Little Brother's Graduation Day

This time last week the 4 kids and I made a 9 hour car trip up to the Midwest to see my youngest brother graduate from High School.
I have to say I'm getting pretty good at this whole road-tripping with kids thing.
I'm not so good at going grocery shopping with 4 kids, but put me in a car with them by myself for 9 hours straight and they seem to do pretty good.

My parents came back to the States this year so that Matthew could attend his last year of school at the school my dad used to Administrate.
It was so odd being back and see all these Seniors that I had known as toddlers when I graduated from HS.
I counted about 4 or 5 of them that I had been their regular babysitter before I graduated.
We won't mention that none of them were potty-trained at the time and I remember all but 2 of them being born.
As they walked across the stage oh so grown up, I had these nostalgic memories of pudgy little toddlers with big blue eyes and blond bouncing curls running after bugs in the yard or another one sitting in front of the television singing along with Thomas the Train and Barney.
I AM OLD.

Uncle Matthew as he is affectionately called around here holds a special place in my heart.
I can remember praying for several years before he was born that my mom would have another baby.
I loved babies and toddlers and I wanted a younger sibling.
Yes, I had one already but when you and he are only a year apart, it doesn't really count.
I wanted a little younger brother.
When I was 14, my parents had him.
He was planned and that's a whole 'nother story. ; )
I loved having him in the house!
I had my own baby doll to dress up and carry around.
Poor kid.
I was heartbroken and missed him deeply when my parents moved to Mexico.
I was 18 and going off to college and he was 4 and followed me everywhere.

We also celebrated my mom's 60th birthday that weekend.
My parents really are young for as many kids and grand kids as they have. ; )

It was incredibly special to have 2 of my dad's 3 surviving siblings drive their 9 hour trip from Colorado. I hadn't seen my aunt Lois in several years and it was so fun to introduce my children to all of them. I have so many fond memories of them growing up and it was important to me to get to have my children meet them as well.

Graduation Day was teary. At least I was teary.
The speaker didn't help.
If everyone I knew could have heard this graduation message, there would be no doubt that this school was purposeful in equipping these kids to meet and make an impact on the world.
He was their Administrator and has a heart for the gospel, missions and equipping those kids to make a difference when they left High School.
My brother was so blessed to get to spend his last year under those teachers and staff.

We saw several of my cousins and aunts and uncles and I loved being back around family and the friends I had grown up with.

We left daddy at home doing this:

Well, they weren't born yet when we left, but none-the-less he had to work and couldn't come.

We came home to triplets and it's been bottles and extra milking and late night feedings and early morning feedings. I finally got the suitcase out of the van on Friday, but it's still in our bedroom un-opened. Children and goats are sorta' taking up all my time.

Happy Graduation Uncle Matthew!
We love you!

Spontaneity

Last Monday I arrived home from picking up the children at school and Luke declared we were taking a trip to the creek below our house.
ALL OF US.
No one was left behind this time.
We have recently (Luke discovered) an old wagon trail behind our house. There is a large iron eye pounded down into the ground that we have been told was used to help hook and lower wagons over and down the ridge. The deep ruts from the large wooden wheels are still there in some places.
I have a hard time visualizing these wagons being lowered anywhere behind our house. I had a fun time hanging onto a toddler and slipping and climbing our way down to the creek, let alone lower anything like a wagon down.

I saw all varieties of ferns and moss growing on our little hike down.
Nathaniel has always been to young to haul down and then back up the steep climb. There is a lot of bending under branches and fallen trees and climbing over rocks. You can't put a baby in a backpack and hike where we like to go. You'd end up with cuts and scratches and a very unhappy little one. It was also be difficult to carry a small person down without accidentally falling. Luke is trying to hack a path out to the creek this year to make it easier.
But the hike was worth it to see this:

It was peaceful
It was quiet.
I could have spent all day down here with a blanket and pen and notebook listening to the quiet laughing of the water as it danced it's way past.

Just two weeks ago the floods that devastated some families here also brought the water (as best as we can estimate) about 10 or so feet above normal creek level. Luke is pointing to debris hanging in branches above his head. Precious Jewel is a good 3 feet below him.
He said that the creek looked different and the embankment had shifted dramatically.

The water had totally carved out under this old tree above and the kids got a good first hand lesson on what tree roots truly look like.

Just a few days after this hike Precious Jewel handed me a Mother's Day card that said thank you for taking her to the creek.
She had made it in school BEFORE Mother's Day.
I was a bit confused.
We had not gone yet. Can we say she was hinting at my finally going?
Then when Luke announced that that day was a warm enough day and the water had receded enough and Nater Mater was old enough to climb down and back up with us, I understood she and him had been discussing this very trip.
It was nearly 5pm and I had not yet started dinner and it was a school night.
I hesitated and then said yes.

It wasn't until the 2 days later she gave me her Mother's Day card and I realized what I would have missed if I had said no...if I had stuck to my schedule and routine (which I very much like) and had told them to go ahead and go without me.
My days are FULL of little ones. My own and other people's.
I enjoy the evenings when the children are all in bed and quiet and I have some moments to just myself.
But I would have missed this if I had stuck to the routine...

