Two Years!

This is the little one we met in China two years ago today. These photos were made in her home province (Hunan) just 5 days after we became her parents. She had been going through the attachment process pretty well and was comfortable with Jason and me but not others. During the photo session, there were about three people trying to get her to smile by shaking rattles in her face and making goofy noises, etc. She started to cry instead of smile. Jason couldn't take it anymore. He scooped her up and told everybody to leave his baby alone. (They couldn't understand his words but I think they understood that he didn't want her upset anymore.)

We did end up with some beautiful pictures and I got a glimpse of how much my husband loved his new little one and just wanted to take care of her. He wanted her to know she was always safe when he was around.

I can't believe it's been two years. I am so thankful to have my little Ying Hong. Happy Gotta Day, little one! And Happy Gotcha Day to Caroline, Julia, Mikayla, Abbie, and Hannah...oh and your moms and dads too.

Back to School? Already?

It seems like summer just began, but we start school in just a little over 2 weeks. It is SO HOT here that we might as well do a morning of school work and then SWIM in the afternoons. I have been coloring boundary maps for a geography game and I need to have our new wall map laminated. And if you notice Wal-Mart's big school supply sale, let me know! I like to have all that ready when we start if possible.

I am a little nervous about starting a new curriculum. It feels like moving to a new town. I am excited but it will be very different than what we have done before. One of the books I am excited about using with My Father's World is called Window on the World. It is just the sort of thing that Jason loves so I might save it for him for family devotion time if he wants to use it. A couple of times a week, we'll read about a certain people group around the world, look at the photos in the book, find where they live on the map, and pray for them. (Specific prayer requests are listed in the book for that group.) Jason and I were saying last night that we don't want this to just be an assignment. We want to approach this resource with the excitement and faith that God will hear our prayers for those people and that maybe one day we will see the fruit of that in Heaven.

Dead Camera Battery

Well, I really wanted to show you pictures of the newly decorated big girls room. However, my camera battery died and something is wrong with the charger...so no pictures. Bummer. I vaguely remember getting the charger wet so I am guessing this is my fault.

I was going to post pictures of their cute new bunk beds and hardwood floors.

Two years ago we moved Mary in with Rachel and the poor child has been sleeping in a trundle bed all that time. She thought that was just fine, but I am glad she is in a real bed now. She has the bottom bunk because her dog sleeps with her. And Rachel likes having her own little space that the dog and the little sisters can't really get to very easily.

Jason worked so hard to rip the carpet out of the room before we picked up the beds (we found them on Craigslist) and I must say he did a nice job. I have ordered a rug that will hopefully cut down on the echo factor. Imagine three loud girls and their squeals bouncing off the walls.

Since I can't show you any pics of their room, how bout a pic of their rug from the rug website?

Yep...hopefully I'll get that battery charged soon...

School Supplies!

Jason thinks I am weird for enjoying new school supplies and storage containers and that sort of thing. He's never actually called me weird (over this anyway)...he just doesn't get it. But I know for a fact that other homeschool moms understand!

So next year we will be making geography vocabulary word cards. The teacher's manual suggests writing the word and definition on an index card, illustrating, and filing in a card file box...then of course reviewing often. But at Wal-Mart today I found these nifty little notebooks for index cards. They already have 50 index cards in them and you can buy refill packs with the holes of course punched in just the right place. So I bought one for each of my two students. Yippee!

The first assignment will be to decorate an index card and then slip it into the little sleeve for the cover. That's right, the fun here never ends.

Betsie and the Blocks

This is a lame attempt at keeping my blog current. Betsie and I played with blocks yesterday and I took some pictures so I'd have something to put here. Maybe when our new school year starts back, I will have more to say!

Our building...which she called a grocery store, Mimi's house, and a church at different times as we were building it.

No, we haven't perfected the art of sitting in a lady like manner just yet.

Time to knock it down!

Re-entry sure is hard

I mentioned that Jason and I went to a marriage conference last weekend. We drove down to Florida and had two nights in a beautiful St. Augustine resort while attending the conference. Saturday night is the scheduled date night. We drove into St. Augustine and walked around in the shops, had dinner at one of those really cool hole-in-the-wall but yummy restaurants, and just enjoyed being together.



