Reading Under the Trees

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I love the program at our library. Mrs. Jessica, the leader of the children's department, is wonderful with the kids. Today was the last preschool class for Luci. There will be summer programs, and some things to do next year, but no weekly event to get ready for during her Kindergarten year. Sniff, sniff. I made some Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies for Jessica and Helen. Luci, with help from JT (since she goes a little Edwards-Scissorhands-crazy when she's holding scissors), picked some of her carnations from the garden. They were PINK carnations, what else?

Cookie recipe at the end of this post.(I added a third chocolate to this, making it nearly deadly delicious!)

Plan B

In a previous post, I mentioned that John and I are Luci's Plan B.  Plan A was for her to be raised by her first parents.  Whatever the cause, we are Plan B. 

God intends for us to raise our children, to "Train a child in the way he should go,..." (Proverbs 22:6)


Sometimes things don't go well, or something happens, then we are to do this: "look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  (James 1:27)  Note that it does not say to adopt the orphaned or the widowed.  But sometimes that is called for.  Luci is one who was in an orphanage, with no foster care in her area.  So staying where she was was not a good option.  She needed a family.  We needed her, too.  


We did not set out to "save" Luci.  After losing a baby to miscarriage, we (me, mostly) realized how much we really wanted more children in our family.  


This past week I came across this post, God and Adoption, by Tonggu Momma.  So much of it I agree with wholeheartedly, and is true for Luci. 


Some select quotes:


Adoption is often a band-aid placed over a gaping wound.

~~~~~

At the time of adoption, returning to her biological family was not an option... it was either to grow up in care, or to grow up with an adoptive family. She is a wonderful little girl... one who deserves a family, just as ALL children deserve families. Since her biological family was no longer an option, for whatever reason, I am glad that God chose us as His plan B to be her adoptive family.

But her adoption? Was a band-aid placed over a gaping wound in rural China.

~~~~~

And this from Divine Caroline:

A close friend of ours who is both an adoptee and an adoptive parent says that adoption is “a redemptive response to a tragedy.”

~~~~~

While I know that each and every child wants a mother and a father, getting a new set of parents doesn’t replace the void left by the absence of the biological parents.

~~~~~

All of these thoughts have been buzzing about my head for a while now.  Today seemed like a good day to talk about them.  At lunch, I shared this blog story about what some families call "Gotcha Day."  I said to John that I wanted to make our celebration of our Family Day more low-key, doing what Luci wants and celebrating China during that time. 

Luci piped up and said she knew what Gotcha Day was.  

Oh really?  Tell me about it.

Yeah.  You have a ghost on your shoulder!!

me looking surprised...

See?  Gotcha!  April Fools!  

Then Luci put her head in my lap and said she missed her China-mama.  And she really does miss her.  If you haven't broached the subject with your adopted children yet, please do open the conversation.  A great book to help with that is Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child, which I mentioned back in November.

 Next post I promise to be more sequential in my thoughts and make more sense.

Paint!

Guess who helped Daddy touch up the paint on the tree house today?

She's so proud of her work, and of the work she's done to her own self.  Joy!  Can you see her fingernails?  They are painted quite nicely with white paint, thank you very much.

Tree House Update

The painting is not done yet, and some details need to be added--and yes, we know the ladder needs work.  ;)  

Bryan, JT, Luci and I painted on Thursday.  We wanted to get the untreated wood covered before the storms came through today.  John sits in the white chair on "the deck" while Luci plays.

Storms are over now, we made it through fine.

JT

 The big night--  JT's friend, Matthew, was supposed to test also but he broke his arm the night before!  Matthew, I am so sorry. 

JT, we are so happy for your achievement!

Yea for JT!

JT earned his Black Belt in Tang Soo Do last night!  


So proud of you, JT!
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John and JT went to Mississippi for the testing. 

Driving!

Bryan got his license today!


Congratulations, Bryan!


Here's the Maalox, Mama!

 

The "Tree" House

Here is the tree house after 2 Saturdays of work.  Yes, I know it isn't in an actual tree, but we call it "tree" house anyways.  So there.

Killdeer!

We saw this gorgeous little bird yesterday, as we arrived at church.  We headed out to the pavilions for our semi-annual "church in the park" time and came upon this nest with four eggs.   Someone put a barrier around the area to protect this pretty little Killdeer.  Click here to find out more about this bird, plus hear its call.

Luci-isms

Kid's Own--A play-place for children:  The Kid Zone at YMCA.  As in, I want to go to the Kid's Own.  NOW!

Switch Cheese-- Swiss Cheese.  As in, The Switch Cheese has holes in it!  Did you know that?

Colonoscopy--she gets this one right every time.  Go figure.

John had a routine colonoscopy today.  Which means yesterday he had the clean-out thing going on, poor guy.  When we sat down for lunch, we had left-over meatloaf and John had chicken broth, as well as this treat fixed by Luci:

Soccer Girl

This is my "Gatorade Advertisement."

Yes, Feingold Friends, I know there is fake color in that drink! She usually has water.

A really great compliment

After soccer today, John stopped to visit with Jerry, a member at Cross Point. Jerry told John that, "Sometimes kids, especially boys, don't do very well when Dad's gone. Your boys came through great. They are wonderful kids."

