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

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 :)

 



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

HAIR, HAIR, HAIR

I am no stranger to hair care!  Having naturally curly hair, I grew up trying to figure out how to make my hair look "decent"....by decent I mean curly rather than frizzy.  At this point in my life, on most days, I feel like my hair looks like a mop...a disheveled mop...but I do feel that my hair is now healthy.  This is due to a rigid routine called "The Curly Girl Method" that requires no shampooing only conditioning, no sulfates and no silicones, no terry cloth towels, wrapping it in a cotton t-shirt to dry, and it goes on....

 

Despite all this, my boys hair care is teaching me that I don't know anything about keeping an African Americans scalp healthy.  Since they have come home, we have been through numerous products, several scalp infections, and hours of Internet searching.  So, for now we are on antibiotics, using coconut oil, and desperately hoping for the best...



 

Just Keep Swimming

 

I'm sure you are all familiar with Dorie...

 

 

and her wonderful advice to just keep swimming through the tough currents of life.  Lately, I have really heeded her advice.  Life has been crazy since we returned from Africa.  Although our family has changed, life has not.  There is still everything we had before...but now we have 2 more children with their challenges....and more doctor's appointments, and speech, and occupational therapy.

Last week, there was just too much.  Everyday, I had an appointment...doctor for Malachi, doctor for Noah, speech for Malachi, etc....  Then, there was the reason for the appointments....INFECTIONS!  Medicine needed to be dealt out morning and evening for 10 days, 14 days, and 4 weeks.  At work, I was elected to take the new student with many "challenges".  SERIOUSLY!!!

Yesterday I read this in a blog I follow...

the pressure to be good enough, to be holy enough, to be quiet enough, or wise enough or all the “enough’s” that fill our head and make us neurotic about who we are and how we should live.

The “enough’s” make me tired.  And I think they make a lot of us are real tired, because in all the enough’s we begin to lose ourselves in order to be something else…something better…something expected…so far from who we really are that when we fall apart, we just give up.

We stop trying. We think, “why bother, I will never change.”
And the lie sinks deep and we believe it for so long, and man it hurts.

But here comes the upside, the so unbelievably bright side: when you are just done, and broken, and tired, you’ve made it.
You are now about to experience the most profound, amazing, life-altering, freedom and grace that will set you so free you are going to fly.

When you are broken enough and tired enough and angry enough that you just can’t mold yourself, fix yourself, do better, be better, when you are just done, grace is lavished on you like nothing you’ve ever experienced.

The world opens up and humility surrounds you and compassion overtakes you because you realize that life is just so hard and “everyone is facing a hard battle”, and instead of trying to be kind, you just become kind.

And you become grace to others.
And when you realize how much you can’t change yourself, you can see others as broken beautiful ones as well who are just trying to make it through this hard life, and you just want to love them and nod your head at them and say, “I know, I know. And I love you just the same.”

Funny, what happens when you stop trying so hard to become what you already are in Christ; you begin to exhibit the things you were trying so hard to do. I’ll tell you why: it’s because you really get love, and you really get loving God and loving others, and you so deeply get grace. When the Law of loving slays you good, you can do nothing but love.

You still make messes and wound hearts and say stupid things, but you never stop loving and extending grace, because it’s all over you now.


At first, when I read this I began to feel guilty...oh my goodness, I need to try and be more humble, gracious, kind, and compassionate.  How am I going to do that?  Is there a book to read...cliff notes maybe  (does anybody use those anymore)?  Then, slowly, it began to dawn on me...I need to give up...I need to realize that I will never be good enough in and of myself...I need to let God take over and accept His humility, grace, kindness, and compassion

I am truly hoping that this "hot mess"  (who is struggling to raise 5 kids, be an effective teacher in an ever changing educational system, be a good wife and daughter and friend) is learning to extend humility, compassion, kindness, and grace.  Because, the Lord knows, that I need everyone to extend humility, compassion, kindness, and grace to me as I just "keep swimming".

A Day Late...

Yesterday, we celebrated Malachi's second birthday!

 Malachi's referral picture....

A smile...we worked so hard to get these :)

SECOND BIRTHDAY

January 17, 2013

His birthday party didn't really go as planned...or at least how I had planned.  I imagined it would be perfect, with smiles, laughter, and peace.  I mean after all the waiting we were finally a family!  After missing his first birthday, we finally were going to get to celebrate HIM!  Apparently, Malachi did not get the memo...he was fussy, only wanted me to hold and carry him, cried when we sang "Happy Birthday", tried to touch the candle, and refused to eat any cake.  The whole evening, I was so stressed!

But, you know what, God is teaching me (and I am learning very slowly:) that it's not about me....we are a family, we love each other, Malachi has bonded with me, Malachi is safe and loved, and, finally, he has a family that loves him and will have a party, make a cake, and sing "Happy Birthday" to him while he screams.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to my son, Malachi...a day late!

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

One year ago, across a large ocean on another continent, a little baby boy was born.  Here, at the Siegrist household, we had no idea.  We went about our normal business...church, Noah's basketball game, and I am sure a little football!  However, God knew that our lives would forever be changed.  I am so glad that God lead us to be a family with 5 children.  I feel blessed that He gave us Isaac...which means laughter!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of Isaac....

 Our referral picture...March 2012

First Steps...December 2012

The joys of having sisters...who love to dress you up :)

FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!!

January 15, 2013