Fight to The Finish....

Last night was another fight night for me. Below are some pic's of me taken by Spooled Productions...awesome guys. Fights were put on by Iron Fist Productions, also awesome guys! ;-) We were outside at the Speedway, it was 101*...man...could NOT wait for the sun to go down.


Here is me in between fighter check ins...working hard as usual..hehe



















Here I am doing my thing.......

One of my worst injuries last night. Possible broken nose, jaw was swollen badly and he was a meaty mess. He fought his heart out though, and did NOT submit easily to the other guy.

Learn Something New Everyday

I heard something at church tonight and I wanted to see what the general consensus out there was. I have never been taught the Bible the way I have in the church I belong to now...never had the understanding / practicality of it all I guess.



Tonight, one woman spoke to the kids and I listened to her story. It is about 2 children who LOVED mud pies. One day another child came along and offered a trip to the Beach, all the children had to do was accept the trip and they could play in the sand all they wanted, enjoy the beauty of the beach as opposed to their mud pies. These kids decided NOT to go to the Beach, because they could not give up their mud pies....even though the sandy beach would have been more appealing and better to play in.

She acquainted the mud pies to our sins and the Beach to the almighty Heaven and Salvation. We must give up our mud pies in order to go to the Beach, no hidden fees etc...just give up the mud pies, but we hang on to them afraid to let them go.

She then explained that in Philippians 2:9-11 it states:
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

That be it in this life or the next, ALL of us, believers or not, will meet the Lord and we will then be faced with the fact if we accepted or denied him.

That was profound to me. To know that we would stand before him and KNOW that we had accepted or denied, KNEW we were wrong or right, and KNOW if our names are written in the book of Life. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Not that I had not heard variations of this before, but to hear her say it with such conviction, emotion and raw feeling did something to me inside that is unexplainable. It became so real to me and a way to explain it to my children and people in the world who are non believers. Kind of a 'YOU may not believe in God, but HE believes in YOU' type of thing.

I just sat in awe....wow...no other words.

Youch...

Below is one of my fighters I took care of. My friend Hollywood....awesome fighter. Believe it or not, he WON this fight!

I so want and need to change my name to McGyver and carry duct tape and chewing gum with me.... :-P

A Quick Snapshot of Me...

Ok....a quick snapshot of me taking care of one of the fighters recently. Found it on my friend Lukon's page...the guy in the back I am NOT helping..hehe

Told my hubby I am so focused on my chubby belly in this pic. but he reminds me of all the gauze and gloves I have shoved in there and the fact that my shorts are WAY to big on me...otherwise it is a pretty good idea of what I am looking like now compared to a year ago....

Your Opinion

Last night I had fights. We had the usual broken noses, ribs etc.
My main problem with the whole evening is a person who came to fight. He came to the cage (about 350lbs) and tatt'ed up with Swastika's, 'Nazi' written on his chest etc. He had the words 'Pure' on one arm and 'Hate' written on the other. I took one look at him and told the Dr. that he may have the degree, but I had seniority and would NOT work on that man if he was dying in front of me.
Now, that may be harsh, and I am not sure if I could be evil enough to watch the life drain from another human being (using the term loosely) or if he just made me so angry that I could not touch him in a lesser state of need. The Dr. agreed, knowing my home situation and said he would look at him.
What surprised me, is when the man came to the cage with his markings, the crown Boo'ed him. His judge was a friend of mine who happens to be African American. I watched in awe of my friend and he checked him out pre-fight, like he would anyone else...
I mulled in my mind the whole situation...he was incurring hate from the crowd, probably not as much disdain as he had for others, but in a large group is was good to hear.
The man fighting him came to the cage and saw his markings and made it HIS desire to win...regardless...to prove that many did not want his kind here.

The big 'man' took 3 hits to the face and ran behind the ref and asked for it to be stopped...broken nose draining alot of blood. I was satisfied and somewhat happy to see his pain and weakness. We entered the cage and I took care of my guy etc and watched the Doc cared for the other one. I knew he was having a little bit of a difficult time getting the blood to stop and asked the doc if he needed anything...he told me he was fine. The whole time I kept my hands in my pockets not wanting to be to close to him in fear I would actually say something to him about his markings and wanting a reason as to why you would put that on your body.

Afterwards I spoke to my AA friend and told him he was a bigger man than me, because I could not be nice to the other guy. He just smiled.

