This Is The Life!

Let The Waters Rise

2012-01-10T10:26:00.001-05:00

While Christmas in our home was a sacred and magical event, our spirits were significantly dampened by a tragic development within our extended B Family. We rang in the New Year with heavy hearts and see mountainous challenges on the horizon as we set sail into 2012. But we are endeavoring to stand on the Word, praying for God’s perfect plan--a plan that we know is never inconsistent with His Word--to manifest itself in our loved ones’ lives, that He will surround them with wise and Godly counsel, and that He will guide and direct our words and actions with respect to the situation—-that they will not be couched in anger, but grounded in truth and clothed in love, grace and mercy. We know our God can heal broken hearts, restore joy and relationships and move mountains!

Despite this crisis (and a few other non-blog-worthy end-of-year setbacks), we reflect on 2011 with much gratefulness and gratitude. We had the opportunity to see God and draw closer to Him in mud homes of widows in Zambia, amidst the rubble and tent communities of Haiti, and in quiet moments at our own kitchen table. And we drew closer to each other as we admired the beauty of God’s creation in colorful Florida beach sunsets, awe-inspiring views from Carolina mountaintops, and in the gift of small moments and seemingly uneventful, ordinary days spent as a family, simply doing life TOGETHER. THANK YOU, GOD, for loving us! THANK YOU, GOD, for the gift of family!

We know our Lord is faithful, mighty to save and ALWAYS good—always, always, always, always GOOD! We are blessed beyond anything we deserve and are optimistic about what God has in store for our family in 2012 and beyond. Our Haiti adoption paperwork is coming together—it is likely that 2012 will be the year we meet our son! Some career-related doors recently opened for D and we’re excited to see how a new business venture takes shape (he put in a TON of work and passed a difficult test to help those doors to open and I am so proud of him!). And we are believing that the situation in our extended family will result in TESTIMONY, not tragedy. What the Lord has planned for our future has yet to be revealed, but we suspect it’s something pretty amazing in light of all of the testing, teaching, shaping and stretching that has taken place over the past few years. We pray that our branches will continue to be pruned in the coming year and that it will be a year of bearing fruit.

So bring on the New Year!

May 2012 be great, wild and full of Him!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Special K Day!

2011-12-27T16:38:00.001-05:00

Today is Special K Day! On December 27, 2009, after piles of paperwork, months of waiting and a trip halfway around the world, our Miss K was finally placed in our arms! One of the defining moments of our lives. We are so blessed to be her Mom-Mom and Daddy!

(please scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video)

Santa Claus Comes Tonight!

2011-12-24T11:31:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week, we had a delightful visit with that jolly old man with a red suit and a servant's heart--otherwise known as Santa Claus!

Miss M requested her very own horse grooming kit.

Miss A asked for a cute stuffed owl she saw at Books-A-Million last weekend.

And Miss K put in an order for a peanut butter “sammich”.

Our girls have been very good this year, so we look forward to seeing what he leaves under our tree tonight!

Have a Merry Christmas! May all of your holiday wishes come true!

Miss A and the Little Donkey

2011-12-22T11:09:00.009-05:00

There are several “wild”, rescued donkeys at the farm where Mamatoo boards her horses. Perhaps due to former mistreatment, they are generally untrusting of and avoid interaction with people. Over the past few weeks, Miss A became intrigued by the donkeys. One afternoon, she stood at the fence watching them graze off in the distance as Mamatoo, Ken and Miss M went about their barn chores. After a while, they noticed that she’d gone through the gate and ventured out into the field. While Mamatoo and Ken called out to her to be careful, they were certain the donkeys would never let her get near enough to them to pose any danger. Miss A stood in the middle of the field softly calling “Come to me, Little Donkey. I won’t hurt you”, as the donkeys huddled under the trees on the far side of the pasture. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes passed and Miss A was still standing alone, patiently beckoning the donkeys to come to her. After about 45 minutes, it was time to leave the barn. Mamatoo walked toward the field to call Miss A in and, to her disbelief, Miss A was surrounded by the donkeys. She was patting one on his neck and feeding him horse treats out of her hand. Ken caught some pictures of our little donkey whisperer before Miss A told them goodbye.

A couple of days later, guess who was thrilled to play a donkey in the kindergarten nativity?

Just a Little Donkey

Just a little donkey,
But on my back I bore
The one and only Savior
The world was waiting for.

Just a little donkey
But I was strong and proud—
I gladly carried Mary
Through the chaos of the crowd.

I brought her to a stable
Where she made a tiny bed. . .
A place for Baby Jesus
To lay his little head.

I pray the world remembers
That special Christmas night
When just a little donkey
Carried Heaven’s Precious Light.

--Rita S. Beer

My 38th Birthday Project!

2011-12-19T12:06:00.023-05:00

If you’re visiting to read the BIG news about our growing family, click HERE.

In other not-so-big news, I turned another year older last week. THREE-EIGHT!

A couple of months ago, I was skipping around the internet looking for some ideas for Miss M’s birthday party and on a whim, knowing my birthday was coming up, I did a search for “38th birthday”. I wasn’t really expecting anything particularly interesting to come up, but I stumbled upon a link to THIS post and was intrigued enough to click on it.

Well, after reading about Robyn’s 38th birthday celebration, I was inspired to celebrate MY 38th birthday in a similar fashion, by finding ways to bless other people in honor of each year that the Lord has blessed me with life on this earth.

Over the weekend, D and the girls joined me in a birthday celebration challenge to perform 38 random acts of kindness. We had a blast surprising unsuspecting people with unexpected gestures. Other than our mailman and the neighbors we delivered cookies to, we kept everything anonymous. We prayed that the Lord would place people in our path that He wanted to bless and that the recipients of our acts would see them not as gifts from us, but as blessings from Him just coming through us.

It really is better to give than to receive, y’all. This will go down as one of my favorite birthday celebrations yet. We had SO. MUCH. FUN!

Here’s what we did:

1. Drove around a local neighborhood early in the morning and moved peoples newspapers from the curb to their doorsteps.

2. Left coupons for free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee on the tables in front of Krispy Kreme.

3. Miss M made a bunch of “homeless person care packages”, each with a new pair of socks, bar of soap, tube of toothpaste, toothbrush, granola bar and package of crackers. We gave one of those packages and a box of a half-dozen hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts to a homeless man. He grinned from ear to ear! We're going to hand out the rest of the packages later this week to the folks that sleep on the steps of Sacred Heart Church.

4. Delivered a dozen hot Krispy Kremes and a hand-written and MNB-illustrated thank you card to the police station.
5. Delivered a dozen hot Krispy Kremes to the nurses working in the Emergency Room. We discovered that EVERYONE loves hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

6. Made a beautiful “new mom” gift basket stocked with a package of newborn diapers, a box of wipes, Johnson’s baby wash and baby lotion, an embroidered burp cloth, a baby blanket, pacifiers, a package of 0-3 month onesies, satin-covered baby hangers, a “Sleep Sound in Jesus” lullaby CD, and decorated with pink and blue balloons. We asked the lady at the desk of the labor and delivery and NICU floor at the hospital to have the nurses give it to the new mom they thought needed it most.
7. Left puzzles, packaged snacks, playing cards, an UNO game, coloring books and crayons in the surgery and labor and delivery waiting rooms at the hospital.

8. Taped quarters to coke machines in visiting areas of the hospital with a little note that said “Blessings!”.

9. Returned carts for people in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

10. Miss M and Miss A gave $25 Wal-Mart gift card to little old woman in the Wal-Mart checkout line. She left the store as we were loading up in our car. We saw her eyes searching all over the parking lot as she walked, and we knew she was looking for those two little girls and trying to figure out who they belonged to. We all ducked down and hid and giggled as she walked right past our van and got into an old brown car one aisle over!

Once the coast was clear, we sat up and Miss M exclaimed “It just makes my heart go WOW to do something nice for a stranger!” That pretty much summed up our whole day--one heart-wow after the next!

11. Drove through a random neighborhood and placed poinsettias on people’s front doorsteps. The girls delivered one to a little boy and his mother who were out on their front porch.
12. Walked into a laundromat and handed 4 quarters to each of the 3 people in there doing laundry.

13. Left a big bag of cat food on the doorstep of an eccentric old guy who has taken responsibility to make sure all stray cats in our neighborhood are fixed and fed (and named after all the girls he's loved before).

14. Gave a cold bottled water to our mailman as we passed him making his rounds.

15. Baked cookies and delivered them to 5 of our neighbors.
16. Scattered a roll of 100 pennies around the Munn Park fountain and wrote “make a wish!” in chalk.
17. Delivered hot pepperoni pizzas and a hand-written, MNB-illustrated thank you card to the firehouse.
18. Ordered (and paid for) dessert for the two ladies dining behind us at Chili’s (and asked the waitress to deliver it after we were gone).
19. On our way out of Chilis, the girls gave a $25 Chili’s gift card to two ladies and a little girl. Before she could get away, one of the ladies grabbed Miss M and gave her a big hug and asked “Why did you do this?” She answered “Because it’s my Mama’s birthday and we are doing things for others as a way to celebrate it.”

20. Miss M and Miss A gave a $25 gift card to a woman checking out at Publix. Her mouth dropped open as she looked around for the little girls' parents. “Have a great day and a Merry Christmas” our girls giggled as they ran back to our getaway van.
21. Handed out cold bottled water to hot, thirsty runners and walkers circling Lake Hollingsworth.
22. Paid the toll on the Parkway for the car behind us.

23. Taped quarters to the machines at a self-service car wash.
24. Picked up trash at the playground near MamaToo’s house. This one was Miss M’s idea—she said last time she played there she remembered “walking on trash”. haha!
25. Purchased a couple of inspirational greeting cards. Picked two names out of the property appraisers database, prayed for them and wrote them short encouraging notes (but did not sign them) and dropped them in the mail.

26. Rolled up a dollar bill and tied it to three helium balloons. Let them go.
27. Hid short notes of affirmation and encouragement in the pages of a few books at Books-A-Million. Also placed a $5 Books-A-Million gift card that said “to you (yeah YOU!) From us (and no, you don’t know us)—Be Blessed!” on a random shelf at Books-A-Million for a fellow shopper to find.
28. Stopped and offered assistance to a family whose truck was broken down on the interstate (oil light came on and the father was returning with oil).

29. They appreciated the gesture but didn’t need help at that point, so we went to the McDonalds at the next exit and purchased two $10 gift cards so they could get something to eat as they resumed their travels.

30. Passed by a car wash and stopped and handed out bottled water and packaged crackers and snacks to the folks doing the washing.

31. Purchased a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store and left them on the windshield of a woman’s car.
32. We sponsor 3 children through Compassion and one little girl through Wiphan. We LOVE our sponsored kiddos in Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia. We keep their pictures framed in our home, pray for them daily and consider them part of our extended family. It’s a way to feel connected to places that have made an impact on our lives, and to teach our children about poverty and making a difference. We decided to start sponsoring a little girl in Haiti in honor of my birthday project.
33. Through Compassion’s Gifts of Compassion program, we purchased a goat for a family in need. Goats can be bred to provide a source of milk, meat and household income.
34. Purchased mosquito nets for a needy family through Samaritans Purse.

35. Purchased a dozen baby chicks for a needy family through Samaritans Purse.

36. Miss A and I spent 20 minutes being door holders/greeters/Merry Christmas wishers for tired, busy Christmas shoppers at the entrance to the mall. I was surprised at how appreciative and friendly most of the people were! Lots of smiles and “Thank You!”s. One lady even gave Miss A a hug and kiss on the forehead!

37. Handed out balloons to children at a downtown festival.
38. Purchased a $5 Starbucks gift card and asked the barista at the drive-thru to give it to the couple in the car behind us. WE purchased 4 peppermint mochas and 3 children’s hot chocolates and took them to D’s mom and dad’s house where we serenaded them with Christmas carols and then visited with them as we all sipped our hot drinks.

Whew—all that kindness wore us out! But it was great! At the end of the project, felt like we were more blessed by it than any of the people we did things for. And even after we completed our challenge, we found ourselves continuing to scope out the world around us for opportunities to brighten someone's day.

I would encourage everyone to celebrate their birthday this way. Do it! You won’t regret it! Visit Robyn’s website The Birthday Project to be inspired!

A New Chapter In Our Story

2011-12-08T21:27:00.007-05:00

Three years ago TODAY, we announced our journey to Miss K! This Christmas marks two years since she joined our family. We cannot imagine life without her and we are blessed beyond words to have the joy and honor of being her Mommy and Daddy. The miracle of adoption changed our lives.

We have been praying for some time now about growing our family again through adoption. While D was in Haiti in August (you can read about his trip HERE), he fell in love with the country and began to pray about being more involved there in the long term. Over the past few months, these prayers have become intertwined and we are now excited to announce that we are on another journey to Haiti. . . a journey to our son!

A new chapter in our family's story has begun. . .

A little bit about the Haiti Adoption process. . .
We looked into adopting from Haiti years ago, but Haiti has traditionally been very strict about its requirements for adoptive parents—that they be married at least 10 years, be at least 35 years old, and have no biological children—and we didn’t meet any of those criteria at the time. On top of those requirements, Haiti has historically been notoriously slow at processing adoptions. Before the earthquake, they were averaging 2-3+ years from referral to homecoming. In contrast to many countries, where adoptive parents may wait years to be matched and then finalization happens over a few months, matches come relatively quickly in Haiti due to the fact that there are many waiting children who are available for adoption and comparatively few families who are seeking to adopt; after the match, however, the rest of the process generally drags on and on and on and on and on. Waiting--particularly after you've seen and/or met the child that you've been matched with--is HARD, and this discourages many families from pursuing an adoption from Haiti.

Haiti placed a hold on new adoptions following the earthquake and since they re-opened earlier this year, their government has been re-working its adoption laws. No one knows yet whether the changes will bring more efficient processing or longer delays, but we are preparing for a long road. At this point, because we have two biological children (apparently the number of adopted children a family has is a non-issue), President Martelly himself will need to issue a "presidential dispensation" approving our adoption. While there are no guarantees, we have been advised that because we meet the age and length of marriage requirements, he will likely sign off and it will “only” add a couple of months to the overall timeframe. But no one really knows. We are expecting a rollercoaster ride, with a lot of uncertainty and some bumps and surprises along the way. If you know what a planner I am and how organized and structured I tend to be, you know that this is WAY out of my comfort zone. I’m really going to have to let go of my desire to control all the details lean on the Lord in this adventure! Over the past few months, God has given me a peace about adopting from Haiti despite all of the unknowns and has confirmed to my heart that He has a plan and it is in His hands.

We submitted our application to our agency, Holt International, on October 27—exactly 3 years to the DAY after we submitted our application to AGCI and kicked off our journey to K (the date thing was totally unplanned—we didn’t realize it until we glanced back at our Ethiopia timeline the night before we sent in our Haiti application!). We are currently in the “paperchasing” stage. A social worker is preparing a homestudy and we are getting physical and psychological(!) exams, background checks and fingerprints. We have questionnaires to fill out, reference letters to request, homeland security and immigration approvals to obtain, and loads of paperwork to compile. That will take a few months We hope to have our “dossier” of paperwork completed sometime this spring. Though the Haiti dossier requirements seem more daunting than the ones for Ethiopia, the race is on to turn it all in by March 27—the day back in 2009 that we sent in our Ethiopia dossier! At that point, the road will veer off in a direction completely different from the one we took on our journey to K (we thought 14 months from start to finish was long! Ha!). Our agency will send our dossier to Haiti where we will be matched with a little boy (or maybe even brothers!, we shall see) fitting our parameters (which we are still praying about), whose paperwork will be combined with our paperwork and begin to make its way through the Haitian social workers, government, courts, and finally to the US Embassy. We hope to be matched within a few months after our paperwork gets to Haiti, and expect that it may take another 2-3 years after that for the Haitian courts to legally declare him our son, Haiti to issue him a passport, and the US Embassy to give him a visa to come home. The process may be shorter. It may be longer. It will all be on “Haiti time” and we have faith that it will all be in God’s perfect time!

While we wait. . .
While we wait, we will keep ourselves busy enjoying our girls (while the adoption process may seem long, time with them always seems to fly by!), praying for our son and his first family, preparing our home for the arrival of a little boy, planning trips to visit our son, visiting him!, learning some Kreyol (the official language of Haiti and the language our son will likely speak when he comes home), practicing some Caribbean/West Indies recipes (yum!), partnering with ministries and organizations working in Haiti, and hopefully becoming more involved with our vibrant Haitian community here in Florida. We may even throw in a trip or two to Africa! While our son will always be on our hearts and minds, our goal will be to not be so focused on the destination that we don't fully appreciate the gift of the journey.

Please Come Along With Us on this Journey. . .
We are excited and hopeful about adopting again and are falling deeper in love with Haiti and its people every day. As we move through this process, we are certain that love will deepen and develop into an eternal connection to this beautiful, tragic, mysterious country that will forever be a part of our son’s story and our family’s life. Thank you for sharing this journey with us! Please drop by our blog from time to time to follow our progress, and please keep us in your prayers along the way!

Thankful

2011-11-30T11:17:00.041-05:00

We headed to the Carolinas last week to spend Thanksgiving with my sister L, her husband M and their 3 sweet kiddos.

Earlier this month, L and I compiled a collection of our favorite family holiday dishes. Thursday morning, we got up and got to cookin’ as the Macy’s Parade went by on the television and our children played together outside and crafted Pilgrim, Indian and Turkey hats to wear at the table. I knew my sis and I were both pretty good in the kitchen but I do have to say that I’m still impressed with the meal we prepared! Only 2 cooks, one oven and four burners and everything was delicious and warm at dinner time—and right on time! Turkey, Grandmama’s cornbread dressing (turned out pretty good, but we’re convinced there must have been magic in the scale of her recipe and that old baking pan she used!), mashed potatoes, corn, Mama’s yellow squash casserole, green bean casserole (I decided to add some crumbled bacon to the recipe and loved the results), Mimi Penland’s sweet potato dumplings, roasted pears with caramelized onions, deviled eggs with bacon (yes, we are Southern cooks and believe bacon and butter can make most any dish better!), rolls and sweet tea.

