Childhood

I just read this on Bits and Pieces. It's so lovely. I had to share it as well.


How to really love a child, by Sark

Be there. Say yes as often as possible. Let them bang on pots and pans. If they’re cranky, put them in water. Realize how important it is to be a child. Go to the movie theatre in your pajamas. Read books out loud with joy. Invent. Remember how small they really are. Giggle. Giggle a lot. Surprise them. Say no when necessary. Teach feelings. Heal your own inner child. Learn about parenting. Hug trees together. Make loving safe. Bake a cake and eat it with no hands. Go find elephants and kiss them. Plan to build a rocket ship. Imagine yourself magic. Makes lots of forts with blankets. Let your angel fly. Reveal your own dreams. Search out the positive. Keep the gleam in your eye. Write letters to God. Encourage silly. Plant licorice in your garden. Open up. Stop yelling. Express your love. A lot! Speak kindly. Paint their tennis shoes. Handle with care. Always remember ~ Children are miraculous.

Something Stinks in Our House

Something around here stinks really bad. It's so bad that as a family member walks near it they begin to cringe and sometimes even run the opposite direction. I've tried many solutions but none have worked so far. So here I am, asking you, my bloggies, for help. You see what stinks is my attitude and I can't seem to get it back in cheque. I am begging you for prayers! After having only a handful of nights where I slept through the night in the past 15 years, I caved and asked my doctor for medicine to help me sleep. Just like Hewey Luis, I have a new drug. And, I'm very thankful. Last night my dear, sweet husband offered to be "on call" for middle of the night needs of the children and for their earlier-than-I-can-take-it demands of the morning. BUT, my dear, sweet husband must have confused this mild sleeping-aid with general anesthesia, thinking that NOTHING would wake me up for 8 hours. So, he stayed up in the chair next to the bed with all the lights on, the radio on and pounding away at his keyboard and around 3am, I roared my ugle attitude and he became very aware that sleep aides are not the same as general anesthesia, so off to bed he went to. So my first nights sleep, that I was so hopeful for, was of no success. And today, I decided to throw my very own pitty party but my friends forgot to show up. It's a lonely party and I really, really need prayer! Please!

10 Silly Things Never to Ask

(Courtesy of Zack & Luke's Mom)
If you say any of these things to a family who has adopted the people may smile but they are going to tell the whole adoption blog community and we will laugh at you...... So friends, in my endless effort to keep you "cool" here is the "never to say list..."

1.Where is there mother? Answer: I am their mother!

2.Don't you want your own children? Answer: These are my OWN children.

3.How much did they cost? Answer: Not as much as a C-Section and alot less painful!

4.Will you learn Chinese? Answer: They will learn the language we speak at home, English (and any other language they or we choose to study).

5.Are they sibling? Answer: DUH!

6.Aren't you worried about the lack of attention your kids get since you have so many? Answer: No, our kids are our life. We give EACH of them everything they need and more!

7.Is there anything wrong with them? Answer: Can we talk about your crooked teeth?

8.Those kids are soooo lucky to have you guys. Comment: We are the ones who are lucky to have them! After all, we didn't choose them, God chose them for us.

9.Why China when there are children in the USA that need homes? There are two answers for this question. Polite Answer: China was the right choice for us at this time for many reasons. The Buckeye answer goes like this: "Is that where you are adopting from? Oh, you are not adopting... I just thought you might be since you are so interested in making sure the children in the good ole USA are taken care of."

10.Did you know that a friend of mine adopted a child and they had all kinds of problems? Answer: Adopted children are just that...children, and they do not come in just one type of package. I know this is hard to believe, but we know quite a few families who have never adopted and some of them have all kinds of problems with their children as well.

Our Beautiful Autumn

Autumn has a special story. One that is worth sharing. One that is her testimony of God's great love for her. One that says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". This little girl was born in China and brought on loving wings by God our father, to us. She was born with a cleft lip and palate but by the time she was 2 1/2 years old, she was also very delayed. Low muscle tone, could barely walk, couldn't stand up if she fell down. She was non-verbal, angry and yet oddly full of love as well. Within a year she was starting to speak, riding a bike, and by the next year was swimming, learning ballet and talking more and more. She has been home with us for 2 1/2 years, is turning 5 in just a few weeks and I am amazed at her beauty, her strength and the depth of her love. I'd like to share these progressive photos of our baby girl, Autumn.










We love you Autumn. God's light shines upon you and all around you. You shine bright in the universe for your maker!

