My Littles

I have Kai, my big boy, and Ian and Eli, who I call "The Littles."  Here are some fairly adorable school pics taken recently.....

Ezana

This is Ezana.

He is 6 years old and lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with his mother.  His father is dead.  We are sponsoring him through an organization called Yezelalem Minch.  The small amount of money that we provide gives him food, medical care, schooling, clothes, shoes, and helps his mom out too!  A social worker even comes to his house and checks on him and his mom to make sure they are doing ok.

Yezelalem Minch is a great organization began by, and run by Ethiopians to help AIDS orphans in their communities.  They not only provide the practical needs for these kids and their families, they provide them hope that they do indeed have a future and work to reduce the stigma of being an "AIDS orphan" in a country where that stigma is still very very real.

Orphan Sunday is November 7th, 2010 this year.  Yezelalem Minch is doing a HUGE push to try to find sponsors for ALL the children they help by this date, but they don't have enough volunteers yet.  Do you have $30 a month?  I do.  For us, that's:

Less than 1 tank of gas
1 pair of kid's shoes
2 tickets to a movie
A very small trip to the grocery store
A co-pay at the doctor
A pedicure

For more information, check out:

 http://www.helpsinternationalministries.org/outreach/yezelalem.shtml

And to all you parents out there who struggle with our sometimes borderline spoiled, almost entitled, soaked-in-American-materialism-despite-our-best-efforts, (likely) biological children?  That Ezana is our sponsor child is no accident.  I have a 6 year-old.  Sometimes he doesn't like what I set out for him to wear to school.  Sometimes he gets upset that there is butter on his fresh, warm bagel in the morning rather than whipped cream cheese.  Sometimes he whines when I tell him that it is time to take a nice, hot bubble bath in a sparkling clean bathtub filled with tubby toys.  Those are the times when I look at him, and then point to Ezana's picture on his nightstand.  There are no words required.  The conversation is over.  Just sayin'.

Welcome..... drumroll please....

MAXWELL JUDE WOMELDORPH
10/1/2010
3:46pm

10 lbs, 11 oz.

Huge congratulations go out to my dear friend Carlina and family -- Jim, Gracyn, Addison, Hendrix, Lincoln, and Bella -- who waited (and waited -- 11 days late, thank you very much!) for this sweet bundle.  We are so very happy to welcome Maxwell Jude into the world!

It's a BIG day....

Kai lost his very first tooth today!  That's my big boy.  Mommy loves you and couldn't be prouder.  Now stop getting older.  Right now.  I mean it.

So you think your life is hard sometimes, huh?

Take a couple of minutes and find some perspective....


Walk For Water from A Glimmer of Hope on Vimeo.


This next video is about a place in Ethiopia called Korah.  It is a huge trash dump.  People LIVE here.  People EAT here.  Children LIVE here.  Do yourself a favor and watch this video.  See what these amazing people are doing here to help these forgotten people and tell me that you can look the other way.  Once your eyes have seen.....  you know the rest.


Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

Cute & creative mama!

This woman is either incredibly creative, has only one child, or has way too much time on her hands.  Probably all three.  In any case, SO ridiculously cute.  Enjoy....

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Thanks to my cousin Jessica for pointing me to the cuteness.

Hard-headed.

This is Ian.    

He is my middle child.  He is younger than Kai by 2 years, and older than Elliot by 4 months.  He can be incredibly sweet and snuggly.

He can be so silly and cute and funny that he makes me pee my pants.

I have also described him as "testy", "ornery", "difficult", and "hard-headed".  But I didn't know just how hard-headed he actually was until this Friday when we were snuggling on our Lovesac beanbag.  That was when my dear, sweet, funny, ornery, hard-headed, middle child sat up and then threw himself backward with all his four year-old might.  Right onto my face.  I knew it hurt like hell, and I knew it swelled up right away, but I didn't think it would be too bad.  After all, I've taken a few punches in my day.  It happened at about 10am.  This is what I looked like at 1pm:

This is what I looked like at 5pm:

And this is what I looked like on Sunday morning:

Happy 4th of July everyone!  I'm pretty sure I saw stars before any of you did.  And if any of you wanted to know a way to make your husband not want to go anywhere with you in public for at least a week and a half -- I have discovered it, but I don't recommend it.