A recipe for adventure

I have been an avid reader all my life.  Starting with my first favorite book, "Whoa, Joey! Whoa!" (about a kangaroo who could never aim his jumps quite right) and graduating to the entire Nancy Drew series.  I am embarrassed to admit that I even went through a time in high school reading Harlequin Romances (Yes, I can't believe I did it, either).  I am now interested in books on food (think cookbooks, food memoirs - you get the idea).  I just finished reading "Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes" by Emily Franklin.

Emily Franklin makes me want to move to Connecticut, become a stay-at-home mom and experiment with cooking.  Ms. Franklin is a young mother of four whose culinary adventures are warmly amusing.  From jaunts to her father's and step-mother's home in Italy to visits to farmers' markets in the Midwest, we are swept along with Ms. Franklin and her family as they discover delicious and sometimes exotic foods.  Her storytelling includes sweet anecdotes of her family life - typical of many homes.

The real bonus is that the book is filled with the recipes of the many foods she has cooked (or sometimes attempted to cook) - from Apricot Almond Bread to Celeriac Mash.  All the recipes entice one to try them out, or better yet, make up something of your own!  Experimenting and improvisation are encouraged.

The book does not read as a cookbook. Rather, it reads as a memoir of life, parenting, travel and food.  I highly recommend it both for the good read and for the yummy recipes included.

This book has left me feeling like I can have something good come out of my kitchen and that in so doing, my life might be a little more enriched.  My life.  As in The Girl Who Is a Non-cook.  I think I will try.

So with what recipe will I begin?  Will it be Buttery Apricot Bars or Crunchy Sesame Tofu?  Maybe I will choose Polenta or Roasted Broccoli Rabe and Baby Greens.  I will let you know.  But whatever I choose, it will be an adventure for me! 

Relay for Life

Scarlett, Megan & Jackson

Part of the team - My WonderTwin and Wonder Woman!

Laura, Lexi & Debbie - Lexi won best dressed dog!

This past weekend, our office participated in the Relay for Life to help raise money to defeat cancer for good!  While I have been fortunate enough to not have the specter of cancer follow me, several family members have not been. My sweet grandfather passed away from lung cancer.  I have an aunt, mother-in-law, step-father and niece who have all survived various types of cancer.   It is for them and others who are always listening for the footsteps of cancer behind them that we walked.

The day was oppressively hot and humid, but that did nothing to dampen our spirits!  We arrived at the track bright and early - ready to walk and raise money for cancer research.  A mother/daughter on our team entered their pup in the Dog Parade.  Miss Lexi won Best Dressed.  She was adorable in her Little Miss Perfect outfit on her float.

I am happy to report that the event was a success.  We are all looking forward to next year!

Surprised, but pleasantly so...

I am not really sure why I decided to chronical a portion of our lives on this blog instead of writing it down in a diary like I used to do as a young girl.  I suppose that I wanted to embrace the latest technology of a diary blog.  I love surfing the blogosphere and reading all kinds of blogs. I have discovered some gems:  One of a husband to a a woman suffering wtih MS.  Another touting the simple delights of daily life.  Blogs about music, special needs, photography, spirituality, travel, scrapbooking and cooking.  But I also found blogs that were extremely depressing or just downright disturbing - causing me to immediately stop and pray for the authors.  I suppose that I am not alone in the voyeuristic pursuit of finding entertaining and useful blogs.  I was delighted and pleasantly surprised to discover that there are people "out there" commenting on and following Running Down Dreams. 

I am not really sure what the purpose of this post is, other than to say thank you for your supporting and encouraging words.  It is nice to know sometimes that someone - somewhere - is listening. 

Blessings!

What once was lost...

now is found! 

Two days before we left for China to adopt Jackson, I lost our camera.  I was devastated. Not due to the loss of the camera, per se, (although I was upset about that) but because of the photos that were on the camera.

I am happy to report that the camera (and photos on it) was found in the bottom of my closet.  Amidst a pile of shoes.  My shoes.  Man, am I ever embarrassed.  So what do I do?  Tell the world!  I am so relieved.  This is yet another answered prayer.  I am still puzzled as to how the camera ended up where it did.  My husband says he believes it had "help".

So now my thought is:  now that we have two cameras, I can take the old one with me everywhere and catch those pictures I always seem to be missing.  Like the other day, when Jackson walked into the den in my high-heeled shoes, wearing a pull-up and a smile, waving his sister's foam sword around.  I mean, come on, we are talking teenage blackmail photos of the future here!

Here's to having two cameras.  So, smile and say, "cheese!"

Busy times

I cannot believe that it has been so long since I was able to write on the blog!  Our lives have been so incredibly hectic with doctors' appointments, school (it's winding down, folks!) and just transitioning into a family of four.  The biggest hurdle has been taking care of Jackson's medical appointments.

It is no secret that Jackson came to us with an unrepaired cleft palate.  However, we have discovered some other issues that will need to be addressed.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Jackson had a positive TB skin test.  We are currently undergoing INH therapy to lessen the chances of him ever contracting TB to less than 1%.  Modern medicine is a marval.

Our family anticipated possible speech therapy and ear tubes being necessary as part of the cleft diagnosis.  We were not wrong in that.  Jackson will be getting tubes placed in his ears during his cleft surgery.  The speech therapy is being set up now.

