Will Dress For Food

Yes, Mrs. Chris dressed all the kids up today for their FREE kid's meal at ChicFilA! What a great babysitter I have :)

Born Shopper-NOT

Faith is still trying to figure out this shopping thing?!?! Sorry Sheila, but she doesn't appear to be a natural at it like you and Shelby are ;)

More Joy Coming Home

Tammy and Tony have landed in China and are about to experience one of God's amazing moments...ADOPTION! I have been with Tammy throughout her journey as she and I paperchased together back in 2007. I can't wait to see her with her beautiful daughter finally in her arms soon :)

Also my friend Darcy is heading over to China tomorrow to pick up her newest addition...Michael! What a brave one she is to go to China by herself to get her son. She felt this was the best thing for her family considering all the crazy quarantines from the swine flu. She already has 3 little ones, so they did not want to risk being separated from their kids in any way. She also has family in China, so she won't really be completely alone the whole time. SO happy this family is getting a little boy for their family. With 3 girls at home, they didn't know what they were missing! Boy oh boy are they in for a change!! Now if I can only talk Lucy and Doug into adding a little blue ;)

Please pray for these beautiful families as they journey across the world...to change it...one child at a time!

Toddler Tornadoes

Ever tried to really capture a "real" picture of toddlers?! Here you go:
















Oh my what a pair!! :)

A Bit Too Many

I do believe that my girls have WAY too many socks! This is just a big pile of the unmatched ones. Oh my goodness, and to think about all the kids around the world without ONE pair of socks. Man, we are lucky to live the way we do...or are we?!

And they're off!

I am so excited for our friends and members of our group who left out for China yesterday.

Heidi, Tiffany, and Heather are in China now about to bring home 3 new toddlers home!! I absolutely can't wait to see them with their new additions FINALLY in their arms. It has been a very long journey for all of them and in just a few days their new lives will begin :)

Stuck in China

Here is the blog of a poor family that is stuck in China and hasn't even been able to get to their new child yet. The Swine Flu has China in a panic mode and it is now affected a lot of US travelers including the ones going over to adopt. This is a very real thing, and I can't possibly imagine being quarantined in China without my husband or children :( Please pray for 3 very special families that just left this morning headed out for China to bring home their children. I will post their blogs tomorrow so you can follow them along on their journey. Let's hope theirs isn't near as "exciting" as this other family!

Here was her post today on another site:

HI everyone!

Thank you for all the good wishes. We're fine. It's sort of a cross between a really lame vacation and Groundhog Day, is all. We're told we'll be out Saturday, and we're getting there. Rob feels fine but sadly yesterday's culture was still positive, so he's in until Friday at least. He was never really sick--he's said that if we were at home, he wouldn't have noticed.

The rest of us should be out of the woods today. Our CDC thinks incubation is 1-4 days, and today's the 4th solid day since they pulled rob from our merry band, and 7 since the plane flight--and we'd hardly catch anything here!!! They are NOT checking in-country flights, so once we're done, we're done. I'll be fearing the knock on the door for a while, though.

I know lots of you are now wondering whether to bring your kids, and I don't have a solid rec. Ours are, against all odds, mostly still having a good time. There's always toast, so even if they weren't adventurous eaters (they're ok), they wouldn't starve. we have a movie for every night, and when the day's at it's hottest (right now!) they're oddly amused by Chinese cartoons, and I can even pretend it's educational. It's the HOSPITAL that frightens me, and the randomness of it all. If we had hit up against a really hard-headed official, I can see our embassy as giving up, say, my mother and 7-year-old son but insisting that I stay with the youngest. And then what if my mom got sick? What if my husband and I had BOTH been sick? Do I think our embassy will allow parents and kids to be separated for 7 days under those circs? No. Do I think there might be some frightening hours while it's getting sorted out? I do. Say, for example, that my mom was sick and alone with my older son. They would take them both downstairs, and rush her into one ambulance and him into another. She might not even realize it was happening--that's pretty much what happened with us and Rob, and we had our kindly Hyatt manager with us, translating. She also doesn't have a cell phone, or the embassy's number. Would it get sorted out? I'm sure it would. Would Sam have some frightening hours? Yes.

