Is it just me?

Or does Eliot look like he's 12 years old? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

He still looks like this to me:

Apocalypse

Well, my blogees, welcome back. If you're reading this, you came back to me. You took a week of vacation and now are anxiously awaiting my amazingly written post full of life-changing content.

Well, here it is: I saw a pair of pants last week that caused my immediate reaction to be wide-eyed and lips pursed and I had a thought I've never had before. At first I was ashamed but truly, if you persist in reading my blog, you need to know what you're getting into.

Upon seeing the lime green, very thin stretch pants, clearly in a size too small, WITH POCKETS AND SEAMS DRAWN ON WITH BLACK MARKER, I thought: Why would Jesus not be back already? Isn't this the fashion equivalent to Sodom and Gomorrah? Is God not so utterly disappointed in our culture that He has chosen now as the time?

And that, my friends, is all you're getting today. Not even a cute pic of Eliot to justify your stop here.

And, goodnight.

Wordless Wednesday

The Book.

I've been getting emails and comments asking about the book lately. I'm happy to tell you that I'm over half way done (as far as I can tell!) I've not had as much time to dedicate to it lately with so much traveling but I've made some good progress. As I write each chapter, I'm still blown away by all that happened. Hopefully I can retell it in such a way to really communicate the experience.

I have a new friend that happens to be an editor, convenient, huh? She was able (and willing) to read what I have so far and we're meeting this week to talk it over. This is my first person to read it that wasn't directly apart of the whole adventure so it's a little unnerving for me. Not sure what I'm going to do with it still but so happy that I decided to document the experience this way. I was rereading the first several chapters before I sent it to this editor and was surprised that I'd already forgotten details of our own story. It also made me squeeze my E-beast a little harder. Sometimes I think I cut off his oxygen for a moment but he bounces back. No worries.

Today I'm hidden in a corner at Bread Co, my happy place. Working on chapter 21. Excited for chapter 22. Missing this crazy kid but know he's playing unlimited amounts of baseball with Daddy today.

He likes it! Mikey likes it!

{If you don't get the above reference, I'm not even sure we can be friends}

If you're a regular reader, you know that E-beast would rather be the Flyin' Mayan than sit quietly at a table working on an art project. Feeling inspired by a few other moms that have posted pics of their art centers around the house, I took over a shelf in our dining room that really didn't have a purpose so far anyway.

Here's my best shot of the "before" (look past the skier...)

And "After":


We've got art supplies on two shelves and the bottom shelf full of puzzles, playdoh and games. And guess what? HE'S TOTALLY INTO IT! There's rarely a day now that goes by that he doesn't ask to color, cut, or crawl under the table with a puzzle. It's a modern day miracle, I tell you. Look out, pre-school, here we come!

The injured list.

Some of the crazy girls from this post all decided to train for a half-marathon. Ya know, cuz we're all so in shape, it should be an easy transition. I have run two of them before and clearly that kind of endurance lasts over the 4 years I haven't run.

So, we've been working on our weekly schedule in preparation for the half coming in September. I was happily surprised at how well I was doing. If you're one of my friends on Facebook, you may have seen that on Saturday I ran 5 miles. At one time, not over a week or a month. I was as shocked as you! Let's just say that Facebook didn't exist the last time that happened. Or computers for that matter.

But then Saturday night my foot started hurting. Sunday morning was even worse. After consulting with those sporty type friends of mine, we concluded I had a stress fracture. It's official. I'm a legit athlete. Fortunately, I was made aware that Arbonne makes a joint formula supplement that will help me heal ten times faster and support my joints and stuff. Who knew?

And then it occurred to me. 2 + 2 = osteoporosis, people. You can't make this stuff up. Is it a coincidence that my bones become brittle and stressed once I take dairy from them?? It's the Romeo to my Juliet. A forbidden love. My bones are committing suicide w/o it.

