Getting Better

Well so far I feel like I might get back to my old self sometime in the future. I will continue taking my Lunesta to help me sleep and work on trying to not let things get to me so much....read...try not to be such a perfectionist with the stupid stuff. hehe

I know I need to stop and smell the roses and enjoy the kids for who and what they are, my beautiful blessings. I need to TRY not to worry about the house not being picture perfect and if someone comes and there are toys on the floor they can always step over them or choose not to visit. I will have SOME extra help as Curtis will be done with school for a while and will be able to help out a little more when he is home instead of doing homework non stop. He can also bring work home to catch up on it and earn some over time pay as well.

I have felt a tremendous frustration with the office I work with in Haiti. The communication has been almost non existent lately and I am frustrated for my families. Things move at the speed of sap in the winter, but when you are hearing nothing about your babies it can be an overwhelming feeling. I will be calling AGAIN this week to see if I can jar any info. out of them that I can for the families that are waiting. I have several that should either be traveling soon, getting out of IBESR (Haitian Social Services) or getting referrals (always a fun time...like the stork for me!!)

My 10 Year Olds Question

For those of you that have never met my almost 10 year old son Hunter, I wanted to post to you a question he asked me this evening.He is extremely bright and floors us with the things he says and does, here is his question...

Mom, will global warming make us vegetarians?

WHAT? Maybe I need more Lunesta!!!

What is Going On

Lets see. Kai has lost ANOTHER tooth, his second in the same number of weeks! Yeah for the tooth fairy, the kid will be loaning me money soon!

Went to the Muay Thai fights last night as Medic again. Pretty good, a couple of our Sidekick fighters won some big matches. I butterfly bandaged several eye cuts etc. Most interesting of the night was a guy that broke his cheek bone and it dislodged his eyeball....yes folks, his eyeball was somewhat gouged out....EEWW Anyway, we sent him to the hospital to have it put back in. Hopefully he will not have to have to much surgery etc...pray for the poor fella will ya?!

Curtis is finishing up this block of schooling. I think he is going to take a break for a while. He is feeling in a rut and that he is missing out on time with us fun people we call family!

Got the kids social security cards in the mail...now we can add them to our taxes as our children, that is always good. hehe

My Assistant Amy is officially/unofficially gone from Heritage now. I like my new assistant, but she isn't Amy. I got her a card to send and hope it gets to her before she leaves for Spain apartment hunting...she and I found some awesome places on the internet...mansions..hehehe. I feel like I am losing a limb. I like that her number will stay a US number and she and I can email, but I will miss her just the same.

I am going to the Dr. tomorrow to see how I am doing, well, to discuss how I am doing. As you may be able to see, I am posting this at 11:49pm Mountain time...I have taken Lunesta and I am STILL awake. I am hoping to get a couple more 'normal' weeks in and see where I am at then. I will update more after my appointment.

Better go to bed for tonight....6:30am comes early here!

A Lost Tooth

Kai got to experience his first ever loose tooth!
I told him Thursday that his tooth was loose and would be coming out soon. Low and behold, he and Hunter, Demi Roo and Nikaya and friends were jumping on the trampoline and Hunter went to kick and hit Kai right in the smoocher. OUT flew Kai's tooth and blood began to run down his lip. At first everyone was a little freaked out by the blood, but once I calmed them down and showed Kai the hole in his mouth he thought it was pretty cool. We went back to the trampoline to find the tooth...could not find it anywhere. All of a sudden, Hunter says "oh, here it is...on my pant leg". There was Kai's tooth stuck to the leg of Hunter's jeans. hehe

Thursday night the tooth fairy came to visit and Kai got his first ever tooth fairy money. That kid would go NO WHERE without his tooth fairy money. When I tried to convince him to leave it at home, he swore someone would take it. I finally convinced him to leave it for our Birthday swim party on Friday....thank goodness....and when he came home it was right where he left it just as I had promised! ;-)

A big first for our little guy....now we will work on bike riding....

