Weekend hang out, and If Only?

Ok my pics are out of order....hmmm.....you would think I would have the hang of this by now, but hey. Oh well... here is Abigail- being Mr. Wolf....evidently scaring daddy!
What's the time Mr. Wolf........Or Ms. Wolf in this case.......
3 O'Clock- ok- 1, 2, 3...........
Hanging out under the high ropes area at camp.....Love that there are sooo many trees everywhere- well except when it is hurricane time.....then- not so much!
Eating our hotdogs & smores!
Oh yeah....this is licorice our dog- don't know if you remember our first pics of her- when she was 3 1/2 lbs, but now she is 15-20!!!!! Growing bigger all the time. She is still only 5 months....
Love the way Jonathan is looking at daddy eat his smore......cute!
Joshua- it is that cute smile that captured my heart the first time we met!
????How do you delete pics if you accidentally put them in twice....I tried, and thought I knew, but evidently not? Sorry.
Love the smell of camp fire!!!! Notice the swimsuit attire- we went swimming right afterwards.

Oh yeah, this handsome man- well after all my pic was on the last post...and as I was trying to post his- blogger wouldn't let me?

So our devotionals yesterday was called- If Only..........
Based on the idea that if only...........we were better at basketball, could play the piano like?, could sing like?, had enough money for our next adoption, could afford to buy a better home, could afford to get our kids more stuff, could have a car that was more dependable, could get further ahead on the laundry, could be more organized, could have the gift of discernment, could be more like them, could have that kind of life, ...........................................................................

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Put away those dangerous words and listen - very carefully to what God is telling you to do. Don't play the game- if only........ It is a time waster, a defeater, a disease that can take over your life! Give all that you have to HIM and let HIM work ALL THINGS- it's His job not yours.

Just give what you have, and let Him give you all you need. Peace, Love, Joy, Blessings, the strength to go on one more day, the desire to do all you can, the grace to let it go, the desire to follow His Will...........

Have a Blessed Labor Day Weekend!!!!!!!!!!

More Home Study Pics and a funny kid story....

Ok sorry....blogger doesn't want to upload the rest of the pics right now....try again later.....
Our beautiful children so far....Elizabeth 3 1/2, Sarah 5, Andrew 8, Abigail 9 1/2, Joshua 7 1/2, Matthew 7, & Jonathan 2....and our next baby??? Somewhere???
Great, except Elizabeth has her mouth partially open....I won't even tell you how many tries it took us to get these....(ok about 20!!!!!or maybe more!!!)
Great shot- except I don't know what Matthew is doing with one eye open and one eye shut???

OK so cute kid story from today....know that I do not condone the use of this language, but when it is said in complete innocence by a 3 year old- it's cute!

We have been working on beat patterns in homeschool. You know clap, rest, rest, clap, clap , clap....you get the picture.....anyway Jason overheard our Elizabeth later in the day repeating what she knew. She was actually doing it right pointing to the notes and rests she was saying rest, crap, rest, crap, crap, rest, crap........

He he he....oh kids say the cutest things even when normally that kind of language would not be tolerated :)

Moving on with our homestudy/dossier...........

So here is the bed our baby (Joel- more than likely) will sleep in. Of course right now Jonathan is sleeping here.....so we will have to either change him or drag out our other crib. Oh yeah, we actually at once had 3 cribs.....oh yeah- crazy memories.
So we have to take some random pics of our home for the homestudy......so here are some of my random pics....some are not the greatest, but it's all good. This is our dining/living room.
This is looking back the other way- oh..ahh....so exciting! Hey, we have a fireplace in the middle of our home. This is where our Andrew hit his head about 5 minutes after moving here. Fond memories. We actually always laughed about having a fireplace in LA. After living in IA all my life and never having a fireplace (which would have been useful when your winter is 8 months long!!), and moving where it may get cold enough for all of a few weeks......crazy!
This is our kids table- another words our table where kids do puzzles, play dough, coloring, homework, and we do assorted homeschooling here too.
This is our packed to the brim toy room. It used to be an office, but we made it into our toy room because it wasn't really that big, and we don't want to put temptation in front of our kids at bed time so we put all toys here....out of reach at bed time. Oh yeah....our changing table....a very vital part of our home and has been for YEARS!!!!! See the ice cream tub- you might be asking what is that for- well that is where we make our own baby wipes. Way less expensive and easy to do!!!! You take "bounty" paper towels (yes it has to be bounty because they are stronger than others. You cut the roll in half....put in an old ice cream tub- cut and x on top- then pour the mix over top....let sit for 20 minutes ish and pull out the cardboard middle...after that you pull the bounty through the top and they come out just like regular wipes do and tear off easy too. The mix is 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, 2 tablespoons of baby oil, 2 squirts of baby soap, and mix....really easy!!!! We like it!
This is our official home school room. We have loads of books in those dressers. We also use the couch sometimes, sometimes we use our dining room table, hey we even go outside too. I like a portable classroom it keeps everything fresh and fun!!!!!!! We also use this room as our home office for the camp in the afternoons when our kids are doing independent quiet study times...which works nice too. We also right behind me have a keyboard in the room and daddy plays for our morning worships. Which we all enjoy!!!
This is a front view of our home! Ahhh...notice our suburban and our 15 passenger! Oh yeah that is what you have to have when you have 7- soon to be 8 children :) I love it! Our nearest neighbor is Sarah- our assistant who lives in the camp's 3 bedroom home/office that is about 400 feet from where the edge of this picture is.
Side view....the semi circle window is our bedroom....part of the addition the camp did about 4 years ago. Love it!!!
Our back porch view......really exciting. Actually I am in a small clearing in the "woods" right behind our home. I love looking out our bedroom window and seeing lots of trees!!!!! I am an outdoor kind of person!!!!!

