Word

So often the Lord speaks sweet words of encouragement when we need them. It probably won't mean much to you because it was meant for me, but I wanted to share it anyway.

I was praying yesterday about the swiftness of Ana's process, and struggling with internal feelings. My desire is for her to be home right now. My desire is to be fully and completely at peace with God's timing. Not wanting to push God, I was slacking in the depth of feeling and asking in my prayers. He spoke.

Psalm 114

¹ When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

² Judah became God's sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.

³ The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;

⁴ the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.

⁵ Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,

⁶ you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?

⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸ who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.

I am thankful that there is NONE like my God. My savior can move the mountains, be they made of paperwork or boulders. He is mighty to save, yes HE is MIGHTY to SAVE.

Pendulum

Pendulum.

I am swinging.

Back........................and...........................forth.

Slowly it began. Slight swaying, slowly each way I gained momentum. Force is gained. Weight is added to each stroke. Each swoosh of rhythm.

Peaceful..................................Anxious

Patient....................................Short-fused

Steady......................................In need of bracing

Excited......................................Too busy to think

Victorious.............................................Failed

Energetic...............................Exhausted

I am on a ride. Thankfully this ride is controlled by very capable hands.

Meet the Family: Drem Drem

I realize that as I go to do this post, I have very few pictures of Drem Drem. Naturally then, I hijaked some photos from her Facebook. Drem Drem is the third daughter of my Dad and his second wife S.

Drem Drem is a free spirit. From the start she has always gone her own way and not been led by others. I like that about her. She is a very silly girl and the unexpected things that come from her are always good for some giggling.


I am one of those that thinks the meaning of a name is important. It seems that the meaning of a person's name often goes with their personality and is telling of who they are. Think about Jesus changing a couple of names way back. It must be important then if you ask me =). Well, Drem Drem has the most unique name I have ever heard in my life thus far (it came to Dad in a dream if I recall correctly), and it suits her to a T. She is a very unique person indeed.


Drem Drem loves to sleep. She loves juice. She wears mismatched socks. She is the perfect image of the camp counselor that every kid wants to have- full of energy and strange ideas. She might get her cabin into a little trouble for a prank or two, but they will sure have fun doing it! (To the best of my knowledge she has never been a camp counselor, but I am just imagining what it would be like if it did happen.)


This girl is awesome with kids, they just love her. She helped out with our MOPS group a couple of times and did wonderfully with the kids that have a really hard time. She just knows how to distract well and focus on fun. She even won Curly over pretty quickly, and that is a hard thing to do. Curly likes to be shy for a long time.

Drem Drem is most often found attached at the hip with her cousin K. For a long time they seemed to do everything together. The two are a pair (even did MOPS together with me...you get one, you get the other too). Had to post about Drem Drem and K together then. Can't have one without the other.


While she is another that I don't see very often, she is brings a lot of fun with her during those times that I do see her. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this girl!

Two Things

First thing, go check out Ana's blog and see the wonderful donation that was made. I have never even met Steve at Kent Nursery in Orting. A friend of my little sister's (Aunt Artsy) has a father who is in the landscaping business. Somehow when they got talking about Ana's adoption, he donated 100 flower baskets- and they are big and beautiful. It was a very generous donation! He gave them all at no cost to us. Kudos to Steve! And if you live in the area and are planning on a purchase that involves plants and such, give Kent Nursery a try. They are good people =). You can even tell them you heard about them because of their generous donation. He wasn't seeking any recognition, and that's just the kind of guy I want to give credit to. So I will.

On with other news, Curly and Smiles have been relocated. Well, Curly has been that is. Smiles stayed in the same location, he just gets to have new roomies.

This decision comes for many reasons, but the reason for right now is this- Curly got a new bed. It is a big loft bed that is very BIG from Jami for a very reasonable price. The situation we had going was not going to work when Ana joins us, not to mention the possibility of a fourth child. We have a small three bedroom house and three to four children...well, the will easily fill it! And we are so cool with that. We just have to adjust.

So back to the point. I guess I am in the mood to ramble. Jami was coming over to help put the crazy thing together (which was very necessary I might add) and I didn't want to put it in Curly's old room for a short time just to have to move the monster to Smiles' bedroom shortly after. So...we turned our kids into bunk mates. From here on out, Curly's old room is the play room. The room Smiles was in is now the sleeping room.

