A Fall/Winter/Spring Photo Recap...Because I Haven't Blogged in a Million Years

This has been the longest winter in the history of winters.  Ever.  It snowed every month from November to April, and that is a lot of snow for this Southern girl!  I kept hoping the thermostat would get above 12 degrees and spring would arrive.  It took it's sweet little time, but it finally did. 

And you would think that all that indoor time would allow me to clean my house or blog or write a novel or something awesome, but all I wanted to do was curl up under three blankets and binge-watch television shows on the computer.  So that's mostly what I did.  Except when I was working on my graduate classes.  Or when the kids were home for snow days.  Which was a lot.  Really. On those days we spent a lot of time at the library.  I think the kids have read through every Peanuts and Garfield comic ever written.  And thank you local public library for having the sense to carry such wonder things in very large books.

So, what have I missed blogging about on the 182 days of snow? Everything.

1. Kate became an expert bike rider last fall, but I didn't manage to get a decent picture of it until November.  Because I am that awesome.

2. Kate's first grade class studied Chinese New Year and performed a ribbon dance for the whole school.  She was amazing, of course.

 3. My kids love each other, even when they are fighting like cats and dogs.  Unfortunately the cats and dogs thing is more common than not.  Thankfully I caught them on a day when they were all getting along.  (I am sure someone got whacked on the head minutes after I put the camera away.)

4. Did I mention it snowed a lot?  This was one of the early days before we actually got bored with snow.

5.  The three bigs were in the church Christmas play.  They sang together as a trio and were 1940's kids who also dressed up like wise men with lampshades and hub caps.  I can't remember why.

 6. We celebrated Christmas, of course!  (I think they have already grown about 2 inches each since I took this picture.)  The favorite gifts this year were video games, puzzles, and books. 

7. In January Will told us that he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and wanted to be baptized.  We were thrilled and celebrated with him.  And Tim got to do the honors.  After which, we attempted to get a family photo, which only proved that we are not good at group shots.

8. It snowed some more. The kids built a snowman.

9. I celebrated my 20 year high school reunion.  It was awesome and weird at the same time.  That's what growing old is like.  And now you all know how old I am.  (I would post the group shot, but the photographer didn't push the button down hard enough.  I'm looking at you, Cooper.)

10.  Kate played basketball and had a blast doing it.

There is more, but for some reason the kids think I should fix dinner.  I guess they are hungry or something.  See, this is why I don't blog.  Next thing they will want clean clothes or something crazy like that.  Maybe I will write up the rest before the leaves fall off the trees.  Everyone hold your breath.

And Now for Will and Kate's Christmas Song

Will and Kate's choir opened the Christmas program last week.  They sang four songs, and Will and Kate both had solos in the last song.

However, Will ended up stealing the show.

He started out with the wrong words, and, well, he messed up, said, "Oh, Poop," and the whole congregation roared with laughter.  Maybe someday you will see it on tv:)


Thankfully he recovered magnificently, and he and his sister sang their hearts out.  

We are very proud of both of them and how hard they worked to learn their song.  And we can't wait until next year's performance!

Ben's Christmas Play

Ben was thrilled, and maybe a little bit fearful, when he was cast in one of the lead roles of this year's church Christmas play.  He did a fantastic job, and we are super proud of him.  Grandparents, here you go:

Overwhelmed.

If I had to pick one word to describe the last four weeks (yep, almost a month during which I haven't blogged), it would be overwhelming. 

While I sometimes like to write with lightheartedness or sarcasm, other times I feel that vulnerability and honesty are the better way.  October (and September, if I am being truthful) calls for that. 

Overwhelming.

I am overwhelmed with the number of appointments. My kids and/or I have had appointments with plastic surgeons, ophthalmologists, optometrists, ENTs, audiologists, orthodontists, dentists, speech and language pathologists, OB/GYNs, teachers, and pediatricians. I think we are currently averaging around five appointments a week.

I am overwhelmed with my kids activities.  Individually, it really isn't that much, but since there are four of them, it feels like more.  This fall the three big kids played soccer.  This winter Kate and Will are playing basketball.  Ben is on the academic team.  Ben and Kate want (and really should) take swimming lessons (and I am sure I will force Will to go as well).  Will and Kate also are in Bible Club at school.  Ben has an important role in the church Christmas play (which thankfully requires very little effort on my part), and Kate and Will are in the younger kids choir.  For now, I go to Sunday school with Jack to help him feel comfortable and safe, which we are thiiiisss close to achieving. 

I am overwhelmed by the pain of those that I love.  There are multiple people in my life who are hurting, and I want to fix everything for them.  I can't.  I can listen. I can hug.  I can pray. I can cook.  But I can't fix anything. (And those of you who are in that pain, please don't stop calling me.  I will worry about you whether you call me or not.  Talking to you actually helps. I mean it.)

