4
Oct

Gratitude (updated)

October 4, 2010

UPDATE!

WE ARE APPROVED!!!

Just waiting for it to be mailed to our agency’s office and then we can get our Dossier mailed off to our facilitator for translation and notarization.

Tick tick tick… we just might make it on time! 

🙂

(Read below for what all the hoopla is about.)

We had a very busy, very fantastic birthday here this weekend.  Complete with visitors from near and far and a stage show right here in our schoolroom. I’ll post (complete with photos) later on today, but I wanted to get something else up here right away, before my day got away from me.

We are waiting to hear from our agency that our provincial approval letter has been issued.  It has been under the surface in my head all weekend.  This morning I decided to choose to be thankful today, no matter what the outcome of the day.  And this is what He showed me:

Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it.  Therefore you are great, O LORD God.  For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all we have heard with our ears.

2 Samuel 7:20 (ESV)

I choose gratitude today – no matter the outcome.

Love to you all – more on that special birthday later!

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30
Sep

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September 30, 2010

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30
Sep

Samuel Update #3 (September)

September 30, 2010

I was up far too late last night when our update came through about Samuel.  It made it easier to go to sleep after having had that snippit of info about him.  Every day I look for updates on the New Day blog, foster home site and their  Facebook page.  Getting this update once a month is like the icing on the cake!  As a family, we are collectively falling in love with Samuel!

 

Samuel is 2 Years 7 Months Old.

Samuel’s nanny wrote this update:

Samuel is agile and cute. The day before yesterday we had a mini Triathlon in the foster home
back yard and he did very well. He jumped and crawled around in the swimming pool, splashing
water with his hands. He ended up splashing not only himself, but all of the children around him!
When Samuel got water in his eyes, he wiped his face and continued to play with the others.
Samuel did brilliantly on the race track. As soon as the signal was fired he raced to the finish as
fast as he could. After the running race we had a crawling race for Samuel and his buddy Joshua
who also specializes on his hands and knees. Samuel is so quick that he raced ahead of Joshua at
first, but he is also so thoughtful that he waited to cross the finish line until Joshua caught up so
that they could cross together. Samuel is now able to go up and down the stairs without the aid
of an adult. He can also climb onto the sofa, eat and take off his clothes independently. Samuel’s
smile and laughter brightens up any day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still waiting and hoping for our provincial approval.  Maybe today?

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28
Sep

It was T-H-I-S big!

September 28, 2010

Tonight at supper Grace became very animated while telling us a story from China.  I happened to have started a new novel tonight (I read out loud to the kids when Stephen isn’t home for meal time), The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  Something about Ralph S. Mouse struck a chord with Miss Grace and she was off and running with a story that she had never told us before. 

Apparently one day when she was still in China (at the orphanage), someone spotted a mouse. 

And here is where I interject a little. 

This mouse was actually quite large by the sounds of it.

(I’m thinking rat, at this point in her description.)

A couple of the grown ups came running.

One of them used an umbrella to try and hit it.

Another person grabbed a fire hose.

Again, I must interject that she was adamant that the hose was much larger than our garden hose and it was for putting out fires!

Then Grace proceeded to describe in great detail the antics surrounding the capture and killing of this mouse. 

The story ends with a different grown up running to the kitchen for a pair of rubber gloves, bending over picking up the mouse by the tail and throwing it outside in some tall grass.

Seriously, I don’t know when the kids as a collective group have been so engaged in a story.

This girl’s got talent.

Or it might have been the, ahem, mouse.

😉

 

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23
Sep

Signed!

September 23, 2010

Our social worker just left (yes, its evening here!) with a signed copy of our homestudy!  Wooohoooooooo! 

 

It just took many, many e-mails & phone calls and many more prayers today, but it’s done! 

Now we wait for our provincial approval on our homestudy (aproximately 1 week turn around). After that we send our entire dossier (packet of all approvals, biographies, reports, etc.) to be authenticated at a notary in Ottawa and to be translated into Mandarin (it takes about a month to have it completed), and THEN, then it can be forwarded on to China!

We will be very close to our October 29th DTC (Dossier to China) deadline, but we should make it! 

Samuel, we are getting closer buddy!

I’m so thankful, I can hardly handle it. 

Your prayers were so incredibly appreciated!

 Obviously, contrary to my worrying ways, NOTHING is too hard for the Lord.  🙂

 

 

 

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22
Sep

Protected: Prayer Request

September 22, 2010

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22
Sep

Prayer Request – once again

September 22, 2010

I will be posting separately under a private post with more details, but I wanted to ask specifically for you all to pray for our process once again.  I know that God knows specifically not only what the hiccough is, but also what will come of it.  Please pray for us to say and do all that we need to do and yet not ever get in the way of what God is doing either. 

Thank you!

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21
Sep

Back to Homeschool

September 21, 2010

With the numerous interuptions and false starts we’ve had this Fall, today was finally the day I declared the official “Back to Homeschool” day.  Somehow with all the physio appointments, homestudy visits, clean up after our various home projects, our first day kept getting pushed back. Our kids always start back a week after the rest of the local school kids return to class.   Usually this is our “Not Back to School” celebration involving a trip to a very quiet mall in which to shop for fall clothes, one last trip to the beach or to Grandma’s pool in the middle of the week, and it usually gives me some extra time to get the rest of my straggling to do list all caught up. 

Without further ado, here are the somewhat smiling faces of this year’s class of students to Beacon Rock Homeschool.

First, we have James.  Entering Grade 10, at least a foot taller than last years photo and sporting a lot less hair, he has chosen his Star Wars Role Playing Guidebook as his favourite memorabilia item for this season.

 

Next up, we have Faith.  Also showing that summer growth spurt, she has chosen her favourite pet, Sparkle, and the latest script that she has authored, a sequel to her first show, Hannah’s Doom. 

 

Now we have our newcomer to the world of first day of  “Back to Homeschool”, Miss Grace.  Grace has been excitedly asking for us to begin for some weeks now, and she chose as her favourite item, not only her Princess dress, but also her fairy wings (courtesy of cousin E.).  An elegant choice, don’t you think?

 

Last but not least, we have Garnet.  This will be Garnet’s first year of full day homeschool with us.  He is unsure if that is a good thing at this point in his career, but he is unwilling to let it get him down.  He eagerly chose his Indiana Jones sword and his “frog gun” (it apparently turns all items in its path into… you guessed it, frogs.  100% for spirit and imagination, my delightful First Grader!

Won’t you join me in congratulating them? 

It looks like a great year ahead!

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18
Sep

And life moves on…

September 18, 2010

Well, after feeling like the wind got knocked out of us on Thursday, we carried on.

We continued on with our home improvements, carried on with business and connected with friends.

I also got back to settling into my school brain. 

It’s a seldom talked about fact that it takes the homeschool parent just as long to get back into the swing of things as the students.  I’m sure its across the board with all parents though. 

Anyway, here’s my new favourite homeschool-help-type link:

Ministry to Children

Ministry to Children is an exciting new resource that I came across while looking for Bible story colouring pages awhile back.  They have a whole variety of things there, my favourite being the list of easy to learn memory verses.  We’ll be beginning our next week with Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true.”   Nice and simple for Grace to get her early English around and also simple enough for Garnet to say without stumbling over a tonne of syllables.  Easy and simple.  Works for me (and its not even Wednesday- ha)!

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16
Sep

Protected: Update on our Home Visit #2

September 16, 2010

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