Can You Help?

I'm not sure how many adoptive family readers I have these days...

But...

I'll put it out there anyway. We are dealing with severe fear of dogs with Noah. Samuel is scared, too, but Noah goes into hysterics and becomes completely irrational around dogs.

Here in Vegas we are staying with friends until we can get into a place of our own. They have a dog. We are not having good times here.

I realize that lots of people have had experience with kids being fearful of dogs. This is extreme. If you've dealt with an extreme fear issue with an adoptive child, I'd really like to hear from you. If you're not comfortable posting a comment, please email me at julicason@yahoo.com.

Thanks.

Thank You

My last post was pretty dreary. Sorry about that. It's not all rainbows and unicorns here and I believe in being honest.

I just wanted to pop in and say thank you to those of you who have left me encouraging comments and for your prayers. I am feeling a little better. For the time being, we have a little routine going on. Yes, we are living out of suitcases, but they are lined up all nice and neat right now :)

Along with my thanks, I ask for continued prayer. Please pray that our marriage can weather this stress. Pray for the kids to feel secure and loved and cared for. Pray for health for us. Some other items... please pray for our house in Virginia to sell or rent out SOON. Please pray that Chuck's minivan (we left it in VA) would sell and that it would sell for what it's worth. Please pray for Chuck's job situation... that he either get funding enough to support our family as an intern at the church or that he lands a good job in Las Vegas.

Again, thanks for your encouragement and for lifting us in prayer. It is so needed right now.

Ugh.

Truth be told, I'm not doing so well.

Being in prolonged transition isn't fun. I need order and organization and a plan. I'm just winging it. And I'm doing okay for the most part. I have dropped the ball on a few things that have unfortunately been expensive. Ugh. Not a good time for expensive mistakes for the Cason family.

I have A LOT to be thankful for. So many people and circumstances have been just awesome. We are staying with Chuck's brother and sister-in-law and they are just great. We have a really good set up here and the kids feel secure. I couldn't ask for more in that respect.

It's just hard for me to not look at the hard stuff, too. I'm a pessimist at heart. Tristan is sick and has been for a week now. My sleep has been affected and that's no good. Spending time with God has not happened in days. I'm praying A LOT, but that just doesn't cut it for me. I have cried more in this last week than I have in years. It's just a lot to deal with and it's hard. I would really like to just spend a day with the covers over my head, but that's just not in my future. Ugh.

So there you have it. Ugh.

We Made It!

This post is coming to you live from Las Vegas, my new home.

Gosh that sounds weird. The whole thing is just weird.

Anyway, just wanted to record how things went today, mostly so that God can get the glory and so that my pessimistic self will have to read about today and how well it all went.

First of all, me and all three kids slept in until nearly 8. EIGHT. That never happens. Tristan was up in the middle of the night coughing and ended up in bed with me, but I still got sleep. Awesome.

We've been staying with a wonderful friend, Dana, since Sunday night. I can't tell you how grateful I am for her. She is God sent and God really has used her to take care of us in so many ways lately. We love her like family. Dana's sister in law, Amy, loaded us all up and our crazy luggage into her Suburban and took us to the airport this morning. She also lent us a portable DVD player since we had over 6 hours in the air between the two flights.

The guy who helped us get our luggage from the curb all the way through getting checked in was phenominal. He stayed with us in line and helped us get our luggage tagged, weighed, etc. He even helped me pull items out of one slightly overweight suitcase.

We made it through security with no problems whatsoever. The boys did great. I highly recommend putting your kids in sandals to get through security. We put our shoes and socks on while waiting to board the plane.

Now, our plane was 35 minutes late, but it gave me the opportunity to feed the kids lunch. We just had a little picnic of pb&j's while waiting to board.

We ended up further back in both planes than we wanted to be. It was suggested we sit toward the front since the front flight attendant has less people to take care of (on Southwest, that is). We had no problems sitting further back, though. Noah and Samuel colored and Tristan took a little nap. He did some crying, but since he's not feeling well he has lost the high pitch noises he makes. That to me is totally God using bad for good. Yes, it sucks that Tristan doesn't feel well, but God used it to save many a person's eardrums and dirty looks directed my way.

On the second flight the boys watched Peter Pan. Then I had them rest for a while. I knew we were going to be up way past bedtime, so I tried to get them to nap (with the help of Benedryl). Noah totally zonked out for well over an hour. Samuel sat quietly. He doesn't really nap anymore, but at least he rested quietly. I finally felt bad enough for him that I put on Peter Pan again since it was out.

Noah woke up crying... he usually does when he wakes up on a trip and he's strapped in. I got him settled down and then the boys watched Cars until we had to turn the DVD player off.

I'm just so proud of Noah and Samuel. They were nearly perfect today (though completely bouncing off the walls in the airports, but they were excited). Their favorite show right now is Dinosaur Train on PBS. We rode on a shuttle to the hotel and it was very reminiscent of the train on that show. They were more excited to be chilling in the front seats on the shuttle than anything else all day.

We are settled into the hotel now. Dana helped us get in and then hung out for a little while. All three kids went down without a fuss.

I honestly couldn't have asked for a better trip. THANK YOU, GOD!!

Oh, and I didn't take a single picture. Things went well, but I was very busy the whole time :)

Geeked.

That would be the best word to describe how Noah and Samuel are feeling about flying on an airplane tomorrow.

Nauseous.

That would be how I'm feeling about it. Please pray we all make it there in one piece and with my sanity still intact. I'm so thankful my friend Dana is flying with us. SO THANKFUL.

If I'm able to actually take some pictures of our travels, I will. No promises, folks.

True Blue Tristan

I'm busier than heck with packing and stuff for the upcoming move, but this photo just caught my eye and I had to share it.

This is Tristan to the core. I am not a photographer, don't aspire to be one, and don't have the time to learn how to take better pics at all. While the quality is poor, this photo still captures our little guy.

Enjoy :)

Click to enlarge

One Week...

... is all I have left in Virginia.
(Gosh I'd rather just be singing the Bare Naked Ladies song instead.)

Happy.

Sad.

Excited.

Overwhelmed.

Scared.

Thrilled to get away from the crazy rainfall we've had here.

Unable to grasp that I won't see these people. Maybe ever again. You'd think having relocated 3 times before would better prepare me for the range of emotions. It doesn't. I'm an emotional mess.

I'm packing up the majority of the house tomorrow. A great friend is helping me out. I'm so thankful for her :)

Oh, Lord, please help us get through these crazy days ahead!

Your prayers would be so appreciated :)

First Haircut!

See the natural mohawk?

Well, we did it.

On Saturday we took Tristan for his first haircut. His hair is bone straight like mine and it was really long in the back and scruffy around the ears.

I've posted before about Tristan's double cowlicks. He has two on the top of his head that push his hair into a natural mohawk. I really thought the hairdresser would have some kind of magic skills to make those cowlicks cooperate. She didn't. We can either accept them and do the mohawk look or we can shave it. We didn't want to shave it.

Tristan was so good. He only moved or fussed when she got close to his ears. I was amazed that she could cut a moving target!

Just one more reminder that my baby is growing up. Sigh.

Then new do!