Hoping for November 18

Well the last word on the finalization of "M" is that it will be on November 18. The time frame has changed a few times, once thinking this date but then given hope that it would happen before school started, then that changed to Sept/Oct. But now this is the date given. Or at least what they are striving for. I would love it if you would pray with us that it happens on that date and not pushed back. It may not seem like a big deal since we have her, but it does mean a lot to a little girl who knows that her last name is still different and legally still a foster child.

So please pray that it will happen on November 18th.

The calendar says that fall begins tomorrow. It is in the upper 90's right now, I'm thinking it might still be a while. But it will come. Of course raking usually doesn't happen until close to December around here, but we will still put up all the orange decorations to make it look like fall. Somehow even if the leaves are still green on the trees and you are wearing flip flops and a tank top, as long as you have a scarecrow to look at, a crispy apple in your mouth and the smell of spiced pumpkin in the air, you will be in the mood.

What do you most love about fall?

Lucky 13

August 1st was our 13th wedding anniversary. Thirteen wonderful years with my best friend.

My mom was visiting from Indiana, so we left the kids with her and ventured up to Kings Canyon National Park to hike to Mist Falls. The hike totaled 9.2 miles, mostly flat with a 600 foot elevation gain at the end, but it wasn't bad at all. Every bit of the hike was beautiful. So I got to spend the day with my most favorite person doing one of my most favorite things! I am a blessed girl!

This is our drive through Sequoia National Forest.

Now for the hike

We reached our destination: Mist Falls

Lunch, not a bad view

We walked a little closer to the falls and sat on these rocks for a while. It was quite loud with the water raging next to us, but so relaxing. We had a huge snow pack this past winter and now it is all melting causing the rivers to rage, which is both beautiful and dangerous.

We drove home and found our kids had made a shadow puppet show similar to what Paige and Clay learned about in Williamsburg. So that was our evening show after a pizza dinner (one of my favorites) Anniversaries look different now that we have kids. I look at them (the kids) and think of how they are one of the many benefits to marriage.

I think God for our marriage and Jathan's godly leadership and love for me!

Fruits of Labor

Our peaches are coming fast and furious. I am determined to allow as few as possible go to waste, however, it is next to impossible to keep up with them. I took a few days off of climbing up into the tree picking the "just starting to get soft" peaches and now I am in trouble. Now many are in the "eat me this moment" stage. So back at it I will be. I love our peaches, and most stone fruit in general, but as far as growing, the citrus is much easier. They will last many, many months on the tree and even on the ground for days provided they stay dry. But not so with stone fruit. You better be ready, because when they are ripe, you only have a couple of weeks and then they are gone. They have either fallen to smash on the ground or our friendly neighborhood birds have pecked away at them all. Maybe friendly isn't the word to describe the birds. The other day while up in the tree, one was squawking terribly at me. I felt like I was in intruding on its space until I reminded myself that we were the ones that pruned the tree this winter and thinned the fruit one by one this spring. We are also the ones to rake the leaves in the fall and pick up the fallen fruit in the summer. So I do believe I have every right to be in the tree picking its fruit!

Our raised bed garden on the side yard isn't doing too bad either. Mix tomatoes and basil from the garden, garlic, cheese and olive oil from the farmers market and some lavash bread from Trader Joes and you have a pretty tasty lunch!

I hesitated about putting a garden on our side yard by the street. I wasn't sure if our neighbors would appreciate the look of it. But I found it to be quite the opposite. Every time I am out tending it or picking something from it, if someone is walking by they comment about how much fun they have watching the garden grow. I have conversations with people I have never met before because of the garden. So it has been a blessing.

We are using the abundance of peaches to make more contacts with neighbors as we have been delivering fresh peaches to most all of them. Jathan and I realized and are convicted that we have not been using the opportunity we have in the neighborhood for the gospel. So that is going to change. The peaches have helped us open the door with communication and now we are working on more intentional contacts. You can pray for us if you think of it.

Colorado - Kansas - New Mexico

In the middle of May, Jathan had a conference in Estes Park, Colorado. The kids and I got to tag along. It was so much fun exploring Rocky Mountain National Park and the surrounding area. After Colorado, we headed to Kansas to visit Jathan's sister and her family. Here we were able to attend our nephews graduation. On our way back to California, we stopped in New Mexico to visit our friends from our days in Indiana. I wish we could have stayed with them longer, we had a wonderful time, two nights just wasn't enough. Finally home again the first day of June. We had a great time, but there really is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!

Snow is not on the list of some of my favorite things. But it sure is beautiful up in the mountains. The picture below is in the morning after a snow fall the night before. The older three and I went on a bird walk with a local naturalist at the park. It was so interesting and beautiful.

The weather forecast said no snow, well that isn't what happened. We were not prepared and being from a place that doesn't snow we really didn't have much at home that would have prepared us anyway. So off we went to the thrift shop and for $35 we came away with 5 bib overalls, 4 coats, 4 pair of snow gloves and 3 pair of snow boots. For another $30 we got a brand new but on clearance pair of water proof hiking boots for Clay that will last him a couple of years and hopefully his younger siblings too. Everything was sized larger than needed so we will hopefully get many years out of them. (except my bibs, I am hoping not to grow too much myself!) They will come in handy as we venture up to the Sequoias to play in the snow.

