This Reminds Me

Archive for November, 2006

Lois turned 13 years old today.  I am now the mother of two teenage girls.  I’m not quite sure how this has happened.

“Baby Wois” was born eight weeks prematurely with one collapsed lung, and the other not working.  Keith enjoys reminding her that one of her many drips was milky white lipids, a.k.a., pure fats.

Rachel created Lois’ “It’s My Birthday – Hug Me!” custom shirt.  Poor Keith has had a tummy bug and wasn’t feeling up to making our traditional birthday pancakes, so instead he made a quick run to Shipley’s for doughnuts and kolaches, with Lois’ portion eaten from the red “You Are Special” plate.  Unfortunately, no one else in our family will be special for awhile, because it met the tile floor after dinner (oops!)  Hannah is really ticked because her 11th birthday is Friday.  Oh-so-sympathetic Rachel has offered to write “You Are Special” in red marker on a Chinet plate for her – such a deeply touching gesture.

When we were first married, Keith was stunned at the (seemingly large) amount of paper goods, toiletries, etc. that I routinely purchased.  As he stated so puzzledly, “I thought a 12-pack of toilet paper was a lifetime supply.”  As the mother of two (and counting) teenaged girls, I’ve made certain observations about life with them, such as:

There is no such thing as too many brands or bottles of shampoo.

Shoes.  Everywhere.

If my make-up is missing, that means their supply is low.

Need a snack?  Check inside the cushions of the recliners.

The phone is never for me.

“Teen pattern deafness” causes blank looks when phrases like, “Unload the dishwasher” are repeatedly intoned.

Panty hose.  So much easier to unwrap a new pair to wash the used ones.

The cordless phone might be – where?

Eye rolls can be peformed to a degree that would appear physiologically impossible.

There may be wet towels on the floor, crud caked on the mirror and the sink may look like one at the Greyhound station….but our hair, ohhhhhhh, it’s soooooo straight.

And finally – Sanitary products always drift to the bottom of the shopping cart, completely covered by layers of food items.  (In a few years, I’ll be buying them on a flatbed at Costco.)

Barney was da man for years and years.  We had regular Barney outfits, and “Dress Barnies,” and of course the ever-popular Barney jammies.

I love them

They love me

But what happened to my baby?

15, 13, with two right behind

How long till I lose my mind?

The fridge is full, the dishes are done and there’s an uncut homemade pecan pie chilling in the freezer.  Ahhhh! It’s been a great Thanksgiving Day at Casa Woodworth.

For five years, we’ve hosted two Air Force recruits in training from Lackland Air Force Base on Thanksgiving.  Rachel and I drive 32 mi. for “Operation Home Cooking” and wait about 90 minutes to go through the necessary gyrations to pick them up.  The guys we’ve gotten have all been friendly, nice, helpful….but….we’ve always wanted girls.

This year – we got our wish.

Salute!  Amber-from-Pennsylvania and Sherry-from-Kentucky were special guests of honor.  We all enjoyed their company – what great additions to the day.  They’ll be stationed at Lacklack after Basic Training and we’re hoping to see them again, maybe next spring when they have more priveleges.

Keith explained the finer points of turkey frying to Sherry, Amber and our good friends John and Linda.  You always want to invite John and Linda to your gatherings.  They do dishes and bring gifts.  Note Julia’s empty booster chair next to Keith.  She had headed off with her sisters to our bedroom to “TV watch” and sneak multiple chocolate dipped pretzels and cans of Coke.

You also want to invite my good friend Shelley and her husband John to your gatherings.  They also do dishes and return recruits to Lackland!  Shelley and I have known each other since our Remco days, going back to 1977.  We have to remain friends because we have way too much dirt on each other.

Our newest American and big sister Hannah are near me right now, coloring more pictures for the fridge.  We have the best decorated fridge in San Antonio.  They wandered down to a neighbor’s home this evening to play in a hot tub with their friends.  It’s about 8 p.m., and a balmy 66 degrees.

My 10 fingers are dishwater-soaked, but I can still use them to tick off things for which I am most thankful.  My wonderful husband.  My four daughters, for one of whom this is her first Thanksgiving.  Good food with the best recipes from generations of family.  Living in a patriotic city like San Antonio, which proudly supports the military.   Jobs that allow us to live in a house comfortable enough for friends and family to enjoy.  Friends and family that know all about me, and love me anyway.  A church home, not just a church building.

Tomorrow, I’ll balance myself on the porch and switch out my Thanksgiving flag to a Christmas flag.  We’ll drag out the Christmas tree – candy canes to decorate it were excitedly purchased days ago.  The girls will groan when I happiy slap a stack of holiday CD’s in the kitchen.  Julia will continue to verify the number of sleeps until the big day.  (Honey, where’s that Advent calendar?)

But for tonight – this night – I’m just thankful for today.

We were soooo close.

The trickle of Play Station 3 consoles into the U.S. market has created a frenzy of buying activities for gaming fanatics.  Of which we’re not.  But we’re smart enough to know that a $700 PS3 bundle from Costco can be turned around and sold on e-Bay for $2,000.  That $1300 increment could have made a very merry Christmas.

So when we found out Costco was selling a “limited number” online yesterday, Keith and I parked ourselves at different computers, attempting to snag that magic  ”one per family.”

