Photo shoot (new family pictures!)

We are so your non-typical family when it comes to family pictures or portraits. Mostly because Hrishi hates photo studios. In a way, I'm glad he does as we get to go out there and experiment ourselves with our camera and because it makes the event really spontanous. (We never really try to color coordinate but it just so happens that we match ok!) This past Sunday after church I wanted to go out for a drive and take the camera with us. Hrishi had a couple of places in mind so we dressed down, packed a couple fo sandwhiches for dinner and took off. Us, our camera, and tripod. Here's the result. The black & white makes for a nice variation. I can't wait to frame a few.

Expressions of love

One way we do it around here is through cards: Ella, probably like any other child of her age, LOVES to make cards. Cards for mommy, daddy, grandparents, friends, teachers, anyone dear to her under the sun.

The funniest thing about all this is that she always somehow "short changes" daddy on her cards...! We're certain that it's not intentional! He's either pictured as a really small character or just very funny looking! Or the card is not as elaborate. He's such a great sport though and is never bothered by it! :)

She brought these two back from school yesterday. How couldn't you love a little person who draws something like this?????? (I absolutely love the details! So cute!) Hrishi and I laughed so hard with delight last night when we found these in her bag. And I had to snap a picture. :)

(I'm yet to find out who's the red & blue guy next to me. Or is that her and her (boy)friend, but why would they be on my card??? Then on to daddy's card: is that him with me or with her maybe?? Oh, so many questions!!!)

The first step



LSSS



Wonderful.... this is simply how I feel. I know Hrishi shares the feeling too. This is how we feel about this journey we've embarked on, the journey of becoming foster-to-adopt parents. Today we took our very first step: attended orientation and submitted our application along with some other paperwork. This will be followed by a lot more paperwork, a lot more documentation, and many many training hours than you could imagine. The packet is a few of inches thick. But just like they said in orientation today, I will imagine how it will feel when we've gone through all of it and we are finally certified and ready to welcome a child or children into our home. Our home will be their safe haven. The one place where they'll feel protected and loved. The one place they've  been longing for. 

 

FIT

I'll need to remember, imagine, and visulize this because I know they'll be roadblocks along the way. I'll also need to remember the tears that streamed down my cheeks (yes, I am a very emotional person!) today when they showed a couple of videos narrated by children in the foster system. How blessed we are for the families we have, the families in which we grew up! There's no greater blessing!

(Lutheran Social Services of the South is our agency and Foster in Texas, FIT is their partner.)
And although this post was going to end here, it's worth mentioning to say the least, the struggle I've been through in finding an agency that would accept us into their program. You see, not all adoption agencies do work with non-US citizens which we both are. We are legal residents (green card holders) but not citizens, at least not yet. We looked into infant adoption a while back and had some agency contacts. After putting a more comprehensive contacts list together a few days ago I started calling around. I called a ton of people and left voicemail after voicemail,  explaining our situation. Some had called back and said no, others never did. Luckily, (and it's really not luck but the huge hand of Providence/God's love for us) after a whole day of calling and almost losing hope, Lutheran Social Services of the South responded to our call and took us in. This was a testimony to me that He wants us to do this and that no matter how hard or disheartening it may get at times, this is right and things will work out! 

Fancy Nancy: dress-up party

Ella and I had a really good time this Saturday at one of her little friends' dress-up birthday party! (This was only a few hours after the morning event and although I was so tired and was craving for some recovery time, I'm so glad I went with her! (But wait, I didn't really have a choice as Hrishi informed me that he would not take Ella to an all-girls dress-up party!) Anyway, it was really cute (and FANCY!) We were welcomed at the door by a lady wearing a fancy hat and adressing to us in a almost perfect British accent! (Well, that was a bit intimidating to me at first, I must admit.) The house was decorated to match the theme of the party. After dressing up, they were served "tea" (pink lemonade) from gorgeous tea silverware, fairy bread, carrots and apple slices by their own buttler (who was the father of the birthday girl. This guy took his job really seriously!) They learned tea etiquette, then danced, made bead necklaces, changed a few more times, had cake, and danced some more.

Ella was really good at holding her pinky up while drinking the "tea" and tapping the corners of her mouth with the napkin! The birthday girl even did her "make-up" to her delight: a bit of eye shadow and chapstick.

I must say I was impressed with the preparations. Ella was too, and she's been talking about having her own dress-up party (but with boys too?!!!) close to her birthday. Good thing I got the referral for the place where they rented much of the paraphenalia. I had a great time too, watching all the cute little girls have a ball and enjoying the beautifully decorated home (aside from the party themed-stuff) they had. I think I got a few ideas to implement in our home! (You know, I'm always in search for those but as many as I gather I hardly ever get to implement... . Some day!)

And the night before the party we baked and decorated these beauties:

(Shh, they're sugar cookies! But they're whole wheat!)

"Mocking mere mortals"

This is what my hard-earned t-shirt from the Boot Camp Games says.  And the event yesterday morning was  nothing short of it!

Pretty tired but happy...!

