Charley-isms

December 20 and 21, 2011 Charley had a pretty bad case of the GI bug. It kept him in his room or the bathroom for over 24 hours feeling lousier than most.

December 22, 2011 (Charley's birthday!) Charley awakens and says to me "Mom, at 3 o'clock this morning I woke up and prayed to God to heal me. And this morning, I feel GREAT!"

You'd have to know Charley but we call these realizations of his....Charley-isms...he often looks at the world slightly different than the rest of us. I am not discounting that God healed him, he just did not realize it was likely he was going to feel good after a good nights rest and more passage of time! (like Mom told him he would)

I could have written an entertaining book about motherhood starting years ago...

Christmas Wishes from Mom (December 2010)

This post was intended for December 2010 but somehow did not get typed. I found it today while organizing and cleaning.

Parents often wish things for their children. Here are my Christmas Wishes from me to you...

Charley---A birth parent visit. I wish I could. Now is not the right time. I hope someday the time will be right. Until then, Aunt Amy will have to do.

Xavier---My wish for you comes from your own Christmas wish "for white skin like you guys". Oh honey, mom and dad cannot provide this. I hope society will be kinder to you than what it has shown to be so far. After all, we have a black president.

Alexis---The gift of music. You are blossoming as a young musician--piano, violin, and flute! We need not ever request your practice. And I love to ear music in the house!

Nick---The gift of foresight and wisdom. My hope is future realization of what our home provided in your formative years.

Cariyana---The gift of love. You missed out on the nurturing normally administered int he first year of life. Its shown now in delays and behavior. We hope the substitutions provided after the fact and the therapy will be enough for successful teenage and adult years.

Joe---The gift of trains. You love them so.

Angie---The gift of acceptance. Time will bring understanding and value of familial relationships and connections.

Christmas Perspectives

Anyone who knows me knows I struggle with the expectations that Christmas brings. Expectations of me.

First and foremost I am not a shopper. I must admit online shopping is starting to "ease my pain".

Then there is all the places to go which comes with "bring this, here, at this time". I love to see everyone, don't get me wrong. It just gets to be too much. Its stressful.

What I do enjoy is decorating. Aunt Connie comes from Lowden to help me. We make a day of it. Years past she would bring Gramma Grell too. She'd cook and we would decorate. Aunt Connie makes water into wine. I love to have my house decorated for Christmas. She is fabulous at making my house look different each year.


I also enjoy family activities like decorating cookies and our yearly gingerbread house. More traditions. The kids enjoy and look forward to this each year. Then, we give cookies to our favorite people.

A pretty and festive table also brings me enjoyment! Placemats, napkins, accessories, holiday tableware. I love it all. My Gramma Grell used gold silverware each year for Christmas. I have some of my own to continue a special tradition of hers. Its special.

I enjoy writing and sharing our yearly Cummins Christmas letter. There are so many family and out of town friends that we don't get to talk to in-depth or often enough. They enjoy hearing about the family and often say they look forward to receiving this each year. Its also feeds my creative side just like this blog does. It documents a moment in time and allows photos!

Its all about the food. I look forward to the special foods at Christmas. For example, chips and rotel cheese on Christmas Eve. Another tradition begun by Gramma Grell. Cajun shrimp of Uncle Stu's. The snack table. Mmmm Mmmm good. On Christmas Day I make Groten Hans (Big Dumpling) another family favorite. Steve and I have adopted this as our family tradition food wise. Steve's family celebrates with a Mexican feast. Everyone makes the effort to attend.

Another thing I love is the Hardanger ornament I receive each year from my great Auntie Elaine. Very special stitched ornaments. I have one for every year I have been married. They are gorgeous, each and every one. This year I decorated a small tree with only these special handmade ornaments.

But my most favorite part of Christmas is being together in the house with no plans "good old-fashioned downtime" as Stacy Julian calls it. Home in my castle. That is what I enjoy. Even better if there is a big snow and we CAN'T go anywhere. There is always plenty of food on hand and we just get by and do whatever we want!

One Big, Happy Family

We were interviewed for winning the Family Makeover Challenge. The reporter tripped over our family story. It was published 12/23/2011 in the QC Times. The Challenge got very little press. We experienced a fair amount of attention over this well written article. Here is the link:

http://qctimes.com/news/local/couple-adopts-kids-from-state-foster-system/article_7e312304-2d05-11e1-9717-0019bb2963f4.html

Christmas 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It’s been a very busy year at the Cummins residence!

We have a new family member! Nick our oldest, married Angie Bahls June 11^th. Nick and Angie live in Rock Island , IL not far from the Augustana College campus where both attend. Nick is majoring in pre-dental. He recently attended an event on campus and learned to suture pigs’ feet. This cemented his interest in a medical profession. Angie is studying speech pathology. She plays bells as one of her side interests and both sing in a gospel choir on campus.

March was also an exciting month. Cariyana was suddenly hospitalized. She and Mom spent 5 days at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Part of which was a stint in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit after a respiratory illness that forced us to discuss Cariyana’s resuscitation status. It was not a position any parent typically imagines themselves in. Fortunately, she weathered the storm. To combat the newly discovered medical diagnosis we continue to insert an airway each night before she goes to bed. She can almost put it in herself, now! We will be exploring a more permanent (but complex) surgical solution to enlarge her airway with the specialists at the University of Iowa this spring.

