Happy St. Patrick's Day!

True, I could probably melt my boys down to their molecular level and not glean an ounce of Irish blood between them combined.  But that doesn't change the fact that their mother does have a significant amount of Irish in her, and very few St. Pat's days went by in my youth where leprechaun traps weren't laid out.  So, for the sake of multicultural appreciation and family tradition, we spent the evening making leprechaun traps with the boys.  

Tim was very involved and managed to fabricate some intricate traps complete with rainbows and shamrocks to lure the leprechauns, foamy green hands to catch them, rubber bands to tie them up and tickle the little green men until they reveal the secret location of their gold, and a black pot to store the loot.  

When the boys wake up they will discover that the wily leprechauns can't be caught even with the best trap but will obnoxiously leave some gold for the boys to enjoy on the way to their preschool St. Patrick's Day party.  

It was a fun evening full of green, shamrocks, funny hats, and creativity.  My mom is in town for a few days, and the boys are enjoying their time with her.  More pics of that later, including our trip to the beach.  Have a great St. Pat's, especially those of you in St. Louis where they know how to celebrate it right!  

DAY 1...

OUR DOSSIER LEFT AMERICA TODAY AND IS MAKING ITS WAY TO ETHIOPIA!!!  YAY!!!  WE ARE NOW SIMPLY WAITING FOR THE REFERRAL OF A BABY.  TECHNICALLY,WE ARE WAITING FOR THE CHILD U.S. CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION APPROVED US FOR: A BABY OF EITHER GENDER AGED 0-6 MONTHS.  CELEBRATE CHILDREN (OUR AGENCY) CALLED TODAY AND SAID THAT WE ARE THIRD IN LINE WAITING FOR AN INFANT, SO THE WAIT SHOULDN'T BE TOO LONG. IN REALITY, OUR CHILD IS LIKELY ALREADY BORN, SO PLEASE PRAY FOR HIS OR HER WELL-BEING, JOURNEY TO THE ORPHANAGE, HIS OR HER BIRTH FAMILY, AND THE MIRACLE THAT GOD WILL PERFORM BY PLACING THIS AFRICAN CHILD INTO OUR AMERICAN HANDS SO THAT ONE OF HIS SOULS CAN FULFILL THE PURPOSE HE WAS CREATED FOR.  THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS...

IT'S OUT OF MY HANDS!

FED-EX TOOK OUR COMPLETE DOSSIER TO CARING HANDS COURIER SERVICE TODAY!!!  CARING HANDS HAND CARTS IT AROUND D.C. TO ALL OF ITS NECESSARY STOPS AND THEN SENDS IT BACK TO OUR AGENCY WHO WILL THEN SEND IT TO AFRICA!!!  SO VERY VERY SOON, WE WILL BE "PAPER READY" AS THE ADOPTION SAYING GOES, AND READY FOR A REFERRAL!  YAY!!!  THIS PAPER CHASING PHASE TOOK MUCH LONGER THAN EXPECTED THIS ROUND...MUST BE A VERY SPECIAL BABY ON THE WAY INDEED!

Sharing

I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder lately.  It's the biography of Dr. Paul Farmer who is world-renown for his work with TB in Haiti and other extremely poor places.  

His philosophy, and method, for eradicating TB from these hotspots is simple: Share the money from the West, where these diseases are wiped-out, with countries that don't have the money to wipe them out.  He is a master fund raiser and philanthropist finder, and this, plus genuinely loving each patient with the love of Christ, has led to immense success in Haiti.  It says of Haiti in his biography

How could a just God permit great misery?  The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: 'Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe,' in literal translation, 'God gives but doesn't share.'  This meant, as Farmer would later explain it, 'God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot.   That charge was laid upon us.'   Liberation theologians had a similar answer: 'You want to see where Christ crucified abides today?  Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that's where He is.'  Liberation theology, with its emphasis on the horrors of poverty and on redressing them in the here and now, its emphasis on service and remediation, seemed to fit the circumstances of Haiti.  And it suited Farmer temperamentally because, for all his scholarship and interest in theories, his strongest impulses were pragmatic.  He would tell me years later, with undeniable accuracy, 'I'm an action kind of guy.'

