Continuing the Story - LONG POST!

Bad view of the Consulate from the street - our driver was trying to hurry us along - lovely, isn't it?














The Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince - on one of the only nicely paved streets.





























Statue of Alexandre Petion; Petion was ruler of the southern part of Haiti from 1807 - 1820. This part of Haiti was made up of mostly fair colored Haitians who were born free. He distributed the land to the military.















Part of the UN complex; heavily guarded with razor wire and such; most of the nicer homes had razor wire, gates, dogs, and broken glass embedded in concrete on top of the walls surrounding the houses; our guesthouse also had a guard who manned the gate.

So the story continues...
We arrived for our visa appointment before the Consulate actually opened - yea for our driver, Samuel! We were shown into the Consulate and checked for hazardous material. Adah thought it was funny when she was checked. They took our phones and our cameras, and our driver said the Consulate would call him when they were done. We were the first ones to arrive, and we came before most of the employees showed up. :) The regular person who handles the adoption visas was not there (of course), but a substitute worked hard to get the paperwork in order. While we were there, we met another adoptive mom and her 8 year-old daughter. She had been in Haiti for four months waiting for her daughter to be released from the Ministry of the Interior (where we had been stuck with Adah's paperwork for almost 8 months!). The mom traveled down, leaving her husband and 6 year-old daughter at home because it looked like her orphanage was going under and the children being cared for there were in jeopardy. She said things were starting to get better, but I was thankful that even during our long wait, we didn't have to worry about the orphanage itself going under! She was finally there to get the visa, and I hope she got out the next day. Her daughter spoke excellent English, and the mom said she was already losing a lot of her Kreyol. It's a little sad that Adah will lose that part of her heritage as well. Realistically, we just can't maintain her skills, but we will try to get some video of her singing some songs.

We were told that our visa packets would be ready for pick-up at 2:00 IF the computers were working, and we were done at the Consulate by 8:15 or so. Another driver from Agence Nacia, the organization that processes the paperwork for adoptions, had already shown up to take us to Dr. Bernard's office. We went there to plan the rest of the day. Dr. Bernard suggested that we head to the orphanage since we had brought a lot of donations, and we also wanted to get some pictures for Adah and Nathaniel. Samuel brought us to a gate that led to an alleyway. The alleyway led to the orphanage (technically a "creche," since orphanages in Haiti don't adopt out the children), and we could only get there on foot. It wasn't paved, just a rocky dirt path, so Daniel and Samuel hoisted the HEAVY bags of donations onto their heads to walk to the creche. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was busy holding Nathaniel, watching my step, and holding Adah's hand. Nathaniel had gone through his diaper (he has an umbilical hernia that makes it difficult to keep diapers where they are supposed to be!) and I was wet as well. Yuck. We arrived at the creche, and the first thing I noticed was the NOISE. This was a concrete building, and the voices bounced off the walls like crazy. They were happy sounds, which was nice to hear, but it sure was loud. They had been popping popcorn in the basement for a snack for the kids, over an OPEN fire. Yikes. We were brought up about four flights of stairs to the little kids' floor. The other floors are for the older kids who were in school. Everyone rushed up to Adah and Nathaniel at once, shouting their names and examining her baby doll. Nathaniel was taken from my arms and taken to his nanny, who helped me change him. She took charge of him the rest of the time so that I could take pictures of all the little ones. Adah's nanny found her, kissed and loved on her, and then asked me if I wanted her to fix Adah's hair. I gratefully said yes! Meanwhile, Daniel was handing out the bags I had sewn for the nannies. I included a little shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and lip gloss. Honestly, the reaction was not what I hoped for. I didn't expect abject gratitude like I had just done them the greatest favor ever, but I didn't expect the total INgratitude either. Immediately, arguments sprang up among the nannies about who had gotten a better bag or who had not gotten a bag at all. I didn't know whether to post this part, but I want to give a totally accurate view of everything that happened. Interestingly, over the past week that Adah has been here, we've been teaching her to say please and thank you when she asks for and receives things - this is something new for her. She's also very grabby and when we go out, she expects to get something and will pout if she doesn't. Maybe this idea of entitlement is a cultural one, although I could never claim to be an expert after spending so little time in Haiti. Dr. Bernard's house staff, who are under his supervision and interact with him daily, were much more polite in their dealings with each other and with us. It was very interesting. We left the donations of clothes, toiletries, toys, candy, and hair bows with the orphanage manager to hand out so that we didn't have another situation with the kids like we did with the nannies.

Anyway, I was so glad to see that the creche was a happy place and the kids seemed to be content, because the place itself was Dickensian. The babies were getting their baths; the nannies sat them on a chair in a tub and washed them that way. I got as many pictures as I could for the still-waiting families, and it made me so sad to see them all in their "cages," the cribs that are stacked on top of one another. The orphanage is so overcrowded because kids are not going home to their families due to the processing problems. A new orphanage is being built next to the guesthouse an hour out of Port-au-Prince, and Dr. Bernard says he hopes to have all the babies moved there by next summer. The nanny to child ratio is very good at New Life Link, and our kids had specific nannies who took care of them all the time. Adah's nanny was THRILLED that she had a mama and a papa, and she kissed and hugged us about ten times before we left. One of the most touching things during the visit was an older girl named Alexandra who came to me and asked to have her picture made with Adah. The creche makes an effort to pair older girls and younger girls with the same nanny so that they develop a sisterly relationship. Alexandra was part of the Hope for the Children of Haiti orphanage, the sister orphanage for older children. She gave me a note to give to Adah, and I read it when we got home. It was overwhelming. It was written in very good English (Hope for the Children of Haiti's goal is to graduate the children with skills that will help them better Haiti), and it expressed Alexandra's desire that Adah would grow in the Lord, love her new family, and never forget her. She said she was sad that Adah was leaving, but that she wanted Adah to know that she always had a sister in Haiti. Phew. That was emotional. One of the other older girls came by to ask if I knew her adoptive mom (I did) and she wanted to pass along her love for her. She wanted a picture with Nathaniel, so I have two precious pictures to give our children. I wanted to get one of Adah with her three favorite friends, but they were in school.

We left the creche, and Daniel tried to push the door shut. It wouldn't shut, so he was going back to shut it, but Adah was pulling on him with all her strength; she didn't want to go back. Later in the car on the way back to the office, she started crying. Poor Papa just held her and rubbed her back. This is tough thing for a little girl to handle. Driving around town brought us face to face with the utter poverty in Haiti. I posted pictures of the Presidential Palace, which is indeed beautiful. But we didn't get pictures of the sights that were common everywhere else. Trash was EVERYWHERE. Clothes were laid out on tin roofs to dry, if the dwellings had roofs at all. Otherwise, we saw socks hanging off rebar sticking out of cinder blocks. I am sure that we saw the worst of Haiti (except for Cite Soleil, the absolute worst slum) and had we gotten into the countryside, we would have seen some of the beauty I've appreciated on a missionary's blog. However, what we saw was depressing and oppressive beyond words. And that is what is normal in Port-au-Prince everyday for all those children we saw walking to school, all the ladies carrying bundles on their heads, and all the men standing by the road with shovels waiting for work. We are INCREDIBLY blessed to live in such a prosperous nation, and I admire the resiliency of spirit it would take to find any measure of happiness in a place which requires so much just to survive. And yet it's just normal life there, and I feel like a typical American snob talking about how depressing I found it, when clearly the Haitian people don't find it depressing at all.

Anyway, Adah recovered when we got to Dr. B's office, and we settled down to wait for the visa packet to be ready. Nathaniel was ready for a nap, and he actually laid down on a bed that Dr. B. has in the back room of his office. I laid down on a couple of chairs put together, and Daniel and Adah hung out. Daniel discovered that our daughter is a genius (no, really! :) ) when she began drawing people in our family and writing their names above their heads. She drew Cora, and then wrote "Cola" above the head because she can't say CoRa. She was also writing the alphabet and Daniel was telling her the English pronunciations for each letter. She was more interested in teaching him the Kreyol pronunciations. She listened to my iPod for awhile as well. :) She liked the Kreyol Bible songs, but she liked my workout music more, including the Army cadence songs I use for running. Around lunchtime, we heard beautiful singing and realized the office staff had broken for devotions. They were singing a hymn with guitar accompaniment. We smelled something baking, and it smelled delicious. The office manager brought in some lunch, and it was some sort of meat pastry, like we used to have in England. The meat was spicier, though, and very good. Adah was HUNGRY, and she tried to eat three of them, which would have left Nathaniel with none. I managed to save it for Nathaniel. We chatted with Dr. B. a bit about the state of adoptions in Haiti (not good) and the solutions (there are none). Typical of the communication we've experienced thus far with our adoption, someone from the office had gone to PICK UP our visa packets and we didn't know they were there until Dr. B. casually announced that they were making copies of the paperwork. That was IT, the last of the paperwork, the only thing we needed to go HOME!!!!! We got on the cell phone to make plans to return home the next day instead of Saturday. We got the new itinerary by email at Dr. B.'s office, and we returned to the guesthouse by dinnertime. Adah and Nathaniel both fell asleep on the way up the mountain. We passed a quiet evening with dinner, bathtime, Bible reading, prayer, and then bedtime. Daniel and I began to pack, and I began to feel a sense of urgency that I just wanted to get HOME as soon as possible. I wanted to leave right then if I could!

