Lux et umbra vicissum…

I had told Joel some time ago that I was going to take everything with the adoption one at a time at this point unless God showed me somehow clearly that I needed to hurry the heck up.  Which means, mainly, that I wasn’t going to allow myself to be surrounded by paperwork but would handle each piece separately and not get stressed.

And God laughed.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with our case worker about visiting the girls while I’m in Ethiopia, and it’s been a very productive conversation.  But suddenly it took an unexpected turn.  Though often people are waiting for a while for their children to be moved to the care center, for some reason ours are going to be moved there at the end of this week when we haven’t even been expecting it.  Actually, it’s such a shock to us that we verified that we had read our email correctly.   It turns out that they’re moving them figuring our paperwork will be in any day (since the finalization is now complete on our first adoption).  Ah.

…

AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

First off, I feel more than a little guilty knowing that there are families that wait as patiently as possible for their kids to be moved AFTER all of their papers have been in.  We have friends who have waited for quite a while, and we probably know some who are waiting right now.  Why should ours be moved and not theirs?

Second, I feel incredibly blessed in that visiting them will be tons easier than it would have been.  I was going to have a two hour side trip to visit with them for an afternoon or something, and now they’ll be right in the capital city where I’ll be spending the bulk of my time.  And since I’m traveling two days before Michelle, I can use those two days to get to know my future daughters.

Third… ok, so how clearly can God give hints??  Wow.  Ok.  So, when I get back, I’m going to surround myself with paperwork and get it done as fast as possible. :)  Hm… maybe we could even put in for our police clearances before I leave.  Well, God… I’m taking the hint, now give me the strength.

A four year old’s idea of good dinner conversation:

“Mommy, why don’t dogs have snot or boogers?”

A four year old’s concept of fractions:

“Mommy, since there are three of us, why can’t you just split it in three halves?”

What the two year old says when she wants to imitate her sister on the piano:

“I’m gonna go do my piano blessings.”

And a six year old’s idea of geography:

“What country is Ethiopia a state in?”

There are several things I’d like to blog about, but I’ll have to do it another time. For now, I’ll just summarize:

* I managed to get all of our plants and seeds in the ground over the weekend except the carrots. I didn’t have time to do them, but I hope to get them in soon.

* I finished Alexis’ butterfly wings. I didn’t get to take a picture of them because I had to send them to school today, but if they come back home at some point I’ll take one and post it. They turned out pretty nice.

* We went to some of Apple Blossom Festival Friday, but we were rather disappointed. Rather than the family atmosphere I had hoped to find, there were more teens wandering around using foul language and people hanging out drinking beer than anything else. And this was in the area with the games and the parade. I don’t know that we’ll bother going to that part of the Festival next year.

* I might be leaving May 12th instead of the 14th for Ethiopia. The flight for the 14th is full right now, but since many of the flights have adoptive parents on them and some of those parents generally end up having to change their travel dates due to uncertain embassy dates (confusing process), I still might be able to get on that one. For now, the travel agent who’s booking the trip for us has me confirmed for a flight out on the 12th and wait listed for the 14th. We’ll see what happens!

It’s Apple Blossom time!  It’s amazing what a big deal Apple Blossom Festival is here in Winchester.  The kids all have off from school tomorrow, there’s all kinds of activities, parades, carnivals, etc., and everything from the banks to the courthouse to the veterinary clinic will be closed!

Since Branwen has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they did their Apple Blossom parade today.  Each class decided on a theme for their boys and girls, though I don’t think all of the kids stuck with the themes.  I wasn’t sure how Buzz Lightyear fit into any of the themes, for example.  Branwen’s class did princesses for the girls, so we just dug through the dress-up bin and found something acceptable.  She looked cute, as did the other little girls in her class.  I’m not sure what the boys were supposed to be, but maybe they had a western theme.  I know at least a couple of them were cowboys.  Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun parading down the pedestrian mall in the middle of town showing off their costumes to the parents and anyone else who happened to be around.

Other than the time I spent watching Branwen’s parade, I’ve mostly been sewing butterfly wings today.  Both wings are hemmed, and one has gold edging around most of it now.  If I can finish that one, I might leave it at that and plan to edge the other one tomorrow.  I’m doing the edging by hand which I find easier than using the machine, but it does take longer.  And I need to finish the costume by Monday.  Nothing like procrastination!

Maybe I’ll take a picture once the costume is finished…  I’ll wait and see how it turns out before I decide, though.  At least I know that no matter what my stitching looks like, we managed to pick out a really pretty material.  And the nice thing about making stage costumes is they only have to look good from a distance.  Just my kind of sewing project!

God is so good!!!! In the mail today were the papers from the judge saying that Desta and Eli are officially ours by the laws of the state of Virginia, their names are officially changed as are their birth dates, and we can look for Virginia birth certificates to be arriving in the mail for them!!! Hooray!!!!!!

And I should mention that I prayed yesterday that, though I know God owes me no such thing, if He didn’t mind too much He could maybe provide a sign if this upcoming trip really was His will.  The best thing I could think to ask for was that these finalization documents would come, so I did.  We just submitted the final order on April 24th.  Hallelujah!!!   God is so good!!!  Now I’m really psyched!!!

