Summer Fun

Summer is going by way to fast! We have been keeping busy to say the least! So far the boys have had a basketball camp in Kindred, golf camp in Oxbow, swimming lessons for both boys and girls, and baseball 4 nights a week. Whew! Thank goodness the weather has cooperated and we've been able to spend some fun weekends at the lake for a reprieve from our busy week day of activities. Here are just a few pics from our summer fun!

What a blessing

Once a month our Childrens Ministry Leader invites parents to stay and participate in their children's Sunday School time. Today she dedicated the hour to celebrating God's ministry to the orphan. She invited those of us who have adopted or are foster care parents to share our testimonies. To share how God moved our hearts to adopt or provide foster care - to share how He lead us to our child(ren) - and to share our biggest blessing through the experience.

I know my story, so it wasn't difficult to share specifics about how we came to adopt and how our process went. But gosh, when she asked me to share my biggest blessing - well that is tough. We've received so many through our adoption of Ana, that I don't know where to begin! I went to bed not knowing exactly what I was going to say. I slept restlessly and at 6:30 this morning God woke me with words!

Biggest Blessing

God’s love for us is so deep. He doesn’t care who we’ve been, what we’ve done, or where we came from. The only thing he cares about is the condition of our heart. He sees our desperate need for a Father. Someone to provide for us, to guide our direction, to listen to us, to simply love and accept us. God has given me the blessing of 4 beautiful children – 3 that I birthed and 1 that I traveled across the world for – and it doesn’t matter how my children came to be mine – they are mine – they are mine to love.

MY biggest blessing – well that would be when Ana sings along to her favorite CD and realizes that song is about her! Well, it’s really about all of us – but to a 4 yr old everything is about her!

The song goes -

“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

And Ana says in excitement – doesn’t matter what color we are, Jesus loves everybody!!

I have sung that song for years, but have never REALLY put it into context until now. I have only seen things through my white American eyes. Well, now I see things through different colors. And that is a blessing in itself.

I'm not sure anyone understood my words, because of course I cried through the whole thing! Ugh! But I felt God's presence and it was amazing to listen to everyone's story! All the stories were different in how they came to adoption, yet we all knew that God guided us to it and through it. That He chose our children for us - that He knew from the very beginning that Ana would be a part of our family - that she would be our daughter.

We are so excited about what God is doing in our church. We believe He is stirring the hearts of people - moving them to have a heart for the orphan - molding their hearts to be more like His. And shouldn't that be our goal? To be more like Him?

I fall short in so many ways. But He knows my heart. And I am ever so thankful that He chose me to be His child! And as a child of God, I want to please Him - I want to be closer to Him - and I want Him to say to me, Well Done.

Honesty is the best policy...right??

So Ana and I went out for lunch after preschool today. I noticed Ana took this HUGE bite of her grilled cheese and could barely keep it in her mouth while she TRIED to chew it. I suggested she take smaller bites. After she swallowed some of it down, she told me big bites were ok because she had a big mouth. I couldn't help but laugh and for as much as she talks, I couldn't disagree with her. So we continued to eat and as I took a bite of my salad, Ana stops eating and says to me - Mom, you have a big mouth too.

Gotta LOVE those car rides

Our family's time in the car together can either be categorized as quality time or frustration time. Yesterday the girls and I were on our way to Tina's dance class and about 2 minutes away from home the "conversation" started between the girls.
Ana: Tina, is Erin in your dance class?
Ana: Is Erin's sister in your dance class too?
Tina: Ana, be quiet. I don't want to talk.
Ana: I'm just asking you a question.
Tina: Mom, tell her to be quiet!
Me: Ana, Tina doesn't care to talk right now.
Ana: Mom, I am wondering if Erin is in dance.
Tina: Ana! Really! Stop talking!!
silence...for a moment...
Ana: I can't stop talking.
Tina: UGH! Sigh.

On the way home from dance, Tina once again was still not in the mood for her little sister.
Tina: Mom, Ana keeps staring at me.
I look in my rear-view mirror. Sure enough Ana is purposely staring at Tina.
Me: Ana, please stop looking at Tina.
Tina: She is still looking at me!
I take another look in my mirror. Yep, still looking at her sister.
Me: Ana, please just look at the TV.
I look in my mirror to make sure she is doing what I say. With exaggerated big wide eyes she turns her eyes to the TV. I smile. Tina again gives a big sigh.

Yesterday was NOT categorized as "quality time" in the car with my kids. My first mistake - having them sit next to each other - DUH!

Usually, the quality time happens when I am alone with one of my kids. And I suppose I should define quality time for you. Quality time in the car is all about the conversation I am blessed to have with one of the kids. The car is great for talking with my kids because we're strapped in our seats and the only thing to do is talk with each other. It's where I get the most information out of them :o)

So the other day Ana starts the conversation by telling me...
Ana: I am brown.
Me: Who says you're brown? Or how do you know you are brown?
Ana: Well, John at my preschool is black.
Ana: He is darker then me.
Ana: So I am brown.
Me: Well, I guess that makes sense.
Me: What color am I?
Ana: Yellow.

