Home School Show n Tell

On Friday I hosted a show n tell for some of the local home scholars. The theme was "Learning is Fun!!" It was a time to celebrate what everyone is learning....anything from sounding out words, nouns and verbs to geometry etc. Every stage is amazing. I love seeing the bright faces of all the children and seeing their enthusiasm. 

EVERYONE is a genius! 

                   EVERYONE has amazing potential!!!

Natasha showing her magnifying glass

Sweet mommy and son moment

Janelle talked about the defeat of the Spanish Armada and Sharla talked about State Goverment

Brenda did a complicated diagram

Angela & Austin created an amazing poster showing all about a middle age castle, knights, lords, emperors etc. Austin drew the castle! Amazing artwork!

Samuel talked about wheat, and the process of milling it into flour

Karilee shared how much she is enjoying history and learning about the different states. She read some funny facts about a few of the states.Like, did you know in Louisiana it is against the law to gargle in public. Or to rob a bank and then shoot the bank teller with a water pistol.

Best friends! Krista read a great story that she wrote about the life of Corrie Ten Boom.

Daniel showed us this beautiful Easter garden he made, and talked about the meaning of nouns and verbs. Great work Daniel!

Isnt the banner pretty?! Karilee, Derek & I had fun doing it for craft time one day.

We had a great time together! Yummy food, and the children all had fun playing together afterward. It was so much fun hearing what everyone is learning! Such a bunch of talented children!

Defiantly will be doing this again!

Home Study Report

Our home study was this past Saturday and Sunday. Since the social worker was driving from 3 hours away she fit what would normally have been 3 separate visits into 2 days. It went wonderful! I got completely nervous 5 minutes before she got here, But it didnt last long. She was a lovely sweet lady and we soon all felt relaxed.  She did a sort of orientation, did a home tour, talked with the children (which made them feel important. It was pretty cute. When She asked Derek what his favorite show is he said "White Collar". lol)
The next day she did the separate interviews with Steve and I. It was very similar to what we did with the psychologist. It's quite a feat listing all 10 siblings! Not the names but the ages! Thats when its a blessing to have a dictionary sister in the family. A quick call to Ruth who can rattle all the ages off, and do I want the years too she wonders?!
So yes, the home study was a breeze! She told us she doesn't think she has ever done someones home study this fast. Often it takes a couple months but we had so much of our paper work done already. It was a nice compliment!
The social worker said she should have the rough draft done within two weeks. After we review it for corrections she will set the date for the final visit and that closes the home study chapter!

Next on the list is completing the waiting child application. As soon as the agency has a draft of our home study then they will do a conference call with us to explain how the referral of a child will work. This is the part we are very anxious to get too :)

We are waiting to get the final results back from our psychology evaluation as well. We were really blessed how God led us to just the right person. After we have that document, the home study packet and one final document for our tax accountant to sign then .............THEN!.....our dossier will be complete and ready to send to China!!!

Sweet Kianna is on day 5 of being sick. We miss our busy little girl!! Derek's flu bug only lasted a day so not sure why her's is lingering. She's fully weaned so its hard seeing her with hardly any appetite.
Now tonight Steve came home from work feeling sick, which is very rare It better be a quickie, nothing feels right when the king of the house is out of commission!  What we all need is a good dose of warm sunshine and green grass! Please pretty please!!!

Of pukes & Praise...

It started last night.....when baby dear suddenly had an explosive throw up. Hmm..that explained her crankiness and loss of appetite that day. I cleaned up the big mess and we went on to enjoy a very nice evening with Steve's family at the Chinese Buffet. Till we got home Derek was complaining of his tummy hurting. It does seem that when my kids get sick, the worst is often during the night! Kianna continued to throw up a few more times during the night. Making a flurry of flying covers and shaking bodies as we try to wake up in two seconds....hit the light...and grab a towel to trap the spout.....

Sweet baby...now fevering...so weak and exhausted. As long as she could be next to me, she relaxed and went right back to sleep. I sighed contentedly. I love comforting my children when they are ill.

Then comes Derek....at another odd hour of the night. Same story. More mess and stink to clean up. 

Oh my! Stomach bugs are no fun, how then can it be that my heart feels such praise. Such joy in getting a warm rag and wiping clean that crusty face and replacing the soiled clothes with sweet smelling clean ones.

I cant help but think of a dear mommy friend who this very day is in the hospital struggling for her life with brain cancer. She has 5 little ones. I'm sure she would give anything to just be able to be home caring for her kids.

