Dec 2008
Prayers and Good Will Thoughts are requested
12/31/08 00:06 Filed in: Family
When my son was younger, I met and married my (now ex) husband.
He had three children from a previous marriage, and I quickly became a constant parental figure in their lives. The oldest step daughter, Ambrosia (I’ve always referred to her fondly as Rosie) has always been close to my heart. We just seemed to click. We were very close as she was growing up.
I met her when she was only five years old. We had spent a lot of time together in her younger years. As time passed, and around the time she turned 17, she and I had a falling out. She resented that I was her “parent”, and to be honest, so did I. Most of the time, the parenting of all four children rested on my shoulders. And under different circumstances, I’m fairly certain our relationship would have grown healthier by the year. In stead, after we parted, and I had divorced her father, we had rarely spoken, although do I think of her constantly.
There’s still a lot of love in me for her, and even though we both went on with our lives, I think we both became a bit lost after losing one another. For most of the next 10 years, we had not spoken too often to each other. We’ve both wondered where we fit into the other persons life now.
Fast forward, she’s now 30 years old, and recently had a baby girl. We had been exchanging emails and comments on blogs, getting to know a little about each other again. She’s such a good mommy. She wants to do everything “right”, and she is doing a fantastic job. I have to admit, I take a little bit of pride in knowing that I took part in giving her examples of mothering, as a child.
Christmas Eve, I clicked on her website, and saw that they had been in a 5 car pile up accident. Her husband and baby are fine, but she took a lot of physical damages.
She has a broken rib, broken collar bone, and one of her legs is broken in a couple of places. They moved her from the hospital to a rehab on Friday, but she still needs a lot of care. She’s nursing the baby, so between wanting to be with her baby more often, trying to heal her body, and being unable to have her first Christmas with her first baby, I’m sure this has been very difficult for her.
You can read about her family and the subsequent accident here
If you’re so inclined, please drop her a get well note on the comments section, and let her know you found her thru me (or she won’t have a clue why she has certain responses to her posts)
And if you have room for one more good thought, one more prayer, one more healing meditation, please remember to pass some good will to Ambrosia as she heals.
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Couldn't have planned it better
12/27/08 23:15 Filed in: Family
This was such
a good weekend.
My 25 year old son and his girlfriend drove to our town for a weekend visit. Scott took a vacation day to spend time with the family on Saturday. And Cady was extremely joyful to have my son and his girlfriend over.
Family is such an odd thing. You’re thrust into life with those you seem to somehow know, but have never met before. Then you spend the rest of your life getting to know that person ......strangely...... again.
I feel as if I’ve always known all of my family members (and ex-family members- eg: ex-husband). I don’t know some family members as much as I used to any more, and perhaps that’s because we met face to face, learned what we needed from each other, and then there was no more reason to stay closely connected. Or perhaps we had learned the smaller things, and knew there was something larger to tackle, and we each backed away from it, leaving us somehow distant.
There are certain people that will always be a constant, no matter how large or small the lessons. My son and I have experienced a lot of these lessons. When I gave birth to him, I had different plans for the both of us. I was going to make his life much easier than I did. I was going to keep focused, and give him a life that was comfortable. Life took us in its own direction, and in my own mind, I had failed him in so many ways.
For now, he and I are in a great place together, spiritually.
He’s grown, and I’ve grown.
He’s incorporated Cady into his life as an older brother. In a sense, he responds to her more like a younger uncle but the age differences will do that. Still, I couldn’t have asked for more.
We spent the weekend talking and eating, and went bowling. We stayed up last night till 2:30am, just talking, with the TV blaring in the background. I haven’t a clue what was on TV, because our conversations were much more entertaining.
There are few people in my life whom I LOVE so deeply that I would actually give my life for theirs. My son and my daughter are two of those people. They are both very different, but my love and appreciation for them in my life is deeper and older and stronger than I can put in to words.
I’m so very glad Daniel came into my life 25 years ago.
And that Cadence made her appearance on the other side of the world, almost a quarter century later.
WOW life is remarkable. Love is amazing. The feelings I have as a mother are the most powerful feelings I’ve ever experienced.
