Trials are not enemies of faith but are opportunities to prove
God's faithfulness. -- Author Unknown

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one
to say 'thank you?' -- William A. Ward

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Big "Duhh" Moment

Alternate Title: Why You Shouldn't Procrastinate
I've learned a few things from Flylady.
I almost always do a load of laundry a day. I try to clean my car out when I fill the tank with gas or if I'm waiting for Ananya at the school. I always remember the power of fifteen minutes.
You really can do alot in 15 minutes.
Well Flylady preaches about not procrastinating. It gets you into a mess. It usually only takes a fraction of the time that you think the task will take. I know this for a fact.
Back up to the load of laundry. Now this doesn't just mean wash. This means wash, dry, fold and put away. Today, I "did" 4 loads of laundry. One is in the dryer. The other 3 I dumped on my bed. This is one of my helpful habits. I know that I can fold and put a load away in less than 10 minutes. Sometimes I don't immediately fold it. If I don't fold it I'll dump it one the bed. Usually, when I go to dump the 2nd load, I'll stop and fold both loads. 15 minutes later its all taken care of. I got caught up in doing Anthony's math work and forgot the laundry. That is until I went to go lay in bed and work on Anthony's assignment schedule for next week. I walked into my bedroom and saw nothing but clothes. Iwas frustrated with myself. I should have "done" the laundry when I "did" the laundry. I can't exactly pile 3 loads into 1 basket.
I'll have everyone know, I folded and put away all laundry. I'm proud of myself.
Lesson for the day. Don't procrastinate.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Walkers

This is Ananya's new walker. She seems to like it.


It's pretty and shiny and red. She seems to like it. Then again, she didn't mind the one from the school.
Here is Prasun in the one we borrowed from the school. This is his idea of me torturing him. Well I have to get him as he is falling out the bottom.

Change and Hope

More serious stuff.
Tuesday I watched the Inauguration. I'm not a political person really. I have a few issues that I am very passionate about. Not liking politics is really one of them. To start with they want to reform healthcare but don't take care of the patients everyday so they can truly know what needs done. Another thing I'm passionate about is management. I generally don't like them either, but that is not for today.
Tuesday I watched the 44th President of the United States take the oath of office. I was honestly excited. So much in life is out of our control. We can control some, but most is out of our realm. I just sit back and watch, wondering "wonder what is going to happen next?"
I hope and pray that it isn't like a horrific car crash that you can't take your eyes off. I hope the answers become clear to our new President. I hope he can see how to start to "fix" the problems. I think that Americans will have to come off our "high" and tighten up. Things can only go well for so long. That may sound pessimistic, but its true. The bad will come eventually. You just hope its a little bad and not horrific car crash bad. You also hope that when it does get better (hoping for sooner rather than later) that we can prepare ourselves better for when the bad comes again.
I'm watching the new President with interest. I want to see what happens next. I'm hoping he makes some good changes. There are some changes that I'm hoping he can't make. There is never a candidate that will stand for ALL the things you believe. I just want to see everything not get alot worse. I hope that he manages the taxpayers money like he would handle his own money.
This week alot has changed. We won't know next week what all the change causes. All we can do is watch, and pray, and hope. Then we continue to live our lives. We teach our children right from wrong. We raise the leaders of tomorrow. We show others that we love and respect them. We care for one and other. We help others when they need it.
We hope for some things to stay the same. And we hope for change.
Bless the new President and his family. Alot in their lives are changing.
(Little side rant. Why is it so important what designer Michelle picks to wear? Really people lets have intelligent conversation. World peace, starving children, and such. Life isn't all about clothes. Although I am happy that Michelle made tasteful choices as opposed the knee high go-go boots worn by someone else. )

Saturday, January 17, 2009

New Wheels!!!!!!