A New Experience

Today Kai and Nikaya got to enjoy a new experience.....a movie in a theater.
I took Demi Roo, Kai and Nikaya to 'Happy Feet' at the dollar theater....well, actually $2.00 theater, but who is counting..
We had popcorn and a lemonade and enjoyed the show...the kids LOVED the music and dancing in the movie and sat well for it, especially for their first time. Hunter and Curt went to see '300' a big epic picture that we knew the littler kids would not enjoy. Good thing, Curt said the movie was good, but really graphic violence and some sexual content. Hunter loved the battle scenes, but spent some time with his eyes closed during the scenes he shouldn't see. All in all, everyone had fun and we met at home and must now make dinner.....a mommies job is never done!

Struggling

As of lately I have been struggling health wise. Starting in Novemeber 2006, I had emergency gallbladder surgery. One month to the day we arrived in Haiti for 10 days....lifting kids and traveling international when I had not gotten clearance to go anywhere. January was pretty good for all of us, than February hit. February has been wrought with colds, flu, back pain and stress for me. Curtis is going to school and is not as readily able to help in the child care area as we had hoped. I know that struggling health wise has caused my mental faculties to suffer as well. I am not being the mommy I had hoped to be. I am crabby, snappy and all around a big boob to be around sometimes. I have talked to other families who have had some of the same symptoms and have pretty much figured out that I have Post Adoption Depression Syndrome. PADS is alot like Post Partum Depression....but for the adopter as opposed to the birther....make sense? I know, no one had better go Scientologist on me and tell me I could make myself better with some colonic or something...hehe
Anywhoo...I have an appointment with my Dr. on Monday to have him evaluate me and get my med's adjusted. As someone who suffers from depression and Fibromyalgia anyways, it should not surprise me that I have this .

I am just struggling with the stigma that goes along with it. While I am moody and whiny and weepy, I have friends that do not understand. I usually hear "well, YOU are the one who went out and adopted the kids" or "You WANTED to add more kids to your family..." DUH...I know that, but it doesn't change hormones, mental issues etc...that can come along with a major life change. Makes me want to tell the ones that say that to stick it where the sun doesn't shine!!!
I am so happy to have the kids home, I would NOT change that for the world. What I cannot change and must deal with is that I have doubled my children and not the number of hours in the day, I did not grow another two arms to help out in the extra work, and I sure didn't get any extra brain cells to help me with their coming home issues etc. Don't get me wrong, the kids have bonded well and couldn't be better....they are needy, but I can deal with that. All I can say is that I am not the mommy I want to be right now.
I will post more once I go to the Dr. and can figure it all out. Until then, prayers would greatly be appreciated!!!

Picture Post

Here is a picture post from the last little bit.
1. Kai with Skittles...he loves that cat now
2. Kai in Hunter's sparring gear
3. Nikaya in sparring gear
4. Hunter ski night...boy learned how to snowboard
5. Kai, Demi Roo and Nikaya at Bball practice
6. Hunter and Coach Tony doing some drills

A Large Family?

It appears that Curt and I have entered the 'large family' category as far as most of society is concerned. I am not sure how many children puts you in this area, but we have qualified.
Now, most of the time I go places, I have Annie and Zach, my friend Tracey's 2 kids......no, they don't live here, but they might as well. :-P

Last week I took the kids all to Carl's Jr. for dinner before basketball practice. I ordered 6 kids meals and thought the guy behind the counter was going to pass out for the mere thought of it. I explained that only 4 of the kids were actually mine, the other two were not. He replied "only FOUR??? re you one of those Mormons?" "Um...no I replied, I just have 4 kids....I am Baptist"...like I really needed to explain, but I was caught off guard.
I emailed several of my friends who I consider to have large families (6 kids or more) and asked them how they handle it. We obviously have entered the crazy person stage as far as most are concerned and I don't know how I feel about that (more on that in a minute)... Most of the families state that maybe my family gets that attention because all the children are black...maybe a family with 4 white kids would not get noticed as much. Others feel that most believe that anyone with more than the standard 1.5 kids is bizarre...maybe I do belong to the weirdo club then.??!!
Either way, I am not sure how I feel about being branded a weirdo for the number of children I have. I know it is not the typical family size, I know they are all a different color, I know they are all adopted (which comes into play with the "how much did it cost you to adopt all of them?" question (also considered rude by most standards...)but still.....why do people need to act so exasperated when they see me??
I guess maybe I just needed to vent, to try and figure out how to fix peoples perception of family....I will never fix it so I might as well smile and live with it! ;-P

