So we go for pink rhinestone flowers.
Still smiling...Pop!........ Pop!...... No tears!!!! I am in complete shock.
Sometimes a girl just has to put her foot down and suck it up to show themselves worthy of being a big girl. I am one proud mommy. Now if only we could do the 4 Africa immunizations just as easily..
By sunset is was so deep, and so cold, that driving home from great grandmas was becoming scary. The kids were still begging to go outside and crying "but it will be gone in the morning!!!" The next day however was a winter wonderland.
Mommy was pumped. It didn't snow often when we were little but my favorite memories are of suiting up in 4 layers thick, putting sandwich bags on under mittens, and pulling on the rubber boots. And sledding. I love sledding. Which our 1 inch last February really didn't afford. And since the roads are usually bad when NC gets snow - I can't drive the kids to play in it. So for us to be there, with them out of school.... yeah!!!
Don't worry, he has sandwich bags under those high tech gloves.. "you know you're from South Carolina when....."
So after approximately 2 hours of outside play, the men folk decided that with the 17 degrees it would getting to that evening, and the drive home we were 'suppose' to do the next day - it might be better if we left early so that we drove on the cleared roads vs. the iced over roads. What??? And leave now??? But Tony needed to be at work on Tuesday. I wanted to cry, seriously..
So the NEXT day - we sled on the iced paths (the boys thinking it was funny to make paths to run me into trees at the bottom of the hill), and then sled some more, and then realize we are pooped from trudging up those heels so go on a four wheeler ride back into the fields where we go over and around hills and trees and come upon deer tracks. Which the boys and I then track about 14 miles into the woods (maybe an exaggeration... maybe). But none the less, a really fun hike. (If I could have gotten images of hungry coyote or a misplaced bear jumping out onto the path in front of us to go away, it would have been much more fun for mom.)
Finally, we are movin' on up again. Albeit verrrrry slowly. The last few weeks had a couple referrals and a couple is sure better than none. So now we have 10 people waiting ahead of us for baby girls. Overall, we have 25 people ahead of us total. The good news is that people have started passing court and going to embassy appointments to bring their children home. The bad news is that the agency that 'recommends' parents to the court feels like they are bogged down and have caused the court to not schedule any dates in February. So courts closed all of Aug/Sept which caused a back-up. And courts closed again in February to alleviate a back-up. Oh well.... I'm just excited knowing that with the calendar moving to 2011, that this WILL be the year we bring home our 4th child. Better be anyway!!!
On to sweeter things, this month I took the mommy liberty of choosing our flavor of the month:
Ernest and Ronel Parker then slept 9 days on a hard Embassy floor - waiting to come home to their family. With disaster and death all around them - the son clung to his father, his hero father, asking "we go now?"
On his mother Debra's blog, she wrote of the day Ernest left for Haiti: "He did not have an ounce of fear in his body. He was more determined than I may have ever seen him before. The look in his eye was intense and his heart was beating just a bit faster. He was going to fight for his son. He did not care where he would sleep. He did not care what he would eat. He was not scared of what danger there could be. Nothing would stop him. A father's love was the drive behind the strength."
A Father's Love...... this time of year, as we celebrate the season - we see twinkling lights, wrapped gifts, and we picture the sweet, sweet picture of an infant in a manger.
And while that story should be celebrated, I think just as much, we need to focus on the impact of that sweet child. That it was not the birth of the babe that impacts us, but the arms of the Father coming to bring us home to our family.He did not care what he would eat. He did not care where he would sleep. He was not afraid of the dangers that he might face. He was coming to bring his children home.
But still, do we realize? Our world is no less broken than Haiti still is today. Broken by the sins of greed and hatred. Littered with the trash of immorality and perversion. Full of plague and pestilance, growing day by day. Spiritual death is all around us and increases every day.
And yet our father came to suffer through those days to bring us home.
And how often do we, instead, of being comforted in his arms, tell him, "just a moment, I need to stay outside and play in this rubble."
How often do we, instead of running and yelling from the roof-tops - "Our father is here to take us home, he will take all who come to him!!" Do we instead keep his gift to ourselves as we are ashamed of our status as his children.
How often do we, instead of talking to him and loving him, do we instead, stay pent up in our own rooms until Sunday, when we might emerge to tell him hello and then go back to our own cares?
Christ did not come to be a babe in the manger. Christ came to bring us home. To rescue us.
And he did not come to have us sing quick 'hello', but to worship him for the gift of our adoption. And to tell the world of his love. And to bring others into his arms and out of the destruction. To show love to those that have no one else to help them.
Spiritual death is all around. And you never know when the walls of judgement will fall down on top of you. When the plague of sin will destroy your joy, your health, and your life. Only through Christ can you have the peace that no matter how hard this world is, no matter how bad you may have once been, you are still loved, and it will be alright. And that he is still here, ever present, always watching - and doing miracles in the lives of his children. He is alive and active.
Do you know who your Father is? Because over 2000 years ago, he came so that he could take you home. All you have to do is run to his arms.
