Upcoming Wedding!

My sister’s wedding is coming up on us fast! I can’t wait – it will be so fun, and I’m really excited for her. She’s the youngest and the last one of us four to get married, so it’s exciting, and fun, but also a little sentimental. Hopefully I can hold things together. Dad and I are singing a duet, so that will be especially important. ;)

A couple weeks ago we had a bridal shower for her. It was a lot of fun, there was good food, and I enjoyed seeing some people I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Karen got a lot of very nice gifts also. There are a few pictures from the event at the bottom of this post.

I am working on making the mints for the reception this week. That’s always a time-consuming job, but a fairly relaxing one, as I can just sit and crank them out while watching television or listening to music in the evening. She did make it easier by requesting white mints – no blue-mouthed guests at this wedding!

I’ve taken a few days off work to head up and help with some of the final preparations. We were going to pull Kaylen out of school the day before the wedding, but it just so happens that it’s the same day as the only field trip the Kindergarten classes get for the year. So, we’re letting her go to school that day, and Jock only has to take a half-day off work before the weekend. He’ll be picking up Kaylen as soon as the field trip bus unloads back at the school that afternoon, and then for the 3-hour drive heading straight to the church. Jock’s in the wedding party, but an usher, so if he’s late it won’t be too big of a deal. Kaylen’s field trip is to a farm, so hopefully it’s not beastly hot, and she won’t be smelly & stinky for rehearsal & dinner. Maybe we can find her a quick shower in town, and most definitely will have a change of clothes for her. :)

Shower photos:
The guest of honor








Other shower guests








The result of a silly shower game - something about having to salvage as many of she & Alex's items and leave the house quickly with no luggage - nothing but what's on her back (hence all the things she's wearing). You can't see from the picture, but you gotta love the bras around her legs, boxers on one arm, panties around the hat's brim, and the box of jewelry stuffed down her shirt. I think there was a wrestling singlet somewhere on her too. :)




Opening gifts!











The groom-to-be showed up at the end, to help load up the loot.








Kaylen had fun at the shower too, playing with the balloons. There was enough static electricity that one balloon stuck to the ceiling, so she tried feverishly to get others to stick up there. :)

Third Day Concert

Wednesday night I went to the Third Day/ Brandon Heath/ Revive concert with a friend of mine. It was so much fun – what a great concert!

I didn’t know any of Revive's songs, but they were good about teaching the lyrics to the chorus lines so we could sing along. We couldn't always understand the other words - don't know if it was his low voice or his Aussie accent, or some combination of both.

Brandon Heath rocked out on his "Give Me Your Eyes". That song has had special meaning since it was used for devotions one day when we were in Haiti. The lines, “See a girl and our eyes meet, she does her best to smile at me to hide what’s underneath,” had special meaning to one of the adoptive moms. I fought back a tear hearing the song live.

Third Day played some older songs and some newer more familiar ones. Mac also shared his faith with the audience and also had some prayer time as they sang “Cry Out to Jesus”. (Actually I don’t think he sung the whole song, just the chorus several times.) I haven’t been to many concerts, but this one was definitely one of the more memorable ones. Christian rock concerts are awesome!

A few not-so-great-quality photos taken on my phone:
Third Day








At the end, the lead singer from Revive and Brandon Heath came back out to sing a song together with Third Day.

Garden Project

Last weekend, we had volunteered to help with Sunday school classes Easter morning, so that meant we weren’t going out of town for the weekend. So, with nothing much to do on Saturday, we decided once and for all to get our garden started. We’d wanted to have a garden since we moved in here 2 ½ years ago, but just never got it done. Well, wit hmost of the weekend available, I did a little more research on how we wanted to do things, checked out the location in the yard, then headed off to Home Depot & Menards. We came home with some boards & nails (for the border – it’s a raised garden because our soil is mainly clay), and some seeds. And we had about 100 40-lb bags of topsoil delivered to our house a little bit later. Luckily the topsoil was on sale.

