I have the best husband in the world!

No, debating this please ladies as you won't be able to change my mind, I promise. I will preface it by saying that I went to my parents yesterday to spend the night so that they could watch the kids while I went out with a friend who is in the states from Japan. Unbeknownst to me, Jonah had a meeting yesterday (a normal work day) and didn't have to work his normal 24 hour shift that day and was able to come home. Where was I? At my parents having a grand ole time with them and the kids and then out for a night on the town (well not really but I was by myself!). In all our years of marriage Jonah goes to work one day(tues.) and then comes home 72 hours later. There have been only a few times I can think of that he had some sort of meeting that made it so he didn't have to stay at the station. So, Jonah was home last night alone, subsisted on Top Ramen and had a VERY quiet house. SO quiet he said he had to shout and clap loudly a couple of times because he just wasn't used to it and it felt uncomfortable (and lonely, ah). I would faint dead away if my house was left all to myself and severely quiet. It would be wonderful.

OK, back to the task at hand, telling you all how wonderful hubbie is. Now Jonah does sweet things for me all the time but for some reason this one just made my day. I got home to a stuffy, hot house (it was 113 outside), put the kids down for a nap and went to check my e-mail since I had been gone. What do I notice first thing is that Jonah turned off the internet connection, so cursing him under my breath (not really) I reach down to turn it back on to find a sweet note that says, "You're so beautiful". So sweet. But it gets better! Looking at my calendar I turn to Sept. and there's a note saying. "I (heart) Faith". Later I go to get the kids some water and there is another note in the fridge. I go to heat up the kids dinner (leftovers) and there is a note in the microwave that says, "WOW, you're hot!" This one made me laugh. And I have found 5 other notes strewn around the house in odd places that he knew I would find them. Maybe there's more? Isn't he wonderful? I just love him so much! I'm so glad I married that man...

Would kill for some Belgian coffee

A few days ago Jonah put a picture of me, while we were in Belgium, up on my wallpaper. I am sitting in this wonderful cafe in the main square of a town called Bruge (love it there) with a HUGE waffle covered in strawberries and whipped cream. There are 2 cups of coffee next to a large copper kettle. The picture isn't that great but every time I look at it I SO desire to go back there and be drinking that yummy coffee again. I don't know if it is even Belgian coffee at all but it was SO good. Every where we went the coffee was surperb, served with these little cookies, 2 cubes of sugar and 2 things of cream. Mmmmmm, yum. Dreaming of Belgian coffee tonight. Just thought you would like to know :)

People just don't understand

I have been mulling this over in my head for the past few weeks and wanted to share my feelings with all you blog stalkers (hehe). The feelings have just mounted as we went to visit Jonah's parents and saw all of our old church friends with our new family of 5. People say, "Wow, you have your hands full". This phrase doesn't really bother me because hey, I do have my hands full, happily full of happy children and lots of love. The thing that bothers me is when they say, "Well you MUST be done now!" or "so you have to be done now" and the look on their faces when I tell them probably not. The reason I say probably not is because I honestly don't know what God has for our family. He may only have these 5 children for us, I don't beleive so, but if it is I will be content. I have learned not to put God in a box and instead allow him to bless us as He sees fit. If that means 5 children or 15, so be it. I think our culture of beleiving the "perfect" family as having 2 kids (3 is thought big now!) and giving them all the things they "need" (read:want) is so NOT what God has intended for us as Christians. I am not saying that everyone should have 10 kids or that it is not OK for those that only have 1 or 2; I am saying that people often miss the point (and with it the blessing) of wanting and desiring a large family. It is not for everyone, it takes much organization and patience but the rewards are SO great! The Bible is chock full of verses stating that children are blessings from God. Why would you not want the blessing? I am so blessed by my 5 kids, why not be blessed by 5 more? A new quote that I absolutely LOVE and I think is so relevant to our society today is this, "In the Bible God says that children are a blessing and debt is a curse but in our culture today we get rid of the blessing and apply for the curse."
I could go on and on.