First Basket and Rodeos

At Saturdays game Hunter finally did it....

The game was close, the kids on the other team were all over our team like flies. Hunter was open and his teammate threw him the ball.....Hunter, knowing he had a shot, tossed the ball to the basket for a 3 pointer!!! SWISH....that sucker went right in, like he had done it a million times before...Curt, Me, Friends, coaches and teammates came off the seats to yell...Hunter had made his first basket during a game!!! His team, the Wizards, lost the game anyway, but Hunter had made his basket....that is ALL that mattered to us!

Afterwards, Hunter went to his friend Tyler's house. Curt and the kids and I went home for rest. That evening I ventured out with the kids to see Tyler's brother Michael ride Bulls in a local rodeo. Kai and Nikaya, and Hunter and Demi for that matter, saw their first rodeo. Typically we don't go since they are so expensive and I usually side with the animal (hehe) but with this being a small local rodeo it was much cheaper.

You know, I wonder what Kai and Nikaya think sometimes. Here they are in a family now. That has to be cool. But now that family goes to this BIG market and buys food, more food than 1 person could eat, more food than they have seen at one time...money just seems to appear ( I wish). We go watch our friends ride 'Gwo Bef" (Big Cows) and watch them tumble off and people cheer. Holidays this year we celebrated at our Matant and Tonton (Aunt and Uncles) house, and they have animal heads on the walls. (Side note, Curtis' Uncle is an avid Hunter and has bear, deer and elk heads and hides proudly displayed). The only people in Haiti who might have animal heads up and around are more than likely Voodoo Priests....."What kind of family did I get adopted into?" Must be there thoughts. he he

Daily Happenings

Tonight is a busy night of basketball and Parent Teacher Conferences. I am somewhat glad that the kids do not have school tomorrow due to the conference schedule, this will allow some down time to have fun. I am planning on taking the kids for a day trip to the YMCA. I am anxious to let them swim, run and play to get the wiggles out....they all need it. If we are at the Y, they are away from me and the boredom of home and will leave me alone. hehe
I do have a question though.....if our house is so boring, why do the neighborhood kids all want to come here? Everyday after school I have no less than 2-3 kids....PLUS the 4 that actually live here. Most days I don't mind it, but there are a few where the house looks like a cyclone hit it and we have no snacks and I have no nerves left when it is over. Those are days when Curt comes home and looks at me like i need to up my medicine. hehe

So, I will post how all of us got along at the Y and hopefully some pic's of the new kids swimming...Their first time at the pool...should be a blast!!

Cat Pee...

Does anyone out there know how to get rid of cat pee smell?
I have been fighting with Macey, our oldest cat that we have had for quite while. She has taken to peeing in our upstairs hallway. I have tried putting 3 different litter boxes out, so she wont have to share, and using different kinds of litter. I took her to the vet and they 'treated' her and charged me $358 and she came home and promptly peed again AARRGGHH!!!
I cannot in my mind pout her to sleep when she is otherwise healthy. I am not 100% sure if it is a dislike for the other cats in the house (we have 3 total). I have taken to letting her live in our large master bath with her own food and water supply and own litter box....she has not peed on the floor in their once in 2 weeks....makes me know for sure she is just being a butt head!!!

I have just tried Urine Gone...use the black light and all....here is to hoping it works. Let me know if any of you have any great ideas...I am open to any of them!!!

