Glad that I went, Glad to be home.

I can't wait to see what God has in store for my new niece's future. She is absolutely adorable, with a joyful spirit to match. My only regret from our trip to Washington is that I wasn't able to spend more time getting to know Q.

I did, however, grab a couple of sweet hugs from her.

My absolute favorite part of the trip was being there at the airport to welcome Q home. I will never forget it. She latched on instantly to her new sister, E, holding hands, hugging, and giggling with her. Simply amazing.

I am also happy to report that we all survived the stomach bug. It lasted the entire week, with Boa and my nephew T still throwing up as late as Thursday night. I, however, stayed immune to it, and for that I was incredibly grateful!

I only have 10 days here in TX before packing my bags again and this time heading to Maryland to visit family and friends.

For those of you following our upcoming adoption, please pray that the Maryland child abuse checks will come through before my trip to Maryland on the 15th. The California check came in yesterday, and I would love to submit our dossier to AGCI before I go on vacation. I absolutely cannot WAIT to get our official wait list numbers.

Speaking of which, bringing Ash and Boa to the airport to welcome home Q was especially awesome for me. I don't know if either of them were able to parallel their adoption story with Q's, but when we got home and the boys were telling Daddy about meeting Q, Boa said, "I want to get OUR baby! When can we get OUR baby??"

Well, I only have a few hours left of my official day off, so here are a couple of my favorite photos from the last leg of our adventure...

Below, my niece E--after getting her makeup done for her dance concert. Her expression here cracks me up. Yes, E, you are a beauty. :)

This, however, is the smile I LOVE--right before going in for the concert.

Precious sisters.
For comic relief.
A rainbow family. At the grocery store last week, a woman asked my sister and me if all the children were ours. We had only four with us at the time (Ash, Boa, S, and E). When we explained the situation, the woman said, "Oh, I just love to see rainbow families. I have a rainbow family, too."
Goof. A good splash pad never gets old.
Game night with the cousins. Couldn't get enough of this laughter.
The telltale sign that my sister, Mary Ellen, has arrived. From the moment she walked through the door, things became organized. Even the shoes.
And lunch time.
Below, my favorite photo from the vacation--
and the only moment of peace in 19 days.

Stomach Bug Central

When you've got eight kids in one house, the one kind of illness you really don't want going around is a stomach bug.

So perhaps my sister Mary Ellen and I were in denial Friday night when 12-year-old C vomited somewhere around midnight. All the next day he complained of being cold and not hungry, but we attributed his complaints to too much commotion in the house, and a very late night.

And when the headaches started going around on Sunday, we assumed it was the altitude. Or the noise level.

Then this morning when Mary Ellen and her daughter woke up with a not-quite-right feeling in their stomachs, we still discounted the problem.

We went to a park today, and Mary Ellen's stomach pain worsened.

When we arrived home, J (the oldest, at 14) promptly puked on the front lawn. Then ran inside to puke in the bathroom. My sister and her daughter went to take a nap and try to feel better.

It didn't last more than a couple of hours, when my niece S ran to the bathroom, narrowly missing the bedroom's carpet, and vomited all over the place. Then TRIPPED and slammed into the ground, sliding across on her own puke. The force of her fall sent puke all the way up the wall, to within an inch of the ceiling. I know this because after my sister cleaned up the bathroom, she had me come in to stand on something to reach the stray puke. She was too dizzy, as she had just thrown up 4 times herself, as she cleaned up the bathroom.

About this time, Boa ran to me, crying that his stomach hurt. He spent forever in the bathroom and then I tucked him in. He was still crying, so I ran to the store for stomach-virus essentials: popsicles, gingerale, saltines, and Pepto Bismol.

On the way, I picked up my cell to call N and tell him all the sordid details of the nasty illness. But he picked up and said, "Can we talk tomorrow? I am too sick to be on the phone right now."

I came home to the sound of my poor niece retching again, and after a few moments of silence, my 11-year-old nephew S ran upstairs yelling, "T's throwing up! T's throwing up!" Then he asked if I would go to the store to buy surgical masks. I seriously considered it.

We are dropping like flies over here. I just pray I don't get it. Yuck. All the talk about puke made me nauseous, and I had to help myself to some saltines and ginerale.

