SURRENDER

And we started with a bang!

2012-01-31T15:33:00.001-06:00

January has been a big month for us. Lots of up and downs, and lots of doctors appointments. Here's the summary:

-Found out Josh has Melanoma. Got sent to M.D. Anderson(cancer hospital in Houston).

-Joss had her 3 month post cast check up for her leg. X-rays look amazing and her femur is healing up perfectly. Unless a problem pops up with her leg, or she breaks another bone(Please, God, NOOOOO!), then we are done with the leg doctor.

-Danil had his hearing tested at Texas Children's Hospital. Perfect hearing. That's not common for kids with DS. Another little miracle for my little guy.

-Joss was refferred to a hematologist at Texas Children's because of some abnormalites with her blood. We loved her hemotologist. He went over every possible concern that we have about her and addressed each and every thing, and then did some very detailed blood work. Everything came back excellent and the abnormalites with her blood are caused by her medicine. Absolute best case senario. Oh, and her abnomality is with her red blood cells. Apparently they are enlarged, but that is a side effect of her ARV meds.

-Danil had his 2 month check up after getting his glasses. Glasses are working great and the Rx hasn't changed, so that's a good thing.

-Kellen got off paci's. AND we took down the baby bed. *tear*

-Ray had a bladder and kidney ultrasound. This is a one year follow up after finding out that she has bladder reflux(her urine flows from her bladder back up towards her kidneys). She was supposed to have another bladder test done on the same day, but that test is done under sedation and I had accidentally given her a banana that morning so they wouldn't do the test. We are going back to TCH, yet again, next Monday to have the other bladder test done. If she still has the reflux, then she will probably be having a bladder surgery in the near future.

-Danil had an echocardiogram done. We will get those results next Thurs when Alik, Danil, and Joss have an appointment with the dr at TCH.

-Josh had his appointment for the melanoma, at MD Anderson. We got the GREAT news that it was caught early!! Josh has an outpatient surgery at MD Anderson on March 1st, and no other treatment is needed! What a relief to get that news!!

-My brother got stabbed 7 times on the way to his car a little over a week ago. Like I said, a lot of ups and downs. He is out of the hospital and recovering at home. All stabs missed vital organs and it a miracle he is alive. Two cyclist saw the incident and broke it up and called for an ambulance for my brother.

-Luke turned 9. N.I.N.E. Wow. Where did nine years go already?!

-We are in full swing with the therapies. Joss has speech therapy once a week, and Danil has speech, occupational, and physical therapy once a week.

-Alik. Don't really have any news on him, but didn't want to fully leave him out.

-We have a few more doctors appointments next week, then I'm hoping our year slows down some.

-Alik and Ray started doing some kindergarten work.(I guess I did have some Alik news). They are doing great doing Saxon K math and Get Ready for the Code for phonics, but both their motor skills aren't quite kinder ready, so we're taking it slow. They LOVE school though.

-I've been making more and more of my own household and beauty products. Lovin' it. My list of the things I've made has gotten kinda lengthy, so I'll probably just do a blog post that has all the links to the recipies I've used.

-Josh and I did a partial fast for part of January. We did some "spiritual" house cleaning during that time. We got rid of about 100 cd's, 20-ish dvds, 13 video games, several books, toys, clothing, and other "junk" that we had let creep into our home. For the most part it felt really good to let that stuff go.

-I fasted from Facebook and TV for over 3 weeks. I do have to say that I was much more productive while I was "un-plugged". I didn't feel like either of those things took up alot of my time, but I did realize that I used them as fallbacks to avoid doing things that I didn't feel like doing. Like laundry.

I'm sure I forgot something, but for the most part that sums up our January. Hopefully, I will get back to blogging before it is time for a February summary.....

It's a Vapor

2011-12-23T16:53:00.000-06:00

This morning my kids were getting on my nerves. Yep, my beautiful, lovely, perfect children were annoying the mess out of me. I'm not particularly a morning person. I don't necessarily wake up irritable, but I don't hope out of bed all bright eyed an bushy tailed either. I wake up quiet and slow, so it takes a few minutes of moving about the house for me to be awake enough to do certain things, like carry on a conversation. My days always start best when I get up before the kids and have some time to shake the cob webs loose from my head, and get the right perspective. When I'm up first, not only am I in a better mood when my kiddos start waking up, but I get a few minutes of hugs and snuggling with each one as they start rolling out of bed one by one. That makes for a good start to the day for me, and for them.

This morning the kids started waking up before I did. And they woke up with a plethora of needs that, in their perspective, had to be met at that very moment. They were either dying of hunger, or dehydrated, or freezing to death, or had to potty really bad but the bathroom was already occupied by another sibling who was apparently constipated.

As the morning progressed there were more urgent needs. Like, not being able to find matching socks, or the right shorts(to which I wanted to say, "It's two days until Christmas, just put on some pants!"), or un-tying the double knots in shoes that apparently had been tied by the incredible hulk.

Yes, my children are as dramatic as I am.

I was really starting to get annoyed. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and I was still in my pj's, still had dragon breath, and still needed coffee somethin' fierce. At some point I threw a mini-tantrum and said that if one more person asked me for something before I was dressed that everyone was going to sit on their bed until I made coffee!

While I was getting dressed I checked the news and facebook, only to learn that a 3 year old in a near-by town had been accidentally run over by his father and killed. Another 3 year old had drowned in a pond. And a 22 year old local girl, Emily Riu, had been killed in a car wreck. While I didn't personally know the girl that was killed in the wreck, she was a family member of people whom we do know. All three of these events are such a tragedy.

I was whispering a prayer for the family members and friends of those who died, when my mind wandered to the fact that this will probably be the worst Christmas these families have ever experienced. And worse than that, every Christmas will mark the anniversary of a very sad time. Lost loved ones are already missed terribly at Christmas, and compounded with the fact that only a few days before Christmas will mark the anniversary of a tragedy, I can't imagine the pain that the holidays will bring for these grieving families.

It hit me what a vapor life really is. In James, life is referred to as a mist. James 4:14b says, "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

If I knew that I or one of my children wasn't going to be here on this earth tomorrow, would running around meeting all their many, seemingly trivial needs annoy me? Absolutely not. In fact, not only would I not be annoyed, I would be honored and joyful that I have the special opportunity to be the one who meets their needs while I had the chance. I suddenly wasn't so annoyed with my kids. When I went in to the bathroom to put on my make up, instead of shooing Josslyn, who is my shadow, out of the room so that I could have a minute of peace, I brought her in there with me and sat her down on the stool. While I put my make up on I put a little blush on her cheeks and was blessed by her giggles. Then I pretended to put eye shadow and what not on her as I put mine on, and was blessed again when she said, "I'm pretty! And you are pretty too, Mommy!" Yes, baby girl, you are beautiful, make up or not. I love her joy in the simple things in life.

When Danil pressed the button on his kitty keyboard to play the song "Oh where, Oh where has my little cat gone?" for the 945,215 time, instead of getting annoyed, I sang along for a couple of verses and had the pleasure of making Danil laugh so hard that it made me laugh. And then he clapped for me. Which is the opposite reaction I usually get from folks when I sing. I love his love for music.

When Luke brought me a lego creation, that looks very similar to his last 37 lego creations, instead of sighing and saying, "Let me guess. It is a car that can transform in to a spaceship, right?", I stopped what I was doing and let him tell me all about it. And then I gave him a big long hug. I love his creativity.

When Alik knocked a framed picture off the wall and it broke in to bits because he was trying to see if it could "shake", instead of yelling, "Why would you do that?! Of course it can shake, why else do you think it is always crooked?! NOW look at it!", instead I took a deep breath, which gave me the perspective to realize that he wasn't trying to break the picture frame and his behavior didn't have ill intentions but was just innocent childish curiousity. I could tell by the look on his face that he felt bad and wasn't going to be "shaking" any more picture frames. Once I realized that I wasn't upset anymore and had the opportunity to show grace instead of griping at him now and regretting it later. He is sensitive, and I love his sensitivity towards others.

When Ray melted down because she couldn't decide if she should wear short sleeves and a jacket or just long sleeves, instead of snapping, "Oh just pick one! It isn't a life altering decision!", instead we went and stood on the porch for a minute to see what the weather felt like. I love her funky style and uniqueness that shows even in the clothes she wears.

When Kellen happily held his arms out to me, yelling, "UP!", which is what he says when he wants to be tossed in the air repeatedly, instead of saying, "Not right now, Mama's arms are still tired for the last UP.", I threw my chubby toddler up in the air a few more times. He is growing so fast and it won't be long until he is too big for UP. I love his zest for life and his love of adventure.

If I knew that I or one of my children wasn't going to be on this earth tommorrow would I be annoyed by having to meet their many, seeminly trivial needs? Absolutely not. Not only would I not be annoyed, I would be honored and joyful to have the opportunity to be the one who meets their needs while I had the chance. Life is a vapor.

My prayer for you and me is that over the next few days, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, is that we remember to focus on who and what is important and let the trivial things fall to the wayside.

Merry Christmas!

DIY Dogfood

2011-12-15T20:14:00.000-06:00

I know that I've been totally lagging in posting my DIY posts....and really blogging in general. I thought I'd do the dogfood making post all on it's own so that those of you who either don't have a dog or are not the slightest bit interested in making dogfood, could just skip this post all together. I will only be talking about dogfood in this post, so here is your ticket to just stop reading now if that isn't of interest to you. My next DIY will be about dishwasher detergent, rinse aid, and maybe a few other things thrown in there.

Dogfood:
I first got the idea in the back of my head to possibly make my own dogfood a couple months ago when my sister told me that she read that the average life span of a dog is something like 12 years, but dogs fed a completely organic diet had an average life span of 30 years. Wow. Now, while I have done no research whatsoever to try to find out how accurate these statistics actually are, it still got something going in the back of my head. That information from my sister just kinda sat in marinated in my brain for a while until I finally sat down and did some reading about the possiblity of making my own dogfood. First off, I want to make this clear: We love our dogs. They are great pets. They are great with the kids. They help me feel safe when Josh is working nights, yada, yada, yada. But they are just that: dogs. We don't treat our dogs like they our other children or anything like that. I'm not bashing folks who do treat their dogs like that, but we already have 6 young kids, so our dogs are our pets, not our other children. So don't start thinking that just because I now make our dog's dogfood, that they must be spoiled dogs that go around sportting diamond studded collars, ride in doggie carseats, and receive royal treatment...because they don't have/do/receive any of these things.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'll get back to the dogfood business. So, when I started thinking about how much healthier REAL food must be for dogs, it got me to wondering about the cost effectiveness and effort required to do it. After doing some research and reading I decided to give it a shot. Much to my shock an amazement, it was MUCH easier than I anticipated.

Dogs are primarily carnivors. Dogs are meant to eat a diet composed mainly of raw meat. Domesticated dogs haven't eaten raw meat for so long that they have mostly lost the digestive enzymes to properly digest raw meat, therefore, all meat fed to them should be fully cooked. My dogfood is about 40% meat, 30% grain, 30% veggies. I don't measure these percentages, I just eyeball it. I pretty much make sure it looks like I am serving the dogs equal parts of all three, and then I just add a little more meat. It isn't a science.

I have made my dog food for three weeks now. Every batch I make has lasted right at a week. We have 3 dogs(one small, one large, and one medium sized puppy that will probably be med-slightly largish when full grown). I make all three parts of my food at once and it takes less than an hour.

I use 5lb ground meat
2 cups brown rice(that is 2 cups dry, so it comes out to more than 2 cups when it is cooked)
carrots or potatoes(I make an amount that looks like the same amount of rice. For the carrots that is about 3lbs for the potatoes I just eyeball it. When I am doing carrots I steam them until they are tender, for the potatoes I bake them in the oven until tender and then cut them up, skins and all.)
For the gound meat I either use 73/27 ground beef or gound turkey. I do not drain the fat, I just cook it, let it cool, stir in the grains and veggies, and refrigerate.

You will have to adjust the amount of food you cook based on the size of your dogs. This batch lasts all three of my dogs a week. I am using half dry dogfood and half homemade dogfood. I did this in the beginning to help their digestive systems switch over to the new food. They never seemed to have trouble digesting the new food. In fact, the LOVE it. All three scarf it down in mere minutes and then lick the bowl. I usually put the dry food and homemade food in the bowl and then sprinkle it with some brewer's yeast and diatomaceous earth(2 tsp for the two bigger dogs and 1/2 tsp for the little dog). A couple of times a week I crack an egg in to the two bigger dog's food and then grind up the shell and stir it in. Every other day or so I sprinkle a little wheat germ on their food. I also drizzle a little olive oil on their food about once a week, as a treat. When we steam broccoli for supper, I save the stem and grate in into the dogs food the next morning. I also throw in some spinach stems when I add spinach to our eggs. The only things I know of that you should NOT put in your dog's food is chocolate, onions, grapes, and garlic. Dogs also don't usually digest dairy very well, so stay away from adding that to your dogs food.

In less than two weeks I noticed a BIG difference in how all three of my dogs looked. Our little dog, who was a super skinny very picky eater has filled out to a healthy weight and looks the best she has ever looked. Our part australian shepherd puppy that was a stray found on the side of the road by a friend, has filled out to a healthy weight and her coat looks great. She has shed her unhealthy hair and her new hair is so much softer and shinier. She also had an skin irritation in her armpit that cleared up when we started the new food. Our biggest dog is also our newest dog. She was a dog that we agreed to foster until her owners found a home for her. She turned out to be great with the kids, great with our other dogs, and a great watchdog when Josh works nights. She also became best friends with our puppy, and provided a great outlit for all that puppy energy. We fell in love with her and decided to keep her. She had been well taken care of by her previous owners, so she came to us in great shape. She was used to being fed the "good" dogfood, while our dogs were used to eating Old Roy. I have seen the least amount of changes in her, which is a testament that the good dogfood is really much better than the cheap stuff. That being said, I have seen changes in her, just not to the extent of our other two dogs. Her coat is shinier, her eyes brighter, and she just has a healthy glow to her.

Cost efficiency: Making my own dogfood probably comes out to the same price as buying one of the more expensive brands of dogfood at Wal-Mart, but cheaper than, say, Science Diet from the vet. I plan on continuing to feed them 1/2 dry food and 1/2 homemade food. The reason for this is so that if I am ever not able to feed them the homemade food(emergency, illness, HURRICANE EVACUATION, etc) if won't make them sick to have to just eat they dry food.

Gotta run for tonight, but hopefully I'll get a chance to post my other DIY things I've been experimenting with soon!

The 2nd installment of, DO IT YOURSELF:

2011-11-23T14:27:00.001-06:00

I LOVED hearing all your comments after my last blog post, especially when you shared your own DIY goodies! I have already tried some of the things you have suggested!  So far, this making my own products has been really fun. Tinctures making is my next adventure, but since that requires alot of waaaaaiiitttinng while the tincture sits, I think continue to experiment with some of your ideas while I'm waiting.

I want to quickly update on how things have been going with my last to DIY adventures.

Laundry Soap: I am really liking it! The 1/2 cup measurement seems to be working for us. If I were to wash a really soilded load I might add more, but I haven't needed to do that yet. When you first make the laundry soap, and it cools, it forms a thick gel. Jello like, but a different texture. I have found that the soap needs to be re-stirred every 5 or 6 days. If not, you get some watery sections of soap. In the bucket, the soap has a strong clean scent, but the clothes just come out smelling clean, not with a strong scent at all. In fact, there is pretty much NO scent, so if you want scent you will have to add essential oils. If you happen to not like the smell of the Fels-Naptha soap, then you can substitute ivory bar soap for the fels-naptha when you make it.

Toothpaste: Still lovin' this! Once my batch got low I made another one and also made a batch for the kid. I was going to wait until their toothpast ran out, but they were excited to try it so I just went with the momentum and threw out the half empty tube they had and started them on the homemade kind. No looking back. Shockingly, there were NO COMPLAINTS, not even from my child that likes to complain about everything. Score! Another thing about the toothpaste I want to mention is that it has made my lips so soft. Seriously. I guess the coconut oil gets on my lips while I brush my teeth so my lips are all nourished and hydrated. The only other time they have felt close to being this soft is when I exfoliate them with the Mary Kay lip exfoliant followed by the Mary Kay lip balm. The awesome thing about this is though, I don't have to use a product with chemicals and my lips are getting soft while I brush my teeth! NICE!

All done with the updates, on to the new stuff!

For this edition of DIY we will be moving to the bathroom for some easy, Do-It-Yourself beauty products and tips.

Shampoo:Here is the recipie for the shampoo I tried.
1T Baking Soda
1 Cup warm water
1T Dr Bonners peppermint liquid castille soap

Massage into scalp for 1-2 minutes(2 minutes if you hair is oily), and then rinse. You can rinse with a 1:1 mix of apple cider vinegar and water for some extra shine, if you like.

I mixed all the ingredients in an empty body wash bottle and shook vigarously.   It also needs to be re-shaken before each use. You can make if without the castille soap, I just added that for some lather. You can also add essential oils, if you like, if you either don't add the castille soap or use unsented castille.

Now for my review of the shampoo....
It is hard to get used to rubbing my hair with a shampoo that doesn't lather. Even with the castille soap there really isn't much lather. While it did clean my hair well(and seemed to do a great job of stripping build up), I'm not sure what I think about the texture of my hair afterwards. Jury is still out on thise one. I'm not scrapping this particular shampoo, but I think I am going to play around with some other recipies. To be completely fair though, I read to give your hair two weeks to get used to this shampoo.

Conditioner: I tried conditioning my hair with 1T of apple cider vinegar mixed with an egg yolk. I massaged in to my hair and let it sit for about 2 minutes. When I got out of the shower I got a small bit of coconut oil on my hands a lightly rubbed it on the length of my hair, not near my scalp.

My reviewed: Liked it, but I think my hair is malnourished right now and needs some deeper conditioning than the egg yolk/apple cider vinegar. I plan on experimenting with some deep conditioning hair masks. This seemed to be a great every day type conditioner.

Body Moisterizer:
After showering I rubbed a thin layer of coconut oil all over my body like lotion. It takes a few minutes to absorb, and don't over do it or you will come out looking like a grease ball. All I can say about this one is, SCORE. I loved it! It made my skin feel so soft.....for days! I tend to have dry patches of skin, especially in the winter, but I hate putting on all that lotion because of the chemicals. You skin is the largest organ in your body and you don't want gunk it up with chemicals. I really recommend trying the coconut oil as a body moisterizer. Just don't over do it because if used in excess, coconut oil can have a drying effect.

Eye Make-Up Remover:
Here is another one that I am just in love with! There are alot of different things you can use as a natural eye make up remover. Several years ago I used olive oil for a while. It worked great, but it left under my eyes greasy so my eye liner would run the next day. I finally stopped and went back to traditional eye make up remover. I don't like putting chemicals on that sensitive skin under my eyes though, so I went on mission again to find something natural that worked for me. I came across a recipie for eye make up remover that called for one part olive oil and one part witch hazel. Witch hazel is a natural astringent, so I thought that maybe it would cut the oiliness of the olive oil down. I got a travel shampoo bottle, filled it half way up with witch hazel, and the other half up with extra virgin olive oil. Shook vigarously, poured some on a cotton ball, and gave it a try. LOVE. It is working like a charm! Underneath my eyes doesn't feel or look greasy, my make up isn't running, and I don't have to rub chemicals in to that delicate skin under my eyes!! Whooo hooo!!!

Side note: The eye make up remover needs to be shaken before every use.

I tried a couple of other things, but I've run out of blogging time, so you will just have to wait. Hopefully, I gave you enough to get motivated to try making something of your own.

Coming up next week:
Next week we will be moving in to the kitchen, where I tell of my dogfood making adventure! I will also share a few of the little health habits we have here in the Carlin house. They are simple additions to your diet that can have major health benefits. But after next week, dooooon't think I'm done yet! I've got everything from lip gloss to dishwashing detergent in the works!

Toothpaste and Laundry Soap

2011-11-15T19:53:00.000-06:00

Well, my blogging has been lagging a great deal lately. Several reasons for that, 1. Sick kiddos. Nothing real serious, just lots of snot and barking coughs that lasted a good week before spending another week or so tapering off. 2. The time change kicked our hineys. It took several days to find a new groove that worked for us, so before we did I was one exhausted mama trying to parent whiny, exhuasted, half sick kids. 3. Our computer/computers have been having some major issues. Our laptop caught some sort of virus not long after we got back from Ukraine. It has periods where it works fine, and then for a while it won't work at all. When Josh isn't working, he can usually mess with it and bring it temporarily back to life. It has been getting worse though, and seems to be pretty much out of commission for good now. The mouse on our desktop went out, and since we've been busy, it took several days to actually get to the store to get a new one. So we spent several days without the internet. 4. I found a fiction series that peaked my interested. About 30 pages in to the first book I was hooked, so I spent all last week spending every single free moment reading. I finished the whole series in a week, so I guess I now have to face reality again.

All that to say, those are my excuses for not blogging lately. I also want to preface this blog post(although at this point I don't think that preface is the right word) by saying that it really SHOULD have pictures, but it doesn't. I'm going to share my adventures in making my own toothpaste and my own laundry soap. Those kinds of posts really should have pictures. BUT our desktop doesn't have a memory card slot, so I don't know how to get the pictures from the memory card to the computer. Alas, you will jut have to use your imagination.

Like I said, I have been experimenting with making my own toothpaste and my own laundry soap. It is something that I've been wanting to do for a while, but I guess I have just been lazy, or pre-occupied...

Let's start with the TOOTHPASTE:
This was SO easy. It litterally took me five minutes from start to finish.

The ingredients are COCONUT OIL, BAKING SODA, and PEPPERMINT ESSENTIAL OIL.

I put 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a small glass bowl. I added one teaspoon of baking soda, and 10 drops of peppermint essential oil. I took a butterknife and mixed it all up. Coconut oil is soild, but soft at room temperature. Once it was all mixed it put it in a small plastic container that has a lid. I keep it in my bathroom on the shelf. When I brush my teeth I stick my took brush in the container and scoop some on to my toothbrush. Out of habit, I wet my toothbrush before brushing my teeth, but you don't have to.
The first time I used it I didn't really know what to expect. It doesn't lather like regular toothpaste, but my mouth feels very clean afterwards. I really really like it! When I run out of what I have and need to make a new batch, I am going to go ahead a make a bigger one so it will last longer. I plan on using a little less baking soda and a little more peppermint essential oil. Peppermint can be STRONG, so it is best to start small and add more if you want. Next time I plan on using 4 tablespoons coconut oil, one heaping teaspoon of baking soda, and 20-25 drops of peppermint essential oil. This toothpaste is free of chemicals and it is all natural. It also has the added benefit of being very frugal. I plan on transitioning the kids over to this toothpaste too. Their batch will have less peppermint though, since my kids don't like "spicy" toothpaste. I have two kiddos that swallow their toothpaste, so this is a very safe alternative to regular toothpaste, which should NOT be swallowed. Also, you don't have to use peppermint essential oil. Clove, cinnamon, and theives would also be great choices!

Now, for the LAUNDRY SOAP:
This was super simple also, and only took about 20 minutes total.
I started by boiling one gallon of water. Once it starts boiling(or a little before, if you are impatient like me), you shave two bars of Fels-Naptha soap in to the boiling water, stopping every so often to stir. You can get Fels-Naptha soap on the laundry aisle at Wal-Mart for 96 cents a bar.

Once the Fels-Naptha was stirred in and melted, I added 2 cups of borax and 2 cups of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Both of those items can be purchased on the laundry soap aisle at Wal-Mart. Once it was all stirred in together, I put one gallon of hot water in to a five gallon bucket. After that I poured in my soap mixture. Then I poured another gallon of hot water on top of that. I stirred it all up and then let it cool. It filled my 5 gallon bucket about 3/5 full, and once it has cooled it forms a very thick gel. Today is my first dy to use it, but I washed several loads using 1/2 a cup of the laundry soap mixture, and it worked great. The finished laundry soap has a very clean smell. If there isn't enough scent for your taste, then you can always add some essential oils to the mix. Lavendar is always an excellent choice for things like that. If you are looking for a chemical free and VERY frugal way to wash your clothes, THIS is the choice for you! Seriously. It was very cheap and easy to make. Once again, I am sitting here asking myself WHY I waited so long to do it!

So that's all I got for tonight. I have so other ideas that I am going to be experimenting with in the near future, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Night ya'll!

Wordless......Thursday

2011-11-03T18:56:00.000-05:00

Dragon Mama

2011-11-02T23:41:00.000-05:00

Today has been on of those days.

When I was about 3 and a half I asked my mom, "Mama, can you breathe fire like a dragon?" Being a typical 3 year old, I asked many more questions, including, but not limited to, "Can God pick up the road?", "Does God use sissors?", "Can God kill Mr. T.?", "If I swallowed my gum, it wouldn't get stuck to God, it would go around my heart. Right?"

We love to laugh at the things we said as children. Joss is three years old and fully in that question asking stage. She asks "WHY?" for ev.er.y.thing. I ask her to do.
After the day I had today, I am quite shocked that none of my children asked if I could breathe fire like a dragon, because I definitely had a dragon day.
I really hate those kinds of days, too. Those kinds of days always leave me feeling guilty after the kids have gone to bed, and I completely hate feeling like that.

I am a somewhat high strung person(shocker). I might be laid back in some areas, but in general I think I'm high strung. One of the unfortunate attributes of a high strung person is that they tend to be easily irritable. If I were to deny being anything less than that, then my sister would totally laugh in my face(the reason she can laugh in my face, as opposed to punching it, is because we no longer share the same room and same bed, so our personality differences can now be laughed at). Ok, so I am easily irritable. It's something that I'm working on, and most of the time I don't let it conquer my day. But today I did. I was one fire breathin' dragon mamas today. It doesn't help that I've been running on minimal sleep the last few days due to one feller who rather not sleep in his own bed and several other kiddos who have suddenly decided to consume mass quanities of water before bedtime. It doesn't help that all but one of my kiddos has the crud of some sort. I'm a light sleeper, so all I've heard is a chorus of barking seals all night long for the past few nights.

All of those things factored into my dragon day. BUT, that still doesn't excuse my behavior. EVERYONE has stressors. That is life. As Christians we are required to rise above our flesh. My flesh might say, "I'm tired! It is 10:45 and I still haven't had time to make coffee, which I DESPARATELY need, because I have been blowing noses, wiping bottoms, referreeing arguments, tying shoes, and answering 9,000,000 questions since 7:00am!" Regardless of what my flesh says, though, I am still required to treat my children in the same loving and gentle manner that I require them to treat each other. We speak in love. We touch each other in gentleness. We do not raise our voice in anger.

Goodness, knows I have broken those standards today. There are some folks out there who would love to say, "That's what happens when you have six kids!" But in my honesty I'll tell you that I have had my dragon mama moments when Luke was our only child. "Dragon Mama" is purely a flesh thing, not a number-of-kids-you-have thing.

This dragon mama is ready for today to be over so that I can start fresh tomorrow. As much as they can bring out the dragon in me, I'm not sure if I could go a single day without my children. I am blessed beyond measure by having the opportunity to be their mother. This dragon mama has been tamed, atleast for tonight.

Luke's Heart

2011-10-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

This evening I was doing some cleaning in my kitchen and I found something that touched my heart. On top of the fridge I found a construction paper heart that Luke had cut out and written his prayer requests on. On the heart it said,

prayer requests
orphan
van
a dog

He made his little prayer request heart last August when we sat him and Ray down to talk to them how God had laid adoption on our heart. Our vehicle at the time was at max compacity, so it was a given that we were going to have to get a new vehicle before we added another child to our family. Once Josh and I revealed to Luke and Ray that God had laid adoption on our hearts, we began to pray about it nightly as a family. We prayed for God's guidance, we prayed for God protection of our future child, and we prayed for orphans in general.

Almost immediately after we began to pray as a family about adopting, Luke penned his prayer request heart. We placed it on the refrigerator to be a reminder to us all to be praying about our adoption and the things God was going to have to provide for us, like a van. He request for a dog seemed out of place, in light of the other two things we were praying for. Especially since we already had a dog, which was Luke's dog. I have to say that I prayed about the first two requests numerous times, but not neccessarily for the third. At some point, I guess the heart fell off the fridge and was placed on top of it. We adopted an orphan(or THREE), God provided the prefect van for our family. Prayer requests answered. Or atleast the important ones, anyway.

God is interesting though.

About two weeks ago we added a dog to our family. She was a free dog that a friend had found abandoned on the side of the road, but couldn't keep her. I couldn't resist her sweet face, and neither could Josh, so we decided we would take her. This might sound strange, but that dog has been such a blessing. She is the prefect dog for our family. Also, a couple of days ago we started to foster a dog that needs is in need of a permanant home, and that too, has turned out to be a blessing, especially to Luke.

So when I found that little heart on top of the fridge tonight, I couldn't help but smile. God is good, and sometimes he not only gives us our needs, but he also gives us our wants. That is what a loving father does. Lavish special gifts on his children, even when we might not need or deserve them.

A dog might not seem like a big deal. But that dog that Luke spent all those months praying for, has been just what I needed. Once again, I am reminded that I am incapable of planning my life better than God can. And once again, I am reminded that God hears even what might be considered the "unimportant" of requests.

I guess I need to brace myself though, because Luke's newest request to God is that I will either get pregnant with twins, or that we will adopt a baby boy and girl....

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day

2011-10-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day. It is a day for all of us who have lost a child through misscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or other infant death to remember our sweet babies. Do we need a special day to bring them to mind? Of course not. I feel that I can confidently speak for those of us who have experienced this type of loss, that there is nothing that can make you forget and almost anything can be an excuse to remember. So, while this special day isn't something that is needed for us to remember, to is a wonderful opportunity for our unique community to honor the babies we had to say goodbye to against our will. It is also an opportunity for those who have not been touched by a loss of this nature, to be made aware of the loss that so many of those around them have had to endure.

When I found out that I was pregnant with Raylen, one of my first thoughts were, "It's twins." It was a very random thought because during my pregnancy with Luke, I don't remember the thought ever really crossing my mind that I could be having twins.  But the very evening I found out I was pregnant with Ray I almost immediately got a feeling that it was twins. What was even more alarming, was later that evening my parents came by to tell us congratulations, and one of the first things my mom said was, "Your dad thinks it's twins." My eyes got as big a saucers! My dad has a special intuition, when it comes to babies. Before the day of ultrasounds, he could guess with an eery accuracy a baby's gender before he or she was born. Pregnant women come to him to find out what gender he predicted. I'm sure at some point he has guessed wrong, but not in my recollection. So when he said twins, it confirmed that feeling that I had.

I had been seeing my OBGYN regularly trying to figure out if we had any fertility issues or not, so we were able to get in earlier than usual for my first prenatal appointment. I was between 7 and 8 weeks along, so it was too early to hear a heartbeat with the dopplar, so my doctor did an ultrasound just to make sure that things were progressing as they should. Little Ray looked great! Her heart was strong an she was developing right on schedule. What the ultrasound also showed, was what appreared to be Ray's twin. Unfortunately, that baby had stopped developing and did not have a heart beat. Talk about bittersweet. We had tried so hard to get pregnant with Ray, that it was glorious news to hear that the baby was devoloping well. There is nothing like getting to see your baby's heartbeat for the first time. On the other hand, we had that "just got punched in the stomach" feeling hearing about the other baby.

We had a follow up ultrasound several days later to see what was happening in there. At that point, baby B was just a shrinking sac. Apparently that was a good thing because it didn't look like there were going to be an negative repercussions to baby Ray. Ray's twin was what is called vanishing twin syndrome. If we would have had our first ultrasound at 12 weeks or so, there most likely would have been no trace of what was once a twin. God used this to help me learn to more fully trust my mama insticts.

Our next loss was Treyson.  This blog was started during my pregnancy with him, so you can read all the details of when we walked that journey, if you so desire. The work that God in my life through Treyson is more than I could sum up in a novel.

Our most recent loss was less than a year ago. I got pregnant shortly after we started the process to adopt Danil. This pregnancy was kept underwraps for a plethora of reasons. I ended up miscarrying the week of Christmas. My selfish concerns of how I was going to manage having a newborn only a few months after bringing home a child with Down Syndrome from the Ukraine, suddenly felt like just that. Selfish. That baby would have been 2 months old now.

Each loss was different and was grieved in a different manner. Each loss brought something to my life that wasn't there before.

At 7pm tonight, our family will be participating in the "wave of light". We will be burning a candle for one hour, in rememberance of our lost little ones.

