In Memory...

...of our fallen hero's and their families...thank you. Thank you for your sacrifice, your service, your willingness to lay down your life so that we can be free.

In memory of my cousin, Jim, who was killed in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2006, and my grandfather, who fought in WWII and came home to raise a family.

We took the kids to the Memorial Day parade in our town because I wanted the kids to understand what the day is about.





To all of our brave military men and women, we stand...


...and salute you





THANK YOU!


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal,


that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,


that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "



We are thankful that you fought for our Freedom


and that you provided us with a safe haven.


Your sacrifice made it possible for us to have a family.


We are thankful to live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

The Jakester

Let me flash you my fake, cheesy smile so that you will adore me.

We have always called Jacob, Jake. Or Jakey. The only time he is called Jacob is when he is in trouble.

He's been in trouble a lot lately.

It's a good thing he is just so stinkin' cute!

Tonight I was scrubbing him in the bathtub and called him Jake. He said, "I not Dake."
"Oh, really? Who are you?"
"I Dacob!"
"You're Jacob?"
"Yeah...I not Dake, I Dacob." He grinned...so proud of himself for outwitting me.

At prayer time, he listened to big brother Jordan pray, "Please hewp us obey Mommy and Daddy. Please hewp Dakey and I not to get out of our beds."

The truth is, Jordan pretty much never disobeys...and he rarely breaks the you-will-stay-in-your-beds-unless-the-house-is-on-fire-or-someone-is-barfing rule. Jake on the other hand....

Jake never stays in bed. N.E.V.E.R. It doesn't matter how much he gets punished, he just can't seem to resist the allure of a closet full of interesting things to ruin.

So...its Jake's turn to pray. He can't quite remember Jordan's whole prayer so his verson sounded like this: "Pwease hewp Mommy and Daddy stay in der beds."

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Today was spent getting the house ready to put on the market. UGH. It made me grumpy. OK--I guess the correct thing to say is that I CHOSE to be grumpy by the five hours I spent in the girls' room sorting through their toys (junk) and throwing things away.

The gross things I found were nothing, though, in comparison to what Taylor found lurking in his closet.


Any guesses? A cucumber? No. A shriveled pickle? No. A pea pod on steroids? No.

It was.....

A banana.

Intact.

HOW DISGUSTING!

My Dad's Trip--Plan B

Here is the latest from my dad....

1. The ANM staff person has canceled the Airline reservations for Tuesday.

2. He is personally flying to Washington on Tuesday AM to go to the Indian Embassy and seek approval for our Visa’s. Both Pastor XXXXX and I are affected.

3. If successful, we will re-schedule and fly out on Thursday or Friday.

4. The first conference is scheduled to begin Sunday night and can start on time. Our earlier arrival date was so that we could visit some of the local pastors and acquaint ourselves with the area. These dates will still work!

Obviously, we would like your prayers. We also desire God’s will. Here is what God gave me this morning in my quiet time:

“We are perplexed, but not in despair…” “Therefore, we do not lose heart…” 2 Cor. 4.

“Let us run with perseverence the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith…” Heb. 11

We are not giving up, we are giving it to God. He is El Elyon, The Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth! Genesis 14:22. He owns it all, is large and in charge!
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Pray on, friends!!

Graduation

Our oldest, Ryan, is graduating from high school this year. Yesterday was his last day of school and last night there was a banquet at my parents church for graduating seniors.

Ryan hates the limelight, so he doesn't want a graduation party. I was a bit disappointed, but after realizing how much work they are, I got over it.

Ryan got all dressed up in his tuxedo shirt. For this picture, he put on his hat, Old Faithful. He does mind his manners and remove it indoors. I think we should get that hat bronzed.


Being goofy with his friends


Sweet words of encouragement from an older member of the church

Ryan had been planning to attend a trade school, but has recently gone back to the idea of joining the military. We are praying that he will have clear direction from God and trying not to let our fears of him being deployed, get in the way of his decision.

At the dinner last night, we were highly amused to see that our friends, J and K, chose to wear almost identical outfits as we were wearing. And now that I write their initials, I realize that ours are also K and J. Oh...and they have a daughter named, Katelyn Joy, as do we.

