2031 Polk Street

I just spent a week in new educator's training, and it was a really great time. I don't know if it was all of the reflection on learning and cultural diversity that made me begin reminiscing about my own cultural experiences, or if it is just that I miss San Fran, but I began thinking about ways other cultures have helped shape me into the person I am today. I am proud of the fact that my parents tried very hard to give my brother and I a "global view". We were exposed to many different people and cultures. The first memories I have of different cultures is of my all time favorite Chinese/Hunan/Mandarin restaurant "Tai Chi".

(Here it is in the early 1980's. This is the Tai Chi that I remember.)

My parents would take David and I, and we would, if we were privileged enough, get to sit with the adults at the largest round table I could remember. When we entered the little establishment, we would wind back past the main part of the tiny restaurant, past the kitchen into the back of what was probably a house at one point. There would be the table. Tai Chi also introduced me to what a "lazy susan" was. I was fascinated by the little wooden disk, that would turn and spin. The first course to be presented from the little waiters was the "sizzling rice soup." It is the one dish that I was always afraid would injure someone at the table. The soup would be presented and everyone would "ooh and ahhh". Then the Asian men would dish everyone a bowl of the rich salty soup with the sizzling rice, which would only be floating in the dish at this point. The best part was the huge jumbo shrimp that bobbed up and down in the broth. About the time the seconds had been served on the soup, the adults would be presented with dishes and dishes of the best Chinese food in the world. My favorite dish was "shrimp with snow peas." It wasn't a spicy dish, but I was never afraid of the spicy dishes. I always felt a little honored when my dad would offer me a piece or two of his coveted general tso's chicken. Even though the first time it burned the inside of my mouth, there was something about the chicken that keeps you wanting one more bite.

My brother and I used chopsticks for the first time at Tai Chi. And they weren't the wooden kind. They had these bright red plastic chopsticks that came in a cloth napkin neatly wrapped. They had little gold Chinese symbols that etched the top of the chopsticks. Dinners lasted for hours at Tai Chi and we never got bored. It was even an adventure to the use the restroom. We tried to avoid it, but with a long trip back to Fremont, California one would have to use the restroom atleat once.

My mom and I ate at Tai Chi in 1995, and even flew home general tso's chicken for my dad, that is how wonderful this restaurant is.

(This is how Tai Chi looks today.)

I guess I am homesick for San Francisco today. The Phantom of the Opera is playing at the Keller in Portland this month. I am reminded of the first time I ever saw the Phantom. It was in San Fran with my concert choir. We experienced the production in a venue that was built just for the Phantom. I was so moved by that performance. I remember at the end of the show when the Phantom disappears and all that is left is the mask. I tried to hold back my emotions, but I was so moved. After hearing my mom and my friend describe this years Phantom, I decided that I must see it again. I bought myself a ticket for Tuesday night. It will be my 3rd time seeing it. I can't wait.

We Start Them Young...

Well, Luke had his first official day of riding motorbikes. Luke's cousin Ethan was kind enough to share his quad with him. Although, I am absolutely certain that we will be the proud owner of yet another motorbike soon. I can't believe how absolutely adorable he looks. And the helmet....it kills me :)
Luke had an awesome day and loved telling me all about it when I got home from training.

Speaking of training, I have been at a new educators teacher training this week for Vancouver Public Schools. I didn't really know what to expect, but WOW!!! I have only ever been to an orientation for the Christian Schools, so I had no frame of reference. Not only are we getting paid for attending, they have been giving us free stuff and prizes and catered lunches. I can't wait until Thursday because Beaches is catering. Yeah! We have been given so much information and breakout trainings. It has been a great experience. Today, I picked up the keys to my room and met with the new building principal. I started moving furniture around and making it my own. It is really awesome. Vancouver Public Schools does a great job of taking care of their teachers. The new superintendent this year really believes strongly in early childhood education. He and his wife have adopted two children. A little girl from China and a baby boy from the Congo. I really believe in their (I guess it is mine now too) mission statement and the direction for the district. I am really excited about this upcoming school year.

