16 Random Things

I got tagged by Joel to post 16 random things about me…cool.  Here it is.  It’s taken me way too long to compile this list, but here it is!!

1.  I can’t stand buffets.  I don’t know what they were thinking when they invented that.

2.  My least favorite color for a car is red.  I have 2.  Go figure.

3.  As a high school senior, I swam on 3 swim teams…at the same time.

4.  I never thought I would embrace Christ the way I have.  At one point in my life, I thought that it was all a joke, a cult…boy how things change!

5.  I wanted to be a park ranger.  Instead, I’m a tech writer.

6.  If I laugh too hard I cough…really bad.

7.  I’ve had more surgery than I really care to think about.

8.  I have to work at not being a pack-rat.

9.  I’m having a really hard time coming up with 16 random things…

10.  I’ve played guitar since I was 12, but I don’t play as well as I’d like

11.  I was a drummer in the jr. high and high school marching bands.

12.  I like pancakes for dinner.

13.  I can’t go a day without having Diet Sunkist.

14. I love having a daughter.   She brightens up my every day.

15.  I pray that God will give me the wisdom to raise her to be His.

16.  I can’t believe that I came up with 16 things

What the…

I just found this amazing…5 yr old BLIND Piano Prodigy from S. Korea.

RELINK LOVE

Ok…Just had this great idea.  I need extra credit.  I NEED that Paul Baloche music theory set.  I’m hoping this will do the trick.  I also hope I’m not too late

Joel at cecworship moved.  He is now at klampert.com…..

Go, check it out…GO…GO!!  GO!!!!

Are you still here??  GO!!

Surgery Update

I’m doing great.  Today I can actually walk around without crutches!!  This is the first time I’ve ever had this surgery and been able to do this.  In the past it’s been at least 3 days before I could do this.  I credit this to prayer, and to the injection I got while still in the OR.  I’m not sure how long the injection will last but I’m sure that God’s healing touch is playing a primary role that will last!

Everything seems to be coming along just fine! (Dr. Jingo)

#14

Tomorrow I’m having my 14th surgery.  yay. (note the hint of sarcasim there?)  Here’s the rundown as I remember:

1. 1 on my right knee for torn meniscus
2. 2 on my right ankle for torn ligament
3. 2 on my left foot for a bone spur and a neuroma
4. 4 on my left knee for torn meniscus
5. 1 on my left shoulder for impingement syndrome
6. 1 on my right shoulder for impingement syndrome
7. 1 on my right wrist for a torn cartilage and a lot of “junk” (yep, real medical term…right from the dr.)
8. 1 abdominal for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy

Tomorrow’s surgery will be number 5 on my left knee.  I’ve got a torn meniscus yet again.  They can’t really “fix” it.  All they can do is go in and remove the part that’s torn and send me on my way.  This time, however, there is a chance that he will do something a little different, called a Micro-fracture procedure.  That’s where he will drill a series of very small holes in the bone to allow for bone marrow and stem cells to coat the end of the bone, possibly gaining me a little more time before I have to have this done again.  It’s inevitable it will happen again.  I have a torn ACL in that knee that was never repaired and it can’t be repaired now because it’s been so long (the original injury was 17 years ago).   It just means that my knee is a bit unstable, making me susceptable to this kind of thing.

Yes, I’m nervous.  I know what to expect, and that doesn’t make it easier.  So, if you think of it tomorrow, say a little prayer for me?  Please?

Today I wish…

Today I wish I had a fireplace to sit near and bask in the warmth of.

Today I wish I didn’t have to think.

Today I wish I could have a cup of soup and half a sandwich with God at Panara’s.

Today I wish I lived near all my friends.

Today I wish I didn’t have to prepare for another surgery.

Today I wish I had more ambition…

What do you wish today?

Journey to Family part 7

On our flight to Florida, Mary looked at me and said, “Thank you for taking me to Disney World!” Her smile melted my heart yet again.

We had expected that by the end of June the adoption would be final, but it was the end of July and we had no more a clue as to when it would be final then when we left court following the TPR (termination of parental rights…not something I like to say, or write.)

Phone call after phone call, the answer was the same:  still waiting for the documentation to come from the court.  The final decree of the TPR had to go from the court to the DSS area office where the case workers sat.  I kept thinking, I could just call the court myself and make it move along faster than this!

