Anti-recommendation

Okay, do you ever get stuck reading a book that you don't like, but at the same time you want to keep going because you already invested some time in it?

Recently I was on some sort of missions website and they had this free book offer. The book was about this missionary guy's work behind the Iron Curtain, particularly Romania. I love reading about other countries, and I also love biographies about interesting people, so I signed up to get my free copy of the book, which arrived yesterday.

Last night while Kevin was watching basketball I settled in for a good read. Oh my goodness! This guy is...interesting! In all fairness maybe part of it is he uses some Christian "buzzwords" that have never been part of my Christianese vocabulary, part of it might be that the way he talks has something to do with the part of the US he's from, plus he is an "evangelist" so that maybe has something to do with it too. I don't know what it is, but I was so bummed! I can't help but feel like he's maybe coming across as a little arrogant.

So Jeannett you were asking for a good book to read...yeah this one's not the one. :) Anybody else read something lately they were disappointed in?

ABC's

I am currently sick with a cold and can't think of anything interesting to blog about. I found this survey on Mary's blog and thought I'd do it too.

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day. I spent mine sick in bed but getting to hear Anna say "Happy Mother's Day mama" for the first time as she handed me a flower she'd picked from our backyard was possibly the highlight of my whole year!

Accent--none, having been born and raised in California
Bible book that I like--James
Chore that I don't care for--cleaning the floors (ie sweeping, mopping, vacuuming)
Dog or cat--neither (I am so not a pet person!)
Essential electronics--camera and computer I guess
Favorite perfume--"Happy", by Clinique
Gold or silver--silver
Handbag I carry most often--probably my big one that doubles as a purse/diaper bag
Insomnia--only if I have caffeine
Job title--mommy
Kids--3 of them, Anna is 27 months, Ezra Yosef and Isaiah Biniam are 19 months
Living arrangements--Me, my husband, our kids, no pets, our house is in a neighborhood in a housing tract
Most admirable trait--not sure, you'd have to ask someone who knows me
Naughtiest childhood behavior--my best friend and I when we were little thought it was funny to sneakily trample some of the flowers/plants in our elementary school's dorky little garden---before church no less! Ah, what rebels we were...
Overnight hospital stay--Just when I gave birth to Anna (and I LOVED the custard and jello, I am so not joking!)
Phobias--SNAKES, getting to the end of my life and realizing I didn't make much of a difference
Quote--"Love cannot remain by itself--it has no meaning. It has to be put into action, and that action is service"--Mother Theresa
Religion--Christian, saved by grace through faith alone
Siblings--none
Time I wake up--7:30
Unusual talent or skill--I don't think I have any weird talents/skills
Vegetable I refuse to eat--lima beans
Worst habit--spending way too much time on the computer
Xrays--just at the dentist
Yummy stuff I cook--I can make this good chicken pasta thing, also some pretty yummy baked chicken, exciting I know
Zoo animal I like most--gorillas

Say cheese (or rasta!)

Well, we finally made it to Sears to get pictures taken of the kids! This was the first weekend in a long time where none of them had a scratch or a goose egg...it's tough with three active kids!


And let it be known that Anna is actually (gasp!) SMILING in the pictures! The day before and that morning I explained to Anna we'd be getting pictures taken and had her practice her smile. She did pretty well. Unfortunately however, by the time we had all the kids out the door and ready, it was about naptime. We'll have to figure something else out for next time I think.

The thing that came in the most handy was my cell phone. Why my cell phone you ask? WELL, we just got this new cell phone, and I was able to download the ringtone "Buffalo Soldier" by none other than Bob Marley. So, to get the kids to smile, I'd play the ringtone. And it worked!!!

We were all exhausted by the time we left, but at least we got some cute pictures out of it!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Yosef and Biniam made their first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Perruzzi's house (my parents) last weekend. Friday night Kevin had plans to go to Magic Mountain so I took the kids to visit my mom and dad (who live an hour from us.)

