Hair 101

So hair styling is just not my thing. I think that I was feeling a little intimidated to try anything new because it is time consuming and I just thought it wouldn't work out for the best, especially since I really didn't know what I was doing. I was stuck in this rut of old hair styles, no beads, nothing fancy.
I got a little encouragement from Steph at Snapaholics along with some wonderful snaps and beads and we were in a hair do creating frenzy over here.
The best part of the experience was being able to read about doing hair on the Snapaholics website AND being able to email with questions and for more information. Thanks Stephanie! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Now a whole new world of hair style possibilities has opened up to us, and as you can see Lulu and Bean are thrilled. It wasn't hard and I would highly recommend visiting the website and buying some exciting new things to try in your children's hair. The prices are really low for the big bang that the little beads and snaps give you and there is a wide variety of items sure to please most any taste and all outfits and holidays! :) And about the time consuming part, it really wasn't as bad as I was thinking. Lulu's hair style took about an hour (I put on a movie for her) and Bean took 15 minutes. Well worth the time, especially for Lulu's hair style which can last for 2 weeks or so!
Here is a link for you:
http://www.snapaholics.com/
Have fun!
Sarah, Lulu and Bean

Christmas at our house

Christmas was wonderful at our house this year. The week before Christmas was spent doing lots of baking, cooking and preparing for the holiday. The day before Christmas we woke up early, cleaned the house, and watched "God Grew Tired of Us". A wonderful documentary that I would highly rec. to you and your family! We talked about our lives, and the lives of other's less fortunate. We remembered the true meaning of Christmas (as reflected in this film) and we took time to pray together and meditate, reflect and pray alone.

On Christmas Eve we had family over for a big traditional dinner. After dinner was over we opened gifts from Aunt Betsy who was here with us, and we watched Cole, Grace and Dom put on a show that they made up. After everyone went home and we were done picking up, the children all opened one gift, new pajamas. We left out cookies, milk and caffeine free diet pepsi for Santa, along with a note from Lulu and the kids went to bed.

I had read about Pajama Rides from the Baker's Dozen blog http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/, and I thought this would be a great tradition for our family to start on Christmas Eve. I made hot chocolate for everyone and we got the children up and let them know to get in the van, it was time for a Christmas Lights Pajama ride. Being that this was their first PJ ride, they weren't sure what to think. I was very surprised when Danny and Tyler both grabbed hot cocoa and headed to the van, thinking that perhaps they would feel too old for a pajama ride, but they were thrilled at the idea. We looked at the Christmas lights, sang Christmas Carols, and had some nice family time... until about midnight!

I was thankful that the stockings were ready and presents wrapped, so all we had to do was come home and go to bed. When Bob and I woke up at 5am we were surprised to hear whispering in the dark of Cole, Dom and David who came out there sometime in the middle of the night and were camped out on the couch waiting for Santa to come. We told them to go back to bed, get some sleep, and when they truly went to sleep, Santa would come. :) About 2 hours later Grace woke up first and then everyone else woke up over the course of the next hour or so.

As the children got up they were allowed to get their stockings and enjoy the little things in them. But they have to wait for everyone to be awake to open gifts. Once they were all awake we start opening gifts, one at a time, from youngest to oldest. We take our time to tell stories, look at each others new things and to just enjoy one another. This year MP3 players were the big gift, now all of the children have their own... so the next several hours after opening gifts was spent putting music on the computer to load onto the individual Mp3 players.

We don't buy gifts other than birthday's and Christmas for the most part (maybe a family gift on Valentines and treats on Easter), so we always like to try to give each of the children something that they have really hoped for throughout the year. My children don't ask for much and are happy to save their money for things other times during the year. I know that gifts at Christmas aren't for everyone, but for me, I enjoy seeing my children so thrilled with their new things. Lulu even pretended to faint a couple times she was so excited. We also enjoy the family gifts we give, new board games, and Wii games are always fun for all. I think that we always remember the true meaning of Christmas despite the gifts, stockings, and silly behavior. :)

During the Mp3 loading, we worked as a team to make a big brunch. The rest of the day is spent eating left overs from brunch and dinner the night before, so we go all out for brunch. In the afternoon we met up with the cousins and went to the movies. The older girls and Moms saw "Juno", the older boys saw "National Treasure" and the younger children and Dad's saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks".

