Birthday Traditions

“Dad,” Anna was saying, “don’t forget to say what you say on somebody’s birthday.”

I had just tucked Anna in on the eve of her birthday and I was trying to get the door closed so I could get on with my evening.

“OK, Addison. I won’t,” I replied. Then, after a pause, “Can you remind me again what I say on somebody’s birthday?”

“You know, Dad. Like what you said to K.D. ‘Here comes the birthday boy!’”

K.D.’s birthday was just a month earlier, so Anna had picked up on what she perceived as a very important tradition that happens on somebody’s birthday.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s right. And when do I say this?”

“When I come down the stairs in the morning. Just like you said it to K.D.”

“OK, Anna. I won’t forget,” I said, very relieved that she had filled me in on the details.

Now while I would not put saying “Here comes the birthday girl!” on our birthday tradition list, we do have several traditions surrounding birthday events in our home.

First, when the birthday child comes down in the morning (and I greet them with Anna’s new traditional saying) they find the window by the kitchen table decorated.

That night for supper, the birthday child gets to have mom cook the meal of their choice. This year K.D. picked an Ethiopian meal and Anna picked tacos.

When we open presents, the birthday child always sits in the brown chair in the family room. The child who is giving the gift joins the birthday child on the chair when their gift is being opened.

Unless the gift is from mom and dad. Then they have to sit there by themselves. . .

And as if getting to request a meal is not enough, they also get to have mom make a cake of their choosing. This year Anna requested a princess cake, and, as you can see, CrazyMom went all out. It was certainly a stunning cake.

Now those are just the birthday traditions that I can think of.  Maybe I should check with Anna and the gang to see what they would say.  I hate to think about all of the traditions that CrazyMom and I forget to do each year because we did not know it was a tradition!

Bridges to Prosperity

I just came across this. It is one of those great stories about the tremendous impact that people can have when the reach out and lend a hand to others, even if they are as far away as a remote part of Ethiopia.

Valentine's Day

Buddy’s Pickle Lightning

When Buddy’s science teacher announced that each student was going to have to do a science demo, Buddy knew instantly what he wanted to do. He had seen a chemistry teacher do a demo over the summer and he wanted to try it. It combined two of his loves in one demo – pickles and fire. Unfortunately, it was not a demo that was safe to do at school, but the teacher agreed that he could make a video of the demo and show that to the class. Here is the result.



This video sheds some light on the type of interesting fellow Buddy is. He certainly likes electricity, fires, and all things mechanical. If you go to throw away a piece of trash and it is made of plastic, metal, or wood then Buddy will ask if he can have it. Every nook and cranny in his room (as well as every horizontal surface) is crammed with these “supplies” for future creations.

One such creation came on a recent snow day when he built a basketball hoop. He then strapped it to a pole in the basement and the kids had a good time playing indoor basketball.



If you are familiar with “The Encyclopedia of Immaturity,” then you are familiar with our son. The other day he came to me with a glue stick and a paper clip because he needed some help. Here is the result.



Now while I could live without the fake impaling of a paper clip, it certainly is a lot of fun to live with a kid whose mind is always running in creative ways.

Life Markers

When God led the Israelites into the promised land, he had them pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from which they made a memorial. Joshua 4:6-7 tells us, “Let these stones be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

God knows that we need markers in our lives – things to help us remember the significant events. So it seems that baptism is more than simply an “outward sign of an inward change,” but it also one of those life markers from which one can draw strength.

What a joy is was as parents to watch Miss Bookworm get baptized on Sunday. I loved her testimony where, when speaking of when she decided to follow Christ, she said, “Well, I was laying on my bed thinking things over . . .”. Thinking things over led her to a decision nearly 10 years ago now and she is still growing in the Lord to this day.

Teenagers and Music

On Saturday I was up on a ladder taking down Christmas lights while CrazyMom was “supervising” from the ground. (Yes, supervising. When I lean as far out as I can on the ladder to try to reach some lights, I can feel her we-have-too-many-kids-for-you-to-be-doing-something-so-dumb look burning through my back.)

Miss Bookworm popped her head out the front door and said, “Mom, can I buy a song?” She was on the iTunes store on my laptop and wanted to add to the collection on her new grandparent-provided iPod.

“Sure,” said CrazyMom. Then, as Miss Bookworm’s head was disappearing, CrazyMom suddenly realized that she never asked what song it was – she was lapsing as a parent.

“Wait!” she called after Miss Bookworm. “What song is it?”

