Stinkin' Thinkin'

Do you suffer from "Stinkin' Thinkin', or do you have a "Winner's mind?" I watched a sermon from John Hagee this morning before church. It gave me some food for thought

7 Principles of a Winner's Mind:


1. Decide what you want.

2. Never be defeated by failures.
-Failure is a great teacher. How many times do you think your're going to touch that burning stove?
-Failure is not fatal, it's just someone's opinion about your achievement. Jesus was considered a failure to his disciples until the day of Pentecost.

3. Don't be crippled by your success.
-Leadership demands constant achievement.

4. Don't be controlled by your fears.
-What you fear will destroy you.
-Jesus' most used words are "Fear not..."

5. Never be mastered by resentment.
-1Thessalonians5:16-18 says that regardless of the circumstances, a Christian always has grounds for rejoicing in the certain future of eternal life with Christ.
-Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he...

6. Don't be consumed by greed.
-1Timothy 6:1-10

7. Find a way to serve.
-Romans 15:1-2

Bittersweet Picture

I received the most beautiful picture from a fellow Hope parent Lisa-Marie that she took when she went to Ethiopia to pick up her children. It had Maritu and Abeti together. They looked absolutely stunning! Abeti did look like he didn't understand, but Lisa had warned me that he was confused about why they were bringing him up to the baby room. Since Amharic is his second language, no telling what was going through that little man's mind! May God watch over him... I finally broke down and cried...

Sheridan's New Security System

Yep, you guessed it Sheridan struck again! So, this is where I'm going to put her during her waking hours. You see, she gave me a scare. She climbed onto our kitchen counter (Mind you, the drawers have child-proof latches!), dug in my wallet and decided to play with a quarter. That would have been fine had she just played with it, but this child that has such adversions to food textures in her mouth, decided to try and swallow the quarter. She started choking, and I lost it! All I could think of was that my husband picked a great time to go to AutoZone for an oil filter! No worries! She managed to vomit it up along with some curddled milk!

God's Timing

It's easy to tell others about "God's perfect timing" until God's timing affects you. At least for me it's hard. I received a call today from Grace. I could tell in her voice that the news wasn't great, so she tells me that they're still having problems with Maritu's paper work, so there will be no July or August court date. I already had guessed that, but she didn't mention our son. I didn't like the answer I was given, but I'm thankful for the information. Hopefully I will know in a few days the outcome, and I'll post about it then.

Rhonda's Song

The following song was created by Rhonda, an adoptive mom from my agency. She shared it with all of us that are anxiously awaiting court dates. Enjoy!


"We are mothers hear us roar,
Desperately wanting to knock on your door,
To beg you to please give us our court dates.
Because even one more day seems way to late.

For those of us waiting to pass through court,
We are begging for your immediate support.
We understand you are doing your best,
But with out your ok, well there is no rest.

We love our kids and want them home.
To give them more love than they may have ever known.
We'll feed them, love them, and hug them tight,
Tuck them into bed each and every night.

We understand there are rules you must follow,
But these endless delays leave us quite hollow.
You want the best for our kids, on that we agree.
But we are the best for them, can't you see?

In our arms they will find both Peace & Love,
The kind show to us by Christ in Heaven above.
He will watch over them,this we know.
Just like us, He loves them so.

Until our day comes, we will unite as one
In prayer for good news soon to come.
When one gets approval you'll hear us shout.
Supporting each other is what family is all about.

Until our kids are in our embrace,
We'll stand together in this difficult race.
We will succeed, there is do doubt.
Finding forever families is what we are all about."

Buy This!

I'm shamelessly promoting a friend of our family's new CD. If you like country music, buy "Rollin With the Flow." I love "When You Love Her Like Crazy" because it reminds me of how I feel about my children. "When you love them like crazy, that's what you are..." That is definitely what I am right now!

