Jamie, Jordan and Jenna Joy

I didn’t post on Hannah’s birthday last month. Let me tell you what happened. She is 13. For her birthday, I offered, instead of a party this year, to take her and her best friend shopping.. I told her I’d give them each $50, drop them off at our local mall, pick them up in a couple hours.

Of course, that turned into, take us to Easton Towne Center (where I WON’T drop them off), “shop” with us (in stores which will never again carry my size OR any clothes I can possibly wear in public) and, take us out to Max n Erma’s (but please don’t make us use the aforementioned $50).

Sooo.. we walk into Hollister, where the 12 year old male employee says “Hi” to the girls, and then is shocked into silence when he sees a person of my age and size in the building. We spent way too much money, and then went to Abercrombie & Fitch, a store I remembered as being pretty “Lands End-ish” or at least one that would have my size shirt. Umm.. no. And I have to say, it’s not like God blessed me with a generous upper half. I would expect they wouldn’t have my size butt-covering, but really? I’m a little sick about the size they expect teenagers to wear.

From there, we walk out to the other side of the mall, to Aeropostale.. at some point in between we stopped at Victoria’s Secret, for me, although I don’t remember getting much more than 2 pairs of underwear because Hannah has decided the Hanes “briefs” she’s always worn no longer fit in her low-cut jeans, so she has now entered my very own special Victoria’s Secret bikini underwear world. My life is forever changed. Aeropostale was at least comforting in the fact that I KNOW that I can’t shop there; and.. at least the clerks are of age. (Because if even Jordan wears a size 0 there, no other size will matter for me.)

We may have stopped some places in between. I don’t know.. Forever 21?!? (what a misnomer) Oh, yeah, and Jordan needed one of her BuildABears re-sown, so we stopped there for a minute.. Ahhh… I tried to make myself scarce.. watching from afar, you know, since the girls (and their friends) no longer find me truly “hip.”

So then, I took my sorry wide butt to Max n Ermas and got a huge salad with warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Good news though, the 80s are back in. Problem is, they’ve shrunk.

I’m going to love being the mother of teenagers…

I feel bad that I haven’t posted lately. With Jord’s fundraising for her trip, and Kevin and my work, and then soccer, piano, orchestra, and now, proficiency tests this week (probably you don’t even WANT to know how I feel about that..), we haven’t had a minute. My house is a complete disaster, even though the girls really tried to pick up today, the dishes aren’t always done before I go to bed, and the laundry room is a really, really bad place to go. Today we missed church because we couldn’t find clean underwear for Jenna. I’m not kidding. And with lives like ours, we really, really need to go to Church!

But God is faithful.. the spaghetti dinner we did on Thursday went really well thanks to our good friends and family, and although Jord didn’t earn a bunch of money on Saturday at the car wash, she seemed to really bond with some of the kids she’ll be traveling with (and, of course, Kevin and I made some new mom and dad friends), so it was worth not sleeping for days. My office has been so helpful and good about everything I’m involved in. In addition to the girls’ stuff, I’m involved and committed to the 20th Century Club , which supports Camp O’Bannon, a camp for kids who might not always be able to go, and Zonta International, which supports cancer research.. Jenna and I are modeling in a style show for Zonta on May 1st, to raise money for The James Hospital. (Tickets are $30 if anyone’s around.) We are all planning to walk in the Komen Race again this year (May 16) with our Andrea. (You can still sign up if you want to come!) Oh, yeah, and I just found out the golf outing for Heartbeats, our local pro-life group, is May 19. I’d like to go, although the Pro-Am Golf Outing that I like to work for 20th Century is May 15, so I’m not sure..

And I can’t figure out how in the world Jord gets herself so involved in so many things!

As for Jenna, she’s getting so dang big and smart. I think I’m going to look into requesting she get tested for kindergarten next year.. she’s an October baby and a full month after, but with preschool now, she can sight-read, write all of our names, and knows her numbers, letters and her address. She’s also doing simple math. And her social skills seem to be pretty good. She can stick up for herself (I don’t know where she gets that, either), but she also has some really good little friends with great parents. So I’m not sure if I should bother trying to get her into kindergarten or not.. (Those of you with opinions, please feel free to leave them. I’m not committed one way or the other.) This is kind of silly, but I’d like her to be in the same grade as her cousins, Faith and Grace, although they are a few months older than she is… she just loves them soooo much! It’s bad enough we don’t live near them. I’d hate to make the gap even wider. I’m really blessed that I get to even consider that choice.