Tim and I went to a John Clayton apologetics seminar this weekend and listened to highly scientific lectures on Does God Exist?  How Old is the Earth? The Symbiosis of Science and Theology, and finally, Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?  You can read about most of these at www.doesgodexist.org.  The simplest lecture was by far the last one.  Why is there evil?  Because there is good.  If there is good, there must be an absence of good, which is evil. Why is there pain?  Because there is pleasure.  When pleasure is no where to be found, there lies pain.  This is logical and true for everything from matter and anti-matter to cookies in the cookie jar.  Any theologian (and most missionaries) have studied this in-depth.  C.S. Lewis covered it in The Problem of Pain, and I actually wrote a final paper in a missiology class titled, "What to say when a non-Christian says, "I don't believe in God because of pain in the world." It's a question that baffles many, but the answer is really simple.  So is the solution: SHARE!

So, since pain, suffering and evil cannot be stopped in a world where there is a living God, isn't it then the Christian's duty to share some of his or her pleasure, health and goodness?  Or joy, empathy, love, food, time or money?  I think Jesus had a word for this: Compassion.  

Veronica Njeri lost two children to malaria.  Kenya

This child is safe because of a $5-7 mosquito net donated by UNICEF

By REUBEN KYAMA and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: October 9, 2007

We've been inspired lately to share more-more time, more knowledge, more truth, more money, more whatever we've been blessed with.  Afterall, all the food, all the money, all the medicine, all the workers and evangelists the world needs are already here.  They just aren't spread around for everyone to use them.  Before I have the boys load up the truck with one more load of their toys to share with kids that don't have as many-using Goodwill as the go-between-we need to share some too.  We've been convicted lately that sharing isn't a lesson just for children.

Winter "Fish Bubbles"

We are ready for March's lamb!  I know I can hardly complain considering that it hasn't snowed here at all this year-wait-we had a flurry the other day, and it rarely gets below thirty degrees, even at night.  However, we've noticed that temperatures lower than fifty degrees do not mix well with C.'s asthma.  

He has had to have regular nebulizer treatments this winter.  Thankfully, the treatments, along with his prescriptions, have stayed off any actual asthma attacks.  Prayerfully, the warmer weather to come in March will keep us from having to spend mornings attached to the neb. machine like we've doing lately.  But, C. doesn't seem to mind as long as he can hold the "fish bubbles" (the mask is a plastic fish) and dance around the room to "Choo Choo Soul"!   This one is NEVER still or discouraged!  He has started to tell us, after a coughing fit or when his breath is wheezy, that he wants fish bubbles. That's a good sign-that he can recognize the symptoms himself and take action to breathe better.  So, we've enjoyed a lot of indoor play when it's "cold" (relative word, I know...) lately.  

March should be better though.  Tim's best friend will be here next week (he's here a week every 2-3 months for work); I'll turn 31 (yikes!), but it's better than 39 or the alternative, so I'll have a good attitude about it!  My mom (Lola to the boys because that's grandma in Tagalog) will be here; St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner, daylight savings time begins, and hopefully, some warmer weather!   Happy March! 

Room shift

Our house has undergone a massive shift.  The need for transition began because the boys destroyed their room every night.  I woke up each morning to EVERY toy dumped out, clothes thrown out of drawers, curtains pulled off the walls, sheets ripped off of beds...DISASTER! (see above)  It got so bad that C. hasn't been allowed to sleep in there for the past five months or so since he was the primary offender. I preferred him sleeping in the pack-n-play in the living room to cleaning that room up everyday! And before you say, "Those boys just need a good spanking!"-we've been there and done that. Didn't help.

  

In addition, we have a new addition coming our way this year and there is no way new baby is sleeping in the boy's room!  He or she needs a much more gentle environment.  So, we needed a new room.

Our grand plan?  Move ALL the toys from the boy's room into what used to be my study (above). All that is left now in the boy's room is the bed and their clothes.  What used to be my study is now a play room with a crib for the new baby-see below:

But...my study needed a new home.  So, we converted the screened in porch (that was primed and never painted and missing three screens from the dog) into a new study for me. We found a wonderful contractor who did an amazing job. We hired him to put in storm doors, a patio and a fence too! It took less than two weeks, and I love it!  It's off the kitchen and dining room and is painted the perfect "avacado" shade of green.  The electrician even got my my grandma's old telephone installed and working.

Here are some of my favorite parts: 

I'd like to say that all is well now, but the boys are having a very difficult time adjusting to sleeping in the same room again.  HOPEFULLY, after a week or two it will be smoother.  But on the bright side, C. is out of the living room, new baby has a bed, and I have a study.  