Changes

Over the last 2 weeks we have seen tremendous changes in Judah. I mean staggering things that just all the sudden started happening. He doesn't have that mid day melt down where I have to carry him on my back for the rest of the day(although I try to wear him at least an hour each day). While we were up with Jonah's parents he went straight to Jonah's mom the first night(majorly surprising) we were there and had no problems at all with us out of the room at any given time. We actually got to go on a date as we felt he would do fine (and he did great!). He has started signing up a storm all of the sudden (we have been signing with him since we met him) and now does please, Mama, Daddy, good, thank you, more, eat, all done, and yes. He is walking better and better and it is his main source of transportation now. His favorite thing to do is dance and it is the cutest thing ever when he tries to move those legs with the beat. I will have to video that so you can all see too. You can tell he is pysically getting bigger; his legs are fatter and his arms have more muscles. As well, he has almost ourgrown his 9 month overalls he wears every day(still has to wear the shorts though on the account of his eensy weensy waist).It is all so amazing to watch. So today we took a BIG step and moved Judah's crib out of our room and into the boys' room, also known as the "brother's club" as the sign over the door states. And no, that is not some racial slang at all like MY brothers say it sounds, just a cute sign. So we shall see how he does. So far so good, no crying, yet.

About the video

It seems that some are able to veiw the video fine while others just get a black screen the whole time. I'm not sure why and I'm sorry for it but there is nothing I can do. Or at least, nothing I know how to do to fix it!

Our adoption video

I started this video BEFORE the boys got home and just got around to finishing it after doing it bit by bit over the last 3 months. It's not spectacular but I hope you enjoy it anyways! Make sure your volume is turned on! Edited to add: For some reason the video wasn't working right (dark spots while hearing the music, it shouldn't be that way) for Jonah at work while it was working fine on our home computer so I don't know if anyone else will have problems with it. I am sorry if you do though! I will try to work on it tomorrow and see if I can fix it to work on computers with less than DSL.

 

 

The kids watch intently as the horse is saddled for their first ever ride!

 
The brothers driving the tractor

 

The triplets job was to get the pears from Daddy and Sarah and gently put them in the box. They has so much fun helping!

 

Sarah harvesting the pears at the top of the tree with the help of Daddy

 

We had a fun day at the river just down the road from our land. It was COLD but the kids had a blast!

 

Judah was perminently affixed to my back during the camping trip

I was finally able to put the video up, thanks Brandi! Hope you enjoy it. I will also be posting some pictures of our trip to see Jonah's parents and camping when I get the chance. Also, our little kitties name, drum roll please......
Na'alehu (pronounced Nah- ah- leh- hoo). The kids chose it even though it is difficult for them to pronounce (they are calling her Na'ali). This is the name Jonah wanted to name our first daughter until I talked him out of it. It is a city on the way to Kona from our house in Pahoa and we love it there. I was partial to another name but the kids voted for this one so we are sticking with it. She is the best little kitty and I am really pleased with Sarah's choice. I have had 5 kitties in my life and only one of them was a lover (she died before she was 6 months old though :( ) so it is nice to have a loving cat who will sit on your lap as long as you will let her. She is SO good with the kids too, letting them pet and play with her and not getting angry. I'm impressed.

My dancing Liberian

Isaiah just started dancing with us lately and this is how he dances. It is the CUTEST thing ever but the best part is the look on his face. It completes the whole thing and I don't think you can see it in the video. He purses his lips and has this oh-yeah-I'm-cool look on his face. He is opening up and getting a little crazy. Don't know what everyone was talking about when they said he was mellow, he's a wild child just like Kai!

OK, I tried to put the video on here but have no clue how to do it. Any one help? I'm sure it's super easy.

Home

We are home and had a good time. Yesterday was Jonah's birthday and he is now 32 years old. We are celebrating today since we spent all day yesterday driving. Today Sarah started 3rd grade and then we went to go pick out a kitty, finally. It has been 4 1/2 months since we promised the kids a kitten and because the boys came home early, thank God, we finally got around to it today. She is a sweet little thing, black with a bit of orange and we don't have a name for her yet. We are thinking of going with a Hawaiian city theme with our pets and so we are looking for just the right one. Any sugesstions? I am busy with cake baking at the moment and so I need to go but will update a little more when I can this week.

Happy 8th birthday Sarah!

