The Best Gift Ever

The other night I put Josiah to bed which is usually Daddy's job. I have to admit I was not overjoyed to be spending time with him at bed time because Josiah has a very hard time listening to me when he is very tired. Daddy is far better skilled at calming him before bed and talking to him about his day. For some reason that is just good Josiah and Daddy time. For what ever reason it was that I was putting him to bed, I was not having a joyful moment.
We got through all the getting ready for bed stuff like brushing teeth and going potty without too many arguments and then we sat down on the bed for story time. I was tired so I told Josiah we would only be doing one story tonight and that it would be his Bible story. He complained a little, but I insisted.
I picked up his Bible and started to read. I do not remember the story we read, but in the becoming a man of God section, it talked about receiving gifts and it asked what was one of the best gifts he had ever gotten.
My sweet little boy looked me in the eye and said, "I think the best gift I ever got was my mommy!"
Boy can we be humbled by our children so quickly. I felt terrible for not wanting to spend this precious time with my son and then was blessed so much by his loving attitude.
Our conversation did not end there. We continued on to talk about God's gift to us. We talked about Jesus, God's son, coming to earth to die on the cross to save us from our sins. He had several questions about sin and about salvation and how that really happens. I told him that we have all sinned and that we cannot make it right with God except by asking Jesus to be our saviour. When we do that Jesus comes into our heart and lives there.
Josiah asked me, "is Jesus in my heart?" I said no I don't think so and that for Him to come into our heart we have to ask Him to and that we have to believe that He died to save our sins. Then he said, "let's do that right now!"
So, we did and I really don't know how much he understands, but the Lord knows his heart and we will keep praying for him and talking to him about salvation.
The next morning he came running into the bedroom to ask me if Jesus was still in his heart. Every day since he has told me that he just wants to tell Jesus that he loves Him.
My heart is joyful and I have learned from my son this week that I should cherish every moment with him since I never know what I might miss.

Naomi Gets a Hair Cut

Yes the little girl got her first hair cut. It doesn't look much different, but is a little staighter in the back.

A Weekend To Remember - WOW!

Last week Thursday Greg and I got on a plane headed for Park City Utah for some much needed time away and to a marriage retreat. Why Utah? you ask. We wanted to get out of town, away from the distractions of life and enjoy God's creation in the mountains. Park City was an excellent choice.
Thursday evening we walked around Park City enjoying the old town and the beauty of the surrounding Wasatch mountains. We had dinner at a very nice Asian Grill called Wahso. The atmosphere was wonderful. We were seated in our own little dining room and our waiter was very attentive, but not intrusive. I had for the first time ever a Ahi tuna and mango tartare. I also had fresh green papaya summer rolls and Tom Kha Ghai (a Tai soup). It was all incredibly tasty. Greg had the Korean barbecued salmon and the coconut creme brule.
Friday we got up early and headed for the mountain peaks. We drove through the mountains for several hours stopping to see various sites. The highlights of the day were a beautiful waterfall that we stopped at and the rough, 4x4 road that we took in our little 2 door Pontiac rental. Greg just kept saying on the way up that he was glad the off roding was my idea and not his. Another highlight was the short hike we took to some very pretty lakes.
We got back to the hotel at about 2pm, went swimming and then got ready for dinner. We ate at a place called Grub Steak, which was good but not as good as Wahso.

Our Weekend to Remember Conference started Friday night at 7pm and went on through the rest of the weekend.
These are some of the things I learned this weekend:

"What if marriage is about more than just your happiness?"

• Marriage is more significant than you may have thought.
• Marriage was designed by God and is defined by God.
• Marriage is the center of God's purpose for mankind.

The purpose of marriage is to first and foremost to mirror God's image (Gen 1:27 )
Our marriage should be a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church.

Next it is to mutually complete one another (to experience companionship). Marriage was designed by God as the first social institution and it is the priority relationship of the family.

Marriage is also designed so that you can multiply a Godly legacy. This could be in the form of biological or adopted children

We should see our marriages as a spiritual discipline and laboratory to cultivate the image of Christ in one another (Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas)

I learned that my husband is a gift from God and to treat him in any other way other than with respect and love is directly telling God that His gift was not good enough (reject the gift - reject the giver).

The conference had several projects that we were required to complete on our own and as a couple that were so helpful and a great part of the weekend. We were so very impressed with the quality of the weekend that we have signed up to promote weekends like this through Family life. We have a promotion code that will give anyone who registers for a conference in the next year using our code an $80 per couple savings on the registration fees. I would highly recommend this to all my friends and family.

There is a conference in Louisville, KY starting Oct 31st and one in Milwaukee, WI starting the weekend of Nov 14th. If you are interested in registering with our code please leave me a comment and I will get the code to you.

