Sweet Sixteen

It is hard to believe that Kim turned 16 on Thursday. But alas, she has finished her freshmen year of highschool, has her driving permit, and most everything about her says 'I am a teenager' - in a good way, of course! ;)

Last night Annamarie and I took her to the cosmetic store Bare Escentuals at the Mall of America. This stuff is the cream of the crop when it comes to make-up. Krissa, Annamarie's sister, accompanied us to guide Kim through a make-over (since Annamarie and I are definitely not experts in that arena). Revelations were had as the make-up artists, who were pretty funny, told us their own stories about make-up and how we can help our skin. Kim got done up and we purchased some items for her to take home. The second picture shows Kim holding up her right hand swearing she will never use Neutrogenia facial wash/lotion again since the professionals informed us that it is basically like putting clorox on your face....well, not quite, but close.

Afterward we went to Cold Stone Creamery to indulge our sweet tooth and enjoyed each others' company. It was a fun evening and we all agreed we would have to do it again. Happy Birthday Kim!

Grandma Lee

Since we heard news of Mom's cancer coming back February 4th, the Lee family certainly has been on somewhat of a roller coaster ride - of course, especially Mom and Dad.

Mom and Dad made medical decisions about how to respond to Mom's cancer 2 months ago and the family has been very confident in their discernment. Since then, Mom and Dad have been living normal life - and let me tell you, their 'normal life' goes at about 150 mph! Dad, who has a gift of creativity, is always full of new ideas of what to do with their time, they are part of a Christian community which is busy, and they spend the rest of their time serving family and friends. Just in the past month Mom went on a weekend retreat, worked for 3 weeks on the St. Paul census (lots of walking around the neighborhoods), took care of grandkids each Thursday and other evenings, took care of little Leo for a few days, made Faustina's birthday cake, and the list goes on.

Mom was doing all this while we believe her body is being healed of cancer, and now her body is demanding her to slow down. The past week Mom has had very little energy. She has had a good amount of pain on her sternum where a bump appears to have grown larger. Dad has canceled virtually all activities for the next month or so as it is clear that they need to slow down. They are taking each day as it comes and asking God to guide them in their steps.

We do not know what the Lord is up to, but we continue to pray for Mom's healing and have faith that his will is being done.

Peru!

This is where Mike is right now and will be until June 5th. I guess it is already May 26th, but June 5th sounds like it is a long time away!

Mike is in South America with the Catholic Studies interns for his part-time job at University of St. Thomas. Originally they had plans to go to Mexico City also, but they put the kabosh on that plan after the swine flu reared its ugly head. Mike finished off classes at Trinity on Friday and is missing 2 weeks of work which include student testing and parent/teacher meetings. Although he scrambled a bit to get all his work done before leaving, he was not terribly disappointed to miss these meetings ;).

I know next to nothing about Peru except that it is breathtaking with the Andes Mountains, Pacific Coast, and Amazon Basin, and then what I read on Wikipedia and that it. It sounds like an absolute dream come true for outdoor beauty and exploration! The three of us ran errands on Sunday and purchased a new camera that Mike brought with him. Now that we have Faustina and #2 on the way we obviously NEED a good camera to take pictures of cute kids :).

My days are busy with the kids and I have a long list of things I want to do (we'll see how much of that actually happens!) when Faustina is sleeping. She is at the age where she is into everything and it really is just easiest to stay home with her! Right now she is cackling at the top of her lungs in her crib playing with her teddy. Before she goes to bed she tackles him (he is almost as big as she is), throws him around, falls on him, and then eventually falls asleep. Quite amusing.

St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers, I ask for your intercession to keep Mike and his St. Thomas group safe and healthy on on their trip in Peru. Amen.

New Baby!

Here are baby's nose and lips! I had a more advanced ultrasound on Wednesday morning. My wonderful father and brother Travis were over here at 7:00am to help take care of Ella, Aidrich, and Faustina! Mom went with me to the ultrasound since Mike was swamped with this being his last week of school.

The ultrasound went well and it, as always, is fun to see the baby swimming all over the place. I must admit - it was especially hard to not find out the gender this time! :) S/he was sucking its TOE most the time. I don't know what it is about toes and Adkins babies, but Faustina still likes to do that!

Baby's situation is that s/he does not have double kidneys on the left side; s/he has was is called a 'dupulicated collective system'. According to the technician, it is fairly common. Instead of one tube going down to the ureter on each kidney which empties into the bladder, our baby has 2 tubes branching off of each kidney. No surgery would be necessary, we just need to keep an eye on the baby since s/he would possibly be more susceptible to infections if one of the tubes gets clogged. So we were happy to hear good news. Thank you for prayers!

Faustina is 1!

Tomorrow is Faustina's actually birthday, but Saturday we had a big birthday bash at the Adkins' household to celebrate her first year and we had a great time! We had family and friends over to enjoy food and each others' company. As Mike has been saying, Faustina has more friends than we do! Grandma made an outstanding bunny cake for Faustina (apparently this is the same one she made me when I turned 1). The best part was that there were so many young kids, I actually counted: 15 kids under the age of 5 (plus 3 in utero!). Good food, good conversation, not much more you can ask for. Faustina was spoiled with books, cute clothes, toys, cards, divine mercy rosary and more. Here is a picture of 2 homemade gifts that were especially neat, a cable-knit jacket that Emily made and a classic 'lawn-mower' wooden toy that Grandpa made. I wish I had more pictures of the actual party - but in the middle of the chaos of course I couldn't find our camera! Alas. Happy Birthday Faustina!

