Excitement

The excitement in our home is overflowing into everything. Disney World is right around the corner and it is making schoolwork, general obedience, normal routines and Moma all a little nuts! But I am excited too. I am ready to pack and have my list made. The children are upstairs in bed and, with permission, all chatting about what they want to pack. As it goes, what they want to pack is totally typical of my kids.
Ashley-Her princess clothing according to types that Mom has listed (ie jeans, shorts, t's)
Abigail-Whatever Big Sis is packing of course!
John-"We gonna have snacks!"
Big D-Whatever car is important at that moment needs to come see Mickey Mouse as well as "blue" (his blanket) and sheep (his new stuffed animal from the mattress store)
Peter has been out of town, so I have just been doing all I can to get a jump on next weeks schoolwork and haven't pulled out luggage as of yet. I don't want Grammar, History, Science or Latin hanging over my head. But sweet Pete is home tonight and Moma is taking D to shop for the "snacks" tomorrow, then starting the packing. Yea!
I have to tell you...I am overly organized when packing. My husbands motto is: "If you wait til the last minute it only takes a minute!" That just doesn't cut it for me and actually stresses me out---but that is where we balance each other so well. So, when I pack I have to lay out my jeans with the 2 or 3 shirts I intend to wear with them. Then lay out my shorts with the tops for those, etc. Then I plan which shoes go with which outfit. After I have everything laid out I pull everything out but the bare necessities and manage to get a weeks worth of clothing and one pair of shoes into a carry-on bag. Wha-la! Then I ask my husband to pack whatever last minute leftovers need to get "thrown in!" ;)
See, balance!

Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday.
This morning our Pastor preached on choosing life.
In a nut shell, here is what he said:
All human life is precious to God.
The unborn, the old, the special needs
are all precious to God.
All human life is precious to God
no matter its condition or stage of development.
In our society we have called
good evil
and
evil good. (Isaiah 5:20)
We call abortion "choice."
We call adultery "an affair."
We call evil good.

Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Our Lord created you. He formed you in your mother's womb and has a wonderful plan for your life! I pray today that, if you are not a believer, you would trust Him and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I pray that, if you are a believer, you would take a stand to choose life.

http://www.heartlink.org/beavoice/
http://www.ccel.us/Swindoll.toc.html

A Week Away

We leave in less than a week for our big trip. Our past few days have been filled with making countdown Mickey's for the children, schoolwork (trying to get it done ahead of time so that it isn't hanging over us) and snow! We had about 2 inches of snow yesterday and it was perfect for packing snowballs. The children had a fun time throwing them and pulling each other on the sled. I know 2 inches doesn't sound like much, but when it's the perfect consistency, then it's the perfect fun.

More than once we have had the question asked of us..."Are you done growing your family?"
Peter and I both feel that we are not "done" and that God has more children planned for us. Our children are ready for more siblings and they continue to ask us how soon we can have more join our family. Along the entire process we have left it open to the Lord to grow us, knowing that His plans for us are for good and to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). We have certainly had "hardship" in trying to start a family but God said, "Wait!" We stand amazed at what the Lord brought to us after the waiting. We are blessed beyond measure! Our Lord has exceeded our expectations. In turn we are trying to raise our children unto godliness so that each action and conversation glorifies our Maker. We are leaving the "growing" and the being "done" to Him. We are grateful that it is not up to us and that once again His plans are for good!

Bedtime

Good Evening,

When putting Daniel down tonight, I told him that I had to leave his room to go downstairs to talk to Daddy. I told him to close his eyes and go to sleep. He said he needed to talk to Daddy too.
Mom: What do you need to say to Daddy, Daniel?
Daniel: Happy Birthday! I love you! What are you doing?

No, it's not my husbands birthday (yet!). My sweet boy just needed to talk to Daddy. Daddy came up to talk to him and he said those exact words. When we left his room he said, "Mommy! Happy Birthday! I love you!" Oh the importance of Birthdays to our sweet 3 year old. By the way, the song I sang to him tonight after he had already said those sweet things to Daddy? Happy Birthday of course!
Hope your evening was as precious as mine.
Also hope you like the new look of the blog! It was fun to find a nice brown background.

Disney World!!!

We are so excited! We broke the news to the kids on Friday night...
We are leaving for Disney World in 11 days. The kids are really excited. We were blessed to receive the use of a timeshare for the week. It coincided perfectly with my husbands one week of vacation this year. Yes, it's a God thing! We are blessed, overwhelmed, excited, encouraged, and ready to go. We invited our friends from church, who also happen to be in our homeschool co-op. It was the perfect time and blessing for them as well. Our kids really enjoy time with each other and we are all looking forward to the intensive fun time together. Ashley asked this afternoon if she could sit next to N* on the plane! N* is a boy, but she tells me that he is her best friend. We will have a sweet week with our friends...
Oh, you probably want to know how we told that kids?!?
We invited the D* family over for make your own pizza night. When it was time for dessert we gathered the children in the family room and gave them filled Disney popcorn buckets. I said, "Well, for dessert we are (then all parents joined in) GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!" The kids jumped around and danced.

We stand amazed at His good gifts.

Kid quote of the day!

Today our quote is from Abigail--Who knew! I was explaining to her that since she is African American she can't take a bath every day because it would dry out her skin.
What could be the quote of the day with that one??
"When I grow up I want to be white so I can take a bath every day! How come you can?"

Peter and I are out in the door in 30 minutes for a much needed and deserved date night.
Thanks Dad and Mom for watching the boys! Thanks Brownies for having a lock in this evening.
Adult food here we come! Woo-hoo!

Locusts

Joel 2:25-26
I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm~
my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat,
until you are full
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
Joel 2:25-26

I am saddened at what the locusts have eaten in my children's lives.