One this day of rememberance, if you feel comfortable sharing, I would love to hear of the little ones you may have lost.  For those of you mothers who have lost a child through miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, of other infant loss, it would bless my heart if you would let me know so in a comment. This is not just for my benefit, but the for the benefit of others who have walked or are walking this path of loss themselves.

I pray for those of you who may be dealin with a recent loss. I want to encourage you by saying that even though the pain never fully goes away, it won't always be this raw and consuming. While it might not seem like it now, God can bring good out of even the darkest situations, if you allow him to do so.

Here is to all our sweet angels who are populating God's kingdom. You are gone, but never forgotten. Always loved and held dear in our hearts.

Half a year....

2011-10-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

Today marks 6 months since our court date where Alik, Danil, and Josslyn legally became our children.

6 months. Half a year.

I can hardly wrap my mind around this.
In some ways it is like they have always been mine.
And in other ways I can re-live our court date like it was yesterday.

I was in somewhat of a tizzy after our court date, and then life turned in to a blur after that. So I never had the opportunity to blog about the details of our adoption hearing. My dear bloggy friends are probably waaaay past being interested in the details of that day, but they are so fresh to me, and I feel that there are things worth saying, so here I go...

April 13, 2011.
What a day. While our court date was not neccesarrily the adoption milestone that I was the most nervous about, it was still a very important bridge that we had to cross. If you do recall, Kellen took ever step of our adoption journey with us. While the thought of bringing Kellen with us to court made me nervous, it was not enough to deter us from bringing him to Urkaine with us. Even though it seemed our only option was to bring him with us to court. My baby boy is a sweetheart, but at this point in his life, he couldn't sit still quietly for more that a minute. I didn't want him to fuss thoughout our entire hearing, but leaving him at home(in the USA) wasn't an option, and paying for someone to come with us just to take care of him during court wasn't an option either.

God tends to have things He calls us to do planned out ahead of time. So when he called us to adopt internationally, he already knew that my mama heart couldn't physically separate with my baby. HE had our courtdate planned out ahead of time, even though in my head I just planned to wing it.

When we traveled to Ukraine for our first trip(to have our SDA appointment, meet our kids, and have court), another family that played a very pivitol role in our adoption story was walking the adoption path a few feet ahead of us. That family was the Buricks. One day I will tell "Danil's Story", which is how our adoption journey officially began. That story has Buricks(and God) written all over it. The Buricks obedience to God's call on their life has forever changed my life. We were blessed beyond measure to have the Buricks not only in Ukraine, but, uh, in the same hotel as us for the first part of our stay in region. It was surreal to lay eyes on, hug, and talk to, people who played such an enourmous role in the direction our lives had taken.

Since the Buricks were walking this path a few feet ahead of us, that means that they had their court date and went home for the 10 day waiting period before us. As the timing would fall, though, Josh Burick would return back to our region(and our hotel) while we were still there on our first trip. It just so happend, that Josh arrived back to the great region of D'nepropetrovsk the day before we were to have our court date.

At the orphanage there are two time slots a day that visitation are possible. Since Josh Burick was staying at the same hotel as us, that means we shared a cab and from orphanage visits. It was so nice to see him again, when he arrived back in region. While I couldn't fully imagine it at the time, I knew that his reunion with his son was a sweet one. So it blew me away when the day that he was reuninted with his son he offered to babysit Kellen during our court hearing. He layed the facts out plain and simple. He said that this was a day that was going to change our lives forever and that, in his opinion, he thought that we should be free to fully concentrate on and experience this life changing day.

He made a plea that couldn't be argued with, so we said yes. As it turns out, Josh Burick was an angel in disguise. On the much awaited day of our court hearing, court ran late, and then our hearing lasted long than we anticipated. Kellen would NOT have handled any of this well at all. First off, Ukrainian court houses are from Soviet times. They are old, dirty, and practically falling apart on the inside. As attached at KK is to us, he isn't exactly a sit still on your lap type baby. He's a mover and a shaker, and would have been cover in dirt by the time we finally got in the court room. As we neverously sat on a bench in a dusty hallway, waiting for our time in court, I was thanking God that Josh Burick was taking care of Kellen.

Court was everything I expected, yet a surprise at the same time. Maybe I will post about what that was like at some point, but I'll just say this. I don't cry. You could litterally count all the times I cry in a year on one hand. And 4 of those times most likely involve me watching a musical of sorts. Yet, when the judge said that the Alik, Danil, and Josslyn were officially ours, I let out one of those ugly loudish sob cries and threw my arms around Josh like we were the only two survivours of a neuclear attack. I pulled it together quick, but I couldn't help but hug nearly everyone that came within hugging distance.

They were ours.

Ours.

Officially ours.

All those papers I had prayer over had suddenly materialized in to living breathing children that belonged to me. It was a birth, of sorts. The day my children became my children.

Of course that is only the beginning of the story, but what a beautiful story it has turned out to be.

While I was sobbing in public like a freak, Kellen was wreaking all kind of havok for poor Josh Burick. Josh claims that KK was good for the most part, but at some point Kellen took an enourmous(and messy dump) that not only covered himself, but various parts of Josh's apartment. Josh was super good natured about it and quite the trooper. He detained Kellen the the bathroom while he, uh, cleaned up his apartment. I guess Kellen was just breaking Josh in to being a dad of 3 boys.

I felt terrible about the heck that the baby put Josh through(even though Josh was super good natured about it), but at the same time I wouldn't change a thing. Having Josh B baby sit Kellen was such a blessing because I feel like I could fully experience everything that happened in court. My hat is off to Josh Burick, who will forever be one of my heros!

Maybe on the one year anniversary of our courtdate I will describe what the actual court hearing was like. It is something that I never will forget.

Here is to six months of being a legal family of EIGHT!

Jossy Update

2011-10-11T21:49:00.000-05:00

So, my Joss can walk....sorta. This video was taken a few days ago, which was the first time she started taking unassisted steps. She has been on the go since the first day she got the cast off, though. Here is a video from a few days ago(her walking ability is still pretty much the same today).

This is how I found her the day after she got her cast off.

She was trying to climb over the baby gate.

The doctor said no running, jumping, climbing, rough housing for FOUR WEEKS, but the day after she got her cast off she was climbing over the baby gates in the house! SHE was so proud, and I almost had a heart attack. I don't know if I have mentioned this here or not, but Joss is fully in that 3 year old "WHY?" stage. I keep having to tell her to stop climbing or to play more gently, and then the "why?" go in to full swing. I really can't count how many times I have said, "Because the doctor said you couldn't do that yet." Oh well. At least she is feeling better.

Loving baby brother

That girl truly is a lover, not a fighter. She'll take all the lovins that me, her daddy, or her siblings are willing to bestow on her.

Even though she isn't walking, she is all over the place.
Here she is wearing my practice drill team hat from college. Cutie pie.

Two days after Jossy got her cast off all the kids were playing in the backyard when several of the kids started yelling for me. I came running to find Joss sitting at the top of the slide.

I thought, "Oh goodness, Joss climbed the ladder."

Much to my surprise, the kids informed me that Joss climbed the ROCK WALL to get to the slide.

Heart attack #2.

Wheeeeee!

I really have no idea how I am going to keep that girl from re-breaking her leg for 3 weeks!

Friday night we took the kids to the Nederland football game.

Don't they look precious in their black and gold? And, yes, Kellen is wearing a batman shirt, as opposed to a bulldog shirt, because I couldn't find his bulldog shirt so that was the only black and gold thing I could find....which is actually Danil's, but luckily they are pretty much the same size.

Josslyn Alina Carlin

The whole fam

The twins

This feller loves him some football!!

(even though he called it either soccer or baseball the entire time)

Well, that is what we've been up to. My head is FULL of blogging topics that I feel like I need to share, both for the sake of others and for my own get-it-off-your-chest type thing, but who knows when I'll find the time. If is much easier for me to just post picture of my cute kids doing cute things......

Night Ya'll!

The Monster is Removed....and one little sneak peak

2011-10-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

Joss got her cast off today! Can I get a Whoot Whoot?!

This is my little princess all ready to head over to Houston.

Silly Face

Joss and Mama right before we left.

Posin'

Like always.

It's time to get that baby off!!

The nurse was litterally waiting with the saw thingy while we took this picture.

The part I was most nervous about today was when she actually got her cast removed. I knew that it involved the cast being sawed off by a little electric saw thing. Loud noises can upset Joss. Not to mention that the loud noise was going to be applied to her "hurt leg". I fully expected a full on freak out from her while they sawed her cast off. That didn't happen though. She took it like a champ and even giggled about it. Once the cast was actually removed was a different story. Parts of her skin had sores on it and her leg was/is super sore and tight. After her first taste of pain she pretty much lost it. I almost lost it at one point too. I just really have a hard time seeing her so upset.

After her cast was removed they took more x-rays. Once again, her femur(thigh bone) looked very funky to me, but the doctor and nurse insisted that it was healing up well. Lots of new bone has formed around the break, so that is a good thing. The doctor doesn't want to see her back for 3 whole months, although he did say that it could be 3 weeks before she walks again. He also said that she can't jump, climb, swing, or rough house for FOUR MORE WEEKS. That is going to be very difficult at our house. We are a rough and tumble sort of group, not to mention that Joss is VERY un-coordinated. I honestly think I am going to be more paranoid the next 4 weeks, than I was while she was in the cast. At least I knew her leg was protected then. Anyway, she has really surprised me since getting the cast off.

Here she is on the way home.

She isn't interested in putting any weight on her "hurt leg", but she is moving much more than I anticipated. I was able to give her a bath and scrub a little bit of the grime off her foot. Six weeks without bathing your legs can wind you up with some pretty nasty legs.

Joss and Alik

I totally have to commend my other kiddos for showing Joss so much love. They swarmed her the second we got home and showered her with attention and love the rest of the night. When we said prayers before bed, everyone thanked God that Jossy got her cast off. Alik even said, "Thank you that Josslyn can walk again and play with us outside." I love that my kids love each other.

Last but not least, here is a little sneak peak at a cutie I got to play with yesterday. If you don't know who it is, then I guess you will just have to wait for me to tell you. But I can't tell you how many times I thanked God that I was able to hold, hug, kiss, and play with her after spending so many hours praying for her.

God it good.

'Night, ya'll!

Mostly My Joss

2011-10-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

New Tattoo

We had a little visitor one day this week. Here is a sneak peek at who it was.

Can you guess who that little feller with Alik is?

So beautiful

I simply adore that face.

She is such a ham!

The twins

Those two really do have a "twin-like" connection. God is good.

She adores her baby brother.

The cast comes off in two days!! Whoo hooo!

Have a great week! And I promise that in the next several days Shannon and I will be posting pictures of Anton, Lena, and Alik's reunion. Between the two of us we have 11 kids(10 of which are five and under!). That can make finding time for blogging difficult. Stay tuned though because this is the week we will make the long awaited post!

As Paul Harvey Would Say...

2011-09-25T22:37:00.001-05:00

and now, for the rest of the story.

At this point, the rest of our vacation pictures are pretty much anti-climatic, but I want to post them anyway. Call it a mama compulsion.

Josh showing R, L, and A how to catch fish.

He is great at the beach. Always so content.

On Wednesday my grandparents and Uncle Mike came by to visit for several hours. When the kids saw my grandparents arrive you would have thought that they had not seen them for a year. Kellen and Danil ran at full speed, yelling, "PAWPAW!!" when they saw them pull up.

Uncle Mike needed a nap, but Danil just couldn't leave him alone.

Luckily, Uncle Mike was good natured enough to allow Danil to climb all over him while he was trying to nap.

Ray

Danil and Daddy

Luke and....me

Luke eating a smore

Ray eating a smore

Alik and Joss do not care at all for smores. KK was pretty much too busy to eat them. I really wish I had gotten a picture of Danil eating smores though. He always ended up covered in chocolate. Hilarious.

So that winds up the picture of our little vacation. Soon to come are pictures of Alik with Anton and Lena!

Vacation Pictures

2011-09-25T20:44:00.001-05:00

Blogger wouldn't let me upload all the pictures I wanted to. So I guess I'll have to do this post in two parts. I know what you folks really want, is pictures of Alik's reunion with Anton and Lena. But this post(and the next one, I guess) is just going to be vacation stuff. Hang around a day or two and you will get to see reunion pics. I haven't even had a chance to send the picture to their MAMA, so I rightfully can't show them to you just yet...

Anyway, here are the pics of our vacation.

Danil lovin' a baby doll while Alik, Ray, and Anne watch cartoons.

I just love this picture. The sweetie on the far left is my niece, Anne.

For the record, Anne is a feisty one. ALL my nieces and nephews call me "Aunt Jess". Anne, on the other hand, calls me "Jessica". I find it thoroughly amusing. Her mom and dad don't know what to make of her. But I think she is alot like me. Love. Love. Love.

KK and my nephew, Peter, playing cooking. Both of them fellers like to eat, so this is not at all surprising.

Kale went missing for a while. I found him in our room eating gum. I counted a total of five gum wrappers.

Love them kiddos.

(From left to right, Ray, my nephew, Nathan, my nephew, Jacob, Luke, and Alik)

Eating hot dogs, links and boudain.

On Sunday my mom and her boyfriend, Lanny came to visit for the afternoon. They brought Lanny's new golf cart. Kale fall in love with it and was convinced that he could drive it.

Trying to get it started.

Even with a cast, my sweet pea can still have a blast where ever she is.

BIG smiles. LOVE her.

He STILL thinks he can drive the golf cart.

My sis and her adoring baby boy. He just loves his mama.

Danil LOVES my sister.

(And there is Kale in the background, With the golf cart key...)

Peter. My sweet fat baby nephew.

Boys will be boys.

(Nathan, Jacob, Luke, and Peter)

My KK boy

Josh taught the baby how to hold the body board like a surf board. Surfer KK.

Lanny holding Anne, Granny, Alik, Ray, Luke and Nathan

Now he's trying to skim board. Go KK!

The twins. I just love 'em.

My bro-in-law, Stephen, my sis, Hannah, and Danil.

Watching cartoons in the early morning.

Me and my girls on the ferry to Galveston.

Caker boy at Landry's. He just LOVED the mac-n-cheese.

Joss liked the mac-n-cheese too!

Caker's whole face loved it.

We ended up receiving several unexpected blessing while eating at Landry's seafood. One of those blessings was that the owner of Landry's father fell in love with our kiddos and paided for us to ride the ride at Rainforest cafe(which his daughter also owns) as many times as we wanted. All my boys loved it!

My girls, on the other hand, were not so fond of it.

Outside Rainforest Cafe

Watching the waterfall

Watching the crocadile. Or crockadeal, as they say in Ukraine.

Oh you think she can't climb up there by herself?

Yep, she did.

View from our balcony of Josh and the kids walking to the beach.

Ray toting Joss and KK in the wagon.

So that is all the pictures that blogger would let me upload this time. I still have a few more that I want to post so hang tight!

Kiddos at Play: Part 3

2011-09-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

Kiddos at Play: part 2

2011-09-19T06:00:00.002-05:00

Kiddos at Play

2011-09-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

Ray

Luke

Tomorrow's videos include Luke, Alik, Ray, and the baby...

6

2011-09-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Six years ago today I married the funniest guy I have ever met.

His humor is what won me over, and he keeps me laughing today.

(This video is the same song as above, but it is JJ singing with her husband. If you even remotely liked the song above then you will probably think the video is cute.)

Happy anniversary, Josh! Where ever you are is where I want to be.

VACATION!!!

2011-09-16T14:00:00.001-05:00

By the time you read this I will most likely be relaxing on the beach watching my children be deliriously happy. We headed out this morning to one of our local beaches for a week. The kids and I have been counting down the days for about a month now. We won't have internet while we are there, but I do have some short blog post scheduled to post almost every day while we are gone. It is mostly videos of my kids....being kids, so if you aren't interested in that kind of thing then you might just want to check back in next Friday or so.

Side note: For those of you following the Hazleton's adoption journey, Shannon, Carson, Anton, and Lena made it home safely yesterday evening!! The timing of their arrival meant that we were not able to re-unite Alik with Anton and Lena before we left for the week. Hang in there though because I am sure that I will have pictures(and possibly VIDEO!!) of their reunion to post some time next weekend.

Have a great next 7 days because I sure plan to!

