Too Quiet!

OMGoodness, it's so quiet I can't think! Everyone is in school, Peter is out and the baby is sleeping. I thought it would be a great time to write a post and the silence is killing me. I've been staring at the screen for almost an hour. That's pathetic. I cooked a meatloaf in the time I've been attempting to get a post up.

I hate to waste this precious time staring blankly at my computer.

I guess I can catch you up on Emmie. She had a couple of doctor appointments this week. One with her ENT. Her tubes are doing fine. She recovered without any issues and I think she is hearing better. Em had constant fluid in her ears before the tubes went in, and she is really "talking" up a storm lately. Lots of jargon.
She had her 30 month check up at her pedi. She now weighs a whopping 22 pounds!!

Em now calls everything on her face "eyes".
Says cat and makes a cat sound,(which actually sounds like she's stepping on a cat).
Em is showing an interest in cleaning. Wipes things with a paper towel. That's useful!

Climbing up stairs and stepping down low steps alone. Can also step over things without falling.

More and more signs are emerging. Newest ones are, Good morning, music, mine(which she signs when it's someone else's turn at something), jump.

Still obsessed with signing time.

Loves salad.

Still making us laugh and smile every day.

All in Pink

So much for the traditional Easter picture in church. Miss Em was not having it. She does look like she's praying for someone to rescue her. (you can click to enlarge pics)


Emmie did warm up to the camera as the day went on. The smell of chocolate probably helped.

HE IS RISEN!

1: And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2: And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3: And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" 4: And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; -- it was very large. 5: And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were
amazed.6: And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. 7: But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you."

Mark 16:1-7

Happy Easter Everyone!

Just My Thoughts And Feelings On This Good Friday.

I wasn't planning on posting today. I just wanted to use my morning time to catch up on some blogs and get back in touch. Feel like I've been away from blogland lately. But as I set out on my routine of going down my blog roll, the stories and posts today set the mood. It is Good Friday and the first thing I saw this morning was this from Diane, Lera's mommy, it's called Is's Friday but Sunday's Comin'
I put it at the end of this post, but please read through first.

Then I headed over to check on Olga and her family. And I left crying. I always get emotional when I go to Jenn's blog. It's Olga for goodness sake, the Dumpling that changed my heart and put a passion in me that I never expected. I want her home. The Abell family is having a yard sale today and tomorrow, A big one. Please pray that it is a successful one. They still need 14,000 to be fully funded and still need to submit their dossier. I'm praying that someone who comes to the yard sale is moved to do something big!

So after visiting Olga I thought I'd head over to see Pudge and Zippy. They're always good for a laugh. And yes Courtney has some delicious photos that made me laugh and cry at the same time. Love , love , love those kids.

Thinking I had recovered I went to see Polly, Kristen's mom and she has posted a beautiful quote about sorrow and how it touches us all, and again I found myself in tears.

And yes, there were some other happy posts that I took joy in this morning too. Birthdays and blessings, and things that made me smile. Photos that made me wish I could jump through the computer screen and just squeeze some of those smiling faces.

So with all that said and done I've decided to fast today. A Good Friday Fast. For successful fundraisers, for sad hearts missing their loved ones, for happy hearts that they always see their blessings, for the needs of my friends in blogland, and for the miracles that you pray for, the ones between you and God. For peace of mind, For Brigita's mama wherever you are. For all the waiting orphans. I'd love some company in fasting today.

Is's Friday but Sunday's comin'

For The Love Of Grapes

Miss Em loves her some grapes! So, I took her love of grapes and we practiced some simple directions, over and over and over again . After about a pound of grapes I think we got some really good results. I did post this on FB so it's a rerun for some, but not everyone is on FB.Pause my music.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Helping Without Spending

OK, listen to this. One of my new favorite people in blogland is doing something amazing. Besides adopting a Princess from EE herself she is one of the BIGGEST advocates on the planet.
She is always lending a hand to others to help them get their Dumplings home too.
This is what Deanna is up to now. The Burgers are bringing home Brian and The Brownings are having a great Giveaway for them, Deanna and her husband Rob are donating one dollar for everyone that posts a link to the giveaway on their blogs or on FB.

The idea is to get the word out about the giveaway. The Burgers are short and they need to raise the rest of the money to be fully funded and get Brian out of hell and into their arms.

