Egg Dyeing Gone Wrong

It is inevitable when you want something to be perfect that it turns out just exactly the opposite.

This is our first Easter with "M". And it was to be her first time ever of dyeing Easter eggs. She was supper excited about it. So the day before Easter I had everything ready. The eggs were boiled and I had the dyes out and ready to go. This year we were using this swirling sorta dye that I had in the Easter box that my mother-in-law had given us for the kids. This was probably the problem. This certain egg dyeing kit looked a bit complicated so I held off a few years to use it. You know when the kids were a bit older. The box showed perfectly dyed eggs, with beautiful pastel colors all swirled around the egg. They looked professional.

Well I read the directions, had everything set up. Put the drops of dye in the water. Now I went first to demonstrate how to do this new technique. Per directions, I put the egg in where the dye was floating and then brought it out in a spot that the water was clear.

Voila!

A perfectly white egg emerged from the water. Now my hand was a bit colored and felt gross because this is all oil based. But not a drop of dye was on the egg. OK, well the kids wanted to try anyway, so they all submerge their eggs and swirl around and dip over and over again and they came out bleach white. Oily hands and white eggs were not what I envisioned for this perfect first time egg dyeing occasion.

So out come the crayons, stickers and any other left over egg decorations from years past. I went back in the house to look over the directions again. Drew comes in asking if he can eat the egg that he accidentally cracked. I say yes. And soon they are all wanting to eat some eggs. I go back outside to see eggshells everywhere, crazy decorated eggs, and happy children.

So I guess it wasn't all a loss.

And yes we even had a guest participating.

What If I've Done it All Wrong?

I read an article today by Lisa Qualls from One Thankful Mom. The article was called What If I've Done it All Wrong? It was a very encouraging article and if you've adopted children from hard places or if you know anyone who has and would like to understand them better, I encourage you to read it.

I have recently struggled with knowing the hard place that "M" came from and wanting so badly to help her heal. I have read books, watched videos, seen countless articles and been told what to do. As I read, I can see the struggles she has and know how I should react. But I don't react that way. If I looked in the mirror I would be horrified of the face that I am making, I wouldn't speak to a friend in that tone of voice. What happened to what I learned, to my plan on how to handle the lying, the authority struggle, the fussing? Where is the compassion that I thought I had when we began our pursuit of adopting from hard places? I am not helping her heal this way.

The article came at the perfect time. There is forgiveness. But I do need to do better. I covet your prayers for our family as we seek healing for "M". It can only come from God and we need his help.

I'm Still Alive and Still Walking

We did it! We finished the race. Jathan had hoped for under 2 hours, we did 2:05 but I am happy and I know that Jathan would have finished a whole lot faster if didn't stick by me, but he did and encouraged me the whole way. Maybe next year we can beat his goal together. (I'm hoping I will speed up rather than slow down in a year)

April's Happenings

Not a very catchy title, but hey, that's what this post is about. Just so you know that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I'll fill you in on what April has brought us...

We began April with my sister leaving after a several day visit. Her visit ended our 4 week guest stay. From March 4th thru April 1st we had visitors at our house every night except 2. The kids love visitors especially because the first visitors were missionaries that had 3 kids around their ages, the second visitors were their grandma and great grandma, lots of attention, and the third was their aunt. More attention. We were happy, though, to have the house back to normal and go back to our normal routines.

We celebrated Paige's 9th birthday this month, which I did post about, even though it was a bit late.

Last week was our semi-spring break. I say semi because like semi-retirement, we still did a bit of school work. We are going to take another break later before school is out, but we did need to tone down a bit and rest. Spring break was fun for the kids because they got to play more with their friends and swim a bit.

Paige loves her new wet suit. She freezes whenever she is wet, even if it is 100 degrees outside. I guess when you don't have any body fat, it is hard to stay warm. :)

We celebrated Easter. Our church had an Easter brunch, that was delicious! We had a wonderful service. And enjoyed dinner at our house with a few friends. The kids got to have a little egg hunt. Jathan and one of our guests hid the eggs. They tried making it challenging on the kids, and in the end they even had a hard time remembering where the last one was hidden.

We planted a garden. Jathan and the boys built these nifty garden boxes to put on the side yard. It is an area that isn't used much. The kids and I started seeds indoors and then were able to plant them a few days ago in the boxes. We will see how they do. I also worked on my herb garden in our back yard. I added some mint (in a pot), basil and lavender. In addition to that, I already had thyme, oregano, sage, chives, cilantro and rosemary.

