We went to the doctor today for well-child check-ups. That is the toughest thing I could ever do with kids this age. 2-hours later we emerged... all of us exhausted. Have you ever tried keeping 2 kids under 2 happy in a room where they can't lay on the floor, there are no toys, there is no safe surface to put the rolling baby on, and "no, Aiden, we are not going home yet, don't open the door..." You know what the nurse did? They put us in the radiology room which had this cool table that went up and down with the push of a button. Lots of people out there know about Aiden and buttons... and I won't say anymore except that he practiced a lot more restraint than I expected. So that's done and we don't have to do it again for 2 more months. Maybe I will do it one kid at a time and find someone to keep the other kid.

:)

We are still alive though!

Not alot going on right now that is jucy stuff for posting. Just trying to keep getting better at being a wife, momma, child of God. Lots of physical busyness which is good for keeping me from moping or feeling disconnected with the outside world. I am just sitting here trying to ooch up the energy to finish the adoption application and wishing my hubby could be home tonight. I spent some time reading other blogs and was really sad that I couldn't write as insightful/interesting/artistic stuff as other people were writing. I feel kinda dull. My struggles right now involve figuring out how to balance mommy-ing and being, how to make my attitude distinct from what I feel, and not feeling like a whimp because I want to complain. I'm glad we are here and I am making some good friendships here but I miss my friends in Dallas. I miss my church in Dallas. Maybe I am just homesick for our last home. We have been here 2 months and this is the usual point that realism sets in. It happened in Canada, Thailand, and when we moved back to Dallas.

For Kristen,

I don't know. This just seems like something we could laugh about together. I miss you!

Across the street from our apartment:

Yesterday was Josh's day off which gave him a good oppertunity to get sick- so he did. I tried to be as loving and nurturing as I could but it was hard to fight the dissappointment that he was out of commission on what I also viewed as my "day off" or at least my "day with help." That said, he seems to be feeling better today and we have had a productive day here at home. I am very happy to say that I vaccumed and swept the whole house! Those who know me well will know what a great accomplishment that is. *laugh* I've been praying alot lately that God would just help me to take joy in the tedious and mundane things in life. Aiden and I did a victory dance when we finished cleaning.

Love you all.

We're Teething!!

Isaac is getting his bottom front teeth (first teeth at 4 and 1/2 months!) and Aiden is getting his bottom canines. Isaac is still good-natured, just a little fussier and a lot droolier. Aiden is sweet, but has a low-grade fever, runny nose, and almost as much drool as his brother. As far as I know though, I am not teething (WHEW!).

Although, come to think of it, I still havn't cracked my wisdom teeth....

Hi,
so busy here in Oklahoma City. Josh is working a 7-day stint and usually works 12 hours or so a day. We are looking forward to Sunday (his day off) and not doing anything other than go to Church. This past weekend my brother and sister-in-law came to visit and we had a great time. I will post pictures of that later. For those of you who have e-mailed me don't worry... I am working on answering you, I promise!

Not much to report, it has been a good and busy day. When was a day anything but busy though?!? :)
To Anne, who offered to send me tea. THANKS! send me an e-mail address. I am hesitant to publish my e-mail address for fear of spammers so I will do it in a sort of code:

my email address is in this form : firstnamemiddlename@gmail.com

In place of firstname put my first name.

In place of middlename put "renee"

It is all lower case and all one word.

Hope that works for you, I am so grateful.

Mmmm...
Here I sit drinking one of the final teabags of Tetley Rooibos Vanilla Tea from Canada. Ah.... I miss Canada.

In other news, Isaac is sitting up! He gets quite cranky laying down so I started trying to sit him up today. He is so excited! He gets really happy and then straightens his body out and falls over. Aiden was very happy to have his brother sitting up too!

Why are we adopting you may ask? After all, we have two young kids right now! We are obviously able to have kids on our own (it takes a lot less paperwork to make your own kid than to adopt someone else's!). Well, Josh and I have talked about building our family through birth children and adopted children since before we got married. We felt God's command to care for the fatherless applied to us by taking orphans into our family. We didn't want to have a passel of birth children and then a group of adopted children- we would rather they be intermixed and through that have a closer connection with each other. We don't forsee having any problem loving someone else's biological child as much as we love our birth children. God has given us a few green lights indicating that now is a good time to start the process for our first adoption. The hospital Josh works at offers some help with the costs of adopting and in an amazing stroke of generosity, the IRS offers a $10,000 tax credit for each child adopted. We were thinking about adopting from South East Asia and felt drawn to Vietnam. Vietnam, however, has been closed to adoptions for the last 3 years or so. They opened again at the end of June which corresponded with a time we really felt like God was saying "go ahead and start." So we are, starting that is. We will see where this road takes us. We appreciate your prayers in this since we really want to be wise... but that wisdom may seem foolish in the world's eyes. That's okay with us, we are not living our lives or building our family to please the world. We just really want to do what God would have us do.

Here's pics of Aiden and Isaac enjoying each other!:

Isaac is just a little over 4 months old and he wants some of HIS pictures on our blog site too!
Here he is lounging on the Couch (If anyone knows a good photo manipulation program for PCs let me know!)

Here he is being serious (he is quite smiley until you put a camera in front of him!)

And here is his big brother helping me out in the kitchen:

We are starting the process of adopting a little girl from Vietnam. It involves LOTS of paperwork and about a years worth of proceedings so we are beginning now. That means that our little girl exists now. She may be in her birth mother's tummy right now, but she exists. That is a stunning thought. So I pray for her, wherever she is and I look forward to holding her in my arms.