One more and we will be complete.
My 25 year old son and his girlfriend drove to our town for a weekend visit. Scott took a vacation day to spend time with the family on Saturday. And Cady was extremely joyful to have my son and his girlfriend over.
Family is such an odd thing. You’re thrust into life with those you seem to somehow know, but have never met before. Then you spend the rest of your life getting to know that person ......strangely...... again.
I feel as if I’ve always known all of my family members (and ex-family members- eg: ex-husband). I don’t know some family members as much as I used to any more, and perhaps that’s because we met face to face, learned what we needed from each other, and then there was no more reason to stay closely connected. Or perhaps we had learned the smaller things, and knew there was something larger to tackle, and we each backed away from it, leaving us somehow distant.
There are certain people that will always be a constant, no matter how large or small the lessons. My son and I have experienced a lot of these lessons. When I gave birth to him, I had different plans for the both of us. I was going to make his life much easier than I did. I was going to keep focused, and give him a life that was comfortable. Life took us in its own direction, and in my own mind, I had failed him in so many ways.
For now, he and I are in a great place together, spiritually.
He’s grown, and I’ve grown.
He’s incorporated Cady into his life as an older brother. In a sense, he responds to her more like a younger uncle but the age differences will do that. Still, I couldn’t have asked for more.
We spent the weekend talking and eating, and went bowling. We stayed up last night till 2:30am, just talking, with the TV blaring in the background. I haven’t a clue what was on TV, because our conversations were much more entertaining.
There are few people in my life whom I LOVE so deeply that I would actually give my life for theirs. My son and my daughter are two of those people. They are both very different, but my love and appreciation for them in my life is deeper and older and stronger than I can put in to words.
I’m so very glad Daniel came into my life 25 years ago.
And that Cadence made her appearance on the other side of the world, almost a quarter century later.
WOW life is remarkable. Love is amazing. The feelings I have as a mother are the most powerful feelings I’ve ever experienced.
One more and we will be complete.
To Wonderful Girl
12/24/08 22:19 Filed in: Performances
A few days
ago, we met our new neighbor.
He came to our front door and introduced himself, as he spoke in broken English. “Hello. My name is Tian. I know it’s important to have good neighbors and a good neighborhood.” He went on to say that he was having a party the next day, and asked if it was ok that his friends and family parked on our side of the street. Then he gave me a Christmas card. He held 10-15 of those cards in his hand, as he went door to door to introduce himself.
I was very impressed with his politeness, and extension of good will. He hadn’t even moved in yet because he was busy fixing up the place. Yet, there he was, handing out Christmas cards to people he doesn’t know. When he saw that Cady is Asian, he looked at her curiously, but did not ask me any questions.
Later that day, I made a couple of cakes. One for our work party and one for Tian’s house warming party. When I handed it to him, he accepted it with both hands and bowed slightly as he said his thanks.
Tonight, he stopped by with a simple Christmas gift for Cadence. It read on the package, “From Tian. To wonderful girl.”
This little story really has nowhere it’s leading, except to say that kindness is contagious.
We leave you with a few pictures from after Cady’s winter performance this year. We’re so blessed to have her in our lives.
“Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the Love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds of the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.”
Charles Dickens
He came to our front door and introduced himself, as he spoke in broken English. “Hello. My name is Tian. I know it’s important to have good neighbors and a good neighborhood.” He went on to say that he was having a party the next day, and asked if it was ok that his friends and family parked on our side of the street. Then he gave me a Christmas card. He held 10-15 of those cards in his hand, as he went door to door to introduce himself.
I was very impressed with his politeness, and extension of good will. He hadn’t even moved in yet because he was busy fixing up the place. Yet, there he was, handing out Christmas cards to people he doesn’t know. When he saw that Cady is Asian, he looked at her curiously, but did not ask me any questions.
Later that day, I made a couple of cakes. One for our work party and one for Tian’s house warming party. When I handed it to him, he accepted it with both hands and bowed slightly as he said his thanks.
Tonight, he stopped by with a simple Christmas gift for Cadence. It read on the package, “From Tian. To wonderful girl.”