“Lead Me To the Cross,” Miss Bookworm called as she stuck her head back out and then disappeared into the house.

As the door closed, CrazyMom and I chuckled.

“I guess that song will be alright,” CrazyMom said as she smiled.

“Yeah, I am pretty sure that one does not have an ‘explicit’ tag,” I said . . . and then I had to catch my balance because my chuckling had caused me to lose my focus on the ladder.

Sodo - The Best Dog Ever

Over the years people other than my children have tried to convince me to get a dog for our family. They would always tell me how great their dog was and I would always think that I would love to have their dog, but I was not so sure about having any dog.

So when we finally took the plunge and got a dog, who would have known that we would have ended up with the best dog ever. (For those of you who think you have the best dog ever, I guess you are entitled to your own - incorrect - opinions.) One of the many things that makes this dog so great is that she flunked out of a program to be a service dog for children with disabilities. Evidently she was exhibiting some poor behaviors while living in her crate, none of which we have seen in our home. While she may be a service dog flunkie, she is trained at a high level for a house pet.

We have named this dog Sodo after the Ethiopian town that all of our adopted kids are from. Sodo has adjusted beautifully to our home. Everybody is getting along just great - except for the cats. Even though the cats are above Sodo in the pecking order and Sodo keeps her distance from them, they have only warmed up a little to her at this point. We have seen some improvement and are still optimistic that all of the animals will become friends.

It’s a . . . Dog! (Part 2)

I mentioned in the last post that the kids were excited. Here is a video where you get to see their reactions first hand.



And a few shots of the dog that we took of him at the organization that is now caring for him.

It’s a . . . Dog!

Our kids are always asking for a dog. The conversation usually goes like this:

Kid: Dad, can’t we get a . . .

Dad: No!

I don’t even give them a chance to finish their sentence. Over the last decade I have projected nothing but a impenetrable wall on this topic.

But inside, there have always been secret fissures in the wall.

A few years ago we were on a trip to Purina Farms when I came into contact with a small Golden Retriever of the field retriever variety. I knew I could take that dog home on the spot. But that dog was not available, so the NO-DOG wall was still strong.

This year around Thanksgiving CrazyMom starting asking me if we were going to do individual gifts for the kids or if we were going to do a family gift. Always hoping for an easy Christmas shopping season, I am partial to family gifts so I asked her what she thought a good family gift would be.

“Well, we could get a dog,” she said.

As you probably already know, we humans have the amazing ability to rationalize just about anything. It was so easy to convert my top-10-reasons-not-to-get-a-dog list into a top-10-reasons-to-get-a-dog list. So, like the Berlin wall, the unthinkable happened, the NO-DOG wall crumpled.

It turns out that looking for a family dog did not make for the “easy shopping season” that I had hoped for, but in the end, I think we found a real winner. As you can imagine, the kids were quite excited when they found out. But more on that later . . .

The Blind Side

Once a year or so CrazyMom and I go to a movie in a theater to maintain the false pretense that we are connected with modern American culture. A few nights back we went to see The Blind Side, which is the adoption story of Michael Oher.

We loved it . . . but please be advised that you should never take movie recommendations from people who only see a movie a year. Also, as adoptive parents, we might be a little biased.

There were a few themes in the movie that resonated so strongly with me that I was able to overlook any other faults the movie may have.

Consider the following moment in the film (it is in a trailer, so I don’t think I am spoiling anything here). Leigh Anne Tuohy, the mother who took in Michael, was having lunch with her friends.

“I think it is just great what you are doing for that boy. You are changing him,” said a friend.

Softly, almost to herself, Leigh Anne replied, “No, he is changing me.”

That moment drove home a larger theme in the movie - that the adoptive family is blessed just as much as the one who is adopted. So many times people have said similar things to me – “Those kids are so lucky to be a part of your family,” or “How blessed they are to have you guys.” While I think this is true, these comments leave out half of the story. “They have not been blessed as much as we have,” I often reply.

Another theme that resonated with me was captured well in this scene (this one was not in the trailer, but the movie is not a mystery, so I don’t think I am ruining anything here). Leigh Ann and her husband Sean are getting ready in the bathroom. Leigh Ann is pressing Sean to agree to something that he is not ready to agree with.

Leigh Ann: Will you at least think about it?

Sean: Alright.

Leigh Ann: “Alright” you will think about it or “alright” you agree with me?

Sean: Aren’t they the same thing?

Yes, in the end they are the same thing and women like Leigh Ann and CrazyMom do get their way. Of course, this is how the world ought to be since they press forward to do what is right.