Lieutenant Fasnacht

It's official!


THE letter:



Taking the oath of office:


The children behaving so well and witnessing their dad step into a new role as an officer in the United States Navy:



Anchors aweigh! Open sea ahead!

Next dock: Rob will be leaving in September for Officer Development School and then Chaplaincy Training. That's only two months away!

A Seth story for ya'll: the final paperwork and swearing-in took about 45 minutes, and the above picture of the children behaving like angels lasted all of 10 minutes (which is still pretty good), but it didn't take long for Seth to turn his engines to full throttle. As we were leaving, I sighed with relief that the recruiter's office was still intact. I said good-bye and thank-you and turned my attention back to my children, who suddenly numbered only three. Then Lily piped up, "Mommy, Sethie has a revolver." (I didn't even know she knew that word.) And sure enough Seth had slipped into a neighboring office and was playing with an antique revolver--was it real? I couldn't tell--that was sitting on someone's bookshelf.

Can anyone please tell me why I have so many gray hairs????

On my gift list for next Father's Day...

Last Hurdle

Yikes! Have I really let two weeks go silently by since I last posted here? Oh. Sorry!

This is a BIG week for our family. Right now, as I type, Rob is in Washington DC, either waiting for his turn to interview with the Navy Chaplain board or actually in the middle of the interview. My heart just quivered nervously as I typed that. It's the last hurdle left in Rob's Navy trail. He left Monday morning at about 2:45...yes, that's anti meridian...to catch his six o'clock flight to our nation's capitol. (Oops, I almost spelled that capital.) My devotions this morning were from Acts 11. The title of the selection in my book 5-Minute New Testament is "June 17/Day 168, Acts 11:1-30 When God acts, He breaks down the boundaries and overcomes the objections." That is exactly what I've been praying for from the moment Rob pulled out of the driveway in the dark of early morning. Today's Word confirmed that I am praying in the right direction and encouraged me to keep praying against any potholes and obstacles that may hinder Rob and us in traversing this new path.

The house felt so empty when Rob left. I couldn't fall asleep until after six in the morning, praying that he'd made his flight okay, listening to the hollow echoes in the house, feeling the cold spot on his side of the bed. I chatted with God for about an hour, and then I finally got up and watched a mind-numbing movie. He called me around 9:30 when he'd landed and was waiting for his luggage. (Unless you want to take no toiletries on board, you must check all your bags.) Sadly, the fresh blueberry muffins I stowed away for his breakfast were trapped deep in the belly of the airplane.

The kids have all expressed "I miss Daddy" in some form or another. Lily was the saddest: "I miss my dad," complete with trembling lower lip and tears dropping spontaneously onto her cheeks. Of course, I had just announced naptime, and Rob usually doesn't make her take a nap, but we had a long evening ahead of us, and I needed her not to be grumpy. He'll be back tonight at ten or so, in enough time to at least catch the last quarter of the Celtics-Lakers game tonight. It's going to be hard, hard, hard when he leaves for 13 weeks.

Tomorrow, I have to attend a CPR class from 10-4 at a local elderly assistance home with whom I have been recently been employed. Oh, yeah. I got a job. It's only part-time, but it will help whittle some of the more pressing bills away until Rob leaves for training. I'm looking forward to it actually, except for the part where I leave my husband and kids during the day or night. I'm a 2nd & 3rd shifter. There are many blessings in regards to this. We can't both work, so Rob will stop looking for work at this point. He will get to spend a lot of extra time with the kids, which will be precious to him and them as he prepares to be separated from them for several months. Another blessing: the home I work for is only 6 miles away. That is very, very close, considering we live in the boonies, and places of employment are often 30-40 miles away. The pay is okay for a part-time job, and I feel a great sense of peace about it. I prayed about it a lot before I even applied to any jobs, and when I felt the go-ahead from God, I applied to about ten various positions across Michiana. I only heard back from one company, who was nice enough to send a "no, thank-you" letter. Then I was offered this job, which was actually my first choice. Rob's not thrilled, but I think he's getting used to the idea. It just wasn't what we had planned. At this point, when is it ever???

Tomorrow night we leave for a camping/music festival trip. Doesn't that sound fun? Friends of ours are running one of the stages as well as a coffee bar for the Pro-Life Music festival click here. We're going to be helping them out and camping alongside them. I'm really looking forward to being away with my family. I do have to come back...twice, actually. Once to take Lily to a cleft clinic appointment that we couldn't reschedule and then again to work on Saturday with the dad for whom I supervise his parental visit. At least I'll be able to feed the dog and horse and don't have to worry about finding help in that area. Bright side. Oh, and it's supposed to be a gorgeous week. Last year, a couple of the campers at the festival were indirectly struck by lightning. One of them was okay, but the other sustained serious burns. Horrible.

