Peter Turned Nine

On February 6th at 10:19pm California time, Peter was released from the warm watery darkness of my womb via knife and scalpel.  Since that grand event was in the Pacific time zone, he technically did not become nine until February 7th at 1:19am out here.  But we went ahead and celebrated anyway.

Look at him laugh...

Paul's mom brought him a Star Wars Mad Lib book

and something about a potato fork in one of the stories cracked him up.

Here they are filling in a post-birthday-dinner mad lib.

His dessert request was a giant Wookie Cookie.

The week before his birthday we took him to the Lego Store

to pick out his own gifts.

You could pick up a box and take it to this scanner

and it would show you what the finished product looked like.

He's got his shopping list in his hand there.

Wall o' Legos.

Counting out the moola.

Thank you Lego store for a fun afternoon.

Then they played at the mall's indoor play space.

Then to Burger King, per the Birthday Boy's request.

It was a rare day to not be in a hurry.

They are putting together a little rollercoaster that came with the kid's meal.

Back home and time to build.

Reuben's first Lego build.

It was a dino scene.

It has since diappeared into the vents, under furniture,

and into the general collection of Lego pieces.

He's okay with that.

I think Peter bought five Lego sets.

He put them together over the following week and a half,

purposefully wanting to spread out the joy of building.

Now we're on to anticipating Paul's birthday.

Then Charlie's.

Then Reuben's.

And I'm last.

I know this because Reuben keeps track

and let's us know whose birthday is next.

He wasn't very happy that Charlie jumped in there

between him and Paul.

Wanted: A Family

A warning before we begin:  I am quite emotional.  Tears throughout the day and now again.

A few weeks ago I learned about two brothers in Eastern Europe who have grown up in orphanages and so, SO long to be adopted.

Today I learned that in six months they will be too old to be adopted.  Someone somewhere thinks that age sixteen is the limit.

Since I 'met' these boys and saw their pictures I cannot stop thinking about them.  And praying for them.

I cannot forget them.

I feel compelled to do something.  This is a serious, real need.  These are real boys.

Two boys who have been without a family for years and years.  I am so sad for them.

They want to be adopted.  When the social worker comes to visit them, they rush to her and ask, "Do we have a family yet?  Have we been adopted?"

What makes my face cringe and the tears flow and flow is the thought they have this life of having no family and they cannot do anything about it.  It's not a result of anything they did.  They were just born.

What can I do for them?

I want to go to them and hug them.  I want to tell them that someone way far away who's never met them loves them and wants to care for them.  I want to tell them I'm sorry they've had the life they've had.

I feel helpless.  Which makes me cry again.

There are so many children without families who want one so desperately.  Can you imagine not having anyone who loves you?  Oh my goodness.  It is the ginormous opposite of fair.

The words of an adult who grew up in the U.S. foster care system and aged-out, was never adopted...

"I’ve never wanted a perfect or easy life.  I just wanted a family that loved me and a place to call home.  I just wanted to belong somewhere.  That’s all I ever wanted.  That’s all any foster child ever wants.  They just want to be safe and loved."                       (The rest of her words are over here.)

Children must have adults advocate for them.

What can we do?  Millions of orphans.  What can we do?

February 20th

Today...

...our homestudy expires.  Which is only pertinent if we were going to adopt again right away.  Which, apparently, we're not.  But, still a bit of a loss as now we have to start ALL OVER if adoption were to re-enter our world.  So many orphans still.

...is the day we first met Reuben, in Korea, five years ago.  Little bitty five-month-old Reuben who cried and cried and cried.  He's okay now.

...we are going swimming at an indoor pool.  Because Reuben really wants to.  Brr, I say.  Even indoors.  But, my life is rarely about me (ever feel like that?) so to the pool we go.

...was supposed to be a day off school to honor our presidents, but alas, Peter and his fellow classmates had to go to school to make up for a snow day last month.

...is sunny but still cold, which is really sad for the youngest in our family.  He desperately wants to go out and play, but I am not ready to stand patrol.  Too cold, Charlie.  It's too cold.  Don't let the sunshine fool you.

...Paul did our taxes.  He's wonderful.  But, we cannot submit them until the tax people or immigration people or whomever I sent our application to, sends us a Temporary Tax Identification Number for Charlie.  Six to eight weeks.  But we're ready.

...we are having pork and venison tenderloins for dinner.  Locally hunted deer by a friend.  Not sure where the pig lived.   But yum.  I cooked them in the crock pot yesterday with sliced onions and cream of mushroom soup.  Over rice, with a salad nearby dressed with a sesame oil vinaigrette from Southern Living's cookbook.  I'd invite you, but (1) it's leftovers and (2) I don't have enough.  Sorry.

That's what's going on today.  Time to go get Peter and start the afternoon routine of homework, dinner prep, and today, swimming!

Reuben's Quilt

"Can we make a quilt?" he asked as if it's no big deal.

"Uh... sure."  I replied.

Charlie was napping so we headed upstairs to the Sewing Lounge.

Step 1: Pick out the fabrics from my stash.  Easy.

Step 2:  Iron and cut the pieces to square up the edges.  He did most of the ironing and none of the cutting.  I learned from sewing with Peter that they're not ready for the rotary cutter.

Step 3:  Lay them on the floor in your own special way.

Step 4:  Sew them together, one piece at a time until it's just the right size.  Rube did a lot of the sewing.  But by the end of this two week project, "sewing" meant pushing the pedal down to make the machine go while I sat in the chair and guided the fabric.

After each piece was sewn on and ironed flat, he would lay down and put the quilt on top of him to see if it was big enough.

