2010 Departs

I know I haven't done any Christmas posts yet, but suddenly I'm here looking at the last day of 2010 and so I skipped ahead. Here's what our 2009 looked like. In random order, in 2010, we...

:: we were finally DTR on January 25

:: we made some good friends in Georgia

:: we had four more adoption fundraisers (Valentine's Day babysitting, two garage sales, and a worship concert night)

:: we moved the TV into the basement and haven't missed it

:: we got a dog

:: Jeremy and Iain went camping with the church menfolk. It was Iain's first time going away with his dad overnight!

:: we went to Florida six times, Tennessee twice, Pennsylvania once, Alabama a few times, and South Carolina once

:: we had overnight guests for some part of twenty-two of the 52 weeks, and we were overnight guests for some part of fifteen of the 52 weeks (some weeks overlapped though)

:: we went on our first marriage retreat and loved it

:: we started leading the kids' ministry at church and have been since May

:: I did Nano again, and finished!

:: we hosted my sister's college ministry, ACCESS218, when they were in GA for a mission trip

:: we had our AC go completely out during said hosting of the group, and had to get the whole unit replaced. Ugg.

:: I went on my first ladies' retreat

:: Jeremy, Iain, and Cory were all in Jeremy's brother Phil and Kelly's wedding

:: we went camping and the boys slept like champs!

:: I did my first Beth Moore Bible study

:: we went to a Braves game

:: Iain learned to read

:: we took both boys to their first Urgent Care visits (Cory for a knee injury, and Iain for a wheezing cough)

:: we had our hopes raised and dashed countless times when it came to adoption

:: I devoured books by Philip Yancey that ask hard questions. I asked a lot myself

:: Jeremy worked at two shows for OakTree

:: Cory turned two at the beginning of the year, and Iain turned four most of the way through

:: Cory was potty-trained

:: I coordinated a wedding for the first time. Jeremy read Scripture at the same wedding

:: we hosted two small groups and continued with the play group

:: we joined an Africa adoption fellowship group

:: we got re-fingerprinted, and Jeremy has to go again in a few days

:: we visited our dear friends in Pennsylvania

:: we started writing a new curriculum for Kids' Church

:: we volunteered at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert

:: we did the Jesse Tree for the first time

:: I joined a writers' group and read a ton of books

:: Jeremy got involved in the leadership of our church

:: we passed the eleven month milestone of being DTR, and the seventeen month milestone of when we started our adoption journey.

:: we learned a lot this year. If last year was crazy, this year was stretching. Here's hoping the theme of next year will be rejoicing.

So adieu, 2010. And to all a good night.

A Lesson on Pirates

Iain: I know a lot about pirates. I'll teach you about them. Pirates have either three or seven cannons.

Me: Why three or seven? Why not five or ten?

Iain: Because that would be too many. Then they wouldn't shoot them. Pirates run about shooting and fighting and cutting, and fighting about who will fight the lion and who will fight the dragon, if a dragon got on the ship.

Cory: And if a mouse got on the ship...

Iain: They would pet 'im. They would rush about if a sea leopard came, shooting and dropping the anchors and moving away from the sea leopard and trying to keep the mouse safe.

Cory: And then they had a big, big cage for the mouse that has a locking thing. So they put the mouse in there and he stayed in there with his favorite mouse and his favorite music, and he was safe.

Iain: And then the pirate said, (in a low voice) "Oh, let's go give the mouse some food because we're hungry."And that's about all pirates do. That's all I know about pirates.

Cory: I know about pirates!

Iain: A lot? Because I teached you?

Cory: No, I know a lot more.

Iain: (admiringly) Oh!

Cory: And if there was an alligator... (and on it goes)

Iain: And if pirates keep food in their mouth for the whole week they're on the ship...

Iain and Cory together: they would talk with their mouth full!

Cory: That's the meanest thing they could do.

Iain: Yup, that's the meanest thing. And when pirates go to bed, they might talk in their sleep! And they might do so-loud music in their sleep! (demonstrates by imitating a trumpet and then yelling "boom! Boom!")

Iain: We should copy this and give it to Aunt Kelsey so she'll remember what pirates do. (I think he meant that to be encouraging, but it does sound a little spooky, no?)

Appeal to His Mercy

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance; it is laying hold of His highest willingness." --Archbishop Trench

"Our Lord God could not but hear me; I threw the sack down before His door. I rubbed God's ear with all His promises about hearing prayer." --Martin Luther

Oh, Iain

Rainy Saturday Afternoon

(I love my new camera!)

Cory Says

Cory: Are we doing manna?

Me: Manna?

Cory: Mannas.

Me: Mayonaise?

Cory: MANNAS!! (thinks a minute) Are we doing politely?

Me: Oh, manners! Yes, you're using your manners.

Cory: Oh-tay.

:)

One Year Ago

A year ago today, I mailed our dossier to our agency to get it checked over, before it was sent to the Rwandan Embassy in DC and then on to Rwanda. A whole year. Sounds like a really perfect day to get some good news, don't you think?

Iain, on His Interests

Iain had this...um...monologue with the guy behind us in line at the store today. Here's how it went:

"I like Lightning the Queen, and I'm also into Thomas the Train. And I like the Pirates. The ones who don't do anything. Like on Veggie Tales. There are lots of Veggie Tales. So many they won't even fit into your eye!"

Just in case you wanted to know.

Thanksgiving '10, Etc.

So, I haven't felt much like blogging lately. The news out of Rwanda is that there is no news, and it's been hard to feel much hope. So as we enter into the season that is supposed to remind us of Hope and who He is, I am trying to remember what I know:

--He is good.

--He is strong.

--He is Emmanuel, the God who is with us. And with our daughter. Oh, come Emmanuel.

But life goes on, and there are good things that happen in this crazy time that I want to remember, and for the boys to remember. And so:

We did shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Iain choose to pack for a girl, and Cory a boy. Iain especially really got into it. When we dropped off the boxes, Cory prayed for the boy and girl, "that they would have lots of presents and wouldn't get bites from any bugs, but would have roly-polys, and that we would have roly-polys too."

We got a dog. Her name is Posey, and she's a three-year-old sheltie that my aunt found for us on Craigslist. She's a good dog (except she sheds and she can't really help that - although she can help rubbing herself along the length of our blue couch and leaving a trail of hair behind. Yuck.), and the boys love her.

The boys and I (and Posey) took a really nice walk the other day to find leaves. They loved running down the road and finding "really gorgeous leaves."

We spent Thanksgiving in Florida with Grammy and Papa, Yaya, Phil and Kelly, and Uncle Larry and Aunt Lisa. I hardly took any pictures.

Aunt Lisa got a gingerbread house for the boys to do.

They were both sick over Thanksgiving, but they loved being there. We saw a huge gator in the pond out back (I even spotted it with a flashlight by its glowing red eyes), and Cory dreamed about him one night.

I finished Nano for the second time (Nanowrimo = National Novel Writing Month, where you write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November). My first time, in 2008, I really loved it, and I ended up with a workable manuscript. This time, it was so hard. I didn't like the novel, nothing really flowed, and it was a fight to the finish. If Alison hadn't been doing it with me, I think I would have thrown in the towel. But we both finished, so that's something.

That's about all our news here. And I can think of no interesting way to end this post...

The End.