Birthday Celebrations

In order to save time, I will condense our August birthday celebrations down into one post.  You can thank me later.  ;-)

Also, can anyone tell me how to photoshop my counters so they look clean?  

Luke - Age 16

Luke turned 16 on one of those fast-moving days right before we left for vacation.  I looked down and it was 6:00.  I had no cake, no time, no plan, and everyone had meetings that night.  For the first time in my life, I stopped at a bakery and bought a birthday cake out of sheer desperation.  (It's true that we have occasionally ordered a DQ ice cream cake for a celebration, but that was on purpose.)  Thankfully, I had been to the bank and picked up his birthday present ahead of time.  ;-) 

One thing about Luke, he really doesn't like everyone making a big to-do about his birthday --- nor does he like anyone taking pictures of him smiling at the camera - or in the general direction of the camera.  So he was happy with the low-key celebration.  Within the week, he had used his gift money plus his savings to buy a new (used) Les Paul Electric Guitar.  Not only is Luke a great guitar player, he is generous, caring and thoughtful.  I'm really proud of the man he is becoming. 

Cupcake - Age 8

On the day we left the beach, Cupcake turned 8.  We had already given her our gift, as it was useful on a long car trip.  So, on our last full day in Florida, we took her over to the local hair-feather shack for a little decoration.  The big kids gave her a hair feather for her birthday.  We had planned to let both girls have a feather - so Cupcake got two, while Sugar got one.

She's liking the feathers.  :-)

That night, my friend and I made an ice cream cake for her celebration.  Then Sugar helped to decorate it.  It was a cookies and cream, hot fudge, crumbled oreo, ready-whip, butterfly cake.  Not the fanciest cake I've ever made, but it was one of the most delicious.  :-D  YUM!  

 Cupcake loved celebrating with our friends. 

We were concerned about the timing of everything with her birthday.  There was just no good way to work things out.  We had to give her the gifts early and we had to pack up and leave the day of her actual birthday.  The frenzy of getting everything out the door early has always been a major trigger for all her worst fears, combined with the disappointment and letdown of no gifts...It was a nuclear meltdown waiting to happen.

  On birthday morning, Cupcake did okay.  We had meltdown, but it was not nuclear.  It came from deep within her, but she pulled out of it and was fine by mid-morning.  

I am so proud of my Cupcake!  She has grown so much and learned to trust us in so many ways.  It's little things like this that make my heart glad.  :-) 

Steve - Age Middle

 On August 23, Steve turned another year older.  Once again, it was a crazy day full of activities ending with meetings for everyone.  I picked up a cake at the grocery store on the way back home at the end of the day.  A store-bought cake again!  Aack!  Well, the shame wore off pretty quickly.  It was a good looking cake.  And delicious too.  :-)   At the end of the day, Steve was proud owner of two Steven Curtis Chapman concert tickets.  I hope he picks me to be his hot date to the show.  :-)

Hang on.  We're almost done....

Sugar - Age 13

Sugar turned 13 at the end of the month.  For her birthday, I took her to the mall and had a gal at one of those expensive make-up counters show her how to properly apply real make-up so as not to look like a sleaze-ball.  Then I bought a small fortune in non-sleaze-ball cosmetics.  :-)

 

It was such a fun time with my young lady.  She is so beautiful, it takes my breath away.

Sugar wanted to bring a cake to Sunday School to share with her friends.  She had an elaborate idea about a beautiful cake with lilies on it.  (I know very little about cake decorating.)  So we went to H*bby L*bby looking for fondant lilies.  Instead, we found the perfect alternative for a fun cake for decorating dummies like me.  It's called Sugar Sheets Edible Decorating Paper!  She got all creative on me again!  We bought two sheets for $4 each.

As it turned out,I had too many things on my plate and I did not start baking until 9:00 pm Saturday.  At 11:00 we began frosting.  Then we had to call in help from "the engineer".  Thank goodness my husband is a sugar engineer, as well as, electrical.  The paper was really easy to work with, but going around the side of the cake was tricky.  Late into the night, we finished the cake.  But it turned out great, don't you think?  And it was delicious too.  (I had just a small piece of the leftovers.) 

Almost Done

 

Here she is on birthday morning, opening gifts from the other kids.

Phew!  That's a lot of birthdays!

Strangely enough, I can't figure out why I can't lose any weight.   

Or why the bank account is empty.  

Or why I'm so tired all the time.  ;-)

Blessings to you,

Mamita

Freeze Wrestling

We have a fun game that Cupcake loves.  I like to play, because I have the easy job.  :-)

It's called Freeze Wrestling.

Equipment needed:
1 Strong and Playful Daddy.
1 Wild Child.
1 Keeper of the Light (That's me.).
1 wrestling surface.
1 dark room.
1 flashlight.