The site traffic was unreal.  It would take minutes for a page to paint - if it didn’t time out first.

Keith and I attacked with three windows each.  We each (eventually) made it this far – to the product page;

Keith actually got a bundle to add to cart.  We were yelling encouragement to each other.  I thought – Omigosh, he’s got one!  He’s actually got one.

False hope.  (big sigh)

Even though he got the bundle to add to cart, the check-out was hosed.  In fact, the site itself crashed almost immediately thereafter, and stayed down for hours.  He called later, hoping a friendly Costco rep would gurgle, “Oh yes, Mr. Woodworth – it’s in your cart, it’s yours.  Feel free to check out just as soon as our lame technicians who sure should have anticipated the traffic load manage to resuscitate our site.”

Instead, he heard a canned response about “limited number” and “first come, first serve,” blah blah blah.

Well, darn.

We’ve had a PS2 since Christmas 2000, when it hit the market.  To get it here, Santa used a 6’5″ bearded helper.  This unnamed Santa’s helper had broken his foot the month before, tripping on one of Hannah’s sippy cups.   He was on crutches, and in pain.  And it was drizzling as he spent the night – all night – with several dozen newly-made friends on the sidewalk outside of Best Buy, clutching his coveted number and awaiting the door opening.  I drove by on the way to work and delivered two fried egg sandwiches and a Diet Coke to sustain him those last few hours.

Christmas 2000 – PS 2 Arrives at Casa Woodworth

PS2 is a focal point of our game room.  Two-mat Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is the favorite game of slumber parties.  Lois and her friends compete at Kingdom Hearts.  When we have the middle school boys over for a weekend of Disciple Now each spring, we always tell them to bring their favorite PS2 games.

Julia is very into “Spyro” and “Cool Boarders.”  It didn’t take her much time to learn the controller.  If it’s got a screen, she’s in love with it.

So, no extra $1300 for us this holiday season.  Guess we’ll have to switch to Plan B…..ski masks, convenience stores……

But boy, we were close.  Sooooo close.

From the time we started our first load (of many loads) of adoption-related paperwork, Keith and I talked about Parent Dedication.  We had dedicated ourselves to Christian parenting with babies Rachel, Lois and Hannah.  For more than two years, we’ve been looking forward to doing this with with our “new girl,” too.

Six Woodworths before the service with our pastor, Dowell.  Julia doesn’t call him “Brother Dowell” or “Doctor Loftis” or any similarly noble title.  She refers to him as “Catherine’s Papa,” Catherine being our much-loved summer babysitter.

Baptists don’t sprinkle babies.  We trust that as children – or adults - grow in faith, they will make personal salvation decisions and present themselves for believers’ baptism (immersion).  So we don’t think parents can make faith-affecting decisions for children.

We do think we can make faith-affecting decisions about ourselves, though.  We can promise “To the best of our ability, to teach our child the importance of Christian values that are taught from the Bible.  To give our child the opportunities to pattern their life in keeping with the foundations of the Christian faith.  To continue to grow and nurture our own relationships with Jesus Christ in order to give our child the best model possible.”

Yes, that we can do.  Hence, “Parent Dedication.”  The focus was on the four children (three babies and Julia), but the promises were all about Keith, me and the other six parents.

It’s all about me!  “We have made promises to God and to each other, let us now ask our Heavenly Father to help us to be committed to these promises.”

This was a long-anticipated day for our family, and we wanted to share it with the friends who’ve helped us most along the way.  We have been blessed with many good friends who have performed countless services for us the last two years, but today we focused on the friends who made it possible for us to travel to Russia twice this year.  We call them the “Julia Delivery Team.”

The “Julia Delivery Team” worshipped with us this morning, then came over for an All-American lunch of hotdogs, hamburgers and apple crisp.

The Julia Delivery Team!  No need to boil water.  Back Row, l – r: Rachel, Paula, Hannah, Vicki, Dan, Shelley and Lois.  Front Row, l-r: Julia, John, Larry and Mary Anne.  Paula and Dan did at least half of our apostille chores in Austin.  Vicki and Larry kept the girls for a week of our second trip.  Mary Anne kept them for our first trip.  Shelley and John kept them the weekend of our mandatory two-day seminar, plus pinch hit on our trips, did a ton of notary work, picked us up at the airport and made Julia a lovely keepsake book.  My brilliant niece Sarah in Pearland also kept the girls for a week of our second trip, however, she’s expecting my next great niece in February, and is reluctant to travel.  (Yes, I’ve decided it’s a girl and I’ve even named her “Rebecca Judith.”  Just sings, doesn’t it?!)

Earlier this week, Julia was practicing had new-found handwriting skills.  She’d ask Hannah how to spell a word, and then she’d write it.  I really wasn’t paying attention (ummmm….not exaclty Christian parenting….) until I realized she wasn’t copying what Hannah wrote.  Hannah was spelling the word verbally, and then Julia was writing it herself.  Other than asking for help on the letter “h” in “‘Rachel,” she composed every word.  I was amazed.  She’s been home less than six months.

“How you spell this, Hannah?”

Julia’s “I love….” statement sounds a lot like one of the promises that was rolling around my head – if not on my tongue – in church this morning.  “I love Keith Rachel Lois Hannah Julia.  I love you so much.”

I will always love you.

And that’s a promise.