Leg Check Up

2011-09-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Joss had her 3 week check up with her orthopedic doctor at Texas Children's. They x-rayed her leg, and while the pictures looked funky to me, the doctor said that new bone was forming well around the break. He gave her healing a big....

THUMBS UP!!

Yep, everything looks, A-OK!!

As you can see, she is back to her normal CRAZY self!

What We've Been Up To

2011-09-10T16:41:00.000-05:00

Updates on everyone...

Josslyn is doing great! She hasn't needed pain medicine in I don't know how long. The only time she ever complains about her leg is if she has to do something she doesn't want to do, like EAT or go to bed. If I announce that it's meal time she some times lets out a wail and says, "LEEEEGGGG HUUURRTTTSS!" It is rather amusing at times, and then other times it is rather not.

She is becoming more mobile. She can roll over and scoot herself around. She fell off the bed twice last night flipping herself around. She is a pretty crazy sleeper, so now that she is more mobile her night time sleeping habits have gotten interesting.

She also has a new ride!

She looks pretty proud of it, if you ask me! The wagon makes it easier to tote her around the house so that she can be a part of all the action.

Now THIS little guys has had a big week also!!

If you are wondering what HE is so proud of, it is the fact that he has graduated from diapers to pull ups!! This was a huge milestone for Danil, and for ME! His potty training has been quite an adventure, and I'll post about it sometime.

Aren't they too cute?!

Ray with one of her school papers.

(Note her funky style. I have no earthly idea where she gets it... *wink*)

Here is Luke playing golf with a stick. That boys just loves sticks and this past week he found one shaped just like a putter. He played stick golf for days.

Swangin'

The weather has been heavenly this past week, so the kids have been outside non-stop.

She wants to participate too!

Poor girl just wants to be where the fun is. Luckily, she has fun just watching them have fun. Win-win.

She does have some fun of her own though.

Mowing with Daddy

This past week has been a mixture of excellent and extremely challenging all at the same time. I am wading through some uncharted waters, parenting wise. While I have found that seems to be an almost continual thing in parenting, this week has been especially challenging with one of my children. I have been thanking God for the great weather and the contribution that has made in the attitudes of my other children. Once I've waded a little deeper I'll post about the struggles Josh and I have been having with one of our kiddos.

Overall, our weeks has been great though and so has our weekend, thus far. Heck, I might even post again tomorrow. Stranger things have happened...

My Blessings

2011-08-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

A friend/relative gave us a photo shoot with a photographer that she knows. I just got the disk in the mail today and I thought I'd share...

Children are a blessing. And so are thoughtful friends who give you the priceless gift of capturing your children's beautiful smiles forever in a photograph.

Q and A: Homeschooling and Miscellaneous

2011-08-30T06:30:00.004-05:00

Now for the second installment of the Q and A post...

What ages are your kids?
Lucas Alan-8.5, Alik Reid-5.5, Danil Dawson-5, Raylen Jayne-4.5, Josslyn Alina-3, Kellen Beck-18mths.

The femur is a hard bone to break. Do you know if Josslyn might have some other health issue going on that caused her bones to be weakened?
While we were at Texas's Children's Hospital for Josslyn's leg, they did blood work to check that out. I never heard the results, but I'm assuming they were normal or I would have gotten a call by now. I wouldn't automatically assume that with every doctor, but TCH is on the ball.

What curriculum do you use?
Little bit of this, little bit of that.
Seriously though, we are kind of a mutt. For pre-school I am using Answers in Genesis pre-k curriculum. It if my first time to use it, but I'm really liking it. It covers all subjects and is heavy in the Bible department.
For Luke:
-Abeka for phonics/language arts, spelling, reading, poetry, handwriting,
-Saxon for math
-Answers in Genesis for science
-For history and geography I am pulling from several different sources I have, including, but not limited to, Abeka, the Light and the Glory for children, Galloping the Globe, the internet, Rod and Staff... We are studying American history right now, so our geography is revolving around that also, for the most part.
-I also have several different workbooks that I get his seatwork from.

Do your children have a chore system?
You betcha! Luke, Ray, and Alik have chores they do before breakfast. Luke feeds and waters the dog and unloads the dishwasher. Ray feeds and waters the cat and unloads the silverwear from the dishwasher. Alik empties the bathroom garbage cans in to the big garbage can and puts new bags in. Danil's chore is to unload the clothes from the dryer and bring them to the couch. Kellen usually helps him with this. Luke, Alik, Ray, and Josslyn all make their beds before breakfast and fold and put up their pj's. Danil also folds and puts up his pj's, but he doesn't make his bed because he sleeps with no covers so there is nothing to make up. Josslyn is the only one without set chores, but that girl loves to clean. She is my side kick. She loves to fold laundry and is really good at folding rags, hand towels, kitchen towels, and small undies. So she generally folds that stuff. She will fold ALL the laundry, if I let her, I just end up having to re-fold alot of it. If she is around when I'm doing house work(if she's awake, then she's around), then I usually give her a feather duster or dry rag and let her clean along with me. She LOVES the feather duster and will dust everything. Including her siblings, if they let her.
My children are also responsible for keeping their rooms neat and tidy. I work hard at having a particular place for all their things. They are well aware that if they can't keep their things picked up, then mom is going to chunk it. As a part of our before nap and before bed routine, the kids pick up all their toys and put them away. This has helped to eliminate alot of stress in my life. Mess and clutter stress me out.
As my kids get older and their abilities increase, so will their chore load. We are a family, and a family is a team, so that means we all work together for the greater good of the whole family.

What does family worship look like in your home?
In the evening, the last thing before the kids go to bed is when we have family worship. When Josh is not working nights, the kids recite any scripture they are learning for him and go over their catechisms for him. I have found, that with so many little ones, what works for us right now is learning our scripture and catchisms over breakfast. In time that may change, but for now that is what is working best. It also insures that our day gets started off on the right foot. Having family worship right before the kids go to bed, helps to end the day on the right note also. I tend to get stressed in the evenings, so it is a good reminder to me to chill out and focus on what matters. I also like that the kids go to bed with Godly things on their mind. Besides scripture and catchisms, the kids also talk about what Bible story or scripture passage we read at breakfast and or/in school. We usually sing. And we always share prayer requests and then close our time with prayer. We encourage, but don't force, our kids to pray out loud, especially if they have voiced a particular prayer request that is on their heart. Ray is our praiser, and will thank God for everything under the sun, and then thank Him for the sun. I love her grateful heart. When I listen to her pray I am always reminded to praise more and request less.
Luke's Spanish pronunciation is awesome(in the 6 Kids: On a Swing Set post). Does he speak more Spanish?
No, but he was throughly immpressed that someone thought so. The only other Spanish he knows is counting to ten and a couple of other random words. I would love for us all to learn. If any of you know of a good curriculum for teaching children(and their mother) Spanish I'd love to know. We live in Southeast Texas, so Spanish would be a valuable language to know.

What were your children's full birth names?
For privacy reasons, I don't wish to share their full birth names. I will say that Danil's name was Tymur(pronounced Tee-moor), Alik's name was Oleg, and Josslyn's name was Lena. Lena is a beautiful name, and after meeting her and was very drawn to keeping her name Lena, but I never had a peace about it. As it turns out, our good friends, the Hazleton's are in the process of bringing home a Lena, so everything worked out like it should. It might have gotten confussing with two Ukrainian Lena's running around together. Plus, Josslyn adores her name now and it fits her perfectly.
Here is some interesting info about the children's birth names. In Ukraine, your middle name comes from your father. Since Alik and Josslyn were abandoned at birth, the hospital picked their first names, and then gave them their mothers last and middle name. Danil went home from the hospital with his parents, but was given up several months later. His full name was choosen by his parents. Just a little tid bit you might be interested in.

Will you adopt again? Do you plan on having more biological children?
Isn't that the million dollar question?? Or $35,000 question, if we are talking about adopting again. I don't really have an answer for you on this one. Josh and I are fully surrendered to what ever God has in store for us in the future. I honestly have no clue what that will be. More biological children? Maybe. More adopted children? I would be shocked if the answer to that is no. Right now we are not actively pursuing either of those methods for enlarging our family, but you never know when God will drop a bomb on you and rock your world. It's always when you least expect it. Kind of exciting to think about what the future could hold.

Any advice on whether to adopt 2 at once, or do two separate adoptions several years apart?
My best advice on that is pray, pray, pray about it....and then pray some more. Your best option is to go where God leads, even if that means only adopting one when you would rather adopt two, OR adopting two at once even if it is scary. I have a very neat story about an awesome couple that wanted to adopt two children, but God said no, only one right now. If they had not choosen to obey, then our adoption story would have been written very differently. I thank God every time I think about it, that they chose to obey, even though it made no sense at the time. WE also have a neat story about options we considered when we were praying about adding a child to our adoption. If we had made the logical choice, not the GOD choice, then the Hazleton's story would have been very different and my sweet Josslyn would still be sitting in an orphanage in Ukraine, unable to be adopted because of the changes in the law since we brought her home. Whew! Praise God for saving me from myself!
Anyway, all those stories are for another day. I brought all that up to say, pray about it and go where the Lord leads. If/when God calls us to adopt again, we will undoubtably be open to adopting more than one at a time. It has been an excellent experience for us, but it is because we obeyed, not neccessarily because we adopted more than one at a time.

If you could pick one child from Reece's Rainbow that you met when you traveled for your adoption to find a family, who would it be?
SHEESH!! Slap a hard one on me, why dontcha! Well, thankfully, several of the children we met that are available for adoption through RR have found families. Kirk and Lori(Anton and Lena Hazleton, now!!), would have definitely have been children that I would be dying to go back for, if God had not called the Hazleton's to adopt them. Right now, orphans with HIV under 5 years old are not able to be adopted. This is very very heartbreaking to me, because we met SO MANY sweet, beautiful, and wonderful children. Many of the children in Josslyn's groupa were listed on RR right after we adopted Joss. Right now, there are a few children listed on RR from my kid's orphanage, but we did not meet any of those. All the ones we met that do not have families have been removed from the website(hopefully temporarily), because they are not currently available. It is truly a tragedy.

Well, I really didn't mean to end this post on a sour note like that, it just turned out that way. I guess that is something that I would like to ask you to pray for, that the adoption laws in Ukraine be revised and the list of "special needs" be expanded. They have a very minute chance of being adopted in their own country, so would ask that you fervently pray that the laws are changed in order to give them some sort of fighting chance.

I plan on updating on how school is going and how Joss is doing later this week. Josh is off the next 3 days though, so I might not get to it until he goes back to work. He has been working nights and I miss him!

Have a great day!

Q and A:HIV

2011-08-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Q and A I mentioned a while back has been a long time coming, eh? You probably thought that I had forgetten all together. Once I started writing down all the questions that were asked by various readers, I realized that there were so many that I should break it up in to two different posts. This post will just be questions related to HIV. The next post, which will hopefully be published tomorrow, will address homeschooling and other miscellaneous questions.

Has HIV been easier or harder to manage than you anticipated?
Overall, I can definitely say that it has been easier. Before we brought Alik and Josslyn home I had done alot of research and talking with other parents who have adopted children with HIV. I was very familiar with what the daily routine looked like, in regards to having a child with HIV. That part has pretty much been exactly like I anticipated. The kids take medicine two times a day, and besides that, HIV isn't a issue in our daily life. Ray and Danil both take daily medication too, and have to see doctors for their conditions, so
Alik and Josslyn's daily medication and 4 time a year doctor visit are no biggie at all.
Besides daily medication, the only other major difference that HIV has made in our life is that the children see a retrovirology specialist at Texas Children's Hospital. Now we are at the point of just going to TCH every three months to have their bloodwork done. So honestly, HIV is a super manageable "special need". I do not at all consider Aik and Josslyn speical needs. I DO however consider waiting orphans with HIV to be "special needs" just because of what the future holds for them if not adopted.

Did you incur any out-of-pocket medical expenses, related to HIV, when you first got home with the kids?
The most major out-of-pocket medical expense we have had is meeting Alik, Danil, and Josslyn's insurance deductable. This isn't a HIV related expense, because at TCH the retrovirology department(the department that deals with children with HIV), is connected to the department that deals with children who have been adopted internationally. Whether or not the kids had HIV they would have gone to the same doctor, just to get a full check from people who deal daily with children who have been adopted internationally and the various issue that they might be dealing with(parasites, malnourishment, developmental delays, etc). The only out-of-pocket expenses we have related to HIV are co-pays for the 4 time a year doctor visit and the kid's medication. It has actually been much more affordable than I anticipated.

How did you family/friends react to the children's HIV status?
We have been super blessed by our family being so supportive. Overall, our family had a very positive reaction to Alik and Josslyn's HIV status. A few close family members knew that adding a child with HIV to our adoption was something that we were praying about. Those that didn't know(which was the majority of our family, handled the HIV part very well. The main concern of the majority of our family was us being able to handle the addition of 3 more children at once.

We have had a few of our friends who had concerns, but they presented them with excellent attitudes, so that we could address their fears and answer their questions. The concerns came from friends who had very young children and were not very familiar with HIV. We would have been in that exact same catagory a year ago, if a close friend or family member of ours would have announced they were adopting a child with HIV. Like I have mentioned before, until God called us to adopt a child with HIV, we were VERY uneducated about it. I can honestly say that those in our life that did have concerns handled them much better than I probably would have if the rolls had been reversed.

Of course we had some aquaintances that did not take our news very well. It was mostly people in our church that like to get hyped of over anything and everything and we were just the next bandwagon to jump on. Josh and I fully expected that, and while our feelings were hurt by some of the comments made about our children, it was an opportunity for growth and to show grace....even though I wanted to give a few folks a piece of my mind.

How open have you been about Alik and Josslyn's HIV status? Is there anyone you wish you could un-tell?
We have been open about their HIV status. We had many reasons for being open, but the deciding factor was, that after praying about it, that is what God gave us a peace about. We knew that by choosing to be open, their would be bumps in the road, but Josh and I have both learned that obeying the Lord is always the best choice, even when it isn't the easiest choice.
While we are "open" with the kids HIV status, we don't use it to lable them. I talk very openly on my blog about all the different aspects of having a child with HIV, but I don't announce it to everyone we meet. In day to day life I rarely bring up that the children have HIV. I am totally comfortable with talking about it with people who know and have questions(I actually LIKE answering any questions related to HIV or our adoption), but I don't introduce Alik and Josslyn as being adopted and having HIV. They are not defined by HIV or by the fact that they are adopted. While both of those topics are open topics in our home and in our lives, they aren't defining characteristics of our children. To me it would be like introducing Luke by saying, "Hi, this is my son, Luke. My husband adopted him several years ago. He is 8 and he has some learning difficulties, especially reading related, and also some attention deficit difficulties." That sort of introduction would sound down right ridiculous. Luke is not defined by any of those things, and neither are Alik and Josslyn.

Even though we have faced some negativity, there isn't anyone I wish I could "un-tell".

What precautions do you take, regarding Alik and Josslyn's HIV, especially since you have young children in your home?
None.

Kidding. Sorta. Honestly though, we don't take any sort of special precautions. I do pretty much all the cleaning and bandaging of real boo boos, but that was how things already worked around here. I have never worn gloves while dealing with one of Alik or Josslyn's bloody boo boos. Neither of them have had a gushing bleeding wound while I have had an open wound on my hand, so there has never been a need for gloves. Our kids bathe together. They share towels and rags. We try to not share cups, but that is to prevent transmission of colds and not at all HIV related. At times we DO share cups, but in general everyone has their own cup. Also, Danil and Joss are MAJOR backwashers, so I would not subject anyone to having to share a cup with them....and their last meal. Another thing we discourage sharing is toothbrushes. My older 5 don't share at all. Kellen tends to be the toothbrush thief though. There is a very minimal chance that HIV can be transmitted via sharing a toothbrush. HIV is a fragile virus and dies upon contact with the air, so the toothbrush(with blood on it) would have to go from one mouth to the other IMMEDIATELY, and even then the chance of transmission is VERY VERY minimal. The reason we discourage sharing toothbrushes is more germ and cold related, than HIV related. So, the only new precaution that we have instated in our home, since bringing Alik and Josslyn home, is the children are no longer allowed to share needles when they shoot up their heroin. *wink*

What does Alik and Josslyn's medication routine look like?
They take medicine twice a day. 7:30am and 7:30pm. They take it great, so it is no big deal at all, just part of our routine. Ray and Danil also take daily medication, once a day. So in the morning all four of them take their meds at the same time. In the evening, just Alik and Joss take theirs.