I am overwhelmed by laundry, gardening, dirty floors, dirty toilets, disobedient children, screaming children (mostly one in particular), home repairs, phone calls, husbands who work around 50 hours a week, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, birthday parties, homework, children's church, political debates, and committee meetings.

But.

And this is a big but;)

I am also overwhelmed with the support I am getting from those I love.  My friends and family have been incredibly supportive of me and my family through all of the stuff I wrote about above.  They have let me vent, cry, and stomp my foot.  And then they make me laugh.  They cook for me and my children.  They help me make plans to make my life easier and talk through my options and give me their honest opinions.  Between my family, my college roommates, my book club, my fellow adoptive parents, and my friends who live thousands of miles away but still call to check on me on a regular basis, I am overwhelmed with support.

I am overwhelmed with joy spending time with my small group at church.  I, along with two other amazing women, work with teen girls each week.  These girls rock.  They are smart, funny, passionate, and compassionate, I can't believe I get to sit and laugh with them every week. 

I am overwhelmed with love.  Because even though we are crazy busy, my kids still take time to crawl up in my lap (or rather, my arms since I am not usually sitting) and tell me that they love me.  My husband still makes me feel beautiful and smart. And my God still reminds me Every. Single. Day. that He is in control of all of this.  Love. 

So, yes, I am overwhelmed.  With good, bad, and in between.  But it is all good.  And this too shall pass.  In about sixteen years.  I really have an amazing life.  If a tad overwhelming at the moment.

Day 11 Guangzhou

Today was our consulate appointment.  We were up and out early to make it on time.  Thankfully Jacob stayed at the hotel with the boys, while Tim and I did the paperwork.  Mom and Kate came along for moral support and pearl shopping later on.  The oath and paperwork took only minutes, and we loaded back on the bus and went shopping.  We have the entire day free now, and have nothing to do until 4pm tomorrow.  Don't worry, I am not claiming boredom.  I am very happy to have this down time.  Everyone but me and Jack are at the park playing.  We are thinking of ordering out for dinner.  Tomorrow I will try to finish up shopping in the morning before leaving Guangzhou at 4:30.  From here we go to Hong Kong, and then fly home on Wednesday.
 
Jack is in a great mood today.  He has now changed his mind about bananas and loves them.  He is also nuts about Raisin Bran, but only if it is from his Daddy's bowl.  He really doesn't want them from his own bowl.  He has giggled and carried on all day today, playing in front of the mirror and lifting his shirt for zerberts.  Right now he is napping - have I mentioned how easily he goes to sleep?  He fusses for about 3 minutes and then he is out like a light. 
 
I haven't taken a single photo today - no cameras are allowed in the consulate.  So today it is just me, being happy about our down time. I don't know when I will post again because of our travel, but I will drop by for an update if I have a chance. 

Day 10 Guangzhou

I know my blog has been less than warm and fuzzy lately.  I apologize for that.  The truth is that when I am hungry and/or tired, I can get really obnoxious.  And I will take everyone down with me.  At one point yesterday, Will suggested I needed to eat something because I was being mean to him.
  
Nothing like being taken down a notch by your 7 year old. 

Anyway, I got a full eight hours last night and then ate an enormous breakfast this morning, so today has been much better.  We met up with our group and headed over to the church on Shamian Island.  It was a lovely service in both Mandarin and English, so we got to understand what was going on.  Some of the songs were in English, but honestly, it was such a beautiful thing to listen to praise songs in Mandarin that I didn't mind at all not to understand all of the words.  The congregation has been there for twenty years, and it was standing room only - probably 250 people.

Then we headed to Lucy's, the American restaurant that caters to adoptive families, and then did some shopping.  I was expecting everything to be closed, but there were still quite a few businesses that were open. For dinner we decided to return to the island to shop a bit more and eat at the Italian restaurant.  Yum.  That's all I can say about that.

I haven't said much about Jack lately either.  He and I are still figuring each other out, which I am sure will be a life long process.  But I know that he is super-sweet.  He loves hugs and kisses.  Loves to put his feet in my face.  He has a crazy appetite and will eat until you leave the table.  Today he prefered his Daddy, but still let me hug and kiss on him.  If he is happiest when he is eating, then he is second happiest when he is running.  He is already getting more steady on his feet, and he ran around the playground like a mad man today, full steam ahead.  He is going to keep me on my toes.

His cleft lip repair looks great, and the cleft does not appear to go all the way through the gumline.  The cleft palate is pretty wide though.  He has some trouble hearing us in a crowd, but seems to hear us in the hotel room ok.  We are still trying to watch him and figure out exactly the extent of his hearing loss.  I am eager to get him to an audiologist.

