7 Quick Takes

 

 

 

1.  The kids, especially Mac, are at that funny stage in which they are infatuated by superheroes.  They've never even seen a single tv episode or superhero movie (apart from The Incredibles) and yet they still are learning the character names and role playing.  Sometimes, the details get a little mixed up.  At lunch today, for example, I was informed that there are four Batman bad guys:  Mr. Freezer Man, Penguin Man (aka Pink Man), The Liar, and The Joker.  Amazing how a $1 coloring book impulse buy shapes my kids' imaginations!

 

2.  Well, that was unusual.  I just got called away to rescue Cora from the mini-blinds.  She had somehow gotten the button on the back of her dress entangled in the mini-blinds.  She offered no explanation as to how that occured...

 

3.  I learned something truly delightful and edifying from the kids this week.  You can make colored boogers.  Step one:  color extensively with markers, so much so that your hands become vibrantly colored.  Step two: pick one's nose with said vibrantly colored fingers.  Step three: marvel at the results.    It should be noted that we were using "jewel tone" markers that day so the effects were extraordinary.

 

Sorry if number three grossed you out.  I taught middle school for seven years and now have preschoolers.  I somehow ended up in the land where people always find farts and boogers hilarious.

 

4.  There are obvious downsides to having a Great Dane - he can clear counters easily, knocks the kids down accidentally, and leaves a trail of gargantuan muddy paw prints.  I learned a new downside the other day.  PSA - It is NOT a good idea to include the Great Dane when one is playing Hide n Seek.  Normally he just barks or whines outside of whichever closet door I'm hiding behind.  But Wednesday?  Oh joyous of days, he got me stuck.  I decided to hide under one of the kid's twin beds.  And the dog followed me under there.  And I got stuck.  Dog didn't leave me any space for maneuvering.  Had to have Mac pull me out by my ankles.

 

5.  Speaking of the dog - I've incurred my first ever library fine because of him.  He ate a book. 

 

6.  Bryan sold his motorcycle.  It was bittersweet.  He listed it Sunday and had sold it by Wednesday afternoon.  He loved that bike but just didn't enjoy riding here.  Texas heat.  Large military base traffic.  No riding buddies.  Let it be known that I did not push him to this decision.  He decided all on his own that it was time to part ways.  The money is going towards his jeep and towards our next embryo transfer.

 

7.  I better wrap this up before the thunderstorm gets here.  The sky is getting progressively darker and the thunder louder.  And I'm on the desktop right next to the window - prime storm viewing space.  So, without further ado, WE HAVE OUR CONTRACTS!!!  Well, at the time of this writing, we have received one already and the other one is coming (two separate families so two separate contracts).  Just need to print, sign and get notarized, and mail back.  And then those snowbabies will be shipped to us!!! (or rather to our clinic, but you get the idea...)

 

 

 

 

 

 



7 Quick Takes - the mixed up jumbled up edition

 

 

1.  By now, the news of the Lewis' Family tragedy has spread across the nation.  Sean graduated with me from UD and Becca graduated two years after us.  Even though we weren't super close, their tragedy has permeated my life since I first heard Tuesday morning.  I know I am not alone.  Any parent cringes to the depths of their soul at the possibility of losing a child.  And one doesn't have to be a parent to feel their pain.  While the tragedy is completely heart wrenching, the response across the nation has been almost equally mind-blowing.  Love has literally rained down upon this family.

•  Two fundraising sites raised $145,000. These funds are going towards the funerals, travel, legal fees, grief counseling/support, and more.               
•  A year long prayer chain has been set up for them.  Please view this sign up for more information or to sign up.
• There is an evolving website that will coordinate support efforts after the funeral.  It is my understanding that even families who are not local can still provide support in some way or another. 
• There are prayer vigils and Masses being organized across the nation for the family.

 

•  
 
• Originally, the funds collected were primarily going towards the medical expenses.  Imagine my amazement when I learned last night that donors of Wyoming Catholic College and insurance will be completely taking care of the bill.  Preliminary estimates had been in the $80,000 range, so this is no small feat.
   

2. I don't really know how to segue from item number one.  So I'll leave this here as a moment of silence and prayer.

 

 

 

 

3.  You know, I thought I had a vague idea of what the military's plans were for my husband for the next few years.  It seems, however, that budget cuts are directly affecting him.  The time between promotion boards is expanding because the military doesn't have the funds to promote with their same frequency (and pay the subsequent salary increases).  This means that though I thought we'd be here until Fall 2015 and then to Leavenworth, KS for school, there may be one more stop in between.  We're in a weird quandry where the military doesn't have the money to PCS families(permanent change of station - move to a new assignment) yet they still say that persons of Bryan's rank can't stay in one place too long. 