All we need now is the baby!

Why moms park their grocery carts in the middle of the aisle, thus annoying the now blocked-in retired old men trying to buy Metamucil:

Tim and I are getting tired of unplanned purchases.  It seems that everytime we go to the store C. manages to force us into a sale that we otherwise would never have considered.  The above is  a prime example.  Not that giant yellow rubber duck and three rainbow colored ducklings wouldn't have fit perfect under milk and above whole grain spaghetti noodles on our grocery list, mind you.  We just didn't budget for it.  

C. has had a fascination with ducks for as long as I can remember.  Where most toddlers moo like a cow before they develop the "q" sound, and can point a dog out of a barnyard lineup in the crawling stage of development, C. preferred to "Quack!"  Too many afternoons with bread at the pond maybe, but he has developed a love for ducks.  So it shouldn't have been a surprise when he grabbed this genetically disproportionate faux feathered...thing... off of the shelf, and in one deft motion, ripped open the attached embryonic mesh bag that held its pink, blue and green babies, sending them flying down the shampoo aisle.  We then spent a glorious fifteen minutes listening to a toddler-robbed of his hard work and cat-like sneaky skills-scream, "I want duckie!  Quack Quack!  I want it NOW!!!" Another happy trip to Walmart...

After C. made good choices for a day however, he was rewarded with his kidnapped duck, and they are currently inseparable. He feeds the duck (see above), talks to the duck, has the babies walk all around him (yes, he informed us that the big duck is the DADDY duck, NOT the mommy!), and wants to sleep with it.  

Clearly, our days of running into a store, buying the few things on our list, and walking out, are long since past!

How to Blow Away One of the World's Darkest Clouds:

C. and me: one week old

I was reading some adoption blogs lately and came across an interesting fact in a post that is circulating.  I looked it up, did the math myself (risky, I know....) and found it to be true.  Here it is:

There are 143 million orphans in the world, according to UNICEF.

There are 2 billion people who consider themselves Christians in the world, according to government censuses.  

All of these Christians are adopted, according to the Bible:

14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.   15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"  16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  17and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.    Romans 8:14-17

However, less than half of the 143 million orphans are adoptable because of insufficient paperwork (birth and death records, for example), religious laws forbidding adoption to Christian families (Muslim orphans), poor relations between the US and the orphan's government, or lack of a transparent adoption system in place to guarantee ethical adoption (Cambodia).

Therefore, if only 7% of Christians chose to adopt ONE child, all 143 million of the world's orphans would have a permanent safe home!  And since this is unrealistic because of the above listed reasons, if only THREE-yes- 3% of the world's Christians adopted ONE child, all adoptable orphans would have a permanent safe home and a forever family.  WHAT?!  That's all it would take?!  

Disclaimer: I firmly believe that not everyone is called to adopt-Christian or not.  But I also firmly believe that, at the very least, 3% of 2 billion Christians have been given this calling, especially since scripture defines the mark of pure Christianity as caring for orphans (see below)!  It's simply a matter of obeying the call and returning the enormous gift of adoption that God has given us to a child who needs a home.

Turns out some of the world's problems are easily fixed.  Peace in the middle east?  I have no idea.  But the orphan crisis???  This one should be easy.

27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27.

P.S. We got our I-171H in the mail this week!  (The paper from US Customs and Immigration that says we are cleared by them to adopt a child).  It says, "You have approval from the US to adopt one or two (twins) infants of either gender aged 0-6 months."  One step closer...and the I-171H is a HUGE step!  Thanks for your prayers.

What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin?

That was the question our music teacher, Mrs. Barth, posed to us in 3rd grade.  Like any self-respecting huddle of 3rd graders, we called her Mrs. Barf.  She taught me piano for awhile, and outside of the classroom, she wasn't so bad.  Anyway, I remember when I felt like I'd won a million donuts when I was the only one who could answer her question.  Donuts are yummy, but it's bad to have a million of them, and it was disastrous to my reputation (at least for that day) to reveal to my peers that I knew that much about not only orchestral instruments, but country music.  Oh well-we're products of our raising, I guess.  Now that I think of it, I still get made fun of for listening to some of this music!  But I listen to other genres as well-don't worry!  

The answer to the title question, as I'm sure you know, is that they are the same instrument.

