I Can't Stop Smiling

Today was a milestone day.  Savannah crossed over from 8th grade into 9th and thus into high school.  Her school held a solemn ceremony to mark this achievement.  As each student received a certificate, they shook hands with the middle school principal and were then greeted by the high school principal.  

As we took our seats, I couldn't help but to remember Zach's crossover.  Even two years later, I struggled to withhold tears as I thought about one of his classmates who missed most of that year as he battled cancer which started with a 0% chance of survival.  Bradley walked to that altar to get his certificate to a standing ovation that I thought would not end unless Jesus himself came in to tell us to stop.  He continues to beat the odds.  Zach, himself, received some cheers from his classmates despite the advice to clap at the end of the ceremony.

Savannah's ceremony brought us some more special memories to treasure.  In fact our memorial box which depicts what God has done for this family will hold a new marker as a result of this special day.

We learned just yesterday that one of Savannah's teachers was not allowed to give her an outstanding achievement award because Savannah was already receiving too many awards.  Savannah was thrilled for the girl who took her place on that award.

What awards did she receive?

Savannah earned the Principal's Award for language arts.  The Principal's Award is given to the student with the highest grade in that teacher's class.

Savannah earned the outstanding achievement award for algebra.  This award is chosen by the teacher for the student who always gives his or her best effort in class and has a natural talent and love for the subject.  It cannot be the same person who receives the Principal's Award.  I must admit that I am slightly surprised that the algebra and language arts awards were not reversed as math is a subject Savannah would do for fun, language arts - not so much.  I know. I know.  Trust me, I am the one who gave birth to her despite our differences in math ability and love for that subject.

By far the best affirmation we received today was the $500 scholarship toward tuition for Savannah's freshman year.  This is awarded to one boy and one girl.  The student must have a 3.0 G.P.A., solid leadership skills, no conduct issues, be involved in extracurricular activities, and be of good, Christian character.  This is the award we will mark in our memorial box.  I have struggled all year with Savannah's choice to stay.  Tuition has become a true burden to this family, and freshman year is a good time to make a break for a fresh start.  After my own personal wrestling with this for many months, this scholarship was affirmation of the decision to say.  I cannot thank Jesus enough, and the school will get a thank you letter from me for sure.  One of Savannah's teachers revealed to her that her name came up immediately for this award, and the decision was not hard.  Can you tell that I am a proud mama?  How did I get so blessed?

Savannah with her art teacher, Mrs. Davis.

proud papa

Savannah with her Bible teacher, Mrs. Law

good friends

The boys were there to support her, and Zach was thrilled for her, telling her often how awesome this was.  Wyatt was super for the ceremony, and much as I hate to admit it, thrilled to be there because he missed some school for this.

I have heard lots about this guy.  He is in most of Savannah's classes and is quite a character.  My creative daughter wrote in his yearbook, "I love you with a burning passion that can only be quenched by screamo music."  Harmless fun.

$500 scholarship, and she is still surprised

Savannah can't stop smiling either :)

More pics from the 8th grade, ahem, freshman party:

How do you have a great party to end 8th grade?  Rent out a country club, cater a meal, add a DJ, and a photo booth, and viola, you have the makings of a great party.  Each student paid to help cover the cost and had a blast.

Let's do the twist!
Diane and her boys.  Diane organized this event.  It was a great idea, and she said it was easy.

Swing your partner round and round!

Just jump!

I had to get a picture of these two because they share a place in our memorial box.  They had almost every class together in sixth grade which was important coming out of elementary school.

Andy and I chaperoned, so we had front seats for all the action.  As any normal teenager would do, Savannah buried herself up by the DJ booth so that we could not see her most of the night.  She actually likes loud music.

So they danced the night away and ended it with tears and long goodbyes.  Some will remain together and some will not.  Life is full of beginnings and endings.

Mother's Day

Being a mom is my favorite job.  I had a great teacher and miss her all the time.  

Mom and me

My Mother's Day weekend:

I got up much earlier than I wanted to on Saturday because Zach had detention.  Surprisingly enough, he made it this far in the school year before facing the penalty of not wearing his chapel uniform on chapel day.  This is a regular habit of his.  He came out of detention and informed me that the assignment was to write about a highlight of your life.  Zach wrote about having a baby.  When pressed about how exactly this was written, my concerns grew as it was apparent that if these assignments are read, I would be having a face to face conversation with the principal.  Lovely.  He kept us going almost all day on this before revealing that he actually wrote about wrestling.  Did I say boys are easier in a previous post?  I officially take that back and honestly would argue that in this household the boys are typically much harder to raise than the girls.  

