just a thought

So, at church on Sunday, one of the speakers was talking about faith. It wasn't anything we haven't all heard before. It's just that it's always good to hear it again.

He spoke of the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and how they got to the Red Sea and were in need of a serious miracle to get away from Pharaoh's armies. Some of the children of Israel began to complain. I really can't blame them. They began to doubt that they had been led here by God. They were forgetting the miracles that had previously taken place. Because they were again met with opposition, they doubted their journey.

And then...

the waters parted.

(Insert singing of heavenly choruses)

Oh phew! Except the waters stayed parted and the Egyptians started to follow them. I'm pretty sure I would've been saying, "Seriously?" (That 's one of my favorite things to say.) Followed by an eye roll.

So, even though they'd had oodles of miracles, they knew they were doing the right thing, they had seen the hand of the Lord in their daily lives, they panicked, then the sea parted and they crossed a SEA on DRY LAND!!! Only to look back to see the crazy Egyptians hot on their tails. If they were panicked before, I'm pretty sure they were again. Here they are walking across an ocean ON DRY LAND and they were still being pursued!

And then...

God returned the waters to their normal state, and in Exodus 14:28 we read that the waters "covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." I really love the dry humor of the Bible. In verse 30 it says "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day..." hahaha. I love it. All in a days work:)

Anyhow, the point that I took with me on Sunday, one that I am reminded of often, is that even though we may be doing the right thing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's all going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. In fact, a good way to tell that you are doing what's right is if suddenly the Egyptian army is after you and you're stuck between them, huge sand dunes and a big ol' sea. Just take a deep breath and start walking into the water.

Have faith and the sea will part...

shooting the breeze

Happy Day.

Finally, we were able to get ahold of BoyOne today. It's been 3 weeks. That is a record. We didn't have a translator though, so conversation was a little limited. He kept saying, "mami, papi, Ukraine." We wanted to be able to ask him if he had received his package yet, what had been going on for the past 3 weeks that he couldn't have his phone (did he get in trouble, was he sick, was the director being extra strict?), is BoyTwo okay?

In the end, Huz, One and I talked to him using our conversational Russian.

"Hi! How are you!"

We told him we loved him and he told us he loves us.

one more thing...

I just read this quote and felt today a very appropriate time to post it. One of my biggest fears is being one who is silent. Not literally, those who know me know this won't be a problem:) But being silent through my actions. I worry about meeting up with God someday and Him wanting to know what I did with my life, my gift. I'd be embarrassed to say to Him that I had a good life because, at least for me personally, I feel that He wants more. He needs more from me. He needs me to BE a good life. More than anything I hope to someday "be the change I wish to see in the world." (Ghandi)

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

what a day!

phew.

Sunday night we were looking forward to a wonderful Monday holiday. Kids were out of school, Huz was off work, projects were going to be completed, friends were coming to visit, fun was to be had.

And then, at 8 a.m., the phone rang.

It woke us up. It felt good to sleep in a little. The kids were still asleep as we hadn't arrived home until 11 the night before. (Huz was in the middle of a very intense game of Yahtzee with his family, I was trying to teach myself to follow a knitting pattern FOR THE THIRD TIME. haha.)

Anyhow, we didn't answer the phone, it went to the answering machine. We were still a little sleepy but what we heard shot us straight out of bed,

"Hi, this is your neighbors. We just woke up to 3 inches of water in our basement and wanted to make sure you were up so that you could check your basement."

Our basement is unfinished, but there are a lot of boxes down there that haven't been unpacked yet...

Huz hustled his buns down the stairs to check on the water situation. No water for us!!

Our poor neighbors had plenty of water to go around. One neighbor had 3 feet in his basement, another, 6 inches. A few other neighbors had the unfortunate raw sewage flooding. The problem, apparently, was that it was 45 degrees, raining, and 2 feet of snow melted yesterday!!! Yikes. The ground was just completely saturated with water and the water table rapidly rose flooding these houses from the ground.

I started doing my wifely, motherly duties (cooking, cleaning, clothing) and Huz went to help out the neighbors.