The next morning, we said farewell to Dr. Bernard and his wife Claudette, got a good picture in the stairwell of the guesthouse and headed down the mountain. Adah was sick again from nerves, and this time the plastic bag came in handy! She got sick over and over, poor baby, and then fell asleep. (She definitely wasn't sick with a tummy bug or anything; she was FINE other than her nerves!) Samuel had the radio tuned to an American station, and they were starting to broadcast Focus on the Family. Get this - the topic was adoption. Here we were bringing our kids home, and we were listening to Focus on the Family IN HAITI on adoption. Several people were giving their adoption stories, and we were looking at each other tearing up. :) We arrived at the airport without any problem, found an airport attendant willing to help us, and got through security with Adah only throwing up once. We settled down to wait for our 10:20 flight. Daniel chatted with several Mennonite missionaries who were traveling home on furlough. Nathaniel did his best cute faces for everyone. We walked out to the plane, and Adah went crazy with delight when she first saw the plane. She started dragging me with her because she was so excited! Alas, excitement was not good for her tummy either. She threw up again, but not much came up (I know, too much information). The rest of the flight went without any problems, and I was never so happy to land on U.S. soil in Miami. We didn't have any problems with immigration, but we didn't realize that we would be detained for an unknown length of time in customs. Yikes!!! Another adoptive mom who brought home two little ones from Guatemala had already missed her connecting flight. The customs officials were NOT helpful and were in fact pretty rude. Thankfully, we did make it out of there in time to get to our connecting flight to Atlanta. The flight was ahead of schedule until we got onto the tarmac. Somehow we left an hour late. I was too busy dealing with Nathaniel's naughtiness and I didn't realize. Daniel and Adah were in the front of the plane and I was in the VERY back. She only threw up once before the plane even took off, and then they had a grand time the rest of the flight. Nathaniel and I had a battle royale, however. :) He wanted to get down; I insisted that he couldn't. He gave me everything he had with two year old behavior plus orphanage behavior- hitting, scratching, and biting. At least there was no screaming. :) I thanked my friend Kelly for making me a sling so I could tuck his arms in, cinch him down, and hold him very tightly to keep him from misbehaving. By the end of the flight, we had come to a truce, and he started falling asleep. The lady next to me and the lady in the next row up were so sweet and encouraging to me. One of the ladies said, "Honey, you don't have to apologize for nuthin'. I know about kids, I raised ten of 'em myself." :) Because of the delay in Miami, we missed our flight in Atlanta, and the next flight didn't leave until 9:15. So much for getting home early. I had pretty much had it by then. :) I called Mom and whined to her. Daniel kept it together for both of us, booked us on that flight, and got some food in us. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a husband who sees what needs to be done and does it. Thank you, Lord, that he takes such good care of me. He let me go off by myself for a bit to take a breath. On our last flight, the two people who were sitting in seats next to me were willing to exchange seats with Daniel and Adah so we could all sit together (they got the bulkhead seats that Daniel and Adah had, so we didn't feel too guilty about asking them to switch! :) ). Daniel helped me deal with Nathaniel, but he was SO much better the third flight. And Adah was an old hand at flying by then - no throwing up!!! We were giddy with thankfulness - and exhaustion! We landed in Raleigh at 11:30 or so. Adah experienced cold weather for the first time, and she didn't care for it! I don't blame her. Daniel got a Mountain Dew, put both car seats in the car, and prepared to drive home. I called a friend who lives in Kuwait since it was breakfast time by then for her. :) Adah struggled to stay awake, because she wanted to give her sisters the lotions she picked out for them at the Atlanta airport. Nathaniel fell asleep right away. Adah recognized the house from a picture I brought down, and she announced "lakay mwen!" when we arrived. "My house!" She ran inside, asked which way to go, ran upstairs, asked which way to go, ran into her room, got right in Abigail's face, and said loudly, "Abby gale! Abby gale!" She gave out the lotions, asked if the bed under Cora's was hers, promptly undressed, and got into bed. We coaxed her out to go to the bathroom, got Nathaniel ready, put them both to bed, and then got ready for our first night ALL under the same roof.

Whew! This has been a book...I didn't intend for it to be this long! On my next post, I will put up pictures of our first week together and talk about some firsts. We are SO enjoying being a family of eight, and it is already as if they have always been here. I am thankful to be able to say that Nathaniel is doing MUCH better with his behavior. We've had lots of snuggles and Daddy has been using his Daddy voice. Nathaniel doesn't normally try to strike out now when he doesn't like what's going on. I sure was worried that we had A LOT of work to do after that second flight from Miami! We are working on making better eye contact with him, and we know that attachment and bonding is a LONG process. We are enjoying his giggles and belly laughs tremendously. Adah has also amazed us with her strength of spirit. In a few short hours on the flight from Port-au-Prince to Miami, she went from understanding everyone around her to not understanding ANYONE around her (in addition to the fact that she is now surrounded by white people!) and she is still laughing. She plays wholeheartedly, and she tries to join in with whatever the kids are doing. She actually likes our dog (that is HUGE!) and gives him bonbons (cookies). She also likes to help around the house, asking where certain plates go and taking them to the table. On the down side, she has a serious pouting problem that we will be working on. :) She didn't want to wear the dress I picked for her this morning, so she started crying. Daniel and I remind each other that she is emotionally much younger than five, but we're still starting to set boundaries by telling her that the number three rule in the Houseworth household is no whining. :) There are only three rules, and No Whining made the big three.

Next post...the doctor's visit. It was worse than we thought it was going to be, and we are glad it's OVER :)














Adah jamming to the workout music on my iPod.














Nathaniel with his nanny at the creche.


















Adah with her nanny - a very smiley and sweet lady!














One of the cuties in a school uniform at the creche. They LOVE sunglasses, and we walked into the 2 year old classroom to find them singing Christmas carols with sunglasses on! :) I wanted to post more pictures from the creche, but I didn't want to do it without parents' approval. I thought this little one was incognito enough.















Daniel discovering how truly brilliant our little Adah is. She is in our equivalent of the first grade, so she writes in cursive - she just turned five!

Well, I better go pay attention to my family now. We're finally decorating our Christmas tree tonight!