So, twice a day meds and visits to the doctor 4 times a year for bloodwork is pretty much the extent to how HIV has affected our daily life(is it affect, or effect?? I can never remember...). We have had some effects(we'll just use both so I know that I'm getting it right at least once!) from negative reactions from people at our old church, but those truly turned out to be opportunities for spiritual growth, and in retrospect I wouldn't change a single negative thing we've dealt with thus far. God also used some of the naysayers to give us a nudge to move in a direction that God had been preparing us for over the past several years. God is doing exciting things in our life, when we remember to step back, let go, and let Him work.

They next Q and A post should publish tomorrow, so if you have any more questions you still have time to slip 'em in!

Have a great school and/or work week!

Entertaining Myself

2011-08-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure he is explaining quantum physics,

or has the solution to world peace.

Kellen and Kids Praying

2011-08-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

Josh is working nights this weekend. When he works nights on the weekend I usually entertain myself with my many children. Last night was Friday, and every Friday night(unless we have other plans) we watch a movie as a family and eat popcorn. Last night we watched "Duma", which is a pretty good movie about a cheetah. The kids all love animal movies, so this one was undoubtably a hit. During the movie Kellen was being hil.ar.i.ous. Of course he toned it down as soon as I got out the video camera, but I thought I'd post this little video anyway.

( Note, the other children who are not quite as amused with him as I am, since I paused the movie to video him.)

This second video is from later that night when we gathered in the girl's room to pray. Luke prayed first and when he prayed for Josslyn's leg, Joss immediately joined in the prayer and prayed at length(I'm assuming she was also praying for her leg??). After Luke prayed, Ray prayed. Josslyn prayed all through Ray's prayer and continued after Ray was done. No sooner had she finished than she remember another requests and started praying again. It was so precious. I finally decided that I needed to document it for Josh to see, so I went and got the video camera. When I came back in the room with the camera she was praying again. After I videoed her praying, Luke and Ray wanted to re-pray for Daddy to see too.

(Note, Luke prays that Daddy will bring doughnuts home in the morning for breakfast.)

Have a good rest of the weekend! For those of you with kiddos, I hope you are enjoying yours as much as I'm enjoying mine!

My Gimpy Princess

2011-08-25T20:53:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of Josslyn from the past couple of days.

THIS is when Josslyn started to perk up.

Notice how she is holding Ray's hand with one hand and clinging to her arm with the other hand.

Yes, Josslyn does haver writing on her leg. While she was sleeping on the couch, Kellen so kindly drew on her with a dry erase marker. Someone forgot to inform him that it was the OTHER leg he was supposed to sign. Regardless, Josslyn was NOT happy about that. He also drew on the couch in the recliner. I was not happy about that.

Watching TV with Luke and Ray

Eatin'

I have mostly been feeding Josslyn, and she has been eating it up. Litterally. We have been having food issues with her lately(which I am sure I will post about in greater detail at some point), but now that I have been spoon feeding her, she is eating like a champ. She just might put on some weight and bust outta that cast!

In a hip carrier

Now that she is feeling better she wants to be up and all over the place. She generally sticks pretty close to me through out the day, so now is no different. For the most part she wants to be where ever I am. Since I am all over the place alot of the day, I have been wearing her from time to time throughout the day. The baby wearer in me has been loving it, and Josslyn thinks she is in heaven. Works for both of us.

Sitting outside watching everyone play.

Being silly.

She is still typical Josslyn. You whip out the camera and she starts posing.

After getting her hair washed and a spit bath(that's what we called it growing up...)

Her poor little hair gets so matted during the day with all the laying she does. She this is the position I put her in while her hair dries.

Looking at books

She joined in on play time today

She thought her cast made a perfect train track

See Alik doting on her??

Alik was probably the most worried about Josslyn while she was in the hospital. Today she had him bringing her every little toy she wanted. He didn't mind a bit. He is very sweet natured and sensitive to others. And yes, that is a small room(all our rooms are small), but 6 children play very happily together, even in small rooms.

Etch-a-sketch!

I'm sure you noticed the many positions I have been putting Josslyn in. I keep thinking how sore and bored I would be if I had to lay on my back all the time, so I have been trying to provide her some variety. She is doing excellent. Her pain is minimal. I'm quite amazed at how well she is doing. Resilient.

Oh, one of you asked if Josslyn was in a spica cast. After seeing the pictures, I'm sure you can see that her cast is a spica cast. For those of you who had/have no idea what a spica cast is....well, that is what her kind of cast is called. It covers one whole leg, wraps around her wasit, and goes down half her other leg. Doesn't leave room for much mobility. It would drive me absolutely crazy if I was the one having to wear it. For those of you who are familiar with spica casts, I have a question. She is supposed to have her cast for 6 weeks. She goes back to the dr in 3 weeks. At that appointment will she get a new cast? And if she does get a new cast is it possible that it will be less of a cast than it is now? Just curious. Joss was still asleep from the anesthesa when I talked to the doctor, so I just listened to what he said and didn't really ask many questions.

Soon to come are two Q and A posts. I was actually working on them less than10 minutes before Joss hurt her leg.

Good night, ya'll!

Recovering

2011-08-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

Well I thought I was emotionally prepared to write this blog post. Now that I actually sat down to do it, I feel my throat getting tight and my pulse start to beat faster.

The past several days have been tough ones here at the Carlin house. Sunday evening Josslyn broke her leg. We still aren't,(and may never be), exactly sure what happened. We know that she fell in her room and was by herself when it happened, but beyond that the details are kind of sketchy. Keep in mind, the details are coming from a very traumatized 3 year old that hasn't fully mastered the language and has definite speech issues. Honestly, though, I'm not even sure if she knows exactly what happened. We have given up questioning her because we just get the same answers and we hate to keep bringing up a sore subject. Litterally.

I heard her fall and start crying. Our house is on piers, so everything is loud. When the kids play it sounds like a herd of elephants playing rugy. Seriously. So when I heard a THUD that was quickly followed by a "WAAAAAAAA!", I didn't neccessarily think that it was something serious. Especially since I hear thuds followed by Josslyn crying many times a day. Coordination and focus are not her strong suits, and that combination can be the cause of many boo boos for her throughout each and every day. Even when she isn't falling/running into things and hurting herself, she is falling/running into things(or people) and not hurting herself. 90% of the "thuds" that I hear in our house are followed by either Josslyn crying, or Josslyn yelling, "UH-OH!!" We joke that her middle name should have been Uh-Oh, instead of Alina. When one of us hears her yell, "Uh-Oh!!" across the house, we giggle and say, "Josslyn Uh-Oh Carlin".

This particular "THUD", on this particular day, was a doozie. I could tell that her cry was a real cry, but my mama instincts still weren't alerting me that an injury out of the norm had just taken place. I trotted in her room and saw her laying on the floor. The way she was laying it looked like she had hit her head on the floor(which she had), so I thought that was why she was crying. I picked her up under her arms and tried to stand her up. When she tried to stand up she immediately let out a scream that I had never heard from her before and pulled her right leg up. At this point I KNEW something was bad wrong. I don't think I have ever heard any of my kids cry that kind of cry before. And hopefully I never will again. I picked her up like a baby and she just kept screaming. Josh was in the kitchen and came quickly. He took one look at her leg and said that he thought it was broken. My brain turned into fuzz. I tend to be pretty good under this sort of pressure, or atleast I had thought so up until this point. But I guess I had never been under that sort of pressure. We have never had a child have to have stitches. No gushing bleeders. No concusions. And up until now, no broken bones.

My fuzzy brain, that was starting to get tunnel vision, kept thinking, "Surely her leg isn't broken! How in the world could she have broken her leg?!" But after about 60 seconds of Josslyn's screaming, it didn't matter what the problem was I wanted to get her to the emergency room and get her something for pain. Josh quickly loaded all the kids up in the van and drove Josslyn and I to the ER. The next 24 hours were some of the longest of my life. For my own sake, I'll sum it up without alot of details.

Josslyn broke her right femur(thigh bone). She had to be transported by ambulance to Texas Children's Hospital. At the first hospital(the local one), we were told that she was most likely going to have to have to get pins or screws surgically and to prepare to be in the hospital for a week. Thankfully, TCH is the best. They have excellent doctors who were able to set and cast her leg with out having to use pins. Since there were no pins, we were able to go home on Monday afternoon.

There are alot of grizzly details that I'm leaving out, mainly because I don't want to think about them long enough to write about it. I'll just say that the whole thing was extremely traumatizing to Josslyn, and as a mother it is one of the worst things I've had to endure. I don't think I have ever seen anyone in as much pain as she was in. It would have been awful to witness a grown man who was a complete stranger in that much pain. For it to be your daughter is almost unbearable. They were giving her as much morphine as they safely could, without slowing down her respiration too much, and she was still in a great deal of pain. I would sale everything I own and live in a box on the street, if it meant never having to see one of my children go through something like that again.

When we got home Monday evening I was still running on adrenaline. I hadn't slept at all the night before. Josslyn's leg, even though it wasn't technically a surgery, had to be set and casted in an operating room. Because of the type of break, and the type of cast it would require, she had to be put fully to sleep and intubated. Another mommy first for me. Even though I understood and fully agreed this was best for her, I was still very nervous about her being put fully to sleep. She did excellent though. That girl is one of the toughest people I know.

Monday when we got home Josslyn was completely exhausted. She slept much of the evening and then, much to my surprise, she slept all night, without even needing pain medicine. I wanted to be near her, and since I had no clue what kind of night she was going to have, we thought the best arrangement was her on the couch and me on the reclincer beside her. She completely shocked me by sleeping like a rock. Barely letting out a whimper now and then, just to make sure I was nearby. Tuesday morning she was still pretty melancholy, as expected for what she had been through. My adrenaline was wearing off and I felt like a big pile of cow manure. If I didn't have 5 other kids that needed a mother, not cow manure, I would have curled up on the couch and stared at the wall for goodness knows how long. My emotions were a wreck. Thank the Lord for kiddos that need a "sane" mom, so that left curling up in the fetal position and dying not an option.

Tuesday afternoon, after a good nap and some quite time watching tv, Josslyn finally started coming out of her shell. It was Ray that did it. She crawled up on my bed beside Josslyn and held her hand. Josslyn slowly went from quiet, to chatty, to downright giggly. Sisters can be angels. Sometimes they know exactly what you need. Apparently, Josslyn just needed her sister. By last night she was her normal self. Once the old Joss was back I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. I can now get back to being my normal self(whatever that was), I am just a slightly more aged. I am sure that the fine lines under my eyes have deepened and the gray hair on my head has multiplied. But I don't care. I have my daughter back. Recovering.

6 Kids: At the Beach

2011-08-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

6 Kids: On a swing set

2011-08-18T18:04:00.000-05:00

Breakthrough

2011-08-16T16:59:00.000-05:00

We have recently had a breakthrough with Alik that I think signals that he is reaching a more comfortable and trusting place in his relationship with us. If you have been following my blog a while you will remember that our relationship with Alik got off to a rocky start. I wrote about it some in my blog, but I hope to write about the depth of that rocky beginning at some point. For now, you will just have to take my word for it that it was rough. Alik and I did not really begin to form much of a positive relationship until right before I busted him out of the orphanage for good. Our relationship really started to grow starting the day I got him out of the orphanage forever. Gotcha Day.

A few hours in to his first day of freedom was the first time Alik ever gave me a spontaneous hug of his own free will. It was at that moment that I knew everything was going to be ok and in time Alik would bond with, trust, and even grow to love me and the rest of his new family. I had no idea how quickly that bonding and love part would start. The moment we arrived home for the very first time Alik started to truly amaze me. Of all three of my newly adopted children I thought that he was going to be the toughest egg to crack. He did excellent though! So much better than I could have ever hoped or dreamed. He immediately bonded with Ray. Bonds with other family members were soon to follow. His english progressed at a more rapid pace than I would have guess possible.

Now, Alik speaks almost all english. His grammer is on about a 2.5 year old level("Me like that!", etc.), he is learning so quickly. Once he gained enough knowledge that we could talk with him in more detail, we started asking him, out of pure curiosity, what various things were called in Russian. At first, he just played dumb. He would look at my blankly like he didn't understand what I was saying. I thought that he did, but I just let it go. Several days later I asked him what something else was. Again, blank stare. I had a feeling that he understood me though, so I asked again.

He looked at me flatly and said, "I don't know."

So I asked him, "You don't know, or you don't want to tell me?"

He just shrugged his shoulders. I have been worried about the kids losing their language. I've heard that it can happen very quickly, so I wondered if maybe that was the case and just left it at that.

Several days later the scene repeated itself. This time I asked him something that I knew he should be able to remember. "I don't know" was the only response I was getting from him. So I asked if he didn't remember. He nodded and said that he didn't remember. So, once again, I just left it at that.

About 2 weeks ago he was looking at a book. It was a Curious George book about season. Alik just loves anything to do with monkeys, especially Curious George. In the book there was a rainbow and he asked me what it was called. I told him it was a rainbow, and he repeated it in his near perfect southern drawl english. I thought I'd give it one last shot so I asked him what it was called when he was at his groupa in Ukraine. He just stared at me. I figured that either he didn't know, or just wasn't going to tell me. So I went about my business, figuring that he was never going to tell me anything in Russian that I didn't already know.

That's when I heard him mutter something. I looked over at him and he was looking at me tenatively.

"What?", I said.

"Raduga", he said quietly.

"Raduga?"

"Yeah, Raduga", he said pointing to the rainbow.

"Raduga is rainbow?" , I pratically yelled in my excitement!

"Yep."

And that is where it started with him sharing things from his old life. Over the last few weeks he has told us what kinds of foods he ate, what kind of games he played, and other various things about his life in Ukraine. I now realize that it took time for him to feel safe enough to share that part of his life with us. Every few days he will randomly come up and share something from his past life. A candy he ate at groupa and what it is called was his fun fact for today. Whenever he shares something new he is all smiles. Today I was sitting back just marveling at how far he has come.

Alik is definitely a raduga in my life.

First week of school in pictures

2011-08-14T22:57:00.000-05:00

These pictures are all from our first week of school, this past week. Not all of them are of the kids actually doing school, but I just tried to capture what our week looked like.

Danil and Kellen:BBFF(Bro Best Friends Forever)

Kellen and Danil adore each other. Any time Danil sits down to look at a book, Kellen is right behind him.

Daddy mowing.

Kellen loves to ride on the mower with Josh. This isn't the first time he has ridden himself to sleep.

Ray with the glitter after doing her craft from our Bible story.

On that day we read the parable from the Bible about the woman with 10 silver coins and she loses one.

Josslyn hugging KK. If I pull out a camera she will hug anyone in sight so that I'll take her picture. If there happens to be no one in sight to hug, then she just strikes a pose. That girl loves the camera.

And the camera loves her.

Pretty girl

All the kids having a juice pop during snack time.

The juice pops are half water/half apple juice. They are easy to make, cheep, not loaded with sugar, and the kids love 'em. That's what I call a winner!

This is how Josslyn trotted into the kitchen one morning when I called her to come take her medicine. I thought the loads of jewelry was photo worthy.

Wednesday afternoon after the kids naps, we took a little field trip to the beach. We ended up being there at low tide. That meant lots of beach and lots of shallow water fo the kids to play in. It was perfection. The kids had a blast.

All 6 kids are in this picture. Bet you can't find Danil!

Like I said, she loves to pose for picture.

I think Kellen has had enough of the sisterly lovins.

Of course, we had to throw in some learning. This is homeschool, people. You can learn anywhere, ESPECIALLY at the beach. In science we are studying plants. Since this was our first week of school it was just an introduction to plants. We talked about kingdoms and classification and such. In this picture we had decided that this dead catfish was once part of the animal kingdom. It DID have a backbone. It was cold-blooded, and had no scales.

Josslyn, of course, just had to pose with the catfish also.

And so did Alik. Josslyn pulled a little photo bombing and jumped in there with him.

PB and sand sandwich. MMMmmmmmMMM!

Skipping rocks and shells in the shallow water. He is really good at it.

Danil loves to have his feet buried in the sand. He will sit like this for 30 minutes just grinning.