The conference itself was wonderful. It was a Family Life Weekend to Remember event. We attended one about 8 years ago. Both times were good but this one was more intense for us. I won't share details here, but I'll just say it was needed and very valuable for us. I highly recommend it for ANY married couple, no matter how long you have been married and no matter the condition of your marriage. I have wanted to blog about it, but I have decided that it was just too personal and I want to keep it between my beloved and myself. Anything I would feel comfortable sharing can be found on the Family Life website...great speakers, names of sessions, etc.



We got home around 9:00PM on Sunday night. We came home to our sweet, sweet girls and were so happy to see them. But the older two had sunburns and Rachel was running a fever. She continued to be sick until Tuesday night. Betsie was clingy and whiney and needed a day or so to re-attach to us. Mary Evelyn was so sweet and gave us a welcome home picture she had made and some applejacks (she said she knew the drive would make us hungry...LOL!), but by Monday morning we were battling a bit. Mary Evelyn was not remembering what it means to honor us as her parents and I confess it was pretty hard to keep my cool a few times. By Tuesday night I decided she and I needed to do something fun together. So I took her to a movie and things have been a lot better since. (not perfect, but better) By the way, I loved Kung Fu Panda...and I am not always a kid movie fan!



Rachel is better but now I am sick. Jason was sweet enough to make sure everyone had breakfast and was settled before he went to work this morning. Plus he made me some hot tea to soothe my raw throat before he left. I do love that man! I think I just have a cold, but colds seem to feel worse the older I get so I am resting a lot...at least until we have to be at swimming lessons this afternoon.



So we are back in the trenches but trying to apply the lessons learned and the old reminders we were given this weekend. I am thankful for the time we had together, for a husband who initiated the whole trip because he is committed to our oneness, and for parents who are willing babysitters. And I am thankful that God is with us in real life.

To All My Five in a Row Friends

(Warning: Those of you who have never been involved in an online community may find this post odd.)

Thank you so much for your encouraging words both on the boards and in private emails or notes when I said I was leaving the boards. It's just time. I have been using FIAR and it's boards since 2002 (I think.) and have come to care deeply about the people I have met there. A few close real life friendships have resulted from my time there and I feel so blessed by that. And some of you have become very good email friends as well. I'm glad to know that I can still communicate with you outside of the forums.

A few things led to me deciding to post my "good bye." The first is obviously that we will be using My Father's World as our core curriculum beginning in a month. And I know Steve and Jane did not establish the FIAR boards for people who use other curricula. Those boards are about so much more than homeschool curriculum so it's hard to leave, but I think it would be wrong to stay. True...I might use Before FIAR with Betsie here and there, but that will not be the main focus of our homeschool so I feel I need to step back. However, I will be watching to see which Fold-and-Learns are released for Before and I hope to use a few of them with my tiny little student.

Even though I might use Before FIAR sometimes, I still chose to leave because those forums are such a draw for me and I want to be online less when we start our new school year in a month. David Hazell of My Father's World suggests that your children receive your undivided attention in the mornings. I know if I did that, we would accomplish a whole lot more. So I want to stay off the computer on school days at least until after lunch. Posting a goodbye thread was a way to make myself stay off those forums in order to accomplish more at home.

Jason and I attended a Family Life Weekend to Remember conference last weekend. And I really just feel the need to give more of my time to my husband and our girls. I'll still be online, but I need to be online less.

Thank you again for your sweet words. You are a blessing to me and I have learned so much from you. I will forever be grateful for your kindnesses to me when we were adopting. You prayed and rejoiced and even helped me decide what to name her! I remember logging in to FIAR from our hotel room in Changsha (see how strong that draw is!) and seeing a post titled "Jen has Betsie!" with lots of happy tears and hopping icons and so many rejoicing over our special gift. You have no idea what that meant to me. And then when I got sick with mono just weeks after coming home, I received get well cards in my mailbox and even some muffins and fruit on my doorstep from one of those real life buddies. You gals are amazing. And those are just a few samples of how you have blessed me.

So be sure to check in here and be sure that I will be checking your blogs too. I don't want to lose YOU. I just need to be off the forums.

Praying you all have a great summer full of sweet memories with your families.
Love,
Jen