Knew many of you would want to read a touching email sent to me this week from a Waterloo family:

We hope this letter finds you well! We are writing because we are asking you for your stuff. Well, the stuff you’ve been wanting to get rid of anyway. Why do we want your stuff…..? We are putting together a garage sale/fundraiser and it’s set for Saturday July 9! We are doing this to raise the necessary funds to bring home an addition to our family! Yep, a paper pregnancy! We’ve attached photos and a website of the little sweetheart we hope to call our own SOON. His name is Anthony (yes, you read that right… there will be TWO Anthony’s in our family!) He has the same type of cerebral palsy as our sweet Anthony and is currently living in an orphanage or “baby house” in Eastern Europe. We are running short on time as he will turn 6 years old on August 16.

In Eastern Europe, the children who are abandoned and forgotten by their families because of their special needs are placed into these baby houses until they age out…anywhere from 3 to 7 years old. After the baby house, they are sent to mental institutions where they literally remain bedridden until they go to be with Jesus. Many are tied to their beds and are lucky to be fed. They receive ZERO therapy and medical care. Basically if a flu comes through- it’s likely 10-12 children will die. It’s their version of survival of the fittest.

Our sweet Anthony is facing this reality if we don’t bring him home to us very soon! The cost of international adoption is heavy, but we are fortunate that Anthony has an adoption grant already in place with a great deal of the adoption process covered. We are about $6,000 dollars short of bringing him home.
SO, we are calling for all of your stuff that you’ve been wanting to get rid of and haven’t had the time to do it. Let us take it off your hands! Please let us know if you have anything you’d like us to pick up. We’d be more than happy to. If you don’t happen to have anything for the garage sale, we are asking for your greatest gift to us- PRAYER! We need it, we want it, and we most of all want this whole journey to bring glory to the One that matters most-Jesus!
Thanks!
Chris, Leann, A-Man, and our newest addition AJ (Anthony John)
Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it for one of the least of these, My brethren, you did it for Me.”

Leann’s email address is lcwright@mchsi.com.  Website with info.  Her phone number is 319-215-5139. Any Veridian branch will accept a donation for Leann and Chris Putz, Account #6663800.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

What are babysitters making these days?  A lot more than most past the stage of needing one would likely guess.  When I had Charlotte five years ago, I realized from chatting with other moms that securing babysitters wouldn’t be easy unless you called early and paid generously.  So with the nearest relatives a state away, I had to be strategic about this.  Let them know up front all the food in the kitchen is fair game, heck we even call ahead and order them pizza with their favorite topping, and the hourly rate won’t change even if the kids are asleep for hours during their stint.  Sissy’s sitters, even the middle-schooler neighbors, were getting $8 an hour.  Then when Thomas came along,  and we initially had the more experienced high school and college crowd, it bumped up to $10.   I hate to think, and I won’t total it up to avoid the shock, just how much CASH we’ve shelled out for sitters these past few years.  Think about it.  You go out to dinner and a movie plus gas and easily drop $80-$100… then double that for the eight hours you need the babysitter at home.  It’s staggering and necessary, at times, to keep a couple sane.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

By 12:45pm today I had already been to Atalissa and back where, at an I-80 truck stop exit, we met my parents and the munchkins.  We were all excited to see each other, of course… but needed to return right away to our yard where the long-awaited sod was being laid.  Dave is thrilled!  For a man who loves landscaping, today is a big day.  Charlotte was already talking play date arrangements before we made it to Iowa City.  Thomas was excited to get my cell phone back so he could scroll through The Wiggles and Jungle Book songs downloaded on it.  The highlight of three days with Nana/Papa, outside of swiming in their pool, was going to the children’s museum in Bloomington/Normal.  Now it’s back to appointments with Sissy going in for another dermatology visit tomorrow for the same skin rash on her arm that’s been there for MONTHS and Thomas gearing up for ear tubes Friday!

Cousin Liam

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

Saturday we met my parents at an I-80 exit to exchange cars and kids.  They took our SUV with the DVD player and third row seat for outings with Aunt Bird and my nephew, Liam.  Ten minutes after getting back on the road, we got a cell phone call from my mom.  She needed to know how to switch from DVD audio to the CD.  Already Charlotte and Thomas were making demands!  We had to clean the house as Nana/Papa took our two so we could host a BBQ for my co-workers without paying a babysitter.  Saturday night we went to see a friend’s band play (see above pic) then came home and decided to go back out for a late-night breakfast like the old days.  You know, those days years ago when you stayed up until the single digits?  Dave is meeting my folks halfway tomorrow night for the swap.  So today with the kid-free time he is going to have his college baseball glove re-threaded for practicing with Thomas & Sissy.  Yes, it’s these moments without two munchkins wrestling at your ankles that you can actually think.  What errand can I get done that normally would be last on my list?