Mysteries of the Rosary

The past year and a half I have become fairly diligent in my habit of daily praying the rosary. I started this in the fall of '07 when I was spending a lot of time in bed or in the bath trying to soothe morning sickness. As I was preparing to be a mother, I felt the Lord asking me to spend time with the rosary, and Mary truly has had a profound impact on my relationship with the Lord and how I understand the world.

It was while I was pregnant with Faustina that I taught myself how to pray the rosary; it had not been a part of my life before. I was quite happy with myself when I memorized prayers like the 'Hail Holy Queen', the St. Michael prayer, or other simple novena prayers to recite (not that they are very difficult!). My modus operandi during prayer times was reading scripture, offering my requests to God, and thanking him, much of this taking place in a conversational way. There, however, is a simplicity about reciting the rosary and traditional prayers that holds a wisdom and humility that is often beyond my understanding. I do not always need to be novel, creative, and independent in my prayer times. During sincere prayer times those qualities will often be present anyway. These traditional prayers, have been handed down through centuries; they are noble, pure, universal, straightfoward, and again what strikes me the most: simple.

Until recently, I have been happy with reciting the rosary and praying for an intention upon each decade. The past few weeks, though, I have added meditation on the mysteries. Tuesdays are the Sorrowful mysteries and I am astounded at how in such a simple prayer and reading of familiar Scripture, the Lord moves a person's heart and draws him to new understandings. Today as I read the Scriptures of Jesus being flogged, crowned with thorns, carrying the cross, a new wave of sorrow for my sinfulness washed over me. With this new awareness brings a humility, with this humility brings a more passionate desire to pray. And the cycle begins all over. But that is what life is all about: cycles. We are always changing as individuals. The only thing that is constant is change! Lord, let our cycles in life bring us closer to you in all that we do.

On the move part II

She has been taking steps on her own for the past week or so, but yesterday and today she has really taken off.

On the move

While Isaac slept in our main living space upstairs, Faustina, Aidrich and I hung out downstairs. Faustina found the stairs and she was a natural her first time climbing them. She went up them, oh, probably about 25 times. Something to keep her occupied in our presently messy and unbaby-proof basement!

Pottery Tour '09

The past few years I have come to look forward to Mother's Day weekend, not exactly to celebrate motherhood, but to celebrate pottery! About 45 minutes north on 35E there is an annual Pottery tour on mother's day. 6 different local artists host a show where many out of state artists display their work.

We met our friend Ernie from last year who was taking photos of the event. He was especially interested in photographing my very pregnant self. It was fun to see him again and he was excited to meet little Faustina who was in my tummy last year at this time.

It really is a fun time. Each location has drinks and appetizers; it is fun to chat with people you meet there as you walk around and appreciate the abundance of talent on display. The artists' work includes, plates, cups, vases, big bowls, teapots, jewelry boxes, you name it. The pieces are not cheap, but I believe it is worth it to support handmade crafts and artists at their best.

We live in a world were convenience has become a virtue. Plastic, cheaply made items, or machine made items account for much of our daily living. Unfortunately, our culture has lost appreciation for craftsmanship; life is simply to busy for most people. I was lucky to have an upbringing where my parents instilled an appreciation for handiwork. My father and brother are talented in woodworking and my mother has always made our food from scratch, made clothes, tried different crafts, etc. Both my parents grew up on farms - and I can see how they brought a great deal of their heritage to St. Paul when they moved from North Dakota.

We enjoy using our pottery everyday and it is always fun to add to the collection. Until next year!

Gone for 2 minutes

...and she finds the one drawer which does not have a lock on it!

Grabbing Water

She definitely likes her bathtime.

Diaper Stripping

Faustina has been into taking her own diaper off lately. Nowwww....she wants to take Aidrich's diaper off. Until she can actually change a diaper, I'm going to have to put the cabosh on this.

Pack 'n Play

Faustina loves to be outside (along with every child), but she is at the point where she is eating everything. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Faustina was perfectly happy in her pack 'n play outside today for about 45 minutes. It was a gorgeous day and Mike and I were able to read outside while she played and talked to her self.

Grandma time

Grandma surprised us today and stopped over in the afternoon to help out a bit - it was wonderful! It was especially nice since I was trying to clean up and bake for a baby shower that is here tomorrow.

While Grandma was here the time went by in the snap of a finger. I realized how long each of my days are with having 4 babies to take care of - and none of them can talk! It is one of those instances of having long days but short weeks. Time truly does seem to fly by in the grand scheme of things, but when I look back on a day I realize that I am aware of each minute that is passing. I actually like these kind of days. I know time will change as the kids get older and go through different stages of life. But for now, it fun to just change diapers, feed the babies bottles, comfort unhappy babies, have a lot of time to think and pray and enjoy these little people. They certainly do not stay small for long.

The nuk war

In the first picture, you see Faustina stealing Isaac's nuk. He crys. She laughs. She crawls away in a hurry. This happens over and over again. Although they 'fight' over the nuk and try to take it away from each other, Faustina is the victor 95% of the time. And neither of them even use a nuk is the funny thing. Unfortunately, they both find great joy in stealing the nuks from the younger babies, Ella and Isaac, while they lay helpless on the floor.