Sunday, January 27, 2008

A good Sunday laugh...

Oh, my word.... I just came across this video, and I'm wiping off tears, laughing hysterically. You may have seen Anita perform this song at a "Women of Faith" conference, or you may have been one of the 5 Million viewers on YouTube (the last 10 times it was us!). If you have not, please enjoy!
Somtimes we just take ourselves too seriously, and this really puts in into perspective, doesn't it.
So, let's put some more fun and love into our mothering, and let's let up a bit on the nagging :-))
Have a great Sunday!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Look how far they've come!

I remember a little boy whose world was turned upside down by the arrival of his little sister.
Yes, she was kind of fun right at first.
Then it sunk in, that he was not Mama's Baby anymore (or so he thought, anyway).
And he struggled.
He did not want much to do with that new sister, and heaven forbid was he going to kiss her or hug her, or even let HER do it to him.
No way!
Yesterday, I found them all snuggled up together on our new "Christmas chair", reading books.
What a defining moment for me.
I knew things were much better than they used to be, but to see it like that was a huge blessing.
Huge.
I'm hoping and praying that all of our kids know just HOW special they are to me. That there is a place in my heart that only they can fill, each one separately, and that there is really no competition. I love them differently, I love different things about them, I struggle with different things with each of them, and although there is five of them, I still love them individually.
But I also understand how they feel. Some days I wonder too, how the Father in Heaven can love me individually, when he has soooo many others to take care of. But miraculously, he does.
And he showed it to me again when I looked at my two Youngest.....

(I would make Elia apologize for the nose picking, if he could write :-)) )

Thursday, January 24, 2008

One year ago, our "China girl" was given a face...

It was a year ago, that a phone call from CCAI, our adoption agency, changed the face of our family. It was really kind of a 'strange' day for me, as I was not feeling well, and I had no idea how to decide whether BoBo was the daughter meant for our family. I was not immediately "drawn" to her from the pictures, nor did I feel an instant "connection" (like I thought I was "supposed" to). It was Mike who had a much better grip on it and a godly heart in this situation. He said: "We have prayed for her for a long time, and I don't see a reason why this would NOT be her". Looking back on it now, I see how important this day for Mike was, as he was a lot more hesitant about the thought of adopting up until the moment he saw her face. After that, he just wanted to go and get her!

My blog entry about that day is here .

This was the first picture I ever saw of Nina, and this is actually the first time I'm posting it :-)

This was always my favorite picture

What shocks me, is looking at her "emotionless" little face. A face that I know now beams and shines (and pouts, too :-) ). What a difference!


Monday, January 21, 2008

Birthday Cake Galore!!!

Yes, I LOVE to make birthday cakes for my kids.
But - I did not start out that way...
When Nico, our firstborn, turned one, I was planning on a simple cake decorated with M&M's, if that.
Close friends of ours were living with us at that time, and Robin did not let me get away with just a simple cake. She whipped up this really cool circus cake for Nico - and the rest is history.

This morning, I went through all of our digital pictures, trying to find the various cakes throughout the years. I think I found a picture of most of them.
SO MANY MEMORIES!!

The reason I'm posting them here is not to build a little shrine for myself, but to pass on ideas on how you can create your own birthday cakes geared towards your children. I'll try to explain a few things, so you can use these ideas. If you need more details regarding a certain design, just ask.

You will notice that I mostly use a round pan. I think it's so much easier to work with, the space is limited, and it looks fuller and "complete" much quicker.

