Hi...

How are ya'll?  I really am wanting to start blogging more consistently.  I miss you all.  How can it already be almost February.  Steve and I had our 25th anniversary on January 9th, but due to a beautiful family wedding in Texas (my neice) and over two weeks of sicknesses we still have not "celebrated".  We received enough gift money to stay in a cabin in Estes Park, Colorado.  Hopefully by the end of February we can go.  

Steve turned 50 on the 28th, and the children and I had a wonderful surprise for him.  Jace and Karlie flew in from Fort Worth to surprise him, and boy was he surprised ... there were even a few happy tears.  His family also came down from Denver, so we had a wonderful, fun weekend.

I have been totally obsessed with fibers to spin lately.  Last week the children and I had the joy of taking care of some Alpaca's for a local rancher.  It was really fun, and I "adopted" my first fiber animals - two English Angora Rabbits.  

I can hardly wait to spin me some Angora fiber. 

My camera is broken - sadly it will cost quite a bit to fix it.  One day it was working, and the next - not.  The camera guys say that "this" just happens with these older models. 

Also, the dishwasher is broke.  Boy, do we miss that sucker!  One meal for a family of 14 creates quite a mess. 

Would you please pray for Dandy ... tomorrow morning he will be having surgery to replace his knee.  A whole lot of fun and trying to keep up with Gommy finally wore the thing out.  

Well, that's all for now.  Talk to you again soon.

Just...

...Sweet. Big brother feeding little brother.

Notice the position of the Pooh Bear?  Yes, he is bottom up.  

Keshawn always snuggles the bottom of his Pooh.

Want to know why?

It's a funny story.

When he was a baby, I would grab the Pooh and position him with his bottom legs holding the bottle so that I could read while baby Keshawn ate and slept.

And now, he always hold Pooh upside down and snuggles the little tag at the bottom of Pooh's bottom.  

LOL - the tag is getting a little ragged from being loved so much.

And that is the story of the little boy who snuggles with the bear's fluffy, stuffed bottom.

A Year Of Belonging

Doesn’t this picture just break your heart?  It would mine, 

if there wasn’t more to the story.

The day we left China, I’m sure that these children were scared to death, but she put on her brave face and promised the interpreters that she would not run away from us in the train station.

I had my emergency note written in Chinese to explain that I was her new mother and that I was adopting her, not kidnapping her.

My newest son was putting on his brave face too - with enough energy to fight me the next two days of travel. 

We made it home, exhausted physically and emotionally.  And I knew that now the real healing would began for my new children.  The healing that can only happen in a family where you belong.  We showed them the Texas coast, Christmas, snow, and their first Christmas gifts.  

 They met their new family - a daddy, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and Dandy and Gommy.

 They did the best they could to cope - she looked out any window she could find and cried.  He withdrew, or was naughty.  

We all held them and tried to help them as much as we could.

 But, I knew in my heart that the only answer for their grief was time, 

and lots and lots of understanding, sympathy, and love.

 A year later, it is beginning to show;  

The healing...

 ...the feelings of belonging and safety.  

 In those little faces of my newest son and daughter, I am seeing happiness, 

 silliness,

 laughter,

 and beauty where there was fear, pain and sadness. 

 They have learned what being loved is, what belonging looks like.

  And I think that they like it.

I am so thankful to the LORD that I was chosen to be their mother -

to share their journey,

to teach them the joys of a family,

and to see them in time embrace that;

I am so thankful to be apart of their story,

and to know that it has only just begun.

Kalyn ...

... wrote a beautiful post here that I’m sure you would enjoying reading.