HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Who were those kids getting married 22 years ago?  Two people who had not a clue what they were doing.

Duane and I were the best of friends.  We are the best of friends.    During our home studies that is what we continue to tell our social worker; we just enjoy being together so much.

That is what we tell our kids.  The finer points of theology will come, child rearing will come, but being the best of friends that is what makes it enduring.  When God gives you the gift of a spouse that is your kindred spirit, when God gives your marriage grace beyond words, that is what carries a young couple through 8 children, 5 miscarriages and the foster care journey, tough economic times, and lack of work. 

We pray they find godly spouses who they love being with because that is what carries you through.

That and a lot of laughter.... and being left handed!

 

The day I remember

April 27th changed the life of my friends, but April 28th changed mine.  We had stayed up all night - friends calling, "Have you heard anything?"  "Duane is there with a chainsaw, only men with chainsaws can come through" "Injured people everywhere" A text... someone is dead.  And that became our reality.  Someone we loved was gone.

Today I read, Do not boast in tomorrow.   Proverbs 27.  Had Mr. L ever boasted?  I think not, but he knew His Savior and so does his family.  He had voiced a hope that there would be a tomorrow.  That he would see his youngest grow up, but no he had known that the Lord holds time in His hands. 

So with one hour of sleep, I told my children, "Mr. L. had died in the storm, several of the children were in the hospital with serious injuries, our friends' homes were gone, and life will be forever different."

We headed to the sight of the tornado, and all day long we picked through the rubble of our friends former life.  We looked for a wedding ring of newly made widow.  We cried.  We stood in awe as we looked at where the family had been and knew that God had spared 14 even while taking one home to Him.

We hugged and loved the C. family.  I cried as her little told me as she came over to my house, "Daddy is out buying us a new house."

Today, a year ago, my front lawn was covered in laundry.  I had so many children in my home that I stopped counting and just kept feeding.  We had company in our home everyday for over a month.  God had already begun to teach me a new lesson... open door hospitality.
Now that will rock your boat!! 

Rise Up and Call Her Blessed

Recently a "comedian"  made some type of trashy comment about a presidential candidate's wife.  The comment was neither insightful nor funny, but that is not the point in this world.  The point is to offend, but really who did it offend?

Women all over the world?  Women who since the beginning of time have prepared a haven, a home, a hospice for their families?  Maybe, but more importantly Scripture tells us, "A foolish son is the grief of his mother."  The beautiful woman of Proverbs 31 raised sons who grow up to call her "blessed."

Do you think highly of the comedian's mother?  That is his view of women.  That is what his family instilled.  What are we instilling in our sons?


Let us prayerfully and humbly raise up sons who call us blessed.

Happy Birthday Jamie

Jamie came to us during the winter Olympics of 2002.  Daddy said, "Hey, why don't you have this one on 2-22-02 then I might remember her birthday."  So I did.  I am a very submissive wife!! 

Jamie is a joy to have in our home.  She craves companionship that I too often forget to give her, but I am learning every day.  The children that grace my home are only here for a moment, and that makes me sad.  Jamie has entered the two digits of the age range.  Most of my kids can now read, most can now brush their teeth fairly well:).  One is even about to wrap up high school level education. 

None will ever stop being my baby.  None will ever be to hold to hear that Mommy and Daddy love him.  The days of diaper bags and car seats are almost over, but this Momma loved those days, and I wonder what God may have in store for my sweet family... 

I am beginning to listen to more of David Platt and less of box thinking Christianity.  In that I am beginning to pray "my heart will be broken by the things that break His" (Amy Grant).

$300 Giveaway From Vision Forum!!!

Last year I received one of my all time favorite gifts from my kids; the book "Large Family Mothering".  So many of the things in it were already part of my life, but it is so encouraging to read another mother's tips and helps.  Plus, I can always find new things I need to be doing, or be reminded to get back on track with some things that I have let slip.

This book was refreshing because it was written by a mother of a large family, to large families!  This book and many other Christian books are available from Vision Forum.

