Meeting Brothers and Sisters

Love, love, and more love!!

Everyone had to have a turn holding him at the airport--we just couldn't wait to get somewhere else!

Kiana thinks she is big stuff holding him, and even feeding him a bottle. But you have to stay right there helping hold him, because when she's ready to go play, she'll just push him off her lap!


We have lots and lots of helpers--I don't think he'll lack for being held nor will he lack for food! :)
The story behind the next picture involves Easton's precious "kiki" which he has calls his blue blanket he's had since he was an infant. He loves this blanket, sleeps with it every naptime and at night, and rubs the silky part between his fingers.

Notice he thinks Tyrell needs his kiki--he covered him up with it in his bassinet, and also gave Tyrell a baby to sleep with. This brotherly love just melts my heart!And here is our first family photo, taken by Alan's mom when we met them at McDonald's so they could meet their youngest grandchild.

Observations

You know, I've always heard that travel broadens the mind, and I believe it to be true. I really enjoy travelling, but haven't done much of it recently--with three adoptions in four years, travel hasn't really been an option. So I think I had forgotten what 'the world out there' is like. I'd forgotten how different people can be. I had forgotten (and truly, this makes me giggle) that life is different outside of northeast Missouri. (Go ahead, giggle with me.)

For one thing, there is so much diversity in Orlando. There are so many different people, different walks of life, different nationalities and ethnicities, different beliefs and lifestyles. It's an amazing reflection of God's creativity. I really enjoy this diversity--it's so interesting. I think sometimes it might feel comfortable to be with others who are like us, others who think like we think, believe what we believe--but it can also be stifling, boring, or stagnant. Diversity can challenge us and bring about growth and compassion and even jolt us out of our self-centered lives.

Another thing I've noticed is the extreme materialism. This is a temptation anywhere we live, but it's rampant here. For example, the clothing amazes me. Admittedly, if you know me IRL, you know clothes are not important to me. Truthfully, they are almost a burden for me. I just use clothes to cover my naked body--I don't care what brand they are or how stylish they are, and I'm not great at determining what matches. The worst thing about having children, in my opinion, is obtaining clothes for them to wear. And then they just outgrow them and I have to get more. If I'm ever filthy rich I will have two people in my employ--a hairdresser to wash my hair every morning (ahh, I just love that head massage) and a personal shopper. But I digress.

People *dress* around here. Almost all the women at the mall were wearing heels--three inch heels! And they were all perfectly coordinated with the outfit. Is this the place to mention that I wore my ubiquitous orange flip flops for my flight here--and didn't pack any other shoes? I'm just sure they match with everything. . .But heels at the mall? And at the airport?

I don't tend to feel uncomfortable around people, but there have been a few times this week that I have felt sorely out of place as I try to guess at the cost of the outfits people are wearing--the clothes whose colors are bright, whose fabric is starchly pressed--while I am wearing my brown gouchos I bought three years ago and have worn at least once a week nearly year round since. Certainly, there are plenty of people at home who dress better than I do, but the difference is so stark here. Interesting. And it's not just the clothes--it's the cars and the houses and the jewelry and the haircuts. . .

One final observation from this experience (and then I really need to pack to come home--oh procrastination!) is the reminder that many people have a transient lifestyle. Alan and I tend to be 'roots' people. He has worked for the same employer for 16 years, we have lived in the same town for that time, and at our current residence for 8 years. We get settled, comfortable, secure. That's not unusual where we live. But here. . .people move and change jobs with regularity. It's hard for me to contemplate moving a few states away, let alone to a different country. It's hard for me to imagine switching jobs, let alone careers. Yet even as it's hard for me to imagine, it intrigues me at the same time--the thought of being so flexible, so adventurous, so experienced and well-rounded.

This has been a good experience for me, a good opportunity to look around and see what's going on outside of my little world. Even better than that, it has brought some perspective as I return to my normal life.

Worth Keeping

This encouraged me today, and I thought it might encourage someone else as well. Besides, this way I know where to find it when I need to read it again!

1 Corinthians 13 for Homeschool Moms
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and teach my children Latin conjugations, Chinese and Portuguese, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and no matter what I say, they will not hear me.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know my children’s bents and God’s plan for their lives, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and am the keeper of the teacher’s editions and solutions manuals, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and even keep up with my giant piles of laundry and dishes, but do not have love, I am nothing, even if all the people at church think I’m Supermom.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and my formal dining room gets turned into a schoolroom and our family vacations look more like educational fieldtrips, and if I surrender my body to be burned, never having time to get my nails done, put makeup on or even take a bath, but do not have love, it profits me nothing, because all my family cares about is the expression on my face, anyway.

