Shelton Shenanigans

What a week December 1-7, 2013 has been for the Shelton family! We celebrated the first Sunday of advent with a trip to get our Christmas tree, and wrapped up the week by selling Christmas decorations at a Christmas craft fair. But that doesn't even begin to tell the full story! Let me break down the highlights for you. You may recall that a year ago this week I underwent surgery to remove half of my thyroid. I wrote an emotional blog post a few days prior to surgery in which I detailed my fears and my hope in God, and ended with a verse from a Christmas carol which had taken on new meaning for me: Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay Close by me forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care And fit us for Heaven to live with thee there. I come to the manger this year with a deeper understanding of the meaning of those lyrics, and unspeakable joy as I have regained the ability to sing, “Glory to God in the highest andpeace to men of good wil...

In case you’ve been wondering if Pilikia has outgrown his adorable little nickname (a fancy word for trouble), allow me to quote that well-known philosopher and deep thinker, Jerry Seinfeld. “Having a two-year-old is like having a blender without a lid.” Little Mr. Trenton is nothing less than a twenty-five-pound tornado! Here are a few things he accomplished last weekend while the rest of us were cleaning for an open house and working on Christmas and Thanksgiving gift baskets. He learned to unlock the sliding glass door, thus making it necessary to monitor him any time he’s remotely close to downstairs to keep him and the dog from escaping. He has spent a considerable amount of time disrobing, making messes of all kinds, and blaming them on the dog. He can point his finger and scold like nobody’s business – even if it’s entirely unjustified! He discovered that if you climb up on the storage tote of the next season’s shoes in the laundry room, you can climb onto the washer, where y...

Okay. Forget everything I said in my last post about taking a break from fundraising! The time for being still is over and the time for action has come!!! We’ve made some decisions, we’re moving forward! Things are seriously in motion and we’re charged and ready to go!!! Steve and I are presently filling out our application to join an adoption agency, America World. We are asking to adopt from Haiti!!! From what we understand, to complete a Haitian adoption will take us about two years. We will complete a home study, which will take four to six months, and then wait for a referral. Sometime after that, we will travel to Haiti where we will spend two weeks being approved again by Haitian social workers and we will meet our child, although I do not know how much interaction we will have with her. After that, we will travel back to the US, without her, and eight months or so later, we will return to Haiti in order to bring her home to her forever family. Every country’s adoption...

Is it just me or did summer absolutely fly by? Perhaps it’s because our school year started up earlier this year, or perhaps it’s because the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activities, but I feel like it was just yesterday that we were planning the June 1 rummage sale, and now we’re preparing for the kick-off of the football season, apple picking, and all the other things that come along with cooler fall weather! It’s crazy! Here’s where the Sheltons are in our adoption process. Although we took a break from our own fundraising efforts, at least publically, a lot has been going on behind the scenes as we gear up for what’s next! I like to think of the last few months as “Heart and Soul Months.” They’ve been months where we have seen God work on behalf of orphans in lots of different ways, and months where we got to take a back seat in fundraising efforts and play a supporting role on behalf of someone else’s. But they’ve also been months where we’ve been given li...

I sometimes write a little adoption how-to guide in my head as advice to share with anyone else who may want to take this journey after us. It goes something like this: 1. Decide you’re going to adopt. Brainstorm a brilliant fundraising scheme and announce your plans to the world. 2. Have a medical crisis which renders your plan impossible just as you’re gaining momentum and realize you had no fallback. 3. Fall hopelessly to your knees and begin begging for wisdom from Heaven and providential guidance because you have no idea what you’re doing after all and everyone you know knows about your adoption plans because you’ve talked about it non-stop for weeks. 4. Open your eyes to realize you’re surrounded by a whole community of people who love children and that you’re actually not in this alone . 5. Learn to let go of your need to control your own universe and allow others to step in and help, offer skills, ideas and suggestions, and bless your soul in ways you could have never seen...

"Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: "Rejoice!" (Philipians 4:4) I try to make it a point not to mention people by name in the blog without asking their permission first; at least not those who don't live in my house or share my last name! :) Today, I wish I could break that rule of thumb, because I intend to thank a lot of you for your love and support over the last few months. So if you're reading along and you come across something that sounds familiar, yes, that's you I'm talking about, and thank you!! (I should also note here that I am one of those annoying people who overuses exclamation points when I'm excited. Yes, I know I have a problem, and my apologies in advance, but I'm going to do it anyway!!!!!!!!) Today is a day for rejoicing! There are some wonderful things going on in the Shelton world, and I am thrilled and overjoyed to share them with you! But as usual, we have to cover some back story before we get to the ...

I have been meaning to do this post for a while now, wanting to update you on the cookie dough sale and the other adoption-related stuff - I even sat down once and tried to write - but I've been completely uninspired.  Then we came home yesterday to a letter in the mail addressed to "Bawrence Shelton (A really bad misspelling of Steve's actual first name, Lawrence) (seriously, is that even a name), and I was amused.  That was followed by an evening of mishaps as a neighbor kicked a ball into our yard, and Tyler, in trying to toss it back over the fence into their yard managed to get it stuck twenty-five feet up in their tree, after which he walked off sheepishly leaving them to fend for themselves.  It was, after all, their ball, their yard, and their tree, so that made it their problem, right?  Five minutes later, if that, Trevor wiped out on the kitchen floor and collided with the table.  When I asked what caused the fall, he said he slipped in pickle juice....

Ever play "Would you Rather?"  It's this torturous little game where you are given two completely undesireable options which you must choose between, and then explain why you chose one torment over the other.  Example: "Would you rather eat a plate full of toenails or a plate full of hair?"  A rational person would scream, "Neither!"  But neither is not an option, so you pick one over the other and justify it with something ridiculous like, "I'd eat toenails because I prefer crunchy things over stringy ones."  It's really quite absurd. Well, there are some days I think I live in a "Would you Rather" game.  Like today, when I was putting away groceries.  The question in my head was, "Would you rather get all the groceries put away in a relatively quick manner without a screaming baby, or would you prefer to sanitize the cans of soda that he is gleefully rolling across the floor, building towers with, trying to stick in ...

Don't you love it when people post weird titles that make no sense?  Oh wait, I just did that!  :)  Hang with me for a few minutes, and I promise that will come together for you.  But we have to cover some back stories first. Seven weeks ago I had a follow-up visit with my surgeon after having had half my thyroid removed fourteen days before.  Our major concerns going into that surgery were two-fold: that my vocal cords would be damaged, and that I might have cancer.  The plan was to take half the thyroid, test the mass on it while I was still in the operating room, and if cancer was there, take the other half.  The first thing I asked Steve in recovery was whether they took half or all of the thyroid.  He told me they only took half, and I quickly discovered that I did indeed still have a voice, so I thought we were good to go from there and that everything would be smooth sailing, just get on some meds and move on. So I was caught completely o...

This charming little fellow masquerades under the name of Trenton.  At least, that's what we put on his birth certificate when he was born sixteen and a half months ago.  Little did we know how much personality would burst forth from this little guy in true Shelton fashion, and that it wouldn't take long for us to start calling him by a more descriptive name--Pilikia!!! Pilikia is a fancy word for "trouble."  I got it from a word of the day email from Dictionary.com.  It has no other meaning.  Just trouble.  When I first learned it, I thought it would be a great name for a children's book character, a puppy or kitten, perhaps.  But, since I haven't gotten around to writing a book about Pilikia the Puppy, I quickly assigned it to the toddler in our house instead. Ironically, raising this one is a lot like raising a puppy.  He and my Seeing Eye dog have a lot in common.  Both will pant and plead with you when they want something, although one...