The Crazy Days of Summer (part 5)...

Some of you may know that we have been friends with the Cyrus family for many years.  Tish (Miley's mom) and I were best friends when they lived here in Tennessee and I actually baptized her prior to their family moving out to Los Angeles (it was a sweet, private "ceremony" and our pastor baptized the rest of the family).  I used to take Miley on auditions with me back when she was about 10 years old...she would always book them and I wouldn't (little brat!  ha!!).   Back then, Cooper had a recurring role on a show called, "Yes, Dear", and on one of our trips to go out to CA for that, I asked Tish if I could take Miley with us and introduce her to our agency.  She said yes, and when I took Miley into CESD, our agent, Margot, signed her up on the spot.  About six months later, Miley landed the role in Hannah Montana....and the rest is history.

I tell you that story just because it sets up the next part of this post.  It would take way too long to tell the whole story, and I'm not even sure I would, but starting about four years ago, someone began trying very hard to drive a wedge between me and Tish.  It was a very difficult season for me, but I just kept reminding myself (and wonderful friends kept reminding me) that "truth and time walk hand in hand".  Tish and I have always remained friends, but it was just a bit different - a bit unsure - both of us being fed false information, but neither of us knowing it.  Anyway, the timing was pretty wild because one day, after two years, the truth was known by all involved and the veil was lifted.  Tish called and we discussed the series of events.  The air was cleared.  Things resolved.

A short while after that, Tish called to ask me to pray about a decision that Billy Ray was making regarding a possible job.  They weren't sure whether he should accept the role or not so she was wanting me to pray about it with her.  We talked for about 30 minutes and then at the very end of that conversation, I told her that we were considering adopting a sibling set of three and I asked her to pray about that for/with me.  The words she spoke next still blow me away to this day.  She told me that they wanted to help us pay for the adoption.  I assured her that that wasn't the reason I told her about it, but she knew that.  She told me to keep her posted on what we decided and if we decided to do it, she was there to help us.

AND, to make this very long story a little bit shorter, we did and she did.  (:   They ended up paying for a large chunk of our adoption expenses.  Without their financial blessing, I just don't know how we could have done it.  We raised the rest of the money and had help from so many amazing friends, but the amount that Tish gave us was above and beyond anything we could have ever imagined, and we will forever be grateful.  I knew I wanted to do something special as a thank you and thought that it would be great if I could give one of the kids a middle name from their family to honor them.  I began going through African girl's names that meant "joy" because that was what I saw when I saw Bennet's face in the first picture I ever saw of her.  And guess what, there it was, right there on the African-girl's-names that-mean-joy list - Leticia.  THAT is Tish's name!  It means "joy".  It's African.  What??  Come on!!  That is SO GOD.   And from that moment, Bennet became Bennet Leticia.

So, on Tuesday, we spent time with Bennet's namesake and the rest of them there Cyrus people.  We hung out at their home just talking and taking pictures.  We all had a wonderful time, but Tish and Bennet have a special connection.  Tish lit up talking to Bennet and you could just see a love for her that was sweet and special.  Tish said to me, "I want to be a big part of her life".  I am praying that God will arrange moments for them to spend some time together and get to know each other a little bit.  Oh, one little funny thing, Tish says Leticia, LeTISHa....but Bennet says it in this most beautiful African accent - it's Le-tea-c-ah.  It's so sweet.  So, Tish in her country accent said, "Yes!  That's how it's supposed to be said, ya'll".  Too cute!

After our time with them, we took Cooper and Gatlin over to take their head shots with Deihdra and the rest of us grabbed lunch.  We got to say a quick hello to my sweet friend, Jonna, and it was great to see her.  After our lunch, we picked Coop and Gat up and headed to the kid's agency to say hi to everyone there.  It was great to see everyone at CESD and to introduce them to the new kids.  The twins were "on" and it was hysterical.  Bennet was a little shy, which was also hysterical.  

We were late getting home so just spent the night packing to leave the next morning.  Cooper ended up having an audition the next day so we didn't pull out of Los Angeles until about 3:00.   We headed for Albuquerque.  Stayed the night there and then it was on to Oklahoma to be with my family for a few days!  

To be continued (but it'll be the last one, I promise!)...

The Crazy Days of Summer (part 4)...

First, I feel the need to promise you that I'm almost done with the summer post!  Geez...I need to learn how to make a long story short!!   But, this blog will become the new kids "life book" of sorts, so I definitely don't want to leave anything out.  I found out about this place that takes your blog posts and makes them into a book -- how cool is that?!  Gonna do that, for sure.  Ok, back to the post...

