Happy Birthday Grace!

She is 6 years old today. Wow - I have a 6 year old. She was so happy with her cake(for which I am extremely thankful.) It only took us 2 cans of frosting, 8 small baggies, a couple of toothpicks and lots of napkins. Note: We have zero professional cake decorating tools. Maybe we should put that on our wish list. We are going to have a lot of birthday's around here in the next 20 years.

You are growing up so fast my little one. I am proud of you and who you are becoming. My the Lord richly bless your life to His glory. We love you and will love forever ... no matter what!

Very interesting...

Thanks Matthew for finding this.

Homeschool, needlework, and Adie

We have started homeschooling early this year so that we can take time off once the boys come in November. As you can see, things can get out of hand...even when they have all disappeared. I think they are playing on the floor around the corner. The winner of this week's favorite toy is a box full of poker chips. (I think they are one of my brothers, but they never claimed them at my mom's so I took them to be counting chips.) They love to sort, stack, make patterns, and build with them...I would have never thought there were so many uses!


This was a first lesson in needle art. Flour sacks, needle, and string equals loads of fun while Adie took her nap.

They were so proud of themselves saying things such as, "Mom, I bet Laura Ingalls Wilder did the same thing as us."

Adie had a great day and I can't believe how easy it is to get things done when I have a cooperative 2 year old who doesn't throw tantrums or get into anything. (Yesterday it was Elmer's glue on the carpet). She played so nicely this morning that I didn't know whose child I had. She loved those poker chips that I was talking about earlier. I am praying for another good day tomorrow!

On the go Monday

We are on the go today. We finished school this morning and now are off to Great Grandma's farm to pick our own sweet corn. I wonder how much we will pick? Depends on how long the little munchkins last. Then we will be canning...can you say yum?

Yesterday we were at Great Grandpa and Grandma's 50th Wedding Anniversary. People came out of the woodwork to celebrate with them! From my estimates there were over 300 people there. (that was bigger than our wedding) It made me think of how excited I am to spend 50 years with Carl. What stories will have been written and where in the world is God going to take us? It is an adventure that I am looking forward to!

What are you really thinking when...

When we tell people that we are adopting two little boys and have three little girls already, then they look at me wide eyed and eyebrows raised and say, "Boy, you are going to be really busy!"

Now I would like to translate what they are thinking in that split nanosecond...

"Oh my goodness...she is crazy...she is never going to sleep....how in the world is she going to handle all that crying, fusing, fighting, food preparing, laundry, llama drama, shuttling, and shoe tying...oh I am so glad I am not doing that."

To which I reply, "I know that already, but God says I don't need to worry about tomorrow, I just need to enjoy all the hugs, kisses, snuggles, smiles and laughter of today."

New Fabric @ Wings

I finally did it - I posted all my new fabric for nursing shawls and headscarves. Go and check it out at AdoptionWings.


I am going to do a big push of my sales before the boys come in November. My life might get a little busier and sewing probably won't be a high priority with 5 little ones running around. So - it is never too early to think about Christmas or those great little gifts for teachers or stocking stuffers for little girls.

Also, I would love ideas of colors and patterns you would like me to look for while shopping. Picking out fabric raises my blood pressure and not many other things do. I don't know why it totally stresses me out ....I feel like I am marrying this fabric and I better make the right choice when in all reality it is just a piece of cloth that my kids could play dress up with if it turn out to be a dud! This is where I can annoy myself - too much of a type A.

Looking forward to your orders!

Court Date!

We officially have a court date of October 14th, Lord willing if both boys pass court that means we travel the first week in November.

Pray that they pass!

Special time

I sent off Grace and Lydia tonight for a week at the ranch. They are so excited to go and dig for dinosaur bones because we have been learning about archeology in school.

This means that Adie was left with me. She is going to have her special time at the ranch over Labor day weekend while I take the girls to Lifelight Music Festival in Sioux Falls.

What a difference only one little girls makes in the house. It is so QUIET here. We went for a walk at 8pm because Adie is a night owl. We read stories about Clifford - the big red dog and cleaned up her bedroom.

I think this will be the last time Adie will have this much one on one time. So, this week, I am going to enjoy my beautiful 2 year old.

Rollercoaster

I honestly don't know if I can take much more of this.

Now we need to wait until Monday for news.

After a good cry, I am now okay and ready to wait some more.

Could today be it?

We were told that today we would find out our court date. I write this with hesitancy because I know my heart has been a little numb week after week of waiting. I really want to believe it, but then little parts of me think that there will be one more reason why we don't have a date. Today I am trying to focus on the fact that God already knows the date and I need to trust He will let me know at the very best time.