Love,
Casey

This Time Last Week

Well, at this time last week we were waiting in Dr. Bernard's office to receive our visas for the children. We had already gone to the visa appointment at 7:00 that morning, and we visited the orphanage after that. How crazy that it's been a week already!
Here's the beginning of the complete story since I finally have time to sit and post (unless someone wakes up from a nap!)
We flew into Port-au-Prince last Wednesday night, and we arrived a little after 6:00 due to a delay. As we stepped off the plane onto the stairs (they don't have walkways), Daniel remarked, "It smells just like Pristina." It was a lovely smell of burning tires and trash. I was really nervous about arriving after dark, but the Lord provided for us...shortly after we boarded the plane in Miami, a man walked up to us and asked, "Are you Daniel and Casey?" It was Dr. Bernard, our orphanage director! He was flying home to Haiti after being in Boston for meetings, so he and his wife Claudette were able to help us navigate immigration, customs, and baggage claim. After FINALLY claiming our bags (all four arrived - yea!) we began the wonderful experience of trying to get to our transportation. A whole host of men descended upon us and tried to put their hands on our bags in order to "help" and get paid for it. Dr. Bernard designated one person, and then they all fought with him about whether they could help. Samuel, our very distinguished-looking driver, came to the rescue and manhandled everyone. Dr. Bernard then told us not to be surprised if our kids were there to greet us because of the delay in the flight. My heart jumped into my throat! Sure enough, when we arrived at the tap-tap (a converted pick-up truck meant to carry just as many Haitians as can cram on - often brightly colored with murals and Haitian proverbs) our kids were there!!! Adah gave a little wave and a big smile. Nathaniel's nanny handed him to Daniel as soon as we got in, and she encouraged Adah to come sit beside me. And then we were off through the incredibly bumpy streets on our way up the mountain to the guesthouse. It took an hour to get there, and Daniel and I tried to take in the fact that we were sitting with the children that we waited so long to meet! Adah shyly showed me her toys and about halfway up the mountain she stretched her hand over to rest in my lap. Nathaniel just snuggled with Daniel and sucked his thumb. He ended up falling asleep on the way, even despite the bumps. We didn't see much on the way up except for people trying to sell their wares by lantern light or candlelight on the streets. Some of the streets were incredibly narrow, and they were ALL bumpy. Samuel must have known exactly where each of the bumps were because he stopped before all the big ones. We finally arrived and were greeted by two other adoptive parents and their little ones. After settling in to our HUGE room, we were invited downstairs for some dinner. The nanny had explained that she tried to feed Adah before coming to the airport, but when she told Adah that they would be going to pick up Mama and Papa after she finished eating, Adah pushed her plate away and announced, "Fini!" :) So she hadn't eaten anything. We had chicken, bean sauce, a spicy cabbage dish, a vegetable casserole, and salad. The kids ate really well, and the chicken was delicious. Dr. B.'s wife is a great hostess.
We decided not to try baths the first night because everyone was exhausted, so we put them in their jammies, Adah decided who was sleeping where, Daniel read from the Kreyol Bible, we prayed, and then we put them down and hoped for the best. :) They were asleep in minutes, and Adah was snoring!!! We felt incredibly blessed, overwhelmed by the experience of meeting our kids, and TIRED. We prepared for the next day, and hit the hay. After resting for a couple of minutes, Daniel said, "You sleep here with Nathaniel, I'll sleep over there with Adah." :) He was already taken with her, and she with him.
We were up the next morning at 4:30 in order to be at breakfast at 5:30. We had to get down the mountain for the visa appointment at 7:00. Adah did not want to be woken up, but she dressed quickly when she saw the cute dress we brought for her. We had fried plaintains, bananas, eggs with onion, and peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast! :) Adah tried the grapefruit juice and made a hilarious face. She did not care for it. On the way to the visa appointment, we discovered that the mountain road bothered her. She was telling us that her tummy hurt, and we got a plastic bag out quickly! She went to sleep, though, so she made it without any problem to the Consulate. It was hard to see her in pain, poor baby.
More to come...we need to get the two older girls to piano. I'm so thankful that Daniel is home for such a long time to help with this transition!! :)
Love,

Casey

Daniel with the kids on our first night

Casey with the kids on our first night

On the tap-tap on the way down the mountain to the visa appointment

Reactivated!

Hello again everyone!

I've missed writing on the blog, but I've certainly enjoyed others' blogs in the time I've been gone! I particularly enjoyed one mom's blog as she chronicled the journey to bring their three kids home from Haiti, and I liked the fact that she has continued writing during the early days of their homecoming. I wanted to remember this time in our lives, but anyone who knows me knows that I have a terrible memory. So I thought that re-starting the blog would be a good way to capture these first weeks as a family of EIGHT. :) Now that the explanation is out of the way, on to the good stuff.



Adah Resilia Houseworth and Nathaniel Erickson Houseworth arrived home on December 7th, 2007. (Okay, technically it was December 8, 2007 since it was 1:30 in the morning!) Adah means "beloved addition" and Nathaniel means "gift of God," and these are the names we chose for them. Adah's birth name is Tania, and Nathaniel's birth name is Erickson. We used Adah's birth mom's name, Resilia, as her middle name when we found out that she had died when Adah was nine months old.


Before I begin the long story of the trip to Haiti to pick them up, let me post a picture first and then catch up later when I have time. I wanted to get this post out as quickly as possible so that everyone could see the new members of the Houseworth family!! This picture was taken in the Atlanta airport before we boarded the last of three flights to come home. After being up since 5:30 that morning, we were boarding at 9:15 p.m. for the flight to Raleigh because Delta caused us to miss our connection in Atlanta (I'm not bitter). We were bone tired, but we were SO HAPPY to be on U.S. soil with the children. More to come...



Love,

Casey

Wow!

It's been awhile since I posted! So sorry for the lack of communication. We arrived safely in North Carolina on June 14th despite Tropical Storm Alberto trying to drown us. We found a house about four days later only to find out that we couldn't close on the house until August 1st! It was good -and bad- to know that the general who owned the house couldn't even do anything to speed up the transportation office; he couldn't get movers in until the 30th of July. Just this once, it would have been nice for rank to have greater privileges. :)

So we stayed in a two-bedroom apartment with no internet access until we moved in here on the 3rd. I actually had to go to the library to check email. I mean, how uncivilized is that?? I realized how completely spoiled I was, and Daniel and I both realized that, books and La-Z-boy aside, we really don't need the other 80% of what we own. :) It would have been nice to have one more bedroom in the apartment, though, since all the kids were sharing. Jackson liked it tremendously because he had company for the first time since he was born. The girls liked having him in there a little less. I tried to call around to find another place to stay since our wait would be a long one, but I couldn't find a place that had the triumvirate: it had to be furnished, it had to be short-term, and it had to accept a big basset hound mix named Roscoe P. Coltrane. No deal. The apartment stay was actually not that bad; the only thing that made it stressful was that we had a downstairs neighbor who complained about the noise because she slept during the day and worked at night! How in the world am I supposed to keep four children and a dog quiet enough for someone below us in an apartment building to be able to sleep during the day?? We tried to get out soon after breakfast and stay out until lunchtime. We definitely explored Fayetteville! My mom and stepdad graciously took in the displaced persons, and we spent some time in Tennessee as well. What a gorgeous drive over the mountains!

So we are (somewhat) settled in our new place, and it's beginning to feel like home. The girls like having stairs and a fireplace - their only two requirements for a home. Jackson enjoys the stairs as well and tries to break his time record each day for sliding down backwards on his belly. Ouch! I enjoy having big pine trees and not being able to hear my neighbors when they talk in normal voices. Roscoe enjoys sleeping on the sunny deck. I think Daniel will enjoy his study (think wall-to-wall books) once he's able to actually sit down with all the projects yet to do in the house. He's in Germany right now for work, but he returns on Thursday night.

We have been in IBESR (Haitian social services) since April 17th, and it sounds like dossiers are starting to move a little faster through the system. We're praying that Adah and Nathaniel will come out of IBESR in September and be ready to come home in October. We really don't like the idea of them being in Haiti for hurricane season, but we trust that the Lord will protect them. He can certainly do a much better job than we can!

Well, I need to get our day started since we are back to school. Shiloh's favorite subject is art, I believe, judging from the prodigious amounts of artwork she creates. I bought several art books to help with her technique, and we'll be exploring different mediums as well. I'm enjoying learning Latin along with Shiloh, and Cora's favorite subjects so far are math and science. Okay, whose child is she?? I guess my Dad's engineering brain skipped a generation. She especially likes bugs, so we've been checking out books and videos from the library on beetles. Wow, I really like to read about beetles (said sarcastically). I'm with Shiloh when she says, "yuck." But I admire how the Lord gave her such an interest, and I'm doing my best to feed it. :) She really wants to catch the HUGE spider that hangs out outside our kitchen window, but I draw the line at spiders. I'm letting the spider stay there for now to encourage her observation, but sooner or later the spider has to die - whether naturally or by my hand, I can't say. I guess I have to live by my own rule when I tell the children, "if it's outside and it's not trying to hurt you, you need to let it live." Abigail is learning to read, and has just started blending three letter words. What a big step! As long as I keep the lessons very short, she wants to "do school" each day. She's also learning math concepts and some handwriting. I want to start earlier with her on correct positioning of the pencil in her hand since I've had to correct Shiloh's and Cora's to their - and my - exasperation. :)

I hope to post more often now that we are settled. Thank you to all of you who prayed for us throughout this move. We are very conscious of the Lord's mercy to us.
Love,
Casey

Moving Day

Well, we are packing out tomorrow, so tomorrow night will be spent at a hotel here in town. The kids are excited about that, and I am, too - I love hotels. We'll stay there Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night. And Monday morning it's off to North Carolina! Actually, we'll stay in Savannah that night. So we still have a ways to go before we get to our new temporary home. We've reserved a room at an extended stay hotel that has two rooms and a kitchen. Right now I don't really care about the lack of space; I'll just be glad not to clean for awhile! Keeping a house clean for showing was a pain. :)

Getting ready for this move has been a good thing. We have been donating or throwing things away left and right, and I like that organized, uncluttered feeling. Our version of spring cleaning is to move. It's not a system that would work for everyone, but apparently it works pretty well for us.

We're all well here, which is amazing considering the chaos of the household. Usually we have immune systems crashing, but I'm praying that we all make it through this move with not even a sniffle.

