Sage’s Mind

Soccer seems to be our life…

Real Salt Lake

First game in Sandy

Look at that air

We sent this photo to FF in Ethiopia… It was a little cold that night.

Real Salt Lake Game

What a game!

Isaac with his pumpkin

Mom and Maya picking out pumpkins

Ethan with his pumpkin

The boyz

This is my favorite time of year. I love the changes, the colors, the smells. Growing up in Arizona we really don’t get a fall. The only way you knew to was fall was by being able to creep out of our AC caves and breath the crisper air. Although my mom says it’s still 90 in Az right now!

I love wandering through a pumpkin patch picking out the perfect pumpkin. When the boys were younger and I had more say in our recreation I loved to take them to all of the fall farms and festivals. I hate that they grow up so fast.

This is one of those activities I have to beg Steve into doing. But Steve is the BEST pumpkin carver in all the land! Stay tuned for the amazing creations this family can pull together.

Worm Burgers

This was my attempt at being a cool and fun mom! I was cool oh I had fun but my boys thought I was killing them.

Steve putting the fixings on

Avery said it best “what Mom are you trying to make them healthy”? The “worms” were sprouts. Ketchup blood and the mustard the oozing guts. Way cool huh?! I guess we’re back to boring old burgers.

We even made Carmel apples. This was without a doubt, a huge hit… my family loves sweets!

Carmel Apples

Silly baby do you know your shirt is a mess?

Maya laughing W/ black eye

Wait whats that below your eye?

Maya with a black eye

Silly baby your mommy is in BIG trouble!!!

Maya black eye #2

This is why the checkers at walmart are nuts about letting your little ones stand up in the back of the cart. Well I say hogwash… I have 5 kids and NEVER had a single one fall out of the cart. Alright she jumped… yes she jumped! I have to say in my defense that I do have mom reflexes so her head never touched the ground. Her eye… yes well that hit the wheel!

NO CHILDEREN WERE HURT TO BADLY IN THE MAKING OF THIS BLOG!

This is a HUGE day for our family. The long awaited email telling us that our “gift bag” had arrived in Ethiopia and into FF hands. This is a HUGE day for our family because this means that little Fire Fly now knows about us. She has pictures of each of us along with a few other small “things”. From now until we travel we are able to send a letter, pictures and stickers once a month.

We have been thinking, praying and dreaming about her for a couple of months now. It’s crazy to think she has seen pictures of us!!! What is she thinking? Does she like what she sees? Is she really happy with us? Does she show her friends her book of American people? Or does she really understand what’s about to happen in her life? I think about Maya and how much she LOVES other children… what will she think when we bring FF home? Will FF just always be a part of Maya’s memory. How cool would that be huh?! I think about our boys who have put up with 2 years and 15 foster kids. They are all so excited that FF is coming HOME and that she gets to stay! Although Isaac was talking with Owen and I heard this conversation

Isaac “if FF hits us we can hit her back”

Owen “hu?”

Isaac “ya we have to cuz she would be our sister”

Owen “we do?”

Isaac “only if she hit you with a car and it really hurts”

Owen “I don’t want to hit her”

Isaac “we don’t have to”

Owen “K”

That’s about when I stepped in and told them that if she hits them that they should just come tell me. They both agreed and went on their way.

We have usually done foster care for 2-4 year old boys. That’s all they know… and believe me there was A LOT of hitting going on.

I AM GRATEFUL to be FF’s new MOMMY!

Sorry for the rant!

Crazy how… just as I was finding myself in a place between panic and despair. This adoption stuff is hard on the emotions. The blessings come and I can feel calm again. I don’t believe that I could ever completely loose it but there are moments.

Any who back to the “gift bag” this email in sent with a PICTURE! Yes and Fire Fly is soooo cutie. Bigger than I originally thought. She has the sunglasses on her head and the pink t-shirt with the little kitty on and she looks sooooo HAPPY. The shirt size is 4 and it actually fits! The boys picked out this shirt because the nose of the kitty lights up. What 4 year old wouldn’t love a light up shirt??

We also got another email from an adoptive family who visited FF. They said she is a doll. That she had her sunglasses on the whole time. The husband had to coax her into taking them off. They also said she is plumper than the other kids. GOOD I say with this may brothers she will needs all that coo-shin!

