Owner: Mega Family Living URL:megafamilyliving2.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:24:19 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Everyday life in a very large family of 34 biological and adopted children. We are a multicultural family whose children have joined us from around the world. Just to make life more interesting we also home educate. Drop by and say hello. I love to hear f Site statistics:Click here
From My Heart 2007-02-28 21:57:00 Tonight we have a famiiy meeting with our three wayward teens. Scary...we have been in discussions on and off all afternoon. Tonight after the littles go to bed and the others go to church youth group we shall talk. I must say its like three outsiders living in our home. They want the lifestyle without the responsibilities. Sean , now 19 and adopted at 7 gave them a mouthful....' You will address them as mom and dad or you can get the hell out" Strong words from a boy with CP and met death now three times. Today he told them he is hurt each time they address us as Bob or Sharon. Phew...this is a boy who was born at 1 pound never expected to live. So many kids are pissed here and tonight they get a chance to speak.The groundwork has been layed. I have heard it all before. They will not disrespect their prior families. In fact they may not come to the table unless they are ready to accept and say that their problems have followed them from family to family.There is one thing w Read more:Heart
Johnny 2007-03-03 02:21:00 Johnny built another bike to sell. Read more:Johnny
Max 2007-03-03 02:18:00 Max home from surgery. By the end of summer we start woeking on getting his arms rodded.
Joey 2007-03-03 02:14:00 Blogger still isn't accepting long posts but it lets mw post pictures.
Technical Difficulties 2007-03-02 20:14:00 For some reason once again I'm having trouble getting blogger to accept my posts. Grrr...anything over three lines it kicks back as too big ??? I'll keep trying. Read more:Technical
, Technical Difficulties
Science Project 2007-03-04 02:01:00 The cotton plants the kids planted have finally emerged. Some were not aware that cotton came from plants. They learn something new here everyday. My daily question to them before they head off to bed is always....so tell me what new thing did you learn today ? One night Timmy told me he learned about gravity. Yup...if you throw a rock straight up in the air it's most likely to come down and hit you in the head. Then he showed me the bump on his head. OUCH ! Read more:Science
, Project
I Don't Do Cold ! 2007-03-03 23:31:00 It's back....WINTER....and I don't do cold. What is up with this weird weather ? Yesterday it was in the 80's and today it barely feels 50. I keep taking plants into the greenhouse , out of the greenhouse...darn it , I might as well put a revolving door on the darn thing. The photo on the left is where we decided to put the vegetable garden this year or at least one of them. Hopefully the orange construction fencing will be enough to keep the kids balls and toys from doing too much damage.Today as cold as it was we continued working on putting garden beds into the back yard. The littles all helped with putting in a southwest themed garden with loads of various cactus plants. Now that they have experienced the cactus thorns I think they'll stay far away.I've been meaning to catch everybody up to the outcome of our family meeting the other night but the darn blogger kept refusing any post with more than three lines. Maybe it was a hint that I talk too much ? It went off fa
Puppy Love 2007-03-05 17:34:00 Max and his favorite puppy. Read more:Puppy
Happy Birthday Stephen 2007-03-05 16:15:00 Stephen is now 12 years old. Seems like yesterday that he came to us at 4 years old. He has had a rough year and is still recovering from his close call with death in December. He is still totally bedridden and one of our total care children but a real joy to be around.HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN !!!! Read more:Happy
, Birthday
, Stephen
, Happy Birthday
Peaceful Weekend 2007-03-04 21:39:00 We had a rather peaceful weekend. No drama , just everyday living with whole bunch of kids. Can life get better than that ? See , I don't ask for much. Maybe I need to get one of those T-Shirts my husband has. He wears it when he's having a bad day. It says....If Bob ain't happy nobody is happy. I want mine to say if mom isn't happy , nobody is happy. The beautiful warm weather drew us all outdoors today. I of course played in the gardens with seven littles all offering their help and sometimes trampling the little plants before I could get the words "watch out" out of my mouth. Oh well , no harm done , I just plopped a replacement plant in its place and moved on. After awhile they got bored and went on to playing with the puppies who are just about ready to go to new homes but the kids aren't happy with that. They want to keep them all. We have another extremely busy week here with several of the kids having medical appointments in various areas of the state and on Tuesda Read more:Peaceful
, Weekend
It's Official ! 2007-03-06 17:12:00 This morning we finalized the adoption of Catherine and Tommy. They are now Catherine Angel and Thomas Michael. YEAH !!What was odd is that they were a set of triplets but now will be listed as twins on their new birth certificate. Read more:Official
