Random Junk

There are always so many things I wish to write...I write them in my head. I hear them...how they would sound if read aloud, but I so rarely make it to the keyboard.

So, as I walked past Faith's bed a few minutes ago and heard her snoring away in her loud cute loud sort of way that only she can do...I thought perhaps I'd write a bit. Faith always likes a few extra kisses and hugs at bedtime and she usually tells me who to "send up". Tonight, as I left her bedside she called after me, "Send up one of the boys!"

So, I sent up one of the boys (Matthew I believe) and headed off to write...

...to write a hodge-podge of random thoughts...


Thoughts on Tiny Peoples being attached to Larger Peoples

Faith and Mitchell. Their relationship entertains me to no end. She follows him around like a little chihuahua nipping at his rather large heels. She follows him around everywhere talking incessantly and asking him a million questions. She lies in wait for him outside the door when he is in a room. I think she is going to have a hard time when he heads to school this fall. We won't even talk about what kind of a time his Momma is gonna have!!!!

Anyhoo...Faith has a ritual when anyone is leaving the house, she stands in the bay window and knocks on the window till they wave at her. She always says, "I'll wave to you at the window.". When Mitchell headed out the door today, she yelled (loudly) after him while making a mad dash for the bay window:

"I'LL WAVE TO YOU AT THE WINDOW! YOU CAN CALL ME, TEXT ME, OR FACE-TIME ME!".

Faith has been in the habit lately of leaving notes for Mitchell. She slips them under his bedroom door at times.  She leaves him notes that say sweet, loving things like: "Mitchell, a big momster is cuming for you. You MUST RUN!" He usually is not frightened by these "love notes".

Faith made Mitchell this NECKLACE for his 21st birthday!

She adds this indescribable facet to our lives that I cannot imagine not having. I'm so grateful.
.
So, it's a blessing beyond words when your "big peoples" are loving enough that your "littles" want to attach.


Thoughts on Being and Ambassador


My mother says Faith is our church's little good-will ambassador. She is always making pictures or bead necklaces or something for folks at church. The other week, she wrote a letter to a young woman in our church during the opening. When children were dismissed to children's church, Faith ran over and handed it to her with a hug. The note simply said, "I haven't seen you in a while and I missed you." (of course it was all spelled wrong.) After church the young woman came to me and said, "You know, I've had a really hard week and this just made me feel so good."

So, small good-will ambassadors do an important work.


Thoughts on Thankfulness

Matthew says Faith's prayers always make an impression on him because she is always so thankful for everything. She thanks God for everything in her life.

"Thank you for we give our offering and then Jesus gives it to the poor, and thank you for the poor and thank you for the rich."

So, it's good to be thankful.


Thoughts on Poetry

Upon flipping through the 5th grade English teacher's manual looking for a writing project for Gracie, we came across one and a half Limerick's apparently written by Christian when he was in 5th grade. I wanted to share them here because they are such high quality poetry:

So, it's good to expose one's self to the works of great poets...like Christian.


Thoughts on Loving

It's funny how you grow to love people. I guess what I really mean is, if you really stop and think about it, it's incredible. It struck me a few weeks ago as I looked around our growing church and saw all these people that I'd never known before. A brand new church, as churches go. I guess it's hard to put into words what I wanted to write, but, I was struck by the love that I had for these people. People I never knew. People who came to be a part of a body that would love them......and we do.

So, it's funny how you grow to love people.


Thoughts on Hearing vs. Telling


A few weeks ago, we were blessed to share our adoption story at church. It was a special time for us. In a way it brought peace and closure to something deep inside me that was always needing a time like that. And that love, that love that I spoke of earlier...it came back around, and got poured out on us...and it was something I had needed for a long time.

People cried and I guess I didn't think they would. I only got choked up twice when I was speaking. ..And I didn't shed a tear when I sang Steven Curtis Chapman's "What Now" which I've wanted to sing for so very very long.
......but I brought the recording home. And I sat on my rocking chair in my bedroom and listened to what I had said......and I cried. I cried a lot. Somehow it was different when I was hearing it than it was when I was telling it. I guess because I've told the stories so many times that it feels the same when I'm speaking it. But I never 'heard' it before.

So, it's good to listen... And it's good when love comes back around.


Thoughts on Grace

We met a young man on outreach a while back, and I've always wanted to record my thoughts on that, because sometimes someone says something that you'll never forget:

I said, "Do you know Jesus loves you?"
His lip quivered. He got tears in his eyes.
He said, "Yeah, I've always loved Jesus, but I've done things..."
We talked for quite a while.

I thought about how we've all done things...

I wonder...how does a young man get so lost?
and then I wonder at the fact that, but for the Grace of God...how do we not all get lost....

