My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

An ebay auction on steroids

Oh. my. goodness. people.

Insanity. 
Back and forth, back and forth. We’re ahead by 10, down by 10, etc., etc. There were some serious people rallying on our behalf. That’s serious people seriously rallying (like asking all their Facebook friends, their teenage children, coworkers, etc. to click for us).  
At a little after 11am, I shut down the Macbook and headed out with the kiddos to the pool since it was at the point that I just couldn’t watch any more (picture me, hands over my eyes, peeking every so often). Every 10 minutes or so, I was checking in to see the status. And, the numbers started going crazy…as did my text messages.
Ahhh!
None of us knew how it actually ended. 
Hours later, we got the official word from Dan at Together for Adoption. He counted up the votes, going through and deleting ones from duplicate IP addresses. 
Can you see this screen shot?
1,624 votes. That’s a whole lotta clicks for us. Geez Louise. Can’t believe it.

What’s Atlanta like in September?
And, if anyone out there knows the Cannings family, tell them we’ve got to meet, hopefully in September in Atlanta.

No. more. voting. contests.

Unless the grand prize is a trip to China or one of my children is running for the Presidency.

I’ll stick to dressing up like cows to get free food at Chickfila ($45 meal for free, people, just for some ears on headbands and black construction paper spots). Totally more our speed.

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Ahhhh!

The overthinker would be a terrible game show contestant.

Oh my.

Lots of refreshing and checking in today.

And, some of you may have gotten an email from me.

I know, it’s sort of obnoxious of me.

But, did you see the prize?

An all-expense-paid trip to Together for Adoption’s conference in Atlanta in September. A conference that would be so great for Mark and I to go to, particularly as we work to make The Sparrow Fund exactly what God wants it to be.

And, we are oh-so close to winning. Just click here to see for yourself.

Contest ends at noon tomorrow. I may be watching my screen peeking through my fingers.

You think I’m kidding.

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For the love of aprons and charms {Scarlet Threads meets Jiayin}

When we were waiting (and waiting and waiting) to find out what little Chinese girlie God had for us, I became a bit of a blog stalker to a handful of adoption related blogs (any of you types out there?)

One that I stalked daily was Carrie’s. She was no adoptive mama – she had the unique privilege of caring for a bunch of Chinese girlies and guys until they would meet their mamas and families. How cool is that? The significance of being a part of that redemptive work – it’s awesome in the true sense of the word. And, she brought it all to life in her words.

Carrie’s stateside now but still bringing it in her words as a mommy of a toddler in TX. But, part of her heart still lives in Beijing. So, she did something about that (and you know I like when women do something about whatever it is their heart is broken for). She and her husband started up this ‘lil thing they named Scarlet Threads, a fair trade online store through which they could help the women who lived around them in Beijing who had proven themselves gifted seamstresses to provide for their families.

I’ve got a couple aprons from them. I’ve given gifts of aprons from them. I’ve got a purse and some girly dresses from them too. And, I love knowing where they all came from and imagining the talented and beautiful hands that created them.

Carrie featured Jiayin over on Scarlet Thread’s site today – go check it out.

Make sure you read to the bottom (especially if you are in the market for a Chinese character charm). I threw in a little bonus for her readers (as she did for you too — enter code JIAYIN01 at Scarlet Threads for 20% your purchase).

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Snapshots of Sensory Stuff

We’re no strangers to sensory processing issues in this house. But, we’re used to parenting a child with sensory sensitivity–one who is bothered by clothing tags and collars on shirts and loud noise and crowds.

Parenting our youngest has been a whole other deal.

This girl is sensory seeking. If there’s a chair or a bench or a step stool, she climbs on it (and then jumps on it and off it and on it and off it). If there’s a puddle, she jumps in it. She moves…constantly. Yup, all the time. If there’s a cup, she pours it out and plays in it. If there’s a basket of anything, she dumps it. If there’s a mess, she’s in it.

We used to think she was trouble seeking rather than sensory seeking.

But, the more I study her and the more I read and learn, the more I understand her and all her “trouble-seeking” ways.

She needs more vestibular and tactile stimulation that most kids her age–those fancy words just mean she needs more balance and big movement type of stimulation and lots and lots of touch. And, that really shouldn’t surprise us. Those senses are the ones most fed during those very early baby months. When babies are supposed to be picked up, rocked, held, bounced, touched, and tickled, she spent most her time in a crib.

So, I’m trying to give her an extra dose of vestibular and tactile stuff these days. My concerted effort this week – a rice box.

And, she loved it.

Burying toys, digging them up, filling cups, dumping cups, stepping in the bin, wiggling those toes, letting the rice run between her fingers….and onto my floor.

My attempt to clean this up seemed rather futile. I was getting so frustrated feeling a single rice grain under my bare feet after multiple floor clean ups that I was starting to think I had sensory problems. 
Rice box got kicked to the curb. Literally. Where Lydia proceeded to bury and dig and play and so forth and so forth until my driveway looked like we hosted a wedding here. 

I’ve been getting ideas from The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder. It’s packed full of clever little ways to help our kids with sensory processing stuff goin’ on.

Got any ideas your kiddos love?

Ni Hao Yall

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