Read all the details here
The Brownings giveaway is here

And Beautiful Brian. He looks like an angel.


WILL BE HERE!

institution


This is a great way to help without spending money. Of course donations are gladly accepted. But I know sometimes I just cannot help out in a monetary way. There is always a way to do something! No gift is too small, no effort is in vain. I think I spent 15 minutes putting this post up. And hopefully Brian is one small step closer to home. If everyone does one small thing for these children it will turn into something huge!

Thankful Sunday

Well what a week! That dull moment never came!

This week I am so thankful that Em's surgery went so well. She has been great and except for some stuffiness from the surgery she is perfect.

Thankful that Sophia is feeling better. She wasn't feeling so well the first part of the week.

Thankful Olivia is better. She got sick Wednesday and gave us a big scare on Friday morning~ she fainted in the bathroom from dehydration. The scary part was she could not maintain conscientiousness. A trip to the ER, via a rescue, and an IV of fluids perked her right up.

Thankful that this is vacation week, as of right now we could all use a break!

Thankful for my friends who are always there for me and my sick kids!LOL Thanks guys!

Maybe next week I'll be thankful for warmer weather, but as of now ... NO!

Enjoy your Sunday!!

Brigita's Giveaway, All the Way From NORWAY

Yes, when I said Miss Brigita had" Mama's" everywhere who love her I wasn't kidding. One of bloglands best treasures lives in Norway and is Brigita's Warrior.

This giveaway is very special to me. One, it's for Brigita and two, it takes place in Norway. think about it, do you know what the shipping is from Norway to the States? Brigita's Warrior has the biggest heart and to even attempt this is amazing. But she loves Miss B and wants more than anything to find her mama.

Please continue reading, the rest is Helle's post about her giveaway. It should be called "Tokens From The Heart" because that's exactly what it is. Please support it and Helle, and who knows, maybe soon Miss B will be on the MFFMP! We're not giving up on this kid.

The token prize post :)

... at last!

No fundraiser without a prize, right?
So as soon as I decided to pull something together for Brigita and Friends, my mind started reeling over what to offer.

A natural place to start fundrasing these days, would be somewhere near iTown ;-)
iPads, iPods, iPhones and such seems to be very popular now, and I can see why. It IS a cool thing to win!

Trouble is, I live in what might very well be the most expensive country in the world (ask any bewildered tourist who just got off the airport express train and grabbed a pint at the nearest shabby outdoor cafe. "Ten dollars? Is this some kind of joke?"). So to buy some gadget here at three times the American price, and then pay to send it to the States, would border on madness. I'd rather put the excess money into the older girls' account.

But I had to find something, just for the sport of it:) And as this is, after all, the Noggie Bloggie of the Broken English Spoken Perfectly, why not go for the tourist approach?

Prize one: Cheese slicer (aka "ostehøvel")

This Noggie invention, dated 1925, is practical for cutting your Jarlsberg cheese!

I'll promise to find a nice one.

Prize two: Freia milk chocolate

I googled to find some nice souvenir shops, but what I found was a lot of travellers' blogs going on and on about that fabulous Noggie chocolate and how it was their favourite souvenir.

So, even though I personally think that it's kind of cheapo as far as souvenirs go, I will listen to the experts and ship a few bars overseas. I might even add a traditional....

(no, no extra points for figuring out the meaning behind the odd spelling!)

Considering that there are so far only three participants- please leave a comment if you feel left out- I think we will leave it at that for the 1st of May drawing. But as this fundraiser is a work in progress, and some people have signaled they would like to participate later, I plan a June 1st drawing as well.

Maybe a...



troll (every mantlepiece is begging for one. Not necessarily quite this big, though)

Or perhaps some traditional jewelry to go with your bunad ?

A brooche?

Or maybe you prefer earrings?

The possibilities are endless :) And as always, any advice/help/criticism on this project is most appreciated. I am still a total newbie in these matters.

Anyway, the first drawing will take place on May 1st- for the cheese slicer and the yummy choco.

All of you who have donated to the older girls fund, or advocated for Brigita in any way, are in!

Click here to donate to the Older Girls on Reece's Rainbow
Click here to go to Helle's blog

Two Years Ago!