Scaphoid Fracture

Last night was a long night! Sleep is not easy when your wrist moves. My husband and I got up at 4:30 AM and watched some TIVO'd shows. It's miserable when you can"t sleep. I realized that my wrist was swelling, so I iced it and we took a trip to Beaumont Bone and Joint's emergency clinic. Now it's a confirmed scaphoid fracture. It looks stable, but my hubby warned me that I'll probably still have to have a screw put in it. Of course I had to go and break one of the two bones in your body that have a poor blood supply! So for now, it's a temporary cast until my doctor stops donating to those Vegas casinos.

Happy July 4th!!!

myspace

Happy July 4th to everyone, especially to our service men who make it possible for me to blog freely in this country. You all do not go unnoticed.

I hope everyone had a great day! I did if you discount the ending to our day. We took our kids to the deer lease to ride four-wheelers with our friends. They don't have their own because I just think they're too young at this time, even with supervision. Once at the deer lease in the Big city of Evasmell(oops I mean Evadale! That's a local joke because this town has a stinky paper mill.),we packed up cooking supplies and headed to our secluded camp. That's a grueling 45 min. ride. Then talk about eat! We enjoyed sausage and boudain made here locally by the Martel family and way too many snacks. Afterwards, we took another ride to the river to cool off. I guess the exciting part was on the way back to where our vehicles were parked. I was driving up an embankment that included a curve in it when I hit a Cyprus knob with one of my tires which cased my handlebars to jerk just right to make this popping noise. I wasn't sure if that was my hand or my 4wheeler. Needless to say, I didn't make it up the hill. I got off and another guy drove my 4wheeler up. I thought I was okay because my fingers could move, so I just needed to shake it off. Well, hubby caught up with us, but I told him I was fine and got back on until I tried to give it some gas. Guess I wasn't so fine! Then the nightmare begins because my 13 year-old daughter gets to drive me back! Yikes!!! Since it's a holiday weekend, I guess I'll wait until Monday to go to the doctor. I know I live with one, but he has two new radiology techs and doesn't know how to get in touch with either. So, what's a person to do? I don't want to spend 12 hours in an emergency room!

Maritu's First Dolls

Just thought I'd post my daughter's first dolls from her Mommy... These were purchased at SleepySoft.com .

This Wait Stinks!

This wait stinks, especially when I hear people that just signed on with my agency that have referrals and court dates... Adoption is not for the weak at heart. There are no guarantees...

My Getaway

Today the family went to Schlitterbahn Water Park on Galveston Island. I so needed to take my mind off of not hearing any news from Ethiopia, but no sooner than we get in the car to leave, I check my phone for messages. To my disappointment, I had none, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Grace via email. Still no news, but maybe something in the next week. Well, we are coming down to the wire on filing a court date. At least I'm not alone, as if that is any consolation, three other families share the same shoes with me right now.

I Have Internet Again

Time Warner Cable is horrible!!! I used to love my Roadrunner service until I started having problems, and I find out that Time Warner has down-sized and out-sourced jobs to Mexico! I've had intermittent connection since April, and everytime I call, they have to send a tech out to my house several weeks later. Then, when my problem is unresolved and I call again, the same thing happens. After the 3rd time, the tech says,"Holly, I know the problem is not in your house, but we have to do this before they'll send someone to check the lines at the street." Oh my! Needless to say, I cancelled my cable and internet service, but now I'm back! Just not back with Time Warner...

If Only My Tears Could Flood Ethiopia...

If only my tears could flood Ethiopia right now, they wouldn't be having so many power outages, and many more adoptive familes could get through court sooner, not to mention that the rain is needed to grow crops for their sustenance. Why all the tears today? Well, several of our waiting families received snipets of information on our kids from Grace, our International Coordinator extraorindaire through our Yahoo board. Here was my snipet: "Abeti- played soccer the whole time we were there, very sweet gave me a hug. Maritu- looks great smiled at me." Little does my little man know what huge soccer fans we have become via way of his sister. I think he was placed into the right family, and I hope one day I'll hear him say that too. As for little Maritu, I am sure missing those smiles. It's great to hear that she is looking good because she sure needs to catch up! We have about 45 days until the courts close for a couple of months for the rainy season. Please say a prayer for us....