Sat. Night Fights

MySpace Glitter Graphics





Once again I sat Ring side Medic for the Ring Warrior Fights. WOW. I enjoy being a little bit of help, but Saturday night was a busy one. I however managed to not be boo'ed as I was in November...YEAH!!!
I did have one man completely knocked out. Man, his eyes were rolled to the back of his melon like no ones business. Took a good 1 1/2 minutes to bring him to. He then proceeded to vomit everywhere and bleed from his nose, mouth etc. You see...he was going to shoot for the legs of the other guy and when he ben to do it the other guy kicked him square in the face...OUCH!!! Needless to say, he took a merry trip to the hospital by ambulance! :-)

Next, I was summoned to the back area that is for fighters and trainers only. I rounded the corner to the sound of horrific cussing.....I see about 2 guys trying to hold a guy to take his gloves off. When I get to him I see his middle finger on his left hand is bloody and bent at an odd angle. As I clean it off I see 'meat' and bone sticking out of his finger. Once I convince the men that there was no way a glove was coming off that hand and that I had to indeed CUT it to remove the glove they all wanted to take photos of the battered finger first...MEN....
I was able to cut, clean and wrap the man's finger and send him off to the hospital for bone reset, stitches and good pain med's....I am sure today he is in pain!

Next I went into the ring to see a guy who had been cut above his right eye. We went to the backroom to work so the next fight could start, I was met by a room full of guys waiting for their fighter to go out. I announced that I was coming in, since it was a mens lockeroom, and was greeted by a guy who felt it necessary to show me his FULL MOON, just for fun...I told him it was the whitest butt I had ever seen and if he had anything I had never seen before I would dedicate him to science! His buddies laughed that I didn't oogle his hairy buttocks and went about my business ....he may never live it down... My patients eye was cute pretty deep and I knew immediatley that he would also require stitches. I cleaned him, butterflied his eye and gave him some ice and instructions for the ride to the hospital. I promised him that chicks really do dig scars and he had quite the war wound.

The rest of the fights were pretty uneventful...Thank the Lord, I had had enough bones, eyes, vomit and hairy butts for the evening. A new friened of mine, Marko, won Amateur Welterweight belt though....proud of the warrior for that! Eric (my brother) and I finally arrived home at 12:30am...LONG NIGHT and FUN had by all!

Updates on Stuff....

I wanted to post some updates on some of the old posts I have done.

My cousin Travis is OUT of Cottonwood Correctional Facility!!! He served 1 year for Aggravated Battery etc. stemming from an accidental shooting at a party a couple of years ago. The guy he shot is alive and well and holds no ill will toward Travis and they have made amends....he even spoke out for Travis at his court hearing. While in Jail Travis found God. He was saved and since release has been attending a church near his home! I am so glad to not only hear him talk the talk, but walk the walk as well!

The new kids are bonding well to all of us. Hunter and Demi Roo are learning more Creole and Kai and Nikaya are learning more English...good for everyone involved. Of course, I have learned more Creole being immersed all day in it, but have been known to make a mistake or two.
About a week after the kids came home I was calming down Nik before dinner. I wanted to tell them "sit here, mama is going to make dinner" In Creole I should have said "Chita la, Mama fe manje" BUT instead I said " Chita la, Mama fe bagay" SO, I actually told my children "Sit here, mama is going to have sex" NICE!!!! If the world wont corrupt them, I will! ;-)
Kai, our 5.5 year old giggled and quickly corrected me "Mama, manjay, manjay!" Yes, MANJAY!! Glad to know I can't get anything past him! ;-P

Tomorrow is a big day for Hunter. Hunter is going in to get braces! He is in need of braces on his top 4 teeth as well as a few in the back. The front ones will help with his 'open bite', 'pulling his canine up where it should be', and the back are to help 'pull his 6 year molars out of his gums and where they should be'. Nice little gift that should cost about $2100...YIKES! This will include braces, office visits, retainer etc. for his first phase. He may need to have a 2nd phase when he is an older teen...we may have to auction him off for yard labor to help pay for it all! ;-P