We ended our day at a rainy cookout to celebrate the close of the track season.  Zach's coaches noted his dance moves, not sure how they saw those, and we had a great time with the track family.

Savannah was returning from an overnight field trip where she rode one of those towers where you drop randomly...and liked it.  Hmm, we now have proof that she is as crazy as her relatives, myself not included in this particular pool.  After picking her up and a long discussion with Andy about our cell phone plan which we will be changing this week, we went to bed late.

Getting up this morning was brutal, but I got breakfast in bed and a gift card to Bath and Body Works.  After that, the only thing I wanted was a nap. All the kids except for Julia went to a movie while Andy visited a Starbucks to write.  I napped for a long time with continuous interruptions by a ringing phone that never seemed to stop.  Then Julia and I went shopping because she needed shoes.  We had a blast.  She tried on clothes and hats. She is definitely a fashionista, and I have some great birthday ideas.  What fun!  

Of course I am gushing over the handmade gifts I received today.

definitely framing this one...kudos to an outstanding art teacher who draws the best out of the kids

Julia's chalk drawing

Wyatt's picture frame

I must end this post with this funny story about Julia.  We did not visit Andy's mom today, so our gift will be late.  Andy and Julia went out to get a card in hopes that we could send it on time.  We were out of stamps, so that didn't happen.  Julia came home with the card and signed her name and Andy's to it then sealed it.  When asked why she didn't wait for the rest of us to sign it, she said she was the one who picked it out.  This is typical of Julia, so the next story will make sense.

When I opened my gift card this morning, the only signature on it was Julia's.  It turns out that she came up with the idea and asked everyone to participate.  The funding came from Andy, Zach, and Savannah as Wyatt did not want to participate, and Julia chose to take the credit.  That girl is a mess!

My favorite quotes this weekend came from Wyatt:

"New China  never gets old." (Wyatt's favorite restaurant)

"I am having a spicy broccoli party." (This was stated when he was preparing to eat leftover Thai food and was putting the sauce on his broccoli).

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks

One thing that I love about my children is that they generally say "thank you" without any prompting.  What I love even more is that they do not neglect to say this to their parents.


I took Zach to order his class ring yesterday.  He thanked the clerk who helped us several times and thanked me on the way out of the store.  This translates to me as, "I know you sacrifice for these things, Mom.  Thank you."


Later, Zach injured his hand, and we ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a bandage that would stay in place.  There was only one open line, and the two people ahead of us had full carts.  Both let us jump the line with our one item.  Zach thanked them and then marveled over the kindness of strangers when we headed to the car.


He thanked me again today when Andy dropped him off at work, and he was sent home because they weren't able to train him today.  I got a thanks for picking him up.


It feels really good to this mom to get a simple "thank you" from the kids, and Zach is not the only one who does this. They all do.

A Fabulous Sunday!

Our Sunday capped off a three day weekend.  Around here we celebrate a local holiday on the Friday that precedes the first Saturday in May.  Friday and Saturday were spent sleeping late, working on the house (shampooing carpets and replacing filters specifically) and shopping.

Today, however, we had a blast and good news.

Zach landed his first job. Whoot! Whoot!  I hope he loves it because we totally missed a call to interview for his dream job.  He took this job on a tip from a friend who was recently hired there, and he is very excited, and we are as well.  This week we will order his class ring.  Time flies.

After weeks of empty promises that the little people could have a play date, we made good today.  Wyatt wanted just one friend, and they were happy to enjoy video games all day long.  Boys are so easy.

We had junk food snacks including pizza rolls and ice cream, but my favorite treat was Savannah's homemade cupcakes....love them.  Susie, we have figured out how to keep them from sticking to the paper, so maybe we have a vacation treat :)

Julia wanted several girls to join her, and she ended up with all five of her female classmates.  They played on the Slip 'N' Slide (thanks Andy for saving me on that one) and filled water balloons and threw them at each other and the house after playing on the Wii a bit.  There was girl drama and tears, and they kept me so busy that I did not even see Sean's mom slip in and pick him up. I think they walked away having had a great time.  Did I mention that boys are easy?

Good times.

April in review

Our April looked like this:

I went on a field trip with Julia.

On the same day as the field trip,  I visited her science fair. This happened to be the anniversary of our first glimpse of Julia via a picture e-mailed from our agency. The science  project was in the works for weeks, and it was fun to see all the second graders show off their work.

We prepared for the baby boy, who still remains nameless, with a shower.

sisters!  Tessa, Tara. Danielle, Tiffany and me


Savannah's class took their 8th grade trip to the capitol.  Neither Andy nor I could attend with Zach, and we could not make this one either.  