Summer slowly turned to fall, and school started.  The adoption case worker had agreed to let Mary start school using our last name in the classroom, avoiding another transition for her.  We had told her that she would have our name by the time she started second grade, and we were determined to make that happen.  I felt there was nothing worse in the world then for her to have to explian over and over why she had a new name.  And so she did.  Her nametags arrived in the mail, (the teacher has the children wear nametags for the first 3 days of school) with the wrong last name.  Off to school I went, the day before classes started, to get new ones with our last name.  Mary’s name tag was hand written, all the other children’s were printed from the computer.  I wondered if they would notice.  I wanted so much for her to just be like all the other children in her class.  Driving home, I reconciled that.  She’s not like all the other children.  The more I try and erase the first 6 years of her life, the more noticible it becomes that there was something there that is now smeared over.  I allowed myslef to give it to God; to let Him be the one who erases…or not…the ugly times.  It wasn’t/isn’t my job to do that.  My job is to make sure that the following years of the rest of her life are better than the first 6.  So with a new sense of purpose I drove home with name tags that displayed exactly what God wanted the world, albeit 18 secnod graders, to see.

September was quickly winding to a close and we still had no word on finalization.  Then one after noon I got an e-mail from my husband.  It was disturbing, insighting, frustrating.  He told me that he had spoken with the adoption case worker who informed him that she would be retiring in mid October, and that as of yet she had not heard.  She said she had requested a date for finalization that was before her last day, but she hadn’t been given a date yet and she thought that it would most likely be after National Adoption Day in November, but possibly into December.  Part of me wanted to cry.  A bigger part of me wanted to call her.  So I did.  I pushed.  I pleaded.  I asked for a phone log of who she had called, when she called and the outcome.  I became a mom advocating for her child and for her family.  I didn’t yell, I didn’t threaten, I didn’t loose my temper.  But she knew all of those things were just under the surface.

I got another e-mail from my husband the next day.  I opened it and quickly my eyes fell to the words “We have a date.  October 10″  That was all I needed to see.  It was a mere 9 days away!  We decided to take Mary out to dinner to tell her.  She had been asking and asking and all I could do was tell her soon.  But this time I could tell her the date.

We went to Applebee’s.  It’s not far from us, and it works for a week night out.  As we sat waiting for our food to be delivered, we decided to tell her.  “Remember you asked me when you would be adopted?” I asked.  She answered without looking up.  “Yes.”  “Well,”  I said, “we have a date now.”  Her eyes darted up at me.  “When?” she asked, with a sparkle starting to form.  “In 9 days.  A week from this Friday!”  Her mouth dropped open and she froze for a split second.  “Cool.”  Cool…was that it?  Was that all I was going to get?  Cool????  My heart was bursting with joy and all she can say is cool?  So a few moments later I snatched an opportunity and asked her, “You know what that means?”  She looked up at me again and asked “what?” and then went back to playing Cats in the Cradle.  I said, “It means forever” with a big smile on my face.  She abruptly looked up at me and with a very surprised look on her face she said “No, Mom.  Remember you said my mom and dad can’t take care of me for now.”

Brownies!!

Another new phase in girlhood…Girl Scouts.

Saturday we got the vest, skort, shirt, beanie and knee socks as well as all the required badges and patches for the vest.  As soon as we got home, Mary helped to iron on all the patches, and then HAD to try on the WHOLE uniform:

And her new favorite song:

The Brownie Song

I have something in my pocket that belongs across my face,
I keep it very close to me in a most convenient place.
I’m sure you couldn’t guess it if you guessed a long long while,
So I’ll take it out, and put it on it’s a great big Brownie smile!

I got something, I got something!!

I got something and now I need your input.  My last post was a cry for help…and help I got.  Tam suggested a holiday post so here goes.

I have a new family, and so now I have the chance of starting new holiday family traditions.  With the holidays quickly approaching, I want to know what YOUR traditions are.

Thanksgiving:
Enjoy home cooked or purchase pre-prepared food and enjoy time with family?

Travel or have guests come to your house?

Best china or disposable for easy clean up?

Do you decorate the whole house, or just wait until Christmas?

Ever worked at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen on Thanksgiving?  Would you bring young kids or wait till they are older?

Christmas:
Open gifts Christmas Eve or wait till morning?

Leave out cookies and milk and a carrot, or depend on all the other families in the world to feed Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve?

Midnight service or early?

Ever visit another church on Christmas Eve?

How do you teach your kids that it’s not about getting presents?  What traditions do you have to teach giving and helping?

Share a good holiday story or share one family tradition from your childhood that you will NOT continue as an adult or parent.

Thanks and lets have fun!

Oh My!

My stats are down, my work load is up, my job is ending, and I’ve got NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT??????

What  the heck????

Somebody give me something…PLEASE???