As we celebrate the 235th anniversary of our country’s existence, I wonder how many really take the time to do it appropriately. Yes of course we will be barbecuing with friends and family, drinking and playing games, but is that all the Fourth of July has become?

As Americans, we should take the time to thank our founding fathers for the sacrifices they made to create a nation that will become the greatest nation on earth. Granted I am being bias in my last comment, but if you look at the fact of how this county didn’t exist 240 years and rose to be the leader of the free world in about one hundred years, then you would understand my feelings. Too many people these days take it for granted that we have the freedoms to do what we want like have a BBQ on July 4th every year, if we want and if we don’t want to do that, then we don’t, It’s our choice. The freedom to choose is what our founding fathers gave us. That and as Benjamin Franklin once said, “A republic, if you’re able to keep it.”

So let’s take the time out from our busy parties, BBQs and lounging around on our national holiday to appreciate what we have in this country. Something that most other country’s don’t have. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As we go through life we tend to get more involved in the day to day stress which consumes us from the easy going person we were, to someone a little more edgy. Why is it that we, as humans, go through this process? Unlike other animals who deal with just the instinctive mode of life without stress and anxiety.

In my short but stressful life, I realize it’s all comes back to one thing, the lack of gratitude. I see many people every day complain, moan and groan about things going wrong in their life, how their life has not gone the way the wanted it to go or being so glum about their future. I rarely ever hear people say anything positive in the way of their life. Ask someone how they’re doing and their answer is typically… “good”. Nothing more than that unless they make statements like…”Can’t complain, then again who would listen anyway.” or “Hey I’m above ground.”

I find that most people don’t take the time to think of how grateful they should be for the life they already have, the childhood they’ve experienced or just being thankful for anything in their life. Life is too precious not to appreciate it. We take for granted the good things we have in our lives. Taking time to be thankful helps you to have a positive light on everything else that may come your way.

Recently I started to spend more and more time being grateful for the things that I have in my life. Each day I wake up feeling thankful for waking up, for greeting my wife in the morning, having time to be with my homeschool daughters and so much more. Since then I’ve realize that I’ve been a happier person and motivated to do more in my life. The feeling of gratefulness goes a long way and we should all be doing it. Spend ten minutes each morning, while you’re getting ready to go through your day, being thankful for at least three things in your life. Do the same thing at the end of your day too while you’re going to bed. You will see in a short period of time that you are a happier person and a lot less stressed.

Time flies so fast and we don’t realize it until it’s too late. One minute we’re young and the next our children are becoming parents. Watching my children grow up has been such a pleasure it’s hard to put into words without tearing up for the joy I recieved from their existance.

I guess one reason why I’ve never taken it for granted that my children are getting older is the fact that when my wife Joanne and I adopted them at the ages of 5,8,10, we felt we already missed out on quite a bit of their lives and wanted to enjoy the time that was still available. Because of that reason, we never over looked our time with them. Yes there were times when I was “too busy” to hang out with them or had “better” things to do, but the truth is that I have the advantage of my daughters being homeschooled.

We started homeschooling them shortly after the adoption was finalized. We figured to make up for some of the bonding time we had missed out on, homeschooling would be a way to do it. Instead of getting up at 6am to get them ready , fed and driven to school, we would take our time sitting down eating a calm meal without the feeling of being rushed. Homeschooling them also gave them more time to talk with us, listen to us or play games with us since there wasn’t any homework to keep them occupied during the afternoon and evening when that time should have been spent bonding as a family.

The most fortunate experience to come out of homeschooling is the great things we get to do together without competing with others trying to do the same thing. When kids are in school, we go to Disney (we have season passes). When kids are doing homework, we get to go to the movies. When kids are out with their parents on the weekend “getting the errands” done, we just relax or ride our bikes in the neighborhood.

Homschooling has been the best thing we’ve done for our kids. They get to grow up in a secure atmosphere without peer pressure or the drama of other teens in the school system. I feel I’ve been able to make up for the time I didn’t have with them in the beginning of their lives. I know them so well and that I’ll never feel like I wished I could have done it over.

I want to take this time to say Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family that come by and look to see how my life is going.

This has been a great year and to spend another year with my kids is going to be great. I hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday.

Joanne and I got married on June 4, 1994. Before we got married we discussed about having children. We agreed that we wanted to have more than two children. We were expecting to have at least one biological child since Joanne was already in her thirties and we were running our dance studio at the time. We also agreed that we would most likely adopt a child. Joanne’s brother was adopted and we both have friends that were too.

After trying to conceive a child for a couple of years, we were still not successful (though we had a lot of fun trying). We started to look into adoption and to see what was involved with the procedures. Not long afterwards we decided to move to Florida, so the adoption had to be put on hold since the lawyer we were dealing with didn’t have a license to practice law there.

After we finished moving, Joanne start looking in to what we needed to do to adopt. Shortly afterward we started with the home study. When we told the case worker that we would be adopting other children eventually, she suggested that we might want to think about adopting a sibling group. We thought about it for a couple of days and agreed on adopting a sibling group.

I don’t want to go too much into the steps that Joanne and I had to go through or the long period before the adoption was finalized (from start to finish it took one year). This post is just to introduce the wonderful family that Joanne and I have created.

We have three kids, Cimion (sim-e-on), Shawna and Jacqueline, when we met them they were 10, 7, and 4. They were (still to this day) very cute and good looking. When the adoption was finalized on October 30, 2003, they all celebrated a birthday. It’s now been five years and I don’t know what my life would be without them in my life. They have brought me such great joy and excitement and look forward to watching them grow up.

In future post I will talk about each one individually.