After watching a video about the National Cathedral, Savannah couldn't wait to see it.  However,  her favorite parts of the trip were the beautiful Library of Congress and the view from the back porch of Mt. Vernon.  This picture is of the capital rotunda.

Savannah has known both of these girls since elementary school.  I love watching kids grow up together.  Savannah was so blessed to have a great chaperone in the art teacher who also happens to be a friend of mine.

Other April news included a very good prospect for a job for Zach.  He has a second interview on Sunday.  He returned from his band trip sick, so I never really heard much about the trip.


Wyatt kept us on our toes with the "I love you more" game and a very funny English situation.  He cannot say "deck."  He loves the cards he collects and his version of deck has more of a short "i" sound than a short "e" sound.  We have been working very hard on this, but when he said his deck was complete, I admit that I hit the floor laughing.

Of course Savannah turned fourteen.  We had two nephews with birthdays too.  Happy 17th to Mitchell, and happy 15th to Austin!

We again saw hard loss when a family friend who grew up with us lost his wife on her 33rd birthday.  He has two young children, and our hearts are heavy for him and this entire family.  This young mom and my mom had our church elders pray for them a couple of years ago.  Cancer sucks.


and the Joy Dare continued
100.  very special National Champions - fun times
3 Gifts from His Word
105. Psalm 4:8 - I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
106. Psalm 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
107.  The passover - a remembrance celebrated with our C-Group.
108.  I witnessed the baptism of a very special little girl who I prayed for before she was born.
125. a special reunion
139. dinner on the deck
154. that little box on the calendar for June 7, 2012 where Julia has written her ("hoping") - hope for a pool party with friends on that day.  She has also noted that June 7th is her adoption day - made me smile the whole day
155. Savannah's newly framed art in my hallway

178. prayer is meant to be fun -Simon Mbevi - an amazing man with a stunning testimony

Clinging to Hope

Andy and I spent part of our weekend at an amazing prayer conference.  The speaker was so much fun and yet very challenging.  I probably gained more from this event than I have in years of attending such things.


Of course, we were attacked immediately following this amazing time.  We already knew of some challenges that seem bigger than we can handle on our plate.  However, a new one sprung up on Sunday morning.


I am intentionally being vague as I hope to see God work in an amazing way in these compounded situations.  One thing that stuck with me this weekend is that if I am asking for something I can do in my own power, I am thinking way too small.


Please pray for us.

Flashback Thursday?

Today I am spending the day with Julia.  We are going on a school field trip and then I will visit her science fair.  I find this especially special as seven years ago today, I saw this sweet face for the very first time:

On that day I knew that we would be getting our much anticipated referral.  We had seen our group number (777) posted on our agency site the night before.  We had a plan for taking the call on three-way so that Andy and I could get all the information at the same time.  You know what they say about the best laid plans.  Well, Andy had worked all night the night before, and the call came earlier than expected. I could not get him to wake up, so I had to take the information without him.  However, my work e-mail blocked every attempt from our agency, Andy, and my mom to forward the picture above to me.  I got the information first on Julia, and Andy saw her picture first.  Andy printed the picture (after weeding through 200 e-mails on dial-up), brought it to me at work, and then we went to get our other kids from school and show them.

What I didn't expect from just seeing the picture is how immediately I would fall in love.  Nothing was going to stop me from getting to China once I had this picture in my hands.

I remember that during Julia's adoption process we held onto a well-known analogy. We knew we could not save all the orphans, but we could make a difference for one.

One day a boy was walking along the beach upon which hundreds of starfish had been washed up and now lay stranded on the sand.

As he continued walking, he noticed an old man in the distance, picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

He  approached the the man, and asked, “What are you doing?”

The  man replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. They need to be in the water, if I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

 The boy said, “Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

After listening politely, the old man bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf.

Then he looked up, smiled at the boy, and said:

“I made a difference to that one.”

And this story leads me to my Gilgal moment. Gilgal means "circle", and Gilgal was the place where God brought the Israelites full circle and broke the old cycle.  This was a place of restoration and promise.  When we were headed to the airport in June 2005 to leave China with all of our children and both grandmas, our guide, Jocelyn, gave us some parting words.  She recited this very story of the starfish, expressed gratitude to us on behalf of the CCAA, and talked about how helping families adopt gives her life meaning.  I was stunned when she brought up the starfish story because it was one of many God-markers on Julia's adoption.

Seven years later, we have have experienced so much joy because of this girl.  Her orphanage director called her an "impressive" girl, and that she is!