Home Sweet Home

Well, we're home. Its been about two weeks since the A/C escapades began. And today... the whole unit was replaced. We tried to wait out the last of the summer days... but it got hot. We tried to replace some parts and patch the problem... but it kinda blew up. And in the end, we replaced the whole unit.

And while it was being repaired and replaced, we had to pack it up and head to a friends house until it was fixed. And by "it" I mean 5 kids, all their backpacks, lunch boxes, pillows, blankets, pajamas, sound machine, clothes (for the little ones), uniforms (for the girls), underwear, socks, shoes, ballet leotards, tights, ballet shoes, toothbrushes, diapers, pull-ups, wipes, detangle spray, brushes, hair bands, baby wash, lotion, diaper cream, formula, bottles, baby food, sippy cups, water bottles........ not to mention FOOD or anything at all for Jake and I!! Three times I did this. The first time to Jake's parents' house because they were out of town. Then we went back home thinking it was fine. The second time we thought it might be a while so we went to a friends' house. Then we went home because we were really sure the problem was fixed but after two days we headed back to the same friends' house for a second time. Each time it looked like this:

Packing up to go:




So why must we leave? Why couldn't we just open the windows and turn on some fans? Well... we couldn't open the windows because we have no screens and, for one thing, Micah and Abby would try to climb out of the windows. We even tried putting baby gates on the windows, but any baby gate that isn't "installed" is kind of a joke to Micah. So he'd tear it down and THEN climb out. For another thing, Micah and Abby would throw launch toys out of the windows. If you drive by our house you'll notice a lovely pile of toys still in front of the living room window. I'm still debating rather or not I'm bringing these in. I've told them, "if you want to play with that toy, you probably shouldn't throw it out the window, huh?" Lastly, every mosquito, moth and housefly in middle Tennessee took it as an open invitation (literally) into our house. We filled up 3 fly strips in 1 week. If you've ever seen the fly strips I'm talking about, you understand how disgusting that is. And the mosquito's feasted on my children and it looked as if they had chicken pox. (Abby's still haven't gone down.) We had to send poor Patrick home totally covered!!! I'm sorry Lyndi!

We couldn't open the doors for the same reasons we couldn't open the windows. And we could only put fans in rooms where the children were not, you can imagine why. Which was fine during the day when we could point them from behind our -installed- gates :) but at night, we couldn't leave them in their bedrooms with them, so they'd just sweat to death, poor things. :(

And because hot, sweaty, itchy, irritable children don't get much sleep for school, nor do they do anything but whine all day... its been a tough couple of weeks.

BUT. We have some incredible friends who opened their home to all 7 of us. They shared their beds, their food and their time. They've been friends of ours for a lot of years now. She and I were pregnant with our first babies together, born 4 weeks apart. And now, seven years later, we have a combined 9 children: ages 7, 7, 5, 5, 4, 3, 1, 1, and 11 months. :) I'm so glad to be doing life with these people.

Our greeting:


Going to school:

A typical meal:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This week, we had a few crazy "situations" but all in all, it went really well. We made lots more memories. :) And I'm so thankful that they were there for us when we (as dramatic as this might sound) didn't know where to go!! :)

Lastly, can I boast on my husband for a second? Jake has been incredible this week. Every second he's not at work he's been running kids to and from school (keep in mind we have two in one school and two in another, 20 minutes away, and they all start/stop at the same time), running to the house to grab things we forgot or realized we need, helping with the kids... one day he even had 6 of the kids (which included Micah, Abby, Mabry, and the 1 year old twins) by himself for the afternoon while the rest of us had stuff we had to be at. On top of all of this, Jake is putting on a huge Worship Workshop for our youth group tomorrow!! He's been preparing for this for a while but has been SO busy at work this week getting ready for it. And of course, he's the one talking with the different people we had working on the A/C and dealing with all of that. I don't know how he does it. Really.

Oh and did I mention that in the midst of all this, Abby broke her arm and has a hot pink full-arm cast? Yeah. But thats another post. :) (In the video above, it had just happened but we didn't know for sure that it was a fracture until the next morning. I'll be posting pictures of that too.)

