Had a good day

I had a pretty good day today! I got to sleep in a little this morning... my kiddos didn't come til 12:30 today. And I only had the two of them (til their sister came after school)... so since i needed to bring some stuff to the next town, i took the two with me and we did some garage saling as well. It was fun! I was surprised at how much i actually enjoyed that! One of the things i have appreciated as my kids have been growing up is their independance ~ not needing me to buckle up their car seats, etc. but i really didn't mind doing that for my "little kiddos" today. Somehow it gave me a picture of how I imagine it might be when we have our two new children home... and it just feels right!

Busy day miracle

Yikes... i had my four regular kids today, and then the 2 boys i used to watch regularily, and then my sister asked if i could watch two of her boys... so we had 8 extra kiddos today. It didn't hit me until later that this is probably the most kids of that age that we've had at a time (usually when we have this many, several of them are older). So let me see if i can remember everyone's ages... 16mos, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5... can i say i'm THANKFUL for my kids help! And THANKFUL for a miracle ~ both the baby & Robbie had a nap! The last time we had the baby over, he didn't go down easily, until he was so tired he fell asleep in his highchair ~ lol. It's not easy getting Robbie to sleep, so with this many kids over, it was a miracle that he went to sleep! My kids watched the other kids while i got Robbie settled/sleeping, and then once he's sleeping he usually sleeps tight. The baby had a BIG nap, and by the time these two woke up, 4 of the kids had gone home.

Anyway, i'm trying to get ready for garage sale on Friday, so i should get some more work done on that ~ i don't get far while babysitting.

Last week Wednesday I was curious if our file had arrived in Ethiopia yet (it was to be mailed on the 6th), so I emailed our case worker. Apparently it arrived and was picked up on the 10th, so we are officially waiting for a referral now.

We were told that with the number of people requesting siblings, the referral time is likely to be at least about 8mos. I guess that would put us into January of 2009. That is just about too long! I know it's better for us to expect it to take longer, and hope that it's sooner... but somehow i just can't quite imagine waiting into 2009. Naturally i'll be "hoping" for a referral by Christmas. But again, all in God's timing! I'd rather leave it in His hands and trust Him for His patience. (Easy enough to say at the beginning of the wait, right?) I honestly believe it is God who has lead us to/through this journey so far, and I am confident He will see us through in His way and in His time. That doesn't mean our patience won't be tested (it already has been numerous times)... but for now it does feel good to know that our dossier is complete, correct, and in Ethiopia!

Officially our request is "a sibling group, preferably a girl and a boy, or two girls, with the female child being the eldest within the age of 24 to 60 months, and a male or female child within the age of 6 to 36 months."

Or more simply put... "a girl (24-60mos) and boy (6-36mos), or two girls (6-60mos)."

Last week Monday & Tuesday were not easy with Robbie ~ he was extra difficult, and didn't take a nap, so that makes for a long day. Thursday though, he was much better. Maybe it's a bit of a chain reaction too... if he starts off well, it puts us into a better frame of mind to enjoy him more?? Not sure, but we all had a better day. He came in the door smiling, and very huggy! He climbed up on my lap and started hugging me, and when the boys would get close, he'd draw them into the hug too. He was being cute. He actually sat on the floor and played for more than a minute at a time too. Then later, after his nap (YES, he had a nap that day), he went into the bathroom, and i heard Brenden trying to get him out of there... and then Brenden called me. I've told the boys repeatedly that if they can't manage Robbie, let me know! so now i was sure he was having trouble getting Robbie out, but as i got up to go help, i asked anyway what was up, and he told me "Robbie is in the sink!" (he was sitting in the sink, and Brenden needed me to help get him out of there). Lol... i had him clarify to be sure i'd heard right, and then i quickly picked up the camera to get a picture before taking him out. It was too funny! I guess in a way he was still being naughty because he didn't listen to Brenden (come out of the bathroom), but we all had a good laugh before taking him out and locking the bathroom door.

So now we have four more weeks of watching him... hopefully we'll have more "good days." Tomorrow we have just Robbie and just for the afternoon (i think). So a "long weekend."

Jonathan did 3 shifts at the farm on the weekend (2 yesterday and one today), so it'll be nice for him to have tomorrow off!

Anyway, it's WAY late again (how do i keep letting the day get away on me like this??)...

I did it!

I've been contemplating for a while now... do i continue babysitting through the summer or not? We've got about 5 more weeks to babysit Robbie & Andrew, and when i took the other job, i was told til the end of June... and i was fine with that, but her job appears to be long term now, so i/we had a decision to make. After giving it much thought, i came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to take a break. I know a lot of it is just that the work-load with Robbie is just so tiring that we're all ready for a break... and that, quite possibly, if it was just the other two* it probably wouldn't be too bad. (Last Friday it was just the other two, and it felt like such a manageable/normal-ish kind of day that i thought we could probably keep watching them ~ feeling pretty well "adjusted" by now, and they really aren't all that much work when it's just the two of them).

* key to remember... through the summer we would probably have their older sister here most days as well. She's not a bad kid, but i have found that when all three are here, all three fight more with each other... (we usually have all three for 1/2hr. in the morning before school). So that's something to take into consideration. There would be another "adjustment" to having her here full-time too, but i think we're just ready for a break.

One of our children in particular has grown quite an attitude in the last few weeks (and has done his share of complaining about all the babysitting), and it's been difficult trying to get Brenden's program going strong between running for Robbie... plus I'm seeing areas where my kids are needing some extra one-on-one in their school work... so i believe it's time to take a break, take a step back, re-group and "get back on track?" Lol... and try to do all that during the summer when they want to be outside all the time??

So I had no idea how or when i'd approach it, but when she came to pick up the kids today, it kind of flowed into the conversation and i just said that we've decided to babysit til end of June, but would like the summer off; that my kids need a break. We didn't discuss after the summer... i'm guessing if she finds someone else they'd probably just continue there, but i'd consider having them again in Fall if she needed someone.

I'm kind of sad about it in a way ~ there's a good possibility that if we hadn't tied ourselves down so much with Robbie, the other job probably would've been good to keep long term. But that's where it's at for now. I feel good about the decision overall... and hopefully we make wise use of our break.

Letter of approval

Our "latest edition" "Letter of Approval" has finally arrived at the agency! And it's RIGHT this time! No mistakes to correct!

This means our file is now complete and ready to be mailed to Ethiopia. Then we officially begin our wait for a referral!

Praise GOD!

Quite a while back, in a ladies Bible study, hmm... i think it might have been the book "Calm My Anxious Heart" that we were going through... but i don't remember for sure...

Anyway, there was a little illustration/story that stuck with me and it went something like this... "two women were looking out of a prison cell; one saw dirt, the other saw stars."

I think i'm seeing more dirt than stars today... you know how sometimes that dust just gets into the sky so that even when you're looking up, you still see "dirt?" Lol... ok, not a good excuse, but i have a feeling i shouldn't "dump" about everything that's wearing at me today. Goes along with that saying... "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

And sometimes when we just want to complain, we're better off counting our blessings (without sarcasm that is...)

Ok, you probably get the point.