blogging.

As I look back over the last 3+ years of this blog, I'm in love. I'm so thankful we have a record of our life.

But then, I wonder.

What becomes of a child who can wonder to himself ten years from now, "I wonder what I was doing May 28, 2008?" and then look it up. Is that weird? That goes way beyond any baby book I've ever seen.

Couple thoughts:

*Are we blogging moms great historians and story tellers of our families or are we raising a self-centered generation?

*When Eliot starts dating (when he's 25...) his girlfriend won't have to wait to meet us to see baby (awkward) pics of him. She will undoubtedly find this post.

Um...I'm sorry and you're welcome?

P.S. Go to yesterday's blog and shoot me an email. Go.

Project 50/50

(Pic stolen from Facebook, thanks, Shay!)
Back a few weeks ago, we had the honor of housing a new friend overnight. Her name is Shay. Shay is homeless. And amazing. Missouri was her 46th state in the last 46 weeks. Blogees, this girl is nuts. In the oh-my-gosh-I-want-to-be-just-like-her kind of way.

I've hesitated writing this because I wanted to do it right. Then I started a draft and my vision kept growing. Let me back up.

Shay was homeless for about 6 months before she started a journey that truly changed her life and countless others. She calls it Project 50/50. The short version? She's traveling (living out of her truck) to all 50 states in 50 weeks. Along her journey, she's doing can (and sock) drives and then redistributing them to the other homeless she meets as she goes along. Her original goal was 10,000 cans and she hit that a couple weeks ago. She estimates she's collected over 4,000 socks. That's legit. She's proving, to herself and anyone who's interested, that you can truly give all you have and God will keep providing. And God has shown up in some crazy ways. Her stories are amazing. I can't even start one of them, cuz this post will just.keep.going.

And she has a cute dog.

She finishes her project mid-December with a huge celebration in Chicago. While we can't go, I thought of something to do to honor her hard work in this project.

Starting today, I'm collecting cans and socks until December 18th and want you to join me. While you're out getting supplies for Christmas for your fam, pick up a few packs of socks and a few extra cans. Tell your friends/family/blog peeps.

**Checking my blog stats, I've had visitors from 46 states over the last 30 days, any chance we could get all 50 states involved in the drive??? I would normally think this wouldn't be realistic, but this is the same audience that gathered/organized 130 stockings FULL of goodies for soldiers a couple years back. I'm thinking big here. I'm thinking at least 100 cans in each state? Do the math. That would be 5,000 more cans. I like it. 100 pairs of socks x 50 states? I'm kind of in love with that.

Once you pick a few things up, email me so I can keep a running total. Then we can arrange a pick up! Depending on how many we get, I'll figure out where to distribute them (STL peeps only).

If you want to be the host in your state, email me and I'll start a post with links to those taking up the torch. Post it on your blog, do it for your church's give-away pantry, enlist your kiddo's classes, go door to door, whatevs. My email is katie l mohr at g mail dot com.

Some deets: Shay recommends tube socks, and pop tabbed cans of fruit, tuna, refried beans and soup.

You can also follow her journey on Facebook (she's an amazing photo journalist), twitter and her blog.

Thanksgiving + St. Leon's Day!

SNOW!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

More later, too busy soaking up time with these yuk-yuks.

Fresh history.

I've had several people ask how we started our friendship with Jodie and/or Fresh Art. The good news? It's all here. Documented on this here handy blog. yes-sirree. You're welcome. And since my stinkin' pies still aren't done for tomorrow, I'm stuck awake while all the peeps are snoozin' so will compile all of them for you. This is your lemonade from my lemons. (that doesn't sound quite right, perhaps I shouldn't blog so late at night...)

Skim this post from 2007 and make sure to read the comments. That's what started this all...

Shortly to follow: our first family shoot here. (jodie will kill me for this, but I love them.)

A few months later, we met up again here.

Then, one of my favorite sessions here, here and here.

Tired of clicking yet??

Jeez, are we spoiled with great photos or what? This shoot was pretty fun...

And this past spring we got to have these! {Enter Kim/Fresh Art. Adios "Jodified"}

And if you haven't been keeping up with this past shoot, here's a couple of my favs.






But you've got to see Dana and Joe's pics, they're amazing!!! Head over to Fresh Art Photography to see them. They'll blow your mind!!

A little side project

Several weeks ago I was texting back and forth with Jodie from Fresh Art and a little project was created. You can read about it a bit on their blog but I wanted to revisit it here.