So Aiden is becomming a big boy!
He has moved out of his highchair and onto a pile of phone books.
Isaac wants the high chair!
Aiden empties his own potty into the toilet (with a little splashing that Mom cleans up)

I went to a ladies night last night at church. It was so wonderful to sit there and have someone else bring me a plate of food that I almost cried (embarassing!). They had childcare even though my two little guys were the only ones who needed it. I got to know some of the other ladies in the church and some of the older ladies shared their thoughts and wisdom on the topic of Grace (which was the topic for the night). I left the house feeling fustrated and overwhelmed and came back feeling refreshed- I can do this!

God provides what I need at just the right time!

Josh is working today, it is going to be 6-day work weeks for a while. I miss my hubby, but at least we get to go to church together tomorrow.

Tales from the Pot...

Potty training was exhausting. I started last Wednesday when I checked out "Once upon a Potty" video-version from the Library. I think Aiden and I watched the 10 minute show 20 times on Thursday- no kidding!
We took a small break over the weekend when Kathleen and Rebecca came to visit. TONS of dispairing on Tuesday thinking my little boy would still be wearing diapers when he graduated from high school. Then Wednesday happened.... wonderful Wednesday! Aiden made the connection between when I said "go pepe" and what he had to do with his bladder. WOW! He probably isn't potty trained in the strict sense... he doesn't have the coordination to pull his pants off by himself and he doesn't ask to go to the potty yet. However, every 1 and 1/2 hours or so I have him sit on his little potty and I say "go pepe" and he does! And he holds it inbetween. GREAT! We took a test run to the post office in big boy pants and he went to the potty before we left and when we got back but... and get this... his pants stayed dry the whole trip!

Now that I don't have to watch him as much, I am able to do the housework that has been neglected the last week. He does have amazing sphincter control and he figured out he gets a mini-cookie every time he goes a little in his potty. Result? Well, he will urinate about 1/2 a tsp. in the potty, say "yeah, pepe," ask for a cookie, and 60 seconds later he does it again... *laugh* he is so smart!

I'm exhausted today... that deep-down exhaustion that I associate with all-night cramming for an exam or having a newborn. We have been having breakfast at 6 so we can eat as a family and then Josh doesn't get home until 7 or a little after. Time as a family and time as a couple is so precious right now.

So I'm tired, and my defenses are down. I feel aggrivation, anger, and irritation standing right next to me, ready to step forward with every situation that goes just a little wrong. Josh and I were both fighting sour moods this morning at breakfast.

Today is the day I read my post from 3 days ago and remember that I need to pray for wisdom from God, realize what I am thankful for, and draw joy from that. It would be so easy to sit on the couch and glower right now but that is not the kind of day I want for me, my kids, or my husband when he comes home. So here goes....

Maybe Pollyanna had a lot of things right after all.

So He's A Loyd....

My husband and my brother-in-law (Josh and Ryan) are famous for their ability to sleep. Josh fell asleep RUNNING one day in X-Country Track in High School. When Josh is driving he will stop at a stop light and say "tell me when it turns green" while he catches a couple seconds of shut-eye. It is really fun being married to such a wonderful sleeper! Well, we are potty training (successfully!) and I caught Aiden taking a rest from it all. He's so cute. :)


I'm praying for you and joyfulness Lauren!

Aiden's Nana (my mom) sent him paints so we painted today. He had a great time and did a beautiful painting (for a 21-month-old) Recently I have heard several people comment on how they did not want to stay home because they 1 need to get out (time away from kids) 2 wouldn't know what to do (boredom) or 3 would not feel that they were doing something worthwhile (low self-esteem). To all of those comments, I say that staying at home has been the most exciting and challanging thing I have ever done in my life, and I have done a lot! It is hard and I get fustrated with it somtimes... but that is when I am challanged to change things up. I am having the time of my life watching my kids grow up and being able to teach them and figuring out how to teach them. Aiden can unload the dishwasher, clean up his toys, turn the VCR on, feed the dogs, entertain his little brother, and give lots of hugs and kisses. That's a pretty educated little toddler!

Josh and I celebrated our anniversary last Thursday. It is hard to believe that 2 kids and 4 years ago I was single. I have been so abundantly blessed. We are settling in well here and getting to know people a little at a time. I am learning how to make our home environment a joyful and happy place. It has been fun (and sobering) to realize the effect my emotions have on my children and my husband. I am trying to make my attitude a decision instead of a reaction. Does that make sense? I feel like the last months of my pregnancy and then the months following I was just reacting... and rather grumpy/depressed. I heard a long time ago that how I feel is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I respond. I am praying that God will work a miracle in me and help me develop joyfulness and thankfulness. Doing a word study in the Bible on joy, joyfulness, thankfulness, etc made me realize that it is a BIG HUGE deal to God that we be thankful to him.

Check this out:
Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
(Deut 28:47, 48)


I am not thankful enough. So I am praying, and trying to change my reactions & attitude.

I did notice that when I decide to be joyful and thankful (and that is so hard sometimes because I can actually feel my emotions resisting) it rubs off onto my hubby and my kids. I have actually seen my husband's countanance change from sleepy/grumpy to happy and excited. The excitement that I have about our children and his work rubs off onto him. I have felt very grateful to see Aiden's whiny-ness change into laughter just because I chose to respond to him with joy. I would like to teach our children to be joyful and grateful also!

Not that things are any easier. Josh is busier/ gone from home more and I have all sorts of things that I need to do. We are trying to figure how to live in a new place and dealing with an income for the first time in our married life together. But we are really so blessed and I have so much to be thankful for!