We had a quick lunch then got to work measuring and marking the border. We then called up a rental place, which luckily had a tiller available. We thought we’d only need it for a couple hours, but they were closing soon, so we got it until Monday morning. Good thing we did – it took a little longer than planned. Jock worked on tilling while Kaylen played (me some too), and I also did a few other things around the yard. I dug out last year’s refuse that my daylilies were starting to come up through, and then dug out the leaves from my hydrangea and our useless blueberry bushes sticks. Not sure they’ll ever produce a crop, but we’ll see.








When Jock was finished with the first round of tilling, we dumped about 20 bags of topsoil to mix in with our clay. Then we took a break for supper (pizza), and Kaylen took her shower and got ready for bed while Jock and I put together the frame. (I hope the neighbors didn't notice when she came to the sliding door buck-naked asking us what to put on – then not understanding me, she tried coming back outside in her dirty muddy clothes before promptly getting hollered at to take off the dirty clothes, put on PJs, and find a good book to read indoors before bedtime! :)

Easter Sunday we were at church most of the morning – teaching during the first service, and attending the 2nd. After church & a quick lunch, we debated a much-needed nap, but thought we’d better get the garden job done first or it wouldn’t ever get done. The last task was dumping & leveling out the remaining topsoil. Jock brought them in the wheelbarrow 3-at-a-time from the driveway, while I cut them open, dumped, and spread it out, and Kaylen took a break from her playing every now and then to throw away the bags. The job was finished by around 3:00, and we then collapsed from tired, sore muscles, and mild sunburns from Saturday. Our plan was to have a nice Easter dinner Sunday evening, but we were too tired, so we saved it until Monday. Some countries celebrate Easter Monday – we were just trying to go global with our holiday celebrations. ;)

Here's what it looks like now - about 10' x 16'. Tonight I smoothed out the soil and then planted a row of lettuce. In early May, I plan to plant radishes, beets, green beans, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cucumber, tomatoes & green peppers. We debated onions, but decided against them. Jock requested the radishes & beets, otherwise we would have had more room for beans. I have also tasked Jock with putting up a fence to keep out little critters (and the dog). I do not want to share my produce with rabbits! We also discussed with Kaylen that toys, children, dogs & rabbits are not allowed in the garden - except for children when they have been asked to help. She thought this was kind of funny, but got the message.

Trust

Sorry I haven't been writing much lately. Mainly we've just had lots going on, but we've also been dealing with some poor behaviors. Senseless lying, heating/stealing, nasty attitudes, and disrespect can be so very draining and stressful.

I think most kids her age go through stages of this, but it's more than just your typical stuff. Starting to be mixed in with it are some self-esteem issues. She's very aware and sensitive to what others think about her – her looks, what she thinks, what she does, etc. I'm surprised that these things are occurring so early in life – it seems like I didn't go through those things until I was much older. Oh the joy! I know a lot of it has to do with her attachment issues. They definitely come and go, and we were in a low period.

With so many things going on, the behaviors had gotten a bit out of control. It's so hard to stay on top of the game, all the time! I also struggle with keeping things positive when I feel like I'm being disrespected or lied to – especially when I'm busy and tired! So that wasn't helping things either. Jock and I have had several discussions about how things were going and how things should go. We've prayed over the situations – with her and on our own. We've also had several family talks over the past few weeks, and I think we're back on the right track – or at least getting there.

A lot of trust was lost, but I think we're working on it. We're talking about that constantly and trying to create scenarios that will help her learn to earn and keep our trust. It seems really strange to me to have to be so literal about some of these things, but that's what she needs – along with constant reminders.

Some of the things we've done:
* Before certain questions are asked, we briefly mention something about trustworthiness and respect.
* Redirection towards nice attitudes and respectful speaking.
* Timeouts until the behavior can be apologized for and corrected.
* Reinforcing appreciation when good choices are made, when trustworthy behavior is displayed.
* Come up with certain scenarios that can help her earn our trust back – talking about how we're going to give her a decision and for her to think about what we would want her to do...
* Read "The Boy who Cried Wolf" (I couldn't remember it exactly, but found it online here.)
* Reviewing the 6 Character Counts pillars that they've gone over in school. (Character Counts in Iowa has an awesome parent guide!)