We hope that by next month we will have a court date. It’s passing court that worries us. Until than I can enjoy what we do have and be grateful the Lord has blessed us with so much!

Fun, fun, fun!

Sage

Service family Christmas

Good Times!

So I have been going through old pictures it’s crazy how much we change. Some for the better! I’m talking about ME!

My love Ethan age 6 months

 This post is all about Ethan!!!

Ethan at pre-school

This kid is amazing. He is always the first boy on his feet to help anyone. He gives the BEST hugs. 

I can still hear his sweet little voice saying that he loves me.  We used to have a little saying… Me, ” Ethan I love you”  Ethan, ” I love you more” Mom, “I love you more than the whole world” Ethan, “I love you more than everything” Mom, “I guess I’m a pretty lucky Mom than?”

Ethan would always giggle and say YUP!

Loves TV!

Ethan loved (and still does) to chill in front of the tube all day everyday! We owned all 10000 Land Before Time movies. We even had one in Spanish. My mom buys movies randomly! That was just one of those random buys! We didn’t even catch it for a month. Both boy watched that movie for a whole month no complaints.. until I actually stayed awake once and couldn’t believe my ears.

I loves those days when a movie meant a nap for mommy!

All Boy!

It took all I had to keep clothes on this kid! I gave up and gave in… Ethan’s thing was underwear. His favorite was to have them on backwards so HE could see the batman, spider-man or scooby-doo. Before he was even potty trained (I call it house breaking) he had to wear his underwear on backwards over his diaper. Sill boy…. he even at times would have the underwear over his cloths!!! I know I’m a great mom!

Ethan with his BLUE BLANKIE

This is such a great picture of Ethan’s two loves. Dinosaurs and his beloved BLUE BLANKY! He still talks about how traumatic it was when I threw away the last piece of this blanket. I’m sure we’ll all need counseling. That’s one cutie kid.

This was about the age he really fell in love with “HIS” Uncle Ian. He would talk about him like he was his best friend.

One day I was talking with A and E about going to Jungle Jim’s play land. They both love going there it is a kiddo wonderland! So while we talked Ethan announces that he doesn’t want to go to Jungle Jim’s. I started to worry.. what was going on in this 3 year old mind?! Than in the sweetest voice he declares ” I want to go to Jungle Ian’s”

Steve has a Friend who’s name is Jim. The boys love Jim! I guess Ethan loved Ian more!

Ethan in the snow

Who would have thought SNOW in the middle of Mesa Arizona. To you who haven’t lived in AZ they actually truck this “crap” in… dump it on the street and call it a ” Snow Day?”

So the seen is… a ton of kids without gloves playing in the ICE… throwing ICE balls! Most are loving it… happy.. not my boy! Who would have thought he would ROCK the hills snow boarding!

Ethan boarding

Ethan-boarding

I love you Ethan…. I love you more than you can ever know! You have been a wonderful example of how to be like Jesus and I thank you for being my Son!

LOVE MOM

Ethan with Maya

Avery with Toby

This kid Rocks!

Avery he is so cute

You had to know this was coming! Yes we are in the processes. It’s killing me to be in the processes! What we know (which isn’t ever enough) is that we have 4-6 month more of waiting. So basically we have no clue when our little Fire Fly (AKA little girl from Ethiopia) will be in our arms.

Fire Fly could quite possible be the cutest little girl around. Maya still being a baby has no need to worry! FF is 4 years old and has the longest hair… BIG brown eyes and a smile that blows my mind! Another adoptive mother who met Fire Fly told us that she is very sweet and shy! Shy might be a wonderful change in our house.

Until we are legally hers we will not be using her real name or posting any pictures sooo sorry. You will just have to wait. It sucks….

From what I have learned about Ethiopia they LOVE their children. The children are very well cared for and loved by the nannies. Fire Fly has friends and a warm place to sleep. Her needs are being met but I desperately want to be there with her. RIGHT NOW! It’s killing me… I feel like my head is in a fog. I think about little Fire Fly every single day. When we are out as a family enjoying a fun new place I imagined her here. I desperately want time to hurry with this adoption. But I want it to sloooow way down with my children at home.