Two years a go today I stepped out into blogland, not really sure what to expect. I carefully put my first post out there and wondered if anyone in this big wide world would read it.
Well, thanks to my first wonderful loyal friends and supporters(read the comments) I didn't get the old goose egg on that first post.


Miss Em when I started my blog. This was my first header picture.


552 posts later I'm still plucking along and love being here. I love sharing in your joys and praying for you during your tough times. When I need some thing, whether it's prayers, or advice about Em or just a pep talk or pick me up, the first people I think about are my "bloggy friends".

I honestly don't know what I'd do without each and every one of you. My family has gotten bigger with you all in my life. I wish I could meet you all and just see you face to face and squeeze your Sweet Dumplings who I have also fallen in love with.

I honestly didn't expect this to happen. I mean think about it. How can you form a friendship with a person or persons you've never met? Some of you I may never meet but that bond is there. Must be a God thing.
Whatever it is I love it, and I'm so honored to be a part of this extra special community that without a doubt are some of the the best people in the world.

Miss Em today, two years later, two year bigger. Clapping because she put her hat on!(Her Minnie Mouse Princess hat)

Emmie Udate

The girl just rocks!! And thanks to all your prayers everything went smoothly and stress free.


Here she is watching a movie before the surgery.




and here she is home. She wanted to play!



And of course nothing can kill her appetite so she had to have something to eat.

And finally a nap! What a Princess, I am so proud of her. And again thank you all so much for all the prayers!

A Prayer For Miss Em, Please

The Dumpling is having her adenoids out and tubes put in on Wednesday morning. I sure would appreciate a prayer or two for her. I'm sort of dreading this. I've been down the adenoid /tube road a couple of times before with my other kids but it's different with Em. I can't explain anything to her and I know when it's over and she is most likely hysterical I still won't be able to explain anything to her.


And of course I'm second guessing the decision to even have the surgery. When we took her to the ENT she had been having sinus infections almost one right after another, a constant runny/ congested nose, mouth breathing , even some sleep apnea, and snoring. since the DAY we went to the ENT and he decided to get rid of the trouble causing adenoids she hasn't had one of those symptoms! She's been just fine!

I keep telling myself that all the yuckiness will return , it always does and the surgery which is all of ten minutes long will be the best thing for her.

Just wish it was over.

Thanks for the prayers will keep you posted.

Brigita Is Waiting

I wish I could put in to words how I love this Dumpling. This little one that I have never met. If I said that if I close my eyes I can feel her in my arms would you think I was crazy? Maybe, if you haven't lost your heart to an orphan yet, you might say that that were impossible. But you see my heart is gone, long gone to this Sweetie. (Brigita's photo is in my sidebar)

Brigita is very loved, but she still sits alone waiting. Waiting to feel her mama's arms around her.
My estimation has it that four people in this world love Miss Brigita. Four people would love to be her mama, but for one reason or another do not qualify to bring her home. So she sits.

Honestly she cannot sit and wait much longer or she will be lost. I'm not being dramatic here, just truthful. My Sophia is her prayer warrior and Helle is her RR Warrior. She is having a fund raiser for Miss B. It's just about as easy and informal as it gets. Here is her post. Please , please help Miss B. Money helps but it's a mama that she needs NOW!

Helle's post:

Brigita and friends- the details

As I told you last night, I gave up on the thought of fundraising privately. Partly because- in all honesty- I can't see the success coming, in spite of Brigita's dedicated cheerleaders. And there was also another thought gnawing away at my consciousness. After all, the Reece's Rainbow team has chosen to structure the site this way. Individual fundraising for the youngest, group grant for the oldest. They have concluded that at one point it is better to maximise the chances that ONE of the children will get a family. Because most of them, well, won't.

It's heartbreaking, but true- the chances of finding a family shrink as the child grows. It makes sense to structure the childrens' grants the way RR does. That still doesn't make me like the Older Girls' page, hehe. I remember how upset I was when I found out Brigita had been moved! As a new bloggy friend wrote in an e-mail: "I feel like they are buried on that page", which is exactly what I feel too. That page is a no-hoper. The girls won't be going anywhere, they'll be listed forever, it's hopeless.

