is it september already? wow, it has been a blur. we spent our summer traveling to our hometown of unionville, mo multiple times. there was a high school graduation, a wedding, a family reunion, a family vacation and another family reunion. it is a 7.5 hour trip without children so you can imagine what it was like with an infant and a 2 year old potty training. i learned many things about myself and my boys while trapped in a car for many, many hours.
1. Landen, even as an infant, needs far less attention than his brother.
2. The art of manipulation begins very early - as early as two months in our car.
3. Casey can tune out almost anything, even in a confined area.
4. David's imagination is endless.
5. David has memorized A LOT of books and loves to "read" them to us.
6. I am the worst traveler in our family.
7. I have many control issues.
8. My boys love going to see grandparents.
9. My boys love coming home to their Stillwater family.
10.My husband has quite a talent for sleeping.
11.We need fresh air - we all love to be outside.
12.David's love language is touch and words of encouragement.
13.Landen's love language is food!
14.Casey's love language is acts of service and food.
these are just a few of my thoughts from our summer of travel.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
someday
someday i am going to have to let these sweet boys go. someday God will grab a hold of their hearts and although i will continue pointing them towards God, their faith will be their own. God will lead them to college, to the mission field, or to something my finite mind can't even dream.
and as much as i pray for the above to be true, i am beginning to see that my heart needs some work in this area. what will my reaction be when one or both of them sits casey and i down to say God has called them to take the gospel to an unreached people group in africa? to minister to the homeless in new york city? will i be the one that struggles with obedience?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Big Brother
well, david has finally become a big brother. three weeks ago we were blessed to have our second son, landen. needless to say we are all still adjusting. God has designed david to be very compassionate which makes him an incredible big brother. he loves to hug, kiss and hold landen whenever possible. he has crashed on him a time or two but that is expected.
the problem he/we are having is that david is no longer the center of attention at all times. this is tough for any first child but since God has designed david with an extroverted personality and touch as his love language it feels incredibly hard for all of us. he has reverted backwards in sleep, obedience and general attitude. we realize that this will be short lived but it makes for long days when we are already sleep deprived from a newborn.
the problem he/we are having is that david is no longer the center of attention at all times. this is tough for any first child but since God has designed david with an extroverted personality and touch as his love language it feels incredibly hard for all of us. he has reverted backwards in sleep, obedience and general attitude. we realize that this will be short lived but it makes for long days when we are already sleep deprived from a newborn.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
down side to imagination
yesterday i experienced the down side to david's amazing imagination. he was scared of literally everything. it began outside when a grasshopper had the nerve to jump near him - melt down. then he couldn't go grab a book because one of his toys was going to get him. then we couldn't go to sleep for nap-time because there was a giant, a monster, a snake and not nice shadows in his room. you get the picture.
i had to take a few timeouts myself throughout the day. of course i wanted to say - "get over it" or "suck it up" but thankfully after my timeouts with God had the renewed compassion david needed. it's not like he wanted to be scared or was trying to be disobedient. i was encouraged that after a very long day of prayer, talking, reassuring, and repeating that bedtime went pretty smoothly. lets hope that we don't have more days like that one. moments, yes! days, NO!
i had to take a few timeouts myself throughout the day. of course i wanted to say - "get over it" or "suck it up" but thankfully after my timeouts with God had the renewed compassion david needed. it's not like he wanted to be scared or was trying to be disobedient. i was encouraged that after a very long day of prayer, talking, reassuring, and repeating that bedtime went pretty smoothly. lets hope that we don't have more days like that one. moments, yes! days, NO!
Monday, March 28, 2011
ask the monkey
i have probably mentioned a number of times how social and imaginative david is and how opposite casey and i are from that. oh, we have our moments of both but our comfort zones are more introverted and task-oriented. so david is "forcing" us to grow in these areas which is not bad. the picture above is a prime example - it is of david and his monkey Marvin [the current favorite stuffed animal]. marvin likes to ride in our car, eat dinner with us, play football and read books. i will admit seeing david with marvin makes me giddy about david becoming a big brother - he will be amazing. but the kicker is that marvin spoke last night. yes, much to david's surprise marvin spoke to daddy. the look on his face was priceless but the real fun began when it was bedtime. we did our usual nighttime routine and then left marvin and david to fall asleep. for the next five minutes david could be heard talking with marvin. it was clear marvin wasn't very chatty because david kept asking the same questions over and over. we just sat and listened to his imagination go wild with marvin. how easy it is to trust when you are two.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
plans
"I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29.11
David loves to hear about us picking him up in Ethiopia. Just recently I even got his photo book done of our journey to the Ethiopia which he LOVES to go through. His favorite part seems to be mommy crying the first time he came through the doors of the transitional home. Like me and you, David longs to feel completely loved. My tears of joy, anxiousness, excitement and exhaustion bring a piece of my love to life in his heart.
