Sleep…who needs it?
Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized | Tags: Children, Big Family, Blessings
Leave a Comment 
She eats at 12:30 am…and again around 3:00 am and again at 6:00 am.
So do our teenagers!
Only difference the teens don’t need us to feed them.
You could say this is the downside of bringing home a newborn at this age.
I say it is a small sacrifice to experience this amazing journey one more time.
I feel like the guy who paid once to get into the theater but has sneaked into half a dozen other theaters for a freebee.
Or like the guy who bought one train ticket but hasn’t gotten off the train for days.
Different worlds
Dinner conversation.
Two sisters…worlds apart…countries apart too.
One is excited about scoring a reservation at a restaurant without a menu…where the waiting list is more exclusive than her son’s preschool…where the tab is $250 per person.
The other, excited about her new daughter, just five weeks old, requiring a commitment that may last the rest of her life.
Pretty exclusive I’d say.
Scoring the reservation was the best thing that happened to her that day.
The best thing that happened to me the same day was bringing home number twelve…oh yeah…a bonus…sharing my recipe for peach salsa with Number Two.
We live in different worlds and I wouldn’t switch if I could eat that 15 course meal every day!
Now we are seventeen!
Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized | Tags: Children, Big Family
Leave a Comment We brought 12 home from the hospital on two days ago.
So wierd.
We just walked in, Seven and me, washed our hands and told the nurse we were here to pick up Twelve.
She was all packed up and ready to travel.
Showed my driver’s license and carried her out to the car.
Like picking up a piece of furniture only this pick-up is priceless…a perfect work of God…a living baby human…come to live with us.
How long?
Who knows?
For now we are seventeen counting kids parents and significant others.
Great fun at holidays…not often invited to other people’s gatherings…we’ve been told…sometimes nicely…that there are just too many of us.
Who cares…its our legacy.
Just wait till we have grandkids!
Better by the dozen
Filed under: God, Reflection | Tags: God, Children, Big Family, Blessings, audacious
Leave a Comment Our new Twelve is coming!
I met her today.
Twelve is just five weeks new…a sweet little girl…with Down’s Syndrome and a heart problem.
The heart problem can be fixed just as soon as she reaches the ten pound mark.
Or as Eleven put it, “we’re going to open her heart and pour in love so she she can get better!”
Pretty accurate.
You never remember how small and helpless they are…but I’m going to have the opportunity to live through every day, Lord willing, for this starfish.
Like I often say, God has given me a wonderful gift…the chance to re-live the best days of life here on the planet again and again.
Like the movie Groundhog Day but starting from good and getting better.
She is an amazing gift…she makes us rich beyond our wildest dreams.
Life is good…God is good…God is audacious!
I’m very thankful.
A reminder of the fragility of life
Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized | Tags: Blessings, Children, God, Grace
Leave a Comment So we were in Lincoln Park scoping out Four’s possible new digs for next year.
Seven called from the back of the car…”Ten doesn’t look so good!”
Yikes – she was having a siezure!
We had only seen this once before…about three years prior…and that was scary!
I still have the image burned into my brain of a small three-year-old on a gurney in the ER with 14 doctors and nurses anxiously hovering over her.
Three days later she was ready to go home but we knew she would forever be prone to seizures.
Three years is a long time…time to be lulled into forgetting about bad stuff.
But just when you think everything is going smoothly…when you are half way through your TO Do list…the unexpected pops up.
This was a reminder of the fragility of life.
Not something that could be hugged away like a oowieee or a loose tooth.
She needed professional medical attention and fast!
But we were in traffic in the middle of nowhere.
Not exactly the middle of nowhere…that DMZ between downtown Chicago and the ‘burbs.
What kind of hospitals do they have around here?
Then Four sprang into action.
She jumped into the back seat and began talking softly to Ten while relaying her condition to me.
I pulled a fast U-Turn and floored it for Children’s Memorial.
Four kept Ten awake and her brain focused.
The longest 12 minutes of my life!
In the ER she came to life the minute they stuck her with an IV. Thanks God!
Two hours later we were on the way to McDonald’s to get her favorite meal.
Thinking about the days events as a dozed off, it occurred to me that we saved her life today. We know God saved her life but we get credit for an assist.
What a reminder of the fragility of life and the role we can play in each other’s lives.
We’re watching each other very closely and carefully right now but I’m sure we’ll start taking each other and life for granted in a few…
But I hope we don’t!
So long 71
Yep…71 went bye bye.
He spent about five weeks with us and now he is back with his mommy.
Funny, in my new reality, I think I’ll remember him more than most.
Not because he screamed for about three hours every day…but because I was the primary care giver for this one.
71 may be one of the lucky ones.
He went home to mom.
Many did not.
Like all the others we prayed that he would come to know Jesus one day and that he would bring glory to God through his circumstances.
Now we’re waiting for #72.
Hugs, tears, and Ten-isms
Last day of school for Ten.
Everybody else gets out tomorrow.
What a privilege it was to escort these little girls to school every day for a whole school year.
I had a sad, empty feeling, in the pit of my stomach today realizing that this year was over and we would never be the same.
We hugged…her teachers.
We laughed and reminisced about the wonderful progress she had made.
We told each other “Ten-isms”…funny stories about sweet little Ten.
Walking home we hugged the crossing guards.
Never thought I would do that…never knew crossing guard’s name before.
What a crazy life.
I don’t know what I used to do that was more important than this.
Dog stalking
This is another one of those things I never thought I’d be doing.
The primary family pet…our senior citizen dog…makes yellow spots on the back lawn when she pees.
With more time on my hands I find I don’t care for these spots.
Researching the problem I have learned that her first pee of the day is the most acidic.
So I let her out for her morning pee, observe the exact location, and promptly flood the area with fresh water.
It beats several of the alternatives…
Eliminate the dog…alter her diet…walk her on the neighbor’s lawn first.
What’s another mouth to feed?
She can’t say no!
When Eleven’s pre-school needed a home for Brownie the guinea pig do you think the teacher would suggest a nice home with just one or two children?
Absolutely not!
They asked for volunteers and Eleven was first with her hand up and of course mom said sure.
No matter who says they will take care of him we all know who really will.
So he isn’t much trouble…my real fear is whether he can survive the summer with us.
Our back yard is a literal burial ground of long forgotten pets.
Lizards of all varieties..a whole school of fish…rabbits…hampsters…gerbals…a guinea pig (yikes)…a hermit crab…and even an African pigmy hedge hog.
The teachers said it will be OK if Brownie doesn’t survive the summer…but…the guilt…the stigma.
Well, this is day three and Brownie is still alive.
He has probably had more attention from the family paparazzi than Madonna.
He has probably gained a pound with everybody feeding him just one carrot.
I’ll keep you posted on the Brownie watch.
Telling the tooth fairy who’s boss
Ten lost another tooth.
After the blood and tears were all wiped away she realized she had a financial windfall.
Time for the tooth fairy to make a house call.
Three told her all about the tooth fairy.
In retrospect…perhaps TMI.
Ten decided she didn’t want a unisex being with wings and fairy dust prowling around her room while she slept.
As she pulled up the covers she informed us to “leave her tooth by the front door and tell the TF to leave the money in the mailbox.
Now that’s living audaciously.
And I wouldn’t want her to be any other way.