By the way, I'm only half serious about all this dairy drama. I know a few of you couldn't tell if I was being serious on that post or not. While my psoriasis is annoying and bothersome, and I do love dairy more than a healthy amount, I was adding a little dramatic flare to make things interesting, to really milk it, if you will. (My dad is so proud of me for that one right now!) That's all, peeps, no worries. Just don't invite me to go out for ice cream.

A minute of your life you'll never get back

If Eliot had a blog, he would post this video. Because we've watched it 900 times since my very funny friend, Heather, sent it to me.

International Justice Day

Hey friends. Russ here. Today is International Justice day. I wanted to share with you my band's blog entry for today.............




Today is International Justice Day. FE would encourage and challenge you today to pause and reflect. Look at the world around you with fresh eyes. Ask yourself what you see. What can you do to make a difference in even just one life? In your neighborhood, in your school, workplace, or even around the world. Little things. If you live in America, you are among 20% who are the wealthiest people in the world. Be thankful today. Be reminded that there are literally billions in the world suffering. What can we, as the wealthiest in the world do to eliminate hunger, thirst, disease, hate, poverty? The answer is: A LOT. There are a million different ways to get involved, both locally and abroad. There are tons of organizations designed to make it easy for us to spend even just a little time, energy and resources to make the world a better place. Don't just sit there today and read this. Take action. Do something.

Specifically, FE invites you to join our Mocha Club team and our efforts in caring for orphans in Africa. For just $7 a month (the cost of 2 mochas) you can literally change lives and give hope to the hopeless. That $7 will help feed, house, and educate children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, genocide and war. Join our team. Give up a couple coffees a month and change the world. You don't need it. They do. Take action.

Join FE's Mocha Club Team today by clicking here. As a thank you we'll send you a free download of "Change the World," FE's new single. It is only available to FE Mocha Club Team Members. Plus, Mocha Club is also offering a free "I need Africa more than Africa needs me" t-shirt (it's a really great shirt!) to new members.

Watch the video above if you haven't already. Pause and reflect. Oh, and check out FE's new tune, "Change the World" by visiting the original post HERE.


Join our Mocha Club team now and get this track for free!

Road Trip?!

Do you see this sweet little girl? She was our junior bridesmaid and her sister was our flower girl. Well, not only is she old enough to drive, but she's apparently old enough to drive all the way to St. Louis! She's coming for a visit soon and it just delights me! She just graduated high school. Crazy. I literally babysat her when she was just weeks and months old.

Her family is amazing. I'll share the story sometime, right now I'm off to make some huevos!

Happy Friday, everyone!

City Garden Park

I am impressed. Very impressed. There's a new park in downtown STL and I've been hearing about it nonstop from a bunch of the other moms. Having some free time this morning, I whisked Eliot off to the new park and LOVED IT. He loved it, I loved it.

Check out their website if you're in the St. Louis area!

I went inside the head and was talking to eliot out of the eye hole. Maybe not the best decision I've ever made but with the right amount of therapy, we should be good.



Do you love my photography skills?




One of the parts of the park Eliot really loved was the bus stop and the light fixtures. Yeah, he's that kind of kid.

FE Fam!

The families of FE got together last night for a quick playdate. We all live within an hour and a half of each other but it's actually trickier than it should be to get together! We had a great time, the kids were all so excited to see each other again!

As I've said 8 gazillion times, it's such a blessing to be "stuck" with these women!




It's a shame none of the FE kids are very cute...speaking of, two new FE kids will be here soon! One due in August, one in January! Hurray!


Today we're off to check out a new park in STL that's all the rage...

Chasing Cheerios on crack.

My dear friend, KatieHamburgers (not her real name) sent me this link last week and I've been blown away by each of her posts!

Her ideas are original and the majority of them involve trash! I can afford trash! =)

Check it out, add it to your readers, go play with some junk!

Filth Wizardry

Changes.

I've written this post and rewritten this post. There's a few drafts, all from different angles, still unpublished. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Drama. Draaaama.