At noon he came home for a quick second. As he passed the stairway to the basement he noticed the door was opened. He went down the stairs to shut it. Very thankfully he noticed that we had started to flood. He started moving boxes out of the way and called up to me.

At that exact moment Three started screaming bloody murder. Because she tends to be (quite) dramatic, I didn't exactly rush over to her, but I did head that way. When I saw the blood dripping from her hand I started to hustle. (I'm starting to think I'm not reactive enough. When Two came home sick Thursday I decided to wait a day or two to see if she started to feel better. Instead, Two's ear drum ended up rupturing and the doc I took her to said that both ears were really infected and that the other ear would probably rupture. Nice one, mom) Back to the hand. Three had reached her hand into a aluminum can of mandarin oranges and sliced it on the way out. There was lots of blood but it wasn't as bad as I was thinking it might be. No stitches would be needed.

By the time I took care of the bloody mess and went down to check the basement, the water was coming up through the ground steadily. We had left our pump at our other house when we moved so Huz jumped in the car and headed to town to buy us a pump. In the meantime, my dear neighbor came over and she and I emptied out the food storage room and as many boxes from the basement as we could. We put the couch up on the ping pong table so that it wouldn't be ruined.

In the end we (meaning mostly Huz) were down in the basement bailing water until about midnight when it finally stopped coming up through the ground. Sounds like spring will be fun, huh?

A really nice lady brought our families (those of us who flooded) lunch and dinner which was really really really great. In my hurry to empty the basement of our boxes I piled the boxes in the kitchen blocking the pantry, fridge and stove about 4 feet high. I am sooo smart.

Although the day was not spent how we had planned, I really can't think of a better way to celebrate MLK, jr day than to be working together with friends for a good cause.

BoyTwo

Well, this little guy has been on my mind. More than usual. I'm posting his picture, but I'm not sure that is "allowed." Hopefully it's okay. He's stinkin' cute. And what a sense of humor!!

With all the problems we've had at school here, the past few weeks in particular, I've been, how should we say it, strongly advocating for my kids. I'm happy to do it, it's my job. Wish that everyone had happy, agreeable, attitudes, but hey, what can you do. Just keep going and this too shall pass.

Anyhow, it got me thinking. Who is advocating for BoyOne and BoyTwo? Or how about the other

210 million orphans worldwide??!!

What about the 423,773 kids in foster care?

That's just in the US alone.

Did you know that within a year of being phased out of the foster care system here almost half are homeless?

That's enough to keep you up at night. Good grief.

This morning I had a call from the school telling me that Two was in the office with a fever and an earache. When I picked her up, she was sitting in the "sick room" with the nurse sitting by her, holding a heating pad to her head, rubbing her back, reassuring her that I'd be there any minute. (Thanks Nurse Campbell)

What happens when BoyTwo gets an earache? Or sore throat, or bumped head, or hurt feelings? Or has a bad dream? Heaven knows there's enough going on in his little life to give him an eternity of bad dreams. There's no one there to comfort him. I know that it's what he's used to. But isn't that sad? That he's used to NOT having his needs met? Physical or emotional.

We only sent a phone to BoyOne because he's older and more responsible. Unfortunately, because BoyOne and BoyTwo don't see each other that often, we have only talked to BoyTwo twice since they returned to Ukraine. And that was soon after they returned. It's been a while since I've heard his little voice. Except lately, all the time, I see him in my mind and hear his voice in my mind. I think about how much he changed while he was here. How he started to become the little boy he deserves to be. How amazing it was to watch him thrive in a situation where he was an individual, not one of a mass. Where he was loved and considered and protected and cared for out of love, not necessity. I pray and pray and pray for him, his brother, all of the kids in their situation.

Ukraine postponed their moratorium vote again. Hopefully this gives a lot more adoptions time to clear.

I just might need to buy myself a plane ticket and jet myself over to Ukraine for a few days. Those boys need their Utah mami to give them a hug and tell them that they are special and important. (and maybe that they really need a bath)

I just might need a hug from them too. I miss them.