My good friend Kelly Crawford is hosting a $300.00 giveaway for Vision Forum on her blog.  Hurry and enter, it ends tomorrow!

Birthdays and my girls

I wish I could write well what is in my heart. I wish that I could tell you the way Mrs. Robin does what my world means because of Jessica, Rachel and Erin. I don't have that gift. I can write and I can give you a glimpse of my world, but I cannot make your heart leap the way mine does when I see my girls.

Jessica's birthday quietly slipped by in the midst of parenting 16 children. A daughter on the precipice of life. A woman wanting to be a mom and have a new life, but not wanting to walk away from the childhood life here. She is precious and wonderful, and we talk about the day she is not here because we don't know how we could possibly live a day without her to give our life stability.

Rachel's and Erin's birthday arrived much like them - with flare and gusto. They have made birthday demands that Jessica would never have imagined making. Still Jessica loves them more because they are this way, and she is not.

Rachel- my twin - in so many ways, but still I pale in comparison. Rachel who I tortured through a ridiculous time of trying to make her learn to read. Now with wisdom and mostly age, I know I would only hold her in my lap and read to her constantly. For when it was time to read, she read and has never stopped.

Rachel who brought me to tears over wondering if she would ever stop getting into mischief. She is now the family worker. She works even when she does not know she is working. She just accomplishes so much. She is competitive and fearless. One day a boy will come along who can out run her. Heaven help him. Her daddy has promised to talk him through all he faces for he has survived it with me!

Erin, who sees life in a different way. Her humor has begun to surpass her father's wit. She hears all even though she pretends that she does not. She eats, sleeps and breathes music. And she irons!!! She has built quite a lucrative business ironing for the family. She makes her biggest profits on Sunday morning when she charges double the going price!

Erin is a rock in the midst of chaos. She is calm to a point of frustration for me, but it is a blessing beyond compare. She patiently cooks with Michael when I would have put him in front of a Rescue Heroes and gotten my work done in half the time.

I am learning the this side of parenting is 200% harder than the 12 and under days. Girls looking to me to let them have enough room to fly, but to be waiting at the nest when they come home. The wounds of the world are much deeper than the cuts and bruises of a fall off a porch on a scooter or a pencil through the foot. These wounds are of the soul.

Our talks are deeper. Sometimes they dread the conversations that begin, "I have something to tell you." But they are better. How wonderful to have the laughter and support of a Christian home. I make so many mistakes. Forgive me girls. I have no idea what I am doing. Maybe by the time Sarah is here, you will have your own daughters, and we can try to figure out all of this together.

Until then, I thank the LORD for you each moment of the day.

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.

Psalm 139

For You formed my inner most parts; You formed me in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13


Twelve years ago today, we heard the wonderful NEW words, "It's a boy!" From that moment on everything changed. Rescue Heroes and weapons, Bob the Builder and trains, Star Wars and Lincoln Logs had entered our world.



Still the Biggest change was LEGOS. For every Lego block I see (or step on) I am reminded that Ryan lives in my home, and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you Lord for every LEGO creation I see, because it means that the Creator of the universe had knit a little boy together in my womb 12 years ago. For that gift of God, I am thankful beyond belief.

The Man I Love

There are moments where you catch your breath with the love you feel for someone.  When I see him slow his steps to walk with Michael and tell him about tools.  Michael will not remember tools, but he will hold the memory of tool talks - moments where his daddy slowed his pace to tell him a little about the world.

 We have months where the sameness of who we are together crowds in.  As if I have known him all my life, and he is just there.  We kid about the day one of us is not here - how he won't know how to pay a bill or balance a check book.  The reality, of course, is that it is I who would suffer the greater loss.  It is I who would be wondering how to breathe again, how to laugh again.  Though I might be able to balance checkbooks for our family - he balances the world for us.  That is the moment when I cannot fathom loving him more.

It will come and go -  the intensity of the feeling.  Life is rushing forward, and I cannot stop too long to dwell on this love.  I think it is a glimpse, a taste of God's love -  of the love we will one day feel before Him - for we shall see Him in all His glory and know He is the one who balances all of the world.