A New Beginning

455 posts...

That's what we have used to record our lives for the last six years.  This blog has seen 5 children added to our family.  A new house.  And a few furry and reptilian friends come and go. 

We started this blog as a way to keep our families and friends updated on our adoption progress.  As the boys joined our family--first physically--then emotionally--it became a way of recording their progress and our progress to becoming the family we are--the family God created us as.  It has also served as a way of keeping memories for our kids as they grow.  We've had all of it printed off and put into book form and now the kids spend time pouring over them and "remembering when."

Remember when we first heard about a little boy named Varney and a little boy named James?

Remember when they came home?

Remember when we went from three kids to six kids in less than 6 months?

Remember how God took care of us during that time?

Remember the chicken bones?

Remember how Jimmy used to come down the stairs?

Remember our vacation to sunny California?

These are all precious memories!  I'm so thankful to have them recorded!

But we are turning to a new phase in life.  The boys adoption is no longer at the center of our energy or what our family and friends scattered around the country are asking about.

It's Uganda!

So here is the end of this blog and the beginning of a new one...

You can now find us blogging at:

www.tuiningasinuganda.blogspot.com

So come on over!!  If you have us bookmarked--change your settings and plan to stay awhile!  I'm so excited to see what God will do with our lives! 

See you there!

DPP 25

Merry Christmas!!

What a great day to celebrate the incarnation of God!  What grace God has shown to us!!

We had the joy and privilege of worshipping with God's people today.  But before that, we enjoyed some yummy cinnamon rolls (not to be confused with Simeon in the Christmas story, my dear William!) and the little boys got the beaters covered with freshly made cream cheese frosting...

...enjoyed to a greater extent when shared with dinosaurs...

The girls were happy to wear their matching skirts...especially now that they have a little sister to match with too...

Originally we weren't going to do much after church for a meal, but when we got home, we changed our minds and decided to make our "normal" meal special, by adding china and sparkling cider (what our family calls, "kid's wine" :).  During the meal, we got onto the topic of what it means to make a toast and the kids one-by-one stood up to make their toasts.  And then we'd all say, "hear! hear!" and clink our wine glasses.  At some point Benaiah, who was watching all the happenings, decided for a brief moment that he wanted to join in and so he held up his cup. But his desire, unbeknownst to Eric who tried to clink with him, was very brief...he quickly changed his mind and retracted his cup over his shoulder dumping the entirety of its contents behind him, onto the floor.  It sent us into fits of laughter and him into confusion, because after all he is two and doesn't quite know what to think of all the crazy traditions of mankind...

It was a good day.  We are so thankful to the Lord for sending his son and we are eagerly awaiting his second return.

DPP 24

I took it upon myself to organize all my thread yesterday...what beautiful colors! :)

And this is my collection of wooden spools from my grandmothers thread box.  After she moved to a nursing home, my grandpa let me pick through her box and gather what I wanted.  If you look closely, many of these spools only cost 15 cents! :)

DPP 23

Yup, it's me... wimp smart mom...

...wimp smart mom who has a bowl of cars on her counter soaking in water...

..the one whose two year old threw 15 cars into the diaper pail...

...and whose ten year old got paid per-car to pull them out again...
 

DPP 22

So we have this little boy who never likes to stay in bed at night.  After we brush his teeth, sing his prayer, tuck him in with his "lovies," turn off the light and close the door, he waits for a moment and then when the coast is clear, he jumps out of bed and turns on the light and starts playing.  The problem is that unless we are in the back of the house where we can hear the little pitter-patter of his feet on the floor above us, he often gets away with his extra play time because he is so quiet.  He also likes to do this at 5am, waking up all his brothers!

Timothy, also tired of this behavior, came up with an ingenious idea.  He got out his electricity set and made an alarm that is light sensitive and set in next to the monitor.  Now the second the light flicks on, my little stinker is caught...

...and promptly put back where he belongs. :)

DPP 21

I had my Lasik surgery yesterday.   Wow!  What an amazing thing to be able to see the clock in the middle of the night.  My sight is close to normal already.  But I still have halos around all the lights (very normal) and they sort of (but not really) reminded me of bokeh.  So I decided that today's picture--in honor of new eyes and just because Christmas is a fun time of year to play around with cameras and lights- ought to have some fun bokeh. :)

Whew!  I'm caught up in my December Photo Project! :)

DPP 20

Not the best composed picture, but sometimes you just have to grab a moment in time... like when Benaiah educates his little sister concerning his latest obsession...Thomas trains.  He carefully lined them up and told her about each one.  I'm sure she was impressed.

DPP 19

My Grandmothers old Steinway...it will be staying home from Uganda, but boy will we miss it.

DPP 18

So my husband is a geography/map nut and he also happens to love war gaming and lately he's been (in no small way) interested in Uganda.

Put that together and what do we get?  A great war being fought from Mbale to Kampala to Tanzania, great amounts of tortilla chips being consumed, and a 10 year old boy heading to bed that night, quite pleased that he won a great victory against his dad.

DPP 17

Playing catch-up! :)

DPP 16

While the kids are wonderfully busy with their new legos,

And the little lego people are wonderfully busy doing little lego things,

I am wonderfully busy with a long-awaited project: fun fabric for 3 little (and very simple) skirts:

DPP 15

 We did our family Christmas gifts tonight.  We always do them early--who can resist?  Plus, then Christmas day is all about Christ.

This year we got the kids back packs with their names on them.  You guessed it...we're looking forward to the plane ride to Uganda. 

And Legos... a set for the little boys...

and a set for the big kids...

And Benaiah got a James train.  Sweet boy is addicted to Thomas right now.  We gave Benaiah his train first and we had to convince him that just because he got another gift, didn't mean that he had to put his train down.  Really, sweetie, you can play with a train and a dinosaur...

And now we are busy around the table...and thankfully, Benaiah is so busy with his train that he is paying us no attention...haha...lots of fun!

DPP 14

I'm pretty sure this kid was made for Africa... it really doesn't matter how cold it is (like 38 degrees), he is a shorts and t-shirt boy.  My mommy-ness is just glad he can still be convinced to wear a coat and hat.