He has spent the last couple days unhappy.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep, or if he is finally grieving a bit, or a combination of the two, but he seems better today.  Which I am very thankful for.  He has a pretty happy disposition, so to hear him cry and not be able to offer a snack or drink or toy to make it all better is hard.  But that is part of parenting, right?  Mom and Dad can't always fix everything, but we do the best we can to love and to guide. 

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us.  Today was so much better than yesterday.  Tomorrow is the consulate appointment. If the paperwork is all in order, they will process his visa by Tuesday.

Night:)

A Musical Debut

And now for Ben's first public performance... "Amazing Grace"

Christmas: The Not-So-Short Version

Our December was as busy as ever, and alas, my blog has suffered. So, without further ado, here is my attempt to condense the whole month into one post.

Kate rocked her "Santa dress."The kids sang in the annual Christmas program at church. Will and Kate especially loved singing in it this year.

We celebrated Tim's birthday.

Here's a random picture just because I thought it was cute.

The kids missed a week's worth of school because of snow, snow, and more snow. This coincided with the arrival of Uncle Jacob and Aunt Alison for Christmas, and we even got Uncle Jacob snowed-in at our house one night!

We had multiple celebrations with my side of the family, including parties at Aunt Sally's, my mom's, and my dad's. We woke up on Thursday and opened presents at my mom's. Will calls that day Thanks Day. He even made Arlie write it on his calendar.

The kids decorated the tree this year, and I was so impressed I will let them do it again next year.

(Not-so) Wide-eyed children woke up before their bleary-eyed parents on Christmas morning .

Many presents were opened. Some favorites included a remote control R2D2, the Trio wizard's castle, Star Wars action figures galore, ZhuZhu pets, and finger nail polish (for Kate NaNa, of course).

We went to Tim's parents, where we forced the kids to take the annual cousins-on-the-stairs picture. Basically a stall tactic before the adults are ready to open presents.

My sister-in-law taught my kids how to play Angry Birds. Much laughter ensued.

My brother-in-law let his wife put his hair in a faux hawk. More laughter ensued. I only wish that I had a pic when he was also wearing the skinny jeans and Rob Bell glasses too. That would make my day complete:)

Hope your celebrations were joyous too! Merry Christmas!

I think I am back...

At least for now.

In case you haven't noticed, I have been rather absent from the blogging world lately. I checked in occasionally, but haven't done much writing, blog-hopping, or commenting in a couple of months. And I have missed it. A lot.

But I think I may be back! And since I like to write, you get to hear about it.

Our church is celebrating 200 years. Last summer, the chairman of the history committee came to me and asked me if I would be willing to be a part of the committee to help plan the celebration. I asked Tim if he could help me think of a good reason not to do it. But apparently pastors think you should serve your church with your talents, or some such.... I even asked God to help me think of a reason. Shockingly, He didn't help me out either....

Anyway, I said yes, with great fear and trepidation, because I had no idea how I could contribute. This past winter, the committe was discussing its plans of a big Bicentennial Banquet and ways we could share with the congregation and get them involved, etc. I had celebrated a bicentennial with another church, so I had some thoughts, but planning events is not really my forte.

So when they started talking about a history book they were writing, I thought maybe I could help. I know how to use a computer, basically, and I can spell and use proper grammar (although I am a bit lazy sometimes), so I thought - hey, this is how I can help. They already had the writers chosen (which was good, because I didn't want that job), so what they needed was a copy-editor. Someone to read over the manuscript and make corrections.

So I agreed to do this, thinking to myself, how easy will this gig be? I will read this stuff (50 pages maybe?), make minor corrections (nothing time consuming), and be done.

And God laughed at me.

Because. I had no. idea. what I was getting myself into.

First of all, we now think the book will be around 250 pages or so. And there were six authors, all with different topics, backgrounds, and styles.

Still, I thought, that's ok. I will do them one at a time, and we will get this thing done by summer.

I know. What was I thinking?

And did I mention the footnotes? Oy! the footnotes! (I never use the word, oy. Where did that come from?)

Honestly, the authors were wonderful, but they each had very different strengths, so every time I was working with a different author, there was a different learning curve (sometimes a very steep one) with what I had to do. One of them is a fabulous writer, but didn't really want to use the footnotes. The committee wanted footnotes (ok, 2 of us really wanted footnotes - ethically and academically it's important!), so I added footnotes. Another author's topic was very sensitive, and so she and I (and several others) worked very hard to address the issue in a respectful way. I could go on and on. And on top of that, I fact-checked. As I was footnoting, I went to the source and made sure the years and the names and the places and everything else was correct. (I am sure I made mistakes, but I don't wanna know about them at this point!)

