Ben Franklin, My Hero

We’re back. Thank you so much for all of the supportive (and funny) comments. I never thought we'd share something else in common -- hurricanes -- with Matt and Suz and Joe and Susan and Sandi and our other Florida friends! Our electricity came back on Thursday night at 9 PM, so we were without power for 4 ½ days. We watched the utility men repair the “blown fuse” at the end of our street --- it took 10 minutes to repair. So, when we share our power outage story (as everyone in this city is doing this week), our story is “four and a half days plus 10 minutes.” We have so much compassion for the families and businesses in the Houston and Galveston area. I hugged my refrigerator for an hour (okay, maybe a minute) after the power came back on (as did Max, since he mimics EVERYTHING I do) – I cannot imagine the challenges for our friends down south who are STILL without power. They are all in our thoughts.

So, back to our lives …. If you’re an avid blog stalker, you’ve already read about two of our highlights at the end of this summer – meeting two families who we came to know through this amazing blogging sub-culture. Of the three Karens – Kentucky Karen, Minnesota Karen, and Ohio Karen – I am the blog slacker, so while they both were great about posting stories about our get-togethers immediately thereafter, here I sit FINALLY telling my side to the story! ☺

Kentucky Karen and I have been trying to get together for months, even having something on our calendars last winter (which was to include the also famous Muriel and her beloved Sophie). Mother Nature intervened with those plans, dumping a blizzard’s worth of snow on Cincinnati that weekend. We didn’t give up (or should I say, Karen didn’t give up on ME!), and Karen and Nick headed our way in the week following Labor Day. Karen and husband Pat have been such an inspiration for not only Glenn and me, but for many other families who have any connection to Kazakhstan or toddler adoption. Her blog entries are a perfect combination of honesty and humor – just enough honesty to help us all keep our eyes wide open, but just enough humor to keep us all from giving up. I felt like I already knew Nick, but of course, he is a gazillion times more impressive and cute and FUNNY in person than could ever be represented in print. It is so much fun to talk to him, and he communicates with so much imagination and flair. Of course, at that age, you can also pick up nuggets of insight that you can be relatively certain were planted by parents. For example, as we were driving, Nick announced, “I not scream – it hard to drive when I scream.” Gee, I wonder who told him that?! ☺

Max was enamored with Nick. He literally could not take his eyes off of him. So, in most of our pics, Nick is looking at least somewhat towards the camera, and Max is looking at Nick. Karen posted a couple of photos on her site, but I don’t think she caught any pictures while they played the piano together. (If I recall, that is when she was completing the monstrous job of moving Nick’s car seat to my car – something I am so thankful she was willing to do, as our car time turned out to be great conversation time).

I think Nick was telling me, "You have two more chances to get a picture of both of us looking at you." It didn't matter if I had 100 chances -- I never did get a perfect shot!

I wish they were looking at the camera, but aren't they adorable just the same?

What Karen was so generous NOT to mention on her blog is that I pulled one of my many “not going to be mother of the year” moments when she was in town. I made these big plans for all of us to go to a park with a bunch of water features for a picnic lunch and play (after visiting Jungle Jim’s, Cincinnati’s famous international grocery store – yummy!). It never occurred to me – given that I am only now getting into “mother mode” – that these types of water park places close after Labor Day. Ooops! I am not kidding when I say that we drove half-way around Cincinnati to get to the park, only to find it closed for the season. Being the brilliant mother that she is, Karen just whispered to me, “Don’t mention water”, and we got out of the car, ate our picnic lunches under a tree near a playground set, and pretended we were never going to a water park (despite having talked about it A LOT with the kids prior to arriving). Nick did catch on, but Karen in her brilliance re-directed his attention to the playground equipment and we carried on with our day. I was so embarrassed, but was simultaneously further reminded why Karen and I clicked from the beginning. She’s amazing, insightful, forgiving, and downright fun, and it’s no wonder that Nick is the coolest kid. (We can’t wait to meet Pat during our next get-together).

Having had such a wonderful time hanging with a blogger friend whom I'd never met before, I decided to post a comment on Minnesota Karen’s blog a few days later. Max and I were about to travel to Minnesota for the memorial service for my Aunt Barb, who passed away in late July. (My aunt had been a teacher in the same district since the early 80s, so her friends and our family purposely delayed her service until the school year began, giving more people the chance to share their memories. I’ll blog separately about that beautiful service soon). I knew that Max and I would have a free evening in the Minneapolis area, so I suggested in my comment on Karen’s blog that perhaps we could all get together.

And, of course, Minnesota Karen, wife to fabulous Bob and Mom to the gorgeous Garrett, wrote back to me immediately. She generously offered to meet us at our hotel, and the plans were solidified.

I fell in love with Garrett the second he came running into the hotel lobby. Karen has posted before about how she thinks Garrett is cuter in person than in pics, which I found impossible to believe, as he is adorable in photos! Well, I now have first-hand knowledge that he is stunning. He has the most amazing eyes and an infectious smile and the most beautiful skin. He is going to have the girls flocking all over him. (I already have a crush on him – HA!) As was the case with Nick, it’s almost too hard to believe how quickly Garrett has learned to communicate in English. These kids are mini-miracles, every one of them. We headed off to Chili’s, where our usually flexible child became Melt-Down Max. We keep Max on a pretty tight nap schedule, but we’d flown in that day, and other than a quick nap in the car on the way to the hotel from the airport, he was nap-less. And, it showed.