I was angry for what I saw, for the hate this person spits about people like my children, yet one of the people he hates, treated him with kindness. I felt guilt, anger at myself for being so unforgiving (maybe??) I went from EMT to Mama Bear in no time flat and could not separate myself from him or the situation.
Could this person or his type be won over with kindness that Jesus would have shown him...did C, my friend, do the better thing by showing this person kindness even though he was presented with hate of his own person in front of his face? I swing between the 2 choices alot.
Some of the fighters who know me and my kids, gathered around me so when he left the cage I didn't have to be near him...they knew he agitated me by being there...what a group of great guys.

Any comments on how any of you would have handled it?

Leave Out All the Rest:lyrics

This song is for my Bio dad Rick. I miss him so much. Even though the drama of his sickness is gone, I miss him being able to see my children...and just be there if I needed a good joke.

To me this song says it all "FORGET THE WRONG THAT I'VE DONE.." Just to remember his good times. Another point for me is when they say "PRETENDING SOMEONE ELSE CAN COME AND SAVE ME FROM MYSELF.." He and I spoke alot about this..
This song is just all about him and I wish I could have played it for him one more time...at his funeral.

Child Care 2008 Style

Is this a good babysitter? hehe

OK...before you call the authorities on me, the kids acutally did this themselves....I loved it! ;-P

My Troops

Nikaya Funnies to post about.

Instead of telling you she poo'ed in her pants she prefers the saying "mom, I sharked in my pants"..4 year old for sharted (yes, I know it is naughty, but to funny not to mention..)

Calls the TV show American Gladiators "an Alligators".

When she wants to do something on her own she tells you "I do it my dad self" which is her way of telling you she did it BY herself...we usually repeat "You did it your BAD self"..now she just rolls her eyes like Demi does..hehe

All the kids are quite characters.
Hunter is a computer geek, book loving, germa phobe (if you watch Monk on cable tv...just pretend her were Haitian and you have Hunter..hehe)

Demi LOVES to cook and anything to do with cooking. You usually find her watching ANY cooking show, Survival shows such as Bear Gryls etc...weird for an 8 year old girl huh??!!

Kai LOVES his new cowboy boots and hat from Pappy and Mammy. Kid after my own heart. he wants to wear a button up shirt with a tie, cowboy boots, have a mowhawk and listen to head banger music. Therapy is a sure shot with him..hehe

Nikaya is catching up with the other kids. She speaks English all the time, even though sometimes it is 4 year old English. She is definitely the baby and screams commands as such.

Life is good..busy, but good!

Spring Cleaning and Such

WOW...I have been in the closets, drawers and under the stairs cleaning out useless crud as well as clothes...that all of us have outgrown. I took several boxes of clothing items to the youth Ranch here local and they LOVED IT! I am happy for the space, but see that I have more purging to do in the future.



One thing that is nice about losing weight, is that I am giving away the larger clothes I have worn and finding other clothes that I have not been able to wear now fit..YEAH! :-) or should I say 'Woot' :-P



Hubby is down 14lbs as well and is finding his slimmer self to be pretty cool! I have quite a bit more to go, as hubby only has 7 more lbs. he wants to lose...yeah...I would LOVE to only have 7lbs to lose, but I guess I cannot complain since I have lost 50lbs so far! One lb. at a time is all I ask..hehe



Off to Church tomorrow and some lawn mowing and general house cleaning. I have fights coming up again on the 19th of July and it is rumored that STEPHAN 'American Psycho' BONNER will be there...he is a BIG UFC Pro Fighter and I am STOKED! hehehehahaha...the giggling just doesn't stop for me when I think about getting to meet him...saweeeet! ;-) I will def. post a photo of my meeting with him as well as my one with Kaycey 'Ice Cold' Uscola from the Ultimate Fighter. IF you are a UFC fan you KNOW how big that is..hehe

Anywho...gotta get some food on the table for the hubby and kidlets...
Blessings to all of you!

Nightline Part II

Well, I watched the Nightline program and DVR'ed it so hubby could watch it as well.
My first thoughts are these:

1. It is a sad but true fact of life in Haiti that there are Resteveks
2. I was saddened to see that one man said he was willing to find a child for the American for $150.00
3. I was even more saddened when another man told the reporter that he was willing to do the same for $10,000 but his services included papers to take the child to the US.

My thoughts vary.
Once the reporter had his meeting with the 2 'gentleman' ( I use the term loosely) he was offered the same services by the waiters at the hotel/restaurant they were at. Now, having been to Haiti several times this made me giggle. If you say you want something, whether it is to a direct person or not, someone can always get you what you want if the price is right and their 'service' to you is better than the last persons. These waiters, and the men the reporter met with may or may not have been able to get this American his child as they had promised.