And then.. my Hannah. She is such a pre-teen. She turns 13 on Tuesday. Stay tuned for my Tuesday lament. Until then, I have to say, what a good kid.

Do you ever feel like you are just not worthy of God’s gifts?

Andrea and Mel and I judged a speech competition at the Statehouse for an old friend a few weeks ago. Any chance we get to be together, I’ll take. (Thanks, Bethany..)

We did have Easter last week. Lucky for us, they had a Saturday night service. It was a great one, too. Since we didn’t go to church on Easter Sunday though, none of us dressed up except Jenna (of course, she HAD to wear her special dress!); she put it back on on Sunday, just for pictures, but then she wore it outside on the swingset. Shout works! This is Jord and her friend, Brenda, getting ready for the spaghetti dinner.. And then, somehow, it was here.. so fast!
And the car wash on Saturday.. Jord had to do a brochure on France or England (she chose France), and then present it orally on Saturday morning before the car wash. We forgot about the brochure until Friday night about 10 (she was up till 2) and then we forgot about the oral presentation till we got there. We were thinking CAR WASH! Anyway, she did fine.. all improvisation. And the car wash was just fun!
Last night was a birthday/wedding dinner for my good friend, Heidi..

and now, I think I’ll go to sleep! love!! Laur

The last three weekends have been full of friends.. and we are ever grateful. First, we had our college (yes, UNDERGRAD) friends Christmas Party (a little late, I know). Then, we had a birthday party for our friend, Kieren Campbell, who came home from China about a month after Jenna. And this last weekend, we had our Annual Jeffersonville Shopping Trip. I’ll just flood you with the pictures.. they speak louder than my words.

Jenna’s asking me when our next shopping trip is..

Well, finally, Jordan’s cookbooks we made to fundraise for her People to People trip are IN! 300+ books and 9 boxes in the garage. If you’d like one, I can set you up. Uncle Dave is doing a site with a Paypal link and I’ll get that to you if you want, or you can just send a check.. $15.00 plus $2.00/book for shipping if we have to send it.

Thanks in advance. I’m so glad that’s done.. just a little spaghetti dinner and a few other things..

Shew!

You can email us at: jordangoestoeurope@gmail.com for payment and address info..

I have great kids and I’m a very proud mommy, even if I don’t say it very often.. or do I? Really??

Anyway, Jordan placed 9th in the District Spelling Bee this last Friday.. I was working and couldn’t go, but I’m still very proud.

Hannah got a 4.0 GPA last semester (and she was also pretty proud of her perfect attendance, but we kinda screwed that up this last six weeks, so you know..)

Anyway, her grades are awesome.. this weekend, in lieu of the Twilight Series, she has decided to write her own book.. meanwhile, Jord decided to make a movie. I think it’s competition, but I dunno. I had brothers. (But Lily the dog was a convincing monster as she licked the peanut butter off the Littlest Pet Shops in the movie.. if I ever figure out how to do youtube I’ll post it..) We aren’t allowed to read Hannah’s book yet.. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

**I think Jenna is learning about the Presidents at school.. the other day I asked her what she drew on her picture and she said that was a picture of Barack Obama, our President. And then she told me all about George Washing-machine.. and asked me if he was really dead, or alive?

This morning she interrupted my shower to ask me if Abramaham-mam Lincoln was alive or dead.

**Wednesday, I couldn’t find any jeans of my own to wear, so I found a pair of Hannah’s in the dryer and, very proud of myself, I put them on and said I’d have to thank Hannah for letting me wear them. Jenna said, “She didn’t let you wear them; she doesn’t even know you TOOK them!” Yeah, I said, I need to thank her anyway.

**Yesterday, in the car, Jenna asked me “What’s that thing I have to do when I catch on fire, Mommy? Stop, drop and What??” “Roll,” I said, “ROLL.” To which she answered, I wish we could have a fire in OUR house, Mommy, so I could practice my stop, drop and roll. AND, the firefighters come right to your HOUSE!” I think the daycare needs to instill a bit more fear when they’re talking about FIRE..

