Adopting TWO boys!!

I guess I need to update here! I previously announced that we were adopting a six year old boy from China. Well, now we're adopting TWO six year old boys!! Jimmy AND Joel :) Jimmy will turn seven in April so it may end up being six and seven year olds, but we'll see. They are three months apart and not related. They are in two different orphanages in Shenzhen, but they were both at the same Journey of Hope camp in April. Jimmy has a few posts on our agency's blog so you can find him here if you search for Jimmy: http://asiahope.blogspot.com/search?q=jimmy.

Joel probably doesn't even know his name (our agency just made up an American name for reference/pronunciation sake), but after referring to him by Joel for a while, the name stuck. I also liked the meaning: the Lord is God. Jimmy, on the other hand should know his name since he is in a class (taught by an american) that teaches some English and they were all given American nick names. In fact, Jimmy's name is actually what hooked us.

You may remember this post from two years ago when Olivia got to go shopping with her Bible bucks for family members at Pioneer Club. She brought home gifts wrapped and labeled for Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Jimmy. Jimmy?! Why of course, she told the volunteer worker that she needed a gift for her brother Jimmy! We didn't even know a Jimmy so that whole thing came out of nowhere!

Fast forward to this May. Andy and I had been privately discussing the idea of adoption, but before the girls knew anything about it, Olivia floored me by praying for us to adopt a brother one night at dinner! When I asked her what her new brother's name would/should be, my jaw dropped when she stopped to think for a second and then very sure of herself, said, "James." She had no way of knowing that Jimmy and James are often one in the same and probably didn't remember that she'd bought a gift for her "brother Jimmy" two years ago, but boy was she strangely consistent! Also, immediately when she said James, a scripture popped into my head that I didn't even know that I knew, James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. With this, I knew Someone was trying to tell me something!

All that made quite an impact on me, but I had no way of knowing how it would all play out so perfectly in a plan I could not have orchestrated if I tried. Reminds of how our first adoption came about much better than we could have ever planned--see Olivia's story here! Within a month of Olivia's dinner prayer I came across a blog that featured Chinese orphans who'd attended a three day Journey of Hope camp with the hope of being adopted. Staff from an adoption agency in Portland, OR had attended the camp with 35 older &/or special needs kids to get to know them so they could advocate for them and find them families. Interestingly enough, there was a Jimmy among the group! My interest was piqued, but after researching Jimmy's special needs (which could require a series of reconstructive surgeries) I reluctantly moved on and zeroed in on another cute six year old who'd already had his heart corrected and would only require one other surgery. Joel. It took Andy a while to warm up to the idea, but on our anniversary dinner date (August 15) he gave me the green light. As soon as the agency opened on Monday I told the agency it was a go.

The very next day, China announced a policy change; they would now allow families to adopt a second child at the same time as long as at least one is a Special Focus (special needs or older) child. Interesting! I'd already wanted two, but didn't think it was possible. This was very exciting news for me!! Andy, not so much. He wasn't opposed to a fourth child later, but was justifiably afraid that two at a time would bond to each other to the exclusion of the rest of our family. He'd just gotten used to the idea of adding one more and didn't appreciate what felt like a bait and switch. He was not on board. Yet.

Hoping that Andy would warm to the idea of two I inquired about other boys on the list. With Jimmy being just three months older than Joel, I again dismissed him thinking I didn't think I really wanted two the same age. Instead, I asked about some younger boys, but none seemed like the perfect match. I had all kinds of justification for not picking Jimmy, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that he was meant to be ours. Olivia's foretelling of Jimmy/James and the James scripture had all pulled at my heart. After a few days of futile resistance I asked to review his file. That was it. I knew then he was ours. The problem was that Andy did not know it. Yet.

We did not see eye to eye on the topic of adopting two so we agreed to pray for like-mindedness. We've been happily together for about 25 years now (dated for 7, married for 18) and we've agreed on most important things and we knew we needed to be in agreement on this. We prayed that one of our hearts would be changed--that either my heart would change to desire only one OR that his heart would change to desire two. After praying about this for a few weeks we learned that Jimmy's time was running out. Our agency had been given six months to find families for the camp kids and the unmatched files would be going to go back to at the end of the month.

As we continued to pray that we'd come to a united decision, I didn't twist Andy's arm or nag him to death, but amazingly, within a few short weeks I started to see his heart change! I watched him move from resistance to acceptance to excitement. Only God! It was so neat to witness the change and later hear him say that he didn't know exactly how or when his heart changed, but that it definitely had. This answered prayer was yet another confirmation that Jimmy AND Joel were meant to be part of our family and I couldn't be more excited! Shortly before the end of October we let our agency know that we would be pursuing TWO boys and submitted some pre-approval forms. Last week we got the word that China accepted our proposal for both Jimmy and Joel :) Of course there is still a lot of red tape ahead, but we (girls included) can't wait to be a family of six! We acknowledge that two may be double the challenge, but another verse quickly come to mind, Romans 8:31: If God is for us, who can be against us?

