Enjoying the Blessings

I’m so behind on updating, but life has been busy. Of course, having a new baby in the house to love and cuddle can be consuming as well! We have been so very blessed to adopt once again. Meet Braedyn Allan~Elias, born November 16th! We have the privilege of entering into an open adoption with a young girl from our church. It has been an amazing blessing to minister not only to this precious baby, but his birth mother as well. When I have time to share our entire story I’ll do so. Until then, you know we’re spending all our spare time enjoying this precious bundle of baby love!

Today, we celebrate the anniversary of Hannah’s adoption finalization. I am humbled, profoundly grateful and simply elated that the Lord poured out His love on us in the form of a precious little girl. As I reflect on what the Lord has done in our family over the past four years (starting with Hannah’s adoption) I am amazed that He saw fit to take our imperfect, unworthy family and show us so much of His love through not just one, but four beautiful adoptions. Time permitting, I would like to share in more detail what the Lord has taught us through this amazing experience, but today we celebrate our precious gift from above…Hannah Mary~Noelle!

Recently, Hannah has become more aware that I did not give birth to her. She has made comments like “did I grow in your tummy like Stephen?” My immediate response has always been, “No sweetie, you grew in my heart.” I have explained that God is not limited in how He can build a family and because of His deep love for her and for us He brought her to us in a different manner. The goal is to help her to gain a clear understanding of His sovereignty over her life and to begin to establish a trust within her that He loves her and He does good…all the time.

Don and I set out to find the perfect gift commemorating this anniversary. We like to try and get something special, something meaningful. We didn’t want buy some toy that will soon be forgotten. We want Hannah to look back and see just how much we rejoice in God’s sovereign plan for her life. So, we usually shoot for something that will convey that truth. We went to the mall and selected an adorable sterling silver necklace with a heart pendant and a teddy bear. We had the necklace engraved with “Hannah” on the front of the heart and on the back the message read “You grew in our heart.” The necklace came in an pretty, heart shaped, silver box on which we had engraved “Hannah…God’s gift to us.” Hannah loves her necklace and she will have it for many years as a reminder of God’s goodness towards her and her family.

When we asked Hannah what she wanted to do to celebrate this exciting day she told us she wanted to go play in the splash pad at the mall. Okay, nothing too exciting but her choice. So, off to the mall we went with five little ones in their swim suits ready to splash about. They splashed, enjoyed some live music, pizza and cookies and I spent an evening enjoying the precious blessings the Lord has given us and reflecting on His love. I am blessed.

Please pray for this precious family. They are in the midst of an enormous trial. Pray that the Lord would heal their precious little Kate and that He would uphold them through this extremely difficult time.

Isaiah 41:10,13

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand…For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Today, Landon and Chloe legally became our forever children.  Praise the Lord for His goodness and grace towards our family!  My sincerest prayer is that we will be faithful stewards towards the precious blessings He has given us!

Our family!

Landon Blake

Chloe Bella~Grace

Adoption has blessed our family beyond what we could have ever imagined.  I am in awe at how the Lord worked so magnificently and in such perfect timing to build our family through adoption.  John Piper has a wonderful video that I think does a fabulous job of explaining the miracle of adoption.  Enjoy!

Five years ago today, I gave birth to this long awaited blessing.  Today our little Stephen Christopher turns five!  What a precious gift from Jesus!  Happy Birthday dear Stephen!!!  We love you!!!

We have just about graduated three of our children from high school now it is time to start all over again.  Most of you know we have eight children.  Three of our kids either have or will soon graduate from high school.  The other five children are ages five and under.  Two of those little ones will be starting kindergarten this summer.

We’ve been out of the primary school scene for quite some time, so some revamping and planning was definitely in order.  I’m very excited to see Hannah and Stephen begin kindergarten.  My primary goal at this time is to build a good foundation to foster a love of learning within them.  I prefer the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy and will try to follow her methods fairly closely.  After much consideration here is the basic plan I have come up with.

Starting each day by nurturing Hannah and Stephen’s (as well at the rest of the littles) understanding of the Lord and His Word is the top priority.  Hannah and Stephen love to memorize Scripture and we’ll continue to work on that.  I’ll share more details about that in a later post!  For quite some time I have read daily to them from Leading Little Ones To God and Egermeir’s Bible Story Book and will continue that routine.  We also enjoy reading short stories from a variety of books that encourage good character traits.  This is where our morning starts!

