the foot pedal flusher and miniature-sized sink. She spent a large part of the trip in the bathroom!
Camryn's favorite part was the goldfish crackers MeeMaw Sandy brought along.Cami giving sweet kisses before we boarded the train!

Complex Little Camryn

This photo is so "Camryn" -- nails freshly polished and a scrape on her knee! She's so full of opposing characteristics, idiosyncrasies.

The girls enjoyed a mommy-manicure this afternoon. Abi painted her own fingers, I mean nails, bright red. After a few Q-tips soaked in polish remover, her fingers no longer look like they're bleeding!

Camryn's manicure started off a little rough, because she mistakenly thought that she would be painting her own nails. We had a bit of a struggle before she finally relented to a "little help" from Mom. She is so headstrong! She did love her "pink thingers" (aka pink fingers), in the end. She loved the princess nail dryer -- too much -- she and Abi ended up in a scuffle over the diva dryer. Sisters!Don't miss the Super Woman tattoo on the bicep!

Camryn has been asking to wear "pannies" lately, so I decided we'd just try and see what happened. She lasted about 20 minutes in the first pair, after emphatic promises that she would not pee-pee on Dora. I discovered her leakiness by stepping in the pee puddle. So, with a fresh pair of panties, we ventured out of the house, only to soak her panties, pants, shoes, wicker chair, and floor underneath at the local Mexican restaurant. I was fully expecting that to happen, so I had a diaper in tow. I think she likes the idea of wearing "pannies" but lacks the focus just yet. Got a cute picture out of it, though!

Really?

Has it really been four years?

It was a day just like today -- kinda warm, breezy, sunny -- I wish I had it recorded in a way that I could show others what I see in my mind. For some reason, God made me notice the smallest details about that day, vividly. I wish I had a picture to share of Abi standing on the side of the livestock trailer, looking at "her" new cows, the smell of cow wafting in the breeze, her curls blowing in the wind. I wish I had a photo of Brandon's tiny fingers reaching out for the leaves, shining in the sunlight as they flitted in the wind, held up to the tree by the loving arms of his grandfather. I wish I had a way of sharing the smell of deviled eggs and sandwich meats from the last meal we shared together. I wish I could perfectly reproduce the clanging of the post driver I heard as they built a fence for the cows. I wish we could have that day one more time.

We love you and miss you terribly, Papa Ray! We miss you as our father, our grandfather, our friend.

Big Birthday Girl!

Abi decided that she wanted to take a few friends to Chuck E. Cheese's, rather than having the frog-themed birthday party with a bigger group of friends that she had originally planned. So, we picked up a few friends after school, hit Happy Hour, headed to Creekmore Park for some fun in the sun, played games and ate pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's, went to the mall for a cookie from the Cookie Company, and watched a movie in the car on the way home.

What I learned from Abi's big girl birthday: we need a 15-passenger van to hold all the giggles of sweet little girls, Brandon is going to suffer greatly at the hands of her sisters and her friends, and kids either love or hate the mouse man at Chuck E. Cheese's and no amount of soothing talk will change that!

Abi and Paige after school.The Happy Hour GirlsYes, that's blood on Cam's shirt. It was our only blood-incident -- at least it was my kid and it didn't involve a loss of teeth!

Mexican Food Poisoning

At this time six years ago, I still carried my firstborn in my womb ... I had just enjoyed a delicious meal on the outdoor patio of my favorite Mexican restaurant, a long walk in the park by our house, a foot rub with a yummy peppermint lotion by my mom, and was relaxing comfortably, chatting on the phone with a teaching colleague. I was anticipating an early bedtime, knowing I would have a long day the next day, supervising the senior class trip to a Cardinals baseball game in St. Louis. It was my due date, and Nick was still trying to talk me out of riding the bus to the game and to ride in the car instead.
At 11 p.m., exactly one hour after going to bed, I awoke to the most horrible back pain I've ever felt -- well, I'd felt it one other time a month earlier. And after embarrassing myself by going to the hospital and being sent home when the pain stopped upon arriving at the hospital, I assumed that it was, again, muscle spasms in my back. I couldn't lie still, so I went downstairs so I wouldn't wake Nick up. As soon as I got downstairs, the onslaught of diarrhea began -- I was cussing the nice Hispanic gentlemen who worked at El Maguey, certain they'd given me food poisoning. I tried several times to crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees, only to be quickly relegated back to the downstairs bathroom for another "episode." For over half an hour, I was loudly calling, "Nick! Mom! Help me!" Nothing. Except a battle of snoring from upstairs.

Finally, I made it back up the stairs and caught my mom in a lighter sleep cycle, I suppose, because she finally came to. She sprayed warm water on my back for about an hour in the shower, but when the pain didn't stop, she said to Nick, "I think you need to get your clothes on. We're going to the hospital." I will never forget his face.
I tried to talk them out of it because it was the same pain I felt the month before, and I didn't want to get the "You're a first-time mom" treatment again. It certainly never crossed my mind that I was in labor. Wow!
After standing outside of the garage in a very cool April night for almost half an hour, Nick comes out and says, "Well, there's been a change of plans." Finally, he believes me that I don't really need to go to the hospital, just a dose of anti-diarrhea medicine. No, the hospital was full. Nick had called ahead, and they sent us to another hospital because there wasn't one single bed for me. They said I'd have to have the baby in the lobby if we showed up there. But, I wasn't having a baby yet, so it really didn't matter. I just needed to satisfy Nick and my mom, get a muscle relaxer for my back, get back home and get some sleep before tomorrow morning.

After running a stop light, a stop sign, and missing the entrance to the hospital, we arrived at the hospital. The nurse was giving me that pursed lip, you're-wasting-my-time look because I said I didn't need a wheelchair in the elevator up to L&D. Now, didn't her face change when she checked me and said that I was 9 cm and that I should not, no matter what, push!

Just a short bit later, my precious Abigayle Grace was born! What a beauty! My first thought about her was that her lips looked like a perfectly shaped heart. I still love to kiss those little lips! Those long, dark eyelashes! And those fat little thighs! And that round, bald head!