Yes, I know they have beer bottles. They found them on the beach and were having so much fun filling them up with water that I thought it was innocent enough. They are clueless, so I figured it was harmless.

I love this picture of Luke.

These are the hermit crabs we collected, all in about a 15 minute period. Luke wanted me to take a picture of them before we released them. More classification, of course. Hermit crabs are animals who have a one part shell.

Peek-a-boo!(Or Cuckoo!, as they say in Ukraine.)

Our beach field trip was a great way to spend the late afternoon having fun while it is still so hot.

The kids with their glitter pictures of what the home that Jesus is building them in heaven looks like.

Luke making a paper mache globe for geography. This is a several day long project, so I am sure that I will post more pictures of the finished product next week.

Friday was Danil's birthday, so we made it a special day all day. Pancake breakfast which included singing happy birthday to Danil several times. We ate dinner with my grandparents for supper.(Mexican food, which Danil loves!) Then we had a family movie night(which is typically how we spend our Friday evenings as a family) They looked so cute on the couch waiting for me to start Rio that I could resist a picture. (Luke was on the recliner. The little one are too squirmy during the movies for his taste.)

We are studying the beginning of American history in....history. Here Luke is working on painting a map of Columbus's voyage.

Part of our plant unit is about cells. Luke and Alik made a plant cell. The ziplock bag is the cell membrane, the jello is the cytoplasm, the grape is the nucleus, and they put them in a small box to represent the cell wall. Fun, and tasty too. Apricot jello is good!

This was what our week looked like. I'll post more about what our day looks like, schedule wise. I do have to say that the original schedule I formulated is working well. I use it more as a guide then the law. I've let myself be flexible with it and I think that is partially why it has worked to well for us. A reader asked how old my kids are. Luke is 8.5, Alik is 5.5, Ray is 4.5, Danil just turned 5, Josslyn is 3, and Kellen is 18 months. In the near future I'll explain where all my preschoolers are at developmentally(and all 4 of my middle children are who I refer to as my preschoolers. Alik might be 5.5, but his isn't kindergarten ready.)

More soon!

Danil's Birthday and God's Grace

2011-08-13T15:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Danil's 5th birthday. Today we celebrated his birthday with family, hot dogs, swimming, and cake. I'm almost at a loss for words when I think about what a victory it is that Danil is alive and healthy and a part of our family. This birthday could very easily have been a very different one for him. In stead of cake, presents, and balloons, he could have been in an institution where no one would have acknowledged his birthday. No one would have told him that now he is 5. No PawPaw and Grandma to buy him a keyboard or Aunt and Uncle to buy him a drum set because they both know how much he loves music. No Papa and Granna to brag about him to everyone they meet. No brothers, sisters and cousins to play with. No family to sing happy birthday to him over and over because of how happy it makes him. No proud grandfather that makes everyone in the room be quiet so that Danil can sing "Jesus Loves Me" for the umpteenth time. No Granny to share his story with others while on a mission trip in Mexico. No countless family members and friends that just can't help but love on him everytime they see him.

No, life for Danil could very easily have been different.

Praise God for intervening on Danil's behalf. When we committed to adopt Danil, we knew that his transfer from the baby house to a mental institution was already in the works. We knew that it was going to take and act of God alone to keep Danil from being transferred before we were able to get to him. We were trying to get to him as fast as we could, but as fast as we could turned out to be 6 and a half months. While that is rather quick in the adoption world, it is like years when you are one lone orphanage director acting on behalf of one little boy who is viewed as worthless by most in his country. The orphanage director at Danil's orphanage will forever be one of my heroes. She fought so hard to keep Danil from being transferred. She told the State over and over, "Please please wait, his family is coming soon! I promise!" She begged and pleaded and delayed and delayed, until we FINALLY got there. Her soft spot for Danil was the biggest blessing from the Lord. Had she not loved Danil so, she wouldn't have been as motivated to fight for him. She litterally puts her freedom on the line for the children in her orphanage.

So God answered our prayer and protected out little sunshine boy. He stepped in and did what we couldn't do from so many mile away. And THEN he provided a way for us to get to him...

just in the nick of time.

I don't think I'll ever know why God has blessed me so. God's Grace at it's finest.

Happy 5th birthday, my little sunshine boy! I hope you enjoyed your first birthday party of many!

We ALL love you very much!

Basking in the Glow of Success

2011-08-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

Right now I am sitting back and enjoying the victory of a successful first day of school. In spite of one child waking up at the crack of dawn, one child having explosive diarhea, one child getting a bad stomach ache, and one child single handedly trying to interfere with everything the preschoolers did(same tired child that woke up at dawn), it was still a great day! I have six young kids, so I have completely acccepted the fact that nothing is ever going to go as according to plan. Fortunately, it appears that I over estimated the time needed for each subject on our agenda. So when we did run into little issues here and there it didn't totally throw my day off. Once we get in a groove I might have to tweek our schedule a bit, but for now we are sticking with it(at least for tomorrow anyway).

The preschoolers went pretty much as I expected. I had to keep it a little under Ray's level and ability to keep it relavant to Alik. But Ray and Alik seemed to love school today and participated great. Josslyn loved being a part of what Ray and Alik were doing. While I don't think she is grasping most of what we are doing, she is still developing her fine motor skills and listening skills and having a great time while doing it. Given a choice, I think Danil rather be playing with Kellen than sitting at the school table, but with his easy going nature he wasn't a distraction. I just don't think he got much out of what we were doing. I am going to give it a couple of weeks, but I am considering not bringing him to the school table with the preschoolers and letting him play with Kellen while I work with the preschoolers, and then I will spend some time each day working with Danil by himself on his own level. I need several more days to figure out what is best for him.

Luke was my big shocker today. He was the one that got the bad stomach ache, yet he insisted on doing school....just from the recliner. Every time he finished on subject/activity he kept asking to do more school. That was not his attitude last school year at all, so this was a very nice surprise for me.

I totally planned on taking a picture of all the kids on the first day of school, but I totally forgot. I did take a couple of pictures though, so I will post them soon. I will try to remember to get a group picture tomorrow. Also, now that I am back in blogging mode I might actually get around to posting the Q and A post I mentioned a couple of months ago. I have jotted down the questions you all have asked, but if there is any more that you would like to throw out there then go right ahead and I'll add them to the list.

'Night ya'll!

School is Back in Session!

2011-08-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

(Yes, I know I have been completely absent from the blogging world for a loooooong time. And No, I don't plan on using this post to catch you up as to what I've been doing, because I only have about 30 minutes to blog so I plan on using that time to talk about our new school year. If I even attempted to catch you up as to what has been going on in the Carlin house the past few months, then I would completely run out of time without even having scratched the surface. All in good time, people, all in good time.)

Tomorrow will be the first day of the new school year, here at the Carlin house. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely excited! Ever since we got Alik, Danil, and Josslyn home I have been anticipating what our school year was going to look like. I got home with the kids on May 7. We spent the next few months finding our new "normal" around here. So the end of last school year kinda went to the wayside. But this year we are back and ready to go! I will have one 3rd grader, 4 preschoolers, and 1 toddler. We will be starting some new curriculum, and I am excited to see how that goes. What works for each child is always a trial and error process. I am glad that now that I have several years of homeschooling under my belt I can be ok with the "error" part of trial and error. It took two rough school years with Luke(pre-k and K), for me to relax and try to find what suited HIM best.

Even though I have 4 preschoolers, I already know that I can't approach them all with the same method. Ray and Alik are both very school ready. They both love to learn and enjoy school-type activities. I will definitely be schooling them more intensively than I will Josslyn and Danil. Neither Josslyn and Danil are "ready" for school. But Josslyn loves to be in the middle of whatever I am doing, especially if I let her help of participate. That girl will stand beside me and fold laundry for an hour if I let her. So I think that bringing her to the school table with us will benefit her AND that is where she is going to want to be anyway. Danil, will also like the chance to participate. He is pretty easy going, so he would probably be just as happy at the school table as he would be playing. I plan on having him participate with the other preschoolers as much as possible.

Now if I am being completely honest, part of the reason I am excited about school starting up again is because we will be on a SCHEDULE!!! Everybody give three cheers for schedules! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! HIP HIP HOORAY!!! If you haven't put two and two together yet, I love schedules. We follow a loose schedule year round. The kids pretty much always eat all three meals at the same time every day. I have found that Alik, Danil, and Josslyn all seem to really thrive best on a schedule. Coming from an orphanage, where they have pretty much been on a schedule their entire lives, they seem to feel most comfortable when they can anticipate what is coming next. Of course they love surprises, like, instead of naps we are going swimming at PawPaw and Grandma's today! Or, instead of going to bed after family worship we are going to all play KerPluk and Memory! Like any kid, they get excited about doing things like that, but in general, they want to know what is coming next because it is routine.

True to form, I have a detailed, yet semi-flexible, schedule in place for our school day. I know that new school year schedules always need some tweeking, so I've given myself some grace in case things don't run perfectly smooth tomorrow.(I have six kids ages 8 and under, so no day ever runs completely smooth.)

Well my time is up and I need to run, but I wanted to post a quick update/prayer request for the Hazleton's adoption. They are IN COUNTRY right now and waiting patiently for their SDA appointment, which is on Tuesday. Be in prayer for their journey these next few weeks. With adoption there are SO MANY possible bumps in the road at this point of the journey. Just be in prayer that God will be going before them and making the way straight and swift. You can also hop on over to their blog to follow their story and/or find out a more detailed way that you can be praying for them.

Typical

2011-07-02T16:05:00.002-05:00

Here is a little peek into a typical-ish day.

This is Josslyn admiring her hair after I fixed it.

If her personality continues as it is, she will never have trouble with her self esteem. That girl loves herself. She could admire herself in the mirror for hours a day.
Here she is blowing that beautiful girl in the mirror a kiss.

And now she's posing.

Here are the girls rocking their babies.

Alik working a puzzle.

Josslyn and her puzzle.

And Ray with her puzzle.

Josslyn's attention span lasts a total of 3 seconds, so here she is with a different puzzle.

That's baby brother trying to help her. Or eat it. You decide.

Danil had spilled his drink on his tray, so here he is cleaning it up.

I'm a good worker, Mom!

Kellen saw Danil wiping his tray, so Kellen went and got a paper towel(out of the garbage, since he can't reach the ones on the counter), and he climbed up on a stool and helped Danil dry up his spill.

All wet from the slip-n-slide.

The green thing that Ray is on is the slide for our new swing set. The kids were filling their buckets up with water on the slip-n-slide and pouring them on each other on the slide. They were having a blast doing it!

This slide is fun and it isn't even on the swing set yet!!

Since the kiddos were all wet at supper time, I let them sit on the grass outside and eat. They thought that was pretty fun. Especially since Daddy came out and ate with them too.

Back on the slide!

I just recently taught Ray and Alik how to get out the vacumm, plug it in and get it all set up for me to vacuum the living room. I tried teaching them to vacumm, but they aren't able to do it good enough that I don't have to get the spots that they miss. They are doing really great though, for just learning. Ray usually gets it out and sets it up, and then vacumms a minute. Then I vacuum. Then I let Alik have a turn vacuuming a minute before he winds up the cord and puts it away. They are great helpers and really love to help out!

Looking at books after bath time.

Brushing their teeth.

Alik, Danil, and Josslyn seemed to have no concept whatsoever about how to brush their teeth in the beginning. Since their teeth aren't terrible, I know that they must have been brushed in the orphanage. I guess the nannies did the brushing though, because they all 3 acted like they had never done it before. They are getting better though.

The same goes for bathing theirself. All three had no clue how to bath theirself or wash their hair. It took some teaching, but they are doing really well now.

I'm getting the hang of it now!

Working a puzzle before bed.

Danil and Daddy

Danil tends to be pretty quiet. He doesn't demand alot of attention, or get in to alot of mischief, so at times he can be easy to overlook. Josh has been giving him a little extra attention this past week and it is amazing how his vocabulary has grown. Who knew the little guy just needed a few extra minutes of one on one time with dad to totally blossom??
Luke doing a workbook. He loves mazes, and word find, and hidden picture books.

Daddy and his girls. I just love this picture.

Well that is just a little bit of what a typical day around our house looks like. I'll write more soon about how we manage meals, and baths, and potty time with so many little ones running around.

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Sister Hair Fixin' Part 2

2011-06-29T11:24:00.000-05:00

Ok, I guess I was at my video quota for my last blog post because this last hair video uploaded just fine.

Enjoy!

Sister Hair Fixin'

2011-06-29T10:56:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of videos of Josslyn fixing Ray's hair this morning.

I don't know if you could tell your not, but Josslyn said, "Baby, stop it!" Funny!
There was one more video, but it wouldn't let me upload it. Maybe I was at my limit. I'll try to put it in another post later today....

More Sand

2011-06-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

Weeeeeell, all that sandy sand in the sandbox got me in the mood for the beach last night.

So, we went to the beach today. The closest beach is about 30 minutes from our house, so it is very convenient for a little outing with the kids.

This is Josslyn this morning after she got herself all ready to go.

I'm not sure what I love more, the Minnie Mouse jacket over her swimsuit, the cowboy boots, or her mop of a hair-do. She is just too cute for words.

The sun was super sunny, so it was perfect beach weather.

Danil and Kellen, digging through the beach toys.

Kellen thought he'd have a better view from inside the wagon.

No, I don't tell them to pose like they adore each other.

Actually, I whip out the camera because they are so cute together.

I would not consider myself a laid back person in general. I am pretty much anal and uptight. But there are a few things that I am laid back about. Yes, that is Ray wearing ankle length leggins and a t-shirt, as opposed to a swim suit.

She couldn't find part of her swim suit this morning, so that is what she opted to wear. As long as she wasn't going to complain about it, I could care less what she wore.

Cuteness.

Yes, they really really love each other.

I know my pictures aren't all that great, but first off, I'm not photographer, and secondly, since I had six kids going 5 different directions(the twins usually go the same directions), I only had a minute or two to snap some shots, then I put the camera up so that I could focus on the kid's whereabouts.

Here is a little pictures of Danil from this evening.

He has been sitting like this lately and I think that it is too cute.

Here are the four middle children after baths, meds, and teeth brushin'.

If we have extra time between getting ready for bed and family worship, then they can look at books.

I thought my little duckies were too sweet all lined up in a row, so I just had to take a picture.

Ok, now all my boys are asleep and my girls are nearly out too, so it is time for me to finally take a shower. Three of my kiddo's noses just started running. It just so happens that today we ran out of vitamin C and pro-biotics today, so tomorrow we are going to go to the local health food store and pick up some more vitamins....and maybe some herbal tea. And some fruit leather, just because that stuff is awesome.

As Danil would say, Night-Night!

P.S. I'm thinking that I'm going to do a Q and A post soon because I get alot of the same questions, so I figure that there might be alot of you out there wondering the same things that I get asked alot. So if you have any questions about our adoption, Down Syndrome, HIV, homeschooling, or how to get your husband to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, then just send 'em my way.

Well, all except the getting your husband to put his clothes in the hamper one.

I still don't know the answer to that one....

Our Sunday Afternoon

2011-06-26T21:06:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our day today.

The is Danil and Ray. They are all dressed for church, but neither have had their hair fixed.

They were sitting on the chair all snuggled up, so I just had to take a picture.

I know that there are a few of you who have asked how I get six kids out the door and to church on time(more than half the time by myself, due to Josh being a shift worker).

Here is how I do it:

After breakfast all kiddos get dressed for church. Everyone except Kellen can pretty much dress themselves, so I just lay out their clothes.

Once they are fully dressed, except for having their hair fixed, I usually turn on a movie and everyone sits down to watch it(except for that baby, of course).

While they are watching the movie I drink coffee, get dressed, make up, hair, the works.

About ten minutes before it is time to leave I fix everyone's hair. ALL my kids will waller(yes, waller is a word) around and mess up their hair if I allow them enough time to do so. So I fix each one's hair, and then they sit in the middle of the floor(so that they can't roll around on the couch and mess it up) until it is time to load up.

So there. That's how I do it.

It isn't hard once I figured out a system that worked for everybody.

Church was great this morning. I really was ministered to. I know that isn't necessarily what going to church is about, but today I needed it.

After church we went to my mom's for lunch. My mom lives about, eh, 100 yards from my grandparents(her parents), so after chuch we went over there for a swim. The kids loved it, as always.

