Oooooooh, there will be many posts about my dear Chloe! She is....... how do I put it...... well, she is very much her own person..... I can't think of a better way to sum it up....... she is strong-willed (thank you, Shauna for the Dr. Dobson book a few years ago, a God-send!), she is sweet, she is opinionated, she is spunky, she thinks she's 16, she is motherly, she is a momma's-girl (even though we are nothing alike and butt heads most of the time), she is smart (too smart)...... the list could go on and on! I will, from time to time I'm sure, be posting 'Chloe-isms', because the funniest things come out of her mouth, so get ready! But this post is about her sweet side, and in a way her prayer life!
The same day that my kids started at the daycare (2 mos ago), a 2-month old baby also started, Elicia. Chloe thought she was just the cutest thing ever, and a week later, somehow Chloe found out that Elicia was in foster care. So Chloe asked what that meant, and I explained to her that Elicia's mommy couldn't take care of her at that time, and so someone else is caring for her until either her mommy can, or until someone adopts her. Well, Chloe knows ALL ABOUT adoption b/c before I got pregnant w/ Jax, Derrick and I were beginning to look into adoption since I had been told we couldn't have any more children naturally. If you know Chloe, you know that she has an obsession w/ China, so her vote was to adopt a child from China. We had told her that God would take care of everything if it was in His will, and at that time, His will was to provide us w/ the miracle of having Jax. But even throughout my pregnancy w/ Jax, we still talked about adopting in the future.
SO, immediately, Chloe asked if we could adopt Elicia. I told her that she needed to pray about it, and boy did she! She prayed (and still does) for Elicia in EVERY prayer, "Dear God, please let Elicia be my sister", "Dear God, I know Elicia is supposed to be my sister, can we please 'dopt her?", "Dear God, thank you for our food and thank you for giving us Elicia, because I know you want to", "Dear God, I know I have a brother, but Elicia does not and she wants one too, so can Jax be her brother too?", "Dear God, I know I asked for a sister from China, and I want her too, but right now I want Elicia to be my sister"........ the prayers about Elicia are endless, and are usually enough to bring tears to mommy's eyes! Not only are there prayers, but she also has brought others into the mix :) Here are a few examples........
1) Chloe and I were drawing family pictures one evening after I put Jax to bed. When I presented mine to her, she promptly told me that "someone" was missing.... I went through the list, "Jasmine? (the dog), Marsha? (the cat), Nana? Mimi? Papa?".... "NO! ELICIA, MOM! How could you forget Elicia????"..... how dare I forget a child that is not, and may never be, my own???!!!! Forgive me, please! After Chloe refused to hang my picture until I added Elicia, I proceeded to draw a baby with a pink crayon and heard, "MOM, Elicia is black, well, she's not black, she's really brown but I heard someone ask you if you were talking about the 'little black baby', and you said yes, but she's brown, so you need to use a brown crayon to draw her..... but you can put a pink dress and bow on her if you want to." Okay Chloe.
2) Just after we first talked about Elicia, Chloe says to my mom, "Guess what, Nana? I'm getting a sister!" Of course, my mom looks at me like, "WHATTTTTTTTTTT???!!!!!!" When I give Chloe a questionable look, she says under her breath, "Elicia"....... oh boy........ you can imagine the explanation! This also happened with Derrick's parents as well :)
3) So then a few weeks ago, when I was picking up the kids from daycare, Chloe's teacher asked me if she could talk to me. She tells me that during circle time, they were discussing one another's families, and when the turn came to Chloe she said that she had five members in her family. The teacher stopped her and this was the conversation:
Teacher: "Are you sure? I think you have four in your family.... are you adding your cat?"
Chloe: "No, my sister."
Teacher: "Well, I didn't know you had a sister... how come she doesn't come to school here?"
Chloe: "She does!"
Teacher (who at this point thought Chloe maybe had an imaginary 'sister'): "Oh really? What is her name?"
Chloe: "Elicia, and she's in there with the babies!"
Teacher: "Ummmm, Elicia-Elicia??"
Chloe: "Yep; we're 'dopting her since she doesn't have a family."
Teacher: .................................... (no words here purposely; she was in shock)
4) Last week, Chloe told Derrick and I that she knew what she wanted for her birthday (not until August, but the girl plans early)....... "A bunkbed, the ones with the bottom bed bigger than the top one, so that when we get Elicia she can sleep with me, because I know that sisters like to sleep together." Okaaaaaaaay.
I could go on and on about instances in which Chloe has mentioned Elicia being ours, but these are the most prominent!
Just so you know, Derrick and I have looked into adopting Elicia. As of right now I am still getting the run-around on her adoption status and am on case-worker #3... unfortunately the state always tries to put children back w/ the parents, so there is no telling when and if she will actually be adoptable, but like I always tell Chloe, "If it's in God's Will, then He will make a way"!!!!
