Note to Self: Don't Give Jess Benadryl...

Miss Jess was the Queen of Snots this last trip. They always got an upper respiratory infection and what we call "kennel cough". And by "they" I mean "all the kiddos in our orphanage." Welcome to Haiti, folks. Plus, with 68 kids living in a 3 bedroom house, you're going to pass around some germs.

So, our first plan of attack was to give her some Children's Benadryl that was a "congestion" formula.

And this is what Miss Jess looked like for the next while.
Even if you waved your hand in front of her face, she still looked like this.



After that episode of "medicine head", we stuck to the Children's Tylenol Cold and she was much more alert and actually played around again.

It's so funny to watch them with medicine. Some of the kids throw a total fit if they have to take it and others through a fit if you give it to other kids but not them. And then sometimes you can get the kids that were throwing a fit to take it after they see that the other kids actually like it. Peer pressure can be a good thing.

I'm still so worried about a couple of the little ones at our orphanage. Please keep them in your prayers as we start to get into the worst of the heat and the hurricane season. I know they're in God's Hands, but I have faith that our prayers will help.

And Happy Birthday, to my awesome older brother, Matt. I'm glad you're back in our area and I'm glad you have a spouse that loves you and I'm glad that you are doing everything you can for your kids. Maybe in the next life, we'll be able to pay you back for all those times you used to make us play "Vacuum Cleaner". The things we believed if you said them....

I love you, Matt.

It's been a fun weekend. We had a barbecue with my siblings on Friday night. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Chris, for sharing this pic of me with our new nephew, Rocco. He's so tiny (I know, Lindsay... you were in labor for over a day... I get it... He's still a very little human being!) He's very calm, as well. He's really a pretty content little guy. It was fun to see the family and Brian and Paige's backyard looks completely awesome. They've put in a great deck and done a lot of landscaping in the last year and a half. It's really come together nicely.

Tonight we went to the Raceway with our friends. Nothin' like people watching at the raceway for a good time. It's like MulletFest but for some reason most of the participants seem to think that it is attractive for your bra straps to be sticking out. Plus, the food at the Raceway must only taste good after a few beers, so since we don't drink....

Anyway, the fireworks were fun. I have to admit, Lee Greenwood ("Proud to Be an American") and Neil Diamond ("They're Comin' to America") still choke me up after all these years.

It's terribly late (or early) so I won't go on, but I'm grateful for America, and for our servicemen and women. God Bless America!

Prepare to Fall in Love...

Super Nate and Ballerina Jess: Nature or Nurture?

Our friend made a superhero cape for Nate and a ballerina tutu for Jess. She said, "These are small and lightweight and maybe the kids will have fun playing with them." I have to admit, I was a bit concerned about what they'd think since they've not seen cartoons or ballerinas or anything like that, but we took them down anyway.

I'm happy to report that some things are apparently born into our DNA.

Nate thought the cape was cool and he toddled around in it quite happily.

He might be the cutest superhero I've ever seen... but I could also be biased!
Pretty soon he was wrapping his arm up in the cape and flipping it down, just like a pro. (I took it off of him before he got any ideas about jumping off something higher than the bed. :) )

When I put the tutu on Miss Jess, she just stood there for a bit, looking at me like I had weeds growing out of my nose. It was not like anything she'd ever seen before, that was for sure.
Then we went over to the mirror so she could see how pretty it was on her. She started to catch on.
First she had to get used to it. Here she's figuring out that she can pull the tulle pieces up and let them drop.

And this little pose? Not staged, not coached. She just walked over to the doorway and started posing.


And in this one, it was like she was trying to see if her hand lined up the way she wanted it.




So you tell me how Haitian orphans in an orphanage with out TV can somehow know that you do stretches and poses in a tutu and that capes are for flipping and running.

Thanks, Marcie! They had a lot of fun with them!

Cheerleading Starts Early

Our friends, Bambi and Adam captured this little clip of Jessica and two of the older girls goofing off at the hotel cafe.



I have NO IDEA what they're chanting, but it reminds me of a high school cheer. It's something about a crying baby. At the end of it, they make this "crying sound" and they run their fingers under their eyes down their cheeks like tear tracks.

For some reason, the older girls and Jess were the only ones doing this little jig. I think the older girls think it's funny that Jess copies them, so they like to make her do the dance with them. I don't know which part is more funny - the chanting or the fact that the girls get themselves laughing so hard that they literally can't stand up any more.

Jess has a dynamic personality. I think she's just what two homebodies like Brent and me need. She's happy, she's singing all the time. She loves people and she loves to play.

And I'm reminded often that on that day when we finally get to bring her home and our joy is full, her world will be ripped apart. She'll be leaving her mother (who works at the orphanage helping to care for the kids right now), she'll be leaving her 68 best friends. She'll be coming to a place with those two white people she's seen a few times but the house we have here will be SO QUIET in comparison to what she's been living in. The smells will be different. The food will be different. But she'll be leaving her momma and I can't imagine what that will be like for both of them. I've met Darlynn. I can see from her smile where Jessica gets the vibrancy of her soul.

We'll be rejoicing and she'll be grieving and confused and so very sad. We'll help you work through that, Miss Jess. We want this to be as smooth as possible for you. We want you to feel like you're coming home and that you're comfortable here. Daddy has plans for your room, but I'm making him wait to start on them until we get a bit closer to having you home.

I hope you take care of your little brother, Miss Jess. Nathan would follow you anywhere. He thinks you walk on water. He wants to be loved by you. Will you keep an eye on him and help him to be happy in the coming heat and awful weather? Will you give him hugs and kisses when Mommy and Daddy can't? Miss Jess gives pretty good kisses.

We love you, Miss Jess. We look forward to adoring you all the rest of your life.

Help! My Eyelids Have Fallen and I Can't Lift Them Up!!

Our sweet Nathan has the most luscious lips and luxurious lashes! It's seriously unbelievable.

I've noticed, though, that he often looks sleepy. I kept getting pictures of him where it looks like his lashes are too heavy for his poor little eyelids:

Welcome to the Family

On our first trip to Haiti in Jan 2008, my youngest brother's wife had their first child.

On this last trip to Haiti, my only sister gave birth to her first baby - and the first grandson born into the family.

So, while we were out gallivanting around in Haiti, Mr. Rocco Dean Larsen was born. We haven't been to see him yet as we're trying to ensure we don't have any random Haitian bugs before we start kissing on new babies.

