What did you mean?

Today is March 6th. The day those of use in the special needs community call 'Spread the Word to End the Word Day'.

A day dedicated to raising awareness to end the R-word - retard or retarded.

It's offensive. It's hate speech. It's derogatory.

It used to be a medical term, but is no longer. Now it's turned into something people use as a word like dumb, stupid, bad, useless, not-worth-much, etc. Many use it from business professionals down to elementary school kids.

And that needs to stop. Because

I want you to read a blog post for me. Please. Just this once. It's written by the mama of the kids I spent a lot of time taking care of the past few months. And you will see some familiar faces in there, like Ralph's, Zhen's, and Theo's, but you might not recognize them, because they are little! ♥ They're still way too cute!

Anyways, go read it.

Ralph and the Crew: When you say ret*rd...: I heard what you said. Yeah, you.

I just want to know what you meant by it. I heard you say ret*rd. Yes, I did.
I was just wondering... When you said ret*rd did you mean?? Read more..

Ok, have you read it now? No, well go back and read it silly! Read it? Ok, good.

Now, I ask you to stop using the R-word, and go sign the petition saying you won't say it.

Just do it. You never know who you are hurting by using it, and hurtful words are better left unsaid, right?

Maxim is HOME!

Maxim is home. Thank you Jesus!!!

On the way to the airport!

Is that her plane?

Soo excited!

Waiting for them... Thomas, Rose, Jordan, Leroy, and Grandma with Ruby in front.

Is that them??

There they are!!

Daddy meeting Max!

Safe in Daddy's arms.

Ruby meeting Max! She was soo excited!

Meeting Grandma!

Max and Rose

Meeting Chipper! (he stayed home with the other 3 boys)

Love this picture!

Ralph and Max!

Love this picture!! Ralph and Ruby are in love with their new brother! Theo and Zhen were like ya whatever... :)

Max and Leroy

Kisses with Grandma - he already knows how to turn and give his other cheek for a kiss. :)

Max and Zhenya! I told Zhen to smile...

Max and I :) 

The 7 long weeks (total) I've spent here caring for his siblings so his mama could bring him home... it all melted away tonight holding him in my arms. He was soo worth it.

He wasn't digging the pictures... sweet boy was soo tired and ready for bed.

As my dear friend so wisely put it, I survived, and now I get the best reward ever.

I still can't even believe he is home. Maxim is home. After 8 long years. He is sleeping in the other room, in the Nance home. Max is home. Welcome home, sweet boy.

Mission Bring Maxim Home: Complete.

Sometimes I wonder...

...what I am thinking.

I gave Ralph, Ruby, and Zhen root beer and cookies.

Luckily they went to bed fine so the morning shouldn't be too ugly.

Speaking of getting the kids up for school... Leroy asked me yesterday if they could have the alarm clock in my room and put it in their room. Umm, no. If I don't have it, I don't get up on time. Which means that if Thomas and Chipper failed to wake up with their alarms (not unusual), they wouldn't make it to school on time. Actually, not just them, everyone would miss their buses. Sorry dude, not happening. lol

Thank you to the sweet lady who brought us pizza, soda*, and cookies for dinner tonight!!!

Won't get on my soapbox about the Superbowl, if you wanted to know, I'm sure you could probably guess what my opinion is about it! I did opt outta going with Chipper to the Superbowl youth group thing at church tonight. It would have been my last few hours outta the house for the week, but I felt ready to pass out**, and feeling stupid sitting there for 3 hrs with a bunch of teenage boys when I barely know a thing about football... it just wasn't worth it. hehe

On another note, I have less than a week left here. I'm leaving Saturday. Thursday and Friday are parent teacher conferences, so no school for anyone. Not really looking forward to that, but it is what it is.

Mama and Maxim should be coming home Friday, PLEASE pray this works out. Not only do I want to meet Mr. Max after all this, but I don't feel right about leaving when Mama isn't home or on her way home for sure.

Wow, I made a whole post with a face.... smiley, stick-out-my-tongue, or sad! So proud of myself. You may notice that doesn't happen often blogging about my time here!

Thank you for your prayers. G'night peoples.

*err pop as they call it here
**side effect of those stupid antibiotics I'm still on, at least it's helping for what it's supposed to be helping for. Not sure it's worth it with the headache, nausea/upset stomach, and dizziness/shortness of breath/faintness.

