Father, Son Time

David is my on the go man! He has not let his arthritis (AS) diagnosis slow him down much at all.

So his poor dad has got to be a man on the go during this furlough!! Here they are going on a 15 mile bike ride, Darryl's first on a road bike! They have also hiked, played racquetball, swam and played so much ping-pong that we may need all new paddles!!

Thanking the Lord for all the time they had together and wishing Darryl and Becky the best as they travel to their new home in the Philippines tomorrow.

"Honor your father and your mother; that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12

New Wii

We finally used some Christmas money to buy a Wii. We are definitely not a video game kind of family, but this is fun. To see everyone playing together is great!

Hannah figured it out and was making strikes!

Caleb was doing some sort of backwards thing and getting the bowling pins on the side of the alley!

Grandma Becky got it figured out and is quite the competitive one!

Here is Hannah and her cute little victory dance!

Thank you to our Military

Thank you to all those serving in our armed forces!

We pray for your protection!

Here is Erinn with PFC Michael Graber of the 3rd ACR. The division has just returned from a tour in Iraq. They will be 20 months stateside.
Erinn was blessed with a weekend trip to Texas to see Mike and welcome him home.

Liberian Adoption

As many of you know our adoption of Hannah and Caleb in November of 2005 was fast (8 months from application till arrival home) since that time adoptions in Liberia have exploded in number as the need was made known. Along with the wonderful increase in adoptions have come the problems. The government in Liberia, including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are trying to address these issues.

Pray that they may be able to deal with these issues in a timely manner, as many children wait for homes and many families here are waiting for the children that they have been matched with. Please pray for President Sirleaf and those in control of adoptions, that they would have a clear understanding of the issues and the correct laws and regulations will be put in place to protect these orphans and continue to move adoptions along.

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" James 1:27

Sickness

We decided to take Drew to the doctors today after he slept about 33 hours straight (he did have a one hour break in there), he was running 102 degrees on Tylenol, chest rattling cough and some wonderful bloody noses. So of course after I made the appointment he really started looking better around 11 this afternoon. We went in and got the prescription since we had the appointment anyways. Praying the recovery keeps going so we will avoid the filling the prescription till at least tomorrow.
Interestingly, it was only about 3 months ago that we went through the same thing, but put him on the medicine. He broke out in a full body rash 5 days later and itched for about a week!! Think we will avoid the medicine unless we have to.

Erinn is due home in about an hour and a half. The kids are very excited to see her again, you would think she had been gone more than 4 days!!

Progress

Today while the house was quite I had the little ones sit down for a few minutes and work on some school we have been struggling with. Here Caleb is showing off his cursive writing. He has really good penmanship for a boy especially, but he forgets how to write the letters. I think it is a right brain, left brain thing. I am doing some reading up on it. Drew was/is dyslexic and just informing myself through reading, we were able to work through that, to the point it is not even really an issue for him anymore. I am really proud of his progress even this week!Here Hannah is showing of her counting. We are still really working on a lot of basics with her. She will turn 6 next month, but is still really about a year or so behind her peers. With her early malnutrition (she weighed only 21 lbs at 2 years and 9 months when we got her) we have expected delays and are happy to see her catching up. What you see here with the numbers in a row and the beads underneath is something we have been working on for a year and today was the FIRST day she got it!!! I am ecstatic! All those who school their kids at home especially, know the time and effort that goes into teaching a hard concept. I think I was bouncing more than Hannah was!!

Drew is in bed today with about a 102 degree fever, sore throat, and awful chest cough. Praying for healing for his body. He needs to go to his college class tomorrow as they are reviewing for his first test.

Erinn and David's parents both with be flying back here tomorrow. Praying for traveling mercies.

My Wonderful Husband!!

I mentioned to David last week that I was craving soft pretzels and how Challah bread dipped in salt tastes just like it. So home he comes in the middle of his work day with this for me!! What a sweet man to have gone out of his way to get this for me!

The other picture is of a traditional family game called "Get Dad's Belly Button" Real unique name! Well David hates getting his belly button touched, so games of tackle usually entail trying to find the elusive spot!! After the episode seen here Hannah and Caleb were put to the nail clippers, as they left scratch marks all over David's belly!

Thanking the Lord for a day to catch up. For my family. For my great husband.

A Visit and A Game

David has been working on vocabulary and thinking skills with the little ones. He has been using the games Catch Phrase or Outburst to describe things and then have the kids try to figure out what he is talking about. I am amazed at his patience with them. I am so thankful to have a Dad who likes to play with his kids.