So, God, shine your light really brightly on the path before me, cause I'm not always all that bright...


Thoughts on the 80's

Faith: "Mother, do you like cartoons?"
Me: "No."
Faith: "What do you like....80's music?!! "


Faith: "Mother, who's birthday is next?"
Me: "Mine."
Faith: "How old are you going to be?"
Me: "Oh, I don't know."
Faith: "I won't tell anybody."

So, it's good if your littles don't really know just how long ago the 80's were.


Thoughts on Love Notes and Scuffed Walls

My Gracie made me these lovely lovey notes. Oh, bestill my heart. So, my walls have countless scuff marks, or whole scrapes down the dark wallpaper where unnamed child carried an open box down the hall, and we won't get into all the broken things....oh dear, because at this point in childrearing it would be much easier to name the things that are NOT broken.....but I have folders and folders of love notes all tucked away in the beautiful wooden chest my husband bought me many years ago. Oh, how I love them.

So, love notes are more lovely than all the non-broken things in the world.


Thoughts on Basic Needs

Me (sitting on Christian's bedside at night): "Christian, do you have any problems?"
Christian: "No"
Me: "Anything you need to talk about?"
Christian: "No"
"Well, Yes, there is something."
Me: "What?"
Christian: "We haven't had those breakfast cinnamon buns in a long time!"

So, it's impossible to assess just how important sweets are to some people.


Thoughts on.. well, ummm...Underwear...

So Grace and Faith were packing to go spend the night at my parents (I was not home during the packing process.) My mother told Faith to go get a pair of clean underwear to pack. Faith told my mother she didn't have any clean underwear.

My wonderful mother then dug through my hamper to discover, much to my shame, that Faith had 17 pairs in the hamper.

So, .....oh,...I don't know. I can't seem to come up with a one-phrased "moral-of-the-story for this one except maybe...

..hide the dirty laundry?? No, that wouldn't be good.

oh dear Lord I get tired


Apparently Junk in my Trunk

I thought I would include a photo shoot of what they boys wrote on the marker board in the school room. I am a history fanatic of sorts and apparently (well, actually it is very apparent that they feel this way about my teaching of history because they comment on it nearly every day). I do tend to go overboard a bit with history. The boys have an inside joke that even if they don't understand something, they won't ask a question about it because it turns into an hour long lesson. They also find it amusing that when they give a wrong answer, I do, in fact, always tell them it was a good guess. They felt the need to note that on their marker-board-creation. Note that there is also one pint-sized chatterbox in the classroom at all times to add chaos to every lesson. But, here are their feelings, now captured for posterity's sake.:

Yesterday we had our first family photo shoot in much too long. So, hopefully I'll be able to post new family photos soon. A young photographer from our church took 388 photos...hopefully we should be able to find a few good ones, right??!!

And so, then we celebrated after the photo shoot with pizza and ice cream!

And I believe Faith put it best as she downed her pizza. She said, "Wow, Mother, this is everybody's lucky day because today you're letting us eat junk food!"

So, yes, everyone feels it's their lucky day when I let them eat junkfood

...especially Daddy.        :)

Catching up in Captions

I thought that perhaps catching up via captions would be the best way to go. So...here goes... Gracie in the clubhouse. There's something so dear and sweet about this shot.

One pretty girl in the sand.

Two pretty girls soaking in some sun.

Now this simply makes me smile.

Love simple moments like this so much.

Our play yard at night...the coziest place on earth.

Our play yard in the day time...love it just as much...almost

If only I could forever remember what it's like to watch all 3 of my boys playing baseball in the yard...even now that they're big.

It warms my heart to no end to watch my boys all playing football together in the yard. Mitchell and I had a talk the other night about how my prayer is that they will be the best of friends for life. That's how I've raised them.

The Party Center. My Grace. She loves, loves, loves to do this. Some nights after bath time, she will take her dry erase board and do this...

Most times she writes options to choose from for which show to watch. (I usually choose The Brady Bunch.) I vote. Other imaginary participants vote. Gracie reads the voting results and then we actually pretend to get on a bus (the party center bus) which Gracie then drives back the hall and then into the tv room. She usually stops the bus by the kitchen counter (ie. the snack bar) for drinks or snacks. The process begins by her saying, "Mother, are you going to the party center tonight?" Sweet Grace. I LOVE so much how she spelled "spachell" and "chrip" (trip..but she spelled it like she says it)

Christian turned 14. ...hold on there...might be something fragile in this bag

Fish

And little Faith turned 6.

With her castle cake. She ordered this cake. She said she wanted "A castle with a commode that you can lick out" ummm..huh? We figured it out though...A MOTE!!

Made by one and only cousin Jennie.