On a brighter note, Rob taught Lily to ride her bike sans training wheels this weekend. She learned in one day! We weren't terribly surprised, because she has better balance than any of our other children. My heart was bursting with pride for her and also a motherly ache for all those children who will never have a mom or dad teach them something as joyful as learning to ride a bike. 143. million. orphans. I'll leave you with some pictures of Lily's cuteness.


She started out on Gabe's bike, to see if she was remotely ready for us to remove her training wheels. She was ready!




In a few short minutes, she was off by herself, albeit a little wobbly, but able to quickly recover and balance! Go Lily!




A glowing Lily, so proud of herself, ready for a refreshing popsicle.

Stubby and Squatty: Little Heroes

What happens when you leave your firefighters in the drier too long.

Yellow

I've taken Jeny's yellow challenge. I'm not nearly as good at creating still-life shots as Jeny is. This is more photojournalistic. This is what my day today looks like.




This is the children's new pet, whom Caleb named Chrys--short for chrysalis, hinting towards his future state of being--and the magnifying glass they use for observation.




A rare, unplucked dandelion from my yard. What's so rare about it? Like I said, it's unplucked. The children lovingly bring me handfuls all day, until there are no more left in the yard.




A gorgeous quilted hanging my grandmother made for me. She made one for each of her granddaughters in different colors. She couldn't have chose a better palate for mine. I LOVE it.



Laundry: what I'm doing today, and almost every day. I love to hang it out to dry on sunny days.




Childhood is calling...





Snack of choice




This treasure belonged to my great-grandfather, who loved clocks and collected them. After he passed away several years ago, my great-grandmother held an auction, and my parents bought each of their children one of his clocks. It is a beautiful heirloom.





A little corner of Lily's room.

Map

This morning the kids and I drove out to Russ Forest to walk the trails. I had planned on going for a bike ride, but Gabe's tire was flat.

We even brought the dog, who smiled the whole time, pulling at her leash and whipping her happy tail back and forth. I brought out my camera, lined everybody up on a log next to the dog, and pushed the button. Too bad I forgot to put the memory card in. Drat! It would've been a good one, too.

The trail we chose took about 45 minutes to walk from start to finish, and about halfway through it, Seth began to doubt my leadership. He said, "We need a map!" He produced his little, pale blue New Testament from his pocket--I didn't even know he brought it--flipped it open and studied it for a few long moments. Then he snapped it close and shoved it back into his pocket. "Yep. We need to go this way!" he said, marching on with confidence.

I immediately thought of this verse:

Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

I certainly needed that reminder from my little one today, a day when my heart feels lost and anxious and burdened.

Tragedy

My heart is breaking today for a fellow adoptive parent. Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife just lost their five-year-old daughter, Maria, to a horrible, unimaginable accident. A parent's worst nightmare. Their teenage son was pulling out of their driveway and accidentally ran over her.

Please remember their family in your prayers.

I hugged my children a little tighter today and prayed for them a little more feverishly. I've been chasing away the tiny pricks of fear that are threatening my heart all day.

Psalm 91:1, 2

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Why I Love Being a Mother

Just a small sampling:

::Freckles




::Monkey Hugs

::"Mom, you make the best food ever!"

::Literally holding the future in my hands.




::Peanut butter kisses, the real kind

::Little cowboys





::Snuggles under the covers





::Tiny toes





::Missing-toothed grins

::Pony tail sprouts






::The best partner and dad ever





::Mother's Day cards and gifts




*From Caleb: "This is the 'Mother Ship.' And look: Here's an escape Pod. I call it Mother Hawk." If you can't read it, it says on the front, "Blast Off to Mom-ers." I'm not sure why he was calling me Mom-ers, but he was being affectionate and cute. I laughed out loud at his Mother Ship joke.




*And, this is from Caleb, too. It's a picture of our family, with Dad as the High King General, and me as the High Queen. I wonder if this is how he sees our family...or if this is what he wishes our family more closely resembled.





*From Gabriel (hidden in my underwear drawer for me to find on Mother's Day morning): It's a lovely double heart so it's "double special," Gabe said with a shy smile, almost blushing. He left it with a blue pencil tucked inside so that I could rub it across the secret message he wrote in white crayon. The secret message was, "XXXOOO." How ingenious is that? Gabe is one who gives me letters and cards throughout the year, not just on Mother's Day or birthdays.


Here is a sampling of some of his love letters to me. He's also more likely to draw pictures of just him and me, whereas Caleb almost always draws the entire family.