Object: 
To giggle as much as possible, while expending enormous amounts of energy and building attachment.

Game Play:
Dad and Child take their places on the wrestling surface.  Mom turns off the light.  Wrestling ensues.  When Keeper of the Light shines the flashlight on wrestlers, they must freeze in the position they were caught in.   When the flashlight goes off, wrestling commences.  Game is over when Daddy is tired.  Everybody wins.  (Except maybe Daddy, who's exhausted.)

Enjoy our fun. For these shots, we played with a camera instead of a flashlight.

 

 

This one was after the game, right before the body slam...

Blessings to you,
Mamita

Fun and Braids

I didn't want you to think that everything is difficult and serious around here.  We've managed to have some really fun times lately...only a few pictures, though.

I'm a little late posting about the 4th, but we had a nice time watching the fireworks very close to home this year.  It was pretty fun.

 There's the world's best dad.

All four kids...one picture...amazing and rare!

My beautiful baby.

Waiting and texting.

My  beautiful young lady with a flare for drama.

This past week, Steve and Sugar were away at our church's Childrens' Camp.  Cupcake and I had lots of good enjoyable quality time together.  Thursday evening, I braided her hair while we watched some TV.  It turned out really cute and it lasted until after church today.  I'd like to try it again sometime now that I've got the hang of it. I ended up putting 18 braids in.   It took about an hour and a half.  Cute, huh?

 

Blessings to you,

Mamita

Our Interesting Christmas

Well, you know my philosophy....

Why have a boring old traditional Christmas when you can have a wild, unusual, high-stress one?

So that's just what we did.

Last week, Steve and Sugar both had the stomach flu. Sugar's lasted about 48 hours. Steve's kept going on and off for the whole week. On Christmas Eve, he began to have severe pain in his upper abdomen. It was strong enough that I called his parents to see if they could watch Cupcake and Sugar while I took him to the ER. While I was on the phone, the pain subsided, so we decided to wait and see if it happened again.

It happened again.

Within 30 minutes, we were on our way to the ER. He was in such pain that I thought he might pass out during the 10 minute drive to the hospital. By the time we got there, the pain had subsided. They asked questions, ran tests, drew blood, poked him, and started an IV. He felt fine until noon, when he had another attack, which lasted 45 minutes. At that point, they drugged him up with pain killers.

He was diagnosed with mild (not currently life threatening) pancreatitis. Treatment involves hospitalization, rest, nothing to eat, and continual monitoring of vitals. He was admitted overnight. :-( He came home around 5:00 pm on Christmas Day, so he was able to enjoy small portions of Grandma's feast.

While we were in the ER, the most beautiful snow was falling. Everything was blanketed in sparkling white splendor. It was the perfect backdrop for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. My whole church family loved on me even though I had that "unshowered, uncombed, no make-up, no deodorant, straight-from-the-hospital" look and smell.



The big kids helped me with getting packages out of hiding and bedecked with bows. (Cupcake spent the night with the Grandparents.) I was in bed by 11:30, which is earlier than most Christmas Eves.



Next morning, the kids opened most of their gifts while I videotaped. We went up to the hospital to visit Daddy and show him the videos.



We saved the personal gifts to each other until Daddy got home.



It was hard on Steve to miss Christmas. He loves to watch the kids enjoy the holiday. The kids did pretty well with it. Sugar had the hardest time. She really hates medical emergencies. Cupcake held it together the whole time and saved her meltdowns until after Daddy came home. I felt like God carried me through the stress. I had extra energy and a very calm, optimistic, positive attitude, which is not like me in stressful situations.

As the new year rolls around, we look back and have much to be thankful for.

Comfortable in His Manhood

I married a man's man. He's not afraid of what others may think. (Well, maybe a little...) But, nevertheless, he knows what's most important, and he's willing to act on it.

Cupcake has had a rough couple of weeks. Steve traveled and I was sick (at the same time) back in November. At school, her beloved wonderful teacher suddenly went on bed-rest a month before her due date. Two classmates and a neighber friend moved in the past month with very little notice. The Thanksgiving break with low structure, combined with Tim coming home and leaving again was stressful.

All of these things could throw a regular kid into meltdown. It's exponential for Cupcake. We've had an significant increase in defiance and behavior issues.

So, knowing that Cupcake was needing some special one-on-one time (and I was needing a break from the neediness), Steve offered to let Cupcake do a makeover on him.

Oh yes he did.



We began to see smiles.


We all giggled, then laughed until I was crying/snorting/snot-bubbling.


She likes that eyeliner.

It got worse. In the end, he looked like a cross between Marilyn Manson and the Easter Bunny, but I'll spare you those gruesome photos. Let's just say there's virtually no hope of him ever running for public office.