Daniel and I celebrated ELEVEN years of wedded bliss yesterday. :) It's so hard to believe that we've been married for eleven years and that we've known each other for fifteen. God has been so gracious to us to preserve us through those ...um...difficult...early years. :) We give Him all the glory, and we celebrate the fact that we are stronger now than we've ever been. May the Lord grant us MANY more years with one another. I'm eager to see how He changes us and where He brings us! It's all good with Daniel as my partner in life. Okay, enough with the mushy stuff. :)

Well, goodbye warm, sunny Florida. Goodbye, sandals all year round. Goodbye, lanai where I can sip my coffee on December mornings. Goodbye, pool water that is ninety degrees.

And back to reality...goodbye, hurricanes that can wipe us off the map! Goodbye, "love bugs" that smash against my windshield by the thousands in May. Goodbye, houses in cloned neighborhoods where the building is out of control. And goodbye, snakes in my hose box! :) I won't miss certain things, but I sure will miss being warm all the time. I REALLY hate being cold. :)

I'll try to post when we arrive safely in North Carolina.
Love to all-
Casey

A Not-So-Brief Update

We have not officially sold the house, but we have entered the government buy-out program, and Prudential Relocation Services apparently bought the house from us for $10.00. Now THAT'S a good deal. :) They will consider any offers we receive, and if we don't receive any, they will give us an offer based on two appraisals we had yesterday and today. We'll receive a check for 75% of the equity at that time, and the remainder of the money upon closing about June 30th. We'll also receive a letter to our lender assuring them that we can go ahead and put an offer on a house in NC because the sale is a "done deal" in the government program. Hooray for that! We might have an offer this evening (the buyers are supposed to sign the paperwork today) but it's Prudential's decision to accept it or not. We'll wait and see!

Meanwhile, we're packing out on the 8th, picking up on the 9th, and leaving on the 12th. If you haven't checked your calendar, that's NEXT WEEK!!! Wow. I can't believe it. I need to organize homeschooling stuff this weekend, and we need to make lots of lists. Other than that, we're relaxing and spending as much time as we can with friends and with each other at the pool.

By the way, I attended my first ever homeschool convention last weekend, and here's what I learned:

1. There are way fewer people wearing denim jumpers than I thought. I was a little disappointed.

2. Those pull-along carts are not for dorks, as I first thought - you really need them when you go into the vendor area and buy everything in sight.

3. Don't go into the vendor area if you want to have enough money to feed your family the next week.

4. Homeschooling families tend to have a lot of children. (*disclaimer* I know this is not always the case; it just seemed like there were ten thousand children there, which was okay, because they were not my children and I had no responsibility for them.)

5. The tapes of the sessions come in handy when you elect to skip sessions to lie around the pool. Lest you hurl insults at me like "you homeschooling slug," just know that I already know that. And three hours at the pool by myself is worth it.

6. Homeschool veterans are VERY wise, knowledgeable, and usually funny. They are a great resource.

So that's what I learned at the homeschooling convention. I had a WONDERFUL time of refreshment, encouragement, and relaxation. The hot tub helped with the last one, I think. :) I'm flying down to Florida for this homeschool convention next year. Florida's convention is supposed to be the swankiest, and I just can't come down from "lap of luxury" to "just ordinary" for my homeschool convention experience.

Oh, one more thing... I saw a T-shirt at the convention that said, "I'm not talking to myself. I'm having a parent-teacher conference." :) I like that.

Hope ya'll are doing well!
Love,
Casey

And you wonder why...

...Jackson thought his father was a terrorist and screamed when he saw him in the kaffiyeh?

Daniel says the next time he goes, he'll bring back a "man-dress" to complete the look. The kaffiyeh just doesn't accessorize a polo very well.

Nice House for Sale

4 bedrooms; 2 bathrooms; 2 car garage; large kitchen with island; ceramic tile in all hallways, kitchen, family room, and bathrooms...You can have the refrigerator, the washer and dryer, and maybe a really cute small child if you're willing to pay our listing price.

Anybody interested? We'll give you a good deal! Get it now before the government does in the buy-out program!

Love,
Casey

I Almost Forgot!

Shiloh had her portfolio evaluation on May 2nd, and she has been officially promoted to the second grade!!! Yea! She did a marvelous job, and I think she showed the evaluator every project she's done all year. Mama and the kids are taking a much-needed break this week, and then we'll continue with some light schooling until the move. We celebrated with a dinner out and then Daddy ended up coming home two days later, so this past week has been a wonderful one. Abigail was going around shouting, "Shiloh's in the second grade, Cora's in the first grade, and I'm in preschool!" She thought Shiloh's promotion meant her official promotion, too, which I guess it does.

Love to all!

One thing to cross off the waiting list

Daniel is HOME!!!!!! After finding a house in Fayetteville (or so we thought, but more on that later...) he called Wednesday night to see if we wanted to pick him up at 9:00 the next morning. Well, of course! We BARELY made it in time because of traffic; we ran from the van all the way to the gate and arrived just as the first group was coming off the trams. Phew. It was a good thing he was in the back of the plane. The girls had dressed in their Sunday best and made signs for Daddy. Jackson made a sign, too, although it was a little less understandable. :) The girls ran to him as Jackson watched from the stroller. Jackson didn't seem strange with him at all...he wanted to hold Daddy's hand as we walked to baggage claim, he wanted to hug him, and he called him "Dada." He didn't want to let go of his hand for Daniel to get the bags off the conveyor belt. :) He's been fine with him the whole time except when Daniel put on the kaffiyeh he brought back with him (the Middle Eastern headdress). Then Jackson totally freaked out, screaming "Mama, Mama, Mama" until Daniel took it off. Apparently Daniel looked like a terrorist to him.

So we've been enjoying the two unexpected days as well as the weekend with him where we got to worship together as a family again. How glorious! We've been to the Children's Museum of Tampa, the pool a couple of times, and we've played a number of games of Uno. The kids have also been catching up on some Daddy lap time, and Daddy reading time. Abigail just came into our bedroom this morning, looked around, and said, "Where's Daddy?" I said he had to go work today (he's saving leave for the move). She said, horrified, "Back to Iraq??" :) She was much reassured to hear that he'll be back for dinner, although I think she still thinks he's coming home for dinner from Iraq.

So the housing situation is...on hold. Daniel found a place he put an offer on, the owners counter-offered, and we declined the counter-offer. The owners don't seem to understand that the property will most likely be appraised by the VA at much less (going by the comps for the area) and that they are supposed to accept the VA appraisal. The wife of the couple is the one in the military and she's already gone on to the next duty station. The husband, who is from Trinidad, doesn't speak English and has been left behind to negotiate the home sale. :) They don't have a realtor, so our realtor has been trying to explain everything to them. We don't feel like fighting them when we still haven't sold this house and because we have a second, more-appealing choice that's closer to church and work in Fayetteville. I was dragging my feet on that one because the kitchen was small, but we've been creative in coming up with solutions that might work. Our biggest problem now is to get this house sold. :) Daniel has completed the paperwork for the federal government buy-out program, but he's encountering problems with the command at Ft. Bragg in living up to their end of the deal. If they sign for relocation, they agree to the buy-out program where, if our home doesn't sell in sixty days, they take over the sale of the house. If they receive an offer in the 30 days subsequent to the sixty day marketing period, then they will review the offer to accept it or decline it. But if it still isn't sold by the end of that thirty days, then they will buy it at "market value." We know that that market value will be less than what we would want for the house, but at least it will be off our hands. And because the market was so crazy last year, we still stand to make a profit even after only owning the house for a year, so we're very thankful for that. We have until the 25th (or around there) of this month to sell it on our own, which we would prefer to do, obviously. We're meeting with our realtor today to adjust the price again. We didn't put it on the market before April 1st because all indications were that it would sell pretty quickly, so now we're in a time crunch to try to sell it before we leave so that we can afford to buy a house in North Carolina. Otherwise, we'll have to rent, and we might have to make two house payments for 1-2 months. Yuck. We're doing all right, though - just thankful to be together as a family and thankful to be moving to the real south in about a month. :) Here, every third car has an Ohio license plate - no offense to my Ohio family! :) :)

Well, I'll just share an Abigail comment before I sign off to start the day here. I can hear children neighing in their rooms, so the horses are up. :)

At church last night, the pastor was preaching on troublemakers in the church. When Abigail heard the word troublemaker, she turned excitedly to me and said proudly, while pointing at her chest, "That's me! I'm a troublemaker!!" Well, I guess it's good to be aware of your role in life and to be proud of it. :)

Love to all-
Casey

Nothing profound

Hello everyone!
I find I have little motivation to write on the blog now that I can't post pictures of the kids! That was 50% of the reason to blog, so I really ought to get moving on trying to find a network with password protection. Things have been a little busy, though! :)

We had an open house on Saturday, to which no one showed up. That's a nice waste of a very clean house. Oh, well. I did enjoy my Sunday afternoon nap in my sparkling house! Roscoe had a beauty treatment at Petsmart so even he was clean. He tried to take advantage of it by jumping up on my bed. Ha! It only worked for about ten minutes or so. :) We had a "preview" this evening where an agent came by to see if the house would suit his clients before they actually took the time to come out. Since I haven't heard anything from my realtor, I'm assuming the agent decided against it. That's all the activity thus far, so we'll probably reduce the price at the end of this month.