The weather was nice and warm, so we ended up out on the patio. My parents have a fountain that Anna's always enjoyed playing with. Well sitting in front of the fountain was this big glass pot that for some reason was filled with water. AND for some reason Anna and the boys LOVED playing in the pot of water!

It began when Bin dumped the pot over, and was therefore sitting in water. I thought for sure he would cry, but he laughed! Pretty soon all three kids were playing, splashing, laughing hysterically and having a ball. So much so that they must have played like this for an hour, and went back to playing the same game the next day! Kids are so awesome--I love that they're so easily entertained!

Grandma and Grandpa Perruzzi's house was a big hit, as usual. Because we have two more kids now (and Anna doesn't use a crib anymore), we had to come up with a new sleeping arrangement for her. My mom had a good idea and bought Anna her very own, special "big girl" sleeping bag--in hot pink! Anna loves it! Here's a picture of my mom reading to Anna on the sleeping bag at naptime:

Another highlight was that Anna got to help Grandma make pancakes in the morning, something Anna loves getting to do. When I see Anna doing things like that, I reflect on how "grown up" she's becoming. And I wonder when it happened! Anyway here's a picture of Anna stirring the pancake batter--my little girl is growing up:

Congratulations Fred Booglewart!

A couple weeks ago I received an email from someone named Fred Booglewart, asking me some adoption questions (what homestudy agency we used, for example). He said he and his "partner" were adopting from Vietnam. I thought who on earth has a last name like Booglewart? I told Kevin I thought the email was a joke and that maybe one of our friends discovered our blog and was messing with me. I took the time though to write back, Fred wrote back with some more questions, and turned out to be a nice guy. I realized it must not be a joke.



Saturday afternoon Troy and Becky, some of our closest friends, called wanting to come over that evening and hang out and bring us dinner. Fun! After dinner we were sitting around, and all of a sudden they took off their sweatshirts and Troy had a name tag that said "Boogle" and Becky had one that said "Wart!" What in the world?! I sat there so, so confused. I'm like, oh you guys played a joke on me, ha ha, although it didn't make sense why that would have been such a funny joke.

Then they proceeded to tell us that it WASN'T a joke: Troy and Becky are adopting from Vietnam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently they wanted some info from us, but didn't want to tell us yet as they hadn't told their families yet. We are so, so excited!!! This will be Troy and Becky's first little one.

It is sweet to see God move hearts and move people to reach out across the world to love one of His precious children. I am profoundly blessed by their hearts and can't wait to watch them go through the process and the experience.

So that is the story of Fred Booglewart (apparently "booglewart" is some sort of computer gaming term.) I have to say I am so happy that Fred turned out to be some of our best friends!

Kevin Carter

Has anyone else seen this chilling photograph before? The South African photographer Kevin Carter took it during the famine in Sudan in 1994. The little girl is struggling to make her way to the United Nations food camp, which is only one kilometer away. She's being stalked by a vulture, waiting for her to die.

This photo won Carter the Pulitzer Prize. Weeks later he killed himself.

A new documentary has been made about Kevin Carter called "The Death of Kevin Carter." It's even nominated for an Academy Award. He lived a crazy life, as he and three friends, also white photographers from South Africa, committed themselves to photographing the violence and war in the streets that resulted from apartheid.

I came across his story yesterday and am very eager to see the film (either when it is available to rent or if there's a screening nearby.) I think his life and death raise interesting questions. Tormented by the things he witnessed (and then photographed so the world could see), he essentially lost all hope. He knew the world needed to see what was happening, and he sacrificed his life to do this.

I believe that all of us would struggle if we were exposed to such horrific, unjust things on a daily basis. I think we'd feel helpless, question God, and probably lose our hope. I'm sure Kevin Carter felt all those things and more, and sadly turned to suicide.

I don't know if Kevin knew Jesus. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but his life and death and the work that he did remind me that true justice, hope and peace can only come from God. We don't have to look around this earth for very long to figure out that there are a lot of devastating, sad things here. Life is far from "easy" for most people on this planet, and if you and I actually saw what life is like for those people we would quickly become devastated ourselves. But praise be to God that we can put our hope in Him, that He knows the depth of suffering that those people face, and that He cares and loves them. AND that He wants us to help them.