I am convinced that if your child is having a melt-down, you can be in no better company than another Kazak adoptive family. I think we have all developed an extra layer of empathy and compassion that otherwise may not exist. Bob (who will here-to-fore be known as Bob-The-Great) helped keep an eye on Max, who was only happy being either half-way under the table, tangled within the wood-slat window blinds, or affixed to Bob’s side with a hand on his leg. Bob seemed to have the better angle for viewing some of this, and it gave Karen and me slightly more opportunity for eye contact across the table while sharing stories. And what was Garrett doing? Eating, playing, talking, and otherwise being the best behaved child on the planet. I still smile as I type this – despite the Max chaos, it was such a fantastic evening out. Our trip to Minnesota was so bittersweet, as we continue to mourn my Aunt’s unexpected death, and I am so thankful that our trip included our time with the KaBobs.

Happy Garrett.

Happy Garrett scooting as far away as possible from the screaming, crying Max. I think I saw a few other patrons doing just the same. HA!

I am certain that Bob and Glenn would get along famously, and I want the KaBobs to move to Cincinnati tomorrow. ☺



As a new season is upon us, we, too, have entered into the next chapter of our journey. I’m back at work full-time, and we’re all settling in to the routine that is likely to be our “normal” for awhile (which is much easier to do with electricity). Like millions of working moms before me, I have daily struggles with the balance. I’ve been a work-a-holic for over 20 years, and it is just plain weird to come to terms with the fact that I can’t “finish that up tonight” or “work all day Sunday”, as I’ve been able to do for my entire career. Of course, there’s no greater joy than walking through the door to hugs, kisses, and “MaMa!” (which is actually more like “PaMa”), but to be honest I am still feeling discombobulated as I readjust to my new routine.

And then, there is our sweet, adorable, now 21-month-old Max, who….

• Has started to give us the biggest tightest hugs, just because…I sometimes come close to crying, as these are just the sweetest moments ever.
• Loves to sit and read books together. This is new – he liked to turn pages before, but now he really seems to get into the story.
• Loves school – he is truly happy to arrive, and not all that happy to leave (they definitely have more toys than we do -- HA!)
• Will sleep until 9:30 on the weekends (don’t hate me), especially if he has been up a bit late the evening before.
• Says a new word almost every day, and even speaks now when he signs (vs. ONLY signing in the beginning – which worried me enough that I quit teaching him new signs).
• Loves to kick a soccer ball around the house. The cat sometimes plays along.
• Favors his left-hand for eating, throwing, etc.
• Knows more toddler songs than I do, because they sing a lot at school. I hadn’t gotten around to adding “Wheels on the Bus” yet to my budding repertoire, but I put a CD in the other day that included that song, and he knew every single hand motion. Great news -- he’s already smarter than I am.
• Is a very unpredictable eater. There are three things he’ll never turn down – milk infused with Carnation Instant Breakfast (at every meal, as encouraged by the pediatrician, since it's spiked with nutrients), mashed potatoes, and oatmeal. Otherwise, one never knows. He’ll eat three big meals one day, and the next day he’ll lose all interest in food (other than his milk) from breakfast onward. We try not to let him survive on mashed potatoes alone, but some days it’s tempting. ☺
• Will still ride in his jogging stroller forever, humming along to the IPod tunes (we carry a speaker), pointing out nature, and waving to all who we pass. Just this week, I met up with my NCSU/Raleigh friend Dawn, who was in Columbus on business – we met halfway between Cinci and Columbus, at an abandoned outlet mall, and we walked and walked and walked for almost three hours around and around this parking area, giving us a chance to catch up and nab some exercise at the same time. He chatted along with us, pointed out airplanes (and eventually stars), drank from his sippy cup, played with his shoes and socks, and was the trooper that he typically is, for all that time, without ever so much as one unhappy moment. (I think he was also riding high because Dawn brought him the cutest little NCSU t-shirt, and he already loves the Wolfpack like his Mama).
• Is the absolute joy of our lives.

P.S. Regarding the title to this post ... I know that Ben Franklin didn't necessarily "invent" electricity, but in my little world, he did enough to ensure that I'd have power last week, so I'm giving him the credit just the same. ☺

Where are we?!

We have so much to write about, so why haven't we written? Hurricane Ike in Cincinnati, that's why! Seriously, who would have thought that we'd have to worry about a hurricane in Ohio, but the winds whipped through here with such severity and sustainability on Sunday that it knocked out power to 85% of Cincinnati and the surrounding area. And, we happen to be one of those homes that is still without power -- four days and counting.

I have so much to write about -- the meeting of the Karens (and families), my aunt's amazing memorial service, my first week back at work full-time, the woeful Bengals ... and oh right, the reason you check in to begin with -- the amazing Max! Max, by the way, doesn't seem to mind walking around in the dark. He's just an amazing kid who goes with the flow -- even if that means eating strange dinners and reading books by candlelight.

As the storm blew through (no rain, just wind), we were at the Bengals game, having hired a babysitter for THE FIRST TIME EVER. She hunkered down inside of the house with Max as the winds howled, the limbs crashed into our house, and the electricity went out. We had NO IDEA how bad it was, since we were in the stadium -- until we were on our way home. It wasn't until she texted me, "Is it bad if there are wires down in your front yard?" that we realized we needed to come home. (We may never see her again -- although I did give her alot of extra $ for the stress we put her through!)

So, we have no cable, no Internet, no lights, etc., and my evenings of blog updating and stalking are on hold for the time being. I am trying to keep my nose to the grindstone at work so I can rush home in a timely fashion while I still have a few hours of daylight to get anything accomplished, so not much personal time at work, either.

We're making due with our gas grill, and primarily canned goods. The grocery stores have little "fresh" food since they all lost power, too, and they had to toss anything that required refrigeration. We tossed the contents of the refrigerator and freezer yesterday, but it's still quite easy to cook canned soup in a pot on the grill. :-) We're keeping milk on ice in the cooler, so Max has his comfort drink and all is fine in his world.

As soon as our camping experience comes to a close, we promise to catch up with everyone.