...Moments of watching them run delightedly through the water stomping and splashing without a care in the world and all the pain it can hold.
The moments of childhood that can't be brought back.
The moments of innocence that we adults can never go back too.
Childhood. This Time. These Moments can run past us as fast as the water flows down our little creek behind our house never to be seen again.
There is always time for responsibility and chores and bedtimes and schedules to stick to.
A family needs consistency and regularity.

A family also needs a time of unbridled spontaneous fun when all schedule and time are thrown out the window and we follow daddy to the creek to skip rocks and stomp and splash when we are normally heading inside for dinner.

These are the memories I want to cherish. These are the memories I want to hold in my heart forever.

Spring Break 2011

This last week Precious Jewel and Mr. Smiles had a whole week off of school for Spring Break. They have to go to school several Saturdays due to all that snow we had in February but that's for a different post.

We left late on Saturday evening and drove the 9 hours north to where I grew up in the Midwest.

I had not been home for any length of time since my first year of college 14 years previous.

We made it at 2:30am and just in time to go to bed for a few hours and then get up for church with my family.

The reason we pushed to get there by Sunday morning was to see my dear niece being baptized. She has been raised in a closed country over-seas where my brother and his wife taught English, so this public baptism meant a lot to the whole family in many ways. It was so neat to be able to be "home" in the church I had grown up in and to see all the amazing changes that are taking place.

The next day we drove out to the land that my brother and sister-in-love have recently purchased. It had an OLD OLD farmhouse on the property with a couple of barns and other outbuildings and such. It stood in stark contrast to the hundreds and thousands of acres of farmland that surrounded the old place. Everything there is flat flat flat. Where we live it's hills, and low mountains, and trees upon trees upon trees!

They live in perfect crop farming country, but apparently their little plot of land has the annoying little creek that runs through it and makes in difficult for farm machinery. So it's considered useless for farming.

That is, unless you want a little piece of paradise plunked down in the middle of nowhere.

It seemed a throwback with the creek and the old buildings to the Banks of Plum Creek book by Laura Ingals Wilder The house hadn't been lived in in about 20 years and it looked as if whoever lived there previously had just gotten up and left one day. They found all kinds of stuff on the property. My sister-in-love showed me around and it was like treasure hunting.

Old Tractors,

Barns with numerous 'skylights,'

sinks and a claw foot tub

doll carriages,

shelves and old cupboards

This tractor hadn't been moved in so long that a small tree had grown up right through it!

Old machinery

2 old potbellied stoves!

and they' dug a small pond to build the foundation of the house they are going to build after they tear down the old one.

the kids spent a long time running around, climbing trees, digging in the dirt and sand and pretending

It was country paradise!

The next day I got to go to my youngest brother's first ever track meet. It was so fun to see him run and all these other kids that i had babysat like 15 years ago. I'd last seen most of them as toddlers and preschoolers!

I am officially old!

After that day, it got cold!

We spent most of the rest of the week indoors playing with toys and reading books and playing games.

I think this was the same old wooden shoe that i grew up with.

Either way, it provided a great energy outlet for Good Lookin'

We had a girls day shopping on Wednesday and that night my brother and his family and our family and my dad all went to the circus in the town next to us.

It was seriously the best circus I'd ever been too!

I didn't have any decent pictures because my camera hates the indoors unless the subject is standing totally statue still.

I took my niece and Precious Jewel to this cute little tea place downtown.

they had a dress-up corner where you could pick out things to wear for your Tea Time.

All 3 of us giggled and laughed changing hats, earrings, gloves and scarves multiple times.

One is never to old for dress-up!

The morning we left it snowed a couple of inches!

We arrived home in time to spend 2 days with Luke's Aunt and Uncle from Arizona and his cousin from England who had flown in for the weekend.

She has 2 adorable little girls...one of whom is just 6 weeks older than Nater Mater.

All-in-all it was a great Spring Break with family and friends.

Culteral Diversity

I was thinking about my family this week and how I and my children are so blessed. We don't have to fly to a different country to see someone different than us and beautiful. We just have to visit family.


My heart is beginning to long to adopt again. I've sort of stuffed it down deep in the recesses knowing it was there like the little child who'd been left behind and crying for someone to come back for them.


I've given the excuses of new marriage, new baby within the 1st year of marriage. Move within the first year of baby. 3 job changes between my husband and I within that first year. House payments, diapers. Another new baby within the year after the first and before our 3rd Anniversary. Another job change. Another new baby and bed rest and then move and then so on and so on. Add in another baby after that another move, another job change and we're into 9 years of marriage and the topic of adoption has bounced back and forth between Luke and I, but I've said, "no!" I can't take any more right now!


Then there is this crazy mom on facebook who likes Luke's cousins who work at World Orphans (who have also adopted) who keeps posting stuff on adoption and foster care (which we've also talked about), and I'm beginning to feel inundated...but in a good way.


Following me? I'm not sure I even am.


My brother adopted a sweet adorable, highly intelligent precious little fireball from China. My brother married my sweet Sister-in-Love from Mexico and they have the most adorable little children. Both countries and families are represented in the above picture.

(He's the oldest and was just as "enthusiastic" about re-enacting the Christmas story as Precious Jewel).

My kids were privileged to meet their new cousins from Ethiopia this summer and then to get to play with them a second time in the late Fall. Abigail fell in love with them all.

We also have cousins from the Philippines and an Uncle from Vietnam who I can't get the pictures of to load.

I think my kids are blessed to have the best family in the world.