last Birthday catchup

Lindsay lives with her husband Sean in Denver. Coloado is a beautiful place but seems sooooo far away. I am just step mom to Lindsay but have loved her since Mike and I married 18 years ago. Mike and I miss her a lot. There will be some new brothers again very soon I hope. What a good reason to visit! Happy 30 something Lindsay!

Lost Lambs , Happy Birthdays and Catchup part 4

This birthday sucked. Sorry if you think that a bad word, but I can think of no other better fitting. How ever can it be true?! I am STILL than same person who stared out from the mirror at myself in high school. oh well. At least I am doing something with my life that I LOVE and that I think matters. How much would it suck to be 50 stinking years old and to have been wasting that time on stupid stuff?!? I feel the days counting down already and don't want to waste a one on anything without eternal significance. I kinda wish I could LOOK younger while I was doing all this stuff for God's glory, but that is just my vain insecurity.



My February 11th birthday was pretty low key. Mike turns the big 5-0 on April 4th. We are having a big combined birthday party March 21st at West Side Center to celebrate our "fiftyness". You are all welcome. Lunch starts at noon. It's a potluck so you have to bring food.
Julee

Lost Lambs, Happy Birthdays and Catchup part 3

Happy Birthday Tamar Myhao!

Mike traveled two years ago to Vietnam to adopt Tamar Myhao. We had seen her photo a year earlier and fell in love with her sweet face. When she finally came home it was during the time that Jonathan was being diagnosed and I was away from home a lot in hospitals with him. Poor little Tamar didn't know for a long time who her mommy was. She sure does now! There is nothing like the love showered on a parent from their Down Syndrome child. Tamar is a tiny little drama queen who is always living out the movie in her head where she is the star. She has never met a stranger and she gives hugs for free. She expresses herself very eloquently though she says only a few words others can understand. She is more fun to be around than anyone I know. Tamar turned 7 years old January 30th. She attends a Life Skills (special ed) kindergarten and gets on the bus every school day with joy and kisses for the bus drivers.

This is Tamar and her new baby girl. Yes, this is bitty baby twin to Miriam's baby Jen. Tamar has named her baby girl but the name is from her own special language and we can't understand it. Tamar also got a play little kitchen for her birthday. She was and is still now weeks later thrilled with her gifts. Her baby goes everywhere with her and she loves to style baby's hair.

Lost Lambs, Happy Birthdays & Catchup:part 2

Happy Birthday Miriam!


Miriam turned 9 years old on January 14th. She was adopted from China when she was almost 4 years old. She was the world's easiest adoption and adjustment to a family. Miriam is a very smart girl who has a servant's heart. She is also quite the girly girl. She loves all things feminine. She asked for a baby boy doll for her birthday as all she has are baby girls....This is her brand new baby boy "Jen" doll. He is named for our family's most adored Asian man, the character on the T.V. show "Lost" named Jen. We are all about waiting for our real life human baby boys around here so it seemed natural for Miriam to become mommy to her own baby boy. (I buy doll clothes on Walmart infant clearance racks, the preemie size fits American Girl Bitty Babys perfectly)

Yes; Miriam is growing out her bangs.

I took a cue from another adoptive mom to many for a new birthday tradition. I wish I could figure out how to add a link to my blog post...then I would add Erin H.'s blog link to this post. Her family celebrates a child's special day by letting them choose birthday breakfast cereal, dinner menu, soda pop choice etc...whatever the birthday child desires. It was fun to start this tradition with Miriam but I had to take her to the store with me to chose cold cereal....our kids don't even know what is a good kind. We don't just don't usually buy it so we chose from the picture on cereal box and got Cocoa Pebbles. Miriam wanted fried rice for dinner and so that's what we made a HUGE batch of.

One thing about being a public school kid now....Miriam got to bring treats to her class for her birthday. She chose to take "hamburgers". They are made with vanilla wafers for the bun, peperment patties for burger, and colored frosting for ketchup and lettuce. You can add food color to coconut to make a more realistic lettuce, and cut fruit leather to look like slice of cheese , etc.....I didn't feel like working that hard.

Lost Lambs, Happy Birthdays and Big Catchup #1

So remember how in 2009 I was going to acknowledge all our family's birthdays? Well, better late than never. Here it is already about March and I haven't done a single birthday post. I am behind six birthdays and just in time for one that happens today.