With her usual...goober uhh...oops! I mean "peanut butter jelly time" from cousin Ben

And then it was finally December. And with only the Christmas tree lights on, the kids built an entire village (which I really coudn't fit into the photo) with events that army men and barbies alike attended.

Sugar cookie time. And a week long visit from sweet Kelli Belle.

Ice till you drop.

I love the next photo soooooo much. Two big boys. Brings a tear to a momma's eye.

And the kids giving each other the gifts they got for each other. Late Christmas Eve we set aside especially for this. It is my favorite part of gift giving, watching the kids give their gifts to each other. I love so much watching how well they know each other.

Faith's favorite...a gigantic carton of goldfish from Mitchell.

...and how sweet it was to see how well my kiddos know their momma. A couple of them gave me chocolates (Oh yeah!) Matthew gave me a MacArthur Bible Commentary...

and Mitchell gave me this "classic" that I've been wanting!!!

And now we're diving into 2013 which began so fun last week as we headed out to winter jam with my parents. We stood in line in the freezing cold for four hours shivering and laughing and it was just...well...cold and FUN! And because we did all that shivering, we got awesome seats. So we shivered and then we danced till we were sweaty... and my momma danced to Toby Mac and it was great. I love my momma and daddy so much. They are absolutely the best. And now, I'm hoping that by the next time I post, I will be able to figure out this new blogger interface. It appeared during my absence from blogger and I can't figure out how to get anything to go where I want it to. Oh well, one more thing to tackle. :)

Me: "What did you put in your mouth?"

Faith: "blink blink"

Me: "What did you put in your mouth?!"

Faith: "Nothing."

Me: (As via my tack sharp deductive reasoning skills, I surmised that something was amiss.)
"WHAT DID YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH??!!"

Faith: (Beginning to cry)
"Ohhh, I did something really really bad."

Me: (Now much alarmed at the thought of what might be in her mouth.)
"WHAT IS IT!! WHAT DID YOU DO!! QUIT CRYING AND JUST SHOW ME WHAT YOU
PUT IN YOUR MOUTH I HAVE TO SEE IF IT COULD HURT YOU!!!!!"

She took me to the basement.

She showed me this.



I breathed a sigh of relief....and then, we had a Looooonnngggg talk about not putting anything in your mouth.

Marathon post to include (but not limited to) many ramblings

Last week, on August 23rd, we celebrated Faith's third Gotcha Day. I can't believe it has been three years already. (although in a way it seems it's been for always) We hooked the computer up to the big screen TV and watched her adoption video as a family.

She loved it, although she said the only thing she remembers is that I had a pink backpack for her.



I cried through the video. When I watch it now, it strikes me how little and scared she looks. She looked so little. It also takes me back, and I remember how new and how raw all those feelings were.

Dear Father in Heaven, what if You had never handed me all those things to learn...all those feelings, all those lessons, all the things I thought I knew...but I didn't...all the beauty of this incredible child, all the things I've learned about myself and about You, Father. What if You hadn't taken me...

I wouldn't be the same person.


It is no news to anyone close to me that we've wanted to adopt again for quite a while. We have struggled with it, wrestled with it, had trusted prayer partners bringing it before the throne with us...but, we have just not seen God open any doors like He did before. It hurts my heart though, in a deep way. As I watch others coming home, and as I look at Faith's life...it leaves an ache in my heart. 147 million orphans in the world, and I've told God I haven't done my part yet. I know He knows my heart, but I also know that when He moves, there is no mistaking...for He moves with assurance and clarity. But, oh, my heart. It leaves an aching. I never really speak of it. Shhhhhh..... If you're reading it here, you're reading a raw piece of my heart. We won't tell anyone.



So, as the super-organized mom that I am, I do Not have a gotcha day photo...
So, I thought I would just use this mega-cute photo that Matthew took with his cell phone when he walked by Faith's door a few weeks ago.
He tweeted it and captioned it, "Been making this food all day."
So, here it is in all its glorious blurriness...
It's a cryin' shame we don't have any play food.



Today found us on a trip to a pediatric ophthalmologist, who diagnosed Faith with an eye problem called Exotropia. Her right eye has been drifting outward and is slowly worsening. Our local eye doctor examined her a few months back and determined she should be seen again in a year. After spending a whole 'zero' hours in medical school...I knew that was the wrong answer. It turns out she will need surgery in a few months to correct the condition which, he said, can fairly quickly cause vision damage if not corrected. That surgery will happen sometime this winter.



