God Heals Hearts

(photo: Joy's adoption) You know how when you are supposed to be somewhere first thing in the morning, you wake up and hope your alarm was set for the right time? This morning was one of those mornings. We decided that we wanted to be a part of Joy's adoption, like we were Bobby & Cindy's. So we got up early (8am) so that we could leave (8:30am) and get down to the Skagit County Courthouse for the adoption (9am).

There was a serious accident here locally about 7am this morning, apparently it caused the lawyer to arrive late. There were quite a few adoptions to be done today, so when he finally did arrive we all went in. Funny, how long it takes to get the paperwork filed to actually adopt through foster care - and when you are in the courtroom, it takes only about 10 minutes for the lawyer to review the info, change the child's name and sign papers.

(photo: Joy & Julia) Julia seriously wanted to play with this dog that Joy had received today as an adoption gift. Joy did not want to let her play with it. They are so cute together! Joy told Julia something like, "Julia when you get adopted, you will get your own dog." It was interesting, to think that Joy believes that all kids are adopted. I guess, really, she's right - we all can be adopted into God's family!

Afterwards we went to McDonalds with the Souths for breakfast. We haven't eaten out in SO LONG that it was a big treat for all of us. The little ones got to play on the slides and us big kids got to sit and talk. I gave my socks to Jed so he could go in the play area and Rod gave his to Jaden. The others, had socks on. We didn't realize that they didn't have socks on and when we left home, McDonalds playland wasn't in the plans.

We came home, I chatted with my parents on the phone. Checked email. We found out that someone knows someone who's selling grass fed beef for $2.09/#. So we ordered half a beef to split with my parents. Thank goodness for tax returns! (ours was accepted today! whoohoo!) My parents used to do that when I was a kid, and we haven't done it in years. I know though, that it's going to be nice to have all that beef in the freezer.


(at courthouse this morning. Julia's sitting on an old fashioned safe.) Went in and worked on the Friday school catalog with the girls and Brit. That was fun. We always chat and try to have a good time while creating about 125 catalogs and stuff them. For some reason, the paper was seriously static-y and so all of the paper was sticking together. I blamed Brit :D but I don't really know why it was doing it. Afterwards I finally got the newsletter printed. Came home, finished the mailing part and got it mailed.

The boys had Christian over to play for a few hours this afternoon.

We are still trying to decide whether or not our teen group is committed enough to go on a Mexico Missions trip. Two teens today in person asked me about our trip. One of them just looked devestated when I told her that I didn't know if we would be able to go. That tugged on my heart! The second teen, I told her that she needs to help get people excited or it will not move forward. I think she knows that I'm serious.

There are so many issues with this though. Rod's not working - what if his new boss won't let him go? There aren't enough leaders for him NOT to go! Although, if it's to be, I know the Lord is bigger than the issues I see at hand.

I sent a bunch of info out to our teen leaders google group about the trip. I also send out info on ice skating. And info on rafting as well as Dare to Share. I'm really hoping that this year we can do an all day rafting trip over in Leavenworth with YD Adventures.

Tonight I had a spazz attack. I have almost all of the kid's baby keepsakes, each in their own labeled box on a shelf in Julia's room. I went in her room tonight to find something, only to find her box, half stepped on and everything strewn across the floor. Josiah has a bunk bed in her room, and he was supposed to clean up the room... well then I find her baby stuff all over. I got extremely upset. I dug through their mess and found all of the items that were supposed to be in the box except one baby shoe. I was pretty determined that they weren't going to bed til that shoe was found! Yah, I wasn't thinking clearly at that point.

Clearly, when I had yelled at Josiah I had really hurt his feelings. I seriously dislike hurting him, he has such a loving spirit. I prayed for the Lord to help us find the shoe, so that this would not be a bigger deal than it really was. Rod a few minutes later finds the shoe. Then I had a flashback of Tina asking me if I felt the earthquake at 5 this morning. Uh, oh. I bet the box fell off the shelf in the earthquake!