But as an adult who for some reason is really drawn to folk and bluegrass lately-maybe because of places I've lived..., I know that isn't really true.  They aren't the same.  I knew this not to be true even when I played the violin.  When I played Mozart, it did NOT sound the same as a guy I dated who played the Orange Blossom Special.  

This difference is epitomized in the fiddler for The Old Crow Medicine Show.  I love these guys! This video is of Wagon Wheel-the old Bob Dylan tune-but they reworked it and added lyrics.  I love them because they are young, funky (click on the 2nd related video in line that comes up after this clip is over and you'll get a better taste of them, but the official video for this song didn't seem totally...appropriate... for the blog!)  They cross genres, harmonize, and the fiddler is a FIDDLER, not a classically trained violinist trying to pass as a fiddler like so many young players in string bands now.  Here's a comparison:

VIOLINISTS:

1. Violin is held high on the shoulder with chin on the chin rest.

2. Fingering wrist is straight under the neck.

3. Rosin is cleaned off of the instrument after every song.

4. Bow hold is delicate with pinky on frog.

5.  Vibrato.  Lots and lots of vibrato...

6. Play one string at a time, unless music marks otherwise.

FIDDLERS:

1. Violin is in front of them so they can see what they're doing.

2. Fingering wrist is bent into the neck.

3. Rosin cakes everything and bow hairs fly loose.

4. They tend to clutch the bow like a stick.

5. No vibrato.

6. That "fiddle" sound comes from playing more than one string at a time.

*In summary: violin-neat and tidy.  Fiddle-sloppy and messy.

They are not the same.  And I love them both.

Another funny thing about this song:  My boys love it.  They request it in the car, "Rock me, Momma!"  Obviously, they are gleaning an entirely different meaning from the chorus than OCMS intended, but that's the loveliness of children...innocence.  And I'm blessed to have two beautiful boys-one who is becoming quite the little cellist-who still love to be rocked by their mommy.

The African Children's Choir

The African Children's Choir assists in the well-being and education of Uganda's poorest children.  I cannot WAIT to bring our little Ethiopian light home!  

Tagged...again

I don't usually continue tags when people tag me, but I am at a complete loss of what to write about this week, so I'll do this one.  It's a Favorites survey for the artistic type.  I cut out some of the questions, as not to bore you too much, but here's a dozen or so.  I won't tag anyone, but feel free to steal the survey and post it for yourself if you feel so moved!

Favorite Instrument: Cello, of course.

Favorite Piece of classical music: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings-some say it's sad, but I think it's the most climactic, passionate piece ever written.  It's so enthralling to play that it's hard not to fall into a deep trance...gorgeous.

Favorite Movie: Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, in Italian, subtitled in English.  One of the few times I've felt truly patriotic is whenever I watch this movie and that tank comes around the corner.  I won't give it away, but if you've seen the movie, you know the scene to which I'm referring.  I bawled like a baby the first time I saw this movie!  It was the only movie I've been to where the entire audience-in the theatre-gave a standing ovation at the end. 

Trailer Here: http://www.moviesbox.us/drama/la-vita-e-bella 1997.html

Favorite Novel Old: How old is old?  Does East of Eden count as old?  Older than that?  Chopin's The Awakening, maybe.  Favorites are hard for me, especially when it comes to artsy things!  VERY much depends upon the season of life I'm in.

Favorite Novel New: How New is New? Too many to list...how about Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, or Graham

 Greene's Travels with my Aunt.

Favorite Short Story: Anything by Jumpa Lahiri in Interpreter of Maladies, or the classic The Lady or the Tiger by Stockton.  You can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml

Favorite Memory that influences your artistic work: Too personal to put on a public blog, but it has to do with love and freedom.

Favorite Literary Theme: Person vs. self

Favorite Childhood Tale: "In which Pooh invents a new game, and Eeyore joins in", from The House at Pooh Corner, Milne.  Absolutely hilarious!

Favorite Shakespearean Play:  Romeo and Juliet.  Trite, I know, but it's perfection.  A Mid-Summer Night's Dream is a close second.

Favorite Painting: The Dance Class by Degas, or Caillebotte's Floor Scrapers.  Definately something Impressionistic since I spent so many hours sitting on the floor of the Musee d'Orsay studying it for so long, and one can only

 really love a painting that one understands.