But until we get our own pics of the little guy, you can enjoy these with us.


Welcome to the family, Rocco. I hear wonderful things about you and can't wait to give you hugs myself!

How Was Haiti?

This was a very different trip for us. One of our good friends came with us and she ended up being just the little TLC that another little sick child at the orphanage needed. There were a few "extra" kids at the orphanage that all needed various forms of nursing to get over whatever sickness they were fighting at the moment. Our friend volunteered to nurse little "Olly" so they let us take him back to our hotel room for the week. We had 3 adults, and 3 children under the age of 2 in 1 room for the week. There are 2 "queen" size beds in the room and T and I shared one with Olly and Nathan and Brent and Jessica the Aerobic Sleeper took the other.

Olly had a fever and a cough and he wasn't eating and was very lethargic. I think he slept 16 hours that first day we had him with us. By the end of the trip, he felt well enough to play a bit and he was eating a bit and we got him to smile and laugh so T's time was well spent, I think.

In some ways it was like we were on a trip by ourselves this time. Our group was so large that dinners at the small hotel cafe were beyond chaotic. With three toddlers, it just wasn't worth the fight to try to keep them happy while you wait on "Haiti time" for your meal to arrive (the one night we did brave the cafe, we waited 1.5 hours for 2 ham and cheese sandwiches. Did I mention they weren't even HOT sandwiches?? I get the whole European "go slowly and enjoy the experience" thing about eating and ordering. I've experienced it many times on business trips overseas. But trust me... this is just ridiculous!) We ordered a lot of our meals via room service (I'd packed a little broom and dustpan, just in case) and it made meals much more peaceful and enjoyable for everyone. Plus we were able to keep better track of who was eating what which is always a good idea with sick little kids.

The big reason we spent a lot of time in our room this trip was so the kids could run at will and we were able to play with them uninterrupted. I think, in that respect, it was a better trip. We had more quality family time. They were able to toddle and do what they wanted and Mama didn't have to worry about anyone falling in the pool again this trip. Our kids weren't too keen on the pool anyway, although Jess did enjoy the one time that Papa wasn't busy being the human jungle gym for all the other kids.

There were political demonstrations all week long in the Presidential Plaza which is right outside our hotel. That's the other reason we didn't venture out much. One afternoon the hotel manager came around and told everyone that they needed to go back to their rooms immediately because the Haitian police had used tear gas on the demonstrators outside and we needed to wait inside until the air cleared. Another afternoon some of the parents wanted to go see the little market across the street in the plaza. One of the coordinators on the trip went to check things out and make sure it was safe. She asked a Haitian man on the street if it was safe to be out right then. He responded with "There's been a small bit of shooting. Maybe you wait a bit..."

Small bit of shooting? Isn't that like being "sort of pregnant"?? We found out later that the police had shot and killed someone in the plaza so it was a good thing we didn't go out.

Our kids were pretty healthy over all, but I'm really, really worried about our friends' daughter, Avrie. She's really struggling right now and is super tiny for a 2 yr old. Please keep Avrie in your prayers. The hot season is just starting and we haven't even hit the hurricanes yet. Sickness always gets worse when you add those factors.

The one point of good news is that the water filters are FINALLY hooked up and working. It only took 6 months because they don't have access to a Home Depot or Lowe's or the like down there. Brent brought down every part he could think of that might be what they needed to hook them up and somewhere in that he hit the mark. So at least they'll have access to clean water during the coming hot months.

Brent also got the solar panels hooked up, but given that everything needed to charge, we weren't able to validate everything was working before we left. We did get a couple of fans down there so hopefully the hot months will be a bit more bearable this year.

On the donation front, we were able to give the orphanage several thousand dollars from everyone's combined efforts. Those of you who donated or raised money for a generator, please rest assured that those funds are still set aside for that purpose. We found out in recent weeks that there is a very high rate of theft with conventional gas powered generators in Haiti. Another orphanage we know of had 3 stolen in the last year. Given that we don't have or want armed guards at our orphanage, we're trying the solar panel route to see if we can give them SILENT power. Solar cells are new enough down there that we believe they should be very secure as the general population wouldn't know what they were anyway.

We took down about 1400 lbs of Feed My Starving Children rice/soy mixture which should last the orphanage for a few months. We were also able to take down about 200 lbs of clothing, which is hard to come by in Haiti. Between the financial, food and clothing donations, along with finally having clean water, hopefully some of the stress will be eased for the next few months.

And us? We're already counting down to our next trip.... this whole process can't end soon enough for our tastes!

Oh, and congratulations to my blog friends who have been able to go to Haiti to bring their children home! Several people have finally finished the process over the last few weeks! Congratulations!

Here are a few pictures of our sweet kids:

I'm Walking Today

A few random thoughts...

The discussion on names yesterday reminded me of a kid I knew a long time ago whose immigrant parents named him "Great". He used to joke, "Some people's parents get their names out of the Bible. Mine found my name in the dictionary." He was a wonderful kid and definitely lived up to his name. That might be a lot of pressure to put on a person, however. :)

I can't really explain the emotions one goes through at this point in the adoption process. There's no end in sight, but you'd do anything to spend time with your babies again - even if it means walking away and leaving them again. You almost get a euphoria at the thought of spending some precious moments with them again. It's like one big Christmas Eve. And at the same time, there's the hovering black cloud that something could still go wrong, like it has so many times before. There's that constant reminder that they're not legally mine - YET.

For some reason, I've been thinking about a random experience I had many years ago when I was volunteering as a missionary for my Church. I was serving in Southeast Florida. We spent a lot of time "tracting", or going door-to-door looking for people that might be interested in hearing about the Gospel.

I'm fairly certain that if you polled the general public, 99% of people hate it when random folks show up at their door. I know I hate it and I've been on the other side of the equation. At the same time I've met so many interesting people (like the guy I refer to as "Naked Box Man" and the man who told us a very lengthy story about how he and his horse had been reincarnated as horse and rider on at least 4 occasions - including participating in the Crusades and the Civil War - and that the horse had communicated with him so that he knew that the horse knew that he knew they had been together before) and had so many unique experiences from it. (The last part of that sentence seems redundant after the part in parenthesis before it.)