Some Diapering Solutions

For those of you searching for some cloth diaper help, I wanted to post some things that are working very well for us and seem to be cost saving. (1) has to do with wipes (2) wipes solutions and (3) washing instruction help (4) a diaper bin solution

CLOTH WIPES:
I wanted to switch but since I'm in my last year of diapering babies, didn't want to keep spending too much money. You can sew some cheaply, if that is your thing. But, for me, what worked GREAT is Gerber Baby Wash Cloths. You can get a 6 pack at Walmart for just about $3. I bought 4 packs for a total of 24 wipes. When you are wiping the baby, you just throw these in with the diaper and wash them with the diapers. Once clean, just fold them in 1/2 and store in an old disposable wipes container.

WIPE SOLUTION:
Oh! I fretted over this one. I wanted to purchase a solution. It's so easy. You mix a bit with water and you're set to go. BUT, again, I was getting all antsy about the amount of money being spent. So I searched for a homemade solution and there are many out there to choose from. Here is what I settled on this time and it's working out wonderfully:
2 1/2 cups of filtered water
1/2 cup Witch Hazel
1 TBSP of Olive Oil
3 to 5 drops of Tea Tree Oil
3 to 4 drops of Lavender
Stir together and microwave for 30 seconds if you want. The oil does not mix, but you can get it into small beads in less than 1 minute of stirring.
Immediately pour over the wipes in the wipe box and squeeze it through all the wipes. The entire process took less than 5 minutes.

WASHING INSTRUCTIONS:
I use this on Hemp diapers, Thirsties AIO, Primm's AIO and prefolds.
Again, I wanted an inexpensive, non-mail ordered, effective detergent. I settled on and very much like Arm & Hammer Essientials FREE. It works and I am happy with it! It's about $8 for an 80oz bottle. I have washed daily for 6 weeks and it's still half full.

*Turn soiled diapers upside down over the toilet and flush the loose particals.
*Keep a large baking soda by the diaper bin and sprinkle a little baking soda in the soiled dipes.

Express/Short Wash (rinses the dirties off)
-Largest Load Water Setting
-Cold Water Only
-Fill detergent lid to the #3
-Sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/2 cup baking soda in with the detergent

Gentlest Cycle Wash with a 2nd rinse
-Largest Load Water Setting
-Water Temp on my washer is Hot/Cold
-No detergent or baking soda, just the water
(This will wash them in Hot and rinse them in cold. If you do not have the option like this, then simply wash on HOT or WARM. Then do another very short cycle or a rinse cycle on cold.) You can put a squirt of Lime Juice in this cycle if you think you need it but a month later, I still don't.

I like to dry mine in the dryer most times. But I also love the bleaching effect of the sun. So if there is any stains at all, no matter how small, I leave them out in the sun all day. And from time to time I put them all out in the sun. I want them to stay as clean, fresh and new as possible. Then I soften them up with a short dryer cycle.

DIAPER BIN
Another big thanks to Courtney for telling me about this cost saving solution.
*I bought a $5 (blue) LAUNDRY BAG at Walmart (in the ironing board aisle.)(I wash the laundry bag right side out, in the wash with the dipes.)
*I also bought (in the trash can aisle) a white $8 trash bin, that has a lid with handles that fold over on both sides to tightly close the lid. I put the bag in the bin so the stinkies of the diaper do not filtrate into the plastic of the bin. I don't pull the draw string. I just fold the laundry bag over and close the bin up.
*And, finally, in the air freshner isle, I bought a stick-on round disk from Arm & Hammer that is supposed to be used in the fridge but I placed it in my diaper bin.
*In addition, I have always had a wall hanging Lysol air freshner in the laundry room, so I push the spray button whenever I open the lid to the pail, just to get an odor out of the air. I don't know if this is necessary but I don't have any odor in the laundry room.

Again, I hope this helps someone with FRUGAL DIAPERING. :-)

Be Blessed.

Diaper Days Update

It's been over a month since we switched to cloth diapers. The switch was slow because I didn't want to order a bunch at once and not like them. But now I have all the diapers we need for 2 babies, to last for 2 days. I must say, cloth diapering is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy!!!! There is not much to it at all and I don't know why I didn't switch a long time ago.

We are officially 100% on cloth diapers but the night time diapering was tough. The first several weeks both babies leaked at night and it seemed to be getting worse, not better. So for a few weeks we used disposables at night. And, my friend Kimberly, had told me once to use 2 disposable diapers at night on heavy wetters. So Aaron was doubled up and that worked great. No leaks. So if you are suffering from night time leaks, this method works very well.