It's pool season again, so we've been three times so far. The first time I refused to get in all the way, because I prefer the air temperature to match the water temperature. It's a good thing it's Florida, and that often happens! We went today, and Abigail is now out of her inner tube and in a floatation vest. She still swallows way more water than I would like her to, but she's improving. Cora is gaining confidence re-learning skills from last year, and after all the trouble to actually get Shiloh to take off her vest, you would think now that she was born in the water. (No, I'm not that weird and all natural, although I know someone who is! :) ). Her latest feat is to tread water. She looks a little funny while she's doing it, but it's effective. Jackson's just a happy boy in his baby inner-tube, and his favorite thing is to try to lean wwwaaaaayyyy over and put his face in the water. Yeah, that's a good idea. Twice he ended up snorting water, but he kept trying anyway because his sisters kept laughing. The need to impress women starts very early.

I went to the housing office today on base to sign some paperwork in order to go to a briefing to receive a pack-out date for moving. Because, of course, they can't give you the pack-out date on the FIRST visit; that would be too easy and non-bureaucratic. Thankfully and mercifully, we were out of there in thirty minutes flat, and the briefing was scheduled for the 18th, which means Daniel gets to go instead of me with the four children. I told a friend of mine that I was going to let the children run wild in the office (and my mom suggested letting them look grubby and sticky, too) so that the people working there would shout, "just give that lady a pack-out date - just make her go away!" But I didn't have to put my evil plan into action. Too bad. Abigail could have had some fun.

And so life goes on, and we're in The Waiting Place right now (ever read Oh, the Places You'll Go!) where it seems like we're waiting on the Lord for pretty much everything...for our house to sell, for Daniel to return home (VERY SOON!!!!), for a place to live in North Carolina, for a pack-out date, for moving, for settling in, and for bringing our children home from Haiti. This too shall pass, however, and I'll be so thankful when it does.

I'm Still Here

Yep, I'm still here, but not much is going on. We've had our house on the market almost two weeks, and we've had one showing. We were supposed to have two on Tuesday, but they both canceled. AFTER I cleaned the whole house and mowed the yard, of course. :) So the market has just about come to a standstill. It had to happen sooner or later, I guess. Honestly, I think I should be more worried than I am, but...I'm just not. The Lord will bring a buyer in His timing, and in the meantime, I like relaxing more than I thought I would be while selling a house. :) I would be relaxing even more if my DVD player worked and I could watch "Wives and Daughters" for the sixth time. Thanks, Tullys, for getting me hooked. :)

We're finishing up our school year, which is a wonderful feeling. Cora has finished her core curriculum, but we're continuing with reading and math. I think I might go ahead and start her math for next year since it's already arrived. I love the smell of new curriculum! :) Shiloh has to finish up her phonics program. I figure she probably doesn't need it, but it never hurts to reinforce the foundation. She will have her portfolio evaluation on May 1st or 2nd to determine if she's passed the 1st grade. We're doing some math review, and I'm so relieved to see how far she's come in a year. Abigail is eager to start school, but I don't know if it's better to wait and start her with Adah when Adah arrives home, or to go ahead and get her going. I'm still thinking on that.

Jackson, my child prodigy, is singing the ABCs and counting to 20. Ha! Fooled you. Are you kidding? This is the child who didn't walk until he was 15 months old. He's barely speaking 15 words, much less counting to 20. :) But he's a very smiley boy, and that makes up for his lack of motivation. :) He's also pretty cute when he roars like a lion.

Well, back to the nice, quiet life. I think I'll make myself some vanilla almond tea and read my "Southern Lady" magazine. I need to take advantage of the calm before the storm!

A benign photo

I thought this one would be okay to post, and it didn't hurt that I thought it was too adorable not to share.

Just a boy and his dog surveying their territory (which is not much to look at in Florida, but just wait until they get to our land in Tennessee!)

Love to all!

An English lesson and a Medical lesson

These two lessons come from my most linguistically interesting child, Cora. She is the one who will ask me, "Mommy, how have you been doing thus far this morning?" Thus far? Mom and I suspect she's a 50 year-old British lady stuck in a 5 year-old body. Anyway, I've been trying to break her of the habit of saying, "I amn't doing that" instead of saying "I'm not doing that." And then I started to think, "Well, why don't we say amn't if we say 'don't'?" Who the heck thought up the English language???

Secondly, Cora was Dr. Houseworth this afternoon in our household, and apparently Shiloh needed an operation. So, putting her stethoscope around her neck, she proceeded to tell Shiloh, "Lie down on the couch. You need a caesar section." Okay, so that's PARTLY correct (and still Latin), but she left out one of the more crucial parts. It's a surgical procedure, not a salad. So I don't think I'll be trusting her with anything more than a band-aid, or, as she calls it - because she's a 50 year-old British woman in a 5 year-old body - a "plaster."

Exciting day in the Houseworth household!

Good evening everyone!!!! We have great news to share. Our official referral came through today, and we are the proud parents of two little ones (whew! the easiest labor yet!! :) ). Our Haiti babies have names and faces now, and we are so thankful that we can see them in our minds as we pray for them. Our new daughter is named Adah Catherine, and she was born November 13, 2003. She's actually bigger than Abigail at 33 pounds. Our new son, Nathaniel Ericson, was born February 26, 2006 and he's a strapping 10 pounds and 20 1/2 inches. We pray that they will be joining our family by Adah's third birthday. Things are moving so slowly in Haiti right now with the processing of paperwork, but we are hopeful that when the new government takes control in April, the paperwork will speed up. It's hard to wait after seeing their faces, but we'll depend on the Lord to keep us patient. We're just rejoicing that we know who they are, and that they seem to be very healthy. Everyone is excited here, and Abigail is looking forward to sharing her very own bunkbed with Adah. She's insisting that she get the top bunk, though. :)


Here's a funny story about putting our house on the market, which also happened today (it was a big day, to put it mildly). We were driving along in the van discussing how we're going to sell the house and move to North Carolina. I said, "As soon as the new owners are ready, they'll move into our house." Abigail said, "Won't it be crowded, Mommy?" :) So we started over with the explanation. I then explained how we were trying to be reasonable about our asking price so that the house would sell quickly, before Daddy comes home. Cora said, "Why don't we make the price less, like $3.00?" I said, "No, sweetie, $3.00 is a little low." Shiloh said helpfully, "Maybe $3.59?" :) I'm not sure she'll pass the "comprehension of monetary value" portion of her portfolio evaluation. When I told her the real price we were asking, her eyes bugged out. "I don't think anyone's going to buy it if you ask that much!" Thanks for the encouragement, Shiloh.

Happy Tuesday

Well, I know I haven't been here in a while, and that's because I've been contemplating shutting down the blog. My mom called to tell me something scary...in the child porn ring that authorities broke up about two weeks ago, an investigator was asked where these evil, disgusting people get their photos of children, and the investigator said from browsing family websites. Well, that just turned my stomach. So I'll just be posting musings about life in general from now on, with no pictures. And how fun is that?? I wanted to be able to share with you how fast the kids are growing. What I'm going to try to do is find a network that provides password protection for blogs so that only those I want viewing the blog can have access. Blogspot used to provide something like this, but they don't anymore (to my knowledge). Meanwhile, here's a picture of our couch potato Roscoe P. Coltrane, not that he's a replacement for pictures of the kids. :) I don't understand why we allow our dog to get up on the couch (we never intended to!) but I think it has something to do with his big, brown, pleading eyes. He usually lies on his blanket so he doesn't get the couch all hairy, but his blanket was in the wash, so he made do with the pillow. :)

Here's a funny Shiloh story, though: We're doing a unit study on the human body, and I was reviewing the body parts we've gone over to test for comprehension. I said, "Shiloh, what does the brain do?" She said, "It's sorta like a Mommy." I said, "What? How is it like a mommy?" She said, "Because it tells the body parts what to do." :)

My friend Jeanne said she thought the mommy was the heart of the home, but apparently the mommy is the brain, too.

Have a good day!

p.s. I'll be removing all the pictures from the blog in the next day or so. I'll send out an email when I find a network where I can host another blog for free.