We ended up sleeping in on Sunday and skipping church since Cooper had Strep.  All of us were tired from the beach and the dinner party the night before, so we just enjoyed sleeping in and taking it easy before heading to Orange County on Sunday afternoon.  Thankfully, when Cooper woke up, he was starting to feel much better.

We headed to Santa Ana, which is where I grew up.  I had told the new kiddos that I'd lived there when I was little and they really wanted to see my house.  So, just like we had done with Cooper and Gatlin a few years ago, we went to my old house, took pictures out front, and then walked the path to my old elementary school.  I always cry on this nostalgic outing.  It gets me every time.  I guess because it was a time of such innocence and the memories come flooding back.  My parents were together - that's a biggy that turns on the faucet.  Anyway, we walked across the bridge and down the street to the school and I told them all about Brad Fartenessy, the boy who liked to chase me home from school and scare me.  His last name was actually, Fautenessy, but we always called him Fartenessy.  They laughed.

After that little side trip, we headed over to my Aunt Sharon's house for dinner with some of my family.  I love my Aunt Sharon so much.  She and my Uncle Steve live in a sweet, simple home in Placentia, and there is just something about being with them that is so safe and comforting for me.  Interestingly, Gatlin said the same thing this trip.  I don't mean this to sound weird (if you're reading this Aunt Sharon, this is meant as a compliment), but they don't have as much "stuff" as we do and I think that the simplification is comforting.  Does that make sense?  It's nice to go there and sit outside and sip tea and talk.  Brian, Cooper, Bennet, Kaleb and Kali played soccer in the backyard and Gatlin played in the kid's room the whole time.  No TV was on.  No Wii or XBox were set up.  Maybe they have all those things and they just don't get them out when we're there -- and for that, I'm thankful.  (If you do, keep hiding them when we're there, Aunt Sharon!  ha!!).  Aunt Sharon always makes us feel so welcome and loved.  We enjoyed dinner with the family and then had to scoot out early to see my friend, Sheri.

Sheri Rose Shepherd is one of my very favorite people.  Some of you may know her from her books or speaking engagements.  She's one of the most wonderful people I know and I was so thankful that we got to spend a little time with her and her family that night.  We hung out in their lovely home and she served us beautiful, healthy desserts.  The kids loved her little puppy and we had a really nice visit before we headed out to the hotel for the night.  Across the street from Disneyland!

A huge blessing given to us this trip was tickets to Disneyland.  A friend of ours (who we met through my Aunt Sharon), Matt Davis, hooked us up with them through a friend of his who works there.  We would not have been able to go had we had to pay for tickets - it's just more than we can spend right now on something that's not a necessity.  But, what a treat it was to get to take the kids there because of the kindness of others!  It was crazy hot and the lines were long, but we had a wonderful time and were so grateful we got to be there.  I can't remember everyone's favorite rides, but I do know that the California Screaming roller coaster was definitely a "go out with a bang" ending!   They all LOVED that!  It was a great day and we walked out of the park as the fireworks were lighting up the sky over our heads.

Growing up, I could see the Disneyland fireworks from my bathroom window.  I loved watching them each and every time I was allowed to stay up that late.  To this day, watching fireworks is one of my very favorite things!

On Tuesday, we had planned to spend a little time with the Cyrus family.  I'll start a new post with this part of the story, cause it's a bit of a story in itself.

To be continued...

The Crazy Days of Summer (part 3)...

And so, bright and early Monday morning, the 7 of us loaded into our 8 passenger SUV (the small kind) and started singing, "California, here I come...".  Actually, there was no singing...most of us aren't morning people. ha!   But, we did squeeze into the car (luggage rack on top) and we did start the long day's drive.  The seating arrangement for pretty much the entire trip was, Brian and Cooper in the front (height won over age), Gatlin and Bennet in the middle (with one seat down in that middle row so that the computer could be there for movie watching, and so I could stretch out my legs onto that seat, when needed, as I've had four knee operations and can't have them bent for long periods of time - yes, insert sad violin music here).   We made a hotel reservation in Amarillo for the night, and drove the 15ish hours to get there.  Honestly, not too bad.  I find the car to be relaxing - it's just really nice not to be able to do anything but sit there and fall in and out of sleep.  We got to Amarillo at 11:00.  Went to sleep and got up early the next morning to do the same thing again.

