The Best Sort of Trick-Or-Treaters

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Jodi

Are the ones that bring the treats to you!

We were pleasantly surprised by the second knock on our door this evening. Full basket of candy in hand, we opened the door to Pop-pop and Debedee dressed as Woody and Jessie from Toy Story!

We went from counting down till bedtime to staying up late just like that! My daddy even brought me coffee. I’m pretty sure that’s my love language.

Although we didn’t dress up tonight (at least, not before we started picking Woody and Jessie apart and reappropriating their bits!), most of the kids got to dress up as their favorite Bible Hero for AWANA on Wednesday night.

From left to right: Romilly as Lydia, the purplemaker, Delia as Sarah, holding baby Isaac, Pippa as Mary with baby Jesus, Bea as Mrs. Noah, Junie as Queen Esther, Niko as David, the pre-Goliath, pre-king shepherd boy, and Coraline as Elizabeth, mother of baby John the Baptist. I wasn’t sure we’d have enough baby dolls to go around! Pippa kindly volunteered to use Annis, but it didn’t come to that, thankfully.

Since it is technically November now as I type this just after midnight, I will begin my month of (probably patchy at best) thankfulness by saying how much I appreciate having an extended family on all sides who truly love and support us. Grandparents who can think of nothing more fun to do on a Friday night than to surprise their grandkids by arriving in costume to deliver treats (and coffee! Don’t forget the coffee!) are an incredible blessing that I do not take for granted. And we really do have that kind of loving pouring in from all sides. So very blessed!

October Beauties

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Jodi

October. Quite possibly my favorite month (although doesn’t one’s own birthday always have that effect?), full of pumpkins and apple picking and dressing up. We do not celebrate Halloween, but we love to celebrate Fall in all its glorious splendor. Look how pretty!

I’m savoring the bit of warmth that has lingered in the air this week, knowing that November will be upon us soon enough. I do love October.

Another Birthday Week

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Jodi

Would you believe that this little lady went and turned THREE on us on Monday?! (I must be becoming an old woman for two posts in a row to revolve around little people somehow being much older than they ought to be, but more on me being an old woman later…).

Coraline Audrey surprised us in the middle of our adoption process for Niko; she’s a precious blessing that we might have missed out on if it had been left up to us. We are so thankful that God’s plans were bigger and better than ours.

This little lovie makes us all laugh all day long. She loves Delia with a ferocity that has worn her big sister down more than any of the other kids have managed to. She is an irresistible force, and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

The next morning I woke up to this scene in honor of my birthday:

I didn’t cook a single meal all day thanks to my capable little sous chefs!

It was a pretty ordinary day. We had a lot of school to work through since we’d been at a birthday party the day before for some friends. I had a pretty bad cold (still do!) But at the end of the day my heart echoed the sentiments of Mary Ingalls on a birthday episode of Little House on the Prairie we happened to watch this week. Recently left blind by scarlet fever, she sat surrounded by family and friends, poised to blow out her birthday candles. “Make a wish!” they all chorused.

“I don’t know what to wish for,” she beamed. “I already have everything I could ever want right here!”

And so it is with me. My days are often hard, filled with unpleasant smells and difficult behavior. I don’t get a lot of quiet moments (which is why I’m blogging so rarely and way past my bedtime tonight!), but when I have them, I have a deep abiding contentment with my life. I can’t think of a single thing I’d change or a single thing I’d wish for.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. – Psalm 16:6

Mr. and Mrs.

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Jodi

So, a crazy thing happened last weekend. My baby sister got married. Now, when I say “baby sister”, you are likely picturing a cute old photo of a gappy-toothed little-kid me looking bewilderedly at a newborn on my lap. In fact you should be picturing me in a prom dress looking bewilderedly at a newborn in my lap, because this baby sister is fully a decade and a half younger than I am! You can imagine how the fact that she is now of marriageable age (even borderline, like I was!) has rocked my world.

Romilly, who has always shared a special connection with Aunt Chelsea owing to their shared love of horses and drawing, was the flower girl. Isn’t she beautiful?

The kids all had a fantastic time at what was arguably the most kid-friendly wedding I have ever been to (a play-doh station, games, swings, a candy bar!!!) thanks to the groom being the oldest of five boys. The youngest brother of the groom was Romilly’s little sidekick, the ringbearer, and the second youngest made a perfect little buddy for Pippa. (And I say “buddy” by way of sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending not to notice all of the whispering and giggling surrounding the whole situation, which I was completely unprepared to be dealing with at this point in my parenting career!)

My sister was a beautiful bride, and she married a man who was, once upon a time, a little boy she used to play with in the nursery of the church we grew up at. I almost called it a very happy ending to a wonderful love story, but of course, we all know it is really just the beginning.

Weddings make me all reflective. It really feels like that was just us, a couple of crazy kids getting hitched, just a few short years ago. When I look at this picture and stop to take stock of where the Lord has led us, I can hardly believe it’s really my life. Fourteen years, two continents, six babies, two adoptions… EIGHT KIDS! We could never have planned a life like this for ourselves (and, for the record, we didn’t: our premarital counseling workbooks from way back when put our expectations firmly in the 3-5 children range, that’s 3 to 5 not 3 and 5!), but the Lord had more amazing things planned for us than we could ever have imagined.

As I looked at Chelsea and John on their wedding day, I couldn’t help but wonder what the Lord has in store for them, two hearts that love each other and love Him. You just never know where that might lead!

Jodilightful!

Monthly Archives: October 2014

The Best Sort of Trick-Or-Treaters

October Beauties

Another Birthday Week

Mr. and Mrs.