Posted on August 30, 2010 by margo
all investigative reporters should be 4th graders. they ask the hard questions because they don’t know they’re hard. and when you hear the question and you say, “excuse me?”, they don’t understand the underlying implication that they should rephrase the question or not ask it.
but today i asked for it. i did a mini lesson on questioning. questioning is one of the important keys to comprehension in reading. so i brought a carved, wooden turtle that we bought on our last trip to ethiopia. i showed it to all the students, told them to ask questions. i didn’t answer any questions until after everyone had asked lots of questions.
they asked a ton of questions. then i talked about the turtle and let them ask more questions. these questions led to more questions about ethiopia and my family. questions like, “why didn’t you adopt from haiti?” or “why did you adopt from ethiopia?”
usually, i can answer questions about why we adopted from ethiopia without skipping a beat. but when a 4th grader asks you, it is hard to simplify it to a quick answer. not to mention that i can’t talk about god, so that throws a loop in my answer.
those students keep me on my toes!
Filed under: Adoption | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 28, 2010 by margo
i make my 4th graders write in a journal EVERY DAY for 10 minutes. I play classical music (we call it the smart music) and I tell them to not let their pencil stop moving across the page. even if they have write ‘i don’t know what to write right now’ over and over, they can’t stop writing.
perhaps i should take my own advice. seeing as i haven’t blogged in over a month. clayton is putting the boys to bed right now, and i could try to recap the past month, but i’m very tired. so, maybe i have some pictures instead of a long recap…
yep, i shot guns. it was fun. but stinky and loud.
it’s official. no one will be deporting masamo any time soon!
my peeps. my crew. my bff’s times infinity. lunch with all our kids. big props to us because not even one of our kids threw any type of fits during our 1.5 hour lunch! and a lady said we had super cute kids!!
my sons.
Filed under: Adoption, family, random bits | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 26, 2010 by margo
so, i promised pics and a story. thanks to the forgotten camera cable, you’re only getting a story tonight!
so we did masamo’s readoption and we drove up from houston to use the same attorney and judge that we did for deacon’s readoption 3 years ago. it takes less than an hour and the judge is awesome and they give the kids stuffed animals and it is all around awesome.
there was just one other family in court with us today. after we were done in the courtroom we all go with the attorney to a different floor to get the documents certified.
when we got into the elevator i was telling the attorney why we drove all the way up to fort worth…because at deacon’s readoption 3 years ago there was a family from houston that didn’t get the readoption done in houston because the judge wanted a ton of extra stuff that most judges don’t want… and as i’m telling this story, the other family that was with us was like, ‘that happened to us’…then i take a good look at them and i realized they were the same family from 3 years ago!!!!
this isn’t actually ironic, but a HUGE coincidence!!!! how is that our 2 families chose the same exact day 3 years later!!! crazy!!! they were there again readopting a sweet baby boy from tawain.
so after court, we rested at the hotel for a while, then went to lunch with my college girlfriends. (again, bummer about the camera cable because we a ton of cute pics!) i can’t believe all of our babies sat very nicely for our almost 2 hour lunch!!!! we have great kids. not to mention that deacon watched youtube on my phone for almost the whole lunch…
after that, back to the hotel room to rest again. then masamo and deacon and i went and visited a ton of people! they should sleep very well tonight because they didn’t really get a nap today.
tomorrow and wednesday i have a training here in fort worth while the boys will do fun stuff.
good stuff today. so tired now!!!
Filed under: Adoption, family | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 23, 2010 by margo
last night we went to the children’s museum on free night. bad idea. sooooo many people there!!! from now on, we only go on tuesdays at like 9:45am… but the boys had some fun anyway. proof:
they had a whole china wing where you got to pretend you live in china…
fishing was his favorite!
they got to make animal tracks in the sand
i know you are thinking….where are all the pictures of deacon? he moves so fast my camera rarely catches him on film!
family!
then today we went to sylvan beach in la porte. masamo’s first experience with the ‘ocean’…he loved it! at first he couldn’t figure out why the water kept knocking him down… but then he got the hang of it. i’m pretty sure i could start my own beach with the amount of sand we brought back in my car!
so what if deacon’s goggles don’t have the lenses in them anymore? he can actually see better out of them now without that plastic in the way 
fun days! love these boys!!!
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Posted on July 20, 2010 by margo
even though i should have an abundance of free time to dedicate to blogging…i seem to be busier than ever! mostly with just cleaning up and running after 2 preschoolers! so this is quick and simple…
first, we love to dress up around here and we have two new costumes…
iron man
and thomas the tank engine
they have the most fun chasing each other around and masamo is mostly content to take orders and follow deacon’s footsteps.
we also went to the share the well concert last saturday… it was super! fun friends, good music, raised money for an amazing cause.
there was clayton:
and ross (his set took us back to youth group days!):
and randall:
monica, clayton and i had a blast trying to keep masamo and deacon entertained after the rain ruined my playground plan!
i don’t know why i look like i’m about punch ross king or why my sister looks like she is trying to calm us down…i think we were about to get into position for a real picture…
and here is a lifelong dream of mine come true! picture with ross king!!! yay!!!
the artists
next week we head to dfw to do masamo’s readoption. i assume that since ET changed their travel requirements to 2 trips (court and to pick up), from now on ET kids won’t have to be readopted. they will be citizens the minute they hit us soil…so look on that bright side!
Filed under: family, social justice | 2 Comments »
Posted on July 10, 2010 by margo
today we visited gonzales, tx. this is considered the birthplace of texas freedom. basically, when texas decided to not be controlled by mexico any longer, this is where the first cannon shot went off and started texas’ fight for independence.
it sounds way more exciting than it actually is. do not get me wrong, it is an important part of texas history. but it is only fun for about 30 minutes, and you’d think the birthplace of texas would at least have a playground or a starbucks…or maybe a lupe tortilla…
needless to say, deacon and masamo didn’t really appreciate the historical reverence of gonzales. they did enjoy seeing these 2 HUGE lizards trying to eat each other, but that was their highlight… in case you never get to go, here is a pictorial tour of the important stuff.
and so on and so forth. very interesting stuff if you like texas history. if you are a preschooler, then you will not have so much fun. can’t swim in the reflection pool, can’t play with the guns, and there is no playground. be warned!
Filed under: Houston, family, pics | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 9, 2010 by margo
october 1-2 i’ll be in austin for the together for adoption conference. there are so many reasons why i’m excited about this conference.
but first, here is the pic from their webpage banner:
two things… little boy on left in back, looks kind of like masamo. and something inside me wants to scoop all these babies up and bring them home…
but the picture is not why i’m excited about this conference. the first reason is because of all the awesome people i’ll get to hang out with. most of these people are fbook/blogging buddies that i’ve never met in person, so that will be fun.
people like:
amy bottomly (my favorite travel to ET buddy!)
angel weir (just started ET adoption and basically finished most of her paperwork in like 3 days…amazing)
tom davis (writes amazing books, does amazing things for orphans, getting many jewels in his crown in heaven..)
and many others that i’ve met through adoption related events. very excited. i haven’t made any hotel choices yet, so if you want to register and come with me, that would be awesome!!!
Filed under: Adoption, social justice | 3 Comments »
Posted on July 8, 2010 by claytonfaulkner
I’ve been organizing this benefit show for Living Water International for several months now, and it’s happening next week! If you’re in or near Houston, I hope you’ll come see us, hear some great music, and support a worthy cause.
DATE: Saturday, July 17, 2010
TIME: 7:00 pm
VENUE: Church of the Holy Trinity, 211 Byrne St., Houston, TX 77009 (MAP)
TICKETS: $10 in advance, $12 at door
Some really talented and wonderful folks are helping out: Randall Goodgame and Ross King.
Your support in any way is appreciated. Here are some ways to help:
- download the flyer, print it out, pass it around, post it at church or where you hangout (DOWNLOAD FLYER)
- blog about it, write a post, link to ShareTheWellConcert.com
- follow us on Twitter (@wellconcert), RTs are appreciated
- RSVP on Facebook, invite your contacts to attend, share the event on your wall
Thanks for the support – together we can improve the lives of others with clean water.
Filed under: Houston, music, social justice | Tagged: benefit concert, clayton faulkner, Houston, living water international, music, randall goodgame, ross king, share the well | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 5, 2010 by margo
we joined the zoo a couple of weeks ago and it is turning into my best investment this summer. the boys love it! deacon particularly loves the dinosaur exhibit and trying to see the cheetah’s butt. don’t ask me.
i think we spied a whole group of people from ET and i had to squelch that desire to yell, “hello ethiopians!!! who are you? where are you from? do you want to get some coffee? please be my friend!” but, i kept it in and just smiled like a loon at every one of them.
here are our pics from today’s trip.
new baby elephant named baylor…kind of big for a baby. ps- elephants gestate for 23 months…can all my preggo friends give a big shout out for only gestating for 9 months!!!
we think they broke this one….i had no idea giraffes could bend their necks like that. this giraffe was trying to scratch it’s side. crazy!!!
deacon and masamo with a dinosaur.
watch out! the t-rex is going to bite your head off!!!
deacon and masamo. if it will stay still for 2 seconds, my boys will climb on it.
ok, this pic is actually the still from a video clip i tried to take when we went to the petting zoo. masamo said he wanted to go in with deacon and me. deacon and masamo both got brushes to brush the goats and assorted farm animals. deacon brushed every animal in there. masamo on the other hand…as soon as we got to the first goat, and the goat moved the tiniest bit…masamo threw his brush at the animal and screamed and tried to run up my body for safety. clayton had to come in and rescue masamo from the ferocious goats…poor masamo…not too good with animals. so, i didn’t get any video except for about 2 seconds before masamo began freaking out…
Filed under: Houston, family | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 5, 2010 by margo
and where are you coming from???
yesterday our blog blew up! highest day ever in the history of meet the faulkners. i must know, who are you and where are you coming from???
today we went to the zoo. it was so hot. i’ll post pics later!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