Update on My Dad's Trip

As of last night (Friday) my dad still had no word on his visa. Unless they sent it out last night, he will not have it today. The only other possibility of getting it in time for Wednesday's flight is to have someone bring it to the airport in Washington DC where the Indian Embassy is located.

He can push the trip back a few days if necessary, but he can't come back any later because his cancer surgery is scheduled for mid-June.

There is one other man in the same situation as my dad. The trip is actually a series of conferences that will be given by my dad and two other men. One of them has a 10 year visa. If my dad and the other man cannot get visa's, the conferences will have to be cancelled or rescheduled. They were expecting about 300 Indian pastors to attend.

My dad wanted me to share the Bible verses that he read yesterday.
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“I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand I shall not be shaken. “ Psalm 16:8

“ It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” Lamentations 3:26

“He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron” Psalm 107:16 (Indian Embassy objections and red tape).

“He satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry with good things” Psalm 107:9
I woke up with a sore throat today. God is allowing me to lean hard on Him.
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Only God knows if He wants the conferences to take place now or at a later time. Since we don't know...we are praying that my dad's visa will come in knick of time. :)

In Memory of Maria Chapman

Please lift up the Chapman family today as it is the one-year anniversary of the tragic accident that took her life. Her mom, Mary Beth, has a post today on her blog that you might like to read.

Our Trip to the Park

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I decided to take the Fab Five to the park. I always loved playing in the woods when I was a young girl, so I thought my kids would love it as well.

I should have given some thought to the fact that little Jake, despite being quite mischievous, has many irrational fears. His latest one is a fear of bumblebees. Most children are afraid of them, but Jake freaks out if we open the windows because he is just SURE the bees can come in the house. I have shown him the screens and explained how bees cannot get through them, but he remains unconvinced. Any small bug is a potential bee to him, so being in the woods brought new terror not to be believed.


Jake's expression sums up his feelings about the woods


Jordan and Zoey had a wonderful time


Jordan very sweetly held Kate's hand for most of the hike


He held SaraGrace's for awhile, too


My little 'ducklings' watch a pair of geese with their ducklings


Jake forgot his fears long enough to throw some sticks into the stream

Later in the day, we took some photos in front of our snowball tree that is currently in full bloom. I was disappointed in the results this year. They turned out over-exposed and too blue. *Sigh*

Snot...it grosses a body out

I was finished blogging for the day and catching up on a few emails. My beautiful, petite, lady-like (you're getting the picture, right?) Kate was sitting beside me.

She was picking her nose.

And I mean...Picking.Her.Nose.

Her finger was buried and then she started smearing it all around her upper lip--'cause, you know, it was all runny and slimy.

Gross.

Just as I was about to get up and get her a tissue, she reached over and lovingly...

Wiped.It.On.My.Arm.

Now her upper lip is all nice and dry. My arm is wet.

I love being a mom. heehee

Field Trip

Yesterday, I went on a field trip with Jillian's class. We had a very nice time!

Taylor was home babysitting and I had laid all the kids' clothes out the night before, so he would know what they were supposed to wear. When I got home, Jake and Jordan were wearing this....look closely at their jeans (and don't be distracted by the way Jake put his sweatshirt on!).



I said, "Um, Taylor, did you happen to notice that Jordan is wearing Jake's jeans and that they are about four inches too short?"

Taylor looked and said, "No, I didn't. But that would explain why Jake's jeans kept falling off all day."

Ya think?

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A disturbing wardrobe malfunction


Sweet sister moments


Jake's latest footwear choice


SarGrace leads the little girls on a jaunt around the yard.


Jake chases after them yelling, 'Wait for me! Wait for me!" (They didn't)


The Fearsome Foursome


I think most parts of the country have maple trees that shed 'helicopter seeds' in the spring. We have a blast playing helicopter with them. SaraGrace put a new twist on the fun by making 'helicopter pie.' It wasn't very yummy. (Jake tried it.)

India update from my Dad

No sign of my dad's visa yet...please keep praying!

