10 Years of Ministry & Start of School

The kids made Daniel look like the gift he is

We were totally blown away by the worship service the church had prepared for this last Sunday. It was a celebration of Daniel's 10 years at our church, and with all that is going on, it was a perfectly timed piece of encouragement.

As we drove in, he noticed the parking lot was unusually full, and he asked why would so many people be here. Then he saw his parents and sister's family, and wondered aloud what they were doing there, but it was time to church to start, so he sat and seemed shocked when the elder announced that this would be a special day to honor the work God has done at our church over the last ten years.  He said later it was a total surprise and wondered how he could have missed all the preparations that went into it.

There were lovely songs, sweet poems for both of us, and the woman who headed up the committee that brought Daniel to our church spoke about that process. They presented the girls with plush lambs and silver crosses on chains. The church also purchased a Chinese elm in Daniel's honor, and they have a nice spot picked out for the tree and the commemorative stone plaque to go under it. I imagine few people in ministry ever have so much appreciation expressed at any time in their life, so we are very blessed.

It was all so touching and thoughtfully arranged.  I very much enjoyed the slide show they had of us starting with our first appearance at a church social ten years ago, the baby shower they threw for a very rotund me, the arrival of our girls, several baptism and weddings of dear friends Daniel was able to lead, while Ray Boltz's song "Thank you for giving to the Lord" played. The retired, former pastor was present to help Daniel spread the symbolic light of Christ throughout the congregation while another favorite song, "Light Your Candle" played. 

After the service we were treated to a sit down meal with homemade dishes, two real cakes, and a money cake that I will have to figure out how to take apart sometime (the cake's creator said she'd make these for a church fundraiser, if anyone is interested, soI'm advertising for her).



The previous week we had returned home after my husband spent several days in the hospital. He is feeling much better--the back pain has mostly eased, thankfully. Now he just seems very tired. He's gone from sleeping 3 hours a night (fitfully, due to pain) to twelve hours, like he can't get enough sleep.  On Monday night he put the little girls to bed at 7:30 and told Pearl to read for an hour, then immediately collapsed into bed. The whole house was eerily silent when I got home from class a few hours later.

Last week we returned home from the hospital and points east in time to begin our first week of school just one day late, but we made up for that quickly. Second grade has begin! And preschool has started all over again!

Here they all are on the first day of school.  We have begun Pearl with a bit of review, and things go pretty smoothly until we get to the creative writing. I have to rethink my approach there.

CHAMP, our co-op, started this week. I'm teaching a Science in the Kitchen class, and I brought Sapphire in with the Kindergarteners and First Graders to give her a break from the nursery. She enjoyed counting out froot loops to make a color chart. Pearl has classes in math games, writing, and amazing nature. I'm so thankful to have these other godly mothers offering their talents to enrich her education.

Home Now

Daniel got out of the hospital yesterday at lunchtime and was home for dinner. He has already seen a huge improvement in his neck and back pain due to the antibiotics treating the lyme. He slept for 12 hours last night, which is a huge blessing following a month of just 2-3 hours a night of sleep. 

He's pretty tired still and a little bit foggy, but happy to be home and moving toward a plan for treatment. He'll see the doctor in Philly on Sept. 19th and will schedule surgery after that. 

Brain Surgery

I had planned to write about a family reunion and Labor Day picnic this week, but our weekend took a strange turn. On Friday evening one of Jasper's adult karate students noticed his teacher had a facial droop. I ended up taking Jasper to the Chester County Hospital ER where we were fast-tracked since facial droop suggests stroke.

The staff relaxed after examining him and were about to give us a regimen for Lyme Disease and send us off, but the CAT scan came back with an abnormality that had the ER jumping. We got some disconcerting news that he had a 1 cm bleed in his brain, and they were sending him to Penn Hospital in Philly. He wasn't feeling any worse than he has for three weeks, but he ended up meeting his flight crew and boarding a helicopter for the 10 minute flight. The neurosurgeon wanted him there quickly and with a nurse by his side. Since it was out of his hands, he was thrilled to ride in a helicopter over the Philly skyline and refused the drugs they offer passengers to 'take the edge off.'

The next day we found that the blip wasn't a bleed, but an oddly shaped aneurysm, or balloon off the side of a blood vessel deep behind his right eye, which could lead to a bleed.  We were given some possible treatments, then told why the less invasive one would not likely work in his case. They wanted to operate because he's so young, and risk of hemorrhage grows over time. His hair will get even shorter, folks.

