Family Camp

We just came home from Above Rubies Family Camp (www.aboverubies.org) where we had the privilege of hearing Colin and Nancy Campbell speak. This is our third year attending and we LOVE it! Colin and Nancy are so refreshing; they have six children and over 30 grandchildren, to top that, they adopted four teenagers last year. They have become our mentors. Nancy reminded us ladies about God's characteristics as He gently leads His children so must we, as mothers, gently tend our flock and lead them using God's shepherding characteristics as our model. On days when it just seems like too much is going on, Isaiah reminds us that God gently leads those that have young! 

In Colin's first session, he talked about how the mother is to be the Queen of the home! I LOVE this!! I have been telling my family for years that I am the Queen. They all roll their eyes at me and here is Colin telling them something that I've known for years! Humph!! Then, he went on to talk about hilarious mothering. Dan just rolled his eyes at that because I don't think he thinks I need any more encouragement in this area! Then, I looked back at Dan's brother, who for some reason thinks I am crazy, and gloated! He, too, rolled his eyes at me. I know that my family was thinking about our drive to camp which should have taken us seven hours and we were on the road for ten! I began to get slap happy and our children were getting fussy. So I took out my pretend bullhorn (my two hands) rolled down the window to the very slow, moving traffic and said, "Make way for the Queen, please move to the right! The Queen is coming now, please move to your right a little faster!" The children thought this to be quite funny. No one was moving out of our way. So I said, "Please go home to your families right now and make way for the Queen!" Still, no one moved. I am not sure why I suddenly found in my hand some toilet seat covers so I tried to sell them over my bullhorn. No takers. Our children were laughing but Dan was getting embarrassed and said, "You need to stop. There are people coming with their windows rolled down." He promptly rolled up my window and put the child lock on the windows! Hilarious mothering!

Seriously though, sometimes a little craziness goes a long way as we parent our children! It's very easy for me to get stuck in all the seriousness and forget to have fun! Some days I know that I am so busy that the end of the day comes and we didn't really enjoy each other; we just "did" the day. I really don't want to just "do" the day. Each day is an unwrapped gift from God; He gives it to us with all the trimmings, ribbons and with much flare. Somehow I envision that He gives us the gift of each day on a silver platter and on a white linen tablecloth. Some days it is easy to just unwrap the trimmings and miss the wonderful gift inside because I get distracted. I pray that I finish each day well. That I run the course He sets out for me avoiding the obstacles of the enemy who so easily entangles me. That I live for each moment taking the time to plant His seeds of truth in the little lambs that He has given me. That my life would be a reflection of His love and that it would be a life that our children would want as well. And finally, that I would have the courage to live the life that He wants me to live. 

Answer to Prayer Request Number 3

The girls who had their cleft palate surgeries are doing well! They were released one day early! Praise God that the doctors think their surgeries were so successful that they won't need another surgery! This is huge because these two little ones had worse case scenario palates and the doctors were very concerned that they would have to go back in again. Continue to hold these little girls in your prayers as they recover!

Another little girl in our travel group had some tumors removed from her stomach while in China! Praise God again! They took her in for an appointment and this precious one is perfectly healthy!! 

What a MIGHTY God we serve!!

Answer to Prayer Request Number One

Praise God!! I just called whatever phone number one needs to call the night before jury duty and guess what?? Yep, you guessed it! I do not have to report!! God is just simply amazing!! He is amazingly good ALL the time!! I was really feeling very sad about being away knowing the anxiety that it would bring to Hannah. I was bracing myself for a rough week or more; I feel like we really just recovered from me being gone that one Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Her scabs just healed yesterday from two weeks ago as she continues to open them up with her scratching. Oh, I am SO relieved!! Healing the emotional scars of our little one will take time and lots of love and any change in schedule seems to be a two steps forward, three steps back kind of a process. We have noticed that any time I am gone seems to bring about some anxiety that usually seems to come out the next day.

Another Olympic funny......Tonight, as we were watching the women's gymnastics (We tape it to watch the next day.) I was commenting about " When I was in the Olympics yada yada yada...." Benjamin said, "Really, Mom? You were in the Olympics?" "Of course" I replied. He says, "Which event did you compete in?" We just happened to be watching the balance beam so I said, " The balance beam!" To which the room erupts into laughter!! I, personally, didn't see anything funny about my response. Matthew pipes up and says, "Oh, yea, Mom. Well, what medals did you win?" I very humbly reply, "I won a bronze and a gold!" To which he quips, "Well then, where are they?" Of course, by now I have to tell the truth. So I solemnly tell them, "I had to sell them to have all these children!" Laughter erupts again.

A Few Prayer Requests

1. I have jury duty tomorrow so I will be gone all day tomorrow. Please pray that Hannah will do well. We are thankful that Dan will home with our children. However, I was gone all day a couple of Saturdays ago and even though Dan was home with our children, Hannah did not do well. When I came home she had 6-7 new open sores. (Her self-soothing action is to itch herself until she bleeds.) While she was delighted to see me, she was really mad. She screamed, "Mama!!" Came running. Immediately stopped. She was mad at me for the first 40 minutes of me being home. We went through some pretty major regression that lasted at least a week! 

2. Continue to pray Hannah and Nicholas' relationship. They seem to being doing better, but they still need prayer.

3. Two little girls from our travel group had their cleft palate surgeries today. Pray for wisdom for doctors, quick healing, rest for their parents. Most of all, pray that the bonding that has since taken place will continue to grow and that these little girls will continue reach out to their parents for comfort. 

A funny.....we've been watching a fair amount of the Olympics these past few days. Elizabeth asked me yesterday, if I have ever competed in the Olympics! 

Time Is Flying!

Wow! We cannot believe that it is August already! I haven't written in awhile and thought I'd catch you up on the latest.

Dan has one more week of summer school teaching. Then, he'll be busy preparing for his fall classes which start the week of Labor Day. 

Elizabeth has discovered the joys of cooking and has been cooking up a storm! I am thinking that she'll be ready to cook an entire dinner pretty soon! Matthew already cooks for us once every 7-10 days. 

Benjamin has been reading up a storm. 

Nathaniel has probably won the record of playing the most games in a single week! He could play games all day. 

Nicholas has been joining me in bed in the middle of the night and is getting a good workout

by using me as a punching bag! 

Matthew's obsession with computers has grown to new heights! 

Hannah continues to thrive. Lots of new words. A couple of weeks ago we took her back to Oakland where she saw about 8 different doctors in one day. The cranio team agreed with us and told us it was our call as to when we schedule surgery. We'll probably wait a year hoping that she will be more emotionally ready to handle surgery. She was only able to complete 1 out of 3 tests for hearing. Somehow, she didn't get that if she was screaming and kicking she couldn't hear anything. I was deaf by the end of it and wouldn't have passed the tests either!

My friend came back from China with their little girl last Friday. She is adorable! Another miracle blessing from above!!