And today as she and I sat having our French toast she said, "You do that alot."
"What?" I asked.
"Cooking," she said. (at this point I thought we were going to discuss the Hallmark channel again...but alas, she was having other thoughts)
"Yes," I said. "When you're a momma you'll cook alot too."
"No I won't!" she said very certainly.
"Why?" I asked.
"Ughhhh...!!" she huffed disgustedly at me. "We already talked about this!!"
"What?"
"About I'm not gonna have any kids!"
"Why?" I asked.
Faith: (very disgustedly like I should have known better than to ask her, lowering her voice so no one would hear her but me)
"We already talked about this!! Because I am NOT kissing on the lips!!" and as if to punctuate it all, as she popped a bite of French toast in her mouth she mumbled to the French toast..."I'm just not doin' it!"

Alrighty-then.

She's right.

She did already tell me that.

...my bad.


AND

I realized I never posted Gracie's 10th birthday photos!! So here are a few.



All she wanted was to get her ears pierced. Which she did. Which was great until it came time to change the earrings and the other day I really thought she might decide to let them grow shut. Momma was the tough one though, who forced them back in. A few tears later and we're no worse for the wear.



It was a big summer for my big girl. She went to camp for the first time. She loved it. I hated her being gone for a whole week. She really could run this house. She is my right hand.


AND


Faith lost her first two teeth. And tell me....
what exactly is wrong with me that I thought that perhaps just one of my children wouldn't need braces. Perhaps they could have come up a little more crooked...but I think Not! Looks like we are 5 for 5 now.

But the tooth fairy did bring her a chocolate truffle and she has taken to saying, "I can't wait to get MY braces on!" So all's well in her little world.

AND

You know those signs?

You know.

I'm thinking of getting one.



"Every day, millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once. Hanging your towel back on the rack means that you've decided to save a tree and have mercy on your mother....."

You know.

AND

Oh, and one day in joking I taught my kids this old, old, old, old song to which the words go, "Yes, there is no sweeter name than Mother. Mother is the sweetest name I know." You all know it? My kids now taunt me with it.

AND

Nathan got married. We had him for not quite a year. But we grew to love him and so I chronicle that here, and show you my two favorites of the wedding photos I took for him.





SO

School starts in a few weeks. We start the middle of September. I like to deny fall/winter as long as possible because winter is just so stinkin' long!



I love that my children are here with me.
I am forever grateful that when the bus goes by...my children are still here.
FOREVER GRATEFUL.



I love that school will mean that Matthew's work schedule will be going back to 2 days a week. His work schedule has been so heavy I don't see him much. I am ready to get my Matthew back !!



I love that the Olympics have spurred an urge in my kids to create new flips, and contests, and competitions on the swingset. (I love that I can still do backflips off the swing with the kids...even though I pay for it the next day.)







yes, that's me
I'm working up my nerve to try my handspring
I doubt that not having done one for 25 years will hinder my ability to still pull it off
after all, I can still do it in my head


I love that we discovered the beauty of taking nighttime walks around the commuter airport near our house...because all the runway lights are beautiful at night and the crickets are a beautiful soundtrack.

I love, love, LOVE that Faith calls my daddy "The Papster" !!!!!



(Do you think it sheds negative light on me as a mom that my child is out doing backflips on the swingset in her jammies at 12:00 noon?)

(Not that I care....I just wondered)

I love that I've gotten to have my Mitchell a little longer than I expected to, as he's working this one last school year till he amasses all the tuition and board he needs to head off to the school of his dreams (Lord willing). So, next September, when I'm a muddled mess of tears...I'll try to remember that I'm grateful for this time I have now.

I love knowing the kids so well that I know what they can do, and what they can't do...and I'm grateful for the grace that says "it's ok if you can't".
We had one of those "cant's" this week...and it was ok.

God is good.

And last, but not least. Mitch and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.



Our family threw us a surprise party which, much to my surprise, actually surprised me!



I find it unfair that he looks as good as he did the day I married him.




And Christian found the need to wrap his cousin Ben to look like an angel.



And I wanted to include a photo of my sweet great Uncle Blair and Aunt Kay. At my age, the 'greats' and the 'grands' have become few...and I treasure them. Uncle Blair is the last sibling of my sweet Gam that just passed away. Uncle Blair has always been fun and it is a family joke that he asks for peanut butter at every family dinner.



Thanks Family!!!

I suppose the last tidbit for this lengthy post is that yesterday we spent the day at Delgrosso's Amusement Park for their year-end Christian festival/concert day. When the teens went off to ride the big rides, the rest of us took Faith to kiddie land. As she rode around a little circle on one of the rides, she looked less than thrilled.

It stopped.
She got off, walked over to me and very seriously said, "Mother, I just feel like that was really baby-ish."

So it was no more kiddie land for her, and Uncle Howard had to buy a ride pass to take her on all the big rides (because I would get sick)!!
Thanks Uncle Howard :)



....that's all folks !