It makes me feel so unworthy. I am healthy. I am strong. I am SO blessed. God's favor is on me. Not because of anything I have done, or have not done. But simply because I am HIS and He loves me. I feel so "cacooned" in His love today. And because of His love, I LOVE to pour love on my lovies.

So its gonna be a rock-my-babies and read stories sort of day. That is, in between keeping the washer humming with more soiled clothes and offering sips of water. Snow is falling gently outside. Worship music fills the back round. My body is tired, but my spirit is filled with praise. Jesus, I EMBRACE today with joy.

And as I rock my baby and cuddle her with love...............my mind cant help but wander to far away China. Where today waits a little boy, waiting to be held by a forever mommy.
 Who held him when he was sick? Did he lay in a crib alone with no one to quickly attend to cleaning up his mess. Who rocked him as he fevered. It hurts my heart to think of his loss, his pain. Jesus, you know who that little boy is today. Please hold him close. Prepare him to receive the love of a family. The love of a mommy and daddy who are so anxious to pour out love...to make up on all the years of loss.

Mommy is coming as fast as I can sweet China lovie!

Paper Pregnancy!

The adoption process has often been likened to that of a natural pregnancy. Being in the midst of the process ourselves, I would have to agree it does have a lot of similarities.
In my first trimester of pregnancy I am always plagued with horrible morning sickness. As in intense nausea  and puking 24/7 for four LONG wear dreary months that feel like sheer survival. I must say that it's delightful to skip over that dreaded part of a normal pregnancy  in a "paper pregnancy". It has non the less felt overwhelming at times. The amount of paperwork looked so huge, my feelings still felt so new to the idea, trying to grasp that we really, truly ARE "birthing" a new child into our family. I could feel a little seed of love growing in my heart for this new child. Awe and excitement that God would choose to bless our family with a new life to love.

Now I feel like I must be somewhere in the middle trimester... the once huge stacks of paperwork is now an almost completed checked off list. I feel a huge sense of relief  that that first stage is almost over. Last week  Steve made a trip to Albany for a rally, he knew he would be right by the secretary of state's office so he was able to hand deliver 8 documents to get apostilled. Our first documents to get that far! Now those are ready for the Chinese Consulate in New York City. It keeps feeling more real!!

That little seed of love continues to swell inside my heart. Enlarging.......Expanding......

I find myself dreaming about the birth, I mean "Gotcha day". What will that moment be like? What will he look like? What will he weigh? I feel the same expectancy as I  always feel as I approach my due date with my birth children. That excitement of seeing the person I carried for 9 months and travailed for. Those first sacred moments when your swelling heart bursts in gratitude as you behold the beautiful treasure God Had been knitting together...fearfully and wonderfully. Marveling over their sweet smell, silky soft skin and tiny toes.
At that moment, my heart feels content, so expanded with love. I don’t have to try to love, because love was already their the moment I knew that little seed was conceived.

It’s that same motherly love I feel growing in my heart  for our precious China son. When we lay eyes on him for the first time, whether it be his photo or his real face in person, I know I will feel that same kind of swelling love, “That you, precious child, is who we were praying and working so hard for. You are the one God destined to be part of our forever family.”

 I expect the waiting for a referral and  the waiting to fly to China stage to feel so like the last final weeks of pregnancy when time seems to slow down, and patience is hard to come by.

I don’t know if its nesting, I like to think of it as God preparing me. But I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking ahead to things like next terms school year. While this term isn’t even finished yet! What curriculum am I going to use? What will each of Karilee & Derek’s specific needs be and how can I prepare to best meet them. Having it in the back of my mind that we could be flying to China this fall, and  adding a child who will need a lot of one on one from me makes me want to really prepare myself now for when our schedules and lives will need to be flexible to accommodate the bumps that will come with integrating an internationally adopted child into the family, and to be able to focus on bonding / attaching with him.
I’ve also been focusing on  training Karilee & Derek to carry more responsibility with their chore charts. They do amazing and I cannot say enough how worth it  is to invest the time in training them to do chores, they are such a huge help!!! MY biggest challenge is overseeing the jobs consistently and making sure everything gets done correctly, and taking the time to re-do when it isn’t.

I’m SO blessed to see how God so tenderly guides my heart!! Often I look back and see how He prepared me in advance for a certain situation or time, and I have that same assurance about this adoption journey.

Thank You Jesus. I am so safe and secure with YOU!!