My Published Poet

Sean's teacher entered some of the kids work into a writing contest called Creative Communication. We just got a letter that Sean's poem was selected to be published. It's kind of cool, to be a published poet at the age of 10. I thought I'd share his poem. It's not the ryhming kind, but it's funny and makes me laugh.

It's entitled Sean
Cool, funny and fun
Son of Susan and Joe
Lover of skateboarding, skimboarding, and surfing
Who feels cool most of the time
Who needs mac and cheese, water, and a house
Who wishes he could have more skateboards, give skateboards to the poor, and own a skate park
Who dreams of being a pro-skateboarder, being famous all over the world, and not being poor
Who fears talking dummies who smile, white faced clowns, and the boogie-man
Who gives help to the Salvation Army, his mom and Nana
Who wants to visit Hollister, California, Alaska, and Norway
Resident of Largo, Florida
Sean

I asked him why he didn't put Kazakhstan as a place to visit, and he said he forgot. LOL
So, of course, I am buying the book for $26.40 cuz you're not a published poet every day.
And, really, every poor person needs a skateboard, right?

I know what I need--AN LOI to meet my Kaz kid, that's what I need.

"Suzy Sunshine"survived St Augustine!!

We had a GREAT trip to St. Augustine and we totally lucked out weather wise. I didn't even NEED to wear the "forbidden" tank tops because it wasn't even hot! The humidity disappeared for the 4th graders and chaperones on this trip! I ended up buying some cute new "closed toed shoes" for day 1, since we were climbing 219 steps up to the lighthouse, because my running shoes just do not look cute with capri's. I was worried they'd be comfy, but I didn't need to. For just $12.99-they were really comfy and super cute!!! I got many compliments to boot. :) They don't call me a Steinmart "Bou" lady for nothin!! I also did NOT get in trouble for talking. In fact, Sean's teacher dubbed me "Suzy Sunshine" at one point. I was a model chaperone.




I remember when we signed up for this trip to St. Augustine-I think it was last November. I asked Joe if he could take off work to watch the baby. He gave me a weird look and said "but we don't have a baby". I said, BUT WE WILL! Baby Kaz will be home with us by next May!!!! My ever pragmatic husband told me to sign the form, and if we had a baby, we'd deal with it when the time came. It's almost comical really, as I totally thought we'd be done with the adoption process by now. Instead, we just had (on May 9th) our one year anniversary of signing the contract with our adoption agency and now are are looking at having to redo our dossier, plus our home study! However, we did get one piece of what could be news about possible travel. Remember that our dossier was originally sent to Astana in Febuary and we were told we would travel soon. Then, the next day, Astana "closed" so we were sent to Kostanai. Kostanai seems to be pretty backed up right now, with several families waiting to adopt there but right now, no children available for adoption. Well, Astana is BACK OPEN! I hope that our dossier can be transferred back there. I am not sure, but I sure hope so. I had heard from someone else that the MOE lady in Astana doesn't like when that happens (when people transfer out of their region to Astana) but since Astana was our "original destination", and if it hadn't been moved, we'd still be in line there. I know we'll go when we're supposed to go and where, but I've had my concerns about Kostanai so we'll just see.



The trip was very educational and really interesting. We had been there before, but it was when Sean was just finishing kindergarten so it'd been awhile. The class did great and were super smart in answering all the questions. I was very proud of them! Sean is a huge history buff, so he was amazing me answering questions about dates and events. His teacher told me she wants to see him as a history professor at Harvard or Princenton. I told her we just need to get thru the last 2 weeks of 4th grade at this point. :)

Big Brother Practice

We got the privilege to watch Ryan tonight for almost 3 hours while his mommy went to a class at the library. It was so much fun!! Ryan is the same lil munchkin who "broke in" Baby Kaz's crib a few months ago. He is so cute, and he had SO MUCH FUN WITH SEAN! His mom, Karen, is one of my BFF'S. She said she was going to bring some toys, but then she rememberd that Baby Kaz's room is CHOCK FULL OF TOYS! Ryan loved playing with them too!!
Sean is really good with little kids. It's really cute to watch him. He is such a great helper. He fed Ryan dinner tonight and entertained him with his drum. Sean's big brother Joey got Sean the drum for Christmas when Sean was a little guy.


We had a lot of fun!

No news of course on when we're going, but I have had fun playing "Julie McCoy social director" (For those of us older gals who watched Love Boat back in the day) for Sean today. I did get lucky and snagged the last spot in sailing camp for Sean for a week in June. He is excited about that! He's never done it before, and was game to try it, even though none of his buddies are doing this particular camp. I also found a sports camp for the first week of June. 2 more days until St. Augustine! :)

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

Happy Mother's day everyone! To all mother's, old and new, to fur babies or human babies! For those of us waiting, hopefully next Mother's day we'll be home with our new Kazahstani additions! It is a hot and humid day here in Florida. Seriously, all of you in cooler climates can smile now because it's getting miserable here already! However, we had a nice day anyway. :) I blew off my morning run, and slept in until 7:30.
I taught Sunday school, and then went to Village Inn for brunch with my boys. Then, my son and I went and saw a "chick flick"! Sean is a sport, all in the name of Mother's Day. I highly recommend Made of Honor with McDreamy..aka Patrick Dempsey. It's a cute movie, albeit rather predicatable romantic comedy, but just up my alley.

