Back to normal?

Just a little peek at my adorable FOUR month old niece, Sierra. She looks so much like my brother, Chas and I hear she has his fiestiness to.


Well, I am wondering if things will ever be back to normal in this house. Jonah just went back to work this morning after 18 very, very busy days off. Our next step is to pour the slab but that will have to wait until Jonah can get off of work, buy some rebar and put that over the gravel that was just shoveled into place. We're thinking it'll happen at the end of next week. Then, we will have walls up. This building a house thing is much bigger than I had thought it would be because it is ALL Jonah does or thinks about. Knowing my husband, I should have realized that he wouldn't be taking a break from building unless he HAD to. Going back to work does that for him:) The good part is that we are well on our way to being into our house by the end of the year. In 2 or 3 weeks there will be WALLS up, can't even believe it.

On another note, I am feeling the pull again, just slightly. I am happy with the size of my family right now and, if this is all the children God has for me, I will be joyful. If it were my choice, we would be going back to Liberia again for a little girl or 2. But, as fate would have it, we are building a house(meaning no extra adoption money), only have 2 rooms for 6 children(what social worker would approve a homestudy?), Liberia is pretty much closed at the moment, oh and that one other thing? Jonah isn't ready yet. The best part about it is that my spirit is settled with my current family, I just wonder when the next little one is going to come into our hearts.

Happy Day to you all!

A day of rest

Sometimes a day of rest is sorely needed. Monday was such a day for our family after working on the house for Jonah's whole 2 week vacation. We ventured out into the Sierra's behind our home to find adventure(the boy's love this phrase). It was a very beautiful, simple and blessed day with all 8 of us.


The beauty of the river.



My favorite tree, the dogwood.



Look at it's beautiful blooms!



We stopped first to eat lunch and throw rocks in the river.



Our drive that lasted 2 hours and we only passed one person on a quad.


Justus was so happy to be allowed to play in the water. He loved getting splashed.



Sarah finally got up the courage to cross the river, with the help of her Daddy. She was so proud of herself when she got to the other side.



Isaiah looks dreamily at the river wishing his mean Mommy would believe him when he says he could make it across too(he asked at least 10 times). Uhm, he would have drowned. Mark my words.



This is our little wading pool that the kids played in. They LOVED it and Justus(notice the naked ultra-white body?) was the one who stayed in the longest. He would pick up the biggest rock he could grab and then throw it, repeat, repeat, repeat. This spot is a mere 5 minute drive down a dirt road from our land. We will definitely be back.



And I just had to throw this picture in here. They were being SO silly with each other and having such fun. This is what life is all about!

Progress

And here is our day today. Starting at 5 am this morning all the way till the stem walls and footing are done. It was kinda sad pulling all the boards down after the concrete was poured since we worked so hard to get them done and perfect. Next phase will be pouring the slab for the garage floor, which will be 6 inches higher than the stem walls you see. Enjoy!

In case you were interested...

We passed our first inspection, and I'm telling you it was a miracle, and we pour the stem walls and footings tomorrow! If I have a second to breathe tomorrow I will post pictures. Life is busy!

Oh the excitement

This is the final project of a very hard day of working for Jonah, a hired worker, our contractor and 2 amazing friends who came and helped for 7 hours.



Looking towards the back of the "garage" here. All that re-bar had to be hand cut and bent. Talk about a ton of work! The boards that you see closest in the picture is the stem wall that will eventually make up the tall wall that will hold up the staircase. Make sense;)?



This is the back left corner of the house. It is a small pop-out kinda thing that will lead a staircase up to the second story, which is where the living area will be.



The view from the front left corner.



View from the front right corner.

Tomorrow(Wednesday) we have a TON of work to do before noon when the inspector comes for our first inspection. Could you pray with us that we will pass so that we can pour concrete on Friday morning? I can't even begin to tell you how very exciting this is to see our dream being built right before our eyes.

What do you do?

What do you do when you are told you have a $2 fine at the library for a damaged book that you know for certain was in the same condition when it was returned as when you recieved it? That really irritates me...

Why its been so long

We've been busy laying our driveway with gravel, digging footings and stem walls and putting up board forms to lay concrete. Today is an off day to gather supplies (for Jonah while I clean the house) and we start more tomorrow for the rest of the week. It's coming together and soon we will have the foundation to the house!

Shoes

Each of my kids have gone through the "shoe" stage and Justus is right in the midst of it now. He carries shoes around the house all day, brings them to me and says, "doo" and tries to get his feet in every pair he can. We were outside playing the other day, where all our shoes are kept, and he wanted to wear every pair of slippers we had out there(which is a whole lot). I helped him get his toes in just right and then he walked around really well, I was surprised. It was only when he tried to turn around of go a different direction that his toes would come out of the slippers.