Demi Roo has been continuing with her cheer leading and doing well...pretty much can do the splits now...OUCH! Hunter is continuing his basketball career (hehe) with 1 loss and 1 win so far. The big draw is to win 2 games in a row so the coach will take them for a milkshake! ;-)

Kai and Nik spend their days torturing me and playing with the toys and getting into things. Much to Hunter's chagrin, Nik insists on breastfeeding his action figures like they are her babies...not what is supposed to happen to a John Cena doll if you ask him. hehe

Curtis has started school again, this will mean that he has this block of classes and the next then he will be a Sophomore.....ooohhhh. 8 more blocks and he will graduate with an Associates Degree in Business. Me, I work from home with Heritage, several families in the process of a new longer process for Haitian children, and watch Kai and Nik run around like little crazies while driving everyone to their activities!!!

Off to check e mail for now....

Whose Activity Are We Going To Now???

Our lives are about to get busier....not that we get to lay around a lot with 4 kids, but soon we will have 3 in activities to go to....Saturday will be Demi Roo's cheerleading at 10am and Hunter has his first Basketball game at 1 pm. He is very excited to PLAY in an ACTUAL game!!! ;-)

I will post some pic's from the game afterwards so you can all see the superstar in action.hehe

Hunter has practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8pm. Games are every Saturday until the season ends. Demi Roo practices every Saturday from 10-11am....forever, since there isn't a cheerleading season with the city. Wednesdays are AWANA's from 6:15-8:15pm. Somewhere in there we fit eating, homework, reading and bathing....I am getting tired just talking about it. We try to reserve Monday and Fridays as nights to just veg...at least for now. ;-P

Starting in late March, Kai will do his first activity...SOCCER! In Haiti they refer to it as football....in Haiti, football is BIG! I notice that in the US soccer isn't the fantastic sport that other countries believe it is...Kai will change all of that. I have watched that kid with a ball, a can, anything he can kick...he has some serious moves!! He is so excited to start he asks me EVERYDAY if it is time for soccer games...I remind him no, not for a couple of more months, and dread the fact that I even told him I was signing him up...stupid mom moment #156.... hehehe

Winter Weather

Our weather has been something else lately. Today we are lucky to have a high of 30* with a low of 4* this morning. Tomorrow we are looking at high of 25* with a low of 0* and have had the wind chill of -10 below.

So, for my parents sake, I dressed for the weather....

HEHEHEHHEHE!! THANKS FOR THE COAT MOM AND DAD!

Outside Play

Hunter the Skater boy

Demi Roo on her bike

Kai and the Scooter

What are you looking at?

My Family

The 4 Amigos showing some attitude!!














Nikaya enjoying the fromage (butter) on her toast...she can sure eat!












Nikaya and he 'machin' with her bud's Demi Roo, Annie and Kai

Kai, Demi Roo and Annie on the horsie...the bucking bronc

Our whole crazy family!!! (minus some of the pets we cannot get to sit still for a photo.)

Our First Complete Family Christmas

I feel bad for saying that this is our first complete Christmas. I do not want to make Hunter and Demi Roo feel like we were not happy with our family until Kai and Nik came home, that was not the case. We all knew that we were not finished yet, and that the Lord was not finished as well. We as a family feel happy with where our family is now. We do not plan on adopting again, but you never know what the good Lord has in store for you as a person or family. Below I wanted to post some pic's of the kids. Some of the new kids that are home smiling so everyone can see that they are happy, adjusting well and living life to the fullest...I will be sending copies to Haiti for the Orphanage and their birth families, we hope they are as happy with the pictures as we are.


Hunter and his cheesy grin!














Nikaya doing what she is usually doing...giggling

Kai and that smile!

Demi Roo is never camera shy...

All the kids having a blast














Demi Roo and her new camera














Nikaya and her new hat...aint it great!















