Birthday Pictures

Here are the pictures of Drew's birthday crowd. A combination of the cross country team and friends from church. A good group of kids hanging out playing Wii, Guitar Hero, Ping-Pong, Foosball and watching movies.
Happy Birthday Drew!

Happy 17th Drew!!

Happy 17th Birthday Drew!!!!

My once a year chance to show off the cute pictures of Drew!

At 10 months old Drew was as cute as a button! Notice the "Air Jordan" shoes. Being born in the midst of Micheal Jordan mania, it was to be expected. The destructive hurricane "Andrew" also hit the US the same year!!Drew and David at Stephen's wedding at about 3 years old. Notice the missing front tooth. That is what happens when you use the back of the couch as a balance beam!

Drew our little hunter at the earliest years. Here he is practicing bow shooting at 4 years old, while dressed in his ever present Davy Crockett hat and bandanna!

At 8 we are growing into a fine young man. Here showing off one of the many "Lego" creations.

I have always loved this picture of my "men"! They were quite the study cleaning their fish catch of the day!!!

Drew at the top of Mt. Theilson (about 8,000 feet) at about 11 years old.

Drew the football player in 6th and 7th grade. He played linebacker for the Indians one year the Mustangs another year. Then it was all running!

7th Grade science project. This bridge was supposed to break after just a little weight. Ha Ha! You should have seen all the 41 pounds it held!!Drew, Erinn and Danielle Christmas of 2006.

Drew para sailing in Mexico in 2007!

Eating escargot on the Mexico cruise in 2007!

Drew racing cross country his junior year!

Drew as State Cross Country Champion 2008!

Happy Birthday son! We are very happy to see the man you are becoming and look forward to what the Lord holds for you in the future!

"Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice." Proverbs 23: 22, 24-25

Grandparents and Presents

Hannah and Drew got to open a few birthday presents early yesterday, when Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit.

Hannah was delighted with all the girly things she got, especially the doggy purse!! And she was very happy with the new clothes and this morning had her whole new outfit but together!

Drew is modeling his new shirt from Danielle. He will be having his big party today.

Thank you Lord for these children you have blessed us with the pleasure of raising!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!

Erinn received this beautiful bouquet of rose buds from Mike! She was all smiles and so encouraged after an extremely hard day at the books.

I did not get flowers, but the most beautiful card with some amazing words of encouragement from David. By the way, my love language is words of encouragement and he knows it. It is nice to hear that he appreciates the small daily sacrifices I make for the family.

I also received some beautiful homemade cards from the little ones.

Thank you Lord for the love that flows through our home!

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4: 7-8

Family Time!!

So for our family recently, getting us all down to the table at the same time has not been easy. Here we are all grabbing a quick bite together before the guys head out to a basketball game and Erinn to her girls night.

Notice David's hat in the house. That is my effort to reduce our heating bill!

Drew threatened to do damage to my blog if I posted unkind pictures of him. Here his mouth is open, but then again it usually is!!

Here we are all practicing ballet with Hannah. She is checking to make sure Dad is doing it right.

Caleb is risking an enormous amount of teasing from his big brother for being caught in this picture.

But to tell the truth, Drew was here with us too,but Erinn was not fast enough with the camera to get him!!!

Couple Busy Days

I spent yesterday trying to get the garage cleaned out so I could set up a place for my scrap booking. In the process I decided I need to deal with all those round dance dresses and petticoats. Here are the 30 dresses I will try to post on eBay. There are also about 12 petticoats and a few men's shirts.
I did decide to leave all the records for later as people really are not looking at collectibles in this economy.
I came up with a good pile to bring to my friends garage sale, they are trying to raise the last of the funds needed to finish their second adoption.
David and Caleb are spending the afternoon skiing. Last week Caleb made it all the way to the top of the mountain. We will see how he fares today as their is fresh snow and it is probably snowing now.
Drew finished up his papers and headed out to a friends to "make" shirts for tomorrow's Valentines Day couple race. He and his friend are running as a team and making heart shirts I guess.
Hannah has spent the day helping me haul things all over and trying dresses on.
Erinn is house sitting this weekend and working on a major paper that she is struggling with. Send up a prayer for her that things will come together and she will find the resources she needs.
We are looking forward to a weekend with David home!!! Yeah, his year end reviews are done!!

Ryan is off

Today Danielle's fiance, Ryan, left for his year long deployment in Kosovo with the National Guard. He will be meeting up with his unit in Germany where they have been doing some training, while Ryan has been having surgery and recovering. His unit most likely be the last in Kosovo, as they will be turning things over to the nationals whom they are training.

