Photo Hunters - String(s)

I'm late posting for Photo Hunters today, because I had such a hard time coming up with a photo for "string(s)." Finally settled on this. Plenty of string here.

Photo Hunt - String(s)

Beautiful beaded necklaces laying on a lovely woven scarf, all from Ethiopia.






I love TNChick's photo for this week's theme.

WFMW - Backwards Edition

This week's Works-for-Me Wednesday is a "Backwards Edition". That means instead of coming up with bright ideas for you, I ask a question and you come up with bright ideas for me. I like the sound of that.

So here's how you can help me. I'm all out of ideas. I need new recipes that work for this situation:

Two or three nights a week we have to eat dinner in shifts because parts of the family are gone at dinner time. I could really use some recipes for meals that I can cook for those eating at our regular dinner time and then put on the stove on low until my other kids and my husband can come home and eat. And please, kid-friendly recipes would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Don't Miss This!

Fall always makes me a bit melancholy. Fortunately for me, Laurel is doing something to welcome fall.



Ahhhhhh. I'm feeling better already.

Photo Hunters - Beautiful

Photo Hunters will be posting pictures of beautiful things. So much room for interpretation with the theme! Can't wait to see all the diverse choices.

Here's mine.

Photo Hunt - Beautiful

My oldest and my youngest






Beautiful things here.

Photo Hunters - Wrinkled

Tough one for me this week as the Photo Hunters were looking for something wrinkled. Looked through and settled on this photo.

Photo Hunt - Wrinkled

Here's my brother hanging up his clean laundry to dry when he was in stationed in Iraq a few summers ago. He said no amount of ironing got all the wrinkles out of his clothes.



More wrinkles here.

Photo Hunters - Dark

Photo Hunt - Dark

Think she got her wish?



Check out the darkness here.

August 6th

August 6th...

One year ago today, our "paper pregnancy" came to its end, when we walked into an orphanage in Ethiopia and a nanny put our daughter LemLem into Pastormac's arms.

That day forever changed our lives.

Adoption experts say that it can take up to a year for life in the adoptive family to settle down to the "new normal." The addition of Bear last February has made this process take longer for our family.

One year has past and I can say, with feeling, that August 6th 2007 ROCKED MY WORLD.

Now that I can breath again, albeit shallowly at times, I'd like to share some of the things that I've learned and experienced over the last year. I've learned a lot about adoption and perhaps more importantly about myself.



So come back soon. I hope to have my first installment up next week.




Join the Blog Train

Photo Hunters - Clouds

This week thePhoto Hunters are in search of clouds. Should be a fun week. The sky is truly the limit.

Nothing fancy about my photo this week.

Photo Hunt - Clouds

More clouds here.

Photo Hunters - Hanging

No problem with the Photo Hunters challenge this week. Once I read the topic, my mind immediately thought of this picture of #1Son that I captured on the 4th of July. Took this photo without even knowing how handy it would be for this week's Hunt.
"

Photo Hunt - Hanging

#1Son just hanging around - wow, I love this guy.


More "hanging" stuff here.

Blog-Hop Door Prize Winners

Many thanks to Karen and Robin for throwing a great party. I had so much fun meeting new friends, sampling new party food, winning cool door prizes. And the BlogHop party attenders didn't have to worry about the flight home or post- party pounds.

The random number generator did it's magic and selected the two winners for my party door prizes.

The winners are...

Rebecca at Ramblings by Reba

Vinca at Pervanche Bleue

These ladies have been notified.

Thanks to everyone who came to my party. Make sure you're having friends over when you make my dip or you might find you eat it all yourself.

Hope you'll come back and visit.

Photo Hunters - What IS that?

A little late joining The Hunt this week - couldn't find my camera!

Should be a fun Photo Hunters day. We are searching for a photo of something that makes you ask, "what IS that?" Can't wait to see what everyone chose. I'm always amazed at the talent and eye of the Photo Hunters I visit each Saturday.

Today I'm going with two photos that fit the theme.

Photo Hunt - What IS that?

It's not just the angle, they really are pretty big. Good thing my son doesn't have any trouble swallowing large pills. My second son, Joe Cool, has Benign Rolandic Epilepsy of Childhood. These babies are the medicine that he takes to control his seizures which vary from very mild all the way up to Tonic-Clonic. Lucky, he won't have to take these forever. He most likely outgrown this condition in a few years. For now, I'm very grateful for the pills in this bottle.