In the picture of Paige, we are over 2 miles above sea level, that is the highest we were able to drive in the park.

Paige and Clay got to take an archery class where we were staying. The younger two weren't old enough. We stayed at the YMCA Conference center and it was wonderful with activities and classes for the kids. Most everything was free except the archery, but that was only $3.

While passing through Denver on our way to Kansas, we stopped at Casa Bonitas, a very unique Mexican restaurant. I can't say the food was much to write home about, but the entertainment on atmosphere was worth the trip. Cliff divers, flame juggling, skits, caves, pinata. It was a lot of fun.

While in Kansas, the kids not only saw their cousins, they also got to spend time with their grandparents who also came to watch the graduation.

In New Mexico, Jill and I took the kids up to Santa Fe for the day to do a little sight seeing. We saw the oldest church and oldest home in the US as well as some cool shops. In the picture below, bricks are being made to restore the oldest church.

Homeward bound. Crossing the Mojave as soon as we get into California. This is our view for a couple of hours.

Two Kids

We are two kids down this week as Clay and Paige are in Williamsburg, VA with their grandma and aunt. They are learning lots about Colonial history and it sounds like they are having a grand time.

So it has been just the four of us this week. And wow! what a difference it makes. The first day was a bit of a struggle, I have to admit I missed the other two, it was so weird not having them around and knowing that they wouldn't be for a week. But then getting to focus on just the younger two has been so nice. We had a bumpy morning yesterday, the younger two didn't quite know what to do with themselves without their older ringleaders. But today has been filled with laughter and chatter between the two and I think they are enjoying their time quite well.

Now that the two kids are occupied with something, I thought I would update the blog a bit. I am not sure if anyone reads it anymore, updating it less than once a month does not help encourage people to follow, but for those of you faithful readers here is a nutshell of what has been going on in our lives.

After returning from our two and a half week trip out east, we finished up with school and were excited to bring on summer break. In June we had swim lessons a couple of times. A lady from our church offers swim lessons to our family at her home. It is great, as they kids can work on what they need help with and they get lots of individual attention. Their strokes are improving very well. The beginning of July, our college friends that live in the LA area visited for the Fourth of July. It was a great time with a couple trips up to the national parks, swimming, games and fireworks. Also this summer, the kids are in a reading program at the library, earning prizes and reading lots of books. The older two, especially Paige, concentrated on reading books about colonial times and Jamestown. This was to prepare herself for their big trip.

News on "M". We still haven't finalized and we still have no idea when that will be. Her social worker told the court November, then he told me he hoped before school started, then he said that wouldn't happen but hopefully soon after it starts. So I really have no idea when it will happen. Until there is a court date set, I am not going to get too excited. I feel like we are bonding better with her, but we still have a way to go. I hate to admit it, but she can still do things that just get under my skin, and I know that if it were one of the other kids it wouldn't bother me as much. But it is getting better. She is no longer in therapy, her therapist thought that she was doing well and didn't need it anymore. We have been working on her asthma. It is all new to us. I had asthma as a child, but hers seems to be different. We haven't had much trouble with it except on our trip which landed her in the hospital for 3 nights. Last month two women from the local hospital came and evaluated our home for possible triggers. They literally did the white glove check which was a bit embarrassing and stressful. And then gave me an action plan and came back two weeks later to make sure I made the changes and cleaned the way I should. "M" came with over 40 stuffed animals, I am not exaggerating. They said she needed to be limited to two animals. The other kids also needed to get rid of all but two a piece that way I could wash in hot water, dry and then put them in the freezer every other day for 24 hours. That was hard, especially for Drew as he told me he didn't like asthma. I let them keep 5 each, I couldn't do the 2 a piece, but I will try to stay on top of cleaning them. (just don't tell the hospital ladies!)

Drew completed his school testing. All of it just in time for them to hire a new special ed teacher that won't start until the beginning of the school year. So we really didn't get anything accomplished yet. We have had less raging, which is wonderful, though when he has raged the things he yells at me breaks my heart and can be a bit frightening. After he calms down he is a different kid again and you are thinking "what on earth just happened?" One of our biggest challenges is communication. Trying to figure out what he is saying can be close to impossible and frustrating for both us and him. It isn't understanding the words, sometimes that is a struggle, but after figuring them out he just doesn't make sense or we think he does and find that the words he is saying is not matching with what he means.

So anyway, those above are ways you can pray for us.

We are back

Well maybe you didn't know we were gone. We just returned Wednesday night from a 2 1/2 week road trip. Colorado for a conference, Kansas for nephews graduation and then New Mexico to see friends on the way home.

It was an adventure. Lots of fun and a bit stress ("M" spent 3 nights in the hospital for asthma). I'll share some of our trip in the future. Right now we are adjusting to home.

Laundry has been the focus. Washing clothes, hanging them to dry, taking them off to fit the next load on. I finished the last load this afternoon, they are folded, not quite put away, the kids will do that in the morning. I believe there is suppose to be rain, so it is finished just in time. Of course, I can never really get caught up with laundry.

In addition to putting things away and washing clothes, I decided to rearrange some furniture. I realized today that the last several times I went on a trip, I came back and rearranged some furniture. I am not sure what that is about.

But anyway, we made it home after traveling over 3,000 miles. Thanking God for protection.