**Jenna and her friend, Truman, have decided they are getting married when they get older, but Truman kind of has a reputation of being a bad boy, so every day I get the “Truman Report.” Yesterday, she told me Truman was a bad boy, and when I asked her what he did this time she said, “Truman doesn’t play with girls and only wants to play with boys! That’s bad.” Hmmm.. there’s a chance I’m raising my girls right, or..

**One morning this week, Jenna asked me again about her China Mommy and what it was like when she first came home. In an attempt to divert the subject, again, from the void of things I don’t have answers to, I told her how much her sisters loved her when she came home.. to which she said, “They loved me then, Mommy, but why are they so mean to me now?” I told her a little bit about puberty, but I don’t think she quite gets it. She can almost say it though. I can’t wait till she says it to her sisters’ friends..

Hannah and Jordan dyed their hair last weekend! That is to say, Hannah dyed Hannah’s hair and Hannah dyed Jordan’s hair. I would have posted this earlier, but Jordan was crying about it for awhile so I thought I’d wait till she liked it.. but don’t freak out, it’s not like they have blue hair or anything.. it’s kind of barely noticeable (don’t tell them.. mixed emotions about that one), but it is evidence that my babies are growing up. That, and Hannah’s mascara and eyeliner.. you have to choose your battles I guess.

I’m sitting on the couch with this gorgeous little girl.. Daddy’s baby, Jordan’s Webkinz and Little People play buddy (and irritating baby sister), Hannah’s music and nail polish and movie sidekick.. and I really can’t believe this child was ever away from me.. I’m starting to forget she was born in China! Not that she doesn’t remind me all the time.. “Mommy, tell me about when I was born in China.. tell me about that other mommy, my step-mommy..” (I didn’t tell her that; she came up with that herself.) But it is so easy to forget that Jenna wasn’t born from inside me.. she truly is the child God meant for me.

She loves everything girly.. she loves to watch iCarly, still has all the words to Camp Rock memorized (and most of that Pink song, “So What,”.. I’m blaming Hannah for that one), and she loves to look at Daddy’s hunting magazines with him. She watches The Perils of Penelope Pitstop (a very oooold cartoon on Boomerang) with Kevin, as well as Spiderman and Phineas and Ferb. She’ll do anything to get into Jordan’s room, especially when Jord’s friend, Brenda, is here, and she often “borrows” Jordan’s things and when Jord catches her, she just tells her she wants to be “like” her. Jord’s not as touched as you might be over that, anymore, although it still has some mileage here and there which Jenna takes advantage of when she can.

Jenna thinks about her family a lot.. she calls her grandma and her cousins as often as I’ll let her use my cell phone, and when she plays by herself, some of the stuffed animals get her cousins’ names.. Faith, Grace, Hope and David Charles. (She is sure to tell you that she is NOT a boy, don’t call her dude, and that Daddy told her girls can hunt too.) When I got home on Friday, she very politely thanked me for letting daddy pick her up and told me she loved me. On the flip, she also still fights me every morning over my choice of her clothing (skirts are generally warmer weather clothes, especially since this is the coldest winter in 24 years, but Jenna still wants to wear them.. with flip flops..), and I sometimes get migraines from the screaming. Kevin is the only one who can get her settled down when she starts and wow. God forbid he goes to work.

The weekends are never long enough; my house is never clean enough; and there’s a large stuffed horse laying near the dog and about 37 pairs of matched socks on the living room floor. I’m learning to do as many crockpot recipes as I can (thanks, Crockpot lady! Check out this blog: Crockpot 365) and I’d hire a maid except there’s not enough money in the whole economy to pay someone to keep up with this place.

And so I was reading about some kids in China who are aging out.. that is, they will be 14 this year and will never be adoptable again, who really want to be adopted, and here I have this beautiful little girl.. who will never know what it’s like not to have love.. and there I am, wanting to go back to China. People tell me I can’t save the world.. but maybe..

Why should any child live without the love of a family?

Adoption is a good option. And although Jenna’s not perfect, neither am I, neither is Hannah or Jordan or Kevin. And we seem to fit together just perfect. I’m proof that this thing works. Thanks, God.

Yeah.. Jenna found scissors. It was not a good time, but I think she gets it now. Here’s the sadness.. I think she thought it would grow back..

Well, my baby is a big girl… but she still gets grumpy at bedtime every once in awhile.. and tonight was her night. I don’t even know what did it… but after the screaming, her eyes get all puffy and she looks like the saddest thing… you just want to hug her up!