Miss M said a beautiful prayer over our food, thanking God for family and many blessings and for sending His Son Jesus to be our savior, she asked God to help her and her cousins make good choices and many fun memories during our time together. I wish I’d recorded it. It was spontaneous and heartfelt and made our mealtime that much sweeter.

Thursday evening, M had a grand idea for some Thanksgiving night fun. He lit a fire in the pit and projected the movie Elf onto a big sheet he hung from their back patio. We all cuddled next to the fire with mugs of hot chocolate, homemade pumpkin pie and popcorn and roasted marshmallows while we watched the movie. So much fun! Our children had a blast—I bet they’ll never forget it!

Friday morning, Chef Mickey served up pancakes and French toast, and then we headed into Asheville for some leisurely window shopping (no black Friday craziness for us!), street entertainment, and lunch at Early Girl Eatery (to-die-for shrimp and grits! and sauteed trout with pecan butter--yum!), followed by an afternoon nature walk in the mountains.

Saturday, we were really spoiled when the L Family Bed and Breakfast started our day with homemade beignets and café au lait! Events of the day included s trip to Wahalla where thoughtful L gave all the kids flashlights and we explored Stumphouse Tunnel.

We then hiked Waterfall Trail to Isaqueena Falls and hiked the BRRR Boyscout Trail through Heritage Preserve.

After an afternoon of hiking, we stopped in Greenville on the way home for a walk around Falls Park and pizza at the Mellow Mushroom.

Saturday night we relaxed at the house and watched both our Gators and the L's Tigers lose to their biggest rivals (boo!).

Sunday morning, we kicked off Advent season with a too-cute holiday breakfast and the first sighting of the season of the L Family’s Shelf Elf before reluctantly packing up and heading for home.

Thank you LMOE&E for the fun memories and hospitality. We love y’all and look forward to the next time we are able to spend time together!

As we drove home listening to Christmas music, the girls singing along and drawing, D in the driver’s seat, I realized that everything most important precious to me, all my earthly treasures, were there with me in that van. I love my husband and girls so much it hurts. I like to tell them that the ONLY person in the universe who loves them more than me is God. Downhere’s song “How Many Kings” came on the radio and the tears started flowing as I was overwhelmed by how BIG God’s love is and how much He loves us. How much He loves ME! I am so undeserving and so unworthy, yet so amazingly blessed. I am thankful.

Scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video.

Little Girl, You are a Masterpiece!

2011-11-13T11:57:00.007-05:00

Our little Miss M turned 8 a couple of weeks ago. I can hardly believe it. Halfway to a driver’s license!?!? Only 10 years ‘til she heads off to college!?!? How can time be going by so fast???

Here are a few pictures from her art-themed birthday party at Picassoz Cup (a local paint-your-own pottery shop):

Artists at Work: Giggly Girls: Celebrating with Sweet Friends: The Birthday Girl and Her Sisters: Mama, Daddy and Birthday Girl:
Have I mentioned here that Miss M is an artist? I'm sure I have and it bears repeating--and a few examples! Here are some of my favorite recent works. I’m so in awe of them—and of her!

Here's a little glimpse of our Miss M at age 8:

She is a natural horseback rider, an animal lover and an avid reader. She has a smile of pure sunshine and a hearty belly laugh. She loves Colorado-style chicken tacos, injera and beef tibs, salmon, asparagus and ordering room service whenever we spend the night at a hotel. She has a huge heart for helping others and a thirst for adventure. She’s begging us to take her to Africa. She wants to learn to snow ski this winter and to surf next summer. She’s growing up into such a little lady, but she’s still (and will always be) our little girl. She hasn’t outgrown cuddles and still asks that Mama or Daddy tickle her back as she drifts off to sleep. She inherited my organized and goal oriented gene and gets excited about things like making grocery lists and agendas, monitoring the balance in her piggy bank and checking off items on her chore chart. Though she and her sisters have their share of spats, she can be so nurturing, gentle and kind to her sisters that it just melts my heart. She prays at night that her classmates and teachers will see the fruits of the spirit in her life and she heads off to school each day eager to learn and be everyone’s friend. God has blessed her with many talents—a beautiful singing voice, the ability to play the piano and violin, an amazing ability to draw, sketch and create. He must have big plans for her life to have blessed her so. I don’t know what we ever did to be so blessed to be her parents—but we are grateful.

My Mom-in-Love recently interviewed Miss M for a blog post. Our big girl had some thoughtful and entertaining responses (questions and answers verbatim):

Mom B: What does love mean?

Miss M: It's a kind of caring, and you feel it. You can tell people it, so they can understand you. If they don't understand it, show them that you love them by kissing them, and giving them a big hug, or doing something special for them. Or show them with your attitude... show them that you love them. I think they will understand your love by then. And if they still don't understand, try to think of other ways that you might show someone that you love them.

Mom B: Why do women wear make-up?

Miss M: Oh, I know this one, because I am a woman! So that they can be attractive to boys sometimes. Or like in plays (theater), girls will wear make-up so that they will stand out to the audience and get the boys attention. And get girls attention too. I like to look good in plays, and I like to look good for my cousins that come to see me. Women wear make-up so that they can look beautiful! You know why I think that? Because my Mama thinks she is old, and she says she needs to look pretty for my Daddy. She said that when she married Daddy she was taking off her make up for bed and thought "Oh No! Maybe he’ll think that he made a mistake that he married me!" THAT is why women wear make-up.

Mom B: Why do boys chase girls?

Miss M: ‘Cause girls are pretty, and because girls are attractive, and the boys want to attract themselves to the girls!

Mom B: So what happens when the boys catch a girl?

Miss M: I've never seen a boy catch a girl EVER before!

Mom B: Why do boys open their mouth with food in it and show it to the girls?

Miss M: Oh I know this one! They do that with pizza and show it to the girls, so little girls will laugh at them! And they WANT to be disgusting eaters! Polite girls don't think it's funny. Some funny girls think it is funny. They keep doing it until they see that the polite girls are keeping their quietness! THEN the boys will close their mouths, I think!

Mom B: Why do women wear high heels? Why does your Mama wear high heels?

Miss M: I don't know... because she doesn't like to wear them... but she wears them anyway!!! If she liked to wear them then, I would KNOW!

Mom B: Why do men shave?

Miss M: So that they can look handsome!

Mom B: What if they do not shave, how do they look then?

Miss M: I don't know ...I just think they don't want to shave. They still look good to me , even if they don't shave!

Mom B: Why do men burp?

Miss M: Men don't burp... little boys do! And I think they burp so that little girls will laugh at them... ‘cause they just want to be disgusting! Men don't burp because they’re grown-ups, and they learned not to burp. Burping is a real bad manner!

Our Miss M is pretty perceptive and has an opinion about everything! She's such a fun little girl! Thank you, God, for letting me be this precious child's mother!

Happy Birthday, MNB! Mama and Daddy Love You to the Moon and All Around the World!

Before you had a name or opened up your eyes,

Or anyone could recognize your face.

You were being formed so delicate in size

Secluded in God’s safe and hidden place.

With your tiny hands and

Little tiny feet

And little eyes that shimmer like a pearl.

He breathed in you a song and to make it all complete

He brought the masterpiece into the world.

You are a masterpiece….

And now you’re growing up your

Life’s a miracle

Every time I look at you,

I stand in awe….

-from Sandi Patti's You are a Masterpiece

Halloween Fun!

2011-10-31T16:48:00.013-04:00

Last week, we made a sunny Sunday afternoon visit to the Pumpkin Patch.

The girls searched for just the right one to take to a Pumpkin-Carving Party!

Tonight, we took our Ice Cream Cone, Tinkerbell and Cheetah to the G Family's annual Pre-Trick-or-Treat Gathering--an event we always look forward to! The girls each picked out their own costumes this year and were so excited to wear them!

And then made we the rounds!

Miss M was so attentive and helpful to Miss K. Always the girl in charge, she tactfully corrected anyone who thought K was a cupcake and made sure her sisters used their manners thanked everyone who gave them treats. She turned 8 this week! How is that possible???

Tinkerbell was a perfect choice for our precious, spunky, independent, energetic, adorable, little A. This girl little just melts my heart into a puddle!

I could just eat this ice cream cone right up! K said "jack-o-lantern" when we gave her her treat pail--a word we didn't even know she knew! After each house she would give us a peek at the goodies in her pail and excitedly say "candy more!" as she and her sisters took off for the next house. She had so much fun being "one of the kids" and participating in the all of the action!

We surprised Gabby and Pa:

And ended our evening at MamaToo's, where she had a pot of chili, hot apple cider, gingersnaps and pumpkin fluff waiting for our arrival:

At the end of the night, we carried 3 sleeping girls from the van to their beds. Sweet memories!

Reading is FUNdamental!

2011-10-24T11:27:00.004-04:00

The past few weeks of my life have been consumed by a children’s literacy project that my friend B and I have been chairing through our Junior League. We ordered, inventoried, sorted, stamped, organized, boxed and loaded over 24,000 books for distribution at 11 area schools. B and I both work, so many late night and weekend hours were required! It was an exhausting, and at times, overwhelming, endeavor that included some stressful twists and turns (16,000 of our books were not delivered to us until 3 days prior to the date they were to be delivered to the schools!). With the help of co-chairs willing to go above and beyond our expectations, a flexible and dedicated committee of volunteers, our heroic husbands, some sweet friends, a bit of child labor (this project presented a neat hands-on opportunity to teach the importance of community service), a jar of Advil (moving hundreds of boxes a books is back-breaking work—I’m STILL sore!), a box of band-aids (my arms are covered with paper and cardboard cuts!), gallons of coffee and Red Bull, a little venting, and even a few frustrated tears, we accomplished our mission!

This project became a family affair, so I want to say a BIG public thank you here on our blog to D for lending a hand (and strong, muscular arms!) with the work and for being so supportive of my commitment to this initiative. And to Miss A, Miss K and Miss M for putting up with your frazzled, tired, and just plum worn-out Mommy last week and for being such cheerful little helpers when I toted you along!

Me and my co-chair B. Thanks, B for everything you did--our RIF distributions would not have been a success without you (I wasn’t kidding about the day at the spa—will be sending you some dates, soon!)
Here's a little article we worked up that explains a bit more about our Reading is Fundamental book distribution project:
(Submitted by CJB and BC, RIF Chairs 2011-2012)
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children’s literacy non-profit in the United States. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland has maintained the longest running RIF program in the State of Florida. In cooperation with RIF, and with a passion for increasing literacy in our community, the Junior League of Greater Lakeland has operated this national book distribution program in Polk County for 37 years—distributing over 611,000 books to children in our community. The RIF program motivates children to read by delivering free books, literacy resources and reading encouragement to those children and families who need them the most.

Nearly two-thirds of low-income families in the United States own no books. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland has operated the Polk County RIF program under a Federal Grant from the RIF organization where by the organization has matched our funds 3-for-1 for the purchase of books. The program has visited 11-13 area elementary schools with the highest socio-economic need and lowest reading scores. As part of the program, each child at the school has the opportunity to select 3 books of their very own from a wide variety of titles, subjects and reading levels. The program’s goal is to ignite excitement for literacy through the distribution process. As our volunteers visit each school for a “RIF Party”, hundreds of books are displayed, allowing children to explore their interests and make their own choices. The books are free and the moments are priceless, as excited readers show off their selections, pose for pictures, and ask in wide-eyed amazement: “These books are mine to keep? I really don’t have to bring them back to the library?” The entire process is fun and memorable for all involved – kids are energized, parents are encouraged and educators feel a sense of satisfaction.

RIF has been funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975. Unfortunately, this past spring, the federal government prepared their budget for this fiscal year, and an outcome was that funding for the national RIF program was cut. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland was awarded a contract to complete the final funded year of the program by December 2011. Over the next two weeks, the Junior League’s RIF Committee will be distributing over 24,000 books at 11 area schools to round out the final distributions under our contract. Our League is currently exploring options to continue its successful book distribution program without the assistance of federal funds through the RIF grant.

Sorting a batch of books at JLGL Headquarters:
Girls hard at work stamping each book with the JLGL logo and a place for the proud new owner to write his/her name):
We even put Miss K to work!
And a few pictures from my distribution at the school where our League held its very first RIF book distribution—37 years ago! Each child got to choose and take home 3 new books of their very own!
This is the FUN part!

Dolphin Tale and Visiting Winter the Dolphin

2011-10-10T22:23:00.008-04:00

Saturday night, we took the girls to see the movie Dolphin Tale.

It was a very family-friendly and inspiring movie with a great cast. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors and Harry Connick Jr. is one of my favorite musicians (and not a bad actor, either)! I've always thought Ashley Judd is as cute as she can be. And you know we all fell in love with the movie’s star, Winter the Dolphin!

Since we just happen to live near Winter’s home, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we surprised the girls on Sunday with a family field trip to pay her a visit! The last time I visited Clearwater Marine Aquarium was around 1988-89 for a 9th grade ECS field trip, and I remember it looking as shabby and dated as it did in the film. Most of the movie was shot on-location at CMA and the producers of the movie financed some refurbishing of the facility and added two new rehab pools. The sprucing-up made a huge difference! But unlike the movie, the aquarium was not purchased by a wealthy hotel owner. It is still a non-profit that owns the land (formerly a water treatment plant) where the facility is situated. CMA is not getting any royalties from the movie, though the film is generating an increase in contributions as people around the world learn about the aquarium, its mission, and its celebrity residents. Daily attendance at the aquarium has quadrupled in the last few weeks since Dolphin Tale premiered! Winter is drawing quite a fan club. If things continue at this rate, CMA is definitely going to need to expand in the coming years to accommodate its guests (as of this weekend, guests were seated in plastic lawn chairs to watch Winter’s demonstration—no benches or bleachers--and they had to go outside of the facility to use port-a-potties as there were no public restrooms inside (definitely NOT a highlight for this public-restroom-avoiding mama! Especially since Kiwi decided this week that she wants to wear big-girl panties and she has to be taken to the potty about once an hour!)).

CMA’s mission is to rescue and rehabilitate marine animals then release them back to the ocean upon recovery. I like that it’s run more like an animal hospital and educational center than a zoo or entertainment venue. The only creatures who remain at the aquarium are the ones who would not be able to survive on their own due to the nature of their injuries or their lack of survival skills. There was so much to do and see!

The girls enjoyed petting the sting rays:

and watching the sharks, fish and turtles swim around in their tanks: Precious profiles:

We met Nicolaus, a dolphin named after St. Nicolaus because he was rescued on Christmas Eve 2002. He was found beached with his mother (who’d passed away) and covered with third degree sunburn and infection. We got to pose for a picture with him as he showed off his high-flying and splashing skills (Miss K couldn’t keep her eyes off of him):

We even took a Behind-the-Scenes tour and learned lots of interesting information about the day-to-day operations of the aquarium and the filming of Dolphin Tale. We were impressed with how much of the movie was true-to-life (the set and many of the details that only locals would pick up on were accurate). It was also interesting to learn about which parts of the movie were “inspired”. Hazel and Sawyer were fictional characters and Winter was actually cared for by a large team rather than a few individuals. She was rescued off of the east coast near Melbourne and was only a 50-pound baby dolphin when found tangled in a crab trap. She was found in the winter (how she got her name), not in the summer, and her tail was not amputated but fell off on its own due to dead tissue. It took her many, many months to gain strength and learn how to swim. But she was a fighter and persevered and taught herself to swim even without a tail. Winter played herself in the movie (she’s a great actress!), and she has been a great inspiration and symbol of courage and hope to amputees and people—particularly children and disabled vets—who wear prosthetic devices. She’s also a big supporter of adoption and the Heart Gallery, an organization close to my heart! A portion of every donation to the Adopt Winter fund goes toward the Heart Gallery and helping children find forever families! Isn't that terrific?!?!

Here are some pictures from our Behind-the-Scenes tour (and some scenes from the movie that were shot in the same locations around the aquarium):
The kitchen and food-prep rooms:

Ingredients for an otter shake: The aquarium's pharmacy: The offices: Dr. Haskett's office (CEO David Yates’ real-life office): Scenes from the movie shot in Mr. Yates' office:

We saw the new rehab pool (it was empty but for a couple of sting rays when we were there). Here are some shots of the Dolphin Tale actors and Winter in it:

We also got to explore the rooms under the new pool where the Dolphin Tale underwater scenes were filmed. A new baby dolphin named Hope was rescued and moved to that pool the day of the Dolphin Tale wrap party, arriving at the aquarium in the middle of the black-tie event! She was only a few months old and was found about 5 miles from where Winter was stranded, attempting to nurse from her mother who’d passed away. Had the filmmakers not constructed the additional pools, there would have been no room for Hope at the aquarium. We had fun watching Hope swim around playing with her bubbles:

Here are some movie shots of Sawyer (played by Nathan Gamble) with Winter in that same pool:

Sawyer looking through one of the windows at Winter: Our girls looking through the window watching Hope: We even saw the surgery room:

Unfortunately, the tour did not conclude with a Morgan Freeman meet-and-greet, though we did get to look through a window and see his autographed picture:

Nor were we able to meet Mr. Connick Jr. . . But we got to see the cool houseboat that was Dr. Haskett and Hazel’s home in the movie (our girls decided they’d like for us to sell our house and move onto a boat—especially one with a crow’s nest):

The girls got to hold Winter’s prosthetic tail (it’s a lot bigger and heavier than you would think!):

And we met Winter’s real-life trainer, Cindy:

Of course, the highlight of the day was seeing Winter up close and IN REAL LIFE! We got to watch her swimming and playing with her pool-mate Panama (a deaf dolphin who was found beached near Panama City and who is nearly 40 years old!). Cindy demonstrated how Winter's prosthetic tail is put on and her daily exercise routine. Winter only needs to wear her prosthetic tail for about 30-60 minutes of exercise a day to strengthen her muscles and keep her vertebrate properly aligned (all Winter photos by our budding photographer, Miss A):

Winter really did whistle like Tweety Bird when she saw Cindy approach! Swimming with her prosthetic tail: Winter and Panama:

The B family gives Dolphin Tale and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium 10 thumbs up! We highly recommend the movie! And no matter where you live, you can click HERE (SeeWinter.Com) and watch Winter and Panama in real-time on their webcams!