Evanston

This past weekend I was privileged to get some much needed S & S. Sewing and Scrapbooking. One of my awesome girlfriends has a condo near Park City. She invited a few of us up to eat, laugh and craft. I opted to sew. I finished a knitting project, a quilt and worked on a needlepoint. Hmmm. I sound like I'm eighty. Oh well, it was great fun. The best part of the trip happened before we had all even arrived. One of my girlfriends picked me up in my cute little town and we were going to drive the back way to Park City. I have taken this route many times with my family. As we drove we caught up on life. And then, all of a sudden, we passed a sign that said, "Evanston 4 miles." Any of you that have driven this route know that this is bad news. Our conversation went something like this:

"Oh my gosh!!! I think we missed our turn! We're almost to Evanston!"

"Don't we go through Wyoming to get to Park City?"

"I don't think so!"

Quick call to husbands ensue. Quick call to girlfriends who are already in Park City wondering where we are. MUCH laughter. The kind that makes your eyes leak and tummy hurt. It felt so good. We turned around and headed back to Park City. Yeah, we were late, but it was sooo much fun. We had a great weekend and shared lots of laughs.

Here's the analogy. So, here we are going along in life. Our life takes an unexpected path. It may be a poor decision that we make or something that happens to us that we have no control over. We ended up in Evanston. We "let our guards down" and were side tracked talking. So, what to do, what to do.

Option 1) keep driving, keep heading in the wrong direction. I mean after all, you're in the car, headed down that path. Why not just keep going? Throw in the towel.

Option 2) Stay in Evanston. We had our luggage and craft stuff with us. We could've just stayed the night there. We had each other to hang out with. It wouldn't have been so bad. We knew our other friends were in Park City, waiting for us. But they didn't need us to have fun. Right? What's the point. This would be the don't-do-anything-about-it-option.

Option 3) Option 3 has two sub-options.

Option 3a) Turn around, drive back to Park City. We wasted gas, and precious time.

How often does a mom get away, after all? And then gripe and complain and dwell on it so much

that we don't enjoy our time in Park City.

Option 3b) Turn around, drive back to Park City and even though we wasted time and gas,

we LAUGHED THE WHOLE WAY!! It wasn't the plan, but we made the best of it. And guess what. It turned out just fine.

In real life, I know that I've done all these things. We probably all have in one way or another. What matters is if we learned from our experience or not. What matters is what we do next time we find ourselves in Evanston.

Option 1 suggests that we just stay down when we fall. It's hard to get back up. We're already headed in that direction. It's easy, very easy, to just keep going, to take the path of no return and fall into self-destruction. Option 2 would have us not do anything about our situation. So we made a bad choice, so we had some bad luck. Don't do anything about it. Why bother? What's done is done. There is no return. You can't get back the wasted time or gas. Just stay where you're at. B-O-R-ing. Non-productive. Can be just as self-destructive as option 1, but in a less obvious way.

With Option 3a we think we have put on our big girl panties and carried on. Sneaky, sneaky. What is the point of returning if we don't allow ourselves to fully enjoy the rest of the trip?! What's the point of repenting, forgiving, moving on, pushing through, not giving up, if we don't allow our hearts to heal? It's like we are just going through the motions. Whoooppeee if you find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you aren't going to spend it. Hello?!

Option 4 is the "high road." This is obviously what we should do. But it isn't always as easy or fun as a drive back from Evanston. Sometimes it's a lot worse. And a lot less entertaining. But at the end of the day, as we lay our tired bodies down to sleep with our dear friends in Park City, we'll know it's worth it.

homework

At our house we all do homework. Even if you don't really have homework from school, as the mom, I come up with a homework project so that we are all sitting at the table together doing homework. Even Four who is only three insists on doing her "homework." Now don't go thinking I'm some crazed woman who is making her kids lives miserable. These homework assignments that I come up with, when necessary, are just something that the child needs extra help with. It might be writing spelling words 3 times each, practicing writing their name, sorting letters and numbers, or studying words from a different language. They get to use dry erase boards, crayons, markers and fun paper. The kids prefer doing my homework over their school homework.

