Well it has been a long day here. Woke up to Sarah screaming and the boys breaking my lap top. Daddy was angry but got it fixed. In the meantime, I tried feeding Sarah and all she would do is scream and wouldn't eat and was again dealing with a fever (low grade but fever nonetheless) so off the doctors we go. Thank God my pediatrician office has emergency hours on Saturdays. They thought it might be her ears but once examining her her ears were fine but her throat was raw (like raw meat the MD said). So they ran a strep test. Now I didn't know but strep in infants is rare but they ran one anyway as there has been a lot of kids with strep around. That test came back negative and was told she just had a virus infection in her throat and all we could do was wait it out and give tylenol/motrin and try feeding her 30-45mins after meds and she should be comfortable to eat.
I come home the boys are going nuts and Richard said he was going to mow the lawn at the new house. I was able to get Robert down for a nap and Sarah ate and was sleeping as well when daddy came home. We had a wedding reception to go to at 5pm for some friends of ours who's son was married in Colorado in May and what happens??????? Robert wakes up with a fever of 101.4 and not happy. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So tyelonl for Robert and daddy stays home with 2 kids and Caleb goes with me to the party.
I was so proud of Caleb. He was such a good boy and made such good choices while we were there. But again once we were home the 'horns' came out and was just awful. I guess if you can only have of the two behaviors I would chose he behave in public and we can deal with naughty thigs at home. When bedtime came he was jumping on his bed and fell and tried to (as Richard said) 'push his teeth through his top lip'......yup he now has a fat busted lip....... man on man has it been a day of trouble with the kids.....
But everyone is now medicated and in bed and sleeping. Quietness reigns again in the Harmond House. But morning comes fast.
Tomorrow is church where Richard get's to be a dog!!!!!! Will let that one sit for a day or so and the ya'lls imagination run where it will. LOL
I will be taking some pictures of the new house tomorrow and of the kids so I can post some newer updated stuff. OOOOOOOO looks like we are going to try hard to get as much moved into the new house this coming up Sat July 5th. Richard's brother and sister-in-law are going to be in town and will have their truck so they are offering to help us move what we can/want moved in. So this week we will be getting a new phone and new phone number. Wish us luck!!!!
Blessings
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
2 Years Today!!
Wow has it really been 2 years today since China and God told us about our new son?! It has been so crazy today that this is the first chance I have had to come here and post.
Two years ago today our waiting for our what we thought daughter from China turned into a son. What a blessing he is for us. I still can recall when I think on the 'referral call' we received from out agency. Even though I can't remember the name of the person who called the dialog will be etched in my memory forever. It went something like this:
GWCA-Hi this is __________ from GWCA and we have your referral.
me-OOOOO what is her name where is she from how old is she?
GWCA---well it's a boy!
me----A WHAT???? ( and then after a few seconds pause) well tell me all about him.
This is what we were told:
His name is Fu Xiao Wu and he is in the Jiaozou Social Welfare Institute in the Henan Province of China. He has spent his whole life in an orphanage not with a foster family. He was born on August 11, 2004 that would mean he was going to be 2yrs old (WOW) He had hair, chubby cheeks, was an introvert (like his daddy) loves music (like his mommy) knows the meaning of the word "no", had 2 teeth, stands alone, walks with assistance, a deep sleeper, sucks fingers, timid, imitating words and is close to his caregiver. WOW THAT'S OUR SON.
It only took a second of this information to fall in love him even without seeing his face. When we first got the email from the agency earlier in the day stating referrals had arrived and what log in date they were through we were excited. I didn't leave the house all day waiting. When I read that there were 5boys referred I should have known we would get a boy. Especially since we had Robert 2 months before. I immediately called Richard's cell phone and remember saying to him "it's here we got our referral" and he said "and......" I said "its a boy.................................................................... Richard, Richard, Richard are you there?" he said "yea just takes a minute to adjust the thinking since we really thought we were getting a girl". When Richard got home from work we finally got the email from our agency with the first pictures of him.
Well because of a 150 year family tradition Richard got to name our first son.....the first born or a first born had to have the initials REH and the middle name had to be Earl. Well after much debate and names I chose thrown out Richard named him so with the referral of another boy Richard said what do you want to name him. I had decided that there were a few names I was thinking about. I told him how about Caleb or Joshua or Joseph??? Richard said Caleb sounds good. Let me tell you when we got our first pictures and looked at his face I said he looks like a Caleb. We decided to keep his Chinese first and middle name as his new middle name so our second son became Caleb Xiaowu Harmond. Now the wait was on to go to China and bring him home. That anniversary will be in August. We missed being with him on his birthday by 2 weeks. But we have the JOY and HONOR to spend the rest of his birthdays together loving him, thanking God for him and raising him to live a Christ filled life.