January 5th was our granddaughter Maryn's 11th birthday. Maryn's mom our daughter Tasha turned 28 years old the next day January 6th. We have not seen Tasha since she was 15. We have never met Maryn. For her own reasons Tasha has chosen to divorce herself from our family. I think about her and Maryn everyday and am proud of all the good things I hear about them from others who are a part of their lives. One day about ten years ago when I thought I would surely die from worry and grief over "losing" Tasha, the Lord gave me a vision. I "saw" Tasha as a beautiful grown woman and she smiled at me and we fell into each other's arms with love and forgiveness. This vision was so real I could feel her embrace and smell her hair. This vision was of our reunion in heaven. I am sad to think I will never see her in this life but comforted by the hope to see her in heaven. What else can any parent do in this situation? Pray. Pray a lot and without ceasing. If need be pray for 50 years for my child even without hope of ever an "answer" to that prayer in my lifetime. Pray because I know how much God loves Tasha and Maryn. Pray because that is what God tells us to do and how He chooses to work. Happy Birthday Tasha, I love you and am grateful for the gift you are. Happy Birthday Maryn, I am your granny and I love you too. Someday I hope we can make up for lost time. You'd love meeting all your uncles and aunts!

Haimanot joined our family in fall of 2006. She was adopted from Ethiopia in 2004 and with her first adoptive family a few years before coming to us. Haimanot turned 18 on January 19th! She has waited a long time to be old enough to manage her own life and make her own rules. She was with our family less than two years before going to Job Core. I wish we'd had more time with her here at home. She has distanced herself from us since moving to Job Core last May. We think she will be back home someday. Stuff happens to young people and they find they still need a "nest", we will always be a ready landing place. We keep praying for Haimanot's health, safety and happiness. She is really a lovely young women with a lot of good qualities. May all your dreams come true Haime! We do love you Honey. Here is a pic of Haime and I from last year when she was still in the nest with mama bird me.

pray for Abby

Despite many good intentions of keeping the blog more up to date I let the days slide through my fingers without posting. Though I may not "talk" (blog) much I certainly do read a lot of other more prolific blog writers. I am an avid blog follower...I have my favorites; those blogs I read even if I can't afford the time. I read tons of blogs, many of them adoption related. The most fun are the travel stories of families meeting and bringing home their new children. What ever did we all do in the adoption world before Internet and blogging?! I also painfully follow some blogs of other's dealing with the loss of children or whose children are seriously ill.

One family whose story I live and breath is the Rigg's family blogs. This is a God loving, God fearing , God following, family with seven awesome kids three of whom happen to be adopted from Guatemala and Ethiopia. Their precious little girl Abby is right in the heat of a battle for her life fighting off the monster of leukemia. I have never figured how how to post links on my blog posts....but am going to try it to share the Rigg's blogs site. Mom Michelle and Daddy Brett both skillfully write to enable us to share in their family's journey and Abby's daily ife in the cancer trenches right now. Even if you don't choose to visit their blog and read about their wonderful family and Abby's battle; please remember to pray for Abby right now. She is in a very challenging and precarious part of her fight for life now. I think I can understand a little about what her mom and and dad are going through and her whole family. How many things are harder than watching your child suffer so brutely? I can think of nothing.

I added a button to my blog on upper right hand side ....it says "Praying for Abby". If you click on it you will link to the Rigg's family blog and be able to read more about them and see darling Abby!

Dear AWESOME Father and Lord of all creation....we Know you love Abby more than anyone else. We know that you know all the days of he life even before they came to be. YOU Lord are Who placed her in the Rigg's family and You are Who is and will be glorified in Abby's life. We ask You Lord to enable this most recent hairy and scary course of chemo-poison to be effective against the leukemia trying to take her life. We pray for healing for Abby and that You supernaturally lesson the side effects from the chemo. Guide the doctors as they work, check, and adjust meds to keep her pain level under control. Lord we thank you for her mom and dad and their willingness share this battle with all of us. We thank You for the light they shine for You in this hard time. We thank You that through them we can learn more of Your love and grace. Continue God to strengthen them and keep them close to Your heart. We beseech You Father to heal Abby and hold up their whole family through this time.
Amen

A Year Ago

A year ago Jonathan and I were living at Ronald McDonald House next door to Children's Hospital in Seattle. We were there doing all the appointments and medical test and procedures in preparation for the bone marrow transplant. Because Jonathan had to avoid people and viruses we were in isolation at Ronald McDonald House. That meant we spent many, many lovely hours alone in our room. Jonathan loved watching certain cartoons and his favorite was Wonder Pets. Here he is entranced and absorbed in watching a rescue mission by the super cute heroes..a Guinea pig, duckling, and turtle.




Wonder Pets over!...oh no...




No more cartoons...



Sign language....




Happily showing off his tonsils.




Wonder Pets forgotten and ready for more fun with Mommy.



I share Jonathan's funny faces from last year because I think his was the most wonderful of faces. He is gone now and it is sad that no one sees his face anymore. So..bear with me when I post photos, mention Jonathan, or fall at times into fits of grief. It is a tiny little way to keep him around.

Julee
getting ready to clean out the closet full of Jonathan's belongings. Thank goodness for Rubbermaid bins...you can put the lid on and stow it away to deal with another day.