Back to what we were talking about. Tonight we were all sitting at the table doing our homework. "All" didn't last very long as One's homework was to read the first three chapters of a book that we are going to be studying now that we're all into the homeschool thing:)... She quickly asked to be excused to my bedroom where she could concentrate on her book. I didn't even realize until she made that request that Three and Four were singing. Noise doesn't bother me too much. Unless it's the TV. Then it drives me nuts. But tons of kids, animals, music? Bring it on. I will admit that every once in a while I do start to get an overload and have to have it quiet. But this usually only lasts a couple hours. And I really only get like that about once a month. So, even though One pointed out that the kids were singing, I didn't even notice what they were singing for another half hour. And then I wished I had noticed earlier because it was pretty funny.

I didn't grow up playing this game, nor was I introduced to it the first two times I attended our church's girls camp (camp for young women ages 12-18) as an adult leader. But the year I dressed up like a crazy lady super hero this was the game of choice:

Sally Walker

If you haven't played, especially at girls camp, you are seriously missing out. This is even fun to play with the bishopric (male leaders of our church who attend camp to, hopefully, provide a much needed hormonal balance).

One person is Sally Walker. She stands in the middle of everyone else who is standing around her in a circle. Everyone else begins to sing the following song while Sally Walker dances around the inside of the circle:

"Little Sally Walker, walkin' down the street,

Didn't know what to do 'til she stopped in front of me."

At this time "Sally" stops in front of one person in the surrounding circle. The group continues:

"She said, 'Hey girl, do that thing, do that thing. Now switch!

Hey girl, do that thing, do that thing. Now switch!'"

On the first 'hey girl do that thing do that thing now switch' the person "Sally" stopped in front of has to bust a move. You know, a dance move. This is where it gets funny. Picture a 12 year old girl doing some funky (yet modest, remember this is a church sponsored camp) move that her forty-something leader has to imitate. On the flip side of this, picture a forty-something leader bustin' out the running man and the 12 year old trying to imitate her. Pretty entertaining. Mostly if you are the one watching. (FYI: If you are the leader, you better use the bathroom before you start playing this game. There's a lot of skipping/jogging around the circle and bouncy dance moves that really make you need to tinkle. ya know??) On the second 'hey girl do that thing do that thing now switch' the first Sally has to mimic the dance move. Then the two switch places and there is a new "Sally." hahaha... great cardio.

Back to the kitchen table. Out of nowhere my Three and Four, I realize, are singing this song, "Sally Walker," as they plug along with their homework. Only both of them have a couple of the words wrong. And they're both wiggling their little bodies along with the rhythm of the song. Pretty funny.

Three is singing:

"Hey, Soul Sister, walking down the street..."

Four is singing:

"Hey yittle girl, walkin' down the stweet. Didn't know what to do til she stopped in fwont of me. She said do dat fing do dat fing do dat fing and switch!"

I guess maybe you had to be there.

unbelievable...

...and not in a good way.

I've tried to not give many details about our situation at school. I've tried to be Pollyanna about it all, but I think there's a difference between being positive and being stupid. So, I am to a point now where I feel like I'm not the crazy one. It also helps that we have made a decision as to what to do about our situation.

One of my kids has a 504, a legally binding document prepared by a team of specialists at a given school and the corresponding district that sets forth a required plan of action to assist a child with specific needs in their education experience. It's January and even though we moved into the district with a brand new 504, we were denied services (by people claiming misunderstanding and ignorance and forgetfulness) until a certain person made a visit to the district offices and spoke with the director of elementary education. Amazing that by the end of the following school day, the 504 was in play. Phew. At least the district understands what "legally binding" means.

