A day Late

I'm a day late and often a dollar short! But, here it is...my exciting new project:

I'm a Christmas Warrior for ZARA


I'm a Christmas warrior for Zara!! I've committed to raising at least $1,000 for her adoption grant fund. You'll notice that I don't have a photo of the little sweetie. That's because she is so young and she was away at the hospital for her heart surgery. Isn't that great that she is getting her heart repaired? We hear of so many older orphans with unrepaired heart defects. This is really good news!!

I'm not sure what special things we will do to raise this money for Zara, but I will have a chip-in for her at the top of the page through December. For each gift of $35 or more you will receive a beautiful Reece's Rainbow Christmas tree ornament.

Zhen and Theo's adoption grants made such a big difference in our ability to adopt them. I pray that Zara's family may be emboldened by her grant fund as well.

Trying one more time...Ralph has discovered...

Ralph has discovered Skype! And he has discovered his voice it seems. Check him out talking to his big brother who is away at college:

I'm pretty impressed with his emerging language skills. Or maybe I'm just excited to hear him trying to speak at all!

Theo sleeping

the perfect creepy video to share with you tonight. have you ever seen a child sleep like this?

My apologies

My apologies to those of you who couldn't see the video I posted yesterday. I have had no luck uploading videos to blogger and I thought I had found a solution. Apparently I need to think of something else.

When you say ret@rd...

I've had the misfortune to hear the word "ret@rd" misused twice already this week.

The first time was at the grocery store checkout. Ralph and Zhen were sitting in the back of the cart. Theo was on top in his infant car seat. The groceries go under the cart in this scenario! :)

I bought ten of the same item. The checker tried to just scan it once and type in ten, but it didn't work. He said something like, "well, that didn't work. I'll just have to scan ten times like a ret@rd."

I was stunned. I'm always stunned.

And once again I disappointed myself by not knowing what to say. A simple "excuse me?" would have been fine, but my mush brain was locked up. I feel like I just let my boys down. How much longer before they are old enough to understand?

How much longer before they are old enough to understand that the term is the current catch-all phrase to indicate something stupid, annoying, incorrect, weird, or otherwise worthy of ridicule? If people with mental retardation were universally appreciated the r-word would not be used in this way. So don't tell me that when you say it that you are not talking about my children.

When you say it you score a direct hit on them. And they would just as soon give you a hug. *sigh*

I forget

Ralphie made me forget.

He made me forget who I was before. Before I had a child with Down Syndrome. Before I had a medically fragile child. I'm not who I was and I forget sometimes.

Think of a venn diagram. I don't always appreciate that most people are living in the circle that I inhabited before Ralphie came along. It's not a bad place, it's just that most people exist there. When he came along I found myself tossed into region of many intersecting circles.

It's been kind of cool finding community with new sets of people. There are the medical people, the Down Syndrome people, the adoption people, and now the growth hormone people and more. Learning all these news things has made life exciting!

I just forget that not everyone knows about Down Syndrome. Not everyone knows about adoption. I just forget.

So if there is something that I have glossed over that you don't get OR if you just simply have any questions at all, please leave it in the comments. OK, lurkers...you HAVE to ask me a little something. Alright?

Meet Jill

Today some friends threw a shower for our new sons, Zhen and Theo. Isn't that sweet? There was a come-and-go brunch at my friend Nancy's lovely home.

Nancy is a talented photographer and very thoughtfully decorated with photos that she had taken of the boys. She also made photo prints with scripture verses printed on them and asked people to write a note on the back to encourage our family. They were simply beautiful.

When we arrived, my friend Jill was providing the entertainment. I met Jill 11 years ago. I became friends with her mother when I joined a quilting group at church. Jill has Down Syndrome and is 46 years old. We have the same birthday!

She loved holding Theo. When he got cranky she loved sitting next to him and looking at him while he sat in his car seat. We chatted about her upcoming trip to Branson, MO and Silver Dollar City. We talked about the Mannheim Steamroller concert, her favorite music group.

Thank you Lord that Jill's mother did not take the advice of the many doctors who recommended institutionalization for her. Look at just one of the many things that Jill has accomplished! I'm so proud to call her my friend.