The other night we [David and I] were waiting for Casey to get home and were talking about God's love. I will be honest it is sometimes hard for me to comprehend God's love so to try and tell David about it can be challenging. The joy of only being two though is that he is far more open to understanding and grasping it then I am at twenty-eight. But as we talked I kept thinking of our journey to David. With his sweet little face right in front of mine I told him that not only does God love him but God has incredible plans for him. To which David responded - "what kind of plans?" Well, I said, only God can tell you that. So we will just have to wait patiently as God prepares you and even mommy for them.
What if Casey and I had only followed our plans for family? We never dreamed of adopting, especially not from Ethiopia. God has incredible plans!
David loves to hear about us picking him up in Ethiopia. Just recently I even got his photo book done of our journey to the Ethiopia which he LOVES to go through. His favorite part seems to be mommy crying the first time he came through the doors of the transitional home. Like me and you, David longs to feel completely loved. My tears of joy, anxiousness, excitement and exhaustion bring a piece of my love to life in his heart.
The other night we [David and I] were waiting for Casey to get home and were talking about God's love. I will be honest it is sometimes hard for me to comprehend God's love so to try and tell David about it can be challenging. The joy of only being two though is that he is far more open to understanding and grasping it then I am at twenty-eight. But as we talked I kept thinking of our journey to David. With his sweet little face right in front of mine I told him that not only does God love him but God has incredible plans for him. To which David responded - "what kind of plans?" Well, I said, only God can tell you that. So we will just have to wait patiently as God prepares you and even mommy for them.
What if Casey and I had only followed our plans for family? We never dreamed of adopting, especially not from Ethiopia. God has incredible plans!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
tears
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2.1-4
what is it that causes us to pull back when we have children? do i use my child as an excuse not to proclaim the gospel? what am i really afraid of? his safety? the tough questions? the judgment of other parents?
i pray that God continues to help me grow in this area. that the Holy Spirit would make me uncomfortable and force me to struggle with how i proclaim the gospel now that i am a mother.
for this post to fully hit home you have to read what i have just read [http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/]. here it is...
“Jesus! Mama, baby Jesus! I want to see! I want to see Jesus!,” shrieks my littlest darling.
How can I refuse? I lift her, for what seems like the hundredth time this morning, to the manger scene on the living room bookshelf. She gazes in wonder, oohs and ahs, gingerly fingering the cornhusk baby in his twig and banana fiber trough.
“Jesus, Mama,” she whispers.
And so, the nativity scene that once was packed away each year after Christmas remains on the bookshelf still, because my darling baby, in all her wondrous excitement reminds me daily of who I want to be, the kind of life I want to live.
A wide-eyed, expectant child, gazing in wonder on a beautiful Savior.
In the middle of a broken, sin-crushed world, my soul cries out, “I want to see! I want to see Jesus!”
I want to see Jesus.
My darling Karimojong sister Maria, who is battling severe, gripping alcoholism, and her sweet baby are living with us still. People wonder, even gasp, that I would let her join us at our table. Isn’t she a poor example? Why would I subject my girls to that?
I want to see Jesus.
Newborn baby Noah snuggles to my chest as his mother lays dying in a hospital bed. He cried through the night and I feed him and kiss his pink toes and pray over his little life. Why do I do it? Don’t I have my hands full enough already?
I want to see Jesus.
Zulaika, her severely malnourished baby and her 8 year old daughter move into our home while we teach Zulaika how to care for her children and find her a job so she can continue to do so. They have lice. They do not bathe. Fear creeps up the back of my throat and I wonder, what if all my children get sick? But we have taken in sick people before, and each time He hedges us in protection. People ask, do I feel that I am being responsible?
I want to see Jesus.
Jane and her birth mom spend the weekend in our guest room. I figure if I cannot parent this my daughter, the least I can do is teach her mother about our Savior, invest time in their lives, pray over them while we love them. My heart breaks in two as her high pitched, breathy giggle once more fills my home and the pain threatens to paralyze me, but I won't let it.
