A war on international adoption

Tom Davis weighs in on the war against international adoption. Isn't the right to a family a basic human need?

A war on international adoption

Golf lessons

Found this tonight when I came downstairs.

Sunday Morning Playtime

I was in Nashville the end of last week for the Empowered To Connect conference (loved it!). If you can ever make it to one of these, do it! It is so worth the time, expense and effort. Anyways, I came upstairs on Sunday morning and found 3 children playing quietly and contentedly. I had to get it on video.

Happy 32nd Birthday!

Matt turned 32 today, but we had to celebrate last night due to a crazy, busy schedule this week. Matt gets to celebrate today by attending a forum on the State insurance changes for 2012 (oh fun!) and this afternoon preparing for and then attending a board meeting. Sorry your day hasn't been much fun, Honey, but know we love you!

The Peanut Gallery always willing to help!

I bought Matt the T*ger Woods 2012 golf game for the Wii-WAY too much $$ for a video game, but he really wanted it and the poor man doesn't ask for much out of this life.

The kids got him a pack of his favorite candy bar.

Matt's parents & sister went in to buy him Wii Mario Cart, which the kids REALLY wanted, but I'm hoping will be hours of fun this winter when we are all shut indoors.

Chloe helping Dad figure out this new game.

Beautiful Girls

Chloe

Essie

Had to share these pics from our friend Cydil. She got some great pics of the girls the other day & posted a bunch more on her blog.

The Truth About UNICEF

A good read:

http://www.aaronklein.com/2011/09/the-war-against-international-adoption/

A Fun Friday Afternoon

We have been so blessed to have the Bellew family move to Wimore this summer. I did their home study for their 2 daugthers from Liberia but they lived 2 hours away at that time. They now live 2 minutes away and their Elementary age kids ride the same school bus as our kids. We decided to have Nathan and Margaret over after school on Friday and everyone was sad when it was time for them to go home. Enjoy the pics!

Everything's Changing

After Chloe saw the new grill the other night she said, "Everything's changing. We're getting all new stuff." Little did she know that another change was about to happen. We ordered a couch almost 2 months ago and after much delay, it was delivered today while the kids were at school. I think you can see from the picture below, we just about worn through the hand-me-down couch that we've had the last few years. So when we got our tax refund this year, I new couch was high on my wish list.

Yes, it's huge and its chocolate brown and it takes up a lot of space in our family room, but I don't care, I love it!

UPDATE: I had to add this picture below. Its what I found when I came downstairs for movie night. Even Caesar found his spot on the new couch and he's snoozing away right next to me now as I type.

I had to add these pictures too. Everyone keeps asking me how the kids are doing with all this transition. We had milkshakes tonight after supper to celebrate well....to celebrate that we all love milkshakes. I found these cool glasses that I had tucked away in the cupboard because well...I only had 3 of them. Anyways, I think I got them at G**dwill years ago but I thought they were so cute that I had to post a picture of them.

I think these pictures tell you how the kids are these days. We are seeing a lot more affection from and between the kids. Don't get me wrong...they are still kids and we have our daily squabbles, but the black cloud has lifted from our house and we see many more smiles these days.

Flooding in New York

Forgot to mention in previous post that I also found out last week that the place where I grew up in New York flooded last week due the the hurricanes. I have lots of family members still living there and my elderly grandparents basement flooded. No one had electricity since last Wednesday. I know these images aren't as shocking as those coming out of Vermont, but when you know these streets like I do, its still shocking.

Again...Seriously!?!?!?

I cannot even believe this has happened to me twice in one month, but I went to mow the lawn last night, a mouse jumped out of the lawnmower as soon as I moved it. Luckily, I've been through this before so before I even started the mower, I tore it apart and guess what I found...YEP, another mouse nest. I did make Matt come take the nest out because I was sure there would be some hairless, nasty babies in there, but there weren't. Just a lot of grass and shredded paper. Anyone have any suggestions for keeping mice out of your lawnmower???? I think I'll just sprinkle the base of it with Decon.

On a much shinier note, we got a new grill! Yay, end-of-season clearance sales! Our old grill was a hand-me-down from a friend a few years ago and boy had it seen better days. Note in the picture below the rust spots, overhead rack that no longer hung, and the white base where it was actually disintegrating.

Matt put together about 1,200 pieces last night and when I came in from mowing...da...da...da...DA...here's what I found!

(note: this picture was taken this morning when we moved the grill outside. By the time I got done mowing and Matt finished putting together the grill...it was well past dark outside.)