I've mentioned the Seibel family about 900 times on this blog. They are our family away from family. Our relationship goes back almost ten years. In those ten years their youngest daughter, Dana, and I have become pretty close and I can safely say she's the closest thing I have to a little sister. In good ways and bad ways. *grin* We've had our share of drama for sure but I couldn't be more thankful or honored to be apart of her world. You can imagine my freak out when Dana called to tell me she got engaged.

Some of "my girls" circa early 2000's.

{Dana and Margie came to Guatemala while I lived there! (sidenote: Dana met her fiance Joe while I was away so he sent me an email to introduce himself. Probably the cutest email I've ever gotten.)}

I've also had the major privilege of helping Dana plan her wedding over the last few weeks and I can safely say I'm 12 kinds of obsessed. It's kind of a problem. A good problem. To be honest, it's been my mental getaway during Baby T-Rex season.

Anyway, back to the project. Jodie was talking about new lighting they wanted to try, I'm currently obsessed with weddings, one thing led to another and boom. You have Dana and Joe's engagement shoot. (with Mohr family on the side...)

Jodie and Kim kind of handed over the reigns. And by 'handed over' I mean I snatched those reigns right out of their hands. I brainstormed, I blog stalked, I went a tad bit bananas. For every good idea, there were 14 awkward ones. (I'm just that gifted.) I fell in love with designing, planning, coordinating and brought ol' cRusty with me. If you didn't realize it, he's *somewhat* helpful when it comes to creative ideas.

We love love love working with Jodie and Kim. We're so stinkin' blessed to have this on-going friendship/relationship/thing with them. I hope you all enjoy the shots they captured on Saturday as much as we do, as much as we enjoyed planning for them.

If you hadn't made it over there yet, go check out their blog with the first installment (a couple more to come!) of Saturday's all day photo shoot!

Oh, and did my I mention we got my hair spouse involved? I mean...

Best Friday Night. Ever.

Years ago, friends of ours offered to let us use their cabin whenever we needed a getaway. For whatever reason, we've never made time. With T-Rex back with his fam, Russ pulled the trigger on an overnight respite for the two of us, something we haven't done since Cancun...






We didn't stay long at the cabin on Saturday because of this fun-ness:

Feel free to stalk the Fresh Art Photography blog with me in hopes they post more of our family session and the engagement session Russ and I helped create/style/set up!

I can't quit you.

Starting to breathe.

Tonight we dropped T-rex off with his grandparents.

Everyone cried, T was squealing and chirping and clapping. We stayed for a bit, sharing stories, answering questions. As we were saying our goodbyes, Eliot got pretty sad and said he was going to miss him so much. It was a really sweet moment. And then he tackled him. in front of the case worker. and the family. Uh...

It's quite a mixed bag of feelings. I told Russ tonight that I feel like there are layers and layers of things to process, a teeter-toter between relief and sadness.

I feel like I've been holding my breath for the last 7 weeks. As I process through each layer, I can breath a little deeper.

I'm excited for the changes that will come into T's life as this all shakes out, I'm thankful we made it through our first fostering experience, and I'm excited for how T changed the Mohr's.

And now I shall sleep. For days.

It's been awhile...

This poor girl has been sitting in my drafts for quite some time.

Brought to you by Razorbacks fans.

Bump-it if you got it. Woo pig sooie.

I Heart Faces

This entry is two-fold. First of all, go here to get the update on Madi's health! Her body is responding well to the meds!

Secondly, it's Orange week on IHeartFaces! Kinda perfect, huh? Cuz I heart this little face and can't stop praying for her!

It takes a village(to foster)...

* Countless emails, texts, voicemails, fb and blog comments
* A letter in the mail from my FIL with encouraging words and a devotional
* Erin watching Eliot so Russ can go to a court hearing
* Nancy taking Eliot on a date to Target and CPK
* Deluxe chocolates from Angie and Dane
* Seibels having us over for dinner
* Emily offering ideas and "stuff" to help w/ behaviors
* Eliot's teacher giving a bag of clothes
* Heather delivering a caramel frap to the park
* Dana watching both boys so Russ and I could go on a date
* Edwards making/delivering an amazing chicken dinner
* Neighborhood friends making me go out for a glass of wine
* Sarah coming over to make dinner while Russ was out of town
* Lance and Cory helping w/ T during soccer
* Carol donating more clothes out of her fostering stash
* Seibels making a goodwill run for more clothes
* Daycare offering/supporting strategies
* City Church peeps every Sunday morning being amazing
* Coworkers being patient with all the distractions/leaving early/arriving late
* Respite care over a weekend so we could go to a family celebration
* Becca covering my shift in nursery on a Sunday morning
* Eliot telling me he liked my dress on a difficult morning
* Beth surprising me at work w/ my fav Starbucks
* Nicole watching E while Russ is out of town and offering dinner to us all
* All friends and family being understanding of us not returning countless emails and messages

I feel like I'm probably forgetting a good handful of people. If it's you, please forgive me! I'm lucky if I remember to brush my teeth these days...

llaF yppaH

This was an appropriate and oh-so-telling accident.

