Vacation, and kidhaps!

Just found this one was never posted so I am going to post it now :) It is interesting timing.. Q has just returned to the hospital again so the doctors are trying to help again.... Keep praying for her!

Sorry for the delayed post, but it seems that may just be how it is as each season of life roars through. Seems everything always hits at once with small lulls in between. I was reminded by my sweet sister-in-law this past week that our family has made several choices against the norm: we teach our kids at home, adopted domestically (infants), then internationally (older kids). She said "even one of those things us normal folks can't understand or grasp and then you put them all together and we outsiders really have no clue." This was so interesting because our vacation turned into an assembly line of accusations and advice from other outsiders. Her words were wise and put so many things we already knew into perspective. We never expected anyone to understand all of this, but hopefully just trust us and support us. We are certain to make mistakes along the way but isn't that why we are all there to help each other? So many of you loved ones have asked what you can do to help us. We have doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, a terrific social worker, and other specialists to help with the hard stuff. From you, encouragement, support, love, just knowing you believe in us and support us is great, but mostly PRAYERS! If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask them, even if they concern difficult topics, or just things not understood! Ask Mom or Dad, not the kids, or in front of the kids!! Please respect our children! All of them!! Respect us as their parents! We know we can't do this alone. Africans say it takes a village to raise a child we now know why. hehe... Anyways, it was a stressful week and there were many hurtful things said that we and the kids need to figure a way through.. We did learn how peaceful our home is for all of us :)



Something else we learned:

Wild Mike gets VERY annoyed when Princess whines on the 4 hour journey home. This happened about 4 minutes into the ride, so Wild Mike used his favorite solution: he slapped her. So the conversation that followed was, "We don't hit you need to use your words (which he knows won't work) we never slap anyone! Say sorry!" "Sawy Won do agan" Quite a while later, Princess is screaming again (I couldn't tell you why) I turn to see what is going on and Wild Mike turns his head around as fast as lightning and yells in her face "SLAP" then turns back around in his seat as if nothing had happened. Of course, I turned around just as quick to conceal my laughter. He listened! Words were used, not hands to solve his problem. Funny thing is, I think she was shocked and she stopped whinning!