OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Outside Continued

 This is one of my birthday chicks from my friend, Wendy. We realize that chickens are probably an abnormal gift for the average Mom of today, but we both get pretty excited about different chicken breeds.



This picture required no explanation. For anyone that's getting grossed out, I do discourage chicken kissing.


These two trees are my little pear trees. In the end, we planted eight fruit trees and two pecan trees this spring. I need to get a truck load of mulch to put around them this weekend.


Our swimming pool is always a problem in the spring. We are never diligent about pumping out the rainwater on the cover and the tree frogs continually lay eggs in it. There have been many, many springs that we scoop tadpoles out and put them in two kiddy pools before we can open the pool.



Ben has been spending quite a bit of time with the basketball hoop. I'm not really too excited about adding winter basketball to our current spring and fall soccer schedule, but I may anyway.



 Little Ms. Julia learned to ride her bike this week. We don't do training wheels since we have no pavement. The kids have all done well just learning to ride a real bike. Now she is riding on gravel, grass and the road with her brothers and sisters. I know she fell off 100 times learning, but didn't cry once.


Here's one of my birthday pots from my Mom. I got one for each side of our wide steps. Now I need to figure out what I want to plant in them.  


We are expanding our raised garden beds from two to five this year. JD and the boys built one last week and there are two to go.


We are planning on adding another three next spring for a total of eight. I have planted most of the three that are completed. The last two are going to be watermelon and cantaloupe.


Elijah is getting bigger and braver; it's really amazing that he is going to be three this summer. He corrects us if we make the mistake of referring to him as a baby. Although he speaks very clearly, two words he can't say correctly are boy and girl. He says ber and ger. So we often hear, "no me is a ger, me is a big ber!"



5 comments:

  1. Jenny, It is nice to meet you!!! Oh how nice it would be to live on a farm! What a beautiful family you have!! We have 6 Liberian children. We adopted from AoH. Our other 8 are bio children. I am going to read up on your family life! Your children are in shorts already. You must live somewhere warm. This Minnesota weather is goofy. I heard it might snow this weekend up here. I look forward to getting to know you!!!

    Warmly, Tina

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  2. Hey Jenny,
    Just in case you didnt remember, those white chickens are Sultans & the little black ones are called Production Blacks. The ones I have in the brooder here for you are called Amercanas = in case you wanted to look up what they will look like full grown.
    & how could a chicken kiss gross anyone out?? never!! plus i think it's hard for the chicken to pucker with out lips!
    tell Julia Mrs. Wendy is way proud of her on the bike!That's awesome. I'm taking the training wheels off of Abigail's & Asher's this weekend. She ahs inspired me.
    Wendy

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  3. could you give a tutorial or at least more details on the raised beds. I see a black cloth hanging over one side...what is that for?

    I am hoping to build some raised beds throughout this year to use for next spring and have only really seen the wooden frame raised beds. Yours is the first brick ones I have seen.

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  4. I agre with patchwork mommy. I'd love to live on a farm~

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  5. Two questions. Can you tell us the measurements of the raised bed, and about how much one costs?
    We are doing a garden for the 1st time. We will make do, but would like to do the raised beds next year.
    Also we want a pool next year, after we recover from adoption. We've had built in pools at other houses, but there is no way we can afford one anymore. Has the above ground held up to your expectations? How long have you had it?
    Thanks!!

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