Josiah shortly thereafter came up to me for a hug. He was so sorry he had disappointed me. My Josiah. He gave me the biggest hug, you know how he hugs, and asked me to forgive him for his messy room and for losing Julia's things. I said yes, of course, I forgive you. But it is me that needs forgiveness! Then I told him about remembering about the earthquake, and that's how I bet that the keepsake box got onto the floor - I had wrongly accused him - and I had to ask HIM to forgive ME. And he did. Love you Jos! With all of my heart!

When we first had kids, I knew I had had issues with forgiveness. I didn't know how to forgive really or how to ask forgiveness. So when Josiah was young and old enough to talk, even though he didn't know what he was saying... We trained him to ask for forgiveness when he'd done something wrong. "Will you forgive me?" are powerful words. And then we trained him to answer that specific question with: "Yes, I forgive you." There are NO variances on the question or the answer.

As we had more kids - we've taught them, one by one (and we're still working on this!) how to ask for forgiveness and how to say that you forgive someone. When one hurts the other or does something that may need forgiving, they know that they are expected to ask for/give forgiveness. All the time though, we have to say, Josiah, you need to ask Jedediah for forgiveness or the other way around. Somehow, through those simple phrases, God heals hearts.

Just a short time after the baby shoe incident, Josiah and I were standing in the laundry room. I told him that I was very sorry, and I acted badly. Thank you for your forgiveness. I also told him, "You are worth more to me, than any old shoe!" Which is true. I may not have acted like it. That little box was very special to me, represented when Julia was born and took me quite a bit of effort to put together. That was probably the "why" of why I acted so poorly.

I am so thankful for my family, for forgiveness. Everyday I realize a little more of my children causing me to grow up even more. I love them all with my whole heart. And I'm so thankful that Rod and I chose to have kids. They really do mean the world to me!

Tax Filing Time!

(picture: Josiah, my budding artist! When I was a child, I didn't think I could draw. So I didn't. I wanted that to be different with our kids. So in homeschooling, our kids have drawing time.

None of our kids have ever been told they cannot draw - quite the opposite really. All of them have art tablets (even Julia!). This is Josiah drawing whales and fish(es) Jan '09).

When Rod and I got home from an appointment today, the mail was here! Normally, I'm not THAT excited about the mail.. it was what was in it that I was excited about. Rod's W2 from Verizon. Since we have our other tax stuff, all we were waiting on to file was the one from Verizon.

Do we normally file this early? Uh, no. Normally we file mid February, beat the rush. Last year I think we filed early April. But that is besides the point!

We didn't know if we were really prepared to get it all done and turned in. I spent the afternoon early evening, looking at receipts, figuring out totals and calling out numbers for Rod to fill in to Turbotax.

At about 8:30 we were done & got it filed. It was a Hallelujah moment! I felt like my brain had run a marathon! Now we have to wait the 24 hours or so to see if it's accepted by the IRS.

Every year, when we file, I think of when we got stuck waiting on the IRS & the Social Security Admin to communicate about Jaden's Social Security Number. Hoping it goes quickly this year.

Since Rod got a severence check in the summer, and they took 35% of it for taxes, it looks like we will probably be getting back a significant portion of that 35%. I wish they would have just let us keep it at the time, we really needed it then! (Not that we don't now!)

Other things of the day... Finished the First Class Skagit County homeschool co-op newsletter last night. Rod went in to get it printed today, and there was no one using the machine, but the receptionist wouldn't let us print our 35 copies (the other 100 go out via email/pdf - which saves the co-op TONS of money every year!) Let's just say that that frustrated me.

Something in the newsletter that i'm excited about... The Souths, friends of ours, adopted a brother and sister in December that have been living with them for the past two or three years. We have gotten to know the family and we love the kids. As a *surprise* I put an "adoption announcement" in the newsletter (like I would a baby announcement!) Don't tell Christina, but I sure hope she's surprised!!!

Our home, which has been kept extremely clean for 3 weeks, got bombed today. Mom and Dad were working on taxes... so the kids had a hay day. We'll get 'er done tomorrow though! (The only place that isn't somewhat neat, is, MY desk. I have a terrible time keeping it up!)