I pray this glorious grill tops off a week of mechanical defects for us. After returning home last Monday, we found that our full (& very gross) dishwasher would not work. We knew it was a problem with a breaker or circuit or something because we also had 2 outlets in the kitchen not working also. After a week with no dishwasher (& all you mommas know what a pain that is), a random neighbor person came and fixed the problem in 10 minutes. On Friday, I went outside to leave for work and discovered the car had a flat tire. Providentially, Matt had not gone to work that morning because he had to take AJ to an appointment while I was at work. So Matt ran to the tire store on a half flat tire and got it fixed (stupid nail!) before running back to Wilmore to pick up AJ for his appointment. On Saturday, Matt & I threw our old couch onto the lawn (very KY, I know) and while Matt ran to Lexington to pick up our new couch (which arrived 3 weeks late), I frantically re-arranged and cleaned our living room in preparation for the new couch. Matt arrived at the furniture warehouse only to discover that the couch was not the color we had ordered. So after a series of phone calls, the furniture company promised to deliver (free of charge) the correct couch this Friday (I'm not holding my breath). Sunday, we attended a lovely ET New Year celebration (Happy 2004!) and on the way home, Matt & the kids were re-ended. No one was hurt (PTL!) and the car's bumper is the only casualty.

Needless to say, these are all first-world problems, but man, it can wear a girl (& her husband) out. We praise the Lord for a new week, and beautiful weather here in Central Kentucky! We are doing well as a family and thank God for all our friends and family who continue to uphold us in prayer.

Skater Dude (& Dudettes)

We are loving to cooler temps here in KY lately. I caught AJ teaching the girls how to ride his skateboard this afternoon after school. Everyone has been asking how the kids are handle this transition time and for the most part, they have been handling it very well. Kids are resilient and our kids have been through way more transition than most. Thank you for all your continued prayers. We feel them holding us up.

After the Airport

I needed to read this today and I think you do to...

After the Airport

I always tell my clients that adoption is not a sprint; its not a marathon; its a journey. The best part for us as Believers is that we have the Almighty God to guide us on this journey. We are resting in His arms today and finding that His peace is renewing us moment by moment. Thank you for all your e-mails, voicemails, and prayers. As Aaron did with Moses, we are relying on you all to hold our arms up in this time when we no longer have the strength to do it ourselves. Praise be to God!

The Hardest Post

This is a horribly difficult post to write. Some of our closest family and friends will know that there have been some significant problems in our house. We have tried not to focus on those things here on our blog for obvious reasons. However, the reality for some time has been that one member of our family was not thriving.

After much careful thought and prayer – and consultation with professionals and friends – we have come to the difficult decision that Mickey would be best served in another family. This decision was made out of concern for him and for the other three children in our home. Mickey is currently staying in another state and will not return to live with us. His needs – physical, emotional, and spiritual – are going to be met.

We won’t go into detail here about all the things that led to this – that wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved. We are asking that our friends, family, and blog readers would keep us in your prayers – our family here at home and Mickey in his new home. We have already received some confirmation that the right decision was made, but that still does not make it easy. There is a measure of sadness, but also an element of relief.

In the days to come, we will continue to try to minister healing in our children, who have experienced so much pain in their young lives. We know our God delights in redeeming the difficult. We are trusting in that faith and resting in the peace that only He can give.

All we hold is frail and brief, patched together by belief,
The pattern only partially revealed for us to see.
What are tears but seeds we sow? In fields unseen such harvests grow
Whose joys will one day overflow the measure of our grief.

If God is love, then love, we trust, is strong enough to hold our sorrow.
If God is love, He carries us. We will not fear what comes tomorrow.
Love will heal us, for God is love.

Birthday Party #2

The girls had another birthday celebration Sunday with the Indiana side of the family. No such thing as too much birthday for these girls:

Aunt Jen putting together an awesome Snow White cake.

Grandpa at the grill

Dad with cousin Shelby

It has definitely been a Rapunzel birthday this year - the girls love the movie!

A Fun Little Detour

AJ is staying with friends in Kentucky, and Mickey is staying with friends in Wisconsin, and Mom, Dad, and the girls are at Meemaw and Grandpa's in Indiana for the long holiday weekend. After dropping off Mickey in Chicago, we decided to take a little detour to Lake Michigan to let the girls put their feet in the water on what may be the last 90-degree weekend of the year.

Racing Ababa up the hill to see what the big surprise is.

A beach!

Enjoying the sand between our toes.

The girls were excited to find a few pretty rocks to take home with them.

Happy (Early) Birthday, Essie & Chloe!

The girls' birthday is Sunday, but with a busy weekend of travel ahead, we went ahead and celebrated with the Kentucky side of the family on Thursday night.

Rapunzel cake baked by Mom and decorated by Dad.

The girls are huge Rapunzel fans.

Blowing out six candles!

Essie shows off the Tangled napkins.

New Kentucky shirts!

Aunt Buffy gave a great gift for young readers - Tag pens that read the story with you!

Some "princes" to go with the princess collection.

Trying out the new Tag pen.