The lady behind the desk greeted Paul and asked what he needed.
"Hi. I need some immediate care."
She snickered and told him to fill out the form.
The doctor numbed his thumb and began the excavation.
He found a good chunky splinter that had been living in Paul's oozing thumb for the last month.
He did need some immediate care. Probably not immediately immediate, but since someone at church asked for prayer for someone who was struggling with a staph infection, this oozing thumb deal became a bit more urgent.
That was our morning. The whole family went because it's Family Day. Mondays are Paul's day off and we try to get out of town together. Even to the immediate care office.
Due to our rural location, the office was an hour east. When we go that far we try to think of all the other things we need/can do in that area. Multitasking.
So with a ginormously bandaged thumb, we went to Target to buy the last goodies for our Operation Christmas Child shoe box, check to see if Peter's new glasses were in (they weren't, so we'll be trekking back there later this week), and get a free cookie from the bakery.
Then next door to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card and play with their train table.
And a quick lane change to turn into Lowe's to get a new shower handle that broke off this morning. I love it when my husband says, "I can fix it." And he did.
Then on to a fabulous park with hiking trails, gazebos, fishing ducks, and a bench in the sunshine. It felt like summer. Low seventies today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Must be outside.
Okay, then we thought about our dear Nana and went south to stop at her house. The boys watched her TV and Paul ate her snacks. It's a comfy place to be.
Way back about a year ago, I started this blog to keep The World informed about two things:
Our current adoption
Our future move
No adoption news except that we will update our homestudy in February because it will have been a year since it was created and will thus expire. Our expected date of referral is between August 2011- December 2011. We will travel to Korea four to six months after that.
In the meantime I can answer your question regarding whether or not I would like a daughter. Yes, I would like a daughter. And, yes, I would like another son. Really, how can I say I want one or the other? Especially when I am asked in front of my current children. Because, you know they are going to remember my answer and will bring it up many times in the future...
"Mom are you sad that you got another boy? You told Soandso that you wanted a girl. Are you going to make our new brother wear tights and ribbons?"
Three boys will be fantastic. We don't have nearly enough lightsabers, swords, or Legos in this house. A girl will be thrilling, too. And a bit scary. Okay, my biggest fret about having a girl is having to take her to use public bathrooms. It is so much easier and cleaner for boys, and I'm unfortunately becoming more and more OCD as I age. I was just listening to a story about a blind woman and I realized she can't see if the toilet seat is clean before she sits down! Oh wow.
So that's all my non-news about that.
Now onto our future move...
It may have been unclear - I'm sure it was as we were very focused on the events immediately surrounding us - that Paul and I went to a conference about the work being done in Trky. Isn't that neat? There are conferences about everything.
We prayed, and maybe you prayed, in preparation for this possibly monumental week in our lives. We weren't quite sure what we were going to, but it was exactly what we needed.
The main types of people there were:
Real deal, authentic believers from T
Americans who have been working in T for years, decades
Churches who support workers in T
And Paul and I, who maybe we think God might have us work in T someday?
All 130 of us got together to hear what God is doing in T. His love is being made known. Slowly, slowly.
I can confidently tell you that as soon as this adoption is finalized, we will be moving to T. But I am really hesitant to make such a declaration. As if I know the plans God has for us. But, we have made that our goal and will aim toward it unless otherwise notified.
So what does this mean? It means we will be praying a ton to stay close to God and be in line with His will. Practically, it means...
We, okay, I need to get more serious about learning the T language
I need to know the Bible more
And we need to join a sending agency and get this party started
Exciting, yah?
What's that? You want to make God known in T too? Oh, that's so great. It takes all kinds of people to reach the all kinds of people in this world. Here's that one verse that always gets me:
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not heard of? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:13-15
Now I must close this post and do some really serious stuff - Peter needs to show me something at Lego.com.
(This video is what it was. He thinks Jar Jar Binks is pretty hilarious. There's a cute cool concert scene at the end. Yoda on drums, Chewy on base.)
(As is my blog's custom, it only shows the left part of the screen. Go HERE to see all those little Star Wars Lego guys running around in full screen.)
Will you let us know if you are praying with us? That would be encouraging.
This morning, whilst still dark, a little boy stood at my sleeping face.
Him - "Mom?"
Me - "Hmm?"
I opened my eyes and saw Reuben standing there holding his new S and M flashcards.
Me - "Do you want to do a lesson?"
Him - "YES!"
I rolled out of bed, found my teacher's book in the dark, and went to the dining room. It would have been too bright to turn on the dining room light so we borrowed light from the nearby kitchen.
And then we met the letter A.
And made a pictograph of the boys and girls in our family.
And then I must have changed out of my pajamas because I'm not wearing them anymore.
The desire to learn is not limited by the clock, so it seems.
It's hard to come back to life after being carefree and kidfree for several days. I spent today feeling overwhelmed with catching up with life and preparing for the coming week, AND processing the convention we went to, which has my head swarming with plans for our future.
On the schooling front, I am ready to mix things up. We have been very loose in our structure since June, but I want to get more scheduled. Need to get more scheduled. This is how it tends to go each year. Maybe it has something to do with winter coming. I have an inner need to change with the seasons, I guess.
This time it also has to do with getting Reuben more involved in the formal education process. And I have some personal daily goals I want to accomplish and I just don't think they are going to get done if I don't schedule them.
So, we are going to try night school with Peter. He currently goes to bed at 8:30 but is awake until ten or eleven. So I'm going to try doing some lessons after dinner for a while.
Nolan comes over from 2:30-5:30 and all the boys play together. Then dinner, then how about some lessons? Send him to bed at 10 or 10:30 and let him sleep into the morning. Rube gets up early and I can have some time with him.
Going with the flow of natural rhythms. We'll see. I've done lots of experimentation with scheduling and structure over the last three years. Changing as we need to. One of the nice freedoms of home education.
And I just want to say, if you have the opportunity to wear pink shoes, they are a lot of fun.
It had nothing to do with me or my birth. It was just the day.
My heart was broken in the afternoon when I learned of the huge problem of human trafficking, slavery, abuse, and sex trade in T. There is a couple there working to help them. One hundred women have been rescued by their efforts in the last year. But there are 27 million more in the world who are trapped. Trapped.
In the evening I was broken again when a T pastor implored us to come and save his people. "I want to see my people saved before I die." 75 million people in this country. 3,500 of them are Believers. There is a lot of work to be done.
They need workers who will move there and stay there. This is our goal.
Due to our rural location, the office was an hour east. When we go that far we try to think of all the other things we need/can do in that area. Multitasking.
Then next door to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card and play with their train table.
And a quick lane change to turn into Lowe's to get a new shower handle that broke off this morning. I love it when my husband says, "I can fix it." And he did.
Then on to a fabulous park with hiking trails, gazebos, fishing ducks, and a bench in the sunshine. It felt like summer. Low seventies today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Must be outside.
