Sunday Snapshot {a blessed evening}

A week ago, our family grew... at least for the next 9 months, we are a family of 7. Heghine is a student with FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange). FLEX is a scholarship program for high school age students from Eurasian countries that provides the opportunity for them to come to the US ans spend a year in school, living with a host family. Heghine is from Armenia. I am amazed at her bravery... to pack her bags and moved to American to live with a family she knows very little about, to a town that has less people in it than her apartment complex at home, to go to school in her 3rd language, and to enjoy this experience! I am blessed that I get to be her host mama for the year, and so far, she seems to be doing ok have a new instant family that is loud, busy and has 4 little kids! Little did we know that one of her hopes for her host family was that they would have a lot of small children and be a big family... I think we fit that request!

In the last week, I have learned several things about Heghine. One of the things she loves is cooking, especially food from her home country! This evening, we invited friends over and she spent the afternoon preparing many traditional foods for us. What an amazing evening of food and just time together with friends and family.

The table was beautiful set with all of these wonderful items...

a traditional cucumber tomato salad...

dolmas... tomatoes, green peppers and cabbage, filled with a meat/veggie combination...

and Heghine, a wonderful hostess, explaining what each item was, and how to eat it...

Tonight I am thankful that the Lord has brought Heghine to our family for these 9 months... I'm glad that my other children can learn about and experience life in another part of the world through her willingness to share and to be a part of our family!

Don't forget to stop by Stephanie's and check out other Sunday Snapshots...

Thanks for your prayers! This sweet boy is feeling better, getting back to his old smiling self! The rest of is lab work should be back Monday and hopefully we'll know then for sure what he has!

If you have a moment this evening, would you pray for our sweet little guy? Has been sick since Sat. night with a really nasty bug, we think we know what it is now and he started meds last night but he is miserable. Thanks friends for praying for him.

Almost Wordless Wednesday...

 (thanks for the pictures Aunt Heather!)

 

"Mystery Men"

 

"Bats"

First Day of School...

Yesterday was our first day of school! The kids were excited to get started and we had a fun day, even with Natey Bug being sick. He is still sick today, I have spent much of the last 3 nights up with him, poor little guy, hopefully today we will begin to turn the corner that I hoped for yesterday. Thankfully no one else seems to be showing signs of the nasty stuff, we are praying that it just goes away!

I wanted to share a quote from one of our lessons yesterday, I don't know why, but it really hit me as I read it to the kids...

Home- Home is where we all belong, a place we come back to, a place just for us. - 

A Child's Geography, Explore His Earth, by Ann Voskamp

My prayer this week is that our home will be just this for each of our children. A place to belong, no matter where they have come from...  a place that they always want to come back to and a special place with memories that are just for us as a family and that we can share with many others!

I haven't downloaded my camera from yesterday yet and with a sick little one, I really didn't get many pictures of our first day of school but I thought I would share some from our party for Heghine on Saturday evening.  I hope that she will enjoy her "home" for the coming year!

These are some treats that Heghine brought for us from Armenia!

 Heghine enjoys cooking and made this beautiful salad for supper the other night!

The girls are very excited to have a new "big sister!" On a funny note, many people think that Heghine and I look very much alike, more than once she has been ask if she is my sister:)

 

We are so blessed by our friends, Ben and Kaila, our kids love them and we enjoy having them over to visit often!

Carol Ann is our rep for the program (AFS & FLEX) that Heghine came to America with. She stopped by on Saturday to welcome her and enjoy the party as well.

FOR TODAY- August  23,2010

Outside my window... the sun isn't quite up, it's the coolest part of the day, later it is supposed to reach almost 100 degrees.

I am thinking...about my sweet boy, Nate. He's been sick the last 36 hours and still isn't feeling well, hopefully today he begins to really feel better, get rid of his fever, etc. I'm hoping no one else gets it either!

I am thankful for... finally being in our new home, getting settled, having the opportunity to open our home to others this weekend for food and fellowship as we welcomed Heghine to our little community. There is something about smiles and laughter of my children and friends that makes my heart sing.

From the learning rooms... Today is our first day of school- Lenna in 2nd grade, Abigayl in K, Eli is doing some K work and some pre-school work and Nate is preschool. Heghine starts high school here today as a junior.

From the kitchen... Heghine has made some delightful treats this weekend. Back to basic meals for lunches during school, working on returning to muffin tin meals 5 days a week.

I am wearing... A black t-shirt and jeans, barefoot, hair up in a knot

I am creating... an organized home, lesson plans for the 1st month of school, a regular schedule for our new chore plan

I am going... to the library today, I need to order several books we need from library loan. Also to the bank and post office. The kids need to deposit their fair checks that arrived in the mail the end of the week.


