Today’s Divine Appointment

I love it when that happens!

Early in the morning at 9:00, (for a homeschool mom anyway!) I was sitting in my van outside the house where Nora has a class for an hour. My computer was open and I was proofreading a PowerPoint for a seminar I give on choosing homeschool curriculum. I came to a slide where I have photos of different unit studies for comparison. One photo was the sole example I could find online of the contents of a unit study on Obedience by my all time favorite curriculum, Konos. The photo was blurry and pathetic, however I justified it by noting how many different colored blurry indistinguishable items there were… showing volume…. not detail… AT ALL. I recalled scouring the web for a better picture to no avail. Small size it is almost clear, but blown up on a big screen, it’s horrid. That’s the gospel truth. Here it is:

When Nora was done, we drove downtown and visited my friend, Ana, who is the kind soul who processes all the homeschool affidavits for Maricopa County. (Can I just say that the view from her 12th story office facing north was FANTASTIC including a community garden, three beautiful brick Catholic schools and Camelback Mountain! WOW!) As we were chatting I noticed a brochure on her desk for the Covenant Homeschool Resource Center, which I knew was also downtown. Mentioning that I had never been there (not mentioning that this is my 15th year homeschooling) she drew me a map and insisted that I go, as it was only three blocks away. Perfect!

Nora and I found the little hole-in-a-wall resource center and ventured inside. To say that it is crammed to capacity of curriculum and books and resources is the understatement of the century. Fuller than a centipede’s sock drawer.

Right away we found Nora’s science books for next year and then I started chatting with my friend, Janet, who runs the place. (She’s probably the one who crams all the books on those sagging shelves!) I inquired about her married daughter and come to find out, her and her new husband are living in Lynden, WA. Being very familiar with Lynden as we used to live right across the border in Canada, I remarked about how beautiful it is there. But that’s not all, Janet’s son-in-law is working at Trinity Western University… where Rick and I met and went to college. What a small world. (Sing with me, “It’s a small world after all… It’s a small world after all…)

Oh, it even gets better. As we were commenting about the coincidence of that, over her shoulder I spied the curriculum box for Obedience… the one in my blurry photo from earlier that morning! I promise you, I heard angels singing. She let me take it down and set it all up pretty and she even took the photo with her camera and emailed it to me. Here it is:

I love it when that happens! Thank you, God, for answering a prayer that was a desire of my heart, that I didn’t even pray. Amen and amen.

Anne with an E

One of my favorite book series is Anne of Green Gables.  The summer we drove across Canada and camped on Prince Edward Island, Anne’s home, I read the series as we passed the Lake of Shining Waters and the White Way of Delight.  Lucy MM’s writing is superb.  The words that come out of Anne’s mouth are hysterical!  She is so full of imagination and wonder at every little thing… and highly dramatic!  So funny!

Several months ago, I started reading a shortened version of the book to Nora, our little adopted daughter.  I wondered how it would affect her, hearing about Anne’s heartbreak at not having a family.  The book glossed it over pretty well and got right into the daily events on Anne’s life at Green Gables.  Yesterday, I found the movie online for Nora to watch.  It is over two and a half hours long so it took three sittings to finish it all.  Nora sat on the end of her chair the entire movie!  It was priceless.

This tentative look on Anne’s face as she waits for Matthew at the train station…. it’s the same one I saw on Nora’s face the day we got her.  “Will they like me?”  “Am I okay?”  “Will they keep me?”  “Will I be safe?”  “Everything changes today.”  WOW!

The movie does not sugar coat the fact that no one wanted the red haired orphan in the beginning.  Nora didn’t say much, other than looking at me with wondering eyes and asking, “They do keep her, right?”  I watched most of the movie with her, but never looking through the eyes of an adopted child until yesterday.  She must have related to so much of the story.  It broke my heart when the two women in the very beginning call Anne “trash”… good heavens.  I didn’t even remember that part.

I understood a bit more now about how Anne wanted to be called Cordelia, hoping for a different life than the one she had been given that lead her to the depths of despair. Marilla’s line was superb, “To despair is to turn your back on God.”  So true!

