Tag Archives: adoption

Friday Focus: Avi

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adoption, biracial adoption, large family adoption

Oh Avi…such a beautiful girl.

For those of you who are new here, Avi joined our family when she was three days old. It’s an amazing story which I just moved under the Adoption Stories heading (it was originally posted on my old blog).  You may want to take a moment to go read it.adoption, biracial adoption, large family adoption

Avi at seven. She’s beautiful and full of attitude.

She’s clever and has an amazing sense of humor.

adoption, biracial adoption, large family adoptionShe’s a bit of a drama queen and always has been. She’s loud, lively and vivacious.

She loves kittens and books and pie and ice cream.

 

Jubilee’s Tenth Birthday {and Thanksgiving Babies}

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My sweet Jubilee was born ten years ago exactly one week before Thanksgiving (though her birthday was on a Tuesday this year). She was our seventh child, born in our seventh year of marriage at exactly  seven pm weighing in at exactly seven pounds! She was born with a head full of dark hair and one dimple. Such a sweet blessing to our family.

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And she was born seven weeks after Mordecai joined our family through adoption.

To read the full story of Mordecai’s adoption and Jubilee’s birth: Part I and Part II.

Happy Birthday, Mordecai {Ten Years Old}

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Ten years ago a baby boy was born in Seattle and placed for adoption. By God’s grace, he was placed in our home four weeks later.

While it’s true that Mordecai struggles every day with the effects of the choices he birth mom made while she was pregnant with him, he is not the sum of those choices. God has a plan for Mordecai, and as him mom, I have the privilege of helping him achieve his dreams.

Mordecai will start fourth grade tomorrow, with plenty of “support” from his intensive learning teacher. He made amazing progress last year and I hope the same will be true this year.

Mordecai loves LEGO, Star Wars (never mind that he’s never seen the movies), pasta, oatmeal, hotdogs, rice, playing sports, listening to music and reading.  And anything, anything, electronic.

And we had a little “help” during our photo shoot.

Can you guess who?

A New Year a New Blog?

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I’ve been toying with the idea of switching my blog to WordPress for quite a while. One of the reasons is so that I can post my photos bigger. So I thought, with the new year and all, I’d try things over here for a while. Please chime in and let me know what you think.

So, Murphy’s Law came to visit our house. A mere two days after I spent hours with the boys sorting they LEGO by color into  our new fancy-schmancy bins, Apollo learned to climb out of his crib. Why does this matter, you ask? Because the LEGO were stored in the  boys’ room where Apollo slept. a fine situation when he was caged in. Not so fine now that he has learned to escape. So, the LEGO need a new home.

And at the moment that new home happens to be our dining room. It’s not so bad since they are all contained in two plastic bins with drawers. And since they were up here, all sorted and handy, Kalina, Mordecai, Jubilee, Hezekiah, Avi and Tucker spent from 8 am to 2 pm playing with them (with a break for breakfast and lunch). My theory is that it is better to have the LEGO up here in plain sight where we can teach Apollo to stay out of them rather than have him be able to climb out of bed and access them in secret.

Another bonus is that since they are up here, I was able to supervise the mess being made. Every hour or so I would have them pick up any pieces that had fallen to the floor and at dinner  time any loose pieces were put back in the bins (projects were stored on our dining room counter). We shall see how long this arrangement lasts.

And we shall also see how well Apollo adjusts to a new bed. Perhaps this will be the key to a night’s sleep?

Christmas 2011

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Christmas 2011 2

We had a lovely Christmas over here. It began with the much anticipated candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve. Adalia and Tilly took advantage of the opportunity to dress up. Chuck and I decided to take turns staying home with Apollo, so I took the children to the Christmas Eve service and he took them Christmas morning.

Once my painfully shy children saw the camera come out it was all over. More and more wanted in the photos until it deteriorated into pandemonium.

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But that’s okay. We love them all the same.

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Christmas 2011 4

I set out the new Jonathan Park Cd’s we bought along with cups of hot cocoa and candy canes waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to notice them on Christmas morning. Finally, Enoch noticed and the children cheered with joy. I was able to buy all the Cd’s we didn’t have yet for 50% off last week. Yay for me (and Vision Forum, of course).

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While Chuck and the children were at church and Apollo was napping, I was able to stuff the stockings. It has been our tradion since we moved to Washington in 1999 to have the children put out their boots the night before Christmas…and it has served us well, but I’m afraid we need to come up with a new method. Why, you ask? Back in the day the rubber boots were occupied by preschoolers who stomped in puddles. Now they are occupied by teenage boys who mud wrestle and girls who muck out horse stalls. Enough said. Good thing I have 364 days to come up with a new plan.

Yesterday was filled with worship, family, food and fellowship.

Keziah and Boaz both chose to stay with friends they made through Job Corps for Christmas. We missed them but I am so glad they are making their own connections and putting down roots. Ezra spent the day with the Adams, so we had only eleven children here. It was our first Christmas without all of our children present, but that’s what growing up is all about I suppose…

I hope you holiday was filled with plenty of love and laughter.