our dozen beautiful feet

We are really near the end of this.  I'm imagining more and more life with four children, toting Meryn around on my hip, playing with her and Levi together, how Levi will respond to not being the baby anymore. : )  My heart longs for her, even for a new picture of her, just to see how her hair is growing or how chubby her cheeks are, or if she's sitting on her own yet.  It's such a strange feeling, having three of your children on one continent, and one on another.  It makes it almost impossible to be fully where you are, in your heart or mind. For over a year now, we've lived with the feeling of daily anticipation.  Looking every day at email first thing to see if there will be any information, any news about our child who is in another country.  It can be really exhausting, living with that kind of anticipation and expectation, and can really take over your thoughts at times, especially when the anticipated event or information is unrealized. But f...

Well, our finder interview didn't go nearly as well as we hoped. We knew there was a pretty massive complication with our case.  For starters, our daughter was abandoned outside an orphanage. In my opinion, this is great!  It means to me that whoever left her took the time to find a place that they knew she would be taken good care of.  And naturally, the person who found her was an orphanage employee.  Unfortunately, the Embassy was suspicious of this. The other complicating factor is that our daughter was not the only one left outside the orphanage that night.  The Embassy also felt this was extremely unlikely, that two mothers would leave their children together unless someone "coerced" them to do so.  Personally, I think there's a pretty big leap to an assumption of wrong doing with any real basis for it there.  I think it's perfectly reasonable and understandable that two mothers might leave their children outside an orphanage, the only known...

Julius Caesar!  One of my favorite things I love about Tapestry is that I am learning a ton!  Each week, I look forward to reading the teacher's notes, even though they go way beyond what my kids can understand right now.  I like to read it though, because it gives me not only the big picture, but a lot of details that I never got in my education.  I remember hearing the names of key historical figures like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, but honestly, I couldn't have told you whether they were Egyptian, Italian or Greek, when they lived, what they were famous for.  Shameful, I know!  But I am learning so much.  And I love the way Tapestry takes history and shows how God was using even the secular happenings to make a way for his plans!.  It truly weaves history into a beautiful "tapestry" that I'm really enjoying studying! So we were all about Julius caesar this week.  His life was really interesting.  He compared himself to A...

My dear Meryn, It's almost midnight.  Ten hours before the man who found you will be interviewed at the Embassy.  And I can't sleep. This morning, God taught my heart from Psalm 123.  He is enthroned in the Heavens, and I must keep my eyes fixed on Him like a servant girl watches her mistresses hand.  Servants don't watch their masters hands in anticipation of their master lifting it to do something for them.  No, servants watch, to anticipate their masers desires, to fulfill their wishes.  I can't sit and wait for God to move on my behalf. I must be waiting and anticipating what He has for me to do for Him.  Maybe tomorrow he'll lift his hand and tell me to go get you.  Maybe he'll lift it to say, "Wait." For years, the idea of you has been in my mind and heart. I can't pinpoint the exact moment it began.  But there are some mile markers I know of....  One, listening to a wise woman tell of the blessing of their adopted son from ...

I've been living in a real relationship with Jesus for about 15 years, and you would think I would have learned this before now.  I admit I've never really had the kind of prayer life I'd love to have, it's always bee something I've struggled with.  I've found it easiest to pray while writing, it keeps me focused and less rambling to be writing my thoughts. So I've always kept a prayer journal. But lately, I just haven't even had words to pray/write.  I've heard others say things before about praying in faith, and having enough faith to believe God will accomplish what we ask.  I've read the Scriptures about asking Him and Him giving you the desires of your heart. But over the past year, as we've waited for step after step to get us closer to bringing Meryn home, I've watched myself go through the following cycle.  We need to see something happen: fill in the blank.  I begin to pray, believing that God can accomplish this thing on ou...

This week, we did a catch-up week and combined weeks 29 and 30.  We got behind a few weeks back when we stretched week 25 over two weeks because we were traveling... So this week, we learned a lot about the culture and life of the people in the Roman Republic, and how things shifted rom a republic to an Empire.  We read about Latin and learned some basic phrases, and common English words we get from Latin.  We attempted to make Roman shoes, but it never did get finished! : ) We've also been reading about Jesus in the Bible.  Luke got his own full "Reader's" version of the Bible this month, and has been having a time of reading a story each day in it in the morning.  He's really enjoying that time!  So far we're up to the miracles of Jesus. I didn't get many pictures of this week, except for a crayon engraving we did.  So I'll post some photos of art we've done over the past few weeks!  Artists see lines.  Leaf rubbings to observe a...

Good news! Our private investigator finished his work, and I received all his documents and summary over the weekend.  After pouring over it all again and again, looking for typos, misspellings, inconsistencies, things that don't make sense....  I finally think it is ready to go.  He did a really thorough job, and I can't find anywhere that I think he could have done more.  Our case is a really straight forward one without much room for question to it. Except for one little fact that is just a fact. It cannot be changed, it is there and there's nothing we can do to "fix" it.  We're not ready to share the details of this, but I feel it needs to be covered by prayers.  It is something that could have been avoided if the proper care and attention had been given at the very beginning, but at this point, it is too late and we just have to roll with it. I feel very hopeful that this will be something the Embassy sees fairly often and will not pose any proble...

We made it through three units, and began the fourth and final unit for our first year of Tapestry this week! We began a three week mini-unit on The Roman Republic and Roman Empire.  First, we learned the legend of how the city of Rome was founded and the history of the beginning of the Roman republic. We had a fun time making "maximus" basket this week!  : )

There are no words to describe how relieved I am this moment.  A few months ago, "Embassy" was a dreaded word in my ears.  How things have changed!  At this moment, I am so thankful and relieved that Meryn's case is out of our agency's hands and at the Embassy.  I received an email this afternoon from the US Embassy informing me that our case had been submitted today!  After 13 loooong weeks of waiting and pushing and struggling with our agency, the next step has finally been taken. Due to several things, our family has chosen to hire a private investigator in Ethiopia.  For one, he will turn over every stone, ask every question, talk to every person who might have been involved in Meryn's story.  This will leave little room for doubt in the Embassy's decision as to her orphan status, and almost certainly will help our case clear more quickly.  I'm hoping and praying this additional thorough information will be all that's necessary and will pre...

We're thinking of Meryn a lot these days.  I wanted to post some recent pictures of her.  Please be praying that our agency is able to get our file together to be submitted to the Embassy this Wednesday, April 4th.  Please pray... I'm loving all this hair and chubbiness.  We're coming, sweet girl... we're coming...