Maria's View-
What is up with my little dude and eggs?! I'm so confused. Scrambled eggs are so quick and easy for breakfast. I always fix them for myself and Little G because, for her, they cool so quickly, unlike oatmeal. It would be perfect for Griffin as well because once he's ready to eat, he's READY. But for some reason, he gets so frustrated when he eats them. So I think I'm going to have to take them off of his food list for awhile.
My guess is that he either loves them or he hates them. Either way, he eats them, but he gets so upset. He starts out ok...but as we go along, he starts to get fussy and then when I'm about to put a bite into his mouth, he lets out a frustrated cry, but he lets me put it in his mouth. So I'm really not sure if he loves them so much that he knows that each bite is getting closer to the end of his meal, or if he hates them but thinks that if he doesn't eat them, he will have to go hungry. So just to help him out, we will stick to oatmeal for breakfast. He also does not swallow the eggs very well but does well with mostly everything else. So if he loves them, he could be "storing" them for later, or if he hates them, he could be dreading having to swallow them.
Something new- Dude was sitting on Little Gs rocking horse and he had a stacking ring in his hand. I showed him that the stacking ring could actually fit on the rocking horse handle bar. He looked at it, smiled, shook his head 'no' and then threw the ring off! I think that's a pretty accurate response because he knew it didn't belong there. Pretty awesome! I handed the ring back to him and he then put it on the handle bar all on his own, shook his head 'no' and then threw the ring off. I sat him on the floor and he put all of the stacking rings on the post, with me handing them to him in the correct order. Then he would 'crash' them just like Little G always does! Super cute. I think he has so much potential! We just have to help him find his way through the orphanage fog.
Something random- Last night, Chris and I made our way upstairs around 10 after watching another episode of Swamp People, I went straight to the bathroom to begin getting ready for bed and Chris made his rounds to check on the kiddos. The door to the bathroom opened and in came Chris, cramping my space and doing my happy dance because all of the kids were sleeping, which is totally something that I normally do. He beat me to the punch on that one! So glad that we don't have cameras following us because people would surely think we are crazy! or maybe they already do. ;-) Don't answer that!
Until tomorrow!
Chris's View:
So, as I was talking to a friend today, I found out that the Popeye's Chicken on Ramstein is closed. Big deal, many of you may be thinking. It is a big deal to me though. It's not that I ate there that much... maybe 5 times in the over 3 years we have been stationed here. It is what this place means to me though.
See, way back in 1997, less than a year after I joined the military, I was tapped to deploy for my first time to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, at one time the busiest combat airport in the world. It was me and one other guy from the 391st Fighter Squadron located at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. Todd Prisch was his name, and to this day, one of the best people I have EVER met. Anyway, if you understood that I was in a Fighter Squadron, much less, that squadron was in an Air Expeditionary Wing, you'd realize that us travelling just 2 people is unusual. Any who, enough boring military stuff. We flew from Idaho to Utah, Utah to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, then took a bus from Frankfurt to Ramstein Air Base. Here, we got stuck for 4 days, trying to get an onward flight to Saudi Arabia. The first place we ate was Popeye's Chicken. See, up until that point, I had not had a chance to go home and get anything even remotely Southern or Cajun since I got to Mountain Home. This little oasis in the middle of Europe made me feel closer to home than ever. Even Todd seemed to understand what I was going through... he'd been there before... young Airman on his first deployment and the stress & uncertainty. I was doing everything I could to hang on to even the smallest piece of home and youth and innocence... yeah, I know, maybe I wasn't "innocent" at this point in my life, but for sure, my life changed from that point on.
See, this little place, this tan building in the middle of a parking lot in front of the new base gym, is pretty significant to me. Much like the lives of my children, I am trying in earnest to cling to every bit of youth that they have left... every little bit that is flying by, at least in what seems to be, faster than my mind can collect memories about the times. It stinks! Parents get this. Expectant parents don't think this will happen to them, and people who have no kids or are single really have no clue! You do not realize how much your life changes when you have a child. It is the most amazing thing that could happen to someone, but it is one of the scariest, frustrating, stressfully, sad things that will ever happen to someone!
Even worse, and better... yes, I keep contradicting myself, but there is really no other way to describe it... is when you adopt a child. I was talking to a man who he & his wife are to leave shortly to go adopt their child. I explained to him that he really has no idea of what is about to happen to his life. Something fundamentally changed in me during this process.
It is no secret that I had a rough upbringing financially. So, more so than most parents, I want my children to NEVER have to worry about anything. I want them to have everything! The little things, the big things, the important and the frivolous. I'm not saying I give in and get them everything they want, but they definitely have EVERYTHING they need. That's not to say that I don't want my kids to dress in $100 t-shirts & jeans & $500 pairs of shoes. If that's what they want, it's what I want, but wants do not have to become needs. What changed though is that I saw exactly what nothing is.
Nothing, according to Webster's, has 3 entries:
1- not any thing; no thing
2- no part
3- one of no interest, value or consequence
As I described to the man, an orphan meets all 3 of these at the same time... they are the definition of nothing. In fact, it goes beyond that. They have so little of nothing, there should be another word. It is heartbreaking. It makes me, as a father, see that there is something out there that is so much bigger than myself. There is a kid who has absolutely, well, nothing, since there is no word that truly describes this state of being. It makes me want, even more so, to give everything I have to replace that nothingness for this child, my son, and to give even more of everything that matters, that REALLY MATTERS, to all of my children. Things like love, joy, adventure, memories, hopes, faith, truth, honor, respect, you name it. See, after seeing the situation that these kids are born into, or left in, makes me realize that it's not the $100 t-shirts & jeans or the $500 shoes. While our children may one day think these things are what they want, it's is actually the things that REALLY MATTER, that they desire, they crave, and they will cherish forever.
See ya'll later!
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