However, I thought that both days were going to be 15ish hours of driving...lo and behold, the second day was 17ish hours.  Fun stuff right there.  So, after 17ish hours of driving that day, we made it to California.  People asked me why we didn't divide it into three days, but honestly, we just wanted to kick it out and get there.  I have family in Oklahoma so we could have stayed there, but then it would have been getting it all out of the car and putting it all back...nope, just decided to suck it up and go for it.   Cooper help Brian a little with the driving, so it just really wasn't that bad.

**inserting an important note** As soon as we found the first In-n-Out burger on our journey, we stopped and ate there!  We absolutely LOVE In-n-Out and thank the Lord, the new kids do, too.  It would have been tragic had they not.  ha!!   Crisis averted.

Now, I have to tell you that we had THREE people offer to let us stay with them so that we didn't have to incur hotel expenses.  Isn't that amazing!  Friends that offer to let SEVEN of you stay in their home are true friends, indeed!  Our awesome friend, Laura, actually moved out of her house and into another friend's house so that we could have her place to ourselves and nobody would have to sleep on the floor.  Can you believe how wonderful my friends are!!!  

We hit the ground running in CA and it was first things first - a trip to the salon to get hair cuts for everyone.  We have a great guy in Tennessee that we use, but we also adore our girl, Ivonne, out there, so we wanted to not only stop in and see her, but also let her make us all beautiful for our time there.  We rotated in and out of her place and figured out which of our favorite eateries we would hit first.  We decided on Philippe's in downtown Los Angeles, which is famous for their dipped beef sandwiches.  They are SO good and I crave them often.  Our friends, the Shada family, joined us for lunch and it was wonderful to see them AND have a delicious lunch!

It was really great cause we were there on a Wednesday and Cooper was very excited to go to Wednesday night youth group.  We are so blessed to have fabulous churches both here and there and the kids are active at both.  Cooper has often led worship for the youth group out there and was thankful to get to hang with his buddies that night.  On one of the days (I just can't remember which one) we had lunch with the Roberts family.  Dave is the pastor of our church out there (Montrose Church) and his wife, Cyndi, is a sweet friend of mine, and their two youngest daughters, Sunni and Brandi, are friends with Cooper and Gatlin.  They treated us to a delicious Chinese lunch and I was so glad that we got to spend a little time with them and that they got to meet the new kiddos!

Thursday was a busy day because we were blessed by a professional photographer named, Deidhra Fahey, who offered to take pictures of our family for FREE.  This one brought me to tears because I have been wanting new pictures so badly, but just haven't been able to spend the money on it right now.  So, when my friend told me that Deidhra wanted to gift us with a photo session, I was just blown out of the water.  A true blessing from God.  Honestly, I'm not making enough of this....I had been thinking about this pretty much every day for a long time cause we just don't have very many pictures of the new kids in our house.  Honestly, we don't have a lot of pictures of anyone, but we do have a couple large pictures of Cooper and Gatlin from when they were younger and I've been wanting to replace those with a family picture and then individual pictures of each of the kids.  But, like I said, that costs money, and when you've just adopted three kids, there's not much (if any!) left over...so, we just haven't been able to look into getting pictures made.  Deidhra blessed our socks off.  She took individual pictures of each of the kids, and then the five of them together and then our family.  THEN, to top it off, she asked if Cooper and Gatlin could come back another day so that she could take head shots of them for their acting!!   The pictures she took are AWESOME!   I will admit to breaking down like a baby and crying in her den when I saw them.  It blows me away when people do stuff like that as a blessing for me.  It is just so humbling.  I can't express the gratitude I have for Deihdra and the blessing of the pictures.

From there we went straight over to a studio taping of the Disney XD show, "Pair of Kings".  My friend, Kathy Musso, got tickets for us to see the taping and meet the entire cast.  Honestly, could I be anymore blessed by my friends, I don't think so!!  What a BLAST!   We've been to a few show tapings and it is always such a fun time, but this was extra special since Bennet, Kaleb and Kali had no idea what to expect, and they just love the show.  We got to take pictures with everyone and it will be something they will never forget.  I owe Kathy a world of thanks for making it happen!!  I hope my friends know how truly grateful I am for their acts of kindness towards us.

Ok, I can't remember what we did on Friday (maybe that was the day we ate with the Roberts?) ha!   But, on Friday night we went to one of our favorite little restaurants called, Sharkey's.  It's nothing fancy, but their nachos are SO yummy and I knew Bennet would love that.  We let our friends know that we would be there from 7:00-9:00 and asked for anyone who wanted to, to come by and hang out with us.  It was so fun to gather there with so many people who have prayed for us during our adoption journey and so many who have given so much to us.  Loved getting to visit and catch up with these precious friends that we just don't get to see often enough.