We’ve had two nights of reassuring talks that Nora is ours forever. That God never left her without someone to take care of her. That we prayed for her for four years before she was part of our family.  That God chose her for us and us for her. I don’t think we can ever say those words enough.  Ever.

My Little Girl

For Nora’s third Gotcha Day (celebrating the day we adopted her) we asked a friend to take a photo shoot of our sweet little girl.  We met in a gated community just before sundown and Nora could not figure out why we wanted her to sit in the weeds!  Hahahaha!  On a blustery Wednesday a week later we met in Target parking lot to exchange the goods.  When the CD went into the home computer and we admired each scene… each smile… each dimple… I realized my little girl isn’t going to be little for much longer.  Seriously, it was the first time I thought those thoughts.  Her face is thinning out.  Her big teeth have almost all shown up for the party.  And she does her own hair now.  Our time with our kids is so short!  And when they arrive at your heart’s door at seven years old, it is entirely too swift of a time until they leave home!

This picture is my favorite of all of them because she is laughing, truly laughing and it shows in her eyes.  It’s so sweet.  Then I took a long swallow and realized that she looks at her Daddy with these loving eyes and that cheery smile, but only for a little while longer.  My stomach did a flip flop and sank as I realized this smile and adoring look will be aimed at her next Knight in Shining Armor in as little as TEN YEARS!  WHAT!  Stop the bus!

Well, she did tell us that she’s not getting married until she’s 35, so we have a few more years than most.  :o)

Hug and kiss your kids!  And make them sit in the weeds!

Smarty Pants…. not really.

Thinking I had scored a major victory at my favorite thrift store with a pair of chocolate brown capri pants, I sauntered to the sewing machine for a minor quick fix.  These were TOTALLY cute capris with little buttons and tabs on the pockets and cute twill tape ties at the bottom of each leg.  One glance and I figured out why the previous owner had sadly parted with these adorable pants.  The wide elastic in the back of the waist band had flipped and to the untrained eye appeared to be stuck in that position. But no.

Having taken self-taught home-ec sewing for 13 years before leaving home (Okay, my mom did initially show me how to sew forward, backwards and zig zag on the ancient Sears machine), the necessary remedy for the brown capris took a few straight pins and some determination.  Seriously, even with the thread change on the machine to a delicious chocolate color, the entire process took fifteen minutes.

Proud did not even begin to explain my feelings of accomplishment.  Waltzing into my closet, I pulled on my new favorite pants, buttoned the waist, slid the zipper in place and unsuccessfully tugged on the brown twill tape that circled the waist.  It seemed to be stuck.  There was five inches sticking out on the right side and 14 inches sticking out on the left side.  What in the world?  Tug tug.  No go.  Then I realized, in all of my smarty-pants-ness I had flipped the elastic and stitched not only the elastic in place but also the draw string for the waist.  Bummer dude.

I have yet to remedy the situation.  I simply tie them really far to the right in a teeny bow and tuck ten inches of twill tape inside the waistband of the pants.  Honestly, it would only take five minutes to pull out my stitches but I simply haven’t done it.  I keep tying the miniature bow and hiding the leftovers, hoping no one will see what a mess I made of my new almost favorite pants.

Father’s Day! Two-thousand-twelve (twelve…twelve….twelve)

Nora and her second Father’s Day with her Daddy.  Rick and his second Father’s Day with his Colombian princess.  She wrote him a beautiful card, “Thank you for being my dad. I love you!”  Brought tears to my eyes when I think of how blessed she is to have him as her Daddy.

During church this morning, I realized for the first time that I’m thankful to another father…. in South America… who fathered a little girl who was destined for our family…. and destined to do GREAT things for eternity through her testimony.  A father whom I’ll probably never meet.  But a father whose life impacted our family GREATLY.  Thank you, birth father, for your precious gift to us.  I silently said his full name and prayed a blessing on him.

We spent the day with my Dad up at my parent’s house with most of our family (minus one child who was camping) and my brother’s family.  The line of cards was the longest I’ve seen in a while.  Lot’s of love and sentiments.  Our family is blessed beyond measure with godly fathers for generations!