Favorite Artist: The Impressionists as a whole.  If I had to pick one...Gaugain?  Or Renoir?  Then there's Degas...  Not Monet.  Let's go with Gaugain.  He's the most intriguing.

Favorite Poem: Ode to a Chair, Pablo Neruda

Key lines: War is as vast as the shadowy jungle.

                   A single chair

                   is

                   the first sign

                   of

                   peace.

Though it loses the literary tools in English, especially the alliteration.  Here it is in Spanish:

                   La guerra es ancha como selva oscura

                   La paz

                 comienza

                   en

                   una sola

                   silla.

Favorite Poet: Robert Frost

Favorite Literary Tool to use: Assonance

Favorite Literary Tool to read: Symbolism

Favorite Artistic Error to Criticize: Lack of parallel structure.  That drives me nuts.  Or just bad writing in general.

Favorite line in a novel: "I'm watchin' God," Miss Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Favorite Setting: Anywhere exotic and relatively unknown.

Favorite  character: Jael, from the Bible (odd for a pacifist...).  Or Celeste in The Known World.  When she said, "I wonder if Moses done ate yet," my heart crushed.  Amazing.  Then there's Teacake, of course in Their Eyes Were Watching God...  

Oh this survey is way too difficult for someone like me!  Feel free to share some of your favorites with me.  That'll be the redeeming value of this post; I'll learn about you!   

Ethiopian Adoption Update

(ethiopian children photo courtesy of the UN)

It's been awhile since I've posted, but we're still here!  Here is the latest on our journey to baby #3:

Our original placing agency, Love Basket, after taking a month or so to evaluate the situation, informed us last week that they are not able to place children right now and the program is on hold indefinitely.  Therefore, we are obligated to find a new agency.   Fortunately, we were aware of this as a possibility during the month of wait, so I researched and chose two other agencies as possibilities for Plan B (Plan C, really, if you count Nepal).  Children's Home and Family Services was one, and Celebrate Children International is the other.

Children's Home is a large agency with a well established Ethiopia program.  The application process is extensive, a case worker isn't even assigned until several steps have been accomplished.  The wait times are 6-9 months-ish for a healthy baby.  They have successfully brought home hundreds of babies and have a guest house for families to stay in near their orphanage in Addis Ababa.  I recommend them highly if you are considering an Ethiopian adoption.

Celebrate Children is also a licensed agency, though their Ethiopia program is very new.  They have not yet brought home an Ethiopian child, though they are very close to having done so. The Ethiopian program director is a good friend of family-hi, Debbie!- and I am able to talk to her directly with any questions I have.  She is wonderful!  Their wait times are closer to the 3 month range for a healthy baby.  The orphanage they work through, Blessing the Children, is in the Kamashi region of Ethiopia.  You can view it, mostly the boys home-not the baby house-at this link:

http://www.blessingthechildren.org/kamashi.html

and the Celebrate Children link is

www.celebratechildren.org

Tim and I prefer the small agency.  The fees are about the same between these two options, and personally knowing a program director goes a long way in the trust department when considering an intercountry adoption.  So....we sent in our application to Celebrate Children last week.  We already have confirmation from them that they are checking our references.  We should have a contract this week or next, and then its the mad race to get the dossier completed so that we don't lose any more time.  Though we have some concern about the newness of CCI's program, Tim and I have a huge peace about this decision.  On the surface, it isn't very logical.  But after prayer and fasting, we KNEW that CCI was the agency for us.  And since their wait times are so short, our wait to bring baby home shouldn't be much different that we originally planned with Love Basket-around this summer.

Please pray as we embark on this third attempt to find the baby God has planned for us.  We aren't complaining because we don't want to bring home a child that isn't meant to be.  If our child is in Kamashi, as opposed to Addis Ababa, then  we will go to Kamashi-gladly!  Please pray that there are no more glitches, that the referrals that CCI has made already make it through court easily, that the children are well cared for in the orphanage while they wait to come home, and that God puts together the family He has intended for us.  Blessings,

What We're Doing in 2008

1. NOT replacing all of the screens in our windows that C. and Moon the dog have broken through in order to spend more time together. Why not? Because we would just have to do it again two days later. Maybe when all of our children, especially the boys, turn fifteen...no, make it twenty-five...we'll fix screens, windows, re-paint, buy new furniture and replace the carpet. It hardly seems like a good investment now!