Last but not least, I found a place online where I can change my background of my blog. I really like the different backgrounds that they have available www.cutestblogontheblock.com. The only issue that I do have... is that the background doesn't seem to load very quickly. If it continues to irritate me, I'll have to change it. Went to ask in the forum, but of course that part of the site was down (sigh).

Well it's late. Tomorrow the Souths adopt little Joy and we are going to go to the courthouse. It's such an amazing thing to see.. I'll cry for sure.

Out of Left Field

(Rod reading a bedtime story: Chronicles of Narnia, book 3, The Horse and His Boy, Jan 2009. Kids are coloring or drawing.)

Yah, beginning with baseball. I guess it's been on my mind today! We have had a huge surprise happen in our lives the last couple of days!

Sunday night, Rod and I stayed up late and watched tv online. He really "gets" the whole graphic design concept, and it hasn't been much of a struggle for him. Blessing there. Sunday night, we were thinking that Rod was going to be staying home and schooling with the kids, for the next 7 months until he's done with his program.

Then, out of LEFT field, Rod gets a call on Monday morning. Have you ever had *moments* that are engraved on your memory? One for me is the evening that I had told Rod, sitting in front of OfficeMax (where he was working at the time) that it was OFFICIAL... He was going to be a father.

Another is the moment where he sat down next to me, I had been typing on my computer, and told me that the Verizon store in Burlington was going to be closing.

There are others, but these are a couple that I just didn't expect. I EXPECTED Rod to ask me to marry him (I just didn't know when). (He asked me at Ernies at the Edgewater Inn, on the waterfront in Seattle, after I got home from a couple week mission trip to Mexico. We'd been to the waterfront MANY times, and we'd discussed eating at the fancy restaurant on the waterfront sometime... that's where he popped the question.)

Back to the point. I'm bunny hopping. Anyway. A friend of ours, that works for Microsoft, called and told Rod that there is a position open - that is short term - and that needs to be filled quickly. They are in the middle of a project and need to keep it a moving. Rod would need to commute to Redmond 4-5 days a week for 2-3 months. It just depends on many things. Well, flexibility is one thing right now, that we have!

So, we spent Monday in anticipation of expectation. Hoping that unemployment would approve of a temp job (they did at 4 pm in the afternoon). Hoping that everything would fall into place. Wondering if Rod really wants to do this. You know how we are about family time! Commuting, working AND school?? Monday night we hashed through all the WHAT-IF's. The what-if's good and the what-if's bad.

Tuesday morning we got up and I just felt sick about the whole thing. I guess I just didn't sleep on it well. Went to bed thinking I'd support the decision and woke up clearly hesitant. I guess since it's a temp job (I don't know how it all works at all) Rod would be hired through a temp agency. Tami from the temp agency called and offered Rod MUCH less than he was told to anticipate. So we spent until 2 that afternoon, which seemed like FOREVER, waiting to hear back about whether he was going to get the amount he was originally told. By then, we were wondering, if it were less, would it even be worth it? At 2, Tami called and offered him what was originally offered, relieving much of the stress.

Then she emailed him a ton of stuff to fill out - uh, forgot about that part. It almost took 2 hours for him to fill it all out.. not like the kids weren't a distraction! They were! He got it filled out, emailed it back and then was told to fax in the signature forms. So, Rod was at Workforce, at closing, the last one to use the fax machine that day.

Today, we faxed in Rod's social and drivers license. If all goes well, he will have the job and begin on Tuesday.

Why am I interested in him working there? To see if technology is one area that he would be interested in working in long term. It's an exciting project, so he'll be excited to do it. It's SO much more than he's getting through unemployment - which will really help us out. The unemployment end of it is worked out. Everyone has wondered at some time or another, what is it like working at Microsoft... He'll find that out! Rod'll get to build a relationship with someone who is important to our family. It's only 2-3 month commitment. (You can do almost anything short-term, right?) And last but not least, in this economy, if he gets his foot in the door, and ended up months from now getting hired.... at least he would have a job (Realistically, there is no expectation there, just one of those what-if's again!)

