We are dogsitting for Frankie, my sister's dog, while they are out of town. Ava has a new friend. She was a little scared of him at first, but I think she likes the fact that somebody is at her eye-level for a change! I tried to get a picture of her looking at him, she had the funniest expression, like What in the world?!!!? Frankie likes her pretty well too.

Thank you...

I never personally knew anybody from Indiana until January 19. When we were on our way to Ukraine we had a layover in the Chicago airport, remember the 10 hour layover that we bumped for a free ticket? Well it was during that layover I was reading a book called Attaching in Adoption. A lady from Indiana came over to me and asked if we were on an adoption trip. They too had 4 kids and were on their way to Vietnam to adopt their 5th and 6th. I felt like it was a God-ordained meeting because I felt such an instant friendship and bond with her. We were both pretty terrified about the whole thing, I was nervous about leaving my kids behind and she was nervous about taking hers to Vietnam! :) We had maybe 45 minutes to talk and then we exchanged emails/blogs.

Well they told our story on their adoption blog, and ever since then I have learned that people from Indiana are some of the most generous people I know! We were total strangers to them, but one family who knows them has mailed us 6 cases of Pediasure to feed Ava! (And obviously it has been a tremendous blessing, can't you tell?) 6 cases, that is about enough to last 2 months! Thank you again Michelle.

Another blog friend from Indiana, Deb, who I have never met, read my post about the hip helpers, and look what she sent as a gift to Ava! Two hip helpers for now, and one to grow into. I have to admit, I got choked up when I opened it. The Lord has provided for every need, in the most unexpected ways. Thank you Deb, from the bottom of my heart. This was such a heartfelt gift. God bless you for your kindness to our family and to Ava.

Tag, I'm it

Michelle tagged me for this Mememe..all about me. Thanks Michelle.

 Let's see...

What I was doing 10 years ago:

I had just become a mom for the first time and was enjoying staying home and cuddling a sweet little baby boy, changing lots of dirty diapers and trying to find things to occupy my time while he napped 3 times a day. How times have changed.

5 things on my to-do list today:

1. Unload the car from yesterday's camping trip and do all the laundry and dishes associated with it.

2. Clean out the garage to make room for the pop-up camper.

3. Grocery shop

4. Pick out clothes for everyone to wear for tomorrow's baby dedication of Ava, at church (with family photos and brunch afterward)

5. Bathe 5 children and put them to bed early, and watch a movie with my hubby!!!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Hmmm.....Let's see.

1. Build a house on piece of land with a stocked pond so John and the kids could go fishing any time they wanted to. 

2. Build a house for my parents to retire and move next door (hint hint Mom and Dad)

3. Buy a bigger house for Marlita with at LEAST two bathrooms

4. Hire nannies and housekeepers for Valerie, Shelley, Dolores, Melissa G., Marcie P., Rita, Lisa D., Meredith...who else am I missing that has multiple babies and toddlers? Hey, I might as well hire one for myself as well, being that I am a billionairre and all!

5. Fully fund an adoption for anybody who asked

6. Buy a bus for Shelley so she could fill it with 4 yr. old boys with Down Syndrome.

7. Hire a full time secretary for Andrea.

8. Put all my nieces and nephews through college

9. Donate the rest to Reece's Rainbow (the ministry which introduced us to Ava), Open Arms International (founded by Rachel White, the gal who inadvertently set me up with my husband), and Bridge to Cross (founded by our dear friends Frikkie and Tina)

10. Buy a 12 passenger van and adopt a few more kids!

Bad habits:

1. Blog reading

2. Interrupting conversations

3. Letting my kids get away with too much

Places I've lived

1. Guatemala

2. Kansas

3. Texas

4. Mexio

5. California

6. Oklahoma

5 jobs I've had:

1. Babysitting

2. Nursing home aide

3. Hospice nurse

4. Pediatric ICU nurse

5. School nurse (my favorite job besides being a mom)

Tag...you're it!

1. Marlita

2. Tricia

3. Valerie

4. Jennifer

5. Jill

Dad won!

We kept the kids up WAY too late on a school night last night to have a contest. The kids wanted to see who could make Ava laugh the hardest. Of course that was an event I wouldn't want to miss blogging about. :)

So I think it's safe to say...Dad won the contest, considering he had everybody laughing in the end!

Look who came back!

We have a rule at our house that if the kids find an animal that they want to keep as a pet, we keep it as a 24 hour pet. So here is our latest 24 hr. pet. I suppose it is the same one that disappeared during the Mother's Day photo shoot. It ended up right on our front porch. I got to hear it scratch its big claws in the bathtub all night, and then we set it free this morning.

Its' name? Turtie. I'm not sure if that's Turtie as in "turtle" or Turdy for something else. I was afraid to ask.

