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| Nashville Marathon & Half 2:53:52 Overall: 16462 out of 21944 · Division: 1066 out of 1668 · Gender: 9635 out of 13966 |
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| Looking to go 6-0 and find a family for our basketball star... |
Remember Krazy-Straws?
I do.
A fond child of the 70's memory...Saturday mornings filled with HR Puff N Stuff, School House Rock and commercials for must have items like the KRAZY-STRAW.
The Krazy-Straw. Not your run of the mill straw. So much more than a bendy straw. A swirling, twirling pipeline of fun that turned drinking your milk (or orange flavored Tang in my case) into a game!
Who could resist slurping liquid through an intertwining maze of loop-de-looped plastic tubing?
That 15 second delay while your red dye #5 Kool Aid traveled to your lips was high entertainment back then.
I had one once...
until it gunked up with milk from my bowl of Fruit Loops
and my mother insisted on tossing it in the trash.
**bittersweet memories**
When I came across Krazy-Straw GLASSES (arguably the craziest Krazy-Straw of them all) in the Target dollar bins a wave of nostalgia swirled around me and I knew they had to be added to the kid's Easter baskets.
And a generation later they are still a hit.
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| My first (like in my whole life) medal! |
Facebook friends with your 20 year old son has it's perks. These are pictures I just found posted on Kiefer's wall. They are from some of his cohorts in the wilderness first responder program in Patagonia. I just thought they were cool and wanted to share!
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| playing doctor is really different at 20 |
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| Kiefer is standing, 4th from the right |
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| my boy in the middle |
"I'm not asking but....What do you know about Gisela?"
That was my very short email to Steph Crouch over at Great Wall China Adoption at 2:03pm today.
And at 2:10 pm, this is what I got back...
"that she is absolutely ADORABLE!!!"
Also...
"she has an abnormal brain CT, and a neuro that reviewed it says she's at higher risk for seizures, which is why i added epilepsy to her list. she has not had any documented seizures that i know of. she has what appears to be mild cp, mildly affecting her right side. she can walk, she just limps. when i updated her listing with the needs, i was going off what the family told me (dad's a doctor) but after reviewing her info again, i don't think it all fits. i've changed her special needs on the photo listing. at any rate, her's a taste of what her last update said:
c. Can she speak in sentence of 3-5 words? No, she can’t speak complete sentence. She can only say word such as “Mom, dad, sister and nanny” in Chinese.
d. Can she say the names of her friends and objects in her environment (ball, chair, shoe, etc)?
She knows the names of her friends but she can’t express verbally. She knows the objects in her environment but can’t say the words. If you tell her to get the ball, she would take it to you.
e. How are her fine motor skills? She can pick up small object and put it into her mouth. She can eat biscuit by herself. She can play the toys.
f. How are her gross motor skills? She can crawl, walk, run and jump.
g. How do they feel her cognitive development is compared to her peers?
She knows the praise and criticism. She knows the good and bad. She would prepare the chair for her caregiver and help with the housework. She knows to wipe the mouth after the meal. Her cognitive development has no delay compared to her peers. She is sweet and affectionate. "
So THEN at 7:55pm I sent this email to Stephanie
"OK now I AM asking for the file....if Gisela is still available Dart and I would like to review her file, (gulp)"
Gymnastics Coach: "Holy Toledo"
Nina: "My mom says holy crap"
Busted.
I'm out of town and can't write today so how about YOU write to me. Tell me about how your sweet innocent little angel busted you!
(make sure you check back, knowing my readers these comments are going to be good)
GISELA HAS A FAMILY!
Hallelujah! All of the kids I have introduced on this blog have either found their families or are pending with a family right now!!
Which means it's time to meet another darling little one.
I’m not gonna lie, Macy is like the perfect kid.
To quote her teacher (also a China adoptive parent) at our last parent conference, “wow you hit the lottery when you adopted her”.
Certainly we agree, we are very lucky parents and on the surface I think most would see a perfectly lovely and VERY well behaved child.
What they wouldn’t see is an adopted child who has only been home for 10 months. Who was adopted at almost 4 years old. Who remembers her other family.
And who remembers leaving them.