Doctor Appointments 2007-03-05 19:33:00 I had an emotionally exhausting team meeting with the psychiatric unit that Ebony resides at. At 14 we are running out of treatment options for her once she is discharged from this hospital which right now is set for June. We may be able to get another 6 month extension but it's doubtful since she is making no progress. Sometimes it is more exhausting to fight for her needs than it is to deal with everyday life in a large adoptive family.Nadia also had her long awaited appointed with a developmental specialist today. She came to us at 3 years old after she disrupted from three prior families. She is originally from Ukraine. We knew right away that her problem was Autism but today we learned that in addition to Autism she also has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I'll need some time to process that myself but does help explain all her symptoms and processing problems. We have adult adopted children with FAS so it's not like it's new to us. Instead it's more like just another challe Read more:Doctor
Ponderings..... 2007-03-07 05:15:00 1. Why is it that with over an acre of land to play on my kids will seek out that one mudd puddle to play in ? 2. Does the washing machine really eat only the kids socks ?3. Who is "Not Me" ?4. Why do kids have to empty out their dressers and throw the clothes on the floor in order to get dressed for the day ?5. Why does "Not Me " have to throw the eating utensils in the garbage ?6. Do teens really need to change their clothes 3 times a day ?7. Is the answer "everybody else is doing it " a requirement in teens vocabulary ?8. How come there is only no toilet paper on the dispenser when I use the bathroom ?9. Why is it that kids put empty containers or empty food wrappings back in the refrigerator ?10. If you buy sugared cereal does it really need 3 more teaspoons of sugar added to it ?11. Come on....you know you want to add one. Don't leave me out here in blog land pondering all alone. Send me your ponderings.
Scott 2007-03-07 01:11:00 Scott , still bald but getting cuter by the day. Why he insists on using a brush on his head when he has no hair I don't understand but my guess is he is just imitating what he sees others here do. Read more:Scott
Just a Normal Day 2007-03-08 22:43:00 The day started early with the kids needing to be at the bowling alley for 9:45. They really enjoy being on a league with other home schoolers. Then it was out to the garden to transplant more plants which means by the time lunch rolls around a few need a shower because they are like little dirt magnets with streaks of dirt all over any uncovered body part. After lunch they all walked to our local dollar store to spend their hard earned money. Not one of the little ones understand the concept of saving up for something. Instead as soon as their savings hit the 1.00 mark they start itching to go to the dollar store.We are faxing off our certificate to order our Painted Lady Catterpillars tomorrow for our butterfly unit study. I think the weather has warmed up enough for shipping. Hopefully we will also be able to move our schooling to working outside at the picnic tables instead of staying indoors.The teens have been relatively quiet which basically translates to the police not havi Read more:Normal
The Kindness of Strangers : Katrina Kittle 2007-03-08 02:13:00 Another great book to put on your "must read" list. This one was sent to me by my friend Pat and I think took me longer than usual to read do to the dark subject matter. Some things just turn my stomach. If you are either a foster or adoptive parent then it's a definite "must read" book for you. I could never quite understand why children keep secrets like this or even why and how perps can kidnap teens and they don't run or tell someone but I promise by the end of the book you'll understand too. From the book : On a quiet street in the suburban Midwest, a popular, seemingly stable family keeps a terrible, dark secret behind closed doors - a secret that will have life-changing consequences for all who know them. Read more:Kindness
, Strangers
, Katrina
You Did What ???? 2007-03-07 23:03:00 Asia just figured out that the bigger the garden we put in , the more weeding will need to be done. This is her "you got to be kidding" look after I told her we have plenty of little hands to pull weeds. My brother took a bunch of the kids for walk on the lake front or at least that's where they started their walk. Next thing I know they are all excitedly running into the house to tell me they filed a complaint at city hall. This seems to have been a Max idea. All I could keep saying is...you filed a what ? Where ? I am still shaking my head. A few of my kids have a hard time maneuvering their wheelchairs up over the curb and onto the sidewalk to access the park. The town seems to have forgotten to put ramp entrances off the street for wheelchair access. We discussed it at home but I never expected my kids to go to city hall and ask to see the Mayor. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know or I wouldn't have allowed them to do it. Their complaint was taken seriously and they
Scott 2007-03-09 04:37:00 Oh My !!! Hard to believe this little guy once had the most silky beautiful hair. He even had eyebrows and eyelashes. Really looks like two different children but it's not. Alopecia with Down Syndrome is more common than people think. He is making tremendous progress developmentally. Still the baby of the family but with his smile and personality he can get anybody to do anything he wants the to do. Read more:Scott
Max 2007-03-09 04:07:00 Max one year later was fun to do. I really didn't think he changed all that much but he has. The photo with the crew cut above is the most recent. I knew he had grown physically over the year but I didn't realize how much he has matured and he too smiles so much more easily now. He had been very guarded when he first came. He was under the impression that no family would ever want a little boy that was handicapped but once he got here and saw all the other kids with their handicaps he knew he had finally found a family that didn't care about his physical disability. Max has been one of the easiest children to ever join our family as an older child. He fit right in from day one. It's hard to believe he has only been in the USA for four years.