Ananya is going to be sporting some new wheels soon. We got a walker from EBay for a great buy and just have to wait for them ship it.
I've seen such a HUGE difference in Ananya's strength and posture since I've had her school walker at home. She stands in it with the wheels locked for an hour and then can walk through the house. She bears her own weight and everything. I guess you have to have seen the beginning to appreciate the present.
This week was just an amazing week for her in general. She was using signs without prompting. She was really motivated. I'm betting the motivation will be gone. She is so stinking stubborn that its hard to know what she can do and understand really.
She loves Rock Band. In the middle of the day, Ananya gets 1 drumstick and Prasun gets the other and you find them in front of the drums beating on them.
Ananya has also decided that she will color. That is definitely something new. Before she just wanted to tear the paper into small pieces.
She can get a spoon to her mouth. Now to work on doing it with food on the spoon. Yeah!!! Doesn't sound like a mess at all.
My house has been nothing but tiny pieces of paper all week. The kids have been playing with last weeks newspaper. They carry it into any clean room and then tear it into small pieces. Fun to clean up.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Cultural Respect and Open-Mindedness

Time for some substance around here.
I want to talk about cultural awareness and respect.
My family lives in a diverse area. Our family is a minority. We are 2/5 Asian Indian. We aren't closing the door to other adoptions that would add other cultures to our family. My husband is southern and I'm northern. My cooking tends to have alot of northern influence. I can't tell you how many people I've introduced to pierogies and roast pork and sauerkraut. We tend to do very diverse things around here.
We live with the stares of people trying to figure out how Ananya and Prasun are our kids. We live with people asking how much they cost or if they are brother and sister.
First, its rude to ask how much a child cost. It is really even rude to ask how much the adoption cost. I don't ask you how much your car payment is.
Secondly, yes. My kids are brothers and sisters. Biology isn't the only determinate of that. It really isn't anyone's business if they have the same birth mother.
But I digress.
I believe that it is healthy to have friends from a variety of backgrounds. I don't want the world around us to be white (or black or brown for that matter). I want all my kids to understand the World. Not the world in front of us but the World around us. I want my kids to know why Muslim women cover their heads, that some Indians are vegan for religious reasons, and Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. I could go on with the list but I will spare you. I don't see anything wrong with my children experiencing things from other cultures, and I'm not talking just food.
I work in a hospital with a large number of Indian doctors. One time I had one of their mothers as a patient. Devout Muslims. Do you know that it made me uncomfortable being in the room without a head covering. All of the other women were covered. No one expected me to do this. I just felt like the room was this woman's personal space. I should be respectful when I am in her space.
I feel like when interacting with others who have cultural beliefs differing from yours that there should be respect on the part of both parties. I expect others to be respectful of me as a person and I will give them the same respect. I won't disregard what I know about their culture. I won't belittle their beliefs. I will try to integrate myself somewhat into their lives, especially if they are friends.
I applaud so many adoptive families out there who make an extra effort to integrate their culture into their families lives. You can take a festival of one religion and make some changes to make it fit your family. Pat and Julie have a great example here. You can agree with the basic meaning of a holiday and chose to make it your own. It is called creating traditions.
It is my thought that people who enter your home, especially those you call your friends should respect that. I would think that they would want to be involved. At least to broaden the horizons of their own children.
Well I'm coming from my own little place with this. I want to learn about other cultures because I find it interesting. I'm interested in learning about the World (emphasis on the big W) and not just the world that is in front of me. I want to interact with the World through mission trips and such. The only way to do that is by learning about their lives. You can only share your truth with others if you can understand where they are coming from. It will at least give the impression that you care enough to have done your research. It gives backbone and substance to what you say.
My point in this whole rant is to simply say: Please be respectful of the cultures around you. It doesn't have to be an ethnic joke to insult someone. Simple comments made without thinking can hurt someone.
Kindergarten teaches "Treat others as you would like to be treated." A school lesson to be remembered.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Some Pictures

Ananya in her walker we are borrowing from the school. She likes to try to dis-assemble it when she is in it. It does keep her busy for at least 45 minutes. I do use her knee immobilizers to keep her standing the entire time. I'm hoping it makes her legs stronger by being upright.


Prasun can't be left out. He likes to use the walker too. He can't tolerate as long in it, but he has other things that we are working on with him.
We spent the last couple days playing Rock Band. The kids love it. I've even started playing.
I'll post some more later this weekend. I'm rolling some things around in my head and I think I may have something of importance to say. No new revelations for our house, but just going to throw my opinion out there once again.