It's About Love

November is National Adoption Month and since I am so on the ball I am finally posting on the very last day of November! Recently, LDS Family Services (LDS FS) were considering some changes to the adoption process, one of which was raising the fees. When it was presented to the Presiding Bishopric, (LDS FS falls under welfare apparently), and I assume the First Presidency, the idea of raising fees was turned down. Currently most adoptive couples pay only part of what it costs to do an adoption. The Presiding Bishopric was willing to keep the fees the same because they feel Adoption Is So Important! Why, do you ask? Because it brings children into a forever home with a mom and a dad to love them!

You might be thining "That's a nice story but what's your point?" I am hoping get you to be involved in a small way. "How?" you ask. Let me give you a few ideas. One of the biggest tools LDS FS has to help bring birth mothers into the agency is word of mouth. You may not personally be affected by an unplanned pregnancy, but you might know someone who is. Did you know that LDS FS has counseling available to help women make an informed decision about their pregnancy? While I'm sure they hope and pray that these women choose placement they also counsel them if they decide not to place. So if you know someone in this position or are in a friend of a friend type situation, refer them to LDS FS. My son's birth mother was found by one of Steve's clients who had a friend who was the doctor who delivered our son. The doctor called his friend...who called us...and we called our social worker and suddenly our life changed. All because Steve opened his mouth and talked about adoption.

Maybe talking is not your thing, but how about adding a button to your blog. On the right of my blog is a button with a heart that says "Adoption, it's about love." If you click on it, it takes you right to http://www.itsaboutlove.org/. The website has many answers to questions a pregnant woman might have. They have videos of actual birth moms talking about adoption and their story. If you would like to add this button to your blog, you actually have to click on the Families Supporting Adoption button (the one with the heart and the child's hand), and scroll down the website. The button is on the right hand side of the web page, a little over halfway down the page.

Finally, you can help promote adoption for the positive experience it is. It changes lives. It's changed my life, my husband's life, my children's lives and all those around me. There are many ways to do this. You can start at home. Read adoption books to your children. There are many great books on adoption; "Stellaluna", "Little Miss Spider", "God found us You", "Tell me again about the night I was born" and my favorite "We wanted You." There is also a great book for older children with a lot of good information on a level they can understand call "How I was Adopted." Tell people about how adoption has impacted your life, (i.e. my nephew and nieces, grandkids, cousin's kids are adopted, let me tell you how cool (or whatever) that is).

I hope I don't sound preachy. This wasn't what I meant to do. I just wanted to put it out there and open my mouth and talk about adoption.

It's a cookie not dirt, I promise

Every year we go to the Beach for Nevada Day weekend. Our statehood holiday falls on Halloween. Somehow that seems fitting for Sin City. This year Steve's brother Bill & his family joined us in addition to my parents and my brothers James, Joseph & Eric and their respective families. We started our traditional trek to the beach several years ago with friends and every year we seem to add more family members to the group to replace the friends who haven't returned. The only ones that still camp with us are the Kleinpeter's, (who we consider family anyway so I don't know if they count as friends anymore). This year we faithfully brought our camera, which we never took out of the car and so I have had to rely on pictures from family. (Thanks Mom and Tina!) So without further ado here is our 2009 Beach Slideshow.

Adventures in Nighttime Parenting

One of the things you don't quite get before you are a parent is how precious sleep is...yours AND your childs. Lately, Kenna has been skipping naps or sleeping for short stretches of time which brings back horrible visions of the sleep habits (or lack of them) of my oldest daughter. You know the one who never slept and cried constantly for 2 years. Luckily, while Kenna doesn't sleep much, she also doesn't cry much...as long as I am either holding her or sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HER. She is a little bit of a mama's girl. I always felt kind of bad I never had a child that prefered me to their Dad. Subconciously I must have sent many a heartfelt prayer upwards because the Lord cursed me, I mean BLESSED me with a Mama's Girl. Which brings me to the point of this post. After spending all day trying to conquer Mt. Wash-more and only getting the junk drawer cleaned and organized, (and I only accomplished this because I desperately needed a stapler and couldn't even open the drawer!), and constantly and continuely and endlessly holding Kenna I had finally had ENOUGH! I passed her to Steve, made dinner, put the kids to bed and in general tried to stay out of Kenna's line of sight. Steve put her to bed and we watched our fav show (So You Think You Can Dance, by the way) and Kenna very conviently woke up at the end and started to cry. I begged Steve to please get her back to sleep. (If I pick her up she ends up in our bed because she knows a sucker when she sees one). I brushed my teeth and went out to give Steve a kiss goodnight. Steve was cradling Kenna and rocking her while watching sports highlights. My husband is excellent at multitasking. Kenna took one look at me and then whipped her head up to look at who was holding her. After a horrified look, she started wailing. But it ended well for her. She ended up sleeping in our bed and kicked my back all night long. We enjoyed a looong night of no sleep. Yeah us!

P.S. As I write this post Kenna is clinging valiently to the chair, whining and pulling on my arm.

P.P.S. She won again. Apparently she can cry longer than I can ignore her. So after a whole day I give you 1 paragraph. Meanwhile Mt Wash-More is now a mountain range.

P.P.P.S. On another note Levi can finally use his secret zombie combat skills as his parents have joined their sleep deprived ranks. (See the post "It's Official").

Maybe you're doing a better job than you think!

For all you parents out there I have a quote for you. It's from a book I'm currently reading called "Christlike Parenting" by Dr Glenn Latham.

"Well-meaning parents who have tried their best should avoid the temptation of using their children's behavior as the measure of their success as parents. If children's behavior were the sole measure of good parenting, our heavenly Father would not qualify. Through Isaiah, the Lord lamented, 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.' (Isaiah 1:2)."

So remember this when your children embarass you in public with their poor behavior. You are doing a good and important job.

Forever Your Girl

Kenna is now forever ours and we are thankful to have her and all her sisters & brothers for eternity. We are so grateful for the power of the priesthood and all its sealing authority.