Vacation

Greg is on vacation this week and we have some fun with the kids. On Saturday we went to Marengo Caves in Marengo, IN. WE met up with a college friend who lives there and went through the Crystal Palace tour. I thought it was beautiful. Naomi didn't much like the fact that she had to be carried the whole time and Josiah was scared because it was too dark. He told me that he never wants to do that again. After the caves we went to JoAnn's house for the afternoon. Josiah and Noah get a long great so we all had a grand time. We got home just in time for bed time.

Sunday as many of you already know we had hurricane strength winds in Louisville. Ike hit us, but not as hard as those on the coast. WE had no rain, just wind and a ton of damage. around us. We were lucky not to loose power or to have much damage to our house. All around us though was a mess. Josiah has been out of school all week because of the storm and the lack of power at many area schools.

Monday we stayed close to home because of all the craziness around us. Yesterday we went to the Louisville Science Museum and had the whole place to ourselves. I guess many people thought they were out of power and just didn't go out. The kids had a lot of fun playing with all the hands on exhibits.

Tomorrow Greg and I leave for Park City, Utah. We are going to a Family Life - Weekend to Remember conference. The conference starts Friday night so we are going to tour the town on Thursday and Friday morning. Grandma and Grandpa are coming to stay with Josiah and Naomi. I am a little concerned about leaving Naomi over night with anyone at this point, but I think she will be OK.

My Day Off

On Friday last week Greg stayed home from work and I had the day off. We told the kids that Daddy was staying at home and that Mommy was going to work. The day stared out great with both children sleeping until 7:30am. I rolled out of bed at 8am and showered and ate breakfast. After that I left the house and camped out at Barnes and Noble for most of the morning.

I am working on 3 seminars for our adoption ministry at church and I have not had a minute to work on them at home. I spent all morning working on them. I got one on race and adoption completed and am 1/3 of the way through a seminar on grief and loss from the adoptees perspective. The 3rd seminar I will be doing is on attachment, but I haven't started that one yet.

While I was at the book store I found a new Bible for Josiah that I really like. It is called the "Little Boys Bible Storybook for Mothers and Sons." The stories are written in a way that little boys can understand and there is a page after each story called Becoming a Man of God and A Mother's Touch. These two pages help a parent discuss important Godly character traits with their son.

After spending time at the book store writing I went grocery shopping by myself, which is a new experience for me. I was surprised at how much quicker I got things done. I got home about 3pm and went upstairs and lay on the bed for an hour. It was great. Greg made dinner and we all went to play mini golf at Renaissance Fun Park. We had a good day.

A Josiah Funny

So, yesterday Josiah and I were reading books together. He chose the book A Mother for Choco which is about adoption and how some families don't look alike. After reading the story a couple of times we began to talk about how Choco did not look his mother Mrs. Bear. I asked him if he thought that he and I looked alike. This is how the conversation went from here:

Josiah - Oh! No!
Me - how do you think we look different?
J - Well, I have short hair and you have long hair.
M - anything else?
J - I have a small bottom and you have a big bottom!

Needless to say I about fell on the floor laughing. He did not think my response was very kind or appropriate. We ended our conversation with things about us that are the same.

Labor Day in Fort Wayne

Last Friday afternoon we packed up and headed North. Josiah was so excited to be going to see Max. He still did not get the concept that Max moved and we can't just see him when ever we like. The 4 hour drive to Fort Wayne was miserable. We made the mistake of leaving after nap time instead of at nap time. Naomi has proved that she is not my favorite travel buddie. She screamed for the better part of 3 hours while signing "all done". About an hour into the trip she threw up all over herself and her car seat. The odor in the car was delightful to say the least. Josiah did fine as usual in the car.

When we arrived at our friends house the kids were so excited to see each other and went right to playing. Naomi was just happy not to be in the car any longer.

Friday night was pretty uneventful and fun. The kids played and stayed up late and we played and stayed up late.

Saturday we lay around playing to Wii and talking for hours and then decided to shower and get ready for the day. At about the time we were all getting ready to go to the park with the kids, Laura started to feel really sick. So Laura, Naomi and I stayed at home. Naomi took a nap and Laura and I sat and talked. She got to feeling really bad. On Sunday morning while we were getting ready for Church Laura decided she was not going to make it to Church. Chris packed her up and took her to the ER. We took care of the kids. We watched a movie in the morning and then made cards for Mrs Laura before lunch. The cards were Greg's idea and a good one at that. After lunch we rode bikes and walked to the local school to play on the playground. The afternoon was spent quietly playing.

Chris and Laura arrived home in the early evening. Laura said she felt much better after several IV's and medication. The good feeling did not last long though. We left on Monday after lunch. This time we travelled at nap[ time and wouldn't you know our little girl did not sleep a wink in the car. She did perfect her, "I want out of this car" scream.

I talked with Laura several times this week and she is still not feeling very good. Even though Sunday and Monday were a little different than we had all planned we had a great time visiting.