On the upside, the park was a lot of fun. And on the even bright side, my sister Shirlee heads back to America within 24 hours! Pray that we eradicate this illness from the house before they get home.

By the way, you will be amused to learn that I was so paranoid about getting this nasty bug that I brought Lysol wipes downstairs with me and cleaned the keyboard with them. Then I started working on the computer and realized about 15minutes later that I never cleaned off the mouse. Ooop.s

N is out of the hospital, and all is well with the world...

N was discharged today. The doctors surmised that the flu or a virus had caused inflammation of the sac around his heart and the walls of his heart. After some meds and an overnight stay, they ran a stress-test, and he passed it perfectly, so they sent him home. Thank you, God.

Knowing that he was out of the hospital lightened my load considerably this morning and I helped myself to a McD's double cheeseburger and fries while the kids were at VBS. Have I mentioned that I've been a total pig these past couple of weeks?

Well, I am a tired pig, at that. So here are my updates:

Q in China: We have been able to skype every day with Shirlee and her hubby and Q. It has been amazing, getting to see my new niece and interact with her over the computer. She is absolutely adorable! She is a very funny kid, and also seems to love music. The meeting with the foster parents went better than they could have hoped for, but I will let Shirlee put details on her blog if she decides to. I have not received any more photos from my sister. I need to get on her case about that. In the meantime, I will post some absolutely terrible quality photos that I snapshot off of the skype webcam. Obviously low, low, LOW quality, but you can see Q's expressions when she is *meeting* her brothers and sister over the Web. WAY too cool! :)



And because I can't resist, here is s photo of her when she was about 3. How CUTE!!!!

The family left Chonqin (I think I am spelling that wrong) today and are headed somewhere else (a place I REALLY don't know how to spell) to get Q's passport. They arrive home in the late evening on Wednesday. We are all so excited, and plan to pick up poster board to make signs for the airport!

My Trip: The kids all seem to be having a good time, though I can tell they are getting antsy for their parents to return with their new sister. I think the hardest thing about the trip is that I want to be the fun aunt, and I want them only to have great memories of me, but when you're taking care of kids for 19 days, you can't always be the nice guy. The good news is that my sister Mary Ellen arrives tomorrow, and I told her I get to be the nice guy and she can be the bad guy for the rest of the time. :) We have lots of fun plans for while Mary Ellen is here, and all the kids are very much looking forward to her arrival.

Perhaps they foresee that Aunt Mary Ellen won't drag them down to the dreaded (beautiful!) river walk for the sheer purpose of tiring them out.

Instead of today's river walk, however, I surprised them all with a drive to a neat old cemetery I found while driving around. All the kids were fascinated. And very respectful of the gravestones, too. Some sort of interesting something-or-other (really I have no idea what to call it) was built into the side of the hill/mountain, and it looked really pretty from afar.


And even though we saw this sign on the way up:

We continued our brief walk.
Quite happily, actually...

Until we saw this:

Then we kind of ran up to the top, posed for a photo...(Notice how everyone is looking around for rattlesnakes except brave E? Ash was quite freaked out, and Boa refused to come up.)

And skedaddled back to the bottom.
(Yes, I realize now that a silly pose in front of a cemetery is probably not the most appropriate idea I've ever had.)

Other than that, we got in some swimming the other day.

And tonight, after the children finished their chores (and did a great job, I might add), we went to the VBS party, where we ate a surely illegal amount of popcorn and cotton candy. Minus E, who had to go to dance.
When E got home, it was nearly 9 p.m., and she needed to eat breakfast. Being the responsible, health-conscious aunt that I am...

Yes, that's right. She had a bowl of cereal and a baggie of leftover popcorn for dinner--all while wearing my sunglasses. Extra fun aunt points, I'd say.

It all started....

With a wad of gum in E's hair...


Solution: Google "how to get gum out of hair." Smear peanut butter on gum. Pull out. Stick child in shower.

Then it was a screw in a tire...

Solution: Spend all morning figuring out what to do about it, since I can't find the lugnut key. Pray. Go to the gas station. Go to Jiffy Lube. Go to a tire place. Go home. Call Dad. Call a deacon at church. Go to another tire place. Get it fixed for free!!!! I really almost HUGGED the man!