I think it was just the thing to turn Cupcake around. It lightened the mood in our house considerably for everyone. Things are looking up again. :-)

Thank you, Daddy, for doing what's needed, even if it's a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Blessings to you,
Mamita

The Grand Finale

The final stop on our epic vacation really was a grand finale for us. My heart is so full with this story, my words fail me.

But I've got to tell the story. Their story. Our story. Cupcake's story. God's story.


On the outskirts of Baltimore, in northern Maryland, we had a "family reunion" of a different sort. We finally met Jim and Laurie in person. Jim and Laurie are our family, not based on common ancestry, but based on a common history.

Our daughter was once their daughter.

You see, this family was once Cupcake's family, not by birth, but by love. One year before we fell in love with her picture, they fell in love with her picture. A year before we began praying for her by name, they were already praying for her by name. For nine months they were in process to adopt Cupcake. Then the unthinkable happened...

If you've never adopted before, you must understand that the minute you have a name and a picture, you carry that child in your heart, much like a pregnant mother. Some cynics might say that the child is only "potentially yours", that she's not truly "yours" until the papers are finalized. But that is not the way a mother or father's love works. From the moment you know a child is waiting for you, a reckless, wild, consuming love sweeps over you like an ocean wave. Make no mistake, the waiting child is your baby.

The story is heart-breaking, miraculous and very long. In a nutshell, for 9 months, Jim and Laurie loved Cupcake as a daughter. They received update pictures once a month. They visited Guatemala and fell in love with the spunky little one with the big brown eyes and curly hair. While visiting, they had an incredible worship experience that confirmed to them that God had His hands on this precious one. About 2 months after their visit they received some update pictures that were troubling. Cupcake appeared to be in grave danger. They immediately arranged to fly to Guatemala to assess the situation and make sure Cupcake received the tender care she deserved. Before they could fly down, their agency called to tell them that Cupcake was gone. She had disappeared overnight, and they had no idea where she was. They had lost her referral. The adoption was over.

(I'm so glad this is not the end of the story.)

I cannot imagine the pain and heartbreak Jim and Laurie went through. This much I know...It was real grief. The loss of a child. Broken dreams. The grief was compounded by the unknown. What had become of Cupcake? Whose hands had she fallen into? Was she dead or alive?

Even through the grief, the family continued to pray daily for Cupcake, especially their two youngest sons.

Months passed and more heartache.

Eventually they received a referral for a beautiful Guatemalan baby girl. This adoption was no cake walk either. Delay after delay happened. One day, Laurie was invited to the Long-Road-Home group by a friend. (This is the same group where I met Tammy and her son.) This was an online group for people who were involved in long, difficult adoptions from Guatemala. Now the thing with the Long-Road-Home is: it is by invitation only. Someone in the group had to know you and vouch for you before you were granted access. Let's just say that security was tight. When Laurie joined, there were 44 people IN THE WORLD who had access to this group. And I was one of them.

They found Cupcake! They found us! :-D

At first we were shocked, because we had no idea that Cupcake had been placed for adoption before. Also, we were worried that they might try to "get her back". We feared that they might have unhealed wounds and any relationship might be unhealthy. They put our fears to rest very early. Yes, they had grieved and feared for her life, but they had given their pain and fear to the One who loves them best. And He carried them and brought them to a place of peace.

They sent us pictures of Cupcake from a year before we knew her. They prayed for us. They blessed us. They encouraged us. I've got a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes just thinking about what a blessing they have been. They prayed for our daughter before adoption was even on our radar. They wrapped their loving arms around our baby when she had no one else. They were Jesus to my child. They were Jesus to us.

To top it all off, they invited us to stay with them, though we had never met in real life. It was very brave of them to invite all six of us - at the end of our vacation, no less. And did I mention, they have 6 kids of their own - 2 are grown and married, and one is the precious little Guatemalan beauty they finally adopted. Now that's a houseful!

We had a wonderful time.

Our families blended together like cousins. It seemed we had always known them. Old friends. Easy. Comfortable. Similar. We knew that we would have much in common, simply because we serve the same God. But we had no idea how well we would match up. We instantly felt welcome and at home. The kids happily ran off to play. We enjoyed sweet fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

We have so much in common, it's crazy.



In fact, the next morning, my girls woke up and put on the clothes we had picked for them. Their daughter put on the clothes they had picked for her. And this is the result:



Great minds think alike. ;-)

We spent a too-short day at Gettysburg, seeing the battlefield and enjoying our time with them.




All too soon, it was time to say good-bye. :-(





We are so thankful that we had the opportunity to connect with this precious family in real life. Because of who they are, our visit was so much more than we could have ever hoped for. It was a blessing all the way around.

We love you guys.

Blessings to you,
Mamita