Mission Safari: The Next Chapter(s)

One More Thing, Part 2

The following video is awesome.  It is a song about adoption.  The first few minutes of the video are a testimony about how one family came to the decision to adopt.  The rest of the video is the song Why Wouldn't I.  It speaks very tenderly and wonderfully about "Why" someone would adopt.  Enjoy. (And grab a few Kleenex before watching it).

One More Thing

I can't believe that I have let the whole month  without mentioning that November is National Adoption Month.  We want to encourage folks to pray about all the aspects of adoption - the orphans, the parents, the agencies, the finances needed, etc.  We want folks to get involved in helping in whatever way they can by considering adoption or supporting adoptive parents in finances, as well as emotional and spiritual support before and after adoption.  There are so many needs in this whole process (as we are quite aware).

Also, I want folks to consider seeing the movie that just released called The Blind Side.  It tells the true story of what can happen through love and adoption.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, another Thanksgiving is in the books.  We enjoyed wonderful weather, excellent food, and awesome fellowship.  Our best friends the Keelers drove down from the DC area and spent 3 nights with us.  My brother-in-law Joe and his family joined us for one night as well.  All told, on Thanksgiving day we had 6 adults, 11 kids, and 3 dogs. 

It was great to hear all the laughter and chatter this past holiday weekend. We enjoyed the meals (especially lunch on Thanksgiving), watching movies and football together. It was really a good time for all.  

I unfortunately had to start back to work Friday night so I didn't get to have as much time off as I would have liked.  However, the kids were glad to get a little break from school.  They have 3 more weeks of hard work before Christmas. It is hard to believe, but today is the last day of November...Christmas is fast approaching.  

Ph-orty in Philly

This past Sunday I celebrated my 40th birthday.  I started my "party" before day-break with a banana, peanut butter, Pop Tart, and Starbucks Frappucino.  I then headed over to the Philadelphia Art Museum where 15,000 other "friends" were waiting for me.  At 7:00 a.m. the gun sounded, and me and my friends started out on a 26.2 mile trip around Philly.  3 hours and 57 minutes later, I crossed the finish line posting my 4th best time in my 9th marathon.  It was a great way to start the day! 

 As usual Marti and the kids were there to cheer me on.  Marti is quite the brave soul coming out early with the kids picking some spots along the race route to give me encouragement.  For this marathon she met me (with the kids in tow) at 6 miles, 13.1 miles, and at the finish line.  I can't tell you how important it is to have some familiar faces shouting out your name along the way.  It was especially encouraging on the day I became an "old man."

I really enjoyed this marathon.  The weather was great.  The route was relatively flat, the drink stations were well staffed, and the sites awesome.  I raced smart, didn't run faster than I trained, and kept on pace throughout.  I only had to stop a couple of times to briefly stretch.  Overall I was well pleased with the race.  I think I will be interested in running this one again.

One of the things I wanted to do in Philadelphia was to eat a Philly Cheesesteak.  I asked a few friends who were from Philly where to eat and one of the recommendations was Jim's Steaks on South Street.  After my post-marathon massage (which was free) and a shower, we headed over to Jim's Steaks.  When we arrived there was a line outside, wrapped around the corner.  Undaunted, we waited 45 minutes and let me tell you, it was well worth the wait.  Everyone, including the little girls, loved their sandwiches.

   After naps at the hotel, Marti and the kids gave me a little party in the room.  This party was more fun with my little posse than the bigger party earlier in the day!  I don't think when I was celebrating my 20th birthday that I could have imagined celebrating my 40th birthday with FIVE of the best kids in the whole world.  (I don't think I would have imagined celebrating my 40th by running a 26.2 mile marathon either).  But life is full of wonderful surprises.  I wonder what the next 40 years will bring!

Philly Roadtrip

Thursday we left for our first roadtrip with all the kids.  Marti did an awesome job earlier in the week to get everything organized so that we could leave by our goal time of 9:30am on Thursday.  I was so excited.  But as one would guess, we didn't make it too far before we needed to stop.  In fact, we had to stop twice as well as return to the house in the first 3 miles!