Today, though, I'm thinking about the door in an apartment building in Miami. It was hot, it was humid and we'd had slamming doors all day long. At this particular door, we knocked and the door was opened by a smiling elderly woman wearing a purple muumuu and not wearing her teeth. Before we could even introduce ourselves, she exclaimed, "I'm walking today!" and lifted the bottom of her muumuu to show us the braces on her legs. She explained that she'd been having so many health problems the last few years and that she'd been completely immobile for the last several months. Medicaid and her doctors had finally been able to get approvals and she had new braces and today was the first day in a long time that she was able to answer her door when someone came to the door. She was SO HAPPY that she could stand and walk again and very grateful for every little thing in her life that she could do again. We had such a good visit with her and sang her a song (random, I know, but it was a sweet moment for all of us) and we were all better for the time we'd spent together.

Today, I'm just thinking about how I'll be a mom next week - for a few days at least. Before you respond with "but you ARE a mom....", I know what you're going to say and I "get that" but it's honestly not the same as having a particular little person that calls YOU "Mama" and means it just for you.

I'm trying to remember that even if my kids are in an orphanage, they have food and clothing and medical care. They're relatively healthy based on recent reports.

We're walking today.

Name Game...

It's early, but I'm so excited. My dear friend and next-door neighbor is in labor so I'm over waiting with her kids (who are still sleeping and oblivious that their dear, sweet mamma is in labor!)

Which brings me to a discussion we had at work the other day about names. My friend at work's baby girl's name is the same as the middle name we're using for my Jessica (Afton is the name). He has some hilarious stories about how his in-laws completely freaked about the name and would only refer to her as "Baby Girl" for some time because they hated the name and would rant and rave about how they should have had "voting rights on the baby's name" as the child's grandparents.

One of my favorite kid name stories involves a family that I met several years ago when I was living in Southeast Florida. The woman had twin girls she had named Shaquir (pronounced "sha-keer") and Shaquira. She would get so annoyed when people would say, 'Why did you give them the same name?" I remember her saying, 'Can't they hear the difference? Shaquir... Shaquira... they're totally different."

That reminded me of a story that one of my coworker's told me some years ago. She was telling me that she was outside in her yard talking with her neighbor. The neighbor was a young woman who was expecting her first child. My coworker asked her if they'd picked a name for the baby.

The young neighbor replied, "Yes. We think we're going to name her 'Cinnamon'."

My coworker replied with, "So... are you going to teach her how to strip right away or wait until she's 18... how does that work, exactly?"

Not surprisingly, the neighbor baby did NOT end up with the name "Cinnamon".

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears....

This last weekend my company had a Family Zoo day. We stole our niece and made her act as our proxy child for the day. She had a great time. Here are a few shots:


A thought the giraffes were AWESOME....

She rode the carousel with Aunt Lori.


Rode the train - You can see this was the end of the day and we'd had a "diaper overflow" by this point. Yeah... we rock as parents!


And this was what she looked like about a minute and a half after we pulled out of the zoo parking lot. I think that means it was a great day!

That evening, we got together with some of Brent's best friends from high school. Can't believe it's been 20 years.

Can you tell which 3 were on the basketball team?


It was great to see the guys and their families. They had a great time playing basketball together. The part where the rim at the park was only 8' high didn't hurt at all either!

Fun day all around!

Thank You for Visiting the Pit of Despair! Have a Nice Day!

Today is like Christmas except there's no snow on the ground and no tree and Target doesn't have aisles of impulse shopping items.

Today we found out that our file is finally out of IBESR (or, as my friend and fellow adoptive momma, Melissa, calls it "The Pit of Despair"). Approximately 6.5 months later and we're finally (read that "FINALLY!!!") done with the first Haitian government office.

Two more to go. Plus USCIS. Plus lots of waiting. I'll update the timeline on the side so you can see where we are and where we have to go.

But, we've checked off a box - one item down on our very slow "to-do" list before we get to bring our babies home.

We also received pictures today.

Did I mention today was like Christmas?


So, to answer all the questions that are going to flood at me from both of my readers:

Q: Yeah! You're done with IBESR! Does that mean you know when you'll bring them home?
A: Unfortunately, no. It just means we have a required step completed. Think of it as passing a level on Donkey Kong. You're closer, but you still have to save the Princess.

Q: Are you so excited that you get to fly to Haiti at the end of next week?
A: Why, yes! Yes, we are VERY excited. I hear that Haiti is hotter than Hades right now. An internet friend is there picking up her little boy right now and she says it's miserable hot. We can hardly wait! My good friend, Tia, is coming as well on this trip and will be helping out at the orphanage. We're so excited for her to meet our babies. She'll be the first person from our "pre-Haiti" life to actually meet them and it makes it seem that much more real for me.

Q: How can you possibly stand how cute they are?
A: It's a tough job, but we try to bear it up as best we can.

Q: I love Nathan's lips! Where can I find some like those for myself?
A: Oh, sweet friend.... on this I cannot help you. You've either got it, or you don't!

Sale Yards, Walls, Money, Support

It's been an interesting weekend so far! Yesterday we had the yard sale (or "Sale Yard", as my friend's son calls it) at the Event Center in Taylorsville and the neighborhood had a yard sale for the orphanage as well.

The one at the Event Center was a ton of work - we had a U-haul and trailers and had to get everything from Eagle Mountain and Heber and Lehi up to the Convention Center. I think the crowd was significantly less than the 4K they projected. After the first date was cancelled for rain, they scheduled it for Memorial Day weekend and I think that really hurt the crowds. There were always a few people going through, but it wasn't "packed" like it was supposed to be. We ended up with mostly "small ticket items" - clothes and books and VHS tapes.


People were so fascinating to watch. And it was amazing to watch what people were interested in which items and when they would haggle over a $.25.


The funniest thing that happened to me was probably the couple that bought one of the "Hope for Little Angels of Haiti" T-shirts. The husband wanted one, so I got his size and put it in a bag and handed it to him. His wife gave me the money and then she said to me, "Now, can I wear this to work?"

I looked at her like, "How on earth would I know that?" and she still wanted an answer from me, so I said, "Sure! Why not!"

She said, "Yes! Oh, good!"

Her husband said, "Why are you asking that lady if you can wear this to work?"

And she said (wait for it), "Well, I wanted to know because we're not allowed to wear T-shirts to my work. But it's OK. She said it would be fine."

Her husband said, 'Honey.... this IS a T-shirt." and they walked away as he was trying to explain the finer points of what makes a T-shirt to his lovely, oblivious bride.

