Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Heartache

2 weeks of heartache...

A friend's 13-month-old daughter passed away in her sleep last week. I have no words, just tears...

My teenage foster daughter longs for her family during Christmas, but is not allowed to see them. My heart hurts because she is hurting so much...

Oh Lord, there are so many tears on this earth. Please come soon.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Dates with my boys

Date #1
Jadon to Disneyland

I took Jadon to Disneyland at the end of the day on his 4th birthday. It's the only time I could go alone! :) We rushed over there, took the Monorail into Disneyland, rode on the Nemo submarine, then the park closed. Although it was such a short time, Jadon still loved it!

At the end of Nemo, he looked at me and smiled, "Mama, that was fun." Of course he wanted to go again, but alas the park was closed. We headed down Main Street and walked into a store, where Jadon saw a wallet he wanted. I wanted to use my Disney Reward Dollars, but unfortunately I had to request it online first. I explained to Jadon what had to happen, that we had to wait for a card to come in the mail before purchasing the wallet. He agreed to wait without a pout! Praise God for his great attitude!
We walked out to Downtown Disney where he had his first funnel cake. Then we headed over to the Lego store to play there a little. Having a date with my little guy was so fun! It's rare that I get alone time with him and it was such a blessing to have just him! He was definitely on his best behavior without any warnings or threats.


Date #2
Josiah to Disneyland

I wanted to take Josiah alone before my pass expired on my birthday so we went on Tuesday night. He was pretty good about not saying anything to Jadon all day, but he had to tell the Seo kids during their piano lesson. :)
We left after dinner and Jadon was pretty understanding that it was Josiah's turn. I left promising him a wallet when I got back home. He had a good time with Baba anyway, watching Harry Potter at home!
Josiah said his favorite ride is Toy Story Mania so we headed to California Adventure after getting Jadon's wallet. (My Reward Dollars had since arrived in the mail.) While in Disneyland, we experienced snow on Main Street! How cool is that!

He wanted to go on two more rides, but it was almost closing so I explained that we might only have time for one ride. He chose his favorite one. This coming weekend Disneyland starts closing after 8pm.

We had a great time in line playing Rock, Scissors, Paper and chatting. Josiah has developed quite a fearful fascination with coyotes. He remembered that there were a couple of coyotes one night in our backyard last year. About 2 months ago, he's been asking very specific questions and making comments:

When do coyotes come to our house?
What do they eat?
Why do they eat children?
I hate coyotes.
Do coyotes come out at night? (as he's watching the garage door close before he heads into the house)
After Toy Story Mania, California Adventure was closed but we stayed until 8:25 watching Disney's World of Color from the back side. World of Color is pretty cool, like Bellagio on steroids. Josiah was ready for Downtown Disney after about 10 minutes. As we left the park Josiah said, "Thank you for letting me stay up late!

We hung out at the World of Disney store picking out gifts for Jackie, Jadon, and Jer. Josiah had to decide how to allocate the $20 we had left on the Disney Rewards card.

We also swung by the Lego store to look at the cool creations. We left just before 10pm. Josiah realized that he was suddenly very tired. We waited for the tram to take us back to the parking lot. As we walked to the car, he said, "I wish someone could pick us up and drive us home because we're so tired. My stomach hurts and my feet hurt."

M: "Why do you want someone else to take us home? I'm driving."
J: "I don't want you to do so much work."

So sweet! I love our little discussions and Josiah's growing knowledge of the Lord.


Date #3
Jer to Octopus

My birthday dinner! We left the house after putting the boys down. Josiah had a MAJOR meltdown! He has never cried about us leaving the house before. He was sobbing uncontrollably, almost throwing up! He said he didn't want me to go out on my birthday, that he wanted me to eat at home. After about 15 minutes of this crazy meltdown, he was armed with his stuffed tiger (who would scare the coyotes) and my cell phone. :) Jer had his bluetooth in for about 30 minutes before we decided that Josiah had fallen asleep.

First we picked up a new beach cruiser for Jackie from a friend a couple of streets away. My mom wanted to get Jackie a bike for Christmas. Time Warner's internet service was out so we also had to get our coupon printed for dinner from Tina's house. She came by to pick up her daughter from piano and I was telling her about waiting for our internet service to come back on. She volunteered to let us use her printer. Thanks!!!!
Yummy dinner at Octopus Restaurant! I had panko salmon and shared a Black Dragon (avocado & eel) roll. Jer had Beef Yakiniku. We are so tired when we go out on dates that we just eat, talk, and go home once the food is gone. There was one young couple, obviously on their 1st or 2nd date, who was there before and after we arrived. Too sweet!

I love my boys! Judah gets me all the time so we don't have date nights yet. Jackie and I get to bond when we go shopping every once in a while.

Praise God for a plethora of blessings in my family! I never thought that after 33 years, I'd be in SoCal with a wonderful husband and four kids!