My Arbonne upline had a really tough conversation with me months ago. I brushed it off as nothing but have been keenly aware of what she said at all times since then. She pointed out an area of my life that could potentially be on the self-destructive side. I assured her I was fine but, to be honest, I'm humbly admitting there's probably some truth to what she said.

I brought this specific issue up to Russ, assuming he'd see how preposterous she was being. Instead of agreeing with me, he sat quietly for a moment until he gathered the courage to admit his agreement with her, even citing specifics instances that supported it.

To be honest, I felt a little attacked. Defensive.

Feeling above their reproof, I attempted to remove this behavior from my daily life. It wasn't until then that I realized that there is, indeed, an issue. A problem.

I, Katie Mohr, am addicted to an unhealthy amount of dairy consumption.

It is a major part of my life. A constant companion. A comfort, a treat, a smiling part of every meal and snack.

But, dairy to me, is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Dairy, yummy yummy dairy, just might be the cause of my psoriasis. (Psoriasis: ugly and uncomfortable skin issue that originally led me to arbonne in the first place but even with the amazing products, my skin gets pretty bad on my hands, neck and scalp.) I took 3 weeks and drastically cut my intake and, sadly, it made a huge difference. I tried to explain it away and shift the blame onto other factors. After those 3 weeks, I went back to life as usual and within days, my hands were cracked and even bleeding.

Without going into each and every detail, just know this has broken my heart and left me standing aimlessly countless times in the kitchen.

If I eat/drink dairy, my hands bleed. If I refrain, my heart bleeds.

I can practically feel the osteoporosis eating away at my frail bones.

If I've appeared shaky or short-tempered with you at any point in the last two months, this has been why. This isn't going to be an easy road for me.

I would appreciate your support, ideas, and accountability.

Big day!

First read this or this.

Then go read this.

Hurray for being home 2 years!

(Holy cow, it's been 2 years!) + (It's only been 2 years?!)

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS...

One of them thar anniversaries.

3 years ago today, we met a funny, fuzzy little 6-week old baby. I was as good as gone.

Secret Thoughts

We're all friends, right? So it makes sense that I would post my secret thoughts here, clearly. I guess they're not so much secret as they are just stuck up in my head with no outlet yet.

I love Guatemala. I love so very many things about it but the part that gets me every single time is each and every face. The smiles, the eyes. The same smile and eyes that got us into all this trouble in the first place back in '03 in Honduras.

It blows my mind that we haven't even been home 2 years yet but we've been blessed to be able to return to Eliot's birth country 3 times already. Would not have seen that coming. We had originally talked of taking him for his 18th birthday.

Every time we go, on almost every day, I see a face that reminds me of my chocolate chip. This leads me to the same thought: What would Eliot's life look like if we hadn't adopted him?

The legit answer: some other house/family in the states. Oh yeah.

After remembering that, I then almost always wonder what his life would have been like if his birth mom hadn't decided to place him up for adoption.

That's a much different answer.

Before I go there, know that sometimes these types of trains of thought bother me. They are apt to create either drama or some sort of martyr role. However, I sometimes can't help it as an adoptive mom. I assume it's natural?

I see little Chapins* getting on school buses, shining shoes, holding hands with their mom, begging for money, digging through trash to find something worth money, playing with their friends, selling me a bracelet*, in good orphanages, in rough orphanages, sniffing glue, in the grocery store with their dad, laughing, crying, clean, dirty, too skinny, too chubby, thriving and struggling.

There's obviously no way to know so there's not any point in entertaining the thought too long. It's not like we're going to go through an entire "It's a Wonderful Life" moment here.

All that to say, I can rest in the knowledge that even in Eliot's conception, the plan was for him to live with us and be our first child. This wasn't a plan B for us any more than it was for him. Daily I'm grateful beyond words that his birth mom followed whatever tug was on her heart.

Chapin: slang word for Guatemalan person.

Bracelet: a bracelet I paid 4X what I should have because he looked like Eliot, just a couple years older. Can you blame me?