Good-Bye Turtie. We'll never forget you (since we took a picture and all).

Today was art day

This picture was too cute not to blog. Look what Jude did in art today. I wish I knew what the assignment was, but I couldn't get it out of him. He just said he drew it because he wanted to. It's Ava (notice the sparse hair and the tongue sticking out) in a "castle of flowers". Isn't that sweet? I suppose "I adoptid a littl rusha gril" was easier to spell than "I adoptid a littl Ukrainian gril".

Ava's latest trick

Now I don't know if you could call this crawling or not, but I'd say it's pretty close, don't you? I am downright proud of this little girl for figuring this out all on her own. (Well, she did have some help from her big brother Simeon who demonstrated the army crawl for her last night). Look, she knows what she wants, and by golly she's gonna get it!

By the way, you may want to turn the sound down if you're sensitive to the sound of noisy baby toys or teeth grinding! Eeeek.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Updates

We had the follow up ABR hearing test with the ENT specialist today. Remember Ava scored 30 on her last audiology exam (normal is 10-15)....where they observed her physical response to bilateral sounds. Today the test was administered while she slept, with electrodes on her forehead that monitored the brain's response to different sounds. Very fascinating. Well, she scored a 30 again today. The optimist in me recognized that at least she is physically responding to the sounds that she does here. However, it does appear that she has a mild hearing loss which will be corrected with......hearing aides. Oh, well. Won't she look cute with hearing aides.

The reason it is important to correct it early on, according to my dear speech pathologist friend (Wink, Cammie) is that the better she can hear the better she will be able to communicate. That is a very good point my friend.

On the other hand, how will I ever keep track of hearing aides amongst all the piles of homework papers and mismatched socks and piles of laundry and hungry children and unmade beds?! Sigh. Such is the life of a mother.

And for better news....She weighs 27 pounds!!! Can that even be possible?! (She was 18.5 just 3 months ago). If I did my calculations correctly, she has gained 46% of her body weight!!! Now I know why my back and arms have been so sore lately.

Happy Mother's Day to Grandma and Oma!!

There is a story behind every picture, right? Well here is the story behind this one....(By the way, don't they all look angelic?)

I had the idea to send Mother's Day cards to all 4 grandmothers and great grandmothers, with a photo print of the kids. Since I switched to a digital camera I've been TERRIBLE about getting prints.... So I bought the cards, had the kids all write a note in each of them, then hauled everyone down to our neighborhood entrance for a free photo shoot. Well there happened to be a box turtle there among the rocks and all the kids (except Ava) were completely distracted by it. I made them put the turtle down and take the photo with the promise that they could play with it after I got a REALLY great shot of everyone smiling at the camera.....


Well as you can see it took a few tries, and by the time we got one (top) the turtle was nowhere to be found. There were a couple of sad little boys and a heartbroken little girl. Can you tell which one is my turtle lover?

So we get home, I uploaded the photos, tried to order the perfect Mother's Day picture....Only to find out that the smallest I can order is a 4x6, and the envelopes are too narrow. So Happy Mother's Day to you all...I hope you enjoyed the story. And the only picture you're going to get is the one on this blog.

When I see the faces on this webpage it breaks my heart, because I know that most of these children will probably never know the love of a family. These children are all orphans with Down Sydrome in different parts of the world, who are waiting...still waiting for a family to call their own.

I received an email from Andrea at Reece's Rainbow yesterday stating that the next family to commit to one of these older orphans will receive a $10,000 grant towards their adoption. I am hoping this will be incentive for someone to come forward for them.

The question is not whether these children should be loved and belong to a family, the question is, which family is missing the call of God on their hearts to welcome them home. If you know someone who is considering adopting an older child with special needs, please, please share this with them. I would love to see every one of them find their forever families.

I am reminded of this blog post by my husband John a few days ago. If you haven't read it, it is worth considering. Remember if you can't adopt, you can always help in other ways.

Do your walls look like this?


Your pantry and refrigerator like this?


Your cabinets like this?

If not, what do you do with all your childrens' masterpieces?

Future Homemaker and Mommy in Progress

I love these pictures, even if Hope is licking her sister in one of them. I made the mistake of telling Hope the first day we got off the airplane with Ava that she licks us to show love. Ever since, Hope has been "loving" all over Ava (and me too....ooooh).

A picture that is worth 1,000 words

Be sure to read the words on Ava's shirt...

The pink shorts

OK Someone asked about the shorts....No, we are not trying to set a new "biker" trend. The shorts Ava is wearing in the previous photos are called "hip helpers". Because of her very low muscle tone (very typical in kids with Down Syndrome) Ava has very flexible joints. You've seen her doing the splits and pulling her feet over her ears. While it is VERY cute, it isn't necessarily good for her to do that. We try to reserve the Elastigirl poses for Kindergarten Show and Tell and occasionally showing off for neighbors and friends.

