For those of you that fondly remember the Underwear Fairy, she has gone. But do not be sad, because she is being replaced by the equally as cool Vitamin Fairy.
Ashley is a great gal that works in Liberia. (Go check out her blog www.loveinliberia.blogspot.com ) . Last time she went she asked for help with new underwear for the kids.
At the end of February she is going back to Liberia, this time with bags jam packed with kids chewable vitamins!! So here’s what YOU can do;
I think we have set a record, we got our tree up with 10 days still to go until the big day! Usually its like that week/couple of days before the 25th. Actually we got the tree on Saturday morning, so that is like 12 days before Christmas(granted it hung out in our garage for the weekend, cause we were way too busy to put it up!).
But alas it is up in all its sparkly light glory. The biggest obstacle was trying to get all 6 kiddos, in front of the tree, smiling for the camera. But after a couple of bad shots I threatened to take away supper until a lovely picture was taken, and bada bing bada boom, we have one!
It is the story of a young Liberian, upper class girl as she grows up in Liberia. She did such a fabulous job at writing out her story. You can feel the humidity or smell the food. Its seriously a great read.
Last winter I wrote about the Underwear Fairy that was collecting new undies to give out to orphanages in Liberia. Well the Underwear Fairy is back in Liberia, working with Orphan Relief and Rescue. Ashley (aka the Underwear Fairy) just updated her blog and she is handing out all those new undies to kiddos all over Liberia. Its pretty dang cool. So go check it out at, www.loveinliberia.blogspot.com.
Ya know, I always thought we would eventually adopt again. When I imagined it, she was a sweet, chunky little Liberian toddler. A girl, of course! And I would do her hair into little puffs and she would wear the cutest little toddler girl dresses ever. She would be our last baby. I had it all planned out…to a ‘T’.
Then of course, God had bigger and way better plans for my family.
This incredibly beautiful 12 year old girl, from Brasil no less, is our newest daughter. And we are all enchanted to say the least. We met Miss G, by phone, last July. She was in Brasil being adopted by an American mom. I knew them kinda through a friend, and I helped with translation stuff. We have watched for the past 15 months as Miss G and her adoptive mom have struggled. And not too long ago her adoptive mom decided that she could no longer be Miss G’s mom. And now here she is. Of course, its not really like *snap* and here she is. There are a lot of little details, gut wrenching intense moments, and heartbreak.
I have been trying to write this blog entry for quite a while. I’ve written and erased several times over the past couple of weeks. Trying to find the just the right words to explain my feelings about all of this.
And I kept thinking of this fabulous Ben Harper song called, Blessed to be A Witness.
The Chorus says, I am Blessed
I am Blessed
I am Blessed
I am Blessed
I am Blessed to be a witness
And that kinda sums it all up. I am blessed. I have this fabulous opportunity to witness Jesus in action on a daily basis. I am humbled that ultimately He gave me exactly what I have been desiring, one more daughter. She isn’t the chunky little toddler that I had envisioned in my head. She is way, way better…..
Here is the definition that my online dictionary gave for busy-excessively filled with detail. Isn’t that a great definition? I feel like I should get a cute tee that says that in big pink letters, cause that is what life has been around here, excessively filled with details. Not really bad details, but still make me run around and act crazy kind of details. Goofy things like 3 soccer practices, and getting 3 kids ready to go to 3 different(new) schools, getting 2 remaining children ready for the homeschool year.
My little guy on his 1st day of kindergarten!
Here is Miss P, in uniform, on her way to full day school for the 1st time.
And in the midst of that we had the honor of having the cutest, sweetest, most fabulous baby around at our house for a whole week!
My cutie niece came for a visit! My very prego sis with baby #2 came all the way from Tennessee for a little vacation in Seattle. This was the first time we had all gotten to meet Miss Cutie herself and she had my whole entire clan just wrapped around her little finger.
.
And to our great sadness, they are gone back to Tennessee. There is no cute baby for us to all watch and laugh with. *sigh* I guess its just back to school, soccer, and homework. *sigh*
Being the Betty Crocker mom that I am, I made yummy pancakes for breakfast. I always feel very proud of myself when I make pancakes instead of toast with peanut butter. So this was pancake morning. Being quite inspired, I even boiled a couple of eggs. Now I was pretty sure that would put me into some prize for cool mom.
So I’m flipping pancakes and handing them out to kids at the table. All the pancake fixings are on the table ready for use. Mr. H comes to me and asks for the ketchup. In my euphoric breakfast mind state, I say yes. But then I stop. Ketchup! Wait we are eating pancakes. Syrup + pancakes not ketchup + pancakes.
“Hey Mr. H, come show me”.
Please notice the ketchup in the middle of my nice pancake. He took his boiled eggs and cut them into little pieces. Then he cut his pancake in half. And of course, the eggs and ketchup went into the pancake. Like a big ole’ nasty breakfast sandwich.
After this picture he asked me, in his most serious voice, if I wanted a bite. Yeah…..I didn’t.
The other night, as kids were getting teeth brushed and ready to head off to bed, I was flipping through the channels I noticed that there was a great show coming on PBS. Wide Angle. It would be about 3 kids that were abducted and became child soldiers in Uganda. It would be their story. So I started watching it, and slowly my bigger kids started trickling into the living room. We get a little background on the rebels and how long this war has been going on, and then they dive into these 3 kid’s stories. As we are watching Mr. O and Mr. H start pummeling me with questions. Questions about the war, about the children in Uganda, are they scared?, why don’t they just not fight for the rebels?. And on and on. Really good questions actually. I am trying to answer as best as I can and watch the documentary at the same time. Then there is this scene where this 12 year old kid is walking, alone, on this road going to see his mom for the first time in a year. He ran away from the rebel army and was now at this rehabilitation type place that tries to get ex child soldiers back to some kind of normal life. So this boy is walking. Mr. H says, ” I would be so scared to walk”. Then Mr. O answers him, “I would never be able to sleep at night being worried that they would take me again”. And on and on my boys go. Imagining what it would be like. Putting themselves into this little Ugandan boy’s shoes.
WOW!!!! I sat there stunned. You see, my boys have lived most of their lives in an orphanage during a war. Both of those circumstances do not breed empathy or compassion. It breeds survival. Making sure that you are safe. And here these two boys sat, watching about other children in a country far away from Liberia. A country that they know nothing about. And they felt empathy and they felt compassion.
The following days both boys still continued to have questions. And finally, they landed on the big question, “what can we do?”. What a fabulous question! Now they live in a country, where not only can we know what is happening in the world, but we can do something.
Here are some of the places we have found-
World Vision works with former child soldiers in Uganda.