On Saturday we headed to the beach.  It was a gorgeous 85 degrees inland, but when we got to Malibu, it was only about 70.  Oh my!  I should have worn sweats!!  It was chilly, folks!!   The kids didn't care one bit.  They LOVED the beach.  They ran around like crazy people - in and out of the water - in the sand, under the sand....they were in heaven.  It was so much fun to watch.  Courtney Hitchcok and her daughter, Bryce, joined us, as did the Charles and Shada families.  OH, but poor Cooper woke up feeling really sick and Brian had to take him to the CVS clinic, where he was diagnosed with Strep.  It was such a bummer.  He stayed home all day Saturday to rest and get better.  We stayed at the beach for a couple hours (and did I mention we had In-n-Out for lunch!!) and then home to get ready for our dinner at the Shada's house.

Our friends, Dean and Linda Shada, let me invite a group of people over to their home for dinner Saturday night.  I just love them.  I love knowing that they wouldn't mind at all if we invaded their home.  True friends!   I made White BBQ chicken and Dean grilled it for us and then everyone else brought a side dish.  In addition to the peeps at the beach, the Gipson family joined us and it was so great  getting to spend a little time with them!   We all had such a nice time visiting and catching up and, of course, eating!!   Man, I love my friends.

And, the blessings from friends just kept on coming.

To be continued...

The Crazy Days of Summer (part 2)...

So, yeah, we decided that it would be smart to go ahead and move Cooper down to the basement and make that his bedroom.  We thought about this prior to the new kids coming home, but I really wanted him to be upstairs with all of us cause I thought that would help with the bonding process.  I just didn't want Cooper to always be down in the basement and we never see his sweet face.  So, it was decided at that point that Gatlin and Bennet would share a room and Kaleb and Kali would share a room, and Cooper would keep the room upstairs by himself.  This was all great, in theory, but then the kids got here.  The, "It'll be fine for me and Bennet to share a room" wore off 15 minutes after they were home.  LOL   Actually, the room, itself, was never really a problem.  BUT, whenever there was a problem, which, in truth, has been somewhat often, the room became an issue - somehow separating them and putting Gatlin back in her own room was always the answer to any and every problem (from Gatlin's perspective).   For Bennet, she wanted to "be in the room with Gatlin for forever", but couldn't quite change the behaviors that were causing Gatlin to not want that.  In truth, there is a significant maturity level difference between pubescent, 11-year-old Bennet, and hormone-crazed, 14-year-old Gatlin.  So, after 5 months, in order to make the transition as easy as possible on everyone, we decided to change the rooms.

In truth, by the 5th month, Bennet, too, was ready to change rooms, but she wanted her OWN room.  Oh, it's always something.  ha!!   But, somewhat reluctantly, she finally unlocked the door and let Kali into their new shared bedroom.  LOL   We took Gatlin's name off the wall and put Kali's up there - and Bennet moved to the bigger, bottom bed, and Kali went to the top bunk (which was a fun change from the bunk she shared with Kaleb where he was on top).  And, lo and behold, Kaleb ended up with his own room.  We just figured it made the most sense to go ahead and separate the boy/girl room sharing and give Kaleb the room with its own bathroom, thus leaving the three girls to share the other bathroom with all their girl stuff.  Kaleb didn't actually love the idea of a room by himself, but he is trusting me that, at some point in the near future, he'll be very happy about it!  (:    And, can I just say, that moving Kali and Bennet in together has been so great.  They are much better roommates because they are both very nice and neat, unlike Gatlin, who is just a wee bit messy (like her mother was at that age - so she comes by it naturally).   They also both get ready for school very quickly and therefore, wake up at the same time in the morning.  Gatlin takes a wee bit longer (and no, she didn't get that from me, I'm fast!) so wakes up earlier and doesn't have to tip-toe around, which she is thankful for.

BUT, in order to make the room changes, we had to change some things in the basement, which, when we first moved into this house 14 years ago, was Brian's studio (now he has a free-standing studio next to the house).  The vocal booth in the back of the basement has been a music room of sorts (guitars and drums in there) and then the rest of the room was a game room, with a pool table in the middle.  So, first things first, we had to sell the pool table, not only to make room, but also to pay for the new shower we were adding to the bathroom down there.  A friend of ours lined up the plumber to put the shower in and we started the process.