Also my parents came to spend the day with us today. Here Mom is reading Caleb a book, Caleb had just gotten finished reading her one!! Mom and I went and shopped for wedding dress patterns also. Dad got to grand kid sit and puppy
sit. I do think he had the more difficult job.

Erinn made it safely to Texas to see Mike. She is so happy to get to have this time with him after not seeing him for his year long deployment!!

Ryan was given a week of medical leave as he recuperates from his surgery. He flew home today and was able to get home a little earlier due to the benefits of wearing a uniform! Then a nice man offered him a ride and he surprised Danielle at the office. She was not supposed to see him till after his deployment, so as you can suppose, she was ecstatic.

Thanking the Lord for his many abundant blessings on our family!!

"Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" Psalm 107:8

Done For Now

I did discipline myself to finally get finished at least for now. David was out of town the last three days and I took the time to get the last pages in Drew's running scrapbook for this season. It is a great sense of accomplishment, and now I don't have to worry about anything getting lost or ruined. I will savor the moment for a while before I think of the the last two track seasons and last cross country season, which are not done!! Maybe I will tackle Caleb's football season first as there are so few pictures since they will not let parents out by the field any more!!

Toy Preservation

So what is a boy to do when Mom says "clean out the dress up box of everything you have not been playing with!" Well you put it all on at once, just to show Mom you do play with it! Of course, why didn't I think of that!! So here is Caleb the cowboy, Indian, explorer, sheriff, Jedi and bank robber all rolled into one!!!

The Rodents!!

Here are all the Jordan rodents (at least the ones we are not trying to kill with Decon) together last night. Lucas, Drew's very large guinea pig; Turbo, Drew's tan teddy bear hamster; and Tiny, Erinn's dwarf Dalmatian hamster. Lucas, being older and calmer was just sitting here and taking all the scampering. Tiny would not stay in one place very long at all.

Thought for the Day

Martin Luther King, Jr.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.


The time is always right to do what is right.


Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.


The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe it is good to look back at history to learn from our mistakes and to learn from our triumphs. May we learn to have compassion on those whom are in need and may we learn to stand up for those whose voices can not be heard. Will this world ever be just? No, we must wait for the Lord's return for that. But we can make a difference in our own little corner where we have been called. Let us make that difference. Let us be willing vessels.

Deuteronomy 10:18 "He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing."

It happened again!!

So now pet mania has moved on to Erinn!! This is her new friend, as yet unnamed. He is a dwarf Dalmatian hamster and makes Turbo look huge. He is still a little wild and biting on the fingers, so I will hope to post a picture of Erinn with him soon. To get a little picture of size, that is a empty TP roll and he is in a small fish tank!

A Good Book

Just read this book to the kids. With Martin Luther King Day on Monday, it seemed appropriate.
I want to instill in my children a love for their Liberian heritage, but I want them to also know of their American heritage.
This book documents the young Martin in Georgia and his anger at the way things were, all the way through his struggle to change things, and to his death.
It also documents Abraham Joshua Heschel's youth in Germany, Poland, then America. And his decision to join the 1965 march in Alabama.
With David's Jewish Heritage it helps to bring the book even more alive.

Sunshine!!!

Do you see that beautiful sunshine coming in the window? What a blessing after about a week of a weather inversion, causing us to be about 32 degrees and foggy all day, while everyone around us seems to be enjoying 50's to 60's. Isn't it amazing how much we can appreciate something when you go with out it for a while!!
This great break has sent Erinn out window shopping with friends, David on a long bike ride, and Caleb, Hannah and I just finished washing the car and Drew's bike, which was leaving very large clumps of mud in the garage.
Drew is on his way home from Seattle after running a indoor mile at 4:40. Praying it was all pain free after his winter break.
Danielle is at a wedding show in LA. Hoping she gets some good ideas and has a great time. You know that once in a lifetime chance to bring all those little girl dreams of your wedding to reality.
Ryan is still waiting on his surgery, I think it is scheduled for Thursday.
Erinn's friend, Mike, should be back on US soil in the next 48 hours or so. She is so very excited!

