August

It looks like August is going to be our month!  : D   LOA is Letter of Acceptance.  China tells us that they think we are fit to parent a specific child.  Woohoo!  Thanks for all the support.  We now wait for final approval from the US to do the same thing, wait for documents to be moved to the right place, and off into the wild blue yonder we fly.  

It's going to be a real TRIP because these angelic beings are going with us. 

I won the what-are-we-doing-with-the-children battle last time.  

I lost this time.  Kenton insists that this will be wonderful for them.

The question now is how many straight jackets should we take with us?

GUESS WHAT!

WE GOT OUR LOA!   

WOOHOO!!!

Saying Yes

"On the excruciating wait/delays:  Oh my, I can speak to this.  First, forget whatever timeline you were given at the beginning.  Forget you ever heard that.  Put that in the trash can.  Adoption will change, shift, slow down, hit snags, be weird, be difficult, take longer than you think, take longer than you can stand.  This will happen.  This is the normal thing.  When someone gives you a timeline, say, "Thank you for that cute little sentence.  Flush."  Potential adopters, let me tell you this:  Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning.  Decide on it.  Roll around in it.  Put it on the table and shellack it.  Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption.  When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM.  I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours.  We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing,  YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay.  Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong.  There is NO perfect adoption.  Every adoption has snags.  We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because this is hard," but all that is garbage.  You know what's hard?  Being an orphan.  They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like h*** to get them home.  So we will.  We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will. "  Jen Hatmaker

Waiting

It has been 112 days of waiting for our LOA.































Good thing I'm such a patient person or I'd be going a little nuts.

Trail mix, anyone?

West Virginia

After cards and flowers we headed to WV for the day.

We stopped at the smallest church in the 48 contiguous states.

We stopped at the smallest mailing office.

Apparently their service has already gone the way ours is heading.

We took pictures of goofy kids.

Had a picnic lunch and the "boys" climbed a tree.  It was a nice switch from having them climbing the walls at home.

Visited Blackwater Falls.

Walked around, touched every fascinating item in the gift shop, visited every restroom...and made a few of our own

It was a beautiful day.

With all the general craziness of spring field work, parlor pressure, and adoption waiting we really needed a day to jell again as a family.

Davis was not happy that dad gave him a bit of a wash.
 

Dad thought it was appropriate.

I hope your Mothers' Day was special, especially my mom and my mother-in-law, two of the best.

Megan

 had a birthday.

She liked her new parasols.

So did dad

Jamison made these for her doll horse to jump.  (He got tired of her hoarding the legos for this purpose.)

Thank you, Jamison!

Paper lanterns for the girls' room.

I offered to let her have friends over but she seemed content just to have cake and presents with family.  She spent the afternoon hanging lanterns, putting up wall stickers, and playing with her dolls.

Soccer

The soccer season opened with a bang.  Literally.  Jamison was just heading off into the wild blue yonder for his first game when there was a clap of thunder.  

That shut everything down for 30 minutes.  Every fifteen minutes or so  there'd be another boom! For three hours we hung out in the van, eating our picnic lunch, playing go fish, and waiting for the thunder to stop.

Eventually we had a long enough break between potential games and went home for an hour.  I had time to whip up a batch of cupcakes for Megan to take to Sunday school for her birthday.

Went back at 4:45 for more team pictures and Megan and Davis each got to play one game.

It was worth it.  Davis made two goals.  : D

On the Edge

 Pressure: it can turn a lump of coal into a flawless diamond or an average person into a perfect basketcase.

 Good thing I don't drink, I'd probably be taking the Drunkard's Path.

Day 98 of the LOA wait.  If this doesn't end soon I'm going to need a 12-step program.

Vacation

It's an exciting time around here now that school is out.

Mom: redoing the epoxy on the parlor walls.  Let's just say that God is taking this opportunity to work with me in the area of  forgiveness.  Also, weeding flower beds and wishing the frost danger was past.  Thinking about planting part of the garden.  Looking at the disaster zone that my house has become and trying to decide if I care or not.  Running to soccer practice.  Checking my email approximately 1500x per weekday in hopes that our LOA has arrived.  It hasn't.  Unless something changes soon we'll be joining the "century" club, meaning that our wait for this treasured piece of paper will go over 100 days.  I headed up this club back in 2010 while waiting for Kaitlyn.  I know that God's timing is perfect; does that mean I have to like it?

Dad: Planted 30-some acres of corn today, a first for the year.  The oats are all planted and some spraying has been done.  I think Carl planted most of the oats.  Working on the parlor every spare minute.

Jamison: soccer practice, checking pasture fences with grandpa, and working on his sister's birthday gift.

Megan: soccer practice, roller blading, biking, playing with her sister, fighting with her sister, helping me.  Yesterday the girls were up and picked up the downstairs before I got up.  Sadly, it was a temporary condition.  

Davis: soccer practice (Are you seeing a theme here?), "helping" with the pasture fence, biking, and playing with the dog.

Kaitlyn: changing clothes MANY times every day and leaving them everywhere, biking, playing with her sister, fighting with her sister, and practicing for the popular pre-school Olympic event of whining.  Not only will she qualify, she will probably medal in this event.  I have some work to do.

Fun times.

Do You Hear?

Are you hearing the reverberations from the Hallelujah Chorus where you are?  That's most likely the jubilation my kids are experiencing at being

DONE WITH SCHOOL!

Barn Updates

 The parlor is moving along.  Kenton's thinking maybe in June it will be ready.  I'm not sure HOW that will happen since field work is starting...but he's Mr. Positive Thinking.

Palpation rails in the walkway.

Return lane from the parlor.  Like those manure grates?

You may have seen this picture in another form.  Sometimes I forget what has changed and what hasn't.

Cows' heads will stick out of these while they're being milked.  When done, the fronts will come up releasing the cows into the return lane and the next batch will be pushed in to milk.   At the back side of these, you can barely see what has to be my all-time favorite named object in this parlor: The BUTT PAN.  If you're the milker, eye-level with an udder, guess what's above you besides the tail?

 As you can see we have lots of concrete work yet to do.  We're probably the concrete company's new best friend.  Do you think they'll send us a fruit basket at Christmas?

In the parlor basement.

Kenton spent a little time cleaning up the front and spreading some gravel.  Don't you think we need something up in that peak?

Our county hangs "barn quilts" on local barns.  We're too far off the beaten path to justify one...but wouldn't that look lovely up in the peak?  Let's see we'd need an appropriate pattern...maybe Churn Dash...

Or Country Farm...

Hand's All Around would be fitting...

And because we want to avoid any association with negativity in this project we'll skip Beggar's Blocks

Fool's Puzzle

And definitely Crosses and Losses

Any suggestions?

By the way, none of these are mine.  A) I don't put pink and red together.  (Shudder!)  B) I can't piece on a curve.  Ever.  Bummer! C) While my piecing isn't wonderful, I don't chop off tips that badly!