Now that's Gross

With such a large group of males living under one roof, I'm rarely surprised at the gross things that go on. The noises and smells and pranks no longer alarm me.

But this was too much. Yes the toothbrush was stuck to the ceiling.

Of course....nobody did it.


And worse. Jeremiah brushed with it immediately after it's retrieval.

Mostly Great

What am I supposed to be learning with all the waiting?
No word from the judge on whether our boys are staying or leaving.
No word from the lab on whether Grace's new kidney is working or failing.
99% of the time I say, "Over to you God...I'm trusting"
1% of the time...throwing a big old baby fit.

Some Day

Our youngest biological daughter is 30 years old and left home for college when she was 18. I'm saying this to point out that if James and I had not been called into foster care/adoption, we would have been living alone together for the last 12 years.
And on those really hard days when I think about that - how would I picture my life?
Traveling in something smaller than a 12 passenger van that doesn't fit in any parking garage? Quiet evenings reading together by the fireplace and the book isn't a picture book or sonlight required reading? Cooking food that contains no cream of anything soup? Decorating with potted plants instead of lego tables?
No to all of them.
Here's what I dream of. Putting my scissors down somewhere and oh my goodness - 2 days later they're still sitting right exactly there where I put them.
It's only a dream, but it's sweet.

Some people you love because they're your family and then there's those people that you can't believe how fortunate you are to have in your family. James has relatives like that - Auntie Weez and Cousin Tony. They love us completely and that includes every new person we bring into our house. Not only do they fly down from New Hampshire to visit us, but they are among the brave few who invite our entire group to visit them. And did I mention that Auntie Weez is 95 and Cousin Tony is 60? They see our group of kids and encourage us in what we do, tell us that the kids are great and take the time to get to know all of us.

Last weekend they invited us all to their small bungalow on Portsmouth Harbor. Auntie Weez had bought candy and doughnuts, pizza and soda for the kids-so of course they think she's beyond cool. I'm sure we drove them just a little crazy and I'm sure we loved every minute of our visit.

What We Don't Know

Grace had a regular kidney transplant follow up visit at Children's Hospital today. She has been allowed to stretch the visits to every other week now that her new kidney is 2 months old in her body. The visits have been routine to the point of boring, but today I sensed something was up. Her doctor explained that her creatine number was climbing. That's scary and signals that the kidney isn't working correctly. The transplant team was concerned that we might be looking at early signs of rejection. It was hard to hear. Other causes of the higher creatine could be a blockage of some kind or too high levels of one of her medicines. She had an immediate ultrasound which showed no blockage. We were sent home with orders to lower the medicine amount and to repeat her labs in a week.

Wait and see.

Grace was worried and I was scared. Not another set back for her.

I called my friend Adela on the ride home and after listening to my recount of the bad visit she simply said, "Well, I guess God isn't finished with Grace yet."

She's right. We have no reason to doubt God who has brought her through cancer and tumors and kidney disease.

Wait and trust.

We Really Worked - We Promise

Our family is the first on the block every year to open our pool - April Fools Day for our annual "Fools in the Pool" swim. It's fun and everyone is so excited because summer is right around the corner.

Unfortunately we are also the very very last family in the universe to close our pool in the fall. Which isn't fun at ALL! We live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley which means beautiful and abundant trees, which means leaves and those leaves fall every where...including into our pool.

Last night at our family meeting my husband explained to the kids that starting today, there would be no television each day until the leaves were picked up around the pool. Seemed easy enough. School was over and everyone went out to do the leaf thing. Grace used the net and got all the leaves from the water while the others picked and swept off the cement around the pool.

Then the wind would blow and they were back to square one.

I watched this go on for almost two hours. I was actually mostly amused.

Then I took pity and came up with a solution. I had them get every single leaf up and quickly snapped some pictures. They then told their father that at that moment in time they had completed their task for the day.
It worked and he believed that they had worked hard even though the pool was again covered in leaves.

The kids are so ready to have the pool closed.

Count it all JOY

Some of the kids that come to our family are angry....really angry. Like screaming, kicking, hitting, cussing angry. Like grown ups have hurt them, let them down, sent them away angry. And the very last thing that they believe is that what you tell them is true- for their good or because you love them. All which makes parenting awfully difficult at times.
And I'm not real good at not getting my way....actually really terrible at it and these angry kids and I have come face to face with no winner.
Lately God has been whispering things into my heart. (Notice He whispers-never demands) He suggested that the goal isn't about making them obey and line up to my way. WHAT?? He couldn't possibly mean I should not have these kids UNDER MY CONTROL.
What about extending mercy?
Mercy that lets them fail and be encouraged.
Mercy that says although you screamed "No !" at me, you then did what I asked and that's a reason to be celebrated.
Mercy to count myself out of the picture and allow my every response to paint a picture of a Savior Father who loves them extravagently.
These angry kids are making over my heart and it looks much better on me.