So yesterday morning I pushed myself to what I think it's my very physical and mental limits (to a certain extent) because I came to learn that your body will do only as much as your mind will tell it to. I had a pretty rough start with the power push exercise, which was the very first one in the competition: pushing 100 lbs contraption across 100 meters of grass. THAT WAS was excruciatingly hard and painful for my poor legs. I was lucky to have Hrishi there to boost me up and the trainer that was timing me. It really helped as a few times I felt like I was going to give up.

 The power decathlon and weights exercises followed. Pretty tough, especially the 90 lbs deadlift as I hadn't trained for that heavy of a weight. I actually trained for only half the weight so when I saw the 45 lbs iron grips on each side of the bar, mentally I was like "oh no, this is going to be impossible!" Somehow I made it through the 10 reps. After the power decathlon came the 1.5 mi obstacle course (endurance portion of the event.) By the time I got to the obstacle course I was dead tired, my heart rate must have been in the 180's for 10-12 mins now and was not slowing down. I got 2.5 mins break before I started on the course and finished it in 9 mins. I even sprinted on my last lap. It was pure awesomeness!!! It's incredible what adrenaline can do for you! Works miracles, I tell you!!! My approximate overall time for the whole event was  a little over 25 minutes. (The results will be posted online soon, I hope. I'm really curious to see how I ranked out of all the female participants.)

It was fun to be there, the competition atmosphere, the army of personal trainers rounding us up for the event, timing, and cheering, family on the sidelines, the occasional breeze in a pretty hot day.... all in all a great thing!

The best little supporter ever, with Gatorade on the sidelines

The beastly power push

The V-ups were a piece of cake after deadlifting 90 lbs

Ropes, easy

Catching a breath here and there...



This is my fave picture. Hrishi did such a great job capturing the moment! :)

It's really of hard to put in words how and what I felt. It was SIMPLY AMAZING and worth

every single heavy breath  (and there were a lot of those!), muscle pain, and drop of sweat. I did it to prove myself that I can do hard things (in the physical realm) that get me way out of my comfort zone,  and that my body is ready after all these months of impeccable training. And I also did it to hopefully help Ella see through my example that one can do difficult things and no matter how hard something is, if you put your mind to it, you can do it. I've been preaching this to myself and her for a while now but I think it's a good thing. She was such a trooper, standing, watching, and cheering there for me in the heat. She even brought me water. Hrishi said she was quite amazed with all that was going on. At times I thought she'd be scared to see mommy's almost disfigured face when lifting those heavy weights. Ha-ha!

I am so thankful for my amazingly supportive Hrishi and Ellie and for a great trainer who helped me get where I am today and sneaked the thought of signing up for this in my mind. And I am grateful for a healthy body, willing mind, and God's allowing me to do this.

Flat Stanley!

A few years ago I learned about this whole "Flat Stanley" business. [It almost sounds to me like a rite of passage for all preschoolers and kindergartners.] My little (at the time) nephew, Nitant, who had recently moved to Atlanta, shipped the little guy over so he could take on an Omaha adventure with us. Then a couple or so years later, my little niece's turn came (that is Nikita, Nitant's sister): she sent her Flat Stanley off to us to explore a bit of Dallas and its surroundings. A few weeks ago, we got our own- one and only, Flat Stanley, and commissioned him to travel to Atlanta and visit Nikita and Nitant.

Flat Stanley gracefully accepted the commission and made it back in style, reporting of all his wonderful adventures with Nikita, in Atlanta! (Nikita even made a "Welcome" sign for it! Isn't she amazing?!)

(I must say she did an excellent job showing him around and neatly putting together his travel memoires! Thank you dearest Nikita! You made Ella so very happy!  She was very proud of her Flat Stanley and said it came in quitea  fancy binder!! She added: "I am so lucky to have such a sweet cousin!" Indeed, she is. )

Transition and change

I have been having mixed feelings these past few days about new beginnings and how we always seemed to be pushed into some kind of change or new experience. These have been mostly triggered by Ella's continuing summer camp at a new Primrose school, the same school that would pick her up from kindergarten and provide after-school services for her. We decided to start her there now as opposed to when kindergarten starts end of August, in hopes that she would be able to meet and make new friends who may be attending kindergarten with her. She loves her old Primrose school, teachers and friends, the familiarity of it, and understandly so she was not excited about this move. In fact, she told me last night that she did not like this decision at all. I tried to explain and comfort, letting her know that I completely understood how she felt (because I really did and do as I'm not a huge fan of change myself!) and that I felt the same way she did. On the bright side of this change:  the school operates pretty much the same way as her old school does and the people are nice and she quickly adapts and adjusts so she'll be fine. I'm still a bit nervous but I pray she'll have a smooth transition. This will probably be good practice and help make the kindergarden going transition smooth too.

As much as I know and strongly believe change is good for us, my heart still breaks to see her leave good teachers, friends, familiar classrooms, hallways, etc. all behind and embark on a new adventure, put herself out there all over again, getting to know new teachers, building new relationships and a new sense of familiarity. But that's what life is all about.

So glad the weekend is here though and we have each other.