Now for something fun.



This is a picture into a bag of berbere. Berbere is wonderful stuff and is a key ingredient in Ethiopian cooking. It's very spicy and delicious and my Ethiopian kids love it (and so do I!) When I opened the bag to take the picture the same thing happened to me that always happens when I smell berbere - my mind rushes back to Ethiopia and all the memories of our short time there come flooding back to my mind. Just a whiff and I'm transported. I hope it will always be this way.

Stop by TNChick's for more photos.

Blog-Hop!!

To console the many who are not currently enjoying themselves at the BlogHer conference in California, Karen and Robin have thrown together a fun little BlogHop. What a blast!

So, welcome. Come on in! Take a look around.

What's a party without refreshments? So have a virtual soda (diet available of course) or some sweet tea. And please, sample some of this dip. It's yummy.

Robin suggested that we keep these posts brief so that everyone has time to get around to a lot of parties. Read My 100 for a quick look at who I am. Come back soon and take the ride through Our Adoption Story. It's been quite the adventure.

Thanks again to our wonderful hostesses, Karen and Robin. You can stop by Robin's blog,Pensieve for links to other "places to party."

I'll let you go. I know you have other places to visit. Thanks for coming by. Hope you come by again soon.

Oh and before I forget, please leave me a comment say, "hi!" I'd love to know that you stopped by so I'm giving away a couple of door prizes. (I love door prizes!) One lucky visitor will receive - a $5 gift card to Starbucks and another visitor will receive a $5 iTunes giftcard. All you have to do to win is leave me a comment (just one comment.) On Sunday evening I'll randomly select two winners from this post's comments (even from my regular visitors - so go ahead and comment.)

All Clean!

Well, after waiting all the live long day to get the results of my sentinel lymph node biopsy, I finally talked to my surgeon's nurse at 4:57PM. The good news is that the biopsy was clean of cancer and so were the margins from the portion of my ear that was removed!! So I'm good!

Now I just need to get down to the business of letting my ear and neck heal and being very careful not to get melanoma again. (since that is more likely now.)


Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes!

Boy am I ever glad that's over! Whew!

Their first 4th

Happy Birthday America!!

Today "The Littles" are celebrating their very first 4th of July. We'll take them to our hometown parade and then picnic in the park later. And then tonight after dark we'll enjoy the fireworks.

And as a family we'll talk about how blessed we are to live in such an amazing country.

No news and I won't be getting any

Heard from my surgeon's office that the pathology report on my biopsy isn't ready and won't be available until Monday. So, we'll be waiting through the holiday weekend to know. Bummer.

Back among the living

Before

I am alive and back among the land of the living. Thank you for your prayers.

Monday was a long day...a L-O-N-G day.

We arrived at the hospital around 7AM as we had be instructed. After I checked in, I met with my pre-op nurse and changed into my "fetching" gown. Then they sent me over to Nuclear Medicine so they could locate the lymph nodes that needed to be removed for testing. This special x-ray took over an hour to do because once the special dye was injected in my ear (ouch!) then x-rays were taken every ten minutes to see where the dye traveled. The process worked just as it needed to and the lymph nodes in my neck where identified as the sentinel nodes.

I missed my 10:30AM surgery time because spent 20 minutes laying on a stretcher outside Nuc. Med. waiting to be wheeled back to pre-op. So, I waited with Pastormac for the next available time. We met with my surgeon who made the "official" mark (which was huge) on my ear. The nurse put my IV in and the anesthesiologist explained to us what she had planned.

Then around 12:30PM it was finally time to go. The anesthesiologist gave me a dose of "good stuff" (her words) to relax me and it took all of about 30 seconds to put my lights out. I barely had time to kiss Pastormac before I was unconscious.

I'm told the surgery went well. My surgeon was able to get a good sample of lymph nodes and he was also able to take the larger portion of my ear without having to use a skin graft. I tried to wake up near the end and so required another dose of anesthesia before it was through. This made it extremely hard for me to wake up afterwards and a process that normally takes about 40 minutes took two hours. And I felt pretty yucky when I finally did wake up. The post-op nurse called it "anesthesia hang-over" and boy did I have it bad! Nausea, & disorientation. I was finally released at 6PM and we came home so I could go to bed. We arrived home around 7PM. It felt good to be home.

