School Room

I spent the better part of the last two days organizing the school room. It was my big job that I planned before Christmas that did not get done. Since Christmas, we haven't been able to use our school table because of the new Playmobile sets that needed a home. The next room is going to be the office, complete with my first medical bill catch up since our trip to Ethiopia in October- that is going to be a good time!

This was taken during the basket clean out. While I did clear out baskets enough to house the new Playmobile collection, I did not end up with the extra shelf space I anticipated. Selah and Bella enjoyed all the school manipulatives that they hadn't played with before.

I was hoping for some extra room on the shelves that I could tuck pretty things in, but that isn't happening...this is a working school room!

No extra room in the cubes either, but organizing all of it gave me some good ideas for the rest of the school year. Speaking of school year, tomorrow is our final trip to the testing psychologist in Richmond that is going to give us an idea of what is causing some of the challenges that we are facing with James and Ben.  

I still can not successfully load picture from my computer to Blogger - these are from my new phone, but the quality is really not too good.
                  
                                                                                                     Jenny

Looking Forward

Elijah and little buddy, Levi

I haven't really done a New Years post, partially because if I'm honest, I feel like I am looking at so much uncertainty going into 2013 that I often feel more anxiety than excitement. I clearly remember last year just focusing on our Ethiopian adoption and the excitement of seeing who the Lord had as our 10th child (I didn't know we were going to get a bonus #11 yet). This year, we are again at the beginning of an Ethiopian adoption, but there is so much more in the "unknown" category of life.

We are waiting on the results of JD's current contract with the company he works for; we are optimistic, but Obama's second turn is not a positive for any of us in the defense industry. Even where we live is determined by his job, so there is a lot of unknown for us right now.

Other than that, we are facing some surprising new challenges with two children. While another has been long-term, the last upset caught us by surprise and we are still anticipating what to do to help the situation. While I know that adopting children with traumatic beginnings can be challenging, I still did not anticipate what we are dealing with right now. We are also debating what to do educationally with Ben; we are in the middle of testing, but I don't anticipate the answer to be simple or inexpensive.

We have been called way out of our comfort zone the last several years and I honestly would not have it any other way, but the day to day can often seem overwhelming. Looking forward, I hope we find answers and are on a path of solutions that seems more hopeful than I am seeing right now.

We are incredibly blessed with how smooth and pleasant Selah and Bella's transition has been! We marvel every day at how happy and well adjusted they seem to be considering they were both in an orphanage for (or almost) three years! God has richly blessed us with them!

My 2013 words are trust and hope. As simple as they are, I truly have to trust God with all the things that seem unstable and I have hope that he can bring my children through the challenges that we are facing.

We were blessed with a visit from my friend, Wendy, and her seven children yesterday. It was the first time that we were able to meet new baby, Ruth, and she got to meet Selah and Bella. We sure did not have any idea over 18 years ago when we met that we would have 19 children between our two families. 

Ruthie and me

Elijah and Ruthie