2. Bringing home baby #3! (Lord willing)

3. Transforming our screened-in porch, which is now pretty much screen-less, into a room so that I can move my study there, and we'll have a nursery for the new baby. The contractor is supposed to start that in two weeks. Our first experience with a hired contractor... hmmmm...praying THAT goes well!

4. Doing our taxes, and taking advantage of the adoption $10,900 Federal tax credit per child, and using that return to pay for the room addition and the fees to new baby. God always provides!

5. Tim will graduate from graduate school with his masters.

*We'll all prayerfully grow closer to God in fear, faith and wisdom. And since fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs), we're already on the right track! By the way, I noticed that my verse of the day in the sidebar from Heartlight started at Gen 1:1 today, the first day of the year. I imagine it will continue to walk through the Bible, so if you are interested in a journey through the Bible this year, though only one verse at at time, check the sidebar each day. One verse at a time is a resolution I can keep! ;) What are your big plans for 2008? We pray it's a blessed year for you!

A Very Traditional Birthday Celebration

Lessons learned this Christmas:

1. If your 35 lb. toddler decides that Wintergreen rubbing alcohol would wash down dinner well, there is no need to rush the ER. Really. A very nice lady named Allison at poison control told us exactly what to do. "Watch and see how drunk he gets," she said. If he gets REALLY drunk and vomits more than once, call back immediately. Be more concerned about the chemical in the wintergreen flavor that can give him an aspirin overdose." The best part? "Give him lots of sweets, because the alcohol will lower his blood sugar, and we don't want him in a diabetic coma." The most important part: "Call back in an hour." We aren't quite sure how much of the 16 oz. bottle he ingested, but our C. had a very...happy... Christmas Eve. However much he ingested wasn't enough to require an emergency room trip, though, thank God! That is the LAST place I wanted to spend Christmas Eve!

2. C. loves Santa. J. doesn't; wouldn't go near him.

3. When your husband comes home with a 12 lb. goose for Christmas (even though there are only 2 adults and 2 toddlers for dinner, and you bought 1/2 ham the day before), don't panic. "It'll be nostalgic," he insisted. After a couple of minutes of confusion, like, "Where ARE the giblits in this thing?!"
...it turned out quite delicious, but I prefer it in small doses! A European friend of mine said, "Americans don't have the palate for goose." Consider that your warning. It is very rich, all dark meat, and goes well with a deep red wine-even though it's poultry. Tim loved it, and wants goose every year.

3. Another lesson related to geese: They have a lot of fat. Our 1 goose emitted three mason jars of fat! However, we learned that goose fat is some sort of odd delicacy-though aren't all delicacies a little odd?-and sells for $1-3.00 an ounce. So, don't throw out the fat. You'll have enough to replace all the butter and oil in your house for the new year. Just what you wanted, I know!

4. The traditional Christmas meal is the way to go. Goose, pears in orange sauce, asparagus with cashews, raisin stuffing-baked in the bird-red pepper and paprika breadsticks in the shape of candy canes and cranberry sauce... It did feel nostaligic, Dickens-esque; everyone had something they liked, and we don't have a fridge full of casseroles that jiggle.

5. Presents are good. I know they shouldn't be the emphasis of the day, and we did very well this year reminding the boys that all of these gifts were for Jesus' birthday, and because Jesus is sooooo loving, when it's HIS birthday, he give US presents. That's just how He works, and aren't we glad for it! Some of the biggest hits in red wrapper packages were jet airplanes, new babies (to practice on for the real new baby), Curious George movies, Amnesty International 2008 wall calendars (for me, of course), the Indiana Jones trilogy (for Tim) and pretend shaving kits.

Lesson 6: Above all else, take time to remember that the birth of the Christ child is the reason for the surprise goose, the "hot candy canes", Santa and elf hats, the "very very pretty" tree, school programs, nearly 200 Christmas cards sent out domestically and internationally, gifts with bows, pop-up nativity storybooks, the extra time with Dad, the annoying Chipmunks Christmas CD, the long drive looking at Christmas lights, new perfume, argyle sweaters, and the chocolate birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Merry Christmas! (Double click the x on the right of the video to shrink that box so that you can see the pictures.)

Can you see me now?