Shortly after her discharge, we spent Spring Break in Texas visiting Charley’s birth family. On the way, we stopped at the Oklahoma City Memorial. What a tranquil gorgeous tribute. After the visit we had a much clearer understanding of the magnitude and devastation of the violence that occurred to so many at this site. A must see.

The next night we spent at Fossil Rim a wildlife resort. We were lucky to be there in the off season and had the entire lodge to ourselves which allowed a little more freedom for the kids. The greatest part was the guided tour we took of Fossil Rim itself. Up close giraffes, zebras, ostrich, emu, and all kinds of other animals typically found in the wild from all over the world. It was so awesome! After the guided tour we drove through the park ourselves and fed Kathy the giraffe right from our van (her head fit right through the sunroof). We still have zebra teeth marks on our van to remember the day! It was a visit the kids will never forget.

Then, we spent 3 days on a horse ranch in a fully furnished cabin enjoying the company of Charley’s birth family. We visited Aunt Amy and Uncle Brian and their 3 children—Lindsey, Hayden, and Kayla. We ate some great barbeque, played games, sang, and took walks on the property. Charley met his grandparents for the first time that he can remember. He is named after Charles Houston Massey his grandfather. The only thing we missed was a visit from a nearby cousin of Karen’s. Sometimes timing does not work!

The summer flew by after the wedding. Although we spent as many weekends camping at the Lake as possible we did not spend as much time as we would have liked. We enjoyed some great laughs, roaring fires, and Sunday morning Bloody Marys on the deck with our lakefront neighbor the Durhams.

The end of July brought a visit to the New Jersey Shore. We caravanned this year taking both of our Honda Odyssey’s to allow Nick and Angie to tag along. It worked out quite well actually. Boys in one van. Girls in the other. We had a great time at the beach for a week in Sea Isle. I wish I could have included more photos of parasailing and fishing in the bay. A great time was had by all.

Fall has brought the start of school. Alexis (11) and Charley (12) are in junior high in Walcott as 6^th graders. They seem to have transitioned very well. Both tried out for Jazz Band (flute and alto sax). Add that to band (flute and Tenor sax), orchestra (violin and cello), piano, weekly swimming lessons, and scouting for both of them and they are very busy kids. Plus Alexis has fit in Lego League and ballet!

Xavier (nearly 9) is following in big brother Nick’s footsteps and has joined Rivermont Collegiate for third grade and beyond. He loves it at Rivermont and has several new buddies including a favorite named Michael. Xavier plays piano, takes weekly swimming lessons, and is in scouting. In May, Xavier celebrated his First Communion. He is so happy he can now partake in Communion.

Joe (6) and Cariyana (soon to be 7) both started Kindergarten this fall at Buffalo Elementary. The change from Blue Grass to Buffalo had to happen to allow for better accommodations for Cariyana and her lifelong height challenges. A newer school just makes more sense. Soon with the addition of a simple wearable push button device she will be able to open the front door of the school all by herself (instead of swinging her lunch bag at the not quite reachable handicap button)! We have my friend Jon at St. Ambrose Adaptive Design lab to thank for that idea! Joe and Cariyana are in the same classroom and are getting along famously and doing very well academically. The hope is Cariyana will escape her IEP this spring. It’s been a long haul!

We can’t believe how big all the kids are getting!! The only thing that remains the same (well almost) is Karen’s position as Assistant Professor at Trinity College and Steve’s at John Deere Cylinder. It seems every career is fraught with the need to do more with less these days. We are working as hard as ever. Karen had 51 students in her course this fall. And if you ever want to chat with Steve, call first. One never knows what hours he will be working or how long it will be on a given day. Jerry and Joann Ray are our daily blessing. They are at the house most afternoons holding down the fort until we get home. We could not live this life without them!

Fall also brought another change for the Cummins. We applied to enter a contest and represent the West YMCA and West Locust Hyvee in the Healthy Family Makeover Challenge. We competed against other local families. It was an 8-week challenge consisting of working out with the help of a weekly Wellness Coach and bi-weekly consultations with our Hyvee dietitian. It’s been a great experience! For the 8 weeks of the challenge we (Steve and I) worked out at the YMCA consistently 6 days per week. The kids worked out 3-4 days per week by attending a Kids Fit Class on Mondays and Wednesdays or participating in open gym, zumba or playing racquetball. As part of our goals of the challenge we had to record in a food diary everything all seven of us ate for 8 weeks! That was tough but boy did we learn a lot! Read our blog (web address below) for more detail on diet changes and work out progress! We are continuing in our journey and are proud to report continued lost pounds and inches! We won the Challenge and have been featured on Paula Sands Live, the Dispatch, and look for front page coverage 12/23 or Christmas Eve in the QC Times.

Our Healthy Family Challenge Blog----http://cumminshealthyfamilychallenge.blogspot.com/

It’s a busy life! Until next year…blessings to you and yours! Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!

The Cummins Family—Steve, Karen, Alexis, Charley, Xavier, Joe, and Cariyana

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”