Overheard

The following is from a fellow AP (adoptive parent) from her FB (facebook) page today.  I left the names off just in case their "neighbors that they didn't friend" happen to read my blog- lol.

Status: "xxxx thinks it is funny how I used to find folks from the Holt BB [bulletin board- where all the mammas get together online to ask questions, get advice, vent frustration, share excitement over a piece of paper coming in the mail, etc] on Facebook and be tempted to request their friendship, but was afraid they'd think I was a crazy stalker. Now, over half of my friends list has at least one little Asian cutie in the profile picture. :) I love my AP friends!"

Comment #4: " I won't accept someone who lives down the street that I don't know really well, but if they are an AP mom I'll accept them every time. :)"

Comment #5: "Well our fellow AP have been checked by the FBI, BCI, had a child abuse clearance and check by the Dept of Homeland security! Plus they have cute kids. LOL! The neighbors have not been checked by all of those people and they can't have kids as cute as ours!! LOL!!!!!"

Hmmm- so that's why I've never felt awkward "talking" to all these strangers about my children. 

Adoption CheckList

Thought I'd share this checklist I just found on a fellow Korea Adoption Family's blog.  In case you're considering adoption- this is pretty much the process for all countries, agencies, and programs.  LOL!
Happy Monday!!

Hello from Eliza Grace

I was 14 months old on the 10th. I'm 32 inches and 22 pounds! It looks like I like cookies and I'm really excited about these bows that Mamma, Daddy, Wilson, and Miller sent me. Thank you to the O'Maras for bringing goodies to me, Umma, and Appa. I can't wait to get to play with Evelyn!! My next check up will be in May- talk to you then!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day- 2011

I have a book to recommend- Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman.  My blog friend Kelly (and fellow Korean adoptive Mamma) over at The Minus One Project has blogged many times about it and I had to check it out.  Mom gave it to me for Christmas and I couldn't put it down.  Martha (we're on a first name basis) reveals so much that I never knew about the many Christian celebrations that we still observe (or that are at least mentioned in our churches today).  She also has so many great suggestions for celebrating the holidays without loosing site of their true meanings or origins all while keeping the focus on Christ and what learn about him through observing special days related to his life or the lives of Christians who have walked before us and left big footprints for us to fill.  (The book is currently out of print- so you'll have to find a used one!)

I have to admit, I never knew much about Saint Patrick or why we even had a day on our calendar marked in his honor.  What a blessing and what fun to learn about him and great lesson of forgiveness and spreading the gospel at all costs his life exemplifies.

The kids started the day by watching Secret of the Kells while mom woke up.  Really fun movie set in Ireland.  We then started the fun...

We had green oatmeal while I summarized the story of Patrick and why his life is worth celebrating.  He lived in what is now Britian during the Roman Empire.  He and his family were Christian.  Irish pirates came down regularly and raided the unstable/under protected area.  Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave/prisoner.  Many years later he was able to escape and get back to his family.  He soon realized he had been among unbelievers in Ireland and had pity upon them.  He went back the land of his captors and began to spread the gospel and plant churches.  It is believed that he used the shamrocks growing wildly in the area to illustrate the Trinity (three complete parts making one hole).  Wilson interjected here that you could also use poison ivy for the illustration.  Yes this holiday would look completely different if its origins were in the Southern United States!!

We spent the rest of the day focusing on clover and the great reminder it is for us of the loving triune God we serve. 

We painted empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes green, cut them into strips, and then made clover to hang on our banister garland.

We picked clover from our backyard to put in the center of our table for dinner- beef stew and a very green pistachio cake, yum.

Of course, the kids were much more interested in this guy that hitched a ride in on the dirt clods in the clover bucket.

Biology lesson of the day- if you live in a clover patch, and you eat a clover patch, you have very St. Patrick's Day themed poo.  Wilson learned this the hard way- but was rolling on the floor laughing when he saw that his souvenir from Patrick the Grub was EXACTLY the same color as the clover they'd been stuffing in the vase!

The kids took an afternoon break and decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean.  Well, there were pirates in the story of Patrick.  Right.  Right!? 

Then we had a yummy snack.  Clover pretzels.  We dipped mini twists into some green colored white chocolate and put them together in threes. 

Happy Saint Patty's, Y'all!

The Tooth Pulling Machine

That was the title of this picture when Phil texted it to me one night last week. Wilson lost two teeth in two days- and pulled them both himself. The second was actually a successful execution of the old tying a string to a door knob and attaching the other end to the tooth trick. Neither Phil nor I had ever seen that really work- but it did!!

As my mom says- he now looks like a real six year old!!

I have to add that the tooth fairy is really starting to show her age. She made it to his room for the first tooth, but was apparently just too tired to make it back the next night. Seriously!? What does it take to get good service these days!

our adventure

Click here to view this photo book larger

Preview Party at the Science Museum

A few weeks ago our family went to the preview party for the new temporary butterfly exhibit at our Natural Science Museum.  It is a really great exhibit with lots of interactive displays.

My very hungry caterpillars in their cocoons.

Wilson with one of the butterflies that landed on him!

One of the many gators

Funny story from the trip.  The portion of the exhibit with live butterflies is in the indoor swamp area of the museum.  For those of you not familiar with the museum, this is a glassed in room with with a huge aquarium that is about 5 ft. tall and full of alligators, turtles, and fish.  The room is connected to the rest of the museum, but separated by doors that stay closed I'm sure for climate control purposes.  So for now, there are also butterflies flitting through this room with stands of orange halves for them to munch on.  There were guides at the door telling us to watch where we step because the butterflies were also all over the ground (which is made out of decking material making it hard to see dark butterflies).  No strollers were allowed and we were all tip toeing around with the occasional "WATCH OUT! YOU'RE ABOUT TO STEP ON ONE!" being yelled throughout the building.  (Maybe they should have thought twice about having the general public mingling with their precious endangered bugs...)  So anyway, Phil is carefully watching the alligators in the tank and notices that a butterfly has landed on one of the logs floating in the swamp.  He then sees a pair of gator eyes floating towards the log.  Then the eyes rise up out of the water and are trained on the butterfly.  And SNAP the butterfly is GONE!  Who knew- next to human feet, an alligator is a butterfly's most dangerous predator!!  

I'm thinking that there wasn't a lot of consideration for the circle of life in designing this portion of the exhibit.