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

This time I talk on-air clothes and the selection/buying process.  No need to point out what I already learned watching it:  My hair changes every day and some blazers are much more flattering than others!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

I noticed some dried blood on my son’s ear earlier this week.  Then Thomas cried on the flight home, holding his ears.  And he complained that one of his ears hurt yesterday.  Signs of something more serious than cabin pressure.  So amazingly I called at ten minutes to 5 last evening and got in this morning to see an ENT specialist.  It’s another doctor in the same office where the doctor who’s put in his last two sets of tubes works (August ’09 & August ’10).  Another year and summer later, I should have guessed the prognosis.  Thomas is scheduled for his third ear tube surgery Friday next week.  Both his tubes are inactive as they’re blocked.  The good news, a larger tube can be inserted this time.  One that, according to the doctor, lasts longer and is less likely to stop working.  The bad news, these tubes will have to be surgically removed unlike the smaller ones that fall out on their own.  So Charlotte couldn’t wait to tell Nana & Papa the news.  She even told the nurse, “I hope he doesn’t have to have another surgery.”  Adding that she’s had two for the mole removal on her scalp, so now her brother will have three.  Of course I know how well the tubes work as he’s rarely sick when the draining process is effective.  But I am dreading that moment when they take him away or I’m with him holding him down as they cover his face with the mask.  That’s what I dealt with when Sissy had her second one.  For now he’s a happy boy as evidenced by the above shot captured in the doctor’s office.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

Thomas took this.

Back to work tomorrow.  Six weekdays off is one of the biggest breaks ever taken in the history of my 15-year TV news career.  My wedding and honeymoon comprised the only longer vacation I can recall.  By flying on the cheaper days of Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ve discovered by default that a new key to time off is to return on a Thursday thereby making it a 2-day work week.  It’s brilliant, actually.  The kids slept in until 10 because it felt like 8am (Pacific Time) to their body clock.  So they didn’t nap but played with stuffed animals and a flashlight in our bedroom closet instead.  They only knocked one blazer on the floor.  Then Thomas was ready for bed at 6pm so we rushed to the park and played to keep him up.  He fell asleep in the car.  Charlotte is still up, questioning why I typed her name.  Apparently I’m not supposed to mention her on here.  Boy am I in serious trouble when she really starts to read.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

Jet lag and crabby kids are bad, yet what’s worse for Dave is the moment he has to say goodbye to his oldest daughters and parents.  At 23 & 21, Taylor and Lauren have a lot going on… classes, jobs, boyfriends.  But we all wish we lived closer.  As a family, we’re only able to see them once or twice a year if schedules allow.  Dave usually flies out once on his own, too, but that makes it challenging on the home front because I usually have to work or take precious few vacation days I’d rather use for time with him.  That’s how it goes, though, when family is far away.  At 80+ years old, his parents understandably aren’t up for much traveling.  They hate to fly and can’t drive all the way from Washington to Iowa that frequently.  So tonight we said our farewells to the girls and tomorrow morning will do the same with Dave’s parents.  As I type a crying and kicking 5-year-old is at my feet, screwed up from lost sleep and a lot of stimulation.  Who knows when their sleep patterns will return to some sense of normal.  We’re off to the zoo in Seattle tomorrow.  We may leave the place with two more monkeys in their animal population.  My advice?  Put them in a soundproof cage or they’ll drive away the visitors.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

I forgot to mention another example of why having kids zapped many of my brain cells.  Standing at the luggage carousel awaiting our bags to shoot up the belt, I thought to myself that we should have tied a ribbon on our suitcase since there were so many dark black and navy ones.  The suitcase I recalled packing for Dave and me was a similar shade.  So we watched and waited and watched some more and every piece of luggage resembling ours was not ours.  We even checked the tags to be sure.  The kids’ shared pink one came out early on, so where were Mommy’s and Daddy’s clothes?  Finally the last ones were circling and we were still empty-handed.  Off to the nearby service counter I went to explain we got one out of two.  I showed them our luggage stickers, which they scanned, proving both bags had arrived.  So where is it?  The guy calmly walked around and checked some of the bags set aside from previous flights.  Then back to what was left from our flight where he asked again to confirm the color was dark.  Yes, a dark navy I described.  Funny he located the sticker that matched our bag number on a red suitcase.  What’s that?  Oh, Dave had mentioned he thought maybe I had packed the red one this time for us.  But somebody dismissed that and insisted otherwise.  “Don’t push it too hard,” one of the luggage guys told Dave when we all discovered his wife was wrong.  Dead wrong.  “Even when the wife is wrong, she’s still right,” another airport staffer told Dave.  I did say I was sorry.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36

I have been up for 19 hours now, with a couple cat naps thrown in.  We left our house at 5:45 this morning, drove to Minneapolis, caught a plane to Seattle, rented a minivan and ended up in Yakima, WA around 5 Pacific time.  Of course the journey is well worth it when you see the look on Dave’s parents’ faces as they greet us in the front yard.  Taylor and Lauren, my step-daughters, hung out with us tonight.  Charlotte and Thomas are thrilled to have a new audience for their songs and dances.  Of course parts of the day were a nightmare.  Like when Thomas failed to sleep AT ALL until the drive over the Cascade Mountains.  At one point on the plane, with me sitting in between him and Sissy, he shouted out that he wanted to get off and get in the car.  Not gonna happen, kid.  We had two hours left above 10,000 feet.  Naturally he thought the flip-down screens would take his DVDs.  Just like our car.  Thankfully we brought his portable one and Max & Ruby kept him occupied for a good hour.  I’ve mentioned before that the key to traveling long distances with kids is to spread out your trips so you can block out the bad parts and convince yourself the next time will be better.  It never is.  It’s just a different stress as the children get older.  Fortunately my two are still young enough to get excited about snow on a mountain in the middle of June and the sound of a plane’s engines revving before take-off.  Some day they’ll ignore me the entire trip.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 36