Oh, but I haven't yet mentioned that we were anticipating company and were trying to get the shower done before they got here since they'd stay in the basement while here.  But, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong with the bathroom renovation, went wrong.  It wasn't our friend's fault, it was just a comedy of errors.  Like, the shower didn't fit through the door - had to take the door off.  Then, they had given him the wrong size shower and it had to be returned.  The flooring was taken up and was supposed to go right back in after the shower installation, but when they tried to put it back in, it no longer fit the area....so new flooring had to be purchased.  Things weren't drying and therefore couldn't be completed.  And the hot and cold water were backwards (which still has to be fixed!).  So, it was just kind of funny since we were trying to hurry and quickly get it done, which, of course, we should have realized jinxed the whole thing.  ha!!   So, I let our friends know that, yes, they would have a shower, but, no, it would NOT be pretty.  Thankfully, these sweet friends couldn't have cared less about such things.

We had an awesome visit with Nick and Ann Tunheim (our precious friends that we went to Ethiopia with for court and then, Brian and Gatlin went back again with them for the Embassy appointment).   They were here for three days, but OH, did I mention that my best friend, Angela, and her four boys, were in Atlanta shooting a movie and she called two days before Nick and Ann were arriving and said that she and the boys were done with the movie and were headed our way for a week long visit!  HA!!  I loved the fact that we were going to get to see them (cause they live in California), but the timing was hysterical.  SO, they got to our house the next day.  They ended up staying in a hotel though cause the basement really was too much of a disaster area at the point they got here.  So, we spent a couple awesome days hanging out with them and then Nick and Ann got here.  That weekend was our awesome adoption agency's reunion so we spent Saturday and Sunday with our amazing friends that we've met on this incredible journey.  And I'm telling you, it is really quite a miracle how God weaves our hearts together with others so quickly.  Dan and Tara Quinn brought their kids over for a swim on Friday afternoon and we just had a blast hanging out with them.  Nick and Ann stayed for that, too, and then at the end our time with them, Angela and the boys came back to our house to stay with us for one night before they headed back to California (so yes, Nick and Ann out, Angela and the boys, in - it was so funny, but you probably had to be here).   And oh, it was such a huge blessing that one of the Chick-fil-A stores in town had their large nugget trays on sale for half price cause I, seriously, took advantage of that FIVE times!!!  SO perfect for the large groups we had over in July - and so very yummy!

I was doing laundry and packing suitcases that entire weekend as company was coming and going, because on Monday morning we jumped in the car and drove THIRTY TWO HOURS to California.

To be continued....

PS.  I want to touch briefly on the Bennet/Gatlin relationship.  I don't want anyone to think that we're having any extreme issues over here - but I do want to be honest with everyone cause it's not always peachy, either.  The girls are sisters, and as sisters, they bicker.  Ok, they fight.  ha!   They both have areas they need to work on - and they are.  Bennet needs to work on not purposefully "pushing Gatlin's buttons" and Gatlin needs to work on not reacting so strongly when she does.  It is a process and we are working on it.  But, one thing I do realize is that I'm grateful that they both feel so bonded to each other that they are comfortable arguing.  Yes, at times it's a lot of drama.  Ok, a LOT of times it's a LOT of drama, but we just happen to have two very dramatic girls - and it's that high drama that makes me know that they are not in our family by mistake, God knew they belonged with me.  He knew I could handle it (oh, please, God, help me handle it - LOL) and He knew that I could understand their ways, since I, too, loved looking at myself in the mirror when I would cry...oh wait, that's another story!   Anyway, I believe that the issues we have are just normal sibling issues that every family has.  We are blessed beyond measure.

The Crazy Days of Summer (part 1)...

I immediately put "Part 1" in the title because I just know this is going to be WAY too long if I don't divide it up.  This is my own bad fault since I haven't posted for so long.  I know many of you are just crushed over that hard reality.  ha ha ha ha ha (and the ha's could go on and on - ha!)   So, I'll start writing and at some point, I shall decide that it is a good place to stop, as not to bore you to tears.  You can thank me later.

Honestly, this has been the busiest summer I can ever remember (um, yeah, probably because we have five kids now instead of two, I know).  It doesn't really feel like we had much break at all.  In fact, we barely did.  From the day regular school got out, the three new kiddos went directly into their ESL summer school.  They did that for one week, then went to Vacation Bible School for a week, and then back to the ESL school for two weeks.  Then, the twins went straight into their Princess/Warrior church camp the following week and Gatlin headed to basketball camp.  After that, we were already into July.  What in the world!!  

