Happy birthday to me, and Happy Forever Family Day to Sarah!

Today is my birthday!  And while I admit, that is special and fun, and I am so happy that God blessed me with life, and in particular, MY life.....  I am more happy to announce that today is also our wonderful Sarah's Forever Family Day!  (Or "Gotcha Day") as some prefer to call it.  Two years ago today we met our daughter, and words really can't express the amazing blessing and privilege it is to adopt a child, unless you have adopted a child yourself.

My plea to you today is that you would consider what the Lord might have YOU to do when it comes to caring for orphans and widows--something very near and dear to God's heart.  Adoption seems like a huge step, but I really believe everyone should pray about it, and leave their hearts open to hear God's reply.  He MAY be tugging at your heart strings and asking you to do it!  Or, there are hundreds of ways to get involved in caring for orphans, locally and around the world.  Please don't go through life never doing anything to help.  You will miss out on the blessings!

This video is straight from my heart to yours.  I sang this song, From This Moment, by Shania Twain, at my cousin's wedding last month.  And as I was practicing it, it struck me how perfectly so much of it fit for an adoption-themed song.  And as I practiced it over and over, Sarah (and the boys) would all join in, and we would sing it sometimes at the tops of our lungs, dancing and dipping each other...(yep, get that picture in your head), and we had the best time.  And as a result, we all learned the song, and Sarah loves it, which makes it even more special.  : )

Enjoy these pictures of our first two years together with our sweet, funny, happy, spunky, marches-to-her-own-drum, girl............SARAH TING!  (aka Red Light, of course.)  And get ready for the best part at the very end.  : )

Last year....Bone marrow transplant. This year....Happiness!

Dear friends,

Wow, what a difference a year makes! 

I was thinking about writing a post today comparing last year to this.  I knew that sometime around now last year we were in the hospital where Sarah would endure the toughest part of her cancer journey--her high dose of chemo that necessitated her bone marrow transplant.  If you remember, we were in the hospital for three weeks (amazingly short compared to most children).  I looked back to check exactly when we went into the hospital, and it was exactly a year ago today!  One year ago, we were in the battle for our little girl's life, hoping and praying that this would be the final treatment that would kick the cancer.  And it was. : )

We are so thankful.  So grateful.  I wish I had a much greater vocabulary to express the gratitude we feel...to God, to our friends and family who prayed and helped, and to the doctors and nurses.  Even now from time to time, something will bring it to mind, and I will have this strong urge to write another thank-you note to the staff...bake them cookies...I don't know.  Do ANYTHING to let them know how much they meant to us and still do.  They truly did become like family to us, and Sarah and I still miss them! 

So, here is a little trip down Memory Lane again. Sarah always loves to go back and look at her "hospital pictures." Maybe you would like to see them too!  (And if you would like to go back and read the whole story, just click the word "cancer" in the topics list on the right side of the page.)

Her favorite "Purple Spider."  She still loves him.

She still felt good for a while.

 Then she felt lousy.

 Feeling better

 Dr. Sarah writing out prescriptions ; )

 With Rhys, the Child Life specialist.  He is awesome!

This is blurry, but it is the day Sarah could leave her room.  We were so excited!

And a year later.....



O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever!  1 Chronicles 16:34



Not everyone loves adoption...

"I love my adoptive parents, but I hate adoption."

"I wish I had been aborted."

"When I see pictures of families with obviously adopted children in them, I cringe."

"I hate 'stranger adoption.'"

"Children who are adopted from other countries are 'bought,' plain and simple."

Are you wincing like I winced when I read these things?  I recently happened upon a web page for teen/adult adoptees who want to vent their frustrations about adoption.  It was eye-opening and terribly sad, and downright scary for an adoptive mom to read discussion after discussion by these people who are so unhappy with their lives. Many of them did reassure everyone that they are generally happy, but hate much about what it means to be adopted.  Some of them had lived years in the foster system, and finally ended up in  adoptive families where they were abused or mistreated. 

Several said they would have preferred to have been aborted.  Many said they think it would be better for birth moms to abort their unborn babies rather than give them up for adoption.

It was heartbreaking to read those stories.  Heartbreaking because we live in a fallen world.  And even something as beautiful as adoption has an ugly and sad side.

