We're still here

Well, we've been waiting around here as far as our adoption goes. We're waiting for approval from the US immigration service of our fingerprints, and our social worker's license expired, so we're waiting for that to be renewed, and to get a copy of it for our dossier. After that, we are ready. Lots of patience required!

Meanwhile, life goes on. We've sent off our child to bootcamp...

Lots of gardening going on...



And some goofing off...



A few images...
Clover


An old tractor


A compost bin and an old apple tree


Recently some ladies that I met through Reece's Rainbow traveled to an orphanage and brought some little pillows and photo albums to a few of the children...




To those of you who have donated to help us with the finances for our adoption, bless you! We so appreciate your generosity, and we have received so much support and encouragement from our family, church and community. We are grateful! Please continue to pray for us and for the children.

Memories and Memorial Day

I want to thank all those who have served our country to preserve our freedom. Some of you have made the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us. May we never forget, or take for granted what you have made possible.

I am a little sad, but very proud that one of our own chicks is leaving the nest, and has chosen to join the military. We are so proud of you, honey.



Our family has a Memorial Day tradition in which we go to visit our daughter M's grave. She died at birth, and would be 20 years old now, if she had lived. Every year, my husband cleans the gravestone, and levels it with sand. We place flowers from our garden, and say a prayer. This is a very meaningful tradition for our family, and reminds us of our little girl, that we'll see her again in heaven, and reminds us of the fragility of life, and of how precious each life is to God.

Sharing a moment of quiet reflection; happy to have each other.


It may seem incongruous to be smiling at a gravesite, but this really has become a special family day for us, and we're always happy when we get to be together.

What a man!

After attending nursing classes and clinicals all week, my husband comes home, pours concrete, and then barbecues dinner! Who wouldn't love a man like that? (Easy on the eyes, too.) Happy 22nd Anniversary, honey!


Sisters waiting for a delicious fish dinner. Thanks to my stepfather for the awesome steelhead.



This Dad loves to take his kids everywhere he goes. Here are some of the gang enjoying a round of golf.

FOCUS ON BLESSINGS

Spring is here, and with it comes gardening. We put plastic around our porch, and made an enclosed greenhouse. I didn't take a picture of all the greenery after it was grown. It's all been planted outside already. Next day, a giant windstorm! Plants are not happy!
We get some amazing sunsets, but this one was more because of the storm passing by.
A big family get-together, and a birthday to celebrate. The boys had lots of fun, throwing the football.
Frosting two cakes, since a group this big requires lots of food! Notice the frosting on her finger, which will not go to waste!

Below is a video of an adorable boy. He loves the attention!

Well, there have been big happenings in Wilson Creek over the last few days! Saturday morning a train hauling grain derailed as it was passing through town. 24 cars fell off the tracks, and spilled their cargo, creating quite a mess of grain and crumpled steel. My son was bike riding with his friends in the park (next to the tracks) and saw it as it happened. Everyone in town (including my kids!) gathered to check it out, and found the train operator shaken, but unhurt. Everyone said that it was an amazingly quiet train wreck, presumably because of the grain. Lots of news crews and curious onlookers made their way to Wilson Creek, but by Sunday, the railroad crews had it almost back to normal. They can work fast!

Technology

I had pretty much checked out of the technology age, and except for using computers at work, was happy to remain ignorant. Surprise! Apparently, one cannot adopt in this day and age without being tech savvy. So, I've had to learn all kinds of things. I've been IMing, faxing, scanning, blogging, and on and on... You know that old children's rhyme, "for want of a nail a shoe was lost...etc," till finally at the end a kingdom is lost, "all for want of a nail." I was beginning to feel a bit panicky, as in, "a child was lost, all for want of computer skills..." God is good, though, and he has led me by the hand. I feel his hand on mine, and apparently he's a computer whiz, because I've stumbled through what I need to do so far, and things are being accomplished, amazingly enough.

I keep saying, "amazingly enough" which David thinks is silly. "Why do you keep getting amazed? Where's your trust?" Easy for him to say. I'm doing all the paperwork! Okay, I will give him this, that he's trying to finish nursing school while I've put all this in our laps. I keep saying that the timing seems all wrong, but it's really all right, if you know what I mean. God knows when it's right, and when he says it's right, it's right! And, he works it all out. So far, so good. I keep bumping into roadblocks, and I keep saying, "Lord, you're the father to the fatherless. These kids are your responsibility until you hand them off to us. You've got to make this happen, or it isn't going to!" Okay, okay, technically I know they're still his, even after he hands them over to us, but you know what I mean...



Now that I'm so tech savvy, I had a three-way IM conversation with two of my daughters. It was fun, and silly, and because we all love language, there was a lot of nonsense. They had to remind me that I'm uncool, but that's okay, because I wasn't cool before I was a mother. I wasn't even cool when I was young. David likes to remind me of how he took pity on me and married me, even though my coolness quotient was so much lower than his. Actually, he would never say "coolness quotient." That's the kind of thing that nerds say. Guilty as charged!

MIRACLE COOKIES

Well, with Valentine's Day coming up, I didn't want to miss a fundraising opportunity, so I was considering a bakesale, but then I got this strong sense that I was supposed to make a cookie for each person in my church, and put their name on it. So, I said, "So, what then, Lord? Am I supposed to sell them the cookie with their name on it?" And I just had the sense that I was supposed to make the cookies and put their names on them.

Okay, so those of you who know me, know that I believe in signs, and I'm always trying to follow God's will, so I was willing to consider this idea that seemed pointless. I have, however, had lots of crazy ideas that I thought were from God, that I didn't do, and then I realized that there have probably been lots of times I just didn't do God's will, so I figured this would be another. (Too much work.)

I also had lots of excuses: I don't make sugar cookies, don't have a recipe, would have to shop for a cookie cutter, don't have a frosting recipe, had only Sat afternoon after working for several nights, and then sleeping most of Sat. Still willing to consider it, but knew that I probably couldn't make it work. Strong compulsion to do it, though, strangely enough.

Sat evening, still hadn't had a chance to do much, but did buy some powdered sugar, just in case. Never got to buy a cookie-cutter, but discovered that my daughter had bought one at a yard sale, which I didn't know about! Found a recipe on the internet, and decided to go ahead and start. Figured if I made a stab at it, even if it didn't turn out, I could tell God that I'd tried. Made up a batch to chill, and then decided I needed a second batch, but didn't have anymore sugar. We live a long way from town, so too bad, oh well... David showed me three bags of sugar that he'd bought, which I hadn't found, so made a second batch.

So, cut out and baked cookies, invented a glaze, didn't have food coloring, but used maraschino cherry juice, which worked, and then found a recipe for piping frosting which worked well, actually.

Through the whole thing, I kept thinking that God had a good reason for this cookie-baking extravaganza, and that someone would be very touched by this, and I wondered who it was. Suddenly, at 2 am, as I was piping each name on the cookies, I had this sudden sense that this was all for me. Each step had been made possible, even though I'd thought that it really wasn't, and all I'd had to do was just take the steps to do it, and that somehow it had fallen into place. I felt that the Lord was telling me, "How much more will I take care of the details for something I really care about, like these children?"

So, in the end, I gave out the cookies to folks at church, but I don't really feel like it was a lost fundraising opportunity. I feel that I was obedient, even though I didn't understand it, and God is strengthening my faith.