Turbo

Here is Drew getting ready to head to Seattle for his race this weekend. He was diligent to get all 3 of his finals done yesterday, so he slept in this morning and took his time getting ready.
If you look closely at this picture of him brushing his teeth you can barely see his small helper hiding behind the basket! Yep, that is his new hamster, newly named "Turbo" helping himself to Erinn's hair products! Maybe he wanted to smell nice today!!
I hope this does not become a regular habit as I am sure Drew did not think of cleaning the counters after letting a rodent run all over them.
I do think we spent a large part of the fall trying to rid the crawl space of rodents, then we invite one in to run all over the counters. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this thought?!
It must be said that Drew then took little Turbo and put him on Erinn's head as she was waking up this morning. Brothers! What I missed not having any!!

Marathon Days!

So we have been going on a week of marathon school days for Caleb. Anyone who home schools knows what I am talking about!! It starts out when that 20 minute math lesson turns into two hours and they are convinced that you have never, ever told them there are 365 days in a year, or that you have to borrow to take 39 away from 45. Then it escalates to a writing page taking over an hour instead of 15 minutes. You get the idea.

So I started adding in flash cards, only to find out he was doing the side that had 4-1 or 6-0 and skipping the side that had 12-3 or 11-6. So he is smart when it works to his advantage!!!

Now we have moved to boot camp training with push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks for delayed papers.

I think some of our issues are power struggle. As another adoptive mom has said they like the "pizazz"! In other words he likes seeing me turn purple as I explain for the fifth time that you can't take 5 away from 3 (at least not in the second grade!!)

Another issue is work ethic. He just doesn't want to do it. All my motivators seem to be failing at the moment, but Caleb's character is worth the effort. I try to keep in mind as another friend said, "You don't get what you expect, but what you inspect!"

So I inspect and I encourage and most importantly I pray and pray.

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in he way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Martian Child

I had never heard of this movie until I saw the trailer last week. I was able to find it today and enjoyed it very much. The story of a widowed man, adopting a very withdrawn little boy and their challenges to attatch to one another. It made me laugh and cry both, I would recommend definately recommend it. Those whom have adopted will relate and those who have not will be better able to understand those who have adopted and the unique challenges that come with it.

Thoughts

Caleb did not want to be out done by Hannah in the tooth department. So he got this one out on Saturday evening. He is very proud of the holes in his mouth since his last set have not come in yet either!

I have sat down to blog a couple of times in the last few days and really could not put any thoughts down on the page. We have had a couple of challenging days with school here, the kind that make you wonder again, just why you are putting yourself and your children through this. On Friday I came across an article in the Eternal Perspectives Newsletter written by Joni Erickson Tada, it reminded me that these irritations are there to mold us and to make us like Him. I "know" this, but it is so easy to loose sight of in the busyness of the day. I spent much time this weekend praying that God would keep this before my eyes, that I would focus on the eternal goal. So wouldn't you know it, those irritations kept coming all weekend, they brought me to tears, but more importantly they brought me to my knees! God is so very good to give us these trials, in His love and mercy to make us shine for Him.
Psalm 37:23 "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way."

Ryan Update

Ryan has been diagnosed with bronchitis and a hernia. He will not be being deployed with his unit next week and will be heading to another base for the surgery. We continue to ask your prayers as he is in pain. Also for the details of catching up to his unit later.

Newest Family Member

A bit of advice for all of those out there with boys: Beware when they have time to blow.
This morning I sent Drew to the store to get some pictures made for his scrapbook. While he was waiting the hour for them to get done he went to the pet store next door. I get a call saying "Mom, Please can I get a hamster!" I am seriously thinking that my 16 year old can't be asking me this!! I have him call his dad, thinking he will say "NO". A half an hour later in comes Drew with this cute little guy!
He has for the time been dubbed "Toby". He is a Teddy Bear Hamster about 3 inches long and light tan. I would tell you how soft he is, except he is very active at this point and needs lots of people handling time before I will hold him.
I have to often remind myself with this boy of mine that there are much worse things he could be doing with his time!!

Polly Pocket Overload

For the adopted child that has spent years in deprivation, learning to play is work! Seriously! I have been discussing this with some other adoptive mom's recently and lots of us seem to be dealing with the same things. Hannah and Caleb both seem to struggle with imaginative play and playing with toys appropriately. I have sat with them and showed them how, but they seem to go back to bashing things together and repetitive play. I am sure if they had siblings closer in age that would help, but that is not our situation.
One of the only times I have seen Hannah really interact with toys is with large kitchen play sets and little Polly Pockets.
So what a blessing to have Brenna bless Hannah with this large batch of Polly Pockets with all their accessories!! You probably can't see in this picture, but there are actually beds, a TV, chairs and a hot tub in this house. And she is putting the dolls to bed. Then they drive their cars and go the the rides!! This mom's heart is so glad to see her little girl play!!

