Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

Continued from Part 1... Bring in iTunes and a few new downloaded albums: Lemonade Mouth: Lemonade Mouth  The kids wanted this after seeing the movie.  The songs are catchy, fun, and have encouraging lyrics. Toby Mac: Tonight  We love Toby.  We got the extended album and can't listen enough.  The kids want to hear more of Toby's son "TruDog" Truett.  I don't know why I didn't get this album sooner. The Afters: Light Up the Sky  Fun CD, the title track being my favorite song, but they are all good. Listening to one of Toby Mac's songs, Hold On, I actually had tears well up as I thought how glad I am they have these words in their hearts and minds instead of songs that end with "I wanna have you naked by the end of this song."  (And you who know me know I love me some Justin Timberlake.) Here's a portion of the lyrics from "Hold On."   (The portion that made me tear up. Mostly because I was thinking about my girls and how,...

Last week, I downloaded a few new albums.  After trying to listen to Mix 102.9 for a while, I decided it just wasn't worth any of us having that mess in our minds.  And I didn't even understand many of the lyrics we were listening to. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the lyrics for this week's top 40 in pop music. #1 Katy Perry Last Friday Night  All about getting drunk, acting stupid, being naked, having a threesome and ready to do it again next week. Starts of "There's a stranger in my bed."  Nice.  Number one song.  Wow. #2 LMFAO: Party Rock Anthem Again, party, drink a lot, lose mind, wanna see a girl naked. Actually one of the tamest of the top 5. #3 I was sad to read some of the lyrics from "Moves Like Jagger" because that song is so good.  The kids and I love the chorus, the sounds, the beat, and love Adam Levine when he's singing clean music. #4 and #5 Super Bass by Nicki Minaj and Lighter by Bad Meets Evil (Bruno Mars a...

Travis is nothing short of amazing.  Really, he's just proving that a 3-year window of no language doesn't have to be a life sentence nor does it mean he will always be behind.  The more he's with us, the more we can tell he hears nothing. He's already communicating in phrases.  These phrases started the other day when he went up to his dad, tapped him, then signed "DADDY!  TURTLE!" then pointed to turtle. Why is this such a big deal?  After 6 weeks of exposure to ASL (a natural language to him since his eyes are his superhighway), he knows he can 1. tap people to get their attention.  When we got him, he would just hold his hands up and cry.  Now, he approaches us and taps us on the leg or arm.  He taps his dad, me, his siblings, and even tapped our dentist to tell him he saw a train.  (I should add that he does still whine at times when he wants something, but he watches us with great interest so he can learn how to communicate hi...

Little Tian.  He's such a little goofball and a fireball of love and giggles.  He's a ham that certainly likes to have the attention on him.  Many times, he seems older than he really is.  I have to constantly remind myself that he has just turned two. Tian likes to hug, kiss, blow kisses, wrestle, tumble, and do lots of things that 2 year-olds like to do.  He's silly and loves to laugh.  He'll make faces or silly sounds if he thinks it will make us laugh at him.  (Much like his older brother!)  He has an ornery streak and daily tests me on the rules.  He's very sly, clever and understated when he's being mischievous. He says quite a few words: mama, baba, milk (mow), Hannah (anna), potty (pah-e), no no, TJ (ee-ay), Mackenzie (enzie), there he is (dah-e-is), bed, night-night (nie-nie) etc. He will mimic just about any sound we make, but doesn't speak much to communicate.  He mostly uses one-word signs for that.  ...

Jill's letter is eloquent and beautifully-written.  It's not only a problem in Utah, but all over the nation.   To Whom It May Concern: To be a leader, one must have courage, passion, and vision. It is beyond doubt that USDB’s current superintendent has courage; he fears nothing and no one. It is also true that he is possessed of the passion and vision to promote the listening and spoken language skills for Deaf and hard of hearing children (and I use the capitol ‘D’ here to emphasize the specific and separate cultural and linguistic community of Deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing individuals). Yes, he fulfills the three necessary attributes of the leader – but in this case, he does so under only one specific methodology. Unfortunately, he has been chosen the leader of a school with the vision of a dual track. His leadership is therefore ineffective in its current application. Without dedicated support for ALL programs, schools, and classes, the office of the superintendent...

This links to  my post one year ago today. Ken nor I could have imagined that one year later, we would have only been home a month....and with TWO little ones! We are beyond thankful that we didn't let others' reactions deter us from bringing home both Tian and Travis.  I wish I could have captured some of the faces and "are they crazy?!" glances we saw when we told people we were even considering adopting two.  It happened so much that I began to preface our announcement by saying, "I know it's crazy, but...." It's not crazy.  It's what God clearly led us to do.  Because Ken and I talked about it, prayed about it, and kept our eyes and hearts open to His leading, we knew when we saw Travis' file that he was our son.  We looked at two other files.  Last week, out of curiosity, I looked back at those files.  I pray they have forever families.  I didn't see them on a shared list any more.  They are precious boys, too, and worth...

A few cute, funny, or warm-hearted things happened this week that I need to note. 1. I discovered little two-year-old Tian on the floor, holding a baby doll with one hand on the wrist and the other on the head, teaching it to sign "daddy".  He was saying, "Baba. Baba."  (Which means "daddy" in Mandrin.) 2. Outside the other night, the Brownies were playing with friends.  Ken and I were watching the two littles ride their new Strider Bikes .  As we were gathering up the boys to come inside, I asked TJ to grab one of the Striders.  TJ was lagging behind and one of his friends, who happens to be Black (that will matter in a second), asked TJ if he could ride the Strider.  TJ told him that, no, it's just for our family.  (Truly, he should have said it's just for the little boys, but I digress.)   TJ's friend ran to his sister, who was playing with our girls, and said, "TJ just told me only white people can ride that bike!"   We all cr...