He asked me to post this message about one of the pastors there so you could get a glimpse into what they are suffering for being Christians. I have removed the names to protect their privacy.
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XXXXXX was in the U.S. last fall when the presecution began. His wife and family ran into the jungle as the extremists came to their village. They watched their home burned. For a time XXXXXX was unable to contact them and did not know what had happened.

XXXXXX is a leader of many churches, and because of his position, for a time his name was on a hit list during the trouble.

His ministry is named: xxxxxxx and is located in the XXXXXX District of Orissa, where we will conduct the first two conferences. XXXXXXXX is an approved partner ministry of ANM...one of six in Orissa, most of which were affected by the persecution.

The current weather in India is ranging from 90 -110 in Calcutta and Delhi respectively..
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Memorial Box Monday

This is going to be a bit of a different type of Memorial...not so much an event, but a slow miracle that took place in my heart and mind over a long period of time.

I used to be afraid of things I could not control. Everyone probably is to some degree, but I was REALLY afraid. I worried about losing Jeff, or one of the kids, other family members, etc. I fought the feeling a lot, but often found myself re-arranging circumstances to 'protect' my family.

When I was growing up, I often heard people say that we shouldn't worry--and that we should just "leave things in God's hands." To be perfectly honest, it really used to bug me! I knew people who loved God and very tragic things happened to them. So how was 'putting it in God's hands,' going to help? I thought they meant that if I put it in God's hands, nothing bad would happen.

At some point, I began to pray that God would deliver me from my fears. They had begun to take over my life. You know...God has a funny way of answering our prayers sometimes! He took me up on my request and began to lead me down some unfamiliar paths and into circumstances that forced me to learn to trust Him. Most of those were related to our adoptions. Time and again, He led us into impossible situations. Sometimes He removed the difficulty and sometimes He just held our hands while we wept at a loss. There is a song that has a line,

"Sometimes He calms the storm
And sometimes He calms His child."

Either way, I began to realize that being in God's hands was the best possible place to be. If He led us into a difficulty that ended the way we hoped--we rejoiced. If He led us into a difficulty that ended in a way we didn't like, we ran into His arms and cried. We experienced His comfort and His love in new ways. Slowly, slowly, He taught me to trust Him. He gave us many experiences to look back on and marvel at how He had written our story.

Does this mean that I never fear? No. But He has freed me from ridiculous, paralyzing fears of things that I cannot control.

At the moment, we know we are going to be imminently transferred to the Boston area. We aren't sure where we will live, if our house (here) will sell, and we won't know a soul within 500 miles. But this I do know...God is leading us there so we are not alone. He has things for us to learn there that we could not learn any other way. It may be a hard time in our lives--it may not be--but either way, I know it will be for our overall good. (Remind me of this if necessary! haha) I know it WILL be really hard to say good-bye to my parents and siblings, whom I have been privileged to live near for the past four years. wah.

Into the memorial box will be a note with this verse written:
"I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34: 4

He is still in the process of delivering me from ALL my fears because I still have some. He does that because He loves me and wants me to be able to love Him with freedom and reckless abandon...The same way that Kate now loves me after we spent 2.5 weeks in the hospital together. Prior to that, she loved me, but our bond has deepened dramatically since her surgery. It makes my heart go to mush to see how relaxed and happy she is. She has started calling out to me at random times, "Mommy! I love you!" Her little heart has filled with love, not only for me, but also for her family. She shouts 'I love you,' to her siblings, also.

I find that the more I am able to trust and love God, the more I am able to love those around me. I know I have a long ways to go, but I also know that God will keep working on me.

baby Mason update

Jeff and I went up to the hospital last night to see baby Mason. His surgery went well. He has been having some issues with blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels, so he will have to stay on the vent for a few days. He was sleeping when I saw him and is so amazingly tiny and precious. It is quite a challenge emotionally for his parents to see him have to go back on the vent, morphine and get a new chest tube. They cannot hold him when he is on the vent, and you can imagine how hard that is for them.

His mama will be spending most of the week alone as daddy, sister, and grandma head home for a few days.

Thank you for your prayers for this sweet family! Mason's website is here.

I won! I won!

"It's a major award!"
Snicker....

If you know me very well, you will know that I love to quote movie lines. My husband and I could practically have an entire conversation just trading our favorite lines. We often crack each other up with a movie line inserted into a stressful situation.