So today as the day comes to a close all I can do is thank God for the blessing of a son, offer him back up to God as His and try to be the best mommy to him I can. Pray for him to have a life full of love, family and a sense of who he is.
I will try to post the referral pictures of Caleb and a recent one... you wouldn't believe how much he has grown. He is turing into such a big boy! gone is the baby face, the toddler face and replaced with a big boy!!!
Blessings
Two years ago today our waiting for our what we thought daughter from China turned into a son. What a blessing he is for us. I still can recall when I think on the 'referral call' we received from out agency. Even though I can't remember the name of the person who called the dialog will be etched in my memory forever. It went something like this:
GWCA-Hi this is __________ from GWCA and we have your referral.
me-OOOOO what is her name where is she from how old is she?
GWCA---well it's a boy!
me----A WHAT???? ( and then after a few seconds pause) well tell me all about him.
This is what we were told:
His name is Fu Xiao Wu and he is in the Jiaozou Social Welfare Institute in the Henan Province of China. He has spent his whole life in an orphanage not with a foster family. He was born on August 11, 2004 that would mean he was going to be 2yrs old (WOW) He had hair, chubby cheeks, was an introvert (like his daddy) loves music (like his mommy) knows the meaning of the word "no", had 2 teeth, stands alone, walks with assistance, a deep sleeper, sucks fingers, timid, imitating words and is close to his caregiver. WOW THAT'S OUR SON.
It only took a second of this information to fall in love him even without seeing his face. When we first got the email from the agency earlier in the day stating referrals had arrived and what log in date they were through we were excited. I didn't leave the house all day waiting. When I read that there were 5boys referred I should have known we would get a boy. Especially since we had Robert 2 months before. I immediately called Richard's cell phone and remember saying to him "it's here we got our referral" and he said "and......" I said "its a boy.................................................................... Richard, Richard, Richard are you there?" he said "yea just takes a minute to adjust the thinking since we really thought we were getting a girl". When Richard got home from work we finally got the email from our agency with the first pictures of him.
Well because of a 150 year family tradition Richard got to name our first son.....the first born or a first born had to have the initials REH and the middle name had to be Earl. Well after much debate and names I chose thrown out Richard named him so with the referral of another boy Richard said what do you want to name him. I had decided that there were a few names I was thinking about. I told him how about Caleb or Joshua or Joseph??? Richard said Caleb sounds good. Let me tell you when we got our first pictures and looked at his face I said he looks like a Caleb. We decided to keep his Chinese first and middle name as his new middle name so our second son became Caleb Xiaowu Harmond. Now the wait was on to go to China and bring him home. That anniversary will be in August. We missed being with him on his birthday by 2 weeks. But we have the JOY and HONOR to spend the rest of his birthdays together loving him, thanking God for him and raising him to live a Christ filled life.
So today as the day comes to a close all I can do is thank God for the blessing of a son, offer him back up to God as His and try to be the best mommy to him I can. Pray for him to have a life full of love, family and a sense of who he is.
I will try to post the referral pictures of Caleb and a recent one... you wouldn't believe how much he has grown. He is turing into such a big boy! gone is the baby face, the toddler face and replaced with a big boy!!!
Blessings
Friday, June 20, 2008
New House!!!!!
Well here is another post... back in March we bought a new house.
We are currently living in a 1200sq ft. 2 bedroom house. We have a kitchen/dinning room combo, a livingroom, and 2 bathrooms (one in hall way and one in master bedroom). And that is it. So raising a family of 2 boy toddlers and one Princess and a cat in this small space is challenging to say the least. We knew all along we were going to have to find a new house but when the Princess came along it was something that was going to have to happen soon.
Anyway here it is June and we still not in the house. But because of the gift of having a CPA for a hubby and his desire to not have debts if at all possible we own this house outright so we are blessed not to carry 2 mortages. So if it takes a few more months to get in then that is what it will take. The new house is a 2 story 5 bedroom house. The bedrooms for the 2 Princes and the Princess are upstairs as well as a guest room and family/playroom and a bathroom and 3 good size closets in the hallways as well in the bedrooms. There is a space under the roof above the garage that is big enough to finish flooring in to make an office for DH. Downstairs had a formal dinning room, livingroom, master bedroom, kitchen with a breakfast area and the utility room. We tried to do all the painting ourselves but that started to get hard to do with life getting in the way. So in the middle of May we finally hired someone to finish painting most of the downstairs as well as the 2 story parts. The only things left to to paint in the utility room, and 1/2 bath downstairs, full bath upstairs and the little room where the toilet is in our master bath...my DH calls it the 'water closet'. He is not giving a time frame of move in time but I am hoping that within the next month to get most of everything in the house. His plan is to paint the utility room this weekend and then start moving in the stuff we are storing.