The rest of the evening was spent playing games, listening to music, and spending good family time together.

My best dear friend Amy sends the children "scratch" tickets each year... big winner again this year was Danny. I am not sure how that always happens. :)

Here is a little slide show of our Christmas Family Holiday together:

(I took off the music, it was getting annoying!)

Many Blessings,
Sarah and Family

Thanks Aunt Amy

Thank you Aunt Amy for my fluffy puppy jacket. I love jackets and I love anything soft and furry. I will never let my Mom take this off of me. :)
Amy is my Mom's oldest best friend and she knows how to pick out cute things very well.

Angeline has been having some sleeping issues for the past 7 weeks or so. She had a very bad cold when I had strep and started snoring and waking up every night at least once. She has been sleeping either with Bob and I, or Lauren since that time. We were hearing her on the monitor at night gasping for air in between her snoring. She went to the family doctor last week and she is getting an appointment at Children's to see an ENT and we believe she has sleep apnea. We are praying that they can do something and she might outgrow it, or else she may be looking at surgery once again. It's very scary hearing her so loudly snoring and gasping all night long and none of us are sleeping very well! Hopefully her appointment will be soon so we can get to the bottom of this problem.
This morning she woke up with a runny nose, cough and fever, so I am praying that this doesn't make things worse for her! Thanks for your prayers.
Love,
Bean's Mum Sarah

Big winner!! KATHY!!

Congratulations Kathy!

Your the big winner of two hours of work from me. :) I was impressed with every one's answers, many of them correct... but Kathy was the first to reply:

Tyler's Tattoo is "HEAVEN" in Japanese.

So if your Kathy from this blog:

http://ourhaitianadoption.blogspot.com/

Email me at: Sisters3Designs@aol.com

And start dreaming up some work for me to do. :)
Thanks for playing along everyone!

(And Nina- thanks for the Antibiotic Ointment and Hep booster)

LOL
Sarah

CONTEST TIME!!

Yesterday was our anniversary and Tyler's 18th birthday. On my 18th birthday I was living in Australia, I was an exchange student and got to live there for a year. The night before my birthday I called my Mom because I wanted to get a tattoo so badly. I wanted her approval and I told her that I would get something small, in a place that wasn't real obvious, and it would be something really meaningful. She was not impressed to say the least. What she told me was the same thing that I told Tyler:

"Someday you will get fat and wrinkly and what will your tattoo look like then?" This convinced me partially but I was thoroughly convinced when my Mom then said "Can't you get something pierced, at least you can take it off later when you change your mind."

I knew at that point I didn't want a tattoo and I didn't want to pierce anything.

Tyler after given the same speech, didn't have the same sentiments. He knew that he wanted to get a tattoo on his 18th birthday and he did it!

No, we didn't take him, nor did we pay for it. But I like to think that we are open minded enough that if Tyler wants to deface his own body despite our telling him our feelings that is his right and choice. And actually what he chose does have meaning and I don't think it looks bad, I kind of like it which scares me. (My husband has tattoos so he was perhaps a bit less apprehensive about the whole thing than I was.)

So Tyler's friends came over and went with him. At first when the "gun" hit his arm he passed out. His camera battery died and much to our dismay his friends didn't get the "passing out" bit on camera... but we thought it was very fitting and TYLER-ish of him to pass out.

(We love you Tyler.)

Ok... for the contest:

I am looking for the first correct answer to what his tattoo means. You can guess as many times as you want and it has to be left as a comment to this post. The first correct answer is the winner!

What will you win:

Well I don't have much to give away in the realm of prizes, but I do have a little talent... so I am offering 2 hours of photo editing to the winner. You can choose for me to create a fantasy portrait for you, edit some old pictures, or create a pretty header for your blog, design the cover of your child's adoption announcements, or even birthday invitation pictures, poster for the playroom etc. really anything you want me to do with your pictures for those 2 hours is up to you.

