Wordless Wednesday (Thursday 7/15 in Ethiopia)

Reportedly

For better or for worse, when you adopt you can never forget about it, because before you could possibly have a chance, some other piece of paperwork will be due.

Tonight I am filling in little boxes and blanks from our adoption agency to complete our annual report to Ethiopia. We have to send this until AJ is 15 years old. Supposedly this helps reassure Ethiopia that her children are doing well and adoption remains a good thing for them. I am not sure how well that is working since Ethiopia recently became a two-trip adoption country. Ugh. That about wipes out the newly refundable adoption tax credit.

Oh well. I don’t mind remembering that happy day three years ago.

Wordless Wednesday: Whine

Lists and Links

• The great hand pin removal (see below) – still feelin’ good.
• Dumped a bunch of money into our truck – didn’t feel so good.
• Truck, water heater, car, and dryer all required some sort of repair in a 10-day span. What property of the universe causes this phenomenon?
• Maybe this is Why I’ll Never Be an Adult. (At work we editors especially like this post, Alot.)
• All the unemployed fresh seminary graduates are getting edgy and freaking out at the prospect of being both unemployed and homeless in a couple weeks. Churches, get your decisions on! Or don’t, so we can keep them. . . . It stinks, I tell ya. Why did we ever make friends with seniors?
• We went camping last week. It was our first time in years and AJ’s first time. She loved it–hot dogs, sleeping in the tent, the beach, hanging out with our friends who live up north, and her first movie at a theater, one of my favorite places, the Cherry Bowl Drive-In!
• We did not go see any fireworks because we didn’t realize they were on the 3rd rather than the 4th. I’d forgotten that the freedom of religion shalt not be celebrated on the majority religion’s Sabbath. (My brother: “Did George Washington die that you may sin all the more?! No!”)
• The trailer for the next film in the Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia series is out: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
• Warren Buffet shows us how to fit a camel through the eye of a needle: “My Philanthropic Pledge.”

Wordless Wednesday: Best Family Photo Ever

(Because a photo this great deserves its own post.)

Once Upon an Oregon

I know some of you want to hear about our trip to Oregon, and really, I’d like to look back on it too, if I can stop having things break (see: truck, hot water heater, and clothes dryer!) long enough to stay in a normal life groove. But I’ll give you some tidbits and tantalize you with a photo or two. But despite all the things I should be doing, here is a long and photo-heavy recap. Persevere to the end for the BEST FAMILY PHOTO EVER.

AJ was a travel rock star. On the way out she started getting grouchy on the second flight, then promptly feel asleep. On the way home we took the red-eye, which means changing planes at some pre-dawn hour you can’t even identify because you don’t know what time zone you’re in, and it wasn’t until the very end that she was ready to fall apart and melt down. But weren’t we all?

Our friends A&L arranged for us to rent the house right next door to them, which was awesome because we had plenty of space to spread our junk around and hang out in. Plus we could walk over there when we couldn’t find a bottle opener. Our rental car was a sweet Subaru sedan which was practically brand new before my parking skills got ahold of it (uh, oops). AJ called these things “our new house” and “our new car.”

Aaron got to see some of the high schoolers and recent grads he was close to when he youth pastored there. We also happened to be there for graduation, aka the whole small town’s family reunion. And I am a sucker for a small town graduation.

We were able to be at our old church two Sundays–once like weepy returning champions, once like a normal part of the family again. A hint of heaven. (Possibly more on this another time, if anyone is still up for a LOST analogy…)

When the weather was good (it was kind of 50-50), we went to the beach and let AJ see if she dared touch a wave and throw rocks into a creek until she practically built a dam. She would have happily done this all day.

We also went to the aquarium to see and touch fishy things and tidepooling to see and touch more.

We drove along the rocky cliffs and hiked to my favorite lighthouse. We took in the view that never, ever gets old.

I drove until she slept, and then I stopped for photos.

We hugged trees.

We rocked.

We rode a sweet tractor.

We ate a lot. Duh.

We acted natural.

We impersonated Lewis & Clark.

We hunted wild game.

And we took the BEST FAMILY PHOTO EVER.

No, not that one.

No, not that one either.

THIS ONE!

Vacation is ending? Aaaaaaaaagh!

Wordless Wednesday: Sand Skippin’

Pin the Tail on the Hand

We are back from Oregon, and I’ll get to pictures and tales as soon as I can, but first I must show you the thing which did its best to ruin Aaron’s trip: his hand doctor’s little game of Pin the Pin on the Guy’s Hand but Leave a Whole Lot Sticking Out. Wanna see? (Too late.)

Ouch! This is his hand about a day after we got to Oregon. We’re not sure if it was because of swelling going down, or something to do with pressure on the plane, or the sadistic airport security guard who grabbed Aaron’s hand and squeezed, but this pin was sticking out about a half inch by then. Of course this made it really easy to bump, and because it was way down in there, his hand hurt like heck anytime he bumped it or moved wrong. So I had to help him put several layers of gauze pads around the pin and then get his splint back on, plus things like getting his sweatshirt on and off without pulling on it. Fortunately it did start to feel better later in the week.

We got home Monday and he was able to get in to see the hand doctor Wednesday afternoon. He claimed it hadn’t moved that much but the nurse said when she pulled it that it was one of the loosest pins she’d ever pulled–i.e., it was wiggling all over poking his poor hand insides way more than it should have been. And guess what? As soon as the awful pulling was done, GLORY HALLELUJAH, he felt 95% less pain! He put his splint on by himself and it didn’t even hurt. But now he can leave his splint off more and start moving his hand more.

Dare ye look? (Too late again.)

He is now ready to assemble some Ikea furniture.

I can’t believe they made him keep that in/sticking out of him that long. Funny thing is, it’s not even the weirdest thing in him. (I’d say that’s his ticking heart. Or his sense of humor.)

Now may his scaphoid stay strong!

Going…

We’re going to Oregon.

I guess I should pack. Yikes!

Smallport, here we come!

Hand Surgery Report

Aaron’s wrist surgery went fine. They were saying it could be a 3- or 4-hour surgery if they had to go in on the underside and then also the top of the wrist, but it ended up being the 1 1/2-hour, one-side version, so I guess that’s good. We hope and pray that the screw plus scar tissue hold the wrist stable for ever and ever amen so he never has to go through this again.

The pain has been bad at times, but overall it’s getting more manageable as the swelling goes down and when the Vicodin levels are right. But he doesn’t like its side effects so we hope he won’t need it all the time for long.

AJ got some extra time with me yesterday since I’ve been home and trying to keep her out of Aaron’s space. An extra fake Saturday was probably good since she’s been hungry for mommy time since I went back to work, I think. We made waffles and cut fruit and made a second attempt to get all the sand she dumped on her head Monday at daycare out of her hair (so imbedded! Thinking of sending a swim cap on potential sandbox days.). But I’ve gotten almost no work done at home and this evening we have a wedding to attend–AJ has been asking to put on her dress since yesterday–but before the reception we are shipping her to Grandma and Papa’s for the night. Maybe that will help me get/feel caught up and rested. It won’t last long, of course, because you know I’m going to stay up hours past bedtime for the LOST finale extravaganza shenanigans Sunday. I.CAN.NOT.WAIT.ANY.LONGER!

Time to go get unschlumpadinkaed in honor of the lovebirds K and E!

« Previous Page — Next Page »