Who knows what you just might find...

Today, the kids and I found ourselves in the midst of a huge neighborhood garage sale. Every street we went down there was house after house with a garage sale. Now, I love and adore garage sales. With three children and two more (hopefully) on the way from Ethiopia, we have to not only feed and entertain this army but we also have to prepare to pay for that many college educations. Thus...the reason I love garage sales. You can find whatever you might need...as long as you are a little patient with your searching. I have found anything from bikes, to clothes, to way too many toys to count.

My favorite find of all at a garage sale was several years ago. It was a HUGE box filled to the brim with Lego's. I actually had to talk my husband into buying it for $100.00. Now, you have to understand that this box had hundreds of sets of Lego's (with instructions) but they were literally dumped into the box. All he saw was the work involved and all I saw was the investment...come to find out...we were both right. It took us one year to separate the colors and then one by one put together all of the Lego sets. (The pictures below is when our year long project was winding down and there wasn't too much left) In the end we had tub after tub after tub filled with Lego sets labeled and placed in plastic ziploc bags and stored away...hundreds of them.

Now, you might be asking what we are planning to do with them all...I joke with my husband that I'm going to send all of us on a vacation somewhere warm. Who knows? For now, I no longer have to talk my husband into any of my garage sale finds.

...cause who knows what you just might find

What colors fill your cup?

For our adoption process we were required to take 2 full days of "classes on adoption". These classes were to help us with the integration of an adoptive child into our home as well as becoming a multi-cultural family. We talked for hours and did many class "exercises" during this time. There was one exercise that we did that was incredibly thought-provoking for me.

Our instructor gave us all one clear plastic cup and a bag full of multi-colored M and M's. Each color of an M and M's represented a certain ethnic group that we come in contact with day in and day out. For example...the red M and M's represented White, blue represented Indian, yellow represented Black and so forth. So the exercise went something like this...

"Place three M and M's in your cup for the ethnic group that represent your family. Place three M and M's in your cup that represent the ethnic group in your church. Place one M and M in your cup that represents your hairdresser...and on and on it went...from teachers to friends...to even restaurants that you frequent". She continued to ask us to fill our cup.

Until this time, I really thought that we had quite the multi-cultural surrounding...but when you see it visually represented in front of you...you see that you are not always right. So now, as we begin to prepare ourselves to become a multi-cultural family I often think about that exercise and our cup.

...so what colors fill your cup?

...thanks for the laugh little brother

My little brother has been blessed with a wonderful gift. It's the gift to make people laugh. Now, I'm not talking the class clown kind of laugh, but the whole heart from the belly kind of laugh. You know, the kind of laugh that when you are done your eyes water and your sides hurt. I love being around him. He's full of life and energy...you can just feel it.

My little brother is a free-lance writer and an independent film producer. Many of his films are comedic versions involving sports and "men-stuff" (which I don't always understand...because I'm not into sports...but, I can appreciate the unique view of it). However, he just produced a short film and I must tell you that I laughed until my sides hurt over this one. At first I really had no idea where this film was going...wondered a little about my little bro...but then realized in the end...just how clever he really was. (...my favorite is the very last line...).



This film was accepted to the Chicago comedy short video and film festival. Can't wait to see how it does. Either way, I'm proud of him.

...thanks for the laugh little brother

One more step closer...

Well, we are one more step closer to receiving our referral. We found out today that our dossier is now officially in Ethiopia. Apparently it took the long route to get to there...but no matter. I'm just ecstatic that it's officially there. So for now, we are praying everyday that the Lord will lead us to the right children and just protect those children until we can get there.

...just hold on...we're coming

The garden has left the building...

These past few days my husband's parents have been visiting us...and with their visit comes lots of help...and that help just happens to be with my vegetable garden. Now, I am an avid perennial gardener but this is my first year for a vegetable garden. My mother and father in-law have always had a large garden...so suddenly I became the student...and they the teachers. I learned so much as we tilled and planted. I learned about spacing and how the plant is going to grow. I found it all so incredibly fascinating while truly enjoying spending time with them.

It's times like these that I miss the fact that we are so very far from any of our family...it's at least 12 hours in many different directions to get to some of them. And while we planted and laughed and talked throughout the day, I was so happy to have had this time. Especially when I can go down to the basement (where all the plants were growing "way out of control") and we can finally say...

...the garden has left the building

A big green smelly ball...

Around this time every year I begin to bug my husband for somewhat of an unusual item - my Mother's day gift. Now, it's not the same thing every year that I ask for...but let's just say...that's it's not your standard, run-of-the-mill Mother's day gift.

Take for instance...a couple of years ago we were in the middle of renovating our house and I asked him for a ladder (...not just any kind of ladder...but the kind that bends into all kinds of directions). Oooh, just thinking about it gets me all excited...because I love to renovate/paint/tile just about anything. Weird, I know...but it's what I love. Another year I asked for a complete flower garden and last year,I believe,I asked for a nail gun...unfortunately, my husband drew the line on that one (given my accident prone nature...I really wasn't surprised).

So this year, I plopped down next to him with the laptop and it went something like this..."Oooh, look what I found, honey." "What?" "It's a ball composter. You see, you take weeds, food scraps and leaves and put them in the ball...roll it around...and in about a month you get good compost for my vegetables and flowers." "So let me get this straight...this year you want a big green smelly ball for Mother's day?"

...hmmm....basically

A table full of love and laughter...

Family dinners at our house are an event and anyone who has visited us during dinner knows this first hand. As the meal is nearing completion all of the children descend upon the area in a stampeding fashion...all the while yelling "dinnertime!" After the hand-washing process/arguing is finished, each child has a specific job in order to hurry the dinner process along. Our smallest does napkins but longs to do the forks, while our middle one does forks but longs to do the plates and the oldest passes out the plates and drinks (and quite often spills something...maybe we should rethink the job status).

After the plates are on the table and everyone is seated does the fun really begin. We all hold hands and each one of us (children included) say their own little prayer one at a time. Now, this really does make a lot of people nervous who visit us for a dinner...you know...thinking they have to come up with some kind of material when it's their turn...so we just smile and chuckle a bit.

My favorite prayer is my smallest...actually it's a song. She came home from church one day and said that she had learned a prayer/song she wanted to teach us. It has hand motions and she was pretty sure it was the right hand motions (not 100% though...). So the song has stuck...and each night we do hand motions that may or may not be saying "Thank you Jesus...thank you Jesus". Who knows we could be motioning that we love pigs or something. But you know...I don't think the Lord minds one bit.

After prayer...the laughter abounds. The children all speak at once and the sound volume goes up tremendously. I love the stories that are told again and again (even if everyone there knows the ending). And it's rare that dinner ever gets done fast...cause who'd ever want to leave a table full of love and laughter...and a little bit of spilled milk.