**********

For Anya's first birthday I only made cupcakes (I think they were actually muffins) that I arranged on these styrofoam circles I found in the floral section of a craft store. Nico's truck cake was a simple box cake I squished in the back of on his toy trucks (lined it with foil first ;-)) ), and sprinkled it with crumbled up orio cookies.
I found that the table decorations are just as important as the cake itself. I usually find plenty of "artifacts" in their toy boxes to complement the theme they picked. No need to buy extras!
Just to "prove" that I don't always make fancy cakes :-)). Anya doesn't really care for cake much, so for her last birthday, we just had ice cream instead...
This was Nina's "first" birthday cake. I found a real Bamboo plant, the leaves in the front are just cut out of paper.
For Alex's fire fighter cake I cut a piece of black construction paper the width of the cake, and glued "flames" I cut out of tissue paper on the inside.
Nico built the bleachers for his football cake himself. Without it, the cake would be pretty blah. And then poor Elia got the lamest cake last year, as I could not come up with a good Scooby Doo idea. So - store bought decorations they were :-((. Not that I have anything against store bought decos, it's just not what I usually work with...
For Anya's tea party cake I used instructions that I could probably scan in and email to you if you would like them!

I don't know how many train and construction birthdays we have had, but this was one of them ;-)
Elia's Bob the Builder cake . Again, I dug through our Duplo box, and came up with plenty of decorations. Some sprinkles, a fence made with pretzel sticks, and that was it.
Building the the little train car from Thomas the Tank Engine was actually much harder than baking the cake :-)
I used a bundt pan for the ducky cake. After baking and BEFORE frosting, I lined it with foil and plastic wrap, and poured blue Jello in it. Once the Jello had set, I frosted and decorated it. All the little duckies are stickers.
For the race track I used different color frosting, and again, cars from our collection of match box cars.
The skateboard for Nico was featured in the "Family Fun" magazine. Their website has lots of cake decorating ideas! The swamp cake for Elia was somewhat similar to the ducky cake above. I used green Jello instead, and tried to make it look as gross as possible. The cake on the bottom right was very simple, but it looked just like the field you had to plant in Alex's computer game "Alex builds his farm" ( a Playmobil game which the kids loved!) Again, without the rest of the table decoration, the cake itself would be quite plain.
A couple of Anya's cakes. For the Dora cake I - once again - cut a piece of construction paper to fit around the cake. That is something so easy, yet very effective and dominant.
Yep, I know, this one is funny, but I just had to throw this picture in there. The little brother of one of Nico's guests wanted to stay at the party too - until he saw us *LOL*. Lots of frosting and 2 separate cakes baked in a glass bowl and frosted together were the basis for the planet Saturn. Elia's first birthday cake followed the same "cut out a construction paper 'skirt' " principle. For the Pilchard cake (from Bob the Builder) I simply enlarged a picture of Pilchard, my niece Dina colored it, and that was it. A few blue accents (candy and sprinkles) completed the cake.
When Anya was two, she really liked cows. The fence is made out of pretzel sticks, and the cows are our Duplo cows. I found the bandanna at the dollar store.
Nico's train cake was a lot like Alex's above. They didn't care :-)), and loved to play with the train right there on the table.
I guess, to keep all the cakes together, I might as well add the most recent ones, that I have posted before. The top two are the ones that Anja made.

I realized that I forgot to upload Nico's Veggie Tales Cake for his 2nd birthday. I even wrapped the presents "in the theme" :-))
Again, I just want to pass on ideas here - feel free to use any of them, or email me if you have more questions. I will disable comments for this post, because I'm really, really not on a self-glorifying kick here.

Love you all!

That was yummy...

What do you do with five kids on a three day weekend when it's blizzarding and you freeze your little nose off when you're outside for more than 15 minutes?? Today it's seriously about eight below, even colder with the wind (und in Celsius heisst das -22 Grad, mit Windfaktor sogar -28 Grad). 
We did some shoveling and sledding - it's not too bad as long as you move, lot's of Wii'en and playing games, and they really, really need to pick up Lego's - but you can imagine how slow that progress is :-))
Quite a while ago I came across a recipe for a snack, and we just got done eating the yummy treat. I was thinking of all my bloggin' friends who have lots of kids, too, and not all the time in the world, either, so I thought I'd share this recipe, as it is prepared quickly, is super-simple, inexpensive and feeds lots of kids! Now this is NOT the original recipe (I found that one in the "Family Fun Magazine", but my version of it.