Awesome.

My neighborhood also had a yard sale for the orphanage. And I KNOW it was a ton of work, even if they didn't haul things to other counties. I am sad that we weren't able to be there because we'd already committed to be at the E-Center sale, but Jessica pulled things off with flying colors. I haven't spoken to her yet, but I can see from the comments from my neighbors on Facebook that it was "huge", "amazing" and that Jessica raised $1200 for the orphanage! (That, by the way, is the exact same amount we raised at the E-Center sale. Pretty impressive! My neighborhood is awesome!!)

I'm so touched by the outpouring of support! Jessica does so much for everyone else. I've mentioned before that her husband is away "playing soldier" (as my dad would say) and she's got her own busy family and home to run in his absence and she still finds time to take care of her neighbors and friends. She's a wonderful, caring, dynamic woman and we're very lucky to have her for a neighbor! Thank you, Jessica!

Speaking of soldiers, the Vietnam Traveling Memorial was in Ogden yesterday. It's a smaller-scale replica of the memorial in Washington, D.C. My father is a Vietnam Veteran and my mom's brother was killed in Vietnam. That memorial has a special place for me and my family.

When I was 19 I was able to travel to Maryland to meet up with my dad, who was out there on business, and we spent a week together seeing the area of the country where I was born (military brat born on Ft. George G. Meade in Maryland). We were able to go to The Wall on one of our days in D.C. and I was able to touch Uncle Niel's name and make a rubbing on it for myself. I know I'll never really understand what it was like for Niel, for my dad, for any of the thousands and thousands of veterans who gave or risked their lives in this and other conflicts, but I'm so grateful that they are willing to serve.

The way I see it, the United States of America is the "cool big brother" that all the other nations wish they could be. We have so much. We've been given so much. I believe that we have a global and eternal responsibility to our brothers and sisters. We're supposed to watch out for everyone smaller than us. I believe that God will hold us accountable for the things we could have prevented and didn't, for the burdens we could have lifted but ignored, for the wrongs we could have tried to right and allowed to occur. That doesn't mean that I agree with everything that has happened in these wars. Of course I don't. It would be fabulous if people could be reasoned with over a table and the evil dictators of the world would recognize the wrongs of their ways and play nicely with each other.

Unfortunately, that's not how people work. "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Card Carrying Members of the Evil Dictators' Club will always be Card Carrying Members of the Evil Dictators' Club. Sometimes people are evil and sometimes it does take force to try to purge evil or prevent that evil from spreading.

But enough of my soap box...

The point is, my brother and his wife took their kids to Ogden with my parents yesterday. My mom was able to show them Niel's name. My dad was able to point out the names of men he knew in Vietnam. They showed them Niel's medals. They explained why he was there and why he was killed. They told them that Niel was a medic and that he was on the front lines and had gone to try to recover another wounded soldier when he, himself, was shot and killed. They showed them Bobby Shelton's name - the soldier Niel was trying to save. They made the names real. They gave them flesh and soul.

A reporter from the Ogden paper was there and snapped this picture of my niece, Romy, touching Uncle Niel's name with the roses they'd brought to leave for him.

I look at this picture and I see her face trying to puzzle out all the things she's been told and trying to reconcile the tears on her grandma's face with the small, stiff letters spelling out "Niel B. Riggs". She may not "get it". But it touched her and she's trying to make it a part of who she'll be. I see the reflection of my mother, behind Ro, supporting her, guiding her, holding the box of Niel's medals. And I think, "THAT is what it's all about. Those who travel this life are to do their best to make things better for those that follow. Whether they teach, or nurture, or build, or defend, or sacrifice. That is what we've been asked to do."

That is what God expects from us as nations and families and individuals - that we watch out for each other. Even when we've passed, there is still an influence of our works as we are reflected in the lives of our children and our grandnieces and our neighbors and the orphans in Haiti that we may never meet, but whose lives we have made better. Our presence, our legacy... is in that support. It's in what Niel means to me. It's in what the Wall represents. It's in my mother teaching my family. It's in the image of my father in his uniform. It's in Jessica having a yard sale for babies that she won't see for many, many months but whose mouths she is feeding now.

This? This is good. This is right. Thank God for America and for the freedom to be and do and support to the best of our abilities.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.

Touching

There have been a lot of tears today, but not for the reasons you might think.

My brother, Brian and his wife called us last night to tell us that they're expecting in December! Very exciting news - they're such a cute couple together and I think they've been good for each other. I know they've both wanted this a long time and I'm thrilled for them. They'll be awesome parents.

My baby sister is getting closer to her due date. Baby Rocco is due while we're in Haiti and I'm sad that we might not be right there for the birth, but we'll be swooping in to shower him in hugs and kisses as soon as we're back home. Interestingly, Rocco is the first biological nephew on either side of the family for us. Maybe Brian and Paige will have a little boy as well.

The big tears came this evening as I was getting some Etsy orders ready to ship. A very sweet woman from Brent's work crocheted two beautiful baby afghans for us to sell on the store. I was packaging the sweet pink one today to ship it off to the buyer in WV, when I noticed that she'd sent me a note on the order. Tears came to my eyes as I read these words:

This blanket is a gift for a baby, due in September, who is not likely to live long after birth due to a terminal congenital condition. Although her parents have baby clothes and blankets that belonged to their two older children, they want this baby to have clothes and a blanket of her very own. I offered to buy any Etsy baby blanket they wanted for $30 or less, and the mother chose this one.

Thank you for making and selling this blanket, which will help the family during this difficult time. They're still trying to decide on names. In the meantime the baby is known as "Angel".

It's amazing how we touch each other. We never know when we're going to be just what someone - even a total stranger across the country - might need to hear.

Tomorrow we're having the big yard sale at the sports arena in SLC and then my sweet neighbor has put together one in my very own neighborhood - all to support these babies in Haiti.

21 days until we're there again. 21 days until I kiss their sweet cheeks.

But I can be grateful they're alive, well and healthy today. Thank you to sweet Angel for reminding me that I have been richly blessed.

The Poor Man's Jedi Mind Trick

On the way back to lunch from work the other day, one of my coworkers whipped out his camera phone and snapped this gem on a car we were passing.

I'll explain a bit - The left turn signal was flashing. Blue painter's tape makes an "X" over the turn signal, and then next to that are the letters "I-G-N-O-R-E", also crafted from blue painter's tape.

