Our First Family Devotional

This is somewhat inappropriate so if you are prone to being judgmental or cannot appreciate a little prayer humor, you may need to skip this blog entry. If you like to laugh...this was funny.

We are trying to be more intentional in our prayer and devotional time as a family, so I got a devotional book a week ago and tonight we sat down for our first family devotional time. We read our book entry and had a quick discussion and then I asked if anyone had any prayer requests. Everyone seemed to have one and all of them were somewhat inappropriate.

Sydney started off by asking for prayer for the cut on her vagina. (Apparently she cut it today while getting off of my brother's pool table.???) Josiah asked that his butt bone wouldn't hurt so much. (I have no idea why it hurt, but hopefully after prayer, it will feel better.) Greg was waving his hand to talk and asked that he have restraint from choking one of his sweet children when they are loud. (Which is all the time, and for those of you who don't know Greg, it was stated with a smile...but I think he was a little bit serious.) Ethan wants prayer to get a Wii. Devon wants the workers to finish his room this week, so he can put his stuff in there, and then to get a safe to put his stuff in and so it can finally be safe from Ethan the thief.

My obvious prayer is that I can raise a sane family. We really did pray for all these things, so when you next pray, please include a little ditty for my somewhat mentally unstable family.

Snowboarding

One of the fun family things we decided to do this year is to go snowboarding as a family on a regular basis. So we took the plunge and bought "new to us" snowboard equiptment for everyone. I already had gear, but we spent a lot of time and money at the ski swap in October and got a Season's Pass for Coffee Mill ski area. The hill is tiny, but 4 members of our family are learning this year, so we thought it would be perfect.

We went for the first time last weekend. It was awesome! All the kids loved it. We were worried about a couple of them. I think when they are little they have such a low center of gravity. They were adorable. The biggest challenge we faced was the bunny hill requires use of a chair lift. Josiah was fine. Sydney and Ethan are too short to get on themselves, so Greg or I has to lift them on. Devon and Josiah can reach just fine. Devon has to go with someone because he is TERRIFIED of the chairlift. He hated it. He said he'd rather walk up the hill every time. In fact he would rather walk to Florida than go on it again. We did get him on it again, but that is 2 adults and 3 kids who need an adult with them. It was quite a whirlwind to teach 4 kids all at once.

Tomorrow we are braving the windchills, winds and snow to try again. Last weekend was 35 degrees and sunny. Tomorrow will be different, BUT Uncle Dan will be there. Mike and Kristine and all 4 of their kids are coming too. So, it should be quite an adventure.

Naughty or Nice?

Our family has had a problem remembering to hang up their coats and backpacks after school, so we started a reward system. I can check at anytime to see if it's hung up and if things are away, the kids get a piece of candy. (We've gotten a lot of motivation out of a tootsie roll!) Well yesterday tragedy struck when Sydney did not earn her candy because she left her shoes in the middle of the back hall. She insisted that she was going to do it, but was just taking a break. So she spent some time lamenting in her room about her poor choices. OK...when I say lamenting I mean screaming and kicking the walls and yelling that nobody loves her anymore.

She did finally come out again and with a tear on her cheek she told me that she was very sad that she wouldn't be getting any presents this year. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake, because I really didn't know what she was talking about. Then she let me know that Santa knows that she's been naughty and that everyday she has done something naughty and now she won't be getting any presents.

I assured her that Santa will be checking his list twice, so there is still time before Christmas to make a come back. I did feel really bad for her. She really believes in Santa even though none of the boys believe. She just told Ethan he was lying when he told her there was no Santa. She's confident in what she thinks she knows.

Moments like this make me feel blessed in the simplicity of a child's innocent belief in Santa...even if Santa is not the reason for the season. It's still part of the magic of Christmas!

Welcome to the Family gifts

Apparently when you get new kids you are supposed to buy them "Welcome to the family" gifts. We were unaware of this, but thankfully Ethan let us know about this rule. Last week Greg stopped and asked all the kids how things were going. Ethan's response was, "Things are going good dad, except we haven't gotten out gifts yet..." After futher inquiry Ethan stated "there are toys to play here dad, but none of them are mine."

Talk about making a parent feel terrible. We were planning on many gifts for Christmas, and Ethan has a birthday about a week after Christmas. So my mom agreed to watch all four, so Greg and I could go shopping without help.

Tonight the boys opened their "Welcome to the family" gifts. They were thrilled with their gifts and played with them the rest of the night with the exception of homework time. So note to the readers...everytime you get new kids, buy them gifts, even if you have 500 toys.

Forestville Hike

Our tribe on a Sunday hike at Forestville State Park.

Sunday came with snowflakes in the air. I personally love the first snow. It reminds me of home. No one believes me when I say that I remember few Halloween's with no traces of snow. We decided that a family hike would be a fun family event for the weekend. Ethan and Devon had never been on a hike, so we went to town, bought more snow gear and headed out to the State Park that is about 20 minutes from our house.

It started out great, but almost ended in tragedy. We were juggling kids who run ahead, and the tired little girl, who lags behind. We finally made it to the top. (Which is a neat look-out spot.) We could see nothing because of the snow flurries in the air. We started back down the hill and that's when things went very wrong. Ethan, our little bundle of energy, ran up ahead. Dad was at the back walking with Sydney, and I was somewhere in the middle with Devon and Josiah discussing many facts about trees and forestfires. I realized Ethan was getting ahead of us, so I ran to catch up with him, but I was not fast enough.