Good Luck!

Sarah

Where I am from By: David

When the teacher asks the children to bring in a baby picture and talk about where they are from, it is particularly worrisome for the adoptive Mom and the adopted child. David's homeschool program English teacher only asked for a picture of "when they were younger", I was thankful as we have no baby pictures of David. I tend to get a bit sensitive when requests are made for the kids to do "life time line's" and that sort of thing. It brings up lots of emotions and lots of unknowns for my children whose past we don't have all the answers about.

Here is what David came up with:

I am from city lights Ohio,
with cars crashing.
I am from a good land,
with friendly neighbors.

I am from seasoned and spicy tacos,
and very cool ice tea.
I am from loud family dinners,
with “sit down and eat.”

I am from running outside all day long,
and acting like maniacs.
I am from watching lots of T.V.
and playing the Wii.

I am from a big family of 13,
and with a loving dog.
I am from caring parents,
and playful siblings.

I am from playing soccer,
with kicking a ball.
I am from supporting parents,
from saying “ You can do it!”

I am from an amazing life,
with people who love me.
I am from the best life ever,
with everything!

More Santa pictures

Naughty list?

Bean is looking mighty guilty about something in this picture! I think she believes she is on the naughty list... which would NEVER happen for my Angel Baby. :)

Good buy

My children hate getting lotion on, especially in the morning because it's so cold!

I saw this while shopping with my sister at Tuesday Morning, $9.99... I thought, well might as well give it a try.

A week later and it's still a popular item in our house and I haven't heard any complaining about getting lotion on.

(Plus it's really nice for back and foot massages!)

Stay warm this winter!

Sarah

Feelings

Excitement: the state of being emotionally aroused and worked up

For my dear friends who have children coming home soon and sooner.

http://imghanaadopt.blogspot.com/

and

http://prayingthemhome.blogspot.com/

I am so excited for you both and for my dear friend Heather-no blog- who will travel to Liberia in January. It has been several days of great news for many near and dear to me friends. I love that.

Defeated: defeated - disappointingly unsuccessful; "disappointed expectations and thwarted ambitions";

As I sit here waiting helplessly for news on Isaac I feel utter defeat at the moment. I am trying to devise a plan of action, more time to pray, and wishful thinking. Yet I feel defeat in this wait.

Bitter:Resulting from or expressive of severe grief, anguish, or disappointment

I am bitter of people's feelings, rules, laws and opinions of family size. I could likely write an entire month's worth of posts on this subject but just let me say this. I most often hear this reply when people dig to find out how many children we have "I only have (insert 1, 2, 3 here) children and I can't even handle the ones I have, I can't imagine having 13!!"

This is why Haiti feels the way it does, this is why WA state has the laws regarding foster to adopt that they do (no more than 6 children), this is why YOU shouldn't have/adopt anymore kids! But please, spare me your shortcomings! Let myself and my husband and our social worker (Master's degree many years of working for the state foster care system) be the judge of what we can and can not handle. Just because YOU can't imagine it, or DO IT, doesn't mean that WE can't. I know people with two children who shouldn't have anymore and people with 10 who could easily have another 5. It's just a number folks, get over it! What is right or wrong for you, or what you can imagine, isn't the same for me, or everyone else. It's this mindset that is making my son WAIT in Haiti. It's this mindset that needs to be lifted NOW because there are too many family-less, security less, attachment less, children HERE and everywhere who would love nothing more than to be a part of my big AMAZING family.

And let it be said that shouldn't "parenting" and "experience with children" and "open mindedness" and "accepting families" mean something to you people? If I were the one signing the files, the people who have a large amount of adoptive children who they have committed their lives to, who haven't so much as blinked at the adversity, who have rose above all else, who haven't faltered in what they said they would do, WOULD GET TO THE TOP OF THE PILE.

Doesn't that make sense? Or have I gone off the deep end. It makes me bitter. It makes me restless, it makes me want to do big things to make changes.