Nothing awful is going to happen, barring a tragedy with the flu. The hospital's not great. They don't have kid-sized needles, we're told, and they take all temps under-arm because they don't want to sterilize the thermometers (real glass mercury ones!). The food, as you can see on my blog, sometimes has heads and teeth. But I'm not kidding myself that they couldn't, or wouldn't, send a whole squad of haz-mat suited folks in here, pick up kids, rush us all around and do whatever they think is necessary even while I'm dialing the embassy. If they thought taking Wyatt away and shooting him full of Tamiflu without me would keep H1N1 limited in this country, they'd do it in a heartbeat. It's hard to really believe it until you're in it, but it's true.

None of that happened, of course. And I don't think it will, to us or to you. They don't mean to be unkind or frightening. It's just different. But it COULD.

Good luck!

Lola

http://raisingdevils.com

Busy Summer Fun

Trying to catch up here on the blog, so you get the fast post bullet style-but of course with pics!

• We have been enjoying the nice air conditioned playroom at DacKids at least once a week.
• The kids and I took a road trip with Rhonda (my cousin) and her girls this past weekend.
• We went up north to Dahlonega and did some panning for gold and gemstones
• The boys LOVED that part-Caleb enjoyed this almost as much as he does fishing!
• Then we did the girl thing and visited the Babyland General to witness the actual birth of a Cabbage Patch babydoll
• We are still talking about that tree giving birth-HA!
• Travis wasn't impressed
• Shelby didn't want to purchase a doll, so she left with a small puppy instead ;)
• I think Faith's favorite part of the trip was the wagon ride looking at all the farm animals
• Rhonda then took us over to Coleman River to play in the creek
• This is the famous river that we both grew up camping together in
• My mom and her sister (Rhonda's mom) used to take their families camping together all the time-Wonder where Sheila and I got that idea?!
• We used to come up camping here ALL the time as kids, so it was pretty neat to see our children playing in the same creek
• We all had a great adventurous weekend hanging out together
• I took lots of pics! .....so hope you enjoy :)

Maybe Tomorrow

Hopefully I will have more time to post tomorrow with pics from the weekend and such. Work is crazy and of course home life is ALWAYS crazy! Hold your breath (like Faith) until tomorrow...

Recession Camping

Yep, you know we can't go long without a camping trip in our family. Well considering that CJ doesn't get home now until around 10PM every night, he is pretty wiped out. Also with our budget being a little tighter than normal, I decided that we could just pull out the camper and our tent and have an old fashion camping trip right in the backyard!

Our friends came over (who normally only tent camp) and they had a treat sleeping in our camper. My boys (who normally only camper camp) pitched a tent and slept in the tent with their dad all night. We roasted hotdogs on the campfire, and of course enjoyed smores all night long. Faith was good with some chips and baby marshmallows all night. Oh and of course me and girls "roughed it" sleeping in the comfort of our air-conditioned bedrooms-HA!

It was a fun evening and didn't cost any extra $$$$. Good memories were made and that is what counts the most :) Hope you all try it one day soon, your kids will love it.

Change

No not the kind you find in your pocket, the kind that life brings you...change. Well for most children change is not usually a big deal. If you have children that you have raised since birth, change is just part of life and most kids just go with the flow. Well if you have children that are adopted, that one little word "change" means oh so much more. Change has come to be a part of their life, but it has not always been a welcome change.

My Shelby has some BIG issues with change. In her life she has experienced some very dramatic change. She was with her birth mom for only 2 weeks, then change. She lived inside an orphanage for 2 months, then change. She lived with her foster mom for 2 years, then change. Then changed to 2 different hotel stays, changed to 2 different airplanes, then finally her home was forever changed!

