Ordinary Time

In between sorting through boxes and missing my dad, we've been having some fun as well. We helped take the rest of the oranges off the trees. J. and R. Y. is going to master riding the scooter if it kills her. She is getting better and better. The first day, she was supremely frustrated, but amazingly, given her leg functioning, she is getting it. Y. And lots of sitting in the sun. TM We have also enjoyed my mom's neighbor's pool. A lot. L. (left) and G. Y. K. G. Yesterday we went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park . I hadn't been there since I was little and my brother had a birthday party there. It was very nice... free to get into the park and the two attractions, a train ride and the carousel, were affordable (at least by Chicago standards.) It was nice and empty and we had a lovely, relaxing afternoon. Here we are waiting to board the little train. R. H. and D. Everyone on the train car. (I to...

One of the things my mom wanted to do while I was here was to go through some of the genealogy records that she has. Between her mother (my grandmother) and my father, there is a bit to go through. We have made a small dent, but there are multiple boxes and it's all so interesting that it takes a while to go through it. And you have to go through every single piece of paper because you never know when you're going to run across something like this. Can you see what it is? It is a letter, addressed to my great-grandmother on Hull House stationary and signed by Jane Addams. My mom is letting me take it, and I think we'll be getting it framed. And then there are the photographs. Dozens and dozens of photographs to sort through. Because my grandmother was perhaps the most organized person in the history of the world, each of them is labelled. This means we know they are family members and feel badly getting rid of them. It is so much easier to get rid of anonymous pictur...

My father's memorial service went well. There were many, many people who came, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. The church was standing room only and he finally accomplished in death what he had worked to hard to achieve in life. It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. Because he would have thought it was pretty funny, I want to share a funny moment from the service with you. (I also realize that I would, without being aware of it, store up funny stories to tell him because I knew he would find them funny. Even as this was happening, I realized I was rehearsing how I would tell him the story only to realize that I wouldn't get to. Death sucks.) Anyway, my father loved all things Scottish, something he inherited from his own father. My mother came across this photo as she was sorting through things during the previous months. I don't know how old he is here, but yes, that is him playing a set of child-size bagpipes. Pretty cool, huh? Well, my mother reali...

Thank you to everyone for your comments on my last post. I really loved reading all of them.  We have arrived in Arizona and cousins are busy catching up. Our trip was pretty uneventful, though we drove through a lot of rain over the past three days. I thought I'd share some pictures from the trip.  This is a little picnic area we pulled off at to have some lunch somewhere in Oklahoma. When you take the southern route from Chicago to Phoenix, you end up following old Route 66 for much of the way. It turns out our little picnic area was a holdover from Route 66 and the old route ran right by it. Off a bit in the distance was some sort of abandoned building, so P. and TM went to check it out. G. and L. The little girls wanted to wander down to the old building, too, so I went with them. It turns out it was an old rest stop. Right next door, was an obviously inhabited house. There was an older man sitting outside so, I waved hello. He called to me ...

Hopefully by the time you are reading this, we are all packed, loaded up, and on our way to Joplin, MO, the first stop of our little 1753 mile jaunt down to my mom's. But I didn't want to miss blogging on this date. Do you know why? Because it is the ten year anniversary of this blog. Can you believe it? I'm not sure I can, though in the intervening years, we have more than doubled the number of children we have. Life has changed in the past ten years and I have certainly changed. I look back on some of my early posts and admit I cringe a little. I still had so much to learn, and so much of that learning was a fairly painful process. I had no idea when we started this blog (which was pretty cutting edge at the time) to keep family and friends updated on our first adoption, what it would result in. I could have never guessed that it would lead to me becoming a freelance writer. I could have never guessed that I would play a small role in some children finding their familie...

I think we will be ready to leave on time tomorrow morning. So far in my trip preparations, I have: Found or bought summer clothes for everyone who either didn't have any or had out grown the ones they did have. Caught up on the laundry. I lost count, but it was probably at least fifteen loads. Told R. that yes, we are going to visit Grammy, but no we are not going on an airplane approximately every 10 minutes for the past three days. Laid out clothes for everyone and now need to put them into suitcases. Found dress clothes for everyone for the Memorial service. Arranged for house/pet sitting for the weeks we are gone. Introduced our house/pet sitter to Kenzie, since they hadn't met yet. Checked out seven recorded books from the library for our car trip. Bought lunch and snack supplies for the car ride. Renewed or returned library books. J. made reservations at hotels for on the way. Made an emergency trip to the bank to help an older child sort out a problem. J....

I often am met with comments implying that it must be difficult to raise this many children, especially those with special needs. And you know what? Sometimes it is hard. But you know what else? Sometimes raising just one, two, or three children had its hard moments as well. It is a part of parenting that really doesn't have anything to do with numbers of children. For the most part, raising this many children isn't really any different than when I was raising one, two, or three. In some ways it's easier. There are more playmates, I have a much better sense of what I'm doing (except when I don't), and I have a much broader view of parenting, in general. Plus, there are more hugs and kisses and laughter. If all I had to do was hang out with these great little people, and do the occasional load of laundry, life would be pretty rosy, indeed. But I will tell you what is hard. Dealing with the other people and agencies and organizations who help me to keep my children ...