Proud:Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one's stature or self-worth:

I am so proud of my "big girls" Leishan and Lauren. Lei has called to come over three times this week because she just wants to spend time with her brothers and sisters. I thought maybe she had laundry to do, or needed some home-cooked food, but no, she just wanted to spend some time. I am seeing her mature and grow into an amazing, independent young woman and it's awesome. I am so proud of her.

Lauren... where can I start? Can I clone this child? Seriously?

After a really long day with my hubby working (just "some" hours this week), the kids were not nice to one another today... she got home from classes and made all those annoyed/long day/negative Mommy feelings go away. She told me about some paper that she had to do for a class where she had to write about what influences her life: Parents or Peers. Although her teacher said at their age, it was peers that likely would influence them the most... Lauren wrote about her peers, and how she loves and appreciates her friends, but that they aren't her greatest influence in her life. They do make bad choices and she still considers them friends and cares for them, but uses her parents influence of making good moral choices over making the bad choices with her peers. I am so proud of Lauren for being such a NICE person. She has always been this intense compassionate, giving soul, even when she was very young. Lauren is now cooking some pasta so I have a moment to write this, and her dad gets a break after working all day hard labor. And I am so proud to be one of her parents. :)

So as you can see I am painfully teetering on the brink of emotional rollercoasterdom.

Just another manic Monday.

Love,

Sarah

Pink O-gurt Geisha By:Bean

Once upon a time, when my big sister Lolo was getting me lotioned, I turned white. She was using Eucerin and my whole face was covered. She told me "GAY-SHA Beanie", that I looked like a Geisha.

Well since I have a fine tuned memory for a 22 month old. I have never forgotten how to be a Geisha. I love playing dress up too by the way.

The other day while I was taking a break from eating my normal fanfare food "CHEESE", I decided to ask my Mom for some "O-Gurt". (I knew that she had bought some "trix" o-gurt, not the normal icky organic crap she buys.)


They did it, they left me alone for 2 minutes and I went to town! Let me tell you! I stuck my whole hand in that o-gurt, that pink sugar loaded goodness. The o-gurt makes a nice lotion. Even nicer than frosting, my third favorite food group.

When the o-gurt got to be a little too much on my hands for my senses, I shook my hands wildly like a crazy lady and I flicked that pink o-gurt all over my house.

FLICK, SHAKE, FLICK some more!

Several of my brothers and sisters saw me and quickly left the room for fear that they might be asked to change my clothes. They knew it was going to take a little more than a clothes change to fix my geisha fun.

Before my Mom could get that little shiny cup away from me I went in for one last drink of o-gurt. And I exclaimed: "GAY-SHA!!!!!"

I looked beautiful. There is nothing better than having moments alone to live foot loose and fancy free with a whole container of PINKness... my signature color.





See how proud I look of myself?


With sticky fingers and matted hair,

BEAN

Lauren's winter art

Lauren loves drawing and painting and the main focus of her art, is Japanese Anime. She creates her own characters and can quickly draw something incredible. Since I can't draw or paint, I am always impressed by the work that she does. (This one even made it onto the dining room wall.)

I am not sure what to make of this little girl. Is she contemplating getting a Christmas tree but the snow's too deep so she will be happy with the bare tree she has? Or perhaps she is just deep in thought?

I just like it so much. I can't get enough of Lauren's creativity!

Lauren draws so much in fact, that I haven't had to buy coloring books in a long time. Lauren just draws up some pictures and the kids will spend hours coloring them.

Thanks Lauren for being such a great artist, daughter and sister to your sibs.
Love you.
Sarah

Angenica update

Here is a newer picture of sweet Angenica. She is still looking for her family, could it be you?

Angenica is small for her age as she is going to turn 6 years old next week!

They are working on getting some PT lined up for her in Haiti starting soon and we are anxious to hear of the progress she will be making.

Please email me for more information. :)
sisters3designs@aol.com

Or visit www.untilallhavehomes.org

to view more children from around the globe waiting eagerly for their family.

Blessings,
Sarah

Isaac's Birthday Photo's

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I got these adorable pictures yesterday and thought that I would put them into a slide show to share with you. Turn the music off on the right side of this page and click play above. I know that I am slightly biased, but what an adorable little boy Isaac is. :) As you can see from the pictures near the end he was singing his favorite song: "The Wheels on the Bus".