So go see the documentary. Like I said I think Kevin Carter's story raises some interesting points and is a picture of how we truly can't place our hope in mankind, ourselves, anyplace but in Jesus. Thank goodness.

Slacker!

So I am such a blogging slacker! Last week our computer mouse stopped working, and I am so bad with just using the keyboard, so I wasn't online much.

AND I really don't have a whole lot to blog about!!! So I will just mention a good book I'm reading and a movie I saw that I really liked.

The book is called "Reclaiming God's Original Intent for the Church," by Wes Roberts and Glenn Marshall (members of the emerging church movement.) It is really good food for thought and makes some good points about how things should be. Ever since God moved our hearts to adopt and opened our eyes to more than just our own comfortable "bubble" that we live in, and ever since we traveled to Ethiopia, I have been thinking a lot about what the Christian life should look like, the purpose of the Christian church, what it is, what it should be, and what it shouldn't be. I am seriously not some great expert or anything but I like to think and read and honestly God has changed my views on a lot of things over the last year or so. A lot of what this book says strikes a chord with me.

A good movie I recently saw and highly recommend is "The Constant Gardiner." (Disclaimer: it's rated R so not a family movie.) The cool thing about it is that it is actually filmed in Kenya, where the story takes place and all of the Kenyans you see in it are just townspeople; they don't use actual "extras" or anything. Anyway, go rent it, it's good.

Slowing down

Anna's been really sick all week, so we've had a rough time. She didn't sleep much this week (and so I didn't sleep much either), and had a really high fever, sore throat, and was just miserable most of the time.


It's always a good reminder to just slow down and enjoy your kids! Since Anna's been sick we've done lots of cuddling (something she's generally too "busy" to do!), lots of reading together, and lots of "Mommy, play with toys."

And it's occurred to me, why is it so hard for us moms to just get down on the floor with our kids and play? Are all the other things I "have" to do or most likely want to do really so important?

This morning I took the time and just sat down with all three of them and played. It's especially important for the boys because it seems to be a great way to bond and promote attachment. Today little Biniam (who is as far as I can tell not as attached so far as his brother) made lots of great, smiling eye contact with me, and fully initiated a little game with me! He would shake this toy that makes a lot of noise, looking into my eyes and smiling/laughing the whole time. Then he would hand it to me. I would shake for awhile, and hand it back to him. It was great!

So one of my goals now is to spend good solid time every day on the floor with my kids. Not that I never do that now, but certainly not as much as I should. And it's not only good for them, it's good for me too!

Great visit

Yesterday Anna had her (overdue--we've been busy, what can I say?) 2 year well-baby visit. I resolved ahead of time to try to ask the doctor about the boys' circumcision and Ezra's bloodwork, figuring it'd be easier to do at Anna's appointment (when the boys aren't wailing in my ear! My mom and dad came over and watched the boys.)

WELL, I am happy to report that the doctor was really great this time around. I think maybe last time he was really rushed, which was a bummer, but at least now I know he's not always that way! He totally knew who I was for one thing, which I'm sad to say is not always the case with doctors.

Anna's visit went well. She weighed in at 25 pounds, 1 ounce and was 35 inches long. She's tall for her age and a little below average, weight wise. They did a finger-prick test to test her iron levels and they were all perfect! She got her Hep A shot. The doctor also commented on the fact that she apparently has big toes! Hee, hee. She has Kevin's feet so we can blame him for that...

So I asked the doctor about circumcision, and what he thought I should do. First he said he'd tell me what the AAP says, and then he'd give his own recommendations (which I appreciate.) Now keep in mind that this guy is YOUNG, maybe early thirties, and not very doctor-looking. He fully couldn't use some of the, uh, "terminology" without smirking and almost laughing! Hee, hee! It was funny and I almost burst out laughing myself when he was smirking.

