December 5, 2006 [sorry about the spacing here; can't seem to fix this]
Well, I thought adopting an older child meant not having to clean up poop and pee, or vomit. This morning, I walked into the family room dodging a minefield of poops, cleaned them up, then picked up Coco and she vomited on me. So with Coco, I get almost the full baby experience. We haven’t been successful at getting her to talk yet, though, and it’s hard to find cute little outfits for her. Then again, there will be no college expenses.
Coco gets sick on a regular basis, no matter how carefully we feed her. She is either munching on bugs or dust covered Milk Bones that she hides under the furniture, or it’s her medical condition. We don’t know. We just know we love her and she’s our “baby.” Alesia and I pray for her when she isn’t feeling well.
We had a busy but largely uneventful weekend. Alesia started her period, so the PMS is gone, thankfully. She didn’t feel good and was still a bit grumpy all weekend, however.
I went to my cousin Tim’s annual Christmas party on Saturday. His wife Maxi makes beautiful, unusual jewelry. I found some earrings for Alesia.
We tried another new church on Sunday. We want to go somewhere closer to home than All Saints. This time it was the Embry Hills United Methodist Church, which is on Henderson Mill Road, 2 minutes from the house. Everyone was very friendly when we went in. The pastor gave a good sermon – it made sense, and I didn’t disagree with anything he said. He talked about celebrating Jesus in our lives every day, not just on holidays. They have an active seniors group that has a luncheon once a month, and Mother has been to that and had a good time. It looks like they have a good youth group, too. I might even be able to find a Sunday School class where I can stay awake. We shall see. We will visit some more before we commit to anything, but it’s promising so far.
I haven’t seen it yet, but the little local magazine in Tucker has an article in it written by my publisher, and Lesleigh sent me an e-mail saying it mentioned me and my children’s book. There is a little reception for the United Writer’s Press authors next week, and that should be an interesting experience. The article got some facts wrong – for instance, I have not lived in Tucker my whole life – but oh well.
Alesia has given me her Christmas list and it was very reasonable – two CD’s, gel pens, a handheld Sudoku game. I ordered everything from Amazon. I also ordered Mom and Bruce’s gifts. I will avoid the mall at all costs. I am only giving gifts to immediate family this year. See below – I sent this out to friends I normally buy gifts for.
Hi y’all –
As you know, this year has been a tough one for me financially. Alesia’s schooling and testing expenses have been high and I am trying to save money for my adoption. I am not complaining; I know the Lord will provide what I need. I find the older I get, the less materialistic I am, anyway. It’s more important for my kids to have things than for me.
I hate that my boy is not home for Christmas yet. I hate that I can’t send him a gift. However, even though he doesn’t know he will be adopted, I have found a way [anonymously] to make his Christmas brighter. [BTW, Russian Christmas is on January 6th.]
This year, I plan to forego giving any gifts to anyone except close family members. Instead, I am going to take the money I would normally spend on that, and make a donation to my son’s orphanage, through the Antares Foundation. They do wonderful work with the orphanages in Petropavlovsk. His group, Family Group #9, has about 10 kids in it. Only a few are actually free to be adopted, unfortunately.
Please do not give or send me a gift. If you are so inclined, please consider instead sending a donation to Antares Foundation. It is tax deductible. If your budget won’t allow a donation, I totally understand. Just say a prayer for the children, then, OK?
Click on:
http://www.antares-orphans.org/
Then, click on How You Can Help, and scroll down to the bottom. Please put on your check: for Family Group #9 in the Regional Orphanage.
There are also photos of his group in the Activities section.
I understand my dossier is in the Washington consulate for Kazakhstan. The agency says I will get to travel in 2-3 months. Yay!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are able to be with family and loved ones!!
Dee