Lyosha 2007-03-09 02:19:00 Tonight I have been browsing through photos of the kids and when I compared the photos of Lyosha I was amazed. He has been with us for a little over one year now and was in multiple families before us. He is diagnosed as severe RAD , ODD and PTSD and Depression. I have to say he has come a long long way. We never did experience any of the severe rages the other families reported. We did see the ODD and the severe rages seemed to be replaced by passive aggressive behaviors. More recently I'd say with the trouble he has been getting into with my two other teens that he is beginning to express himself with typical teenage rebellion issues and following peer pressure. Maybe , just maybe this one will pull his act together before he hits 18 and is held accountable as an adult for his actions. I think his biggest accomplishments this year has been that he is finally letting his
Kenia 2007-03-10 22:53:00 Growing up right before our eyes. Where does the time go ? It seems like just yesterday she was a little four year old only able to scoot across the floor on her butt. Now 15 and walking short distances. She doesn't speak but can say individual words. Kenia is originally from Honduras and has Angelmans syndrome. Now a teen she has mastered the teen facial expressions and has become quite adept at rolling her eyes at me when I tell her to do something she doesn't want to do.
There's a Horse in the House.... 2007-03-10 18:54:00 The kids get a kick out of Stanley coming inside the house to visit. He has been doing really well in his training as a service horse for Sean. Read more:Horse
, House
Windows To The Soul 2007-03-10 04:16:00 As I was reviewing the kids then vs. now photos from over the years I realized that each and every one of them has made progress. It just may not be the progress I most want from them. I learned an important lesson and I think that periodically I may need to review photos to help me visualize the growth that isn't just measured by physical means. In looking through their photos I began to see something that I hadn't seen before. Something that I overlooked on our daily living together day in and day out. They say the eyes are a window to the soul and that is where I saw the biggest change. Kids who arrived here scared and wondering how long they would be staying here had the most intense yet passive faces in the photos but then ever so gradually I could see the face and eyes change to one of " I'm at peace with this" Here I was looking for major character changes and I had been over looking smaller things that are more important to the inner core of every child in order for th Read more:Windows
No Power 2007-03-10 03:30:00 We have bravely been without power since this afternoon. Since we are the only ones on the block without power that means it's us. Just our luck. We managed to find an electrician to come in and he is still here at 9:00 tonight. At least we have a gas stove so making dinner wasn't an issue but the kids never realized how much they have come to depend on electricity. Trying to use the microwave fooled them all then a few thought oh well might as well take a shower or bath never once thinking where and how the water gets hot. A few are beginning to have meltdowns and have decided they can't survive without air conditioning. I have to keep reminding them to tough it out. What will they ever do when we get hit with the next hurricane ? In the past we have been without electricity for a week when hurricane Charlie hit us...followed by 2 others the same year. I keep telling the this is a practice session before hurricane season so we can see just who is man or wimp.To think this wh
Breezie 2007-03-12 01:27:00 Who needs to seek out entertainment if you have littles like mine that keep me laughing all the time with the things that come out of their mouths.Brianna pictured here or Breezie as we fondly call her because she is always chattering away is always one to make us laugh with the things that spill out of her mouth...."Matthew your my bestest brother right ? And you want to give me your gum right ? Do you know you smells just like the doggies ? "" Daddy , do you know you look just like me ? You're handsome. Can I have 5 cookies ? "" Mommy , if you want me to be healthy then you have to let me go play outside." Even if we are having a really bad day around here , just spending five minutes chatting with Breezie lightens my heart.
Glorious day.....lousy ending 2007-03-13 03:07:00 Well , it was a glorious day....but what a lousy
ending. Once again my two boys were returned to us in the back of a police cruiser. They have only been allowed to leave the property for the last 2 weeks. I was just asking my husband if the two of them had come in yet as it was 9;30 and they are usually in by 9;00. Just as he says no, I look out the window and I said to him....never mind the police are just pulling in to the driveway want to bet they're in the backseat ? Sure enough , they got caught shop lifting from the one store they hadn't been trespassed from. This time even the police are frustrated as they were waiting for them to be caught in the act and they were but the store owner is not interested in prosecuting. Seems there is too much paperwork involved and store owners don't want to miss work to attend court hearings. They are just as happy to have them "trespassed" from ever entering their stores. These two yahoos are standing in the driveway BEGG
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