Reflections of a Wife of a Minivan-Driving Man

2011-09-28T18:43:00.008-04:00

A few years ago, D and I pulled out of the Sarasota Lexus dealership in his new little sportscar. Before we even got to the interstate, a car full of cute college-aged girls pulled up next to us, rolled down their window and flirtatiously told my husband they liked his car. With me sitting right there next to him in the passenger seat! To this day, I wonder if the dealership hired them to do that. I can’t think of a better way to boost the ego of a guy who just spent way too much money on a car.

Fast forward to July 2011, when we determined it was time for D to get a new vehicle. This time around, impressing clients, looking flashy and having lots of horsepower weren’t on the list of criteria. Our family has grown and our priorities have changed. We’re trying to be smarter with our money, saving for another adoption, wanting to be more generous in our giving to charity, and aiming to be completely debt-free in 5 years. We decided to look for something gently used, with low mileage, that didn’t drink too much gas, that was within our budget (which everyone kept telling us was crazily low), and that would give us two vehicles to use for transporting our girls (D often does the drop-offs and pick-ups and enjoys taking the girls on outings).

We did our research, prayed about the decision and then . . . the “Golden Lightning” (as Miss M has nicknamed it) popped up in the Auto Trader listings. While it satisfied our criteria to a tee, the purchase was not without a bit of reluctance on D’s part. He's always had more style than me and been more of a "car person". But from a practical standpoint, it made sense to have two vans. His and Hers. Our good friend who is an expert Dodge mechanic (ironically, he specializes in Vipers and other Dodge racing cars) put the icing on the cake when he told us he can keep this model of van running for 300,000 miles or until our family outgrows it (at which time, I guess we’ll both upgrade to 12-passenger airport shuttle vans)—whichever comes first. Wow!

And so the purchase was made.

You know those stories about people feeling trapped in the wrong body? Well, I’m afraid my husband might feel a bit trapped in the wrong car! I will concede that minivans are not the most stylish vehicles on the road. Why does it seem their designers are going for a rocket or monorail look? I imagine many men might be a bit embarrassed, resentful or put-out about driving a ~~frumpy gold soccer mom van~~ sensible vehicle like the Golden Lightning. But D is taking it all in stride and having fun with it. He’s being such a good sport, and I think that says a lot about his character. He’s embracing his Dad Life. And I love it! (scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video).

Are there really women out there who want any other kind of man?

Last night, I happened to spot D's van as we were all making our way home. I caught up (hey, Miss M didn’t nickname my van the “Silver Bullet Train” for nothin’!) and pulled up alongside them at a red light. D and I rolled down our windows and I told him how much I like his van and how HOT I think he looks driving it. Now, I’m not sure a middle-aged woman in a minivan--weary from a full day of work and an evening sweating away at the Junior League warehouse--has the same effect on the male ego as a convertible full of cute co-eds, but I can say that what I told him was sincere. I am madly in love with my husband’s heart. His dashing good looks are a bonus! Not every man can pull off a minivan, but my husband rocks it!

Every day, I see men looking for affirmation from their careers, their hobbies, their fancy cars and toys, their friends instead of their families and sadly, women other than their wives. I am blessed to be married to a man who stands on God’s Word, puts others before himself, is a good steward of our money, leads our family in faith, is intentional in his parenting, doesn’t take himself too seriously, loves me dearly and, in defining happiness, looks no further than the three precious faces in the back seats of his minivan.

Referral-versary!

2011-09-22T07:55:00.002-04:00

Two years ago today. . .

(scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video)

A Visit from Guest Blogger Sarah Lenssen! Ask5for5!

2011-09-20T12:22:00.005-04:00

Guest Blogger: Sarah Lenssen from Ask5for5
Family photos by Mike Fiechtner Photography

Thank you Mrs. B from "This is the Life!" and nearly 150 other bloggers from around the world for allowing me to share a story with you today, during Social Media Week.

A hungry child in East Africa can't wait. Her hunger consumes her while we decide if we'll respond and save her life. In Somalia, children are stumbling along for days, even weeks, on dangerous roads and with empty stomachs in search of food and water. Their crops failed for the third year in a row. All their animals died. They lost everything. Thousands are dying along the road before they find help in refugee camps.

At my house, when my three children are hungry, they wait minutes for food, maybe an hour if dinner is approaching. Children affected by the food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia aren't so lucky. Did you know that the worst drought in 60 years is ravaging whole countries right now, as you read this? Famine, a term not used lightly, has been declared in Somalia. This is the world's first famine in 20 years.12.4 million people are in need of emergency assistance and over 29,000 children have died in the last three months alone. A child is dying every 5 minutes. It it estimated that 750,000 people could die before this famine is over. Take a moment and let that settle in.

The media plays a major role in disasters. They have the power to draw the attention of society to respond--or not. Unfortunately, this horrific disaster has become merely a footnote in most national media outlets. News of the U.S. national debt squabble and the latest celebrity's baby bump dominate headlines. That is why I am thrilled that nearly 150 bloggers from all over the world are joining together today to use the power of social media to make their own headlines; to share the urgent need of the almost forgotten with their blog readers. Humans have the capacity to care deeply for those who are suffering, but in a situation like this when the numbers are too huge to grasp and the people so far away, we often feel like the little we can do will be a drop in the ocean, and don't do anything at all.

When news of the famine first hit the news in late July, I selfishly avoided it. I didn't want to read about it or hear about it because I knew I would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. I wanted to protect myself. I knew I would need to do something if I knew what was really happening. You see, this food crisis is personal. I have a 4-year-old son and a 1 yr-old daughter who were adopted from Ethiopia and born in regions now affected by the drought. If my children still lived in their home villages, they would be two of the 12.4 million. My children: extremely hungry and malnourished? Gulp. I think any one of us would do anything we could for our hungry child. But would you do something for another mother's hungry child?

My friend and World Vision staffer, Jon Warren, was recently in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya--the largest refugee camp in the world with over 400,000 people. He told me the story of Isnino Siyat, 22, a mother who walked for 10 days and nights with her husband, 1 yr-old-baby, Suleiman, and 4 yr.-old son Adan Hussein, fleeing the drought in Somalia. When she arrived at Dadaab, she built the family a shelter with borrowed materials while carrying her baby on her back. Even her dress is borrowed. As she sat in the shelter on her second night in camp she told Jon, "I left because of hunger. It is a very horrible drought which finished both our livestock and our farm." The family lost their 5 cows and 10 goats one by one over 3 months, as grazing lands dried up. "We don't have enough food now...our food is finished. I am really worried about the future of my children and myself if the situation continues."

Will you help a child like Baby Suleiman? Ask5for5 is a dream built upon the belief that you will.

That something I knew I would need to do became a campaign called #Ask5for5 to raise awareness and funds for famine and drought victims. The concept is simple, give $5 and ask five of your friends to give $5, and then they each ask five of their friends to give $5 and so on--in nine generations of 5x5x5...we could raise $2.4 Million! In one month, over 750 people have donated over $25,000! I set up a fundraiser at See Your Impact and 100% of the funds will go to World Vision, an organization that has been fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa for decades and will continue long after this famine has ended. Donations can multiply up to 5 times in impact by government grants to help provide emergency food, clean water, agricultural support, healthcare, and other vital assistance to children and families suffering in the Horn.

I need you to help me save lives.
It's so so simple; here's what you need to do:
1.Donate $5 or more on this page
2.Send an email to your friends and ask them to join us.
3.Share #Ask5for5 on Facebook and Twitter!

A hungry child doesn't wait. She doesn't wait for us to finish the other things on our to-do list, or get to it next month when we might have a little more money to give. She doesn't wait for us to decide if she's important enough to deserve a response. She will only wait as long as her weakened little body will hold on...please respond now and help save her life. Ask 5 for 5.

Thank you on behalf of all of those who will be helped--you are saving lives and changing history.

p.s. Please don't move on to the next website before you donate and email your friends right now. It only takes 5 minutes and just $5, and if you're life is busy like mine, you probably won't get back to it later. Let's not be a generation that ignores hundreds of thousands of starving people, instead let's leave a legacy of compassion. You have the opportunity to save a life today!

Nshima, Beans and Other Things (Zambia Journal: Part 4, and more)

2011-09-19T20:32:00.009-04:00

Wiphan’s feeding program provides Wiphan students with one meal on every school day. It's a huge benefit to being enrolled at the school.

The children who attend school in the morning eat after their classes; the children who attend school in the afternoon eat before their classes. I was hanging out at the Mapalo campus one morning when the afternoon bunch started showing up. Their green uniforms and black shoes distinguish them as Wiphan kids from the tens of other children who are not able to attend school but who spend their days playing around the schoolyard. Little friends engaged in conversation. Girls formed a circle to play hand games. A few boys kicked around a soccer ball made of plastic bags and twine.

When it was time for lunch, a teacher rounded up the students and they ran to the school building and formed a line in front of the big pots of nshima (pronounced shee-mah) and beans, digging their bowls or plates out of their bookbags or plastic grocery bags that many of them were using for bookbags.

Scoops of nshima and spoonfuls of beans were dished into their bowls and the children found places to sit and eat amongst their classmates. The servings looked big, much bigger than what I would put on my girls’ plates. But there were no leftovers. For many of these children, this is their ONLY meal of the day.

Before heading to their classrooms, the children walk over to the community well situated on the campus to rinse off their plates so they will be ready for the next day's meal.

The little girl pictured above is G, one of our family’s sponsored children. I watched her and the other Wiphan kids at the Sinia campus line up to eat one day. One of G’s little friends realized that she’d forgotten her bowl. I watched G ask for a little extra and explain that she was sharing with her friend. They sat down, the two bowls between them, and proceeded to bow their heads and fold their hands. G prayed. She finished her prayer with the sign of the cross. It was a such a precious moment. I was so touched by my sassy little G’s generosity in sharing with her friend. I held back tears as I observed her heartfelt thankfulness for such a simple meal. This picture reminds me of the one my parents had in our dining room of an old man praying over his bread and soup. I want to frame it as a reminder to me to give thanks for every small blessing. And to pray for G. As I sat with G and her friend, I noticed a little boy putting a handful of nshima into the hand of a non-Wiphan child who was reaching through a small hole in the wall surrounding the Sinia school buildings. Oh, if only Wiphan had funds sufficient to feed and educate every child in the compounds. There is such a need.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been trying to be smarter about my grocery shopping and meal portioning, but it still seems every week I throw out so much spoiled fruit and uneaten leftovers. I think of the Wiphan children in their food line, the non-Wiphan kids hungrily looking on, the widow who scraped the leftovers from my dinner plate into her purse to take home to her children, and the famine happening right now in the horn of Africa. . . and I feel so guilty and wasteful and undeservingly blessed. D and I are both in that uncomfortable processing, reverse culture-shock mode. I think we’ve been putting ourselves in that mode so often over the past couple of years that it’s beginning to be our normal. It’s a frustrating place to be. I'd rather be here than oblivious or indifferent, though. Our eyes have been opened, but there’s still so many questions we have that will never be answered this side of heaven.

Our daughters are so young and innocent and live such blessed, secure and sheltered little lives. There are a lot of things that we believe they are still too tender to be exposed to unnecessarily. I am grateful that my children have thus far been untouched by the cruelty of death, disease, and starvation. I wish that all children could have childhoods as carefree and full of joy and sunshine and laughter as they do. At the same time, we want to instill in them a passion for the kingdom and for serving those less fortunate. We actively involve them in corresponding with our sponsored children and they are always interested in hearing stories and seeing pictures from our mission trips. And they are developing an awareness of poverty out of their interest in learning about the places we've been and the lives of children they feel like they "know". This picture from my Zambia trip made a big impact on both of our big girls:

They now pray regularly for “the little girl with the doll head”. With her in mind, they initiated a household donation drive and piled our pool table with some of their treasured toys they want us to send to Africa (any logistics help would be appreciated!):

Their sweet little hearts are definitely empathetic when it comes to children not having a mommy and daddy to take care of them or toys to play with.

I wanted to initiate a conversation with them about poverty and explore what the Lord is doing in their thoughts and their little hearts. I decided to make a typical Zambian meal for dinner. As we set the table, we sang "There's No One, There's No One Like Jesus", my favorite Zambian worship song. As we ate, we talked about Victoria Falls, nature and some interesting Zambian cultural tidbits and traditions. It's important to me that our girls see the beauty and appreciate the good things about Africa and that they don't grow up only seeing the negatives.

Nshima and ndiwo is a typical Zambian meal. Nshima is the Zambian staple food made of corn flour (“mealie meal”). It cooks very similar to grits, but is a finer grind and tastes like the masa part of a tamale. When done, it has the appearance of mashed potatoes, but is thick enough that bits can be broken off into your hand. Because it’s rather dry, nshima is usually served with some sort of moist or juicy side dish called ndiwo or “relish”. The most common relish is chilemba, or boiled beans. Sometimes there will also be a vegetable side dish called ifisashi, made of collard greens or another green called rape and peanut powder (for our meal, I simply used Glory brand canned mixed greens (turnip, collard and kale), which I thought were close enough and would give the children something on their plates they were familiar with). In Zambia, if it’s a special occasion, chicken or goat or other meat will be served, and maybe some fried caterpillars or termite ants on the side (For real, y’all, caterpillars! Next year, I’m gonna sample some!). While looking for recipes, I stumbled upon THIS website, which has a lot of interesting information about nshima, including the significance of nshima in Zambian culture, history and politics.

How to Make Nshima and Chilemba:

Ingredients (serves 4-6 people):
4 cups dry beans (I used pinto, you could also use light red kidney)
2 tomatoes, chopped (I used 2 small tomatoes and ½ can drained diced tomatoes)
1 white onion, chopped
1 small bag plain white cornmeal (I used approx. 3 cups)
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. cooking oil
Water

Chilemba:

If you haven’t already sorted through your beans , do so and remove all halves, rocks, discolored, etc.. ones (always amazing what you find in a bag of beans!). Put 4 cups of beans in 4 quarts of water with oil and salt and bring to a boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, for about 5 hours, adding water as needed to keep from drying out or burning. Whatever you do, don't let your beans burn! After about 5 hours, when beans are about done, stir in tomato and onion.

Cook for 10 minutes, then cover and move to the beans to a back burner (they will stay warm covered) to give yourself plenty of room to make the nsima.

Nshima:

Pour 5 cups of water into a medium pot and bring to boil as you add 1 1/2 cups of cornmeal, one tablespoon at a time, while stirring continuously. Keep stirring slowly until the mixture begins to thicken (will look a little like cream of wheat), boil and bubble. Turn the heat to medium, cover the pot, and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Cautiously remove the lid. Slowly, a little at a time, pour into the pot the other 1/2 cup of corn meal and briskly stir until smooth and thick. Stir vigorously and continuously, adding more cornmeal to thicken.

I got to observe the Mapalo campus “lunch lady” making nshima one morning. She cooked in big pots over an open flame and used what looked like a wooden oar to stir. It takes 2-3 hours of stirring to cook a pot of nshima big enough to serve all of the Wiphan students.

It’s hard work, but she made it look easy:

Then she offered to let me have a try. I put all of my weight into my stirring motion; the nshima was so thick that it nearly lifted me off the ground! Everyone got a good laugh.

Ahh. . . this pot is MUCH easier to stir but still a lot of work!

As the nshima cooks, sprinkle a little more corn meal until desired thickness is obtained. The nshima should be very thick (no liquid remaining) and smooth (no lumps). Cover, turn the heat off and let the nshima sit on the stove for another 2 to 3 minutes. Serve hot.

With clean hands, tear bits of nshima off and use them to scoop up the ndiwo. Yum!

We’re trying to teach them to be adventurous eaters—often encouraging them with “if you want to go to Africa, you need to be willing to try new foods.” Miss K and Miss A were both sports and took bites of everything, but then requested a banana and an orange, respectively, to round out their meals. Miss M cleaned her plate and announced “Well, I’m one meal closer to going to Africa!”

As we ate our Zambian meal, our conversation turned to our sponsored Wiphan kids, G and C. What their lives are like and how Wiphan is helping them. We talked about all of the children in the compounds that are not able to attend school and who don’t get the one meal a day that the Wiphan students get, and what has to happen for Wiphan to be able to serve those children, too. We talked about our sponsored Compassion kids, E, A and T. We talked about James 1:27 and what it means to visit widows and orphans. And what our family can do to put James 1:27 in action—in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Haiti, and in Lakeland, Florida and wherever else God might lead us.

It was a fun dinner and a beautiful conversation. I love how my girls feel personally invested in the projects and organizations D and I are involved with. I love their excitement about new cultures and new people and how they care for and feel connected with children all over the globe. And I love their compassionate hearts and enthusiastic desire to serve others and change their world. I love that they are willing to part with their beloved toys and that they want us to adopt again so that an orphan can have a family. I pray that I will learn not to cling too tightly to things of this world, money or dreams of my own but always have an open heart and a willingness to go where the Lord tells me to go and do what the Lord tells me to do. I pray that the enormity of poverty and the orphan crisis never makes me cynical or complacent and that God will instill in me a pure and simple desire like my girls have to do what I can do. They inspire me and make me hopeful for the future.

As you all know, this is a time of terrible famine in the Horn of Africa, a region that includes Miss K's birthplace of Ethiopia. This has been something at the forefront of our minds and our prayers over the past few months. My cousin D is there right now, on the border of Somalia and Ethiopia, and he is witnessing some pretty horrible stuff. Anyone who grew up with me remembers the Ethiopian famine of the 80's. Well, this one is even worse. This is the worst famine in 60 years. Mothers should never have to watch their children die, much less to watch them starve to death and have to leave their precious bodies alongside a dusty road. It’s so unfair and unjust and everyone should be doing something, whatever they can, to help. And if we all do a little, together we can do a lot. Tomorrow, I’m going to have a guest blogger here to share something you can do to help. I hope you’ll stop back by and participate.

Epilogue: When I finished writing this post, I read back over it and thought how weird it was to one minute be talking about feeding programs and famine and the next minute be sharing recipes and pictures of our abundant table. I think most bloggers would have broken it up into a couple of different posts, one serious, one lighthearted. I decided to leave it all in one as a pretty accurate representation of the struggle that seems to be constantly going on inside me between wanting to enjoy the blessings in my life while at the same time being so burdened for those who suffer and frustrated about all the things that are so terribly wrong with the world.