But hey, that's not the whole story. Every once in a while a special family steps forward, and a very special child is able to go home. Next time, that child may very well be Brigita.

And... if I managed to raise some money for Brigita, and what happened was that

Heidi, or...



Cameron, or...

Kate, or...

Shawna, or...

Anastasia

... or any of the other lovies on the 6+ page found their family instead, would that make feel cheated in any way? Like my effort was all in vain, and we had failed? Heavens no! As Brigita's warrior, I have a special place in my heart for her, and I will do regular Brigita postings throughout the fundraiser. But as long as the grant is a group grant, if the fundraiser can help any of the waiting girls, I would consider it a huge success!

So this is a small, informal fundraiser for Brigita and friends :)

The rules are few and simple:

1) The fundraiser runs from today through April, and ends on May 1st.

2) Donations are made through the RR page

3) Please leave a comment or give me an e-mail nudge if you donated and would like to enter. I'll keep

track of both participants and our joint progress.

4) Effort also counts! Were you interviewed in a local newspaper about RR? Did you advocate for

Brigita at a church or community event? Did the artist of the house create a Brigita flyer? You're in!

5) There will be a few small prizes given away at the end. Tokens, really ;-) I'll make a separate post

about them very soon.

6) Suggestions are welcome! I have never done anything like this before, and I most likely stink at it, so

any help is appreciated.

Main thing is, you have to start somewhere. And while we raise the fund for the Older Girls, I can't stress often enough that awareness is just as important, so those of you who have your own fundraisers to focus on can still make a huge difference for Brigita in that respect!

The Older Girls' fund stands at $478,80, as of today.

99,99% of prospective adoptive parents don't know about RR, and certainly don't know about Brigita.

Let's go change that!

Every little girl deserves hope... and dreams.



George Estreich: A Dad's Story

The DSSRI just ordered this book for their library, and I want to be the first one on the list to get it!
Read the intro here and I bet you will too.

George Estreich gives a great and seldom heard of interpretation of Down syndrome from the Dad's side.

Had To Steal This One

Well not really steal, I saw it on FB and wanted to share it here.

Thankful Sunday

OH my goodness I'm so tired!!! We just got home from 7:30 this morning! It's now 4:00pm. Bella had her States competition today(gymnastics) .She didn't place today but she did a great job.

So I quick thankful going out today before I collapse.

Of course the biggest Yippee OMGoodness Thankful is that Evan is coming home! And that the door wills now open for Kirill and Baby J. So thankful to be able to watch this miracle unfold! And the fabulous news that Fox News picked up the story about Patricia Heaton and Reece's Rainbow. Huge

Thankful Emmie has the day off from any therapies tomorrow and I can catch up on things.

Thankful that Sophia took good care of Miss Em and Andrew while we were gone all day at States.

Thankful Miss Em is picking up more sign language and simple commands. I finally figured her out. If you do the same thing over and over and over... while signing hand over hand with her she stinkin' loves it. I got her to bring me her dish and sign grapes when she wanted more, then take her dish, (with grapes in it, no spilling) back to a chair and place it down gently. I was so excited I was was screaming to Peter to come and see.

And I'm thankful that Peter got a FREE upgrade on our cell phones!! Mine has been gone for months, I broke the charger and with all the driving I do I hate being without a phone. If anything ever happened I don't know what I'd do. Just sit on the highway until someone at home noticed I was missing. HA! just getting an image of that in my head! FUNNY!!! And we got a FREE one for Olivia. Her first! oh you should have seen her face when she heard the news, PRICELESS! She is graduating eighth grade in June and this is her gift.When she's in high school and her schedule isn't as simple as it is now I want to be able to be in contact with her.

And I'm thankful for the nap I'm about to take!

Enjoy what's left of your Sunday!!

Look What I Got!

What do you think came in this big box?


This big blue thing did. Mommy,I don't think this is right.


Oh, it's a dress! A big blue tutu dress! I love it!!! Mommy says that eventually it WILL warm up and then we can take some really pretty pictures outside.


Thank you Deanna!!!

This Is No April Fools

EVAN IS COMING HOME!!!!
THE JUDGE HAS ACCEPTED THE HOOKS APPLICATION TO ADOPT EVAN!!!!!!

THE POWER OF PRAYER!!!!!!!