Update on stomach flu

Now Abigail has it. She started throwing up last night. She handles it pretty well except that she starts yelling in the middle of throwing up, "I wanna brush my teeth! I wanna brush my teeth!" I don't blame her. I want to brush my teeth too and I'm not even the one who's throwing up. Good thing I'm not a sympathetic vomiter. She doesn't have a fever, which is a relief after Jackson. She's resting in my bed right now in between spells. She's asking for some of "Jackson's juice" - pedialyte - so we'll have to go out and get some. Oh, I really hope the other two don't get this. :)

The Pitiful One

Jackson just had the stomach flu and he's slowly recovering. He had just decided to venture off my lap and do a little bit of exploring when he hit the lip of the door out to the lanai with the walker he was pushing, flipped the walker, and landed on his face. Well, it was back to my lap for the rest of the day, although he tried to remain cheerful. You can see his "cheesy smile" in the picture along with his fat lip. Poor baby.

Right before Jackson got the flu, I received a forwarded email from my homeschooling group, and as Jackson went through the flu, I worried more than usual and thought about this family quite a bit. All of you prayer warriors out there, please take a look: www.candacejoy.org This family amazes me with their strength in the Lord in the midst of what must be a terrifying ordeal. Their experience humbles me and makes me more willing to stop the household for a few days just to snuggle with Jackson and tell him I love him. I didn't sleep on the floor in his room like some better moms I know :), but I think I cleaned up the messes with a more cheerful heart than I would have otherwise.

Enjoy your kiddos, everyone...they're precious, aren't they?

GREEN LETTER DAY

I was going to say red letter day, but apparently I already used that title. How unoriginal of me.

Well, our dossier is on its way THIS VERY MINUTE by FedEx to Haiti. Okay, it won't leave until tomorrow morning because I missed the cut-off by about ten minutes, but it is STILL ON ITS WAY and should arrive in Haiti by the 14th. We are very excited!!

Molecules

We read about molecules this morning in Shiloh's reading lesson. We learned that the faster the molecules in something move, the hotter it is. The slower the molecules move, the colder it is. Then we did an experiment to test this, and Shiloh enjoyed it. So this evening at Steak and Shake as she's drinking her chocolate shake and shivering, she says, "Mommy, the molecules in my shake are moving veeeerrrryy slowly." Science in real life. And what better way to experience it than with a chocolate shake from Steak and Shake?

Abigail the Fearless

We went to our homeschool co-op today, where the lesson was about animal food chains. I got out of teaching the lesson because I still don't have a voice, and one of the other moms graciously filled in for me. That's inconsequential, so of course I thought I should share it.

Anyhoo, one of the moms in our church, who also homeschools but does not belong to our co-op, offered to bring her snakes and give a little presentation to the kids. Yes, snakeS, as in five of them. I don't even remember the different types she showed us, except the Burmese python. Here's what I learned about the Burmese python: it's BIG. I mean, it's REALLY BIG. Theirs isn't full grown yet, and they're stunting her growth so she doesn't get too big too fast. (She knows all about snakes, so I don't think this is animal cruelty.) They feed her only once a month, and she's about 13 feet already. She could grow to be about 23 feet. They don't feed a big snake like that little old rats. Oh, no. Don't read on if you're squeamish...they feed her bunny rabbits! Ugh. At this information, poor Shiloh turned around with a look on her face that said, "Please tell me that is NOT true, Mommy!" Burmese pythons are the third largest snake in the world after the anaconda and the reticulated (sp?) python. Why you would want to have the third largest snake in the world for a pet is beyond me. Apparently a lot of other folks in Florida who thought having a Burmese python would be a good idea thought better of it, released them into the wild, and this is happening: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_pythoneatsgator.html

Okay, enough with the grossing you out. Sorry about that. The POINT of the whole blog is to tell you that Abigail did not hestitate to walk up to that Burmese python, who could crush her and eat her, and hug it. Yep, she hugged it. She also pet all the other snakes and decided she liked the rough one, whichever one that was (it likes to fake out its predators by pretending it's a rattlesnake - does that help?).

I was so proud in a weird, repelled-at-the-same-time kind of way. My little girl is practicing dominion over the animals at a young age. Good for her.

p.s. If you want to know about how snakes shed their skin and what can happen if they have a "difficult shed," I'm the gal to talk to. It's amazing what you can learn at homeschool co-op.

A heartfelt prayer

I have my semiannual cold which makes me lose my voice. My mom thinks it might be an allergy reaction. I have no idea what it is, but it's annoying. I try to see the positive side: it makes the kids talk softer because they have to hear what I'm whispering to them. It's still annoying, though.

Here was Abigail's prayer at worship tonight:
"Dear God, please please help Mommy to not talk at all so her broken voice can be fixed. Thank you."

I liked the "please help Mommy to not talk at all" part. I think that was the most heartfelt part.

Hmmm

Okay, so here's a funny thing. Jackson does not like to have his shoes off. The first thing he babbles in the morning is "ssshhzzz, sshhhzzz" and points to them. He smiles and laughs when I put them on, and he's a happy boy. He doesn't like taking them off for naptime, and he's thrilled when I put them back on after naptime. What does this mean? Should I be worried that he has obsessive compulsive disorder? :) Perhaps it means freedom to him, because he's not allowed to go out on the lanai without shoes, and he likes to go out there. It's just something to wonder about.

Strawberry Festival Parade

Hello everyone!
This is my second attempt at posting about our day. My first attempt was wiped out when I tried to preview it. Note to self: always save the draft!!! ARRGHHH!! Well, I only have three loads of laundry to fold tonight, so I guess I'll still get to bed on time. :)

ANYWAY, my friend Mary invited us to attend the Plant City Strawberry Festival Parade with her today, and I decided to go with much reluctance. I don't like crowds, and I don't like to try to find parking. However, Mary's wonderful husband went this morning to mark our spot by putting down lawn chairs. It was nice to see that no one tried to claim them or move them. I followed Mary to a parking area, thus eliminating my nervousness at finding parking. So I relaxed and found that I really enjoyed myself - thanks, Mary! The girls weren't too sure what to expect with a parade, even after I explained everything, but once they discovered that people were throwing beads and CANDY at them from the floats, they were on board for this whole parade thing. I don't even know how many beads they ended up taking home, and I don't even WANT to know how much candy they consumed in the hour we were there. Yuck. I made a nuisance of myself by yelling "Go Army!" at the Air Force JROTC and recruiters. I was going to make fun of their pitiful marching, but I thought that might be taking it a bit too far. There were no Navy guys to make fun of, and I think Mary and her lovely daughter were a little relieved. We saw lots of bands, lots of tractors, and LOTS of beauty queens. And I do mean LOTS of beauty queens. Even the four year olds were doing their "queen wave." Yikes. It turned out to be a gorgeous day after a slightly overcast morning, so we took Mary up on her offer when she invited us back to their place afterward. The girls played so hard in their treehouse - oops, FORT! (I forget these differences when dealing with boys versus girls) - that the washcloths they used when we got home were nearly black. I had a nice, almost uninterrupted chat with Mary inside while the kids played. It was so nice not to worry about how loud they were...with the houses in our neighborhood only ten feet apart, I'm constantly worried that we're bothering the neighbors on both sides who don't have kids. I'm looking forward to a slightly bigger yard in North Carolina. The last four pictures were taken at Mary's house. Her daughter and son are budding photographers, and I was able to take a shot when her daughter was setting up a shot of the girls next to the azaleas. She probably got much better shots than I did, but I liked the sweet expressions on their faces.

Hope ya'll enjoy the pictures from the parade. Daniel, the pictures of the confederate reenactors, the Dixie float, and the Bonnie blue flag car are for you. :)
Love to all!

My Birthday, etc.

First of all, I had no idea you all would identify so well with Abigail's concern over the purple bears. Thank you for your support and helpful comments. I will let her know that she doesn't have to live in this paranoia alone.

Secondly, today is my 32nd birthday. I know it's hard to believe that I'm not the 24 year old you thought I was (ha!) but it's true. With Daniel gone, the girls thought they ought to be the ones to help me celebrate, so they all got up early. Shiloh made cinnamon rolls all by herself. I knew she was going to do this, so I showed her on Sunday how to do it - and don't worry - those oven mitts come all the way up to her elbows! Cora decorated the table, the older girls hung streamers, and Abigail cooperated by letting them get her dressed. They all dressed up in party dresses, and then they led me out to the table with my eyes closed. How cute. This is the first year that they've been able to do something like this, and I know that it just tickled them to feel so grown-up. After breakfast, they presented me with their presents. As any parent knows, when children do not have money to purchase something, they give away their own cherished possessions, which is what I got today. I also got some homemade things, which are going right into my "save" drawer. I felt pretty spoiled and loved, which is exactly how you want to feel on your birthday. :) Daniel owes me a dinner at Bonefish Grill, but he'll make good on that.

Hope ya'll enjoy my birthday!

