Quotes from the Sick Ward

I picked Kristina up from school with a 102 temperature today. She changed into her winter pajamas, her thermal socks, her down jacket and then settled on the couch with the pillow and comforter from the bed. She dozed in and out for a few hours. Periodically she would wake up and say the strangest things like:

"I love this couch. I prayed for myself. The coffee talked to me. I feel better."

"My head hurts. Does this mean I have brain damage?"

"Dad said a bad word - habitual."

"My hair is soft."

"Dad, what are you doing? Wanna pass me the M&M's?"

"I'm not a magazine maker."

"What's the highest fever?"

"I think I'm going to go to bed." (rolls over and faces the couch.) "I don't think anyone heard that."

Of course, Robert took great pleasure in trying to carrying on a conversation with her in this state. He was sitting in his chair reading one of Calvin's commentaries. He told her she should try to read some of his books. She said, "No, I need lower books. Your books are high definition books."

Of Great Importance

This is cross posted from the wonderful Kaysers' blog. Adoptive families, please take a moment and do your part.

...And write your Representatives and Senators. This was a major reason we were able to adopt and I know for many families this did as well.

Making the Adoption Tax Credit Permanent
Adoption Action Alert
Taken from (http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=639)

The federal adoption tax credit has helped thousands of families say "Yes!" to adopting a child. It's vital that this financial support stay in place to help families offset the costs and fees associated with adopting a child. Unfortunately, the tax credit is set to expire in December 2010 unless Congress votes to continue it. It's time to take action!

The Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213 , will keep the adoption tax credit from being repealed, and may make the tax relief measure permanent. It only takes a few minutes to email or call your senators and congressmen it's important for them to hear from families impacted by the tax credit.

Currently, there are 76 State Senators and Representatives cosponsoring H.R. 213. However, there are 16 states that currently have no sponsors of this bill, including eight on the East Coast* (one of the largest areas of the US with internationally adopted children). H.R. 213 is currently in committee, where most bills die. It imperative that adoptive families, and all friends of children waiting for families, act now.

It only takes a few minutes to write, call, or email your representatives. Please do so today!
Email Representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Email Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Currently, the following states have no cosponsors or commitments of support for H.R. 213:
West Virginia
Delaware
Connecticut
Rhode Island
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Maine
Idaho
Oregon
Nevada
Montana
South Dakota
New Mexico
Arkansas
Hawaii

The two states offering the greatest support are Texas & Georgia with 6 cosponsors each, closely followed by Pennsylvania with 5. Honorable mentions: Florida , Indiana , Illinois each with 4 sponsorships each.

Pass this on to friends and family, and ask for their help in writing, calling, and posting on blogs and facebook. To gain momentum, we must have an absolute ground swell of families lifting their voices together for the well-being of children throughout the world!

COPY and USE

Hello my name is ___________ and I live in ___________. We recently finished our adoption of two new children. Our journey was amazing but also was very expensive. We were able to accomplish this partly due to the tax benefits that were provided. There are over 140 million orphans in the world today and anything that will help families give these kids homes. Please vote for the Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213 , that will keep the adoption tax credit from being repealed, and may make the tax relief measure permanent. Thank you for your service and we pray for you and your colleagues daily. May God Bless you.

Out with the Old, In with the New

I can't believe its October. We had a "cold front" sweep through earlier this week and experienced the first hints of cooler weather. Technically "cold front" here means 65 at night, 85 during the day. We take what we can get though! My students trudged into class wearing long sleeves and complaining about the cool nip in the air. I love the promise of things to come though!

We are almost half way through the first nine weeks of school. I wish I could say that the wonderful routine we fell into this summer survived the demands of the return to school, but that's not exactly what happened. After teaching all day (and two nights a week at a local college), I just haven't been able to work the biking into my schedule. I hate it too. I felt great and was really experiencing a change in my health. And I miss biking. It was an activity that all of us could do together. I'm hoping I can balance out my schedule and regain some of the old routine soon.

We're all enjoying some new activities though. Hannah and Kristina are part of middle school girls' Bible study. Sam, Nathanael, & Joshua all made the boys volleyball team at school. We're excited to cheer them on at their first home game this week. Four of the kids are in the music program at school. Sam and Nathanael are in their third year of band. Hannah and Joshua joined this year and are loving it. Kristina wasn't interested at all though, so we respected her decision to opt for other electives.

Even I'm trying my hand at something new. I play three other instruments, but I've always wanted to learn guitar. With no money (or time) for an instrument or lessons, it just never happened. Last Christmas, a guitar made its way under the tree with my name on it though (thanks, Dad!), but I still couldn't swing the other half of the equation until a few weeks ago. It just so happens that there's a guitar class at school during my planning period. So most days, I squeeze my way into Andrea's classroom, grab an acoustic, and set myself between two 16 year olds who happen to be in my English class. There are about seven students in seventh period guitar class who have me for English class sometime earlier in the day. The first time I showed up, the kids raised their eyebrows. But now they make room for me and check my technique when I'm practicing chords. I take notes and tests right along side them and they seem to respect me for that. On Friday, Tabby popped her head in my classroom and shouted, "OMG, Mrs Landrum, did you practice for today's test? What song are you going to play???" I have to laugh at their enthusiasm because I share the same jitters and the same sore fingertips.