*Lily colored me a butterfly. It looks more like a Rorschach inkblot...but she saw a butterfly in it. What does that say about her inner psyche, I wonder? Actually, I think it was a "discard" from one of Gabe's many scissor projects, and she found a way to recycle it and bring beauty to it and thought of me. She said happy Mother's Day to me, for the first time ever, and it made my eyes fill and my heart swell.
*Seth ran around giggling and wished me, "Happy Friend's Day." I don't know what that is, but I chuckled and said, "No, it's Mother's Day!" He insisted, "NO! It's Friend's Day!" He saw no need to make me a card. But...later he did wrap his arms around me and tell me, unprompted, "You're my girl." I'll take that!
*Rob very thoughtfully backed up all my pictures and important documents onto cd's off the computer. I know it was a big job. I'd really, really wanted that done, but just hadn't done it myself. That's a great gift, as anyone who has lost precious, irreplaceable data on her computer's grumpy, frozen hard drive can tell you. You'd think I would have learned my lesson...but there were literally years of pictures and articles that were just floating around my hard drive. I feel like I'd been hiding thousands of dollar bills tucked in my mattress and pockets and drawers and files, too overwhelmed to know what to do with them, and Rob just gathered them up and put them safely in a savings account at an FDIC bank. Whew. Now they're safe. Anyone who knows me knows that my pictures are my treasures.

I had a lovely Mother's Day...and my family made it very special for me.

::Contented Sigh.::

I have the best job in the world!

Seth Sightings

Now, what do you imagine he's plotting next???

Girls' Day Out

Today Lily and I met my sister Jamie and her daughter Emmaly for a day of shopping (low budget!), lunching and just being together. Every year we celebrate each other's birthdays, which are only six days apart, by spending a whole day together. It's been a LONG time since we've been completely alone without any small ones crashing the party, but today we actually chose to bring our four-year-old daughters so they could spend some time together, too. They were SO cute together, holding hands, skipping, running, draping arms around each other, like long lost sisters.

Jamie and I both had coupons to a local portrait studio, so we even took the girls in for a photo shoot. Don't they look cute? I've been wanting a portrait of Lily wearing her beautiful silk dress we purchased for her in China, but just haven't gotten it done. We did that today, too. Coaxing a smile out of her was a little torturous, but I was pleased with the final results.

And, the sweetest surprise: while we were looking through our portraits, my best friend Jeny walked in! I was so happy to see her and her three beautiful kids! We were so surprised to see each other. I was supposed to go see her Monday, but I had to cancel, and I hadn't yet rescheduled. We hadn't seen each other for months, maybe it's been longer. We do keep in regular contact, but it's not the same as sitting across from her and hearing her laughter and squeezing her hand and seeing her eyes sparkle. I miss her so. Jeny, I'm about to pop an email over to you to reschedule that visit...

Springtime in Michigan

I know it's officially spring, because literally overnight my weeping cherry trees erupted into full blossom. What a lovely splash of pink they lend to my home! I thought I'd share a few pictures. Sadly this will be my last spring here with my weeping cherry trees. No wonder they're weeping.


My favorite tree



Lily examining the flowers.



"I picked this for you, Mommy!"



The loveliest flowers in the garden. (*Notice Caleb and Gabriel sweetly holding hands. I love their precious innocence and love for each other.)

Tarnished

So it's not as golden as I thought. Rob's new job is not going to work out. I feel bad that Rob had to put up with very poor business and management in his employer for even one day. He gave it a try, and he could tell right away that the flexibility his new employer promised was hers not his and that it was a bad employment match. His first clue was when he showed up and the owner did not bother to give him any direction or provide tools for the piddly jobs she wanted done. He learned over the course of the day that she is a strong personality who knows what she wants, but her employees must simply read her mind, correctly, or bear the ill consequences.

Minimum wage is not enough to put up with that, that's for certain. Not to mention the long drive and the high gas prices.

So, we keep looking.

New Colors

I gave my little blog a face lift today...do you like it? It took more time than I care to admit, all of which should have been devoted to the landslide of laundry directly behind me. Right now, the computer desk is renting space in the laundry room. You can imagine how easy it is to get distracted when I am supposed to be matching socks. "Oh, I'll just check my email while I wait for the drier to be done." An hour later, the clothes in the drier are dry and cool, and I'm still tapping away. Oops.

I promised you an update on my hair. Remember my last post? The color is...I'm not really sure. The box says "Carmel Glaze" but that sounds yummier than hair is supposed to look. I took a picture for you, but it doesn't look quite this red in real life. The evening sun is shining down on it. Here ya go anyway: I like it well enough. I'm not in love, however. My favorite part: no more grays!