Vacation Bible School

Our church had their annual "Vacation Bible School" this week. My dear, wonderful husband signed me up to help with the preschool kids. I thought "help, how hard can that be?" Well, apparently I was the director of the preschool which meant I got to be in charge of everything relating to preschool!!!! How happy am I? So here is a picture of my crew in all of their glory. All 22 of them.The theme for this year was "Avalanche Ranch". It was a cute western theme. They did a great job on the sets.

Since daddy signed mommy up without asking, mommy signed daddy up without asking. Daddy was a crew leader for Luke's group. Of course daddy really enjoyed his job. While mommy wished that she had daddy's job. I tried to get daddy to trade. No such luck!

Grace in all of her glory and attitude. She is just naughty sometimes. I told her I wanted to get a picture with her next to her friends. She told me, "I not look at you." So this is what I got. This has been a great practice for preschool this fall. God bless Grace's teacher!

Mark's Surprise!?!

I am sure most everyone reading knows that we are going to have a big celebration for our 10 year anniversary at our church. Well, my sweet, sweet husband bought me a new wedding ring!!!! Apparently he has had the money set aside for a long time I didn't know about it. We found this ring together and he said, "do you like that one?" I replied, "well, ya, of course I do. It's beautiful." Mark said, "ok, it's yours." Then Mark proceeded to pay for the ring. Now it's ours. What a wonderful man.

Dahl Family Reunion

Here are a few pictures from our Dahl family reunion last Saturday. We had a really wonderful time. The weather the company and the food were perfect.

Our Little Family

Grammy and Grandpa with the 5 grand kids

Grace's Dress for our 10th Anniversary

Well, I ordered Grace a dress for our Anniversary celebration. It is very cute. It is white and black and made out of chiffon material. Grace insisted that I take her picture.

Updated Bathroom

So, I have the materials for awhile to give our bathroom an update. It was painted a year ago, but I wanted to add lighter accent colors, so I finally did. I found most everything for the update including the candles and shower curtain at IKEA (my favorite).

Princess Grace

I know that it may seem biased that I write more about Luke. So, I decided to make this entry about Miss Grace. I recently re-designed her room. It is sad that my kiddos are not in the baby stage anymore, so I packed up my classic Winnie the pooh stuff. She now has a pink room. And I am talking pink! It reminds me of the movie "Steel Magnolias" where Shelby is having her wedding and she says that her wedding scheme is her "signature colors, blush and bashful." That is what I think about in Grace's room. Three walls are painted a light pink and one wall is a darker pink. She has princesses adorning every wall and she loves it. I am in the process of painting Cinderella (well Grace insists that it is "Cinderelli") on the wall. I asked Grace what she thought of Cinderella and she looks at me, points her finger and says, "paint Ariel mom." OK I'll get right on that.

From the pictures you can probably see that yes, Grace is still sleeping in a crib. I have tried about 4 times to transition her to a big girl bed. Yeah, not happening. I tell everyone that she is on the five year plan for the crib. Grace is a very independent, bright, funny girl. She refuses to go to sleep when she has all the freedom in the world. There were some nights when she was up until nearly 1 am. And I tried everything. Then she will get up at 2am and 4am and 6am and turn on all the lights in the whole house. And wake everyone up. But the final straw for me was her going to sleep at 11pm, waking at 2am and turning on all the lights, then waking up at 5:30am to her in her church shoes watching her jump up and down on her mattress screaming at the top of lungs in delight. That was it. Back to the crib. Did I mention how horrible her attitude can be when she is sleep deprived? Did I mention how horrible my attitude can be when I am sleep deprived? We are all sleeping much better now. I have also found that she likes the security of the crib and crib tent.