So as you can see, not all of Shelby's change has been good change. This is why my little one is SO scared of change. Shelby asks me everyday, literally about 10 times everyday, "What are we doing tomorrow?" She wants to be fully prepared for what the next day will bring. So I tell her everyday (about 10 different times) the schedule for the next day. We always end the day with a complete run down of the next day's schedule. This is what Shelby still needs everyday even though she has been home for 19 months now. I hope and pray that she will one day NOT fear change; however, I don't know after all that she has been through how change will ever come easy to her :(

I suppose one of the most memorable changes for Shelby is apparent to her when she simply looks in the mirror. She has seen alot of pictures of her as a baby and she is very much aware that her lip is different than others. It has to be a reminder to her everyday that things have changed in her life. Obviously some of her changes have been good, but not all of them. I hope to continue to help Shelby change the way she sees "change". I hope one day she will embrace change as just a regular part of life, although I do realize that my sweet baby girl isn't just a regular kind of kid :)

Busy Week

It has been a busy week since we have had Vacation Bible School all week every night. I am really starting to miss my kids since I haven't seen them much during this week. I am teaching Faith's class, so at least I get to spend each evening with her (and 5 other 2 year olds!). Anyhow, tonight is the last night, so we will be back to our Straight normal soon. Here are some random pics for your enjoyment :)

6 Months Officially

Can you believe it??! Six months ago today we officially became Faith's family! It is quite strange when you adopt since sometimes you feel like you just got her, then other times you feel like she has always been with us. It is hard to believe that we missed out on the first 16 months of her life. She fits in so well with our family and is definitely one of the Straight Goods!

Faith has completed our family and she is blossoming more and more everyday. She seems to have turned the corner in her eating skills, so her diet has a lot more variety in it these days which is a good thing. She will eat french fries and chicken nuggets just like the rest of my crew :) Faith has started using more words now so she seems to be moving into a true toddler now and not so much "baby" anymore. She definitely has an attitude when she wants to but she is so darn sweet most of the time it is hard to put her down.

Oh and of course those CHEEKS, who can resist loving on her sweet cheeks!! I can really see the difference in only the 6 months we have had her. I can't believe she will already be starting her preschool class in just a few months. Wow baby to toddler in just a few short months!

We are so very lucky to have been blessed with this beautiful child :)





PS: If you read our post from 6 months ago, you may recall the OBVIOUS sign from God that Faith was meant to be my daughter. Funny thing is that Faith stopped sucking her fingers about a week after we got home. Some would call that very strange, I call it a God thing ;) He just wanted to make sure that all of my "doubts" about choosing the right child, were answered. What a beautiful testimony Faith is that God is alive and well and at work in our lives everyday!!

Old Fashion Fun

We had some good old fashion fun this weekend playing in the creek. Yep, we found a great country creek in the big city of East Cobb at none other than the actual East Cobb City Park! We have been there several times, but we haven't been lately and haven't been to just go and play in the creek. Well this time we were prepared and had a great time hanging out by the creek. No one else really goes there to hang out in the creek except for us good ole rednecks! So we basically had it to ourselves :)

PS- Sheila stole Faith from me the day I had the camera here. So no Faith pics although she did get to go the day before and had a blast in the sand and the water!

Malia's Story

One year ago today a special little girl died and went home to be with her real Father in heaven. I was unable to post about this special little girl last year publicly in fear of hurting other children at her orphanage. So today is the day I will honor her by telling "Malia's Story".

On June 12, 2008, I received a call from Aisha at Hope for Children who simply said, "Donna, you just have to see this file!". At that time CJ and I had already decided that we would be adopting again; however, we had thought that we would just...take our time. Needless to say this was speeding up things for sure. But of course I couldn't help myself but to say...OK I will look at at.

Now at that time we had been researching several different special needs and we were deciding on issues that we could or could not handle in a new child. Well I personally was convinced that my next child one only have one arm! I know that sounds strange, but it was as strong of a feeling as I had before Shelby knowing that she would be cleft affected. Anyhow, you might think that finding a one armed child would be pretty simple, but turns out CJ wasn't so sure about bringing home a child with only one arm.

