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.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Joy in the Craziness

I scheduled myself an absurdly (if that's a word) demanding week. I have three extra doctor appointments for three children and Alei is planning a clep test on Friday. Normally, I'd just focus on the demands of the week and leave the cleaning, shopping and laundry for the weekend, but I was out of town last weekend and am hosting a Liberian adoption reunion this weekend. (I am also speaking at two church services for Orphan Sunday.) So, somewhere in my planning, I didn't remember that my kids had a rescheduled class at co-op this morning until my friend kindly reminded me. It shouldn't have been a big deal, as I normally keep her three little guys on Tuesday mornings anyway, while she teaches Alyssa's zoology class.

So, as I was making my way to the van, Ben brings me a grocery bag from last Thursday's shopping that was sitting in the very back seat. Never mind that I asked him AND James to check the back seat for bags and they both assured me that they got them all carried in. So, guess what was in the bag that has ridden in the van all weekend with the kids? - eggs and bread. Well, it was obvious that it had been stepped on a few times; the bread was flat and the eggs were oozing through the carton and the bag. I mumbled under my breath, set the bag on the ground and told them to get in the van, and leave the egg seat vacant.

I had to leave Julia and Elijah home with Alei for the ten minute trip, so that my friend's boys could ride home in their car-seats; so once I made it home, I was met by Alei at the front door who told me, "Elijah knocked over the entire Amish cabinet and broke pickle jars all over the carpet." Sure enough, four pickle jars and two jam jars to be exact!

It took me an hour exactly to clean the eggs, pickle and jam; but I kept thinking, "this is my life and it's stupid to be frustrated by it." I mean, I knew this was part of raising nine little people, so why be annoyed by it? So, that's my new motto - I can be excited when things go smoothly, but I won't expect it, nor disappointed when it doesn't happen.

It took me too long to figure out that it was a good idea to park them in front of the TV to keep them out of the glass shards. We choose Backyardigans and as you can see, they weren't couch potatoes!

I meant to take a picture of the pickle mess, but got side-tracked with keeping kids out of the glass, too bad - it was an impressive sight!

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