Mark put together the new white shelving that I bought at IKEA. My brother hates that store, but I absolutely love it. It is my mother ship. Grace loves her new room. I am happy to be able to give her a space that is her own and reflects her personality. Yeah Gracie!

3 Years Ago This Month....

I said goodbye to our third bio baby. She never made it to our world and developed to 11weeks1day (the furthest I have ever made carrying a baby). I nearly had a panic attack when I realized this evening that her date had come and gone I hadn't thought of it or spent time reflecting on it. July 1, 2005, was when we received the news that she had passed from this earthly life to heaven. Those are moments that I will never forget. Since I made it the furthest with her, a natural miscarriage did not occur. Instead I had a D&C at Southwest Washington Medical Center. Physically it was not painful, as I was put under, but emotionally it was very difficult to check into a hospital carrying a baby and check out of the hospital "empty". I remember crying for nearly two days straight. Grief and hormone changes are horrible on a person. When you are in the middle of the grief you feel like your world will never be "normal". It amazes me that after three years I could let the day come and go and not reflect or remember. It could be due to the fact of our last foster baby leaving to live with his mom, and that I was very excited that Mark and I were going to spend some time with out any kids for a couple of days. Regardless somewhere in the midst of life I missed July 1. But, I remember. I dug through my remembrance box I have for all three of my bio babies. I have something to remember each by. I have two ultrasound pictures of babies #2, and #3. I have my resource hospital guide from the doctor. During my anger and grief, I actually threw the guide away in the garbage only to dig it out later when my senses returned to me and I knew that I would want to look at it someday (I was right). I have one maternity dress that I kept, notes from the nurse, cards everyone sent, my hospital bracelets, and then my necklace. I don't know if any of you know but I wear a necklace that has a charm for each of my kids (not including foster kids). The charms have the birthstone of when they were born. The first is a pair of shoes and a Sapphire for our first babe, the second is a ring with a Sapphire for our second babe, next is Luke's with an aquamarine for March, third is a ruby for our third babe, next is another aquamarine for Grace. It is my daily memorial for all my kids, plus it is close to my heart. I know that one day I will see my babies again and I trust that Lord is using them for His mighty purpose and plan. Plus, I know that they are probably keeping my dad busy. In the picture are a few mementos of my third baby born too soon in July of 2005.

A Bad Mommy Moment....and a New Car Seat For Luke

(Luke's new seat, Britax Regent)

The seat itself weighs 26 pounds!!! Heavy

Also, just so you can understand how big this seat is. The straps are set to Luke's height (lots of room to grow)

Ok. I am the kind of person that reads everything regarding parenting and development. This is only proof that one person can miss things. I thought I was following the rules, I thought I was keeping my kids safe in car seats, but apparently, I was mislead. Now, I was never breaking the law, but what I realized was I was putting my son at risk in a booster seat with a regular seat belt. I love Jon and Kate plus eight (great show on TLC). I was reading their website wondering what kind of car seats they used. I looked up the car seat online and ran across a video (Video added at bottom). It changed my life! And, I promptly went out and bought my son a new car seat. I had him in a little booster (because they are legal), but if we were ever in an accident, he could be severely injured, thrown from the vehicle, or even killed because of the his weight, and installation problems as well as just kid stuff (moving the seat belt, turning around, etc). I have never spent that much on a car seat (280 dollars) thanking the Lord for monthly adoption support, but what price tag can you put on your child's safety? He is now riding around in a Britax Regent car seat. He will continue to be in a five point harness until he is 53 inches standing or 80 pounds. In Washington there is a new car seat law (8 years old and 80 pounds). I know many might think that I am overreacting, because we didn't have rules when we were growing up. But, the thing is, we live in a very different world, And anything that I can do to help keep my kids safe, I feel it is my responsibility to choose to do the right thing even if others think I am crazy. Since he now only has one seat, I have another 5 point harness seat on order from Sunshine kids. It is a Radian Car Seat and it is rated the same 53 inches and 80 pounds. There also is a new Britax Frontier Seat coming out soon that is rated to 80 pounds and then a high back booster from 80-100 pounds, that is suppose to do well in side impact crashes. All these seats Regent, Frontier, Radian 80 are all around 280 dollars, so it is easy to see why many parents, like myself, miss this important information because you can buy a legal booster seat for as low as 20 dollars at Wal-Mart. So, many might laugh, but my kids will be in 5 point harness probably until their 8 years old. Did you also know that car seats expire? Apparently they do. Also, you are never, ever to wash the harness straps because they can compromise the integrity of the straps. Always wash with damp cloth and order more if they need to be replaced. Again, all things I didn't know.