All of us in the adoption community know and understand that in order for our treasured children to come and be our children, they first had to experience the saddest, most traumatic thing that a child can experience--the loss of their first family.  No matter how young they were when it happened, it is the same huge loss.  Many also have to leave the country of their birth, leaving them with so many questions that most likely will never be answered.  When you really think about that, you can imagine how difficult it would be.  Never knowing who your DNA comes from.  Wondering if you look like your birth parents.  Wondering why they gave you up.  Wondering if you are being disloyal to them if you love your adoptive family.  Do you have biological siblings?  I am sure these questions can be tormenting.  And I am sure that children who do not look like their adoptive families often face additional inner struggles.  When I was a kid, I just wanted to fit in.  How much more difficult is it for these children to feel like they "fit in" in the world?  Sometimes there is subtle or not so subtle discrimination out there that they may also have to face, and other things to battle that I can't even imagine, not being an adoptee myself. 

Yes, I am sure that as beautiful as adoption is, it does not always feel beautiful to these children.  I am painfully aware of that, and I already dread the day that our precious girl will have to find out that she has another mother who for unknown reasons, did hand her over to someone she trusted to take care of her...but never returned for her.  I hate it that I will have to tell her that more than anything I can imagine.  I hate it that she will have to struggle with issues that I never did.  I will always be sensitive to this fact, and will make it my goal to help her in any way I possibly can.

Now to the second part of my thoughts...

First, please know that I never want to appear to make light of or downplay any of these very real problems and feelings that adopted people experience.  I hope I've made that very clear.  But this is what I would have liked to have added to these angry, hurting people if they would have listened to me. 

They are not the only hurting people in this world. 

Countless children who live forever with their birth families are abused and neglected by them or others.  Birth mothers and fathers sometimes say horrible, hurtful things to their children leaving them with scars that might never heal.  Many people live with sicknesses.  Children get cancer and other illnesses.  Some have it "better" than others in this life, but NO ONE MAKES IT THROUGH untouched by something very difficult.  Nobody. 

So far this is one horribly grim post, I know, but that is the reality of this life.  This earth is not heaven!  There is SIN here.  Bad things happen because sin entered the world and it is here to stay.  Mothers and fathers were never meant to abandon their children, and children were never meant to be abused or neglected by anyone, but these things happen here on the earth.  That is the bad, bad news.

BUT....there is also very GOOD news! 

God made a way for our sins to be forgiven by sending His Son, Jesus to die on that cross and take our punishment.  We can believe it and trust Him to forgive us and save us!  AND, He will not allow this evil to go on forever!  The Bible clearly tells us that someday He will return and make a new, sinless earth.  All will be made right in the end, and vengeance is and will be His.  I don't know if you believe in the Bible or not, but if you study, you will find that nothing has ever been known to disprove it.  And there are so many prophecies in the Bible that have already come true.  If you read and study it, you will see what I mean.  If so many prophecies have come true, we can be sure that eventually they all will.  The Bible can be trusted!

And in the meantime, God is doing wonderful things here on earth, in spite of so much wickedness going on.  Adoption is one of those things.  The most heartbreaking thing to me was those people saying they would rather have been aborted than having been allowed to live.  I wish I could wrap my arms around them and tell them that they were created by God who loves them and has a purpose for their lives.   That they are infinitely valuable, and nothing that has happened to them can change that.  No one should wish they had never been born simply because life here on earth is hard. 

Like I said, all of us have had hard things to go through in our lives, but we can ALL overcome those things with God's help, and go on living in spite of, and even USING those things to our advantage and to help other people.  God does not waste anything that happens to us.  Maybe these adoptees could use their pain to work to make changes in our culture when others couldn't understand how it feels enough to do anything about it.  Maybe they could take what has happened to them and use it to choose to be the best mom or dad they can possibly be, or to reach out to other adopted children or birth parents, possibly helping them to keep their children.

The adoptees on that web page only vented anger and frustration.  Instead, they could choose to encourage each other and lift each other up.  They said they hated it when anyone told them they should be grateful that they were adopted.  But maybe they could CHOOSE to be grateful, and see if it doesn't make them feel better.  I am grateful to my parents for raising me.  Why would it be so bad for them to be grateful to their parents, or at least grateful to God?  Gratefulness is soothing to the soul.  Focusing on being thankful rather than bitter brings huge blessings in all of life!    It all comes down to a choice.  We can choose to be bitter.  Or we can choose to forgive and live life with joy and purpose.  I am praying for these hurting people, that they would find the Giver of true peace, and make the choice to forgive the people who wronged them.

I know this is a different kind of post than I normally write.  I wrote it because it's been on my heart, and since it's my blog, I can say what I feel.  Please, if you disagree with me, don't leave me a comment.  Like I said, I have nothing but compassion for these people, and I fully understand that it can be extremely hard for them in many different ways.  I am only trying to help THEM by suggesting they choose joy in the midst of their sadness.  (And I realize that some might need professional help and counseling.  These are just my thoughts in general.)

