We are adopting!!

In case you haven't heard yet WE ARE ADOPTING!! well kind of... well not today... But we have started the process. we are in the midst of our homestudy and the bills are piling in already. regardless of my feelings on all the bills... (that could ba a long lengthy post in itself) they are here and they will be increasing. This is a huge step of faith for us as there is no way on our own I can imagine paying for all of this in our own strength, our own doings.... So we will be doing various fundraisers and will post details here and on facebook, but for now just know how much we appreciate your prayers for this journey. I will be sharing more details as time goes on. If you have ideas for fundraising we would love to hear them. All profits from our Frogmama.com business will be going to the fund as well. Thanks everyone!

Life continued...

23. Fresh local eggs for breakfast 24 My wonderful husband faithfully cooking them for me every morning. 25 healthy kids 26 joyful, lively kids early in the morning 27 New life in baby chicks 28 a few minutes of quiet 29 a good steady job for Troy 30 family close by to help and bless the kids 31 much needed rain 32 good friends 33 the encouragement of other moms 34 the amazing ability of the human body to heal- miracle of God So since my last post much has happened Zach broke his arm falling off the playground in the yard. The full arm cast didn;t slow him down at all:) He just got the cast off last week and is pretty much back to normal. John is now, thanks to his JaJa, a metal detecting pro. He has been borrowing the Metal detector and has found lots of fun things, pennies, foil, nails...etc:) Anna is so cheerful and singing all the time. She makes up songs about God or about her siblings. Lydia is pink and sparkely as ever she says Anna is the singer and she is the Dancer so together they make quite a pair. I am excited about the once a month moms encouragement group we are having meet at our house. This week is the 2nd meeting. hoping it goes well and moms leave encouraged and blessed. We have baby chicks that hopefully will all turn out to be hens and give us lots of eggs later this year.

So after reading One Thousand Gifts I really wanted to start keeping track myself and I figure this is as good of a way as any t o keep track of them. so here goes... Oh and the kids are helping too:) 1. Healthyness 2.Good living 3. Mommy and Daddy 4. Not sick 5. Clothes and Food 6 Blue Blanket 7 Blue Jacket 8 sweet sticky kid hugs 9 Trains 10 "Sing, Sing. Sing" 11 Blue Bean Bag 12 God coins 13 A singing "Great is thy Faithfulness" while folding clothes 14 Z singing "keen up, Keen up" 15 laughing blue eyes 16 a's mothers heart 17 L concerned about people "glittering" (littering) on the street 18 Johns curiosity and strong will 19 a dedicated providing Husband 20a God who is Everything 21 some time of quiet 22 new friends and old friends This has been a busy day. kids still getting over the reminents of coughs. It really affects their attitudes when they are fighting off something... but we have started bible time in school again too coinsidence? hmmmm.... Samuel was up a bunch last night- at least every hour. Not sure if it is just congestion or just the teeth still working through. None through yet.... His latest accomplishment is climbing the stairs... at 7 months... a sign of another curious boy I think:)

Hello again...is anyone here...?:)

So I decided to come back..... I made a new friend who has inspired me to start blogging again, if only to record these moments of life that are speeding so quickly...too quickly by... I am hoping it will help me to slow down the time just a little bit to be able to breathe and enjoy it a whole lot more. And maybe years from now when my kids are older and they wonder what life was like just a blink ago, I can look back at this with them and have something to say... I have been following a couple wonderful blogs lately, inparticular A Holy Experience which is all about recognizing and being thankful for the many many gifts from God in our everyday lives. One of my goals in Blogging will be to have a place to record just some of these blessings. The kids have been doing this with me as well. If I post some with a letter after it, it is something one of the kids has written.... So what happened today....

Samuel was up most of the night with croup coughing and has had a fever all day. I was sitting holding him for his nap, watching as he slept. I was thinking how extremely exausting having a sick child is, but then I was also thinking how thanksful I was to be able to hold him and comfort him in this time. There is almost a sweetness in those still quiet hours holding a sleeping baby....

