Summer, 2014

I have not blogged since May - since I posted about Radik - because it has been very hard to write about the fact that no families have moved forward with adopting him.  Even though it was a long shot, when the blog views got up to 2000, my hopes went up as well and it is hard to accept the fact that our efforts did not work.  It is too late for anyone from the U.S. to adopt him but Canadian citizens still have time.  So if you know of anyone in Canada who is considering adoption, please feel free to pass along Radik's information or put them in touch with me.

Then of course, we have also been very very busy, which has left me little time to blog.  We have had a foster placement of 4 siblings which has given us 7 children, 11 years old down to a few months old, under our roof.  It has been quite an adjustment but adjust we have and we are really enjoying the kids. We have done camps and VBS and swim lessons (for 6 of the 7 kids) and doctor's appointments and therapy appointments and social worker appointments.  I have had help in the form of a college student named Kasy and she has made it all possible.  The kids love her and I love her and it has been great. But it has been the busiest summer of our life!

Benjamin is doing amazingly well.  He is so happy and really loves being here.  We are squeezing in school work where we can and he continues to do well in school.  Every single time we finish, he says, "Thank you mama for school."  The.  Sweetest.  Thing.  Ever.  He learned to swim in no time and loves going to the pool.  He says, "I no have fun like this in Pishanna."  Such a funny kid.  What is not funny is that we were looking at pictures tonight from when we first met him.  He looks so afraid in the earliest pictures and I commented on how scared he looked.  I have heard this from so many adoptive families but it was still a shock to hear it come out of his mouth.  He said, "People told me American parents would kill me." He said he thought about it and decided, "That is not true."  What courage and bravery it must have taken for him to come with us.  We are very grateful for his courage.

Jocelyn and Ellie Grace have also had a great summer.  They have really enjoyed having girls in our home that are their ages.  They play and play and just love our fosters.  I wish I could post pictures of all of them together - but alas, it is very against foster care rules!

Our pastor preached a sermon a month or so ago that I have not been able to get out of my head.  It included the story of Jacob and Esau which we have all heard a thousand times.  But he had a different twist on it and was so very thought provoking.  He referenced an Andy Stanley sermon which I am including a link to below.  We all know that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and I think we all wonder what in the world he could have been thinking.  The birthright is a huge thing to sell for such an inconsequential bowl of stew.  How could he have done that?!  Yet so many of us do that every day.  Our birthright is eternity with God in heaven.  Yet we trade it for what....an unimportant, inconsequential bowl of stew.  What is your bowl of stew?  The sermon is incredible and very worth watching.







Now for a few pics:

We are so very blessed.