Apparently the turn signal is broken and he doesn't want everyone to think he's changing lanes on them but he also doesn't want to take the time to fix it. Little Jedi Mind trick action with the painter's tape. "You do not see this flashing turn signal."

I wonder if it works on policemen as well...

25 days 'til we leave again.

I've been wondering a lot what the kids will be like. What will Jessica be able to say this trip? What have we missed in the last 5 months? Will Nathan be talking? Will he still want a hug every minute? Will they remember us?

This will also be our 2nd full trip with the same kids. Knock on wood and anything else you can find! Nathan came back to us the next to last day of the October trip last year. This will be our 5th trip and the 2nd time we'll have the same kids for two full trips in a row.

I dread the week before we go. It's like "until we're on the ground in Haiti and they're in my arms, anything could happen" (because everything has happened)

There are a bunch of people going on this trip. I actually kind of dread the large group. If you've ever seen how many people and their luggage they will force into one vehicle in Haiti, you'll understand. But the good news of so many people going is that we were able to order a 2nd pallet of FMSC rice. We have so many volunteers going that we needed more than a pallet to distribute out to everyone. Brent estimates that, if everyone packs what they're given, we'll get 1600 lbs of FMSC rice/soy mixture down there with this trip.

For those of you that aren't familiar with it - 1 serving of FMSC rice has all the vitamins, protein, minerals that a starving child needs for a full day's allotment of nutrients. It means that even if they only get to eat once per day, they'll be getting proper nutrition. It means that lives will be saved. It means that anything additional they're able to feed them will be "bonus" and not "basic survival". We've been very blessed that the wonderful angels over at Feed My Starving Children have been willing to provide us this product and that all the families and volunteers traveling have been so willing to pack it all.

I can't really explain what it's like to pack for Haiti - we take clothes for the kids. More than they'll need. Diapers. Snacks. Toys. We try to get everything we need for a week with two active, 2 year olds into one suitcase. It's our one shot to spoil them.

Then in another suitcase, we pack our clothes and start throwing in the FMSC rice. We tend to take a baggie of Tide down and wash clothes a couple of times because if we can wash some of our clothing to rewear it, then that means that much more space for rice for the babies. "Do I really need to do my hair while we're there? Oh... I can borrow Tia's blow dryer - one less thing to pack. Let's put rice where that would have fit. "

I'm also excited because we had some fabulous fundraisers this spring to help us get power to the Orphanage. We are doing a trial run this trip and we'll be hauling down a solar power unit. If we can get it to Haiti in one piece, and get it hooked up like we hope, then we can get some fans set up that they can move around to keep the kids cooler during the awful, hot and humid months. The kids get sick in the hot months and it's just miserable. Hopefully we'll be able to help a bit with that.

THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

I'm the orange and white wing. Brent's in the red and green (or "Creamsicle and Watermelon" as our friends called it while they were filming for us).

Yes, we both went and it was completely AWESOME!!!

The best part was doing the wing-overs - watch the video....

Thanks, Jessica!

Our sweet neighbor is putting together a yard sale for our orphanage. And we're not even going to be there because it's the same weekend as the big one at the E-center that we were already signed up to do.

Jessica's never met my babies. She has her own kids to take care of and her own household AND her sweet hubby is off being a soldier. And she still found a way to pull together things to help our kids.

I stand all amazed at people like Jessica.

Thank you for caring about our kids. Thank you for letting Haiti touch you enough that you DO something about it. Thank you for being you.

I Totally Did Not See That Coming!

People do some interesting, random, cool, bizarre, fascinating things. I love watching people and the way they interact. I don't mind layovers because I'm thoroughly entertained people watching in airports. People are awesome.

I saw a good one the other day. I was driving down a major road in downtown SLC. There was a marked mid-block crosswalk coming up and I could see there were people waiting on the median (not "medium", despite what people in UT say) for traffic to stop.

My car arrived first, so I stopped. The other two lanes in my direction followed suit. When traffic stopped I could see that there was an older gentleman (who could have possibly been homeless) waiting on the side of the road to cross the other way.

So I'm stopped - kids are crossing, Possible Homeless Guy is crossing. When Possible Homeless Guy hits the median he suddenly does this weird twisty thing, flips the double-bird right at me in my car and SCREAMS the Queen Mother of All Swear Words. Then he turns and resumes crossing like there was nothing at all unusual about that little maneuver.

What did I do, you ask? I did three things, really. . I burst out laughing. I immediately upgraded Possible Homeless Guy to Definite Homeless Guy. And I wondered why I'm always by myself when "people" happens.

Maybe I should get one of those police cameras installed on my car...

And did I mention it's 30 days until our trip!!!

Blech

I dislike Mother's Day.
OK. I'll be honest... I despise it with the fires of a thousand suns.... I loathe every little Greeting Card Industry/"Every Kiss begins with K" fiber of its being. I hate Valentine's Day for the same reason. It's just another reason for Walmart to change out their impulse displays. And I find it maddening.

And then there's the requisite Mother's Day Church Program. Normally I do OK in Church on weeks when the talks are all about families and motherhood and how wonderful it is. My little friend, Cymbalta, even makes it so that I don't sob embarrassingly loud at the unfairness of such things. I can watch other women getting pregnant and having babies and blessing those babies and know that it will never, ever be me. And I'm usually OK with that. Usually...

The speakers yesterday where some kind men in our ward. On of them was our dear neighbor who told about how very much he's in love with his wife. I am so proud of Rob for being willing to share his feelings. I was very touched by his words. Your wife is amazing and the two of you pull together a lot to get the family environment you have.

And then they had the Primary children sing and the female teachers sang the counterpoint to their song. :

Mother, tell me a story that I love to hear. Tell me of heaven and how I came here.
Tell how you love me and gently speak and then I'll go to sleep.

Child, I am here, can you feel that heaven is near? Sleep, sleep a love watch I'll keep to protect you through the night.

And it hit me, as we were up there singing in front of all my neighbors... it so completely sucks that I can't say those words to my babies. That I'm not there to protect them. That they're probably sleeping on the tile floor because it's cooler than their bunks. That I'm NOT there for them.

And you know, even when they do come home, I'll still hate Mother's Day and I"ll still ache for the unfairness of it all. How often does life actually turn out the way we plan?

Deep, cleansing breath... The Lord Never Cheats Anyone. The Lord Never Cheats Anyone. The Lord Never Cheats Anyone.