A friend of mine recently told me that her son was terrified to sit on the toilet. When she asked him why he was afraid he said “I don’t want to lose you”. It took her weeks to figure out why. Apparently he had watched the movie Finding Nemo ( a hundred times in a row the way kids do) and had gotten in his head that HE might fall into the toilet, be sucked out to sea and get lost.
Kids do that.
Apply immature kid logic to their world. One they can’t possibly understand and certainly do not control.
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| Macy moments after her foster mother left. |
Just a few pictures of my sweet girls from this week...
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| Macy working on a counting assignment at school |
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| All ready for gymnastics |
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| Modeling their new leo's |
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| girl giggles are the best |
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| real princesses sleep in their crowns |
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| more giggles |
A couple of days ago my blogger friend, neighbor (and the person who got me hooked into these contests) Anne White forwarded another blogger’s angry rant about bloggers who enter contests and then bug the crap out of their readers and facebook friends to vote for them.
Ummm guilty.
And yes if I’m being perfectly honest the article made some fair points.
Yes the contests are more about popularity and whose legion of readers are more click happy than who the best writer is.
I don't claim to be a writer. Blogging is a “social media”. It requires connection, interaction and a sense of friendship with people not “just” great prose. It's facebook without Mark Zuckerberg changing the layout every two minutes!
Heck if you’ve been here before you know I hardly even have to write two cogent sentences to get votes.
My readers forgive that sort of stuff and you know what?
...I like them, I care about them, I know a lot of them and many, MANY of them ARE good friends...
with crazy, mad, clicky, voting skills.
(Get over it---jealousy is unbecoming.)
And yes it's true that the contests are set up to draw blog traffic to the host site. (I’m guessing a bunch of you would never have visited Top Mommy Blogs or Circle of Moms if not for your (much appreciated) voting efforts on my behalf.)
But here is the thing, I’m not some mindless dolt who doesn't know she is being used. I know the hosts glom onto my site traffic but it is reciprocal; these contests have helped introduce my blog to many new readers.
My blog traffic has increased by almost 40% since I joined TMB and Circle of Moms.
And yes it's true, I did in fact bug the freaking crap out of every person I thought could possibly toss a vote in my direction.
Undoubtedly there were some who unfriended me or at least chose to “hide” my posts.
(Some of you just left to “hide” me right now!)
This point I really can't argue. I've been a total pain in the ass vote whore.
So why do it?
Why do I care, beyond my own ego, about reaching the top of the mom blog lists or getting a pink badge that proclaims my family to be "inspiring"?
Well have you noticed the word MOMMY in the one contest and FAMILIES in the other?
That's not random.
It is what I call a target rich audience.
And make no mistake the target is families for the kids I’m advocating for.
Want proof that this works?
As of last night Molly’s post was viewed 2,642 times.
My last update on her written just 2 days ago has already been viewed 814 times.
And that doesn't count how many times she was viewed on facebook.
Oh and there is this...
After a waiting for more than a year on the shared list
Molly has a family!
And Kaleb has a family too!
(Praise God!!!)
So with respect to the person who wrote about how bothersome and shameless and annoying we contest vote beggars are...
and with apologies to those friends and readers that I actually did annoy the crap out of...
and to those of you who unfriended and hid me (not that you will ever see this)
I say to you all
It was worth it.
Pending
Children who are shown as "Pending" are currently under review by a family. If that family does not move forward to adopt that child, they will become available for review once more, and the "Pending" tag will be removed. If the family chooses to pursue the adoption of this child, they will be shown as "Placed".
I want to introduce you to another beautiful little girl who has stolen my heart. Olivia was born in June 2007 . She lives with her foster family and they describe her as sweet and quiet.
My goodness don't you just want scoop her up, cover her in kisses and make her smile.
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| Poor little thing looks like she has a bump on her head:( |
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| Nina Bea & Macy Bel...they attracted a crowd during the photo shoot. |
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| The only pic of our whole vacation crew: Aidan, Macy, Dart, Nina, Me, Alexa, Kiefer and Nolan. It's a minor miracle we got this one. As you can likely tell some people in the photo did not want to get their picture taken. NOLAN! |
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| The cliche cruise photo...in front of a picture of cruise ship... so weird but look we bought one. ..still it IS weird. |
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