OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED: One Week

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.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

One Week

Well, it's been a whole week since we were blessed with the departure of our free-loading renters - therefore, it's been one full week of cleaning, and painting, and cleaning, and new carpet and CLEANING. We pretty much wrapped it up this afternoon; I just have to touch-up paint and JD needs to fix a basement water leak. After cleaning for a week, Alei told me that she appreciates our cleanliness level. (Trust me that her statement isn't due to my impeccable house-keeping, just the fact that we do house-keeping!) Here's Alei and her friend, Amanda; why only take nine children to clean a house when you can have 11?

Little Elijah fell asleep on the way over and took a long nap on the new carpet. He must like firmness, because he slept way longer than he usually does in his own bed.

Speaking of new carpet; it looks great with the newly painted room. Since I needed to use a flash for this picture, you'll just have to trust me that the camel color is a billion times better than the neon pink that was in this room! For the record, it took four coats to cover the pink - two of primer and two of the paint. I've never painted anything so difficult before. Due to this little incident, we will be adding a clause to our contract about having paint colors approved; of course, these renters didn't follow anything in the contract, so it probably wouldn't have prevented this disaster.

Here's my hard-working husband repairing screens, another casualty of the "illegal" dogs. So, this is where we lived before our big move to farm-life. Although I have fondness for this house and I'm still friends with several of the neighbors, I get kind of claustrophobic there with my kids running amok up and down the drive-way. See all the houses lining the streets? I'm really cut out for farm life, where kids can feed chickens in their pajamas on Sundays so they don't mess up their church clothes!