Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Never Eat Anything bigger Than You Head

We have a rule in our house: Never eat anything bigger than you head. I so bit off more than I can chew. One of the reasons that it's been so quiet on the blog is that I made a commitment to attend a Civil War re-enactment this coming weekend as a re-enactor. I'm really excited. I get to dress up in period clothes and talk to people and learn all about the Civil War from the inside out. BUUUUUUT, in order to dress in period clothes, you have to have period clothes, and you can't just go buy them. (Or rather you can, but its really expensive.) So you have to make them. Great . . . except I don't sew. Well, I didn't before, but in the last six weeks I've learned. I've been spending several hours a day making shirts for the boys, a corset, petticoats, chemises, and dresses for myself and Pookie. Thank goodness Charlie is able to borrow what he needs.

Waiting Children at Kids to Adopt

My adoption agency, Kids to Adopt, has the most beautiful waiting children available for adoption. You can read about them at their website and they would be happy to send you more information about any of them.

http://www.kidstoadopt.org/waiting_children/photolisting.htm

Monday, August 17, 2009

Hidden Riches


Sorry I've been gone for a while, folks. My father-in-law, Lyle, died about two weeks ago. He had been suffering from cancer for a very long while and we knew he had a very little time left with us on Earth. We got a call from my sister-in-law letting us now that he was close to death. We decided quickly to pack and get in the car in hopes that we would make it in time to be there before he died. Unfortunately, he passed away before we could get packed. We were able to make the 750 mile drive with little incident, and that in itself was divine intervention because usually the drive is awful.


I was struck again and again by the beauty of our family during this emotional time and the many ways we were blessed by God.


One of Charlie's brothers had been estranged from the family for a very long time. There were periods of time where no one in the family knew how to reach him. Through the magic of Facebook he was located and other family member flew him home to see his father before he died. I know my mother-in-law believes Lyle was waiting to see his son before he died. Lyle died mere days later.


Charlie, my husband, is from a very large family. He is the twelfth of fourteen children. Everyone except for a few of the adult grandchildren were able to drop everything and race to Minnesota. Of course, everyone would come, you're thinking, but if you count his siblings and their spouses or fiances and their children and the great-grandchildren then we are talking about nearly 60 people. That is no small feat.


Even in the midst of all the sorrow our family was kind and thoughtful enough to remember Pookie's birthday, which was the day after Lyle Sr. passed away, and bought her a cake.

After the funeral, we all went back to the family home to write thank you notes and simply be together. As dusk fell I looked around at our family spread our before us. My boys and a couple of their cousins were climbing in an apple tree. My teenage nephew was playing with Pookie. Some were outside talking and telling stories. Others put out leftovers so that we could have dinner. It was amazing. If you cast a movie showing family togetherness, this is what it would have looked like.

I love my family and thank God for the reminder that I am truly blessed.