Hannah's New Look

Hannah was going for the most unusual tooth arraignment award! If you look closely in this picture you will see her two new bottom teeth behind the one in front. She was finally able to wiggle out the first baby tooth, only to swallow it in her excitement about 2 months ago. We have since been working on wiggling the other front tooth.


Hannah is not a wiggler! I have never had a kid who did not want to wiggle their teeth out.


Caleb is a "church wiggler", loosing his first 6 teeth in the middle of a sermon. Since I now make him sit more still, he has become a "school wiggler" loosing his last couple during math! Funny thing is I think Drew did the same thing! Must be a boy thing.


Danielle was the last kid she knew to loose a tooth, being the ONLY child in her kindergarten class not to loose a tooth. so when hers were ready she aggressively wiggled to catch up.

Erinn was what I would consider normal, one here and one there.

So with Hannah we tried everything bribery, scolding and making a game of it. Nothing worked and as the new teeth kept coming in it got less wiggly. So to finally put an end to this long story, yesterday she went to the dentist and had it pulled out. No we are praying the new teeth move forward to their correct places. It is not that we do not like orthodontist, after all that is where Erinn works, but we would like to avoid that expenditure if at all possible.

A Messy Day So Far

David started by blessing my morning with spilling his entire blackberry, banana smoothie down between the seats of his Pathfinder!! It definately has the texture of throw up and about as messy to try to clean out of the carpets. I still have the deep cleaning to go.

Hannah then decided that helping clean the car deserved a good pout. Thankfully one stern reminder of what pouting gets us fixed her face right up.

Then Caleb came downstairs ready to go to the doctors in black and blue striped sweats, a orange and gray dressier shirt, and a too small gray and red sweatshirt with stains all over it! For some reason he saw no problem with this and thought I was being mean asking him to change!

I then came across this verse today:
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen: for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

God, may you direct my heart! Keep my eyes on the eternal!

Prayer Request

Danielle's fiance, Ryan, has been laid up for a few days with an undiagnosed issue. He is due to be deployed next week. Pray for wisdom for the doctors and healing for his body. And peace for both of them, that the Lord may be glorified in their trials.

Science Journal's

I was wanting to add a little more science into the school day for the little ones, and I got this idea from a blogging "friend". I got a book about senses at the library and we are reading about one sense a day. The kids are then writing down their observations from around the house. We will continue on with other science things in their new science journals.

Caleb is pretty much working on his own and doing a great job-the spelling is not so great, but this is a good way to work on it. His most interesting observation from yesterday's smelling lesson was "poop smells yucky"! I thought that was a very profound observation!?!

Hannah is working with me and mostly drawing indistinguishable figures! Then she describes the item to me or answers questions I ask. I have noticed in the past Hannah's trouble using and understanding describing words and this task has been great for this problem. As she was describing how an eye glass case felt today, she was saying it was bumpy, I thought she was mixed up, but when I felt where she had her hand there were letters I could not see and it WAS bumpy.

An interesting fact: Did you know that library and Liberia sound very much the same? When the kids first came home and I said we were going to the library, they said they did not want to go because it was too far away. I tried to tell them that we would be getting all sorts of interesting books to read and they could pick any they would like. Caleb was still unconvinced because he knew there were no books in Liberia. He thought I was crazy. Now my little Liberian-Americans enjoy the library and pray for Liberia!

Getting Started Back Up

This picture is Hannah and Grandma cooking this weekend. Hannah has really started to show an interest in cooking.

I do look forward to the Monday following the New Year!! I like routine!! And life has been anything but routine around here!

But I must say I was a little worried about the younger ones and what they had lost over the last 5 weeks. So I prayed for my attitude hard last night!! The Lord is so good to go before us!! This mornings lessons were done well with great attitudes by all.

Drew had his first day at his college class and all seemed to go well.

Erinn's professors were encouraging with her upcoming plans (more on that later)!

I was able to pay the bills and get some cleaning up done also. So I must say it has been a successful day so far.

Thank you Lord for letting me find the joy in the small things of my day!

Praying David will break this cold soon and be back to his high energy level.

Happy 2009

Happy New Year!! Today finds Erinn and Drew out playing ultimate Frisbee in the rain with a group from church and David and Caleb are at Grandma's watching the Rose Bowl. So Hannah and I are taking it easy, with some scrapbooking and some Playdoh, maybe we will get a movie in too.