Ordinary Time

Pumpkins were carved yesterday.  TM made a hat, complete with feather, for his. H. wasn't really sure she wanted to put her hand in the pumpkin to get out the seeds, but eventually did. She is pretty much thrilled with whatever activity we do and enjoyed the whole pumpkin-carving-thing. She has a costume for tonight, but is still a little fuzzy on what is going on. She will really like the candy. Now it's back to having fun with my parents. 

Whew! My parents are in town and we've been pretty occupied. For instance my mother and I spent most of the day Christmas shopping. Yes, it's true. She is now done. I'm not, but she is. Trust me, I'm an absolute slacker when compared with my mother. But that's what we were doing. I'll have pumpkin carving picture to share tomorrow, and then there'll be costumes, and then TM's birthday. So, lots of pictures to come.

I am of the opinion that one reason we do not see so many miracles these days is that we are all so terribly self-sufficient. Why should God step in and do the miraculous when we have it all taken care of? It is only when you allow God to lead you into situations where you are in over your head and realize that there is really nothing you can do to help the situation that God shows up with a miracle. And why I am mentioning this? Because I firmly believe we are having the incredible privilege of having front row seats to a miracle. That miracle would be the healing miracle that God is working in TM. And it is a miracle. But it took us getting to a point where we had to say that we were at the end; we had no more answers; we were not going to be able to fix this ourselves. We have been seeing a therapist nearly weekly, and while that has been good, I just can't chalk up the amazing gains we have been seeing just to that. Even though I really, really like his (our?) therapis...

J. and I were given tickets to see a local production of Shaw vs. Chesterton. We had a lovely evening and felt very pampered and grown-up. And the show was good. It was actually very interesting. G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, both famous writers in their own rights (Chesterton for his many books and essays and Shaw for his plays), were good friends and disagreed on about everything else. Chesterton was a Christian, Shaw an atheist; Chesterton believed in private property, Shaw believed in redistribution of wealth via socialism; Chesterton enjoyed food (a lot), particularly meat, Shaw was a vegetarian; and so on and so on. The play was based on transcripts of actual debates which were held between Shaw and Chesterton. The topics were timely and sounded very, very much like the topics which are still being debated today, though they were held ~90 years ago. And while it was interesting to listen to each man's arguments for his view, what I found much more interesting ...

I told you they were silly. This is how Gretel sleeps most of the time. I can't believe it is comfortable. What is truly surprising about these pictures is not her ridiculous sleeping habits, but the fact that she is on a chair. In fact, I guarantee right now that my mother is probably calling my father to come and look at these pictures because seeing is the only way he will believe that we are allowing a dog on the furniture. I know I will never hear the end of it when they arrive in town on Monday. This combined with what a mentioned earlier this week about G. and L.'s normal state of wearing fairly odd clothing combinations had made me think about how I've changed in the past 19 years. I will admit I was pretty uptight about certain things when M. was a baby, and for the next several babies as well. The things I was mostly concerned with were doing things 'right'. While doing things in the best way possible is not a bad thing, it can be when you are conc...

Seventy degree weather in late October in Chicago is not to be taken for granted. So as not to be guilty of that, we and our friends the P Family and the H-S Family decided to head out to Lincoln Park Zoo. This seemed like a grand idea until we got stuck in horrible traffic and the 20 minute trip took nearly an hour, but we made it. It turned out to be a lovely afternoon. Some (well, quite a lot of) pictures. H. K. and P5 G. "hatching" out of an egg The whole crew... minus one and not counting the growing college contingent, which made for 19 children And it turned out to be a great time to get some pictures of G. and L. in their matching twirly dresses. If they're only going to wear something a couple of time, I have to make the most of it. Plus, they were looking particularly twinny. L. is on the left and G. is on the right. On our way back to the entrance we found this sculpture-pavilion-thing. It made for some interesting...

Adopting is expensive. That's how it is and there's no way around it. There are governmental fees for visa applications. There are country fees, orphanage fees, agency fees, homestudy fees, plane tickets, hotel bills, food while in country. There are gifts for government officials that must be brought. They pile up and never seem to end. At various points in our three adoptions I felt as though I was hemorrhaging money. (And since we are still paying off some of the expenses, it sometimes feels like a wound which won't quite scab over.) I understand that agencies have employees to pay, that "donating" to the orphanages which cared for our children is (in theory) good, and that the government will get their cut no matter what. It just all adds up. And even though I understand why many of the fees are high, I will say it again and believe it just as strongly, adoptive parents should not have to pay for their children. Yes, yes, I know that's not what we're...