We did buy Older Prince his new big boy bed and will try to get it up and set up in his room. We are going to decorate his room in doggy theme. He just LOVES dogs. I haven't been able to find dog bedding so I am going to try my hand at sewing. I found some great material at Hancock fabrics to make a quilt/comforter for his bed. There is enough material left to maybe also make a special doggy pillow for his bed. We would only need to buy a dresser for his room. OOOOOOOOO the bed my DH found on Craig's list. It is solid wood and is like a Captian's bed. It has 2 drawers at the head of the bed on each side and also 2 drawers at the foot of the bed on each side, in the middle 2 storage compartments. I think I can safely make a very simple blanket/comforter/quilt for it. Younger Prince will be getting Older Prince's toddler bed as his big boy bed for now. He is into air planes so his room will be done in air planes. He loves JAY JAY (I had never heard of him before but he is like Thomas the Train). Anyway my MIL gave me the site address where they had a toddler bedding set on closeout sale for JAY JAY and I got it along with a JAY JAY cuddle pillow for him. Princess will be getting Younger Prince's crib and bedroom set we bought when YP came along. It does grow with her into a full size bed. I have decided to decorate her room in fairies. I am looking forward to that one. I want stuff that will grow with her into her early elementary age we will see how successful I am with that..
The rest of the house hasn't been decided on decorations yet. There is a slight difference of opinion between DH and myself.
I will try to get some pics of the house and post those soon.
Blessings
We are currently living in a 1200sq ft. 2 bedroom house. We have a kitchen/dinning room combo, a livingroom, and 2 bathrooms (one in hall way and one in master bedroom). And that is it. So raising a family of 2 boy toddlers and one Princess and a cat in this small space is challenging to say the least. We knew all along we were going to have to find a new house but when the Princess came along it was something that was going to have to happen soon.
Anyway here it is June and we still not in the house. But because of the gift of having a CPA for a hubby and his desire to not have debts if at all possible we own this house outright so we are blessed not to carry 2 mortages. So if it takes a few more months to get in then that is what it will take. The new house is a 2 story 5 bedroom house. The bedrooms for the 2 Princes and the Princess are upstairs as well as a guest room and family/playroom and a bathroom and 3 good size closets in the hallways as well in the bedrooms. There is a space under the roof above the garage that is big enough to finish flooring in to make an office for DH. Downstairs had a formal dinning room, livingroom, master bedroom, kitchen with a breakfast area and the utility room. We tried to do all the painting ourselves but that started to get hard to do with life getting in the way. So in the middle of May we finally hired someone to finish painting most of the downstairs as well as the 2 story parts. The only things left to to paint in the utility room, and 1/2 bath downstairs, full bath upstairs and the little room where the toilet is in our master bath...my DH calls it the 'water closet'. He is not giving a time frame of move in time but I am hoping that within the next month to get most of everything in the house. His plan is to paint the utility room this weekend and then start moving in the stuff we are storing.
We did buy Older Prince his new big boy bed and will try to get it up and set up in his room. We are going to decorate his room in doggy theme. He just LOVES dogs. I haven't been able to find dog bedding so I am going to try my hand at sewing. I found some great material at Hancock fabrics to make a quilt/comforter for his bed. There is enough material left to maybe also make a special doggy pillow for his bed. We would only need to buy a dresser for his room. OOOOOOOOO the bed my DH found on Craig's list. It is solid wood and is like a Captian's bed. It has 2 drawers at the head of the bed on each side and also 2 drawers at the foot of the bed on each side, in the middle 2 storage compartments. I think I can safely make a very simple blanket/comforter/quilt for it. Younger Prince will be getting Older Prince's toddler bed as his big boy bed for now. He is into air planes so his room will be done in air planes. He loves JAY JAY (I had never heard of him before but he is like Thomas the Train). Anyway my MIL gave me the site address where they had a toddler bedding set on closeout sale for JAY JAY and I got it along with a JAY JAY cuddle pillow for him. Princess will be getting Younger Prince's crib and bedroom set we bought when YP came along. It does grow with her into a full size bed. I have decided to decorate her room in fairies. I am looking forward to that one. I want stuff that will grow with her into her early elementary age we will see how successful I am with that..
The rest of the house hasn't been decided on decorations yet. There is a slight difference of opinion between DH and myself.
I will try to get some pics of the house and post those soon.
Blessings
Going to try to catch up
Well so much for posting on a regular basis. Having 3 kids and 2 of them boy toddlers is a lot of fun yet not so fun.
They love each other one monent then beating each other to death the other. Are Princes supposed to beat each other????? Well I guess if we lived in the era and had horses and those poley things they would be jousting with each other LOL.