Once the top was done, he was done.  So I showed him how all of our other quilts have a back piece.  We didn't use batting because I didn't have enough on hand and he was in too much of a hurry to finish it.  No time for a two hour round trip to JoAnn's.

We stitched in the ditch to quilt it, then cheered and carried it around all day and night.  He is quite proud of his work.

Here's a video he took that is pretty random at the beginning, but then shows his new quilt.

 Invaded by a Charlie.

Thanks to Karen for her tips on fixing my bobbin issues.  I bought Jenome bobbins and wound them very slowly.  No problems now.  When will then invent the bobbinless machine?  Seriously.  Please.  Bobbins I detest.  And the bobbins have made it very clear that the feeling is mutual.

Wednesday Night

So it's Wednesday night.  Paul's down at the bar doing his thing and I'm in bed in my cozy, ultra-fluff purple pajamas reading blogs.  Kids are way in bed.  All is well.

Let's not think about the recent murder in town and how the murderer is still on the loose.  No sense thinking about that.  Let me just check the lock on the front door...

I have the movie Courageous sitting right here waiting to be watched, but I got distracted, sucked in, stuck at one of my favorite blogs (Mt. Hope Chronicles) watching Eric Metaxas speak at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.

As I was just now watching Mr. Metaxas speak, I thought about how I would email Paul and his mom the link because I'm guessing they would enjoy seeing it too.

But, I'm bringing it to the masses.  Click right...

HERE.

Does his name sound familiar?  He writes books.  Children's and adult's.  He's funny.  Wrote humor for the NY Times, I think he said.   New York Times Best Selling author.

He's new to me as of December.  I found this book on my headboard and read all 600+ pages in four days.

Here's Senior Obama with the copy Metaxas just gave him.

It's called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.
Sounds good, huh?
It was.
You can read about it here.

Is his Prayer Breakfast speech Mr. Metaxas starts with a lot of humor, then gets to the point...

"...the difference between phony religiosity and really believing in God in a way that changes your life..."


This was Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life.  And William Wilberforce, about whom he also wrote a biography.  (That sentence will be funny if you watch the clip.)  Not being pious and ritualistic and judgemental, but truly believing what the Bible says about God and having it affect the way you live.

Bonhoeffer was a German during World War 2 whose faith led him to seek justice for the Jews and to help plan assassination attempts on Hitler.  (They almost had him.  Several times.  It was crazy.)

Wilberforce used his faith-in-God driven life in British politics to end the slave trade.  Maybe you saw the movie Amazing Grace.

Anyway, I am quickly creating many unintended tangents here.

Paul and Debbie, and any others interested in Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, Wilberforce, National Prayer Breakfasts, um... a funny smart Yale Greek/German guy speaking about real faith in a government setting,

Maybe you'd like to click over to Mt. Hope Chronicles and watch him.

Here's the link again.    Right here.

Now I shall go back and finish watching it too.  Race you there...

On the Front Page

Again.

I took Reuben and Charlie to a library preschool program yesterday.  A photographer from the newspaper was there and got shots of both boys.  Slow day in the news I guess.  Glad to provide cute boys to help sell their papers.

See Charlie standing in the background?

I have lots of pictures on our camera

but I'm at the mercy of Senior Paul to get the pics

from the camera to my computer.

Our camera is about dead

and he has to take the memory chip to work

to load onto his computer there

then put them on a thumbdrive to bring home

and put them on our computer at home.

Thus the lack of blogging.

So, do you have a camera you like?

I'd like to hear your recommendations 

or cameras to stay away from.

Hopefully $200 or less

and has a viewfinder.

This one time I was in Ephesus and it was so bright

and we had this new digital camera that didn't

have a viewfinder

and I couldn't see the screen because of the extreme brightness

so I had to aimlessly aim.

If only I had had a viewfinder to look through.

Amazingly, the pictures turned out okay.

But, I was like...

I'm in Ephesus and I want to photograph this experience

but I can't see the screen on my camera.

Serious?

That camera fell off the top of our fridge

and never worked again.

Maybe it was pushed.

It's hard to say.

Ha.

But it's snowing

AND

I just ate chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate M&Ms

AND

my sister and her husband

are coming to my house tomorrow!!

We are all very excited.

AND

Paul just came in and asked if I'd like him

to transfer any photos from the camera

to his computer,

to the thumbdrive,

to our computer.

We are so meant to be.

Love him.

One Year Ago

Last February 4th, I opened a life-changing email from our social worker.

It listed four little South Korean boys who each had a special need,

and who were each ready for a family.


Charlie Jae-min was one of them...

 

This was his little picture.

The first time I saw him.

One year ago.

That was February 4th, 2011.

After looking over his paperwork,

we told our social worker that we would

like to be matched with him.

We would like to be his parents.

February 22, the phone call came declaring us

(US!)

as his family.

I remember I was giving Peter a spelling test

when our social worker called with the news.

I was so surprised that I just went back to the spelling test.

After 15 minutes or so it occured to me that maybe I should call Paul and tell him.

Tell him he has a new son.

Silly me.

August 4th, 2011

Exactly six months after first seeing his picture

we got to meet him in person.

AH!  So cute!

(both of them)

August 21, 2011

Home two and a half weeks.

September 5, 2011
Home one month.
Welcome to the rural midwest.
Love this pic.

November 22, 2011

Home three and a half months.

Time to introduce him to my parents

and the California beach.

What a difference from a year ago...

Love him.

Love him.

Before we were matched with Charlie

we had asked to be matched with eight other children

who had come through my email inbox.

Eight times our potential son or daughter
was matched with another family.

Charlie was the ninth,

the one for us.

The us for him.

God knew

and we knew He knew.

A treasure.