This is what I used:
10 flour tortillas, cut into 16 wedges (if you use a nice big knife, you can cut about 5 tortillas at the same time)
1 stick of butter, melted (could have done with less).
In a large bowl, toss the wedges with the butter. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 - 12 minutes (until edges are starting to brown). I had to bake the wedges in three batches
Dip:
2 apples, grated, and added to sour cream and plain yoghurt (to make as much dip as you need), sweetened with vanilla and sugar.
I could easily have fed 8-10 kids with this amount!! And they LOVED it!

***********
And no, the kids were not really bored, as you can see in this picture below :-)))))) This was taken last Saturday!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Look who turned SEVEN today!
Alex has been patiently waiting for this day - HIS day!
He is such a happy and cheerful little boy.
He is my littlest hero, because he is overcoming more than most of us have to.
You may not be familiar with Alex's journey, but it has not been an easy one for him, as he struggled with illnesses and ultimately disabilities from the get-go. And still does.
And he is conquering his special world with his head held high.
Yes, he gets frustrated with his limitations, but a lot less than I would.
Yes, parenting him requires a lot of patience. A lot (that's where GRACE comes in).
I had to learn that "his spirit is whole, his body is only temporary" (from the poem "When God says 'No')
We have met wonderful people who have come alongside us to help him grow - teachers, therapists, family and friends...
And now he is seven, and we would never in our wildest dreams have expected him to come as far as he has.
The "funny" ( read: divine intervention!) thing is that it was his disabilities that opened our hearts to adopting our Special needs daughter. It just amazes me how God takes things that are hard to understand, and that don't make sense, and turns them around to use them for his glory!
What a tender God we have!
***********************************************
This was our first Easter with Alex, he was about three months old at that time

This scenario was to become quite familiar to us. This was his second hospitalization already at only 6 weeks old (not counting his birth), this particular time was because of RSV with croup.
********************************************
Now on to his birthday pictures....
***
He was sooo happy this morning!
And, although blurry, it shows Miss Cranky pants's unhappiness over someone else having a birthday :-)))))
Alex's wished for Sheriff cake! (Who came up with a 7 pointed star, if I may ask?? I had to borrow Nico's calipers to draw one ;-)


And his very, very favorite thing to do: Playing Wii. Just a few weeks ago, we had to come up with a ticket plan to control all the "E-consumption" at our house. So, for his birthday, he got 7 extra tickets to use. I think that was his favorite present! :-))
Even Midnight, our kitty, wanted to be part of the celebration, but she stayed in a safe place :-) This picture is especially for Big'e Anja :-))))))

1/18 And I just HAVE to add this: 
Alex brought home his report card today, and it brings tears to my eyes just like every other time. Today's comment from his teacher read: "Alex is reading at grade level at this time! I am so proud of him! Alex works very hard at school, and I know that you practice a lot at home, as well. All of that hard work has paid off! Alex has also shown great improvement in following school rules, both in class and at lunch and recess. Way to go, Alex! Keep up the great work!"

(And this is the report on a boy who was unable to say "Mama" until he was almost 4 years old!!)
With our 2 older ones, report cards were (and still are) just a pleasant formality. They both have been blessed with smart little brains. However, to see Alex progress through the school year, usually starting at the low point and gradually achieving the grade goals, is so much more meaningful. Through frustration, tears, setbacks and hard work we see him succeed. May God continue to pour his blessings on this little guy!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Artsy kids

The kids were busy this morning. Nina loves to color, and so does Elia. Nico just likes everything that gets him away from doing schoolwork :-))
Nina wanted me to help her color all the red, but I really did not want to mess with HER picture. So she sighed, and grunted, and whined, but she got it done all by herself! I think it's beautiful!