By the time we got home from swimming it was too late for naps. You know the whole, if you nap 'em too late in the day they'll never go to bed thing? After we got home Daddy prepared a little surprise for the kids.

The twins

Aren't they cute?

And the surprise is a sandbox!!

Josh and I have been thinking that a sandbox is something that the kids would really enjoy, but we hadn't got around to building one. The other day I was over at my grandparent's house and I noticed the perfect looking frame for a sandbox in the neighbors trash. Yes, that's right, the trash. No, I am not above dumpster diving if need be. Anyway, with the help my PawPaw, I rescued the most absolute perfect sandbox frame. This afternoon, Josh put a mesh bottom on the frame to block the grass and weeds, and then filled it with sand. The kids seem to really like their new sand box.

Oh, yeah, that me and our new kitten. Stripes. Original, I know.

And just for your viewing pleasure, I thought I'd throw in another one of Danil. Because doesn't everyone love pictures of Danil???

Night folks!

Slippin' and a Slidin'

2011-06-25T23:09:00.000-05:00

In southeast Texas the only way to beat the heat during the summer is to either permenately plant yourself in front of a box fan.....or get wet. Luke, Ray, and Kellen are waterbugs, so I was very pleased to learn that Alik, Danil, and Josslyn love the water also! Our family loooooves the beach. We are also very blessed that my grandparent's have a very nice swimming pool in their backyard. We ALSO live very close to TWO super fun(and FREE) spray parks. Needless to say, my kiddos are playing in the water, in some form or fashion, almost every day of the week. Most days, they play on the slip-n-slide. Josslyn is slightly skiddish of the water and has been the slowest to warm up, but the slip-n-slide is the perfect speed for her.

Each of my kids has their own preffered way to play on the slip-n-slide.

Luke likes to actually use the slip-n-slide for its intended purpose: running and sliding down it.

Danil prefers to army crawl down the slip-n-slide, and then get up and run down to do it again.

Ray and Alik usually have some sort of plan as to what they want to do on the slip-n-slide that day. Filling up buckets with waters, drinking well water(which daddy put a stop to), splashing each other, etc.

Josslyn and Kellen are the wild cards. You just never know that they might be doing.

No matter which kid, they all love the slip-n-slide!

Here are a few pictures from one day playing on the slip-n-slide.

Everyone, except for Luke(he wasn't here that day).

Danil kinda looks like he is striking a pose.

Sweet Alik

Funny Josslyn

Yep, Ray is drinking the water in the background.

You know she is working hard when that tongue is hanging out.

I think Danil is trying to beat her!

Passing up his sister(She isn't putting up much of a fight, though.).

Is that the look of victory??

Yep, I'm one happy feller.

I'm pretty sure that the baby doesn't have a diaper on AND his onsie isn't snapped.

Sheesh! What kind of mom am I?!

That's all for tonight folks!

Stay tuned for random pictures of the Carlin kiddos at play....

Texas Children's Hospital Visit

2011-06-24T23:36:00.000-05:00

I know I've been just plain terrible at blogging lately. Down right bad. While I have been less overwhelmed, since I started trying to make the choice to NOT be overwhelmed, I am still very limited on "extra" time, so I am trying to keep my priorities straight. Once things are all prioritized, blogging usually falls under the line of things that must get done on any given day. Not to mention, that the END of the day is usually the only time that I actually have the opportunity to blog, and the majority of the time I am way to tired to put my thoughts into words that would make rational sense. I just so happens that the stars have aligned tonight so that I have the opportunity to blog. Since this opportunity is unexpected, I have mentally prepared a blogging topic. In light of all that, I guess I'll talk about the kid's doctors appointment yesterday.

Yesterday Alik, Danil, and Josslyn had their first appointment at Texas Children's Hospital. For those of you who aren't locals, Texas Children's Hospital(TCH) is the leading children's hospital in Texas(those in the Dallas area might argue this, but the fact remains, it is. *wink*). Anyway, we got there at 8:30am and didn't leave the hospital until 3pm, so it was a long day, but we got alot accomplished. The kids did amazing. They were such troopers. My sister live in Houston(which is where TCH is), so we spent the night with her on Wednesday night. This was my first overnight trip with all six kiddos, so I was slightly nervous, but things couldn't have gone smoother. My sister has 4 sweet kids of her own(in the same age range as my kids), so it took a little planning to figure out the sleeping arrangements. My old kids(can I reffer to my bios as my old kids and not offend anyone??) are used to spending the night at my sister's house, but I was nervous how my new kids would manage the different scenery. Since we have been home, they have spent every single night at our house and in their own beds, so I wasn't sure what they would think about sleeping on pallets at Nana's. They shocked me and acted like they have been doing this their whole life. I don't really know why I was shocked though, because they seem to handle every new situation that way. I think they are pretty much to the point where they feel safe in almost any situation, as long as we are doing it as a family. I guess since Alik was in a sleeping bag on the floor between Luke and Ray, and Josslyn and Danil were on a pallet next to the bed I was sleeping on, made everyone feel safe. They sure are troopers.

On Thursday I took my new kids to their appointments at TCH and Hannah(my sister) took my other kids to VBS with them. Since we were there for 6 and a half hours, I can't cover everything that we did, but I'll try to hit the highlights.

First off, the doctor was great. The first thing(after height and weight) was the doctor assessed their developmental level. I, personally, don't put a lot of stock in a strangers assessment of my children's development, I think that she was mostly right. Except for the part where she assessed Alik's verbal skills on a 4 year old level. That kid is AHEAD on his verbal skills, not behind(and No, I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom). The reason she did that though, was because we had a Russian translator there and when he tried to talk to Alik in Russian he complete froze up. His eyes glazed over, he shut down, and he wouldn't so much as make eye contact with the translator. His verbal skills definitely got a bad rap. Oh well. Josslyn didn't really want to talk to him either, but she would follow his commands(draw a circle, etc.). Danil is the only one who would chat with him. Imagine that. Danil is my little social butterfly. That kiddo will talk to anyone. It was interesting that the translator actually knew what he was saying though. We kinda just though that Danil was babbling, not really saying anything in english or russian. But when the translator asked Danil what color a red bead was, Danil said that he didn't know. Wow. That really gives me hope for communication with him in the future.

After the developmental part, the doctor examined them all. It was quite a sight. First she lined them all up on the examining table. Alik. Danil. Josslyn. And then me. You know that mama just has to be up on the table, right? As soon as the doctor lifted up Alik's shirt to listen to his heart, Danil and Josslyn lifted up their shirts so that they were ready and waiting. We all cracked up. After she listened to their hearts she listened to Alik's back. Danil and Josslyn immediately turned around on the table so that she would have easy access to their backs. Once again, we all cracked up. The hilarity continued. Everything she did to Alik, the other to were prepped and ready for. It was very entertaining to watch.

After the physicals, came the shots. I brought the kids Ukrainian shot records. There were a few shots that they needed to be caught up to where they would be in America. We are exactly vacciniation people. I don't bring that up to be a point to be argued(basically because you aren't going to change my mind....). I bring it up to explain how that fact made my kids getting shots all that harder. Danil got 5. Alik got 4. And Josslyn got 3. It wasn't fun for them, and it was even less fun for me. I had to hold them down, even though Josslyn is really the only one who needed it. It was so not fun. The nurse even had to stop towards the end and ask if I was ok to continue.

Danil got his shots first, then Alik, then Josslyn. The doctor came back in the room while Josslyn was getting her shots and Danil told her off. He started talking and shook his finger at her and then pointed to his legs, and then he pointed to her again and pointed to Alik and Josslyn, all the while he was jabbering. It helped to lighten the mood.

After shots was blood work. Luckily, they put numbing cream on the kids arms before hand, so they didn't even so much as wimper while they had their blood drawn. Good thing too, since they had 8 viles drawn a piece. I was also sent home with orders for more blood work. It was too much blood to be drawn out of Josslyn's tiny body in one day. So they just split it up in to 2 draws. I'm bringing them to a local lab on Monday to have the rest drawn. I also have the joy of gathering stool sample. 3 different samples for each child. If you do the math you will see that I have the pleasure of getting 9 different stool samples. Right now I'm at one. This should be fun. I really don't mean to complain though, because I like the fact that they know what they are doing and are checking them out from tip to tail.

HIV: I learned several different new things about HIV. I've done alot of research, but some things just need to be explained by a doctor. And,(for a mama), I just need to hear them for a doctor, instead if just reading them. The doctor was great, very knowledgeable and very informative. In a nutshell, she said that if Alik and Joss's blood levels stay the same as they are now, that they are looking at a completely normal life. They are not at a higher risk for any illness, cancer, or disease that any other person in the general population. They are also fully able to have full and long lives, full of marriage, sex, and makin' babies. Their life expectancy is that of any other person on the planet. When they get the sniffles, if is just that, the sniffles. Nothing more to be worried about.

While all the things she said, were pretty much things that I have read, it was really good to hear it from a doctor. And not just any doctor, but someone who specializes in this field. I know that doctors err on the side of caution, so to hear it straight from the horses mouth was quite a relief.

Overall, the day was filled with lots of great news. The doctor thought that the kids were doing amazing. She is super impressed with Danil's developmental level. And she was very impressed with how bonded the kids are to me. At the end of the day I was one tired, but very proud, mama. Our doctor said that we were her most favorite family ever. And then at the lab, the nurse said that my kids were the best kids she had ever drawn blood from. I'm not kidding when I say that all three of them laughed at some point during their blood draw. It might have been because mama climbed up in the tiny chair with them, but regardless, they were laughing, when the kids in all the rooms around us were screaming bloody murder. My kids are awesome. I'm still not sure what I ever did to deserve them. That is just God's grace at it's finest.

Well, now that I've written too much and stayed up too late, it is time for me to go to bed. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to blog again soon, but I'm not making any promises.

How's that for random

2011-06-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

So yeah, it's Father's Day and all, but I am in no way prepared to do a Father's Day post, so instead I'll do something thing quick and easy while I have a few precious blogging minutes to spare.

Alik is amazing. He is some sort of wonder-child. Seriously. One day I may share the depths of the doubts that Josh and I had about him in the first few weeks of knowing him. I'll just do a super quick wrap up and say that God is super good, because if this had been the "Jessica Show" and not the "God Revealing His Awesomeness Show", then Alik would probably be still sitting in an orphanage in Ukraine. Luckily, I am smart enought to know that I am super dumb when it comes to understanding God's ways. Anyway, for now I am going to tell a little of how he amazes me.

If I could describe Alik in one word, I would say "sponge". That guy absorbes e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. No kidding. He english is amazing too. Here are some phrases he has picked up completely on his own:

-I know, baby.
-I'm sorry, baby.
-It's ok.
-I love you.
-Sit down at the table.
-Night-night.
-Stop fussing.
-Stop it, Kellen.
-Yes, Ma'am.
-Come here.
-Daddy working.
-Baby sleeping. Shhhhhush. Be Quiet.
-Play outside.
-Put your shoes on.
-Wash your hair.

The kiddo is an English machine. There are many other single words that he knows. I would list them, but you would honestly get bored reading the list of all the words that he can say. And then if I were to add to it all the words/phrases that he understands, then that would be pretty much neverending. He awesome, and not just because of the language thing. He is just pretty much awesome in general. On a funny note, I don't know if I have shared or not that Alik is a major thumb sucker. I haven't had to deal with this before, since all my bio kiddos took pacifiers, as opposed to sucking their thumb. Anyway, Josh and I didn't want to break the habit right off the bat, since it is probably a major comfort to him and he has had so many life changes, as of late. But lately, we have been gently trying to get him out of the thumb-sucking habit. About a week ago, Alik and Ray made up a song that they will chant at any time of day, if Alik accidentally puts his thumbs in his mouth. It's hilarious. I have to admit that I am one blessed mama. My kiddos are amazing.

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there!

A Quick Catch Up

2011-06-13T14:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the blogging lapse the past few weeks, life has just been so consuming that even though I have TONS that I could be writing about, I just can't seem to find the time. The kids are all still doing awesome. The transitioning and adjusting is going great. I have volumes I could write about it all, but for now I will just do a quick catch up.

We started to work on the flooring in our house and it has completely thrown me off. Messiness stresses me out(although you would never know it to look at my house!). I knew that changing the flooring ourselves was going to be a messyish(that's a word, right?) project, but we needed new flooring. Bad! We don't have a garage and our driveway is gravel, so that means all kinds of dirt, mud, and chicken poop has been tracked in to my house daily for the past 4.5 years. As much as we have tried to train Luke and Ray to wipe their feet and check their shoes before coming inside, they still forget at times. Heck, I even forget sometimes. Needless to say, we needed some cleaner floors, and with 6 kids, carpet was not going to be one of our options. So we decided on laminate and got the supplies. That was two weeks ago, and so far we only have the living room done , but I am completely in love with it. No more stressing about dirt getting tracked in on the floor. It's just glorious. We have run in to some issues with the sub-flooring though, so that is why we are stalled right now. So now I have about a million boxes of laminate and tools stacked up in the living room. I spent about a week feeling grouchy and overwhelmed and I just couldn't pin point why. The kids were still doing exceptional and there were no other major life issues that had arisen, yet I was still constantly overwhelmed, which always leads to me being very grouchy, short tempered, and over all just irrational(sounds like a fun person to live with, eh?). I also realized that our little home improvement project had the misfourtune of coinciding with "Aunt Flo's" monthly visit. Before her regularly scheduled monthly visits, Aunt Flo tends to make me irritable and tired(which makes me irritable also). Sheesh!

Once I realized what an un-fun person I was to be around, I decided I was going to be different. I made the choice to not let me surrounds determine my attitude. I also made the choice to take charge of my surrounding, instead of letting it control me. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so if I know that I can't do something the way that I want it done, or if I don't have the time to do it absolutely perfectly, then I just forget it all together. For example, the inside of my fridge has been in desperate need of a good cleaning. Several juice spills and other miscellaneous drips and spills have left the inside sticky and nasty. It has been driving me nuts for weeks, but I just haven't had the time to take EVERYTHING out and clean it. So a few days ago I made the choice to not let it get to me anymore. I had the time to give one shelf and one drawer a good cleaning, so I did that. And then I made the decision that I wasn't going to let the other shelves and drawers that were still dirty bother me. I would get to them when I could get to them, but until then I would have to be satisfied with what I could do. It's a choice for me. Letting go of things that bother me just doesn't come naturally to me. But I can honestly say that I feel so much better now. And as it turns out, choosing to not allow myself to be stressed has made me infinitely more productive. I've been chipping away at projects and messes here and there and have see improvments. Whereas, my normal self doesn't take on a project unless I can see it through to completion. That is how I get a mountain high stack of papers that need to be filed, instead of just filing a few here and there, I usually wait until I have the time to sort through them all and file everything. Then the stack grows and grows to the point that no normal person would have time to file them all in one sitting. I am realizing that I am my own worst enemy. But now that I know who the enemy is, I can beat her. I can get inside her head and mess with her game plan. *wink*

Now it is time for me to go. I need to clean another shelf or two in the fridge or fold a load of laundry before the kids wake up from their naps. I won't leave you without an quick up date on the kids.
Alik: He's learning english like crazy. He is seriously the most helpful child I have ever known. He amazes me more every single day with his capacity to learn.

Danil: We moved him to a pack-n-play to see if being in a confined space helps his sleeping issues. While it has solved the issue of me worrying about him during the night, there are some other issues that have arisen because of it. More details on that later, but I will say that the overall sucess of the pack-n-play has led us to decided to put him in a crib.
Several of you have commented on likely his spikey hair. I like and too and Danil LOVES it. Everytime he sees me coming towards him with the hairspray he gets a huge grin on his face. He smiles the whole time I am fixing his hair and then giggles when I am done. He knows he is handsome.

Josslyn: I swear I gave birth to that girl. She has the temperment to be a biological child of mine through and through. She is a delightful mess. She is so many things that I didn't see in her the first few weeks at the orphanage. She is a jokester, and a clown, and drama queen. She likes to sing and dance and have every single one of her 9,000,000 boo boos kissed. She demands attention, positive or negative.

Ok, now I really need to go before nap time has completely come to a close without me accomplishing anything at all. Well, besides blogging.

Happy Birthday, Baby.