We have some good family news to share with you. First of all, Rob has finished his classes, and after repeated emails to his two professors and the registrar's office personnel, the powers-that-be are allowing his grades to be posted by the earliest posting date: April 26th, and it appears that Rob will be able to pick up his transcripts on April 28th. The professors actually have until something like May 8th to turn graduate grades in, but Rob had to humble himself, explain to them our family's situation, and everyone he spoke with has been understanding and accommodating. Thank-you, Lord!

The second piece of good news is that after only ONE day of looking, Rob has landed a summer job! Yeah, it's pretty amazing. He actually starts TOMORROW! He's only going to be making minimum wage, but if you do the math, it's still a whole lot more than zero! He'll be doing grunt work at a boarding stable that offers an English riding and jumping camp. Unfortunately, he won't be working with the horses too much but doing yard work, clean-up, minor repairs, painting, and so on. He may have to muck some stalls and take care of some of the horses during their busy times, but they have other hired help who take care of the animals. It's a blessing, and the lady did a double-take at Rob's resume (which he actually left many of the academic parts out of!) and offered him the job on the spot. We both feel good about it, knowing that it's temporary. His new boss is also going to be flexible with the hours, guaranteeing him 40 hours a week, but allowing him to take time off if needed. Believe me when I say that any job landed in this part of Michigan is golden.

When Rob and I first got married we really, really wanted to start a therapeutic horseback-riding camp for under-privileged kids. We both find it bizarre that Rob is going to be working at a riding camp now at this time in our lives.

I'll leave you with a couple of fun pictures from this week. The second picture is my mom with all her granddaughters, and the bottom one is my dad with all his grandsons. They have two sons and two daughters, and now they have eight grandsons and eight granddaughters. They're very blessed!

My hair is bubbling...is that bad?

I hate coloring my hair. I hate the thought of all those harsh chemicals soaking mischievously into my scalp while a cloud of toxins fumes about my face...for 35 minutes. But...I really hate the ornery sprouts of gray hairs that are crowding out my youthful-looking brown ones. I guess having four children and turning 33 next week is to account for that.

So here I sit, with my slimy, chemical-infused hair piled up like a heap of toxic waste on top of my head.

I bet you're wondering what color I chose. Have I gone for a summer blond look? How about a strawberry red to match my youngest son? Could it be warm mahogany to match take me back to my old natural state? Or perhaps jet black to make my blue eyes stand out? And what about streaks?

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Spring

Such a glorious, warm, sunny, earthy, springy weekend we were given!

The older boys played outside for a while each day, but they kept coming back in for various reasons (wanting to watch a show, play with Legos, transform Transformers, get a drink, have a snack, rest on the couch, etc.) "Outside!" I ordered at least a dozen times.

The little ones happily went outside and were so content out there that I had to keep having "Seth and Lily checks" to make sure they weren't getting into trouble. I forced them inside, with much protesting, for lunch and potty breaks. "Inside!" I ordered at least a dozen times as darkness approached.

But today is also a springy day. The air is dreary, damp, chilly, gloomy. The kids want to play outside, but the 40 degree temperatures that were such a relief three weeks ago are bone-chilling and unpleasant today. Today is just as much a spring day as Saturday and Sunday were. If you want spring, you've gotta take both kinds of days. At least here in the northern region of the Midwest.

Isn't spring such a perfect reflection of life? Beautiful sunny spots that fill us with peace and hope...cold stormy spots that force us to lean on God's comforting strength. And you've gotta take them both. I can make it through this week's cold and gloom because I know that spectacular days of warmth are just around the corner.

And my day lilies are bravely sprouting despite teeter-tottering temperatures.

We do have a few updates for our Navy situation. Last week, Rob took the physical fitness test...and passed! Not only did he meet the requirements for his age bracket (35-44???), but he also met the requirements given to the youngsters (ages 25-34). Yes, he quite the athletic specimen! A year ago, he would have laughed out loud if someone told him that he would be running a mile and half in 13 minutes. He was feeling great, and then he found out he'll have to pass it two more times, once before he leaves for training, and another time at the end of his training. At least it is not looming before him as an unknown. He knows he can do it, and he must simply stay in shape and stay healthy.

We still don't know when he will be leaving, but at this point, I feel that we can safely say that it is a matter of WHEN and not IF.