And, since bad things happen in threes, get a phone call from N and find out he's in the hospital...

Solution: Call Mom and sob hysterically. Go home and PRAY.

I am happy to report that the gum is out of the hair.

The screw it out of the tire.

And N should be out of the hospital tomorrow. He woke up with severe chest pains at 3 a.m., after a three-day fever. He took himself to the E.R., where they found inflammation around his heart and elevated enzymes in his bloodwork that pointed to a heart abnormality. They gave him something to keep him from having a heart attack, and finally admitted him to the hospital (to the tune of $500) at around 4 p.m. After a chest X-ray and EKG, plus bloodwork, the cardiologist said that Nate had inflammation of the sac around the heart and also the walls of the heart. This was most likely caused by the flu. They are keeping him overnight, having given him an anti-inflammatory, and he will get a stress-test in the morning. If he passes, they will release him.

Please be praying that if there is anything else to be found, that it will be found. I had kinda hoped that something would come of this that would help him in the long-term.

News from China...

This is the only photo I have received from my sister, and I couldn't resist posting it. What a CUTIE! If you want a small update, you can go to my sister's blog. I'm pooped and have lots of laundry to do.

My New Niece Says, "I Love You."

I am ecstatic! It's 1:30 a.m. and I just got off the phone with my sister. They met their new daughter about an hour ago. I grabbed my camera and recorded the conversation. I will give more details when I'm more awake, but here's the best part of the recording:

Abandoned on Day 7

Mom (aka Grammy) left today.

Now who will I finish this 1,000-piece puzzle with?

The kids trickle by one at a time and offer to help, but no one has stuck around for longer than about 10 minutes so far.

Now who will bake us fattening goodies?

(Points for cool aunt: I let the kids eat cupcakes and whoopie pies for breakfast one morning. Ash's face says it all.)

Certainly not I. I had planned to lose weight on this trip. But I will miss the whoopie pies and the cupcakes. Today I made the ultimate sacrifice. There were only 4 whoopie pies left. None of the kids wanted to eat them cuz I said they could only have half of one or a cupcake. I figured I'd end up eating all four...so I gave them away. It was oh so hard. I think I deserve kudos.

Now who will bring the kids to fun places like Chucky Cheese?

(I love Deal or no Deal!!)

Again, not I. I am in charge of bringing the kids to VBS and E to dance this week. On the bright side, VBS is from 8:30-12:30 every day this week, and the kids EAT LUNCH THERE. Yes, you read that correctly. Since they make their own breakfasts, I just have to get dinners on the table this week. Yippee! AND, I can take a nice peaceful walk every morning by the river after dropping them all off...

On Mom's last night, we walked the nearby river. We walked up 20 minutes and headed back. The kids had a great time, but I guess the walk was a bit long for most of them. The only ones who didn't complain were S and Ash. Boa may look happy in the photos, but he was a real grump. It was right before bedtime, he'd had no nap, and he couldn't keep up with the rest of the pack.

(check out the crazy big dandelion!)

(Don't those clouds look fake??)

I am optimistic about the week, despite quite a bit of pervasive grumpiness this weekend. I think VBS will be good for the kids, and for me, and we are all counting the days until my sister Mary Ellen gets here with her two kiddos.

An update on Shirlee's adoption: They are in Chong Ching!!! I have not received a phone call yet, but I imagine they are getting settled at their hotel by now. I can't be sure, cuz I am not positive how long the flight is. Shirlee said she would call me once they were settled, and the best news of all: they should meet their daughter within a few hours of that! We have Skype ready to go with our webcams, and I'm hoping we can get it to work.

Also, Shirlee said she should be able to send some photos our way within the next couple of days.

In some final news, I am happy to report that 1) We found Pumpkin, alive and well; 2) All the children are alive and well; and 3) the garden is alive and well. So far, so good.

Now I'll just leave you with some of my favorite random pics of the week:

S took this photo, and I thought it was a cool shot.