2011-06-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

Today marks 3 years since Treyson was born. Part of me wanted to do a huge birthday post, where I finally tell his birth story. But, while time may help heal wounds, there are some wounds that go so deep, that even time can't totally mend them. I am sure that I will tell about all the emotions of the day he was born at some point, but today is not that day. In all honesty, it will probably be some random day when I feel like allowing myself to be strong enough(or weak enough) to fully go back to that place. For now I will say that his third birthday is finally starting to feel like 3 years. On his first birthday, I was still just surviving. Ray ended up being very sick with rotovirus at that time and ended up being hospitalized. It was sorta a blessing in disguise, to distract me from the pain of what should have been my baby's first birthday. Treyson's 2nd birthday was much harder. He should have been 2. All moms know what it is like to have a 2 year old. It is a very fun and frustrating time, all wrapped up into one. Two years olds are so darn cute, so that makes up for the difficult stage they all go through at that time. I felt the pain of not being able to have the 2 year old that I should have. Kellen was about 4 months old, so I felt that missing gap between Ray and Kellen.

His third birthday is different. It's still hard, I won't lie about that, but I finally feel like some time has passed. I am also starting to see more and more the GOOD that has come from Treyson's short life on this earth. Josh and I have discussed several times, that if it wasn't for Treyson we would have probably never have adopted. Treyson changed our lives so drastically that adoption would have never been on our radar before that. Treyson was the game changer. Treyson brought us to our knees in complete surrender. Treyson's one hour life on this earth has served a bigger purpose than some people accomplish in 75 years.

Happy birhthday, Treyson. I love you, my sweet brown-haired baby. Your presence is still missed. And mourned. But I can see that God had an amazing plan for your life. While we still wish you were here, our family has joyfully welcomed 4 additions that it probably wouldn't have otherwise(Kellen, Alik, Danil, and Josslyn). God is good.

Happy birthday, sweet love.

Sad

2011-06-01T22:26:00.001-05:00

I come to you very heavy hearted today. I know that since I have gotten home with the kids my posts have been short on words, but overall lighthearted and happy. That is because that is how we have been around here. Sure there are moments of stress and irritation and feeling overwhelmed, but overall, life is a joy and things are going great.

Today I am burdened for the ones I had to leave behind. The children whose faces cross my mind ever so often. I've been so busy, and life has been so good, that the majority of my thoughts of the children we met in the orphanages have been happy thoughts. Good memories of their sweet little faces. My life, while not perfect, is going well and full of happy kiddos, so way muddy all that up with unhappy thoughts of the children I am unable to bring home? Seems kind of pointless. Why cry over something I am powerless to fix? So I have been better off to put the inevitable fate of those precious children out of my mind. Until last night.

Last night I was on the internet doing some reading about HIV medications and I stumbled upon THIS link. The article address the upcoming shortage of HIV meds in Ukraine. I had heard rumblings of this on the Reeces Rainbow yahoo group, but after JUST being in Ukraine and seeing how consciencious the orphanage was about the kid's thier medications I had a hard time believing that there was about to be a shortage. The article completely opened my eyes. If you chose to read it, you might find that the claims of government corruption could not possible be to the extent that the article states. Unfortunately, I can assure you that it is. During my time in the Ukraine, I had more than one Ukrainian tell me that their country was better off under the Soviet regime because of the deep corruption that controls every government office now. It might sound fictional that their are people that can sit back and turn a blind eye while children are dying all around them, but it is true.

After reading the article I was angry. Furious to be exact. Livid to think of all the children that will be dying, largely due to evil people. The epitomy of evil. But my angry quickly melted into saddness when my thoughts turned from masses of children dying in a preventable way, to the individual faces of the children with HIV that I met, played with, got to know, and fell in love with while I was in Ukraine. They aren't simply masses of children, they are faces I know. They have names. Lori, James, Rafferty, Annabell. And they have personalities too. Sweet and playful. Rowdy and outgoing. Happy and friendly. Loving and tender.

These children, along with the many other children in these orphanages with HIV, will soon be sick without their medications. They will go from being healthy normal kiddos, to children dying of AIDS. No hope. No health. No family. And no one that has ever taught them about Jesus.

While in Ukraine I was broken hearted when I thought of the orphans who age out of the system with no family and no hope for a life or future. My heavy heartedness goes so far beyond that now. If this medication shortage continues Lori, James, Rafferty and Annabell will never even get the chance to age out of the system because they will be dead by then. It is the nature of the virus if left untreated.

All these thoughts and emotions hitting me at once last night felt like too much to bear. I can't fix the corruption in the government. The only solution is for Jesus to return. So that is what I started praying for. Lord, please come quickly.

Please join me in praying that God will move a mountain and somehow get medicaion to the children and adults who will die without it. Also, pray that God will provide families for these children who have very little long term hope for a future, even WITH medication. And pray that I won't go insane thinking about the children that I know and love getting sick. It was hard enough to say good-bye and walk away from their sweet faces when they were happy and healthy. My mind can only tip toe around thoughts of them being sick.

Also, if you would like to read/watch a little more about the fate of the children who live on the streets in Ukraine, then go here. Warning though: Some of the images and information is very hard to see. And once your eyes have been opened it is very hard to shut them again and turn away. Even if at times you want to.

Our Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T20:12:00.000-05:00

Friday:

On Friday night we had a family night. Friday night family night is a tradition around the Carlin house. We don't do it every single Friday, but if Josh isn't working nights, then we usually do. We usually have something fun for supper like hot dogs or chicken nuggets. Then we pop popcorn on the stove and watch a movie. This time we watched some dog movie. Josslyn yelled "DOG!" every time the dog(who was the main character) came on the screen. After about the 9,000 time, we had to tell her that we were all well aware there was a dog on the tv and it was time to stop yelling about it. She is a funny little thing. When she gets it in her mind that she wants you to acknowledge something, she isn't going to quit until you do.

Here is Daddy with half his crew.

The Twinsies

Even though my new kiddos don't understand alot of English, they all are very intruiged by dogs, so everyone liked the movie.

Saturday:

That morning we had the Bring Him Home 5k fun run fundraiser to help bring Kirk home to the Hazleton family. The kids all did GREAT. I was also very blessed to have some friends participate that helped out with the kiddos. Kinda hard to keep up with 6 kiddos moving at 6 different paces.

All 6 of 'em, post fun run

He's ready to run to help get his buddy home!

My sweet friend, Denise. Danil just loves her.

She pushed Danil the entire way. Through GRASS. What a trooper!!!

Me, Josh, Kellen, Alik, Ray, and Josslyn

Luke with my mom. Luke and my mom RAN the whole thing. I was so proud of him!!

A 5k was nothing to my mom, who ran the Houston Marathon the past 2 years, but I was super proud of Luke for being so tough and not quitting.

Yep, I'm cute.

Alik hitched a ride part of the way.

My friend, Micah, has been with me since the very beginning of our adoption process and has been a blessing every step of the way. Now she is helping the Hazleton's get Kirk home!

Finished!

Sunday:

Sunday afternoon after church and naps for the little people, we went swimming at my grandparent's house. All the kids, except for Josslyn, LOVE the water. Even though she doesn't like to get in the pool, she is very content to watch everyone swim.

Kellen and Daddy

I KNOW that Danil is wearing pink floaties and that Alik's floaties are mis-matched. Last year my only kid wearing floaties was a GIRL. I need to get us some boy floaties.

I wouldn't smile either if I was a boy wearing pink floaties.

In spite of how it might look, he really does love the water.

Dare-devil Luke

Brave Alik

Ray on Uncle Mike's shoulders. She's ready for a chicken fight!

Monday:

Monday for lunch we went out to my mom's boyfriend's boat house on a local ski lake. We ate and had a great relaxing time.

Ray fishing.

That girl loves to fish. She gets that from her daddy.

Alik wanted to fish, so Ray gave him her pole and taught him how to use it.

He was hooked after that.(No pun intended.)

My mom on the grill.

Uncle Mike waiting for lunch.

Josslyn petting Sal.

Ray took a tumble out of the hammock and needed some Granny lovins.

You might be shocked to know that tiny girl is an eater!

Eating some apple

I don't know if you have noticed, but Danil tends to look different in all of his pictures. It is sorta hard to document what he really looks like.

Oh, and for those who are curious about the kids names, I guess I'll take this opportunity to quickly explain.

Danil is how we are spelling Danil's name now. We still pronounce it "Daniel", but we wanted to keep some Russian in his name, so we left the "e" out.

Alik's legal name is "Parker Reid Carlin". We are calling him Alik though and are going to stick with that. We had to make the official decision about his name before we had gotten to know him. We plan at some point to have his legal name changed to Alik Reid Carlin.

Josslyn's given name is Lena(pronounced Lynn-uh). We call her Josslyn and she answers to Josslyn. She calls herself Josslena though. I find it amusing that she has mixed her new and old names together.

Granny on Lanny's 4-wheeler with Luke, Alik, Ray, and Kellen.

Kellen actually fell asleep while riding.

Granny, Uncle Mike, and Danil.

Danil loves stuff like this.

Monday evening we swam and had super with some dear friends. I hate to say that I completely forgot to whip out the camera and document any of it though. You will just have to take my word for it that we had a good time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I hope you were able to spend it with family and that you took the time to remember those who have given their lives defending our right to live in a free country and worship God freely.

More soon!(and hopefully it will be more than just pictures!)

Sponsor us, please!

2011-05-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

Some good local friends of ours, who I mention in this blog post, need our help bringing their son home. They are SO CLOSE to finishing their dossier, but they are not close having their adoption fully funded. They are waiting on ONE little paper to come in the mail and their dossier will be ready to send overseas. I know the excited and anxious spot that the Hazletons are in right now. I also know what it is like to feel the weight of you adoption not being funded. The Hazletons have stepped out in faith and obedience to God's call on their life to adopt Kirk. They, as well as I, believe that God is going to provide the funds to pay their son's ransom.

A group of awesome folks have gotten together to put on a 5k fun run/walk as a fundraiser to help bring Kirk home. Our entire Carlin Clan will be participating in this event. We would love if you would you donate to sponsor our family in the 5k. Our registration fees have been paid, so every penny of every dollar you donate will go towards bringing Kirk home. No amount is too small. Even if you feel that you don't have much to give, God can multiply it. To read more about the Hazletons and their journey to Kirk, you can go to their blog here. You can sponsor our family by using the chip-in at the top right of my blog. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the Hazletons adoption, you can do so here.

Thanks!

Bug Hunting

2011-05-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

The kids went on a bug/rock/treasure hunt this morning. I have been needing ONE MORE big yogurt container so that they could each have their own. This morning when Kellen finished off the rest of the yogurt, I knew that today was a good day for a treasure hunt.

Before you go thinking that I'm so great and all, I do have a confession....I don't have it all under control.

THIS, is where I found the baby this morning.

Yep. That's my 15 month old standing in the bathroom sink.

It gets even better. I'm not even the one who found him. One of the other children actually informed me of his whereabouts. I dont' know why, but the baby is suddenly obsessed with climbing in the bathrooms. Hum.

Anyway, I got him out of the sink, handed out the bug collecting containers, hopped on the Google translate so that I could explain to my Russian speaking children what we were doing, and then we all headed outside.

He likes it!

He wasn't so sure for a while.

He kinda just walked around the yard. I honestly think he was trying to AVOID any bugs.

Any treaure here?

Pretty little thing

Finding some good stuff

All done!

Now that I'm done, I wanna swing!

Hunting for ants....in an ant bed.

*Now before you go calling CPS saying that I let my kids play in ant beds, let me clear this up. Luke really wanted ants for his collection. He is 8 and he knows the consequences of messing with ant beds. I would NOT let any of my younger kids play in an ant bed.*

Oh, and for the record, he didn't get bit.

NOW he's starting to get in on the fun!

Little brother want to help

Look what I got!

All six of them

The bug hunt was a success and it got us through that pre-lunch hour, where kids are starting to get hungry and ready for naps. Now, I just need a solution for that crazy pre-supper hour.....

Sweet Danil

2011-05-26T10:26:00.000-05:00

This is video of Danil playing with Ray's hair during church on Sunday morning. No, we do not carry around our video camera on the chance that there might be a sweet moment that we want to capture. Luke and Ray sang for church that morning, so that is why we just happened to have the video camera with us. Glad we did.

Last Week in Pictures....

2011-05-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

with a few explainations.

Ray with a rolly polly in a my little pony car.

Luke doing school.

(Yep, he's squatting, on a stool, at the table. It's homeschool.)

Ray and Alik bug hunting.

Danil. He's hiding his collection of stuff in the seat of the car.

The baby. He figured out how to take his diaper halfway off. I found him walking around the house with his diaper around his ankle. He was pretty proud of himself.

He also pushed a stool up to the counter and got in to a bag of cookies. Smart guy.

Danil and his new BFF during Luke and Ray's musical Sunday night at church.

He was sooooo tired because he chose not to nap during nap time. He fell in love with Chelsea, and then could barely keep his eyes open. (Chelsea is one of the awesome girls in my junior/senior girls Sunday school class.)

Ray after her part in the musical.

The water fountain attacked her.

My happy guy

My other happy guy

We went to the beach on Friday.

Cutie pie

He warmed right up to the beach. He was born to be a Carlin! He just LOVED it.

Luke. He could live at the beach.

Watchin Beauty and the Beast

First haircut since he was a free man!

Playin'

I'm hoping to get a chance to actually blog about how things have been going soon. Overall things have been going excellent. Not perfect. But honestly, the kids are doing much much better than I ever expected, planned, or hoped. It's totally a God thing because I feel so inadequate.

Gotta run. Chinese checkers and Luke are calling my name. More soon.

I love you....today

2011-05-23T18:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a little video of Alik learning to say "I love you".

I hope it makes you smile a fraction as much as it made me smile.

Our New Life

2011-05-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

Daddy and his girls, hunting lady bugs after bath time

Luke and Josslyn

Ray and Joss

Daddy and ALL the kids, watching the Ukrainian Power Puppets

(yes, my living room is a disaster. Sorry.)

Danil loves sliding

Ray and Joss swinging, in matching clothes

My sweet little twins

He is such a joy

The twins concentrating on looney toons

All I have time for is a few pictures. I'll post more pictures and more details soon.

My Crazy Sleeper

2011-05-16T13:59:00.000-05:00

We've got a crazy sleeper on our hands! The day I got the kids out of the orphanage(GOTCHA DAY!!), one of Danil's nannys told me(via Marina) that Danil moves alot in his sleep and needs to be in a crib. Luke is a crazy sleeper, so I was thinking "yeah, yeah. I know how to handle a wild sleeper." During our few days in Kiev, I did notice that Danil moved alot in his sleep. I could really tell how much though, because he slept on a pallet on the floor in a semi-contained space. It just seemed like to me that he spun around in circles in his sleep. Once I got him home and sleeping in a bed is when I saw how crazy of a sleeper he really is. We have found him sleeping in so many different positions, that Josh and I decided to take pictures of some of them.

Here he is sitting up and using his bed as a pillow.

(Oh, and don't you just love the chalkboard dresser that Micah, from Shabby Shae, made?? My kids sure love it!)

Now this one really shocked us! Josh went to check on the kids before we went to bed a couple of nights ago and immediately called me to come and see.

UNDER the bed!!

I just could not believe that he was sleeping UNDER the bed. We got him out(after taking pictures, of course), and put him back to bed.

Five minutes later Josh went to check on him again and this is what he found.

BACK under the bed!!

I was worried that he was going to get stuck under there during the night, so we blocked the opening with a pillow so that he couldn't get under there.

Upside down

Hanging off the bed. Asleep.

(note the pillow blocking the space under the bed)

We thought that the "under the toddler bed" thing was the craziest it could possibly get....until last night. Josh went in to check the kids before we went to bed and he couldn't find Danil for a few minutes. He ended up getting a flashlight and found him under Alik and Luke's bunk beds!!

This gives you an idea of where his bed is and where we found him.

(And yes, Luke is under those blankets somewhere on the top bunk. He sleeps like a mummy.)

We got him out and put him back to bed, but he almost immediately wiggled down to the floor. We blocked both beds with pillows so that he couldn't get underneath them and just let him be.

Looks like he's praying

Finding him under the boy's bunk beds really freaked me out, so now I am re-thinking the crib option. I'm worried that he is going to get himself stuck somewhere during the night and get scared. Maybe it is just because I am clausterphobic and I know that I would literally DIE if I woke up under a bed like that, but regardless, it freaks me out.

Jury is still out on the crib option. I'll let you know what we decided....