Look at those cute little chubby feet in those way-to-big slippers!



He was so proud to walk around with slippers on like his siblings.


A little smile and the slippers are falling off.


Uh-oh, what just happened?!


"Doo Mommy."

No-No

"No-no" is this little boys new word. It's amazing it took him so long to use it but up until a few days ago he would grunt his disapproval. More training ahead for this cute little guy! I love this age!

Remember

Mother's Day is 2 days away. A day to celebrate our Mother's and, if we are a mother, relax and take it easy(yeah right!). I remember a time, however, where Mother's Day was the worst day of the year. I loathed it and begged for it not to come. All it did was remind me of what I did not have and what the doctors told me would never be mine. I have been abundantly blessed to become the mother of 6 beautiful children over the last 5 years but I cannot forget the pain that Mother's Day once held for me. So please, remember those women who's arms are empty this Sunday; have compassion on them. Remember those women who buried their child or lost them before their little heart ever began to beat; have a kind word for them. Remember those women who have tried treatment after treatment for years on end and, still, there is no living child to love; give a heartfelt hug to them. And finally, remember those mother's who gave the ultimate gift of a child to a hurting, infertile couple; tell them you honor them for choosing life. While we celebrate our Mother's lets also remember those who are hurting and wanting nothing more than to be a mother themselves. There are more of them than you think.

Comments

I don't even know how to start this post. Some people think I am too sensitive when it comes to comments about my family. I admit it, I am a sensitive person and get riled up fairly easily. Today was not one of those days but a comment the EEG tech gave me made me think about today's culture and their view on children as a burden instead of a blessing. The guy was really nice and we chit-chatted back and forth as he hooked Isaiah up to the machine. He mentioned he used to work up where we are building and noticed that we had a bunch of kids. I said, "Oh, well, not a bunch, just 6." He gave me this funny look and mentioned a town nearby with a large Mormon population where many of the families have 10-12 kids. I said, "Well, we're not Mormon or Catholic but we do take God's blessings as they come." His comment to me? "Well, I think 6 is more than enough and you're crazy if you think 6 isn't too many." Uhm, who asked you?! How dare you tell me, no matter how nice your tone, that I have too many kids and to think otherwise is insanity.
Yesterday, on Facebook, a friend posted a video about using live animals as bait. People were appalled by it, absolutely stunned that such a thing could happen in America. I have no idea if it was for real or not, but my first thought was this. Why not this outrage over the LIVING unborn in this country who are killed viciously EVERY.SINGLE. DAY!? One living baby is killed every TWENTY SECONDS! One out of every 3 babies conceived are aborted. And I could continue with the statistics if I wanted to. It is a tragedy, a complete waste of human life and yet there is very little outcry about the rights of a human life and plenty loud yelling about a dog or cat being killed. How, in anyone's mind, can this make sense? This is off on a separate tangent, I'm sorry.
Anyways, I find it so sad that this guy thought that my having 6 children was too many. He saw my kids as a burden and not as the blessing that they are. It makes me so very sad. Each and every one of them had a real chance of being aborted because of situations following their conception. Look at their faces. If you had seen their eyes, would you have THEN said it was OK to abort them?

Rain

Rain and more rain. Seems we will be putting the digging of footings and pouring of our foundation off for a bit. We are really praying that the ground will be dry next week though, as Jonah goes on 2 weeks of vacation and we planned to use that time to really put our nose to the grindstone and get lots of work done towards the house.

Tomorrow Isaiah has another EEG with his new doctor who says it's worth repeating again. It has been a year since his first seizure and although it isn't a common thing, he still has had 6 since then. The doctor would like to stop them all-together, and so would I.

Alana was baptized yesterday at church, outside, in the pouring rain. Because of that I got NO pictures and NO video and am very bummed because of it. But it was an amazing time watching her be so excited. We chose not to allow Isaiah to be baptized because each time we asked him why he wanted to be, he couldn't give a clear concise answer. It was always random and strange.

Justus and his YaYa

Justus LOVES his binky, or YaYa as he calls it. We have no idea why he calls it that or where he got it from as we have always called it a binky. With all my other kids their binky has been taken away at 12 months and I have had no problems with it. With Justus, I am having a hard time. His eczema is so bad at times and it is the only thing that will comfort him. So, I have let him keep it. Yesterday we discovered a new trick. He did it over and over again for his grandpa but tonight he seemed to have something else in mind. You can see the trick at the very beginning of the video and then he chose to do what most kids his age would; keep doing what was making all his siblings laugh. Notice at the end, where I say, "Bye-bye YaYa", his very concerned look and quick "please" sign to let me know he still wanted it. I just love this boy!