Your tip for the day

Well, I have no pictures to share today, but I do have an interesting tip brought to you by the one and only Abigail. When I was drying her off after her bath this evening, she looked up from under the towel and said, apropos of nothing, "Mommy, purple bears are NOT kind."

There you have it.

I tried to question her further, but apparently that was the limit of her knowledge. I guess she just felt that she had to share it with me.

I hope we've all learned something today. I'm not sure what we've learned, except that maybe I better keep an eye on Abigail to see what kind of hallucinogenic drugs she's taking. :)

Mama's Race Day and Jackson Being Cute

Good evening everyone!
Well, I ran my 5K today, and contrary to my very skeptical husband's opinion, I did very well. :) I came in under 30 minutes, which was my goal. It remains to be seen what my actual time was, because I was wearing a timing chip. It's a device that you strap to your shoelaces, and it automatically starts timing you when you cross the start line and then stops when you cross the finish line. It's handy for races like this where there are so many people that it took about 3 minutes just to get to the start line from where we were in the field of runners. Running is so high-tech these days! :) I really had a great time, because the course was beautiful and it was a great day to run. The sun was shining and it was nice and warm - just the way I like it when I run. We ran right beside the water of Tampa Bay next to the multi-million dollar homes. The wealthy folks were all out in force to cheer us on, which I thought was rather nice of them. :) The course volunteers played music to motivate us every so often along the run, and that was inspiring. Everyone knows that you run 5Ks for all the free stuff you get, and they offered plenty of free stuff after the race. The problem was that I lost the people I came with, so I couldn't enjoy any of the free stuff while searching for them. We finally met back up at the car. All in all, it was a wonderful day. The kids had a great time over at a friend's house, and they were exhausted when we got home. I think the next one I'm signing up for is the first weekend in April, if there is not one sooner. I just love the camaraderie of these races, and I love the diversity of people...some are there as a warm-up run to the marathon they'll do the next day, and some are there to challenge themselves in a way that they have NEVER challenged themselves before in their lives. I saw one lady with her personal trainer encouraging her every step of the way. I hope she made it. Oh - don't be alarmed at the photo of me; this is a phenomenon I like to call "running hair" which is similar to "Oma hair" in its crazy wildness. The hat is a pathetic attempt to tame its wildness. No offense to any Omas out there.

This evening, I had quite the comedian on my hands during dinner. Jackson was in rare form entertaining everyone, and I caught a couple of good shots before he quit. He's learned to say cheese for the camera, so he was trying to do that. He also learned that sticking out his bottom lip when I tell him no makes the girls laugh, so he tried that a couple of times. I tried to get a picture, but he switched into entertainment mode when he saw the camera. What a ham.

Beautiful flowers

So I know it's more than a week since Valentine's Day, but I wanted to show you a picture of the lovely flowers that my dear husband ordered for all the ladies in the house all the way from Iraq. We had problems getting all four of them due to some miscommunication between USAA and Teleflora. Poor Cora and Abigail had no flowers for almost a week. The flowers also came in the same teacup, but Cora and I have arranged a deal where I will switch with her. The roses in the last two actually smell good, so we've been enjoying them.

Funny Abigail story unrelated to flowers...
She often asks questions where the answers are glaringly obvious or she has just asked the same question two minutes earlier. She will also ask questions that she knows are silly just to laugh when I make an exasperated noise. One day I told her that I would start giving silly answers to her questions. So two days ago as we're riding along in the van, she asks what I would qualify as a silly question. (I know, I know, for you better parents out there, there's no such thing as a silly question, but then again, you might not have met Abigail.) I was about to respond when she said, "I know, I know, green beans on my head." I said, "WHAT?" She said, "Well, that's silly, isn't it? Green beans on my head? That's a silly answer, Mommy." So now the standard answer for silly questions is "Green beans on my head." You might try that one on your kids and see the looks you get.

Also unrelated to flowers...
As I was chatting with the other moms after homeschool co-op yesterday, I heard the dreaded scream that no mom wants to hear: "MOM!!! COME QUICK!!" I know that this is no time to correct their grammar, so I go rushing to see what has happened. There is Shiloh, with blood dripping from her mouth, down her chin, and into her cupped hands underneath. Then Cora says, "Don't touch her!! She's bleeding!!!" Hmm...I'm not sure she would make a very good nurse or EMT. Anyway, I whisk Shiloh off to the nursery where I can wipe her down and see the extent of the damage. I also discover that her leg is scraped from hip to foot, and she has a very bloody knee. She bravely submits to my first aid, and we start to leave the parking lot. I ask her if she's okay to run the errands that we had planned for the day, and she says, "yes," but all at once she starts to bawl saying, "I NEED DADDY!" If there's ever a time when a mommy feels helpless, this was it. I just stopped the van, got in the back, and hugged her. Daniel, I know you already know what happened, but if ever you feel that you are not missed around here, remember this story. You are very much missed, especially by the mommy who knows that sometimes a girl just needs her daddy.

p.s. I thought about getting a picture of her two fat lips, but then I thought that social services might pay a call if I posted that, so I'll refrain. :)

Race Day

Well, today was the Junior Gasparilla Distance Classic in Tampa, also known as "the dreaded day" for Shiloh, who wasn't too sure she wanted to run in her race. She was tense when we got there, and then almost backed out at the last minute, saying "I just don't want to do it. I don't want to." I was just praying I was making the right decision as a parent to make her do it. I told her that we would pray about it, and then she was just going to be strong, run the race, and finish. She took a deep breath, we prayed, and then she calmly walked to the starting line. She was incredible. She ran the whole way (half a mile!!!), and she finished in the top 1/4 of the runners (not that this competitive mom noticed! :) ). She was smiling as she ran, and I made sure she heard me yelling for her. I was almost crying when she finished because I was so proud of the guts it took for her to do it when she was so scared. She was relieved, and she enjoyed the rest of the day very much. It was a good thing she went first!! Cora took her race in stride, as you can see from her photo. She also ran well, ponytails flying and a grin on her face. Abigail Emma...well, Abigail does things a little differently. I pointed out the Chick-fil-A cow mascots waiting near the finish line to give her an idea of where she had to run. I told her, "Run as fast as you can to get those cows when they say go." So she did indeed run as fast as her little legs could carry her, all the way to the finish and beyond where I had to scoop her up. I was telling her she did an awesome job, and she was protesting, "But I didn't get the cows- I didn't get the cows!" She literally thought she had to tackle the cows as part of her race. Because of her motivation, she got second place in her race. :) She was quite impressed with her medal, and even more impressed with the water bottle she received.

Jackson took everything in calmly from the stroller, and he was very impressed with the flight-for-life helicopter there for show. Apparently, all of the girls' running exhausted him since he fell asleep in the van on the way home.

What a great day. What a blessing to be a part of these kids' lives. We've had a couple of wonderful days together, and the only thing that's missing is you, Daddy! We love you!

Have a good Lord's Day tomorrow, everyone!
Love,
Casey
p.s. the photos are in reverse order - I'll do better next time!

Our trip to the State Fair

We had such a wonderful time at the Fair yesterday!!! It was a perfect day, with sunshine, warmth, and a nice breeze. It was cold the day before, so we hit it just right. We "milked" a fake cow, we squeezed oranges to make juice, we gathered eggs, we pet a bunch of dogs (Shiloh got to see a poodle, so she was thrilled), we fed some goats, and we saw a chick hatching out of its egg. Cora said, "Boy, that looks like a lot of work! He must be exhausted!" I was hoping to see a calf being born, but none of the mommas cooperated. Shiloh was just as glad. :) We brushed a cow, visited some "stinky pigs" as Shiloh said, and saw some adorable newborn goats. We saw some ladies square-dancing, and the girls loved their pouffy skirts and cowboy boots. In the craft building, I was pleasantly surprised to see how interested the kids were in the paintings, wood-working, and photographs. Congratulations go out to the son of a friend of ours, who got two first place ribbons for his photographs! I think his sister also got a ribbon, but I didn't see her photograph. We needed a break after all that walking, so we grabbed a spot underneath a shady tree to have a picnic, and we ended up having a wonderful view of the parade that got underway shortly after we started eating our lunch. There were marching bands, Shriners in little cars, farmers in huge tractors, Army vehicles, clowns, and lots more. We were also sitting on a small hill, so rolling down the hill became the main attraction after the parade was over. We set out for the horse barns after lunch, and we were able to see the mounted police, some Haflinger horses (I think they're from Australia or New Zealand), a Belgian pulling a fancy cart, and a team of six pulling a wagon. Shiloh got to pet a lot of horses. In the kid's section, they rode a saddle on a sawhorse, saw some donkeys with hats on, and got to groom a beautiful horse named Bourbon. All in all, it was just one of those days that makes you glad you have kids so you can see these things with them and see the wonderment on their faces. They were EXHAUSTED, and I don't mind saying I was, too! I put them to bed at 7:00 since we had another big day today with co-op, and I had to teach! :) That went well, so we did some errands afterward and then stopped at the park for a picnic to enjoy the beautiful weather. Well, that was our trip to the State Fair. Enjoy the pictures. Jackson looks a little hesitant about the goats in the picture, but he actually LOVED them getting so close. He was squealing and grabbing their ears. I guess he smelled good, because they kept trying to nibble his neck. That's a tickle spot for him anyway so he was really giggling. It was adorable.
Cora was the only one brave enough to have her picture taken anywhere near this Watusi. I tried to get her to hold onto his horns while my friend held her up, but she decided that was the line she would not cross.