No, Really... I'm Ironman!

I used to have super short hair.

One day I wore a scarf to work in my hair. When I went to lunch in the completely packed cafeteria that day, a woman that I didn't know came running up to me, calling my name very excitedly.

I started looking around to see if I was on fire or something... I honestly didn't know this woman and was concerned that she was so... excited... to see me.

"Lori!" she exclaimed. "Your hair!! It looks so FEMININE!! Not like it normally looks AT ALL."

Um....

So the next time I went to my stylist I relayed this little story to her and jokingly said that maybe we needed to mix things up a bit with my hair.

She looked at me and said (quite seriously), "Honey, it's not your hair. You need a boob job."

:)

She's a good friend and I still think it's one of the funniest things anyone has ever said to me. I still laugh when I think about it.

I'm built mostly like a yardstick. The only curves in my figure are the ones from my scoliosis. On top of that, I'm not a "girly girl". I don't do much makeup and I can't spend more than $30 on anything without getting heart failure.

So, tonight while I was doing yardwork I was watching my little neighbor Kohl run around in his Ironman Halloween costume. He was having so much fun. It's a cute little costume - it even has a mask and sculpted "muscles".

That's about when it hit me that my Victoria's Secret Miracle Bras are the "grown woman" equivalent of Kohl's Halloween costume - just more expensive.

Sigh...

Promised Thoughts...

I mentioned that I'm teaching the Sunbeams (3 yr olds) in church on Sundays. It's a lot of work, but so fun. They have the most sincere thoughts about things. It's been fun to listen to them and learn from them.

I didn't mention that one of my Sunbeams has a lot of struggles. They think he has some form of autism, but are still doing testing. He's definitely in his own little world. He doesn't really verbally communicate and he doesn't respond if you speak to him. He seems to be oblivious about what's going on around him. Sometimes he wants to run around and, given that our class sits on the floor, it's a bit like watching Godzilla trample Tokyo. The other kids don't like being stepped on, obviously, and it's always a challenge to get him redirected as he often doesn't like to be touched.

Sometimes my autistic Sunbeam will actually let me pick him up. Sometimes it seems like he's aware that I'm someone who cares about him. Most of the time when you pick him up, he goes ballistic. He's freakishly strong. He starts kicking and he panics. You have to try to minimize the impact - no one likes to be kicked, but little Sunbeams cry when they get kicked. I've been kicked in the head a few times. I'm honestly not sure that he's always aware that you're not going to hurt him. It's been an interesting few weeks, but we're figuring each other out.

While all this has been going on in Sunbeams and my work has been wrapping up this large project, we've also had to acknowledge that we really have no idea when our babies will be home. I wrote that post about realizing we would never need the nursery in our home. The next day we got an updated time line for Haitian adoption from our agency.

See, every time a new director of one of their offices comes into play, they have to assert their power and add a few steps to things. They never "grandfather" in the existing files - they send every file back to get whatever is now missing. And the US side, in the interest of supporting Haiti's right to govern how they see fit, also send back pending files to get the new steps Haiti inserts. That's a high level explanation, but you get the general idea.

This isn't anything official, but the agency let us know that based on what they're seeing it looks like the average adoption is taking up to 28 months. They gave an outline of the current time averages it takes to process paperwork in each of the respective Haitian government offices, etc.

We know that our papers are still in the first office. We've known this for some months. Yes, we've been at this forever and yes, we got our referral Oct 1, 2007. You have to remember we lost our kids a couple of times and had to start over again. But basically, eighteen months into this the way things line up, we are on month 5 in a process that could possibly take 28 months. After all this time, we're still not any closer to getting them home. If I go off their ages now and add 23 more months as my possible time line, then my little Nathan, who was just 2 months old when we got his referral, would be nearly 4 before we got him home.

So I spent some time trying to process that and trying to deal with it (you could call it "having a pity party" if you'd like). You go through all the frustration at processes beyond your control and grief that your children are being raised by rotating orphanage caregivers - their formative years are forming in such conditions - and OURS is a GOOD orphanage. It's just still not where I would have them be.

A couple of days later, I was talking with a friend who is also grieving over some heartbreaking things in her own life. We were exchanging emails and discussing the situation. We started talking about what it means to have faith and to 'become as a little child', specifically

"becometh as a child,submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

and wondered together about what it means to submit to God's will on something so painful to you personally.

As we were talking (this isn't going to come out correctly), I could clearly see that sometimes, in many ways, I'm the autistic Sunbeam. I had this little image in my mind of the Lord trying to communicate to me and I'm so caught up in my little world that I miss it- completely oblivious to what He's trying to get me to learn. Sometimes I'm sure He's trying to comfort me and I'll bet that I've kicked him in the face a few times (if you know what I mean). I'm sure there have been moments where I'm a whirling dervish of "This adoption is never going to end" emotions, and God must be looking at me, rather like I was looking at my Sunbeam, with one eyebrow raised and wondering if I'll ever stop spinning long enough for Him to reach in and give some comfort.

We have such a limited view of things. I don't see what's going on in Haiti, but He's trying to help them answer their prayers as well. There are so many lives intertwined in this process. My perspective on this whole thing, when compared with God's eternal perspective.... I might as well be an autistic Sunbeam.

I know this is painful and I know it's an awful ordeal, but at the end of the day, the Lord Never Cheats Anyone. Those who seek, find. To those who knock, it will be opened. I have to trust that this is going to work out. Even if the process is being run by a bunch of us autistic Sunbeams, the Lord is still in charge.

Sorry 'Bout That...

I didn't mean to cause any panic... the title of that last post is some song lyrics that seemed to fit how things are going for us lately. Things may be tough (dashboard's melted) but good will come out of it if you look for it (we've still got the radio). [I probably should have thanked Modest Mouse for the lyric, but that may have caused even more confusion because I'd bet most of you haven't heard of them.]

I promised I'd share some of my thoughts... I've been doing a lot of thinking the last few weeks. With the big (ginormous, really) project I've had at work, that's about all I've been able to do besides that project!

But first, some pictures because I made you wait so long for an entry!

These two are from October 2008's trip. Aren't they exquisitely beautiful children?

Nathan's giggling while Daddy blows on his belly.....