D's Trip to Haiti

2011-09-14T17:36:00.014-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, D had the opportunity to be a part of AGCI/Embrace Missions’ first team to Haiti. It was an amazing trip for him. The team was comprised of a great group of people, including two gals who were also a part of his Rwanda team last year. In comparison to our Africa trips, it was an easy one, too—only an hour flight to Miami and then an hour fifteen flight to Haiti. D returned home with a love for a new country and a desire for our family to be involved in efforts to make a difference in the lives of orphaned children in Haiti. D was particularly inspired by Dan Jensen’s work with Faith Missions International and Gift of God Orphanage. Sadly, the Haitian adoption process is so lengthy (the 2-3 year wait from referral to visa is daunting to many prospective adoptive parents) and there is not an established domestic foster care system or adoption program in-country, that many children who would be available for adoption are raised in institutional rather than family settings. Most of the children at Gift of God are older (many lost their families as a result of flooding from Hurricane Jeanne in 2004); because their prospects of adoption are unlikely, Gift of God is operated with more of a "forever home" approach, with a goal of raising them to be educated, equipped and prepared to help make a difference in their nation. While Gift of God is one of the best children's homes in Haiti, the team also visited an "average" Haitian orphanage--a tent community for 30 kids set up in the back yard of a big house. They had a building before the earthquake but lost everything. Now the landlord is evicting them. Such a sad situation. The team was also able to assist with site preparations for a new orphanage facility being constructed by Global Orphan Hope and had the opportunity to tour Project Medishare - a full blown trauma hospital set up as a field hospital by University of Miami medical school. At the Project, nurses volunteer alongside wonderful Haitian medical professionals providing top quality care to primarily pediatric patients.

Every time D leaves to go on any trip without me, I make sure he’s armed with a battery-charged camera and I holler “take lots of pictures!” as we say our goodbyes at the concourse. But he's such a reluctant photographer, more of a savor-the-moment kind of guy. While in Haiti, he decided to take a new approach to satisfying my request. He handed off his point-and-shoot to the kids at the orphanage to “capture their lives through their eyes”. Pretty clever, huh? Well, here's a sample of the 55 pictures he returned home with:

I'm reminded of the Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Robert designed the wedding invitations. This will not, however, put an end to my requests for photos from his trips. Thankfully, several members of D's team were generous in sharing their pictures. Here are a few that probably give a better idea of the trip. Beauty amidst destruction is the best description that comes to mind:

The following article was published in the Embrace newsletter. I hope they don’t mind me dropping it into our blog, as it will save me from having to nag D for blog material (D, you lucked out this time--other people provided the trip pictures AND the re-cap!). D, by the way, is the “father of three” referenced in the article.

Haiti: 19 Months Later By Frank Betzer, Development Director, AGCI Photos: Special thanks to Faith Missions International's Gift of God Orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti.

(August 2011) As our mission team drove through the streets of Port-au-Prince, wet and cold from the drenching rains that poured through the screened sides of our truck, a hush fell over everyone. Just moments before, we shared stories of our experiences during this all-too-brief trip to Haiti. We marveled at the beauty of terraced hillsides, steep valleys, and homes perched atop one another in the mountains outside the capital.

But as we passed by crumpled buildings and row upon row of tents, some emblazoned with "US AID" and others labeled "PRC" (People's Republic of China), we were reminded that our discomfort was only momentary. Soon, we would be back at our guest house and able to take shelter from the rain. We would put on clean, dry clothes, eat a hot meal, and sleep in a comfortable bed. We wouldn't be wondering if our few possessions would be swept away by the next rain.

The Haitian tent cities remain intact, a grim reminder that more than 600,000 Haitians still have no place to call home since the January 2010 earthquake. A tropical rainstorm had us cringing at the site of water-soaked children and adults seeking shelter amidst overflowing gutters and alleys strewn with garbage. Starvation, violence, sex trafficking, disease, and worst of all, utter hopelessness cried out to us from the acres of gray tents crammed into what is quickly becoming a permanent setting.

As one of our team members, a father of three, later expressed so movingly, "I saw myself in that place, with my little girls huddled in a tent corner trying to stay dry and I heard them whisper, 'When will Daddy make it better?'"

When will it be better? Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere; the 2010 earthquake only made it much, much worse. An estimated 10,000 NGOs (non-government organizations) work in Haiti, bringing food and water, temporary shelter, sanitation, and some degree of public safety. But life is at a level few of us would consider acceptable, except in the most dire circumstances, and then only for a few days. The children and adults of Haiti have lived in tents for 19 months.

Yet amidst the abject poverty of Haiti, we also experienced pockets of hope. At Faith Mission International's Gift of God Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, we were greeted by fifty joyful children who are well loved and cared for. They receive food and shelter, education and vocational training, and an understanding of Christ's love that is alive and evident in each of them.

We approached the orphanage loaded with expectations of teaching the children a few songs. They greeted us at the gates with melodious voices carrying off harmonies and rhythms that were full and enchanting. We brought instruments, games, crafts, and toys to teach them how to play. They showed us how to share, enjoy one another's accomplishments, and celebrate the moment with little, rather than always needing abundance. Team members came prepared to provide basic vocational information and training and were received with great appreciation; we were given a tour of the on-site bakery where the older kids learn much-needed skills and the value of work. We had prepared ourselves by learning a few words of Creole so we could tell them Jesus loves them. They told us in Creole, and some in English, that they know Jesus, and that He loves us too.

Gift of God Orphanage is one of the best orphanages in Haiti. Yet we left knowing there are things we can do to make a difference for the children. Future AGCI teams hope to provide a new outdoor kitchen to replace the two charcoal grates where all the children's meals are prepared. Team members will be asked to build a wall in the girls' dormitory and construct cubbies so that the children will have space to keep their few personal belongings. Other simple projects will emerge as we continue to visit. But mostly we will return to teach and to be taught, to share and receive, and to love and be loved.

We were also present at the beginning stages of a new orphanage in Haiti. AGCI's new board chair, Mike Anderson, a team from Global Orphan Hope, and Embrace Missions team members helped string construction lines to mark the foundation and gathered to pray over the site and its leaders. This new home is scheduled to open in 2012 and provide care for fifty infants, toddlers, and children with special needs. Everyone was moved by the magnitude of the moment—the sheer responsibility of stepping out in faith to make a difference for some of Haiti's 300,000 orphans. At least for some of the children in Haiti who wonder, "When will it be better?" the answer is soon, very soon.

Zambia Journal, Part 3: A Trip to the City Council Building

2011-09-10T08:48:00.009-04:00

As I may have shared in a prior post or two, in addition to being a mommy, wife and occasional blogger, I also practice law. I’m a partner in the real estate transactions group at a large law firm. These days that means fewer new financings, new construction and development work and more dealing with distressed hotels, shopping centers and apartment complexes, receiverships, loan workouts, modifications and restructures. Did you just yawn? Are your eyes glazing over? Or are you thinking about a good lawyer joke you’ve heard lately? Don’t worry, I’m used to it. I find that it’s generally only my clients that (sometimes) appreciate my expertise and only other dirt lawyers that share my enthusiasm for such matters. But this is the profession I believe God has called me to. For now. And it seems I’m pretty good at it. And while I enjoy my work and my career has been a blessing to my family in many ways, I must admit that I’ve had second thoughts about my skill set in the context of serving others in Africa (on either a short-term or long-term basis). I’ve wondered how what I spend so much of my life doing is relevant to the kingdom and God’s plan for my life. It sometimes seems as if I’d be so much better suited to live, work and serve others, particularly in a developing country, if I’d gone to medical school or Bible school or obtained a teaching certification.

I remember reading over the itinerary for the Wiphan trip and thinking “What am I going to do?” I don’t have experience as an educator or school administrator to draw upon in discussions with the teachers and staff, I don’t have experience in the fields for which the widows are being trained, I can’t physically evaluate the children and make recommendations for their various ailments (of which we saw many), and the Lord knows it’s going to be hard for me to help put on a program when I “H” public speaking and can’t sing or dance, though my lack of abilities in that area may have some value as entertainment (mercy, was I uncomfortable when those widows tied that sash around me and stepped back to see my moves! There I stood, shaking my hips in a very non-African fashion, trying to have fun but secretly wishing either that the floor would open up and swallow me or that the heavens would open up and rapture me. Good Lord.) Of course, loving on the children comes easy and naturally for me, and I was willing to be flexible and helpful wherever needed and to be a team player, but I also hoped the Lord would give me an opportunity to contribute something special and particular to me as a member of the team.

Our team was comprised of such a diverse group of people--high school and college students, athletes, successful CEOs and businessmen, former teachers, an engineer, a CPA, a children’s minister--all uniquely gifted and having a heart to serve. It was a fantastic group of people and it was just amazing to see how, over the course of the trip, God opened doors for each person to draw upon their personal talents and experiences as they served. Wiphan's new data entry and typing program is the direct result of one Atlanta businessman's prayer to use his talents for kingdom purposes. And who would have guessed that, several days into the trip, lo and behold, Wiphan had some real estate law issues! At one campus, someone had erected a building on land that Wiphan believed it owned. At the other campus, there was concern that Wiphan might not have any legal right to use the “football pitch” (soccer field) enjoyed by the students. And in addition to that, as part of Wiphan’s partnership with TuliOne, they were interested in purchasing a plot within the compound for construction of a new TuliOne home. There was a need for someone to help Wiphan Zambia’s administrators navigate the various offices at the City Council building to determine what needed to be done to take care of these issues and assist with putting together an action plan to get everything done properly. How cool and exciting was that opportunity??? To me, VERY!!! So, with the understanding that I was NOT licensed to practice law in Zambia and would NOT be acting as Wiphan’s attorney (I wouldn’t be a lawyer if I didn’t include some disclaimers!), but that I may be able to assist in identifying issues and asking the right questions, on Thursday morning, I hopped in the car with two of Wiphan Zambia’s administrators and headed to the City Council building.

I learned so much that day! About gazetted and non-gazetted lands, title deeds and land cards, and how the government at any time might decide to “revisit the system” and change the rules. It was all so fascinating! I was the only non-Zambian at the Ndola City Council building that day. And one of the few women in the building as well. There were a number of women performing clerical-type work but only maybe one or two others (out of tens of people we saw) who actually appeared to be there “on business”. I didn’t want to stand out any more than I already was by whipping out my camera and taking pictures, but I REALLY wanted to get a few pictures, so I covertly snapped a few shots with my phone:

The Deed Registry Office:

Sample new and improved form of Land Card following Ndola’s recent “revisiting” of the system: Sample Certificate of Title: "CCR"s: Ndola's "Public Records":

On the desk of the man who told us that an application for title deed of gazetted government land (the “soccer pitch”) would take “about 3 months” to process (the stack of papers was about 3 inches higher than what I could fit in the photo; judging by the fading and the fraying of the edges, some of those files had been there for quite some time!):

3 months from what point in the stack? Gotta love “Africa time”!

There were no lines, appointments, or computers. I did see some old-school typewriters and people using carbon to make copies. There were papers and files all over the place (I have to add that, just this week, my teammate Kristin--who will be in Zambia through December--accompanied one of the Wiphan Zambia administrators back to City Council to follow up on some of the issues we looked into. They asked him if he could remember where HE last saw the Wiphan file to help them locate it!)

It’s been almost 2 months now and I am happy to report that progress is being made on the action plan! A plot of land has been purchased near the Sinia campus and construction of a brand new TuliOne home is underway! When complete, TuliOne will employ a widow and pay her to live in the home and care for 4-5 of Wiphan’s orphans that otherwise would be on the streets. Click HERE to learn more about TuliOne. And click HERE to visit the blog of my teammate Kristin. You can follow the construction of the TuliOne home HERE.

I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to help Wiphan’s administrators answer some questions and to play a small part in making some of Wiphan’s visions a reality. I don’t want this journal entry to seem like I’m tooting my horn, because my role really was a small one. But to me, the fact that there were some real estate issues was a little “God wink”– a reassurance that I’m on the right track and that He sees my heart. I don’t know why God hasn’t called me to be a stay-at-home mom or to move to Africa or to run a charity. Maybe one day He will. Those things would be right up my alley and they would surely be a part of MY plan. But maybe HIS plan involves me having a long career as an attorney, and for me to spend many crazy years as a working mom (Lord, help me!). All I know is that I am certain that for now, I am where He wants me to be. And as far as the future is concerned, knowing that "God doesn't call the equipped, but equips those He calls" gives me a sense of peace that He will take care of the details required to manifest His plans for my life. It’s not my job to know what the future holds, but to walk with Him each day, to be joyful where I’m at, and to give my all in everything I do. And though I know all this, it's good to be reminded every now and then to trust in the Lord and in His timing and to believe that His plan for me is bigger and better than—and probably looks nothing like—anything I could plan for myself. And I thank God for giving me that reminder in Zambia.

Zambia Journal, Part 2: The Value of Visiting

2011-08-28T15:15:00.010-04:00

“Pure religion, undefiled before God is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27

After church on Sunday, our team split up into small groups. Each group had a list of widows, orphans and vulnerable children who attend Wiphan's schools and training programs, and each was accompanied by someone from Wiphan Zambia who knew where the widows and children lived within the compounds and who spoke Bemba and could act as an interpreter if needed. And off we went. To visit.

The rest of the day Sunday and most of the afternoon Monday were spent moving from mud home to mud home to mud home, venturing deep into the Sinia and Mapalo compounds, visiting with Wiphan's widows and the families and caretakers of Wiphan’s orphans and vulnerable children.

It is not every day that muzungus venture into the compounds. And many people who live in the compounds have never ventured out. As we meandered through the narrow dirt paths, we accumulated quite a following of curious children, singing and acting silly, giggling at the sight of the us, and striking poses in the hopes we'd snap their pictures. Toddlers who'd obviously never seen people as pale as us were alternately confused, frightened or thought we looked hilariously funny. I imagined we must look a bit like aliens with our pale skin, strange accents and unusually colored and textured hair.

As we made our way though the compounds, widows who weren’t on our list came out and beckoned us to visit their homes as well. In Zambia, it is a great honor to have visitors in one’s home, no matter how humble or sparsely furnished it might be. These women are proud to be able to provide shelter for their loved ones. Several requested that we take photos of them in or in front of their homes. These women have few pictures of themselves and their families; hopefully the next traveling group will be able to give them hard copies of the ones we took.

Their homes and yard areas were swept and tidy, and were as clean as possible given that their yards and floors consist of dusty red dirt and their homes are constructed of mud. The homes were pitch black inside, but our eyes adjusted as we sat and talked (only when we took a flash photo could we see what the room really looked like, though). Paraffin candles are reserved for true emergencies.

The construction is rough and very basic, but for the most part, the homes are functional. No one has electricity. Some homes have radios or TVs modified to run on battery power. Several entrepreneurial compound residents generate incomes by offering battery charging services.

None of the homes have running water. Each of the Wiphan campuses has a well situated on it that families in the compounds are permitted to use. There is no sewer system, but the latrines are well maintained and did not smell. Many homes had holes in the roofs which would need to be covered or patched before the rainy season, but several children told us that they had to sleep standing up when it rained because the floors of their homes would get so wet and muddy.

Zambian culture is not as sensitive as ours when it comes to talking about personal matters or touchy subjects. Zambians tend to be more open, honest and direct in their communicating, and few topics seem to be off-limits. This can be a bit awkward at times, as we are not accustomed to being asked personal questions by strangers (Zambian culture works both ways!) or to having someone we’ve only known for 5 minutes open up to us about their most difficult struggles or painful experiences. As Americans, we are conditioned to hide our vulnerabilities and keep mum about hard things that have happened to us. We're expected to be survivors. We're supposed to always be just fine. But cutting through superficiality and small talk in visiting with Zambians made our conversations so informative and our time with these families so much more precious.

They told us about their daily lives--where they get their water, where they cook and sleep, whether their homes are owned or rented. We asked about the reed mats, mosquito nets, blankets, door locks, uniforms and shoes that each Wiphan student receives upon enrollment (most were quick to show them to us but it was discovered that a few caretakers had sold or traded them). And they shared their stories, how they came to be widowed, orphaned, residents of the compound, students at Wiphan. Most of the widows' and orphans' stories involved tragic circumstances—death, illness, abandonment, abuse, land grabbing (in Zambia, it is not uncommon when a man dies for his side of the family to take his property and all of his possessions, leaving his wife and children destitute—in fact, this scenario was at the very heart of Wiphan’s beginning). Our discussions ranged from humorous to heartbreaking to infuriating to inspiring.

Spending time with Wiphan's widows, orphans and vulnerable children gave our team insight into how they may be better served. Those days we spent visiting gave us the opportunity to pray for and love on them, and speak truth and words of encouragement to them. These things are perhaps more meaningful to them than an education or employment. To know that one is loved by others, and loved by God, to be reminded of His faithfulness, to find comfort in His arms and hope for the future—is priceless!

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

As we made our way though the compounds, I reflected on how this verse goes hand-in-hand with James 1:27.

Visiting and serving have interpersonal components. They are not things that can be delegated. They happen face to face. Visiting widows and orphans and serving the least of these are not things that can be accomplished with a charitable contribution (though supporting organizations that are focused on these things is a good use of money you have been blessed to be able to give!). They require something even more difficult to part with than one's money or earthly treasure. They require giving of yourself and your heart.

Visiting widows and orphans and serving the least of these doesn't require you to travel to a developing country across the world. Though we have followed our hearts to serve in other countries, part of the change in D and me as a result of these trips has been a new commitment to serve the widows, orphans and least of these in our own community--our widowed grandmothers, the foster kids living at our local children's home, the single mother in our neighborhood who, though not a widow by reason of death, is struggling to support her children who, practically speaking, have been abandoned and are fatherless. There are women (and men!) all around us who need to know that they are Christ's bride. And children who need to know the love of a Father who can restore what has been ruined, heal what has been hurt, free what has been bound, and redeem what has been lost.