My idea on the scenario is this....
The man offers to 'sell' you the child for so many US dollars. You must pay half the fee up front and the other half at the end of the transaction. I am thinking that you pay him half the fee and he disappears never to be seen from again. Now, he SAID he could get you a child, but you just paid him half of a fee for doing NOTHING...he leaves, no worse for wear and made money for doing nothing...
Did the reporter ever actually see a child that was promised to him? Did he just accept that these men's words were fact and they could indeed DELIVERED the child?

Now, I am not saying that child Slavery is not an issue in Haiti, it is a HUGE issue. It is however not fair to say that children are being shipped to the US for that reason.

Having worked in Haitian Adoption for 9 years, I have seen these types of things over and over. UNICEF wants people to believe that ALL of us are 'baby sellers' and 'baby buyers'..when we are actually growing our families thru adoption..LEGALLY with a ridiculously drawn out process.
I would venture to guess that 98% of Haitian child Slaves are used in Haiti or the Dominican with a small portion to other countries....most likely NOT the US.

I just hope that the story draws the attention to where it is needed..NOT to Americans LEGALLY Adopting the children, but to the Haitians and Dominican's slave trade of their own children.

Just my .02

Nightline News

I, like many in Haitian adoption or Haiti Brained, will be watching a Nightline news story this evening. I am interested to see the spin put on it by the media that tends to be pretty liberal in its points. I am also, wanting to see if the backlash comes out against LEGAL Haitian Adoption as opposed to what it should be hitting, and that is Restevek's (meaning Live With...or Child Slaves). Servitude is fairly common in Haiti but never spoken about. Even the poorest of families seems to have a girl' or 'boy' around to help out. I am waiting to watch like everyone else, and to weather the storm that usually falls afterwards!

HOW TO BUY A CHILD IN 10 HOURS.....
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=5326508&page=1

Stop...Potty Time

This is what we are in the midst of doing right now...the big potty training thing. The title is what I sing every time the timer goes off for Nikaya to go...M.C. Hammer's 'Hammer Time', but with the words 'Potty Time...' Nice little dance ditty if ya ask me. Kids are horrendously embarrassed when I do it either at home or in public..hehe...my job is complete!! ;-)

Nikaya has finally showed some ability to be ready, and hopefully the ability to be in the control of others will...the hardest part of pottying adopted kids I believe. Adopted children, well...children in general, always exert their control over their pottying. It is the 1 thing a child can control and another person cannot. After learning this in the adoption world, I never forced my children into pottying. Of course, I took ALOT of grief from others who thought that MY children should do what THEY thought they should do at a certain time.

In our belief, in the short lives of our children, they have had several homes, mommies, daddies, airplane rides, and not alot of food or clean water...control over their lives has been zero since birth...so we let them have a little room to move with the toileting.

I Will have to post how Nikaya is doing. We set a timer for about every 30-40 minutes and when it dings it reminds her to use the potty. When she does, we all cheer and reset the clock. She has self initiated a couple of times so that is a start. It will hopefully be a smooth process, but we shall see. Oh...off to Potty Time! ;-)

4th Fun

Lets see. I had a family travel finally and bring home their two newest additions to the family...CONGRAT'S to Y and Q for arriving home safely to their forever home!
I have another family ready to travel any day now and if US Consulate will get off their duff, they could be home soon as well! ;-)

4th was fun. We usually go camping, but with the cost of gas this year ($4.08 here), we decided to stay home. We had a huge block party with BBQ, fireworks, everything...absolute blast! My Grandma P, Aunt Pam and Uncle Gary and Aunt Susan came. Gary and Susan are from N.J. so it was great for them to have some fireworks for a change! The kids played in the blowup pools, rode bikes, had pop-it fights and ate more than they should....good fun. Our neighbors who hosted it, have 2 pet ducks...cutest little things squawking all over the yard. When you pick one up, the other makes a noise like a car alarm to complain that you have his friend...so sweet. She also had a tiny 2 day old baby Sparrow. Hopefully the little guy makes it...she is trying hard for him though.

Things have been busy as we are tyring to get our fence stained, things done that we never have time to do etc. since Curt had this last week off. Of course, he returns to work Tuesday and the sinking feeling is setting in....boo hoo

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!!!

