A Thread Unbroken

I had the opportunity to review A Thread Unbroken, by Kay Bratt.  I have read Kay's memoir, Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage, and I was interested to see how her writing crossed over to fiction.  Wow.  She's got it.

Without giving the plot away, this is a story of courage and loyalty.  You root for the good guys and are angry at the injustices of the world.  The reading level was fairly basic, and I was thinking this might be a story my 12 year old daughter would enjoy reading (the main characters are just a little older than her), until I got to one graphic scene, which changed my mind about that.

As someone who has been to China, I appreciated the sprinkling of Mandarin phrases throughout the book.  Kay understands Chinese culture from having lived in China for more than 4 years, and makes it accessible to the rest of us in her descriptive and empathetic writing.  Still, one can't help but be horrified at one of the sad issues revealed within this book's pages.  It's a good reminder that our version of normal is not the reality for millions of people around the world.

A Thread Unbroken was a quick read that took me 3 days to complete.  This would be a perfect book to take on the plane for an adoption trip.  It is a "happily ever after" book in the end, although you spend the middle of the book wondering how on earth it will all work out well.

For more about the author, click here.

For more Heroines With Heart book reviews, check out these other blogs:  

Weekly Katie pic and adoption non-update

Still waiting to hear a Log In Date or LID.  I am learning to celebrate the little things.  Like our DTC packet arriving from our agency.  Words like "YOUR TRIP TO CHINA" leap off the page at me and make me smile.  And knowing that every day we're one day closer to Katie helps, too.

We have been so blessed to have others come along side us in the financial aspect of our journey. When I get discouraged to see our RR account balance not changing, God uses people who give in other ways to remind me that He's got this. We've recently been given gifts from 4 different people, that have really encouraged me.  If you feel led to give, THANK YOU!

Also, please remember that we are the January family at Worthy of the Prize.  If you purchase a wristband or a necklace from CAP CREATIONS, our family receives a portion.  And if you do any shopping at Amazon.com, please use our LINK.  We get a little kickback from that, too.  Thanks!

Based on hair length, I think this is the most recent picture of Katie we currently have.  I'm happy to see her sitting outside in the grass.  Hannah acted like she'd never been exposed to grass the first time I sat her on it at the park.  I'm anxious to see if they let her hair continue to grow, or if they've cut it by the time we get updated pictures (hopefully next month).  

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Do you like to take pictures of your children?

What a neat opportunity!  

Would you like to learn how to take better pictures of your kids?  

Do you want to understand your camera better?  

Please check out this WORKSHOP offered by Nicole of Nicole Renee Newborns.

If you book a workshop using our family code:  BLESSED, we receive a donation toward our adoption fees.  

If you have friends who like to take pictures of their kids, PLEASE share this with them!  

Thank you!

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More Sewing

I've found myself in the sewing room more often lately. This is, my friends, A Good Thing. There is something so satisfying about creating something with my own hands. Being able to look at something and say, "I made this." Doing something that doesn't immediately get UN-done by all the other people who live here with me.

It's not that I'm making anything particularly amazing, either. Mostly, I've been making simple peasant tops for Katie. But it's nice to be able to MAKE her clothes instead of having to buy everything when every penny to spare needs to be going toward the adoption costs.

I made the top to go with the shorts that I bought on clearance.

It makes me feel good to be USING UP some of the embarrassing amount of fabric stash I have in the sewing room. Honestly, I wish I could sew about half of it up. The sewing room would function so much better without as much STUFF in it.

Remember how I mentioned that Hannah's prosthetic leg chews up her pants? Her prosthetist actually said the jeans she had on last time we were there were the worst he'd seen. Now, every mother likes their kid to excel, but she'd only worn them 4 times! It was that bad. Seriously, clothing issues has been the biggest "difficulty" of Hannah's special need on a day to day basis. And clothing issues are doable. Not fun, kind of frustrating sometimes, but totally doable.

At any rate, I decided to turn the pants into shorts and put them away until summer.

And I also decided to use one of the cut off legs to make Wawa (Hannah's doll) a skirt. See, there are some parts of adoptive parenting that are Different. You have to think about their origin as you make choices about how to parent them. Other times, it's exactly the same. And when my big girls were about to be displaced from the Throne of Babyhood by a younger sibling, we played up DOLLS and babies a lot. Granted, Annaliese was 2 and Brianna only 18 months when they had to surrender their crowns, but Hannah's family age is 2 years, so it still seems appropriate to me.

Hannah's birthday comes about a month before we'll be going to China for Katie. I'm planning to give her a doll cradle and make her some doll clothes, blankets, etc. so she can practice mothering, too. Brianna has made a doll sized pillow already.

So Wawa and her other babies will periodically disappear into the sewing room for fittings and by the time her birthday comes, I hope to have a nice little pile of sewn things for her/them.

Portable comfort blankies/security objects.

Unlike "real" Taggies, these are flannel on one side and Minkee on the other side.