When I asked one doctor how dangerous the surgery would be, he said, "Well, it is brain surgery." Later, driving down Rt. 76 out of Philly, I chuckled about that. Usually when brain surgery comes up in a sentence, the speaker is being metaphoric.

So, after mostly waiting through the Labor Day weekend in a hospital bed with subpar tv and plenty of Sudoku, Jasper learned he'd eventually be discharged and would have to schedule the surgery for sometime in the next month. He's also being treated for Lyme Disease, which probably caused his back pain. As of Tues. night he is still in the hospital following another test which may or may not be the last one. I've brought the girls home to York County for the night.

The little girls did not seem to notice he was gone as they were feted by their aunts and grandparents and saw several of Chester County playgrounds. Sapphire seemed to think her daddy was at karate all weekend. I did bring Pearl in to see him, and she enjoyed making friends with his nurse, but soon she got bored of hospital life, and her obliging aunts took her home.

We are very blessed by the prayers lifted up and support we are receiving from our family and friends. Prayers now can be that the surgery is scheduled when God sees it needs to be, and that the outcome and recovery are smooth, and that we will use this testimony to serve God in new ways. The wait for surgery will be a little rough, as he is not to strenuously exert himself or spike his blood pressure; of course, he's been living with it for months or years,  but knowing about it does make us uneasy.



Our deep thanks to everyone who has prayed for us over the last few days. It has been humbling. We were a little boggled at being so calm given such an unexpected diagnosis. It must have been all those prayers for peace.   

Baltimore Zoo & Picnics

We had all planned to go to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore together, but my husband's back pain and appointments kept him home. It was just as well, because the crowds would have driven him crazy.

 It was the one free day a year at the zoo. We had never been there before, so we thought this would be a great way to get a peek at this zoo. Everyone else in Baltimore had the same idea. We inched through traffic and hiked through crowds, and we caught a glimpse of the animals.

The girls did not seem to mind the press, though at one point I had to carry one little girl on my back and one in front to keep them from being trampled by the mammoth strollers. I saw a lot more people than animals, but we did enjoy seeing real zebras and rhinos. The monkey house was pretty neat, and the girls squealed when the lemurs hopped from branch to branch.

Our public school friends started last week. We will be making the most of summer for another week, I think. I do find it useful to ease the girls back into school after vacations of any length, so we are doing a bit of spelling and math review, but I let them have more freedom to choose what to do when.
Sapphire is bouncing along with her phonics and numbers.

On Saturday we had a nice time catching up at a family reunion. The girls did not want to leave, but we also wanted to pop by my husband's 20 year high school reunion picnic. He enjoyed catching up with folks. I enjoyed the scenery.   

Family Day 2013

In the adoption world, Gotcha Day is the day you receive your child and what you call the anniversary of that day each year. We are going with the alternative name because we want to celebrate the whole, complete family. Plus, 'Gotcha' is just a little too much slang for me, so we call it Family Day. I've been looking forward to August 13, our first Family Day as a big milestone for some time.

In the morning, I was treated to a rare long and not-too-squirmy snuggle with my little Ruby who took a long time to wake up.  Then the girls and I watched home videos of each of them as babies. My husband missed some of Family Day because of some serious back muscle pain and resulting medications that kept him in bed. He made a big effort to get himself ready to go out for a late lunch to celebrate.



Ruby loves tractors.

We had a simple Family Day. We picked up lo mien because that was the first food we fed to Ruby when we tempted out of her post-hand-over-near-comatose state. I got sushi.  We took this picnic to Perrydell Dairy where we later visited the baby cows which *thrilled* Ruby.

Perrydell ice cream was also a hit. We chatted about what we liked about our family during the snack.




Then we visited our local library where, unfortunately, the little girls piled up a ridiculous number of board books on the floor for no good reason. After cleaning that up, we headed to the playground outside where some of us faced a little time out and others played.

This is the video I had the bellhop take as Ruby first walked into the huge lobby of the Sheraton in Hohhot (if you can't see it in your email version, go to the blog itself). Here she's just come through the doors where we have been anxiously waiting for about 20 minutes, after waiting, slightly less anxiously, in our room for much longer.  We're kneeling smack dab in the center of the not very private lobby, and the very young woman who escorted Ruby from Beijing is the one encouraging her to make friends with us as we attempt to buy her toddler affection with toys and lollypops. In retrospect, one of my frequent prayers was answered. I was praying that she wouldn't burst into tears at her first sight of us.


