Sunday, March 31, 2013

Times it Catches You off Guard

Most times, I am just a busy mom of 5 kids.  I don't stop and think about the fact that three of my children are adopted...Three of them have a past that does not include me...Three of them have suffered a great loss...That there is a part of their history I know nothing about...  Then, there are those times when the reality of it hits me....and it chokes me up. 
That happened today, Easter Sunday, as I was making the kids baskets.  For each child, I have stamped their hand print on the bottom of their basket and written the date of their first Easter. So, each basket has an adorable, little, chubby, baby hand print! 



 
As I did this with Malachi's and Isaac's baskets, I realized that both of them had missed Easter celebrations with our family.  This isn't their first Easter.  Malachi's basket was missing the little, adorable, chubby, baby hand print.  Then came the internal struggle.  Should I write first Easter at home?  Should I write first Easter with our family?  I ended up going with the same as my other children...first Easter.
One day, I will explain to them that they indeed did spend an Easter or two in the DR Congo.  However, March 31, 2013, was our first Easter as a family...our first Easter to make memories and celebrate our risen Saviour! 


Happy Easter from the Siegrist Family!

Friday, March 29, 2013

Dr. Suess Causes Me to Ponder--2




So, I planned on posting this the day after my first Dr. Seuss post.  BUT, welcome to my life nowadays.  I feel like I am always a step behind, 5 minutes late, and never fully rested.  However, I love this quote for the movie "The Lorax".  (and it still is Dr. Seuss' birthday month:)

The Lorax: Which way does a tree fall?
The Once-ler: Uh, down?
The Lorax: A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.

The definition of leaning is a definite but not decisive attraction or tendency.  So, my question to myself is, where does my definite but not decisive attraction lay?  I am not sure that, if I am being honest, I like the answer.


Our Cat in the Hat after school snack

Sunday, March 17, 2013

no, No, NO!!!!

 
 
Isn't he adorable?  I agree, he is indeed!

 
 
Last Thursday, he really tested my thoughts.  I got home from work and made my lunch.  Malachi was quietly playing in the family room, so I thought I would savor the peace and eat my lunch at the counter.  When I came into the family room, after cleaning up my soup...I was shocked, appalled, flabbergasted, and a tad angry.  My little Picasso had left me a masterpiece of black sharpie circles over every piece of furniture, the TV, windows, floor, wall, and doors.
 




 
 
"no, No, NO!!!" was my immediate response as he pointed around the room showing off his handiwork.  I quickly scooped him up and put him down for an early nap.  Then, I set to work feverishly cleaning each and every spot.  If you know me, this was a major disaster...as, unfortunately, I do not deal with messy and out of order very well!  Gratefully, I was able to remove all the sharpie marks except for two faint spots.
 
So, here are some tricks for getting black sharpie our of furniture...Magic Eraser (that thing really is magic) on wood, hairspray then magic eraser on leather, and baking soda on fabric.
 
On top of the cleaning tricks I learned that day, I realized something else...having 5 kids is different than having 2 kids.  When it was Noah and Anna, I had no baby gates, cabinet locks, nor did I put much of "my good stuff" away.  Now, that I have 5 kids, I have a baby gate, a few cabinet locks, and ALL sharpies have been permanently moved to where little fingers can not reach them.
 
Lastly, I am happy to say, that after 3 days, I can look back on this incident and smile (however, not sure that would have been the case if there were still marks on every piece of furniture :)
 


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Dr. Seuss Causes Me to Ponder





This past weekend (March 2nd), was the birthday of Dr. Seuss.  At our house, we ate green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Then, we ended the day watching the latest Seuss release The Lorax.  Now, as a teacher, I have an appreciation for Dr. Seuss's ridiculous characters and uncanny way to make things rhyme.  However, as I watched The Lorax, it was his quotes that caused me to stop and ponder....


The first was...

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot.  Nothing is going to get better.  It's not."

Right away, I thought of Africa.  I am reading two books entitled It's Not Okay with Me and Is It Okay with You.  They are the story of one woman's journey to find meaning after living through 9/11.  She ends up finding her life calling in Africa. 
I started thinking about my life and how I even ended up traveling to Africa to pick up my boys.  I mean up until 6 weeks before the boys came home, we were using an escort to bring the boys home.  However, a part of me really desired to go and see where they lived, their country, and their people.  For 3 short months, all adoptive families were required to go to the DR Congo to pick up their children (guess what our adoption was finalized in those 3 months) and then travel by families was stopped due to violence.  As I look back, I think God wanted me to go and see.  I think He wanted to make me care "a whole awful lot".  As of yet, I don't know why...but I know that I will never forget the poverty, the beds without mattresses at the orphanages, the riot that gave me a first hand experience with true fear, the faces of the orphans, the makeshift whip, boiling water to make it clean enough to wash dishes in, dirt roads, water being sold in baggies, and the people everywhere!





Some very disturbing facts I have since learned about Africa...
~314 million Africans live on less than $1 a day
~30,000 children are dying every day in Africa from hunger and malnutrition...that is 2.9 million children a year

"Is it okay with you that one more child will die from hunger?  Is it okay with you that today thousands of nine year old girls will have sex for bread?
Since our cognitive brains can't begin to process this, we throw up a defense mechanism and say "I can't save twenty five million children and neither can you.  What do you want from me?" 
If you died and your child was hungry would it be okay with you that no one came to feed him/her?  Would it be okay with you that people would have sex with him/her so your child could have a piece of bread?"  (from It's Not Okay with Me)

This is not okay with me...I do care a whole awful lot!  It plaques my thoughts.  However, I feel so helpless.  I am unsure how to make a difference.  I am unsure what God wants from me.  What I do know is that it sickens me that children are dying from hunger while I throw food away.  It breaks my heart that babies are selling their bodies for a piece of bread that I will often throw out to my chickens.

So, my prayer is that I will see them, represent them, and love them as God does..

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity