Recovering Noah

Yesterday was our first day of homeschooling. Well, it was actually our second b/c I had a trial run on Saturday - just in case, I failed, you know. There's nothing like the pressure of having to educate a 3 and 5 year old. lol. Seriously, though, I couldn't sleep. I kept having heart palpitations. I spent hours getting ready and getting prepared. It was all over in 35 minutes. How did that happen??? The readings, the songs, the crafts.... all over in 35 minutes. So, the kids may not have learned a thing, but I learned a lot. Here's a list of things I learned during my first day of homeschooling... 1. Toddlers have the attention span of a flea. There is no point spending an hour and a half designing a game for a 3 year old (or should I say... MY 3 year old) when his attention span doesn't span for more than a minute. 2. Some kids (i.e. MY kids) are unable to tell the difference between shaving cream and whip cream. Before you decide to get all crafty and have your ki...

So, Dreama and Buddy both tagged me. I'll play along. The rules of Tag are: Each person posts the rules before their list, then list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post that person tags and links to 8 other people and visits those people's spaces and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come and read the post, so they know what they have to do. Eight things about me: 1. I have a twin brother 2. I have always dreamed of being in the Peace Corps 3. When I was growing up, I wanted to be an Ear Doctor 4. I chose my major by flipping a coin during my junior year of college 5. Nothing tastes better than my mom's chicken and dumplings 6. I was vegan for many, many years. ( #5 shows that that's no longer the case) 7. My favorite band is u2 - and has been for the last 20 years 8. I eat all the popcorn jelly beans out of a mixed back of Jelly Bellys 9. My mom still cuts my hair in the middle of her kitchen floor 10. I still eat R...

Okay, before I start... I'm a bit embarrassed about my emotional blogging meltdown from the other day. It's just a subject that's waaaaaaaaaay too close to my heart - and it gets me every time. I can't help it. I also found out that Logan's mother signed over complete 100% custody to the State of Texas. In other words, she officially gave him up. She and the family are not entitled to any visitation rights and he is not able to come home for weekends or over Christmas. It wouldn't have happened anyway, but this cements it all. He's 11. I just cannot imagine signing your 11 year old to the State. Anyway, I can't think about it.... because in the midst of all of this, there has been some good news. First of all.... Nandini's Scrutiny Report was passed!!!! Yea! Thank you ALL so much for your prayers. The judge passed it and has scheduled our final court hearing for next Tuesday, August 28th. That's the night of our August 27th, so the decision will ...

I can barely see the keyboard because my eyes are so welled up tears. Today is the day that Logan, a nonverbal 11 year old child with autism, gets sent to a State School in East Texas. I am beside myself with grief. He was a normal, typical developing child until the age of 3 - when he regressed into full-blown autism. His family life is a mess. No one wants him, and I honestly think they've all waited for this day to arrive. I haven't seen him in ages, but his grandmother (who is my mom's best friend) says that he gets so excited when they come over. He strokes her face and smiles. He knows what's going on. And today, they are going to restrain him, put him in a white van, and take him away from the only home he's ever known. They can't see him for 3 months - but it's not like they would anyway. Today, that sweet little boy is going to leave and never see his family again - never see anyone that he knows ever again - and it kills me. He's not going t...

I know I haven't updated in about 10 days now, and trust me, I've got some really amazing things to do share (Noah said "I Love You" if that gives you a hint!), but we're getting ready to go into Dallas this morning for a doctor's appointment and I wanted to catch the "Prayer Warriors" bright and early. :-) Our Scrutiny Case (for Nandini) goes before the judge in Pune tomorrow. Basically, it's a preliminary hearing where a social worker reviews our file and recommends our adoption (or not) to the judge. If the judge approves, then he sets a future date to review and (hopefully) award guardianship to us. This is the deal, though: 1. The social work job is a poor-paid, entry-level job for recent college grads. There's a high turnover rate, so a lot of the time the report isn't ready for the court date. If not, it has to be rescheduled. 2. Even if the report is ready, most of the time, the judge calls in sick or takes a vacation day. I'm...

It's occurred to me that I haven't formally introduced Nandini to anyone. Those of you who see me in person know about her, but there are some of you who are reading this that have no idea that we're in the process of our third adoption. If you know me in real life, you know that 5 minutes can't pass by without me dropping her name in to the conversation. It's kind of like when you were younger and had a crush on someone and you managed to sneak their name into every conversation just because the mere sound of the name was so thrilling - even if it had absolutely nothing to do with the subject being talked about. Do you know what I mean? Nuclear Physics? Well, did you know so-and-so took physics last semester? The Greenhouse Effect? So-and-so's favorite color is green. Slight lull in conversation at the dinner table? What a perfect opportunity to bring up so-and-so's name! Do you remember those days? Well, that's what I'm doing with Nandini. I h...

These are some new pictures of the boys. The first is a family shot of my mom (Nonna) and my dad (Papa) with Noah, Eli, and Alaina. Isn't she cute! My brother and sister-in-law adopted her domestically a year ago in May. They tried for 10 years to conceive and had 2 miscarriages. She is such a little blessing. A definite prayer request, though. Alaina's biological mom is pregnant again and due next month. It's a little girl. This is the b-mom's 6th pregnancy. She's also an addict. She's been using heroin for the last 9 months, so the baby will definitely have to go on methadone when she's born. We've heard the withdrawal is awful. Fortunately, although, Alaina had drugs (meth) in her system at birth, she's fine and didn't go through withdrawal. But this little baby... We still don't know if the b-mom will let my brother and SIL adopt. She says she wants them to adopt her, but it all depends on if they get a phone call from the hospital in ti...

For some reason, I just haven't been motivated to blog lately. At night, when I'm having trouble sleeping, I end up constructing all sorts of wonderful blog entries in my head. Then, when I wake up, I have no desire to type them up. I have become incredibly lazy. I. Am. Lazy.... which might horrify some people, then, when I announce that we have decided to homeschool . That's right. We are now homeschoolers . If I had posted this last Monday when we came to the decision, my blog would have been punctuated with all sorts of exclamation marks and "yea! whoo hoo !". But, honestly, all I've wanted to do this past week is just throw up. See... now we've made a decision. The decision is over. I notified his teacher. I'm ready to send the district our "Intent to Homeschool " letter. The hard part - so I thought - is done. Now, though, I'm faced with the fact that it is my sole responsibility to educate my children. Their brain is officially i...