So we have completed our online classes for the adoption.....we have already had our references in the making, done our letter of employment/salary thing, our finance overview, our update on our kids & us, the social worker has come, we are sending out our USCIS thing tomorrow, we have all been to the doctor, and we are having our Orientation Call next Tuesday!!!!

Whew......makes me tired thinking about it. It will all be worth it when we get that call several months from now......saying there is a little one waiting for us to pick them up and love them and I am getting dreamy just thinking about it!!!!

So now- finances :)......always a challenge, but we are really working to get at least the start up money, and more. We have seen so many times- when we are faithful, God provides.

Can't WAIT to see what God has in store!

Fun at the Doctors?? Thank you for your prayers

So today we had an afternoon slot for the doctor's office. When I say afternoon slot...I mean the whole afternoon! That is what happens when you have 9 people who all need a physical so we can move on with our next adoption.
So Jason says....let's take the camera. I said "for the doctor's office?" He says- "yes"....I say "why we didn't do this last time when we had 8". His reply "well last time we didn't have a blog"
So here it is fun blog loving family .... our doctor pics.
So.....our wonderful doctor .....is a Christian which is always nice to be on the same page about life in general. Anyway....being who she is took in other patients that were walk ins because they were pretty sick. So our family was there- 3 hours!

Yep...you heard (read) it correctly- 3 hours of fun in the doctor's office. Thank God I am an experienced mom and had gummy bears, licorice, coloring books, twistables (the twist up coloring pencils- they are great!), and loads of board books, cars, etc. too.
All in all our kids did really well. I mean why shouldn't they- they are wonderful kids!!!!
Jonathan had to get 2 shots though. Poor thing- that is probably why he doesn't have a pic in these - he was crying.

Well, the good news is that we are one step closer to our little one waiting for us!!!! YEAH!

Thank you as well to all who have been praying for us. Our decision has been made, and although I would rather not share it with everyone (confidentiality reasons)- we feel at peace with it. It is definitely not the decision I wanted to make the way we did, but I feel like it is the correct one non the less. We appreciate all those who have helped with prayer. Makes us feel like our decision was wrapped up in everyone's blanket of prayers- THANKS!!!!!

Potty Training and more vacation pics for fun....

So here are some pics with all of our children, and 2 of my cousin's children (what does that make them to me or to my children- anyone know??? 3rd cousins??? Just curious). Anyway, in some of the pics below we have up to 14 children in the pool at once. Crazy, but fun!

icy cold refreshment wrapped in plastic! Love it!


Look at all the beautiful children in a row (all but 3). Let's jump in together!!!
OK so the oldest of the crew is giving instructions on this race that is happening.
I get by with a little help from my friends......
So much activity it can make you a little dizzy at times.

Trying to scoot into the pool in a floatie....hmmm....creative.
I just can't get enough of my oldest....she is just so beautiful and caring.....
Cute girls hanging out on the deflated pretzel.
Lunch is served- Poolside.
Aww....daddy love in the pool.....
Jonathan looks just a little too happy with that water gun!
Here's our daddy looking warm, hanging out soaking in the sun.....relaxing.....enjoying.......
Until along came Elizabeth. She just thought he looked to hot, and needed to be cooled.
Well, you know that just looked fun- you know helping daddy cool off....so the whole group got involved.....
That's me and my cousin- talking about ???? but enjoying the day. Have I mentioned I love my cousins, their families, my aunt..... would love to be closer to them.
Classic crazy shot of trying to walk in these huge flippers.....
Oh yeah, cartoon type quality pic.
And don't forget when you are out to get me a pretzel please.....hmmmm......maybe not quite that big!!!!

So Elizabeth is finally potty training....or should I say she is potty trained (not yet at night, but hey who cares about that part right now). With our first child- Abigail....we tried to force her to be potty trained. It never worked. With our other children and after our long crazy time with Abigail....we just decided that when they told us they needed to go- that means they are ready. And if they don't- forget it....it's not worth pulling your hair out for. It has worked. Although not as soon as every parent wants.....it does work. The best part is if they initiate- there are very very few accidents after the "training" time is done.

So since Elizabeth started our youngest- Jonathan says "potty" and then takes me by the hand to go. Although I would love to believe he is ready....I think it is merely the big hoohaa over Elizabeth that really did it. I think it is just a reflex of he can actually go in the potty- that is what they do at the orphanage- sit them all on potties a few times a day to get them going.

We shall see......you know what happens in a large family if you actually accomplish getting everyone out of diapers don't you.......another child comes along! he he he he which is really true and funny at the same time. In the last 8 years it has actually been pretty rare to only have 1 child in diapers. At most we have had 4 in diapers. So although I would love to feel what it feels like to have no one in diapers.....at the same time.....it will be very weird.

Still praying about a situation.........waiting for both Jason & I's hear to be settled one way or another. Thank you for all of you already praying!!! We appreciate it.