Mothering 16

This is my new family.  We adopted 8 more kids this week.  For now anyway.  Their mommy needed some pretty serious surgery, and my family has been blessed beyond measure to have the Smith Family in our home.

If I could choose 8 kids to adopt into my family, it would be these kids.  We have older girls with my older girls,  middle girls for my middle ones and lots of little boys for my boys.  And a baby in the house again!

For now their mommy is healing and their baby sister is growing in a NICU, and we are loving needing 2 big vans to go anywhere. 

For the body of Christ who has come forth and fed this crew, and prayed for this crew and for Mrs. P next door who has taught us a lot about diabetes, we are forever grateful.

To our Lord who has restored friendships after a very hard few years, we give Him all the glory.

Crazy's Daisies

These are my Crazy Daisies.  My husband has nicknamed them Crazy's Daisies - no further explanation needed.  I love them.  They grow wild and free and multiply like, well, like crazy.  Hmmmm.

They are there growing and pretty and green almost all year.  They are good to have when everything is in the bleak of winter because they are a promise of beauty to come.  They need care and love and then space to do their own thing.  They grow best in the confines of my garden, but every once in a while, one will grow outside of the planting area.  I just let it grow and flourish where it wants to.

Sometime during the heat of the summer, they need pruning and straightening up.  Sometimes when everything else is blooming and bright and beautiful, you hear these doubts creep in your mind.  Would it be better to just clean up the yard?  Would it be better to just have a few of these?  Then that day comes.  This year it was the first of October.  You look out and their beautiful sunny faces are bursting out to welcome you to the garden.  They are beautiful, and we picnic outside and just stare at them.  I open my blinds in the morning eager to see them.  One of my girls sits in the midst of them to do her school work because they are beautiful and inspiring.  Sometimes when the moon is full, I can see them at night.

And that is what it it like to raise our family.  They are pretty and wonderful all the time, but it is the promise of who they are that makes your heart leap with joy.  Souls made to worship a living God for eternity.  I sometimes just get used to their being there, and sometimes I just stare at them because they are amazing and beautiful.  There are days that are like the ones when the daisies bloom.  Days where the beauty of my life takes my breath away.  Those are the days when there are no words to tell God Thank you".  It seems so inadequate.  Those are the days when my heart leaps for joy.  They are my field of daisies with a beauty beyond compare.