As firmly as he believes that cats are for chasing and music is for dancing, C. believes that if he covers his eyes, he is invisible and can therefore get away with anything! Several times each night, and in the wee hours of the morning, we find him running through the house with his eyes covered when he should be in bed. He'll even make a run for it right in front of us, like he did here, completely unaware that we can see him, convinced he's invisible and invincible. Usually, he'll run into a wall or two on the way, and often he'll yell, "I'm Okay!" or "Silly goose!" from the ground-still covering his eyes. Don't feel sorry for us about this, though. It is much prefered to the once weekly sneaking- off- of- the- diaper- in the pack-n-play and pooping. We may not always see that happening, but we smell it, and it is a mess. For that, you can take pity on us. Not only us, actually, but all of us raising two year olds! Merry Christmas! By the way, sorry the video is dark...it was 10:00 pm... and someone was supposed to be sleeping...

African Proverbs

While I wait-not so patiently-for this adoption situation to go one way or another, these African proverbs have spoken to my heart. By the way, I read of three babies that died in an orphanage in Ethiopia this month. Babies die all the time in third world orphanages; there is nothing necessarily unusual about this. However, reading of it this week isn't helping me to wait patiently to bring home baby #3, nor to accept that God may have a new plan as to when our adoption process can continue. Please continue to pray that the situation with our agency, Love Basket, is resolved quickly and to the best interest of the children-which hopefully is in our best interest as well...


"Lord, make my heart sit down." (Don't just have patience; have patience with peace).

"The moon moves slowly, but it crosses the town." (This baby will come home, in God's timing. What beauty would the night hold if it went by in a flash, going my way?)

"The wind does not break a tree that bends." (I tend to break easily when things don't go my way. I need to be more bend-y).

P.S. Is my header big again for those of you who said it had shrunk to a sliver? I fixed it on my screen. How's it look on yours???

P.S.S. (These are more pictures that Tiffany Shaw took last week. If you live in our area, she does a great job! You can contact her at her blog on my sidebar.)

The long awaited for glitch

In intercountry adoption there is always a glitch. With J., it was the fact that his birthmom had two different last names in his paperwork, so his US immigration papers were held up for nearly seven months as we had to prove that these two women were actually one and the same woman. It got worked out. I had to cry and beg and cause a small scene at my local friendly USCIS office, but they're used to that. Believe me, I've seen a lot of weeping and begging at that office.

With baby #3? Our agency may have to close down its Ethiopia program indefinately to restructure. There's a complicated story here, obviously, but I don't want to get into rumors and hear-say. I really don't know the full story anyway. But I do strongly believe that all the parties involved, Love Basket and the Ethiopian contact, have the best interest of the children in mind. I truly believe it is simply a miscommunication, maybe a difference of opinion on matching procedure. Whatever the reason though, unless our agency and their on the ground contacts can work out this confusion, the program will have to close until a new contact can be found and prodecures are re-written. I commend our agency for contacting its families ahead of time, and warning us that they may have to do the right thing to ensure transparency and ethics in adoption.

What does this mean for us? Well, we are waiting along with several other families for three weeks to see what transpires in Ethiopia. All could go well, and our process would continue as planned. If the next three weeks doesn't go well, then we'll have to switch agencies. That equals=loss of money, loss of time, basically this adoption going God's way and not Tiffany's way which always takes awhile for me to take a liking to. Grrrr....

Please pray with us that things are resolved quickly for the best interest of the children. Placement is life or death for many orphans in Africa, and delays like this, though God is in control of them, well...I just don't see how it's good for anyone other than teaching Tiffany patience and subservience. I'd hate to think I was learning this life lesson at the expense of a child. I really had my heart set on this baby coming home in the early summer, and now I need to accept that God's plan may be very different than that.

On a different note, Thank You, Tiffany Shaw, for taking our Christmas pictures this weekend! One of the pics she took is here. I'm saving the best for Christmas cards and later posts. The full color ones of the family in the leaves are fabulous!

And, PLEASE tell me what you see when you log onto my blog! Specifically, my header. It should be a black and white photo of Caleb holding my hand when he was 3 days old. It should say, "Namaste" on the top, and a few sentences of what that greeting means to me on the bottom. It should be BIG. The same way it has looked for a year. It still looks like this on Tim's mac and on my friend's pc. But on my computer, looking at it right now, it's just a sliver of what it once was. Very strange, and I don't know how to change it. This just happened yesterday out of nowhere. So tell me, BIG or sliver???

Happy December, by the way!