My inspiration through this processes has been an amazingly courageous and hard working WOman Erin.  Erin is also working tirelessly to help families find that part of their hearts for a child who has HIV. She is wonderfully gifted with the knowledge and strength it takes to parent her own brood but also love the 67 other children desperately LOOKING for a FAMILY!

                             COULD IT BE YOU?

Maya

Random MAYA Don’t you just LOVE this Girl?!

If your curious here is what we believe is our next 100 steps in getting closer to Ethiopia!

Our Dossier (government paper work all singed and notarized in BLOOD! JK) Was mailed to Ethiopia 2 weeks ago. The next step is to have that “stuff” translated and signed by a few hands. Then I believe it is sent to the court system and that is where we are given a “Court date” . When we have that court date and the whole process is processed correctly we should be able to pass court. That meanes Fire Fly would be ours in Ethiopia. So you would think “Great lets get out of here and on a plane”. Well the “stuff” has to be re-translated and I believe some other government process and about 8 weeks later we should be traveling!!??

This all sounds like a lot. Yup it is a lot but I would do it 1000 times over to bring this little girl home! Crazy thing we haven’t even met her. Thats Adoption…. We had many of the same experiences with Maya. Heck with our own boys. I remember Avery after being born was so scary looking. Ya… first child thing.. he was such a yucky mess, but his head was all lopsided. I wonded if I could see past that HEAD. Avery has a beautiful head now but for that moment I wondered!

So right now we wait! Wait and pray that this processes goes quickly. O’ ya the other part is the government closed for like 3 months (rainy season) and just reopened last week. I feel real lucky not to have a government job in Ethiopia right now.

We have sent Fire Fly a “gift bag”

Gift bag

 

I think a lot. I think about ways to make my life better. In making my life better I am hoping my family life gets better. See a pattern here!?

I have struggled with worrying about what other people think. About ME mostly…. real selfish hu!  I also worry about what people think about themselves. I want to do ALL I can to take away pain and sadness from every person. I know I’m nuts… stay with me here.

Being a person like that I have been in a lot of really uncomfortable situations. With people who clung to me and I being the pleas-er couldn’t help them work threw any real feelings. I have hurt other people because I was always trying to “fix” what I thought was wrong in there situation.

Never once stopping to ask any person “what can I do to help you”? I always just knew what they needed! Ya right!

So I post about this because I have a heart full of love and concern for “people” but I can not “save” them from their hurts. I can not “rescue” anyone. Only our Heavenly Father has the power to guide and direct. I soget that now. I’m almost 34 and I feel like… well real good about where I am in life. I want mmmm 30 lbs to just fall off but thats another post!

I do however have the POWER to listen to the Holy Spirit and have FAITH in a plan that I’m not in control of.

Confused YET?

I want to from this day on ask my Heavenly Father first what he would have me do. Than ask the “person” what they have planed for their lives/ situation. How I might be a tool in that plan. The part that will be real hard is excepting that some”people” aren’t ready to receive yet. 

Random I know but thanks for loving me!

Soon I will sit down long enough to blog about Adoption and how it has changed our whole family!

Isaac

Isaac… he is my hero! This kid amazes me everyday. I love his way. You know your kids just have a way! Isaac is cool and easy. He is THE hardest working kid I have ever known! He loves his family and he really LOVES his MOMMY!

Isaac and Owen

 Why a whole post about this GREAT kid. Well get a tissue cuz this was sooo sweet! Owen (twin brother) was really sick. I’m talking the real sick blues.

Sunday, Owen was still to “sick” to go to church.

Monday, Isaac comes to me at like 7:00am with a tray of food… I thought “for ME?”

NO, Isaac wanted my help to cary this tray of GREAT food to Owen. The tray.. scrambled eggs, OJ and waffles (because we were out of toast). No kidding a 7 year old made breakfast IN BED for his brother! People he did this on his own!  He was so loving and even asked Owen if he could get anything else for him? O’ my I have done good by one boy!

Isaac

I know your jealous… what can I say “I’m a GREAT MOM!” Ya right while this was an angelic moment my two other OLDER boys were killing each other and screaming.

What a GREAT day!

 I love you Isaac. I love who you are becoming. I love that you love to hang out with me. I love that your happy doing anything with your family.                                                   

                                                  I LOVE YOU ISAAC!