But we're home. Long story but God TOTALLY has provided the money to replace the unit as ONLY He could do... and all my kids are sleeping in their own beds, under the covers, with the windows locked and the air is cool.... aaahhh peace. :)

Micah's Orphanage

Its a very emotional thing to go through my family photo's and select just a few to send back to Micah's orphanage.

Some RR friends are adopting from that orphanage... one family is there now and another leaving in just a couple of days. I've emailed her to see if she wouldn't mind taking some photo's of Micah to give the orphanage and our translator if I can email them right over.

Not only is it very emotional looking back through the last year at how much he's changed, but also thinking about the time we spent there with him... and of all the children who've probably grown as much as he has but not actually changed much... The hopelessness. And loneliness. Imagine being one of those kids watching sweet Mommy's and Daddy's come in, pick out your friend, play with them for a week and then the three of them disappear forever. Jake and I would come get Micah and the other children would run up to us begging us in Russian to hold them. The care-givers would yell out to them no, to leave us alone, that we were "Borysov's {Micah's} Mami and Papi."

And here's Micah now. Running and playing and laughing in my living room. He's been riding the bus to pre-school and he LOOOOVES it. :) On his way out of the bus he tries to push as many buttons and controls as he can before we pull him off the bus; he even tries to pull the big handle that closes the door, lol! Maybe one day he can work as an aide on a special-ed preschool bus. :) And he sure loves his Nana and Grandma. He takes their faces in his strong little hands and gives them a big, loud, slobbery kiss. :) He's also more cuddly with me these days too. When he first came home, he mostly wanted Jake. But now, when he's tired, he climbs up on my lap and pushes his cheek and ear against my mouth so I'll whisper and sing to him. That's what Mommy's do. That's what he never had.

A friend of ours from church recently spoke some Russian to him- we wanted to see if he remembered or not. He did. And he was terrified. He didn't cry but he turned to me with a frightened face and held on for life to my neck. He held on tight but turned back to her and just said "NO!!" over and over. :( Poor little guy.

You're safe, Buddy. We love you. You're ours and we're yours. Forever.

I'm so glad Jesus adopted us. I'm glad we can climb in his lap and feel his breath on our faces. I don't want to be one of the ones left watching others run to Him. I want to be His kid. Loved and thriving.

*sigh* Back to picking out photos...

Cooler weather cuteness

Cooler weather is ascending on middle Tennessee and it feels amaaaazing. The kids are enjoying being able to roam free in the backyard without having to break and come inside to cool off (or dry off). I got a few pics of Abby, Micah and Patrick... I tried to get some of them running, but inevitably, when they reach the yard, they scatter in 3 different directions. :) But here's a little cooler weather cuteness...








(Ps. No Micah was not strangling Abby, just givin' some love. :) She's used to it. And no they were not bare-footed to begin with. They each had socks and shoes on but made a joint decision to ditch the shoes AND socks so they could run with bare little tootsies.) ;)

These are a few of my favorite things

After 48 hours with Patrick in our home, I don't have much to say except: I love him. :) He has been great!

A few of my favorite things about Patrick:

~the way he lays on the couch and talks to the ceiling. He even points and uses his hands when he's talking. Very serious conversation.

~his forever long eyelashes. When his glasses are off I can tell he has a hard time seeing me but he just tilts his head, smiles really big and bats those adorable eyes!

~the way he says "ah-loo-OOOOOO" for I love you

~he likes my cooking

~the way he and Abby will sit together and shout out the wrong letters when watching "Super Why"

~the way he says a deep throaty "YEEAAAH" every time I ask him a question, as if it were a revolutionary idea. Like "Patrick, you wanna eat?" "YEEAAAHH", "Patrick do you need to go potty?" "YEEAAHHH", "Patrick are you 6?" "YEAAAHHH" I LOVE it. :)


We haven't heard from Lyndi yet but she should be landing in Ukraine right about now! I need to go install Skype on this new computer so Patrick can see and chat with his Mommy. :)