He told me that (he and his wife have four children, with at least two boys) none of his sons are circumcised. Interestingly he said fewer boys are circumcised on the West Coast than the East Coast nowadays. He explained the potential risks of non-circumcision, and also the issues with circumcision. The AAP no longer recommends routine circumcision I guess. He said that if we did want to have the boys circumcised, it would have to be done in the hospital and they would have to be put under general anesthesia. Recovery would probably be painful, and it's just harder once they're past the newborn phase.

SO, we have decided that the boys will remain uncircumcised. To be honest, neither of us ever had particularly strong feelings about the issue. Most of my mommy friends with sons seem to have it done, and I probably would too had I given birth to these little guys, just because it seems like the normal thing to do around here (or at least it was for boys in our generation but I think the tide might be changing.) But I cannot justify having them put completely under anesthesia (and all of the risks associated with that alone) for superficial reasons. The statistics in my opinion are not compelling enough to have it done. My sons are perfectly fine the way they are!

As for Ezra's bloodwork the doctor is really not concerned about waiting longer, being that Isaiah's was perfectly normal and he would not expect anything to be dramatically different. So we will wait.

All in all a good visit and I'm back to liking the doctor again. :) I felt comfortable presenting my questions and feelings, and he did a great job addressing them. I really liked the fact that when he was explaining circumcision to me, he explained things in such a way where it was totally open for me to decide. He didn't try to sway me, just shared his own experience and also what the medical community was saying. On a personal level I think it's cool that he and his wife have four kids, and they're all close together in age (I guess at one point they were all 5 years old and younger!), so he kind of has an idea of what we deal with on a daily basis. :)

So a big relief for us!

Fitting in

Okay so here are just some random musings about something I've been thinking about lately: where do I fit in?

I've been noticing more and more that we as humans are really into labels: "I'm a Republican/Democrat, Conservative/Liberal, Protestant/Catholic or Non-denominational/(insert denomination), stay-at-home mom/working mom...and the list goes on. The interesting thing about labels is that each label conjures up some sort of image or stereotype based on the majority (or at least the most outspoken) of people wearing that label.

Using the random labels I just listed, I guess I'd be a semi-conservative Republican Protestant going to a non-denominational Christian church and I'm a stay-at-home mom. But I don't really feel like I fit in with a lot of people with those same labels. When it comes to politics I am adamantly pro-life/anti-abortion--that is my primary reason for voting Republican. However, I am a bit more socially/economically liberal than probably most of the people labeling themselves as Republicans, so I don't really feel like I fit in very well there. I don't fit in with the liberal Democrats so well either because of my strong stance on abortion, as well as the fact that I disagree with some of their ideology/values/methods. But I DO appreciate their commitment to health care, helping the poor, and humanitarian leanings.

As for my "religion," I believe that God sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins, and for yours. I believe that I am saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ, and that on my own I am nothing but a sinner. I believe the Bible to be the true Word of God, and I gratefully, humbly and wholeheartedly wear the label "Christian."

The funny thing is that sometimes I don't feel like I really fit in with some of the Christian culture. I'm not sold out on the Elizabeth George books (shhhh, don't tell!), and it makes me sad that the church in America right now seems to have such an inward, individualistic focus: my relationship with God, my daily quiet times, my prayer life, these are the only things that matter. At least, I always have, and I always got the impression that that was how it was supposed to be.

The reason this trend in the church (well ultimately in society I guess) makes me sad is that in order to love Jesus and love others with the love of Jesus, we have to get outside of ourselves. Ephesians 2:10 tells us:

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Okay, so when it comes to being an at-home-mom, I don't "look" like most moms either. I'm 24 with three children. Two of my children are from Ethiopia and don't look a thing like me (well my daughter doesn't look much like me either, sadly!) My sons are part of two cultures and two worlds. Now so are we. Our family is what they call a "conspicuous family": you can tell we are "different" just by looking at us.

So all of this to say that I am just plain weird. :) There is still some small part of me that is stuck in high school, wanting above all else to "fit in" somewhere. But for the first time in my life, I really don't!