This little story really has nowhere it’s leading, except to say that kindness is contagious.
We leave you with a few pictures from after Cady’s winter performance this year. We’re so blessed to have her in our lives.
“Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the Love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds of the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.”
Charles Dickens
Track Santa on Christmas Eve
12/21/08 08:41 Filed in: Holidays
Click here to track Santa’s whereabouts
Updates hourly, starting midnight, December 23rd (North pole Christmas Eve is a day ahead of the western atmosphere).
Here’s a fun little tidbit about how NORAD’s Defense Team started tracking Santa, taken from NORAD’s web page
Why We Track Santa
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s Christmas Eve flight.
The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. To listen to Colonel Shoup talk about the experience, click here.
In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD. NORAD inherited the tradition of tracking Santa.
Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls and emails from children. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source to provide Christmas Eve updates on Santa's journey.
Track Santa here
4 basic rules
12/19/08 20:31 Filed in: Holidays
Rule #1
Always make sure your four year old never keeps secrets from her parents.
Rule #2
Never tell your four year old what you got your spouse for Christmas.
Rule #3
When, as the parent, you ignore rule #2, and your four year old brings out the gift after you’ve shown it to her, and let her hide it, and says to your spouse with a beautiful smile on her face, “This is for you” don’t laugh, smile, or give any hint that you think she’s cute.
Rule #4
Realize that your four year old thinks, “Don’t tell him what it is” is not the same as “Don’t show it to him”
Always make sure your four year old never keeps secrets from her parents.
Rule #2
Never tell your four year old what you got your spouse for Christmas.
Rule #3
When, as the parent, you ignore rule #2, and your four year old brings out the gift after you’ve shown it to her, and let her hide it, and says to your spouse with a beautiful smile on her face, “This is for you” don’t laugh, smile, or give any hint that you think she’s cute.
Rule #4
Realize that your four year old thinks, “Don’t tell him what it is” is not the same as “Don’t show it to him”
Two more months
12/17/08 01:26 Filed in: Referral
Two more
months have passed since the last time I tallied.
Will we have Melody home by next Christmas? Probably
not.
But it looks hopeful for the Christmas following
that.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my magical
times with my other baby-girl.
I love watching her mind work. And when you mix the
glitter of Christmas with conversation, it makes for
some talks that are beyond adorable.
Merry Christmas, readers.
Melody......We love you.
A difficult concept to understand, because we
don’t know if she’s born yet, and we
don’t know anything about her, except that she
is spiritually walking the same path as us. As we
inch closer, and day by day, month by month, the path
becomes shorter and stronger.
JibJab
12/04/08 20:17 Filed in: Holidays
OK. So it’s
cheezy, but Cady laughs such a big belly laugh from
it, that I have to share it on the blog. We created 5
faces, and since I don’t have a very good
picture of Char (Daniel’s girlfriend) we
substituted Barbie as his date at the Elf Ball.
I know you are all waiting, and can’t stand it.
So, here’s the show you’ve been waiting for.
ELF DANCING
Starring Mommy, Daddy, Cadence, and Daniel.
Special guest appearance by Barbie.
OoOOooOooHhhh “Encore, encore!!” You say?
Have we got an exciting time for you tonight. Unfortunately, Barbie sprained her ankle. I told her not to wear the plastic heels elf to this event. sigh.
Anywho.....Back by popular demand......
Mommy, Daddy, Cadence, and Daniel.
And Keegan as Barbie’s fill-in double.
YEE HAW!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
I know you are all waiting, and can’t stand it.
So, here’s the show you’ve been waiting for.
ELF DANCING
Starring Mommy, Daddy, Cadence, and Daniel.
Special guest appearance by Barbie.
Send your own ElfYourself
eCards
OoOOooOooHhhh “Encore, encore!!” You say?
Have we got an exciting time for you tonight. Unfortunately, Barbie sprained her ankle. I told her not to wear the plastic heels elf to this event. sigh.
Anywho.....Back by popular demand......
Mommy, Daddy, Cadence, and Daniel.
And Keegan as Barbie’s fill-in double.
Send your own ElfYourself
eCards
YEE HAW!
MERRY CHRISTMAS