Anyways, just wanted to share my Chloe's sweet side........ especially since there will be many future posts showing her 'other' sides, HAAAAAAAAAAA! Love and prayers!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Stomach Bug???
Yep, I've got a stomach bug....... in the LITERAL sense..... evidentally I have a parasite or some type of protozoal bacteria infesting my intestines...... nice...... yeah, sounds like something that would happen to me, huh?! If it's weird, never heard of, or 'in the book', it's going to happen to me, yay :) Anyways, luckily I work for a pharmacist that is smarter than my primary care physician and so when I called the physician back and told what he'd tried wasn't working, I mentioned what my boss had told me, and he was like, "OH YEAH!"...... lovely...... so I think I've got what I need to get rid of this little guy and hopefully I'm on the road to recovery! My boss seems to think that I probably contracted it from lettuce or raw spinach, since I eat both of those regularly...... and YES, I DO wash my produce!!!! However, I don't think I will be eating from any salad bars for awhile :) He told me to get over my 'meat thing' and quit eating like a rabbit, HA! It's not that I'm a vegetarian b/c I think it's inhumane, it's my taste buds' fault; every since I was pregnant w/ Jax, they do not like meat *shudder*....... so I guess it's on to a Chicken-Noodle-Soup-Minus-the-Chicken-Diet, HA!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Aaaah, coffee break...........
Wait, I don't normally drink coffee unless it's a special day and I want to look cool by ordering something (usually the wrong thing by the way) at Starbucks.......... oh well, I've always wanted to be a 'coffee break' person, always wanted to be one of those moms that sat down to her 'breakfast table' (you know, the ones that are at the bay window overlooking your perfect garden in your beautiful kitchen, as opposed to only having one dining table (oh and also not having the bay window, garden, or beautiful kitchen).......... hmmm, where was I...... oh yeah, I always wanted to sit down w/ my coffee....... my kids would be perfectly behaving, playing/reading/practicing the violin........ clean house, laundry caught up, and my husband calling to see how his beautiful wife's glorious day was going............ WAKE UP!!!!!!!!
Instead, it usually looked like this: Jax hanging at my legs, toy in one hand and any type of food item in the other, Chloe begging me to get her violin out even though we have yet to find an instructor and mommy's ears can't handle the screech of the non-instructed strings, phone ringing (ANOTHER doctor's bill????), cat scratching at the door, I'm in the process of laundry, dishes, and two cakes that need to be done in an hour, and me wondering why I always say "I don't drink soda" even though at this very moment, I could use a very LARGE Coca-Cola, not the chocolatey coffee drink I order when I do order coffee....... aaaaaaaah yes, the chaos I loved to call my life........ but now, I miss that chaos; would give anything to hear my kids whining about the fact that I won't let them bring the pool inside and fill it w/ sand for them...... or whining about anything for that matter....... I'd give anything to be so stressed that I stand in front of the bathroom door for 30 seconds holding it w/ all my strength to keep the kids out so I could have half a minute of breathing time, ha! But I loved it! I woke up every morning for it.
BUT even that life has changed a bit.......... now I have fallen into a season of being a Working Mom....... something I told myself (and my husband!) I would never be. Who knew that decorating cakes from home, making and selling hair bows, watching other kids twice a week, and the various other jobs that I did would not produce enough of an income to keep me home?? What? ...... oh, you mean you have to charge customers in order to make money??? Oooops! So yes, life changes, things happen, and alas, I am back at work FOR THE TIME BEING!!!!!! (everyone understood that correctly, right?!) Believe it or not, it hurts my dear husband almost as much as it does me...... but God has an awesome plan for us and I know He will work all of this out in HIS time!
So I work at a pharmacy, get to listen to cranky customers who ABSOLUTELY NEED their pain meds, etc., and I get to call insurance companies all day and work on claims, and I get to stress about getting my 'drug' order in on time every evening and pray everything comes in correctly............... let me tell you, this job is great (I say this w/ a full-fledged-fake-smile). I also get to cry every morning that I drop my kids off at 'school' (I used to hate when I heard people call daycare that) and wish every minute of every hour that I'm sitting at this job that I could walk out, cross the street, get my kids, and head home, ha! Ooooooooh wait, I just broke a rule I promised my therapist (God) I would try to stop: griping about working....... okay, so now I have to list at least three positives about my going back to work: 1) $$$.... 2) going to the bathroom by myself.... 3) thanks to daycare (whoa, did I just say that?), Chloe is now ready for and excited about kindergarten... she used to freak out at the K-word, but now she is ready! .......... okay, that's out of the way.