A struggle in taking on a high needs foster kid was putting everything on the back burner that wasn't absolutely necessary. Selfishly, I was disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to take advantage of my favorite time of the year. I'd envisioned capturing amazing photos, cute activities with Eliot, etc.

But this is what you get. Ha! One night was especially rough here at Camp Mohr so Russ told me to take a break. I thought I'd take my bit of "free time" and do a quick craft. The next day it had dried and I got it ready to hang it when I realized what I'd done. Didn't really have my head in the game, I suppose.

But I left it that way. It's still there. Backwards. Kind of a craft representation of this season for us. Endearing, quirky, backwards.

Update

Pray for Madi

The blog listed above was set up for updates and to give people an opportunity to give toward Melissa and Scott's medical bills, extra food expenses, etc. Madi's body has responded well so far to the heavy antibiotics which is the main prayer request at this time.

Kelsey (author of the new blog) gave the quick version of their story. Those of you that aren't familiar with their story, take a few minutes to go read it. I met Mel while we were both living in Guatemala waiting for permission to take our kiddos home. After less than 8 months, I was given that gift. Mel's been there almost 4 years and is still fervently praying for that news.

Pray hard for Madi. Write it on your wrist, put a post-it on your fridge, your computer, your wallet, whatever.

Prayer needed!

I know the majority of you believe in the power of praying and I need you to rally. Sweet Madi's appendix ruptured and she's in very serious condition in a hospital in Guatemala City. Pray against infection, pray against fever, pray for the right doctors, pray for peace for Mel and Scott.

Not sure what tangible things we can do yet for them, but if I hear anything I will let you know. If you'd like to send her a note but don't have her contact info, I'd be happy to pass it along or you can leave a comment here and eventually she'll read it.

Pride.

Not like the "I'm so proud of you!" type but the "ew, that's ugly about me" kind.

Parenting pride, to be exact.

Baby T has behavior issues. They show themselves everywhere we go. It takes everything in me not to drop the "he's our foster kid" line to all within ear shot. I immediately hope people don't assume that this misbehavior is connected to my parenting abilities.

Ugly.

Then I think back. How often have I quickly offered, "Oh I think Eliot's teething" or "Eliot didn't have a great nap today" when E has done something wrong in public. Why do I feel the need to blame shift when my kid is just being a kid. Or, heaven forbid, I'm not a perfect parent and my kid made a bad choice because of it.

Parenting pride.

And a sidenote: If I'm not going to own up for the bad decisions he makes then I probably shouldn't take credit for all the good ones he makes, either.

Conspiracy Theory.

There must have been a meeting at some point.

It started w/ Baby T. Over the 5 weeks we've had him, he's slept through the night maybe 5 times.

Of those 5 times my sleep has been interrupted by the neighbors dog barking ENDLESSLY, Eliot having a bad dream, Eliot being silly, Daisy chewing on her paws from allergies (sounds minor but if you've ever had a dog w/ allergies, you get it), a crazy storm that knocked out our power and old man winter (aka Russ snores this time of year...).

At one point last week I slept in our breakroom at work over my lunch hour.

Sleep, beautiful uninterrupted sleep, I miss you.

Oops!

Sorry friends, I am still trying to figure this whole "private" blog thing out. I will need your email address in order to send you an invite. Sorry for the confusion!

Well, hey week 5! Where did you come from?

I know I've been absentee lately and I don't even have the energy to apologize. It is what it is. I miss blogging and have so much to share but there's really not much time or energy left at the end of our days anymore. Baby T "has lots of energy."

I've decided that I'm going to start a separate blog that's private where I can feel more comfortable writing my thoughts and feelings about fostering. I will still blog here normally but when there's stuff I'm not comfortable putting out there, I'd still like an outlet and I know a few of you can relate. If you'd like an invite, let me know and I'll send it to you.