The hip helpers help support her legs so she will more easily be able to bear weight on her knees or on her feet without her legs spreading out under her. She wears them under her clothes usually and they really have made a difference in her ability to get up on her knees. When she tries without them, she can't help but fall into the frog position. Cute, but again, not the best for hip support.

i
Hip helpers cost $18 a pair so for now we just have the one (hot pink of course) and meanwhile I found some spandex shorts at Academy that my neighbor sewed together for me that work almost as well. So yes! They are spandex. But no, we aren't training for the Special Olympics. (Not yet anyway.)

Bearing weight!!!

Friday fun

We spent Friday afternoon at the park with Grandma who came to visit from New Mexico (great idea Grandma). Papaw missed out on the fun because he was working!! Boring.

Give boys a couple of acres, some bike trails and a really great jungle gym, and they find a pond with tadpoles. Of course!

I think the bike was a little more trouble than it was worth....

It's so fun to be a girl

Girls that like to eat

Gas to Fayetteville and back.......... $47

Dinner at Carrabbas, Breakfast at Mimi's Cafe (and oddly enough the SAME waiter at both), and a tall nonfat caramel machiatto from Starbucks.......$34

Lodging at Jennifer's house....FREE

An overnight gabfest and 101 laughs with old college roommates........PRICELESS.

My dream come true

I had tears in my eyes as I waved good bye to the special ed bus this morning.....My dream come true. We decided to put Ava in school, mornings, half day. She has been going for a week and a half now and started riding the bus too. Here is the driver and the bus aide. I hope they don't mind their picture on my blog. :)

She seems to be loving it. Thank you to whoever suggested keeping a notebook in her diaper bag to communicate with her teacher. I am always amazed at how kids will do things for other people that they won't do for the parents. The teachers have been working with her on feeding and using a sippy cup at school and she continues to make great progress. Music time seems to be her favorite and she loves to watch and mimic the other kids. There are only 6 I think.

Isn't she cute?

Wow, I got an award

The last time I got an award was in the second grade. I was hoping for the "longest hair" award but instead I got the "quiet mouse" award.

Today it is a blog award given to me by Christina at Kwisteena's Kwaziness (I like that blog name, don't you?)

The rules for this award are:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules.
I'm passing this on to:

My cousin Dalene at Fisherstine

My friend Terra at Schultheis Family News

My friend Michelle at Down Blogger 

My wonderful husband John at My Newest Daughter 

and my sister Marlita who just started a blog...yesterday in fact....at Counting My Blessings

Be sure you fill up her inbox with lots of messages!

Well that wasn't as hard as I  thought it was going to be. Thank you Christina. This guy Art or Arte or whoever started this "blog award" idea sure had a very clever way of internet advertising. If you are in need of a crocheted purse or shawl, be sure to check out his blog (or hers). :)

Don't be jealous ladies......

But yes, I am married to one of those guys who brings home flowers "just because". OK I'm not so special. The flowers are for me AND the girls to share.





And he brought home chocolates too!

This is a letter that Hope wrote. It says:

Dear Ava,
I love you so much and I am glad that you're not an orphan anymore and that you are my sister and I want you to come to my birthday party and all my friends can come and watch me do ballet.

Now that I told you that story, I can tell you this story:
I had read that it is very common for children to want to send their new sibling "back home" shortly after an adoption. In 2 1/2 months of being home with Ava we hadn't heard anything even remotely close to that.

That is, until last week.

Hope goes to preschool once a week, on Thursdays. I think I have mentioned in a previous post Hope's love for dresses (as well as her unawareness of the term lady-like). After several embarrassing public moments, I have started making her wear pants every time we go out. She is not happy about it.

After so much lamentation last Thursday morning, I finally had Ava and Hope (wearing pants) buckled in their car seats and on our way to school when Hope said, "Ava, I don't like you anymore. I want you to go back to the orphanage".

Dumbfounded, I pulled the car over. Knowing she had never demonstrated any ill feelings toward Ava, I knew something else was going on. I got her out of her seatbelt, sat her on my lap and said, "Hope, do you know what I think? I don't think you are mad at Ava at all. I  think you're mad at ME because I wouldn't let you wear a dress today."

She started crying and admitted, yes, that is why she said what she said. Through tears she apologized to Ava, and I made her apologize to me too. Before we got to school, the girls were holding hands in the back seat again. Like always.

The big bathtub

I've been bathing Ava in the kitchen sink but she has definitely outgrown it and gotten way to wiggly for it. Apparently they've stopped making those little bathtub seats because I haven't been able to find one....that is until I went garage sale-ing yesterday! I think she likes the kitchen sink better than the big bathtub. What do you think?



And how do you like the hairdo?

Ava's latest feat

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com