The Bible tells us that by visiting orphans and widows we are practicing pure religion and by serving the least of these, we are serving God. And something neat happens when you do these things. The Lord shows up! He meets you there and you experience HIS love in a way so real, so intimate, and so overwhelming. Your eyes are opened to the beauty in people overlooked by society. You see them with God's eyes, as His precious, valued and beloved children. And it changes YOU! The value of visiting is that it opens your eyes to see His amazing grace and His magnificent and unchanging love for you in a powerful way!

I began my trip to Zambia with hopes of making an impact on the lives of widows and orphans in Ndola. The thing I didn't realize was just how much the Lord was going to impact me. In the darkness of a mud hut, God opened my eyes to more of Himself than what I ever thought possible. I experienced His love in the eyes of hundreds of orphans and dozens of widows. And this love has transformed me.

Back to School!

2011-08-27T11:40:00.008-04:00

Wow, our summer went by fast! This week we were back to school! We're easing back into our bedtime and morning routines (which got a little crazier for me at the end of the week when Mr. B left for HAITI!) and looking forward to all of the growing and learning our little ones are going to do this year.

Miss M started second grade on Monday. She loves school and says that second grade is her favorite grade yet!

Also on Monday, Miss K started a three-morning-a-week preschool. She feels like such a big girl walking around wearing a backpack (which she picked out herself at Target). She walks to class with great enthusiasm, but telling us goodbye has not been easy. We've had a few tears--and that includes Mom-Mom as well as K! It's a big transition for us! K's teacher assured us that K's tears have only lasted a couple of minutes and that once we're out of sight, she's a sweet and smiley participant in all the class activities. I'm told the tears will stop and the drop-off will get easier. I sure hope so, because it breaks my heart to leave those big, teary eyes!

Miss A got a couple of extra days of vacation (which she was actually a little bummed about since she was so excited about school) and started kindergarten on Wednesday! She has the same kindergarten teacher Miss M had and who we all just adored. She's is finally one of Mrs. H's little bears and is just as thrilled as she can be about it.

Here are their "first day" pictures, and their responses to a little interview I gave them at the breakfast table this morning:

Miss M
Second Grade
Age: 7
Favorite Colors: peach and brown, the colors of my family
Favorite Song: Set the World on Fire by Britt Nicole
Favorite Food: cheeseburgers (from Wendy's or Pa's grill)
Favorite Book: any book about horses
Favorite Movies: Spirit and Flicka 2
Favorite Thing About School: learning new things and art
Things I Love: God, my family and horses
What I Want to Be When I Grow Up: a horse doctor and ranch worker

Miss A
Kindergarten
Age: 5
Favorite Color: green
Favorite Song: Walk on the Water by Britt Nicole
Favorite Food: chicken tenders
Favorite Book: Jesus Storybook Bible
Favorite Movie: Tangled
Favorite Thing About School: playing
Things I Love: my family, God and Jesus
What I Want to Be When I Grow Up: I'll tell you when I grow up

Miss K
Preschool
Age: 2
Favorite Color: paper
(I think she thought I was asking what was her favorite thing TO color)
Favorite Song: Hold Me by Jamie Grace
Favorite Food: bananas
Favorite Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Favorite Movie: Woody and Buzz
Favorite Thing About School: backpack and music
Things I Love: my hair, Mom-Mom, Daddy
What I Want to Be When I Grow Up: ride a horse

There goes my baby, with a backpack as big as she is. *Sniff-Sniff*

Zambia Journal, Part 1: The Journey and the Welcome

2011-08-20T13:30:00.031-04:00

We took the girls to Mom and Dad B’s house Thursday morning and set off for Tampa. D and I ran some errands and had brunch at Sophie’s (a darling little French patisserie in Hyde Park). Then it was off to the airport! D helped me check my bags and walked me as far as he could before we had to do our hugs and kisses and say our goodbyes. As I people-watched in the security line, a familiar face caught my eye. It was my friend L! Back in our before-kids years, D and I were active with our church’s youth group and taught a high school girls’ Sunday School class. We adored L and her twin sister N. They come from a sweet, sweet family that we grew to love—and still love! N worked as our nanny for several years before she got married (their brother’s wife is our current nanny!). We keep in touch through Facebook and our mutual connections, but there’s nothing like catching up in person! Turned out L was on the same flight as me to Atlanta! Due to our flight being delayed, we ended up having about 3 hours to chit-chat. So fun! I want to add that L’s husband is currently deployed in Iraq (before he was sent to Iraq, he spent a year in Afghanistan). She was on her way to do some preparations for their family’s move back to the base in anticipation of his return in a few months. They have two little girls, and her husband hasn’t seen their youngest since she was just days old! I can only imagine how hard that would be! Our soldiers and their families sacrifice so much to serve our country and protect our freedom. Please do not take them for granted. Please don’t miss opportunities to thank them! THANK YOU J and L!

Me and L at the airport in Tampa:

Once we landed in Atlanta, I only had a few minutes to run across the airport, claim my bags, and meet the rest of the Wiphan team at check-in. I got my exercise! Probably good to get my blood pumping before sitting sedentary for 16 hours on the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. The only person on our team that I knew before arriving at the airport was A, so I enjoyed meeting everyone else. Such a neat and diverse group of people! It was so cool to see each person find their niche over the course of the trip.

A few of the ladies in Atlanta before the flight to Johannesburg:

The flight to J-Burg was L…O…N…G! I sat with G and N, a husband and wife on our team. I watched Soul Surfer (GREAT movie) and Casablanca (one of my favorites!) and tried to get some sleep and acclimate my body to Africa time. I made the mistake of leaving my Ambien and my travel neck pillow thingy in my big carry-on which was shoved up in the overhead bin several rows behind us. So sleep wasn’t easy. Mostly just rested with my eyes closed and tried not to flop over onto G's shoulder--THAT would not have made a good first impression with N! And then there were the stiff legs. . . anyone whose flown across the ocean in coach knows what I'm talking about. You try straighten out your legs under the seat in front of you (but of course that’s where you’ve stashed your shoes and laptop bag) so you squeeze them in around all your stuff, as you think about all the stories you’ve heard about deep vein thrombosis and blood clots. Reminding myself that “When we land, we’re in AFRICA” made any discomfort bearable, though. Could not wait to get there!

It was already dark and COLD when we landed in Jo-Burg Friday evening. So cold we could see our breath! We’d checked our luggage all the way through to Ndola and packed most of our clothes and overnight necessities in our carry-ons. We stayed the night at the Birchwood Resort. After we dropped our carry-ons in our rooms, we walked over to the local Spur Steak Ranch restaurant for dinner. The Spur is a Native American-Brazilian-Peruvian-Australian Outback?-themed steakhouse chain. The décor was a bit confusing but the food was good! Many of us sampled the monkey gland sauce that South Africa is known for. Yum! ;)

After dinner, we were able to hop on the internet and check in with family before crashing. I slept so good that night! We had to get up VERY early Saturday morning. It was hard to move from the warm covers into the frosty room, but knowing I'd be in Zambia by afternoon was a great motivation to jump out of bed and get going! The Birchwood had an impressive breakfast buffet. I made myself a traditional English breakfast—egg, baked beans, broiled tomatoes and toast. A sentimental meal that I rarely eat but always enjoy! After breakfast, we checked out of our rooms and boarded a shuttle for the airport. As we checked in for our flight, the clerks required us to weigh our carry-ons (they weren’t weighed in Atlanta). Most of them were too heavy! Much of the weight was coming from the 23 laptops (which we did NOT want to check) and related computer equipment we were taking to set up the typing and data entry lab at Wiphan. We scurried around re-distributing the laptops and contents of our carry-ons and ended up checking some more bags. To add to the excitement, we had one team member got sick and another realize he’d left his brand new iPad at the Birchwood. Nausea medicine was located and calls were made to the hotel to try to locate the iPad (a miracle) and get it to the airport in time for its owner, B, to make it through security and board our plane (another miracle). God showed our team favor that morning. Our sick member’s nausea went away before we boarded the plane, we eased through security with all the laptops in tow, and just as they started loading the shuttle from the terminal to the plane on the tarmac, B—iPad in hand—arrived at the gate! Whew!

Some of us in the Jo-Burg airport terminal: As we left Jo-Burg, the landscape below changed from concrete to red earth:

After a short 2.5 hour flight, we landed in “Real Africa” (that’s the Zambians’ slogan for their country) on Saturday afternoon. As I stepped out of the plane and onto the tarmac, I took a deep breath. Africa! That familiar “Africa” smell of dirt, diesel fumes, burning wood and body odor is so distinct. And so comforting to me!

The Ndola International Airport had a typical small African airport motif. Love it! A perfect point of entry into Zambia! We walked from the tarmac to the visa line:

Then on to the baggage claim and customs:

Then out into the parking lot where we were greeted with big hugs from K and L of Wiphan Zambia. We crammed all our bags into a couple of vans, squeezed ourselves in and drove through Ndola and on to the Castle Lodge.

We were only at the lodge long enough to move our bags into our rooms and freshen up. Then we loaded back up bound for the Sinia school, where they were to be holding a graduation ceremony for recent graduates of the widow program’s jewelry making and hotel and catering programs.

As we approached the school, women and children lined both sides of the street waving flowers, singing and cheering. Many of them formed two lines leading from the vans to the room where the graduation was being held. They sang, danced, waved flowers, hugged and kissed us as we walked through the middle. It was so overwhelming and incredibly humbling. It is something you’d have to experience to really understand. There just aren’t words. This video I took with my camera gives you a tiny glimpse of it (please scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing):

But to be there in person was just so much more amazing!

The graduates sang and danced in celebration: K assisted in handing out certificates:

It was clear that they were proud of themselves and their accomplishments. After the ceremony, we had the opportunity to fellowship with the graduates and congratulate them. Many of them wanted their pictures taken with the folks from Wiphan USA. So sweet. We had fun taking pictures with them and getting to know them. Their testimonies were incredible—these women have overcome so much and have worked so hard! Those certificates, and the knowledge and the skills they represent, provide so much opportunity and can open so many doors. Every one of the 14 hotel and catering program graduates had already found employment in Ndola. This is how Wiphan is changing these women's lives! Awesome!

It didn’t take long for word to spread through the compound that a bunch of muzungus with cameras had arrived at Sinia. Scores of children and young adults soon showed up requesting that we take their pictures, too. Like the paparazzi in reverse! Get spotted with a camera, and you’ll soon be surrounded by a mob of people wanting to have their pictures taken!

Silly: Sweet: Precious children: That's all for now. More to come!

Bigfoot and Minivans

2011-08-08T20:29:00.018-04:00

As I continue to collect my thoughts on Zambia and wonder when I’ll get enough computer time to type them up, here are a few little happenings on the homefront that I wanted to jot down:

K’s favorite new way to end any statement: “Serwioswee. I not kinning.”
“I want bottle, Mom-Mom. Sewiouswee. I not kinning.”
“I want hold you, Daddy. Sewiouswee. I not kinning.”
Occasionally, she’ll omit it and D will say exaggeratedly “You’ve got to be kidding, K!”
“No, Daddy. I not kinning.”

While driving past a wooded area, Ken pointed out the window and jokingly said “there’s where Bigfoot lives”.
Miss A (in her tiny little high-pitched voice) remarked: “They call him Bigfoot because one of his feet is small”.
(It is true, we don’t call him BigFEET. The visual makes be giggle. Suddenly, he’s not so scary anymore. Poor guy, I feel sorry for him.)

Look who’s swimming without water wings! Way to go Miss M!

Remember THIS post? Our baby girl is still crazy about hair and skin products (and anything product-like)! About half an hour before this picture was taken, this was a brand new, full tub of Miss Jessie’s Baby Buttercreme: And 10 minutes before this picture was taken, this was a full container of pink paint: What a mess!

"ALERT! ALERT!" Another of Miss K’s favorite sayings. Here’s the story behind that one, in a cute excerpt from my mom-in-love’s blog:
Grand kiddos are the MOST fun a Grandparent has ... on some days!!! Boy, can they make you laugh ~ and you better not laugh in front of them, or AT them! Soooo many times you have to hold it all in. Sometimes you can NOT hold it in, and you have to act like your laughing at the DOG!(poor dog ~ he gets blamed for everything!). SMILE!
Grandchildren learn EVERYTHING you allow them to learn. They have no fear of trying anything new! They just look at something and they know that they can work IT ... if you just say it is okay for them and give them just a little direction ... ONE TIME! It only takes one time for them ... THEY get it! I have a two year old that can work an iphone, and find her way through the apps to find what SHE WANTS ... just because she watches her Mother doing it!! FEARLESS! I don't even want to touch it because I might mess it up!!! So I sit there learning NOTHING!
My little two year old Granddaughter learns so much every single day. She has two older sisters who teach her everything by example and on purpose. They don't even realize that she is just a baby! And SHE believes that she is just like them ... able to do all that they do! She is really getting her verbal skills in order. She makes her wishes known quite well and understandable NOW! Yesterday, I thought that I would teach her how to say Colorado ... I said "say COL...O...RA...DO " ... and she lets loose with "COLORADO!"
Just a few months ago I told the then four year old and the seven year old sisters to STOP tattling on each other!!! I explained to them that the only time that I wanted them to tell me about the OTHER one, was IF it was an emergency ... if it is URGENT, and important that I go and help the other sister in some sort of trouble ... like if she is hurt, maybe she fell and needs help. I said "Just yell ALERT! ALERT! BOTH of you say ALERT, and I will come and help you!”
Okay! Well, actually THAT worked! I heard “ALERT!" and found one of them with her foot caught, and stuck under some crashed toys in a closet. WOW ... that's working great!
BUT, then the two year old ... caught on perfectly. (She IS a quick study you know!) She liked that word, it was easy to say and she noticed the quick reaction of me hopping to IT! SO, she decided to give it a go!
It is now her word, and her word ONLY ! "AWERT!" "AWERT!!! ... she took my toy!" "AWERT! my chair ... she in my chair!!!" ALERT! has been reinvented as a call "tattle" panic button! It is the funniest thing to watch her, and hear her in motion. AWERT!!! ALERT!!!!.............................................SHE owns it !!!

And finally, we may have officially lost our last little bit of coolness. . . We are now a TWO van fam. His and hers. And yes, I even monogrammed mine. Seriously. I’m not kidding.

Home

2011-07-26T21:36:00.003-04:00

I returned home from Zambia yesterday afternoon. Safe and sound! I must admit that had my family all been there with me, I would have been tempted to stay and not come back. Mr. B did a fine job of playing Mr. Mom. The house was clean, the laundry and dishes all done, and my babies were excited to tell me about all the fun they had with Daddy. He survived, but assured me that he now knows how much our home requires a mommy AND a daddy to function smoothly. I was back to work today—hitting the ground running despite being a bit jetlagged and playing catch-up with correspondence and new matters that came in while I was out.

Zambia was beautiful, tragic, joyful, heartbreaking and everything in between. A part of my heart is still there, with precious children whose faces and names I now know and love. Perhaps all those anti-malarial medicines and miscellaneous supplements I was taking made me a bit discombobulated—or maybe it was just a bit of culture shock, despite the fact that I’d visited Africa two times prior—but the whole time I was in Zambia, I felt like I was having a sort of surreal, out-of-body type experience. I tried to soak everything up and savor every moment. But so much was going on on the inside of me that I never really felt fully present on the outside. 9 days in-country was not long enough to fully settle in, process what I saw and come to an understanding of why the Lord took me there and how it works into the plan He has for my life. Seems D and I have all these random dots in our lives. We are impatient to connect them and have the final picture revealed. But instead of connecting them, God just keeps adding more dots to the page. Now that I’m home, I’m dealing with culture shock in reverse as I continue to process the things that I saw and felt, both physically and spiritually, while in Zambia. Each time I turn on the kitchen faucet, the dishwasher, the shower and the washing machine, I think of all the people fetching their water from the wells on the Wiphan school campuses, walking long distances with bare feet and carrying the heavy filled yellow jugs back home to cook their food, bathe their children and wash their clothes. I snuggle up with my girls in a cozy queen-sized bed with fresh sheets my girls and think of sweet Fridah in a cold, mud house sleeping on a reed mat and tiny piece of foam, covered with a rough, dirt-caked blanket. I wonder why I was born into my life and the precious people living in Ndola’s compounds were born into their lives. I lament the fact that there is no simple solution to poverty and that it will never go away. I am inspired as I remember people singing, dancing and worshiping for 4 to 5 hours straight in a mud church with only rough wooden pews or the dirt floor to sit on. I am outraged as I remember Mumi, a 4 year old girl with a lump on her head where she was hit with a chair by her drunken father, Ruth, a 10 year old girl that was raped three times in three days, and Helen, a 16 year old girl with 2 children aged 5 and 3 (do the math!). And I reflect on the fact that whether we are surrounded by material excesses or whether we lack even the basic necessities for living, we are empty without Jesus.

Lots to think and pray about! I plan to share some reflections and stories from my trip in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

Zambia Bound!

2011-07-13T23:25:00.005-04:00

I’m leaving for Zambia in the morning! I am so thankful to have the opportunity to participate in this trip and am so, so, so excited about seeing first-hand how Wiphan is changing the lives of widows and orphans. My friend Andrea is on the team, too, which is just icing on the cake! We'll even get a little glimpse of South Africa (new stamps in my passport make me giddy!), as we’ll be stopping over in route. I’m looking forward to being stretched, challenged and changed and pray that I am able to contribute something meaningful to the Wiphan program and the precious people that we will be meeting, visiting and serving.

Photos courtesy of Wiphan:

Leaving my family behind is going to be the hardest part of the trip—I’m going to miss them SOOOO much! This will be Mr. B’s first experience flying solo with the girls for more than a couple of days. He’s going to have an adventure of his own! I'm sure he and the girls will have a grand time of fun and memory making, but I also know how much I miss that extra set of hands-on hands when he’s away! Will be praying for the household to run smoothly for him while I’m gone. If any of my local friends and family are reading—please give my peeps a little extra love and care for me during the next couple of weeks!