Apparently we're not allowed to marry them to each other, but they still look cute sleeping by each other and pushing their hands into the other's face. (I don't think that nurse had any idea I'd still be getting laughs out of her comment months later)
Brent's doing his paragliding anniversary present this weekend. I was so busy the last month that I didn't tell you when our friend, Tia, brought him over a package of Depends - "just in case he needs them for the paragliding flight". It was awesomely funny.

We also had some great help from Brent's company - they allowed us to have another shipment of FMSC rice delivered to their facility. Since part of what they do for a business is shipments they have the big docks that allow tractor trailers to unload really easily which helped to save us a bundle in the shipping cost to get it here.

And we had a family member of one of the adopting families offer to pay for the freight - so a blessing all the way around!

We also have received some nice financial contributions to the orphanage. It's so wonderful to see people willing to stretch themselves to help "the least of these, their brethren". I hope these children can feel how much they're loved by so many people in America.

Oh, and, if you wouldn't mind.... the husband of the sweet woman who has made so many of the donations for the orphanage's Etsy store was just laid off. She's made literally hundreds of cards and donated them to the orphanage as well as other items. If you could add them to your prayers. They've been doing so much for these kids and helping us to answer our prayers of being able to raise funds to keep them fed and healthy. It would be nice to share some prayers with them that they'll be able to find employment quickly.

Only 40 days til the trip!! Can't wait to kiss those little cheeks!!

Dashboard's Melted But We've Still Got the Radio...

It's not OK, but we're OK...

I've been super-duper busy at work the last bit and haven't been able to post this last week.

Have had some interesting thoughts, though, so hopefully I'll get a minute later tonight.

L

Synapses Might Be Running on Empty

It's been one of those weeks where it feels like Haiti grabbed you by the nostrils, swung you around a few times and then tried to rip your heart out through your ear canal.

My heart hurts.

Some times I'm reminded of everything we've lost so far in Nathan and Jessica's lives and of all the days we continue to lose and it's just overwhelming. It seems like I'm drowning (and I'm 6' tall, so that's a lot of "stuff")

So... I thought I'd post a bit about some of the "other things" I've thought about recently.

It'll distract both of us and maybe I'll feel better by the end.

********
I think "Ryan Dirteater" is the All-time Most Absolutely Fabulous, Ultimately Awesome, BEST NAME EVER for a professional bull rider.

This is Ryan Dirteater, and he really does ride bulls. He's apparently pretty good. I wish I could fully capture the moment for you when I glanced at the TV in a public building and for whatever reason professional bullriding was on and this fine gentleman had just been thrown from the bull. I glanced up right at the "oof" moment when his face hit the ground and the TV Caption said, "Ryan Dirteater". How completely awesome is that?

I think I would love to sit down with Mr. Dirteater (who is Cherokee) and hear about what he knows about his ancestors and the origin of their family name. I think it'd be an amazing story.
******

I think if that if you choose to keep a mental list of all the ways life has wronged you and all the ways you've been a victim... all you'll end up with is a really big list.

I think that's why they say "in the end, you get what you desire."
*******

I think that the gestation period for an elephant is like 22 months. I think I could have nearly gestated a full-on baby elephant by now. If only my "gestator" wasn't broken. Oh, and if I was actually an elephant.
********

I wonder how I'd feel if my duties at work were solely focused on processing paperwork so that Miss Paris Hilton's life could be easier. I think I'd feel disgusted, annoyed, unmotivated and fed-up.

I wonder sometimes if the distasteful "I'll do it if you're paying me but I'm not gonna rush it for that ungrateful brat" feeling is how the people in Haiti feel about processing paperwork for international adoptions.
*********

I wonder if science will ever get to the point that Hasbro or Tyco will have a "Clone Your Own Animal" set that every kid will want in their stocking and the kids will be like "But Mom! Vanessa has TWO baby sheep that she made herself and all I've got is this lousy hand-me-down lizard from my older brother! You don't love me! I hate you!"

I think if science does get to that point, the toy makers should skip the "Clone Your Own Pachyderm" line because the attention span of the target audience is significantly shorter than what's required.

I think there's a good reason for some inventions to never make it to market.
********

I think I miss my kids.

If That's All You've Got....

One of my Sunbeams came by yesterday with his mom to drop off something for the yard sale.

He asked me if I had any crackers. I told him I didn't. He said, "Well, what's in your pantry then?"

I looked at his mom, puzzled, but she knew exactly where this was going.

She said, "She has beans and noodles and rice probably."

He gave this deep, resigned sigh and said, "Well, I guess I'll take the noodles then."

Note to self: Keep treats in house for when friends come by. It'll be good practice for when the babies actually come home.

The Walls

Our house has a nursery.

At one point, we still thought we'd have babies in this house.

At one point, I was on a two month work trip to Singapore. Brent does projects to keep himself sane. You should see what he's done and redone to the main floor while we're waiting for our babies to come home. But I digress. While I was in Singapore Brent put hardwood floors in the nursery and painted the walls the color of the ocean and the ceiling to look like a sky with clouds. He knew I wanted to do Noah's Ark in the nursery and he put a Noah's Ark border on the wall and had it all ready by the time I got back home.

At one point we even had a crib in the nursery and we only used it when we would watch our friends' little boy. He's long since grown out of the crib.

At one point, we thought that maybe we'd get Nathan home in time to need the nursery.

There's a twin bed in the nursery now.

I bought bedding a few weeks ago - girly pink and white bedding that I hope will welcome Jessica some day. This weekend I changed the sheets on the bed in the nursery and wondered for the billionth time when we'd actually be tucking Jessica into that bed.

I laid back on the bed and stared at the clouds Daddy painted on the ceiling and wondered when Nathan will be in that room looking at those clouds and daydreaming about flying or baseballs soaring through the sky or just try to find shapes in the clouds Daddy painted for his baby.

And for the billionth time, my heart hurt that we'll never have a baby in this nursery.

Nathan was 5 months old the first time we met him. This June trip will be exactly a year from the first time we met our Miss Jessica. We'll get to visit our babies in another 55 days. And just a few weeks after we return home without them AGAIN, Nathan will turn two. Day by day they're slowly morphing from babies to toddlers to children. Day by day their formative years are being shaped by people I don't know in a place I never wanted them to be.

