Photo Perspective

We had a special visitor tonight. I'm torn at what to call him since none of the typical names seem to fit exactly. He is Meister's biological dad, but he was also there for his birth. He is Meister's birth dad, but he was there for him more than just birth. He is Meister's first dad, but that implies that now that there is a second dad, he isn't his dad at all anymore. Our other kids call him Uncle K*, so Meister has taken to calling him Uncle K, too.

Uncle K came to visit for the first time since Meister was adopted 2.5 years ago. The first picture below brings tears to my eyes. I love both of these guys. One as a brother, and one as a son. I desperately want the best for both of them, and yet we had to make a tough choice 2.5 years ago. I never dreamed that reconciliation after that choice would be made so quickly. I imagined Meister going through life wondering what ever happened to Uncle K, wondering if he ever thought about him, wondering if he ever cared, and basically feeling abandoned.

And, yet, here we are while Meister is still fairly young and amazingly Uncle K is back in his life. Meister responded so appropriately - little timid at first, but warmed up and obviously held some tenderness in his heart for Uncle K. He was deliberately re-anchoring himself in our family unit by coming back to Pete and I for cuddles and by intentionally using our names (Mom and Dad) often.

So now Meister doesn't have to wonder if Uncle K ever cared. I can put pictures like these in his scrapbook, and he can know that he is special and cared for.


Not that this visit changes anything for Meister on a daily basis - Uncle K will probably not be around much, and life will go on as normal for Meister. But at the same time, visits like this will make a huge difference for Meister as he grows up.

"Mom, this is my favorite chore! I LIKE handwashing. That's why I'm doing it so much."


We implemented a new chore schedule today, and the younger boys graduated to some older kid jobs that they had never gotten the opportunity to do. They were pretty excited about some of the new chores, and I'm hoping and praying the excitement lasts a LONG time.

This post is WAY late, but I have a friend who needs to know how to make a Mater cake. I made this one in January for Meister's 6th birthday.

The bottom is two rectangle cakes stacked on top of each other. I raised it off the serving board with canning rings and a wax papper wrapped piece of cardboard. The shape of the hood and back is carved from the top layer. If you freeze the pieces for a few hours, they are easier to carve. The cab is a mini loaf pan sized cake placed upside down. Frosting is used for glue in between layers. After piecing it together, put a thin layer of frosting on it and return it to the freezer. This will seal in the crumbs for you.

For the final layer of frosting, the brown is chocolate frosting, the blue and green is tinted vanilla frosting messily spread over the chocolate. The white is just the plain vanilla frosting.

Chocolate covered donuts were used for the tires. Green gummy Life Savers for the eyes. Large pretzels, Oreos and string were for the towing mechanism. I cut a 6 out of construction paper to hang on string. The black for the bumper and the eyes was a tube of black frosting with the tips that you can get at most grocery stores. The tips screw onto the tube.


My extended family has found that they like the cakes better mostly frozen, so I leave them in the freezer until the party. They thaw an hour or so during the gifts before we cut into it.

We'll go see what the surgeon has to say in a few hours. The kids have all kinds of questions about how those pins got in there, though. With a hammer? screwdriver? So far no one has asked how they will get out - but I don't mind waiting to answer that question. :-{

Meister with his special bunny. The time spent waiting for surgery went very quickly thanks to a few episodes of 3-2-1 Penguins on the video iPod.

Meister made it through his elbow surgery without complications and is snuggled in bed on his way to recovery. He was a bit upset that his elbow was in a cast and hurting when he woke up, but he was in much better spirits as soon as I got him discharged.

I picked up a bunny for him to take along with him, and the nurses had fun treating the bunny along with Meister. The bunny ended up with a blue surgical hat, mask, name bracelet, heart sticker, and a bandaged left arm.

I'll post a picture when I get a chance to get it off the camera.

Yesterday was rainy at the "park" in the backyard. (We were blessed with a large wooden playset that Meister likes to call "the park".) Meister's favorite way to go down the slide is standing up - surfing style. With his amazing balance and quick reactions he is usually just fine, but I don't think he accounted for the wetness of the slide. Anyway, you get the idea. We're not sure if he went sideways or fell at the bottom, but he must have landed with his elbow extended and taking most of the force of the fall.

Meister was outside by himself when this happened. He came inside and CLIMBED INTO HIS TOP BUNK to "rest". How many times have I told him that his belly/eyes/aches will feel better after a little rest? "When we are sick, we need to rest. We can't stay home sick from church/school and run around the house." So he was in his top bunk whimpering by the time I realized there was something really wrong. My final clue? V yelling, "Mom! The bump on Codey's elbow is not where it is supposed to be!"

So we scrambled. "V, pack a bag with my iPod, earphones, and some books Meister likes. Siah, get a blanket to wrap Meister in." I IM'd Pete to come home ASAP, then warmed the van up. We made it to the hospital about a half hour after the accident. On the way, Meister was extremely nervous. He was afraid I would leave him at the hospital, he would get shots, the doctor would hurt him, and they were "going to kill me." Those big, teary eyes combined with his adorable, little, buzzed head just about broke my mommy heart. I was so thankful I got to be there to comfort him just then.