To help Mr. B out a bit, I made one last, big grocery run and got the fridge and pantry all stocked with lots of healthy breakfast, lunch and snack choices. Saturday morning, Miss M and I had a mommy-daughter date to Dinner Done where we made up a bunch of yummy, nutritious meals that can go from freezer to oven. We had so much fun! I made up a menu and schedule of dinners and preparation instructions and even made arrangements for my crew to have dinner with our folks a few of the evenings to give Mr. B a little break from the kitchen. Ha! I color-coded our calendar to help Mr. B keep up with child care duties, dog grooming appointments, dry cleaning and house cleaning services, and honey-dos: Work is always super-stressful in the last few days before I head out of the office, and I've been busy this week trying to get my files covered and projects delegated so that nothing falls through the cracks while I’m away. It never fails that when I prepare to go on a trip, everything I'm working on starts blowing up and clients I haven't heard from in ages start coming out of the woodwork with new ideas and issues. And I’ve got a big deal scheduled to close 3 days after I get back. Soooo. . . . once again, I’ll be having to periodically contact the office and keep up with the status of some stuff during the trip. We’ll see how that goes. I'll be taking my laptop. And techno-savvy Mr. B has been trying to teach me all sorts of tricks and techniques for getting connected and inexpensively communicating via computer and iphone--but I declare, after 15 seconds he starts sounding like the teacher on Charlie Brown! Bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa. . . He's going to have to write me up some directions before I go. And then there’s the dreaded mountain that will inevitably be piled in my chair and on my desk when I get back. Another hard thing about leaving—knowing that even though I’m away, the rest of the world is still moving at a head-spinning pace!

Goodbye, office! Sorta.
Then there was the packing. . . I surprisingly managed to fit all of my clothes, converter gadgets and chargers, anti-malarial pills, probiotics, medicines to treat every other digestive issue or other potential ailment I could think of, Bible, journal, camera, snacks, bug spray, makeup, hair, skincare and hygiene products (and appliances--not sure whether we'll have power but I figured it was worth a try!), etc... into one 50 pound suitcase and a carry on. I’ll be toting another 50 pounds of donations once I get to Atlanta. Mr. B used to think it was so funny back in the days before airlines were so strict about weighing luggage and my bags would always arrive at the luggage carousel covered with flourescent orange HEAVY warning stickers, an effort made by the airlines to save their handlers from thrown-out backs and avoid worker’s comp claims resulting from my bags. The topic of my luggage has worked its way into several B family classic stories--like the one of me boarding a plane from England with a sword sticking out of my carry-on (obviously pre 9-11, when a sweet, naive smile was enough to clear security) and the story Mr. B and I refer to as the “German train station incident”. Apparently my lessons in traveling light (after the loss of my lovely safari wardrobe in route to Kenya a few years ago) were short-lived as I used every bit of my suitcase space and might barely came within my weight limits. Planning and packing for a trip is a big part of the fun for me, but it’s also a challenge!

A little weight on top helps to zip up a suitcase! I'm sure going to miss these silly girls! And of course, in addition to all this, I couldn’t leave without taking care of a bunch of tasks “just in case”. Before I leave home—especially on a long journey--I suddenly feel a sense of urgency to complete all those little cleaning and organizational tasks and projects that I’ve been putting on the back burner. Like finally putting a bunch of photos in albums, cleaning out my closet, making sure the laundry's folded and put away, cleaning out the fridge. It’s like the “always wear nice, clean underwear because you could get in an accident” rule taken a few steps further. I worry not only about what the paramedics might think if, in the process of trying to save my life, they notice that my undies have a hole, but what the ladies from church bringing casseroles and cobblers to my grieving family might think of my housekeeping skills if, heaven forbid, I don’t make it! Must be the Southernness in me—worried about my reputation and wanting to be gracious even after I’m gone! Mr. B thinks it's ridiculous, but, as his precious mother would say, “That’s Just Me!” Shoot, I even spend a couple of hours cleaning before the cleaners come to our house! The upside is that I’m fortunate enough to return safe and sound, I have an added bonus of coming home to a clean house (Though we will have to wait and see just how tidy the house stays without Mama home. Seems if I go shopping for a just couple of hours, a tornado blows through!). My Daddy is an estate planning attorney, so we’ve got our important documents-–wills, trusts, insurance policies, etc… in order. And everyone has been advised of the location of all important documents and records. Earlier today, I jotted down our banking and other important passwords, my Kodak Gallery account info (how terrible for my family to lose access to all those family photos?), and the location of my wedding rings (I only wear a gold band when traveling) and gave them to Mr. B to store in a secure location. I even made sure he had the password to my blog, "just in case" he needs to pass along the news of my fate to all my anonymous blog readers. Wouldn’t want to leave you hanging!

Though much of this post is written in a lighthearted spirit (can you tell I’m deliriously excited and up way past my bedtime?!?), on a serious note, I do ask that you please lift our team up in prayer over the next couple of weeks, that the Lord will protect us in our travels and cover our families that we are leaving at home, that He will guide and direct us in all we do and say while on the trip, that He will minister to us and to everyone in the Wiphan program in a BIG way, and that we’ll all safely return home to our families to share the great things God is doing through Wiphan in Zambia.

And with that, a few hours of sleep and a bunch of airport kisses and hugs, I’m off! I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to share all about it (Lord willing!). (smile)

xoxo

Chalk Art, Dog Tricks and Boys

2011-07-11T20:49:00.010-04:00

Recurring conversations with Miss K:
Miss K: What doin Mom-Mom?
Me: Reading a book.
Miss K: Why?
Me: Oh, because I like to read books.
Miss K: Okay. Go ahead.
. . .
Miss K: What doin Mom-Mom?
Me: Carrying these clothes to the laundry room.
Miss K: Why?
Me: ‘Cause they’re dirty. I’m gonna wash them.
Miss K: Okay. Go ahead.
. . .
And on and on throughout the day, whatever activity I’m doing.

Chalk art by Miss M on our patio (gecko with fly on tongue): Close up of the fly:

This masterpiece was created with 3D chalk--you should have seen it through the glasses! So neat! Such talent!

Miss A to Miss K: When you are grown up your heart will be this big (spreads arms wide) and you can do anything! You can drive a van and even cook your own dinner! AND. . . you can have your own cell phone!

Chloe had a birthday: And the girls are training her to be a circus dog (scroll down and pause (II) the backround music first):

Me to the girls: What would you girls think about having a baby brother?
Miss M: No, thanks.
Me: Why?
Miss M: Because I know about boys. I have a bunch of them in my class. They B-word and T-word (that's burp and toot to those not in our family) and they don't say excuse me. And they don't flush.
Me: Well, any boy in our family would have manners like Daddy.
Miss A: And K needs someone to boss. So I say okay to a baby brother.

Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T23:49:00.015-04:00

A few more pictures from our trip to Cedar Key with the B fam:

Our Beach Beauties! Surfer girl!

And some Fourth of July fun. We spent the afternoon with MamaToo and Ken: Horseback Riding, Hamburgers, and Swimming!

These girls are turning into great little riders! Pistol is MamaToo's new horse. He is so good with the girls--very laid-back and responsive and patient! Reminds me of my first horse, Rebel. Little A hops up there (her feet don't even reach the stirrups) and tells him what to do and off they go!

M wanted to wear her purple shirt to the barn to match Dream! I'm so impressed with how far M has come in the last month! Losing the water wings is one of our goals for the summer! But Miss M told me that swimming without water wings is "not really my style, Mama."

Our summer seems to be flying by! We're enjoying staying up late, sleeping in, a break from lessons and extra-curriculars, lots of beach, pool and barn time, weekend warrior yard projects, and lots of sunshine and lemonade! Hope you had a Happy Fourth of July!

Father's Day

2011-06-20T20:34:00.007-04:00

Dads have such an influence on their children! I’m so thankful for the wonderful dads in our family!

I had (and still have!) such a loving, honest, smart, handsome and FUN Daddy! My Daddy started his days in the Word and ended them leading me and my sister in devotions and prayer. He loved my mother. He was transparent--the same person at church, at work, with friends and at home. I never heard him curse. I never saw him drink. He was consistent in his expectations and clear in his boundaries. He made me feel important and treasured and beautiful and loved. He took time to play and laugh and be silly--I delighted in being the girl with the “fun dad” that my friends adored. I’ve always respected his thoughts and decisions, but I can’t recall a time in my teenage or adult years where he actually came out and told me his opinion of what he thought I should do or not do. Instead of making decisions for me or trying to pressure, bribe, persuade or guilt-trip me into doing what he would want me to do, he taught me to consult with my Heavenly Father when it came to life’s choices and decisions. He might offer some wisdom if I asked for help in listing pros and cons about something on my mind. He would pray with me and for me and encourage me to continue praying and listening for God’s direction. I learned to lean not on man (even a wise, Christian man) but on God and His Word, and to be responsible and accountable for my decisions and actions. That was so valuable!

Me and My Daddy:

As a little girl, I decided I would only date boys I thought would be good husbands and daddies. And early on, I could tell D would be both! And though we broke up a couple of times, he never really gave me any reason to date another (and all others fell short of the gold standard he set!). Over our many dating years, I carefully studied his family and how the members of his family treated one another. I watched him interact with children, particularly my baby brother. He genuinely enjoyed hanging out and playing with my little brother and his little nieces and nephews. And in some of our earliest conversations, we discovered that we both pictured ourselves having big families and hoped to grow our families through adoption (and we both envisioned transracial adoption-certainly not that common back in the 80s!).

D has turned out to be an even more terrific Daddy than I imagined he would! I am so blessed to be able to partner with D in parenting our girls. He is so affectionate, tender, nurturing, present, hands-on and intentional with them. At 5 and 7, our big girls already have weekly “dates” with him. Whether it be showing up to have lunch with Miss M at school, taking Miss A out for a Thursday morning diner breakfast, grabbing a smoothie or an ice cream cone or sneaking one of them off to an after-school matinee, he has a way of connecting with them and making them feel special. He treats me the way he hopes their husbands will treat them. He is their “strictest” parent when it comes to expectations and discipline, but he’s also their “funnest” parent when it comes to making memories and goofing off. Our girls know that their Daddy’s love for them is surpassed only by God’s love for them. And like my Daddy did, he leads our girls Bible and prayer time each evening. Our girls are crazy about their Daddy! I’ve always said God made D to be a Daddy to little girls, but I really can hardly wait ‘til a little boy joins the mix!

My Daughters and Their Daddy:

I know D is such a great Daddy largely because he was also raised by a loving, devoted Christian father. Dad B taught his boys to love the Lord, honor and respect girls and women (our parents were teaching purity when teaching purity wasn’t cool), work hard (the B boys were running their own business before they finished middle school!), be handy (B and his brothers all know how to do basic auto and small engine repair, woodworking, gardening, and other helpful skills) and of course, fly fish! Dad B raised three sons who are all now great dads themselves, and his legacy is evident in the young men that our nephews, his grandsons, are becoming. It is a huge blessing that our girls are surrounded by such fine men. Their Daddy, grandfathers, uncles, and cousins are setting the bar high. I pray this will shape their picture of what a gentleman should be and what they will one day look for in their own husbands and the fathers of my grandchildren.

Pictures from our Father's Day Festivities--building sandcastles and enjoying a sunset seafood dinner at our favorite beach! (We missed Mr. B’s Dad, who is spending the month fishing in Colorado. Stinker!)

A Day In The Life. . . .

2011-06-07T18:09:00.010-04:00

Some random glimpses of my normal right now:

5AM Coffee with Hus-B. A treasured time of uninterrupted conversation as we ease into our day. We try to wrap up by 6, but often end up chatting ‘til 6:30 or 6:45, knowing that the longer we’ll sit there, the more hurried the morning will be, but enjoying each other’s company so much that the looming chaos just seems worth it.

Big girls sleeping peacefully in our bed: My goal is to have myself pretty much ready to go before I wake up the girls, so that I can focus on getting them ready and all I have to do once I send them off is put on my work clothes. Some days I'm more successful than others. Either way, at 6:45, our crazy begins!

Kisses, hugs and morning prayer before Mr. B and the girls head out. Just a few more days of school! Miss M is finishing up first grade and Miss A is finishing up her 3-day-a-week preschool (she’ll be off to kindergarten in the fall!). Mamatoo, Gabby and S care for Miss K and our big girls when they're not in school. Mamatoo and Gabby are my and Mr. B's moms. We are so blessed to live close to our girls' energetic, creative, loving and involved grandmothers! S is our beloved nanny, who pinch hits in the summer, when the grandmas are traveling, and on days I work from home. She's in college studying missions, has a love of Africa (she's spent two previous summers volunteering in Swaziland), and is just wonderful with our girls. So thankful for Team MAK!!

In the office. More coffee and my breakfast of champions.

Thai for lunch! With JG, a sweet girlfriend and colleague! Discuss work stuff, mommy stuff, and our efforts to strike a balance between the two. She helps keep me sane!

Screen saver is an accurate reflection of my workday. Diet Mountain Dew for an afternoon energy boost.

HOME! Take off my suit. Put on some lounge pants, a sweatshirt and slippers. Put up my hair. Light some candles. Put a load of laundry in the washing machine. Turn on some music—look for something relaxing and mellow. Choose a great 70s station I’ve created on Pandora. Seals & Crofts, Captain & Tenille, Bread, the Bee Gees, James Taylor, Anne Murray. Music that takes me back to our years in New Mexico. Mama and Daddy were were young and in love and I didn’t have a care in the world. Comfort music. Ahhhh.

Start putting together a salad and some side dishes for dinner. Mr. B and the girls get home. Mr. B fires up his grill. The girls bring their backpacks in, help me set the table and run back outside to play.

I decide to pour some wine. His and hers. Haha.

What’s for dinner? Quick, easy and healthy is my goal. Tonight it's grilled salmon (marinated in Makoto Ginger Orange salad dressing with a bit of warmed dressing poured over it), asparagus (tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and broiled on high until toasty), rice (cooked in chicken broth, with a little butter and rosemary stirred in), sweet corn (straight from the can, warmed in the microwave), French bread ($1.79 Publix special) with dipping oil, and a Fresh Express strawberry almond bagged salad (Publix BOGO! So I also grabbed a pear gorgonzola blend to serve with shrimp and grits later this week). Salmon is my big girls’ favorite dinner, so some variation of this meal is on the menu about once a week.

Prayer.

This Little Lottle will try everything BUT the salmon. Will not let any kind of meat, poultry or fish touch her lips! Not even Chick-fil-a nuggets!!! I put it on her plate anyway and she says "Take it away!"

The inevitabe spill.

One of my favorite things--the gas flame lantern on our front porch. I love turning it on in the evenings.

Violin Practice (While Mr. B cleans the kitchen and washes dishes. I've got a very good man indeed!)

Bathtime. Bible story and prayers. And rocking my baby to sleep. By 9:30, the children are sleeping. Mr. B gets on the computer to do some work and I take a hot shower and snuggle up to Miss A. Night night!

Oh, The Drama!

2011-06-01T20:47:00.005-04:00

This is the third year we have has been involved with our local children’s theatre. Two years ago, Miss M played Shenai in Lion King (blog post HERE). Last year, she was Chip the Teacup in Beauty and the Beast (blog post HERE—watching the video of her solo still brings tears to my eyes). And this year, Miss M was Marta and Miss A was Gretel in The Sound of Music. The cast practiced so hard and put on a great show! And I just sat up in the balcony in complete awe as I watched my girls perform! I am amazed at how confident and willing to get up on stage they are! They love it! They did their very best and I was so, so, so very proud of them!

Backstage before the show: The hills are alive with The Sound of Music: You are 16 going on 17: Captain VonTrapp introduces Maria to the children: My Favorite Things: Lonely Goatherd Yodeling Song: Climb Every Mountain: Rolf delivers the telegram: Love this shot of Miss A's braids flying as she danced:

When Miss M received the script and music, she had a moral dilemma to confront. Right there in her So Long, Farewell solo was the dreaded “H” word that is generally not permitted in the B household. She knew about this for several days before she told us, and when she did, it was clear that she’d put some thought into the matter and waited until she had a potential solution in mind before bringing it to our attention. She told us she’d decided to sing “I ate to go” instead of “I hate to go”. That way, she wouldn’t have to say the "H" word, and the audience would think it was her “Austrian accent” and be none the wiser. It would have been no big deal at all to us if she’d sung the original lyrics. We’re not THAT strict! But we were so proud of her conscienciousness and determination to do the right thing. And her solo was fantastic! Meanwhile, Miss A’s biggest dilemma seemed to be how she might manage to have a little more fun in the spotlight. She added her own flair to So Long, Farewell by swatting Miss M and the other children on their bottoms as they left the stage, which caused her to steal the show as far as all of the school-age children in the audience were concerned. She’s such a hoot!

Here's a snippet from so long, farewell (scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the videos):

And here's the cast's Belgium Train Station flashmob-inspired encore. My girls have some moves, I tell ya:

The little actresses: And a few of their adoring fans:
Their grandmothers: Their grandfathers: Their GREAT grandmother, Honey: And the legendary Miss Jackie and Miss Sharon, our theatre directors:

And if you missed it, you absolutely MUST go back to THIS post and watch Miss K’s rendition of Do-Re-Mi, together with some hilarious footage of our girls playing and our pampered pet just being part of the family. Sure to be a B Family classic.

Miss A's Buckaroo Birthday Bash

2011-05-23T20:57:00.003-04:00

Less than 2 weeks after Miss K turned 2, our little Miss A turned 5! She’s all about horses these days, so a Buckaroo Birthday Bash was fitting.

On the menu? All of her favorites: Cupcakes, Grapes, Goldfish Crackers, Chick-Fil-A Nuggets, Lemonade, Rootbeer, Cake and Ice Cream:

There were ponies to ride, a playset to climb on and a petting pen with bunnies, ducks, chickens and goats!

A highlight of the party was when Mr. B’s grandmother, Honey (who turns 93 next month!), climbed into the saddle. She is such an inspiration—fashionable, gracious, beautiful, elegant and fun! We are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Cupcake Cutie:

Mommy and the Birthday Girl:

My friend J and her little E:

Me and my sweet friend G:

We were thrilled that our friends D and J (from Are These Kids All Yours?) and their crew were able to join us! Here I am with D:

Happy Birthday to YOU, Sweet A!

Make a Wish!

Presents! The grandparents and our friends were so generous and thoughtful in their gifts. It was like Christmas morning! Miss A felt so special and has been having so much fun playing with all her neat stuff!