Fortunately the trip to Philadelphia went fairly well.  Despite all the small people (and small bladders), we did not have to make too many stops.  And we did not run into any major traffic jams.  And we did not get lost.  All of those were important victories.

After checking into the hotel (the Double-Tree Hotel on Broad Street in downtown Philly), we made a quick turn around and went to Cherry Hill, NJ (just across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge) to eat dinner with our former pastor from South Carolina.  Ten months ago, they accepted the call to a church up here.  It was a great reunion with them.  They had not met Amy or Kate, and they haven't seen the big kids since 2006. 

Yesterday, we had a pretty low key day.  Ben actually had his on-line Latin Class to attend at 9:30am so Marti and I took the little ones to Dunkin Donuts near City Hall.  Then after Ben's class, Marti drove him 30 minutes towards Altantic City, NJ where he met up with one of his good friends from Kenya.  Andrew and his family are home on Home Assignment until January.  It was great for Ben to be able to visit him while we were up here. 

To finish off the day, we walked over to the Convention Center where I picked up my race packet for the Philadelphia Marathon.  My bib number is 5939.  I will be running my 9th marathon this Sunday on my 40th birthday.  (That is the main reason we picked Philly as our roadtrip destination in mid-November)!  After picking up the number we went to a local Italian bistro for a spaghetti dinner to "carbo-load" for the race.

Today, we slept in before eating brunch at the IHOP around the corner.  Since the weather has been so awesome since our arrival (sunny and in the 50's) we then walked over to Independance Hall and the Liberty Bell.  It was awesome to see this venerable symbol of our country's liberty and freedom.  I just hope we don't foolishly squander it on the easy acceptance of socialist legislation that seems to be pouring forth from DC.

This became even more poignant when we lifted Kate up to take her picture in front of the Liberty Bell.  Just two months ago she was still a citizen of the most Communist countries on earth.  Despite its current economic growth and "freedoms", China still severely limits where their people go, what they do, who they talk to, and how they make their living.  They also still severely limit human rights and religion.  And yet, by God's providence, Kate is not only a member of our covenant family, but an American. God really is great.

Anyway, after seeing the Liberty Bell, we took a horse drawn carriage ride around the Old City and saw several more historic sites including the First Bank, the Carpenter's Hall (where the First Continental Congress met), the first Federal Reserve Building, the Betsy Ross house, City Tavern (where many a signer of the Declaration of Independence met to deliberate politics), and Benjamin Franklin's grave.  The kids really seemed to enjoy this (even if it was more for the fact that we were riding in a carriage)!

 Our last stop of the afternoon before heading back the hotel was to walk through Philly's Chinatown.   It was kind of surreal to walk through a neighborhood and be transported back in time.  It has been only 8 weeks since we first traveled to Beijing.  It is also amazing to think about all that has changed and how we have been changed during the process.  Once again, I can't help but think about how great God is.

Once Marti and Sarah come back from a little shopping excursion to Macy's we are going to have some pizza (more carbo loading!) and then turn in early.  I have to get up early tomorrow for the big run. 

4 Kids and 5 Guys

This past week has been very wet and gray around here as we endured a November Nor'easter here in the Williamsburg area. It was a pretty severe storm causing flooding and power outages throughout the Hampton Roads area, but happily we experienced neither...just the long cold dreary rains. But over the weekend the sun came out and our moods improved tremendously.

Ben's football season ended last weekend (more on him in a minute) but we were still pretty busy. Fortunately it was a good busy. Saturday night, Marti had another of her "Jane Austin Nights" where she invited some ladies from the church over for soup, salad, and a Jane Austin movie. These are essentially "girls night out", only inside at home. It is usually well attended and this one was no different. But, one of the requirements is that I have to take the kids (except Sarah) out of the house during these events. And so we usually go and eat somewhere the kids like. 

