I love it when I get to spend time with my kids in unique combinations.
Just the girls.
Just the boys.
Boy and girl.
And this weekend it was my youngest fell and youngest girly.
Yep, just Nick and Lucy.
Brenden and Macy went with my parents down south. Bren was dropped off in Nashville to see his buddy. And Macy stayed w/ my parents to go see my grandparents in Alabama.
It's been fun.
Rather different, but fun.
But I'm so ready for my kids to be home and have my things back to normal.
Normal?
Well, back to whatever it is we are used to around here.
For the first two years of being an adoptive family, I am happy to say that we did not receive any stupid, rude, or ridiculous questions about our sweet little mix-raced family.
Two glorious years.
No doubt, the Lord knew I wasn't quite ready to handle such questions.
But recently, the inquiries and comments have started trickling in.
I truly try not to carry around a defensive attitude. I hate that. And I don't ever want to sound harsh with my reactions.
"Let your conversation be always full of grace, and seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:6
But seriously.
Do people not think?
Do I have a sign on my forehead saying:
"Please, feel free to say whatever you want in front of my precious adopted girls."
The most common question as of late is "Are they sisters?"
Yes.
Is what I always say.
Macy giggles at this.
If they press the issue, as if it's their right to figure out our family dynamic, I will sometimes say, "They aren't biological but they are, very much, SISTERS."
And what about people who comment on the fact that we should be adopting domestically, not internationally?
As if there is something Biblical about saving American children over any others in the world?
Makes me crazy.
C.R.A.Z.Y.
To me that's like saying of my biological children, "Why did you give birth to those kids?"
Huh?
Let's see....because they are who God gave us.
Period.
Adoption is no different.
So, to all of you who have no doubt dealt with these things also...what the heck to you say?
Over the summer when I ordered the older kids' curriculum, I wanted to get something for Lucy that would keep her occupied while I was busy with math I don't understand and other fun things.
But yet feel compelled to post something. Even if it's not much of anything.
FYI, we have officially ditched geometry for this year.
I can't tell you how good that feels.
Movin' on to algebra II. Lord, help us.
At least there are no postulates and other such evil things.
Here is a very lovely picture of a very lovely flower, taken by a VERY lovely girl...
Macy found this flower outside and took a gazillion photos of it. It's almost as pretty as she is. :)
She really seems to love photography. I want to get her a decent camera at a hugely DECENT price. Any suggestions??
And here is the result of a bad storm we had last week.
I can't tell you how sad I was to see this!! My little boys bought this tree for me for Mother's Day when we first moved into our house. It was no taller than me at that time and 13 years later, it's higher than our house.
And it's almost half gone now. *Sniff*Sniff*
My manly man cut it all up yesterday and hauled it away.
Is there anything sexier than a man and his chainsaw?
A typical Sunday night at our house might include some of the following things....
Brenden sitting down for a plate of SEVEN muffins. And TWO big glasses of milk.
And yes, he did eat/drink all of it. Gee, could this be why we go through about SIX gallons of milk each week? (And two of our four children don't even drink milk!)
And no, in case you were wondering, Brenden is not naked. I asked him to put a shirt on for the pic but it just didn't happen.
Darn teenagers!
And just a few feet away, Lucy set up shop giving tattoos to all who were willing.
And as usual, it was her daddy who was the only willing one.
With talent like this, her prices will be soaring soon, so make your appointments early to get in on a good deal!
I was recently digging through my big freezer in the garage for something dinner-related.
About mid-way down,
this is what I found....
It's a basketball-size ice...ball...thingy.
Turns out, Nick had filled a balloon to its capacity with water... wrapped it in a towel (I guess so it wouldn't get cold...?) then stuck it in my freezer.
And forgot about it.
This child is 15 1/2 years old. Practically a man. But there is still an ornery little boy in him that will hopefully always remain.
Today wraps up our first full week of the 2010-11 homeschool year.
On Wednesday I was talking to Patty and she literally laughed out loud at me...
laughed.out.loud.
when I told her how **wonderful** our week was going and how much I was enjoying this year so far.
She bluntly reminded me how the first week of homeschooling is ALWAYS blissful.
Prophetic words.
True enough.
Because yesterday (Thursday) things took a turn.
I suddenly realized that the language barrier still strongly exists between Macy and me.
Bless her heart.
Bless MY heart.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to teach a Chinese-speaking student geometry...
when the TEACHER doesn't even understand it in ENGLISH?
We're in for a fun ride this year.
I'm hanging on tight.
I invite you to come along cause it will either break me or provide fun fuel for some great blog posts.
Or both.
Oh and after all these years of home-educating, I've finally decided that it's perfectly normal......
and A-OK
to have at least three+ moments of every day that you settle in your mind that you are throwing in the towel and sending these darn kids to public school.
We got to USCIS and though they were more than happy to do our fingerprints, since we were there without an appointment we were going to have to wait in line behind all the other folks who did have an appointment.
And being that all four kids were with us (the three teens were *patiently* waiting in the car) we decided not to wait.
:(
Oh well.
We will just go back on our scheduled day.
No big deal.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
We started school last week.
Well, my homeschool kiddos did.
Brenden is finishing his high school career at the Christian school we've been involved in for the past 10 years and will start in a couple weeks.
Nick is taking algebra at our public school and doing the rest of his subjects at home.
And Macy is full-time at home.
Lucy remains in charge of everyone and sees to it that they don't ever forget it.
Oy.