When a trip to Ethiopia with AWOP (African Widows and Orphans Project) was planned for earlier in the year, Joel & I prayed about it quite a bit and determined that we felt a very strong leading for me to go along. That trip fell through for me when the people leading it found good cause to limit their numbers and had to cut down on the travelers. The next trip was going to be in April, but that was called off for other internal reasons. I was told that there might be a trip in May, but it was equally possible that the next trip wouldn’t be until August. And so life went on.

Yesterday I got an email from Michelle Gardner who heads AWOP telling me that she was going in May, and in fact would be leaving in about two weeks. She asked me if I’d like to go along.

!!! [Read more →]

I just got word that AWOP’s next trip, the one I had asked to go on but which hadn’t been planned until today, will be May 14th through the 26th.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Time to go take a shower. That’s the only way I get real down time to pray about things.

I’ve hardly been online today because we wanted to take advantage of the sunny weather to get our garden ready. My mother will be coming at the end of next week with ten beef steak tomato plants (I think), two cherry tomato plants, and two bell peppers. I also got seeds for Bush Champion cucumbers, Danvers Half Long carrots (which are still plenty long from the info on the packet), and Rosalita romaine lettuce. We’ll grow our own salads if all goes well.

So today we spent the day weeding the main garden (which wasn’t too bad because we had weeded it before), tilling the rows (Joel did that with a Mantis Tiller his mom passed along to us) , staking the edges, and then weeding the strawberry patch next to our shed. Oh, and we mowed a little bit.

While we were doing the weeding, the four younger kids were out with us; Alexis was in school. I decided it was time to help them understand what a “family garden” was, so I told them they had to help us by picking up all of the rocks they could find in the garden and putting them in a bucket. The younger two loved it - it meant they got to get nice and dirty. (As soon as we came inside they were placed in the bathtub.) Desta was very good about it, not complaining and looking for rocks for quite a while. Branwen, on the other hand, only helped under protest. *sigh* Well, it won’t be the last time she’s required to help out in the garden, so she might as well get used to it. I think she’ll enjoy planting the plants and seeds next weekend a little more. Weeding wasn’t really an option since either only the tops come off or the children are constantly needing my help which doesn’t allow me to keep working on my own area. So picking out rocks it was, whether they liked it or not.

We got a lot done. The garden is ready for planting. I’ll tie twine to our stakes to mark the boarders more effectively against rampaging children and puppies on the next good-weather day. I’ll also hang out some foil pie plates near the tops of the taller stakes to help keep birds away. I think I’ll get a couple for the strawberry patch for that purpose, too. We’ll put out the tomato cages once the tomatoes are in the ground. We’ll put some lime down before that, and then I’ll put egg shells in the holes with the tomatoes to give them some extra calcium. The other plants are more of an experiment since I’ve only ever had room for a few things before and have just grown tomatoes.

Oh, and apparently our dog doesn’t recognize a mortal enemy when he sees one. I saw a cat in the yard last night and decided to show it who was boss by letting the dog out at it. A few mistakes: our dog is very short right now and the grass was rather high. He couldn’t see the cat. I kept trying to point him in the right direction, but he just wasn’t getting it. I threw his toy ball closer and closer to the feline who was laying there waiting rather calmly. When I finally got the silly pup to see the other furry beast, he stopped, sniffed while straining forward so he didn’t have to get too close, then started bouncing around barking excitedly. So second mistake: he’s still very young and not at all sure of himself. He didn’t go any closer to the cat. Actually, his bounces mostly took him in an arc on one side of the beasty. It was cute, but entirely ineffective at ridding our yard of the encroacher. I finally walked closer (I was already only four feet or so away), and the cat decided it had had enough. It took off across the yard and ran through a gap between two of the fences. So you’d think the puppy would chase it, right? No. He was more interested in bouncing and yipping at Joel who had come out to see if he could help. Oh well.

listing to port - writing out your to-do list until it drives you to drink

1. Biting toes can only get you so far.  Prancing around pretending to bite toes will get you so much farther.  Especially if you don’t slip up and actually bite them in the process.

2. NEVER pee on the floor.  Play, yes.  Sleep, yes.  Pee, no.  Neither should you poop.  These things should be done in the proper place, out of doors.  It’s amazing how cute you can be when you lift your leg where you’re supposed to.

3. Stealing people’s socks and running around with them is adorable until you actually chew holes in them.  When that happens, you’re no longer cute.  You’re bad.

4.  Letting people hold you for a minute is extremely cute, especially when you don’t end the cuddling time by suddenly trying to play nip at their hands.  Nipping really kills the mood.

5. Sleeping with your legs stuck straight up in the air has a definite cuteness factor.  It’s not even completely gone if you open your eyes and whine.  However, the cuteness points you win can be completely taken away if you follow up this performance by rolling over right side up and barking piercingly.

6. When your owner’s hand is hanging down from the edge of a chair, it is very, very cute to come and stand under it thereby petting yourself on their hand.  The effect is diminished when you then try to nip at their hand to play.  (See the note on nipping in #4.)

To summarize: You’re only truly cute when you’re good.  Bad puppies may seem cute to people who don’t own them, but those people are wrong.  Listen to your owner, and you will be the most adorable pup in the world… no matter what other people think.