Joe (and Sean) are grilling for his mom and for me for dinner tonight.

Sean succeeded in making his mom cry once again with his mother's day gifts. He can really be a sweetie when he wants to be.

He got me 3 things. The first one is a ceramic trivet thingy that says God could not be everywhere, so he created Mom's. He drew some things and he said said he tried to draw a robot but he messed up. It has a cross, and some smiley faces, and some blur that is the messed up robot. Of course, it made me cry. They got to do whatever they wanted and he saw that saying in his Papa's garage but he said it about Grandma's so he changed the words.


The second thing was something he made in computer class. The 5 reasons I love my mom..




The last one was a picture with a poem. Sean chose "If Mom were a movie star" and he did a really impressive job (I thought, and that's really all who matters, since it's my gift. :) ) I am going to frame this one.






If my mom were a movie star..

If my mom were a movie star,
she would be all star
She would be the best movie star you've ever seen
She would look like she was eighteen!

She would be in many movies I'm sure she would
and I'm sure I'm positive she would be good
She's be in a movie called "The best mom EVER"
and in a movie called "very clever"

She'd never turn to any drug
and she'd still be quick as a lightening bug
She would still be very fun
And she would still like having fun in the sun

If my mom were a movie star
She's still the best mom ever
And she will love me forever
Even when i'm thirty-two
Or when I'm acting blue

Happy Mother's day mom
Love, Sean

No News....

No news on Baby Kaz and when we'll meet her...
But, a couple families were given LOI's this past week for May and for July, apparently. So, to me, that means we're not going in either of those months.
School ends in 20 days, so we made some plans this week since it doesn't look like we'll be traveling halfway accross the world just yet. I am grateful that we went away to a family church retreat this past weekend. It was a really nice, relaxing time and it really gave me new perspective. I am going to try to maintain this peaceful feeling that I have and just really work on trusting God's plan for our family.

Fortunately, we are very busy until school ends. Tomorrow, I am volunteering for the "Book club bash", and Friday I am in charge of the Safety Patrol skating party at the park. Exciting stuff, I know...but, it's fun for me and it keeps me very busy, which is good! The St Augustine trip is next week--and I am ready with my tunics, sleeveless jeweled tops, and close toed shoes. I will do my best to not talk or use my cell phone or do anything else to bring attention to myself. I will give you all a full report when we get back. :)

I have been busy planning some fun things for Sean this summer. He worked so hard this year, I want him to have a good balance of fun, and relaxing time, too. I got Sean into summer camp-the same week away church camp he went to last year. YAY! I am so lucky that it wasn't full!! He is going there in June, and then we made plans for the 4th of July to visit my sister in Arkansas, where my parents will join us, and my brother, his wife, and their girls. That will be really fun. Then, we're going to go back to Dallas, where my parents live, and Sean and I are going to go to San Francisco to visit my aunt, and my grandma is going to be there. My sister is going to go with her kids. Plus, Joey, my stepson lives there too. I'm excited. Joe can't go, because, well, SOMEONE has to work. Steinmart will live without me for the month of July. I am excited to do some traveling. It will help me work on my packing skills since extra suitcase are now a charge of $25.

On a seperate note, today is my mom's birthday. She would have been 67 today, but she died when she was 42 of lung cancer. It seems so weird that I've had more years now without her than with her, as she died when I was 17. I will be 42 next month, and I cannot imagine leaving Sean. I know she is lookin out for me though and smiling down at her grandson. She was a cool lady...way Zen before her time. She was into yoga, and wore birkenstocks with socks before it was cool to do so. At my slumber party, she had us all lay in shivansa and took us on a mediation, floating thru the clouds. She was really a groovy mom...WAAAY differnent than all the other mom's. The other day, I found a wallet size picture of her. I kept begging her to write on the back of it (you know how you wrote on the back of pics back in the day)
She wrote: Dear Susan, I do not write on the back of pictures, as I feel this is purely a juvenile activity. I love you anyway, Mom
I MISS YOU MOM!!

I am enjoying following the blogs of all my friends in country, and my friends about to go!! Good thing I am chilled out Zen yoga Susan instead of the old Hard Core Competitive Susan or I may have had a hard time watching all my good blog buddies go before me. For now, I'm at peace for whatever comes, I just wish I knew SOMETHING. All I was told is that the other families had plenty of time to get ready. So, with that, I think I could still use my winter boots. Today, I was buying a cute stuffed lion that sing's the ABC song and some musical books for Baby Kaz at Steinmart. The lady checking me out asked if it was for our baby. I told her yup, it sure was! She said, so, you have her? I said, nope, we gotta go get her. She said, "well, at least you have it the easy way. I said, well, I don't know about that. I think being pregnant was way easier than this."
I just wish there was a way to make this easier. The only thing that makes it easier is the friends that I've met along the way. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I will close with this, as I truly mean it. I love the friends who read my blog and who inspire me daily with their adoption stories. Thank you so much~it really feels good that you all care about us and Baby Kaz! I love you all and I love your children. You're all so incredibly special!!!

Quote by Margaret Mead...Never Doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.