So now that I just realized this post has become a novel (a boring one at that), I will QUICKLY tell you about what's going on w/ the rest of our lives............ Derrick resigned the youth pastor position at the little country church in January, and we now attend a church that we LOVE LOVE in Muskogee, and Derrick was just asked to be the assistant youth pastor (not a paying job yet, but we're working our way up!), the church is also going to pay for him to take the classes and be ordained through the Assemblies of God....... we are also in the process of starting an inter-denominational youth ministry here in Gore, Saturday nights, an on-fire youth service for this community of teens that NEED HELP BAD....... God is opening doors left and right for this........... and we are totally and completely excited and ecstatic about what God is doing in our lives right now. He has us exactly where HE wants us to be right now (yes, even my job), and for that I am thankful. Oh, and I'm also VERY thankful that I am taking next Friday off and going to Branson for the weekend w/ my family........ WAHOOOOOOO! Okay, so now that I've put all of you readers (if there are any) to sleep (you're welcome!), I will stop this post.......... did it make any sense??? Probably not, but do I ever make sense? If you know me, NO!
Have a good one......... oh, and get ready for some posts buddy, b/c sometimes, I have a lot of time to dawdle here at the ol' drugstore! Love and prayers!
Instead, it usually looked like this: Jax hanging at my legs, toy in one hand and any type of food item in the other, Chloe begging me to get her violin out even though we have yet to find an instructor and mommy's ears can't handle the screech of the non-instructed strings, phone ringing (ANOTHER doctor's bill????), cat scratching at the door, I'm in the process of laundry, dishes, and two cakes that need to be done in an hour, and me wondering why I always say "I don't drink soda" even though at this very moment, I could use a very LARGE Coca-Cola, not the chocolatey coffee drink I order when I do order coffee....... aaaaaaaah yes, the chaos I loved to call my life........ but now, I miss that chaos; would give anything to hear my kids whining about the fact that I won't let them bring the pool inside and fill it w/ sand for them...... or whining about anything for that matter....... I'd give anything to be so stressed that I stand in front of the bathroom door for 30 seconds holding it w/ all my strength to keep the kids out so I could have half a minute of breathing time, ha! But I loved it! I woke up every morning for it.
BUT even that life has changed a bit.......... now I have fallen into a season of being a Working Mom....... something I told myself (and my husband!) I would never be. Who knew that decorating cakes from home, making and selling hair bows, watching other kids twice a week, and the various other jobs that I did would not produce enough of an income to keep me home?? What? ...... oh, you mean you have to charge customers in order to make money??? Oooops! So yes, life changes, things happen, and alas, I am back at work FOR THE TIME BEING!!!!!! (everyone understood that correctly, right?!) Believe it or not, it hurts my dear husband almost as much as it does me...... but God has an awesome plan for us and I know He will work all of this out in HIS time!
So I work at a pharmacy, get to listen to cranky customers who ABSOLUTELY NEED their pain meds, etc., and I get to call insurance companies all day and work on claims, and I get to stress about getting my 'drug' order in on time every evening and pray everything comes in correctly............... let me tell you, this job is great (I say this w/ a full-fledged-fake-smile). I also get to cry every morning that I drop my kids off at 'school' (I used to hate when I heard people call daycare that) and wish every minute of every hour that I'm sitting at this job that I could walk out, cross the street, get my kids, and head home, ha! Ooooooooh wait, I just broke a rule I promised my therapist (God) I would try to stop: griping about working....... okay, so now I have to list at least three positives about my going back to work: 1) $$$.... 2) going to the bathroom by myself.... 3) thanks to daycare (whoa, did I just say that?), Chloe is now ready for and excited about kindergarten... she used to freak out at the K-word, but now she is ready! .......... okay, that's out of the way.
So now that I just realized this post has become a novel (a boring one at that), I will QUICKLY tell you about what's going on w/ the rest of our lives............ Derrick resigned the youth pastor position at the little country church in January, and we now attend a church that we LOVE LOVE in Muskogee, and Derrick was just asked to be the assistant youth pastor (not a paying job yet, but we're working our way up!), the church is also going to pay for him to take the classes and be ordained through the Assemblies of God....... we are also in the process of starting an inter-denominational youth ministry here in Gore, Saturday nights, an on-fire youth service for this community of teens that NEED HELP BAD....... God is opening doors left and right for this........... and we are totally and completely excited and ecstatic about what God is doing in our lives right now. He has us exactly where HE wants us to be right now (yes, even my job), and for that I am thankful. Oh, and I'm also VERY thankful that I am taking next Friday off and going to Branson for the weekend w/ my family........ WAHOOOOOOO! Okay, so now that I've put all of you readers (if there are any) to sleep (you're welcome!), I will stop this post.......... did it make any sense??? Probably not, but do I ever make sense? If you know me, NO!
Have a good one......... oh, and get ready for some posts buddy, b/c sometimes, I have a lot of time to dawdle here at the ol' drugstore! Love and prayers!
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