Thanks COTP for loving my son so well.

These pictures meant the world to us.

Thank you

Thank you so much for the beautiful prayer shawl!
Ericka has been such a dear friend to me. She spent her Mother's day weekend in Texas helping to care for Helande, Christella, Angeline and ME too. She has been there for my family and I through the past months of good times and bad. Yesterday a package came in the mail of a beautiful prayer shawl that her church made for my family. (One is also on it's way to Haiti to Ella's family.) It says "Please wrap up in my prayers and hugs when remembering Ella. On this date and around our gathered circle, this shawl has been passed through our praying hands and been blessed by our loving hearts."
I am so deeply touched by your thoughtfulness Ericka. This shawl has already provided much healing to myself, my husband and children.

Christella's family went to the clinic yesterday and Lori was able to translate all the letters that were written for them. Her family was so touched by all your kind words and there were many tears shed. They said that they feel that they have found family. Lori was also able to give them some money to help with making sure they have a blessed Christmas. Thank you Lori for being there for them and for giving everything of yourself, in good times and bad, to make a positive change for God's most precious people in Haiti.

I like to think of our family, and Christella's family, forever bonded by the love and grace of Ella... wrapped in our prayer shawls, many miles apart, feeling the same warm memories and remembering the gifts that we have all been given.

Thank you.
Love always,
Sarah

David's story about Angeline

This is my perfect day. It is all about my baby sister Angeline. My baby sister is not birthed from my parents, we adopted her. She is in fact from Haiti. We have loved her ever since we got her from Haiti. She the most fun-loving little sister I have ever had. I care about her a lot! Now let me tell you a little more how we got Angeline.
My baby sister was not just from any old family she was with her mother but her mother could not take care of her any more. So, my mom went to Haiti so she take her home to where we live. But my sister needed medical care so we went to Ohio for my baby sister. My mom went to the hospital while my brothers and sisters went and stayed with our Nana. When my mom got back we took her back to Washington so we could have her as a part of our family. A couple of months her adoption paper work came through and we went to the court so we could adopt her. While they were preparing the adoption papers I was so excited that we were having a new member in our lives- I was happy as ever!
I was so happy that we got a new edition to our family. Now we have 12 kids though we are waiting for another baby. His name is Issac he is also from Haiti. Angeline is amazing she is a two year-old baby sister that is so loving and gentle and loves to always have something to do. She is the best baby sister ever! I hope that my baby sister will always be so fun-loving and caring. I love my baby sister!

Eat Pray Love

Another great gift idea for the Holiday's is this wonderful book EAT PRAY LOVE. The author Elizabeth, has been on Oprah twice now talking about the book. If you haven't read it, you must. That's all I can say, you must read this book. I truly believe it changes lives and helped me a great deal in dealing with Christella's passing and the trials that I have been personally going through.
If you are the one person left who hasn't heard of this book, Liz, the author went on a journey of self discovery and spent a year of her life between Italy, India and Indonesia trying to find out who she was, and find her inner spirit.
It's a great book for all denominations and beliefs and I feel as if no matter your faith, it will help bring you to a higher place in your faith, and in yourself.
Some of my favorite quotes from the book are below, I couldn't help but mark the pages where the quotes were and I have gone back often to re-read them, understand them, live them:
"We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down."
"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. It's easy enough to pray when your in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."
Regarding becoming an open pipeline for God's love:
"The intellect stops, the intuition rises and all she has to do is permit her God-ness to flow through her. She says: it feels like the wind comes and takes my hands"
"But I was always coming here. I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never NOT coming here. This was never NOT going to happen"
Read it, digest it, pass it on to someone else who might need a little extra love and grace in their life right now.
Love,
Sarah

Still Christmas Shopping?

http://www.etsy.com/

I read about this website on another blog and I am enjoying it SO much that I thought I would share it with all of you. If you are still Christmas shopping, or just looking for that perfect gift for someone, please visit:
ETSY!!
http://www.etsy.com/buy.php
(Here's the link)
I love supportive artists and WAHM's. I found some of the most amazing gifts that I will be giving this year at Etsy. I waited to post about Etsy until after my five orders were complete to see how fast the shipping was etc. There are so many different ways to search the website, by item, by color etc. I know that you will find that perfect something for that special someone at Etsy. They have items for men, women, children and pets. Enjoy!
Sarah
P.S. I don't work for Etsy or get a kick back from you visiting there. It just was so great, I couldn't help but share. :) LOL

Prayer Request

Please pray for my friend D. and her family. They have been waiting too long for their little boy Jellybean from Haiti and now that they are at the final steps of the US side of bringing him home, their paperwork has been lost. There are many wonderful people working overtime to try to "fix" the lost paperwork issue. But the originals were lost so what needs to happen is that "they" the powers that be at the embassy and consulate need to be willing to accept the copies.
Visit her beautiful blog for more updates and to read more beautiful heartfelt words from this most faithful and inspirational Momma:
http://prayingthemhome.blogspot.com/2007/12/we-trust.html

D. has been an incredible amount of support to myself in the hard times that we have had in life in general and also with Isaac's adoption. Please take a moment to pray that things quickly come together for her most sweet little Jellybean to come home soon, with no more delays and a happy heart for him and his wonderful family.

Thanks in advance prayer warriors!
Sarah

Enough

I have realized that my kids and life just don't get what enough really means.

The other night we noticed one of the girls drinking a glass FULL of vanilla creamer. Isn't it enough that they have it to use for cups or tea, do they really need to drink it glass full straight out of the bottle? Yuck.

Sunday night after spending the entire day with his friends sledding one of the boys was invited to youth group at their friends church. When I said No, the response was nothing short of pathetic and ended with the child in the bathroom crying because he wasn't allowed to go.

Wasn't the entire day with your friends enough?

The weather... don't even get me started. Wasn't it enough that we had about 8 inches of snow on Sunday... but then the blowing winds and inches of rain came Sunday night and Monday... enough already! (We personally didn't get flooded, PTL, but there has been devastating flooding south of us.)

Then we have Dominick.

While the other children were making a memorial poster for Christella, Dominick was inciting a riot. The riot was his teenage siblings rolling in laughter at his protest poster. Dominick still thinks it was because it was so cleaver of him to write that Homework Kills Trees. Obviously it was because he wrote HO work kills trees. (I won't be explaining that one any time soon, and must admit that I did get a good chuckle.) The poster was a rude wake up call. Apparently my child doesn't understand that he is HOME schooled. If he had NO homework, he wouldn't be doing ANY school work. Not to mention the failings of this home school mom who apparently came short a bit in the spelling arena. Isn't it enough that I devote so much time to educate my children that maybe just once they could appreciate that? Or at least spell "homework" correctly?

So tonight is when Kris Kringle/St. Nick comes and fills the children's shoes with goodies while they are sleeping. It hasn't been enough that my children have enough fortitude to treat one another with love and kindness so KK might be leaving a little reminder note tonight about making better choices instead of goodies. I am a mean mean Mom sometimes. My kids don't do well when they know that things like Christmas are coming. They tend to get all wiry and antsy and short tempered with one another. And we can't have that. I must maintain peace in the home, that's enough of the uglies.

The dentist... whoa... so our old dentist who was just sparkling and wonderful no longer takes our insurance. There aren't actually many places that take our insurance. Isn't it enough that we made appointments for nine children in the past three weeks and brought them all there to this new clinic? Apparently not. Because the initial appointment is for a "check up" and "x-ray". Don't want to push ourselves for a teeth cleaning in there, that would be a 2nd appointment. For those with cavities or who need something "extra", that would be an additional 1-2 appointments on top of the first two. And did we mention that we can only see three children at one time at the MOST? So that will bring the dentist appointment total somewhere near 30 appointments for the month. Enough.