This 'n' That

Everyone is on the mend, with just a few of us still stay-home-from-school-sick. Thank you for praying!

Tonight, in the course of a half hour, I gave 12 pills/shots/droppers of meds. TWELVE. Craziness. And my total from today is going to be 17 (have to take mine yet tonight). Hey, gotta get a head start on this nursing degree, right?

The other day, Stephanie had a birthday! Not fun to spend it away from her family, but we still did something special for her.

Ruby painted pictures!

Rose did too!

And we made a cake!

Today neither Ralph or Ruby had school, so I got to spend some extra time with them.. and I got my camera out. :)

Gosh, they are soo dang cute! And good thing they are too! ;)

Best buddies!

They were going to the "foo-lah store"??? Thomas (home sick) and I were asking them what they were riding in... they wouldn't tell us. lol

And tonight we were (ok, still are) watching some TV before bed...

Leroy got up to get a blanket, Thomas laid down to steal his spot, and Rose stretched out too. After a bit of a pushing and squeezing, they ended up like this. :)

We tried to keep the little ones up for awhile so they wouldn't be up too early tomorrow. Zhenya didn't last too long, but I didn't mind. :) It was amazing, he was sitting STILL on my lap! hehe

Friday Funnies:

Ok, so you northerners and/or Wisconsinites want a chuckle?? The following are my conversations with Ralph's bus driver. She cracks me up. These people don't know much about cold weather!

Before I left in Dec, I told her I wouldn't be seeing her again. When I came out to get Ralph when I got back, she just laughed and laughed. There I go making a liar outta myself again (not unusual... Chip was teasing me the other night about not being in bed yet and hour after I said I was going too!). Anyways.

Driver: "So where are you from? Minnesota? Wisconsin?"

Me: "Wisconsin."

Driver: "There a lot of dairy farms up there?"

Me: "Yes, my mom actually grew up on one!"

On that note, tonight the food channel was on. They were talking about these beer battered fried cheese curls from Madison, WI. Beer and cheese, why I am not surprised it's from Wisconsin? :P

Another day, it was slightly cold, I went out to get Ralph in a tshirt. I was a little chilly, but I have to walk 20 ft out to the road. The bus driver is wearing a sweater, and says aren't you freezing? Umm no!!

Yesterday, it was snowing, but nothing really sticking the the ground, maybe in the upper 20's, but windy. I was wearing my winter coat.

Driver: Now this is your kinda weather!

Me: Bah, this is nothing. They have off school at home today because they have so much snow!

Bus aide: Oh that would be nice!

Driver: Well, the weather didn't want you to be homesick when you were here!

I can go without the snow and cold just fine without being homesick, thank you very much. :P

G'night y'all! (I'm "down south" now, but I'm told by my FL friends I'm not very good at southern slang! LOL)

Hanging onto Him.

Sorry if this is a mish mash of info that doesn't run together and may not make sense. I can't think very well right now, but wanted to update.

Today, I'm hanging onto His promises.

2 Corinthians 12:9: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

Because of that, and all the prayers form you lovely people offered on our behalf here, is the only thing that got me through today.

Everyone except Thomas had fevers this morning. So everyone was home all day. Chipper, Leroy, Ralph, Zhen, Theo. And even though Jordan, Rose, and Ruby would have stayed home anyways, they were sick too.

Kids with a fever, and who are tired, tend to be cranky. Long day.

Me? Doing much better than yesterday, of course not good still. Wanna know what irks me? Severe headache was one of my symptoms that I told them when I was at the doctor yesterday. So what do they do? Put me on an antibiotic that has headache as a side affect! Other side affects are dizziness, upset stomach and nausea. I def have all the side affects, and I'm thrilled about it, cause that's just what I need.

Sweet Rachel was sick today so she couldn't come. I think we got her sick. :(

Fever is the first stage of influenza B. Then it develops into congestion and cough. Zhen, who has had a fever the longest, is now getting a cough and runny nose.

PLEASE pray everyone doesn't have it. I know in my gut they do, but we need some miracle that they don't.

Today... we snuggled.

And watched movies.

And took lots of pictures.

And Ralph took pictures. This one cracks me up.