Kai and Nik enjoying their new family

My Thoughts...Kinda Deep. :-)

The story below always hits a spot for me. I am often asked why I work with Haiti, why we adopted from Haiti etc. Below is the only thing I can think of to tell people....My starfish are the children of Haiti.


The Starfish Story -Unknown Author
A well-known author was vacationing on a beautiful coast. One morning, very early, he was walking along the beach. In the distance he saw a long figure dancing.
Fascinated by this celebration of dawn, he moved closer. It was then he realized that the young man was not dancing, but picking objects up from the beach and tossing them out into the sea in one graceful movement.
As he approached the young man, he saw that he was throwing starfish.
"Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?" He asked. "If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises higher in the sky, they will die", the young man replied as he continued to toss them out to sea.
"That's ridiculous! There thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish! You can't really believe that what you're doing could possibly make a difference", The observer countered.
The young man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully and remarked as he tossed it out into the waves, "It makes a difference to this one!"

Found a wonderful website for those interested in Missionaries in Haiti. www.providenceinhaiti.blogspot.com Amazing work with some stirring pictures and stories. In my next life I will be a full time missionary in Haiti.....

Haitian Proverb:
Lespwa Fe Viv: Hope makes us live.

Have some photos sent to me from another adoption agency in Utah. WOW. They are pictures from Africa. If you are interested in them and can look outside your bubble of wealth and life, let me know and I will send them to you!




God Bless

Tagging.....

Ok. I have never been tagged until now. I am not sure what I supposed to do. I guess, if you read this, copy and past in an email or your blog and let me know and we can get to know each other better!!!
Thanks Ange... :-)



A - Available or Taken: TAKEN
B - Best Friend: TRACEY...RESERVE EXTRA SPECIAL SPACES FOR FAR AWAY FRIENDS
LIKE ANGE, KARLA, JANA AND AMY
C - Cake or Pie: GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE
D - Drink of Choice: ICE TEA
E-Essential Item You Use Everyday: ANTIBACTERIAL HAND SOAP
F - Favorite Color: SEVERAL...BLUE, GREEN...DEPENDS ON MY MOOD
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: NEITHER..THEY GROSS ME OUT
H - Hometown: CALDWELL, IDAHO
I - Indulgence: CHOCOLATE
J - January or February: JANUARY...I PREFER EARLY JUNE TO BE HONEST
K-Kids and Names: HUNTER JAYMES 9.5, DEMOYA ROOSELANDE 7, KAI CEUS 5.5,
NIKAYA MITCHELLE 2.5
L - Life Incomplete Without: MY LORD AND SAVIOR, MY HUSBAND, AND MY CHILDREN
M - Marriage Date: APRIL 20, 1991
N- Number of Siblings: 1 BROTHER SAME MOM; 1 BROTHER AND 1 SISTER SAME
DAD...NO WE ARE NOT REDNECKS HEHE
O - Oranges or Apples: APPLES
P - Phobias or Fears: DARK (BIGGEST), SNAKES, ANYTHING CREEPY CRAWLY
Q - Favorite Quote: NOT SURE.
R - Reason to Smile: MY FAMILY, MY CALLING AS ADOPTION COORDINATOR AND MY
KIDS ARE HOME FINALLY
S - Season: LATE SPRING EARLY SUMMER
T - Tag 3 People: NOT SURE WHO TO TAG.....
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I WAS AN EMT FOR 10.5 YEARS AND AN INSTRUCTOR FOR
5 OF THOSE YEARS. I NOW SIT RING SIDE MEDIC AT
MIXED MARTIAL ART FIGHTS FOR SIDEKICKS FIGHTERS
AND LOVE IT!!!
V - Veggie You Don't Like: LIMA BEANS
W - Worst Habit: BOREDOM EATER....
X - X-rays: FOOT, CHEST, DO COLONOSCOPIES COUNT?HEHE
Y - Your Favorite Food: ANYTHING WITH CHOCOLATE. OR THE RED ROBIN CHICKEN
BURGER WITH NO BUN!!
Z - Zodiac: SAGITTARIUS