Summer Birthdays Are So Fun!

Pea #2 and #3 had their birthday party this weekend at our camp on Lake Toledo Bend. It was a blast. The luau theme made the day, and they were so cute in their grass skirts. We put the poles in the water for a bit, and Pea #3 caught her first fish! Happy Birthday!

Sky's Birthday

My cutie is six years old! Oh my goodness! We had a western party with stick horse races and a water gun shoot-out. I can't believe my sweet baby is half-way to adolescence. In two more weeks we'll do it again when the double trouble team turn five.

Getting Lost....Saying Goodbye

I lost my babies. It's something I have said dozens of times. Today driving across a lonely stretch of highway it struck me that this turn of phrase is too obscure and innacurate to describe what happened to me and my babies that died.
I was taking the children that are with me to an appointment that would never be kept with a man who believes that he too simply mislaid his progeny the way someone else might lose track of a set of keys or the change from a five dollar bill. Yet, no matter what he believes, his children aren't lost or stolen or discarded. They are placed in the arms of someone who has planned and dreamed of them, who loves them, who will treasure them. Neither are my babies lost. They are in the arms of Jesus who knew them and planned them and treasures them. He's keeping them for me.
I got to say goodbye to my babies. I got to tell them how much I loved them and wanted them and would miss them while we are apart. The Peas' birth father was given the same opportunity today. He didn't say goodbye. He believes that he and they are the victims of some catastrophe, some happenstance that will surely rectify itself. You can't acknowledge a mischance with the finality of goodbye. Goodbyes are for purposeful journeys. I'm glad I gave myself and my babies a goodbye. I'm glad I see the purpose of their journey through death into eternal life.

TPR.....

stands for termination of parental rights, which is what occurred for the Peas birth father this past Monday. It's been a long journey, but the Peas are one step away from being legally cleared for adoption. The burden that has been lifted from our souls is just unbelievable. It's such an amazing gift to just be a family with no qualifiers and no limits on what that means.
God Is Good!

Book Character Day

Here they are - three of my favorite book characters dressed up for their Children's Book Week celebration at school. Pea #1 is the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George and Peas #2 and #3 are Max and Ruby from the series of books by Rosemary Wells. This little exercize in literacy and costuming was sprung on me with a little under 48 hours notice.

I managed to come up with something because after all I'm a librarian with an encyclopedic knowledge of picture books and a positive glut of costume accessories and craft supplies tucked away in the most disorganized closet to ever grace a building erected with tax payer monies. (Translation from over-educated and over-complicated Anglais to regular work-a-day English: I'm a kiddy book geek with a work closet full of random collections of junk.) I shudder to think what this little assignment did to the average mom or dad whose 9-to-5 job involves answering phones in a law office or selling insurance policies! EEK!

Sky's class didn't participate this year, but she wasn't too disappointed as she is looking forward to her end of the school year Field Day on Friday. I am sure that I will have a pic to post of that soon.

School Pictures

I got the proofs for school pictures in everyone's "send-home" folders this week. It blessed my heart and picked me up from a rotten week at work to see all of my kidlets smiling faces.
I just love school pictures, although I HATE the actual day of school picture-taking. It's always the morning that Pea #1 has 4 cowlicks in the top of his hair, Pea #2 has managed to black her eye AGAIN, the other two angels can't find white socks that actually match each other, and someone is totally out of clean underwear! Now, I know that underwear don't actually show in school pictures, but I secretly fear that the photographer will be able to tell from the way they sit that their drawers aren't daisy fresh.
Anyway, we did make it to school picture day with clean drawers and made it all the way up to picture time without our spiffy non-uniform clothes getting soiled. The results should prove fabulous, and I will be dispersing prints of their smiling faces liberally.

My Easter Lilies!

This is a pic of our sweet, sweet girls in the Easter dresses I made for them. Excuse the rumpled hair and unkempt feet, but I put them into the dresses to try them on at the end of the day just before they got into jammies.

I just think they have the sweetest smiles. The dresses came out very nicely, even though I am not a true seamstress by any means. They are made from embroidered pillowcases. I did the embroidery -- which took about four times as long as the sewing of the dresses.

I am so excited for them to wear them on Sunday. I love Easter....it is my absolute favorite holiday. I like it even more than Christmas. It's all about new beginnings and the abundance of grace. I appreciate Easter so much more since I became a mama. I don't know that I really understood the love that Christ has for me, until I saw it reflected in my children's eyes when they look on His cross and sing about His name.