Intake, pain meds, x-rays, and finally a diagnosis. Meister endured them all stoically - only a few teardrops escaped down his cheeks. The waiting was tolerated (even included a few giggles) due to a couple of movies on my iPod. The earphones didn't make it all the way into the ER, so when the doctor saw that Miester was watching a movie with no sound, he actually let him borrow his own personal earphones. He even had a couple more movies on his own iPod he was going to let us borrow if we ran out before Meister was discharged. I was really impressed with this ER doctor - not hurried, personable, and understood kids.

We were sent home with a disc of x-rays, an appt with an orthopedic surgeon, a splint, sling, and a prescription for some heavy-duty pain meds. Meister slept well, and we headed to the surgeon this morning. To summarize, a corner of Meister's upper arm bone was sheered off and displaced at the elbow. He is going to need surgery, pins, and casting to repair it. It should heal just fine, but we will not know for a few years if the portion of growth plate on the displaced bone will grow at the same rate as the undisturbed portion. If it doesn't grow at the same rate, he could need more corrective surgery in the future. We pray that won't be necessary.

So Meister is scheduled for surgery this Friday at 3:00 p.m. on an outpatient basis. In the meantime the meds are keeping him comfortable and life is actually a bit calmer at home than normal. No arguing - the others are concentrating on catering to Meister's every desire. "Meister, do you want a drink? Mom, can I read Meister a book instead of doing the dishes?"

Meister is a daredevil and we knew someday he would hurt himself. More details later . . . Off to the surgeon's office.

In answer to Jodi's comment: Yes, this is one of the actual x-ray images taken of Meister's arm!

Our church holds a Thanksgiving Eve service with a traditional time for sharing what God has done over the previous year. The sharing includes tough stuff - deaths, sicknesses, ect. but also includes more lighthearted things as well. One little boy was thankful for his 5 kitties and shared each name with us. After Meister saw that Pastor Jeff was sharing the microphone with kids, he desperately wanted a chance to speak to the crowd.

"Mom, Can I say something too?"

"What are you going to say?"

Meister shrugs his shoulders.

"You can if you can tell about something that you are really happy or thankful for. Can you think of anything?"

Meister nods his head.

"Whisper it to me first, OK?" I had to check make sure it was appropriate. He whispered what he was thinking, and I tearily agreed that he could raise his hand for the microphone.

Pastor Jeff brought the microphone over to Meister who excitedly took it in his hand. Enjoying the way his voice was broadcast over the entire room, he said, "Well . . . I got 'dopted by Pete and Julie!"

Wow! Talk about making 300 hearts melt! Pete was getting teary-eyed. Pastor Jeff was blinking back tears. And the whole audience applauded. What a gift to us especially since we hadn't been talking about being thankful for adoption. That was totally out of his own sweet little heart.

Meister has a love/hate relationship with foods. There was a time when he would gag on anything green. We've patiently pushed and stretched his palate so that now he will at least eat one or two bites of anything green. Well, Meister pleasantly shocked me the other night. Pete was dishing out spoonfulls of peas, gave Meister a generous spoonful and Meister said, "Can I have some more please?" He ended up with a large pile of peas on his plate and the best part - He Ate Every Little Pea.


As much he hated green things, Meister L-O-V-E-S pancakes. He'll ask me at bedtime the night before if I'll make pancakes for breakfast the next morning. When we're at the library, he'll scan the shelves for pancake books. Then when it is time to read, he'll pick out - yep, the pancake books. He knows all the ingredients, and can gather them all for me. If food was one of the five love languages, I would have no problem figuring out how Meister gives and receives love.

We've been raising our nephew as one of ours for a long time now, but today he became legally ours! This is the second adoption hearing for our family, but it sure is much easier to understand in English than in Ukrainian :-) The judge was thankful that Meister had family to "fill the gap" for him, and we are honored to be chosen by God for that role.
Meister's version of what happened today: "We went to that big building, and the judge said I could have a new mommy and daddy."

I've been trying to catch up on some old pictures to get them into the kids' scrapbooks. Isn't Meister a cutey!

Credits:
Papers: Leah Riordan
Silver embellishments and chipboard action: Atomic Cupcake
Fonts: Brubeck AH and A Yummy Apology

On Sunday afternoon we shared a Lightning McQueen cake with 13 guests. If you count the 7 that live here, that's 20 all jammed in one little house to celebrate the life of one little guy. If you'd like to see more pictures, please check in my photoblog. I've decided to switch to uploading my Project 365 pictures there so as not to clutter up this blog.

Today I'm decorating Meister's birthday cake for his party tomorrow afternoon. In preparation, I needed a picture of the Rust-eze logo from Pixar's Lightning McQueen. I took a picture of a small toy we have in the house and pulled it into Photoshop to delete the extras and fix up all the scratches.

C-Meister loves muffins so much that he literally watches them bake. I have learned to hide them once they are done because we used to find them missing. Now C knows he isn't supposed to take muffins without asking, but he still can't resist taking one bite and putting it back on the muffin dish. These are zuchinni muffins, and we LOVE to have them fresh from the oven for breakfast.
We just had C in for his yearly physical. He's grown 2.5 inches and gained 7 pounds this past year. Way to go, Meister! We've been telling you those "green" things would make you grow big and strong!!