I am reading... Radical by David Platt

I have been pondering this quote... "As long as you and I understand salvation as checking off a box to get to God, we will find ourselves in the meaningless sea of world religions that actually condemn the human race by exalting our supposed ability to get to God. On the other hand, when you and I realize that we are morally evil, dead in sin and deserving of God's wrath with no way out on our own, we begin to discover our desperation for Christ."
— David Platt (Radical: Take Back Your Faith from the American Dream)

I am hoping... to get an afternoon away this week to get more lesson planning done for the next several weeks.


I am hearing... the spin of the washing machine.

Around the house... laundry to fold, the dishwasher to unload, books ready to start school today

One of my favorite things... whipping cream in my coffee, too many calories but it tastes so good and a loud house... on Saturday evening when we had guests there were 12 kiddos 10 and under running around, it was loud at one point... but honestly having been in orphanages filled with children and none crying has made me come to love happy loud noises from kids!


A few plans for the rest of the week: school, helping Heghine get settled, gymnastics, library trips and the hot air balloon fest on Saturday as well as a wedding in the afternoon.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Heghine's arrival at the airport on Thursday afternoon....

Check out more Daybooks at Peggy's place.

Welcome to Saddle Ridge Ranch...

This is my last summer catch up post! I thought about not posting here but since this is also our family scrapbook, I didn't want to forget these fun memories that the kids made! Our little town has "Community VBS"- all the churches work together and it rotates location each summer. This year VBS was the first week of August at our church. The material we chose was Lifeway's- Saddle Ridge Ranch. We had a blast all week long! My friend, Tiffany, was in charge of decorations and they were awesome as you can see above!

Here is my little cowboy crew that attended all week!

Our first evening started with a family night- Chuck wagon dinner, photos and roping!

 The rest of the week we spent learning about Jesus, his love for us and how we are special to Him. The music was awesome, the crafts fit right into the boys ranch room and great fun was had by all. Best of all, so many kids heard about Jesus and His love for them!

 Fun at the County Fair!

This was Lenna's first year in 4-H. She was enrolled in 3 projects this year- Photography, Cooking and Geology, so she was able to enter items in each of these categories at the fair. For her food items, she took rolls, bread sticks and 2 types of cupcakes. She was allowed to then sell these at the food sale that evening.

 Our little County Fair has a rodeo the last evening that we went to with friends. The kids also tried out riding a bull themselves!

Lenna's Geology box was Grand Champion in the Jr. Division as was her Geology Poster project. It was about our trip to the Great Salt Plains last fall to dig selenite crystals. We are making plans for another trip there this fall we had so much fun! Thanks grandma for all your hard work to help us get Lenna's box (and the other kids from our 4-H club ready for the fair!

Lenna's photography did very well too. Here are a couple of the pictures that she entered. We have a special category each year- this year it was "Something Blue."  The blue paint is from her new bedroom, the other blue picture is one she took of her scooter.

It was a fun few days, when next year comes, we'll be ready but I'm glad for a break and some time to catch up!

 Visitors from afar....

A  few weeks ago, my friend, Tamara, and her kiddos came through our little town while driving across the country to visit family. Tamara and I met online 5 + years ago while while we were waiting for our daughters from China. We realized that we knew some of the same people and grew up in the same state. Her oldest daughter, C, came home a few months before Abigayl did.

When we started our 2nd adoption, she and her husband were also in the process again and we ended up with the same agency the 2nd time around, though their daughter, C2, came home about 10 months before Nate did.

We had a great few hours the afternoon that they stopped by at the youth center, the kids played and we got to catch up, it's been a few years since we actually got to see each other. I realized that we didn't get a picture of the 2 of us together but did get a picture of all the kids (or attempted to do so... that's my wild blond in the front... I could forward this picture to the doctor, it's a great shot of his tonsils:-( ) and then one with the girls!

Thanks Tamara for stopping to see us- I appreciate your friendship so much!

Later that same week, one of my roommates from my single days was driving through with her husband and daughter. We met at Taco Bell and got to catch up a bit. Again, no pictures of us mamas but I did get one of the kids all together! Sue, it was great to see you and your family as well! What sweet memories to spend time together again after all these years!

Yes... the wild blond making funny faces is mine again... what happened to my cute boy who used to love to get his pictures taken?!?!?

Alive and Well...

I am back from our break and we are alive and well. It has been a busy 3 weeks! The County Fair was awesome and Lenna did very well with her projects. We finished that in time to begin the big move! Everything is in the new house, I wish I could say it's all unpacked but not yet! Where did all the junk come from... embarrassing how much "stuff" you accumulate over the years! The huge blessing of this house is space, the downside... no where to "hide" junk... very little hidden storage. As a result... I've been getting rid of it! a very good thing:)

We also had an awesome week of VBS! I can't wait to post about our adventures of the last several weeks and the exciting things ahead... we are counting down the days until Heghine arrives from Armenia later this week. Then Monday... back to school, the kids can't wait! As for me... I need to get busy on lesson plans and schedules!

I have tons of pictures to share, plans for a give away {if anyone signs up, I've been gone so long you may have forgotten us:} and some neat things to share about what God has been teaching me!
Pictures coming later!