"Once our eyes are opened {by a cute little girl!}, we cannot pretend we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows we know and holds us responsible to act."

Proverbs 24:12

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is within the power of your hand to do so."

Proverbs 3:27

"Take up the cause of the fatherless..."

Isaiah 1:17

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves..."

Proverbs 31:8

"And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

Matthew 18:5

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families..."

Psalms 68:5-6a

Rock candy and tea parties

In science we learned about evaporation and made our own colorful sugar (i.e. rock candy!) by adding food coloring to sugar and water...and waiting a few days for the water to evaporate.

Today Olivia had a tea party for all her dolls and apparently invited Chelsea to join. In spite all the thrilling imaginary food, Chelsea fell fast asleep right on top of some dishes and with the side of her head nestled in glass bowl! Doesn't look too comfortable, but I guess she didn't want to miss a party!

Evaporation helped us to make our own rock candy!

Imaginary food just didn't keep Chelsea's interest!

Signing the Declaration of Independence...and Chelsea

Last week we made our own ink out of berries and used feathers to make our own writing quill! We even pretended we were part of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence agreeing that we wanted to be free of that pesky king across the ocean.

Oh, and yes, Chelsea is still hanging in there :) Still not sure what happened that one night last month when I thought she was a goner, but she's back to her her 'ole self. And yes, I mean old. At 15, she's not as spry as she was just a year ago, but she still does the stairs and runs along the fence barking at our neighbor's dogs. And she still puts up with the girls who always want to play with her :)

Even Dad got in on writing with a feather! We cut the tips off at an angle, cleaned them out with a tooth pick and cut a slit in the tip to help control the ink. Our homemade berry ink was pretty red (too many strawberries and not enough blueberries?), but surprisingly it was gray when it dried.

Here, Olivia was proud to show off her own "John Hancock" on a copy of the Declaration of Independence for her notebook.

In spite of Olivia's choice of footwear, we do NOT have snow here...yet! It is chilly though!

Chelsea, being a good sport!

Apple Picking and Crazy Hair

We're really enjoying our homeschool co-op and getting to know some new friends better. Here are some pix our co-op field trip to an apple orchard...and the apple pie we made :)

Mom's lame attempt at crazy hair for Crazy Hair Day at co-op. Emily had that slept-in-wet-hair look that was matted, tangled and wild...but had calmed down by this point in the day. Olivia and I just went for the pony-tails-all-over look. Needless to say our hairdos did not win us any of the coveted prizes, but we had fun anyway. Anyone have any good crazy hair ideas?

Yum! Homemade apple pie!

Show Girls

When the girls have friends over one of their favorite pastimes is to create and perform shows on their little stage in the basement. On Friday, after their whole 15 minutes of swimming, they all went downstairs to choreograph a show for me. They really love the CD of patriotic songs that came with our curriculum so they popped that in and were ready perform in no time. After singing and parading around a little table to Yankee Doodle (and God Bless America and America, and...), they each took their turn basking in the spotlight. As you can see Olivia loves to dress up and quite enjoys being the center of attention! She also has quite the rhythm and grace and LOVES to dance (and pose!).

Baking bread

Yesterday the girls learned what it means to knead as we baked bread as part of our science lesson.

What fun to get messy and play with bread dough!

Yum! We got to eat our very warm bread with the butter they made earlier :) That sounds so domestic doesn't it?!

Today we had week #2 of Legacy Homeschool Co-op. The girls just love it and all the fun classes they get to participate in!! I especially like the sampling of the yummy stuff they make in their cooking class (thanks, Michele!)!!

After running around outside after co-op the girls were hot and begging to go in the pool. We invited some friends to swim and picked them up on our way home...but the swimming only lasted about 15 minutes. Not surprising since it's only about 76 degrees out. I now have a houseful of kids--no worries here about socialization of my homeschooled kids!

Making butter!

As part of our study about early American pioneers, today we learned how to turn cream into butter. Of course we didn't have a cow to milk so we had to cheat a little bit by buying heavy whipping cream at the store, but it was still neat to see a liquid turn into a (semi) solid!

Shake, shake...shake it baby...

Mmmm....that tastes good!

Voila! Butter!!

Butter and crackers made for a nice after school treat!

In case you're wondering how to make butter and you don't happen to have a butter churn like the early pioneers...you can just shake heavy whipping cream back and forth for about 15 minutes :)

Homeschool hangout

Olivia, showing off her missing tooth :)

Hard at work! Or is that hardly working?