One of my other kids has a teacher that has issues. I would elaborate as to what I think her "issues" are, but I'm not sure if that's legal or not. So, instead, I'll tell you a few of the MANY things she does each day and let you draw your own conclusions. I want to be sure to let you know that this situation has been remedied as of today when I dropped off an affidavit to the school withdrawing said child from full-time attendance at the school. Anyhow, back to some examples. This teacher has many kids in the class that somehow have multiple missing assignments. These are kids that are typically responsible, top of the class students. When you ask the kids about the missing assignments, they have no idea where the assignment went. When they ask the teacher, she belittles them and refuses to give them the work to be made up, yet continually sends home notes saying they have missing work that needs to be completed. This will go on for weeks. Remember, these are fourth graders. Finally, one mother (it was me) actually went to the school with her daughter to ask for the missing work. The mother was told to look through the desk of the daughter, which had already been done by the daughter. After emptying the entire desk to prove the papers were not inside, the teacher said that she didn't have the papers on her desk and said she'd have to look through the file cabinet. I said, "Fine, we'll wait." She reluctantly found the papers, but didn't have copies. I offered to make the copies for her to which she replied she would do it. So, again I told her we'd wait. Judas. I don't even care about the missing assignments!! The problem is that the kids are belittled in front of their peers and embarrassed. They are also restricted from activities if they have missing work. I completely agree that if a child is not turning in work, they should not get to participate in certain activities. That is a valuable life lesson, is it not? There is a problem, though, when it begins to appear that it is not the child that is "missing" the work.

Next problem. Lack of human compassion. Not every child should or does have the blessing of having a loving, warm fuzzy teacher each year. Yes, it certainly makes life easier for all involved (I firmly believe that would include the teacher). I do believe that all teacher's should have a certain amount of compassion though. Prime example: It is currently 5 degrees here in my lovely little town. Brrrrr. Last week the kids went outside for recess and were playing on the "umbrella" toy. I personally think this toy is a safety hazard and should be removed. I think two arms have been broken on it and countless other injuries have occurred-but that's a different story. This toy looks like an umbrella. The kids jump up to hold onto the rim and the toy spins. It's high enough that most of the kids have to lift each other up to get onto it. Sounds elementary friendly, right? Anyhow, a girl fell off the toy and into the lake-like puddle that is underneath. Because this is a spinning toy, if you lose your grip and fall, you usually land on your bottom, not your feet. Thus the broken arms. (Not my kids with broken arms.) My daughter helped this girl up and proceeded to go into the school with the wet girl to the classroom to get the teacher for help. The school is long and narrow. The office is in the middle of the school and the door these kids enter is at the other end. So, it was logical, especially for a fourth grader to seek out her teacher for help and direction. Both girls were told by the teacher to "get out of the classroom. Under no circumstances are they ever to go into the classroom. Maybe they'll be more careful next time so that they don't get wet. There was no reason for my daughter to have entered the school with the wet girl." The girls tried to explain to the teacher that wet girl was hurt but they were told that it didn't matter and that fourth graders shouldn't need help if they get hurt. Really? Seriously? So they shouldn't go into the building during recess, I get it. It was flippin' 5 degrees outside and the girl was hurt and wet and freezing. Maybe the teacher could have said to next time just go straight to the office? Nope. Not her. They were both scolded. The teacher didn't even ask the girl if she was okay. I later talked to the mom who did not know that I was aware of this incident. She was telling me that her daughter was soaked to the bone and then proceeded to give the same account as my daughter had given me. This mom didn't know it was my daughter who had helped her daughter, so there's no way this story is tainted.

I could seriously go on and on and on. But I will not. I will tell you this last incident to cap it all. I literally poked my head into the classroom to ask the teacher if she wanted me to do a presentation the next day. The presentation was 1 1/2 minutes. This was something that I was asked to do for the whole grade. When I poked my head in, the kids were coloring, the teacher roaming the classroom. I would not have interrupted her instruction. She came out into the hall and started yelling at me, telling me I was disrespectful and rude and inappropriate. For poking my head in to ask a question. Yikes. She told me if I ever wanted to ask her a question again, I had to call the office and make an appointment to tell her I had a question for her. Then, I had to call the office again to schedule a second appointment to ask the question. Her yelling at me took about four times as long as it would have for me to ask if she wanted the presentation (that she requested) and her to answer with a simple yes or no. The icing on the cake is that she later BRAGGED to the other teachers (some of which I know) about how she had told off a parent volunteer. She also said that she "doesn't know who I think I am trying to volunteer and start programs. I'm new to the area and it's my place to kiss butt for a few years."

WWHHAAAATTT???!!!

One of the teachers said to her, "Seriously? Two minutes? You yelled at a parent for that?" And she continued to brag that yes she had and she expected me to kiss a lot more butt and to be put in my place.

People. She's crazy.