Some things never change though. The boys went off with Robert this morning and left me with the girls. We had good intentions to clean the house, but sometime (shortly after the boys left) Kristina successfully convinced me that she was in desperate need of a denim skirt. We set out for Ross (love Ross!) and didn't manage to find what we were looking for. We did however find a pair of "skinny jeans" that Kristina wanted for her birthday. Skinny jeans are the new must have obviously. She tried on about ten pairs before settling on a dark washed pair. She even convinced me to try on a pair. For future reference, skinny jeans are for skinny people! The girls said they loved them on me and tried to convince me get them. I explained that I worked with teenagers - the last thing I need is to try to look like one!

Head in the Clouds

I love to fly. Robert hates to fly. Some of you may remember I mentioned this almost two years ago (gasp! yes, its been almost two years since she came home!) as we were preparing to travel to Ukraine for Kristina's adoption. Robert was invited to speak on orphan ministry at a church in Louisiana several weeks back. I was jealous as I booked his flight online and brooded over the fact that I would have to remain grounded while he got to jet off into the wide blue sky and speak to a congregation on my favorite subject.

As much as I love to travel by plane, I don't do it nearly as often as I like. In fact, Kristina is the only one with real flight experience. Robert and I flew to Los Angeles with the twins when they weren't even 6 months old to look at a seminary on the West coast. But other than that, none of our kids have experienced the thrill of flight. That is, until yesterday.

On Sunday I read the paper. Its the only time I sit down and give the news much attention throughout the week. Technically, I buy it for the coupons, but I still manage to flip through all the pages. Last weekend I noticed a small blurb about "kids fly free". I paused to read about an aviation program offered at one of our local airports. Bright and early yesterday morning, I stood in a hanger decorated with WWII pin up girls and old propellers hanging from the walls. One by one, Sam, Nathanael, Hannah, Kristina, and Josh all got the opportunity to take a flight with a pilot who walked each of them through the preflight checklist and offered an overview of the dials and gauges that starred back at them from the cockpit. Josh was the only one who was a little nervous. One by one, they donned headsets, climbed into their planes and taxied out onto the runway. Sam and Nathanael actually were allowed to take the controls at one point and experience how the plane responds. Each of them touched back down with huge smiles and infectious enthusiasm about their experience. Its not exactly like the big commercial flights each of them will likely take one day, but I think each of them shares their mother's love for flight now!

Breathing a Sigh of Relief

We are thankful to report that the three Ukrainian girls many have been praying for are safely back in the custody of their guardian and headed back to Ukraine. Please pray that the Ukrainian government will see the swiftness in which the US court system and law enforcement acted on behalf of the girls and not shut down hosting programs and possibly adoptions. Keep the girls in your prayers.

Simple Summer Pleasures

Today is our official last day of summer. I return to teacher preplanning on Thursday and Robert has meetings tomorrow. In a last hurrah to our summer time together, we took a road trip to Dunnellon, Florida to tube the Rainbow River. We were pleasantly surprised to find this natural beauty tucked deep in the country. Kristina has never been tubing and she gasped at her first glimpse of our destination. Emerald green grass waved to us from the bottom of crystal clear waters as we made our way down the two hour float. Turtles sunned themselves along the water's edge on fallen trees and egrets studied us as they skimmed above the river's surface. A small four foot gator lay hidden in water reeds only 20 feet from us. He paid us little attention as we floated by.





The serenity of the environment was only broken by the random scream as Robert flipped the kids out of their tubes or the boys splashing into the water after attempting to surf on top of their tubes. Somehow I managed to get sunscreen on everyone except myself and now the tops of my legs are bright red. Ugh! We had a blast and will definitely return.

Heeellllloooooo, Internet!

(Insert crickets chirping here)
If anyone is still out there, just thought I'd let you know we have internet again! We are officially back online! It has been a wonderful summer. God has been good to us and we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time off.

We've been spending a lot of time playing outdoors and getting as much exercise as possible. Most mornings Robert gets everyone up and out the door by 7am. We're back to biking the local trails several days a week, having covered over 50 miles this week alone. Finding new paths has become an adventure and we're always asking ourselves, "Can we bike there?" Video needs to be returned to Blockbuster? Its only 6 miles round trip, so we ride. Kids want to get new books at the library? Eleven miles. I know it sounds like a long way, but its really not bad. We try to be out early before the Florida heat sets in. To encourage everyone to stay together and keep up, Robert warns, "The T-Rex picks off the slowest in the pack!" ??? They just shake their head and pedal faster.


This morning we got on one of the trails and headed to an uncharted section for us. A new pedestrian bridge went up over Interstate 4 and the kids have been wanting to see the view over the traffic. Once we got to the top, the kids laughed themselves silly at the truck drivers who blew their horns and the commuters waving to us. At one point, Robert lifted his shirt tail to wipe the sweat from his brow and was greeted with a flurry of car horns. A mortified Kristina urged him to "put his shirt down"! Big mistake. Knowing how much it embarrassed her, he found every opportunity he could to show off his 'abs'. Sometimes he will randomly break into song as we're riding along and the kids will quickly distance themselves.

Robert takes an unusual pleasure in embarrassing the children. We've been playing tennis at our community courts quite a bit. Even though there are seven of us on the court, the ball usually ends up getting past somebody. Robert says its proof we need more kids! We might not be very good at tennis, but we enjoy trying to get that little yellow ball somewhere other than over the fence. But the heat on the courts can be intense and last week Robert shouted out, "I'm burning up! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft to put the fire out!" The girls rolled their eyes and hid behind their rackets. But the boys are starting to pick up the joy of embarrassing others. Chasing a ball across the court, Nathanael broke into Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". How and why he knows the lyrics to that song, I have no idea, but invariably it raised the "Mom!" response from the girls. When does this phase pass???