Anyhow, so the file arrived and I opened it up to find a beautiful little 13 month old baby girl staring at me. It was her!! I got that dizzy feeling in the pit of my stomach and immediately started researching her special need that was listed as "post-operative lymphangioma under right arm pit". She had already had a cyst removed and looked completely healed. I decided that she was probably our next daughter, but of course I had to show the file to CJ.

That afternoon is when I realized that she was the ONE. When I laid her printed file down in the passenger seat of my van to take home to CJ, I looked over and saw my "One armed baby"! The picture looked like she only had one arm since her hand was inside her shirt. This was HER!

CJ agreed that night and we were off and running with the paperchase to bring home Malia Hope Straight. About a month went by and on July 3, I was told the most imaginable news, she had died.

Fortunately I had hired Lady Bugs N Love to do an orphanage phone call to just call and ask some questions about Malia. They were the ones who were told that Malia had passed away while she was in foster care. Lady Bugs N Love then contacted Aisha at my agency, who of course then called China to confirm. The CCAA was not aware of this until my agency notified them of the tragic news. Aisha told me the news on July 3 when I went to the agency to give them my final papers. I was devastated.

Now the crazy thing is that Malia had already died before I ever saw her face for the first time. I suppose that is what made this a little less traumatic than I would have thought it would have been. Yes, it is awful that Malia died and lived such a short life. I was told she was in foster care, so I rested feeling like she did at least get to know the love of having a family care for her. I don't feel like I lost a child because she was never really mine while she was alive. She belonged to China at that time and ultimately to God where she went home to be with him. She is now at peace.

I truly feel like her "file" was meant to be ours, no doubt at all in my mind about that. No other way to explain my one-armed baby feeling other than her file was put in our hands to simply pave the way for Faith to be in our family. If we had not started the paperwork the day that Malia's file came to me, then there would have been no way that we could have brought Faith home! So Malia will always have a special place in our hearts as she is what brought Faith to us...literally!! May little Wang Gai Li, also known as Malia Hope Straight, rest in peace in her heavenly home.

1st Tuesday of the Month

I get to attend another Triad meeting tonight and I am really looking forward to it! My dad and Sandy get to wrangle all 4 kids tonight, so I am sure that will be exciting :) So see ya...

Still Here

Don't worry we are all alive and well, just not much time for blogging these days. We had a busy weekend that included attending my nephew Blake's High School Graduation ceremony on Saturday. We were all very proud of him and the boys really enjoyed the ceremony. This was their first graduation, so I hope it was memorable for them as something they have to look forward to. I really don't know how all the mommies there don't just cry their eyes out the whole time watching their babies walk across the stage! I guess I still have a few years to get a hold of my emotions ;)

Well here are some adorable kid pics just to hold you over until I have something else to say.

Summer is Here

Enjoying my sister's swimming hole! Planning to have a fun filled summer with the kids. Unfortunately CJ's new job has him working from 9am-9pm everyday so we don't get to see him during the week. So the kids and I have to find something to entertain us every night after work.

Yesterday's choice= Sheila's Pool!! As you can see all the kids just hate it there ;)

I have the kids spread out daycare wise this summer so that they won't get bored. They spend a couple days with Nana, couple days with Mrs. Chris, and then one day a week with Miss Carol. And of course my dad will be entertaining them some afternoons as well. Hoping we have a terrific summer!

Here Comes...

TROUBLE :)

Mohawk Mom

I better get the "Cool Mom of the Year" award for this!!

What Sleep?

They look so peaceful don't they? Well let me just tell you that they don't stay this way!! At least not the girls for sure. Shelby is pretty good about sleeping now. Yes, now she is... but it was a tough road the first 6-8 months home with her. After about 8 months home, she would finally sleep through the night without me being in her bed. Oh and yes that was just last year remember?

Hmmm...Mom had a whole 3 months of sleep at the end of last year. That was SO NICE! So now that brings us to my little Faith. She doesn't sleep good at all yet. She knows every time I even roll over and starts to cry thinking that I am leaving the room. As you can see here in the pic, this is my fake body that I roll up and put between them so I can attempt to sneak in a few hours of sleep in my own bed at night. But really this doesn't even work for long. Faith is on to my scam, so now she doesn't even let me move from her side most nights.

She dreams and crys out all night long thrashing around back and forth, back and forth. I suppose this could be some form of night terrors in baby form. I don't really know, but I do know it can get to be very frustrating when mom doesn't get any sleep either. I sure hope the sleep fairy visits my house soon!!

Sick Stinks

A little peek into my fridge these days :(

Researching our Options

Here is a blog of a little one currently going through the extra surgery like Shelby will probably have to have done. This little one was going to have the sphincter pharyngoplasty like Shelby's doctor is recommending, but during the operation the surgeon decided to do the p-flap instead: http://www.morethanahome.blogspot.com/

I am not looking forward to another surgery with Shelby at all :( However, I know that we will do whatever we need to do to help her speak more clearly.

As a matter of fact, this weekend I had a cruel reminder that Shelby's speech affects her daily. A very MEAN little girl came up to her and Travis at the playplace we were at and said to Travis, "She doesn't even talk right!", and then proceeded to grab a handful of sand and threw it in Shelby's face. All of this happened with me standing right there witnessing the whole event. Let me just say that little girl is lucky to still be alive!

Anyhow, as I said it was a reminder to help Shelby no matter what it takes so that she will be able to speak to the best of her abilities. She is such a spirited little girl who deserves the very best :)

Last Week

of school that is! I had the pleasure of attending the kids' schools last week for all of their end of the year stuff. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have a job that allows me to do these things with my children!

Anyhow, it was great to see my children SO happy to show off their work they did all year. Shelby has grown up so much this year that she really took my breath away as I got all teary eyed watching her on stage singing. Hard to believe how much she has changed this year. I was such a proud mommy!

Travis graduates from Kindergarten this year! My baby boy is on to the big first grade next year. He just makes my heart SMILE!

And Caleb is moving up to the FOURTH grade next year-oh my goodness! He is such a great big brother and role model for my kids. He had a terrific year and a wonderful teacher who really "gets him". He makes me proud to be his mommy for sure :)

PonyTail Fun

What a beautiful little girl I have! Where did that baby go?!?

Thrifty Mom

Ok guys, seriously how come no one has told me about this website:

http://www.kidsmealdeals.com/home

All of you know my brain can only hold so much information, so here it all is in black and white and none of you knew about this website??! I am all about good deals, anything else out there that you haven't told me about??

Adopted.

Loved this video. You just never know whose life is touched by adoption!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIBZ-kJ6XAc

My Cup Runneth Over

As cliche as it sounds...I AM TRULY BLESSED! This week has been full of emotional moments for me and my kids.

We started the week off on Sunday with Faith's baby dedication at church. I was kind of got off guard when it was my turn to speak into the microphone and "simply" introduce my baby girl. I said this is Faith Straight and then a huge lump in my throat appeared and my voice crackled as I simply said "She joined our family in December".

I was surprised that I got all choked up just with that. The truth is with that simple statement a flood of emotions took over my head. I thought of her life before she came to us. Being left in a crib all day long with no one to hold her, or play with her, or to kiss her chubby cheeks is heartbreaking :( Just stop and think about it for a moment. You leaving your child in an orphanage for 16 months with no mommy or daddy. Oh how her life and our lives have been forever changed by the simple statement of her "joining our family". We are so very blessed!

Hoola Time

Sorry but not much time to blog these days. We have Faith's 6 month post-placement homestudy visit tonight. Faith is back on the antibiotics this week with congestion junk. Caleb doesn't have strep, but just a sore throat this time around. Travis had his end of the year thing yesterday for finishing up kindergarten. My how time flies when we are having fun! I will leave you with some pics from Sheila's hoola hoop lesson with the kids this weekend...