 

 

4.  It was my turn to teach preschool last week - letter S.  Our craft ended up pretty easy and actually pretty, even after the three and four year olds used their "crafting magic" on it.  Amazing what classic art can do for a project! 

 

 

 

5.  I hate paying full price for things.  I guess I inherited a sense of frugality, shall we call it, from my dad.  At any rate, I've been pretty thrilled with four different consignment websites I've found.  They're not new in existence, but they're new to me.  And I can buy brand names in great condition for an amount I'm happy to pay. 

• Flipsize - this website is for newborns on up to children's size 10.  I've bought a lot on here and have been mostly happy with my purchases.
• Dashing Bee - this website is for newborns on up to children's size 14.  I've bought a smaller selection of items here (usually only when they're doing their season end clearance) but have been very happy with my purchases.
• Twice - this website is for women.  I haven't bought anything from here yet, but I really love that their website even provides the measurements for items of clothing.  We all know that an 8 is not an 8 across the board, so this is a very helpful feature.
• ThredUp - I'm expecting my first package today or tomorrow and I'm very excited.  This site has clothing for children, juniors, and women, and shoes for all the aforementioned categories.  They have huge selections AND a free 30 return policy.  AND if you click the hyperlink I provided, you'll get an additional $10 off your first purchase.  ;-) 

6.  Embryo adoption news - I haven't forgotten the original purpose of this blog.  WE ARE MATCHED!!!!  Two families, each having two embryos.  One family created their embryos in 2007 and had two children (two separate transfers) before they chose to give up their embryos due to medical problems.  The other family created their embryos in 2008.  They have three children, but only one is from this embryo set (one child via traditional adoption, one from this embryo set, and one surprise natural conception).  We are proceeding towards a transfer in June and will use the older set first.  Whew!


7.  I guess I don't technically have seven quick takes.  However, all my bullet points have to count for something, right?

 

 

 



Urgent Prayer Request - EDITED

 

The news blurb from Wyoming Catholic College's facebook page: 

 

 

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Two young daughters of one of our professors, Dr. Sean Lewis, were in a devastating car accident this morning. One daughter, age 3, is being Life Flighted to Salt Lake City at this time, and the other, age 6, is to follow as soon as possible. Dr. Lewis and his wife, Becca, have asked us to besiege Heaven on their daughters' behalf, particularly asking for the intercession of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

 

 

 

 

Sean is a college friend of mine.  His wife, Becca, graduated a few years  after us.  I have received word that the whole family is now in Salt Lake City together.  (They have one more daughter who was not in the car at the time,)

 

Here is local news coverage of the accident.  As if the accident wasn't terrifying enough, the original coverage reported that the girls had perished in the accident.  This information has been corrected since the first report. 

 

Please pray for health, peace, and comfort.  And that God guides, not just the Lewis family, but their medical caregivers too.



EDIT - I found out late this afternoon that both girls went to their Heavenly home today.  I am so unbelievably sad for this family.  Please remember Sean, Becca, and Vivian as they grieve the loss of Emma and Olivia.

 

 

Unseen debris

CRACK!  Eyes whip up from reading today's Gospel passage.  Road swerves wildly.  Husband fights van for control.  Not the road swerving. It's us.  Cement barrier zips closer and closer and then it's gone. Spin. Spin. Time slows unbelievably.  White knuckles clutch the steering wheel.  Acrid burning rubber wafts through closed window.  Dear God, don't let us crash.  Don't let us be hit.  Spin.  Cars coming.  Dear God.  Full stop.  Perpendicular. Three lanes over.  Semi coming.  Bryan, move the car!  Dear God, don't let us crash!  Car moves, inches across one more lane.  Reach the shoulder. Breath comes in gasps.  Mac cries, scared, not hurt.  Cora laughs.  Silly child. And then we breathe.  Thank you, God.  Thank You!

Morning wake up

Little voices pierce through the closed door and drift down the hallway.  The finer points of life are being discussed, like how to avoid getting dog hair in one's bottom.  They burst through their door, triumphant in their success of fully dressing themselves.  Excitement is palpable as they remember a long awaited outing is here.  Momma, we have zero days until the truck park!  And we three settle comfortably on the couch for our customary pre-breakfast snack (bananas and a cup of milk) while viewing our morning shows.

