Hodge Podge

Well folks, it looks like we might be in for an "adoption information drought" for a while. You know what that means--posts full of me dribbling on about life's little blessings and struggles, mixed in with a few adoption tidbits. Maybe I'm wrong and we'll have lots of adoption stuff to talk about soon. I hope so!!!

Tidbit #1

I love my baby girl! Yes, she's 6 but I love her so much! We had quite a scare today. You may have heard that we had a pretty bad ice storm here in OK. The kids wanted to go out to play in our very secure backyard so I bundled them up and sent them off. Our yard is tiny and I never worry much about them when they are out there--always have my mommy ear listening for danger! Today the mommy ear wasn't good enough and my baby got hurt. Taevy and Samren decided that they should try to knock ice cycles off of the house (even though we've told them a million times NOT to do that). So you're all thinking that an ice cycle fell and hit her, right? Not this time (thank goodness). But Samren lost control of the GARDEN HOE he was using to reach the ice cycles and it slammed down on Taevy's head! Of course, I didn't know this when she came screaming into the house absolutely covered in blood (face, hair, clothes front and back, everywhere).

I took her into the bathroom and tried in vain to find the injury (still not knowing how she got hurt). Her hair was a matted up bloody mess so I stripped her and up to the bathtub we went so that I could rinse the hair. Five minutes and some very orange bathwater later I found the culprit--about a 1/2 inch gash. Whew! It probably could have used some stitches but we are pretty iced in right now so we did the best we could. Tip: Liquid bandage works wonders on open head wounds.

It's just so scary to think about how much worse it could have been. She could have been killed by that hoe, or a falling ice cycle. Thank goodness she had her hood on--imagine how bad it would have been if it wouldn't have been there! Needless to say, today has been full of lots of extra hugs and cuddles to both of my kids. I can't imagine my life without them.

Tidbit #2:

Happy 4th Birthday Brody Emmanuel Grosso!!!! You are loved! You are loved! You are loved! All over this world you are loved! Can't wait for you to come home to your wonderful mommy and daddy big boy!

Tidbit #3:

I admit it. I am really struggling with the whole fundraising thing. Not the part where I sell off all of my stuff and have garage sales and save every penny. It's the part where I send letters to friends and family asking them to give us money for the adoption that I'm struggling with. I'm not too proud to do it. I think I'm just very scared of being disappointed with the outcome. I don't want to feel like a lack of donations means a lack of love (I know that isn't the case). But I know that some of our extended family could probably care less that we are adopting again (honestly--especially because we are adopting from Africa). They just don't see WHY we're doing it. We've got our status quo 2 kids, right?

Anyway, adding confusion to the whole fundraising thing is the fact that we really have 2 adoptions to fundraise for--the entire Ethiopia adoption and the travel portion of Bright's adoption. And WHEN is the right time to send out the letters? Don't want to do it too early for the Ethiopia adoption but we have to do it pretty quickly if we're going to fundraise for Bright's adoption! Eric and I talked about it last night and I think we've decided (famous last words) to put all our efforts into getting the $5k-$6k we need for Bright's travel on our own. Then, when we are actually putting a dossier together for Ethiopia we will bite the bullet and send out all of our fundraising letters. Please pray for the Lord's provision.

Tidbit #4:

I miss my baby boy. Have I mentioned that lately? I miss him. I want to kiss his neck all over and slurbert his pot belly. I want to tickle his toes and take pictures of the gorgeous gap between his front teeth. I want to help him learn how to walk, and say Mommy, and Daddy. I want to wake up in the middle of the night to his cry. I want to wake up every morning to his giggles. I miss my Bright.

Love,
Anita