My Kid Circus

We had a great day celebrating the 4th of July with our new American citizen.  I think she was pretty impressed with our crazy celebrations.

We started the day with a bike parade.  This was a fun, nostalgic event for me, and the kids loved it.  We didn’t quite realize how serious the competition would be, however, so our kids didn’t come away with any awards.  That was only a problem for our firstborn.  It really brought out his competitive side.

Z was excited to redeem himself in some other games of the day.  You can see these guys were both intensely involved in the tug-of-war.  Unfortunately, they didn’t win here either.  The other team cheated… 🙂

This was followed by the 3-legged race.

Best of friends BEFORE the race

By this point, Z was extremely frustrated and determined to WIN something.  Unfortunately, his competitive nature made him forget everything that he knows about teamwork, which doesn’t work well in a 3-legged race.

This video, however, has become an instant family classic. 🙂

The sack race was next.  At the end Z just dropped his sack and ran the last few feet, in order to make sure that someone else was the last one to pass the finish line.  It was really not his day. Poor guy.

We finished the day with fireworks, of course.  I had no idea how Hannah would react, but she loved them.  She watched them in awe, and said the word “fireworks” approximately a thousand times. 🙂

It was a wonderful day with our circus.

Some of you out there reading this have kids.  You know about the monumental effort it is to prepare a family with children for a vacation.  There are shopping trips.  And laundry.  More shopping trips after you got the wrong peanut butter, and one of the swim suits doesn’t fit.  More laundry.  A to-do list of 1000 things ranging from notes for the dog to remembering the ear plugs to protect those little ears with ear tubes.

It is quite a production.  It takes days.  And days.  It is usually all worth it though for the fun time with the relocated circus.

This time, however, not so much.

We traveled to St. George Island, off the panhandle of Florida.  After our 7 hour car trip on Saturday, we were so excited to arrive.  The kids excitedly explored the rental house while I carefully unpacked all of the clothes, food, toys, beach supplies, etc.

Sunday, it was raining.  A lot.  The power went out while I was making breakfast.  We started hearing bits about “Tropical Storm Debby”, but weren’t too concerned.  We had a pretty fun day hanging around the house and playing with cousins.

The kids had a great time in the tropical storm force winds. 🙂

That afternoon we were told that it was a mandatory evacuation, and we had to be off the island in the next half hour.  As a mom to four young children, I took this pretty seriously.  We packed our essentials, and drove our precious cargo 2 hours to safety.

Our kids were thrilled with the adventure.  After all, we got to stay in a hotel!  There are few things as cool as a hotel to kids.  The adults weren’t thrilled, but we were cautiously optimistic that the storm would pass.

Then we were told that it was highly unlikely we would be able to go back to the island due to safety concerns and lack of power.  Hmm.  Definitely less optimistic.  We tried to make the best of the day though, planning on a movie day and Chuck E. Cheese’s for the kids.

But wait.  We got a message saying that they would open the bridge to the island for a small window so that renters could get their belongings.

We packed our precious cargo back in the van.  Drove 2 hours through a tropical storm.  Spent a frantic hour packing up the clothes, food, etc., that we had so carefully prepared, and then drove another 2 hours back to the hotel through the storm again.

Hannah didn't get to see the beach, but she got to experience Chuck E. Cheese's. 🙂

Today, we came home.  Now I am working on the unpacking, cleaning, and laundry.  Not the most fun part of even the best trip.

All in all though, we had a good time.  The kids had wonderful attitudes, and never complained about their many hours in the car, or their missed beach vacation.  We made some memories.  Not the ones we thought we would make, but still treasured ones.  We are safe, we are happy, and we will try the beach again next year.

Oh, how I dream of having a clean and organized house.  Someday…

Almost everything about Hannah’s transition into our family has been seamless and wonderful.  Almost everything.  I have mentioned it before, but we continue to have issues about food.  She would like to have food ALL the time.  She can be redirected into other activities, unless there are other people around who are eating.  Since she has 3 siblings, this can be a problem.  The problem is especially apparent to me when we are in situations such as parties, where food is just displayed.  Hannah really has difficulty focusing on anything other than the food, and will throw major tantrums when I tell her, “no”.

Today I read this article:   www.lwbcommunity.org/realistic-expectations-food-issues

This section  stuck out to me,  “Some doctors have theorized that babies who never eat to full have “hunger switches” (those receptors in your brain that tell you to stop eating) that don’t develop properly. Basically children who grow up with daily hunger often have difficulty knowing when to stop eating even after being adopted, and so it is common for new parents to report that their child will eat continually.”

This is a good reminder to me about how much she has been through in her little life, and that I need to remember to be patient with her.  The truth is that I will never know what her life was really like for the first 18 months of her life.  I just have to love her now, and pray that she comes to trust us to provide her with everything she needs…

Last week we went for Hannah’s 6 month visit to the cardiologist.  I was pretty nervous leading up to this appointment.  At our last appointment we were told that at any point her heart could start to enlarge due to her leaky pulmonary valve, and at that point we will have to do surgery.

The good news is that that time is not here yet!  Her EKG was basically unchanged from 6 months ago, and she is doing great!  In fact, we don’t even have to go back for a check-up for a year!!  Woo-hoo!

Several people have asked me what the valve will eventually be replaced with.  I didn’t know the answer to this, so I asked while we were there.  Apparently it will be replaced with either a bovine valve or a donated human valve.  So there you go. 🙂  So glad that our sweet girl will be able to do a little more growing before she has to have another surgery.