SGI

Last week we enjoyed a family vacation at St George Island. It was a short 12 hour drive in a 15 passenger van:-) We spent the week soaking up the water and the rays with my parents, my in-laws and my brothers family. Grace and Manny got to experience the beach for the first time. We also celebrated Mercy's birthday...with a lot of chocolate!

Let me tell you something....

So today I went to visit with a sweet little old lady. As she was sharing about her life she asked me "How many children do you have?" I said "8". She said "Wow! Everyone thought I was crazy for having 4." I told her "5 of mine are adopted." She says to me: "You must be a very good person. Its disgusts me all these people going to other countries to adopt children when there are perfectly good children here." I said nothing in response. I'm somewhat used to this at this point. But you know what I really wanted to say: "You find find it disgusting that an orphaned child gets a home? You somehow deem American children superior to other children in the world? You think we are to turn a blind eye to the millions of children in the world who have no parents because they don't live in the US? Really? I am Christian. I do not identify myself as an American. Christ follower is the only title I will ever need."

Another

"You won't share your fame."

So happy!

I get to be Auntie Lisa again and one more orphan has a home!

Summer Break!!!!

Today was the last day of school! Ryan and I visited the kids for their awards ceremonies. Mercy earned the "friendly" award, no surprise to us as she's always greeting people with a happy face. Ben earned the "citizenship" award and Math award! His teacher said someday he'll be president! :-) Simon earned a Math award. Noah earned 6 or so awards including the Presidential award. Grace and Manny win an award from me for being such good troopers, this their first semester of school in America.
Adam and Lauren will be here before we know it to spend the summer. I have made our family schedule with our meal plan, game times, tv times, chores, homework and reading time, devotional time.....think that's all that's on the schedule. What's not on it is all our visits to the water park and the baseball park! We can get a summer pass to our water park for 200$ That's pretty great for 10 of us, unlimited access to the pools!
We are soon getting hardwood put in our downstairs. Why oh why did I not do that to begin with? Next up a leather couch, so I'm not paying to have this one cleaned.
I am planning my first home school year! Mercy, Beniam and Grace will be my first students. I'm praying the Teabow bill passes (allowing home school students to play sports in public school) then I'll be homeschooling the rest. (Unless of course I totally flop at this first attempt!) Any encouragement would be much appreciated.

Merry Merry Month of May

We have been really busy having fun this month. We have celebrated Mercy's completing kindergarten, attended a middle school choral concert, went hiking with grandparents, played a lot of baseball, went to a church picnic, celebrated birthdays (Ryan, me and my Dad), visited Kings Island, and celebrated Mothers Day.
Enjoy a few photos!
Now I am preparing for the kids to be home for summer, making our calendar and menu. Can't wait to have the kids home!