10/20/2014
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Art, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: autumn, fall, Family, friends, pumpkin patch, pumpkins | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
09/25/2014
On my way to work yesterday I ran over a nail. I had just pulled off the interstate to meet my mother-in-law at our usual meeting place near my office. When I pulled off the street I thought my van sounded a little funny but it wasn’t alarming. I transferred Ali over to her Nana and we chatted for a while, standing right beside my van. When I got back in and began to drive to work, I immediately recognized the sound of a flat tire. I pulled into the gas station across the street, thankful for a safe place to park. It was a perfect fall day—clear and sunny with a breeze. My tire was completely flat. I texted my boss and then Jason and then my dad to cancel our lunch date. Then I called AAA and requested assistance to put the spare on. Then I went into the gas station and bought a drink and some snacks (because baby Froggie makes me hungry ALL THE TIME). The repair tech didn’t take long to show up and did his job. Set up with the spare, I took the long way on back roads to our favorite neighborhood mechanic. They were able to patch it up quickly and it only cost me $15. I got to work almost exactly 2 hours late. What could have been a dangerous or uncomfortable experience was actually a kind of fun morning adventure. I just kept thinking over and over again about all that I was thankful for:
• Beautiful weather, not too hot or too cold to sit outside
• I was at a gas station with a convenience store full of yummy snacks
• The flat didn’t occur on the interstate where I had been minutes earlier
• My three year old was already safely with her Nana
• We have AAA so it just took one phone call and someone was there to assist me in less than an hour
• I have a cell phone and a charger to contact help, notify my work and look up a route to the mechanic
• I discovered a new route back to my neighborhood from my office thanks to the “avoid highways” button on my Google maps app
• Social media kept me from getting bored while I waited
• Our mechanic is reliable, quick and inexpensive
• The whole ordeal only took two hours
• I dealt with it all by myself (Girl Power!)
——
It’s good to have perspective. I have so much to be thankful for and a little nail puncture in my tire isn’t enough to ruin my day.
Leave a Comment » | Faith, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: car problem, flat, flat tire, mechanic, minivan, perspective | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
08/05/2014
It’s simultaneously flattering and terrifying that I have a daughter who wants to be just like me. She sees the worst of me, along with the best. My biggest failures are most often toward those who I love the most: my husband and my daughter. I’ve had to ask her forgiveness so many times. She’s always gracious to forgive. She teaches me. When she offends me, I want to be mad; I want her to know that I’m mad. On the contrary, when I’ve lost my temper with her, she responds to my apologies with so much grace. “It’s OK, Mommy. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You just try again.”
The other day I was heading out to take care of the chickens. She asked, “Mommy, can I follow you?” She hurried to put her shoes on so she could shadow me on my chores. If I’m working, she wants to work. If I’m vacuuming, she wants to vacuum. If I’m cooking, she wants to cook. If I throw a fit when I’m mad, she throws a fit when she’s mad. If I bark commands at her, she barks commands at me (or others). If I sing and dance in worship, she sings and dances in worship. If I feel sick, she feels sick. When I see how much she wants to be like me, I’m humbled. I’m desperate to be more like Jesus so when she emulates me, she’s emulating Him.
Jesus, help me to be like You. Help me to love my daughter well. Help me to be on her side and to model love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
5 Comments | Faith, Family, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: child, daughter, mom, mommy, mother, motherhood, parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
07/22/2014
The real reason I didn’t write any blog posts for 2 weeks is because we left for vacation a couple days after Firefly left and there was a lot to catch up on at home and work when we got back. Jason and I love to vacation in Naples, Florida. I think we’ve gone 4 times in the past 5 years. This was the first time Ali has been there, though. She’s been to the beach before but this time she was old enough to really enjoy it and play in the sand and water. She’s a little fish and the Gulf in South Florida is warm, clear and gentle. We stayed in Foxfire Country Club in a condo that happened to have a bunch of really cool mid-century modern teak furniture. The pool was warm and we usually had it all to ourselves. Ali did awesome on the 12-14 hour car ride both ways. She’s a pro traveler. We used our DVD player for the first time. On the way to Florida she watched Frozen 4.5 times! Once there we saw so much native wildlife, mostly found by or spotted by Jason. He caught 5 large 9-point starfish out in the ocean. He also found 2 live sand dollars. We released all of them after admiring them. We also saw dolphins, manatees, sting rays (I stepped on one that didn’t have a tail. Phew!) and tons of little lizards in the wild. We visited the Everglades Wonder Garden and saw captive alligators, parrots, macaws, turtles and tortoises, butterflies, flamingos and lots of other birds and reptiles. We ate so much good seafood, saw gorgeous sunsets and had lots of time to play and have fun together as a family of three. We had our vacation planned long before Firefly joined our family but God must have known that it’s timing would perfect for our family to escape the painful realities at home and reset.
Ready for the photo overload?