Our choice this time was Five Guys. It is a hamburger joint that serves some of the best hamburgers around. Their menu is pretty straight forward...hamburger, hot dogs, fries, and drinks. While you wait, you can munch on salted in the shell peanuts. It is usually a happy place and very busy. It is the ideal place for a dad to take 4 kids (hence the title, 4 Kids and 5 Guys!). It was fun to be with the kids. It was especially fun to watch Kate chomp down on her hot-dog. For the first time, she ate just as much as Amy (which is a feat)! And don't worry, I cut up the hot dog in very tiny bites for her. The only downside to her eating the same as Amy is that it took her twice as long! But it was so good to see her enjoy the hot dog!

Sunday was a great day as well. It was sunny and warm. The church service was encouraging (as usual) and it was good to see our friends. Kate did well in the nursery during Sunday School playing well with the other kids (I stayed in their because Amy was a little cranky when we got there). However, during worship, she started getting a little teary and needed to be held by the nursery workers. We realized when we picked her up it was the first time she had been left alone without one of her family members around. We were kind of glad to hear that she fussed a little bit. That is a positive sign about her attachment.

After church, we met our "other" adopted "son." His name is Nate and is a Sophomore at William and Mary College. Our church has an Adopt-A-Student program linking up students and church families. Nate is the fourth student in three years that we have adopted. We had Nate over for lunch and it was a blessing to meet and get to know him a little better.

Finally to top off our weekend, we had our Home Group meet at our house last night. I am the Home Group Leader for our group and we have a new group this year. We meet every other Sunday night and so we are just now getting to know one another. All the other families (there are 6 families) have kids. When we all get together we have 12 Adults and 18 children. It is a fun group. And God is blessing our meetings as we get to know each other.

So, we enjoyed a busy weekend this weekend. We thought it would be a slower weekend given that Ben did not have a football game, but it was fun nevertheless. Oh, and speaking of Ben's football season, his team finished its season last week. They finished 2-8. It was a BIG change from last season's 10-1 team, but Ben has kept a great attitude all season. He worked hard and learned a lot. He did a great job on and off the field. We are very proud of him. He is already talking about starting a work-out program for next season!

Jack and Kate

Jack and Kate are becoming good friends.  Jack has always been good with the kids and he is especially good to Kate.  He loves licking her and being with her.  He never nips at her.  And I think he really likes hanging out around her in the kitchen; she spills her Cheerios and other food items.  From time to time I catch her leaning down to feed him.

Kate loves Jack as well.  She likes giving him hugs, petting him, and will even give him big kisses.  She is not afraid of him at all.  It is cute to watch them interact.  

In other Kate "news" she continues to adjust well.  She is finally developing a good appetite.  She really likes to feed herself.  She loves rice (surprise, surprise), Cheerios, Ritz crackers, bananas, corn, potatoes, and mac and cheese.  To help her catch up on her weight (she is behind in weight and head circumference), we are feeding her PediaSure three times a day.  I think she has put on a pound and a half since we got home from China.

She is also doing well with her muscle development.  She can roll over now.  She also does well on her tummy, pushing up, reaching for items.  She still does the Butt-Scoot boogie to get around but she is very effective in this; she can get from the den to the kitchen without difficulty.  

Kate is also learning English.  Her favorite words seem to be "uh-oh", "da-da", "mum-ma", "duh" (which I think she uses for Jack).  She has occasionally said "na" which seems to be for "no." She is imitating other sounds and noises.  Just yesterday she imitated a kiss and the smacking noise it makes.

Best of all, she is settling in with all of us.  She seems more secure each day.  She has always gone to whoever will hold her but she seems to interact with each of us in different but positive ways.  It is fun to see her develop in her relationships.  And, she seems less afraid of Amy (who is also not pushing her down 10 times a day).

God has been good to us over the past 6 weeks.  It is hard to communicate how much change has taken place here in our house.  It has been stressful, but it has been good as well.  We are thankful for all FIVE blessings in our house (SIX counting Jack)!