In the midst of that, we also sent Cooper and Gatlin to their church camp.  We had kids all over the place and, to be honest, this mother hen prefers for all her little chicks to stay in the chicken coop.  I know there are moms out there who can't wait for their kids to go off to camp, or for school to start back up, or whatever, and it's to each her own on that....but I'm just not one of those moms.  I love being with my kids pretty much all the time.  I just think they're great people and I really enjoy being around them.  I've home schooled Cooper and Gatlin for their entire education and I'm just used to them being here - it's what I like.  So, for all of them to be coming and going takes a little adjusting for me.  And, there are a few tears every now and then as the days drag on til they come back home.  But, I know that this is all preparation for the day that they will actually fly the coop and have their own families, blah blah blah blah blah - I can't even type that!!   LOL

In July we celebrated Gatlin's 14th birthday.  She just cracks me up - oh, the teenage drama.  So, on her actual birthday we didn't do anything - well, if I remember right, I got a little cake from Publix and stuck a candle in it for her and we ate that after dinner - but as I tucked her into bed, there were tears.  It was the "worst birthday, ever!"  Oh my.  Now, mind you, there were plans to have a bunch of her friends over for an informal party the following night, but apparently we really needed to "fuss" over her a little more that day, and we failed.  Well, particularly me.  I failed.  I should know by now that these "fussings" are very important to Gatlin.  The "fussings" are apparently her love language.  So, after many tears and much soothing from me (I seriously had to pull out her baby book to remind her how many wonderful birthday parties I had planned for her over the years - there were pictures to prove it so it couldn't be disputed!) - she finally went to sleep and was hopeful that the next day would be better.

The next day, 10 of her most awesome friends came over to celebrate her.  They swam, ate Chick-fil-A (now, how can I not get the 'Best Mother' award for that!!), laughed, ate some cake (TWO different ice cream cakes from Baskin Robbins - hello!!), swam some more, played video games and then four girls slept over.  As I tucked Gatlin into bed, her exact words were, "Mom, this was the BEST BIRTHDAY, EVER".  LOL   Oh, what a difference a day makes.  I sure do love that precious, dramatic, beautiful, crazy, dramatic, silly, funny, dramatic, 14-year-old girl.  So thankful that she's mine. (And yes, I took lots of pictures of her and her friends, in case I need them next year to remind her what a great Mom I am.  LOL)

The next week we were blessed big time by a visit from my sister, Jenni and her kids, Jon Mark and Hannah.  Jenni is a missionary in Thailand so it was awesome that while she was in the states for a very short time, she and the kids came to Nashville to see us and meet Bennet, Kaleb and Kali for the first time.  (She was staying in Oklahoma to be with my mom during her cancer treatments).  We loved having them here and just did a whole lot of nothing.  As always, it was sad to say goodbye, knowing we won't see them for at least a year.

That same week, Cooper went on a mission trip to West Virginia to work on some construction projects for people in need there and to also spend time with some inner-city kids.  He also led worship with the band, so you know he absolutely loved that.  The Lord is really developing him into a confident worship leader.  His guitar skills are fantastic and his voice is beautiful, but his leadership is becoming the thing that I am most excited about.  Can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do in and through him.  

And, we started a "small" construction project and room rearranging.

But with that I shall say....to be continued....

Twins Tribute...

This past week, our precious Kaleb and Kali turned seven!  Woo hoo.  They were so excited about their birthday and couldn't wait to celebrate.  For a little over a week, every night as I was tucking them into bed, they asked how many more days it was until the big day!   The countdown...so very sweet!

I never thought about having twins...it didn't run in our family or anything, so it never crossed my mind.  But now, I'm so happy I have them -- it is SO MUCH FUN!!   Who knew?   And I love the way they are with each other.  Kaleb is very protective of Kali and Kali is very patient with him -- more so (for both) than with any of the other kids.  It's endearing.  Even if they get mad at each other, they are so quick to apologize and equally as quick to forgive.  I love their relationship.

So, we celebrated their birth at Chuck E. Cheese's.  I had forgotten how fun that place is.  Seriously, we had a blast!!   They both invited two friends and then we had some extra family and friends there as well.  It was a Thursday night and it wasn't crowded at all.  They loved playing all the games - Kaleb especially loved the shooting ones, and Kali loved climbing in the tubes with her friend, Dakota.   We all managed to fly through our tokens and work up a bit of a sweat.  ha!   We had just enough pizza and just enough cake and it worked out perfectly.

