Sweet Parker Boy...

Oh how I love my son's heart...

 

he has a new friend that has entered his life,

 

a little guy about his age that has Autism.

 

He can speak little and sometimes play a bit too rough...

 

at first after playing together Parker told me he didn't want to play with him again....

 

which spurred on discussions,

 

about Autism...

 

about Albinism...

 

about heart defects....

 

and why our bodies to not be perfect...

 

and what Heaven will be like...

 

Tonight, out of nowhere,

 

Parker cuddled up with me and said,

 

" I wish I could speak the language of Autism so that I could tell my friend how much I like him."

 

I am blessed beyond measure.

 



Having a Ball this Fall....

This fall...

 

has been such a season of contrasts.

 

Deep grief,

 

juxtaposed with incredible joy...

 

it still baffles me that those two things can coincide together,

 

but they do.

 

I keep finding myself laughing until my sides hurt,

 

beaming with pride,

 

all while my heart aches with weariness.

 

We have had some great opportunities to tuck away as a family and just be together...

 

let me tell you this family of mine is some mighty powerful medicine!

 

Our kids just seem to be blooming.

 

They have become such crazy characters and yet they have such a deep heart for each other and for the Lord...

 

we are starting to get glimpses of the character they hold in their hearts,

 

and I just stand amazed that I get to be their Mama.

 

So, indulge this proud Mama as I share far more pictures than anyone may care to see from our little camping trips lately :)

 

The pictures may not be that spectacular but let me tell you, the memories sure are!

 

 

I know this picture is a bit blurry but for some reason I just love it! We recently bought Doug's parent's 1973 trailer from them and are having a blast playing house at campgrounds!

 

 

This is Miss Georgia's 'nest' (otherwise known as the bathtub!) where she loves to sleep...or play Mama bird-baby bird :)

I just love Ravenna's expression here! All of a sudden she is just filled with confidence and maturity, has a hilarious sense of humor and incredible compassion. I find her helping Doug and I out without us even asking all the time.

This would be 'Parker the Giant'. He on the other hand has become a total card, also full of this incredible confidence as he crack jokes, does his 'sweet moves' or stops and cares for his little sister if she is hurt. He will come up and place his hand on her shoulder and gently say" Oh Georgia, are you ok?"

 

He also hopped in the car after school yesterday and with a giant grin announced,

 

"Mama I have a girlfriend! Sophia is my girlfriend! I have a crush on her and when I realized she has a crush on me I asked her out on a date....I am in LOVE!"

 

and let me just tell you Miss Sophia has been his buddy for 3 years and is a little firecracker. She has been asking him to marry her for 2 years now!

 Apparently she asked him again yesterday and he told her,

 

" If I can still find you when we are grown up I'll marry you."

 

When I asked what he liked about her he said,

 

"She's my friend and her dad has lots of electronics!"

 

...at least he has his priorities straight????

Lots of snuggly reading time which I love...they are devouring books!

 

...and making up new fashion statements???

 

Miss Georgia seems to finally be turning a corner...she had us pretty worried for the first 2 weeks after surgery. She definitely was far WORSE after surgery than before. She was gray with dark purple circles under her eyes and would play for about 20 minutes and then just wilt into tears because she was so tired.

We are still concerned that she may have another underlying medical condition and will meet with her Cardiologist later this week to see if we need to be engaging more specialist.

 

But man, she is just sweet and sassy as can be.

 

She is super into rhyming right now.

 

We introduced the kids to "The Princess Bride" while camping and now she asks us to say,

 

"Stop it I mean it!"

 

a million times a day so she can say,

 

"Anybody want a peanut?"

Parker is doing great with his vision aids in the classroom and thinks he is quite the rockstar because he gets to use them.

 

We also go back this week to the low vision clinic to see how he is doing.

 

We went and played at a park in Bend, OR and the leaves were just beautiful!

We would scoop them and throw them up into the air and the wind would swirl them all around.

 

The girls threw 'confetti' for Parker to scooter through for over an hour!

 

It was fun to have time to take a series of photos to try to capture the personality of each kid...

 

For some reason Ravenna's did not transfer onto the computer so I'm working on it...

 

...but this guy had a ball with the process!

He currently wants to be an actor or newscaster...heaven help us!

 

"for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10



Things I want to remember...

We just got back from our maiden voyage camping trip in our 1971 Timberline Camper/Trailer....

 

it was awesome!

 

Just to get away as our little family,

 

to giggle,

 

and cuddle,

 

and soak up each of the kids.

 

We had SO much fun!

 

While we were out there I finally had time to slowly start to unravel all that my heart has been feeling

 

about the women's retreat I got to be a part of (more on that later), Georgia's surgery and a tragedy that happened at the school where I work this week.

 

Lots. To. Process.

 

What kept bubbling up more and more was a conversation I had with my friend Erin late into the night on Friday night at the retreat.

 

We were talking about how it is to walk through really dark, hard stuff and how unexplainable it is on many levels,

 

how it rocks me to my very soul for a long time afterwards...