7 Quick Takes - A Day Late

I figured I'd jump on this bandwagon too.  Whatever gets me writing, right?  Please forgive the fact that the link is for Friday and today is Saturday.  We can just overlook that minor detail.  ;-)

1.  The Moms' Group I coordinate has infrequent Sunday evening potlucks.  We all like them, it just seems to take a lot of effort to coordinate and host one.  And then the majority of us are married to either military or military support which means there are always some husbands traveling.  I miss our whole family gatherings and have been scheming up a plan for the next one.  Right now it looks like it might be a potluck-eating-Frozen-watching (kids) - pajama wearing (kids again) - board-game (parents) evening.  I'm trying to decide if I'm biting off too much or if it will work.

2.  The rocker/glider in my bedroom is normally covered in clean clothes waiting to be returned to closets and dressers.  [real world confession]  I've been a little more on top of the laundry lately which means the rocker can be used again.  By Mac.  I've caught him numerous times rocking the baby dolls and singing them lullabys.  Lullabyes?  I'm not actually sure how to make that plural.  My heart swoons a little.  How can it not when a big clunky three year old boy cradles babies and sings to them when he thinks no one is looking?

3.  Cora has been perfecting her signature.  Currently it's capital c, capital o, capital r, lower case a  except she has a non-traditional way of writing her R - a high circle with two lines coming down from it to form the R legs.  I haven't really worked on penmanship at all with them, so it's interesting to see the natural evolution of letter formation.

4.  Our home parish is about a 25 minute drive away on weekdays.  The kids and I just can't make Holy Day services there so we go to a closer parish that has better times.  The kids behaved surprisingly well at the Ash Wednesday Mass.  After Mass, an old man stopped me on the way out  and said "You should write a book."  "Oh?" was my puzzled response.  "Yes," he responded, "you should write about how to get children to behave in church."  I smiled, blushed, and thanked him.  "Today was just a good day for us."  And that's the truth.  In all my infinite wisdom, I have learned that child behavior in Mass is somewhat the luck of the draw.  And that kindly old man had luckily not observed the days when a certain young female acts demon possessed and stops the homily with her foul behavior.  Still, it felt nice to get a compliment.

5.  I don't often talk about the dog.  Figured it was time to mention him a bit.  Hank, the Great Dane, is a stereotypical Dane.  He's fairly gentle, though clumsy, and loves kids and people-food.  The latter can be problematic.  Several times after clearing plates down the disposal, I've caught the dog with his front paws on the counter, staring forlornly down the drain.  Guess he would prefer all food scraps went into his bowl, rather than the garbage disposal. 

6.  Changing gears back to embryo adoption.  The agency decided to pursue matching us with two smaller sets of embryos (each family has two embryos for a total of four, or enough for two transfers), so our profile is out to both families now.  Matching with two families simultaneously is harder to coordinate.  We'll just have to see how things play out!

7.  I really loved today's Lenten reflection from flocknote, especially as we continue this very long journey towards growing our family again.

Excerpt from the Diary of St. Faustina:

Although it seems to me that You do not hear me, I put my trust in the ocean of Your mercy, and I know that my hope will not be deceived (Diary - 69).
 

Meditation:

My Jesus, when I repeatedly ask You for something and I get no reply and nothing seems to change in my life, I fear that You are not there. I grow discouraged and I feel alone. Help me to trust in You in the midst of the darkness. Teach me how to walk by faith and not by sight. I place my hope in You, and I believe that Your love and mercy are as deep as the ocean. There is nothing that is beyond Your power. Strengthen my faith, O Lord!

- Fr. Joseph Roesch, MIC

Mini Matching Update

Many many emails have been exchanged between Snowflakes and us these past few days.

The matching coordinator sent us four potential matching scenarios (one individual family and three combination possibilities) that met both the clinic's preferences and our initial criteria (vitrified blasts from 2007 or more recent).  We saw no need to eliminate any of those possibilities and let the matching coordinator figure out which route she wanted to try first.  (Two of the embryo sets had issues in familial health backgrounds, hence one of the reasons she wanted our general approval...)

There was a certain relief in letting the matching coordinator chose the starting point for us.  We felt ourselves tempted towards that slippery slope of objectifying the embryos, based on their on-paper desirability.  And we didn't want to get caught up in treating them merely like commodities. 

The single family turned us down.  Though I don't know the exact reason, I do know they had preferred an adoptive family with zero children. 

It's challenging for the matching supervisor to coordinate a match with two donating genetic families at once (two smaller sets of embryos from completely separate families).  In an effort to make things easier on all of us, I asked her to look and see if there are any waiting embryos sets that are slow-freeze blasts, instead of vitrified.  And that's where we are now - waiting for her answer.

I trust we will, one day, find the right match for us.  I am so thankful the matching coordinator doesn't mind my flurry of emails and is generally prompt in her replies!