The one thing we never considered was that he might come to us needing a little male-type surgery.  To put it delicately, he will be having a little nipping done to his nether region at the same time his cleft is repaired.  Poor baby!  Usually this sort of thing is done when a boy child is a couple of days old - not over two!

Miss Scarlett's kindergarten class is about to finish out its school year.  She has truly loved her first year of "Big Kid" school with Mrs. Butler (formerly known as Miss Blanton).  Having a teacher who is so dedicated to sharing a love of learning with children early on is such a blessing.  It will be hard for Miss Scarlett to leave Mrs. Butler.

This week has been a whirlwind of activities at her school with zoo outings, Field Day, and Awards Day.  In between all of those activities, there was some learning done, I imagine!

The transition from a family to three to a family of four was not as difficult as I had thought it would be.  I suppose the fact that Miss Scarlett is such a good helper with her little brother has smoothed the way a lot.  She tries to put him first, even when we tell her that she needs to be first sometimes.  The bond that they have together is so incredibly sweet and fierce at the same time.  When he cries, she tries to comfort him.  If she cries, he is patting her with an expression of such concern that it makes me catch my breath.  However do we deserve such wonderful children?  It has to be God's doing, that is all that I know!

Now I am back at work.  At first I was so upset to leave Jackson at daycare.  But after seeing his bond with Mrs. Wendy, I feel so much better.  He has definitely attached to her - and her to him!

Now that things have momentarily calmed down, I will hopefully have more time to write.  Fingers crossed!

But I didn't finish week one!

I had such dreams of writing down our first week of home.  Unfortunately, life got in the way.  Let's just say that it was a good week - after we made it through all the doctors appointments.  Which we are still going through, by the way.

So on to week two.  And welcome to it!  After yet another week of doctor appointment for both kids, we managed to get very little done other than survive the week.  Jackson has completed his first week of daycare, but not without a lot of tears.  Unfortunately, the tears were from both Mama and son.  I HATE leaving my children in the care of someone else while I work. 

Scarlett treated us all to a "Reader Cafe" at school Monday evening.  The family met at her school cafeteria where she and her classmates all came out of the kitchen with their chef hats and books to read to us.  Her book was "Maddie Loves to March".  She did an awesome job!

Tuesday, Scarlett awoke with a nasty cough that sounded like it was deep in her little chest.  We were able to get into her doctor with no trouble.  Happily, she just has an upper respiratory cough due to allergies.  The pediatrician gave us some samples of Singulair, so hopefully she will be soon on the mend.

My stint at Weight Watchers has continued to go well.  I have now lost over 10% of my total body weight and lost two dress sizes, which thrills me.  I celebrated by purchasing a Points Calculator to keep track of my points.

Today I heard Jackson call me Mama for the first time.  So, so sweet to this Mama's ears.  Just an early Mother's Day gift for me.

Speaking of Jackson, we will be going though yet more tests due to his positive TB skin test in China.  The one here in the U.S. was negative, but the chest X-rays were unclear.  The poor little fella has been in a doctor's office almost every single day since coming home from China.  

My two weeks of being a stay-at-home Mom are almost over.  I would have loved to taken another week off.  Two weeks to transition from China to daycare/work is just not enough.  Praying for a solution to my dilemma....

One Week Home - Part One

I am so far behind on posting that I have divided the first week home into parts.  This is the first one...

Who knew that being home would be thousands times more tiring that living out of suitcases in a hotel in China?  We left China on Friday morning - an uneventful trip until we reached the Chicago-O'Hare Airport.  We thought we had plenty of time to spare between flights.  We had budgeted almost 2 hours.  However, Immigration thought it would make life more exciting by calling in the U.S. Dept. of Health on Jackson's positive TB skin test.  That phone call cost us our connecting flight home.   We were fortunate enough to have the assistance of a wonderful United Airlines employee who helped us get on the next flight out (6 a.m. Saturday morning) and find an inexpensive hotel connected to eh airport.

After taking baths and getting a good night's sleep, we left Chicago for home.  We had a wonderful welcoming committee of my Dad, Brenda, Leigh Ann, Lindsey, Kylie and Luke.  We were thankful that Lindsey and her family came along, because we needed their big Suburban to get all our luggage home!

Upon reaching home, we were met by almost ALL (and I do mean all) of the surrounding county: sisters, brothers, mothers, cousins, friends all came to meet Jackson.  Like the little politician he is, he met everyone with a smile and blowing kisses.  Our family brought tons of food (which was such a blessing) and our friends: Sara, Lena, Sammy and Jack had decorated the yard with balloons and a welcome poster.

The rest of the weekend was spent trying to get acclimated to the time difference.  It took the children only 3 days to get back on schedule, something for which I am extremely thankful.

James started back to work on Monday and Scarlett to school.  Jackson and I went in with Scarlett so that she could show her new brother off to the class.  It was a good day.

Tuesday was spent going to the pediatrician and getting shots,  Jackson is not a fan of shots, but he forgave the nurse by blowing kisses.

Wednesday we went to my niece Lindsey's to play with her son Luke.  Jackson and Luke had a grand time.  After lunch and a short shopping trip with them,  Jackson and I went to the Health Department with Jackson's chest x-rays.  The nurse did a second TB skin test and told us to come back on Friday to have it read.  By that time, we were all pooped out and took naps.  After naps, we went to church to work in the bookstore.  People I had never seen before came into the bookstore to meet Jackson and ask Scarlett how she liked being a big sister.

We will be glad when things settle in a little bit so we can get back to a normal life!