CCF and Computer Troubles

Well, what a week and a half it has been here.
Hunter and a friend were playing on my computer and it froze up then shut down. When they started it up again, it was majorly hosed.
My hubby took it apart and figured out the hard drive was damaged. I am not sure how it happened, but I must be married to a secret member of the Geek Squad because he was able to wipe it and reload everything...thus giving me back my computer! Unfortunately...ALL my addresses are gone, info is gone etc from the last several years. I had just moved everything over from the computer I had from Heritage and now it is wiped clean....uugghh. I am glad it was MY computer that did this, and not theirs. :-)
I am now in the process of putting my addresses back into it etc. I have one computer with the addresses, but no ability to send the photos I just received, and one computer I can get my pictures to but no ability to send them yet....what a life I tell ya!

Had CCF fights on Saturday. Great fights to see. I was BUSY that night. One really bad cut lip (which will require several stitches.) An arm bar that either resulted in a broken elbow or tore the ligaments and tendons in his elbow...only x-rays will tell. Two separated shoulders and guys that needed several butterflies, concussions and nose injuries. My friend David lost his title to the hockey guy....he feels he made some mistakes, but was over the loss pretty quickly. I know David will earn his title back very soon...no worries.
Met Kaycey 'Ice Cold' Uscola. he was on the Ultimate fighter and was in the top 3. Sweet guy. Will post my picture of us as soon as I can figure out how to get it off my camera!!!

Some Funnies

A few funnies that always seem to help pick me up.....enjoy! :-P

CCF Mass Destruction....

Here is the Promo poster for the fights I am working. I know 3 of the guys on the poster...all except the tatt'ed one in front...he is the Hockey player gunning for the Heavy Weight title match against one of my favorite fighters....the guy standing next to him on his left side.

Believe it or not, all of these guys are sweet, and are good to me as I care for them...of course, I am sure they don't want the word to get around that they have a nicer, softer side! ;-P

Slump

I am hoping and praying to be out of the fun, soul sucking slump I have been in and get back to my normal self.
I have fights at Qwest coming up, so pray for me that I can help all the fighters who need it. I am going to see if I can post a pic here of the fight card...pretty cool looking!
I am going to try and get my picture posts up with kindergarten graduation and other fun stuff we have done so far.....once again I have to be out of my slump to make myself want to do anything of any worth....big sigh...

Kai's Haircut

The Haircut Kai wanted and mommy gave him....

From the top! :-)

The haircut he got thanks to daddy! hehe

A Hard Time

Sorry it has been a while since I posted. I think with all 4 kids being home I am busier than ever...tired as ever as well.

I have been working fights quite a bit...2 in 2 weeks, a break this weekend and then back to the big ones on the 21st of June...should be fun. It has kept me busy and dog tired though, making me want to doze off in church. At least Pastor is a fan so he understands..hehe...I am taking Pastor, and 3 guys from our church to the fights on the 21st..should be great ones. One of the guys fighting for the World title is one of my favorites, David Thomas (he is the current title holder). He is fighting a guy pretty well known around the area for his hockey game and time in the NHL, Jeremy Lablonsky. Both are not big fans of each other and it is looking like it Will be quite a brawl...I pray I have the knowledge to help them out of the octagon when it is over! ;-p

I spoke at the Kiwanis group. It was quick but good. I hope they have a little understanding of Haiti and a little of the love I have for it there.

I feel like I have been chasing my tail around quite a bit lately. Adoptions are slow, I am paid by the step now, which is really screwing me big time! I was never in it for the money, but when I, like the rest of the world, need to afford to pay my bills, it is really sucky!
It is hard also since things are moving so slow. Families are frustrated, and have EVERY reason to be, as it is the US Government that seems to moving the slowest with no real reason for it.

All of it has gotten me depressed, stressed and sleeping less...not a good combo.

I will check in and PROMISE to get the photos I have uploaded....gonna take a few good ones of me with some of the fighters this next weekend for those of you who want to see the size comparison of me to them (last fights one of the guys was 6'10"...I am 4'10"...2 feet difference!)

Attitude

Received this from Aunt Peggy-Thank you, a very good lesson we all need to learn and remember!


READ THIS LET IT REALLY SINK IN
John is the kind of guy you love to hate.
He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.
When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'
He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'
He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today.
You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood
I choose to be in a good mood.'
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it.
I choose to learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life.
I choose the positive side of life.
'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.
'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices.
When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.
The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'
I reflected on what he said.
Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business.
We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins...Want to see my scars?'
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied.
'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices:
I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.'
'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked
He continued, ' ..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine.
But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.
In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'
'What did you do?' I asked.
'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John.
'She asked if I was allergic to anything '
Yes, I replied.'
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'.'
Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live.
Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude...
I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything .
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday!