There's No Place Like Home

Everyone is growing.

2011-03-26T18:13:00.005-06:00

The kids have grown so much this past year. Isaac is only about an inch shorter than John and Sam is quickly catching up. He passed me and is super proud about that! I thought I had a while before Levi catches me, but today when we stood next to each other I noticed that he is super close, if not taller. Of course I did NOT mention it to him. No need to start boasting this soon. HA!

The girls are getting so "old" now. What happened to my babies? I don't think they're going to pass me up though. They seem to be on the shorter side of their classmates at school. Noah is one now and is so much fun! We just love that little guy to pieces! It seems like we've never been without him. It's been a great transition for everyone.

Isaac is fervently pursuing his college plans and will hopefully be able to narrow that down by fall sometime. He is doing so well in school and I'm very proud of him. He has plans to be a publisher or editor, so he wants a degree in English. His home school roots are still there--- you can't keep the boy away from books!

Speaking of books, all of the children have turned into avid readers. Sam and Levi are actually on a book-battle team. They have about 20 books to read and will be representing their school to compete against other schools over info from the books, etc. They're excited about it. Some of the authors will even be there. I am so happy that they all love reading so much.

Isaac and I have actually recently discovered "the great books" colleges. I would LOVE to go there. I mean, to send Isaac to one of them. Did I accidentally say I wanted to go????? The whole 4-year program is set up exactly like we home- schooled. Real books and amazing content area and weekly discussions. I'll post more on them later....

John is doing very well. The surgeries were successful last year and he is finally bouncing back to normal a bit. They told us it would take about a year to fully recover. It's amazing what they can do-- remove your entire large intestine and you bounce back in a year!

It's been a great year!

It's a boy!!! Again!

2011-03-26T17:44:00.004-06:00

Well, before I update all of the details of the past 8 months, I guess I can start with the biggest surprise (umm, I mean news) of this year-----

We have a new son!!!
Woohoo! God is so good!

This one came as a complete surprise and it was kind of an overnight sort of thing.
The adoption agency we adopted Noah through last year called us about a baby and we needed to decide and send in our info by the next day! It was pretty much a 99% chance that the birth family would not choose us because we didn't fit their original criteria (such as wanting a family with 3 children or less, etc. ummm, we're kind of 2 of those families! ha) So, we were really asked to just be an extra family for them to choose from so they would have some good options.
Long story short....... It's a boy!

His name is Andrew and he has been home with us for 4 weeks now. I'm sure you can imagine how boring of a month that must have been. I mean, what have we done with all of our free time?

Andrew is a precious little guy and we love him so much! He is also sporting "designer genes" like Noah. He has Down syndrome and we're so happy that he and Noah will have each other as they grow up. They will be buddies for life.
They are 9-1/2 months apart.

I never dreamed we would have another baby this year. (or ever!)
It has been such an amazing experience to bring him home.
I just look at him and my heart swells with so much love and awe at God's amazing grace and provision. Sometimes I feel like Job-- he lost 7 children and God graciously gave him 7 more. We had the miscarriage and then David and Hannah died (one with Trisomy 13 and the other with Trisomy 21--Down syndrome). God has given us 2 more. Hmmm..... should I be wondering if there may be another in the future?
We think we're done. :o) Well, that's what we've told everyone. Of course, my brother said, "You're done for the 3rd time, right?" LOL

I couldn't be any happier. It is such a wonderful feeling to have all of these children in our home. We are so blessed! And adoption.... I can't even describe that. Our experience has been amazing. I would highly recommend it if God calls you to do it.

8 months later......the story continues

2011-03-26T17:39:00.002-06:00

I've been so busy, I did not realize it had been 8 months since I had blogged. I knew it was a really long time, but really??? wow! Where did the time go?

Of course, I'm sure you can imagine that nothing interesting could possibly have happened in our family in that amount of time. LOL

So, I guess "I'm back" and I'll have to slowly update our past 8 months.

my garden

2010-07-08T17:29:00.001-05:00

We put a small garden in this year. Ike helped John to till up the ground. We got it in kind of late. It’s doing great so far. We only planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, eggplant, okra, all colors of bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, jalapenos and serrano peppers, cantaloupe, and a few herbs. Next year I would like to have a few of the other things I grew in the past. I’m just thrilled to have a garden at all this year!

Field day and end of school

2010-07-08T17:23:00.001-05:00

Field Day 2010

Megan and her 1st grade teacher. Yes, she actually chose to wear that bow. :o)

Ike thought this sign was hilarious! If you look at the small print, you’ll see the word “NOT” before the word drugs.

Last day of school for Faith. She loved her teacher so much. I hope next year’s teacher is just as wonderful!

Levi also had a great teacher. We’ll miss her! He had a great first year of public school!

Noah’s room

2010-07-08T17:15:00.001-05:00

Noah is absolutely fabulous! We are so in love with him!!! I thought I’d post a few photos of some things in his room.

We bought this used dresser very cheap (!!!) at a used furniture store and painted it black to match his bed and other dresser. The other dresser is the perfect size for a changing table, so I put his changing table pad on top and have his diapers and things in the first drawer. The other drawers have sheets and blankets. I guess I don’t have a photo of it. I’ll have to take one.

This beautiful picture says, “God is love!” in Chinese. It belonged to John’s great-aunt who spent her whole adult life as a missionary in Taiwan. I thought it was perfect for his room!

The words of this sign are so appropriate! After a 14-year wait, God finally allowed us to parent a child with Down syndrome. Our Hannah was stillborn in 1996.

Samuel made this beautiful clock for Noah in his pottery class at school 2nd semester. I think he did a fantastic job! He designed it himself.

Faith made the Pooh on the left for Noah while we were in New York for placement day. It’s so cute! Megan drew a picture and we framed it above his bed. I think I forgot to take a picture of it. I’ll have to do that.

I also have black letters spelling out his name that I need to get the blue ribbon on and hang above his bed.

Nessy, our kitchen help

2010-07-08T17:02:00.001-05:00

I’m not really sure this is even a photo to show…… I definitely did not take it! John came in and found this scene. Apparently he thought it was pretty funny and snapped a few shots. I didn’t find it so amusing. lol Kind of gross! She’s a sweet doggy though. John said she was licking plates. Sorry, I’m sure that’s TMI.

Father’s Day

2010-07-08T16:53:00.001-05:00

We spent a very relaxing Father’s Day around our house. After church we came home and did nothing. We had spent the day before with my parents and brothers and sister-in-love. It was a gorgeous day, so we just hung out around the pool after church.

We even took Noah for his first swim. He liked it! I thought he would be afraid or cry, but who am I kidding??? He rarely cries. He’s such a happy little guy!

I think John enjoyed doing nothing and not having to go back to church that evening. He loves going to church, of course, but it was nice to know we had no obligations or need to leave our home. That’s a rarity for him. I’m so glad he had a relaxing day!

We love you, John! Happy Father’s Day!!!!!

Kermit and Faith

2010-07-08T16:39:00.002-05:00

Faith loves animals—of any kind! Sometimes I wonder where in the world she gets it from. I mean, I saw a huge mouse outside one day (some kind of big brown deer mouse or something like that from the woods) and she ran outside to see it. 30 minutes later she’s back in the house saying, “Doesn’t Cafe have the biggest ears you’ve ever seen?” I just looked at her and said, “Please tell me you didn’t name that thing!!!” She had been out trying to play with it. I love her dearly, but that’s just not right!

So, we’ve had a few frogs near the pool this year. It turns out that one apparently really liked her. I kid you not--- it would ride on her hand while she was on the swing, ride on her head in the pool, jump around and land on her all the time. She loved it!

One day in the pool the kids were making a whirlpool. The frog jumped in and Faith got so excited. She was chasing everyone around in the pool with the frog hanging all over her. They were all pretty freaked out. Meg cried. Ike was a little nervous too. John was laughing so hard. She’s not afraid of anything. Here are a few pics from the day. She named her frog Kermit. I think he may be one of the 2 frogs that drowned in our skimmer basket, but have no fear…. She has another frog already!

She even had her 2 friends swimming around with him one day when they were here. One poor little girl got quite startled when he jumped from Faith’s head straight to the little girl’s FACE! She liked it though. (I kept my distance, along with Meg!)

Community Bible Study

2010-05-21T22:31:00.003-05:00

I’m so excited! I get to go back to Community Bible Study next year. It begins August 27th. Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!

I missed it sooooooo much! I did BSF and CBS for 7 years in the States before we moved to Brasil. Then I did BSF for a year there and also led a CBS study out of my home in Portuguese. (CBS does small groups internationally and uses the heart language of the people; BSF stays in the same format as it does in the States and is always in English)

I found a group near where I live and contacted them online. The children’s director contacted me a couple of days later and said they have a spot for Noah (another reason I love CBS—they take babies and you don’t have to wait until your child is 2). They are looking forward to having him.

Our study next year will be The Divided Kingdom (1 and 2 Kings and 9 of the minor prophets). I am really looking forward to it! I covered that same material the very first year I ever did BSF and it was very interesting.

To make it even better, John can go with me if he wants to. They have a men’s group that meets at the same time. It’s on his day off so it works out great. If any of the kids are home sick, I don’t have to miss because he can be with them. They even have a home school group up through 8th grade. My kids are off of school about 1 Friday a month. The children’s director told me I can bring them on those weeks. I just have to enroll them now and she’ll get me their lessons to do the homework the week before they’ll be attending. How cool is that????? Wow!

Did I mention that I was really excited about going back?!?!

Community Bible Study

Find a class near you!

Sleeping Angel

2010-05-21T22:04:00.002-05:00

I love this little picture of our angel. :o) A friend took it at church during Awana club one evening. It’s so sweet……makes me want to snuggle him and kiss his little cheeks!!!

Strep throat…….again

2010-05-21T00:39:00.001-05:00

Megan has strep throat for the 2nd time in 8 weeks. All of the kids except for Sam had it the week we flew to get Noah. That was one crazy week………..

Poor Megan. She’s missed a lot of school this year. She had swine flu, strep twice and other sick days with fever and bad colds.

We caught it very early this time, so the meds kicked in immediately and she was back to normal today. She’ll go back to school tomorrow.

Masha and Mara have families!!!!

2010-05-21T00:36:00.002-05:00

I am soooooooooo thrilled to give you an update on 2 of the precious girls I asked you to pray for--- Masha and Mara.

They both have families committed to adopting them and working hard to get them home soon! WOOHOO! I love these girls. I could not be happier for them and their families.

God is so good!

Mara was supposed to be sent back to the institution on her 10th birthday but they were full. God graciously spared her life again and a family committed to her that week and saved her from that fate. She is now able to stay at the orphanage until the family finishes the process and is able to travel to get her.

Masha

Mara

He’s getting stronger

2010-05-21T00:28:00.001-05:00

first cereal Isaac’s favorite thing to do---------READ!

Whew, that was hard work!

Megan’s baptism

2010-05-21T00:21:00.001-05:00

John had the privilege of baptizing Megan this month. We did it the day before Mom’s mastectomy, so she and Dad were able to come up for it. He’s a pastor so normally he’s preaching. They were up here for her surgery anyway. It was a very special day. It was the first time we had all been to church together in years too! Us, my brothers, my sister-in-law, my nephews and my parents. Dad was very happy!

We had a meal afterwards at the house. I’m so glad we all had that time together to celebrate with Meggie and spend time with Mom before her surgery.

We had Dad baptize all of our other children, so Megan is the only one of ours John has baptized. Very special!

talking to Daddy before Congratulations, Megan! We love you very much, Princess!

just cute stuff……

2010-05-21T00:12:00.001-05:00

Sam loves his braces! I love his piggies….. He laughs every time he sees this tiger. The boys named it Hobbs after Calvin and Hobbs.

He looks like he’s ready to do Kung Fu! Levi wishes he could! lol

Pampered pets

2010-05-21T00:06:00.001-05:00

Andy is such a lazy cat—and huge! He’s always on his back like this—and usually in the dog kennel on their big pillow. He’s rotten!
She definitely needed her “Schnauzer cut”. She got it right after this.

Easter egg hunt

2010-05-21T00:01:00.001-05:00

Noah must have some special power. Everyone falls asleep in his room! Now it was Isaac’s turn.

Egg hunt at Grandpa’s church Mom and Noah couldn’t resist. The kids said he looks like Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

My babies

2010-05-20T23:54:00.001-05:00

Happy 16th, Isaac!

2010-05-20T23:50:00.001-05:00

Ike was really happy to get a gift card. There were a few big items he was interested in getting so we let him decide. He ended up choosing a bike too. I guess he “got wheels” after all!

He loves T-shirts with characters on them. I think he has every super hero except for one and a few Sesame Street character and others. This one is Mr. Potato Head.

Isaac has turned into such a fine young man. He has always been a great kid, but it makes me so proud to see the man he is becoming. What a blessing he is to me--- as are all of my children! I love you, Ike!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

2010-05-20T23:45:00.002-05:00

My Sammy turned 13. Where did my baby boy go? He was very proud of becoming a teenager. We really did not do anything special this year for his birthday or Isaac’s--- which is really weird because we normally do. It was just kind of weird timing. It was also Easter weekend, so that kind of stinks for them. Sam did enjoy his day though and especially liked that he was off of school!

He is getting so tall and handsome. And he’s quite the character! Now, if I could only get him to talk at school! They think he’s super shy………..

hamming it up as usual new bike

I LOVE YOU, SAMUEL!!!!

precious first days

2010-05-20T23:38:00.001-05:00

Noah and Grandpa

Noah and Grandma

Sissy fell asleep holding him. She said it was kind of boring because he just sleeps and the music is very soft and makes you sleepy.

He LOVES to snuggle on our shoulders!!! It’s his favorite position. hmmm…..Noah has that effect on people. Levi fell asleep too!

1st day home---meeting the family

2010-05-20T23:28:00.002-05:00

My parents, brothers and sister-in-law came over the next day to meet Noah. They loved him of course!

When we got home it was almost midnight so 3 of the 5 kids were asleep. Sam came out to the driveway to meet us. Levi greeted us in the kitchen. He stood there and shook with excitement when he saw him. He couldn’t believe how little he was and cute. Sam loved him. Ike was asleep in the recliner and didn’t really wake up. The girls were already in bed.

The next morning they were all eager to see him and hold him. Noah has a lot of hair and it stand straight up half the time. Isaac’s first words were, “Cool hair! Can I make a mohawk sometime?” The girls were also super impressed by how tiny he was.

after first bath

We love his hair!

kissy-lips

Chinese robe

It was hard to believe we had a real baby sleeping in our house!!!!

Going home

2010-05-20T23:14:00.001-05:00

Noah’s first plane trip was so easy! He slept the ENTIRE time! Can you believe it? I was nervous about having a baby again. Well, not like I didn’t know what to do, but it had been 7 years and I wasn’t sure what to expect because of his Down syndrome. I didn’t know if he would have a lot of eating issues or be super floppy or what. I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to suck or eat. His foster mom got him to take a regular-sized nipple that week instead of the preemie ones, so I was a bit relieved. I’ve done that before with Ike, but it was comforting to know he had already worked up to a regular nipple. It turns out that we haven’t had to worry about anything like that. He is strong and doing very well.

Oh, I did let Daddy hold him a time or two before we boarded. lol

This is how he and I looked the ENTIRE time. I stared at him and smiled while he slept. :o)

oops, I looked away once as we taxied down the runway

leaving NYC

Welcome home!!!!

His little jacket was a NY Yankees jacket from his foster mom.

GOTCHA!!!!

2010-05-20T23:01:00.002-05:00

The moment finally arrived! We got to meet our little angel. I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect. We were in one room with our social worker and he was in another room with another social worker and his birth parents. They spent an hour or so with him before coming in to bring him to us.

Usually they bring the baby in and hand him to you. Well, they came into our room and about 1-1/2 hours later we finally got to touch him!!! It was kind of funny. The social workers told us afterward that they were so nervous for us thinking we must by “dying” inside wanting to just to grab him! His birth mother spent a lot of time with him, fed him, changed his diaper, played with him and talked a lot. His birth father got to hold him again and we asked a ton of questions and just made small talk about “stuff”. We really wanted to touch him and kiss him and make over him, but we didn’t really know what to do. We just gave them all the time they needed and let them have a very nice afternoon together for memories.

I was nervous because I know he’s “ours” and they knew that he would be, yet he was still “theirs” and it made me feel funny to cry and say how precious he was and go on and on about how special he would be to us. So I didn’t. I wanted to, believe me!!!! But it was a very different type of day. It was nice.

We finally did get him. The social worker finally asked his birth mother if she would like to let me hold him or something like that. It was cute. so………………. It was truly a dream come true type of moment!!!

He was so tiny! What a perfect gift from God!

Do you notice that I’m still holding him? We “fought” over him. I finally had to give him to Daddy and he said he wouldn’t give him back. :o) Actually, I held him a very short time to give John a turn. Then he hogged him. That’s ok though. I got him the whole plane ride!

Daddy loves him so much! We just stared at him trying to memorize everything about him. He is so beautiful and perfect.

cab ride to LaGuardia

in the airport

my little pooh bear

Killing time…….

2010-05-20T22:47:00.001-05:00

As you can tell, we killed more time by taking lots of photos of street signs and the streets. I won’t bore you with all of the houses and streets we took photos of. I really liked NYC!

Central Park on Placement Day

2010-05-20T22:41:00.002-05:00

On the day of Noah’s placement, we had a few hours to kill. We did most of the paperwork at the agency that morning and then did not need to be back until that afternoon to meet Noah and his family. We had to work around his family’s schedule, so it was split into 2 parts. We didn’t mind though. It was a gorgeous day and I was nervous, so it took our minds off of it a bit! We were only a couple of blocks from Central Park, so we walked over to the the park and ate lunch on the steps of the art museum. We just grabbed hotdogs. Neither of us even like hotdogs, but it was a nice little excursion and we got to listen to a fun mini-concert. It kept me from pacing the floors too!

Easter

2010-05-20T22:30:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the day with family. My parents and brothers, sister-in-law, and nephews came over for lunch. It’s so nice to be back near family and be able to get together for holidays! We missed that for about 10 years (seminary plus mission field). Our kids have grown up away from family, so they’re really enjoying it too.

It was very special to have a new baby again this year for Easter. It was still kind of surreal. What a blessing he is to our family. We love him so much and can not imagine life without him.

This is our first family photo.

Poor Sam has new braces and couldn’t eat most candy.

Noah is amazing!!!

2010-05-07T14:01:00.002-05:00

It’s been exactly 2 months since I last updated the blog. At that point, we had just learned that his biological parents chose us to be his adoptive family. It’s been a whirlwind ever since. He is truly an amazing little boy and we love him so much. I’m still in awe at how God worked out all of the details and brought him to us. I am so humbled that He would allow us to adopt him and love him forever.

We flew to NYC on Thursday, March 18th and our placement was the next day, March 19th. It was a wonderful trip and experience. I can NOT say enough GOOD THINGS about Spence-Chapin. They have an amazing team of ladies in their special needs program!!!! We were so blessed to be able to work with them.

I think I’ll go back and make several blog entries of each little step along the way and add photos. There’s too much to tell here. Hopefully over the next week I can get caught up to date.

So, here are a few photos to get it started…….

looking out the window of our hotel room.

from our room at night. It makes me miss Sao Paulo! I LOVED NYC!!!

You can’t see the sign very well, but it’s a doggy GYM!! They had about 15 dogs in there. Some were in “group play” wrestling with each other and a trainer, others were doing more quiet activities. I wanted to take a pic of the people and the dogs, but didn’t think they’d appreciate that.

It's A Boy!!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-07T09:09:00.007-06:00

THIS IS OUR NEW SON, NOAH!!!!!!!!

He weighed 7 lb. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long at birth.

A few weeks ago he was already 9 lb. 3 oz. and 21 inches.

He has a check-up again tomorrow and we'll get new stats. :o) (and new photos)

He'll be 8 weeks old tomorrow, too.

Oh my goodness!!!! Where do I begin??? If you go back to this posthttp://http//weaverfamblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-heart-is-so-full-of-joy-and.html
you will see the beginning of this story............

We were chosen this past Thursday to be the adoptive parents of Noah! He was born on Jan. 11th, which is an amazing detail because it's my spiritual birthday! Isn't God so incredible?????

He is the baby that I wrote about. I got the surprise call about him when John was flying to Mexico for the mission trip and after I had just wrecked his car in the garage. I was soooo excited, but at the same time I was really afraid to get my hopes up. And we still didn't know what to do--- should we pursue him or keep going for the girls in Mexico?

Well, God made it so very clear over and over that we were to keep moving forward at every step. We just followed his leading and on Thursday He gave us this beautiful son!!! Wow! We are still in shock! We already love him so much!!!

We will fly to New York City and bring him home on Friday, March 19th. You can imagine all we have to do between now and then! Let's just say we have NOTHING for a baby! We never dreamed we'd have a baby, so we need to gather everything and get a nursery ready. It's so much fun! I'm going to get paint later today to paint his room. The kids all decided he needed a Pooh room, so we're going to do that.

I've spoken with the foster mother keeping him until we get there and she says he is absolutely wonderful!!! He's a very easy baby and even sleeps through the night. Can you believe it? At first she was waking him for a bottle but the doctor said he's doing fine, so let him sleep.

Woohoo!

I can't wait to kiss him and hug him. He is just the most precious little thing! Can you tell I'm absolutely wrapped around those cute, chubby, little baby fingers yet?

He is even more special because he has Down syndrome. And did you notice that he's Chinese? lol I have always wanted to adopt an Asian baby since I was very young. I never dreamed we could because it is so expensive to do that as a large family. The income requirements for China are very high and out of reach for us. But, he was born here!!!! So, it's a domestic adoption and we're going through an agency that has a wonderful program that makes it extremely affordable.

It was a long 6-1/2 week wait to find out if we would be his family, but it's definitely worth the wait!!! The most amazing thing is how God brought him to us. We did not pursue him. We never even saw his photo until Friday afternoon. (and of course it was "love at first sight!!!) We did not even have our home study in at this agency when they found out about him. They called us asking if we would submit it. Amazing!

I'll write more about him later. I'm home with Megan sick today, so I need to go help her.

I wrecked John's car how????

2010-02-06T08:52:00.002-06:00

The day John left for his trip, was a very interesting day. For many reasons it turned out great, but it definitely did not start out that way!!!

I took the boys to the bus stop and then came back to the house. I decided to bring John's car into the garage so it would be warmer for the little guys an hour later when I took them to the bus. So far, so good. :o)

Well, we all went out to get into the car. Faith got in first behind the driver's seat. Levi got in up front. I got in (driver's spot, of course! lol) and then Meg came out. She started to get in Faith's side but the door was already shut, so she walked around to the passenger's side in the back. (key piece of info there---- the door was already shut)

I started the car and we began to back out. SLOWLY. We only rolled a couple of feet and then CRUNCH! What??? It sounded like I had just wrecked and hit something. I immediately thought, "What in the world was that sound? Did I hit the van or a bike?" I knew nothing was behind me because I had just pulled the car into the garage an hour ago.

I got out of the car and then I saw it. I was sick to my stomach and in disbelief! I wanted to cry.
Faith's door came open when I was backing out right as we got to the frame of the garage door. Her door was crumpled up and messed up pretty badly! It would not shut, the trim was messed up and it was shoved up and forward a little bit. (I guess that happens when you try to drive in reverse if your door is jammed into the garage door wall/frame.) I could not believe what I was seeing.

It was very upsetting. I did NOT need to fix a car. That's for sure. I could think of a lot of other things to spend money on besides a car door. Would it even be able to be fixed? How much was this going to cost me? It was crazy.

There was good news though----- the garage door still worked and the frame was not seriously damaged. I praised God over that one!

So, I put the kids in the van and we drove to school. I was kind of shaky and sick to my stomach.
I called John (yep, Mom couldn't believe I'd call him and tell him. She was afraid it would ruin his trip---- not that she would want to hide it.) He was on the plane (still on the ground in St. Louis) and only had a few seconds. So, I did what any wonderful wife would do. I said, "Hi! What are you doing? Oh, on the plane getting ready to pull out? By the way, I just wrecked your car in the garage. Ok, well, call me in 2 hours when you get to Houston. Bye!"

Hmmm...... I'm sure he had a wonderful trip!
It was definitely to be expected. Even that weekend Mom had said, "So, John leaves on Tuesday. What do you think will happen this week?" (gee, thanks Mom!) If you remember, on the mission field we ALWAYS had crazy things happen when we had mission teams or an important mission project or John was out of town.

John was absolutely FABULOUS about the whole thing. Seriously, I have the best man in the world as my husband. :o) He is so great when it comes to things like this. He kept telling me not to worry about it and that it was ok. We'd get it fixed. He said, "It's just a car. And it's not even my car. It's God's car. Don't worry about it. It can happen to anyone. (oh really??)" he is the most unconcerned about money/material things person you will ever meet. he was just thankful we were ok, the house wasn't damaged and the car was fixable (probably). He said God would provide what we needed to fix it.

I was just sick about the waste of money. I mean, of all the goody things to have to "buy"--- a car door. I did what any girls would do........I called Dad. He was still up here because Mom had been a little sick with her chemo and didn't feel like going back yet. He came out to look at it with me because I couldn't get the inside lights on the door panels off. He had to disconnect the battery for me.

He told me I should start calling salvage yards to see if they had a door. Yuck! I hate doing things like that. But, within an hour, I had 4 doors to choose from! Can you believe that??? 4!!!
One was about 5 minutes from my house, so we went out there and bought it that afternoon. It was in great shape. I was thrilled just to have the door, even if it didn't get fixed before he came home.

To make a long story short........(ok, so it's not going to be shorter, but at least I'll summarize it to end) A friend from church actually does this professionally and he came and picked up the door for me. He took it to be painted and put it on the car. All before John got home. He delivered it back to us about an hour before John arrived. What a blessing!! I was thrilled to know someone professional would find the proper things I needed to fix this. Dad and I were going to put it back on, but we were afraid the hinges might be bent and then we'd need the tools to bed them back and get it all aligned. God provided just the right person.

So, it was a "happily ever after ending" after all.

(And I felt much more peaceful after I knew it would be fixed and poor John wouldn't have to do it. It turned out to be a great week!)

John is back and things are VERY interesting here

2010-02-06T08:48:00.002-06:00

Has it really been several weeks since I got on here? It has been a blur. I have so much to write about. I've avoided my blog for fear that I would want to write everything about something God has put in our path. Hmmm...... how's that for vague??? lol Plus, I've been too busy trying to get some paperwork and things together. ok, that wasn't very nice was it? Hint at it like that and then nothing. I guess I'll just have to make a post about it.

John's trip was fabulous, by the way.
I think I'll write some individual posts now to sum up what we've been doing.
I'll start with how I wrecked his car in our garage..........

John is in Mexico

2010-01-23T09:01:00.003-06:00

John's leading the first international mission trip from our church this week. They're in Mexico. It's been a fabulous week so far! The trip got changed at the last minute. They were supposed to go somewhere else near where they are now, but the pastor they were going to work with had a family crisis and it wasn't going to work out. I'm actually selfishly pleased that it got changed because now they are staying in a better environment for John and are in control of their own food. I was concerned about that. I do NOT want him getting parasites again! (I think secretly he was even a little concerned about it.)

I'll pull together all of the stats of what they've done when John gets home and post them, but it has been a very good trip.
They've been doing an eye-clinic during the day. They have seen over 300 people and have given hundreds of pairs of glasses and readers. They ave the equipment that gives your accurate prescription and they also have a large stock of glasses that are cleaned, repaired and marked with the prescriptions.

They're doing other things too. Tonight is an evangelistic film. Yesterday they had 15 people accept Christ. They have had many opportunities to share their faith one-on-one as the people come through the clinic.

If you have any old glassses you would like to donate, contact me and I can get them to First Baptist Church Arnold, MO. They are the church who has the equipment and gets the glasses ready for the teams to take down. They do this continually throughout the year, so they can always use more glasses. If you would ever like to go down and help with a team, let me know and I can get you in contact with the people you would need to talk to. It's a great place to go and get some first-time mission experience.

The team will also be doing more evangelistic work throughout the rest of their trip. They come back Monday evening. I'm anxious to hear all about it from them. I'll have John post about their experience, too.

I think we have some great opportunities coming up in the next few months to minister locally, too. Some of the mission projects John has planned for our church in the spring and summer are: a trip to New Orleans to rebuild a home or church and meet the needs in a community there, a service project at our church's local school district (the school is still determining what they would like for us to do), several block parties (training will be coming shortly), and maybe another trip to Mexico. He's also looking into a trip to Africa in the next year. There will be other things as well, but these are a few I know are already one the books (except for the Africa trip--- it's still being looked into). There is also a big Easter project through our state convention where John is coordinating an effort between several churches in our town to go to every single home in our community and personally invite them to Easter services and get them some info on the churches. We'll need a LOT of volunteers for that one!!! I would love to see us send a team down to Haiti.

If you would like to join us on a mission trip, feel free to contact me or call John at the church and he can help you do that. We would love to have you join us. I know many times there aren't enough people from one church to go, so people feelthey can't go and serve anywhere. We would love to invite you to join us. We'll put you to work!

update on child from the state

2010-01-23T08:58:00.002-06:00

Just a quick update on the child we checked on from another state. We spoke with the social worker several times and they ended up with a huge response of people interested in adopting him. Many of them already had experience with a child with his special need, so they are going to go with one of those families. I am happy to know he will be going home soon! It was kind of cool though because she was definitely willing to consider our family and even said she would keep our home study for reference in the future in case another situation would come up that she thinks we might be a good match for.

My heart is so full of joy and contentment

2010-01-23T08:12:00.006-06:00

Do you remember me writing recently about us being open to whatever God has in store for us in our adoption? Well, buckle up, because it looks like it's gonna be a wild ride!

There is another family interested in "our Carmen". They will be a lovely family for her. Monday evening I was finally able to sit down and send them the info they've been wanting to know about her along with some photos. It was a little surreal because I walked down "memory lane" with her as I did so. It didn't seem right that I should be giving my Carmen to someone else so willingly. :o) But, I felt peace in my heart and knew that we made the right choice.

Well, I was a little bummed for a few days before that because I had heard several wonderful announcements about some friends adopting again. They've adopted numerous times in the past and it just kind of hit me---- how can it seem so easy???? How do you get the money, the time off of work to travel and the approval from social workers and the government to adopt repeatedly? I am very happy for my friends and they are wonderful families, but it just kind of hit home as I thought about how hard it has been for us to even get one adoption. We had so many things to overcome before we could really do it (John's surgery, etc.) and it has truly been my hearts desire since I was about 11 or 12 years old. John and I have talked about adopting one day since we've been married.

I kind of thought to myself, "What in the world did we do???" We had our social worker do our domestic study first. We have not asked her to write the international one yet. But international is where the kids we want are, right??? We really felt that God was telling us we needed to look domestically for now. There is too much going on with Mom's upcoming surgery and other things. I don't think itnernational travel would work right now. Maybe in the future though. We'll wait and see.

But here's the catch.... domestic is very expensive too and can be complicated. Then you have to be chosen by the birth parents and there can be so many times you are called but not chosen, etc. And we never started this journey for a baby. That would be wonderful, but we are also very open to an older child. We could go through the state, but will have to start our whole process over since they do not want to accept any of our paperwork done by a private agency. That's not a big deal, but it is a longer process. We are open to that, but don't really feel that is where God wants us to start. So we wait. There is a special needs program at one agency we've applied for but I was beginning to question our logic. We sort of put all of our eggs in that basket. But most of the children they get have some very complicated special needs. And that's kind of where we have limited ourselves to. Did we do the right thing???

I truly wondered if we made the right decison. I knew they did not have any children right now and some of the previous children they have had probably would not have been a good fit for our family. We know what our "ideal" child would be like, and what we would choose if we were able to, but what are the chances of that being an option, right? However, we still felt comfortable getting on their waiting list.

So, I got a call this week from them about a possible adoption opportunity in the future. Let's just say that I cried when she hung up. It wasn't that I felt we would get this child, because we may not have a chance. It was the details of the situation. It was like God was calling me himself to tell me that it's "ok" and that He knows what we desire and what would be best for our family and He can make that happen at any time. The even funnier thing was that I had no idea of the gender or race, yet I just knew that this was confirmation that God was showing me He is still in control and He has the perfect child chosen for us and will make it happen some day. This child sounded perfect---even with no known details. (it's hard to explain, but it will make sense if I can ever give the details of what I did know and why they called us to let us know!)

I don't want to go into any details yet. I will one day if anything ever comes about from it. But you will be amazed and will immediately see how it's a "God-thing". John keeps telling me to just be content and wait on God and He will make it all happen in His timing and we'll know it's Him and will know it's definitely the child He has chosen for us. And what is the coincidence that the very day our home study was finished a child would become available that was exactly what our preference would be if we could choose???

I do not have any idea if we will be given the opportunity to continue pursuing this child or if we would ultimately be chosen as the parents. But I am so joyful and content that God would even send that kind of confirmation after I was really doubting the choice we made in where we should turn to for our adoption process. It is soooo opposite of why and how we started this journey, yet we feel very peaceful about it. It's actually kind of comical. I think I can wait peacefully now. (of course, I'd also be thrilled if we'd hear more right away! lol)

Oh, as a follow-up.......... I got another call telling me the race. I did everything I could to NOT scream into the phone and to play it cool. Let's just say I've talked about adopting a child of that race in particular since I've been 11 or 12! I still don't know for sure if it's a boy or girl. Details are slowly trickling in and the agency does not have the child yet so they don't have teh full story. Needless to say, we would be intersted if were ever a possibility! I've been able to contact John (he's in Mexico) and he's all for it!

But again, this may never happen. It's so cool though to know that God hears our prayers and He does little things to show us that He is still with us and knows our hearts. Even if this would never happen, I still find joy and contentment in that.

Homemade Big M@cs

2010-01-23T07:49:00.003-06:00

We had a little fun with dinner last night.
Yes, it's kind of sad when you say it's fun to make dinner.........

I surprised the kids on their way out the door for school by telling them we were going to make homemade Big M*cs for dinner. They thought that was pretty cool.

It was really easy to make them and they tasted pretty good. We even made the secret sauce ourselves. (I guess it's not so secret since it's all over the web. lol) Of course, I just realized that I forgot to add the onion to it! oops! We thought the cheese was a little overpowering, so next time we'll just use part of a slice of cheese. Ike thought there were too many onions on the burgers. There probably were because it said how much to use, but we just kind of put some on. He doesn't like onions anyway though. I thought the onions were fine.

I wish I would have taken a picture. I forgot. (I really MUST get some photos on here soon!) Here's the recipe if you would like to try it for yourself.

Ingredients:

1 sesame-seed hamburger bun
half of an additional hamburger bun
1/4 pound ground beef
dash salt
1 Tbsp thousand island dressing (or make sauce-- recipe below)
1 teaspoon finely diced onion
1/2 cup chopped lettuce
1 slice American cheese
2 to 3 dill pickle slices

1. With serrated knife, cut the top off the extra bun half, leaving about 3/4-inch-thick slice. This will be the middle bun of your sandwich.

2. Place the 3 bun halves on a hot pan or griddle, face, down, and toast them to a light brown. Set aside, but keep the pan hot.

3. Divide the ground beef in half and press into two think patties slightly larger than the bun.

4. Cook the patties in the hot pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Salt and pepper lightly.

Build the burger in the following order from the bottom up:

bottom bun
half of dressing
half of onion
half of lettuce
cheese
beef patty
middle bun
remainder of dressing
remainder of onion
remainder of lettuce
pickle slices
beef patty
top bun

Special Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp French dressing
4 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
1 Tbsp finely-minced white onion
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well.

2. Place sauce in a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight, so that the flavors blend. stir the sauce a couple of times as it chills.

Makes about 3/4 cup.

Haiti

2010-01-23T07:38:00.003-06:00

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti. I wish so badly that I could go down there. I have always wanted to help in situations such as what they are facing. My missionary instincts kick in and it's so hard to just sit back and do nothing. I remember when the tsunami hit and I was unable to go. I wanted to very much. Now I am here just sitting in the States, but I don't think I will be able to go for a few reasons. We'll see. I know our mission board has an assessment team on the ground starting today and they are going to figure out the best ways to send teams in and what they can do. I would love to join one of the teams!!! When things like this happen, I always kick myself that I did not go to nursing school. I was accepted into 3 and turned them down and got married and moved to Texas. I wouldn't change that for anything, of course (!!!), but I do wish I would have also finished nursing school. I've really thought about going back. We've discussed it quite a bit over the past few years. I'm still considering it, but a lot of that will depend on what happens with our adoption process and some other things. (speaking of which----- exciting developments!)

My heart is so burdened for the children and I would absolutely LOVE to foster or adopt a child (or children) from Haiti. What a wonderful opportunity to show Christ's love. My heart is so proud of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as I hear the stories of how so many people are willing to open their homes and hearts to these children. It is true faith in action. I would be the first one in line if there were an opportunity for some of the children to come to my area and they needed homes--either temporarily or permanent.

My kids are burdened for Haiti. Levi and a friend want to do something. I need to help them with that. They're wanting to collect money or things needed. I think the best way to funnel them down would be through our mission organizations Disaster Relief Fund and the teams going down there once they finish the assessment. Faith has about $60 left over from Christmas. She wants to send it all. She is so sweet. Levi and Faith have such missionary hearts. It makes me so happy to see their response to this tragic event. We all wish we could hop on a plane and go down. I really need to look into an opportunity for them to help in some way this week.

So, until we can do more, we will keep praying and will remain open to anything God would call us to do to help with this situation. That's all we can do really.

Would someone please go get Mara?

2010-01-12T13:19:00.002-06:00

I must admit---- I always “root for the underdog”. I am always drawn to people who are outsiders or have a special need or have some huge obstacle to overcome in life. I am especially drawn to children with physical deformities. I know that probably sounds kind of weird, but I have just always enjoyed working with them and wish that I could do more for them.

One little girl in Eastern Europe has captivated me since I first saw her over a year ago. There’s an updated photo of her now and it’s adorable!!! I am praying for her to find a family.

She lived in a mental institution for 8 years because of her deformities, but was rescued out of there 2 years ago and is now thriving. Once children with special needs turn 10 in her country, they get sent permanently to the mental institutions and can not ever be adopted from there. God saved her from that fate once. I know He must have a special plan for her! They are trying to avoid her going back. It would be very sad.

She has even had surgery on her hands. Her hands were all fused together, but they have separated her thumbs and she can use her hands now. She is just adorable. Look at that little dimple!!! I think she would be a wonderful daughter. She seems very sweet. So, if you’re thinking of adopting internationally, would you consider Mara??? Please??? Her country has a very easy adoption process and it’s much less expensive that most other countries. Everyone I know who has adopted from there said it was a truly wonderful experience and the adoption ceremony when you’re there is beautiful. Surely God has a special family chosen for her. Is it your family?

Mara

Girl, Born March 27, 2000

Eastern Europe

Mara has Apert syndrome. She spent the first 8 years of her life in an institution and received very little care or stimulation. In the past 2 years, she has been living in an orphanage setting and has been receiving proper medical care and therapy. She is thriving in her new environment! Medically, she has had her thumbs separated to improve the use of her hands. Though she needs additional surgeries, she is able to adapt and use her hands well. She is significantly developmentally delayed but she has been making a great deal of progress now that she is receiving proper care and attention. Her speech is delayed. She uses very approximately 5 words unprompted but she does understand what is said to her & will occasionally mimic what is said to her. She loves to be around her caregivers and will often imitate their actions. As a result of paying close attention to what they do, she can feed, change and dress a baby doll just like she’s observed the care givers doing for younger children. She demonstrates compassion and a loving nature in the way that she cares for her dolls. She is a very sweet little girl that has overcome so much in her young life. She is small for her age and appears to be around 4-5 years old by her size. She has already demonstrated that she can make significant progress in a better environment and she could obtain so much more in a loving family environment!

Mara is turning 10 soon, which is the age that she must be transferred in her country. In an effort to spare her the mental institution, plans have been made to send her to a different orphanage for older children. But this is not a special needs orphanage, they do not have the resources there to help her, and we are concerned she will be victimized by the other, older typical kids because she is different. She needs a family ASAP. We have additional photos and a short video clip to share with interested families.

There are a growing number of Apert Syndrome support groups in the United States, who will be of much help to any family considering adopting Mara!! http://www.apert.org/ and http://www.specialchild.com/archives/dz-020.html may be of some help to you!

NO AGENCY FEES
Married couples preferred, single mothers approved on a case by case basis
All parents should be under 50 years of age

· No more than 5 children (at home or own their own)

· TOTALLY CLEAN criminal background check

· Parents should be general healthy

· Both parents travel for approx 3 weeks

· Total with travel and home study under $16k

Short simple dossier

There is no "court"...only a beautiful "adoption ceremony". Orphanage donations are not required. Short, simple dossier, very short wait for travel once your dossier is submitted. This is a very easy program, and we could get many children out of this country with minimal costs and easy travel requirements.

Please contact Shelley for more information.

sore muscles

2010-01-08T09:27:00.002-06:00

I am really feeling my muscles today. As Meggie would say, "Mamma mia!"

John bought me another FIRM dvd for Christmas. I had not used it before yesterday because I thought I already had that one, so I never opened it up. (I have over 40 of theirs!) It turns out that it was one I didn't have. So, yesterday I did it. And boy, can I feel it today!!!

It was actually very "easy" and "simple". I mean, come on, they don't even wear shoes in the video!!! How hard can that be, right??? Well, it was just focused excercises for the hips, thighs and abs. And they definitely hit their focus!

I think it's one of those little videos that seem harmless at the time, but the next day it bites you! Yes!!! I love it! (and need it)

Oh, I don't think shoveling snow for several hours helped the matter. Well, maybe it did. Instead of just my lower body being sore, now my lats are really feeling it too!

woohoo!
I'll have more of the same today!

Open to God's leading

2010-01-08T08:47:00.005-06:00

Well, with the long wait and the unkowns that kept coming up, John and I felt it was best to look into all of our options for adoption. We are open to anything that God would lead us to do.

We went ahead and finished our home study before Christmas. We began looking into domestic options as well, and had our study written for a domestic adoption. It was the easier of the 2 to write, and the international study can be written based off of it. We really want to go back for Marisol, but we'll see..........

In the meantime, we have found an agency with a special needs program that we really like. We made contact with them in the early fall to find out more about their program. They were very interested in getting our home study and putting us on their list for a possible match with a baby in the future. This agency mainly does infant adoptions. (Personally, I would be THRILLED to have a baby again!) There was a little boy this fall who had Down syndrome. He was adorable!!! We weren't ready yet though.

So, once we knew we were doing the home study, we got back in touch with them and they were still interested in us. We are going today to sign a waiver at our home study agency here that will allow them to send our info to the other agency and for our social worker to talk to them about us if they have any questions. It's kind of exciting! We could end up with a baby. Who knows! The part that makes me more nervous though is that the babies they get often have more serious needs. So, we would definitely have to pray about it if we were matched with a chld through them, depending on the circumstances and special needs, of course.

Before Christmas, I got a phone call one day and it was a social worker from that agency. She interviewed me on the phone for an hour or more and we talked about their program in detail. She sent me all of the paperwork they have families do once they are approved to work with them. The interesting thing is that they still had not even seen our home study at this point! It was all based on the emails we had sent back and forth and our initial inquiry application with info about us. We just filled it all out (it was 50 pages to fax back to them!) and sent it in yesterday. She said she didn't want to waste any time while they waited on our home study to arrive, so she sent us the paperwork. Hmmm.....do you think that means they may have a child they think we would match with? We'll probably just end up on their waiting list, which is fine with us.

AND.........to make it even more interesting................
We have learned about a child in another state who would be a wonderful child to adopt. I'm not going to put any details on here yet because we may never hear any more about this child. But, we inquired and they also want our home study. The interesting thing is that we are not in the state system yet, so I did not think they would even talk to us. Our case worker will be sending a copy of our home study to this other state, as well. Wow! Can you believe it??? This is probably just the start of inquiring 1,000 times and getting passed over, but still, it's a huge milestone. lol

I can tell you that I would LOVE to bring home this child from the other state(!!!) or a particular child we've been talking to the other agency about. I'm a little nervous about the child at the agency because the special need is pretty intense, but we feel we could do it if given the option to adopt that particular child. We're praying that God will definitely close the doors He does not want us to walk through! Until then, we will just keep moving forward one step at a time.

I have to laugh at myself though. It's really quite ironic.
We had this whole thing planned out in our minds. Who it would be, what time frame, etc.
Now, it's so up in the air and the children we are looking into are so opposite of what we originally thought.

I am afraid to get my hopes up on any child after Carmen. I told John that it seems like a total impossibility. He said that's great because then it's a surprise and we'll see what God chooses to do. Kind of like having a baby ourselves---- we have no idea what we'll have! It is kind of exciting, I guess!

So, pray for John's sanity while I drive him crazy with questions like, "What do you think will happen? Do you think we'll hear back from them? Do you think........? When do you think........? What should we do.......? I wonder if.........? You get the idea. Poor John!

If we do get to adopt a child from the state system, I'm really not sure how it would work. Our home study is done through a private agency (Love Basket) and we have not had any of the foster/adoption classes yet that the state requires. I hope they would use our medical info, references, fingerprints and everything else we have done (even the home study) as a base and just fill in any extra info they need from us. I'm sure we'd have several more home visits before we'd be approved in their system, etc. Maybe it would go faster though because we have already done all of the paperwork.

We really would appreciate your prayer though as we wait and make these very important decisions over the next few months.

(My biggest fear is that both will call us--- the private agency AND the state--- but we won't know in time and will choose the wrong option. Is that crazy or what?) I'm praying that the state will give us some kind of feedback right away to let us know if we would even be considered for that particular child, so we can move on to other options if not. I know their process is usually pretty slow.

Carmen is not our daughter

2010-01-08T08:33:00.006-06:00

Sadly, I must say that we will not be adopting Carmen from Mexico. It's a long story, but it looks like that's the final word. It makes us sad, but we feel peaceful about our decision. The kids are sad though. They kept asking us every day when we would be able to go get her.

We had hoped to have her this summer and then it took longer to find a house than we had hoped. We were picky though and waited for a house that would allow us to be able to adopt easily. Our house has 5 legal bedrooms in it, so we definitely have room for more children here.

When we did finally get in, we unpacked as quickly as we could so we could do our home study and then go get her. Within a month of moving in, we found out that John needed surgery. By the time we did all of that and let him heal, it was really late into the fall. By then, her government had changed hands after the election in her state and every single person in the adoption department had been replaced. They are still trying to decide what the laws will be and what the program will look like, how much it will cost, how long travel will be, what requirements families will need to meet, etc.

We've waited to see what will happen. We've been praying a lot about it and have been askign for clarity and direction from God. Last month we heard they were beginning to look into it again. So, we began praying even more fervently. This week, after I had been praying for specific direction one day, we got an email from the organization we had been working with asking what our official status was with her. Basically, asking if we wanted to continue to wait for her or not. It turns out that there is another family who really wants to adopt her and because of where they live, (not US) they have a really good chance of making it happen quickly. We talked it over and felt that this was the answer we had been praying for.

We let her go and gave our blessing for the other family to try to adopt her.

SO, back to square one........
What in the world do we do now????
We had been praying about bringing Marisol home with her. Was this our way to be able to bring her home instead? But when will they even open the program and what will the changes be? Honestly, I'm worried about travelling down there for a long time with Mom so sick. She will need me this spring with her surgery and more chemo and radiation. There may even be another family who wants Marisol already.

We have a few other things going on the adoption front. I'll put them in the next post. I would just ask for prayer for us to have discernment of what God would have us to do and also for Carmen to get a family really soon. We love her so much and want the best for her!

I really need to get some photos on here

2010-01-08T08:31:00.002-06:00

I was just looking at the blog. I have not been blogging much the past few months and really need to finish getting my blog set up since I took everything off of it. I have a lot of photos. Maybe I can get some of them put on here this weekend.

1st official SNOW DAY ever!!!

2010-01-08T08:21:00.003-06:00

The kids loved their 2 weeks off for Christmas break, but they were also glad to go back. I was too really. I miss them when they're gone, but I was glad to have the routine back. It didn't last long though..............

They only went back Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday was a "huge milestone" in their life. They got to do something their father never got to do until his senior year..........
They had their 1st official SNOW DAY ever! (John grew up in Baton Rouge and didn't get snow days down there.) They have been home schooled or have lived in Brasil, Costa Rica, or Mexico, so they never experienced a school being called off for snow.

Let's just say they were pretty excited..........
They have only seen snow a few times in their life.
The school calls us at home and gives us the message that school is cancelled. They called all 3 numbers---John's cell, mine and the home phone. I had to smile when the first official call came through. I remembered how much I loved snow days growing up. It was fun to give them the news!

We had fun and they ran around outside a bit yesterday, then Momma made them work. Somehow one of the things we love so much about our house wasn't so cool anymore----- "all the parking space". Apparently, when you buy a house with great parking space you have a lot more to shovel out!!!

I bought 3 snow shovel back in the beginning of November. I'm thinking I should buy a couple more! We shoveled for a couple of hours. We need to go do the neighbor's house today. He has cancer. Actually, the other neighbor had surgery, so we should do his too. I think next year we just may have a snow blower or something with a blade we can drive around! And our long sidewalk is so pretty in the nice weather, but in the snow it seemed longer. lol

Well, day's the 2nd official snow day, and John is off on Fridays, so I think we'll have to make it fun!

Woohoo! Gotta love snow days!!!!!!!!!
Thank you God for snow. It is so beautiful.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-08T08:16:00.002-06:00

Nothing like saying "Happy New Year" a week late, right???

We've had a busy week. The kids were off of school for 2 weeks and we enjoyed it. We did nothing! (and you could tell if you walked in my house for those 2 weeks. lol) I had hoped to do some fun things with them, but it was nice to just stay home and relax. That doesn't happen very often.

We were home alone on New Year's Eve and I loved it. Ike went to hang out with a friend, but the rest of us stayed here. I read a book, we played a few games, we watched movies and just spent the evening together. I even stayed awake until midnight! ha
I stayed up too late too many nights in a row and felt like a baby with my days and nights backwards.

John is such a night owl. I'm definitely a morning person. I'd prefer to go to bed super early and get up at 5 and get busy. So, when I stay up and watch movies with him or spend time together, it's great but I pay for it later. I had a headache all week last week from being tired. funny! I had to actually go back to bed a few days in the afternoon because my head hurt so much. It's all better now.

So, once again............Happy New Year! I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family this year!!!

update on Mom's cancer

2009-12-29T20:04:00.002-06:00

Mom is doing ok. She's had 3 treatments now. She'll have another MRI and ultrasound in a couple of weeks before her 4th treatment. The doctor wants to know if the cancer has shrunk enough to do her surgery. If not, she'll do another round of 4 treaments and then check again.

She is doing so much better than she expected. She doesn't feel great, but there are usually only a couple of days that are really bad. That's been pretty surprising. She doesn't sleep at night either, so she kind of rests whenever she can. So far though, it has truly been better than expected. She says she knows it's because of all of the prayer.

Hopefully the cancer will have responded enough to allow her to have her mastectomy soon. I think there may be a 1 month wait before she can have it and then again afterwards before she can start chemo again. I think the plan is to have more chemo after surgery and then radiation. It's probably all going to depend on how it responds to treatment.

Her outlook is still really good and she's very upbeat about it, so that's a blessing.
She felt great for Christmas and was able to come over and spend the day at our house and see the extended family when they came over in the evening. It was a very nice day. I'm so glad we're home right now. I can't imagine being in another country again like we were when Dad went through all of his chemo and very serious medical situations related to it. God has truly blessed us with this gift of being home with our family.

family day at the movies

2009-12-29T19:55:00.004-06:00

We took the kids to the cinema today since they were off of school. Meggie really wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel. It was cute because she said she would pay my way if I took her. So, today we decided we'd take the kids and have a fun day together. John had to make a hospital visit and we didn't know if he would be back in time, so I planned to take them all and go see it. John ended up getting back in time though, so we rode together and then he went in with the girls to see the Chipmunks movie and I saw The Blind Side with Samuel and Levi. I've been wanting to see that since it came out. John and I planned to go see it together, but never had a free day to do so. It was really good. The girls said they liked the Squeakquel even better than the original. I'll have to watch it once it comes out on video. Isaac was at a birthday party so he didn't get to go with us. Poor Meggie must have been worn out. She fell asleep on the way home.

Going green

2009-12-29T08:01:00.003-06:00

I think I'm going to try to simplify things as much as possible this year. I guess I'll "go green" in some areas. I found a book at the library about a month ago and really liked it, so John bought it for me for Christmas. It's a Readers Digest book called Homemade --- how to make hundreds of everyday products fast, fresh, and more naturally. 702 Ways To Save Money And The Earth!
Here's a link for it from Amazon. (I'll go back and put the short link in later and not this long thing)
http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-How-Hundreds-Everyday-Naturally/dp/0762109041/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262096625&sr=1-2

I'm not one to go around telling everyone they need to "save the earth", so that's not why he bought it for me. I just really liked the recipes in it. I tried several of the facial products you can make and cleaners and other things and they were great.

This morning I tried another homemade face mask. This one is simple. 1/2 banana, 1 Tablespoon honey and 2 Tablespoons sour cream. Mix it all up and apply to your face (clean face, of course). Let it set for 10 minutes then rinse it off. It feels great. The other day I made one with dry yeast, lemon juice and water. It felt tingly and smelled wonderful. I have tried a few others so far and really like them.

I also bought all of the supplies needed to make my own laudry detergent. Yes, I know....sounds kind of goofy, huh? I think even poor John wondered about that one. I've been wanting to do that for several months since I heard about a great recipe for it from a few other sources. Then when I got my book it had the same info, so I bit the bullet and ordered the supplies I need. I'll let you know how it goes. From all of the reviews of people who make their own, it's supposed to be very good-- and very economical, so that's a great bonus!

The recipes are wonderful----- homemade shaving gel for ladies, aftershave for men, facial cleaners and masks, bath products, nail,hand and foot care, laudry products, healthy home remedies, pet care products, cleaning products, house and garden products, you name it. The first half of the book has recipes for just about any food product you can think of. They're very good, but I'm so used to cooking and making things that it's not what drew me to the book. They are good though and I plan to make quite a few things out of it.

My poor book is already getting bent in the top corner from being handled so much! I think I'm going to work on filling my home with my homemade concoctions this month! lol

Marathon???

2009-12-27T16:51:00.003-06:00

I think this is my year. I want to run that marathon I've always dreamed of. I'm turning 40 in August, so I think that would be a great goal---- run a marathon before I turn 40. Hmmmm......that means I have 7 months and 11 days to do so before my birthday.

There's a marathon in St. Louis on April 11th. I'm going to try to train for it. It's 15 weeks from today. I could do it. I hope that it gets interrupted by an adoption trip though. If so, I'll train for another one. I'm going to plan on running it though and start my training tomorrow.

I have an amazing book that I used before when I started training before we went to Costa Rica. I didn't have time to finish and run a race though. It got way too complicated in Costa Rica with the rainy season. It was a downpour every day from 1 p.m. 'til 8 p.m. Then the mornings were dark before we had to be at school at 7 a.m. It was very hard to run there. So, I kind of had to give that up.

The thought of all of the training seems a little overwhelming, but I'll break it down day by day. Oh, back to the book....... I forgot....
The book is called The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. It's very good. I was up to a 10-mile run in no time with it and it seemed effortless.

It goes on a 4-day per week running schedule, with a "big" run at the end of each week. It gets longer each time. I try to do the big run on Saturdays.

So, I need to just focus and set my goal of doing this run in April. Then I'll take my running seriously. Of course, winter is going to make it complicated. I'll have to do a lot of the early weeks of training on the treadmill. That's ok though. By the time I get into the really long runs, I can be outside.

We'll see how it goes!
I think the biggest hurdle is just committing to it and making my mind up that I'm not going to give up my goal no matter what. And the cool thing about April 11th is that it's our Hannah's birthday. She would be 14 that day if she were still living. What a neat way that would be to celebrate her birth!

Marisol's birthday

2009-12-27T16:33:00.002-06:00

"My" Marisol turned 7 on Christmas Eve. I thought about her all day long and wondered if she would be transferred out of the baby house this week or if she already has been. She's so tiny. I can't imagine that. Oh, I wish I could be her mommy. It seems we talk about her every day and I know that I think about her all day long each day.

I pray that this will be her very last Christmas alone with no family.
Her story is so unique because she did have a family at one time, but apparently was unwanted and was "found" in a terrible place. I won't put her story on here, but it breaks my heart. I wish I could just give her a big hug and show her what a family really is. She doesn't talk at all. I always wonder if she did before her family got rid of her or if she never learned to talk yet.

I keep thinking of our time with her last February. I think there's a little difference between her and Carmen. Well, they have opposite personalities, but besides that, there's just something different about them. Carmen has been in the orphanage since she was born. It is "home" to her and all she knows. She is such a happy and content little girl. She has never known what it means to be in a family. When we were there, we played with her and spent 3 days together, but she was content to play alone or with us. Marisol held hands with one of us the whole time she was with us. She wanted to walk with us and leave with us no matter where we went. I wonder if she remembers having a family? I wonder if she has siblings? Did they ever treat her well? Poor baby. I think she definitely wants a family. It was so hard to leave her. She is the sweetest little girl and also very happy and content. You could just see her eyes observing everything though and taking it all in. I wonder if she was remembering her own family?

I wish it weren't so complicated and expensive to adopt internationally. I guess it's good that it is, but I wish it weren't! I would fly down there tomorrow to visit them and bring them home.

We sent some stuffed-animal puppets to the girls and a couple for the orphanage. We know someone who went down there this week. Hopefully she'll get to deliver them. I'm not sure if they'll get to keep them, but I really wanted to send them something. John is going down there with a mission team in about 3 weeks, but I don't think he'll get to go by the orphanage. I wish he could!!! I'd love new photos and an update on my girls.

My heart is still so torn. We still have no idea what we should do about our adoption process. We know what our hearts want to do, but we don't have clear direction yet. <>

We had a wonderful Christmas

2009-12-27T16:16:00.002-06:00

Our family came to our house this week for Christmas. On Tuesday evening we had a little get-together for our immediate family. It was just my parents, my brothers, my sister-in-law and my newphews. We had a very nice, relaxed evening. We were surprised when my youngest brother and his new bride showed up. They live several hours away and weren't supposed to be here until Christmas Day. Mom was thrilled!

On Friday, we had our extended family over for a nice old-fashioned family Christmas. It was so nice to be with family again for Christmas this year. We've been out of the country for the past 6 and away at seminary before that for 3 years. (I had new babies for 2 of those seminary years, so we definitely coulndn't travel home.) Grandma didn't get to come up, but she'll be here in a few weeks. It really was nice to see everyone. Even though we're back home and nearby, we really don't see the extended family very much. Everyone's so busy, it seems.

We just had my parents, my brother, my uncle and John's dad here for lunch with us. That was really nice. Very relaxing. Everyone else came over later.

The kids got some games, so we spent time playing games in the afternoon and have been playing games ever since. The kids love to hang out as a family and play games. I tried to make sure we found a few new games this year that they would enjoy playing. So far, it looks like our choices were great!

We're at a crossroad

2009-12-15T19:23:00.003-06:00

Don't you just love when life follows what you are studying in the Bible? My study this week has been about the crossroads David faced. It's part of a Kay Arthur study.

Well, today we were approached with a major crossroad decision. I am so torn. I really do not know what to do. We have to bathe this one in prayer and seek God's will with all our hearts.

Do you remember me saying that as soon as we sent in a home study and got a call about a child, we'd probably hear something about Carmen?
Well, it's kind of like that. Only, we're not finished with the home study yet. There is a specific agency in the US we've been in contact with though and they are waiting for us to send them a home study to possibly match us with a child now or at least to use in the future if this child is not a good match. We've been praying about what to do and for God to show us very clearly if this is the route we should take. There are pros and cons both ways.

Here are a few: pro--- no long, international travel; WAY less expensive, the children we would be considered for would have special needs; it would be wonderful to have a little baby again; there is definitely a need for families for these children; we've really taken to a few of the children they have listed over the past few months; much easier process,.........

con---a baby would be a big life change (lol); we would have to be chosen by the birth parents; one particular baby we're interested in would be extra challenging through the years--- but it's a very special baby who really needs a family;

So, here's the other side of our "situation"...............
Today we finally heard from the adoption agency involved in the process to adopt the children from Mexico. It had gone completely silent for months and finally they were able to get in touch with the new Mexican officials. Apparently they are very interested in opening the program back up and bringing us all down to adopt the children. So, we could probably go get Carmen very quickly.

It's complicated though.
pro--- we LOVE Carmen (and Marisol!!!) and already think of them as family; we really feel God opened doors for this several times over the past year when we were specifically seeking His will; She would have her own challenges, yet it would be easier than the baby we're interested in because she has no medical concerns; we've already started her process and have all of the paperwork started, so it wouldn't be that "hard"; she was abandoned at birth and really needs a family; she would be like a toddler which is a little easier than a baby.............

con--- umm, we kind of spent a good chunk of our fund we had set back to bring her home (unexpected suregeries and such cost a little bit, but we're so thankful that we had that $$ put back so we could use it); we would have to travel-- what would we do with our kids, how long would it be, are they changing the price and travel requirements, would we both have to travel the whole time....; we know what we originally committed to but it may have changed; we hate to travel far for very long with Mom going through chemo and surgery; we're interested in the domestic program as well..............

There's more, but I won't bore you with that. It was very interesting today because that came and then about an hour later I got another email from a friend I haven't spoken to since we moved. She said she was thinking of us and wanted to know what ever happened with Carmen and if we were bringing her home. That was pretty wild to get those 2 emails back-to-back. Especially as we're praying for clear direction.

But as I said, it's truly a crossroads situation. We could really argue either way. In my heart I would love to bring her home and as far as they're concerned, we plan to. Yet is it the wisest thing right now???? Whatever we decide is a major decision. We don't feel like we want to say no and stop the process for her, yet we hate to stop the domestic process too.

We've been praying for this to be so very clear that we will definitely know without a doubt what we are to do.

We asked the kids and they all said they wanted to bring Carmen home. Of course, they also begged to please bring Marisol home too. Oh, we truly want to do that, but I think there might be another family trying to bring her home. Her birthday is next week. Wouldn't that be an amazing present? For her to have a mommy and daddy coming???? (us!)

Now, the easiest solution would be to bring Carmen home AND adopt through the domestic program. But I don't think it would really be the "easiest" in the long run. lol

Please pray for us as we need to make a decision very quickly. We finish the 2nd half of our home study this week and this will definitely change things.

We know God will provide anything we need to complete whichever process He calls us to. But it's so hard knowing what to do sometimes!!!

Busy week

2009-12-14T09:33:00.003-06:00

This is going to be one busy week!!! It seems they all are lately. Sometimes I miss the calm, quiet days of nowhere to go on the mission field. :)

Tonight Levi has a band concert, Wednesday is church, and Thursday, Friday and Sunday are Christmas parties in the evening. Wednesday morning I have a breakfast at Faith's school, Thursday morning is Bible study, Thursday afternoon is Megan's class party, Friday morning is our 2nd half of our home study and Friday afternoon is Faith's class party.

Whew! It didn't seem that bad until I just saw it all in writing. I need to do a little shopping sometime in there too. I guess I better get busy today and finish up the crafts I was working on and get my workout in. It's gonna be a long week. (or maybe it will fly by so quickly that it will seem short???)

At least my beans and rice are started for dinner. I'll make the steaks when they get home and we'll eat early. I need to get the dough made for our dinner rolls though so they can rise. They are super easy (and very yummy), so they won't take long.

Ok, time to take a deep breath, make a list and get busy!
I have a lot of photos to put on here later. I wonder when I can fit that in? It looks like Wednesday morning might have a little free time!

Adoption update--home study

2009-12-13T18:33:00.001-06:00

John and I have always talked about adopting since we got married 18 years ago. I actually felt that God was calling me to mission work and to adopt since I was about 11 years old. (That's a pretty long time, because sadly I'm getting old now. lol) This past year we got to meet 2 of the most beautiful little girls in Mexico and started the process to adopt one of them (and prayed God would open the door to bring both home!) This is Carmen. She's "our daughter" in our hearts.

This is Marisol. She's the other little girl we would love to bring home. Isn't she just precious???

Well, we took longer to find a home than we had hoped and then as soon as we got in, John found out that he needed surgery. We put our adoption on hold. We released Carmen so that she could be adopted by someone else and not have to wait for us.

In the meantime, the government in her state changed hands and the whole adoption department kind of went on hold. So, it's still up in the air and we have no idea if or when the girls will be available for adoption.

At the same time, we found out about Mom's cancer. That throws another curve ball into the equation as we do not want to travel for a long time until we know more about what is going on with her.

We finally went ahead and got our home study scheduled. We stalled for quite a while to let John heal and be released from the doctor with a clean bill of health and also to see if we knew any more about the Mexico program.

We had our first home study meeting this Thursday night and will finish it this coming Friday. After that we'll be ready to adopt. The only problem is that now we don't know who, or when, or where from. lol We are praying that God will make it very clear to us and open the doors He would have us to enter.

It makes me sad to think of not getting Carmen (and Marisol???) because we love them so much. I'm really not sure what will happen with that. At the same time, we had a peace about releasing her and waiting for now.

We have also been praying about domestic adoption and have an agency we've been talking to about their special needs program. We plan to send a copy of our home study to them in a few weeks. Who knows, we may hear something from them one day too. (you know what will happen...........they'll call us with a child we match with and then we'll accept and the next day we'll hear about Carmen......)

We really are looking forward to this next step. It will be exciting to see what God does with our willingness. It's kind of weird because all along we "knew" what our goal was and did all of the paperwork, etc. with their beautiful little faces in our mind the whole time. Now we are back to square one and have no idea how this will turn out. We could get a baby, an older child, any type of special need, any country...... I'm really going to spend some time in prayer this week about it and will pray for a very clear leading from God.

Where to begin?

2009-12-13T18:06:00.004-06:00

So many thing have changed for us over the past year. Where do I even begin to go back and catch up on all of the special moments??? I guess I don't and I should just start from here. I'll find a few photos of some special moments and throw them in here and there, but I'll try not to get too hung up on it.

We love being back in the States, although we really do miss our "old life". It's really strange to get back into our native culture for good. It's an easy adjustment, yet once you live in another culture, you're never the same. You're an amazing blend of so many things. I think we're still trying to figure out how to balance the best of all that we love about everywhere we've been and lived.

The kids are in public school now. I really do miss a lot of things about home school. Especially the closeness and family time we enjoyed so much of. Honestly, it's been hard to fit devotionals and Bible reading in with the kids in the morning----and the evening. It seems like the mornings start out rushed (even when we plan well the night before) and the evenings end in exhaustion. :) That's one of my goals for this coming week and for 2nd semester--- really get our mornings off to a better start with a good breakfast and Bible reading and prayer together. We used to always have that. It never fails now, something gets crazy in the morning and then our whole time spirals downward. I figured this first semester would be kind of crazy like that though as we got into a routine. I am DEFINITELY ready to have our routine finalized.

As far as schools go though, we love it. The kids have great teachers and are having a wonderful experience. I could not have asked for better. I really didn't know what to expect this year, but it's been great so far. We surely do stay busy though! (I do miss the relaxed home school days!) And as far as time for me----- what happened to that dream????? It seems I'm busier now than ever. lol

But, life is good and we are so blessed.

New Look

2009-12-13T18:02:00.005-06:00

I figured it's time to change things up a bit on the blog. I have not been blogging during the past few months. I'm ready to get back to it. It was time for a fresh start. Hopefully, I can tweak it a bit over the next few weeks to reflect our "new life" now that we're not on the mission field any more and we are no longer homeschooling. It's kind of sad in a way, but I'm sure I'll adjust soon. (and fill it up with lots of fun junk)

So, for now, we'll just be the monkey family. I do think it fits, actually........

This touched my heart-- trisomy 13 video

2009-11-21T17:32:00.002-06:00

I saw this video today when I was on another site http://idscforlife.wordpress.com/. I'll be really honest, I only made it about 5 seconds with dry eyes.

You see, for me it was very personal--- we also lost a son to Trisomy 13. I've mentioned him before. He is David, my oldest son's twin brother. He only lived about 40 minutes the night they were born.

This video was like "deja-vu". It was almost like watching my own story in some ways. I remember how bittersweet it was to anticipate their birth, yet also dread it because I knew David would die. Honestly, we didn't know if Isaac would even make it (me neither a few times, but that's another story). As I sat there and watched this video, I could completely relate to so many things they said and did. We watched David take big gasps of air in our arms as he was dying, we bathed and dressed him afterwards, and we listened to them sing Jesus Loves Me at the funeral.

The part with the casket really hit home-- we've experienced that too. Hannah died 2 days before she was born. We spent those days making funeral arrangements. I vividly remember going to the store to buy a doll with a cute dress that would fit her as well as picking out an arrangement for her casket. That was rather awkward for the poor lady who had to take our order.

I really thought this video was well done.

The births and deaths of my children were some of the most difficult things we've ever faced, yet some of our biggest blessings, too. I wouldn't change it for anything. God has given us so many opportunities to minister through our experiences.

I will forever be an advocate for pro-life--- no matter what. It makes me so sad to know that so many children are unwanted and aborted just because of birth defects.

We are praying about our adoption process right now. We will probably have to change from our original plan, but we are still trying to get another child with special needs. We have a little girl we're praying about right now. (There's a younger girl in her country I'd love to bring home also. Maybe God will provide the way for us to go get one of them.)

John is doing VERY WELL after his 2nd surgery!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-03T11:44:00.002-06:00

John had his 2nd surgery last week. I am so far behind on blogging. It’s just been a little crazy here. I hope to back up soon and write a little about all of the things we did over the past month. It should be pretty easy--- they mainly dealt with doctor’s offices. lol (swine flu, enlarged lymph nodes, surgery, mom’s cancer, immunizations…….it seemed like almost every day!)

So, back to my story. ha!

John had his “takedown” surgery last Tuesday. That’s where they went in to the stoma site and reconnected the small intestine and took away his illeostomy forever. woohoo! His digestive system is routing through his small intestine again and working well. So far, so good!

I can not believe how well he is doing! My man is a trooper! : ) He had VERY LITTLE pain afterwards and barely took any pain meds. The only day he had much pain was the day he came home and that was because of walking, dressing, riding in a car, etc. Once he got settled, he was fine.

He’s also crazy (ha)--- he went to church Saturday night to do the paint talk presentation at the Fall Festival / Trunk or Treat. Yes, he really did. Did I mention that he was hard headed???? He really did feel fine though. (and he went to church on Sunday morning and to the office a few hours on Monday)

He’s on strict orders by me to stay in bed or the recliner resting today. I told him that if he didn’t, I would lock him in the dog’s kennel. lol

He looks so good and it’s great to see “my husband coming back”. I missed him! He’s feeling better and acting like himself more and more each day. I can’t wait until he’s 100% again.

It will still take a few months to have everything really good and completely normal inside again, but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hmmmmmmm………maybe we don’t want to “see the light”. Ok, so we’re seeing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Does that sound better???

I love you, John! I’m so glad God has healed you! Woohoo!!!

Update on Mom’s cancer diagnosis

2009-11-03T11:31:00.002-06:00

Well, we thought Mom would finally get to start chemo today, but it turns out that they have found some more concerns and need to run more exams.

Yesterday, I went with her to her appointment to get the results from her lung biopsy, MRI, bone scan, kidney ultrasound and everything else they did last week. It wasn’t good.

She now has cancer in her breast, lymph nodes under her left arm and in her chest, lungs, liver, colon, right hip bone and L5 vertebra.

The crazy thing is that the lung biopsy is showing that the cancer in her lung is actually LUNG cancer and not the inflammatory breast cancer that she has also been confirmed to have! So, the doctor sent it in for a few more opinions to make sure. It can happen, but it’s pretty rare to have 2 types of cancer at the same time. That will change treatment, of course, so we need to know for sure what we’re dealing with.

So, she may have the inflammatory breast cancer AND lung cancer. Wow!!! And just think…….in August we never dreamed cancer was in her future!

I am soooooooooo glad that God brought us back to the States to be here for her and my family during this time. What a blessing that has been to us. It amazes me that He orchestrated all of this. We felt that John’s illness wasn’t about us, but that it was something so much bigger. Now we have another piece of the puzzle and see a little more clearly how God is orchestrating our lives.

You know, even in the most difficult circumstances, He is still a Holy God and we can put all of our faith in Him. He can use these circumstances to do amazing things in our life and in the lives of those around us. Trust me on that one. We know from firsthand experience over and over how God uses the most difficult circumstances and makes something so beautiful from them and brings Glory to Himself. Sometimes you may look at your situation and think, “what??? that isn’t the ending I want”….or you think you can’t make it through something. But you just never know how He is using that.

It really is all about faith and obedience. I have learned over and over that I don’t have to understand (or sometimes even like) a difficult situation I may go through, but God can use that for His glory and it is such a blessing when I completely trust Him and allow Him to use me. It still may be hard to go through it (even incredibly difficult!!) but in the end, I always have such peace knowing that I’m not going through it alone and that God will never leave me.

We’ll just leave it in God’s hands and continue to pray for Mom.

*****UPDATE***** 12/16/09
Mom does NOT have cancer in her colon!!! It was a really bad shadow. The GI doctor said that happens all the time on these exams. So, her joke is that her feet and colon are fine but everything else basically has cancer. lol (you gotta have a sense of humor, right???)

my free time ????

2009-10-16T08:37:00.002-05:00

The kids were so concerned about what I would do with all of my free time now that they're in school. Ike said it was the first time in 15 years I would be alone. When they went to school in Brasil, I had school too or tutoring, so never really had good old fashioned free days with no cares in the world. (ok, that was supposed to be a little sarcastic--- like that's how a mom's day is when her kids are in school. lol)

Well, so far, they've been in school 3 weeks and I have only had one day home alone!!!
And that day was GONE fast! Sam cam home asking what I did and if I was lonely. I just looked at him and laughed. I cleaned the house for 3-1/2 hours, then ironed clothes for 1-1/2 hours, then took a shower and drove to the bus stop. Yep, it was a pretty "lonely", sad, boring first day alone. haha I told John that these school days go way too fast! ha

I'm trying to work on projects around here and finishing unpacking since we never did that after we moved in and found out John needed surgery. I may even paint the rooms eventually! For now, it seems there are too many little fires to put out and no time to get started on anything. lol
It's definitely been interesting with kids home sick.

I got a new sewing machine, so I hope to get a little sewing done, too.
And lets not even talk about the years of scrapbooking I need to catch up on. I've decided to just go back and put them in regular albums and scrapbook from the present on--- if I ever get time. : )
Of course, there's the book I still want to write and the Bible studies I'd like to catch up on and ......... I think I could fill my days for a long time!

I've really thought a lot about going back to nursing school. I told Mom that I don't have time to go back to become a nurse because I'm too busy taking care of sick people between John's surgeries and her and the kids and ....... lol

I'm really not complaining though--- this post was all in fun. As moms, we're busy no matter where we work-- in the home or outside.... Whether we home school or if the kids go to school..... It's still just as hard to get to the grocery store and get our errands done and home cleaned sometimes!!!

I'm so glad to be getting everything back into a routine though. And zone cleaning again. Yes!! Look out FlyLady, here I come........... I'm ready to update my control journal with all of our new info-- phone numbers, emergency info, etc.

John's 2nd surgery-- Oct. 27th

2009-10-16T08:28:00.002-05:00

John's 2nd surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27th. It's a short procedure and he will only be in the hospital for a few days this time. But the recovery time will be a little rough as his body gets used to the new system. A few months down the road though, this will be a memory. (that's what they tell us, so we hold on to that .....)

The doctor will take out his temporary ileostomy and close up the site. He will also reconnect his small intestine to function normally. We'll see how it goes. We're praying that it will be withought complication and that he can heal and be back to normal in a few months.

I miss "my man". (In Brasil, you say "my woman" for wife so I like to call him "my man".)
He is doing great, but I do miss "the old John". I can't wait to have him back.

We are officially off of Prednisone too! woohoo!!! He's been off for about a month. That was a long 14 months on a high dosage of Prednisone!!! We don't ever want to do that again. It just makes you feel terrible and he NEVER slept the whole time. 2 hours of broken sleep a night was a great night! Wow!

So, keep praying.........one surgery to go and then it's just healing for good! woohoo!!!

Piggy Flu

2009-10-16T08:23:00.003-05:00

Levi had a confirmed case of "Piggy Flu" (H1N1) as we so lovinly call it. lol

Poor boy--- he went to his first week of public school ever and came home with H1N1 on that Friday!!! Almost his whole class and teacher were out the next week sick. I'm not sure if they were confirmed cases or not, but his definitely was.

Meg got sick too, but they immediately put her on the meds and she was fine. She only had one day of fever and bounced right back.

Now Faith has a very swollen lymph node and they're watching it and giving her antibiotics for it. It's probably just an infection since we've had so much sinus junk around here. I have a sinus infection now too. Yuck. I'll be glad when this all passes. But......I'll take a sinus infection any day. It could definitely be something much worse!!!

The fever tends to come and then leave and then come back worse. Several people around here have said the same thing about their flu symptoms. It takes a while to get over it too. It's definitly a strong illness.

Mom has inflammatory breast cancer

2009-10-16T07:58:00.002-05:00

What a shock it was to learn that Mom has cancer a few weeks ago. She had absolutely ZERO symptoms until August. She discoverd a lump and it got huge really quickly. In only about 5 weeks, it went from nothing to about 5-inches that you can see from the outside!!! She has been going through a lot of exams and the doctors will be starting treatment in about a week and a half-- which seems like a lifetime to us now that we're waiting. : )

She has inflammatory breast cancer. It's a rare type--only about 1% - 3% of breast cancers. It is also very aggressive and "starts" at stage 3 at least and often stage 4. That's becasue it doesn't really show up usually until it's already big and has spread to other places. (This, of course, if my paraphrase version-- plesase read professional medical information about it if you need more info on IBC.)

The plan is for her to do 6 months of chemo, then a mastectomy, then radiation for about 6 weeks. It will be about a year of treatment by the time you wait a month before and after surgery, etc. It's also the tentative plan. When they get some more tests back this week and know more about if it has spread anywhere else, then they may be changing the plan.

She is very pleased with the doctors she has and feels confortable with them. But of course, she is really dreading this and is still quite shocked that she even has cancer! We are all very surprised. We just had her birthday party at our new house in August and had no idea.

I have to call my own breast surgeon this week and get another appointment scheduled for a follow-up/check-up. In 2007, I had a golf-ball sized lump removed right before we left the States to go back to the mission field after our "furlough". It was benign, fortunately, but I have to be followed yearly. I've been waiting until we were settled to go back, so now it's time.

The bad thing about inflammatory is that it doesn't always show up on mammograms. I know I'm at high risk now and even her oncologist yesterday told her to tell her daughter to go get checked and stay on top of it. I will definitely do that!

I am so glad we're back in the States and able to be here for her. Dad has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He's doing great now, but while we were in Brasil as missionaries, he almost died several times. I was not allowed to come back to visit or help. What a blessing it is to be here for the family now!!!

You know, it's interesting......... when John got sick and we realized we would have to come back we had a lot of talks about this. We both felt that there was a reason for his illness, yet didn't really feel that it was "for us". We both felt we were going through this for another reason and that we were going back to the States for someone else. We thought it might be Dad. It turns out that my brother needed us here this summer, but now Mom and Dad really do as they face her cancer. You just never know how God will use difficulties in your life. Even though they may be horrible and terribly difficult, they are always part of a bigger picture. We can thank God for allowing us to come back for John's illness because it allowed us to be here when our family will truly need us the most. Isn't God good????

It just amazes us the way He orchestrated it all. John has a wonderful job that he loves and we could not have asked for a better church to serve at. It's right by our family and that is an added bonus now that they are going to need help and support. Wow! Amazing!!!

Mom would appreciate prayer for her as she is facing treatment over the next year. It's going to be a rough road, but we'll get through it together.

Major changes in our family

2009-10-16T07:32:00.003-05:00

I've sat down to write this post about 100 times, but kept waiting until I had more details. I'll go ahead and write what I know for now and can fill in more as the days go by.

First of all, we put the kids in public school a few weeks ago. I'm sure that's probably a major shock to many and may seem kind of sudden. It's really not. We talked about this a lot over the past year when John was sick and we travelled back and forth so much for his medical treatment in the city. (We were living 5 hours away from a city in the middle of the mountains in Mexico.) When we came back to the States, we discussed it, yet love home schooling, so started that again this year.

John ended up finding out on August 28th that he would be having surgery to remove his entire colon 4 days later, Sept. 1st! So much for starting school that week as we had planned. Then he came home and it was chaos--- dr. appointments, visiting nurses, caring for him, etc. -- all while trying to get our school work done. It finally settled and we did get going, but trust me, it was so "weird" feeling. We just couldn't get a good routine down and all sorts of things. I knew John would be going back for another surgery around the first of November and it would be crazy again. There were many other factors that played into this and I won't go into them all right now, but the chaos was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. : )

I told John that I really felt that we needed to put them in school right now. Because of the travel last year and our move mid-year, and the inconsistency that resulted (we had an amazing start and then it just got so messed up by transition), I saw some things I really wanted to hit hard this year but knew it was going to be impossible since it looked like we were having a repeat of last year. I knew the kids needed more discipline in their work and deadlines and more writing assignments and ..... you get the idea. It's hard to explain, but I just knew that would not happen here until at least 2nd semester. And by then it would be 1-1/2 school years of transition and would be hard to get going again. I was being pulled in several directions and it wasn't really fair to them or to me.

And then there was just "something" that made me feel that we needed to put them in now. I couldn't pinpoint it, but just felt like the timing was now. Well, we took the kids out to the school and got them enrolled and started and then 2 days later found out that my mom has a really aggressive form of breast cancer. (I'll post on that after this post.) I am so thankful that we did put the kids in school. I am freed up a bit (haha--- more on that later, too!) and can help her without feeling guilty for all of the things hanging over my head that I know I need to do but am not doing any of them well. (I'm sure you've been there before!)

So, I really feel good about having them in school right now. I know we were supposed to for this season in life. Now, that's not to say that it doesn't make me a little sad and that I feel that they will get the "best" education there. But, for now, I think they are supposed to be there. Meg is a little bored because she is way ahead of the game in 1st grade, but overall she likes it. The others love going. I have already seen the discipline coming back into their studies and really feel that they needed this as much as I did right now.

We love home schooling and have fabulous material. As a matter of fact, they ask to do some of it at home still. But transition can take its toll and sometimes we just have to look at the season of life we're in and make radical adjustments accordingly. We've always taken it one year at a time and tried to follow God's leading. I don't feel guilty at all and it actually feels like a burden has been lifted. Not that "school" was a burden, but we moved in, had surgery, tried to start school.......all of this in just a month's time--on top of the crazy last year of non-stop transition. It was getting crazy and I knew it would be that way until at least the end of the year. Now when they come home at night, I can focus on them and do homework with them (yes, kind of feels like we're still home schooling with the amount of homework--lol) but I don't feel bad about them not getting the attention or lessons that they need.

On top of that, we were given fabulous teachers!!! Several of them are christians and they have been so wonderful to us. That really helped ease my mind a lot.

The high school gave Ike credit for everything and even put him in honors classes. None of our kids had to be tested--- they looked at their work and trusted us on their levels and put them where we said they were. The kids are doing well at grade level, so it's good. ( I will admit though--- I had the most stressful weekend of my LIFE when I was pulling together records and transcripts and samples of work. I don't want to relive that one!!! )

Waiting to leave for SGK event

2009-09-19T15:36:00.001-05:00

The girls all rode the bus together to the Secret Keeper Girls Tour. The moms carpooled. Faith was excited to get to ride in the church's people mover with the other girls.

Before we left, they met in the cafe at church and had a little ice breaker activity. They had to sign each other's sheet. Each girl was also instructed to make a card for her mom with the material they were given (paper, stickers, envelope, etc.) Faith made a card for me and gave it to me this morning. When I opened it up she had 2 coupons in it for a free small shake and a Route 44 drink from Sonic. woohoo! She was all smiley about giving it to me. It was a really cute idea and I think she really liked being able to give me a gift.

I love my princess Faith!!!! She's such a wonderful daughter!

Mom and Daughter night

2009-09-19T15:26:00.002-05:00

Faith and I had a great time last night. We went to the Secret Keeper Girls event held in a nearby church. We had about 40 from our church go. It was geared for girls ages 8-12. Kind of those "tween" years. The girls loved it! It's all about modesty, purity,true beauty (inner beauty) and friendships. It was wonderful.

I bought a Bible Study for Faith called My Best Friend Jesus. It's about Meditation on God's Truth about True Friendship.

I also bought a book/kit called Secret Keeper Girl 8 Great Dates for you and Your Daughter. (A Secret Keeper Girl Has The Power of True Beauty and Modesty) It looks great. The idea is to have 8 "dates" with your daughter. There is info for mom to read and a journal for the daughters to keep. There's also info to discuss together and really fun activities. Faith is soooooooooo excited about it. One activity is getting a facial or manicure. Another is getting a new haircut or up-do. Woohoo! You know she's ALL for that!

The material looks fabulous and I think we're going to have a lot of fun together. Our first date will be to a tearoom for a tea party together. I can't wait! The kit came with a CD. It has music (by Rebecca St. James) and a stories for you to listen to on your way to and from the "dates". It's about 7-10 minutes each time. There is also Diary Girl Gab (about 15-25 minutes) to get you talking and discussing all kinds of neat topics that your daughter has put in her diary/journal based on the questions and prompts in it. Then of course there's the Challenge--- what you do at your special destination. (facials, tea parties, shopping, camp outs, bake goodies for neighbors, etc.)

They have another set with 8 dates but the topic of that material is on friendships. It is also very good. I'm going to get that one next. I really think we're going to like this time together and digging into God's word. It's a lot of fun now that Faith is getting old enough to do things with and have meaningful conversations.

I bought her a new dress and shoes to wear for our special night last night. I got a new blouse for myself too. She was really excited about it. Here's a photo we took on our way out the door for our first ever Mom and Faith night. I hope there are many more to come throughout the years!!!

Our adoption is on hold

2009-09-15T23:47:00.001-05:00

I have not had the heart to update this blog or Carmen's blog with the latest news, but I know I must.

We have put our adoption on hold. We felt we needed to release her to be available for another family to adopt because we will not be able to travel to go get her until at least after the first of the year some time. We really hated to do that, yet felt it was only fair to her while we are letting John heal from the surgeries. In a few months he will be great and we can pick right back up and go get the child (or children) God has chosen for us.

If Carmen is still available, we will pray about going to get her. We do love her very much and it was a very hard decision to make, yet we felt a peace once we released her and know that we did the right thing. She is a wonderful little girl. We would love to be her mommy and daddy, but most of all we just want her to have a family--- even if it's not ours.

Reece's Rainbow will begin the annual Angel Tree fundraiser the first of November. It is an amazing time to make a donation to the children listed on their site throughout the world with Down syndrome. For 2 months (Nov and Dec) you can see everyone's photo and watch their individual grant amounts increase daily. Last year I had the privilege of signing up for an hour of prayer for the kickoff. What a neat time that was. We sponsored 2 children last year. They are both HOME now with their new families! Wow! We celebrated when we heard someone had committed to them and it brought tears of joy to my eyes to see their first photos with their new families once they were able to travel and adopt them. For a $35 donation, you get a Christmas ornament with the picture of the child you are sponsoring on it. I can't wait to put ours on the tree this year. I'm really looking forward to it this year. A lot of children got families last year because of the Angel Tree. The grant $$ donations really help to offset the cost of adoption. It's expensive, but when God calls you to do it, how can you say "no"???

Anyway, why did I mention that???? Well, Carmen will be featured on there (as "Cara") and there just may be a family who will commit to her. It's hard to see her little photo listed again. We're praying God will send her a family if it is not us. Marisol, too. We were (are) praying about bringing them both home.

It's kind of surreal now. We put the home study on hold too. We had everything ready except for that and were planning to schedule it and then we found out John needed surgery. John and I have been talking about it though and we're ready to go ahead and do our home study. We want to be "paper ready" for any opportunity God may put before us. We really look forward to seeing how and when God will bring another child into our family.

One more......... Corinna

2009-09-15T23:25:00.001-05:00

I know I've put 3 children on here in a row, but these girls really tug at my heart. Would you also pray for Corinna? She is precious!!! It breaks my heart to know she has already been sent to a mental institution and spends her day in bed wasting away. How sad. I hope God will send someone to save her soon!

Here is her info from the older girls page of Reece's Rainbow.

, Born January 12, 2003

Corinna is a beautiful little girl who has spent the last 2 years of her life in a mental institution. She has SO much potential, and is close to walking, but spends much of her days lying in bed for lack of anything else to do. She was sent to this facility from another baby house we work in now, so it is imperative that she be saved!

She does have some strabismus, but no heart condition. She is able to stand on her own, but is not walking quite yet. She is very much a baby, even at 6 years of age. She is only 21 pounds at this time :( But she will really blossom in the care of a loving family, and has every reason to be able to walk and run and really thrive. There will be very little left of this "shell" once she gets home into her new life! She has tremendous potential, and could be another amazing success story!

The orphanage staff tell us she does like to play with toys, is interactive and affectionate, and has "potential to improve".

Praying for Anna

2009-09-15T23:14:00.001-05:00

This is Anna.

Last October, we signed up and committed to be prayer warriors for a child on the Reece's Rainbow site. She is the little girl we were given. We will be prayer warriors for her until she has a family and is home. She lives in Eastern Europe and is already 5 years old. She'll be 6 next May. She is very blessed to still be at the baby house. The children are transferred to the institutions once they turn 4 normally. From there it's a very sad life. They often don't live past the first year and it's a very difficult life for them. Since she is past 4, she could be transferred any day. It seems God has a different plan for her so far. We pray He will send her a family soon!!!

Faith was very concerned about her tonight and asked me what would happen to her if no one went to go get her. I told her the truth. I heard a few sniffles as she fell asleep. She loves this little girl and has prayed for her for a year now.

Would you pray with us for God to send a family to Anna and bring her home?

She has $1,409 in her grant fund already. That is money that will go towards her adoption once a family commits to her. Once she is 6 though, it will go into the general fund for "older girls". (Isn't it sad to be an "older girl" at only 6???) Let's pray she will get a family BEFORE she turns 6. You can read about her here. She has Down syndrome and is very high functioning.

Isn't she adorable!!!

Birthday present for Masha

2009-09-14T08:00:00.005-05:00

This is Masha. She lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Isn't she beautiful? I just love this little girl. Ever since I first saw her a year ago, she has captured my heart. She is turning 6 on Saturday. I'm praying she will get a family this year for her birthday. I am donating money to her adoption grant fund in honor of her birthday. Would you want to donate to help her find a family also? What a great birthday present that would be! Here is her info from Reece's Rainbow and the link:
http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/angelolderchild.html

Masha
Girl, Born September 19, 2003

Treacher Collins Syndrome

This beautiful little girl is in need of a loving family and a promising chance at life! She has brown hair and giant blue yes! Masha was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. http://children.webmd.com/treacher-collins-syndrome-10671 She is a very smart, happy, and social little girl. She does have some hearing loss, which is a common symptom of this syndrome. however she is not living in an orphanage specifically for deaf children.

Please check back soon for further info on her medical condition and her DOB.

Please contact Andrea directly for more information

I have $10 in my grant fund towards the cost of my adoption!

John's doing well

2009-09-11T08:35:00.001-05:00

John is doing very well. He's really sore, but that is to be expected. Of course, falling the other night didn't help! His leg gave out on him when he stood up Monday night around midnight. He hit the ground hard. I was afraid I would see broken bones or open incision sites, but God was good. He's just sore from it. It was the same leg that was numb after surgery. It has been fine and then all of a sudden it just went numb when he stood up. He does have feeling and use in it, but it's not 100% feeling like before surgery. It will probably be back to normal with time.

Only 2 more weeks of Prednisone and then we're done with it for good! woohoo!!! yippee!!!! I told John we'll have a party to celebrate. I think his face is already starting to go down a little from all of the swelling since they've cut it back so much already. He had to wean off of it for a few weeks since he was still on a pretty significant dosage.

Snake skin

2009-09-11T08:23:00.001-05:00

The neighbor found this in his yard. I think it was in the area where the trees are between our houses. Hmmmmm..........I guess the good news is that we might not have any mice problems with this thing out there somewhere. The bad news................well, that's kind of obvious.................. lol

John came home---- barely

2009-09-07T09:20:00.004-05:00

Well, he's in our room sleeping, but it almost didn't happen!

Saturday morning I went to the hospital around 8:30 a.m. so I could hear the doctor's instructions. He was going to take the drain out and send him home that morning. Instead, when I got there, John was knocked out on nausea medicine. He got very sick Friday evening and was vomiting and very nauseated. They're not sure what happened. So, they said he was not going home and was having an x-ray instead to look for blockages or anything wrong with his abdomen. He was in intense pain. I think it was probably from eating again, putting him on oral pain meds, and getting up and moving around, mixed with the reality of "finally" feeling the pain for real with the morphine drip and pump gone.

It was a long day. I didn't take anything to do with me that day because I thought we were leaving. So, I sat and watched him sleep and took care of him for 10-1/2 hours. I tried to leave several times, but he kept asking me to stay so he would have a "voice". (I did everything for him and made sure they took care of things when he needed them. Otherwise he would sit and wait a long time.)

I figured it would be Monday or Tuesday before he went home. His back was killing him because of the hospital bed though and his skin was getting a rash from not moving much, so we were both looking forward to getting him out of the hospital.

Yesterday, Sunday, I went up prepared---- I had my bag of goodies (magazine, book, Bible study, notebook, etc.) and his computer. I was thrilled to see him. He looked much better. Still weak and not as strong as he was on Friday, but 100% better than when I left him Saturday!!! He was sitting up and talking and coherent. (He was back on morpine, too.)

I checked his rash, took care of that, shaved his face, helped him brush his teeth and before we knew it, the surgeon came in. He asked if he wanted out of there. Of course John said yes, thinking it was for another day. He ended up sending in the physician assistant to take out the drain and got the paperwork done for him to go home that day! wow! I was very surprised. So were the nurses!

I had my doubts if it would happen as I tried to help him dress and get out of bed. I think his motto was "fake it 'til you make it" as he tried to move. He was in a LOT of pain. The ostomy care nurse came in and worked with us again and we were ready to go. He did great on the ride home and when we got to the house it seemed like a really long walk to the front door.

He sat in the recliner for several hours. He was so glad to have something comfy and not the hospital bed. I got him settled, then had to leave to go pick up his pain medicine from the pharmacy and a few supplies we would need to care for him here, as well as all of the stuff we were out of from the store. I was a little worried because I was gone a long time.

When I got home he was just getting up and was definitely ready for the pain medicine. I helped him get a shower and into fresh clothes and he went to bed. I was exhausted. He slept very well. We'll have to get up through the night about once from now on, but it's better than all night like we were up before! : )

The dogs are a little stressed. They know something is wrong. I was gone all week, John was gone, Grandma was here, they were in their kennel a lot and when I got home wtih John I did not even play with them or pet them. I was so busy with him and I had them put into their kennel. So, they barked and howled all night. aghhhhhhhhhh! They're better this morning, but I think they're a little depressed. They'll be ok in a day or two.

It feels so good to be home! I have a huge list of things to do around here. Now I can get busy. I think John will actually rest here. He didn't at the hospital. Our bed and chairs are comfortable, he can shower, have a quiet room, get up when he feels like it, etc. It's wonderful to have him home! The kids are really happy.

update on John

2009-09-04T08:01:00.002-05:00

John had a great day yesterday!!!

The doctor took him off of the morphine pump and put him on oral pain meds. He also allowed him to switch to a regular diet by dinner last night. We'll see how he does today after a few meals. He was very glad. The poor man was so hungry --- and that broth, soup and jello just wasn't cutting it. lol

PT came in and showed him a couple of things to do to strenghten the quadricep and he walked the halls twice. He did great. The right leg is still a little weak, but much better and he can use it. I think PT is going to work on stairs with him today.

I think he's still on target to go home this weekend. Today will probably be the crucial day--- how does he tolerate food, how does he tolerate the oral pain meds, how does he do walking and getting out of bed, etc. Hopefully he'll be home in the next couple of days. I know the kids are ready to see him! I may take Ike with me today. The others are too young to go.

Thanks for the prayer!

I'm trying to find a baby monitor to borrow for a couple of weeks. When we're downstairs doing school work, we won't be able to hear him up here if he needs us (maybe that's a good thing?!?!).
I thought it would be helpful to put it in the room he's in and then we can hear him if he calls.

His color looks great and he is doing remarkably well. I'm amazed.

1st day after surgery

2009-09-03T07:51:00.002-05:00

John had a rough morning and early afternoon yesterday.
When I arrived in the morning, he was sitting in his chair----- and had been for over 2 hours. He was beyond ready to get back in bed. As I got to his floor, the surgeon saw me and said he was looking for me. John was very nauseated and light headed so they were adjusting his meds some. (I think some of it had to do with the 2 hours in the chair. lol) He also could not use his right leg. When they tried to get him up, he couldn't feel the leg and it gave out on him. That's why he was sitting so long while they tried to figure out what was going on and get other doctors involved, etc.

The called in a neurologist and ordered a cat scan. The surgeon says the nerve wasn't cut, but he thinks it was badly bruised and stretched from moving it during surgery. PT came in to get a baseline to assess the function in that leg. He could feel it from the knee down, but the quadricep area was numb. He couldn't lift it, adduct or abduct it. They wanted a cat scan to make sure it wasn't a blood clot or something.

So, the poor guy had to sit in that chair a long time, then they finally got him back in bed and radiology showed up to take him down for the scan. Once he got back, PT came in. Then the ostomy nurse to work with us, then the regular nurse to do some more stuff, then.............. you get the idea.

He was exhausted and in a lot of discomfort.
By evening he felt much better and was able to rest.
He also had feeling back in the leg by about 4:30 or 5. The neurologist came in and checked it shortly after that. It still wasn't 100% but it was a huge improvement over that morning. Hopefully today it will be even better.

I'll head up there in a little while and hope to hear a good report. His roommate left in the afternoon, so he got a quiet room for the evening. That helped a lot. Today he should have a new roommate. It's a very busy surgical floor.

His color looks great and he is doing amazingly well. I thought he would really be in a lot more pain yesterday. He is in pain, but I guess I just expected a horrible first day out. They want to get him up some, but couldn't with his leg. I guess he'll be walking today if he has full function.

Before I left, he was able to talk to the kids on the phone and even checked his email on his phone. The kids were really glad to hear from him and it made them feel much more secure about daddy getting well.

John's surgery went very well

2009-09-02T06:26:00.003-05:00

I'm very happy to report that John's surgery went very well. The surgeon was able to do the ileostomy part of the surgery with a laparascopic procedure. That means less pain for him and a quicker healing time. Possible less infection, too. Of course, having said "less pain" it doesn't mean no pain. And John is in a LOT of pain. Poor guy!!!

I'm sure today will be a very rough day at the hospital.
He'll finally be awake and a little more conscious of what's going on.
He did not even get out of recovery and into a room until 5:45 last night. I got to see him at 6.
He was still pretty out of it and thrashing a bit on the pillow when he felt the pain. It didn't help that he had a loud roommate with a lot of visitors and the tv blaring. (aggggggghhhh!)
It kept waking him up and it was annoying him. I don't blame him. He just wanted quiet and rest.

I only stayed until 7:45. I am heading back up this morning. I figured he needed the rest and if he saw me he would try to talk to me.

The nurses specializing in ostomy care will be coming in today to begin our education and get us ready for when we go home. He will also have home health at first. (yeah) There's nothing like going home and knowing you're "on your own" that first time or two. It will be nice to have someone checking the site for infection for us and overseeing us as we change everything to make sure we're doing it correctly.

Well, off to get ready................
Thank you for the prayer!!!

The doctor was very pleased with how it went.
It's cute--- I told John, "You did great!" "The doctor said you did very well."
John's answer: "Thank you, but I don't really remember it." (like he did some great and noble thing for someone and he didn't remember what he did. I laughed at that one.)

more updates tonight

Surgery today

2009-09-01T05:36:00.004-05:00

It's been a whirlwind since Friday, so I didn't have time to update our blog yet.
John is having surgery today!!! Yes, you read that right. It surprised us too! We just found out on Friday. We didn't even know there was a surgical option until about a week ago.

Let me back up............
John can't take most of the meds for Ulcerative Colitis bc of a sulfa drug allergy. So, he's been on Prednisone for about 14 months. (!!!!) He went on a new medicine that was supposed to replace the Prednisone, but they had to overlap for about 2 months until the new one would kick in. Well, after about 3 months, it still never kicked in and he had a bad flare-up. There's no way he should be having flareups on that much medicine. So, they sent off some blood work to the Mayo clinic about 2 weeks ago. It came back and showed that the medicine was NOT working at all for him and any more would be toxic.

The doctor mentioned that there was one more medicine they could try or he could talk to a surgeon and see what his options were there, if he was a candidate, etc. John did not want to deal with anymore meds and live on them for life.

We got in with the surgeon on Friday and they have the surgery scheduled for just 4 days later!!! Today!! Can you believe it? Wow! I guess it's better that way. Just do it and get it over wtih.

It is major surgery and we could use prayer. The biggest concern is infection. Especially since he's been on steroids for so long. (They suppress the immunity.)

The doctor will be removing his entire colon and creating a J-pouch out of the lower part of his small intestine to hook back up to the lrectal muscles to replace the colon. Then they will give him a temporary ileostomy to use while that heals. (external bag) He'll have the ileostomy for about 8 weeks. After it heals, they will go back in and reconnect everything to run through the small intestine normally and will close off the ileostomy site. Today's surgery is about 4 hours long and the 2nd one is only about 40 minutes.

The good news is that this is a CURE for Ulcerative Colitis and once it's healed he can do anything physical he wants to do with no concerns. He'll be like the old John again. lol He can play sports all he wants. I can't wait! The kids are really excited to have their daddy back too. Faith is taking it pretty hard and was emotional last night about him leaving for the hospital. She was also concerned if he would be able to do things with her again. It's really taken a toll on them, I think. They've been troopers and haven't said much, but now that they know it might be back to normal, I think it's kind of overwhelming to realize how different it's been for the past 14 months. They love him so much and are so used to him playing with them and just having fun together all the time. It hasn't been so fun for a while. : )

We're getting ready to leave for the hospital in about an hour, but I wanted to update the blog.
If you think of us, we would appreciate prayer for no infection and a smooth surgery and recovery.

I'll keep you posted.......

living room and laundry

2009-08-29T08:47:00.001-05:00

more photos

2009-08-29T08:42:00.001-05:00

We love the space--- even when we have to mow it!

This is Meg's favorite thing! All she wanted was a home with a swing set. She is very happy.

a few bedrooms and another bathroom

2009-08-29T08:35:00.001-05:00

kitchen

2009-08-29T08:28:00.001-05:00

I love the cabinets and counter space in our kitchen! So does Sam. He likes to cook like me. I think we will love baking Christmas cookies here this year!

our home #2

2009-08-29T08:22:00.001-05:00

We still need to paint, but we'll get to that this winter. We were ready to just move in and get settled. We figured we had plenty of time to figure out what we wanted to do with colors. These are my school room.

this is the supply cart. I can roll it out of the way to use the white boards behind it. I will hang the lower one for my youngest daughter to reach it.

The bookshelf straight ahead is used for our current materials. We will definitely fill it up. I also have a bookshelf I'm using for scrapbook supplies. The kids love to sit at the table and do crafts, make cards, color, do puzzles, sew or whatever else they can think of. I wasn't sure how it would work in the room, but it's been the perfect addition!

Our home #1

2009-08-29T08:11:00.001-05:00

I thought I would put a few pictures of our home on here. What a blessing it has been. It's so good to feel settled and feel like we're finally "home". This has been a wild year of transition. Several years, actually. (I'll post several times with various pictures.)

Life is starting to feel normal

2009-08-11T17:44:00.005-05:00

It feels soooooo good to have a home again and to get our life kind of settled down. (Don't come look in my garage at the boxes or suitcases piled in there--- I'll get into those later this week.)

I've enjoyed a few days of nothing house related. It has been nice to just make meals and do normal day-to-day things. (That meant 3 hours of grocery shopping and running errands Monday and 3 hours sitting in a doctor's office yesterday.)

I love to plan out my meals in advance and have them listed on the refrigerator. I have missed cooking and having a normal meal time. We ate enough sandwhiches over the past few weeks that the kids have requested no more for a while. :)

Last night I made them a chicken casserole, homemade bread, tossed salad with mandarin oranges, bacon and almond in it with homemade poppy seed dressing and a chocolate pie for dessert. They liked it. It smelled great! Faith tried the dressing and said she wants to try it on hamburgers. (I think I agree!)

It's actually feeling like home and we may even have a routine going soon. : ) I'm definitely ready for that. For today........I think it's back to boxes.

Our home

2009-08-05T08:26:00.004-05:00

I don't have any photos yet, but I wanted to give a little update on the home God provided for us. it was a long process (!!!) and we actually tried to get several other homes, but something weird always happened. (back taxes owed by owners or something that would take a really long time and make it difficult to buy it) In the end, we ended up with the perfect home for our family.

It amazes me to think that we "own" a home again. Well, I guess technically the bank does for quite a few years.......lol. We sold our home 9 years ago to go to seminary and then on to the mission field. I never dreamed we would one day be back and have a home of our own again. I guess it's a little bittersweet too, because the reality is that we're no longer on the field. We have a "new field" now and it's here in the States.

God gave us the perfect home. We have 5 children and one on the way (through adoption). You know how it is when you're looking---- you have your dream list of what you'd like a home to have and then the reality list. Well, this home hit pretty much everything on my dream list.

It's an older home with a central hallway floorplan, so it doesn't have a huge greatroom or walk-in closets or bathrooms with big soaker tubs or whirlpools...........but........
It is a 24 year old house that has been completely remodeled inside and out in the past 2-1/2 years. It has 5 bedrooms (!!!), 3-1/2 baths, a 2-car oversized garage, lots of storage, a finished basement, almost 2 acres of flat land that is cleared off and perfect for the kids, an above ground pool, a playset and partially fenced yard around that and the pool, and tons of room for parking. The kids love it! The street is a dead end and they can ride bikes or scooters outside safely.

The bedrooms are all "official" bedrooms because the 2 downstairs have windows and closets in them. The kitchen is beautiful and very modern. I have 14 drawers and 21 cabinets in the kitchen and counterspace on all 4 sides. Sam and I love to cook, so even he said that he wanted a kitchen with room to cook in it. He got his wish! I have a double oven too. woohoo!

There is plenty of room for our family to grow here. I imagine we will have lots of kids hanging out here over the years. We already had 2 parties and have tested it out. lol It's perfect for sleepovers!

Now that we have our home, we can finish our adoption home study and the last few things on our checklist. I wonder if Carmen will remember us? Speaking of "my girls"..... Marisol's family had to back out of her adoption process. She is so precious. I wish..........

It brought tears to my eyes when we actually got this house. I figured we would buy a fixer-upper and then take years to make it comfy. God is so good. He provided above and beyond anything I ever dreamed we would find.

Our church has been so wonderful. They even showered us with gifts. That was an embarrassing story all in itself, but it was a true blessing. (The people who organized it asked me to go register--- well, kind of more like, "it's in the bulletin that you're registered at these places". If you know me, that is so "un-me".) God has provided over and over the many needs we have had as we moved.

We did not bring our beds or living room furniture or anything like that back. It has been so neat to see how God has pieced that together for us. He has provided every single thing we need. Even the week we were moving, I was short one twin bed still. I had bought one for Meg from someone, but I knew I would have to replace the mattress eventually. The people we were buying the home from called our agent asking if we would be interested in 2 twin beds and a refrigerator they had in the basement. She asked how much and they said they just wanted to give them to us! When we got here, I wanted to cry. The mattresses and boxsprings were like new! I doubt their children used them long at all. And a 2nd refrigerator was not a true NEED, but definitely on my wishlist for down the road. It helps with a large family. I can keep extra milk and such around. yeah! God never ceases to amaze me.

There's more to the story but I won't bore you with it right now. Let's just say that over and over again, God continues to provide exactly what we NEED, exactly when we need it.

Now I'm praying for our adoption process. It's been kind of on the back burner during the housing hunt/delay. Now it's "real". We have to put down all of the money and make the major leap of faith and committment. I am praying for clarity and wisdom in our decisions so that we DO NOT DO anything that is NOT led by God. Would you pray for us in this process? It will be a small miracle to bring our princess home. It's been one of those things "in the future..." or "one day...." but now that day has come. We need to hurry with the process now to get her home this fall. The process is long for international adoptions and there is a lot of red tape. I'll give an update on that later.

Well, off to clean my new house.
(I guess the fun has to wear off sometime, right?)

I'm back!!!

2009-08-03T09:35:00.003-05:00

We are FINALLY back online and in a home! woohoo!!!
I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.

I will post later today about how God blessed us with a wonderful home and how He has continued to provide over and over again for all of our needs.

The kids love it here. So do the dogs. We even got a new kitten. Ike named him "Andy". I'm not sure why. So, Andy is a big hit. Even the dogs think he's pretty cool. Of course, it took Nessy a few days to realize he's not a rabbit and for her to stop shaking from excitement because she wanted to chase him soooooooo badly! She chewed on his head a few times and nipped at him all over. After about 3 days, Andy played with her when she did that. They get along great now.

I am crazy with boxes right now. Yuck Yuck Yuck!!!
I hope to be finished this week. I wonderf if some of the things in the garage will ever get unpacked. Have you ever wanted to just leave it in the box and haul it off without looking at what's inside? lol

I love our new home and can't wait to see how God will use it for ministry opportunities.

more later...........

Still no house

2009-05-11T18:15:00.002-05:00

We're back in the States and it has been wild. I don't have internet access where I live and then my laptop's screen went out last week, so it's been hard to get online. I finally had a chance today to use John's computer where I had access.

So........... on to the update...........

I could begin with a ton of my embarrassing moments stories, but I'll save them for later.
Actually, I need to go get the kids fed, so I think I'm going to make it a super short update and not tell any of the great things we've done yet.

We still do not have a home. We do have a home under contract, but we're waiting to hear back on it. It's a home in foreclosure, so the bank takes a while to let you know if they accept your offer, etc. We should be hearing really soon.

In the meantime, we're continuing to look at other options just in case.
I'm SO ready to get into something!!! I'm ready to feel settled.

School.........hmmm. That's been interesting. We've done our best, but it's definitely not the ideal. We did get a study in about Michelangelo and Renoir, as well as finish our unit on the Oregon Trail/pioneer time frame. That was intersting. Today we started an introductory unit on Shakespeare for all of the crew and then Ike and I will be studying his plays one by one indepth. It's pretty interesting so far.

We even read some great books about interesting "famous" American people-- such as Kellog (as in the cereal), Levi Strauss and others. I'm looking forward to digging deeper with more biographies now that we're back in the States and have the libraries! woohoo!

The kids have had fun at an indoor waterpark for a birthday party and of course their favorite thing of all is going to the library. Did I mention how much we missed that for 6 years??????? I think I could drop them off there in the morning and they'd stay all day and never get bored.

We've been gathering documents for the adoption and it's looking really good. We should be starting our home study any time now. We took a bunch of paperwork out to the adoption agency today for that. Now we just need the home! haha! keep praying..............

the kids are hungry and asking me to come home. I guess I'll have to finish the update later.

We're moving back to the USA

2009-03-22T10:46:00.002-06:00

Well, I can finally tell the news.
We're moving back to the States next week.

After much prayer and waiting 8 months for God to give us a clear direction, we feel that we are being called back to the States. It has been a long, difficult year of uncertainty and change. John is doing much better, but if we were to stay here, he would have to live on medicine because of all of the parasites and other things. And he would not be able to go out and do the village work as we were supposed to do.

John has accepted a call to come as Minister of Evangelism and Missions at a church in my hometown. We actully did our stateside assignment there 2 years ago and love the people dearly. They have a wonderful pastor and youth minister and John is really looking forward to serving with them.

It's such a bittersweet week for us. We are thrilled to be going back and are very excited about our new ministry there, yet at the same time, we are so sad to be leaving the mission field. That's kind of all our children know. They've been to the States, yet they're MKs at heart. We love living on the mission field and will really miss our friends and the culture. Plus, it saddens us to know that our neighbors are still not Christians.

I have been packing this week and the movers will come one day this week to crate it all up and send it on to the States. It's not a typical move where you put it all in a box and take it from one house to another. We have to pick and choose what we are taking and get "X" amount of space to fit it into. We won't really know what will fit and what we can take until they are here crating it. So, we've had to go through every little thing in the house to kind of pre-sort and pre-pack as much as we can. Missionary moves are interesting..........you fill every tiny little crack with something to maximize your space. So, when you receive it on the other end, it's not really the most logical assortment of things in each box. : ) We are thrilled to get to take anything at all though. We thought we might have to leave it all behind. If so, it would be ok, but I felt so sad to think of it because we have little sentimental things from each country and it's all we have left of our "former life". What a blessing it is to take some of it with us!

Yesterday, I was teary-eyed for most of the day. Listening to the girls outside playing with their friends and seeing their friends look funny when they realized we were packing inside the house. It seems the missy life is one of constant change and goodbyes. You kind of get used to it, but it's still hard. There are so many "perks" though too---- we have friends literally all over the world and have been blessed so much by our relationships and experiences as we have lived in 4 different countries. How many kids can say that, right?

The exciting thing is that we'll still be "doing missions". And John will be doing exactly what he is gifted in. God has truly blessed us with this opportunity and we are very excited about the possibilities. And who's to say we won't have more of an impact this way than if it were just our family of 7 on the field? : )

Right now we're praying about the pets. We thought we would be flying Continental and it was not going to work out to bring our dogs. The kids were devestated. (me too) But, now we're flying Delta and it looks like it should work. We'd like to bring the cat, but we'll have to see what the regulations are. The kids really want to bring her. She really is a sweet, good little cat. (and a great mouser, obviously!) John and Isaac may have to drive from Atlanta with them. I'll fly home with the rest of the kids. We'll know for sure tomorrow what we're doing.

Isaac is excited because we're flying home on his birthday. Sam's is the next day. What a present, right? They get to go home and see Grandma and Grandpa!

So, in a few months we should be nice and settled. This has definitely been our wildest year yet.
None of this was planned or expected. We never dreamed we would leave the field before retirement. But God has other plans and His are always best, so we'll go with them. : )

We're looking for a home to buy and actually have a few favorites picked out already. We're working with an agent and plan to go look at them next week. Hopefully we'll be able to sign on one right away. Then we can begin the homestudy process and come back for Carmelita.

It has been truly amazing to see God's hand in all of this. We have already had some ministry opportunities/experiences there because of our upcoming move. We are praying we will not get in the way of any of God's plans and that we will be true servants willing and able to be used by Him in any way.

It's also nice that we know the area and many of the people. It feels like "going home" even to the kids (even though they've only spent short amounts of time there) and the adjustment will be much easier. Although, in about 6 months it will probably really hit us--- the reality of being back for good.

We appreciate your prayer this week especially as it will be a hard week for us. And for the upcoming weeks and months as we step into a new minstry and follow God's leading for this new journey. We have truly loved being missionaries and always will be. We don't feel as we are leaving the field............we like to think of it as "just changing fields".

I'll keep you posted.

Congratulations MEGAN!!!!

2009-03-19T12:27:00.003-06:00

Megan got to celebrate yesterday...................

She finished her reading book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".
Woohoo!!!!!

We celebrated: We bought frozen burgers shaped like Mickey Mouse heads (they were actually good) and made french fries. For dessert we bought stuff to make banana splits.

I even ate a bowl of ice cream (chocolate, of course) with nuts and whipped cream and bananas. It was good!

I told her that when she finished the book we'd celebrate and have a little "party".

She was so proud of herself.
Now we're still working through her phonics and reading through another simple reader.
She's doing great.

It kind of made me sad.......my last baby can read now.
Well, there's always Carmelita. I can work with her next. : )

Now John has what we had.........

2009-03-19T12:23:00.007-06:00

Poor John! He feels bad.
He has the same stuff we all had while he was gone--- fever, achy, sore throat.......
The bad thing is that it feels like it's in his lungs because of all of the congestion. He took a round of antibiotics, but it's not really better, so he's back at the doctor's this morning to have his lungs checked to make sure.
He had pneumonia a couple of times in the past, so we make sure we check his lungs out when he's sick! It's easy for him to get it since then.

I think in a few days he'll be better. It took us about a week to get over it. Megan ran a fever for 4 days and then got better for 2 and then had a low-grade fever again one day and slept for 2 more days on and off.

It sounds like it's the same thing that is going around in the States, too.

I hope he's better soon!

I just made him a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup, so he has to feel better, right???
At least the house will smell good...........

update: after writing this, John called. He does NOT have pneumonia! YEAH! The doctor gave him more meds and said it was great he checked and to make sure we always stay on top of that because it is really easy for him to get it since he had it twice before. Thank you, God!

It's A Girl!

2009-03-16T10:28:00.002-06:00

We're expecting! No, it's not what you think......................

We are adopting a beautiful little girl from Mexico. She is 4 years old and will turn 5 on our wedding anniversary this year. How cool is that?

I have started an adoption blog with a little of her story and some pictures. I'll be adding more as we go along. We hope to bring her home this summer.

Here's the blog: Once Upon A Time

So, without further ado, introducing Carmelita...............

(I figured I might as well put a picture of her eating, because she loves to eat!) We got to go spend a few days with her recently. She is wonderful and we are all very excited about bringing her home to her forever family!!!

She is really small. She has Down Syndrome, but is very high functioning and can do anything! (trust us.. she made even us nervous when she was climbing up things...... I think she'll try anything!) She is very smart too. At school, she is the first one done in her group all the time. We got to visit her school one day, too. It was really neat.

She is very loving and is a very happy person. She really enjoys life. I'm sure you'll get a hug if you meet her.

We can't wait to see her again.

Please pray that the process will go smoothly and that she will be home this summer. She has never had a family, as she was abandoned at the hospital at birth because she had Down Syndrome. She has always lived at the orphange.

She is just precious and we love her so much already! Thank you for praying for us and for her.

US History field trips

2009-03-13T07:35:00.005-06:00

Here are a few interesing places to visit that go along with what we have been studying this year.

President Andrew Jackson's home--- The Hermitage, near Nashville, TN
http://www.thehermitage.com/
This weekend, on March 15th, there is a Birthday Celebration to honor President Jackson and celebrate what would be his 242nd birthday.

President James K. Polk's home in Tennesse
http://www.jameskpolk.com/new/exhibits.asp
They have week-long day camp experiences for kids in the summer. It's called The Polk Academy Children's Summer Camp. They do activities like President Polk would have done as a child, such as writing with quill pens, making soap and candles, panning for gold, etc.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Home in Mansfield, MO
http://www.dahoudek.com/LIW/RockyRidge.htm
This is "Rocky Ridge" where she and Alonzo raised their daughter, Rose, and lived until they died. They are buried there, along with Rose.

I definitely want to take the kids to Laura's home this spring.

Each of these places offer tours and educational experiences.

Laura's home is near Silver Dollar City, so it could be a fun little mini-vacation for the family.

George Muller

2009-03-12T15:14:00.002-06:00

John started reading a book to the kids today. It's about George Muller.
Isaac read it when he was younger and even did a play about him at his Christian school in Brazil in 5th grade. It's really a good book and the kids were so amazed at "how bad" he was when he was younger--- lying, stealing.... They really laughed about him finally going to school to be a lutheran minister because his dad wanted him to since it was a good paying job with a lot of respect. He agreed even though he had no desire to really do that and he had such a bad reputation as a partier and drinker while he was a "theology student". And when John read that he "should probably buy a Bible and go to church more than 3 times year" the kids really laughed.

Of course, that's part of what makes his story so neat later on. But growing up as MKs and knowing what seminary is like, and all about "being called by God" to serve Him full-time, it really made them kind of laugh to hear how he started out on that road and why. They could not imagine someone doing it that way!

We're looking forward to this book as a family and it will be great having John read it to us each day.

This is the book we're reading:
http://www.amazon.com/George-Mueller-Guardian-Bristols-Christian/dp/1576581454

George Muller
The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans
by Janet & Geoff Benge

It's published by YWAM as part of their Christian Heroes: Then & Now series.
We have several books in this series. They are very good.

Latch Hook

2009-03-12T14:55:00.003-06:00

We got a couple of latch hook kits for the girls for Christmas. We brought them back here with us in December, but accidentally left the hooks at my parents' home. John bought 2 new hooks and brought them back home with him yesterday.

Faith LOVES it! She is doing a cute little rainbow with a sun. Meggie's is a dog. It's too complicated for her because the yarn colors change constantly, so I'm letting Sam do it. I didn't really pay attention to that when I bought it. I knew it looked kind of harder but she loves dogs so much so I bought it anyway. I wasn't even thinking about reading the pattern.

Levi really wants one and so does Meggie. We got online today and found the best prices here:
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat2099
It's a link for latch hook kit sets at JOANN fabric and craft stores. Many of them are half priced.

I'm going to order a few more kits. Levi and Megan get to each pick one out. Of course, Faith is "hooked" on it (pun intended ) and has a list of the kits she wants to do next. So does Sam.

I thought it would be something good for them to do with their hands and kind of crafty, yet not hard. It would help them to learn concentration and to start and finish a project. (hmmm..... I could use a little of that myself. How many craft projects do I have "almost" finished?)

I think we're going to have a lot of fun doing crafts this summer.

I also want to let them make one of the fleece blankets with the tied fringe that are so popular now. They are cute and look really easy to make. That would be a fun activity and they could enjoy the rewards of their labor for a long time. My kids love to sit around with a blanket in the house when we watch movies or read.

Five In A Row

2009-03-11T19:02:00.003-06:00

I really do like the Five In A Row curriculum. Isaac and I did that when he was little. I gave it all away years ago when we went to the mission field since we wouldn't have access to a library or books. I just ordered one volume of it again for Megan. She has missed out on so much literature and reading time with us since she was raised outside of the US. We went to the library constantly when the kids were little. Seriously, like 4 or 5 times a week John would stop by and get new books for them and I would take them at least once. When we went to the States for vacation in Nov/Dec last year, we went to the library one day and just sat there reading and looking at books for about 2 hours. They were so happy!!!

I thought the FIAR would be great for her. I'm looking forward to having fun with some of the classic children's literature with her. I think she'll really like it.

Here's the website for FIAR http://www.fiarhq.com/

I need to pick which stories we want to do and what themes we want to study based on them.
Meggie is really enjoying what we do as a family for our home school, but most of hers is listening for history and such. I thought it might be fun to pick out something for just her and we can spend an hour a day or so doing FIAR activities for some of the books she would like the most. If the others want to join in that's fine. She has just kind of jumped in with us and followed along, but I think it's time to give her a little something that is just her own.

Isaac and I still have some favorites from the FIAR lists that we read when he was little. They just stick with you. I think Megan and Faith will really like reading them too. (and I won't be surprised if the boys try to listen and read over our shoulers!)

New Magazines!!!

2009-03-11T18:56:00.003-06:00

John ordered me two magazine subscriptions for Christmas---- Oxygen and Better Homes and Gardens. (yes, I have kind of ecclectic taste)

I am sooo excited!!! He came home today and brought me one of my issues of BH&G and 2 issues of Oxygen! WOOHOO!!! And it was great timing--- I made chocolate chip cookies for him today. After getting my mags and seeing the awesome abs on the fitness models, I lost my desire to eat cookies with him. Yeah me! (for now ---LOL)

He also surprised the kids with girl scout cookies. Oh, they do look good......................

But, I ordered new running shoes last month and he brought them back for me. So, the cookies don't look "that" good. Now I can run with my new shoes and read my motivational mags and avoid cookie temptations! (I'll let you know if it works)

All of this stuff goes to my parents' house and then we get it whenever we can.

So, today was a good day!

I ran 3-1/2 miles last night. Maybe I can do 4 today. You know that new shoes make you run faster and jump higher............. at least that's what my kids always seemed to think when they were little. : )
I need to keep it kind of light since I was sick, so maybe I won't go very far. Then again, I might just curl up with my hubby and watch a movie. I missed him so much!!!

Mouse Free Week!!!! woohoo!

2009-03-11T18:50:00.003-06:00

Yes, you read that title correctly!
John was gone 8 days and we did not have one single mouse. THANK YOU, JESUS!!!

We did have one live bird that the cat brought in and tried to eat in front of us. I ran upstairs, like any good mother would do (HA) and left the kids to get it out of the house. Ok, I must admit, I am not nearly as freaked by birds as I am mice (there's no way to be THAT freaked...), but still, a live bird in the mouth who doesn't want to die and a cat that wants to teach our biology class for the day.................... ummmm, I don't think so!

So, the bird and cat went outside and the bird got loose and actually flew away. Wow! Poor little bird.

We had a great week and I even did ALL of the laundry. Can you believe it????
So even with 5 sick kids plus myself, it was a great week!!! ("mouse-free" gives you a whole new perspective, trust me..........)

Just so you don't think I'm the world's worst mom ever.... I really enjoy doing laundry but not when the machine is outside where the mice stay. And our dryer is completely fried now for sure. It quit working in December and we can't fix it here. Mice chewed through the wiring. yeh, gross, huh? So, this week I actually did all the laundry and then stayed out there long enough to hang it all and take loads off of the lines and fold them. I should earn a medal, right???

Life Happens...........roll with it!

2009-03-11T18:41:00.005-06:00

We definitely did not have the week I thought we would. John went to the States and was gone 8 days. I envisioned us at the house having a wonderful week of school, playing games, doing projects.............

hmmmmm.
not quite how it went...............

Let's see. For 4 of those days Meg had a high fever, for the other 4, we were all sick. I think I even napped 3 or 4 days in the afternoon. That never happens! Poor little thing--- she finally ended up with goo even coming out of her eyes. She has done that several times when she had a sinus infection. It seems it goes from start to bad instantly. We're both on antibiotics, so she is feeling a lot better and up and about again.

2 days last week I tried to do school with the kids. It amounted to everyone on the sofas and recliner with pillows and blankets and me reading a weeks worth of history at a time, a little science, and our Bible readings. (We're reading through the Gospel of John together right now.)

I thought I would redeem it this week, and then I had no voice. I am just getting my voice back today, but it's still really bad. So, one day I had Ike read to all of us a little, but we all felt so bad that we finally put it away after we finished history and all either took a nap or rested and watched movies.

I'm glad we all had it at the same time though instead of staggering it out for a month! This was way easier. Everyone feels much better today so we should be "back in business" tomorrow.

John came home today too, so the kids are really happy. They love their daddy so much. He's a great dad!!!!

We made a list today of some things we want to do this spring for school. Projects, field trips, etc. It should be pretty fun.

Sick children

2009-03-07T08:35:00.003-06:00

It seems we're all sick here. John's out of town until Wednesday, so I figured something would happen. At least there have been NO MICE yet! And I have even been doing the laundry! You know I haven't been going out there since all of the "critters" keep scurrying in front of me when I'm out there...........

So I guess it's been a pretty good week!

Well, at least, until you ask me about home school.........
Yesterday we read the Bible and then curled up on the sofas with pillows and blankets and read a week's worth of history and some science. That's it! No one felt well, so we just kind of hung out and watched movies all day. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, but we just had that 8 day trip, and then we took a day or 2 to get John ready for this trip, and now we're sick, and ...........

I have all kinds of exciting news and updates, but I'm waiting until after the move to tell all about them. So, I've kind of kept a low profile on here lately. That will all change though soon. I guess you'll just have to wait.........................(don't you hate that???)

I better go check on the drama queen...........I mean Megan. She's a Momma's girl all the time, but when she's sick, Oh my goodnes!!!! It's crazy how clingy she is (and did I mention whiney?). But that's fine with me. That's what momma's are for................... I hope her little fever is gone soon. The rest all have bad colds and just feel icky.

Thursday we sat outside and read for school. The kids put a bunch of blankets out on the grass and 2 big over-sized ubrellas and a play tent. (yes, we had a LOT of people passing and staring.....) We were all comfy in the shade but sweating like crazy! My legs were out and the backs got burned. I tried to run yesterday, but they hurt too much. The sun is very intense here! I would love to have some shade trees or somewhere to be outside but not HAVE to be in direct sun! I LOVE spending time outside. We read the last several chapters of the book about Sequoyah and the Cherokee alphabet. It was a very interesting book.

Even though school's been kind of crazy, we have kept up with the basics. Ike is almost finished with Algebra 1. I think he has a couple of chapters left. Biology too. And they are all working hard in their math and engligh/grammar/phonics(whatever their level is) I must admit we have not written like we started out doing though. I realoy have to hit that hard the next few months. They've seen and learned so many things though that most kids never experience becaue of living in other countries.................so I don't feel too badly about it. The other day I was kind of down on myself because it just go so crazy, then I kind of sat and made a mental list of all the things they have done and learned that are beyond what most kids will ever experience. So, I felt better. It all balances out, I guess.

I think the kids have a passion for people and a love for all people. They can cross cultural lines easily and adapt to new situations. They love adventure and new experiences. They are such a neat blend of so many cultures now. It's kind of cool. They enjoy speaking Spanish and have all done very well. Even though we may have travelled a lot this year and had our craziest year EVER, I wouldn't trade it for the world. (well, maybe the sickness parts, but not the rest) We have been so blessed by all we have experienced and done.

Ok, before I get all sentimental.........I better stop!

Road trip

2009-03-01T21:13:00.002-06:00

We've been out of town since last Tuesday. We'll get home tomorrow. It has been a wonderful trip!!!!! We went up north and got to go meet the children from this country featured on the Reece's Rainbow site. It was so much fun to meet them and to be able to get new pics and have first-hand knowledge of them to pass on. I would definitely recommend adopting from here if you're thinking about one of the beauties in this country featured on RR! The orphanage is amazing and the social workers, lawyer and other govt. staff working for their version of family services are great.

We spent 3 days with them. We toured the special education school some of them attend and got to play with the children a lot. We really liked the city they are in. It's a great place to live or visit.

more later once we're home..............................

Wake and funeral...........part 3

2009-02-24T08:20:00.002-06:00

The funeral itself was very different from anything I have ever done.

We started at the farm and walked with the body to the church and then to the cemetery. This was no small feat......it took 4 hours!

The men carried his casket on their shoulders the WHOLE way! I was so afraid they were going to drop it at first as they were trying to get their rhythm down and get used to it.

There were 150 - 200 people or so. A truck went first with the big flower arrangement wreaths they use here and then some of the people and the men carrying his body. Another group of people followed as well as a mariachi band and a "Mexican oompah band" (as we like to call them.) Then there were the horses........

He was a charro, which is basically a cowboy. There's a riding association he helped found. So, 14 horses and riders came to participate in the funeral. They also had the man's own horse walked by his only son. It was empty, no rider, but had his hat hanging off of the saddle. That was sad. It followed directly behind his casket the whole time.

At the end of his road, before we got onto the main road, they had a little ceremony for the riders to all honor him. We stopped and they said a few words. Then they called out the names of each rider, he would yell "present" and then ride his horse up to the casket to salute. It was moving. His son walked his horse up to "say goodbye". The family really had a hard time with that. Very sad.

Then we began the walk. We first walked to our street and took him and his horse to his old house where his wife lives and they raised their children. At her doorway, the wife sprinkled his casket with "holy water" (in a Coca Cola bottle) by using some white carnations dipped in the water. Then we headed back to the church. It took an hour to get to the church. They had a mass and then we left the church and began the walk to the cemetery. Wow...........you should have seen where we had to walk. It was pure hills. The cemetery was at the top of a very high hill. It's close to our home, but there is a hill so steep you can not even walk up it. (remember, we live in the mountains)

So, we had to talk the long way. We wound through hills and streets for a long time. It was uphill the whole way. I felt so badly for the men carrying the casket. It took us over an hour to get there. At the cemetery it took another hour and a half or so to bury him.

You are your own gravedigger here. The family did everything. The grave was prepared before we got there, but the family mixed the cement and everything. After they finally put his casket in, they poured the cement and then put all of the flowers on top. They did not fill it with any dirt on top. They just left the cement.

The mariachi band and the other band took turns playing the whole 4 hours--- except for during the mass. The horses and their riders were all lined up at the cemetery. It was really a neat tribute. But the family...........I can honestly say I don't think I've ever seen anyone grieve so deeply. 2 of the daughters were so distraught. One passed out and the other almost did. They were so weak and had to be carried along by friends the whole day. It was very sad.

There's more, but I won't bore you with the details. It was just really sad to sit in some of it, walk with the people for hours and think, "We're the only Believers here."

When the son brought John home at 5:30 a.m. he told him that he noticed John was the only one not drinking and drunk and he really respected that. His little girl is Faith's best friend. Please pray we can continue to minister to this family and show them the love of Jesus. It breaks our hearts to know there is so much tradition and ritual, yet no real hope.

That evening they started the days of prayer. The priest comes to the house 2 hours a day to lead them in the rosary and prayers and lighting candles for his soul. Then the mom was telling John on Sunday that now they have a 40-day period where someone MUST stay at his farm constantly and they MUST NOT shut the door or his soul will not find rest. It's really sad.