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: beach, Family, Florida, Naples, sunset, vacation | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
07/21/2014
I love fireworks and all things summer which makes Independence Day one of my favorite holidays. It was a bit bittersweet with Firefly just leaving the day before but we had a fun time nonetheless. Ali said as we were walking away, “I wasn’t scared at all! Just a little bit scared.” For the record, she was pretty scared but she did great and stuck it out with Grandpa, Grandma, Jason and me.
Leave a Comment » | Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: Ali, Family, fireworks, fourth of july, independence day | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
04/24/2014
I’m stepping away for a little while. Probably for a month.
Grieving. Processing. Wandering in the wilderness. Praying. Preparing for the next season. Resting.
1 Comment | Family, Family: Me | Tagged: break, hiatus | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
04/22/2014
Easter was beautiful this year. The weather. The church service. My people. A quiet afternoon. Dinner with family. My two-year-old daughter’s simple understanding of the meaning of Easter.
I wasn’t necessarily planning on explaining death to her at this age but between one of our chickens dying around the same time as her great-grandmother (and namesake) died, we’ve had some conversations about it already. She understands that dead means gone, we won’t see that person or animal anymore, and their bodies are buried in the ground. Her understand of Easter (thanks very much to the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones) is this:
Jesus died on the cross. The whole earth was sad and the rocks cracked. They put him in a tomb with a big stone. The stone was rolled away. He’s not there! He came back and He’s alive!
On Saturday as we were driving to the pharmacy I heard her singing in the backseat, “Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross.”
Leave a Comment » | Faith, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: alianna, easter, Family, Jesus, precious, resurrection | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
11/30/2013
Thanksgiving marked our first full week with Ms. Bee. I would have liked to write an update sooner but my hands have been pretty full. A year ago when we were thinking about reopening our home as foster parents, I didn’t think I wanted to parent another baby. I was hoping for a child older than Alianna. God heard my heart and we got 2.5 year old Buzz Lightyear. It was hard; really hard. The closeness of his and Ali’s age; the fact that he was grieving and angry and missing his mom; the fact that they were both close to 2 years old; it was our first experience parenting two children…it was a very challenging season that ended up being very rewarding. We’re thankful we were able to support he and his mom during that time. By the end of it, I was starting to think about babies again. I take back what I said…I want a baby again. My fellow Facebook and Instagram foster mamas understand this as “foster baby fever.”
Again, God heard my heart and we got Bee. Jason and I are both really, really enjoying having a baby around again. I actually said to him the other day, “Maybe we should only foster babies. They’re so much easier.” This time around is much more relaxed: we’ve done baby before, we’ve done parenting two kids before, we’ve done the foster care system before. It’s taken a few days to figure out how much Bee needs to sleep each day and how much formula she drinks and how often. We’re gently nudging her towards a schedule we prefer. She sleeps well: 10-11 hours most nights and takes 3-4 naps a day. It’s kind of amazing how much more laid back we are as parents this time around. Oh, and babies are so easy to love and attach to! Jason and I are already smitten with little Bee. We’re pretty sure her stay with us will be short term but that doesn’t stop us from falling completely in love with her.
Alianna’s transition into big sisterhood has been the biggest learning curve. We’ve seen jealously and regression. We weren’t able to prepare her much for this experience. I’ve told her many times that Buzz’s bedroom would soon belong to another child and we’d have someone else come and live with us for a while. I only had an hour warning about Bee specifically and I knew that even with that, it wasn’t a guarantee that she was coming until her case worker called back to say, “We’re leaving the office now.” That gave me about 15 minutes switch from, “There may be a baby girl coming here tonight,” to “Ali, there is a baby sister coming here tonight. She’s going to stay with us for a while just like Buzz did.” The second day I heard Ali tell Bee to go away a couple times. She asked me if Bee was going home to her mommy. We’ve explained many times that Buzz is home with his mommy so I’m not sure if Ali was hoping Bee’s going home with her mommy (now) or if she’s asking the bigger question that we’re all asking, is she going to leave?
I believe the jealousy and regression have a lot to do with the sudden influx of baby toys, products and contraptions. Within a day or two we had a bouncy seat, Bumbo, swing, Johnny Jump Up and some kind of activity center jumping unit. In addition to that, we have bottles, bibs, burp cloths, blankets, rattles, teethers, toys and crinkle books. I can’t blame Ali at all for being jealous and for wanting to try out everything and be a baby, too. A mom of three confirmed my hunch that we should both indulge and discourage her behavior. Allow her to check things out and pretend to be a baby but keep reminding her that she doesn’t need those things anymore because she’s a big girl now. She’s been pretty good about helping me, especially getting a new diaper and wipe and taking the dirties to the trash can. She loves Bee and most of the time wants to be near her, gives her kisses, asks were she is and what she is saying. I can confidently say that after a week things are feeling pretty normal.
1 Comment | Faith, Family, Family: Bee, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: babybee, Bee, children, Family, foster care, foster parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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