As I was reading to the boys before bed last night, Melia was wandering around the room...sometimes sitting in my lap to look at the book and sometimes entertaining herself with the boys toys. At one point, she climbed into Logan's bed. Logan was laying on his back, and Melia plopped herself hard onto his stomach. As she did so, she "did a stinker" rather loudly. Being boys, Logan and Cael totally cracked up. Being a girl with big brothers, Melia got a large, proud smile on her face and said, "Burp!" (Which made me laugh out loud. Thank goodness she doesn't know the word "fart"...yet.)

We've had news from Lutheran Family Services about the North Korean/Chinese refugee adoption program.   Pastor Chun is making headway, albeit slowly, toward getting these little ones out of China!  There are a whole host of issues but Durihana is continuing to work on them.  The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has finally designated North Koreans in China as refugees.  Unfortunately, the children of these refugees have not been given the same status.  However, UN acknowledgement of refugee status for the birth parents is still a HUGE step towards making this adoption program possible.  With UNHCR refugee status, and knowing North Korea will not accept these children perhaps China will allow them to leave legally and without complication or political involvement.  It is our hope that these children find their way to Colorado quickly and into the waiting arms of loving families (us!).

Jamey says my blog isn't lame and I'm trying to believe her but I've seen other blogs and they are...well, interesting.  In an attempt to make my blog more interesting I'm going to try to write about more interesting things.  Rocket Science, right?  Today's blog will be about the motivation behind our adoption.

"If you have come to help me you are wasting your time.  But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."  ~ Aboriginal Activist Group 1970s

This quote is a pretty accurate account of why we are adopting.  It isn't about saving someone from poverty.  I know that may sound strange to some people but in our minds poverty is not reason enough to relinquish your children.  We've both seen poverty.  We've both seen people who live on so much less than we do and are loving and loved and a family.  Contrary t ...

Saturday's meeting went very well.  We received clarification on a few points (the ages and well-being of the children) but were still left with a lot of questions (what will family selection look like, when and if this program will happen).  There were almost 50 families represented.  We met some great adoptive families from Fort Collins and it was an honor to just be in the same room as Pastor Chun (the founder of Durihana).  He's been dubbed the "Schindler of Asia" for helping more than 500 refugees escape North Korea and China.  Pastor Chun only speaks Korean so he worked through an interpreter.  The meeting began with an overview of what the Durihana does and then went on to talk about Angel House which is a collection of homes currently caring for the children.  This was followed up by a question and answer period. 

The need is so great for these children. &am ...

I was upstairs with the boys this morning hurridly getting everyone ready to go tour a fire station with the MOPS group.

Me: "Ben, whatcha doin'?"

Ben: "Going potty....on a piece of money." ("piece of money" being Ben-speak for "coin")

Me: "What?" I leave Eli on the floor and go investigate the situation. Sure enough, there is Ben sitting on the potty peeing on a penny that is in the toilet bowl.

Ben: "See it?"

Me: "Yes. Why did you put that penny in the potty?"

Ben: "To pee on it."

Me: "That's not really what money is for. Do you know we have to do now?"

Ben: "Flush it!" And he flushed the penny away....

This is why ...

I'm sure that every person has a list of things that they will NEVER do when they are a parent.

Some of these are probably reasonable like: I will not beat my child.

Some are out of your control and generally not reasonable like: I will not ever let my child throw a fit in the grocrey store.

Some of them are just born of ignorance: I will never have have more baby contraptions (swings, bouncers, seats, jumpers) in my living room than I have furniture. Sure you will, and if you hear about the NEXT BIG THING that promises to make your newborn sleep, you'll rush out to the store to bring that one home as well.

Here's a few of the things that were on my list:

I will not take my child out in public in pajamas.

     ***** This has been ammended to include the following clauses: unless they are sick and we have to go to the doctor and then to the pharmac ...

July 15.

Ben: Was driving a car along the edge of the table this morning and he sneezed hard enough to snap his head forward and hit his mouth on the table giving himself a bloody lip.

Eli: Was in our bed a little last night to "sleep". There was no sleeping, but he was hysterical. He was staring us down, and growling at us, and doing "lizard push ups" and trying to crawl, and inch-worming around, rolling over in between us, grabbing at us, kicking. He was totally showing off.

July 16.

Ben: I'm just going to shamelessly brag and say that he has such good manners. He's still certainly and obviously two years old, but really the child is mostly polite. Even when he's playing with his toys they say thank you, you're welcome, bless you, yes please, no thank you, etc to each other. It makes my ears happy. :)

Eli: He made it up into " ...

Elijah had his six month checkup today and follow up for his incurable diaper rash. Everything was going fine, at least as fine as taking two small children to the doctor when one of them should be sleeping and being stuck in a tiny room filled with things that two year olds aren't supposed to touch while waiting for 45 minutes for the nurse and then the doctor and then the nurse... Ugh.

I have to admit I find well-baby checks pretty stupid. I'm grateful for health insurance and I definitely believe in preventative care, but give me a break. Just give him the vaccine and let me go home. So the doctor comes in and she'd asking me medically stupid questions about his development, "does he turn his head toward noise?", "does he recognize family members?" etc. I'm answering those while trying to keep Eli from rolling off the exam table and Ben from pulling out the stirrups. I find these to be dumb, but at least I can justify them as being developmen ...

To catch everyone up...in the late spring, upon the advisement of our social worker (Katie), Matt and I decided to postpone having our home study done to give ourselves a chance to become more "financially appealing" to the adoption powers that be.  While we felt this was a wise decision it was still discouraging.  I tried to console myself with the thought that maybe our kiddos just weren't ready for us yet...or even born.  We prayed that God would change our hearts about the delay and remind us that he has our little family in mind.  We put operation, "Get Matt a Job/Pay Off Our Debt/Get Money In Savings" into effect in full force.  Our full force has turned out to have the power of a light breeze more than a raging storm but we've been doing the best we can and making a little progress :)

Last week, Katie called me at work and said that ...

Just a tidbit for each day:

July 1.

Ben: (At the doctor's office to the doctor)  "I am waiting patiently, but I want to go home now."

July 4.

Ben: During his nightly prayers, "Thank you God for daddy take me to the store and buy some chocolate milk."

Eli: Has his first bottle of formula. Boo! Hiss!

July 5.

Ben: Very into putting things into his mouth and then "sneezing" them out. It's nasty and I think he first real forray into "boy humor"...

Eli: Eats and likes steamed and pureed broccoli.

July 6.

Ben: Saw his first in-theater movie, "Ice Age 3" with Mom ...