We will definitely use Ambleside Online Year 0 for kindergarten.  Basically, Ambleside Online Year 0 is a booklist of recommended literature that the advisory committee has chosen from a Charlotte Mason perspective.  Exposure to good literature in many different genres is another top priority.  For quite some time we have read the best “living books” we could get our hands on and we’ll continue to do so.  It has been wonderful to see Hannah and Stephen develop a taste for good literature and I look forward to seeing that grow over the next year.  During our reading times Hannah and Stephen will be given opportunities to develop their narration skills as well.

Ambleside Online also has a yearly rotation that is used to aide children in the study of classical composers, art study, hymns and folksongs.  We will use this rotation loosely.  In other words, Hannah and Stephen will be exposed to these various areas in a very natural way, but due to their age and attention span the depth of that “study” will be limited.  As a side note, they love folk music and enjoy skipping and dancing around the house to various folksongs.  We will also seek opportunities to expose them to the local symphony and theatre performances as well as visits to various musuems that are suitable for their age.

Another top priority is to instill a love of God’s creation within our children.  We will allow them to be outside enjoying nature and exploring their natural surroundings as much as possible.  We will use Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study to guide us in our study of nature.

At this point in time for phonics and reading we will use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Happy Phonics.  We will also begin working through First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind.

For their handwriting skills we will use the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series.  Book A is recommended for kindergarten.

After a great deal of researching different math curriculums and making a final decision between Saxon Math and Singapore Math we decided on Saxon Math 1.  At a later time (perhaps in 1st grade I will add in Miquon Math.

That’s it!  Our plan for kindergarten.  I should note that even though this may sound time consuming, the actual amount of time spent specifically on formal instruction will be limited.

A Book by Edgar Guest

“Now” - said a good book unto me -
“Open my pages and you shall see
Jewels of wisdom and treasures fine,
Gold and silver in every line,
And you may claim them if you but will
Open my pages and take your fill.

“Open my pages and run them o’er,
Take what you choose of my golden store.
Be you greedy, I shall not care -
All that you seize I shall gladly spare;
There is never a lock on my treasure doors,
Come - here are my jewels, make them yours!

“I am just a book on your mantel shelf,
But I can be part of your living self;
If only you’ll travel my pages through,
Then I will travel the world with you.
As two wines blended make better wine,
Blend your mind with these truths of mine.

“I’ll make you fitter to talk with men,
I’ll touch with silver the lines you pen,
I’ll lead you nearer the truth you seek,
I’ll strengthen you when your faith grows weak -
This place on your shelf is a prison cell,
Let me come into your mind to dwell!”

Each day I find it very easy to recount all the amazing blessings my Lord has bestowed upon me.  They surround me…everywhere.  I am grateful.  However, I would be quite remiss if I failed to point out that all the incredible, wonderful things my Saviour has blessed me with pale in comparison to the unmerited gift He gave me when He went to Calvary for my reprehensible sin.  Candidly, without His sacrificial gift of salvation…nothing else matters.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

A nasty virus has hit our home that has targeted myself and the three older kids.  Fortunately, all the littles and Don are feeling pretty good.  Those of us who have been afflicted with this nasty cold have pretty much taken shifts watching the little ones and making sure they don’t take advantage of our down time.

I don’t really like being “down.”  There is so much to be done around here to keep the household running smoothly and when so many of us are sick it doesn’t take long to get behind.   When I woke up this morning I was still feeling pretty miserable, but decided to get up and try to get some fresh air.  A few weeks ago I bought some herbs that I have wanted to plant with the kids, but because things have been so busy around here they just sat on the patio table…waiting!

Today was beautiful out, so Stephen, Hannah and I decided to plant them.  The fresh air did me good and the herbs are finally potted.

Yesterday, we celebrated Cameron and Delaine’s birthday and today we celebrate Jenna’s.  My beloved friend Katie informed me that I must be old given the fact that my daughter just turned 19!   Well, I don’t really feel old, but I do find myself wondering where the time has gone.  Jenna, you have become such a beautiful young woman and I thank the Lord for you everyday!  I love you!  Happy Birthday!!!

Our wonderful twins were born and have been a tremendous blessing every since!!!  Last night we had a very enjoyable dinner out to celebrate their birthday.  Happy Birthday Cameron and Delaine!    I love you both and am looking forward to seeing the Lord continue to work in your lives!