This cute shot was taken at the end of the party, as our guests were leaving and we were cleaning up. But it is SOOO Miss A!!! Had to include it.

And in honor of her 5th birthday, here’s a list of five (of the many, many) things Mommy loves about her Little Miss A.

1. The Lovey Dove. Miss A is such an affectionate, loving little girl. I love that she still likes to sit in my lap, ride on daddy’s shoulders and get carried around on my hip (she’s a tiny thing, too--only weighs 2 pounds more than Miss K). And she loves to get cozy and snuggle. She sleeps between me and Mr. B most nights. She asks her Daddy to tickle her back "like a spider" as she dozes off to sleep. And as she drifts off to dreamland, she'll put her leg or arm over my body and tell me she’s giving me “the lovey dove”. The “Lovey Dove” is right up there next to “The Life” (another cozy family snuggle, and the namesake of our blog :)) when it comes to snuggly bliss.

2. The Beat of Her Own Drum. Miss A is one creative and confident little outside-of-the-box thinker! She's always finding a more interesting way to get to a destination or achieve a result. Although she and Miss M participate in a lot of the same activities, she has a way of making things “her own”. She adds her own personal flair to everything she does, right down to the way she cruises into the kitchen on her red scooter for dinner. She’s going to leave her stamp on this world for sure!

3. Her Sense of Style. Miss A wore her “birthday hat” to preschool for a week (taking full advantage of the line leader privileges that cardstock birthday hats bestow on their wearers). And she certainly stood out among her private school uniformed classmates on the more than one occasion that she showed up wearing her Rastafarian-inspired knit “Ethiopia” hat. But her trademark look, and the one that I think suits her to an absolute tee--is wearing her hair in a single ponytail in the back, with one of her collection of sequined headbands (in a color that coordinates with her outfit) worn John McEnroe style across her forehead. Love it!

4. Her Sense of Humor. Some people are just born gifted with the ability to tell a joke or a funny story. Miss A is one of those people. She’s always saying the darndest things at the perfect moment. In her adorable little high-pitched voice. And not just little kid silliness either. Clever and witty, with a touch of mischief. This little stink-wink brings so much laughter and joy to our family!

5. Her Sense of Adventure. Miss A got her name, in part, as a result of my longtime fascination with Amelia Earhart. And many, many times over the past 5 years, we’ve remarked at how fitting the name of an adventurer is for her. She’s a little thrill-seeker that loves rollercoasters and adrenaline-pumping activities. Just last night she was outside getting Daddy to set up ramps, jumps and other obstacles so she could do stunts on her bicycle (which, incidently, still has training wheels). God’s got big things in store for this sweet girl, and she’s going to do them with originality, style and a smile. And hopefully she’ll never get too big to come home and give me the Lovey Dove at the end of the day.

Do-Re-Mi

2011-05-16T17:26:00.002-04:00

Last week, our big girls performed in our local children's theatre production of The Sound of Music. Will post some pictures and video from the show soon. They did GREAT! We were so proud of them! They've been learning their parts for months and rehearsing for weeks. But they weren't the only ones memorizing those songs! A little music-loving baby sister was sitting in the audience with Mommy and Daddy, taking it all in! Here's her rendition of Do-Re-Mi while playing with her sisters on their swing set yesterday, along with some other antics that are sure to make you smile (scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video). Enjoy!

More From Miss K's Birthday Vacay!

2011-05-13T16:02:00.015-04:00

It’s only 40 minutes from our house to Disney World. Because we have passes that enable us to go year-round, trips to Disney are probably more relaxing for our family than the average tourists since we're not under pressure to cram everything into a limited time. We know we’ll be back (Lord willing!), so we move at a leisurely pace and savor the fairytales and magic that are still so real in our girls’ eyes. We try to be mindful of the fact that for most of the other people in the parks, a Florida vacation and visit to the Disney parks are a once-in-a-lifetime dream trip. We try not to take it for granted that we are blessed to live in such a marvelous place. K’s birthday was a great excuse to get away as a family for a weekend and really celebrate!

Even though we go to Disney often, it's still a big treat when we splurge and stay over at one of the resorts for a night or two. I try to keep an eye out for the Florida resident specials and jump on 'em a couple of times a year. It really is like a mini-vacation.

After our day at Hollywood Studios with Woody and Buzz, we checked into the Contemporary Resort. When we opened the door to our room, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that someone at the hotel had sprinkled some pixie dust and upgraded us to a huge suite! Of course, we proceeded to pose for pictures on every piece of furniture to make sure it was all well documented. Here are a couple of cute ones:

The big girls claiming their own sinks in the bathroom (which not only included a tub but also had a separate room with a shower--fancy schmancy!):

We went for an evening swim in the pool: Then it was back to the room for baths and a movie!

What did we watch? Beverly Hills Chihuahua--one of our favorites! And the reason our girls love dressing our poodle (who, incidentally, is also named Chloe) in dog clothes!

And you can’t take the B girls to a hotel without ordering room service. It’s a tradition they’ve come to expect. And much more relaxing than dressing for dinner!

There was a floating electrical parade scheduled for 10 p.m. on the lake behind the resort. Miss A thought walking down to the dock to see it was a splendid idea. Miss M said she'd rather hang out with Daddy and keep watch over a sleeping Miss K. Quality time is Miss A's love language, so I jump on any opportunity to give her a bit of extra attention and fill her little love tank! We designated our outing a mommy-daughter date and took time to stroll along the beach, explore the resort a bit and have some one-on-one time together before tiptoeing back to the room and tucking ourselves into bed. Precious moments!

The next morning, the big girls and Daddy took another swim in the pool before our character breakfast at Chef Mickey's.

Here's Miss K's new stranger avoidance technique I mentioned in my prior post in action. Sorry, Mickey, Miss K is asleep (wink!):

Shhhh! Pluto, Baby is sleeping! As we ate breakfast, K studied the characters as they moved about the restaurant, and toward the end of the meal decided she was brave enough to say hi and smile for the camera as long as Daddy was holding her tight. After breakfast, we hopped on the monorail (which runs right through the hotel--so neat and convenient!) and were off for a day at the Magic Kingdom! Another fun family day in honor of Miss K!

And Miss K wasn't the only one in the B Family who celebrated a birthday in the past few weeks. Come back soon for pictures from Miss A's Buckaroo Birthday Bash!

Two is Terrific!

2011-05-05T13:42:00.013-04:00

Guess who turned TWO?

She's been crazy about Toy Story lately, so we went with a "Woody and Buzz" theme for her birthday celebration. We kicked off the festivities with cake and ice cream at our home with family:

After the party, we headed off to Disney to continue the celebration with Buzz himself! We even got to tour the Toy Story "set": The CLAW!!!! haha Packaged up with Stinky Pete: Uh, Oh. . . Looks like Sid got a hold of Miss A! Lost Luggage. . . Does anyone see my L.L. Bean duffel that never made it to Kenya? We wrapped up our day at Hollywood Studios with the Toy Story 3D Ride:

You know, I’ve never understood the phrase “terrible twos”. Two is one of my favorite ages! Still babies and full of innocence and wonder, yet starting to communicate and express their own little ideas, thoughts and opinions. . . Saying and doing the cutest little things! I love it! Sure there are challenges that come with testing boundaries and learning to express themselves, but raising children of any age is a challenge. To me, two year olds are just such a joy! Mr. B and I have never been ones to force growing-up on our babies. Of course, behavioral expectations and discipline get turned up a notch with increased levels of independence and choices, but our little ones can have their bottles, passies, get rocked to sleep, get spoon fed, wear diapers, etc.. etc… as long as they want! We’ve never confiscated passies or blankies. And we don’t get worked up about potty training (seriously, y’all, potty training means having to navigate toddlers through nasty public restrooms when out and about—I’d rather change a diaper any day!) But don’t think we haven’t been given much, ahem, advice otherwise. And it goes in one ear, out the other. We know one day we’ll miss these things, so our approach is to savor our babies rather than rush them out of babyhood. And interestingly enough, babies turn into toddlers and toddlers grow into big kids no matter what. So why create more work and projects by trying to make it happen on our schedule?!? Both of our older girls moved on from cribs (albeit from their cribs to Mommy and Daddy’s bed!), hi-chairs, bottles and diapers all on their own sometime between their second and third birthdays. They grow up TOO fast. . . so cherish the TWOs!

Let me share a few things about my adorable two year old. She’s so delicious I could eat her up with a spoon! She is the most loving little girl with hugs and kisses a-plenty for her Daddy, Mom-Mom, Me-Ya and Nan-Nette. At random times during the day she will grab my cheeks, turn my face so we’re looking in each other’s eyes and say “I Yuh You Mom-Mom”. Melts my heart! She loves music, dancing, drawing, playing the guitar and piano. She and can memorize song lyrics like you wouldn’t believe! She’s a little firecracker—determined and persistent—ain’t nobody gonna run over this little bit o’dynamite! And she’s just exploding with personality and enthusiasm for life. And so talkative and articulate! She knows how to use my iphone better than I do. Strangers look on in awe as she flips through screens, scrolls through family pictures and videos finding what she wants to look at, pulls up Yo Gabba Gabba videos on YouTube, practices her photography skills, shines the flashlight . . she’s so, so very smart! And speaking of strangers, I am happy to report that Miss K has become much more leery around them. That may sound like an odd thing to celebrate to non-adoptive parents, but it represents great progress to us! When we got home, K would smile and jump in the arms of anyone and everyone—particularly men! Strangers would complement her sweet, extroverted, confident personality and she became very popular, but this was a big red flag from an attachment standpoint. Each time it would happen we would go back into our cocoon and try to make our world a bit smaller. Then we would slowly venture out again and test the waters. Over the past year and a half, we’ve made strides and regressed. She is now consistently showing signs of strong attachment. While I anticipate that there may be some more ebb and flow in the process, she is displaying much more stranger anxiety and giving much less indiscriminate affection. She's still got a sweet, bubbly personality, but she now takes her time warming up to new people and takes her lead from us. Her latest technique to stick close to us and avoid interactions with strangers is to have us hold her as she lays her head on our chest, closes her eyes and pretends to sleep. We play along and say “Oh, look, K is sleeping. Sorry, you can’t hold her or touch her or talk to her”, as she grins and periodically peeks out to observe the conversation. And our girl is adventurous! There’s not a ladder she won’t climb or a slide she won’t go down. Her favorite foods are bananas, strawberries, grapes, yogurt, cheese, waffles, injera, pasta and pizza. And she loves her “ba-duhl”. She’s pretty much a vegetarian, though, and refuses most fish, chicken and other meat. Put it on her plate and she’ll take one look, point at it and tell you “Don’t want dat. Take it back!” She didn’t want to leave the pool the other day and as I buckled her into her stroller she looked at me solemnly, shook her head back and forth and said “Not happy, Bob. . . not happy.” (a line from the Incredibles—a movie I’m not even sure she’s seen). She’s a hoot! I just wish I could just bottle these moments up. It’s such a sweet time and it seems to be flying by so fast.

K’s birth family and the mysteries of her story are never far from our minds, and are especially heavy on our hearts at her birthday. K’s night-time grieving has phased out over the past year, but over the past few weeks, she’s whimpered in her sleep and has woken up crying on several occasions. I’ve read that babies can sense the anniversary of tragic events and will grieve more often at that time, and I believe there's some truth to that. Four days before her birthday (an estimated birth date given to her by Ethiopian officials), she woke up in the middle of the night sobbing like her heart had been broken. She was inconsolable as I held her, rocked her, walked with her, rocked her, prayed for her and sang to her. This is extremely unusual for K. As it was happening, I had a very clear feeling and awareness that somewhere, someone else was grieving with her. I prayed for her birth family and wondered if that night might actually be the anniversary of her birth. After a couple of hours, exhausted, she fell asleep in my arms and I situated myself on our cozy sofa so we could doze together until sunrise. Adoption is beautiful, miraculous and redemptive, but it always involves loss. May I never get so caught up in the delight of being K’s mommy that I neglect to appreciate my daughter's losses, or to honor the sacrifice of her birth family. I am undeserving of such a precious gift.

Mom-Mom loves you, Miss K—to infinity and beyond!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T12:10:00.002-04:00

Homecomings, Sweet Homecomings

2011-04-22T18:53:00.009-04:00

The S Family's Journey to Silas video and blog were some of the first we stumbled upon when we were thinking about adoption. Their family was such an inspiration to us as we went through the adoption process. They moved to Florida about a year ago and it’s been so cool to get to know them in real life. E and D have such huge and authentic servants’ hearts. Just love them. And I have to add that their children are some of the sweetest, most thoughtful and well-behaved children I’ve ever met. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join their awesome church family and friends at the airport to welcome them home with the newest addition to their family—a sweet daughter from Ethiopia. They'd been in Ethiopia for about a month and their kids back home were so excited about being reunited with their parents and meeting their little sister.

There was so much energy and anticipation in the air!

Photo by Lizzy Grant

Me and M (of Along the Narrow Road)

(Photo by the other "Mrs. B" :))

We waited for news (via text messages from E to R (of Love with Abandon) that their plane was on the ground. . . . They were off the plane. . . They were getting on the people mover. . .

And then . . .

Photo by A (of Fulmer Story)

Such a precious reunion (as Lizzy mentioned, like a window into heaven):

Photo by Lizzy Grant

Together at last!

Photo by Lizzy Grant

These sweet girls were BFFs at their orphanage in Addis Ababa. Isn't God good?!?!

Photo by Lizzy Grant

Welcome Home, Sweet Z! You are SOOO Loved!

Photo by Lizzy Grant

And that wasn’t the only airport adoption welcome we participated in last weekend. My friendship with E goes all the way back to 3rd grade. My family moved into a new neighborhood. I started attending a new school. And E became my first new friend. We would stay outside playing until the streetlights came on. And Friday evenings would find us walking through the neighborhood with arms full of pillows and stuffed animals, headed to one of our homes for a sleepover. We both loved animals (especially horses), swimming, church and school and were inseparable during those elementary school years. We kept in touch through high school despite attending rival schools. Since I knew she and her family were fun-natured, my friends from my high school and I selected E’s house for “rolling” on several occasions after a big football or basketball game. (As a side note, I wonder why rolling doesn’t seem to be as common today? It was a quite popular pastime in my hometown during my teenage years. Back in the good ol’ days. The huge oak tree in our front yard was a frequent target and toilet paper was a constant feature in its branches. Thankfully, my parents had a lighthearted attitude about it all as well.) We eventually went off to different colleges, attended each other’s weddings, and settled down in different parts of the state. But no matter how much time lapses between phone calls or visits, we always just pick right back up where we left off. Seems we’ve always been kindred spirits. And some similarities in our thinking have been downright uncanny.

Like back in 2007 when she e-mailed me this picture:

Not knowing that we’d recently taken this one: We both thought we were the first to come up with that photo idea!

Or like at Christmas 2008. We used our Christmas card to announce that we were adopting from Ethiopia just as she and her husband announced that they were adopting from South Korea! I think we might have both mentioned that adoption was something we were considering in the future, but how funny that we independently decided to put the wheels in motion at the same time?

Well, while we’ve been home with Miss K for a little over a year now, E and M’s journey has taken a bit longer. And finally, last weekend, they brought their sweet daughter home! Their flight into Tampa was scheduled to land in the middle of the night. When E got her travel itinerary, she sent out an email and noted that an airport gathering wouldn’t work due to the crazy hour that they were getting in. Well, we decided that the time of day or night was a minor detail and that nothing should stand in the way of our marking such a momentous occasion with a memorable celebration. In the spirit of a friendship with its roots in pillows, pajamas and sleepovers, we decided to throw them a midnight pajama party welcome at the airport. The few other people at the airport also got a big kick out of it and were excited to see who we were so excited about greeting. We had so much fun and, needless to say, E and M soooooo surprised! Although there was not a big crowd, it was as tearful, joyful, special and memorable as all adoption homecomings should be.

Wasn’t Hus-B a good sport? He didn’t bat an eye when I suggested we all wear PJs and carry pillows. These are exactly like the pajamas that E’s dad and brother used to wear (I have a vivid memory of observing that every member of their family wore pajamas, robes and slippers to breakfast).

Miss AC, we are so excited about being a part of your life. I look forward to watching you play with K like I played with your precious mother. You’ve got a wonderful life ahead of you in a home where Jesus is Lord and laughter and togetherness are a priority. We love your family and we love YOU! Welcome HOME!

An Orange and Blue Weekend

2011-04-15T11:32:00.006-04:00

I’ve had a bit of the bloggy blahs lately but thought I'd hop on the computer this morning, show it some love and post a little recap (and a few pictures that are just too precious not to share!) of the lovely, sunshiney weekend we spent at our beloved Alma Mater. We always look forward to catching up with old friends and assessing the next season’s football team at UF’s Alumni Weekend.

We were once again able to score rooms at the on-campus hotel! We're trying to make this a tradition but they are really in-demand and we have to remember to call on THE DAY they open reservations! We’ve been able to get one a few times before and were so excited to get one this time. The hotel is at the top of the student union and is where all of the important visitors to the university stay. It’s one of best-kept secrets of our school and our girls get such a kick out of staying there! And a room with a balcony overlooking Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is a room with a view indeed!

Before the football scrimmage on Saturday, we took our girls on one of our usual ~~brainwashing sessions~~ tours of the campus. We love those sentimental strolls around our old stompin' ground and down memory lane! But I must admit to having mixed feelings about reporting that our little scheme (to get our girls to all choose to attend UF but to think that it was all their own idea) is apparently working. When Miss M mentioned that she plans to ride a bicycle to class when she goes to this school in 11 years, we almost fainted! Our firstborn will be headed to college in only 11 years?!?! That’s like, tomorrow!!! We just took the training wheels off her glittery flowery purpley bicycle!!!!! WHY OH WHY do they grow up so fast? I’m really not sure if I'll be ready.

And of course, we felt ANCIENT when we realized that this year’s freshman class was not even BORN when we were freshman?!?!?! How did WE get so OLD?????

A generous friend with connections gave us tickets to watch the Orange and Blue Debut from the skyboxes! Thanks, K! What a treat! I could get used to football games at the Swamp with seatbacks, ceiling fans, air-conditioned lounges and complementary sweet tea! Being near the railings made me a little woozy (I'm a nervous nellie when it comes to heights!) but the seats a few rows back were perfect!