More importantly...
I am amazed at how my Lord has already so generously repaid my dear ones for those years. We keep this verse written out on our refrigerator to remind us to continue to claim this sweet promise on their behalf.

A Success!

Good Evening!
John did really well today. He went to sleep really well and woke up scared, sad and hurting---but he could hear better! We are praising the Lord for our wonderful Dr. and the great progress that has already been made in our sweet boy. Thank you for praying for him and for us. He is still hurting due to the amount of tissue they had to cut out from his adenoids and the amount of fluid they pulled out of his ears. He is on drops, pain med's and an antibiotic and it all seems to the doing the trick. We rejoice! We begin his speech therapy next week and are excited to see how he continues to progress now that he can hear. Please continue to pray for healing for him. We thank you for that.

Quote of the day:
From our sweet 4 yr old black son. "When I grow up I am going to be white." Although it is humorous, it is also a big issue that we had to address with him. God made us all different colors and each one is really special and important. It is an interesting thing to adopt transracially...we have the normal issues of parenting...oh yeah...and then some! :) We are blessed by our children.

John's surgery

John is having his adenoids taken out and ear tubes put in tomorrow morning. As he tells it, "I gonna have bubble gum on my face like this (covers face with hands) and I gonna go to sleep and wake up and my ears are gonna be better." Needless to say, we are all anxious for him to have this done. His hearing has suffered due to the build up in his sweet little neglected ears (not our doing!). Speech therapy begins next week. I will have to get used to not yelling for him to hear me. Yea God!

On another note, our co-op has been approved to participate in the box tops for education program. Family--please check your boxes, bags, Ziplocs, etc and send your box tops to us to help us save on tuition (we raise money for the school and our tuition shouldn't go up!). Next year we will be paying for 3 kids!

Now, for the quote of the day. We were speaking of how much Daddy has to work in order for us to pay for our house, food, etc. All the children agreed that they like living in a house and having food to eat. When the discussion was over, our sweet Abigail piped up with one last question: How much would you have to work for a big flat screen tv to go above the fireplace? We are a family without cable (hence our LHOTP dvds) who watch movies on our one tv or on the computer. Ha! The fireplace flat screen tv is not on the purchase list. But if you have one that you are giving away, we might be able to make it work.

Back to Reality...

Good Evening!
We just finished dinner and everyone is busy doing nighttime routine. I am blessed that the girls are able to help with the boys in getting them changed into pjs, etc. We are going back to reality tomorrow morning. Well, more like tonight! Our co-op starts up again tomorrow which means we have to be diligent in getting things done and can no longer allow this illness to dictate what we do. IE No more Little House On The Prairie! It's back to Latin, Grammar, History and Botany.
Oh, they are done. OK, one more LHOTP before the real reality.
PS The Girls have decided, after these past two weeks of being sick and sitting on the couch and watching LHOTP, that they are going to call us Pa and Ma! HA!

I'm a VIP to G-O-D!

For the last few years our family has traveled from the East Coast out to the California desert to join the cousins for Vacation Bible School. The church we take the children to for the week hires a children's musician to handle all the music for the week. He is fantastic! It's the kind of music that even when the kids are not in the car with me I can turn it on and praise the Lord while rockin' out to truth. His name is Rob Biagi. His 2 1/2 year old daughter, Natalie, was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Our family has a heart for this family. They have blessed us through their music and attitude through the years. I hope you will be blessed by them when you check out their different websites. To purchase Rob's music go to: www.robbiagi.com To find out more about Natalie or to donate to their much needed hospital fund go to: www.nataliebiagi.com If you have children (or if you don't!) you will be blessed by Rob's uplifting music. I will put links to their sites in my favorites.

Skin Color

I hope you caught the relation between my site name and our family. Sometimes I refer to our family as the United Nations. This is merely due to our different skin colors, not our stance on world politics! We have 6 different shades of skin in our family. My husband has an olive complexion-it's like having a perfect tan year round! I am white with a lot of pink-not tan like unless I am consistently in the sun. (At this point I have decided that I am not going to refer to the kids as DD and DS, I am going to use their names!) Ashley is Cinnamon-also perfect year round tan. Abigail is Caramel-yep, another year round tan girl. John is Special Dark (chocolate)-not tanned! Daniel is white, olive and a little yellow, but we call him Vanilla Bean. All four of our children became ours through adoption. We have a heart for the foster care system and adoption. Before we were married we wanted to adopt. This morning Abigail told Daniel that he looked exactly like Daddy! Peter and I laugh at this because the darker our children become, the more people assume Daniel is our biological child. If it's just us with Daniel then he looks totally Mexican! So, even our sweet Caramel daughter sees all the "white" people as looking alike. For us as parents, our eyes have been opened and we see color through our children eyes. John and I were in the grocery store before Christmas and he spotted a gingerbread man hanging on the wall. He pointed at it and said, "That's me Mom, he's brown like me!" John likes to color with the brown crayon, he likes to point out all things that are brown and he picks the brown fake tattoos to put on his brown skin. Our kids know that we are all different. They also know that God made each one of us unique. They know that God made the little children of the world and that they are precious in His sight!

PS Did you catch that this posting is in different shades?

Happy New Year!

We pray your new year is full of God's richest blessings, His peace that passes understanding and joy that can come only from Him!


We brought in our New Year like we brought in Christmas---yep, still sick! Can you believe it? Whatever this is, it's a doozy! Thank you for praying for us. We sure appreciate it. DH and the kids are up and about and I actually managed to get some laundry done today. I had to since DS1 was out of pants! Tomorrow is another day...so I am praying to wake up healthy and ready to face the day.

Tomorrow I plan to start talking about bigger issues...transracial adoption for one.