This One's for You, Mary

Hello everyone!
I've been silent for awhile as we've had a hectic week this week. But I'm posting a recipe for a friend and anyone else who might like to try it, and I'll post some pictures from our outing to the State Fair yesterday. First, here's the recipe:

Butternut Barley Risotto

6 servings (although I think it would make enough for a family of 8 if you have little ones that don't eat that much like I do!)

1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), seeded, peeled, and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (you can also just bake it and scoop it out instead of peeling it, and I cut the pieces smaller for my kids to handle)

3 TBS olive oil
1 small onion, cut into 1/4 dice
1 cup diced (1/4 inch) plum tomatoes
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup pearl barley
4 TBS chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1. Blanch the squash in boiling, salted water until just tender, about 3 minutes.
2. Place the oil in a pot over low heat; add the onion and cook until tender, stirring, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, simmer the broth with the cinnamon stick in a saucepan, partially covered, for 5 minutes.
4. Stir the barley into the onions and tomatoes, coating well with the oil. Raise the heat to medium.
5. Stir 1/2 cup of the broth into the barley mixture; cook, stirring frequently, until it has been absorbed into the barley. Repeat, making sure each addition of broth is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup, until the barley is tender and most of the broth has been used, about 45 minutes (or less if you take shortcuts like me and add 1 cup at a time! :) ) Discard cinnamon stick.
6. Carefully fold in the reserved butternut squash along with 2 TBS of the parsley. Cook until the barley reaches the desired consistency, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately in shallow bowls with parsley garnish.

I served with steamed green beans. I liked it, as well as Jackson. The girls weren't too keen on it, but then again, they're not too keen on anything, so I didn't judge the success of it by their reaction. :)

Miscellaneous, aka "I Hate Coming Up With Titles for Things"

Well, we've had a great week getting back into the routine of school, chores, outdoor stuff, and reading Little Women. The girls were outside the other day pretending to be the poor Hummel family, huddling up to one another for warmth because they had no fire and there were cracks in the windows. I thought it was cheating somehow to play this down in Florida where they have not the remotest chance of actually freezing to death. :) Well, they had a good time anyway while Jackson walked up and down the backyard searching for just the right place to put the sprinkler. He never found it. I'm beginning to see some motivation from this boy who didn't walk until 15 1/2 months. He had his pajamas on the other night, and he wanted to go out onto the lanai. I said "No, you don't have your shoes on." So he babbled something at me, went to his room, and came out with his shoes. Then he attempted, with much grunting, to get them on. He was pretty mad when he realized that the reason I'd given wasn't really the whole truth; I just didn't want him out on the lanai to get dirty again after his bath, and I never thought he'd go get his shoes. Note to self - never underestimate the boy.

I've posted two pictures of Cora's latest sewing project, which she just completed. (I hope you can see the stitches in the first picture). It's a four-square potholder, and I think it came out nicely. The picture of the stitches is for her Daddy, who told her that she needed to rip out the first set of whipstitches because she hadn't done her best on them. I figured she had done her best and that the second attempt would turn out like the first. Well, I was wrong. Cora was determined to make Daddy proud, and she set to it like only Cora can. Although the stitches are big, and Ma Ingalls would probably disapprove, they are even, and she was quite proud of herself. I was proud of her attitude when she gave it another try. I think it just goes to show you why kids need mommies and daddies. I would have given her encouraging words and let it slide. Daddy said "do it again," she did, and she learned something in the process. God sure knew what he was doing when He set up marriage, didn't He?

The following story is also for Daniel (who is following daily life through short phone calls every day and through this blog) but I'll explain it for everyone else. All three girls love these books by Kathy Appelt focusing on characters named Bubba and Beau. Bubba is a baby and Beau is his hound puppy. Daniel recorded one of the books, Bubba and Beau Go Night-Night, onto an audiotape along with many others so that they could listen to them at night in bed. Abigail can now quote the book in its entirety - in a redneck accent- because she loves it so much.
She came to me with a plea the other day before dinner, "Mommy, please put on Bubba and Beau because - Sister, those napkins came in handy," and then she walked off laughing hysterically. Bubba and Beau had made an awful mess with some raspberry swirl ice cream cones and the author was informing the reader that those napkins did indeed come in handy. I don't really know how Abigail's mind works, but I think it's pretty funny. Some kids are quoting Shakespeare by the time they are three, but it takes a special talent to be able to deliver a line like that with a redneck accent. I love this child. I just hope she passes one standardized test in her homeschool career. Please comment with hilarious stories/comments your children have made - I think kids are the funniest people in the world. My niece who is five does stand-up comedy, and I think Jerry Seinfeld could learn from her. Her favorite joke (which my girls now love to do) is the following:
Dyani: Knock, knock.
Me: Who's there?
Dyani: Interrupting cow
Me: Interrupt-
Dyani: MOO!! and then falls over laughing
I mean, what can be funnier than that?

Hope this brings to mind something that makes you laugh...
Have a great night-
Casey

This smiiiile's fer you, Daddy!

Try Again if at first you don't succeed

Here are some pictures of the girls' combined birthday party. The one of Abigail in sunglasses is referred to by my brother as her "Bono look." :) She loves the sunglasses, and she wore them in the car all the way back to Florida.

Home Again Home Again

Hello everyone!
We are now back home in Florida, and we just had a wonderful morning getting back to the routine of schooling, taking the dog for a walk, riding bikes, and weeding. Our yard only seems to grow weeds, but at least they're green! :) I need to buy some weed and feed, and I need to mow, I think. It still seems weird mowing the lawn in February. Well, I won't be doing that next February, Lord willing, since we'll be up in North Carolina. We hope to be settled there by the beginning of hurricane season. I don't really want to stock up on canned goods again, although we still have several cans of pork and beans; they proved to be a bad choice for the kids. :) I guess I need to sell our generator - the one we just bought for last season. We really should settle down one of these days! My dad said we're moving more now that we're out of the military, which is true. :) Maybe this will be the last one before we get to our land in Tennessee, but somehow I doubt it. I really will miss the friends we've made here and the Florida sunshine, but I won't miss hurricane season. We also look forward to joining a more like-minded church in North Carolina.

I hear from Daniel most every day, and he's doing well. We can't talk about much over the phone, which makes for one-sided conversations, but it's wonderful to hear his voice. He recorded a videotape and two audio tapes for the kids before he left, and they've just about worn it out already. They can already quote the library books he recorded onto the tape. :)

Jackson's getting back to normal after being so fussy on the trip. I don't know if it was having four teeth coming in at the same time, not having some "down time," being sick, or just plain irritability, but he was not the most fun person on the trip. He was a happy little man today, though, and it was a pleasure seeing his personality again. I have to wean the girls off of marshmallow cereal - thanks, Mom! :) -but otherwise they settled right back into the routine.

We celebrated Shiloh's 7th birthday and Abigail's 3rd birthday in Tennessee, which was a wild party. We had 17 people there, and my aunt and uncle were so kind as to travel up from South Carolina at the last minute to attend. They only found out about the party that morning (we couldn't decide what day to have it) and they jumped in their van to make it. It was wonderful. Shiloh was a little unsure about having that many people, being naturally shy and quiet, but Uncle Duncan made it all right. He's like having another kid there, except I think he's louder. He's older than I am. My mom was stuck at the table with Shiloh, Cora, my niece Dyani, and Duncan, and she said she felt like she was at the kids' table.

OH! And one more thing...I got to meet our adorable NEW niece Micah Marie, whose cheeks are truly kissable. She was doing the cutest cooing, and it was wonderful to meet her. Her big brother Caleb seems like he's a year older than Jackson instead of just three months. He is speaking very well, running all over the place, and he's HUGE. I think he wears 3T or 4T clothes. Wow. He did really well with four loud cousins, and Cora took to Micah, bouncing her like a pro. She's going to be a wonderful mommy to six boys, which is her plan for her family.

I'll post again soon now that I'm home.
Love,
Casey
Okay, I meant to post more photos, but it won't let me for some reason, so I'm going to post this message and then try again on another message.