Thank You SSSC!

Isn't life funny when you think something so terrible has happened because that is what you see in that point in time, then that terrible thing turns out to actually be something better than you could've imagined? This happened to me once before when my ex-husband left me during my pregnancy with our second child. At that time, I thought the world ended and no one would ever want me at my age with two young chidren, but then a couple of years later walks in Mr. Right. Just think, God sees that big picture while we can only see a small point in time... Thank you God. You are amazing! And thank you SSSC for making poor decisions that led to the break up of our soccer team. Curran has made a gifted team. Her coaches are unbelievable! They seem to be everything that she was not getting at SSSC. They don't have the philosophy that kids at this age can't learn tactics and positions! These coaches stop play when the kids are doing something wrong and correct it, and guide their decisions during play, not just stand on the sidelines and gather a paycheck. All I can say is, "Wow!" Once again, what I thought was so terrible, has turned into a great opportunity.

Gulf Coast United

I'm trying not to rant about soccer anymore... So....Curran is trying out for Gulf Coast United Division II soccer team. Since she no longer has a team with Spindletop Select Soccer Club, we have only two choices: 1. Play Division II 2. Drive 2 hours for a Division I team. I have no problem with driving, but since I'm hoping that I'll have Abeti and Maritu home soon, I can't do that and bond properly with the children. So, today Curran tries out for GC United. They seem to be a very good Div II team that maybe should be SuperII, but we'll see...

Future Rock Star

Skylar had his first guitar lesson today. He wants to be a rock star or a professional baseball player.

Rant and Rave

This is rant-n-rave post just to make me feel better. I hate politics! It's everywhere. I'm ranting about soccer right now... My daughter's team that went to the National Cup and now is ranked 4th in the State, no longer exists! This is insane! "SSSC" decided they wanted to stack a U-11 team for the fall, so our 4 girls that were play-ups are gone. We already knew that 4 were leaving because they either couldn't afford the fees and travel, or wanted to pursue other sports. That left 6 girls. Well one demanded to play up on the U-13 team and got her way, and 1 tried out for a Houston team (Albion) and accepted that position. Now there are 4 of us left... One board member said that we could play 8x8 if we could gather a team. hahahaha! Maybe if we'd have known this was coming! I feel screwed! The worst part in all this is that I've heard very different stories from these parents. Somebody is lying! Why? Last I heard from these parents is that they wanted to stay together. Now some didn't want to stay if our coach stayed. We had many conflicts all year, but why didn't these people use that energy to demand that he be asked to step down? He's a nice guy. He might have willingly stepped down for the "team", and if he wouldn't the worse would be that we might lose 1 girl, not the entire team! Whew!!! I think I'm done now. Well not really. I'd like to rant about people that don't return emails or phone calls, but that's for another day...

Here's a small silver lining... My POA that had to be re-done, has been sent to Ethiopia! Maybe now I'll hear about that court date soon!

Still Waiting Impatiently!

Build your own Blingee

Waiting...

We're Back!

In case anyone might have missed my infrequent and boring posts, well this one is for you. We went on vacation! Everyone but our two-year-old Picasso. We flew to Maimi where we boarded a Royal Caribbean ship, then it was off to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Of course we were miserable during this trip because we have been anxiously awaiting a court date with our agency, we missed our Picasso, and we were eating way too much! I gain weight every time I board one of these ships. I just can't say "no". By the way, I will have to recommend St. Maarten for the prettiest water and best shell-pickin'. It was the perfect place for our family. We love the lazy, laid-back towns where you shop from road-side vendors. My next favorite was St. Thomas. We took the Sky Ride to Paradise point, and that's where the pics were snapped. The view is breath-taking. Also you have to try their signature drink called a "Bushwacker". Yum! Don't get one any where else because you will be disappointed! After that, it was Magen's Bay. I didn't get a picture, but the kids found several starfish in the water! As I said earlier, we were hoping for good news while we were away, so I called our coordinator several times but no news... I wonder what I racked up in International roaming charges? Yikes!