The Good Life

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I wanted to share some things my little friend has prayed for each night over the past few weeks.

  • Lord thank you for letting me laugh
  • I hope the tea party comes soon
  • Thanks for letting me see Miss Rainey's boyfriend (referring to a young man from Wilshire who is about ten years younger than myself who leads singing whom she loudly proclaims for some reason or another is my boyfriend each time he's at the podium)
  • Thanks for letting me spend the night at Mrs. Wells' house
  • Thanks for letting me see "my baby" (Mrs. Wells' son)
  • Thanks for letting me stay at Miss Rainey's house
  • Help me to go home soon
  • Help my brother to act right and quit getting in trouble at school
  • Help that noisy little girl outside to go to bed so I can fall asleep
  • Thank you for this great day we had
  • Thanks for letting us have fun

There are many more I wish I remembered because they were so innocent, sweet, and funny but I can't remember them right now. Hopefully some of them will come back to me in the future.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Mike McDonald Fun Run and Tea Party Pics










Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Tea Party and More Mommy Pics

This Saturday has the potential to be the most exciting secular event in which I've ever participated. Kealani is hosting a "Tea Party" at our house. We are dressing up complete with fancy hats (Thank You Dillard's!). We will be having cold and hot teas with coffee cake, cookies, deviled eggs, chicken salad, croissants, fruits and veggies with dips, and most of all...tons of fun! Many of the staff from school are coming including a teacher, two paraprofessionals, the director, the librarian, and possibly the principal.


Every couple of hours Kealani asks me if it is the tea party day yet. Sometimes she remembers what day it currently is and what day the tea party is taking place and deducts how many days are left. Other times she is so overcome with excitement (which is indeed contagious) that she wonders if we are about ready to start at that very moment. We will have some quality time together Friday in preparation doing things like fixing her hair (I'm getting better and faster at this each time - see below), shopping for the groceries necessary to fix the goodies, and actually preparing the dishes. I am also going to prepare some fun games for us all to play.


I will definitely be posting about the tea party in the near future. There will be lots of pics for sure! Also, anybody who is interested can check out all my pictures from New York City on my Facebook account. That already seems like ten lifetimes ago. Time flies when you're having fun!
I can't get any pictures to post so I'll have to try again next time.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Love

Over the last two weeks I have learned a lot more about love. Here are some things I have learned.
  • Even if you can't imagine it possible, you can love someone enough to clip their toenails.
  • Cleaning up any mess you couldn't stomach thinking could happen in your home is easy and far from an imposition when you love someone.
  • You don't mind not sleeping in when you love someone who is scared when they are awake and you are asleep.
  • When someone you love wants something, you want it for them too.
  • When you love someone your feelings don't get easily hurt by what they say or don't say.
  • Your patience grows exponentially when you love someone.
  • Your wants and wishes become secondary to those of the person you love.
  • You start to appreciate the sacrifices others have made for you in life a lot more when it is your turn to make those sacrifices.
  • God's love for me is even more unfathomable than I previously thought.
  • God's love is the number one thing you want to share with someone you love...even if they don't want to hear it.
  • When they don't want to hear it, it is even more important to make sure they can see it in you.

I hope that all those reading this can experience the joy, elation, and fulfillment that parenthood has to offer...even if for a very brief time like myself. It will definitely make you a better person if you allow it to do so!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Mom Part 2

We had a great Easter weekend. Here are some pics to show some of the highlights. I'm learning how to fix her hair...slowly. :)



Cooking Spaghetti


Easter Eggs



Easter Clothes


Fixing each other's hair

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Mom

I have been called mom, mommy, or mama a hundred times in the last week. None of them by my new foster child who cannot break the habit of calling me Miss Rainey. I wouldn't know what in the world she would call me besides Miss Rainey so that's fine with me.

Foster motherhood has been a HUGE adventure already in its early stages. So far in the last twenty seven hours or so we have shopped for groceries (much harder to do with a small child asking for everything she sees) and clothes shopping (much harder with a small child asking for everything she sees). Checking out with the groceries and food was hilarious when my foster daughter told/asked the cashier, "Do you know I live with a teacher?!? And don't even think about smoking in front of a say-anything-she-pleases seven year old child. When running an errand today she saw someone smoking, looked her square in the eye, and said, "SICK!"

Don't even think you can imagine how my perspective has changed towards the mothers of my students at school. It is all I can do to get the child fed, clothed, bathed, homework done, and Bible story read to her each day (and this is just day two...and there's just one of her). How do the moms with four, five, or even nine kids do it? They can't. First grade homework is easy mind you. My perspective on that has not changed. However, my perspective on the ease of getting easy homework done HAS changed. It is hard to get a little girl to concentrate on math facts when she knows there's a tea party set down the hall calling her name.

It is amazing how all the things you are accustomed to as a single person living alone can just vanish and you not even know they're gone. I haven't turned on the t.v. in more than two days and haven't missed it at all. I'm wondering how anyone with kids ever has time to feed them and still watch t.v. Perspective is almost everything in life and this, it is safe to say already, will have changed mine forever.

Forgive me for the lack of post on my fabulous and exciting NYC trip. I have a feeling I won't feel capable of a post like that for some time, especially if I want pictures to be involved.

I am fully aware that this is a scatterbrained post. I just don't have time to put my thoughts together any other way if I want to equip myself with enough sleep to stay ahead of the seven year old temporarily living with me. I hope two weeks from now I will have gained some brainpower back!