In Like A Lion, Out Like a Lamb (I Hope)

Wow!  March, what a month.  The first Saturday

in March, this is what we woke up to.

P.'s foot, swollen, red, and blistered.

After one week in the children's hospital,

nobody knew what  caused the blisters to happen.

Once they looked like they were starting to go away,

our sweet boy was sent home.

After a week recovering, we were on the 

road to North Carolina to visit Grandma Jean

and Grandpa Tom.

First stop on our way, Jamestown, Virginia.

There we learned all about Indian and Pre-colonial life.

The kids were able to make a canoe Indian

style.  They learned that Indians, who had no

metal tools, burnt a tree and used shells

to scrape out the ashes.

This is how canoes were made. 

We took some time to visit the fort in Jamestown.

We talked with the metal worker, tried on armor,

learned about storing and drying meats, and 

saw the way that the early settlers lived.

After our day in Jamestown, it was off to North

Carolina.  Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom

took us to the North Carolina Zoo.

The kids saw all sorts of animals.

Although we tried to leave them with the monkeys,

they kept insisting that they needed to come home with us.

After a day at the zoo, we spent a day at the local Children's

Museum.  This was a favorite of all of our kids.

There was a big fire truck that the kids could climb

on and pretend to drive.  There were fireman boots,

coats, and a hose to spray.

At the Children's Museum, there was a media room

where the kids could pretend to be cameramen, anchormen, or

weathermen.  P. especially enjoyed giving us his forecast while watching

himself on the screen.

The favorite stop, of all the kids, was the airplane.

The airplane was awesome.  There were seats in the back for your passengers,

working throttles, and lots of buttons that begged to be pushed.  If

the kids got tired of the airplane, they could slide down the slide on the side, and

then run right back up to the cockpit.

After the airplane, everyone enjoyed rolling around

in blue barrels, because really, what's more fun than

rolling your siblings around the floor.

Our trip to visit Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom was 

SOOOOO much fun. We had a wonderful week.

At the end of the trip, we were exhausted.

Thank you Papa and Cheryl for watching our pets so we could go,

and thank you Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom for

letting us stay with you , and for showing us such a great time.

Not So Random Thoughts About Adoption

On Sunday, Jon and I took the kids out for brunch.

We always get a lot of looks whenever we go places

with the kids. I choose to believe that it's because

we're all so good looking.  Jon informs me it's because

we have such a large family.

A girlfriend once told me it's because we all look so different.

We're a curiosity to people.

The hostess, after pulling some tables together, seated us.

She looked at me and asked, "Are they

all yours."

I answered yes, and she asked me, "Adopted".

Now, in all of the years that I've been a Mommy to my kids,

she is the first stranger to ask me if the kids were adopted.

I answered, "Yes".  I'm not ashamed of their adoption, in fact

I'm quite proud of the way that the Lord made our family.

She smiled, said "I know what it's like to be adopted.

I was in foster care."

At that point I shared with her that all four of our children

were adopted out of foster care.

That part of our adoption story is a little more unusual.

You see, foster children are often older. They're often hurt with

complicated histories of abuse and neglect.  They're often hard to place.

They have memories of times before you were their parent.

They love people that you may not be able to stomach.

I am a HUGE advocate for adopting out of foster care.

HUGE.  It may not be the journey for every family, but it 

is the journey for our family.  It's easy to love a baby.

It's easy to adopt an infant. They will never know anyone but you as a mother.

It is much harder to adopt an older child.  To adopt, and love, a person that may

call another woman "Mom" or another man "Dad".

That doesn't mean that I disagree with infant adoption.

I don't. I know a lot of people that have adopted infants. 

Those babies need homes just as badly as my children did.

I just know, from my experience, that adopting an older child

out of foster care can be a difficult but rewarding journey.

 I would never have adopted any other way.

Never.

You see, to adopt out of foster care is to see a life

changed.  A future given.  To adopt out of foster care is to

give a child hope.

To adopt out of foster care allows siblings to grow up

together, to be a family.

To adopt out of foster care stretches you in ways you never imagined you could

be stretched.