Oh and yes Sheila, I still have the video of you doing the hoola. I will save that and simply hold it over your head for blackmail purposes only ;)

Before I Was a Mom

Before I was a Mom,

I never tripped over toys

or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not

my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never been puked on.

Pooped on.

Chewed on.

Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind

and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held down a screaming child

so doctors could do tests.

Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried..

I never got gloriously happy

over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night

watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held a sleeping baby

just because I didn't want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces

when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small

could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love

someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,

I didn't know the feeling of having

my heart outside my body..

I didn't know how special it could feel

to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between

a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small

could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle

of the night every 10 minutes

to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth,

the joy,

the love,

the heartache,

the wonderment or

the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,

before I was a Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to the best Mom and Nana anyone could have! We love you Nana!!

Birthmom's Day

Happy Birthmother's Day! I know not something you may know about or hear often, but yes today is the day to celebrate the mother that gave birth to you. You can click on this link to learn more about today's holiday.

I plan to talk to Shelby today a little about her birthmother and to honor her some simple way today. As both of my girls grow up, I hope they can talk openly with me about their questions they will have about their birth mom. I believe the sooner I talk to them about her, the better equipped they will be to handle their strong emotions about her. So please today stop for a moment and remember how blessed you are because someone somewhere gave birth to you!

It's Hard Sometimes

I watched some of Oprah the other day and there was a show about the real face of "Motherhood". It was really a good show at least the parts I managed to view in between chasing my kids around. It was about all the stuff no one told you parenting would be like...HARD WORK!!

So I just wanted to post this out there since Mother's Day is this weekend. Us moms...WORK HARD! Yes, there you go I said it. It is no mystery to any mom, but for some reason it is a mystery to everyone else who isn't a mom. Maybe it is because we are more detail oriented and emotional in general being women, but we have alot of things going on in our heads 24/7 about our kids and our families. Sometimes it is just exhausting!

Now here is the kicker, we ASKED for this. Yep at least most of us PLANNED our children. We intentionally brought this on ourselves...all this HARD WORK! It really is a puzzle to me sometimes of why we do this to ourselves. Of course I know the rewards are great sometimes (sorry but that is the truth-only sometimes). And I know that all children are God's gifts to us, but come on why does it have to be so stinking hard at times?!

Ok, there is my vent for the day. I plan to have a wonderful Mother's Day celebrating the JOYS of motherhood. Yes, there are a lot of JOYS that come with the job too :) I just wanted all you moms out there to know that I KNOW how hard it is to be a great mom. I appreciate all your hard work you put into the job to make our kids' futures a better place. Since my children have to live in the world with your children, thank you for making them pleasant children to live with ;)

She Knows

Yesterday Shelby had a speech evaluation appointment down at CHOA. The eval went well and I was happy to have some dedicated time with the speech therapist to discuss Shelby's future. We believe that she will need another surgery often called a p-flap to help her with her speech progress. He will decide in about 3 months if we are going to do the surgery and when.

Back to the title of the day, she knows. Yesterday was the first time that I realized Shelby knows she looks different. When we were in the waiting room, she saw a little boy there with a repaired cleft lip like hers. She got very excited and walked right up to him and said, "Look Mommy he has a palate lip like me!".


For some reason I was immediately saddened. I know that wasn't how I should feel, but I did. I want Shelby to be proud of the way God made her and for her to know that she is beautiful. And this she was as the excitement in her face was genuine to see another person "like her". However, I guess I realized that even though I see her beauty, reality is that others will not :( I know that she will have her share of teasing throughout her life and for that I am sad. I guess I just didn't realize that she already knows that she is "different". So now it is my job to teach her that "different" doesn't mean "bad"!!!