The Champions Club--ooh la la!

Full hands, full heart! And A/C ! This is the Life! It's not a ballgame without hotdogs! Little Commentator! Another Daddy's Girl! My Peeps! Three new statues gracing the outside of the stadium--UF Heisman winners: Spurrier, Tebow and Wuerffel--were unveiled during the game.

Another highlight of the weekend was dinner at Satchel’s—a fun, funky pizza restaurant that has become a Gainesville favorite in recent years. We loved the playgrounds, art, live music, relaxed ambiance. And especially the company! We were thrilled to be able to meet up with the L Family, one of the first families we connected with when we were considering adopting from Ethiopia. We really enjoyed catching up with S and H and our children play together wonderfully. They just started the process to adopt again—this time a little girl from China! They also started a blog. You can visit them HERE. So thankful God has brought this sweet family into our lives and looking forward to a long and growing friendship with them!

Our little artist (she drew that Gator!):

The B and L kiddos:

Alumni Weekend Pictures from 2010 are HERE. Alumni Weekend Pictures from 2009 are HERE! Love looking back at how much our girls have changed! I need to post some pre-blog pictures of the big girls. They were so cute!

Pure Talent, I Tell Ya. . . Pure Talent

2011-03-28T20:54:00.002-04:00

Scroll down and pause (II) the blog background music before playing this video of the next B family musical prodigy.

Baby Parade 2011

2011-03-14T20:42:00.005-04:00

March is an exciting month in our little town. It’s time for celebrating the strawberry harvest! Our annual Strawberry Festival is always a ton of fun, attracting visitors from all over the South--and with a great lineup of entertainment. Last year, we were still focusing on “cocooning” with Miss K, laying low and pretty much being homebodies. But we were back in the action this year! Rides, craft booths, art and cooking competitions, livestock shows, Robinson’s Racing Pigs, concerts (this year’s line-up included Jeremy Camp, Trace Adkins, Clint Black, The Judds and Lady Antebellum), and all the Strawberry Shortcake, Italian Sausages, Corndogs, Fried Green Tomatoes, Buckets of French Fries, and Roasted Corn we could eat! And of course, we were excited to debut Miss K in the annual Baby Parade!

This year’s theme was “TASTE THE FLAVOR OF FUN!”

Miss K’s float was HOT! HOT! HOT!

Her float got 3rd place in the 1 year old division and she won a 2nd place ribbon for Most Personality. As we joined the parade and approached the judges' table, she smiled and waved at them while shouting "Here I Come, Everybody! Here I Come!" Little Miss Personality for sure!

This was Miss A's last year to be in the parade. Her float was SWEET! Suited her to a tee! Her float won 3rd place in the 4 year old division.

So much fun! Click HERE to see some of our previous festival and parade float pictures!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-02T15:24:00.004-05:00

Happy Valentine's Week!

2011-02-19T13:18:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Week! Hope it was LOVEly!

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is Love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Created For Care

2011-02-11T08:22:00.015-05:00

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your alter, O'Lord Almighty, my King and my God." Psalm 84:3

A few months ago, God placed the idea of a retreat on Andrea's heart. A Christ-centered retreat for adoptive mommas to encourage, inspire and connect with one another, and relax and be cared FOR. Despite having a more-than-full plate, Andrea followed the Lord's prompting. She wrote up a blog post about the idea, thinking that maybe 25 women would attend. She sent out invitations to a “dream team” of speakers hoping that maybe one of them might come and provide useful information. But God’s plan was so much bigger! ALL of the speakers enthusiastically agreed to come, and when she opened up retreat registration, 250+ women jumped on board! I get goose-bumps when I think of all the “God moments” Andrea has mentioned that occurred as the retreat was being planned. Andrea is so precious and humble and gives all the credit and the glory to the Lord for making the retreat a success, but she was certainly His hands and feet in making it happen. Thank you, Andrea and your volunteer team, for all you did to make the Created for Care retreat a reality. Thank you for listening to God and having an open and willing heart. So many women were blessed as a result of your obedience. You are amazing, girl! Love you and so grateful to call you friend!

Here’s a little recap of my retreat experience. . .

Friday morning, I packed my bags and loaded them up in my new (to me) MINIVAN that I just got last week! I wonder if everyone would consider me shallow if I wrote a whole 'nother post about how much I love my VAN!?!?!? I never in a hundred years thought I’d say that, either. It’s nothing fancy, y’all, but to me, it rocks! A few weeks before the retreat, I was conflicted about whether to fly or drive to Atlanta. It’s only about 1.5 hour flight but it seems to take about 6 hours from the time you leave the house, drive to the airport, park, check in, get through security, board, fly, disembark, get bags, drive to the hotel, etc… Driving takes 8 hours, so only a little bit longer in total time. And even with the cost of gas, it came out to be quite a bit cheaper. Another plus of driving by myself would be a full day to prepare my mind and heart for what I knew would be a special weekend (and to entertain myself by belting out all my favorite old school hip-hop songs in the privacy of my own tinted-window vehicle). So I decided to go for it and make the drive. When my sweet new ride entered the scene, I was that much more excited to spend a day behind the wheel. It turned out to be such an easy-peasy drive that I’m looking at the calendar trying to schedule a weekend trip with the whole fam to hang out some more with our Atlanta-area friends.

I arrived at Lake Lanier Islands Resort Friday evening and checked in at the Legacy Lodge. The accommodations were so peaceful and luxurious! If the weather had been warmer, I would have been tempted to rent myself a canoe and explore the lake on Saturday afternoon. It was beautiful!

When I checked in, the desk clerk handed me an adorable gift bag with a cute Created for Care coffee mug, a pair of comfy gloves (we were in the arctic of Georgia, after all—it SNOWED there a few weeks ago!), and CHOCOLATE—the first of many touches reflecting the huge amount of thought, creativity, time and effort Andrea and her team put into the weekend. I dropped my suitcase off at my room and headed down to the meet and greet/coffee and dessert area.

WOW!!! The energy in that room was overwhelming! Women from all over the country, with children from all over the world, all at different stages of life and with different adoption and parenting journeys and experiences, but all having hearts on fire for the Lord, adoption, foster care and orphan ministry.

A couple of sweet ladies whom I didn’t yet know approached me and told me they read my blog. You’re Mrs. B aren’t you? Aren’t you Miss K’s mom! Your girls are so cute! I love your new blog design! Your adoption video is beautiful! Meeting some of the faces behind those mysterious dots on my visitor map was just the neatest thing! I don’t have one of those blogs that is intended to teach anyone anything or change anyone’s life—if you're reading this, you know that my posts are mostly sweet, fluffy, sentimental, proud mama family scrapbook-type stuff. But I am so touched and honored that people stop by and think about our family and have followed our journey and PRAY FOR US. That is just so, so special! There is so much POWER in PRAYER! I looked around and saw women like Joy Portis and Gwen Oatsvall—amazing women of God and a couple of my favorite bloggers who probably don’t have any idea who I am. I couldn’t psych myself up enough at the time to introduce myself—but WOW! So much knowledge, experience and passion in that room! Speaking of Passion, I turned around and my friend and travel buddy Emily was standing behind me. LOVE her and was thrilled she was there and that I got to hang out with her at the retreat!

As we moved into the ballroom for the opening session there were squeals, hugs and laughter all over the place as everyone else was also experiencing the joy of meeting and reuniting with beloved friends! Prior to the retreat, many of us only knew each other through blogging, listserve groups and Facebook—yet we had grown to love each other and it was just indescribable to suddenly have those familiar smiles and heartfelt words attached to a real, live bodies.

There was an opening prayer and when I looked up, one of my other travel buddies Molly was coming over for a hug! Our travel group is like family to us—those bonds formed as we shared the experience of meeting our children are unlike any other. Love those families and their kiddos! I got teary-eyed when I noticed that she’d brought K’s cribmate E with her! My heart swelled with joy when I leaned over and kissed E’s cheek. Can’t explain how happy it makes me to see the K’s little Hannah’s Hope peeps growing and thriving in loving families!

After the opening prayer, Andrea kicked off the retreat with this great video she put together. Scroll down and pause (II) the blog background music before playing it and be sure to look for K and company at 1:37!

After Friday night’s program I tracked down Lauren and finally—after nearly two years of considering her to be one of my dearest and most trusted friends—got to throw my arms around her little body and give her a big hug!! Her listening ear, feedback and insight through the adoption process (she and her husband were right behind us on the "girl list") and since we've been home has been invaluable. I am so thankful for our friendship!

Over the course of the weekend, I was also able to chat with Danielle, Jackie, Christie, Kristi, Tisha, Kim, Becca and several other blog friends IN REAL LIFE!!! If you’re a fellow adoption blogger, you will totally get this and if you’re not, you will think I’m crazy, but these girls are some of my most precious friends. Though we'd never met in person, we'd already connected in our hearts. I loved being able to spend time with these women—we laughed, cried, worshipped, ate (lots of eating!), talked about deep stuff like adoption ethics, adoptive parenting, transracial families, current world events, and the orphan crisis, exchanged hair care tips, and shared lighthearted, giddy, up-too-late-delirious goofy moments as well. It was such a memorable, cherished time together. To everyone that I did have the opportunity to chat with over the weekend, THANK YOU so much for your prayers, encouragement, thoughtfulness and advice. I was so blessed by our time together!

On the last night, a sheet with all of the attendees’ names and blogs was distributed. I tucked it away in my folder and when I got home, pulled it out and skimmed it and was like—WHAT??? So-and-so was there?!?!? And so-and-so?!?! And so-and-so!?! (Katie, Melanie, and Bonnie are a just few of those so-and-sos!) I have so enjoyed following each of your blogs and journeys and wish I would have had the opportunity to bump into you! Hopefully next year! And I'm going to have so much fun in the meantime visiting all of the blogs and getting to know some the other women that were there.

With Andrea: With Kim: With Molly and sweet little E: Christie, Tisha, Lauren, Me, Aimee Powell: Wish I'd taken more pictures!!!

Worshipping alongside the 250 other adoptive and foster mommas was unforgettable. We had church, y’all! The Holy Spirit moved in that room! God was in the house! The worship leaders were great and one of the songs we sang was new to me but I have not been able to get the lyrics out of my head all week:

Come away with me

I have a plan for you

It's gonna be great!

It's gonna be wild!

It's gonna be full of Me!

The speakers were exceptional! So much truth and wisdom! Every one of them had a different and moving story that exemplified God’s faithfulness and redemption. It sometimes seems, especially within the Christian community, that there is a lot of “Yay, Adoption! Rah! Rah! Rah!” but not a lot of time spent equipping adoptive and prospective adoptive parents with tools to use for some of the issues and challenges unique to adoptive parenting. These speakers all have a genuine interest in giving parents useful tools and knowledge to help us succeed in raising the children that God has entrusted us with and to glorify Him in the process. And these women were anointed! They spoke straight to my heart and whenever my heart is touched, the tears start falling. The only thing missing was tissues on the tables! Thankful for waterproof mascara!

Dr. Susan Hillis lost one of her three biological children in a tragic accident and was later called to adopt 7 children from Russia. She is a top scientist researching HIV with the Center for Disease Control—YES! A working adoptive mom with a large family! I won’t be the first or the only one! That in itself was an inspiration! Dr. Hillis’ story is such a testimony of God’s grace and restoration. She also joined Suzanne Meyernick and Amy Levy for a great break-out session about HIV+ adoption, a topic that that has been in Mr. B and my hearts and prayers in recent months. Amy Monroe shared about her adoption journey, which started with infertility. She and her husband later realized that adoption was not Plan B but God’s perfect Plan A for their family. Through Tapestry and Empowered to Connect, Amy and her husband minister to hundreds of adoptive and foster parents by equipping them with techniques for attachment and assisting their children with finding a voice when others (sometimes clueless others) ask questions or speak to them or in front of them about their story. Nancy Thomas (author of Families by Design and When Love Is Not Enough) is a renowned attachment therapist. She was a hoot to listen to, but her laugh-filled session was full of practical advice about parenting children, especially children from hard places, with the grace, mercy and love that our heavenly Father bestows on us. She shared some great information about rebuilding foundations and brain connections and techniques for helping to heal children’s hearts. Aimee Powell (the sweetheart of a woman behind Mac Powell—the lead singer of Third Day) shared her heart and her family’s journey of domestic adoption. This is another topic that has been on Hus-B’s heart and mine since even before our first adoption journey. We both feel certain that it will be a part of our story and are praying about whether it will be our next adoption or one of the ones after that.

Some of my notes from the weekend:

“There’s no message without a mess and there’s no testimony without a test!” LOVE that!

Story of Hagar (Genesis Chapters 16 and 21): Be a woman who Lives at the Well—not one who Lives to Wail. Conviction! I need to change my focus from the problems faced in everyday life to focusing on God’s promises and presence. Do not want my girls to grow up remembering me as a cranky, moody whiner! Stop the Wailing, C! I am so incredibly blessed and have great reason to rejoice and LIVE WELL AT THE WELL!

Book to Read: Castaway Kid

The Lord will pay the ransom!

Adoption is a LIFELONG journey--it is a privilege (not a burden!) to walk that journey with your kids.

Don't get distracted by rectangles!

You cannot lead your child to a place (a place of healing) if you haven't been there yourself.

Story of Samuel and Eli: Teach your children to listen for and be sensitive to God’s voice. Let God talk to them, don’t always expect Him to talk to them through you!

Keys to Bonding: Eye contact, touch, movement, smiles (smile with your eyes), lactose/sweet

Think of the first few months after you bring home a new baby as a time of intensive care. A broken heart is a special need and requires intensive, intentional care to heal.

During the retreat, Andrea announced that someone had generously volunteered to donate a CD of all of the talks and breakout sessions to each attendee. What a gift! I have enjoyed listening to the sessions I wasn’t able to attend as I’ve driven to and from work in my VAN all week. Planning to share them with my local adoption friends as well.

I was so inspired by some of the “ordinary” moms in attendance who have helped to start and/or lead organizations with extraordinary ministries doing amazing things—Sixty Feet, Wiphan, 147 Million Orphans, Positively Adopted, Promise 686, and Sole Hope are just some of the organizations represented at the retreat. Saturday night, we had a popcorn and movie party after the evening session and watched Bereaved, a documentary about child imprisonment in Uganda produced by Sixty Feet. Left many of us speechless.

A woman named Linda Cox shared some excerpts from her beautifully written and illustrated children’s book, They Had to Run, which she wrote and is selling to raise money to help fund a medical clinic in Kigali which is being constructed by the One Hundred Days organization. Y’all know Rwanda is a country near and dear to our hearts—especially since Mr. B’s trip there in October. It is a story of hope that tells some of the history of Rwanda in a child-appropriate way. I really wanted the book for my girls and our family library, but at $35, it was just not in my retreat budget. As I checked out, I was informed that a gift was waiting for me at the concierge desk. I was expecting it to be my copy of the CD of breakout sessions, but was so surprised to find out that Kim had purchased a copy of the book for me! Kim--you blessed my socks off! My girls have been looking at the pictures and having us read it to them all week. I am just so touched by your thoughtfulness!

You would have thought Andrea was a professional event planner the way the entire weekend flowed so seamlessly. The food was delicious. The snacks were plentiful (Ice cream bars! Fresh-baked cookies! Coffee and Cokes! Candy bins! Fruit and cheese!). The fellowship was fabulous. There was a perfect mix of relaxation, education and worship.

I thought I’d get caught up on my sleep while spending a weekend at a resort with my OWN plush room!

HaHaHa!!! While I slept well, I stayed up past midnight both nights and hopped out of bed at 6 a.m. both mornings excited with anticipation about what the day had in store. And while it was nice to have a bed all to myself, as I drove home on Sunday, I looked forward to sleeping like a sardine in my queen-sized bed with Mr. B, two of my three girls and our poodle! CRAZY!

The retreat was life-changing and heart-changing! I am so glad I went. Spending time with the Lord and surrounded by such dynamic women was just what I needed. And I really didn’t even know I needed it. The drive home went by so fast! My spirit was uplifted and my heart so full of joy! I returned home refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated, inspired, energized and encouraged.

I am so excited about what God has in store for the lives of all of the women who attended the retreat! I am so honored to be walking alongside all of you in your journeys. It’s gonna be great! It’s gonna be wild! It’s gonna be FULL of HIM! Can’t wait to read about it in your blogs and hear testimonies next year! In the meantime, don’t forget to PYD! (Pray Your Dream!)

Winter Violin Recital

2011-02-04T08:02:00.008-05:00

This is Miss M's third year of Suzuki Violin lessons. Miss A just started taking lessons a few months ago. We had this portrait made before their winter recital last month.

Ahhh. . . they take my breath away!

Here are their solo performances (scroll down and pause (II) the blog background music before playing the video):

Our big girls practiced so diligently in the weeks leading up to the recital! They both did so well--we were so proud of them! And I'm sure their great-great grandfather (who was a violinist) was looking down from heaven and beaming with pride, too!

Before the recital, their instructor passed around paper and pencils and gave members of the audience the option of jotting down some notes and positive feedback on each performance. The papers were turned in after the recital and the instructor compiled and typed up each player's feedback and distributed them at their weekly lessons. What a great way to encourage and build confidence in budding little musicians!

Here is the feedback received by our girls:
Miss A (Twinkle Variation A by Suzuki):
You were very good!
Well composed and well practiced.
Nice playing!
Played without need of prompting-nice bow!
Nicely played, great bowing.
Sounded very nice! Good position.
She did great!
I like the way you concentrate. You have a nice touch.
You looked so graceful. Fabulous job.
My daughter's favorite part of the concert was listening to A play.
Nicely performed.
What a pretty twinkle. Nice sound!
Great job!
Good posture!
Good bowing.

Miss M (Musette by J.S. Bach):
Sweet sound.
Nice bowing!
Good job on a challenging song.
Beautiful job!
I like the way you concentrated.
Keeo up the good work, M! As always, job very well done!
Nice bowing.
Wonderful and smooth! Bravo!
Bravo! And what a beautiful dress!
I like the way you memorized a long song.
Played with ease.
You really know your piece well.
Great sound, good technique.
Good job, challenging piece.
She played beautifully.