It was just wasted space for that bedroom to only house Smiles and nothing else. There was so much wasted space there because he is a baby and it's farther from my eyes for them to play in. It will be much better to put the three of them into one room for sleeping and the toys in another. All the playing can be done where I can watch them. Once Ana is with us and adjusts (we will probably have her in our room for a little while), she will join the two other kids. It's good for kids to share rooms. That's my opinion about that.

So...you might wonder how it's going so far. Well, tonight is night two. Moving a three year old into a baby's room is a bit tricky. Especially when they go to bed as early as our two do. Smiles is a light sleeper. Should I start with that? Well, the first night was not so good. We let Smiles fall asleep before we brought Curly in. As we were sneaking her into the room, quite quietly I might add, Smiles woke up a bit. He looked over at us with rage in his eyes and became full blown p-i-s-s-e-d. He WAS NOT having it! No sister was moving into HIS room by golly!

I tried for a long time to calm him down, to calm her down, to make the excitement calm down. Nothing was going to make this okay with him. Nothing. He screamed and screamed until finally at around 9 pm, three hours after my children are normally asleep, Smiles drifted off due to sheer exhaustion. Curly soon followed. They woke at 3 am when she cried for me, I think partially just because she was in such a different place. I nursed him, and snuggled with her for a minute and they fell asleep again.

They were up slightly later than usual (30 min).

They napped extra long today.

Tonight was a little different, though not perfect by any means. We again let Smiles fall asleep before sneaking Curly in. This time he didn't wake. She laid down. I shut the door most of the way and was peeking in by just enough that she couldn't see me. She looked over to the door to make sure that she couldn't see me with her naughty peering face, then when she thought the coast was clear- she reached in the bars and touched him ever so lightly. I opened the door and she raced her head to the pillow.

A second later when she thought that I had left again, she climbed up to standing at the bar on his crib and started to whisper his name. This time he woke up. He wasn't as lively as the previous night, but she still got some giggles. (Last night did turn to intense giggles at one point. I forgot to mention that. Then back to screaming.)

They knew they were in trouble.

I went in and laid on the foot of Curly's bed with my feet near her head. (NO! My feet do not stink! What kind of rude question is that?!) She looked toward the wall as directed, Smiles put his head down in the crib. All was quiet.

Curly started to do something with her arms lightly, which is often how she falls asleep. I watched Smiles. He slowly lifted his head just a bit and made eye contact with his sister, both of them thinking that I had fallen asleep. A giant grin arose on his face and he smirked at her.

I sat up just a bit.

Both of them DARTED back to the sleeping position.

It was hilarious. Smiles knew he was supposed to be sleeping! I didn't quite expect him to understand that being under a year. I had to try not to smile after that.

After a short while Smiles started to fall asleep. I layed with Curly until she fell asleep too and they have been mostly fine since. We will see how the night goes.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Step Away From the Nutella!

I do tend to have this obsession with Nutella from time to time. Or all the time. Handsome knows that my Nutella is by the jar, just for me. I use my finger. I double dip. I'm not too proud to admit it, it's sort of like being an addict except without the support groups to help you stop. Costco does sell them in sets of two jars, so we are good there. If he wants to share a jar with Curly and myself then that's fine, but the first jar is MINE!

Oh...and I am civilized enough to use a spoon from time to time. Just not most of the time.

So, "funny" thing happened the other weekend. Chalupa and my Mom were here building us a fence for our yard and I was outside with Chalupa. I hear my Mom call from inside asking me why I had this in my cupboard:

Yes, that's right. Handsome is a witty fellow. Ha. Ha. Ha. (That is me NOT laughing.)

He put a life size printed bottle of Nutella in the cupboard and left it here for me to find.

I call him to find out where the heck my Nutella is. While he is at work. (And let's be honest, I was laughing a little.)

Me: "Where did you put my Nutella?"

Handsome: "What?" holding back snickering of course. He is bad at lying to me.

Me: "WHERE is MY NUTELLA?!?"

Handsome: "Oh, that Nutella?"

Me: "YES. THAT Nutella.", as if there are thousands of jars of Nutella lying around our house.

Handsome: "I ate it all."

Me: "You couldn't have eaten it all. The jar was 3/4 full. Where is it?!", laughing but still wanting to know where it is, like NOW.