I was planning to put them into my Your Adopt Shop to sell, but I'm having technical difficulties with the shop right now.  Email me at grtlyblesd@aol.com if you're interested in purchasing a snuggle blankie or other custom sewing.

One nice benefit of spending more time in the sewing room is that it gives me something relaxing and enjoyable to DO while I'm waiting. I find if I spend too much time online, I get caught up in the "when is the next step going to happen?" frenzy and stress myself out. If I can focus instead on making cute clothes for the little ones, I'll be more pleasant to be around, we'll save money, and the wait will not seem so horrible after all.




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Linking to a Valentine giveaway

A couple months ago, a blog I follow gave away a t-shirt to the first person to identify the messy substance on a cute picture of their son.

I saw it and thought, "That looks like cream cheese."  Turns out, it was.  I'm now the proud owner of a lovely pink "Got love? Adopt" shirt.

They're doing another giveaway for Valentine's day.  And they have lots of cute stuff in their Got Love? shop.  Check it out here:  http://minus1project.blogspot.com/2013/01/st-valentine-give-away.html




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Homeschool Weekly Wrap Up - Kenya week 3

It was really hard to get back into the school routine after 2 weeks off for Christmas break!  We're still not functioning at top homeschool speed, but we did manage to get through the entire spelling week for all 3 students, which is a challenge at the best of times, so I feel somewhat accomplished.

Kenya is one of our Little Passports countries.  

The kids wish that EVERY country was a Little Passports country.  

The "treat" included in this package was a notepad.  Which is not very special at first glance, but I'd have to say this has been a popular one after all.  This paper is made from ELEPHANT POOP.

They had a great time handing it to the teens when they got home from school and then telling them what it was.  

This week we made clay safari animals.

This is Jack's, um, rhino? hippo?  I honestly can't remember.

He took the picture himself.  

Not sure why they pouty face, Eli was pretty happy with his lion.

The clay was a Christmas gift from grandparents, and ALL the kids enjoyed creating with it.  

This is Annaliese's elephant.

And the rear view.

Samuel had a silver anteater going.

Making our Africa collage on the inside of a grocery bag.

And the finished product.  Now I know why the teacher's guide says to collect magazines and photo-heavy junk mail.  World Vision and Voice of the Martyrs publications have been helpful for this one.

Shhh!  Don't look now, but Brianna is helping Sam with a cooking homework assignment, and they appear to be getting along for the moment.

Back away slowly.

Eli is writing Brianna's spelling words on her back, and she's guessing them.

Hannah is off track until February, so she's been spending a lot of time playing with her new Christmas presents.  She has a great imagination, and it's pretty funny to hear her chattering away in her room while we're doing schoolwork.  

What's this?  The flag of PERU??  In Kenya week?

Well, if you remember the single-origin chocolates I picked up from Trader Joe's before Christmas, it makes a little more sense.  I printed the kids packets to learn about the various countries represented. They finally got tired of waiting for to eat the chocolate and asked if they could start without me! 

So I let them do the Peru pages and eat the Peru chocolate.  It was a hit.  I imagine they'll be working on Ecuador soon.  

Have I mentioned that I really like our Spelling Curriculum?

We've made our words out of Cheez-its crackers, letter tiles, and Wikki Stix.
We've drawn them on siblings, written them in sidewalk chalk, typed them on the computer, written them on white boards, and made them into crosswords.  It sure beats the "write your spelling words in a sentence" every single week that I grew up with.

Next week, we're on to Saudi Arabia!
We may take a little detour into Qatar, as Zachary has been there, and we think Zach is pretty cool.
I wish there had been more than ONE African country represented, but I know we'll get plenty of Egypt next year when we do Creation to the Greeks.

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Chinese New Year

We just took down our Christmas trees.  It must be time to look forward to the next holiday, right?  For many families, that's Valentine's Day, but for us, the next holiday is Chinese New Year.

I knew we were getting close when I got an email from sanrio.com with a link to this:  Hello Kitty red envelopes and more.  Cute stuff.

Another email came from Panda Express:  where you can sign up for their Year of the Snake educational materials.

Finally, Oriental Trading Co. came out with a catalog featuring all their CNY "stuff."

Our family will be sending Katie a Chinese New Year care package, through one of the services that has sprung up to help adoptive parents connect with their waiting children.  We will learn about CNY and celebrate our child who was born in Year Of The Snake (I keep typing "Snack" lol.  Freudian slip, much?).  We will, of course, eat Chinese food.  I'll probably dress Hannah in her silks and take pictures.

I'm curious how other families who choose to celebrate CNY do so.  Leave me a comment and let me know if you acknowledge the holiday or not, and what that looks like for your family.  Also, LMK if you have any favorite children's books about Chinese New Year.




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This week's baby Katie picture

I think I missed a week in the holiday craziness, so I'll post TWO this week.

This picture is the other one from the volunteers referenced in a previous post.  The lady holding Katie is a nursing student.

 And this one is from when my agency was there in May of last year.  I can't wait to stroke those sweet cheekies and get to know her personality!