Adoption made six people a family.

Adoption made four children siblings.

Adoption healed hurts.

Adoption showed love.

Adoption changed lives.

Not just their lives, but mine.

Validation, Everyone Needs It

Are they learning?  A question teachers

 and home schooling parents everywhere ask

themselves all of the time.

One of the questions most asked by the "unschooling" family.

One I've been asking myself for the past three weeks that

we've tried schooling test free.

Are they learning.

Then, I saw this,

my daughter building a castle in the snow.

Not just a mound of snow, but with all of the things

we'd been learning about while learning about

castles.  Then, she was Joan of Arc.

Not only did she lead her troops into battle,

she wrote a poem about herself 

"Joan of Arc" to accompany

herself into battle.

And so I ask, are they learning

anything?

I think they might be.

I think, that without the tests,

without the worksheets,

without all of the traditional measurements that I've

been using, I can safely say they are learning.

Today, we worked on division.

We used a game called "Leftovers".

The kids worked and worked on their division problems.

Not so that they could turn out yet another

math worksheet, but so that they could have the largest

remainder.

The child with the greatest "leftovers" could

move the most around the board.

They were having so much fun that the Big K.

kept saying again and again,

"This is fun".

They were having so much fun that P. only wanted to sit

at the table with them, watch them play, and cheer them on.

So, are they learning?

I think they are.

Fun With Books

I am a HUGE bookworm.  Shortly after my Mom died, I couldn't read a thing.

I couldn't concentrate on anything. I'd start a book, but I couldn't

finish it.  I was lost, like an addict looking for a fix.

I'd go to the library, check out tons of book, read two or three pages

of each, never finish them.  I couldn't.

One weekend, I went to visit my Dad.  We went to a favorite bookstore that

we both used to go to with my Mom.  I shared with him my

problem of not being able to read.

I went into the bookstore, bought a ton of books, and

after that weekend, that visit, I was able to read again.

It was a relief.

One thing that I love about homeschooling is being able to share my

love of reading with my kids.  We met them during their early schooling years. 

They had never been exposed to books or reading.  They loved when we would read

stories to them. 

Doodles was a late reader.  Big K. started reading at the end of kindergarten.

They both LOVE to read.

Currently, they are both enjoying the book "Robin Hood".

The book is HUGE for a couple of fourth graders.

They love it.

Today, they had fun not only reading their books, but quizzing

each other on different parts of the story.

They would ask each other questions about what happened in the story.

Like all siblings, there was some disagreement about the answers given.

They would grab their books, race to find the answers,

prove the other wrong.  It was 

great fun to watch them.

Great fun to see them truly loving the process of learning.

It is wonderful to see them really loving to read.

Math Games and Reading Nooks

My Doodles HATES math.  She really, really hates it.

I've have tried all sorts of bribes, tricks, activities to try and get her

to enjoy the process of math.  No go, until today.

I found a math game on line.  You use cards,

think up different problems, the trick-the product

can't be less than 350 and it can't be more than 500.

Sounded easy.  It really wasn't. It was a lot of fun.

My math hater did math for almost two hours.

Two hours!!

After all that math work/fun

the kids holed up with books.

This is what I saw in my laundry room.

Big K. decided to make today a pajama day.

P. can't read yet, but he doesn't ever want

to be left out of what the big kids are doing. 

He also decided to make today a pajama day.

And Baby J., reading is too much down time for

him.  I found him, in his bedroom, on his sit and spin,

with the blanket over his head.

"Me cold Mommy, me cold."

Not sure if he was really cold, or if he just liked the

idea of spinning around with something on his head.

Boogers, Snots, and The Lungs

This week, we have been learning all about

the lungs.

We've read lots of books, done an air

exchange experiment, and

today we made our very own boogers.

You should have heard the carrying on that the kids

did.  First, lots of giggles, then lots of, "Oh Gross!"

Then more giggling.

They blew their noses, to examine real life boogers, then they

made their own mucus.

Here's how it works:

1/2 c. boiling water

three packets of unflavored gelatin.

