HIV Positive Adoption! (cross post)

So I am launching my first TO BE A MOTHER contest. I will be emailing a free ebook to all mothers who have adopted HIV+ children that participate in this contest for the next month (close date 8/4). All you have to do is either blog about your experiences mothering an HIV positive child on your blog or post a video here via Mr. Linky or on Facebook (To Be A Mother) . Please tell us what you would like us to know about HIV positive adoption/parenting. Also, if you can use the phrase or wording "i am proud to be a mother of an HIV Positive Child" Or "Happy to be a mother..." something like that..We would really appreciate it....(I am not excluding FATHERS)...Also, please send me your email if you can...





GO to Carolyn's site PROJECT HOPEFUL for more info on HIV adoption.

Five Comments NOT to Say to a Birthmom

Five Comments NOT to Say to a Birthmom

PERFUME HOME COMMERCIALS!

So we were given some perfume. QUickly the girls grabbed the lotions/perfumes and wanted to know WHY they couldn't use perfume. They kept telling me they were stinky....so should use the perfume ...It became sort of funny so I let them chat on camera...




Matea wanted to be the star and didn't like having been put in the background on one take...So we were ready for her to have her own commercial and then she bonked GRACIE on the head...When she viewed it she laughed and had to watch it 10 times..

A Day on Miss Peggy's Peacemaker Farm!

My friend has the most awesome farm in NC. I took 4 of my kids. My youngest son screamed as a docile 12 year old dog happily came to greet us. Her name was Daisy.  There was another dog that sauntered over to us. Her name was Minnie. My little Superhero son screamed a pitch so high that made the docile dogs start to act like hyper puppies.....

The girls in the meantime LOVE ANIMALS...all three of them totally fed these dogs all of the biscuits in the bowl that were usually reserved for treats only.

Later the kids met the horses and especially loved TIGER , Miss Peggy's prize horse.  They were treated to a ride around the corral...

 

  

We also saw CHICKENS and COWS....

Right after that we went to a swimming pool birtday party and then a PICNIC..

So our Friday sched was 10-2 Miss Peggy's House

Home at 3:00-3:30 (I went out to pick up gift and cookies for picnic)

3:30-4:30 Stuck in the car for an hour with bad directions looking for the party ( I almost gave up..it was 100 degrees outside)

4:30-6:20 Swim Party (I had no suit because the day was swamped)..I boiled...

7:00-9:00 Picnic in the Park with 2 couples and kids from school..

9:20 pick up sleepover guests

9:45 shower/bath littlest ones

10:10 MOTRIN/MOANING until I fell asleep from heat stroke.

TODAY...COFFEE , BLogging and moving the sprinklers around in 95 degree weather. I am staying INSIDE....

Precious Time!

My Chance by Jamie Theitten

Check out this song by Jamie Theitten. Really great performance and song.

CLICK HERE

Father's Day! No expectations!

My husband said the funniest thing. He said "I had a great Father's Day! But that's what happens when you have no expectations." HA! For some reason that had me laughing for quite awhile. Remember how I had all of these grand expectations on mother's day and ended up with cow manure in my shoes?????

So, we had worked in Charlotte until 12am and got home at 3am ish. We tried to sleep in (about 9am). ANd then I made Mark coffee and all of the kids gave him cards. SPENT 50bucks...we have all agreed to make home made cards next time....anyhow, he was thrilled. We went out for Italian food (Pizza for the kids). And then he went to work selling men's shirts and I took a nap. He came home later to more italian food (I mad ziti) and said.."I had a great Father's Day!" Serve the man italian food and he is all set.

I know I speak so much about Mothering issues but want to give my hubby a huge HIGH FIVE (can you tell which generation I am from). He is a great husband and father and we are blessed to have him. It was sweet seeing all of the kids handing him the cards....

TOnight Andrew won his semi finals ...in baseball. So now Wed night he will play for first place. It was a huge nail biter tonight but the team pulled it out at the last minute...incredible.

I thank God for my husband and have learned to not have any expectations trying to plan the happy moments of my life but instead valuing them every day....I have amazing moments with my children every day and that is all I need....

To Be a Mother! Quote

I had written my book and had the title and then came across this quote which I love...

The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral - a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature. God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation. . . What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?

(Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty)

Graduations etc

So we had Jeter boy's graduation first which was a 40 minute event. Had to take the kids home because they were freaking out....And this week Schmoopy had her graduation. I cried...But their theme some was "Don't you Forget about me" from SIMPLE MINDS...i thought that was funny. Sam graduated with honors from a school that is very tough...and then that night in all seriousness Schmoops said "is 7x7 42..." NO LIE!  I just about fainted...then she said "oh yeah its 49. We all use calculators."  HUH???? Right now I am at college with her for her orientation. She is taking a math placement test and foreign language test. We got up at 5 in the morning to drive 2 hours to her school....I practically fell asleep during the financial aid presentation..COFFEEEEE!!!!!  Parents were separated from the kids.  So I made friends with a woman from our area. Turns out Sam was simultaneously visiting with the woman's daughter in another building. There were hundreds of people here...so cool...We had a party for her friday night...I had a gig in Pinehurst saturday....and now am in a hotel room writing a song in between blog posts. My book is hopefully going to production this week...waiting for the account manager to pass it through....keep your eyes open for release dates etc which should be in August.  Fell off the diet wagon over graduation and now am going to be challenged by my extremely athletic friend who wants me to start getting up at 6 to work out. Anyone who knows me is laughing as we speak.....I'll see...

gotta go...blessings...Deanna

Frozen Bra!