Handsome: "I did eat it. I ate it on toast and then eggs. Then I brushed my teeth with it and BATHED in it.", now totally making fun of me and laughing at my expense.

He then gives me this awful hint that is something to do with cows that is supposed to lead me to the crockpot in the pantry! What?! Where would I get crockpot out of "where the cows used to go"?

He was apparently going for the fact that I cook roast in there. Ummm....yeah. Step AWAY from the Nutella buddy, and nobody gets hurt!

Don't worry. See, I found it and it's now safe with me.

USCIS Sent

This morning we got our USCIS application sent off, our last documents (which we notarized this weekend thanks to Grandma S.) for our homestudy sent off, and deposited all the earnings from the weekend at the bank. It feels oh so good to have that all taken care of!

I had started writing more with this post about a question I've been getting, but then decided upon further thinking that I didn't want to do that right now. I may post it later, but for now I don't feel the time is right. So, while you might read this and think that it's awfully short, I actually spent quite a bit of time writing tonight.

Just Worn Out

I have to be honest. I am just plain worn out today. My kids have both been sick and Smiles is still very much looking like death. We had our second garage sale yesterday and today, which was not good for him as he didn't nap well. Little sleep = boy not getting better quickly. And can I just say- Smiles is known for being happier than your average child, apparently he is just more extreme than most. When he is feeling well, which is most of the time, he is a very pleasant child. When he is sick...he is grumpier than the typical child as well. He likes to make up for his normal easiness.

My emotions are running high due to lack of sleep and also just the hearts of people around us. While fund raising is a lot of work, it is still wonderful to get the support that we have.

I just don't like that they make me cry sometimes.

There are so many people that have donated either with items, finances, or both for our little Ana. I am an easily teared girl anyway (just ask anyone in my MOPS group- that's possibly what I am most known for there), so this just adds to the tearing up. Yesterday a man stopped with his truck and got out. He said, "Who's adopting?!" in a very commanding voice...I thought I was going to be in trouble! My Mom pointed to me and said, "She is." He then handed me a $20 bill and said that he had two kids in his truck that were adopted and they wouldn't have been able to do it without help. They were two very adorable children in the year and a half range that had been home for one year. I was just touched by his story. I am touched by many of the stories that I hear.

Another family that is blending two households came by today. They were so very generous with a financial donation and also a truck load of stuff. He said that he could bring about 10 more trucks as well if we would like them (we will have to figure out somewhere to put that...we might have to have a sale at our house as well).

A couple came by this morning a paid way more than the stuff they got was worth, took a flier to post at the local hospital where she works, and then brought a check for $60 by in the afternoon.

People have been so generous. God is faithful to provide.

With all of that, I am still feeling drained. Drained emotionally. Drained physically. Drained of patience. Just plain drained.

There is so much farther to go, but I also know that God will take us through it. We are greatly blessed through every move that He guides us in. This process is far from an exception! We have amazing family and friends. We have a great and very supportive church family. Our community is full of loving and generous people that also want to help. I know that God will use our call to bring Himself glory. That's what always happens when we listen to His voice. I am willing and excited to be given something so special as adding a child to our home. I couldn't ask for better direction from the Lord (and really, isn't He always asking us to do something that will fit us perfectly?)!

So, yes. I am a slacking blogger. I need sleep. And this post has been typed through watering eyes. You will have to forgive me for not keeping you better posted. Something's gotta give, and the blog is an area that has some flexibility.

And for those that are wondering, our totals for the two g-sales together equals $1556.30. So far we have raised $6,481.30! Thank you Lord for your provision. We are grateful for all that you have provided so far.

...now, it's off to bed with me.

Oh NO! She's Thinking Again!

Before I start this, I want to make sure that this post isn't taken wrongly as something where I am talking to you via talking about myself. I realize that this post could be taken wrongly if I do not take care in being honest about where my mind is right now and what my true intentions are with this post.

For those that are new, and I suppose as a refresher for those that have been around for awhile, I want to bring two posts to attention that will support these claims. And really, I would hope that it is clear just by the fact that I am so concerned about the way you might interpret this post...I am just sharing what is going on in my heart.