Join us in praying for all the men and women serving in our armed forces all around the world, and for all the family they leave behind.

Making Valentines

I mentioned the other day about Caleb's creativity. Well it is interesting when we sat to make Valentines cards that he wanted me to tell him how to do every step. We had a talk about there not being a right or a wrong way to make a card to tell some one you love them. Anyways we ended up with cards opening from the back, parts right side up and upside down, words written backwards, and stamps turned in all directions! It is interesting to watch them learn.

Even though they have been here 3 years all the choices put before them were too much. I took a lot of choices away and actually left for a couple of hours and they made much progress.

Hannah was definitely in her element with pink, stickers and shinny things.

Change?!?

Caleb and Drew went to the store together today to get birthday presents for Hannah. Drew purchases his gift first and gets his change. Then Caleb buys his $3 gift and hands the cashier $3 and asks her why doesn't he get any change?

So we worked on this for a while this evening. You would not believe the creative ways he has to problem solve!!! I spend most of my time trying to figure out exactly how he comes up with his answers!!

If we can channel this creativity into something productive I would not be surprised if it could take him far. Now I just need to teach him that math is NOT the place for creativity!!!

And no it is not that nice here. The picture is from this summer, but I liked it and it gives a look at his mischievous side don't you think!!

Blessing at Work

Today David found out he was given the highest yearly rating that his company gives to its employees. Due to some hard issues at the office this year, he was not sure what to expect, so this was a great surprise to him.

We are abundantly thankful to the Lord for His blessings upon us day by day!!

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." Psalm 37 4-6

Grandma's Soup

Hannah and Caleb enjoyed lunch with Great Grandma Mae today. They love her soup, so she called to ask if she could make lunch just for them. Afterwords she told me she did not think they liked the tapioca pudding and Caleb said he loved it but he ate too much soup to enjoy the pudding!!

I had an hour to grab a few things for the kids for Valentines Day and for dinner tonight. We are looking forward to a sit down dinner, something we have missed for a while with David's long days at the office. Thankfully he was able to finish all his year end reviews on Saturday! Yippee!!!

New Computers

Both Erinn and Danielle purchased new computers this month. Here is Erinn and Hannah showing off the one we picked up this afternoon.
For those of you of my generation or later you will understand why a did a double take when she said she hoped it would be lighter!! Remember those first computers and how huge they were?! Never the less she is very happy to have one that is more reliable and will boot up faster.

Worship Time

This was worship time at our house last night. Seven families, twelve kids 8 and under, two guitars and one djembe.

We made home made pizzas, sang for an hour or so and the guys played lots of ping pong.

Good Christian fellowship is a balm to the spirit.

Thank you Lord.

Here Nate and Dustin are leading on their guitars. Nate was gracious to let Caleb hover and learn as he played the djembe.

When Caleb came home he would dance and loved to drum. But as he saw people watching him he stopped. I was excited to see his interest. He picked it up this afternoon and was showing me what he learned.

Sweet Success

Here you see Caleb with a math page that is 100% correct and was done in 25 minutes!!! Remember those 2 hour sessions we were having. After this he opened his speed drills to find his first drill with multiplication 0's, 1's and 2's. He got a little worried. I said, "Do your best!" I wish I could have got the grin on camera when he finished in time and they were all right. He is now happily getting his language and phonics done with some very neat writing. Oh, sweet success and the confidence it brings!!

Here is Hannah with her 9 letters that she has mastered and 2 more vowels that she is close to having. An amazing accomplishment!!

My Great Man!

Today I was thinking all day about the wonderful man I am privileged to be married to. I am so thankful to God for this amazing blessing to me. After 22 years of marriage I am still amazed at how love can continue to grow and grow.
I have struggled for years with the push within some groups to have the father's base so much of their lives from home. I have watched my dear husband struggle with whether he was doing the wrong thing by keeping his job away from home. I have watched him deal with the guilt that I do all the schooling and much of the home maintenance.
I would read Proverbs 31:23 "Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land." And I would "know" he was in the place of God's choosing.
So you can imagine my excitement when it was pointed out to me this week that in Hebrew writing the point is in the middle. To some that may not be a big surprise, but language arts is not my high point! So this verse falls in the middle of the Proverbs 31 section on being a woman of worth. Why?!? It does not "talk" about the woman. But my job centers on allowing him to be what God wants him to be!!! And that is "a man who sits among the elders of the land". My job will only be fulfilled as I help him to fulfill his place as a business man of integrity. A man whose light shines in a dark world that others may see.

