Home Addition

One thing I haven't mentioned on my blog yet is that we have been building an addition onto our house so that we could adopt. We've done all the work ourselves, so it's taken a looooooong time! I use the word "we" very loosely since John does nearly all the work & I just admire, chose colors etc. That picture of me on the ladder is me "pretending" to work I think. The addition gives us one more bedroom as well as a larger laundry room/mud room and a walk-in pantry. Anyhow, we are getting much closer to being all finished & I am so excited!

Conversations With My Six Year Old

Last week was a very good week for Mark. He kept a good attitude in home school every day except for one. When he had trouble with his work & got frustrated he asked for help or took the time to figure it out instead of flying into a rage, throwing his pencil etc. I was proud of his efforts, and told him so on Friday.

Me: "Mark, you have done great this week! You have worked through problems and have not had fits. I can really see patience growing in your life!"

Mark: "Yeah, and you know what else? (reaches into pants pocket) I have lint in my pocket!

Hmmmmmmmmm...

Honestly, I love being a Mom! As long as I can keep my sense of humor I am OK! :)

No News Yet

We have no news from Ghana yet & the anticipation is making me jittery! I know they are very busy & working hard so I am TRYING to be equally as patient, but it's hard!!!!!!!!

I wonder, is today going to be the day we find out WHO we get to adopt?

Oh Lord, please help us to find out soon or help us to be patient!

Oh, I hate waiting! :(
I know that doesn't sound very mature, but it's how I feel right now!

I LOVE this Scripture!

"Speak up for the people who have no voice,

for the rights of the down-and-outers.

Speak out for justice!

Stand up for the poor and destitute!"

From Proverbs 31

The Message

Answered Prayer for One Little Boy with HIV

I hope a lot of my faithful blog friends read my "Adoption Alert" (below), but for those of you who might not have, it was about a darling little boy in an orphanage in Ukraine who was HIV+ & needed to be adopted asap or he was going to be moved to an institution (which would have been beyond awful!) A lot of people have been praying and advocating for him & I was thrilled to find out today that a family has come forward to adopt him!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Thank You God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I've only begun learning about adopting HIV+ kids in the last six months or so, so forgive me if I am juvenile in my explanation here, but I was surprised to learn that it isn't the "scary thing" I thought it might be. HIV is not a death sentence like it was years ago & treatments are so good now that many kids become so healthy their virus count is undetectable. It is not "easy" to transmit HIV from one person to another. Maybe I am the only uninformed person out there who was behind the times in my understanding of HIV, but I suspect there might be others.

We are not presently planning to adopt an child with HIV but it is now a thought in the back of my mind at least, & something I want to learn more about.

Oh, I have to add that as I understand it, HIV is a death sentence for kids in foreign countries that have no chance to receive the necessary medications. When a family in America adopts a child with HIV they are literally saving their lives. Cool eh?

Adoption Alert!

I'm posting this link for a good reason. Please prayerfully take a look!

http://twietconfetti.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to the Oct. 12 entry to get the full story.

True Confessions

I've been reading a lot of adoption blogs lately & thinking about what I've written in mine and I'm kinda wondering if we're unintentionally coming off as "too good to be true" just because we're trying to stay so positive? Plus, people keep saying things to us like, "Wow, you're adopting a child from Africa. You must be a reeeaaally special, "called" family!" I don't want anyone to think we are anything but what we really are, because I hope LOTS of people will consider adoption & not feel like they have to be somehow "special" to do so. Does that make sense? So, I've decided to start writing "true confessions" from time to time, to make sure we are VERY obviously normal (or even sub-normal - is that a word?)

Also, it will be very nice for me if you all seem to still like us even after you're read some confessions! :)

True confession #1.
In our house we don't have dust bunnies. They are dust bears! (We have 2 big hairy dogs.)

#2. Before people come over I frantically run around picking stuff up & call for all other family members to do the same.

#3. I do not make dinner every night, and sometimes when I do, it is cereal!

#4. I have health problems & have to rest a lot & take a lot of medicines I wish I didn't have too.

#5. I may be a homeschooler but I DO NOT successfully turn every day into a learning experience, nor do I make my own soap, keep milk goats, or even feel like learning anything new at all, many days.

#6. Our toilets have rings! Ugh! How do I get rid of that?!

#7. I let my son eat pop corn & birthday cake for dinner one night this week.

OK, I think that is enough for now, but I'll keep thinking of more! Anybody else just dying to share a true confession?

Happy Birthday John!

Today is my husband's birthday. If there is anyone who should be celebrated on his B Day, I think John is a real contender. This man is such a loving servant to so many people, especially to Mark & me. He is the kind of guy, who comes home, sees me tired & sends me off for a nap. When I wake up, he's taken care of supper & he & Mark are having some good Daddy & son time together. He opens doors for me. He reads stories to Mark at bedtime & sings hymns with him. He consistently shows us unconditional love (God's kind of love) day after day, year after year.

Happy Birthday Sweet Heart!

Max's Media Coverage

Our rooster got us in the paper's website. Click on the link below for a short & humorous video story on the Crowing Contest & pics of us & Max. (He's contestant #1 & the only white rooster there.)

http://extras.journalnow.com/photogallery/2008/dixiefair/rooster/index.html

New Celeb. In The Family

Today we entered our rooster, Max, in the "Crowing Contest" at the fair. The roosters have thirty minutes to crow as many times as they can. The one who crows the most wins. Max successfully matched his memorable record from last year by crowing zero times! It was fun though & a reporter from the paper interviewed us all about it. Then we took some faux interview pictures with her & our bashful bird. (On a down-side, we had previously agreed to sell our now famous rooster! He likes to attack kids & we haven't been too impressed with that. We didn't mention that in his celebrity interview though.)

Appalachian Trail

This weekend we hiked about six miles along the Appalachian Trail. We saw several "wild" ponies that were very friendly, to Mark's delight! One was so cute & sweet that I wished I could take it home!