Anyway school is out for the summer has been since May 16th. I am trying hard to find things to do with the kids so I can keep my sanity for the summer. This week my sil was here with my twin nieces so we planned a day at the Houston Children's Museum. This was the first time our boys have been there and they had the time of their lives. I wish I had thought to bring a camera. Younger prince just LOVED the milking cow. He was so excited that he could milk it (even though it was water) that is all he wanted to do. Older Prince thought the cow was going potty.......LOL No matter how much I tried I couldn't get him to understand maybe a trip to a real farm is in order. Any way Older Prince loved the mustang car they had there as well as the telephone area. The Princess was her normal 7month old self looking around jibbering and jabbering. Of course she was 'starving' when we arrived around 10am so the boys went with my sil and my daughter and I followed behind.
Father's Day was nice. I did not wake up before Richard unfortunately. I was up all night with Younger Prince who was sick. We think he might be allergic to some ingredient in the frosting the grocery store uses in their frostings for cakes. We have connected his tummy problems to all the cakes he had with the frosting on it from stores. So from now on I will be investing in cake pans and decorating materials and making our own cakes and own frosting in hopes we can elminate the problem. Back to Father's Day. Once I did wake up (since Richard wanted to let me sleep some) the Princes all gave their daddy his cards and said "happy fader's day" and the Princess had her card for her daddy in her bed with her so when daddy went to get her he got it.
Overall it was a good day.
Both boys went to get their haircut that day too. Older Prince has had his hair cut before. We have always had major trouble with him when we did that. Have no idea what happened in China when they cut his hair but we can only assume it was tramatic as everytime we would get it taken you would think he was being killed slowly. But this time he did GREAT and even said to me "see mommy I no cry". I was so proud of him. Now Younger Prince that was another story. This was his first haircut.... I know he is 26months old. Well his hair is very thin and it took that long to grow it enough to have to cut it. He has lost that baby/toddler look he looks like a little boy now. They cut off all his red curls. Depressing day for mommy. But, they did save some of his curls for me and also took his picture.
I will be trying to post some past pictures soon. We NEED a new digital camera I hate having to use throw away ones its such a pain. We have some great pics of the boys feeding one of grandddad's lambs with a bottle, some from Christmas, some from Younger Princes 2nd birthday and some from the Princess.
I guess that is all for now.
Blessings
They love each other one monent then beating each other to death the other. Are Princes supposed to beat each other????? Well I guess if we lived in the era and had horses and those poley things they would be jousting with each other LOL.
Anyway school is out for the summer has been since May 16th. I am trying hard to find things to do with the kids so I can keep my sanity for the summer. This week my sil was here with my twin nieces so we planned a day at the Houston Children's Museum. This was the first time our boys have been there and they had the time of their lives. I wish I had thought to bring a camera. Younger prince just LOVED the milking cow. He was so excited that he could milk it (even though it was water) that is all he wanted to do. Older Prince thought the cow was going potty.......LOL No matter how much I tried I couldn't get him to understand maybe a trip to a real farm is in order. Any way Older Prince loved the mustang car they had there as well as the telephone area. The Princess was her normal 7month old self looking around jibbering and jabbering. Of course she was 'starving' when we arrived around 10am so the boys went with my sil and my daughter and I followed behind.
Father's Day was nice. I did not wake up before Richard unfortunately. I was up all night with Younger Prince who was sick. We think he might be allergic to some ingredient in the frosting the grocery store uses in their frostings for cakes. We have connected his tummy problems to all the cakes he had with the frosting on it from stores. So from now on I will be investing in cake pans and decorating materials and making our own cakes and own frosting in hopes we can elminate the problem. Back to Father's Day. Once I did wake up (since Richard wanted to let me sleep some) the Princes all gave their daddy his cards and said "happy fader's day" and the Princess had her card for her daddy in her bed with her so when daddy went to get her he got it.
Overall it was a good day.
Both boys went to get their haircut that day too. Older Prince has had his hair cut before. We have always had major trouble with him when we did that. Have no idea what happened in China when they cut his hair but we can only assume it was tramatic as everytime we would get it taken you would think he was being killed slowly. But this time he did GREAT and even said to me "see mommy I no cry". I was so proud of him. Now Younger Prince that was another story. This was his first haircut.... I know he is 26months old. Well his hair is very thin and it took that long to grow it enough to have to cut it. He has lost that baby/toddler look he looks like a little boy now. They cut off all his red curls. Depressing day for mommy. But, they did save some of his curls for me and also took his picture.
I will be trying to post some past pictures soon. We NEED a new digital camera I hate having to use throw away ones its such a pain. We have some great pics of the boys feeding one of grandddad's lambs with a bottle, some from Christmas, some from Younger Princes 2nd birthday and some from the Princess.
I guess that is all for now.
Blessings
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