A great big THANK YOU to my friend Courtney!!! She blessed us hugely with some diapers she was not using. She gave us a bag full of prefolds and I had not ever tried them before. They are GREAT! Lily is mostly wearing those full time now. But, they are our Nighttime Solution!!! Woo Hoo!!!! If you have a heavy night wetter, here is what's working. I take a Thirsies brand AIO dipe, lay a prefold down on it and Wa-La! Niether of my babies has leaked through. THANK YOU COURTNEY!!!



As far as my favorite AOI dipe , it is the Primm N Proper Baby dipe, from Meaghan. She is a WAHM in Spokane and she does great quality work. I was able to get Thirsties on sale twice and so I have a nice stock of them and suppliment with those when all the Primm's are used up. To me they both work equally well but the Primm's are better made, have better velcro and are much trimmer than the other dipes we have. So they get a 5 star and Thirsties gets a 4 star simply because they are not as trim and the velcro is not as strong.

I hope this helps somebody out there trying to decide which cloth diapers to buy and if you can do it or not.
If you need to contact me with questions, you can leave a comment by clicking on the subject line of each post and the comment section will be at the bottom of that page.

Extra Kya Photos

Kya went with me when I took Lily to have her 1yr old photos taken at Sears. While Lily was having a fit and I was trying to calm her down, the photographer took these photos of Kya, to help keep Kya entertained. We bought the CD of all the pics, so I am to post these to the web. I think they are cute, even though she was not there for a photo-shoot. And, since I have them and she's in her favorite shirt, I thought I'd show them off.

The fun of being a child

I run around all day cleaning up, controlling sibling rivalries, wiping up spills, changing diapers, making meals, kissing boo-boos, giving reminders about manners, homeschooling and finally passing out at night. And here are the photos that remind me that I just need to take a minute longer and enjoy the moment.

The joys of being a child...


Going back to sleep in mom's bed


Being a Ballarina

And Being a Princess Too


Enjoying your new exercise trampoline


Decorating for Dad's homecoming

Buying sparkly pink tennis shoes because you think Hannah Montana would like them


Having fun with your food


Your first bikini


If being a princess and a ballarina is not enough, you can also be a rockstar


Getting the most of your potato salad.
Now that the belly is full, ahhhh, the facial feels great and is so relaxing
(Hmmm, why didn't mom think of that one?)


Giving the dog a bath (something is wrong with this?)


And, my personal favorite goes to......

Dressing however the heck you wish! (And SERIOUSLY just this week I wondered why the occupational therapist wanted to teach Autumn to dress. Maybe she was right after all....or not!)

!!!Aaron's 1st Steps!!!

My baby boy took his first steps on Saturday, August 23rd. I was lucky enough to run and get the camera and capture it on a short video. He was 13 months old.

So Very Unspectacular

I was tagged by Bits and Pieces. For this tag I have been asked to name 6 things that are unspectacular about me.

So here they are:

1. I am not sure why I don't like blogging about anything except my children. I guess I adore them and find myself rather boring.

2. I like my house most after a group gathering here. I guess because it's been cleaned up and has fresh, wonderful, just made memories. (like fresh made cookies)

3. I insist on taking a shower before bed. In my pea-brain I think this allows me to wash my sheets less often (and I beg that you not correct me if I'm wrong.)

4. I get bored easily with all things in life except for my loved ones.

6. I love meeting new people and having lots of gatherings. But I go through phases were I must retreat and be alone with myself and my family and get some down time. These phases can last for a few weeks each year.

and here's a bonus one:

7. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.



For this tag, I would love to tag my Mom, but she is so very busy, I will get her next time, after her convention at the end of Sept. But, I would also like to tag Debbie and I know she has time! :-) So blog away my friend. I can't wait to read your blog update.

Because her birth mother chose life...

Four years ago today we received the referral of our beautiful daughter, Kya Xia Yu (Summer Rain). She was 9 months old and I was a first time mom, overwhelmed with love, emotions and pride. This was the first picture we saw of our baby girl.

The next day we received these two precious pictures in the mail.



And here she is today. Four years old and full of LIFE, HOPE and a FUTURE. We are so thankful that her birth mother chose life, that she is here with us today, that our arms are full and not empty, that we were blessed by the miracle of adoption.






And, that was just the start of our journey. Over the next 3 1/2 years, we would bring home our 4 children who would change our life, making it richer, happier and blessed. Over and over and over again, we are thankful for our blessings and for the gift of LIFE.

Autumn Xian Fei

Lily Alejandra

Aaron Gabriel

Do I live in a cave?

Okay, why is it that until last night I did not know that the Democrats are primarly Pro-Choice and Republicans Pro-Life? I started to wonder what cave I've been living under all these years.






Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you....Jeremiah 1:5