Sprinkle the gelatin on the top of the water, let

it sit for a bit, until it's soft.                            

Once gelatin is soft, stir until it dissolves.

Notice Doodles plugging her nose. It really stinks.

Once the gelatin has dissolved, stir in enough Clear Karo Syrup to make

one cup.  As the mixture cools, you might have to add a little

more water.  Just a spoonful at a time.

The mucus, is mucus, when you can lift the fork out of the 

gelatin/syrup mixture and long strings of snot

appear.

What the kids learned:

Mucus is everywhere in the body-not just in your nose.  When you

get a cold, your nose makes more mucus trying to flush out the germs.

Your nose is like a vacuum cleaner.  The hairs and mucus trap

all sorts of yucky stuff from the air, so that it won't get

into your lungs.

Now, to turn your mucus into really gross boogers and snots,

take a bit of dust from your vacuum cleaner bag.  Sprinkle the dust

on the top of the mucus, stir it in, watch how the dirt particles

are suspended and trapped by the mucus.

That's how your lungs are kept clean by your nose.

Pretty cool huh?

       

And of course, there has to be a song

about the lungs right.  Here's one

the kids have been learning this week.

Today, I learned that my kids LOVE science. They LOVE to

learn about their bodies, and despite the cries

of, "Oh Gross MOM!"  I know that they will never

look at the inside of their tissues the same way again.

A Love Story

My Mother used to tell me,

"To be loved by someone for who you are, truly loved

by that person, is a gift. It is something you should NEVER take for granted."

I was a teenager.  I rolled my eyes, made gagging noises, went about my life.

I met Jon when I was in my late 20's.  I look back now, I know that

I was where God needed me to be, doing what He needed me to be doing, 

with the people He needed me around the night Jon first walked into my life.

Jon was no more than a piece of eye candy to me.  Cute to look at, too young, 

and really I didn't want a relationship.  I was hurting, broken, questioning my faith, my 

upbringing, my life.  Yet, despite questioning, trusting that God had allowed me to go

through a particularly painful period for a reason.  Jon and I became fast friends.

We had a lot in common.  My Mom would ask me about him, I would

say, "Mom, we're only friends."  She knew though.  She always knew.

When Jon and I finally married, it was a wonderful day not

just for us, but for our friends and family.   My Mom would say to me,

"I always worried about you, what would happen to you, who would look after you.

Jon is always going to take care of you."  I would roll my eyes.  I didn't need

taking care of. I could take care of myself. I was older than him and way wiser.

Then, life happened.  Jon was who I turned to.  Jon remained my friend, my support, my

caretaker, my heart.  Jon loved me on my best days, on my worst days.  Jon held me when I needed

held, cried with me, worried with me, laughed with me. I came to know that what

my Mom said was true, when you are loved, truly loved

by someone, it is a gift.

I often wonder, what would have happened had we never met.

What would my life have been like?

Would I be the person that I am?  What would Jon's life have been like?

Would we have gone on to meet others, marry others, would we have ever realized

what we would have missed.

More than I think of us, I think of our four children.

If God had not brought us together that night, years ago, what would have happened to them.

Would they have been adopted.  Would they have been loved

the way that we love them.  Would they know the Lord.

A love story is really not just about two people. It's about all of the people that

their lives touch.

It's about the children, the grandchildren, the friends.

Yesterday, our family celebrated Valentine's Day.  Every year, we surprise our kids

with a little gift, a little something that lets them know how much we love them.

Something that reminds them they are special to us.  This year, our kids surprised us.

They all had worked, through the week, to craft all sorts of little gifts.

A paper chain heart made with every one's favorite color, pictures colored in, cards

drawn.  Little tokens that showed us how loved we are, by them.

As I hung up the things that they'd made for us, I couldn't help but think

what would have happened, all those years ago, if Jon and I had never met.

 As we settled the kids into bed, so that we could have special dinner-just

the two of us-I realized how thankful I am that all of those years ago, I stopped to sit

and talk with Jon about running.  That all of those years ago, I went to that little county

fair, and I met the man who is, by far, the love of my life.