Both kids got in the Ticket Blaster at the end of the night - and that was hysterical.  It looks so easy from the outside, but it boggled Kaleb's mind.  ha!!   Every time he'd catch a ticket, he'd then open up his hand to catch another one and lose the one in his hand.  I think he made it out with one ticket.  LOL   But the manager guy was super sweet and gave him a few.  (:    However, Kali had been given a tutu from Ms. Lana, which she put on immediately, and good thing, too, cause it came in VERY handy in the blaster.   There were tons of tickets getting stuck in the tutu -- we were cracking up.  But then, as she was coming out the door at the end, she was dusting herself off and knocking all the tickets back down to the blaster floor. ha!!!  Ok, so some of the objective of the blaster was lost in translation.  LOL    But, that girl walked away with a TON of tickets -- and you guessed it, she gave about half of them to her brother.  Did I mention I love them!!  (:

They were given so many wonderful gifts (thank you, friends!).   I'd have to say that Kaleb's favorite thing is the big Nerf gun he got from the Hetrick family and Kali's favorite thing is the little baby doll she got from Gatlin (that pee pees, thank you very much), followed closely by the tutu.  BUT, they love ALL the gifts they got and have been busy playing with them.   OH, Kaleb did have to fight for the Nerf guns when we got home because Brian, Cooper and Jon Mark (cousin/nephew) were in a heated battle.  I guess I know what to get Brian and Cooper for Christmas.  LOL

It was super sweet to have my sister, Jenni, here all the way from Thailand.  She and her daughter, Hannah, and her son, Jon Mark, spent a few days with us and it was wonderful.  Hannah had met the new kids before (cause she's in the states for college) but this was the first time for Jenni and Jon Mark to meet them.  They left early this morning to head over to Oklahoma to spend more time with my Mom and my sister, Debbi's, family there.

SO - that's about it for this post...oh, but I always have to leave with some thought-provoking tidbit...so here's this one.  Did you know that in some parts of Ethiopia it is considered such bad luck to have twins that the children are actually killed right after birth?  That is the sad reality.  It's called Mingi.  Can I tell you how extremely thankful I am that my sweet babies were not born in a region of Ethiopia that practices Mingi.   Let's remember to pray for all the children of the world...red, yellow, black and white...   I am forever grateful that God brought these precious, amazing, wonderful, beautiful twins to me.

Ok, wait...I MUST tell you this Kali story.  So, she was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt the other day and she pointed to the word "Hello" and said, "Mom, what is this?" and I said, "Hello Kitty."  She replied, "Well, I need to get a bra for my Hello Kitties".  ba ha ha ha ha ha ha   So, yes, the word "Hello" was right across her chest -- thus, I just thought she was talking about the word.  LOL    Oh my gosh....I laughed my head off!!!    Ya know, we have some good stories that involve Hello Kitty.  Just sayin'.   (:

These are the Moments...

We've had quite a few really sweet things happen around here in these almost four months that the new kids have been with us, but I'll tell ya, what happened last week at Vacation Bible School is right up there with the best of the best.  So I'll start this post with this Kaleb story.

You know that our kids didn't come to us with anything but the clothes on their backs, and those weren't really "theirs" - they were worn by every other kid their size (or close) in the orphanage - they were worn out, and too small, and went straight to GoodWill when they got here, so to own something of their own has been a pretty big deal.  And to have MONEY, well, that's just icing on the cake - and they likey!  Kaleb especially likes money.   Others can walk right past a dime lying on the floor or a quarter on top of the clothes dryer, but Kaleb stops, picks it up and asks if he can have it - every time!   At first, he just put his money in his sock drawer, but then decided he needed a better banking system, so he got a little plastic medical bag from a Build-a-Bear Bear and made that his bank bag -- pretty darn adorable.  He got money from the tooth fairy twice (and promptly counted up all the teeth he lost in Ethiopia and gave me the count in case I could get word to the TF of his "failure to pay" - LOL), he got money in his Easter basket and he has scoured the house and found a good amount of loose change.  Then a couple weeks ago he was the pool cabana boy and rubbed suntan lotion on Gatlin, her friend, Jessie, and me,  and it was so sweet that I paid him $1.00 and Gatlin and Jessie paid him $3.00 (which they took from ME).   So, at that point he had a grand total of $17.   He said he was saving for a remote-controlled car.