I spent the rest of Monday night and most of the day on Tuesday laying in bed still getting over the anesthesia and recovering from the surgery. Luckily I did not experience very much pain.

Today (Wednesday) I've felt mostly like myself again although it doesn't take much to make me feel run down. We were allowed to remove the bandages and "check the damage." I have quite a bit of numbness through my ear and neck area. The incision on my neck is about an 1.5 inches and my neck is pretty bruised and sore. My ear - ugh; it's going to take some getting used to. I'll be happy when the swelling goes down and all the stitches come out because right now I think it looks pretty bad. I'm reassured by my family that my ear doesn't look as bad as I think. Today was just a really sad day for me.

Hopefully by tomorrow we will get word about whether there was cancer found in the lymph node samples. For now I'm meditating on 2 Corinthians 4.


After

Today should be an interesting day...

Bright and early this morning I'm headed out to have surgery. Life just isn't full enough around here already.

It turns out I have melanoma on my left ear. My dermatologist caught it early but I still have to have a sentinel lymph node biopsy to see if it has spread. The chances of that are only about 10%, so things are looking pretty good. Still, the surgeon will also be removing a larger margin of my ear. I was told that he would "do his best" to make it look OK but that "it would definitely look different." Marvelous!

I had to laugh. When I asked the physician's asst. how long the recovery was she said that she usually tells people to take a week off of work. I smiled, "Yeah right," I thought to myself, "I just won't go home." ;-)

The surgery should all be done by lunch time and barring unforeseen circumstances, Pastormac will bring me home around mid-afternoon.

I'll let you know how it goes. If you are so inclined, I would appreciate your prayers.

Untitled

Five years ago today my mom died of cancer. It was a sunny Saturday morning just like today. And the though the raw pain of that day and the ones that closely followed has settled into a dull ache, the void she left in my life still affects me deeply.

I'm reprinting a post I wrote a couple of years ago in honor of this occasion because even today, two years later, it still sums up how I feel about it. There are truly somethings that a person never really "gets over."

Thursday, June 29, 2006
An Anniversary

Note to readers: I agonized over whether to post this or not; and decided that I would, with this disclaimer. I know that there are some of you who had bad moms or no mom at all. How I wish I could change that for you. I also know that there are many out there in blogland who have great moms, but with the busyness of life - jobs, family, distance, sometimes conflict - they have lost sight of what a precious gift they have in their moms which can disappear so suddenly and never be replaced. This blog is for them and for my mom. I love you mom....I love you the most.

Wednesday was an anniversary (of sorts) for me. June 28th 2003, a sunny Saturday afternoon, my mom lost her battle with cancer.

Three years....yet I can still remember the day as though it were yesterday. I was with her on that day. The day my precious precious mom slipped slowly out of my life and into the arms of Jesus.

She was just 65 years old.

I wanted to write a post about this day, to not let it pass without saying something and thereby hold on to her in some small part. But my thoughts were a jumble.

Am I writing in order to honor my mom? Well most certainly in part. My mom was an honorable mom. She wasn’t a perfect person (who is?) but she was a good, generous, decent, caring, warm person; she didn't always get it right but she was a very good mom.

I also wanted this post to really encourage you, to spur you on - if your mom is still alive, make the most of every opportunity to love her and let her love you. Because you’ll find that when’s she’s gone from your life, there is just nobody like her. Nobody loves you like your mom. Nobody cares about the little things and big things in your life in the same way. It’s just part of motherhood, I’m coming to learn as I’ve had children of my own. Noone will listen and care in the same way as your mom does - about your job, your spouse, your children, your struggles & your joys, about the last funk you fell into or furniture you bought for your den. It’s something special about moms.

Reflecting on three years without my mom...I wish I could have just one more hug and in knowing it is my last, linger in her arms a minute longer. I wish I could have one more visit and stay that extra day, and in knowing this house would no longer be hers, soak up her presence in it; eat and enjoy every morsel, talk about the past, write down her favorite recipes. I wish I could have just one more talk, and in knowing these are our last words, tell her how much she means to me, how much I love her, how much I appreciate what a good mom she’s been. I wish she could see my kids just one more time, and in knowing that they wouldn’t meet again until we’re altogether with Jesus, I would watch carefully the joy in her eyes, listen for the pride in voice, feel the tenderness of her touch as she hugged and kissed them goodbye. I wish I could have just one more phone call and in knowing I couldn’t call her again, talk about the little details of life that are so easily swept past and talk deeply of the things that really matter - of life and forgiveness and love.