So far, our sweet Sarah (aka Red Light--yes, that is what she wants people to call her.  She is unique!), is completely happy and safe in her little world with us as her family.  We love her as much as we possibly can, and to her, we are Mommy and Daddy, and she loves us and knows nothing different.  I know it will become more complicated than that, but my hope and prayer for her is that she will always know that she is infinitely valuable, and that God can and will always bring beauty from ashes.  He has a plan for her life, and it is a beautiful plan.  She is a priceless treasure.

We love you, sweet girl, and are so very thankful for you!

We might be crazy.....

Once upon a time, my hubby and I were newly married.  We were young, naive, somewhat stupid...you know.

And we got it in our heads that we wanted a ferret!

So, silly us, we went to the pet store to buy ourselves a ferret.  We took one into a back room.  It jumped and played and generally frolicked around with us.

We fell in love!  Well, I admit I did.  I think Scott did too.  She was so adorable and fun!

So, they boxed her up, we paid the nice clerk, and headed out to the car.

And then we stopped. 

Ferrets are cute and playful... and also:  smelly, mischievous, thieving, mess-making, demanding of attention and somewhat expensive.

And we quickly gathered hold of our senses (we weren't THAT young and stupid, after all,)  and marched that brand new ferret right back into the store, collected our money, and hurriedly, if not a little sadly, left.

FAST FORWARD 17 YEARS.....

I was watching Youtube videos of animals with the boys the other day.  An otter came on the screen, and Ben said, "I wish I could have an otter for a pet!"  "Well," said I... "Otters cannot be had as pets.  There is, however a little animal in the otter family that IS a pet."  And we watched scores of adorable and fun ferret videos right then and there.

"We want a ferret!!!" came the chorus of sounds all around me.

And as I watched all those ferret videos, I began to feel a little twinge of stirring within me.  Along with a sneaking suspicion that I was somehow losing my mind a bit...

And before I knew it, I was somewhat chiming in with them about wanting a ferret, and not discouraging them from asking their dad.  Not sure how he lost his mind too, but after much, much research and thought...I promise...

Yep.

I am not sure how it happened that we were so much smarter way back then.  But, somehow it is true.  We went and got not one, but TWO ferrets.  Their names are Flurry and M&M. (Mischief Maker.)  They are really, really fun! 

But something tells me we just might be crazy.....

School's in!

Well, folks, I haven't been on here much because SCHOOL STARTED!  And when that happens...well...I pretty much start going when my feet hit the floor, and then feel like collapsing at the end of the day. So, I apologize for making your lives so much more boring since you haven't had my blog posts to read lately.  So very sorry.


Well, we started school last week.  We got a bit of a late start because we went on a family camping trip the week before!  It was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. 


And then we got school off and running nicely.  Here was part of our first day.  We went hiking on some nature trails near our house and did some tree and wildflower identification with our friends.

And we have also had some lovely moments so far like this...

 During some down time, Jacob made a water spout for Sarah to climb and fall down from.  : )

Making some letter cookies on our first official school day.  (Did you know that you can't really use cookie cutters with chocolate chip cookie dough?  I didn't.  It didn't work.)

So, we have had some fun and rewarding learning time already.  AND we have had some bad attitudes and complaining as well.  I didn't take pictures of those times, but maybe I should.

Sometimes I read blogs and get the feeling that these families I read about are all perfect, and the children look like they are all well-behaved and loving to each other constantly.  And maybe they are...but just in case you are reading this and you think MY children are all well-behaved and loving each other constantly, I just want you to know that that just ain't true.  They are awesome, fantastic kids, and they DO love each other--even if they don't admit it-- and we do have a lot of fun together.  But trust me, they are sinners too.  : )  (Just like all of us!)

So, if you think about it, please pray for me as we plunge into another year of school and battle the attitude monster!  I am adding pre-school for Sarah into the mix, too! (but she loves it of course.) 

By the way, we saw Dr. Aaberg for her routine eye exam recently, and everything still looks great!  Praise the Lord!

I hope you all are having a great school year so far!

Ten years later...Please watch this amazing video of Sujo John, 9/11 Survivor

Waving farewell to summer...

It's September!  It's getting cooler...the yellow school buses have been set in motion...but here at our house, we haven't been quite ready to give up this...

And this...

 And this...

And this...

 And this...

 And this... (Okay, the boys are probably ready to give this up.)

And this...

 Sweet Ben was so loving to Sarah when she was afraid on the "dinosaur ride." 

And this...(petting the animals at the fair)

Yes, I am just really sad to say good-bye to summer.  But I do really love fall, and the boys are actually semi-looking forward to starting school.  And we WILL be starting very soon.  I promise.  So don't go calling some truant officer or something.  

Have a wonderful school year, everybody!