Today we are going to enjoy the warm weather that finally made it up here by going to the lake again. I am so blessed that it is only 1/2 hour away and we can go pretty much anytime.

Plus I am doing something that moms of very small children don't get to do very often. I am going out for coffee with some ladies this morning. The sitter is hired and I am looking forward to some great fellowship!

Lake Day

We are going to the lake today, hopefully I will be able to snap some cute pictures.

Side note: Does anyone want my copy of "The Forgotten 500" I will mail it to you.

Filed. Now we wait.

We were officially filed for court, now we wait for them to issue the date. I was told hopefully by the end of the week, we should know when our court date will happen.

Entertaining

The past two weekends, we have had the privilege of entertaining two fantastic families. I really enjoy having people over to our house and trying to bless them with a relaxing weekend. (Now, I admit that I tell them to dig in my cupboards to look for things that they might need, help themselves to anything in the bathroom that they might have forgotten, and to really feel at home by lying around and doing nothing.) So, my work is not really hard at all, mostly just open the door and welcome them in and then try all sorts of new recipes on them. (Unless your the Stacey children...I can make you Peanut butter and Jelly for every meal:)

Tonight Carl and I are going to try to have a movie date. This has been tricky the past 3 -4 months because Adie can't seem to fall asleep before 9 or 10 pm. We tried not letting her take an afternoon nap yesterday and all I can say was that it didn't work out so well. Major meltdown at 4:30...literally lost her mind. Then she fell comatose asleep on the couch for a half an hour and I tired to wake her for another half hour. Needless to say, she was still up until 9:30 last night. Lesson learned: Let Adie take and nap and just admit that she is a night owl and put her to bed later.

I am still praying for good news tomorrow because our director of the agency is back in Ethiopia. She was going to personally go down to the courts to see what she could do. Pray for a miracle.

More waiting...

We were told, yet again, that we would need to wait until Monday for any updates.

This is painful, but not as painful as Jesus dying on the cross for my sins. I need to keep my perspective. Help me Lord, not to loose sight of you through all of this.

Prayer

When God's people pray, He gets the glory. We surrender our thoughts, worries, joys, pain and lives over to him. It is amazing. Last night, people were praying all over the world thanks to the technology of the facebook and the blog. I am humbled beyond words to know that so many people were praying for our children and for the others affected with no court dates.

I looked up the word, "pray" on biblegateway.com and did you know that there are 365 references to prayer? How crazy is that! One for each day! and when the New Testament was written there was a 10 month calendar...our God is relevant now. He is the beginning and the end knowing all that was and all that will be. He knew I would be sitting at my computer looking up prayer today. He knew my boys would still be in Africa. In all of that, he wants me to pray so that He would get the glory.

Today I am on my knees, pleading with God to do a miracle. And at the end of the day, no matter what happens, God is still God. He is perfect and working for my good.

Prayer Tonight!

Tonight is the night where we are having a prayer meeting at our house for our adoption as well as many others who are in the same place as us. Please set your watch for 8:15 if you can't join us in our living room.

"Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever."

There is a peace knowing that I can't to anything without God. It is not by my strength that our boys will come home, but it God's perfect timing. He knows the number of days and I shall not worry.

I did it.

Yesterday I put pictures of the boys up in photo frames. I don't know what was really holding me back. I guess I thought they would be in our family by the end of the summer and I wanted to have those perfect pictures for the wall. Now when I mean perfect, I am not saying that they are clean, non-stained clothes, or even smiling...I love when we capture the "look" of our children. One of my favorites of Adie, is of her standing and looking up at us with two braids and her pink underwear on. (For Adie, clothes are optional most of the time...this is my daughter and I love her.)

We still do not have a court date. There are still rumors that the courts will close for September.

And I am praying for a miracle.

God knows my heart and I will trust and obey today.

Update on the sunscreen

One of my very friendly readers informed me of the dangers of all the chemicals in sunscreen.

So I found one that does not contain Oxybenzone! yahoo!

What you want is the active ingredients to be Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide.


Neutrogena pure and free baby has just that!

Chainsaw

Grace: "Mom, are you going to chainsaw that ham?"

Me: "You mean use the electric knife to cut it into pieces."

Grace: "Yeah, whatever its called."

New Routine

I am turning 30 at the end of the month and I started to think that I haven't done much for my skin lately. Yes, I know that I am supposed to put sunscreen on, yet I usually don't. I really do want to have healthy skin when I am 40,50, 60 and beyond. If I want this, then I need to be proactive now to gain the results later. (This concept has parallels to so many areas of my life.)

So, I have started putting SPF 70 on every morning. I have successfully done this for 1 week. Now just 14 more days and hopefully I will have created a natural habit!

Go put it on your Target list...your skin will thank me later:)