Actually, I'm working with her on kindergarten stuff. She's still technically a year away from starting but the girl is mega-smart so I need to get going on it.
So sorry for no pictures. Sad, I know.
But I just needed to check in with ya'll with something.
So there ya have it.
Now go and have yourself wonderfully blessed Wednesday!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
On our way to USCIS to try to get our fingerprints done early! Please pray!
I can't think of a better post for today than to pass on some info about an incredibly precious little guy.
My social worker emailed and asked me to help advocate for this fella whom she met on her latest trip to China. She's never asked me to do this before, so I know for certain that this little man is beyond special.
She personally spent time with him, fell head over heals in love and is now working with Love without Boundaries to find him his forever family.
PLEASE swing over to their siteto take a peek at this precious boy!!
First off, if you haven't read the book, Crazy Love... oh for goodness sake, READ IT already. Friends, lukewarm Christianity is not acceptable to our Holy God.
Let's be like Peter and jump out of the boat and run to Jesus with reckless abandon, ignoring all the risky obstacles the world puts before us.
So to update you on our next adoption, we are currently waiting for our fingerprint appointment. Which is Sept. 9. Kinda thinking about going early to see if we can get it done sooner.
But in the meantime, I've got all our dossier documents in order, ready to go. Just waiting, waiting, waiting on our I800A approval.
Then we'll finish up stuff here in the US, then Dossier To China, baby!
And if you're new here to JOY Unspeakable, click HERE to read more about our adoption!
Oh, and here's our next fundraiser!!
This will be ongoing as long as supplies last... Really super duper cool Show Hope t-shirts!!
I've got adult sizes S, M, L, XL.
$25...and that includes shipping!
Just click on the ChipIn button to order or go directly to Paypal (loriatjoyunspeakable@yahoo.com).
Be sure to indicate what size you want when ordering!
As I was rummaging through my purse while waiting in the drive-thru at the bank today... I couldn't help but realize what an odd assortment of items I haul around.
Let's do a quick inventory:
*Assorted nuts. *Bug spray. *Wood glue. *Fortune cookie (still intact at about 3 weeks old). *Socks. *Picture hanger thingys. *Grape jam from McD's (well over 2 months old...undamaged) *Half a power bar from my fav coffee shop (age, unknown...hard as a rock)
This is just a sampler of what's going on in my hand-bag world.
Our garage sale was nothing short of exhausting, adrenaline-rushing, FUN, boring, FUN, moments of time standing still, FUN, oh and it was a complete SUCCESS!!
We made $644.54!!
I gotta tell ya, I was a little unsure of what the outcome would be because even though we had a few big items...we mostly had little things (.10 here, .25 there).
But boy oh boy, did it add up!
And we were so stinkin' busy most of the day that I had zero time to snap any pics.
But here are a few from Thursday afternoon when my mom and I went out looking for political sign frames that were only going to be mowed over anyway. So we did a community service and took a few out of the way for the nice people to make our garage sale signs out of. It's called recycling. We're very earth-friendly. And cheap.
=)
And here is my mom being the stealthy gal that she is... (and I'm in the get-away car)
Mom, HURRY!!
And here is a quick shot of part of our treasures before we put the finishing touches on our "boutique" format.We ended up having so much more stuff after I took this pic!
And here's Lucy helping make signs. Ahem.
Once again,
I THANK, WITH ALL MY HEART,
my MOM and SISTER for pouring so much of their time into this with me.
There is simply NO WAY I could have done it without them.
I'm so grateful that it's over, but truly, it was a lot of FUN!!
But my house has been completely neglected for the last few days so now I need to get it looking snazzy again.
We went to our friend Claire's house. Her sister in-law and brother in-law were here visiting from Germany. And they have the most beautiful children. They are half Chinese and half German. Mom is Chinese, dad is German.
Both parents and their daughter speak three languages. Their two-year old boy speaks two.
I felt like such a slacker, I tell ya. Me and my uno-language. But golly, I know it well.
Anyway.
Our two older girls went to the park down the street together all by themselves. Believe it or not, that's great progress for Macy!! They were both shy but seemed to have fun together.
I had some extended time to talk to Claire and her sister-in-law. We had a really good visit. They were so eager to talk about Macy's on-going transition and offered great advice.
~*~*~*~
All of the Chinese friends from church that we have met since Macy arrived are precious to us.
I'm so very thankful.
Their love for Jesus is demonstrated with each and every visit.
There is absolutely no doubt that God has strategically placed them in our lives for a very specific purpose.
Wow, it's been a crazy weekend, what with Chelsae's wedding and all. *Yeah, whatever*
Last Thursday night Macy and Lucy spent the night with my parents and the boys stayed with friends.
And K-man and me?
Well, it was a 24 hour date, ya'll... and it was fabulicious!
Complete bliss. To be with my man. For an entire 24 hours.
Bliss-ful.
But... I gotta tell ya that we were so ready to get our kiddos back with us!
What is it about that? You can't wait to spend some time away from them... then you just itch to get them back!
I guess it's God's way of saying,
You two need a quick get-away to rekindle things.
Then, quick as a flash,
Ok, now get back to life!
So totally unrelated to that, I got a check in the mail from Old N*vy. I thought at first they had finally come to their senses that they truly did need to be paying me to shop there.
Because, well...they should.
But ummm, either I'm not worth all that much to them, or I over paid, ever-so-slightly, on my credit card.
It was the latter.
Can you believe they spent postage on such a check?