For months I have had dreams where I was in a room with the authors and we were all going through 200 years of church minutes looking for something! and we just couldn't find it.

Anyway, yesterday at 11:00am, I sat in a room with these people, and I wrote an email to our publisher, attached 25 documents, and hit the send button. And we all clapped and cheered as our book went out from our little group.

Tonight, we held our Bicentennial Celebration Banquet. I haven't had time to look forward to this event, because every. waking. moment. that wasn't spent taking care of children was spent at the library or on the computer, editing, editing, editing. (Will told me a few weeks ago that he calls the book, The Book That Never Ends.) I haven't cooked or cleaned in weeks. (Seriously, don't go into my bathrooms.) But when I got there it felt like a celebration. There were reunions of old friends, a wonderful video about the church that was made by one of our talented committee members, and an amazing singer. Ok, she was totally my favorite part. Anyway, I really enjoyed the party.

And tomorrow, our pastor will talk about beginning our third century of ministry. And it will be good. I have learned so much about how good God has been to us. How we have been through wonderful times and painful division. And I have built wonderful friendships with these people that I sort-kinda knew before. We have argued, compromised, and rejoiced together. And even though I have whined and complained (especially to my husband and GWAC - you know who you are), I have loved it. But don't ask me to do it again anytime soon.

At this moment, I am feeling very blessed... and very tired. And now I need some sleep (before the publisher sends it back for photos and indexing and cover decisions and corrections and...).

Happy Father's Day, Tim

On Wednesday, while we were on vacation, my oldest son prayed and asked Jesus to come into his heart.
Today, Ben was so excited. He was literally hopping up and down with joy.
So, on Father's Day, my husband had the great privilege of baptizing Benjamin.
Happy Father's Day, Tim. Could you have asked for a better gift?

(As you can see, some of the kids were really excited. They were sitting on the floor, but they couldn't stand it and all crowded around for a better view:)

More Winter

I am soooo over winter.

I think it has snowed weekly since like August (ok, I like to exaggerate). Seriously though, I have never seen so much snow in my life. The kids ended up missing 4 days of school last week, in addition to the gazillion already missed. We ended up spending one of those days sledding. Well, some of us went sledding. Kate started snowball fights with everyone. She thinks she is sooo funny.

We spent another day working with the youth of our church to shovel sidewalks and driveways for those needing a little help. Well, some of us shoveled. Some of us built tiny snowmen. Or started snowball fights. Kate's favorite thing was to hand me snowballs and tell me to throw them at Matt, who is one of her grown-up buddies.

And I won't even tell you about the day that the kids broke one of the beds, and I had a temper tantrum. It wasn't pretty.

I have had enough.

And tonight, they are calling for more snow. I swear, if they call off school one more day, you might find me on my way to Florida. I have had it.

Checking in

There really isn't much going on around here, but I felt the need to check in with everyone. I am starting to get out of the habit of blogging, but I am trying to reverse that. Beware of the randomness of this post.

We have had a week of trying to play catch up with all that went wrong in the previous few weeks. I still have piles of laundry, piles of dust, and piles of junk. Once I get behind, I have a hard time getting anything done. That's where I am now.

I spent the weekend on winter retreat with 29 of our church's teenagers. Tim is a youth pastor, and so I get recruited for these events. It seems fair to me, since I completely refuse to chaperon a lock-in or summer camp. The kids were great, the sessions were awesome (well done, Tim), and I got to spend some time with good friends who also work with the youth. It was a really great retreat.

The kids spent the weekend with Daddy John and Jee and also had a great time. When I called they said they were watching movies and eating popcorn. Sounds like an awesome way to spend a weekend to me.

We woke up to several inches of snow this morning, enough for Ben not to have school. Once again, I am having a lazy day with the kids, trying to ignore those piles I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure how much longer I can do that though.

Sometimes Ben Makes Me Cry

This past weekend we went to our church's revival. Before it started, there was a concert where we heard a lot of wonderful praise music. Ben really doesn't like singing (even though his mommy loves to hear him sing). So we found him a notebook, an ink pen, and some coloring pencils. This is what Ben created.

At the top, it says "From Ben to God". It is a drawing of one of the stained glass windows in our church.

And then he wrote this poem:

Let me translate:

Poem About God

I love You

I Squeeze You

But most

I praise You.

Example -(In the first frame, Ben is saying "I love you God". In the second frame, God says "I am God" and they hold hands. Last (I think) they are hugging.)

(Honestly, I'm not sure what is written at the top.)

Anyway, there are always those people who are critical of the way kids behave in church. And while I want my kids to be respectful, I'm really not that interested in the opinions of others. The whole time he was sitting there, he didn't look like he was paying attention. He looked like he was goofing off. But in truth, he was worshipping. Like I said, sometimes he makes me cry.