I'm glad to finally have a good use for some rooms in our house that we rarely used. We swapped our living and dining room furniture and added 12 feet of cabinets along the width of the room now known as the school or piano room.

Since you can see our school rooms from the entry I wanted doors to contain our stuff so it wouldn't scream "SCHOOL!" I must thank my dear husband for helping me execute and assemble my plans! He's been a great support and thankfully hasn't balked at any of the expense (on top of some hefty taxes that pay for the public school we're no longer using!). Oh, and I love our cool picture frame doors that hide all kinds of stuff :)

Neatly behind closed doors, the girls each have a stack of nine workboxes (well, drawers actually) for the (mostly) independent portion of their school day. I try to stagger what goes in the boxes to give them some element of surprise as they work through them in order. One drawer may have a math or handwriting book, another might have a tag that says it's time for piano practice (Emily just started lessons!), or another might have a tag telling them to take a five minute break on the trampoline or whatever exercise de jour (which is usually accompanied by, "Mom, come watch me, come watch me!" ). Some drawers may have a note of encouragement or a game to play with Mom. It never ceases to amaze me how they get so excited when they find things in their workboxes that have been sitting unused for years. "LOOK, MOM, LOOK! I get to play with dominoes today!!" It's really cute when they tell me what they've found as if I had nothing to do with it :)

What was the seldom used dining room is now our cozy sitting area where we read our books (separately and together). We have a lot of fun "read alouds" scheduled and so far the girls are loving them. Last week we were reading Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims and this week we're reading The Courage of Sarah Noble.

In addition to reading together, one of the daily workbox tasks for each girl is to spend 15 minutes browsing through the reading basket (reading &/or looking at pictures). The basket is loaded up each week with a new batch of books from the library that relate to the week's history topic. Last week the books were all about the Plymouth and the pilgrims...this week (#6) we're learning about the Dutch settling in New Amsterdam (New York City!). We just learned that the Dutch brought their cows to America...so, on Thursday, we are going to make butter from cream :) Oh, and tomorrow, for our science experiment, we'll see how yeast can blow up a balloon!

Friday afternoon/evening we leave for homeschool family camp in Wisconsin. It's going to be a little hectic getting ready though because earlier that day, we'll start our weekly homeschool co-op where I'll be teaching Yearbook and a math class. The girls aren't nervous at all though and can't wait to see their new friends again! They're each in three classes and they're dying to see what they'll be making in their cooking class!

My Little learners

Below is a mix of pix from the last few weeks of our adventures in homeschooling. It really has been much more enjoyable than I ever expected! I'd always known one-on-one learning would be beneficial for my kids, but honestly homeschooling did NOT appeal to me at all! The idea was daunting and I was sure I didn't have the patience. Besides, the girls were both in school all day long and I was finally free to do whatever I wanted from 9-3:30. Okay, well, I still had to fit in laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping somewhere, but basically I was free to go out to lunch, scrapbook, or just plain veg. Why in the world would I want to mess with a good thing?! I have friends who homeschooled, but I pushed off the idea, saying I'd only do it as a last resort if I had to.

Well, the strangest things happen when you pray. Seriously. The short version is that in March I prayed that IF He wanted me to homeschool, would He please change my heart and mind about it. Sure, it'd be good for my kids to go at their pace and gain mastery rather than always rushing to play catch-up and leaving learning gaps in their wake. Yes, it'd be great to master skills before plowing on to the next. But I knew that if my heart wasn't in it, it'd feel like a burden and it'd be a disaster. Well, I asked and He answered! After YEARS of resistance, within a week of that prayer, I not only warmed up to the idea, I was really excited about it! No more dragging my feet. No more fear of failure. No overwhelm. It was definitely a God thing, because I could never have done a 180 that quickly on my own. I now have NO doubt that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Now I-- and I daresay, my whole household--think homeschooling is the best thing since sliced bread! Instead of feeling saddled with a weighty, unwanted responsibility, I actually feel kind of sad that everyone else isn't also enjoying this wonderful discovery. That doesn't mean that every day is perfect, but I have a greater appreciation for the fact that these precious kids grow up SO fast and I'm so glad I'm not missing this opportunity with them. I know it doesn't appeal to everyone (me included not so long ago!), but after my sudden change of heart, I feel so blessed and thankful. Thankful for my family, and thankful that we serve a God who still listens and still answers prayer. Could someone please occasionally remind me of that simple fact? Unfortunately I'm often too quick to forget.

My cute little toothless wonder donning a bonnet at Naper Settlement today!

Hard at work, wearing a yoke to collect water!

Drying off and sketching after a nature walk which turned into exploring/playing IN the creek.

Break time! Goofing off on the trampoline.

Very proud of their country and their creation!

During a science experiment the girls learned that an egg can float after adding salt to the water!

Sailing our Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria to the New World!