Every time anyone in our family wins anything, we all yell, "It's a major award." You may recognize that line from "A Christmas Story."

About a week ago, I noticed that a local store was having a Mother's Day photo contest. I stopped by to get the rules and when I asked a few questions, the employee said, 'Well, I'm not sure because we haven't gotten any entries."

I looked at her shrewdly and stated the obvious, "So, I have an excellent chance of winning then."

She nodded.

I walked away smirking and returned a day later with my entry.

And I won!

Of course, I was the ONLY entry as far as I know. Baahahahahahahahaha Hey...before you laugh at me, I'll have you know that I now have a $20 gift card for Applebees in my possession, as my 'major award.'

As I left to pick up my prize, Taylor asked me if I was going to come home with a leg lamp. I've trained him well...

And here is my (cough) winning entry--although it was in brown sepia, rather than black and white:

Random pictures that I just feel like posting

My mom gave me a real stethoscope for Mother's Day and I'm not sure who is more thrilled...Molly or me!!!


"Wook, Mom, I hab a katebowd." (I hear this 20 times a day!)





His middle name is "Mischief," which is pretty obvious, isn't it?

My Dad

This is my Dad. :) I am requesting prayers for him on several fronts. One...he is going to India on May 26th on a mission trip with Advancing Native Missions (ANM). They are traveling to Orissa, which has been the site of much horrible persecution of Christians in the past year or so. He applied for his visa as a 'tourist' as instructed by ANM. Two days ago, he received word that his visa application was denied and that he needed to apply as 'missionary.' ANM has never had a problem with this before and they are doing all that they can to get my dad a visa. The Indian embassy said it would 'take a long time' to get the proper visa issued. Well, my dad doesn't have 'a long time.' He needs the visa in his hand by May 23rd, to be able to get on the plane on the 26th. Please pray that God will make this happen!!

My dad also has diabetes and the trip could be very hard on him. Please pray that he will stay healthy. The team is going to be running ragged for the 2.5 weeks that they are in India, so they need God's strength to get them through it.

I will try to post updates on the trip (before and during) to give you a glimpse into the situation there for our sweet Christian brothers and sisters in India.

When my dad returns from India, he will be undergoing cryosurgery for aggressive prostate cancer. Please pray that it is successful and that it doesn't spread before he can have the surgery. His doctor said it was okay to wait until he returned from India.

Things I Never Thought I'd Say, See, or Experience

*The other day at the grocery store I actually had the fleeting thought, "I wonder if someday I will be buying Depends and Pampers at the same time."

*I have hair that has a mind of it's own. If I don't blow dry it immediately after getting out of the shower, it will not turn out right. No one wants a bad hair day. The moment I turn on my blow dryer, Zoey walks into the bathroom. She then begins to dance around and motion that she needs to go potty.
She.
Does.
This.
Every.
Day.
It's like the sound of the blow dryer signals her bladder to drain. I have to stop what I'm doing and pull her pants down--which is no small feat. She is a chubby little thing and her clothes have to be tugged and pulled before they will go down. Coming up is even harder. I set her on the toilet and she pinches out a minuscule few drops, smiles and says, "Done!" Why I fall for this every day, I have no idea.

*I never thought I would let a child out of the house with two different flip-flops on. (I did this unknowingly.)
*I never thought that a year later, in a moment of desperation, I would actually SUGGEST that one of my kids just grap two unmatching pairs of flip-flops.

*I never thought I would take a photo of the word, "Poop" that one of my teens wrote in the dust on our table. When I was a kid, we weren't even ALLOWED to say the word, "Poop." Gasp....

Happy Birthday to our sweet Jillian!

It's Jillian's birthday today. I can't believe she is 10, 'cause I'm sure we just came home from China with her about 10 minutes ago. *Sigh* Where does the time go?

She came bouncing down the stairs this morning, grinning from ear to ear. She is so excited to be turning 10! A few of her friends are coming over for cake and Grandma and Grandpa are coming for dinner.


Waiting in China for Mommy and Daddy


First Father/Daughter dance with Daddy


Eskimo kisses with Mama

May God continue to bless your life, sweet girl. We are thankful that God has graced our home with you.