Zachariah is potty training... He is doing great if he has no pants on. Which makes it interesting if anyone unexpected comes to the door.... A couple tricks with potty training I have found. Zach first choice for potty training treats was nori-(seaweed) sheets. He was doing ok. Then I bumped it up to seaweed + chocolate chips ( known as chocolate swirls in our house) plus if any of the other kids on their own take him to go to the bathroom and he goes, they both get a treat. One other helpful tip I just realized... I was running low on chocolate swirls so I picked up some Trader Joes Dark chocolate sea salt almonds. Then when I take him and he goes I get one too:) This has been much more motivating for me:)

Lydia is doing her own hair now She is fixing it in 2 pony tails with a little hanging down in the back that she can't reach I think:) Then she completes the look with clip on bows. She LOVES brushing and doing her hair fancy...

Anna is quite a big sister. She loves to play with Samuel and make him laugh. She loves singing to him and Jesus. She is writing her own musicals and her own praise songs.

John is still a Train expert. His latest is HO model trans and has a few different ones. He is continually working on rearranging his layout. He has Tons of energy and I am continually looking for ways to creatively channel that for good.... Life is busy...Life is Good....

Biblical Parenting

So I am NOT a blogger- as you can see the last post was in 2008:) But I just felt the need to post about this...
So just when I think I have found "THE" method of parenting that is the right one, or "THE" Christian organization that I should completly support, then I read some things that don't sound right to me....I think more and more I am having to just learn to be prayerful and discerning- It seems like so many parents out there just want an easy 123 method of parenting, if I follow this book it will make sure everything goes right. There are a lot of good tips out there and a lot of bad ones, I learned early on in parenting to take what I can use and let the rest go. But it seems like so many parents are taking what certain teachers are saying to be the same as Gods word. Even Christian leaders are people, they sin and make misteaks just like us. They may have some good ideas and some not so good, if something seems wrong pray- read your bible first before deciding whether to act on it.
There are a few Christian parenting classes/teachers/books that have outright dangerous aspects to them, but they do have some good points too. I think the danger is when parents throw their brains out the window. God gave us brains to use for a reason. The only true 100% accurate source is God. Everything and everyone else is not perfect. Everything. So if your parenting method claims that it will "guarantee" (as one popular method does) that your kids will turn out to be good christians. Or If the books you are reading says that not following "it's" methods are sinful. Or if what you are trying is causing frustration, anxiety, or a feeling of failure. PLEASE THINK. Parenting is work and requires lots of prayer and lots of thinking.

Christmas pictures

Our Christmas letter:)

From the Foster family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

We pray that as Christmas draws near, you will take the time to reflect on God’s amazing gift of coming in the flesh so many years ago. The king of the universe chose to have a lowly and humble birth in a sheep stall. He came to bring: the grace of God, peace with God, truth, life, freedom to the captives. He brings: hope to the helpless, rest to the weary, and love to the broken heart, grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing and salvation to all who believe in Him. So Rejoice! For unto us a child was born. In the City of David the Savior has come!

It’s been another exciting year! This is the official announcement that we are having our fourth child in May! To answer all your questions: “Yes, we know how this happens. NO, we are not crazy, yes, we did plan it. And, no, I don’t think we are going to have 16 kids.) Anna thinks we are having a boy, because God told her in a dream. John thinks we are having a girl, but he has picked out the boy name of Zachariah, which is the name of John the Baptist’s father in the Bible. We have not found out the sex yet.

The LORD continues to bless us with good health, a great job, joyful spirits, grace and love. He’s taught us a lot about love, communication, honor, and parenting this year. Lorene’s baby carrier business, Frogmama.com has been blessed as well as she sells locally, nationally and internationally. She seems to be a favorite in Japan. I am not sure, but I think Frogmama must translate to hot mama or something exciting in Japanese. Lorene does an awesome job teaching the kids and taking care of them every day. She looks beautiful pregnant and is feeling well.

This has been quite a year of firsts, so here they are:

• John’s first year of official home school. John learned to ride a bike without training wheels (despite his mother’s attempts to keep him on four wheels). The song “Born to be wild” would describe John on a bike.
• John and Anna went to their first symphony and ballet, which created John’s first: “Dad, when is it over? Dad, I’m bored. Can we go home now?”
• Anna got her first dollhouse.
• It was the first and prayerfully the last time Anna loses Dad at the museum amongst thousands of people.
• We had the first visit from my mom, and sisters, Holly and Wendy.
• Lydia had her first steps, words & sentences, and of course first broken arm (she is fearless).
• We took our first family camping trip in our 1977 pop up trailer. Lydia had her first trip to Disneyland.

Once again, we love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas!