I hope all of you are having a good weekend. Things around here are a bit off. You see, my brother and sister and their “significant others” left on Thursday, after a long and busy week of visiting. We had a lot of fun and it’s always nice to see family (even if it was more like having four more kids in the house than four more adults) :)

But, when they left on Thursday, they took two of my kids back to NY with them. Each summer my Dad brings out one or two grandkids for a week of spoiling. Nathan had the first turn (and had a blast!), then Ryan had a turn, as he was the next oldest (and he also had a blast), and then last summer the whole family went out to New York so all of my extended... more

Wednesday is more than half over and I still need to get a "Wednesday funny" up today.

Here is one that a lot of you parents of transracial families will appreciate.

One day back in spring of 2004 when Marcus was still a new little baby, Josh and I were at the park with our kids (who at that point were our three biological sons, Nathan, Ryan and Shane, Maggie from Vietnam and Amanda from Korea. Mercy and Des came just a few months later).

Anyway, I was sitting on a bench in the shade with baby Marcus while Josh ran around the playground with the other five kids. A woman who was at the park with two little boys came over and sat down next to me. She eyed Marcus, and... more

Sorry I haven’t been the most devoted blogger the last few days…between being out of town and coming home with company, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to be on the computer.

We’ve had a great few days though. We spent two nights in a hotel, and one very full day at the amusement park. Here are two things that were confirmed to me this trip. One, my kids are great travelers and a whole lot of fun to do things with. A lot of people seem to think that these sort of things would be a hassle with our family, but they aren't. They are a blast! And two, my kids are a whole lot braver than I was as a kid! They rode all sorts of rides at the amusement park…even Ben got on two of the roller... more

(This is a random list of "things about me", continued from the last post).

I don’t like horror movies.

I did not pump my own gas even once until I was 23 years old.

My first car was a Dodge 600.

I used to have a terrible crush on Jason Bateman.

I still watch Little House on the Prairie when I “flip” to it.

I hate being alone.

I don’t smoke cigarettes or drink any alcohol.

I got to church (almost) every Sunday.

I bake the BEST Irish Soda Bread.

I got married when I was only 19 and wouldn’t change a thing.

I like pens with blue ink, not black.

I am a die hard Yankees fan.

I love to play games,... more

I read somewhere that you are supposed to post 100 things about yourself for your 100th post on your blog. Well, my 100th post has come and gone, but I still thought it would be fun. So here, in completely random order, are 100 things about me.

I don’t like movies that don’t have happy endings.

Josh is my best friend and favorite person in the universe, and I don’t like being away from him.

I love Marshmallow Peeps…stale.

I love to read, even though I often fall asleep only a few pages into what I am reading.

More than anything in life, I love being a Mom. It’s who I am.

I could eat cereal three meals a day.

I am afraid of fire and car... more

Dear Joshua,

It is hard to believe that we have been married ten years. It is even harder to believe that we (almost) have ten kids! Not many people can say that they have a child for every year of marriage. :)

I wonder what we would have thought if someone had told us ten years ago what our family would be like now. Would we have been excited? Petrified? Would we have laughed our heads off?

Ten years ago, at age 19, there were lots of things I was still figuring out about myself and the life I wanted. But I knew that whatever life had in store for me, I wanted... more

Last summer we took a family vacation to New York, where most of my family lives. We had moved away from New York five years earlier, and there were quite a few family members we had not seen much, if at all, during that time. Our family had grown by five kids at that point (we left NY with our three little boys) so, there were a lot of people in my family who hadn’t gotten to meet most of my kids.

It was our first big family vacation in a few years, and our first big trip with Marcus, Mercy and Des. Everyone was excited.

We got a decent deal on plane tickets on Jet Blue, which meant our flight was a night flight. It wasn’t my first choice of itineraries and I worried about... more

Today we are off to our neighboring state, where we will pick up family at the airport and spend a few fun days together as a family. My brother and sister, along with their girl friend and boy friend, are flying out today from New York to spend a week with their nieces and nephews.

We have hotel rooms for two nights, and tomorrow will be hitting a huge amusement park, which of course has everyone around here really, really excited.

My kids are the only kids in both my family and Josh’s…none of our brothers or sisters have had kids yet. So as you might imagine, they... more

I have not done a quote for while, so here is one for my “Words to Live By” category.

"How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers." If you’re not familiar with it, this wonderful quote was said by Mother Teresa. I love this quote, and I really like the message it sends. It appropriately pops up on quite a few of adoption-related websites.

Ok, so I do understand that there probably is such a thing as too many children, at least in one family, and I do understand that flowers do not need things like diapers, shoes, school supplies,... more

I wish I had a photo of Benjamin’s first bath. It was back in February and he was five years old and it was our first night/morning together in our hotel in Addis Ababa. So far everything had gone well…he was happy and playing and eating well and sleeping well. I worried about the bath thing, because I wasn’t quite sure how he was used to getting bathed. I worried he would be shy to get undressed around me but I worried he was too little for me not to be in there helping him.

I filled up the tub with warm water and threw in some plastic cups. I called Ben in and motioned for him to get in. He smiled and rolled up his sleeves and started to wash his hands and arms, while kneeling down... more