Love is patient with the child who still can’t get double-digit subtraction with borrowing, and kind to the one who hasn’t turned in his research paper. It is not jealous of moms with more, fewer, neater, more self-directed, better-behaved or smarter children. Love does not brag about homemade bread, book lists, or scholarships and is not arrogant about her lifestyle or curriculum choices. It does not act unbecomingly or correct the children in front of their friends. It does not seek its own, trying to squeeze in alone time when someone still needs help; it is not provoked when interrupted for the nineteenth time by a child, the phone, the doorbell or the dog; does not take into account a wrong suffered, even when no one compliments the dinner that took hours to make or the house that took so long to clean.

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or pointing out everyone else’s flaws, but rejoices with the truth and with every small step her children take in becoming more like Jesus, knowing it’s only by the grace of God when that occurs.

Love bears all things even while running on no sleep; believes all things, especially God’s promise to indwell and empower her, hopes all things, such as that she’ll actually complete the English curriculum this year and the kids will eventually graduate, endures all things, even questioning from strangers, worried relatives, and most of all, herself.
Love never fails. And neither will she. As long as she never, never, never gives up.
Misty Krasawski, December 8, 2008

Precious

There is just something so precious about a baby sucking his thumb.
I could gaze at him all day.

Sweetness personified

The Book I'm Reading Now

Below find a synopsis, a review, and a preface to the book I am currently reading, Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I'm so excited to read it, especially in light of a statement someone recently made to the effect that the purpose of entertainment is to distract us from thinking about God!!

• Television has habituated us to visual entertainment measured out in spoonfuls of time. But what happens when we come to expect the same things from our politics and public discourse? What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they too become forms of show business? Twenty years ago, Neil Postman's lively polemic was the first book to consider the way that electronic media were reshaping our culture. Now, with TV joined by the Internet, cell phones, cable, and DVDs, it carries even greater significance. Elegant, incisive, and terrifically readable, it's a compelling take on our addiction to entertainment.

• As a fervent evangelist of the age of Hollywood, I publicly opposed Neil Postman's dark picture of our media-saturated future. But time has proved Postman right. He accurately foresaw that the young would inherit a frantically all-consuming media culture of glitz, gossip, and greed. --Camille Paglia

• Is it really plausible that this book about how TV is turning all public life (education, religion, politics, journalism) into entertainment; how the image is undermining other forms of communication, particularly the written word; and how our bottomless appetite for TV will make content so abundantly available, context be damned, that we'll be overwhelmed by "information glut" until what is truly meaningful is lost and we no longer care what we've lost as long as we're being amused. . .can such a book possibly have relevance to you?

Doesn't it sound fascinating?!

Marvelous Provision

Have you ever noticed how God provides our every need? He just never lets us down. The times that amaze me the most are when He provides what we didn't even know we needed. Those are the times I just want to tilt my head back and sing at the top of my lungs "You are amazing, God." (And sometimes I do--but not usually when people are around, for they would surely ask me to please be quiet.)

I saw one of these moments Sunday. We met with a church just down the road from our motel and were privileged to fellowship with a loving and welcoming body of believers. Everyone was so friendly, and one of the couples even invited us to join them for lunch where we got to enjoy great conversation. We went back for the Bible study that evening, and another family invited us to Friendly's (woo-hoo, we love Friendly's, which we only get to enjoy when on the east coast--this was our third Friendly's experience).

We thoroughly enjoyed this family. Their children were so nice and mannerly and interesting to visit with, as were the parents. Frank, the father, rode with us on the way to the restaurant (so we wouldn't get lost, ha!) and he and I had a wonderful discussion about economics--I could have talked with him for hours!

All of this was wonderful by itself. But what blessed me even more, and provided what only God knew I needed, was the fact that this couple grew up in Jamaica. Have I mentioned that Crystal, Tyrell's birthmother, is Jamaican? They shared wonderful stories about growing up in Jamaica, different foods of their culture, and we even talked about the history and politics of Jamaica. They gave me a peek at Tyrell's heritage--God, in His goodness, provided a connection. We visited with our new friends for hours. We finally left the restaurant at 10 pm after exchanging contact information and making tentative plans for them to come and visit us.

Don't you just love the assurance He provides?

More Baby Sweetness

Alan's trying to get Tyrell to smile again here--making all sorts of silly faces and noises. But Tyrell just looked at him like this. "Weird daddy," he's thinking.

I stole his attention away from daddy!

Awww, those chubby cheeks are telling the story--all he does is eat and sleep! He sleeps best in mama's arms. Uh-hem.

I promise I don't hold him all the time--here's proof!

Just chillin' with daddy.

And below is another picture for perspective--he's still tiny! He has such skinny arms and legs--and long, skinny fingers. I think he's going to be tall!

Just thought somebody out there might need to see more pictures of this little one to tide them over until we get home. :)