I've been tracking our dossier on the DHL website, and it made it to Hong Kong, so it should be delivered in Beijing in another day or two.

Something I read recently reminded me that I can celebrate every day during this awful waiting time because each day we are one day closer to getting to Katie than we were the day before.  That is so encouraging to me.  God knows how long our wait is going to be, and however long that is, today, it's one day less than it was yesterday.






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Somewhere Between

It's coming out on DVD soon!  

Paul and I had a chance to go see this while my carpool kid from Zach's days at BCS was home from college for the holidays.  He babysat the clan for us while we went out on the town.

The movie highlights 4 teens adopted from China, being raised in various parts of the US.  One of the girls found her birth family on a return trip to China, which, of course was fascinating to watch.  I think we will see more birth family reunions as Chinese adoptees come of age.

It was also neat to watch some of the opportunities the girls had.  They talked to adoptive parents in Spain, fellow adoptees in England, and adoptees from Korea who do not support international adoption.  

Paul and I both enjoyed the movie, and it was thought provoking and discussion inspiring.  It made me miss China!  We went for Chinese food after the movie and had plenty to talk about.  I would suggest that all parents with internationally and/or transracially adopted kids see it.  

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Most excellent adoption news

Six months, 2 weeks, and 1 day from the day Paul looked across the table over fish and chips and said to me that fateful word:  YES.  Today marks the biggest milestone since that day:  DTC, or Dossier To China.  All the paperwork we've been compiling is finally on it's way.

Realistically, it's about the half way point, time wise.  Emotionally, this is huge.  From here on out, it's just a matter of time, money, and a few more pieces of paper back and forth from both China and immigration.  The next thing to happen is we should receive a Log In Date.  This is when China says they've received it and put it in line to process.  This generally happens in about a week.

This is it!  I'm so excited!  I can RELAX, knowing that there's nothing I can do until we receive our LOA from China.  That's taking a couple of months these days, so I am telling myself not to even think about it until after Valentine's Day.  (We'll see how long that lasts, lol!)

Celebrating!




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I guess it's back to the grindstone

The thing about homeschooling is, you're always learning, even when it's not a school day.

Over Christmas break, we've been learning how to care for turtles, 

thanks to Sheldon, one of Annaliese's Christmas gifts.

(Isn't he the cutest thing??  I'm smitten.)

And we added to our collection of Wedgits this Christmas.

When Zulily had them on sale, I couldn't resist.  I picked up a pair of Building Boards and a purple starter kit to go with the primary ones we already had.

Brianna discovered a way to make structures that stick together.

Math skills, right?  Problem solving?  

I had high hopes of things I wanted to accomplish while we were "on break."  

But we didn't.

And that's okay, too, I guess.

The kids had fun playing together, and that's what counts.  

I leave you with this poem I was thinking of last night as I contemplated the return to homeschool today:  

I will not yell in class.

I will not throw things.

I will not get mad.

I will always be good

Because I am the teacher ...

I am the teacher ...

I am the teacher.

                                   --Author Unknown

From the Sewing Room

A friend asked me to sew costumes for a play her girls are in.  

The only 8 year old body in my house is a BOY, so he was not delighted to model for me, lol.  

Not pictured are a brown skirt and another apron.

Brianna recently finished a quilt.  She hasn't decided yet if it's going to be for Katie or for Project Linus.  I used to make blankets for them every year, but I just don't sew as much any more.

Hannah had pajama day at school recently.  

Like any good Sewing Mama, I whipped these up the night before.  Felt strange to get her up and tell her to change from pajamas... into pajamas.  

Hannah has probably a dozen of these little peasant tops I've made her in size 4, some, from before we even got her.  This is a size 2, for Katie.  I have a feeling it will be the first of many, too.  

I order my kids' jeans online from Old Navy.  I had a $5 "reward" to spend recently and found these cute little ruffle butt leggings for $3, so they were essentially free when I was ordering other stuff.  Once they arrived, I took them into my sewing room to find a print with that shade of turquoise in it.  I happened across this print that my friend Suzanne had given to Annaliese years ago.  It was perfect.  

Bloomers I bought on clearance, and another peasant top.  I may may a little white eyelet sundress to go with these bloomers, too.  The top seems a little bright to me.  

And yes, another peasant top.  I'm more about production than variety, I guess.  

When I saw this Ruffle Butt diaper cover on Zulily in China flag colors, I had to have it.  Unfortunately, Katie had nothing to wear with it.  I kept thinking I'd find some cute little t-shirt to go with it, but since that hasn't happened, I pulled out some old striped PRR fabric and made this instead.  

I was recently searching the sewing room for some PUL for a friend.  I didn't end up finding any, but I did find some Valentine knit that inspired me for Hannah, and something cute for Katie, so hopefully I'll have a chance to get those things cut out soon.  It feels good to be sewing again after such a long break.  I used to make the vast majority of the kids' clothes, and I do love seeing things I made in the laundry.  

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