Tuesday's Best

good ol' fashioned close ups with the bigs.

giggly, new birthday clothes wearing littles.

lots of 'i love you's'.

lot's of 'see you in january's'.

they felt so close today.  like i could almost touch them.

the bigs, mohamed & mamie

deenie girl wore her new birthday dress

giggles

blurry, blobby birthday pencils

good golly miss molly, january can't get here fast enough.

i'm going to ask santa for a jet for christmas.

happy tuesday's best,

m

Generation Yes

i had a really wonderful, inspiring, and three hour long conversation with a friend last night about one of my favorite words.  for those of you that know me, you will be surprised to learn that this word is not something inherited straight from the mouth of a dirty old sailor.  so shocking, right?  (i still stand my ground on the point that every now and then a choice four letter word is really the best punctuation you can add to a sentence.  but more on that some other time).

the word we were talking about is *#%.  

just kidding.

it's 'YES'.

she asked about my adoption journey and how i came to say yes to it in the first place.  we spent a good amount of our time together recounting the timeline of my story and where that first big yes took it's first big breath.  how i got involved with the raining season, when i first met gerald and geraldine, when josh showed up (and why on earth didn't he take off running the other direction screaming and waving his hands in the air like any normal person would do?),  how mohamed and mamie came to join our family... things of that nature.  all of it came back to that first yes.

which got me thinking...

i can't be the only one out there that has said it.  everybody's got a yes, whether it's in front of them or on it's way.  everybody's got one.  

some people are looking for it.  

some people are heading toward it.  

some people are staring it in the face and telling it no. 

some people just said it.  

some people said it to the wrong thing.  

some people have said it and are burned out from all of the yeses that have followed.

i want to talk about it.  all of it.  whether we like it or not, we are a yes generation.  we are being asked to say it so let's look at what that means.  or we could just sit around waiting for the real adventure in life to find us and twiddle our thumbs for a decade while, obviously, singing amy grant's 'oh how the years go by' because she's amy flippin' grant and her work should be celebrated so what else would you be singing while you have all of that time on your hands?

do me a favor.  think about your yes.  if you don't have it yet, start asking yourself questions to help you find it.  here's a starting point... if you could do anything, and i mean anything, with your time on earth what would it be?

think it over.  then come back tomorrow.  let's talk more about this.

happy hunting,

m

editor's note:  don't say yes to drugs.  that's all.  well, or maybe manslaughter...

It's A Hard Knock Life

when i was a kid i saw the musical "annie" and wanted to be an orphan so badly that i didn't talk to my parents for 3 days.  true story, and case and point of why my parents should have known then that nothing in my life would be ordinary.  i remember thinking it would be so glorious to have daily musical numbers with all of my friends whose beds were lined up down a row from mine and swing mops around as props.  to this day i still want a dog (that's right, i never had a dog as a kid. don't you feel sorry for me?) for the sole purpose of naming it miss hannigan.

fast forward about 20 years and guess what?  i still don't live in an orphanage...  

but my kids do.

in november of last year i became involved with 2 year old twins in an orphanage located in sierra leone, west africa.  in february of this year the adoption ban that had us contained to weekly skype calls and annual visits lifted, and i stated my intent to adopt gerald and geraldine (couldn't make those sweet and hilarious names up if i tried).  that very same week i met my boyfriend.  oh yeah.  what a super sexy package i was.  "oh hey cute guy, i'm adopting twins. you want in on this baggage??" i mean, who wouldn't?  oh yeah that's right, every single guy everywhere.  every single guy except mine.  he jumped right on board.  then a week before my first trip to go meet the twins their older brother and sister, mohamed (6yrs) and mamie (5 yrs), became available for adoption... sooooo... we are currently in the process of adopting 4, yes 4, kids.  go big or go home.  

so no, i never got to live in an orphanage.  but this summer i got to spend 8 days with my kids at theirs. and it is a wonderfully happy place.  they are well cared for and loved immeasurably by their caretakers.  they are wholeheartedly provided for by a variety of generous sponsors.  they go to school. they go to church.  they even go to the beach.  in my opinion, they hit the orphan jackpot.  while they are waiting to come home to us they are happy.  and happy is a hard feat to accomplish when you're working in orphan care.  (shout out to the raining season, the organization that runs the orphanage)

emily over at the anderson crew started an amazing link up to her embrace the camera project.  after realizing that she was all too often the photographer and was never in her photos with her kids she decided to flip the camera around.  after my one week adventure of 24 hour a day parenting and my incessant need to document my trip on film so i wouldn't forget it when i had to return to the states, i learned that she was dead on.

here are some of my sweetest and sweatiest moments with my kids in my arms:

ps - thanks mama kat for the perfect writing prompt today.  i'm off to scrub my bathroom til it shines like the top of the chrysler building.

Tuesday's Best and 3 Big Reasons

3 big reasons to love today.

1.  in 3 days i will be in sierra leone holding my babies for the first time!!!!!!!

 (you know how forrest gump says sometimes there just aren't enough rocks?  well i say sometimes there aren't enough exclamation points.)

2.  tuesday's best.  after 6 weeks of no third world internet connection this little man spent the morning showing me his 5 fingers.  presh.

3.  my partner in crime is now my partner in crime on african paper.   everybody, meet josh.  he is, hands down, the best person i know.   he bought a front row seat to the circus that is my life and continues to blow me away with how he will fight tenaciously for a good thing.  want proof?  i found out this week that gerald and geraldine's older brother and sister, mohamed and mamie, were soon going to be without a forever family.  how did he respond?  by filling out paperwork to officially join our forever family and by including mohamed and mamie in the process.  in one week's time my forever family has doubled from 3 to 6.  what a week.  what a man.  what a family. 

6

i got a phone call yesterday informing me of some changes going on on the other side of the world.  some changes that involve my family.  this phone call has me feeling that i am supposed to say 'yes' once again to what God is asking me to do.  and today 'yes' is a much harder word to say than 'no'. 

i'm overwhelmed.  i'm scared.  it would force me to rely completely on my faith.  and it wouldn't just be changing my life, it would be changing 6.

i can't think of anything more important that i could do with my time on earth, but i'm finding that importance can be a heavy load to carry.  i promise to share more as soon as i can.  until then, if you're the praying kind would you mind throwing a few up for the 6 of us?  

love,

megan, josh, gerald, geraldine, mohamed and mamie