Last week, the kids and I visited my sister, Jamie, and her kids. We were supposed to see them last Saturday at my grandparent's Easter get-together, but Seth was sick. I was the one in charge of bringing eggs, so I had recycled 117 plastic eggs and much of the kids' Easter candy. Sadly, I live too far away to have been able to take the eggs for the rest of the kids that day. But when I went to my sister's, we took the eggs with us and had our own little post-Easter egg hunt. (I really did NOT want to disassemble the eggs or pack them to use for next year.) Did you know that 117 is not a prime number? I thought that it was, but when we divided it by the number children present--NINE!--it came out to exactly 13 eggs per kid. My 13 year old nephew was quick to correct my mistaken assumption! I'll end with a little picture of Jamie's and my kids digging into their booty. It's a lot of kids for just two families. When all four siblings get together, we have 16 children, ages 13 and under! On Rob's side, we have 14...Rob and I have a total of 22 nieces and nephews! They are each so very precious to us.

Is your refrigerator running?

You'd better go catch it! hee hee

And can I borrow it?

'Cause mine's not running. I've just transferred the frozen foods that were beginning to thaw into the chest freezer, but now I don't know what to do with the milk and eggs and cheese.

Two weeks ago, the drier broke. Rob's dad pronounced it DOA. But when I stopped at the bank to get rolls of quarters for the Wash Shed Coin Laundry, my dear friend who works at the bank said that she had a drier in her garage that we could have. We put it in this week, and now the family has clean socks and underwear!

Two weeks ago, the dishwasher stopped working. It wouldn't fill with water. For no reason at all. And for no reason at all, it started working again that same day.

Last week, the hot water heater kept tripping the circuit breaker...on the Saturday before Easter, when we were expecting multitudes of company and needed to fill a HUGE tank for the baptisms. Great, I thought. After we baptize these kids, they're going to get pneumonia and send them off to heaven much sooner than we would like. Then as mysteriously as it stopped working, it started working again. We're holding our breath a little, waiting for it to go out again. We turn on the hot water knob, and it's a sweet surprise when the water begins to warm.

And today, the refrigerator. Not panicking. God has provided for the rest of our appliance degenerations. (Really, which one is next? I'm almost afraid to ask!) But God has sweetly provided each time. I'm seriously curious with what I'm going to do with the milk and eggs. I'm about to make the children some scrambled eggs now for a late dinner.

I'll let you know what happens next.

Catching up...Easter, Baptisms, Pathway

I LOVE Easter. Love it.

Some of what I love about it:

::Heartfelt reflections the weeks preceding Easter on the price Jesus paid, simply because he could not bear to be separated from the likes of me.

::The joy, joy, joy Jesus' resurrection brings, taking Christianity far from a set of beliefs and values to a relationship with a LIVING, powerful, loving God whose good and perfect plans for us are more wonderful than we can possibly imagine, not just in heaven but here on earth as well.

::Can you really keep from smiling when you sing, "I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today; I know that He is living whatever men may say! I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer; and just the time I need Him, He's always near! He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way! He lives! He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart!" (I'm smiling now, just typing the lyrics!)

::A full church, knowing in my heart that God's Word never comes back empty.

::Family dinner. (If you have never tried Rob's mom's ham, you have never really had ham. There is nothing like it. It's amazing.)

::Finding lost eggs two days after the egg hunt.

::Sweet-faced children dressed up in clothes that reflect the hope of Easter and the promise of spring.

::Okay, I have to say it: chocolate candies wrapped in pastels! (A good mother would never let her children consume the amount of candy that found it's way into my house on Easter...I'll make the sacrifice and help them out!)

This Easter was extra special and poignant for our family. We held a baptism service at Pathway, and Caleb and Gabriel were both baptized! It was so thrilling to watch, and even more so for Rob to be the one baptizing his precious sons, as well as five other precious children.

We hosted lots and lots of family: all three sets of parents and three siblings and their families were here to celebrate the boys' baptisms and Easter with us. We had a wonderful time with everyone. They made it so special for us. (And the ladies were such a HUGE help to me as I ran about like a loony.)

Also, it was our last Sunday at Pathway. How difficult it was to know that Rob was preaching his last sermon as their pastor, that I was leading corporate worship, possibly for the last time ever, that we were worshiping together with these people whom we love the last time. We still are struggling to wrap our hearts and minds around the changes that God is bringing.

We're not sure where we're going this Sunday morning. It'll be a surprise...

We're not sure what we're going to do this summer. It'll be a surprise....

We're not sure how God is going to provide until Rob's new job with the Navy starts. It'll be a surprise...

We're not sure when Rob is going to leave...June (probably not)...July (I hope, I hope, I hope)...or September (likely). it'll be a surprise, too.

I'm learning that I need to like surprises...or live in constant worry. I don't like the alternative, and I truly trust the Giver of the surprises, the Great Surpriser Himself. What an exciting place to be!