The boys went to California Hot Springs with a couple other dads and their sons. Here they have pools that are fed by naturally hot springs. They have some to soak and then they cool down the water a bit for the swimming pool. The boys had a great time.

I got to go a way for a weekend to scrapbook. I feel a bit guilty about it all. I left on a Friday afternoon to go to LA and spend the night with my friend Suzanne. We had the house to ourselves because her husband took the rest of the family to visit his sister. Then we went to a hotel in Manhattan Beach to scrapbook Saturday through Sunday. It was a very nice hotel, I must say, so I felt a little out of my league there. I returned home to find a bouquet of flowers from Jathan. I thought I should bring him flowers, he was the one who had the kids by himself and still had to preach on Sunday morning. Then I found out the next day that he had scheduled a pedicure for me!

Jathan and I are going to end the month by running in a half marathon tomorrow. I will try post how it goes, but if you don't hear from me in a while, you will know what happened to me. Seriously, though, I am excited/nervous. I know we can do it, we did a trial run of the 13.1 miles a little over a month ago, but I still get nervous about these kinds of things.

I know I left a lot of details out, but I will try to fill them in later. But just because it has been so long, I thought I would get you up to speed a bit.

Happy 9th Birthday Paige!!!!

So this is a little late. But I still feel it is post worthy. My baby girl turned 9 this week! She use to be so little! I hated it when people would say "It will go by quick" "They grow up so fast". When we were going through sleepless nights, that didn't sound too bad, but now, I realize it is true. It is hard to think that the tiny red head we brought home from the hospital is the same person as this strawberry blond that loves football! I do sometimes miss that little stage, but I am finding that I love this one even more. I love knowing her dreams and see her pursue things that interest her. It is a fun time and I look forward to seeing her, Lord-willing, grow more and more.

Here is Paige 4 years ago.

Here she is opening her presents on her birthday. She got 2 backpacks from her grandparents. She wanted a small one to carry a few things when we hike up in the Sequoias. She also got a little one for our travels, I thought her Dora the Explorer backpack from preschool was a little outdated.

Yes, my daughter is a Steelers fan. Paige has liked the Steelers ever since she got into football. She says the Colts are her second favorite. But to her, the Steelers are #1. She has several Colts items, but I felt it was time that she had something with "her" team on it. And Jathan didn't argue. So she received a Steelers pillow, earrings and alarm clock. She was pretty happy.

Since it is an odd year birthday for Paige, she got to have a party. The parties have definitely changed a bit since the first ones I did for her. She has her own ideas now. This year she wanted a few families to come for dinner. She wanted a few games and knew exactly which ones she wanted. One was a version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We have had that game at about every birthday party we have done. Usually with a little twist to fit the theme like pin the license plate on Lightning McQueen for the Cars party and pin the sombrero on the vaquero for the Mexican birthday. So Paige wanted pin the tail on the whale. I have to say that I thought this to be a little under her age and wondered what the other kids her age would think, but when it came time to do it at the party the kids threw in a new twist and had the parents do it.

They had great fun blindfolding us, spinning us around and directing us to the actual game. Paige had a great time at her party. She was with family and friends, so she was happy.

Can't Resist This Smile

I love this picture. I am not even sure who took it because I was busy dishing out birthday cake at Paige's party. (I'll post about her birthday later). I think the cake is why the smile is so big. It is a little fuzzy, but you can still see how beautiful Drew's smile is.

We've Come a Long Way

Thank you to those that commented on my last post and shared that you were praying for us. That means so much to me.

I posted that Sunday morning. Around lunch time I was in the kitchen and "M" was listening to a CD in the adjoining room. The CD is one that the kids listened to ALL the time last summer. Once school started in the fall, we didn't hear so much and through winter and now spring, I don't recall the CD being played at all. So when she had the music going, it immediately took me back to last summer. I thought of the beginning days with "M" and the first couple of months. I realized how far we have come. How far God has brought us. We were in a valley last month, but looking back that valley wasn't as low as the valleys we were in at the beginning. It helped to look back and think of it as going through a mountain range. When you start you are low, but you climb, get to the top of a peak and then you will go down again, before you climb to get to the next. The next climb will take you to a peak a bit higher then the last. And so it goes. When you are in the middle of it you forget how far you have come. Sometimes you are in a valley and you look back at the last peak and get frustrated, but there is a bigger peak just ahead. I needed to remember that. We have come so far. She calls us mommy and daddy. Yesterday she gave Paige a card that said "I Love You". She is learning what it is like to be in a family. I see her as mine. We have come so far. I needed to be reminded that God is working. The next valley will still be hard, but I want to remember that the peak ahead will be worth the work and prayers.