Conyers, Georgia, October 31, 2009 (Hallowe'en), 10:11 a.m., D.S.T.~

Happy Hallowe'en, everybody!  Hope it cooks up some scary-sized fun (not too scary, mind you)!

We are getting ready to take our children (Kensington, Kaylie, Khristmas, Korina Grace, Mordechai, and Alyssa) for their tricks-and-treats tonight.  We already have our costumes ready and waiting to go.  Kensington is going to be a Ninja warrior while Kaylie and Alyssa are going to be a pair of princesses.  Mordechai is going to be a brown puppy dog while Khristmas is going to be a Christmas angel (naturally).  As for Korina Grace, she's going to be a ray of sunshine.

Meanwhile, our other two children, AnaGraciela and Kesogo, whom we also adopted, are going as a pair of twin bees.  :)  They look so cute in their costumes!

The children are excited at the thought of loading up on junk food and visiting the neighbors, showing off their costumes.  They are going to be bouncing off the walls for the next several weeks; it's going to be very interesting around our house, let me tell you!  LOL

Mordechai and Alyssa aren't so sure about the talk of scary monsters or seeing witches, ghosts, fat, orange pumpkins with carved faces, or other "evil creatures of the night" running amok:  it's frightening enough for them because they've only been here in this country for a little under a month; everything is still very new (and unfamiliar) to them.  I just pray all the costumed people don't scare Alyssa or Mordechai into therapy in their adult future!  LOL

After we take the kiddies trick-and-treating, Greg and myself will probably go to our neighbor's house, where they are having a party.  My husband is going as King Tut; as for me, I'm going as Cleopatra (minus the snake!  LOL).  It should be a lot of fun!  (My mom will be over to watch over the kids while we "big kids" party late into the night.)

No drinking for Greg or myself:  we're just going to socialize and have a good time.  :)  (Thought I'd clear that up with y'all.)

Korina is doing great in her therapy:  she can walk over 1,000 feet without falling or losing her balance:  she is really getting sure (and steady) on her crutches!  We are very proud at all the progress she's making!  We don't know if she will ever get rid of her crutches completely, but the fact that she is walking is indeed miraculous!  (We still don't know exactly what it is that Korina has, but not to worry:  as long as she can take care of herself and get around, that's all we care about!  :) )

What Korina has is like spina bifida, but it isn't.  It's some sort of syndrome, is how the pediatrician explained it to us.  If she does have it, it's a milder form of it.

We are a true rainbow family.  We just didn't expect adding five more children to it after we had our three; now we have a total of eight children.  We may have to be moving within the year because our house has suddenly gotten much smaller:  there is very little room to move around!  LOL 

We get stared at because five of our children certainly don't resemble us; it's only natural for people's curiosity to be piqued.  We just explain that we wanted more children, so we took in five children who were in need of love.  That usually ends it right there; people are usually satisfied, as are we.

Sometimes we get rude comments based on our children's nationalities, disabilities, or skin tones; we tell these narrow-minded people to mind their own business and just let us raise our kids as we see fit.  It isn't nice to say this, but it is the truth.  Whey do they have to be so interested in our lives like this?  It makes me very uncomfortable, and I don't want my children to pick up on their bad habits as they get older!

In short, I want people to accept our (adopted) children as we do and learn to look beyond the obvious.

Well, I have to go:  someone just fell down the stairs; think it was Korina.  Heard the sounds of crutches crashing.  Nobody else makes as much noise as she does when they fall.  I hope she's okay; she falls down more times than anyone I know!  I will write in here again soon; until then, take care!  God bless you too!

Happy Hallowe'en (or in Korina's case, Happy Howl-O-We'en)!!

~Love, your friend, Maddie.  :)