Nico really, really wants a Lego airplane and a Lego airport, so coloring a plane was second best. As I am typing this, he watches animated little Legomovies on Lego.com. Her seriously has them memorized, he even has the accent down. Too funny!


Elia has been learning about sharks in "preschool" (= one day of somewhat organized activities at home *ha*), and he worked so hard at coloring this tiger shark. It may look a little messy at first sight, but you should have seen him compare a photo of a tiger shark with his work. He even added some water to give it an "watercolor" look. He is so proud of it!

Monday, January 14, 2008

And the backpack, again :-))

I guess Nina is not completely over that red backback. Elia had swimming lessons today, and since he used THE red backpack for his towel, him and Nina got into quite an argument over it.

Nina: "This is not your backpack"
Elia: "Yes it is!"
Nina: "No, it's everybody's"
Elia: "No, it's mine"
Nina: "No, it's EVERYBODY's!"
...
You get the picture... :-)))

It's a BOY!

Congratulations to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law on the birth of their new little boy! He was born yesterday around 7:30pm, but I don't have any other details. As of last night, the name was not decided yet.
*****Update as of 1/14. My new little nephew's name is Sullivan Michael.*****
Remember Nina's red-headed cousin Emma? Well, she is a big sister now!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

She came as a stranger, and left as a daughter....

I think I'm still in denial. It's much easier to float on "cloud oblivion" than to face the fact that "big'e Anja" went home last week.
While we understand that she has a life in Switzerland, we would have loved to keep her here for longer.
She was such a breath of fresh air, and the kids loved her. I loved singing old Sunday school songs  together (we grew up in the same church), gossiping about our relatives, having discussions about faith and family until the wee hours, doing some you-tube surfing (have you seen Obama-girl and Brittney- boy?.... oh my word, they are so funny, although not appropriate for little eyes or ears), and Mike and her played cribbage nightly.  She was a huge help around the house (do I really have to do laundry again???), and we loved her baking.
It was just a wonderful experience. We have had the chance of having these wonderful young people live with us - 5 so far - and I'm curious who God will send next. There is always someone needing a home for a while, and we have been so blessed in the process. 
Now let's all pray for Anja's training success, so we can go cheer for her at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver! Hopp Schwiiz!
On her last night here, we took a funny little "commemorative" video of her and my mother-in-law. When Mike and I got married in 1993, my parents-in-law were able to travel to Switzerland to celebrate with us. They stayed with Anja's parents, and at one point, Anja (five at the time) wanted my mother-in-law to read her a book. After a short while of reading (my mother-in-law does NOT speak German), Anja gave her a disgusted look and said (in Swiss German): "You can't read!" Who would have thought that 14 years later she would come stay with us! And even let Linda read to her again :-))




This was Anja's last trip to the mountains (2 weeks ago). We really wanted to go skiing with her, but since I managed to get a flat tire on our way home from the Ranch, which required some -ahem- work on the brakes besides the new tire, we had to scratch that. But Mike and the kids took her to the mountains nontheless, while Anya and I stayed home and had a girl-day.

And then it was time to take her to the airport. One last drive across the Wild West, but she PROMISED to come back and visit!


PS: I just had to shake up my Blog colors a little bit :-)))

Saturday, January 12, 2008

6 months


Another milestone has come and gone.
On January 3, it was 6 months since we officially became Nina's parents.
I just re-read the header of our blog, and how Nina was just our "China girl" a year ago.
Someone distant.
A wish.
A hope for something yet to be.
And now she has become a part of our family, and when I look at pictures like this one, it feels odd. One is missing.
I have been thinking about this post for several days now, and it's so hard to summarize our life. Nina's life.
One thing illustrates it real nice, though:
Nina has taken great comfort in being one of the "kiddos". We use this word quite frequently (obviously), and besides her name it's probably the term she identifies most with. We can say "are you Nina Gabriella FuBo?", and she will answer "No, I'm a kiddo". I can say "Nina, you are my daughter", and she will reply "No, I'm a kiddo". THAT she is certain about. And to her it's like a favorite blanket or a comforting bottle of warm milk.
She is a kiddo.
End of story.
I am so fascinated with her making things bearable for herself. Not that I feel that she was suffering all the time, but she is putting pieces of this new puzzle called FAMILY together. She is replacing the uncertainties of the last few months with things she is certain of. Some days, she doubts my love. Some days she just crumbles over the smallest things.
But she IS a kiddo.

