Friday Flotsam: 2012.10.26ish

I'm seriously thinking about giving up on Friday Flotsam. It's not that I don't want to do it. It's just that by the end of the week I'm busy catching up on all the things that I didn't get done during the week.

So...you have Friday Flotsam on a Monday afternoon. Wednesday night Friday Monday morning. I know you understand. But for the Type-A person I am, this just won't do.

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Two weekends ago (since I'm weeks behind here) we headed out in 50-degree weather, braving the downpour and strong winds to watch The Man race mountain bikes. Little Man and I bundled up, put on our rain gear and had a ball stomping in puddles and playing in the rain.

But it got cold and so we decided to warm up in the car. I've always been paranoid about starting the car with him in it, worried that the inevitable "doors locked with baby inside" combination would happen. But we were freezing...so I started the car and rolled down the window while I tried to break down our stroller. I let the wild man rove unbelted because we were going to be hanging in the car for quite a while.

Once I was done, I rolled the window up and realized I had left something in the stroller. I reached for it and---the car door closed. And guess what?

It was locked.

So now, I have energy boy bouncing around in a running vehicle, while we are out in the woods and far away from any help.

Crap.

I quickly remembered we had a hide-a-key and had a sigh of relief to know the crisis was averted.

Except the hide-a-key evidently fell off at some point.

Now I was starting to panic. Little Man though, thought this was great fun, jumping around in the car while Mommy stood in the rain.

Going for broke, I thought I'd try one last thing. I called to Little Man and pointed frantically at the window buttons on the door. He hesitantly stepped into the front seat and looked at me inquisitively. Then he began raiding the bag full of lunch snacks that was sitting on the passenger side. I kept knocking and pointing. He gave me a sly smile and touched the controls. I jumped up and down and clapped, cheering for him. So he did it again. The window cracked an 1/8". More cheering and jumping. And he repeated the action.

A few seconds later the window was open enough that I could get into the car.

Whew!

The car now has a new hide-a-key. And Little Man knows how to open the windows.

So, win-win, right?

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Just downloaded the CharityMiles app on my iPhone. Have any of you used this? Corporate sponsors donate $.25/mile for walking or running and $.10/mile for biking to a charity of choice. Yay! Now I can get sweaty and do some philanthropy at the same time.

A great story about an U.S.-born Korean woman who returns to the land of her mother's roots, and her journey through the culture and their food. Good story (so far...still trying to finish it).

We are trying THIS GAK RECIPE this weekend. Looks like sticky fun!

The art of mothering....

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{image by limaoscarjuliet}

 

 

“The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.”  

 

 ― Elaine Heffner

Bumper sticker wisdom

I noticed this awesome bumper sticker today on the back of a mini van.

Love that. And love this quote about building strong children too:

Why stop when you have a good thing going?

Clearly a very cool mama drives this mini van. 

Or at least someone with good taste in bumper stickers.

(The other stickers are for SKIN, a tattoo and body piercing salon, 

and The Delta Routine, a punk band out of Milwaukee. 

Oh yeah, and the I (heart) Wisconsin cow sticker. A classic. You can 

learn a lot about a person from their bumper!)

Quotes from smart people - Helen Keller

© Cheese Curds and Kimchi

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."   

---Helen Keller

When I was a kid, I loved books about Annie Oakley and Trixie Belden. (For the record, I tried Nancy Drew, but she seemed a bit uptight. Trixie was much more similar to my tomboyish style.)

There was something about these outgoing girls that drew me in and I spent many a night with a flashlight under the sheets, reading about their adventures.

But as much as I adored the fantasy world of Trixie and the butt-kickin' ways of Annie, the woman who really captivated my imagination was Helen Keller.

It was Helen's tenacity that I adored. I marveled how she struggled to conquer the life she was given, when others had written off her life as worthless. She dared to want a life for herself that was more than others could envision.

Keller's fight was to live the best life she could. She knew the realities of her situation, and while she was likely haunted by "why me" at times, she seemed to have moved past that. She found a way to create a rich and full life despite the fact that she wasn't equipped the same as other people were.

When I came across this quote by Keller recently, I was reminded again of the power of her story--perhaps the suffering she refers to may be the loss of hearing and sight, but the lessons can be applied to the suffering of infertility and the journey to parenthood as well.

I wonder if we were in her position, how many of us would have become overwhelmed with the "why me"? Would we become trapped by that question, living our lives in despair and hopelessness, always allowing the "inequities" to keep us from having the lives we wanted?

For all those people I've met on this adoption journey, I think the answer would be 'no'. She was a fighter, and we are too. We are trying to live our lives as mothers/parents, despite the challenges that may be in our way. Whether the difficulties are infertility or adoption-related, we are forging forward, finding a way to create our families.

So what I take away from this quote...there are inequities, or suffering in life. The key to moving forward is to take one step at a time. Find the fortitude to move forward when you are consumed with unanswerable questions. Keep moving. And recognize that suffering and pain is all part of any journey that is worth taking.

Yep, Helen Keller still inspires me, after all these years.

Adoption poetry: Half a World Away

Photo by dmac1969

Half A World Away

By Jill Marshall-Work

Half a world away Sometimes it seems we're so far apart But a half a world away Is not too far for a journey of the heart My little one, my precious joy I'm waiting for you My precious son, my little boy I know you're waiting too Half a world away A child waits for a family of his own While a half a world away A family waits to come bring him home My little one, my precious joy I'm whispering a prayer My precious son, my baby boy I hope to soon be there Half a world away So many miles to bring you home at last And half a world away So many months of waiting are past. My little one, my precious joy You're fin'ly home to stay My precious son, my little boy We celebrate this day... Knowing we will no longer be half a world away. Copyright words and music 1999 Jill Marshall-Work

Jill Marshall-Work is an adoptive mom of two children. She wrote this poem as she waited to bring home her son Quinn, then 33-months-old, from Can Tho, Vietnam.

Ponder this

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."---Lao Tzu

A kind of famous quote in adoption circles. Seems like ages ago that we finally made the decision to do this, but it's only been about four months. The time passes so slowly! At times it does feel like we are going to walk the entire thousand miles....I know we are moving forward though, and that's something to cling to.

  

Adoption slogans

Found this sweet quote and wanted to share it. Klose adopted a child from Russia, and documents his experiences in the book Adopting Alyosha: A Single Man Finds a Son in Russia.

"I realized at the start that whether a child is biological or adopted, one does not know all the ingredients in the package. That is what growth is all about. A child is the slowest flower in the world, opening petal by petal, revealing the developing personality within."   -Robert Klose

A motto for parents

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."

  Frederick Douglass

Ponder this

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, 

while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” 

Lao Tzu, Father of Taoism

Yes! I completely agree. Scott's love definitely gives me strength to go through this entire adoption process. And my love for Seoul Baby gives me courage every day to answer the uncomfortable questions, make the difficult decisions, and confront my fears.

Mr. Tzu is a smart guy! What do you think?

Please discuss.