Ana has been very talkative about her skin color lately. The other day we were listening to a kids CD of bible songs. She loves to sing along with it and I love listening to her! So we are listening and singing along and all of a sudden Ana says...
Ana: Mom, I am a child of God!!
Me: I know it! So am I!
Then came the part - "red, yellow, black, or white - we are precious in his sight - Jesus loves the little children of the world"
And Ana says: Yep, it doesn't matter what color you are! God loves us all!
Me: You know it!
Brought tears to my eyes. I hope she will always remember that song and know that Jesus loves her and that she will always, always feel comfortable in her skin. Her beautiful brown skin!

Keep, keep, keep'n busy

Ya know it's funny how disappointed I get when the blogs I follow don't update on a regular basis. I find myself wanting to leave them a comment like - Yo, when you gonna update your blog?! However, apparently I don't have the same expectation for myself. When was my last post?...November? Good gravy!
I don't even know where to start... Maybe I'll just post some pictures of what's been happening with our family :)

Boys are playing on Kindred's 4th grade traveling basketball team. We've been getting bleacher butt just about every weekend sitting at tournaments! Kyle is coaching the team and having a blast living vicariously through his sons! I'm trying to keep my pulse rate under control and to not be one of those loud parents yelling from the stands. Whew!! I am emotionally drained after every game!

Ana is thrilled that she FINALLY got to make her first snowman!

Bowling with friends on our day off from school. Since then, we have had several "snow days" - kids will be in school until July if we keep getting dumped on! Well maybe not until July, but we can probably kiss Spring Break & Easter Monday goodbye. Oh well...

Kyle and I were able to take a wonderful vacation to cool and cloudy Florida and to warm and sunny Bahamas with some friends. We spent a day at Epcot while in Orlando.

And then we took a cruise to the Bahamas. Thoroughly enjoyed our time soaking up the sun! And laughing until our stomachs hurt with friends!

Will be sure to post again in the not so distant future :)

Court Day

Yesterday we had our court hearing to finalize Ana's adoption. It was a very short, but very meaningful appearance before the Honorable Wade L. Webb! The judge came in - we all stood - he proceeded to explain that we were in court to finalize the adoption for "Anna" Elizabeth Freier - Kyle and I gave each other a glance because we knew what was coming - Ana slowly lifted her eyes toward the judge and said "No, Ana". The judge chuckled a bit and said, "Well thank you, Ana, for correcting me". We've tried to explain to her that her name is a bit confusing to people and that she will probably need to 'politely' correct people all of her life. What do ya do? :)

Afterwards we asked Ana where she wanted to go for lunch to celebrate. That's when the boys got the idea to go bowling. So they asked Ana - "Ana do you want to go bowling and have pizza"? "Doesn't that sound like fun Ana?" To which she got all excited and was begging to go bowling. She doesn't even know what bowling is! So went bowling - in our dresses and dress pants - at 11:30 am - on a Wednesday!

When we got there, our three oldest started to give the lady their shoe sizes to get their bowling shoes. Apparently the smallest shoe size they have is a 12 and Ana wears a 10 1/2, but she was determined to wear a pair of the multi-colored leather shoes just like her siblings. I don't know how she kept them on, but you would have thought they were Cinderella's glass slippers - she loved those shoes!




So can you guess who won the game??

Tina of course!! You go girl!!

Halloween

To be honest Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays. But the kids sure do enjoy getting dressed up & of course the candy is appealing too. This year Matt asked if we could trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. Our church has always hosted a Harvest Party and we've always attended that and have never really bothered with the door-to-door stuff. But ya know, now that he is a mature age of 10 he thought he needed to trick-of-treat with friends in the neighborhood. So we went to the Harvest Party first and once they got their fill of candy, pop, bottles of bubbles, etc. - then we came home and scoured the neighborhood for MORE candy.
The girls and I only made it to about 6 houses. I didn't even think to give Ana some "trick-or-treating etiquette" before we set out, so our first couple of stops she would march right inside their house when they would open the door to hand out the candy. She quickly caught on to the "trick-or-treat" saying in order to get the candy. And then she also told everyone what she was - "I'm a dancing girl" - just in case they couldn't tell by the leotard, tutu, and dance shoes. One of our neighbors had a bit of a scary costume on with a ghostly face and freakishly-long fingers that reached out to hand you the candy. Tina stopped dead in her tracks the moment she saw him. Oh not Ana though - she walked right up to him, eyes wide, and said trick-or-treat - she knew there was candy involved and she was going to get it! And then she was even so nice as to reach out a grab her sister's candy too since she wasn't going to come and get it. And then that ended our door-to-door trick-or-treating.

Our two "dancing girls" - Cowboy Andy - and our gangster son, Matt