So, not a really warm reception on Ruby's part, but at least the all out tantrum didn't come for another 20 minutes.





This is the first all-family photo taken when we returned from China a year ago.

This is the most recent one.  

Probably the biggest difference is the fact that Ruby now has no problem letting her daddy be the one to hold her.  A year ago his hug was torture to her! But I think she's also leaning back on her family instead of trying to inch away. She's really grown into the family in the last year.
 
Thanks for all the support we've had in the last twelve months from you all too!

Kingdom Rock Bible School

Last week was Vacation Bible School. I had the honor of serving as director for the third year. The organizing gets easier as you know how it will play out, and this year I wasn't rushing off to China midweek!

The kids enjoyed child-friendly worship all week. I loved seeing the little bodies hopping in the pews, singing their hearts out along with the music videos projected on the walls.  Somehow I have gone from being a youth grouper terrified of playing a tiny role in a Youth Sunday skit back in the 1990s to someone who can act ridiculous on the stage in front of two churches, wearing a red cape no less.

What I found when I read the God sightings wall one night

Our volunteers bring great expertise to their roles, so things ran pretty smoothly.  We minister to 65 different kids during the week, and I'm especially thrilled about the fact that VBS builds a community of kids within the church, giving them a sense of tradition each summer that helps to define their identity as Christians. 

We finally found the perfect role for Jasper.  He liked being a crew leader. He likes any role, but as a crew leader he could just show up and be himself, no preparations.




I remember thinking last year, as I was emotional about missing three days of VBS, that in twelve months we'd have another daughter bopping around, enjoying it. Ruby did just fine. She was a little nervous the first day, but once I got her to her first station she went with her crew and even learned to do some of the hand motions to songs.





On Saturday I took Pearl and Sapphire to the 4-H fair. It was our first time there. It was smaller than we expected, but had everything the girls needed for a great afternoon. We tried to figure out the steer judging, but the bouncy house and face painting part made a lot more sense to us. We enjoyed a dance group from the New Hope Charter School and simple 'carnival' games that, as Sapphire quickly realized, always resulted in a lollypop. At one point I looked over and she had two in her mouth at once.


Pearl fell in love with the snakes the Critter Guy brought. On Saturday she made having a snake seem like a dire need, but I suspect if we don't mention snakes again, we can escape reptile-free.

That evening her daddy took Pearl out for a star gazing event at a local park. They saw a binary star system and several of Saturn's moons.

We're trying to make the most of last few weeks of summer. Today the girls got to flag down the snow cone man for a fleeting, but beloved treat.

4-H Camping Fun

Our 4-H families met at Gifford-Pinchot State Park for a few days of cramming crafts to finish before the 4-H fair next weekend. Last year the weather was gorgeous the week we went, and it was just as good this year. (Ruby spent time with her daddy the two days we were gone. They made a trip to Chocolate World and went through four times.)







Our 4-H is a craft based club, so there were boys making hemp bracelets and wood burning, girls quilling, and Pearl getting tips on all of it. The Cloverbuds worked somewhat reluctantly on a tri-fold display for the fair, but they did enjoy designing characters out of bowling pins. The big kids also helped my girls design neat tie dye t-shirts.

quilling

We were a quick walk from the lake beach, and the warm water delighted us all.  Sapphire's big wheel made many laps of the campground, and I benefited from the easy-going big kids who seemed perfectly happy to take the girls on long walks.

With them occupied, I learned how to knit. It is slow going, and not as addicting as I had thought it might be. But at least now I have a sense of how it works.



This inch took an hour!

Our last night there the kids gave presentations of their projects. This isn't required of Cloverbuds, but Pearl got some public speaking practice as she explained what went into making her fairy bowling pin. We thought presentations were done, when a very confused Sapphire popped up, holding her bird bowling pin.  Had we forgotten her? Now, if I had asked her to present, she would have dug into her camp chair and ignored me, but because no one mentioned it to her, she was eager. She gave a startlingly loud and expressive explanation of her work. 

We caught a gorgeous sunset over the lake then skedaddled home to our real beds.

Once the camping things got unpacked, the girls had play practice for the Children of the King Sunday service they are helping with in September (there is a dinner show the afternoon of Sunday Sept 22nd if anyone wants tickets!). And I'm prepping for VBS next week.

Sapphire with her leather working tools