Loving Lydia

I know it's cool, but a pen is a lot easier to carry around than a tub of Legos!

 

Why May is an important month at my house

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Not a lot of people know that. I didn't before I adopted Lydia. I didn't know a lot of things before I became a member of a transracial family. But as the mother of an Asian I have begun to know how important it is to celebrate Asian culture and heritage. I am coming to understand more and more the importance of a community needing to come together to celebrate their identity. I hold my daughter's self esteem only second to her health in terms of importance and little snits like Miley Cyrus make me angry because in their ignorance they try to make racism okay. Here is Ms. Cyrus' "apology" for this little drunken escapade.

"I’ve been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context!"

It's a lot easier to blame people for being upset about racism (saying the world is too "PC") than to own up to yourself and accept responsibilty for your actions. I cry for my daughter who lives in a country where this kind of behavior is still considered acceptable. It shouldn't be and I hope someday soon it won't.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Evacuation Vacation

    So after spending time at Camp Ortega we figured it was time to "move on". So off the gang went to Nashville to find water, heat and electricity. We decided to take the Perry and Ben with us so we coincidentally ended up at the same pet friendly hotel as Brent, Leigh and their daughter Isolde. Lydia had a great time with Isolde, it was a very welcome surprise as the two kept each other entertained. It was fun to have the pets at the hotel. Perry was very friendly with the human guests. (We had to keep him away from other animals though.) And he was a very well behaved schnauzer and rarely barked. Ben was a well behaved rat and rarely provoked the dog. The cats did well at home as well. We're still keeping a sharp eye on the hermies. Terrence died and Flower looks pretty bad. Plautus and petal both seem to be okay so far...so we have our fingers crossed. More about the Icepocolypse to come!

Smile

  I don't know how many of you who read the blog have noticed that when I smile in pictures I tend to do it with my mouth closed. That's not really my natural smile. I learned to smile like that because I lost a tooth while I was working in Alaska when we were still paperchasing. Money being tight with the adoption I didn't get the tooth replaced and have had a hole in my grin for several years. I've been embarressed by this, but lived with it as dental work is pricey and we honestly just didn't have them money. I lived with it until Lydia began to notice the hole. Silly how questions from your daughter can motivate you into action.So now I'm relearning to smile again...my real smile.

More CNY

  I am WAAAAAAY behind in my scrapbooking and blog posting due to weather and having to catch up on a week missed with the show...so here's some random CNY cuteness from Lydia.

The picture with her dad is of us waiting for the fireworks. It was a great display, but I forgot Lydia's hat so we improvised with her Wowo (her security blanket).

Hope you enjoy the pictures and I'll be posting more soon.

Camp Ortega

  So the icestorm finally came to our hometown with a vegence. At 3 am the electricity went down for everyone and it took with it the heat and water. Russell was being optimistic and said he thought we'd have power back by evening time...by mid-day though it was obvious he was wrong. Students, hospital patients and senior citizens were being evacuated and there was a run on the stores. No one could buy gas, supplies were scarse and the town was in a panic. I wanted to leave...but Russell wanted to try to tough it out--but the heat was escaping fast and it was forcasted to be 10F that night. While searching for a heater we ran into our friends the Ortegas. Daniel and Heidi had a fireplace and so they offered us a place to stay along with our mutual friend Angi. "Magic Man" (so dubbed for his almost warlock like ability to just look at the fireplace and make fire happen) Daniel kept the heat going, while Heidi kept morale up. With food soon to perish if not cooked immediately Heidi whipped up some mean bathtub stew from the mere trickle of water she had left in her pipes and Daniel made us all fireplace eggs which he served to a grateful group of refugees who were seeking comfort from the storm.

(More about our Evacuation Vactaion to come!!)

Icestorm (The Sequel)

Not sure when we'll get back to the internet again, so Loving Lydia will return...but right now  we aren't sure when. We are without electricity heat and water due to the icestorm.  Our town was evacuated and western KY was declared a disaster area. FEMA is working to get the water and heat back, but sofar it's slow going. We tried toughing it out but due to a lack of water we risked low gas to get to Nashville and fortunately made it. We owe a HUGE thank you to Heidi and Daniel who took us in to share their fire and we appreciated and enjoyed the bathtub stew and the fireplace eggs that the "magic man" made.

More to come about our adventures in camping later...but I wanted to let everyone know we are fine and that while out of communication we are very appreciative of everyone's concern and we hope to be back to the modern world as soon as possible!