I want to see Jesus.
Strangers eat at our table, bathe in our showers, sleep in our beds, share our everything. And I fleetingly wonder if it wouldn’t be better for my girls if I maintained some semblance of normal, but He shows me that HIS definition of family is not at all limited by my own.
I want to see Jesus.
I want to see Jesus and if I don’t step out, how can He come in? If I don’t give all of myself, my home, even my family, how will He be magnified?
Do I want my children to be safe? Absolutely. Do I want them to have a “normal” family dinner sometimes and be healthy and not be subject to the rage of an alcoholic or the hurt of friends dying and siblings leaving? Of course. But more than that I want to take a cue from my baby girl.
I want to whisper to them excitedly each morning, “Look, Jesus.”
I want them to see Jesus. In my life. In my actions. Lifted High. Magnified. In our neighbors, no matter how sick or dirty. In our home.
I want the best for my children, I do. And I believe with all my heart what is best is for them to have a mother – a crazy mother even – wide-eyed in wonder, recklessly chasing after her Savior.
More of Him. We want to see Jesus.
what is it that causes us to pull back when we have children? do i use my child as an excuse not to proclaim the gospel? what am i really afraid of? his safety? the tough questions? the judgment of other parents?
i pray that God continues to help me grow in this area. that the Holy Spirit would make me uncomfortable and force me to struggle with how i proclaim the gospel now that i am a mother.
for this post to fully hit home you have to read what i have just read [http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/]. here it is...
“Jesus! Mama, baby Jesus! I want to see! I want to see Jesus!,” shrieks my littlest darling.
How can I refuse? I lift her, for what seems like the hundredth time this morning, to the manger scene on the living room bookshelf. She gazes in wonder, oohs and ahs, gingerly fingering the cornhusk baby in his twig and banana fiber trough.
“Jesus, Mama,” she whispers.
And so, the nativity scene that once was packed away each year after Christmas remains on the bookshelf still, because my darling baby, in all her wondrous excitement reminds me daily of who I want to be, the kind of life I want to live.
A wide-eyed, expectant child, gazing in wonder on a beautiful Savior.
In the middle of a broken, sin-crushed world, my soul cries out, “I want to see! I want to see Jesus!”
I want to see Jesus.
My darling Karimojong sister Maria, who is battling severe, gripping alcoholism, and her sweet baby are living with us still. People wonder, even gasp, that I would let her join us at our table. Isn’t she a poor example? Why would I subject my girls to that?
I want to see Jesus.
Newborn baby Noah snuggles to my chest as his mother lays dying in a hospital bed. He cried through the night and I feed him and kiss his pink toes and pray over his little life. Why do I do it? Don’t I have my hands full enough already?
I want to see Jesus.
Zulaika, her severely malnourished baby and her 8 year old daughter move into our home while we teach Zulaika how to care for her children and find her a job so she can continue to do so. They have lice. They do not bathe. Fear creeps up the back of my throat and I wonder, what if all my children get sick? But we have taken in sick people before, and each time He hedges us in protection. People ask, do I feel that I am being responsible?
I want to see Jesus.
Jane and her birth mom spend the weekend in our guest room. I figure if I cannot parent this my daughter, the least I can do is teach her mother about our Savior, invest time in their lives, pray over them while we love them. My heart breaks in two as her high pitched, breathy giggle once more fills my home and the pain threatens to paralyze me, but I won't let it.
I want to see Jesus.
Strangers eat at our table, bathe in our showers, sleep in our beds, share our everything. And I fleetingly wonder if it wouldn’t be better for my girls if I maintained some semblance of normal, but He shows me that HIS definition of family is not at all limited by my own.
I want to see Jesus.
I want to see Jesus and if I don’t step out, how can He come in? If I don’t give all of myself, my home, even my family, how will He be magnified?
Do I want my children to be safe? Absolutely. Do I want them to have a “normal” family dinner sometimes and be healthy and not be subject to the rage of an alcoholic or the hurt of friends dying and siblings leaving? Of course. But more than that I want to take a cue from my baby girl.
I want to whisper to them excitedly each morning, “Look, Jesus.”
I want them to see Jesus. In my life. In my actions. Lifted High. Magnified. In our neighbors, no matter how sick or dirty. In our home.
I want the best for my children, I do. And I believe with all my heart what is best is for them to have a mother – a crazy mother even – wide-eyed in wonder, recklessly chasing after her Savior.
More of Him. We want to see Jesus.
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