Not on my life will you be able to convince me that spiritual attack isn't real. I know it is, and I know that's what is going on. I feel like we are under constant attack here, with one thing after another on today of all days. Stephanie, their mama, is feeling attacks too.

The evil one doesn't want Maxim to leave the confines and death sentence of his institution. He doesn't want him to be set free from that dark place. So he is doing everything he can to stop that from happening, by attacking everyone helping to make that happen.

Friends, can I humbly beg to you please, please pray? Prayer is what will bring Maxim home. Prayer is what will help me get through until everyone is better.

There's nothing else we can hold onto anymore, besides Jesus. So hang on to Him we will.

Important PSA and Prayer Request

aka Today's Drama. Never a dull moment. :)

Public Service Announcement: Just wanted to remind everyone the importance of having a medical release form when your child under the age of 18 travels anywhere that's too long of a drive for you to get to them easily.

We used this form, but in addition to everything on here, it's also important to know or have easy access to the child's SS#, if they are up to date on immunizations,  as well a the employer, employer's address, SS#, and DOB of the person the insurance is under. And they may require to see of have a copy or a faxed copy of both sides of the insurance card if it can't be provided (yes even if you have the number).

How do I know this, and why do I want to remind you of it?? Because, yes I needed to know all this today to go to the doctor. I was doing ok yesterday. This morning I went down hill, and developed a fever.

After conferring with my mom, our doc, and Stephanie (kids mom), it was decided that I needed to go in. After getting childcare for the other kids figured out so I could leave, and sitting in the waiting room with Grandma for WAY to long trying to figure out insurance stuff, I have a diagnosis of upper respiratory bronchitis. Blah.

A sweet friend of theirs named Rachel was able to come over this afternoon, and I was able to sleep for a couple hours. She's coming back tomorrow too. Sooo thankful for her! I also got a steroid shot, and am on antibiotics. Should be on the mend soon!

And then there's Zhen. I kept him home today as he had a fever. His school called today and said that his helper tested positive for influenza B. So he has been exposed. Great huh?

Prayers would greatly be appreciated for all of us here. Thank you!

On a lighter note, anyone have any creative ideas for something short we could have put as relationship to the child for Grandma. Seriously. Her relationship to me is COMPLICATED! LOL We ended up just putting guardian. :)

The Zhenya.

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones

I told him to smile. lol

And this child is teaching me how much I have, and how to have more than I have, that much is true.

Love the Zhenya anyways!

Sweet boy is still sick.. no fun. :(

Friday Fun!

I'm bad at coming up with post names or making these posts interesting. It seems like I am just typing the same post over and over with different pictures and captions. Nothing seems new, but that's what it's like around here too. Same old same old, with new little things happening every day to keep me hopping. :)

Love this gorgeous girl - she looks like her mama in this pic!

Ruby and Ralph were well entertained for a half hour yesterday playing with these bottles. Why do we even buy toys for kids?? They like this kinda stuff much better!

Never stop moving... my camera's kids and pets mode works well, can't you tell??
Hey wait... where's Ralph's head?? I think we may have lost it. Shh, don't tell his mama.

She picked out her own clothes today. She wasn't going anywhere, so I didn't argue. ;)

Making blueberry muffins! They were SOO good.... the name definitely doesn't lie - To Die for Blueberry Muffins.

Baby Ralphie...

Ralph was so cuddly and wanted to be held today... sweet boy is missing his mama!

Love my Ruby Jean!

Stubborn and opinionated these two are, but they never fail to make me laugh.

Theo climbed up into the desk tonight, and was so proud of himself...

Then he got annoyed with the pictures. He cracks me up.

Football with Ralph.

Tonight, Ralph was playing football with the rest of us (me, Jordan, Rose, Leroy and Grandma). I took some video... it's not always this calm! ;) The other three littles were in bed and Dad and the oldest two boys were gone. 

So... health update. Dad and I are still sick, but not as bad. Now Theo and Zhen are getting sick. Poor babies... Please pray for them, I'm the next few days aren't going to be fun for any of us with them being sick. :(

Oh and just for your amusement... some pictures I found goofing around on facebook today when I was supposed to be doing dishes. ;)

Exactly, but change mommy to Sarah! Weekends are the hardest days of the week because everyone is home! ;)

More for my mama than me... I enjoy laundry so usually manage to stay caught up!