Eighteen Months Ago

Today marks Shelby's 18 month Gotcha Day anniversary! It is really hard to believe that she hasn't always been with us. I am so thankful to have her as my daughter. She is so smart, brave, funny, adorable, and of course stubborn just like her moma ;)

Marking 18 months with her reminds me again of her foster mom in China that raised her for 26 months! Can you imagine having a child in your home for 26 months and then someone taking her away from you?!?! I am so thankful to her for taking care of Shelby and giving her heart away to my child only to have it taken away from her 2 years later. I have been lucky enough to have her for 18 months so far and what a blessing she has been to our family. I hope that her foster mom remembers all the blessings that little Hong Hong gave her :)

Weekend Recap

Amazingly enough the rain held off on Friday night, so we had a great support group meeting at our house. All the kids enjoyed the backyard and we had terrific time spent with friends.

Unfortunately Faith started back with fever Saturday night and was feeling YUCKY all day yesterday. As you can see it landed her a day spent in the pouch (Ergo=priceless) with mom. This was the only thing that made her happy (or at least not crying), and it gave me the mobility to help Caleb with his school project.

Oh and Caleb finally captured a lizard of his very own-yeah! You have no idea how many hours my son has spent looking under every rock and branch in the yard. Oh the joys of boys ;)

2 Years Ago Today

I sent this email that would forever change lives:

From: Donna Straight

Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 8:56 AM

To: 'Aisha Cooper'

RE: Ning Fu Hong

We WANT this baby!! Tell me what to do now please. You can reach directly at 678-269-1103 or cell 678-296-9975. Thanks!

--.-.--.-.--.-.--.-.--.-.--.--
Donna Straight

A Mom's Week in Review

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! Here is just a small glimpse into the past 4 days of my life, in no particular order mind you...

• 3 Speech Therapy sessions
• Purchased turkey for first Friday, delivered to Mom's house
• Tracked down renters to collect late rent
• 3 kids haircuts
• 1 ice cream trip to Bruster's with friends
• 3 kids to gymnastics
• Email to Travis' teacher checking on his bad behavior
• Email to Caleb's teacher to clarify class project instructions
• Scheduled Shelby's Cleft Clinic appointment
• Cancelled one of Shelby's speech appointment so she can do above appointment
• Scheduled Faith's ENT appointment
• Paid multiple medical bills along with other household bills
• Re-scheduled Faith's 6 month post placement home study appt
• Dinner at Joe's Crab Shack with friends
• Pulled together blog lists for first Friday
• Called Rosa for cleaning on first Friday day
• Put together demonstration for first Friday
• Terminated 2 employees
• Absorbed their positions into my schedule
• Took big paycut along with everyone else at work
• Was home alone 2 nights since CJ was working out of town this week
• Weight Watchers and lunch with a friend
• Counseled/prayed for a friend in marital crisis
• Made calls to adoption friends waiting to travel to head off hysteria from CCAA post today
• Church on Wednesday for dinner and puppet show with the kids
• Grocery shopping twice since I buy hot stuff at lunch to leave in car- cold stuff night to take home quickly
• Dishes 3 times
• Bathed each child at least once (I think;)
• I even got a shower a couple of times
• Woke up approximately 3 times every night to comfort Faith back to sleep
• Fed stupid guinea pigs 3 times
• Fed my children multiple times
• Signed multiple papers for school
• Put more lunch money on boy's accounts online
• Got up and reminded the tooth fairy at 2AM to not forget about Travis' tooth under his pillow
• Worked approximately 7.5 hours everyday (not at home)
• Blogged daily :)

I am sure I have forgotten a few things. These are just the ones I happen to have time to post about. I hope your life is as blessed and full as mine :) Never a dull moment that is for sure!

The Good and The Bad

Well of course let's start with the good....CJ HAS A JOB!! Yes, he was offered one of the positions that is available at the Norcross branch of Averitt. The commute will stink, but the job is good!! (See I told you to never underestimate the power of a praying woman ;)

Ok, the bad is that I received a 15% paycut the same day we originally found out about CJ's office closing. Oh well, times are tough, but I still have a job and a paycheck and a good job at that :)