 

...and that is ok, good even to pour my heart out to the Lord rather than trying to quickly make it all ok.

 

She shared the lyrics to a new song by Andrew Peterson. I forget the exact words but in the song he is talking about how sometimes in the darkest of times, the light of Christ shines so brightly...

 

...and how in spite of all that may seem wrong that is going on,

 

sometimes we see the good...

 

...and don't we just want to thank someone?

 

That is how I felt this weekend as we played under a brilliant blue sky dappled with trees beginning to turn.

 

Certain moments stood out that I just do not want to forget.

 

So here they are:

 

******

 

Just after we tucked a still groggy Georgia into her carseat in front of the hospital she asked it we would put on VBS music to listen to.

 

When a certain song came on she said with a quiet earnestness,

 

" Oh Mama, this is the very favorite of my heart!"

 

Then she very seriously began to sing along,

 

"I have a Maker,

 

He formed my heart.

 

Before evn time began my life was in His hands."


******

2 days later.

We had a tragedy at the school where our kids attend and where I am the counselor.

I was planning on taking the whole week off with Georgia but we needed to have a space for the students to come and talk and grieve.

Georgia was doing well so the plan was that for part of the day we would go in and she would be in preschool but come and hang out in the sanctuary with me during recess.

By the time recess came I was talking deeply with a beyond sweet girl who was broken hearted.

In came Miss Georgia and snuggled right up on my lap.

Right about then a group of high school students came in with tears running down their faces.

The girl I was talking to offered to hang out with Georgia in the back while I talked with the other students.

After a few minutes,

giggles filled the Sanctuary.

I looked back to see Georgia fully animated, hands going, telling a story to that girl...

...who was now grinning ear to ear.

There was my sweet baby girl, just barely out of surgery,

ministering to that student far better than I ever could!

******

Yesterday while out camping...

we were all hanging out inside the camper being goofy and reading stories when Miss Georgia scooted up beside me.

She put her hand up to my ear and in her very loud, spitting whisper (that I love) said,

" You know what I love Mama? When I start to feel better again."

Be still my heart.

She is bruised all over but keeping up with her siblings and starting to feel better!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
1 Cornithians 1:27

3 Amazing Years!!!!!

I woke up this morning to a bright eyed little girl crawling up in my bed for snuggles....

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate than lots of hugs and cuddles.

Holding her close,

celebrating 3 years of being in each others arms.

This little girlie that only a miracle saved,

she is a such a reminder to soak up everyday...

God blessed us far more than we could ever deserve when He kept her safe and moved mountains to get us to her in time!

Oh Georgia Mei..words honestly fail for what a gift you are to us...

So I'll borrow yours that you shower us with tons of times a day,

"I love you past the moon, past everything...except for God!"

The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

Playin Adoption!

These are "official" Chinese documents...

So today after school Ravenna and her friend went off to play while I cuddled with Georgia. Pretty soon they came back and in a gentle voice Ravenna asked, "Little girl do you want to be adopted?"

At first Georgia said, "No"

Ravenna said, "That's alright...first I need to do paperwork anyways..."

I wasn't sure what would happen next but she scurried off,

and brought back this....

She put it in my 'mailbox'

Can you read it?

It says,

"Ravenna to Shanine adoption when?"

Then she said, "Wait, I have more paperwork to do!"

and came back with this...

Again in my 'mailbox'

It says,

"I am going to tace care of her I am good from Ravenna"

and once again she ran off to do more 'paperwork'

and came back with this!!!!!

She keeps bringing back her 'children' (yes she went through the adoption process twice) to show me what a good job she is doing taking care of them.

Here's the proud Mama and her babies...

Man I love these girlies!

**** She just came in to tell me the 'story of how she got her children****

It goes like this...

"God blest me with grate childrin. and he blest me by leting you...

"...give me my childrin. He maed me blest whith..."

"...them. God is graet and he is asume. I love him."

"He is the best God ever! I like him he is fun!"

speechless...

Hey Mom..Come Look!!!

These are the words that nowadays make me instinctively grab the camera...

Sometimes it is sweet like Ravenna making a bed on the couch for her brother when he was feeling yucky...

or most of the time just plain kooky whst these three come up with...

Yep, a pancake beard!

and ears...

and of course the blueberry pancake phone is all the rage nowadays!

Look closely at her arms...there are the start of tiger stripes...

a few quiet minutes later?

a striped tiger and a spotted jaguar!

that later turned into a spotted princess...who still has spots everywhere...yes everywhere

and then there was the "makeover shop"

even I got a new look!

just sweetness

and the grand finale?????

"Hey Mom, come look! We're the 'Boxer children'!!!!!"

I love these goofyballs like crazy!

Summertime....

and lots of fun photos!

Being big enough to help cut bread!!!

Just being darned cute!

Light saber wars with cousins!

Georgia loved "taking care of" her littlest cousins all week!

Parker loved living in the world of Star Wars with his older cousin

Cuddles with Grandma

Love those big joyful eyes!