Spring in the new house

 One fun thing about spring in the new house is seeing what everything looks like as it is growing back again! My favorite are the trees. We have three of these trees on our property

 You may think it's snow because somehow we have gotten snow this april

 

 But it's not snow it's flowers! I took a close up because they are beautiful and because I want to make a print for the kids with a verse from a children's song we like.

They are already growing leaves and the flowers are falling:( But I have enjoyed them while they've been out!

Beginnings of our garden

I went to Menards and bought all these little seed starter things and got so excited. We filled them all up with dirt and then I realized that at least half of my seeds say to sow directly into the ground...not to start them early. Soooooo I may have been a little over zealous.



 

But I'm excited that we have a start! We will probably make the raised bed soon and get a compost bin together as well! I'm excited for a butterfly garden too, but I think it will be a couple years until that is established enough to attract butterflies. We'll see!

Trip to Camp Caleb

We took a trip with some friends from church down to Camp Caleb in Kentucky to help clean up the camp to get it ready for kids this summer. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. I took a picture of Ian doing the dishes just because I thought it was funny to see him with his arms deep in dirty water cleaning dishes:) But apparently others thought it was funny too because right after this he said, "Why does everyone think it's so unbelievable that I'm doing the dishes?!?" 

 

How I found them the first morning there.

 The kids thought it was SO exciting that they got to scrub the floors with sponges. If only I would have found out sooner that they thought this was such a cool task! I'll have them scrubbing floors in no time.

One group from our church who stayed at the camp with us had to go to another location for the day, but it was pretty dirty and not suitable for kids. So the babies stayed at the camp with us and we got to play with them all day! This is my selfie face. It never occurred to me before how terrifying it might be for babies...

We gave the kids the job of straightening the rope. Did it NEED to be done?? Probably not, but it did make it easier to roll it back up, and the kids got to run down the path with it. As Ian always says: it's the little things.

Upping his man status.

22 Months

Thomas, I promise I love you just as much as your brother and sister, despite the fact that I haven't done monthly updates for you until you are two. And despite the fact that your baby book still isn't done. Those were just bad precedents to set on my part. Trust me.

 Thomas is so full of character he is about to burst. He is so entertaining to just watch! He will randomly spin in circles, growl, and/or start jumping and clapping for himself. We are very amused.

 He's also talking up a storm now. He tries to say everything and is clear on a lot of words, but still needs a mommy (or mary) translation on some words. Generally speaking he is pretty happy, but can be especially grumpy when he's hungry, which happens somewhat frequently. His grandma commented that he could eat all day! Agreed.

Happy man:)

Random day of warmth

Finally a day of warmth after this cold cold long winter!

Could not get a smile out of this one, but he has so much fun playing in the dirt...

 Mary has really started to speed on her bike. I wonder when she will ask to take those training wheels off? Not sure I'm ready to teach her, but maybe this summer that can be daddy's task:)

Pray with us

With our home study being pretty close to completion in the next month it occurred to me that the first child who comes into our care is probably already alive. What is happening in that baby's life right now? I can't think about that without crying out to God my father for mercy on that baby, and on us. I'm reading a great book right now called Adopted for Life by Russell Moore (which I will post more about at some point because it is AMAZING) and he calls this the Abba father cry. He says when we talk about calling God Abba it's usually explained to us as calling him daddy! But Moore goes on to say,

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane isn't placidly staring, straight backed with his hands against a rock, into the sky as a shaft of light beams down onto his face, as in so many of our church paintings. He is screaming to his Father for deliverance, to the point that the veins in his temples burst into drops of blood. That's the Abba cry. It's the scream of the crucified.

OK so I haven't been screaming, but it is painful to think of what will happen to bring our future foster kids into care. Moore talks about when he met his two adoptive boys for the first time and how he had to leave them in the orphanage until he was allowed to come back to get them for good. They cried out for him as he left and he went back into the room, placed his hands on their heads and promised them, "I will not leave you as orphans (John 14:18)."

Tonight I was painting the room that will someday (soon!) hold a foster child and the thought came to me from a little earlier in John 14, "I am going to prepare a place for you." I'm preparing a place for you sweet baby and I can't wait for you to leave whatever situation you are in that causes you to be unsafe. Your foster sister has painted a picture for you and we framed it for you to see. One of your foster brothers picked out a stuffed animal for you to play with and set it in your crib. Your other foster brother grabbed that toy out and sucked on it...but it's all in love:) Come to a place where you will be safe and loved. A place that you probably can't even imagine because it is so different from where you are now. I'm preparing a place for you. God is preparing a place for you through us.

Please pray for this child and for our family as we get ready to receive him or her!

Things I never thought I'd have to google

So there are certain things most people never consider googling (that's a word now right?). Things like: how does incest effect a child, what is gross sexual imposition, what's the difference between aggravated murder and murder (still not sure, but pretty sure I don't want a kid in my house whose done either), and how likely is a child to get huntingtons disease if a parent had it (turns out it's pretty likely, oh and throw in "what is huntingtons disease?").

Ian and I sat down one night to fill out this child characteristic checklist which states what we will and won't consider for foster placements. This thing is 5 pages long and that picture is just a sample. We made it through page one before we needed a break. This is basically a list of all the horrors that have entered the world since the fall of man and we have to go through it and decide if we will care for a child who has been exposed to them. And I want to answer most of these questions the way most questions in foster care are answered: I DONT KNOW!

Anyway, I've tried to go through some by myself as I have more discretionary time than Ian but, as you can see in the picture, there are some things I just don't know how to answer. We are only accepting a placement for a baby, but I'm well aware that a baby could have been physically or sexually abused. A BABY! It's almost too sickening to think about. I know I will need to remind myself often of John 16:33

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."

Jesus already overcame all these horrors and I don't need to be strong enough to overcome them or even carry them on my own. That doesn't necessarily help me answer the questions, but it does give me peace either way.