Today! I've worked on the newsletter. Will finish tonight. Amanda called and said that her church is having a dinner tonight - and that she'd like us to go. Rod and I looked at each other - that means I don't have to cook! Yay!

So we went, and had a nice dinner. Saw Amanda's family & Jessie's family. Fantastic time. Afterwards they were handing out groceries to the needy. We thought we wouldn't take any - that's for the needy! Anyway, they had way more donations than people to take them. So Rod and I got groceries and leftover good food for our family, my parents and another friends family! (I think we had 8 bags of groceries and 8 take out boxes of hot food.)

Then Rod & I got to play Grocery Fairy and drive around to deliver the groceries. Each family was blessed that we had thought of them! It was like Christmas with food! Amazing how happy people are to see you when you have something good to give them! That really blessed both of us!

Oh, back to Baseball. Got ahold of Josiah's coach from last year - hoping to find out when we should be hearing about the upcoming season. Got ahold of his All Stars coach from last summer, to make plans to pick up Josiah's birth certificate (needed the original to play All Stars). (He stilllll hasn't returned it to me - I just need to make a point to go get it.) Issue being, if I don't get it back, I'm going to go have to pay for another so he can play in the regular season this year!

Free Ebook from TOS

This is a fantastic opportunity!

This just in from Gena Suarez of The Old Schoolhouse magazine:

Right now we are giving away a FREE ebook by AMANDA BENNETT, just for a few days. We are encouraging folks to come to Facebook and sign up to become a “fan” of TOS Magazine. Then they can come over and email me publisher@thehomeschoolmagazine.com and we will send them out the free ebook from Amanda Bennett!

Once you sign in to Facebook, you can become a fan here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Gray-TN/The-Old-Schoolhouse-Magazine/42107471203?ref=s

If you’re not already on Facebook, you may want to join the fun! There are a lot of our co-op members already there! You can search for me with my email address zindra@yahoo.com and look at my friends list to find co-op members to add as your friends, too!!

Thanks Polli for the info!

Ketchup, Catsup OR Catch Up

This has been a busy weekend. Friday we had teen night (photo left). I always enjoy a good night with the teens!

Saturday we went to Mariners Fanfest. We took Mom and Garrett, minus Julia. It was supposed to be about 40 degrees, and you spend the majority of the day outside. We also do a lot of walking.
So we thought it best to leave her with Granddaddy (which I think he spoiled her!!) This photo of my boys, is one of my favorite shots. One day they are all going to look at this style of photo (which I've taken lots) and tell me that I've taken a lot of shots of their reirs! Well, I think it really shows how much they are growing... and the walking together - It warms my heart to see them side by side.

We haven't really done many "paid" activities since Rod's been on unemployment. No real complaints there - it just felt very good to do something that we used to "normally" do. We've been going to fanfest for three or four years... and we love it year after year!

The boys ran the actual bases on the field, caught pop flies on the field, pitched in the actual bullpen and hit in the outfield. We had a picture with the Mariner Moose! (no kudos to the Mariner photographer!) I'll have to upload the one from my phone, it was MUCH better!

We also got ALL of our faces painted. Grandma, Dad and 16 year old nephew included! There aren't many more years where I can "push" a big kid to get his face painted, so I had to take advantage of it!

Sunday we went to the South kids adoption party. We have been around for the last couple of years, and we love the Souths. We also love their kids. How neat it is to see children "get" to belong to a family. Love you guys!

Today I didn't take one picture :) We ran around and made & answered phone calls (Rod got a temp job offer). It appears that Rod could be taking a temp job at Microsoft (yes, he will commute) for a few months. They are working on a project and needed someone who has the time to work the job. Apparently, they will work around Friday school, which is a good thing. I'm hoping for Rod that this works out. I'm not a big fan of commuting, but either he will get a foot in the door, and/or a great experience... either is worth it. Rod got ahold of his unemployment guy, and it looks like as long as he claims it, he's good in that dept.

Wednesday we have History Club at the South's. So tomorrow will be a big planning and cramming day for Wednesday. The kids had such a great time in December with History Club that I believe it will be a staple for some time to come. Last month they talked about the Oregon trail. I wonder what Josiah wants to do this month???