I'd love to hear how others have dealt with issues such as this, or any suggestions/resources you might be willing to share.

Videos from the O, Mar09

I thought some of you adoptive parents would like to see these videos. They're from Children's Church on Sunday morning at the orphanage when we were there, about a month ago. I love listening to the kids sing the praise songs in English.

Prayer Request

I just learned today that a good friend and her husband lost their first child. I think she was due to be induced in a few days, but there was no heartbeat. Please be praying for them as they mourn the loss of their baby girl.

Dear God,
Please be with my friends today and through these next few days, weeks, months, as they mourn the loss of their precious baby girl. We don't understand why things like this happen, but we rest in the knowledge that this baby girl is with you now. We know that you will work even this for good, that even through this deep sadness they're feeling, you are at work. We ask for your loving arms of comfort to wrap around them today and in the days to come. And we ask for your peace, which surpasses all understanding, to surround them now. Father, please give them strength to get through this tragedy, and help them to lean on each other and their family and friends, but most of all upon you to guide them through.
In Jesus Name, Amen.

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter! I was going to write up something short about what Easter is really about (no, not spring, pretty dresses, candy, & eggs), and try to find a video to share with you. But, whatever I could write/find with the short amount of time and energy I have left tonight is not worthy of the respect this deserves. So, I'll leave it to the Bible, where it belongs. The resurrection story can be found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, & John 20.

Happy Easter to you all!

Good Friday

A Very moving video portraying Christ's love to an undeserving world. Contains scenes from the movie, "The Passion of The Christ," accompanied by the song, "This Man," by Jeremy Camp. The video is followed by scriptures supporting the fact that we are all sinners and in need of a Savior.

Turn off my playlist at lower left before you click play.

Parquet & Judgement

We just got our March '09 Update:

This kind of month that makes me love my job!!! I am so happy to tell you that at the beginning of March your dossier received parquet approval!! Then you just received Judgment!!! The children now have your last name!! You are in process for 2nd legalization.

Wow! Two little people in Haiti now have our last name!!! It took me a while for it to sink in (and the fact that I read it wrong the first time because I was so excited, and was telling Jock to take a look too). I totally was not expecting to have gotten out of Parquet this month - don't know why. But, to have gotten Parquet approval AND Judgement - floored me! I was in shock. It took me a couple hours to gather my thoughts. Praise God!!! What awesome news!

So, your next question is, how much longer until we can bring them home? We still don't know yet. There are still a few steps remaining. We're in 2nd Legal right now and writing up the adoption decree. Then they'll have to get archive documents. I'm not sure exactly what this is, but it can take a couple weeks or a few months. Then they'll go to MOI for a few months (3-6?), where they approve the kids' Haitian passports. Then they'll have to have the passports printed, before we can send ALL their stuff to the US Consulate/Embassy for visa approval. As soon as they have visas they can come home. So still a ways to go yet, and still some hurdles to jump.

Please continue praying for our adoption process. My biggest concern right now is that our children's birth parents would be able to come for their interviews at the US Embassy. I'm checking with our liaison again, but the last we heard (in December) was that Elijah's birth-mother was located once in the countryside but then disappeared again, and Josephine's birth-father had started a new job, so was hesitant to take time off in fear of losing his job. Please pray that Elijah's birth-mother could be located and come in soon, and that Josephine's father finds a day that works to come in. Also that Archives goes quickly so we can get right into MOI. Still holding out hope that our children could be home this year - although I'm not sure how realistic that is. God can do it if that's His will, but I'm trusting Him to give me the strength to wait if that's His will.

Please also pray for friends who are waiting WAY TOO LONG in other steps in the process. A couple families started the process before or around the time that we did, and are still there in that first step - 18+ months later. While I'm praising God for our good news, my heart hurts for these families, still waiting. Their children need to come home too! Praying for God's blessings on them and their children!

Thank you all for your encouragement & prayers & praises!