My Kid Circus

Last year during Lent, our family collected money for “Love Without Boundaries“, in order to contribute to their formula campaign. You can read about it here.

Love Without Boundaries is just one of those organizations that I am thankful is here in the world,  supporting these sweet babies.

This is Eileen, who we sponsor.  This sweet girl has not found her forever family since last year’s post.  I pray that I will not be able to say that again.

So, our family will again have a jar on our counter.  A jar that will remind us that although we have our sweet Hannah here, there are so so many more babies in need.  Babies who need formula, medical care, and most importantly, love.  A jar that will remind us not to forget.

I don’t consider myself to be particularly “crafty”, which has made me frustrated at times because I am related to a lot of super talented crafty people.  This year, though, I really wanted to step up our Valentines for the kids’ classes and our family.  Thanks to some ideas from Pinterest, I came up with these:

Except for the necessity for each of my children to sit still temporarily, these were relatively easy, and I love how they turned out!

Z was excited about trying different poses, but did throw out the, “Mom, do NOT write ‘Love’ on mine!!!”.  🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

In a confession that will make me feel pretty old (or at least like a real grown-up), I will say that my husband and I went on our first date 20 years ago today.

It was our junior year of high school, and we had been good friends for a while.  We were such good friends that  before the night I wasn’t positive that it was a date, but I quickly became sure that it was.

What I remember most is laughing and laughing, something that my husband still does for me.  He is the happiest, funniest person that I know, and his joy is contagious.

That night, I remember sitting on my couch after he left just thinking, “That was so much fun.  SO much fun!”.  He has kept my life fun ever since. 🙂

Our first movie

"Our restaurant" that is long gone...

Love you!!

Last week my dear oldest boy confessed to me about doing something he shouldn’t have at school.  He felt terrible.  He was devastated actually.  I knew that the only way he was going to move past it was to go to his teacher and confess and apologize, so in an act of great bravery, he did that on Friday.  I was incredibly proud of him as I fought back my own tears seeing his struggle.

Unfortunately, he realized the catharsis that can come from confessing.  He is now confessing to me EVERYTHING that he has ever done.  It is exhausting!  Seriously, he rarely goes 5 minutes without confessing about something.  Just today I have heard:

1. Sometimes I pick my nose

2. Sometimes I don’t wash my hands after I go to the bathroom

3.  I saw Katie’s underwear on the playground

4.  Sometimes I pick at the skin on my hands and throw them on the floor

5.  I think I have a lot of crushes

6.  One time I looked at my friend’s paper at school

7.  One time I felt jealous of my friend’s legos

8.  I used Auntie Kelly’s towel to clean up some potty that spilled in the bathroom

9.  I have eaten things that have been on the ground for longer than 5 seconds

Oh, the list goes on and on. And on.

I’m so glad that he has the desire to be an honest person, but I am looking forward to the time that we can have a discussion without his finding the need to confess something else that will make me cringe.  I’m not quite sure what to do with all of this information. Maybe I should ask a priest…

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year with dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  I have visions of our future where we attend real New Year festivals, but for this year, this worked for us.

The girls were thrilled to wear some of the dresses that we bought for them in China for the first time.

Of course the Chinese babies got to come.  K named hers, “Hannah”. 🙂

This girl is looking longingly at the waitress as she walks by with someone else’s food. 😉

We ended the night by watching Hannah’s adoption video.  During much of the video our girls were holding hands and dancing.  It was heavenly.

Happy New Year!