I can’t have any of these things. I’ve had all my lasts. And it isn’t enough. Though it will have to be, until we’ll be together again with Christ. On that day, I trust that her perfected body will still be just the right size, I will hug her close.

My hope for you is that you still have time. Time and time again before your own lasts. And I pray that you would make them count, make them meaningful, realize what a treasure you still have to enjoy.

And if you’ve had your lasts, I’m saying a prayer for you. That you would have the comfort of Christ that I have found in this time of the loss of one so dear; the comfort in knowing that my own mom’s love was but a shadow of the kind of love He has for me. He does love me and “get” me and care about the biggest and smallest details of my life, even the heart-break of losing my mom.

Photo Hunters - Bright

Not feeling very bright myself, but a picture of something "bright" is what the Photo Hunters were looking for this week.

I had a tough time with this one but settled on this photo that I took of a lightning strike. I watched this storm for a long time. The brightness of the lightning was such a contrast to the black of the night.

Photo Hunt - Bright

More brightness here.

Photo Hunters - Water

Wow! Where does a week go?!! Someday soon perhaps I'll carve out the time during the week to post something in addition to Photo Hunters...someday.

Photo Hunters will be posting pictures of "water" today.

Seems appropriate on this, the First Official Weekend of Summer, to post some water pictures that scream "Summer!" to me.

What says "summer" more than running in the sprinklers?! For LemLem and Bear - a first.

Photo Hunt - Water

Should be some great photos of water here. Click over there and see!

Photo Hunters - Emotion(s)

This week The Photo Hunters are searching for photos of emotion(s).

I think these photos speak for themselves.

Photo Hunt - Emotion(s)

Somedays it's tough being three.


Don't worry though, we have plenty of this emotion around here too.




More emotions here.

Photo Hunters - Shoes

Photo Hunters are posting pictures of shoes again today. Almost a year ago we were searching for a picture of "shoes" too. Back then I posted a picture of these little cuties. I had found these shoes before I even knew who our daughter would be. Back then they were a just a symbol for me, a symbol of the little girl who was waiting for me in Ethiopia.



And now unbelieveably, less than a year later, she is here. She is mine. She's spunky and smart and tough as steel and fits perfectly in our family. Blessings upon blessings.

And those shoes that were a symbol are now just her shoes. I put them on her feet and tie the laces. She is home. We are together.

Photo Hunt - Shoes

Thanks to TN Chick for all her work on The Photo Hunt.

Photo Hunters - ANY Photo

It's Photo Hunter's choice this week. We get to post a photo of anything we want. This one was pretty easy for me.

For the 4 or 5 of you who drop by here and are wondering, "What happened to your blog?" I present Exhibit A - Bear and LemLem.

Photo Hunt -ANY Photo

Adoption happened to my blog...

Adoption happened to my blog...to my life. It's been a wild, amazing, white-knuckled ride that has me hanging on for dear life at times and enjoying the rush at others.



How could my life ever be the same? How could I want it to be?









Drop by TN Chick's for a look at her "Hunter's Choice" photo.

Photo Hunters - Glass

I know, I know. My blog has turned into a purely Photo Hunters stop.

Just trying to keep it all together and not lose my marbles.

Photo Hunt - Glass

See, they're not all gone!



Check out more "glass" here.

Photo Hunters - High

I'm finding life to be a bit overwhelming lately. I wasn't going to post for anything for Photo Hunters this week but once I saw the gorgeous photo at Above the Clouds I felt inspired to post a photo of something "high."

Photo Hunt - High

Soaring "high" in the sky above the continent of Africa

You can get "high" here.

Photo Hunters - Different

The door is wide open for the Photo Hunters for all sorts of interpretations of the theme this week. We were looking for a picture of something "different."

We saw this sign posted at the entrance to a restaraunt that we visited while in Ethiopia last August. Not your typical "No Shirt * No Shoes * No Service" sign.

Photo Hunt - Different

I guess different things are important there.

Check out more "different" here.


I missed the Photo Hunters "Party" last week. But here's a picture of my 2nd daughter, Rummy celebrating her 13th birthday last Sunday night. She had a nice little party.