There is something surprisingly freeing about not fitting into a label or stereotype perfectly. It keeps my true identity and true purpose at the forefront of my mind: my true identity being a daughter of God, and my true purpose is to follow after Christ. As Psalm 139 says, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." I never have to have an identity crisis because I am loved by a sweet God who has some sweet plans for my life.

Worth 1000 words

The usual Bob Marley music was playing today and I looked up to find Anna dancing WITH Ezra!! I ran and grabbed the camera and luckily caught it just in time!

They were giggling and spinning together holding hands. It literally brought tears to my eyes to see them enjoying each other so much, and to see Anna being such an awesome big sister! (She'd initiated the dancing.)

It was one of those moments that reminds me that all the cleaning up, poopy diapers, and laundry is nothing compared to the amazing blessings that are my children. Far too often I get frustrated or mostly just plain sidetracked, and forget to stop and just love where I'm at in life, and wonder at these three people God has given me to love, care for, and encourage. I'm so unworthy but God chooses to bless me just the same!

Happy Easter

This is us, taken last night. Unfortunately we didn't have time to take it in the morning before church (when we were all fresh and awake), but all of us are looking at the camera, so I will call it a success. :)

On a side note, Anna HATES having her picture taken. She'll refuse to look at the camera, refuse to smile, and sometimes will downright throw a fit. It is so frustrating; she's such a cute kid, but we have so few good pictures of her!

The boys on the other hand love being in front of the camera and having their pictures taken. So if it seems like I primarily post pictures of them, that is why!

We had a good Easter. Church in the morning, yummy dinner with friends, and then we saw some more friends throughout the evening. It was fun. (The kids managed to get a nap in between church and dinner, which made for a happier afternoon.)

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!

More weekend fun

Sunday after church our family headed up to Atascadero for a party my friend (we've been friends since we were eight years old!) and her husband and sister threw for the boys. People from the church I grew up in attended, as well as my mom and dad. It was a lot of fun.

It has been really neat to see how welcomed our sons have been. Our friends have truly generous hearts and we're always blown away by the kindness and generosity of people. I really want to be that kind of person too!

And so I've been thinking about that a lot lately. People have been so encouraging and supportive throughout this adoption. They've brought us meals, showered us with gifts, and most importantly prayed for us. I so want to be that type of friend, and I so want to be able to give something back. This was the first time in my life where I had felt truly "needy"--in need of prayer, support, and in need of the strength only God can give. And so it's been neat and humbling to get to benefit from peoples' kindness and huge hearts. Now that I have received that, I realize the importance of it and so desperately want to give that.

Just some random thoughts I've had lately. One way I hope to be able to lend support to people is through an adoption/orphans ministry I hope to help start at our church eventually. I've had a lot of people at church tell me they are thinking about adopting, or want to do it eventually, or who want more information, which is tragically lacking in Christian circles. When we started out I had to do a lot of time-consuming research on the internet, and I'd love to be able to help people with some of what I've learned. So we'll see! Of course I'm also wanting to give more to people in the way of just generally being encouraging, helpful, making myself available, etc. I will continue to pray for those opportunities!

Here are some more pictures from the party:

Fun weekend

Thursday afternoon Kevin's parents came down from Northern California to spend a few days--this was their first time meeting the boys. The kids had a good time (so did we) and I think the grandparents did, too!
Saturday afternoon and evening, Kevin's mom and dad watched all three kids while Kevin and I attended my friend Sarah's wedding (thanks for babysitting guys!) I've known Sarah since our freshman year of college and it was such a blessing to get to share in her big day. We got to see some old friends, including my old roommates, and it was held at a gorgeous winery. It was fun--and really nice to get dressed up and go out, just the two of us!

(This is me and Kevin after the wedding with my friend Sara. We've been friends since high school!)

(The beautiful bride and me!)

Supersize Me 2

So no one told me that my daughter was going to be making a sequel to the famous documentary. But apparently she is.

Don't believe me? I walked into the kitchen this afternoon to make the kids lunch, and that's where I found Anna, licking her fingers, holding a now-empty butterdish...

Fortunately I think there was only about a tablespoon's worth of butter on there. I will continue to console myself with that fact.