Memorial Box/Thankful Thursday

I'm combining these two categories into one this week because I have another cool God story about Kate's surgery.

When she was in surgery, we were sitting in a circle just talking and trying to pass the time. Suddenly, my dad interrupted the conversation and said,

"I just had an overwhelming feeling that we need to pray for Kate right now." And so we did.

Later we learned, as they were closing her up, a stitch on her new pulmonary patch broke, causing heavy bleeding. As you know, it took them an hour and a half to get the bleeding stopped and she required a blood transfusion. Our oh-so-calm-take-everything-in-stride-surgeon said, "It got very bad for awhile."

Well, last Friday, I went to get my hair cut. My stylist immediately asked how Kate was. I was amazed that she remembered because she has many clients, and I'm sure that there are others who have health issues going on in their lives.

I began to tell her the story of how Kate's surgery went and when I told her about Kate bleeding heavily, she got goose bumps on her arms and said,
"That day, I suddenly had an overwhelming thought that I needed to stop everything I was doing and pray for Kate. Now I know why."

I just thought it was so cool. God is amazing!

We are so thankful for friends, family, and strangers who have given of their time to stop and pray for a little girl in need. It is awesome how God pulls us all together to pray and support each other.

U of M visit

Saying good-bye to Big Bird on the way out of the hospital

I am very happy to report that Kate had a wonderful post-op visit today. She doesn't need any more bandages (yay!) and we are going to try taking her from twice-a-day Lasix (diuretic), to once a day. Her Coumadin and baby aspirin will be for life, which we already knew. We don't have to go back for a month! We are so thankful that God answered our prayers for Kate and believe that her fast, and continued healing has been miraculous.

I know that not every child who is prayed for is miraculously healed. I do not pretend to know all the answers, but I know that God has His own plans for each of us. For our family, He wanted Kate in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and then He brought her home. We are thrilled, but know that if He had planned for her to be there longer, He would have provided for our needs. We do believe that God miraculously dried up the flow of her chest tubes and we are in awe of that.

We stopped by to see baby Mason...and oh, does he need prayers. He had orders to leave PICU and go to the regular floor last Friday, but there were no beds available all weekend. Monday, he started having difficulty and they found out that some of the stitches on his right diaphragm had come out. (His right diaphragm was nicked during surgery, which has permanently paralyzed it. This prevents his lung from inflating properly. They had stitched his diaphragm down, to help his chest muscle begin to compensate. It is hoped that this will be successful, but the doctors just don't know if it will work.)

They will now have to go back in and re-stitch the diaphragm down. He will have to go back on the vent, back on morphine, etc. It is such a discouraging set-back for his family. They sure could use prayers...and have mentioned how encouraging it was to have you guys post comments on their website. Thank you sooo much for doing that--and please, would you go do it again? I saw tears today from his family and it was just so heartbreaking. Mason is so tiny--but he is fighting hard. He will have to stay in PICU for awhile. The doctors have told his family to plan to stay in the hospital until early June. Mason's dad said, "So, unless something miraculous happens, we're going to be here awhile." Well...lets pray for something miraculous!!

Dots and Arm Dangle

Woohoo! We don't care about our arm dangle, 'cause we are lovin' life!

I seriously would like to know how I went from a scrawny-armed, 30-something, to a 40-something with droopy arm dangle. I noticed it the other day. Eeek...

Several weeks ago, my daughter was telling me about a little girl at school who had dots in her cheeks. I told her that those are called dimples and that I had them as well.

"Where?" she said.
"Right here, see?" I smiled.
"Mom," she said, looking genuinely puzzled, "You don't have dots. You have lines."

I rushed to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and flashed myself a smile. Sure enough...no dots. Instead, those cute little dots had been replaced with inch-long LINES.

I have no idea when I went from dots to lines... It seems to have happened overnight. Still...I wouldn't want to go back in time to get those dots and scrawny arms back. I like being in my 40's, even with my lines, arm dangle, and other not-so-lovely body changes! A friend of mine once shared an amusing quote, "I'm still hot. It just comes in flashes now." haha