So Grace is turning 11 tomorrow. We had 6 girls here for an overnight Friday night. When I went to bed that night I counted 13 kids in our house. They had pizza, cake, ice cream, chips and were screaming until I had to come downstairs around midnight to tell them to SHHHHHHHH THERE ARE YOUNGER KIDS TRYING TO SLEEP... The girls then had to contend with Schmoopy who was trying to sleep in close proximity. Schmoops told them about her 11th birthday party when they froze a bra. There was only one girl with a bra at this party. In the morning I saw what looked like frozen dental floss....in the freezer. It was as hard as a rock!!!! They all thought that was extremely funny!!!!!! I had to laugh too because it didn't resemble a bra at all...This sleepover trick is probably about 60 years old....IN any event, Grace is thrilled to be 11 and is surrounded by many sweet and loud girlfriends.....her birthday is officially 6/8...PRAISE GOD THAT SHE IS ALIVE!!!! Everyday my kids thrive, grow and get older I count as a milestone for their mother who I am sure only wanted her children to be happy...They are happy and that makes my heart leap!!!!

Andrewz Crazy Life | Adopted Kid Blogs

Andrew (who is already in Middle School and is writing like he's an adult) has started his own personal blog. He calls it, "Andrewz Crazy Life" which makes sense, since he has a packed schedule, and has people (including his 5 siblings) always, asking him questions, and talking to him. So like this for me, he will talk about his life and express his thoughts on life. Of course, he spent an hour or so designing it, but the blog looks great. You can find him at http://andrewzcrazylife.blogspot.com or http://andrewzlife.tk




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We also have created a network called ADOPTED KID BLOGS for kids who have been adopted or are siblings who would like to add their blog to the list, reconnect with adopted friends etc. If any of your kids want tips on blogging go to Basics to Pro..

Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church...

Little insight into my kids history....

Busy! Busy! Busy!

It has been really busy around here. Kids are about to be tracked out AGAIN!!!! Samantha got a car from my mom that she loves. Mark flew up on a Monday to Chicago drove to Kentucky Monday night and made it back to NC on Tuesday. Sam jumped like some kind of crazy teenage TIGGER when she got the news that she finally had her own car (even if it is 12 years old and has 80k miles on it). She is graduating next week. Last weekend I had a small (said sarcastically) but awesome Memorial Day party with about 50 people. Kids were supposed to be in school. YES LADIES AND GENTLEMAN down south where I live they have MEMORIAL DAY as a make up required snow day.....so wrong...My kids stayed home. It was an eclectic crowd of friends from a few different churches. Some of my adoption friends were there. And some of our school and neighborhood friends as well. We had a ton of food....My sister Denise and my nephew Dominick were here for 4 days. We made approximately 190 cookies in two days that were gone as soon as they were made. I went through cinnamon rolls, bacon, two dozen eggs and a million other things...


Started Weight Watchers the day after Denise left (had to after the chocolate chip raw cookie dough)and am doing well. Not sure if I lost weight yet or not. Signed up online. Went to the actual in person meeting and was met with skinny people with an attitude and signs on their name tags announcing their weight loss. They told me I couldn't weigh in because I signed in online rather than in person and then told me I made a mistake and should call corporate if I want to come to the meetings. I decided I didn't like them and would rather have my diet relationship be with a computer. THey truly met me with the cold shoulder which I couldn't understand. Maybe it was because I am a naturally skinny person who is getting larger rather than a larger person experiencing skinniness for the first time in their lives. WHO KNOWS???? But I have decided the online version of Weight Watchers is much friendlier than the newly skinny actual people who are still thinking with a real FATITUDE regardless of their new figures === they don't like naturally skinny people that are turning fat for sure and don't want me to succeed (LOL and kidding but that is how it seemed)...First thing - they greeted everyone but me and then 20 minutes later when I was the only one standing there said "HELOOOOO can we help you? As if I was in the wrong place..." I said "Is this Weight Watchers? I came to get weighed." They said "we can't weigh you unless you sign up in person and it will cost you double..." blah blah....SOOO...I do like Weight Watchers ..the actual meal plan is great(and their desserts like the mint chip ice cream cone 2 points). You get to eat a lot. But their person to person customer service was nasty....IMHO...I am sure that isn't the case everywhere....OKAY DIET RANT OVER..

I have been handling the final touches of my book and have realized that the actual writing of the book was 10 times easier than editing. I edited it 5 million times, had others read and edit, put it through a substantive and copy edit with a pro..submitted it,....had to read proofs and had a friend do the same and still found 30 things that we missed....AND because I am a hyper creative person had to admit that I create with no real plan so am working on a game plan for promotion/marketing etc....

I am intending on incorporating adoption/pro life issues and child advocacy into a book tour in the late summer/fall/winter . I currently have tentative plans to spend 2 weeks in Northern Illinois in the beginning of September with my kids for a book tour and speaking engagements...SO, if anyone wants to have us in their church to speak/sing (or spinging), let us know. Don't hold my bad blogger punctuation against me....I was much more careful with the book....

We have decided NOT to get a dog ...SORRY! THe votes were in FOR the dog but Mark vetoed it and I didn't disagree. We did love Andrew's letter. There was a minute where he wanted to be homeschooled but he will be going to middle school afterall..RELIEVED..

Little Princessa baby girl Matea was in the car with me today. She has head phones on watching DVD of BARBIE and I am listenting to BUBBLY (Starts in my nose and goes to my toes...") . She takes her head phones off and yells "MOM...I get it .. I really get it.. OH MY GOD IS REAL...HE IS EVERYWHERE!!!" Honestly, we had just come from the dollar store buying 16 pair of flip flops (2 for each of us). I hadn't had a spiritual conversation with her in weeks...unless you consider talking about a neighbors dog being in doggy heaven. So I said "Yeah He is everywhere." She says "Mommy that is soooo cool...He is in the sky and the trees." I said "Yeah" and then she puts her phones on.....WILD!!!!!! So proud...