Cut to the beginning of last week and the start of VBS.  During the first session, Ms. Amy told the kids about Malawi, Africa, and how the kids at VBS could bring in money every day and it would go to build a library there.  It was also a fun contest between the girls and the boys, which is always exciting for the kids.  (;    So, at the end of the day as we were riding home, Kaleb told me he wanted to give money to the kids in Africa.  I told him I thought that was great and that I would give him a dollar to take the next day, but he said, "NO, I want to give all my money!"   Ok, you know this totally tore me up.  That sweet boy has been saving that money for over three months - it has been VERY important to him - and he is ready to give it all away, just like that.  So, I made sure he understood - I said, "Kaleb, you've been saving that money to buy a car and if you give it away, you won't be able to buy a car."   He said, "I don't care about the car, I just want to give them my money."   And the next day, that precious boy carried his little medical bag, filled with his $17, into the church and dumped it into the big trash can on the boys side.  (:   And the tears streamed down this proud mamma's face.

Now, his birthday is coming up on the 23rd and you know I had every intention of buying him a remote-controlled car!  (:    BUT, then something amazing happened.  On Wednesday, I told the story of Kaleb giving his money away to my 5th grade VBS class, and on Friday, three of the kids came to me and told me that they had a present for Kaleb.  Their mom then told me that they had asked their parents if they could use their own money to go buy a car for Kaleb since he gave his money away to the African kids.  Hello!!!   And there it was, this HUGE gift bag for Kaleb - wow!!  So, I brought Kaleb into our class and let the kids give him that gift - and it was the coolest green car -- it's awesome.  Kaleb didn't know what to do or say, it was just so sweet.  I have it on video - precious!

A simple Bible verse that we learned on Wednesday of VBS week was, "We love because He first loved us".   These kids demonstrated love in a BIG way and I was so proud of all of them.  And by the way, at the end of the week, the VBS kids gave over $8000 to the Malawi Library project.  Can you believe that!!   AMAZING!   That's good stuff, people.

On a side note, Kaleb also won the Crazy Hair contest - which is such a funny story since he wasn't really supposed to be in the final four, but he heard Ms. Amy say, "I love Kaleb's hair" and so he thought he was supposed to stay on the stage.  Then when the kids did the "applause/scream" vote, they went nuts for Kaleb.  It was hysterical.  And, of course, I cried, cause I'm sitting there thinking of this little boy in an orphanage four months ago and now, there he was, standing up in front of 600 or so kids and he's getting screamed for -- and I mean SCREAMED FOR -- and winning a contest.  Oh my.  It's just too much sometimes.

The weekend before VBS my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew came to visit.  It's the first time anyone on Brian's side of the family has met the kids so it was a really special weekend.  Aunt Lora brought lots of goodies and we have enough books to read for a year.  LOL    But really, I LOVE how much thought she put into the kids and bringing special things for them.  Then, one day, she and Gatlin spent four hours - yes, FOUR HOURS - at Michael's shopping for artsy crafty stuff.  They came home with a plethora of fun things - the kids were in heaven.  We had such a great weekend and it was filled to the brim.  It was hard to say goodbye and on Tuesday morning when the kids woke up and their Aunt, Uncle and cousin were gone, there were tears.  ):  

This week, Gatlin is at basketball camp.  It's just up the road in Nashville, but I miss her.  She wasn't feeling great last night or this morning so I went up to see her on her lunch break.  We ended up lying in her bed for a short power nap and she read her journal entry from last night to me, and she read me a Bible verse that she'd written down.  These are special moments that I treasure!!   She is having to be brave right now and I'm proud of her for hanging in there.  She's going to a new school next year so doesn't know any of the girls well yet, and she's playing basketball for the first time really (she played for  the YMCA when she was little, but I'm pretty sure Cooper would say it didn't count - ha!).  She's out of her element and is being tested.  It's good for her, but it's hard for the Momma to know that she's struggling a little.  But, as we all know too well, life is full of struggles and you have to learn how to get through them.

On the way to camp, she and I took turns saying Bible verses that we have memorized.  I pray that God will bring those verses to her mind, not only these few days that she's at camp, but for the rest of her life.  One in particular that I have asked her to memorize and meditate on is, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind".  This verse is a "must memorize" verse.  Life is hard and fear can be debilitating, but through Christ, we can do all things.  Amen and amen!!

PS.  Can you lift up a prayer for my sweet Mom who is in the middle of chemo treatments.  She's had a hard week and isn't feeling great - not all because of the chemo but more because of a stinkin' tooth infection which ended in a root canal, which is gonna end next week when they just pull the tooth out.  Not fun, especially when you're already dealing with chemo -- ugh.  So, prayers for her are much appreciated!  Thanks, friends!