E in curls. This morning before church, E saw me doing my hair, and she was fascinated. She watched me for the entire half hour, and I asked if she wanted me to try to curl hers. It looked really cute. Took about 30 minutes. I can't wait to have a girl! Too bad my daughter's hair will be a little more difficult to figure out. :)


Fire in the oven. The picture doesn't do it justice. The fire had died down quite a bit before I thought about getting my camera. You know, at first I was just worrying about our physical well-being. :)

Fat Cosmo.

G'night!

Day 3

One dog...

Plus 2 geese + 8 chickens + 8 of some other kind of chicken + 1 rooster + 2 cats...

Plus 6 children =

A lot of mouths to feed.

Luckly, the kids are incredibly responsible, and I haven't had to feed any kind of critter but the human variety.

This morning we treated them to a big breakfast. Grammy cooked up bacon and sausage. I cooked up eggs and pancakes.

The aftermath.

To catch you up on the grand adventure, after three flights and 7 hours of travel, the boys and I arrived safely in Washington Monday afternoon.


Thankfully, my ear drums did not burst on the way to Washington. My illness (congestion, cough, stuffy nose, headache) had progressed since Friday, and regardless of my every-four-hours-Advil cold & sinus, I was in a lot of pain from ear pressure. Like, if-I-wasn't-a-grown-adult-I-would-cry kinda pain. Like, surely-there-is-blood-trickling-from-my-ears kinda pain.

Ultimately, I did survive. My sister and daughter E picked us up at the airport, fed us with Wendy's, and brought us to their lovely big home with gorgeous mountain views and heavenly weather. After learning the lay of the land, settling in, bringing E to dance, and doing some late-night grocery shopping, my sister and I stayed up far too late talking and finally hit the hay about midnight.

The next day brought my mom, AKA Grammy (see below photo). That day was high on energy as my sister and her husband prepared to travel to China. I got the privilege of lying down like a big lump while dreamily watching Shirlee pack her new daughter's adorable clothing and sunglasses. We checked through all the paperwork. Reserved airline seats. Went to bed well past midnight, and were all up by 4 a.m. to pray together and see them off. I videotaped it, but didn't take any pics.




We were all pooped that day, but had fun going to the library.

I realize they appear to be making a ruckus,
but I promise they were doing so very silently.


Then the kids begged to go swimming, even though it was 72 and breezy in the shade and 80 in the sun. After a whopping 8 minutes, all but 2 kids were ready to go inside. I turned into a slight meany, not bothering to bite my tongue with the I-told-you-so thing.

Unfortunately, when we woke up this morning, Pumpkin was missing. One of the chickens. In the below photo, you can spot a couple of the boys talking to a neighbor. They searched all the acreage for Pumpkin. We are afraid Pumpkin met with a sad demise. And yes, that is a cow next door. The neighbors plan to eat it next year. Rushmore (the dog) loves the cow. That will be sad.


After the unfruitful search for Pumpkin, we went exploring at a state park. We were about to go on the first hiking trail, but it looked slightly ominous. Then we read the warning sign about: loose cougars and black bears.

We decided to continue on and came upon this view.

Grammy wanted to continue up the mountain to see the peak, but after 2 more minutes of driving I chicked out. With my own kids, I'd be all about it, but with other people's kids, the nerves started kicking in. Especially when the shoulder ended. With no guard rail and an incredible drop I couldn't even bear to eyeball, I could go no further. So we headed back down the mountain and stopped at a less onimous trail, where we walked no more than 15 minutes into the forest and let the kids explore the creek.




This is how tired they all were later....

An update on the China trip: we heard from Shirlee this morning. It was around midnight in Beijing, and they'd arrived a couple hours prior. I was on my cell, so I told her I'd call back, but by the time I could call, it was around 4 a.m. their time. We tried when E got home from dance, but they weren't in their room. Or someone else wasn't in a different room. The receptionist did not seem to speak English.

Our conversation went like this:

Receptionist: Chinese language

Me: three two four please (not the real #, but you get the point)

R: three?

Me: three TWO four

R: three oooo?

Me: THREE....TWOoooo. FOUR.

R: name?

Me: Insert Name here

R: Three ooooo??

Me: Three, two, four.

R: Three.

That's when the phone began to ring in someone's room and never got picked up. We plan to try again at 7 sharp in the morning. Anxious to see how it's all going.

Over on our end, the cousins are fully enjoying one another. Some favorite pics to end my post...