The first post is this very long one about how God provided our car for us, which links to this very short one where I was very vague and cryptic as I like to be sometimes =). These are just to tell you, or remind you that God has been working on my heart in the area of generosity for quite some time now. Our family is in a place where we are receiving quite a bit right now, but I want you to know two things about that. Number one- just because we are on the receiving end and in need of something does not mean that God doesn't still ask us to give elsewhere. In fact, He is still calling us to give more. Number two- I have hesitated to write this post at this time because I didn't want anyone to take it as a way of indirectly soliciting donations. God is providing in great ways and our hope is in HIM, not in you. No offense, but that's the truth. He does use His people (like the ways that He is wanting us to give and recognize that all we have already belongs to Him anyway), but the glory from that sharing should go to Him...not the one who wrote the check.

So, the point of all that long clarification that was far longer than what I am going to say is that I was thinking. Just thinking about myself and my selfishness. How self centered is that! HA! Anyway, I came across this blog that was talking a little bit about giving to a particular ministry and how great their need was. Lets just say it dealt with starving mothers and children. You know what my first thought was? It was pretty normal, and actually something that might be thought of as good at first glance. But that's why we have that special gift called the Spirit of God living inside these bodies, right? So that we bounce our thoughts off of the mind of Christ and not focus on what is good to anyone else. That first thought was, "I should go and check my bank account to see what I can give."

What's wrong with that? Well, I am not saying it is bad to check your bank account before spending. It would be irresponsible not to check before spending any money. I just had an internal realization at that moment, that's all. I realized that when I am at the store and I think about how my daughter needs some summer clothes since she only has two hot weather bottoms and it's been really hot, I don't think about it. I just pick up a couple of things, even if they are only $3 or $4 shorts. I still grab a couple.

Or how often do I drive down the road and think, "I could really use some coffee today." or, "I don't have anything for lunch and we are running very late, lets get something from Taco Bell."

Are those things in my budget? Nope. Are they a need? Sometimes. Is feeding starving people a need? Yes it is. More important than my daughter having more than two pairs of shorts.

An easy rationalization is that I can't save them. That's true, but if all of us gave according to our ability then it would add up. And it's easy for me to forget how stinking good I have it. I compare to people around me and forget to compare to the rest of the world. They are God's kids too. If someone in my church was going hungry, you better believe that we would take care of them. (Small churches are good at taking care of each other by the way. At least, ours is.) That reminds me that I have been reading in 2nd Corinthians and it talks about generosity somewhere near the 8th chapter. You will have to look around there because I am not good at remembering details right now, but there is some talk of supporting each other so that those that have plenty do not have too much and those that have little do not go without. Check it out. I am pretty sure that you could bet on the fact that God didn't give me plenty so that I could hoard it.

My point is that I realize that if I have enough room in my budget to get those little extras from time to time, should it really be going somewhere that it's needed instead? Just me thinking...

Now I have to figure out where that line is drawn, or if you even can give too much. Is that even possible?

Ana Update and a Fish

There's a short little update now posted on Ana's blog. Check it out if you want to follow along in the process.


...and some fish kisses from Curly. She thinks she's cute or something...

Prayers from Curly

Curly: Mama, pray for me.

ME: Sure honey, what do you need me to pray for?

Curly: For me to eat GRAPES!

That girl never ceases to make me laugh. We prayed for her and added a word for grapes at the end.

Gentle Breeze

My life is a whisp. My life is short in the eyes of God...oh so short.

I have been thinking on this for a couple of months now, about how short my life really is compared with eternity. My mind is filled with an image of a breeze blowing by- so quickly it passes. I think of how a quick rush of air is something that lasts for a short time and isn't something you really remember much when it's gone. Once it's passed, the memory is gone with it.

Then I thought of the places where God talks about our smell...the scents that are spoken in association with His people. Sometimes it speaks of these smells being good. Sometimes it's not so great. I can with certainty say that I do NOT want to be a stench to anyone, especially to God.

All of these things contemplated over time have produced a desire for my life. I want to be a gentle breeze that blows through with a fresh scent carried in it's sweet movement. My desire is that it would be as if the Lord were strolling through a path in the trees and a short breeze blows by. For just a short few seconds He stops in His path and feels the gentleness of this sweet wind, smells the pleasing scent that it carries. As He breathes it in and then outward again, momentum is gained by His breath and this whisp finishes with the force of His majestic exhale. A just for that moment my hope is that it would bring Him pleasure. My life- the whisp.