A Week in Photos: April 9th + Randomness
Hi Friends!
I hope this finds you well, with a smile on your face and a spring in your step. 🙂 Things are chugging right along around here. We’ve had a great week so far. Lots of normalness, lots of laughs, a few tears, and plenty of coffee to fuel it all.
Last week we celebrated Seth’s Adoption Day! The actual day was while I was in America, so we held off on the festivities till we could all be together. Every year we take a day to celebrate that God brought Seth in to our family. He’s only 4, so in the past we have done it more for our other kids, so that they would see the value in adoption and understand how special it is. This was the first year Seth cared about it. He still doesn’t fully understand what it means, but we often tell him the story of how he came to be our son, so it’s just a matter of time before he “gets it”. All he gets right now is that it’s a special day just for him. He chose to go out to pizza and bowling, so we did!
Oh how I love our boy. Sometimes I can’t believe he didn’t grow inside my belly. Just like our bio kids, I feel like Seth is an extension of me, like a piece of my heart is walking around outside my body. I love my baby. 🙂
Funny Story:
Have you ever heard of “No-Poo”? Despite it’s name, it has nothing to do with toilets. “No-Poo” is a method of hair cleansing without shampoo- get it, no “poo”? Shampoo strips the scalp of much of it’s natural oils that are so good for your hair. When you strip your scalp of it’s oils, then it thinks it needs to produce more oil, then you strip them all again, then your body makes more, and on and on. Anyway, I have been a no-pooer for a couple of years now and it’s the best ever. I use baking soda to wash my hair, and apple cider vinegar to condition it about once a week. It works well for me, but sometimes I feel like the soda is a bit harsh on my scalp. In fact, hardcore no-pooers will never recommend baking soda. But honey and aloe and all those expensive treatments aren’t realistic for me. Baking soda is cheap and accessible, so there. I read somewhere that washing your hair with egg yolk once a month is a good way to give your scalp a little break. So, being the weirdo/fierceless warrior/hippy that I am, I decided to give it a whirl! Why not?
I read in the instructions that you need to make sure to only use the yolk and not the white, and to make sure the water isn’t too hot. Wellllllll….yeah. I separated the egg well, or so I thought. The water wasn’t tooooooo hot, or so I thought. I got out of the shower and yeah, scrambled egg head. There’s nothing more romantic than a husband who will patiently pick cooked egg out of your hair. I’ve got a winner, folks! Now if the Denny’s jokes would just stop. “Oh sweetie, you smell so good, now I just need a side of bacon!” Ha.Ha. Shut up. 😉
I may smell like a diner, but my hair is soft and shiny, so I wouldn’t call it a complete failure…not completely.
We are so thankful for new volunteers! Praise God!
Sweet Aaron needs a mama. Do you know her?
Sweet Ben also needs a mommy and daddy. He is not thriving. Please share our boy!
Stephen is waiting for a family too. Oh my sweet boy. He loves to run and spin. Treasure.
Addy is such a great helper at Romaniv. The boys love her! The feeling is mutual.
Hava took this last picture. I just like it. I love cuddling in with my kiddos and reading a good book. I’m not a “playing” mom. I don’t like to play toys with my kids. I’ll play Just Dance on the Wii, or jump on a trampoline, or bake cookies with you, but please, for the love, don’t ask me to play Barbies. I just.can’t.do.it. What I love most, is reading to my kids. Find us a good read-aloud and it’s all over. I hope they will treasure the memories of us all cuddled up reading a good book. I know I will. 🙂 (I hope they won’t mind the mild scent of brunch)
Oh my friends, this boy is precious. Alex came to Romaniv when he was 7 years old and now he is 15. We have until the end of this year to find him a family and then he will “age out”, meaning he will become to old for adoption. We can’t let this happen because this boy deserves the love of a family. Jed and I both agree that he would make a FABULOUS son. He is such a helper! Last summer, when the weather was nice, we would take the Isolation boys outside and some of the big boys who have more freedom would join us. Alex was always in that group. He would run to help us push wheelchairs, or gently take our blind boys by the hand. Every week when bananas are being served he is sure to be seen helping the less capable boys with their bananas, making sure no one steals from anyone else. PRECIOUS.
Stephen is one of our Isolation Hall treasures. We want a family for him so desperately. He is 12 years old, but really about the size of a 6 or 7 year old- just an itty bitty thing. The nannies say that he is blind, but we believe he can at least see shadows. He always wants to be near the window- especially on sunny days. There are two places you can usually find Stephen- either standing under the window at the end of the Isolation Hall, or sitting on a chair in the kitchen, waiting for the next meal.
Jed was describing Stephen’s behaviors to a woman in the US who works with children with visual impairments and she said that his description matches many children they work with who have sensory issues surrounding their vision. She said that for some of those children they can actually be taught to see! Stephen is extremely sensory-seeking and needs to feeeeeeeel the world around him 🙂 He loves to spin, flap his arms, spin some more, run, spin, you get the idea. He has absolutely no sensory input at Romaniv- so he has to create it himself.
Okay, Micah. Ridiculous cuteness. To know him is to love him. Micah has lived with the big boys for many years, but only recently has been staying in the Isolation Hall. He gets severe headaches and they put him in with our Boys when that happens. Our volunteer team absolutely fell in love with him over the past month. He is so funny! He speaks and always says “thank you” and “goodbye”. Somehow he is super polite! It’s hilarious to see it in that environment. I have awesome video for interested families. You just have to see this boy in action. His pictures don’t do him justice.
Jonathan is the boy I know the least from this group. I simply haven’t spent much time with him. He used to live in the Isolation Hall, but shortly after we moved here he was moved to the big boy group. He is 12 years old, but about he size of an 8 year old. He came to Romaniv from the baby house orphanage when he was 5.