At the fork in the trail, we needed to turn left to go back down to the van. I got to the fork and Ethan was gone. I hollered to no avail. I ran to the right to make sure he didn't go the wrong way. I went about 2 blocks and didn't see him, so I ran back down the hill. I ran to the bottom and there was no Ethan. I ran back to Greg who was coming down with only 3 kids...not the 4 I was hoping for.

I took the 3 down the hill, and dad went back up to find Ethan. I went to the ranger station to find the ranger. We were organizing a search, when dad came back down the hill with Ethan. It was a scary 25 minutes in the snow, with dark quickly approaching. It ended with a happy ending. Good thing he had that bright yellow coat on.

When we were all safely back in the van we were talking with Ethan about how scary it was and how important it is that we stick together. We told him we had to send out a search party for him. He was very sad that he missed the party. :) We tried to explain that it was a scared and sad group of people who were trying to find him. He said he was scared too and wished he could have been there for the party. ha ha.

It just goes to show that we are terrible parents and that you should not let children with attachment issues run ahead. (they don't tend to look back to see if mom and dad are watching over them.)

1 Week of Forever

Yesterday was officially 1 week that we have had the two new additions to our family. It is so nice to be done travelling to Albertville twice per weekend. The first week brought the boys first day of school. Ethan was just excited to see all his friends. (He is friends with everybody) Devon was much more nervous. He didn't sleep well the night before. But he came home very excited about his first day. He made several friends and though everything went well. It was a huge answer to prayers and a relief.

Our first official Friday Family Fun Night was spent at Wheelers in Harmony, MN. Harmony is part of the school district where I teach, so I was quite popular that night. We went with our friends Shane and Paula and their 3 kids. Nate is Devon's age and they seemed to hit it off great. Dylan decided to help Ethan learn to skate, rather than attend the Middle School dance. Carlee is in third grade, the same as Josiah. Ethan was quite the ladies man and was "couple skating" with Grace. Grace is a former student and a third grader.

At the end of the night we had 3 kids ready to go as they were very tired after such an exciting week. Ethan was still skating for all he was worth. He definately has his own style. All 4 of the kids were quite popular, since they are related to Mrs. Van Moer. I was out on the floor all night myself and had many children skating with me. I didn't know all their names, but they all respond to "honey". We did have 4 sleeping children on the way home. (yeah!!)

Five Fun Days

This past five days have been a whirlwind of activities. Devon and Ethan came for their second visit at our house. As many of you already know, we are in the process of adopting two boys through the foster care system. It has been a really long road so far and we feel so blessed to have these two special boys join our family.

On Wednesday Ethan decided to join Sydney, Josiah and Logan (our neighbour) for AWANA. Ethan and Devon arrived at the house around 4:30 and Ethan was ready to go by 6:00. Devon decided he'd rather spend some time with Greg and get some of his homework done.

Thursday Sydney boarded the bus for kindergarten with the neighbors. I had to take Josiah to an eye appointment, which gave the boys time alone with Greg. He let them ride the dirtbikes around the yard and then they all went fishing. They drove about 10 miles to a little spot by Grand Meadow with no luck. They returned home and fished across the road and were much more successful. Devon caught a pretty big small mouth bass. He was very excited. Ethan caught a couple of little ones too. Later we played outside and went walking through the woods together. The fun really started when all the kids came home from school. That's when the acorn wars began. Our oak trees have dropped millions of acorns, so the kids would run around and throw them at each other and targets. The little kids were collecting them. Their pockets and buckets were full. They had the time of their lives. I love activities that require imagination and no "stuff"

On Friday the boys met Grandma Pat and Grandpa Chuck for the first time. They also got to have a tour of their "new school". Devon found our he could join the band and that he would be going to Eagle Bluff in May. He thought that sounded pretty cool. Ethan's class welcomed him with a class book. He already had a desk, locker and his name up around the class. He made a new friend who showed him where his locker was. He had to stop by Sydney and Josiah's classrooms to say "hi" too. Later that night we had a bonfire. Of course we had to have smores. Devon and Ethan spent 2 hours collecting and breaking up sticks for the fire. It was another one of those great activities that comes with living in the country.

On Saturday we watched Saturday morning cartoons. This is a novelty when you only have 5 channels. Devon found out and could not believe that we didn't get cartoon network, or nickelodeon, or the military channel. It didn't seem to be too negative though, all in all. Then we went on a PATH outing and got to go bowling. Sydney is actually pretty good, although she doesn't care. She doesn't even look to see how many pins she got over. Josiah always gets the left hand pins. Devon beat dad, but mom is the reigning bowling champion of our family. :) Devon loves buffets and everyone else loves pizza, so we went to Pizza Ranch for lunch...talk about a win-win situation.

Sunday we went to church and Devon met Jared (his cousin) and Ethan met Connor (Jared's brother) They are in the same grades at school and so are in Sunday School together. They really seemed to hit it off. Although Connor and Ethan are cut from the same cloth, so we will try to keep them seperated from now on. :)

Greg took the boys all the way back to Fargo after brunch at Perkins. He'll make the return trip tonight. An exhausting 12-14 hour trip. I volunteered to stay home with Sydney and Josiah, so they wouldn't have to travel all day. (I'm a a martyr, I know) It was hard to say good-bye to the boys knowing this is where they belong, but soon they will be here for good. We are planning to see them every weekend until the transition. That will take place sometime in October. Hopefully sooner than later.