The only blessing through the crazy weeks of appointments has been that my husband has been home. By now his court TV watching, salsa eating self typically makes me insane. Since he has been so busy with appointments it has given us enough time together, and enough time for me to get work done, Christmas under way, and my head on straight. Maybe I don't even feel like I had enough time with him I guess? Maybe I am the one who doesn't get the concept of enough? Robert will be home until the first or second week of January. His work did pick up two new jobs that will start after the new year. I hope by then I will have had enough time with him. :)

Any in closing an apology...

Jeremy, our oldest son emailed yesterday very upset. In the moments of sadness and reflection over the past weeks, we forgot to email him about Christella. Jeremy is still in New Orleans doing volunteer work full time, and doesn't have a phone or computer. He does go and check his email when he can at a public computer somewhere. Jeremy has had enough of his family and their communication breakdowns. So not only did he have to deal with Christella's passing, but he had to read about it on his blog and his siblings my space pages, instead of hearing it from his Dad and I as he should have. He sent the kindest most gentle and timely email letting us know how upset he was and how even though he didn't know her well, he felt like she was a baby sister to him, and was very upset to hear about her death. I am sorry Jeremy. I will do better with communicating in the future. We love you son and we are proud of the hard, meaningful work that you are doing.

Blessings of content, nice hands and warm fuzzies.

Sarah

Cole's Birthday

Cole's birthday was in November. I am just now getting around to uploading the pictures. Cole is now 11 years old! Cole chose the movies for his birthday activity and the move of choice was Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. For dinner was chinese food and chocolate cake and ice cream. He had a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday sweet Cole Bear!
Love,
Mom

Stop AIDS in children

My birthday happens to be shared with World Aids day. Please watch the video and hear the message. Learn what you can do, whether it's pray, educate yourself, open your mind a little, embrace others, donate funds, offer hope, and help end the suffering.
http://www.unfoundation.org/campaigns/apathy/CNUN3160-E01NY-SS.wmv
Above is another link to a short and powerful video.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday. I was 29 again. :)

Actually I am now 34 years young.

My sister Nina, Kika and I went to stay at the Hot Springs in BC for the night. I was seeking some relaxation, some reflection and fun, and I found all three thankfully.

I think that I have blogged about the hot springs before but its one of my most favorite places on earth. There is nothing like sitting outside in a HOT pool with snow falling around then having to run with your bathrobe to get inside before you get hypothermia. Plus just being somewhere that you can walk all around in a bathrobe, including having "tea" in your robe, in front of a fireplace, with many international strangers, also all in their bathrobes, now that is a great time. How can someone not relax while they are there? Finding internal peace is just the bonus of the whole deal!

My horoscope read:

It it's your birthday today...

You must have the courage of your convictions this year. You must think and speak and act according to what comes from within, because that is the most authentic part of your nature. It does matter if the powers that be do not approve- in fact that's a sign that you are on the right track.

I don't typically buy too much into horoscopes, but since my sister was reading the paper and offered up this advice, I think that I will take it. It made me think a lot about Isaac and what we can do, and how hard we can fight. I want to have the energy and courage to go all the way, to do everything that I can do, to know that I put up a good fight and to hope that it all pays out in the end for my son.

Our attorney in Haiti has asked for the month of December to work on our file and to advocate for it to get signed out of IBESR. Please pray that he is able to get a meeting with those in charge of approving or denying the file. Please pray that they are compassionate and understanding. If this isn't possible, we pray that we are able to obtain presidential exemption in order to have his file signed out. We aren't sure how to do that, but we hope to find out soon. If these things don't work I am not sure what our next step will be. I think that going to Haiti will be the next choice unless we can find someone else who is willing to step in and intervene who might have some good experience at IBESR. But for now, we pray heavily that our attorney will be able to do something. He is a good man and I must have faith in him that he will be able to do something.

Thank you to everyone who sent pictures and letters for Ella's family. They are coming to the clinic soon for an appointment for their youngest child so they will be able to see the pictures and letters at that time.

As for today we are putting up the Christmas tree and decorating. I am going to try to expend as much energy concentrating on the things that I have control over and work harder on not trying to control the things I have no control over. I guess that's my personal goal for 34.

Off to feed Bean. :)
Much Love and Many Blessings,
Sarah