Please watch this video and educate yourself even if you don't have children yet. It changed my life.

OHSU Infertility Specialists...Genetic Testing Results

About 6 weeks ago, I saw Dr. Patton at OHSU. He is an reproductive endocrinologist. I finally had enough nerve to go. I sat on the referral I had from my OB for 6 months. The first thing is you pay the 300 dollars upfront to see the doctor even if you have insurance. It is the most beautiful office I have ever seen. It is on the 10th floor of a building that overlooks the Willamette River and downtown Portland. You can watch the tram run right past you up to the OHSU campus.

Anyway, it was the most wonderful appointment I could have ever wanted in last six years. Wow, I just calculated, that I have been dealing with infertility since 2002. Hard to believe it has been apart of my life for so long. For so long I have wondered and hoped and prayed for some answers and I finally had enough courage to begin the process. Dr. Patton is the head doctor at the clinic. You can look him up online. He has published a lot of scientific research. OHSU is a teaching hospital so there was a young doctor with him as well. I sat in Dr. Patton's office looking towards my mom's work (she is very close) as we began looking through my entire medical record from Dr. Bishop (my OB). I could have cried as it all sat there in one pile together holding all my information and answers from 2002. In matter of 1 hour they put me together and began explaining things that I couldn't believe. The doctors reconfirmed that I am a "classic" PCOS patient. They also looked up all my progesterone levels and began explaining what kinds of testing they would do on me and Mark. It turns out, that I will never be able to just get pregnant on a whim, because if we do it will turn out the same way the first three pregnancies did. I have to be monitored, I have to take multiple medications to help me keep the pregnancy. I am thankful to God that I am able to get pregnant because I don't have to think about egg harvesting and IVF. They know just based on lab tests that I do not make enough progesterone to keep a baby alive. I possibly could have an autoimmune disorder because I do have psoriasis. They will check that. They will also check me for a blood clotting disorder and check different hormones in my blood and also take a look at my uterus. And they also wanted Mark and I to do a blood kerotyping genetic testing. It is very expensive, over 800 dollars a piece. But, in a turn of luck, or blessing, our insurance (or should I say Mark's insurance) covered it at 100%. Today... just a few hours ago, OHSU called to tell me that we are genetically compatible!!!! I was so relieved because I was very nervous. Just last night we sat and talked about what would happen if we weren't compatible. I am praising the Lord because this is great news! It is the one factor that the clinic could not help us with. Yes, we plan on trying to have a baby at some point. But right now the doctor has me on medication to turn everything off regarding reproduction so that it can have some time to rest. I am just enjoying one day at a time and reveling in the fact that I have allowed myself to hope once more that we may be able to have a biological baby. Not that we love our kids any less for being adopted, we absolutely do not. But this is a deep longing in my heart that was awakened six years ago when I lay in hospital bed being told that I had miscarried my baby. I had no idea at the time what the journey would be like. But here we are, walking down paths that we never, even intended to take. I know it may be difficult to understand why a blood test could make one so happy. But, if you thing about it like this, it is like I have been in a dark room for so many years and little by little, as answers come, the light in the dark room begins to brighten. It is so wonderful to see the light. Again, knowledge is POWER!