I've had ambivalent feelings lately: Nina has really had a fairly easy transition, and even after checking and double checking, I see very few concerns regarding her attachment to us. She is a happy, content little girl, and not difficult to parent. At the same time I find myself exhausted from this very intense post-adoption parenting. I did not expect this level or length of intensity, to be honest. I had read a lot, and felt prepared, but honestly, this is more intense than I had anticipated. My heart really goes out to those parents who have significant struggles with attachment and difficult behaviors.
Don't get me wrong - I am NOT second guessing our decision to adopt. I love Nina very, very much. She is my kiddo ( :-)) ). But in a sense I have not reached a level of "normalcy" yet that I'm longing for. I definitely know her MUCH better than six months ago, but I still feel like I'm walking on eggshells around her. Sometimes things will set her off that I so did not expect, and I always have this nagging thought of "am I doing enough?" in my head.
Our life is so busy, busy, that I have rarely time to just sit and enjoy my heavenly father speaking to me. And I honestly think this is a big part of my problem. Maybe trying to do it all in my own strength? Oh, do I know that it doesn't work that way!
Just as I'm typing this, I feel the Lord whispering to my heart: "I HAVE ENOUGH". Enough of what I need.
I really didn't mean to pour my heart out like this, or to sit here bawling my eyes out while I'm typing, but maybe this could be considered "therapeutic blogging"???????

I feel much better now that I have this off my chest, so let me share some of Nina's accomplishments with you:

One big milestone is that we were able to transition her into her own room right after Christmas. For almost 6 months, she slept in bed with us, or at least in the same room. This was a good thing for us, but all of a sudden she was ready for this change. It was not a fight, nothing traumatic, and for that I'm very thankful.
(Update: last night she fell out of bed for the first time!)

I just weighed and measured her, and although she has not gained much weight (about 1 pound), she grew over 8cm since her last chinese report from last May. I think she even grew while she had her leg in the cast, as some of her pants that fit her before seem to be just a tad high water now.
She now weighs 31 pounds (14kg) and is 38 3/4 inches (98 cm) tall. When she came home in July she weighed 30 pounds, then lost a couple pounds of chub, only to gain more muscle, and she is determined to play soccer with Elia and Alex in the spring (all three will be on the same team!).

Speaking of her leg - after a couple of visits to the Chiropractor her walking has greatly improved. Her lower back, hip, knee and ankle were pretty much out of alignment, and it's really amazing to see what a bit of "mechanics" can do for your body! Did you know that Castor oil is a natural anti-inflammatory agent? I have to massage her leg with that stuff now (STIIIICKY!), to help her leg heal and her ligaments get stronger.

Her English continues to get better and better, and she has mastered over half of the alphabet, many shapes, numbers and most colors. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit "braggy", I'm just so impressed with the speed she is picking up these things. And it's not like we study flashcards, either. And it's definitely NOT because of my genes *Ha*. That's the best, anti-braggy part abut it! She really, really wants to go to school, and if anything comes up between now and the end of the school year, we might send her.

She has quite an argumentative streak in her, and it's worse when she skips a nap. Instead of "tired and whiny" she gets "tired and sassy", so needless to say I'm not planning on scratching naps off her schedule yet ;-)). With as much patience and love as we can, we are teaching her to be obedient, and to accept our parental authority. Sometimes she accepts it readily, and sometimes she tries to "escape emotionally", usually crawling in my bed, crying and shaking her little head when I tell her I love her. With an extra dose of Mama-snuggles she usually comes out of those moments quickly.

