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Photo Credit: P.S.M.  (aka Hubby)2009

As November is National Adoption Month I thought I would take some time to address some specific adoption questions, highlight how adoption has become apart of our lives and improve adoption knowledge in general.

I also want to spend this month doing something for the children who are still waiting to be adopted.  During the entire month of November I will be donating 100% of my Avon profits to two groups of children.  This amount may not be huge but a little goes a long way!  My Avon store button is on my blog or you can email me your order if you are local.

Our adoption agency, Adoption Advocates International, works in Ethiopia, Ghana, China,  and other countries as well as Washington State.  They are much more than an adoption agency in that they spend a lot of time, effort and money towards children who are not in the adoption process.  They have a Christmas party every year for the kids in the children’s home awaiting parents, the children at the HIV children’s home, their special needs home Opportunity House and several of the state run orphanages.   These are much more than just Christmas parties.  The children and workers get a large celebratory meal together.  The workers are  get a Christmas bonus that helps them provide for their families (a bonus for them is much less than what we would consider a bonus, but provides needed food and clothing).  Every child gets a toy and a new traditional Ethiopian outfit as well.  It is a day-long festive occasion.  The Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated on January 6th (Orthodox Christian Calendar).

The second group of kids I would like to help are our local foster children.  I plan on contacting children’s services and seeing how I can help out in some way.  I’m sure Christmas presents need to be bought or pajamas, something to let a child know that they were thought of at Christmas.  I’ll be sure to pass along what the needs are so we all can help.

Hubby and I want to thank everyone for how supportive they are about our family’s adoption.  Mita and Enu have been welcomed and accepted into our family easier than I ever could have imagined!

Photo Credit

My yard looked so awesome this year.

Meg worked hard on the leaves...all to jump into of course!

Elle got to actually carve this year!

This was Mita's first experience with pumpkin guts!

Enu cleaned out her pumpkin with good humor.

Thanks for the great idea I Should Be Folding Laundry!

After doing some research online about the flu,  I discovered that the seasonal flu isn’t going around yet, just the H1N1.  So if you have the flu right now it’s the dreaded piggy flu that the media has been going on about forever.  Of course we won’t know for sure, as they are only testing people who are admitted to the hospital.  I  didn’t panic as Enu is a healthy kid and everyone in the family is healthy.  Elle is quite small though, so we did worry about her a bit.

So almost five days after Enu got sick we are all home and want to get out.  The website Flu.gov suggested that anyone exposed to the virus shouldn’t go out and about for five days after exposure.  Enu’s fever broke on Sunday morning and she is just a bit tired and the other three are fever-free and healthy.  Hubby worked from home yesterday, so to not spread the piggy around at work. Tomorrow they will all be off to school and work where they will be exposed to more fun illnesses to challenge me with!

I, on the other hand, have no fever but a ferocious cough that hurts and a voice that makes me sound like a 3 pack a day smoker.

Tips if your family has the flu:

1)Wash your hands a lot.

2) Open up your windows during the warmest part of the day to get fresh air inside.  If your child isn’t feverish and walking around okay, let him outside in the fresh air.

3)Change your child’s bedsheets daily and make them bath and change clothes even if they want to lay around in the same pajamas for a few days.  Clean and fresh equals healthy!

4)Gargle with warm salt water a few times a day.  This kills and sloughs off the virus in your throat which helps reduce the spreading of the germs.  Saline sprays or drops for the nose also helps a lot.

5)Call your doctor is you or your child has a chronic illness that may be exacerbated by the flu.

6) Keep your heat down low if it is on and make sure you have changed the filter recently.

Things I should have done:

1)  I should have let Elle sleep with her healthier sisters.  Enu was on the top bunk coughing down on Elle (bottom bunk) that first night.

2) I would have had more cough drops, ibuprofen, Tylenol, saline drops and salt int he house!  Six people = 12 nares, 6 throats and a lot of whining and you run out of supplies quickly.

I hope all of you stay healthy in the coming weeks. I am rather glad to get this over with so early though.  We should be healthy for the rest of the school year, I’m sure.  If I say it, it will happen.  If I say it, it will happen.

* A funny story about Enu’s temperature.  I took it and the thermometer read 104.  I about had a heart attack and ran her to the ER.  Then I saw that she was laying on a heating pad.  She had found the heating pad I had used for my back a few weeks ago and feel asleep on it!  I let that wear off before taking her temperature again.  These kiddos are going to drive me insane before I am forty!

Photo Credit

For more Wordless Wednesdays check out 5MinutesForMom.com

Photo by Mandy W 2009

Meg is pleased with the thought of summer. Camps, summer reading programs, long days with nothing to do are happy memories to her. Plus she is going to horse camp again this summer, which is her FAVORITE THING ON EARTH!

Mita and Enu are a bit upset over the end of the school year. They loved their teachers and made such great friends, I think they are worried about yet another change in their life. I have let them know of all the fun ahead in the summer months and the schools have done a great job of them getting to know their teacher next year. Plus, they all have class with close friends next year.

Tomorrow the day will be full of games, food and lots of fun. I have goodie buckets filled with the tools of summer: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, kites, books and water shooters. I think they will have fun finding the buckets and playing with their new trinkets.

I will be busy putting away school supplies that we can still use in the fall and storing away back packs. Piles and piles of papers will be sorted, tossed and recycled. I love this time of year!

I also know that towards the end of August I will be ready to get out the backpacks, crayons and lunch boxes. The kids will be ready to hit the books, study spelling words and see friends everyday again. I really love the cycles of life right now.

Happy summer everyone!