If you know me at all, you know that I always say it will "probably be another year before we get our kids home". I always say "another year". We've been at this 18 months and our papers haven't progressed in the last several months. We're still in IBESR. There's no way to know when we'll get out of IBESR. And that's just the first of several Haitian government steps we have to go through. We're still stuck on the first step. 18 months later and we're still on step one. And all I can tell people is "That's just Haiti - when you can't keep the people fed, when they don't have clean water, when 3/4 of the people don't have jobs, getting a few orphans out of the country is the least of the government's worries. At least they're being fed and not trying to survive on the streets."

I try really hard to "get it" and I try really hard to stay optimistic and positive and find funny things in life to keep me going. I try to remember that "it is what it is" and I can't change it and the only thing I have control over in this horrible situation is what I'm going to do with this wait we've been given. I want people to want to help Haiti and I want people to want to be involved and I try to keep things interesting and light here on the blog to keep people interested. No one wants to hang out with that bummer friend who drags everyone else down.

But every now and then I can't hold it in any more and I can't pretend that I'm OK with all of this. And I have my brat fit and then I move on and we go back to waiting. And we try to fill our waiting with fund raising and working to make things better in Haiti.

I wonder when I'll break down and paint the walls.

Jewelry Show Updates

At my last job I traveled a fair amount. I spent two months in Singapore. I've been to Ireland, the Netherlands and all over this great country. I started looking for a piece of jewelry on some of my longer trips. I looked for something unique and something that I loved. I'm not one to "invest" in something like that - I'm a pretty frugal shopper - but I like having something that reminds me of that country every time I wear it.

I hope everyone who ordered (or will be ordering) from our lia sophia fundraiser has that same experience. I hope they associate that piece of jewelry with these fabulous kids and our sweet little orphanage. I hope they recognize that they've done a good thing.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who supported our lia sophia fundraisers so far. Emily gave me an update today and said we raised over $550 in one week for the orphanage!!

You can continue to support the orphanage (and get great jewelry) - she's creating a long-term account for us so that the commission from any sales done on her site where the shopper lists Hope for Little Angels of Haiti as the hostess will go straight to the orphanage.

Please feel free to copy the information below - put it on your own blog - send it out to your friends in email - rent a carrier pigeon - post it on Facebook - tattoo it on... well... maybe we won't go there. The point is, PLEASE tell everyone you know about it.

Great jewelry AND you help the kids. You can help us continue to raise
money towards our goal by:
1) Placing an order at www.liasophia.com/emilym and entering “Hope” as the hostess’s first name and selecting “Hope for Little Angels of Haiti” as the hostess. 30% of each sale will be donated.
2) Booking your own lia sophia show with me. (Emily's contact info is below)
3) Have a friend place an order or book a show.

Emily Mineer 435.251.9214 www.liasophia.com/emilym

Think of these beautiful kids and the families trying to get them home!

Smells Like Teen Spirit

My job at Church on Sunday has been changed around a bit. Now I'm teaching the 3-year old class (called "the Sunbeams"). They are a complete riot - mostly because they don't know they're funny. All ya'll will benefit here because I should have a LOT of "little kid story" material going forward.

Teaching Sunbeams is a bit like being an aerobics instructor but without the cardiac benefits. You have to change things up every few minutes to keep them engaged because a 45 minute class is TORTURE for a 3 year old otherwise. I can't say that I blame them. If you've only lived for three whole years then 45 minutes is a huge percentage of your entire life compared to the adults you know.

Here are just two of the awesome moments from yesterday:

One of the little girls in my class was trying to tell me something so I was trying hard to listen to what she was telling me. One of the little boys in the class starts in with "Guess what I can do. Guess what I can do. Guess what I can do." over and over again as I'm trying to listen. I finally turn and say, "What, sweet friend. What is it you can do?"

His response? He says, "I can pee standing up. Wanna see??"

"Wow... NO! No, I do not want to see, but... uh...good job for... um,...thinking of others... and...I'm going to guess that means you need to go potty, right?"

So I take him to the restroom, and I'm standing outside the stall, holding the door closed for him. Those restroom stall latches are pretty complicated to work when you're only 3. From outside the door I hear him yell, 'Ta-da!!" when he finishes.

Oh, to be 3 again and have everything be magical and wonderful and to appreciate what a big deal it is to be able to accomplish little things!!

_____
And the other story... my friend was sitting next to me, chatting. Her little girl (newly 4 yrs old) was down on the floor and was leaning against her mom's legs so her cheeks was on her mom's knee. My friend was wearing a skirt and cute leather boots. We were visiting and then I hear little E say, "Lori! Lori! Lori! Do you want to smell my mom's boots?"

"No," I said, "but thank you. I like the smell of leather as well. Do you want to smell them for me?" So she obliged and took a big, deep whiff. "They smell like my Aunt Cheryl," she announced. I guess Aunt Cheryl wears a lot of leather.

That made me wonder if there are smells that my relatives associate with me...

Anyone know what sarcastic angst smell like???

More Peek-A-Boo...

62 days til we're in Haiti again....

Whew!

We made it through the week... I was privileged to attend THREE lia sophia parties this week put on by my friend, Emily, with all the commission going to the orphanage. We had a good turn out and they booked some additional parties whose commissions will also go to the orphanage. We haven't closed the shows, yet so there is still time to order and have part of the sale go directly to the orphanage. You can order by using the steps listed here.

I mentioned that we have a big yard sale coming up - again with the proceeds going to the orphanage. Thanks to Candice for getting the O signed up for spaces at this sale!

Candice put together a nice list of things that sell well at these things. If you're in our area and would like to donate something to the yard sale, please email me at lolorosen at rapidwave dot net.

appliances – both large and small, working and non-working

baby equipment – new parents and grandparents are shopping!

books - paperback and hard cover, any genre

children's toys – kids discover them, parents buy them

china / pottery – put on display as a place setting if possible

clothing – displayed properly, used clothing = dollars

compact discs – music that you no longer listen to

costume jewelry – a BIG seller, so price accordingly

flatware – silver, stainless steel, etc

garden tools – make sure that they're clean

kitchen utensils & gadgets – these will sell like hotcakes!

linens / bedding – washed and pressed, these are hot items

patio furniture – these will probably sell in the first hour

phonograph records / tapes – yep, people will buy them

pictures / frames – people love old photographs

plants – more about this later!

shoes / boots – women's shoes are especially big sellers

software – in the box, with instructions, very big at sales

sports equipment – bats, balls, gloves, masks, etc

tools – the perfect way to keep a man occupied at the sale

video tapes – sell the movies that you're tired of