Tomorrow is Sarah's 8th birthday but we will be busy getting ready to leave and so I wanted to make sure I got this done today. There are many pictures that follow starting with her last birthday and going through the year to this one. My has she grown!
Sarah is an amazing little girl, just ask anyone who knows her. She is hard working, diligent (most of the time), helpful, beautiful and caring. I tell her all the time that I wouldn't be able to get all of the work done without her and it is absolutely true! She is such a BIG help and NEVER complains about it. I cannot believe Sarah is already 8, it seems as if time has flown by. She has grown much more than just in body and maturity. If you met her when she was 4 and had just come to us and then met her again today you would not believe it was the same girl at all. Yes, she still looks the same but she is truly a different girl today. At 4 she was a scared, painfully shy, hurt, sad little girl who knew nothing at all (were talking basic things like the name of a plate or fork) and didn't talk but pointed to what she wanted. She horded food and asked constantly to eat even if we had just finished a meal. She would not talk or interact with anyone she wasn't super familiar with (and those that she was couldn't understand her at all!) and she was TERRIFIED of men, including Jonah. I never could have imagined that that hurt little girl could have ended up such a wonderful, loving, playful addition to our family. I am awed by God's grace and goodness in her little life. She adores her Daddy now and I truly never thought it would be so. They have such a unique and special relationship that was made through heartache and pain on both of their parts. Jonah chose to love her no matter if she hated him and it has paid off overwhelmingly! Oh, I could go on and on about how much God has blessed us with Sarah but I will stop there.
Happy Birthday my sweet Sarah. You will never know how blessed we feel to be chosen to be your parents. He has great plans for you and your life! Just keep following Him and He will reward you for your faithfulness! We love you!

This is Sarah last year on her 7th birthday.

As a flamingo for Harvest. She is going to kill me for this picture when she gets older but it isn't half as bad as the one that show her long skinny legs, hehehe:) Torture time!

Getting her red belt in Karate

Getting her hair cut for Locks of Love

Holding her baby brother for the first time

Sarah (left) and friend Olivia being silly

Sorry for the wait

I know I usually update the blog more than I have the last week but we have been really busy and I have hardly had time to get on the computer and check e-mails let alone do some bloggin'. We are leaving soon to go and visit Jonah's parents and see friends we haven't seen in a while and can't wait. We are also going to camp for 2 nights while we're there and enjoy the fresh air, something I can't wait for.
I have many thoughts running around in my head about wanting to be called by God but haven't thought them through enough to really make any sense. Basically, Jonah and I feel/desire/want to be called to some other country to be missionaries but it's not that easy. There are so many what if's and things to work out in order to go and most importantly be used. Our hearts are heavy with this now and we are talking of it all the time but don't know what to do about it. We know that Jesus has called each one of us to witness to the nations, it was the last thing he commanded before going up to heaven but does that mean we should go? It's so confusing and we want to do what God wants us to do, of course. Maybe He is preparing our hearts to go when we are older? I don't really know. All I know is we want to go, somewhere. Our hearts are heavy for Africa and all the lost people there out in the bush. Sigh, we need to spend more time on our knees and really hear where God is leading us. If you are led, will you pray with us also?

Judah baby

Around here we call Judah "Judah baby" or "youda baby". Everyone fawns all over him and wants to play with him all the time. Sarah doesn't ever want him to be on the ground and will pick him up the moment I set him down (which I tell her to put him back down). He is the sweetest and most needy baby I have ever seen but I love it! At this age, Kai and Alana wanted nothing to do with me unless they were hurt or sick but Judah loves to be held and just sits on my back while I work or run errands. While on my back he continuously rubs the back of my arms with one of his hands, it is so special. He is also the tiniest 15 month old I have ever encountered and I have seen quite a few "petite" one year olds. You should see the size of his waist, miniscule doesn't even touch it. He is constantly in overalls day after day because none of the shorts (but 2 9 month pairs that are still too big) fit him at all. So much for hand me downs, all of Kai's cute summer shirts and shorts are going to waste and the overalls will be worn out! Oh, well. He is still in size 2 diapers and doesn't look like he will grow out of them any time soon. I shouldn't be complaining though, I have always said I wanted a petite kid instead of the 2 30 pound one-year-olds I had before! Yes, Kai and Alana were BIG!
Judah is still in our room in the crib but I am thinking of transitioning him to the boys' room but not sure how he will do in there as he still cries when he is put down to sleep if I leave the room. He just started saying Mama and Dada and does the sign with them most of the time although he only says them to get us to laugh. He scrunches his face up in this cute way with his eyes closed after he says it, which makes me laugh. Judah cries about everything but is learning quickly to stop when I tell him to. It is so funny to see a baby crying like the sky is falling and then suddenly stop without a sniffle or tear. He loves to point too. At anything and everything he finds interesting even if it is just the ceiling. Also, he just pushed through 2 of his bottom molars so now he is a chomping machine!
So that is just a little look at the baby of the family. I am so enjoying having a baby in the house again that loves to be loved and held.

I just couldn't resist

Doesn't he just melt your heart!