So David, thank you for all you do! Thank you for all the words of encouragement (my love language). Thank you for embracing all that God has for you and our family. Thanks for being a great dad. Thanks for working so very hard to provide for your family. Thanks for being an example to your kids of love, devotion, stability and work ethic. Thanks for loving God with all your heart, so you can lead us.

I Love You!!

Adoption Issues Part 1

I tried to make a point of not just talking adoption issues on this blog, as our family is so much more than adoption. But because of our adoption our eyes have been opened to so much more than I could ever have imagined! I thought I would take some time once in a while to talk about some of the things we have been learning on this journey.

On one of the groups I am part of they have been talking about sibling rivalry. Interestingly I originally did not think much of this since our bios and adopted are so far apart in age. That changed abruptly when we brought Caleb home and he immediately rejected his brother. We had read about this in relation to kids and parents (which Hannah did to me), but I had not heard of it with siblings.

Due to the wise advise of a friend, we chose to take our oldest son's side most all the time. I will admit that originally this was because Caleb was an amazing lier (you would probably be too if it meant survival) and would make it seem so convincing.

Now looking back, I know this not only helped Caleb to learn not to lie, but more importantly that he is not the center of everything. It also helped to confirm for Drew that we would stand by him, that we trusted him, and that our love was not changed no matter how much life shifted.

These are important issues when you take into consideration that whenever you go out as a dual-race family, you are set apart by many people. They ask questions pointedly about your adopted children and totally ignore your bio children. This is not a good atmosphere to encourage sibling companionship. There were times, especially in the first year, that our older children would not want to go somewhere new and be ignored.

As Caleb has settled into his role in our family and begun to feel safe, secure and loved he does not push so hard for that attention he so wants. He knows he will get it. I think he has learned that we can love him and his siblings at the same time. A big thing to learn for a child who has suffered so much in his young life!!

Now we deal with the regular sibling issues and are getting to enjoy for the first time brothers as siblings!! If you call all their rough housing enjoyment!!

So a bit of advise for those of you who have not adopted:

1) Remember all the children in the family!

2) That what may not seem fair to you on the outside, is probably hard parenting from the inside to teach a child a needed life lesson/skill.

Ruth Study

Erinn and I have started going to a morning Bible study with some other ladies from the church on Ruth. This has always been my favorite book and the place I come to when I feel I need extra comfort. I must admit that the Lord's watch-care of Ruth and Naomi and Ruth's peace in the midst of turmoil has been my focus. As I was reading over it on New Years the Lord was working on my heart about the kinsman redeemer, that He is my redeemer and the picture that Ruth points to Christ. Call me slow or something, I know that I knew this fact about Ruth, but for this to be the focus of our Bible study, it was more like God pulling out the big guns and saying "Pay attention, Donna!" So you get the point, I am very excited to see where the Lord takes me in the study.

Ruth 2:12 "The Lord repay you work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for rest."

Super Bowl Crowd!!

Our hope as we raised or children is that they would enjoy hanging out at the house with their friends. This way we could get to know their friends and see all the interactions. So what comes with this is large crowds and the need for ear plugs at times, but it is great fun!!! This is only part of the crowd we saw at the house yesterday for the Super Bowl. There is a crowd playing ping-pong in the garage and the Foosball table is set up in the living room.

Here you see a calm game of "ultimate spoons" being played on the deck out back. Why outside when it was only about 50 degrees you ask? Well in "ultimate" spoons when you get 4 of a kind you have to run to some far off location to find your spoon!

So it ends up looking like this when nine teens and twenties go racing across the deck for a spoon! They usually do this at the dining room table with the spoons upstairs on my bed with smaller groups! How do you say accident waiting to happen. So far no injuries and they are having great fun.

The world likes to classify Christianity as dull and boring. So what do you think? Do these kids look bored to you?

Hope you had a blessed weekend. And as my husband posted on our front door "Whom will you serve today?"

Caleb Learns to Ski!

Caleb learned to ski on Friday!

After taking the first run down the mountain balancing between David's legs (they almost took a wrong turn down the mountain), David decided to let him try it alone. Caleb took to it very quickly. Pretty good for a kids who had never seen snow till a few years ago.

By the end of the night they were going up the big lift and down some of the smaller hills.

Good job Caleb!!!

Here we all are with Mt. Shasta in the far background. Hannah and I went as the support team in case Caleb decided he did not like it.

Erinn, in her great orange shorts, (she did put her snow pants on over them) worked on her snow boarding and helped Caleb some to give Dad a break.

Ping Pong Partners

The guys (Brian, Darryl, Robin & David) enjoyed playing ping-pong many times during Darryl's furlough. Here is there good-bye game the day before he left for his new post in the Philippines.