This afternoon we went to the swimming pool, as she loves the water. She even went down the kiddie slide by herself, and she trusted that I would catch her at the bottom (which I managed to do every time - whewww!). These are such "victory moments" for me, when my heart just leaps for her! She is such a brave little thing! However, after the swimming she went into complete melt-down mode. She was crushed that the red backpack we brought to the swimming pool was not hers alone. In fact, Anya had gotten it from school, so I told her that even though it was Anya's, everybody could use it. Well, that was not good enough, and she cried all the way home. She even said "I'm everybody". As soon as we were home, we went on an inventory tour. We looked at all the things that were hers: Baby whale, her blankie, her play kitchen, her bed, her dolls, her friend Susu, her ladybug piggy bank, her necklace, her clothes, her green backpack, and her Mama! I could tell that she felt so much better, and the red swimming pool backpack was no longer an issue. This is one of those situations where something just sets her off in a way I would never have expected!

She CANNOT wait for her birthday, and she is tired of all these birthdays before hers. She wants a "Miaow Miaow" cake (aka Hello Kitty), and of course I'm obliging, as this seems the less daunting task than the "Sheriff cake" Alex requested for his birthday on the 17th ;-)

Just a couple of "Ouch" moments to embarass myself, and then I'll better send off this post.
Earlier this week Nina was playing in our walk-in closet, and after I was done in there, I left her as she was still playing with a game. A while later I heard her calling me, and I called back to her that I was in the kitchen. Nothing. A few minutes later I heard sobs coming from our bedroom. I walked in, and it was pitch black. Someone-and-I-promised-not-to-mention-any-names-on-the-blog had turned off all the lights, not realizing that she was in there. Poor little thing was totally beside herself. Not like that was bad enough - the next day she somehow got left behind between double doors at a public building we went into, and I didn't even realize we were missing her until another girl brought her in. Of course she was in tears again. Bad Mama!
I don't think these stories will be part of our next post-placement report.
:-O

I have some other cool things to share that happened recently, and more pictures, but this will have to do for tonight.
Have a wonderful Sunday!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Honoring the ones who serve...

Mike's cousin Ira is currently serving in the US Army, and he is home on leave from his deployment in Iraq.
It's so interesting to hear HIS stories vs. what we read in the media.
Wow.
He has also experienced God's protection first hand, and it's great to have him home safely.
His family put on a party tonight, not only in his honor, but also to honor others who are currently serving in the armed forces, or those who served before him.
Our family has a pretty strong connection to the military, as Mike's Grandpa was a WW2 Veteran who did some amazing things during that time.
The kids (and us big people) had a blast tonight. Nico was kind of bored, he is getting so grown up, and doesn't just run around anymore like the little ones. Here are a few pictures to prove it :-)))
Ira, Nina, and (Great-)Grandma Ila

Anya was busy taking pictures all night (except when posing for a quick shot with Mama and Daddy). Her Aunt Kami let her use her professional photo gear!
Nina and her favorite Cowboy ;-)
Just a speck of patriotism
Kami was teaching big'e Anja some country dancing moves :-))

Alex and Elia had fun running around with cousin (second or third??) Jack


Nina had quite a time out there on the dance floor, too ;-) That girl has some rhythm in her, let me tell you!

Every boy needs a hero

Yesterday, we spent some time at the Ranch since both Ira and Sarah (Mike's cousins) were home. Aunt Jo had a special surprise for our boys. They were SO EXCITED!! And SO proud of their army garb. Nico's set is actually one of Ira's old ones! Pretty cool!
The kids pray faithfully for Ira's safety while he is in Baghdad, and while the little ones pretty much think that he is just playing with guns over there, I think Nico and Anya are starting to understand the reality of war. And having someone close to our hearts be in the middle of it, really puts a whole new perspective on it.
For all of us.