At lunch, we all shared a memory of our dad… the stories varied from saving a daughter from swarming ants, to removing socks full of fleas, to cleaning up a crib smeared with *unmentionable* smelliness…. and those were the first three stories.  I felt like we were stuck in a Green Acres episode down on the boondocks.  Seriously?  These were the only happy Father’s Day memories???  I jumped in next with a story of my dad fixing the most amazing dinner, in my humble 5-year-old opinion, of popcorn and sliced apples.  I was SOOO impressed with his culinary skills!  More stories followed of kids being swung up on the roof and slammed into the side of the house first….. dad reading the Bible every morning…. being chased and tickled… being impressed with dad’s ice skating skills…. and dads who dressed up like a woman and Peter Pan (with tights).  It was all quite amusing.  Nora told the story of the day she met her Daddy and he cried tears of joy and almost made her cry and then he made a funny gulping noise.  (Love it!)

Dads play such a critical role in the lives of their children…. as examples and role models for their sons… and as admirers, protectors and guardians for their daughters.  Thankfulness permeates my soul as I realize the quality of the fathers in my family… solid men of integrity and strength through good times and bad.  All following the heavenly Father and leading the way to Him. Thanks, Dad.  Thanks, Honey.  Thanks, Rob.

So blessed!

 

Table for Six, Please!

Today we sat down with the kids and planned the remainder of our stay in the Cauca Valley.  There were requests for paintball, the gold museum, an architectural tour, the zoo, handmade crafts shopping and a trip up into the mountains.  We are sort of on an every-other-day schedule, as the cleaning lady/cook comes on Monday-Wednesday-Friday and someone should be here at the villa.  The smaller trips of interest to only a few of us cultured family members can take place on cleaning days too.  We have another 11-12 days here in Cali and we want to see as much as possible without spending an arm and a leg… or wearing out the little muchacha.  Ok, enough logistics.

Tonight as my kids all hugged and kissed each other before Nora’s bedtime, I witnessed unconditional love that melted my heart.  Our two Canadian and one American kids have wholeheartedly accepted their little Colombian sister without as much as a hiccup.  My 17-year-old daughter is sharing a room and a bed with her new little sister and is loving it all!  So am I!  Nora picked first in the room… which meant all the shelves in the closet, the only nightstand and the best side of the bed.  Larisa hasn’t really been told what to do by a 7-year-old before, and she handled it beautifully.  I’ve heard her say several times, “Where is my favorite little Colombian?”  Awwww.

Adoption is such an amazing, heart-transforming adventure.  We have seen God’s hand in the orchestration of our family every day as more and more tidbits of Nora’s personality and talents surface.  It is remarkable that a little girl can grow up on a different continent and mesh so well with a family of five who barely even speak her language!  Her sense of humor is the best part of it all!  One day, like every other day, we were looking through the photo album I made for Nora of her new family, our house and relatives.  She looked at the picture of our piano and asked who played it.  We told her that we all did, except Dad.  She said, very matter-of-factly, “Así que la mamá es más inteligente que papá?”  (Oh, so mommy is more intelligent than daddy?)  Made me laugh. 

We are also totally enjoying the fact that Larisa and I speak and understand the most Spanish among our family (which isn’t saying a whole lot!) but everyone talks to Rick because he looks like he belongs here!  Rick can’t understand a lick of Spanish!  He has been in the swimming pool every day for a week and is darkening up to a golden bronze color.  :o)  A group of neighborhood boys have been playing soccer every day with Rick and our sons, Austin and Keeve.  One of the boys asked me in Rick’s absence, “Is Rick the father of Austin?”  and I overheard one boy ask Keeve, “Are you and Austin brothers?”  It makes me laugh.  I realized today, after EVERYONE in the mall stared at us with our blonde children, that they must assume that Rick married me with these three teenagers in tow… and then we had this cute little dark girl that looks like her Daddy!  One of the clowns at the petting zoo told Rick that he appears to be Colombian!

The first morning we were in this villa, I was up early making scrambled eggs and toast (and arepa, of course!) and I set the kitchen table before anyone was awake.  Later, my husband walked in and asked if I wasn’t eating with the family.  I ONLY SET FIVE PLACES!  Thank the good Lord Nora didn’t witness her mother forgetting her already!!!!  Aye, yi yi!  This is life changing in every way.  Thankfully there is enough love to take care of everyone!