Back to Cool

The guy is here right now as I type, installing a replacement compressor in our air conditioning unit.  It's just in the nick of time, too.  We had our hottest two days yet, just yesterday and the day before.  If we weren't sleeping before, the last two nights have actually doubled our overall sleep debt.  Everyone in the house is edgy and rude.

P.S.

Still no word on where our compressor is for the A/C.  Temperatures are still pretty unbearable, especially when it comes time to sleep.  I'm still praying it all gets fixed soon!

A 6-year-old's Logic

Our youngest son, O, ran away from home yesterday.  This is not a new thing for us considering how many kids of ours struggle with attachment issues stemming from early neglect prior to their adoptions.  (Today, by the way, we are celebrating -- use that term loosely; we ate pizza -- four years since adopting J and tomorrow, we'll celebrate five years since adopting S, H and Z.)  Anyway, being six, it must have felt like a big adventure for him to threaten to run away from home and then loop the block and come back home, sweaty and apologetic.

Happy Moments

Amidst the hot of our house and the busy of our days, I've been making a point to catalog some particularly happy moments to share with you here:

It's Hot

Our air conditioner is busted.  Right when we need it most.  None of us can escape the heat inside our own home ... especially upstairs where we sleep.  We sweat more than we sleep.  Blehhhhh.

Okay, Lord, I've learned my lesson about taking comforts for granted, would you please deliver our new compressor soon?  Oh, and also, it would be great if you could provide a loophole in the warranty so that it'll all be covered for free.  Anything is possible, right?  Amen.

Anyway, it's been days like this and I'm nearing the end of my rope.  I hope this explains why I'm far from my blogging and stuff, too, because the computer is in one of the hottest rooms in the house. 

Though hot, we're all still alive and well.  I'll write more another day....

Smile Therapy

I still have many things to share about our trip, but first, I wanted to interrupt these messages with a serious chat about Smile Therapy.  We had to initiate such a thing in our home today.  I can hardly stop smiling when I think about the situation right now.

Vocabulary Lessons

Believe it or not, this is another post about our Florida trip.  It's just one of those things we had fun following during our vacation.

We're Back!

After 13 days of road-travel from Albuquerque to Orlando and back, I have so much to say.  So instead of one looooonnnng tale, I'll try to get a few shorter posts out of this journey of ours.

Fruit of Our Children: Rose-Sniffing

The more pessimistic view of a rose-sniffer is that he is usually very slow and no matter how much we demand that O hurry things along, he can only go the one speed.  O is a boy and at that, a very active boy.  He rarely stops to rest.  Much like his brother, Z, he's always on the move.  But the way that O moves is what I'm writing about here.  There is no rushing the boy, because he appreciates each step he takes and the changing scenery from each new position as he crosses a room.

From O, I have been reminded that even in simple movements, I can slow down and really appreciate my surroundings.  This is the last (for now) in my mostly unread series about the fruit of our children, but I don't care.  Perhaps one day, my children will read these posts for themselves and see something in themselves that I see and appreciate.

Fruit of Our Children: Thoughtfulness

An online dictionary defines the concept of being thoughtful like this:

–adjective

1. showing consideration for others; considerate.

2. characterized by or manifesting careful thought: a thoughtful essay.

3. occupied with or given to thought;  contemplative; meditative; reflective: in a thoughtful mood.

I love all of these definitions.  It is exactly how I would characterize the fruit of our child, J -- most of the time.  And that's what I want to write about today in this next installment in the series.