John told Jerry that it was me having them toe the line.

So, Thanks, John and Jerry! You both made my day.

Dreams are not always a good thing.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning, Luci woke me up twice. She needed to cuddle, to know that she was safe. She often wakes up, once a night--the nights she sleeps all the way through are very rare.

But Tuesday morning's early wake-up just seemed so sad to me.
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"Mama, I don't want to dream any more."

She was able to go back to sleep, but I was wide awake after that comment.

Last night, Luci was up once for reassurance. Then when she woke up for the day (at a respectable 7:30, I might add), she told me her dream:

I was lost from you. I couldn't find you. Then someone helped me look for you and my friends but we couldn't find you!

I want her to sleep in her own room, but it's not going well. She is still on an infant mattress in our room. Good thing she's still so little: she still fits on the mattress. Tonight we are going to try her room again. She has a double bed in there (takes up the whole room! her room is so tiny) so I can get her to sleep and later when I'm ready for bed I can go sleep with her.

Wow, when we were building this house (and it's not palatial, by any means) we thought it was such a good idea to have the kids' rooms on the other side of the house. Not a good idea for her! She wakes up in a panic wondering where we are, and on the way to our room, in her drowsy state, gets lost (remember, I said this is not a big house!). Screaming! like you wouldn't believe!

Here is a post by someone else whose daughter is hyper vigilant. Hypervigilance and the Adopted Child: defining, through life examples, hypervigilance, which is an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of behaviors whose purpose is to detect threats.
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Luci's predicament is quite a lot like this child's. She has calmed down some since John's deployment ended, but as I see nearly every night, there is a long way to go. I cannot leave her with just anyone. For babysitting, she will stay with Bryan and JT and very few others. Amanda was able to keep her for me for a few hours, and so was Diane. Both of those women have daughters with whom Luci loves to play; I think that's why she is able to feel calm with them. Even at Sunday School, Luci makes sure that I am the one dropping her off, and she makes sure that I am going to be the one picking her up.

What we woke up to:

The perpetrators used two (two!) packages of Charmin. I know because they sweetly left the empty bags in our newspaper box. Now, why on Earth did the little bit they covered need two packages?

.

And why Charmin?

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Even the kid who cleaned it up was impressed with the quality. He thought he should have saved it to use later, in the house....

A Heart-Stopper

John spent Saturday (after soccer--Luci got to kick the ball TWICE: that is good for her!) working on Luci's tree house.

The posts were put up last week. Today John put in the floor, with Bryan's help.

My Dreamy-Girl looking into the future

and Bryan pretending to toss Dreamy-Sister down the hill. STOP!!

Later, Luci and I were looking out the back window and what did we see? What is that going on down there? Is it what I think it is?

Yipes! This is the heart-stopper: John putting on a corrugated roof.

From another perspective. John was really up there, with nothing to break a fall except the ground. It's going to be some tree house! JT helped with this part of the building.

Later that evening, Luci found the slate I bought for her at Williamsburg. She began copying words from the pamphlet that came with it. I got the slate for fun, for school, for play-acting like Felicity. Yes, she needs to work on her "R." She's not in Kindergarten yet, so I think she did just fine. And yes, she copied correctly--RABBET was spelled with an "e" in the 1700's. I love the chalk on her face. She really had no idea that she did that.

Luci-ism

shred: what some fashion-folks call a "shrug."

shrub: see "shred."




Shrug: n 2. A woman's short jacket or sweater open down the front.

Just another excuse to show off my baby.

Our Weekend

Luci's new dress
John began the task of making a "tree" house for Luci. He built a great one at the old house for the boys, and now it's Luci's turn. Oh, the excitement! Well, at least John and Luci are excited. And Luci has plans to paint it PINK!

I'm so helpful!
Setting the supports.
I'm more helpful! Hammering the empty quick-crete bag.
View from the vegetable garden...there is the fire pit in between. The tree house is down there, even with the pick-up truck.
JT's paintball field, at the bottom of the hill next to the creek.
Luci and wild violets.

Our Easter Dinner...Everything except the rolls was Feingold safe. Luci's violets were our centerpiece. Bryan was not made to sit in the corner for the meal...he is hiding the fact that the school calendar still says "March."

In Her Easter Bonnet...

Luci all ready for the Easter Egg Hunt. Yes, she dresses herself. She was going to carry her pumpkin bucket from Halloween (quite happily, too) until I found this ice cream bucket that said "Blue Bunny." Luci thought "Bunny" made it appropriate, even though it had pictures of snow men on it. I'm not sure why she chose the Mouse ears. Luci is developing her own style. As long as it's modest and doesn't involve permanent tattoos or body-piercing, I'm ok with it.

Luci-isms

Girl Cheese-- grilled cheese sandwich. As in, I want you to fix me a girl-cheese for breakfast.

Williamsbird-- That wonderful place in Virginia we visited last week.

Back Up-- What some call Back-Wash. As in, Daddy, Don't drink from my water. I have back-up in it.

Gard-nen-- What we are planting today. As in, I want roses, and daisies, and tomatoes in the gard-nen.

With Thanks...

Thank you, Ruth and Sheila, for nominating me. What an honor! More about this award here.