heading into fall

October 17, 2011

The elephant in the room:  adoption.  It is coming along.  We heard a few weeks ago that only our name was passed along from the social welfare department to the county magistrate, who is the person who has actual custody on paper.  We were told 2 more weeks and then decision, and then on to a judge.  That two weeks has passed with nothing, although they did request our passport photos this past Friday, so I looked frantically for one that was missing.  I finally found it this morning, only with the help of Heavenly Father.  Meanwhile, Tom has been stressing a lot.  

September 16, 2011

The past few days we went to Victory Bible Camp north of Palmer for an IDEA retreat.  It was Tara’s brainchild, and it went over fabulously.  One of the speakers, a homeschooling dad, was so inspiring and had such a great message…just a reiteration of everything I sometimes already know but forget.  I wanted to record some thoughts before they go away entirely. 

One talk was titled Mentoring Genius, and it was all about helping our children in their pursuit of what they love and thrive at doing and learning.  It was so funny because I say I believe this stuff, but when it comes right down to it, it’s hard to live day in and day out.  As an example, we sort of eased into school a bit and Sam was chafing here and there.  One day, I laid down with him and read a few chapters of the Adventures of Odysseus.  He just LOVES that stuff; I stopped after 2 or 3 chapters and said we needed to get going on other things, and I really felt it…we need to move on to chores and math and so forth.  He said to me, “Mom, why do you want to do that other stuff now?  I want to learn about this; isn’t that what you want?”  And I thought to myself, of course that’s what I want.  What’s my deal?  So we sat back down and read for awhile longer.  There are so many areas I see this with him.  He’s been into building an air force base complete with towers and landing space (out of cardboard boxes and paper).  He thinks about it…how such and such should look.  So sometimes for whatever reason, my temptation is to say, get with the program in something else.  This isn’t valuable enough to spend your time on.  But it’s hands on, he’s mapping out things that he’s learned about from shows on military, discussions of planes  or whatever.  Maybe it’s not super high tech and detailed, but it’s where he is on the developmental scale, and he is CHOOSING to do it because he wants to.  So LEAVE IT ALONE and let him thrive.

I talked a lot re: adoption with a few ladies at the retreat.  Good times…the Taiwan agency had said they thought we’d hear this week, but  our case worker thinks that they were being overly ambitious, that it will probably be next week.  Fine with me…I feel like A LOT of things will need to kick in once we know for sure…where to live, major overhaul of our stuff, getting clothing and stuff for the kids and just those three things are enough to occupy me for quite awhile.

August 31, 2011

What are some of our successes in the past few days?

Exercise, meals, reading for the Challenger outing    I’ve made lots of headway on little chores and organizing stuff here and there.  It’s not EVERYTHING, but something and I just feel like I need to give myself a little credit.

Yesterday I listened to a great forum talk about learning and how narrative and experiental are the absolute best, but we mostly try to just skip straight to semantic (think memorizing).  It makes me relook at everything; why do I get so caught up in the checklist and thinking that information transfer is all there is.  I watch Sam and think of things he’s pursued lately…he planted flowers completely by himself and loved it-watered and cared for them completely.  He has been doing little build it projects with Ryan and Rachel.  He has enjoyed the Challenger stuff because it has real components to it.  Even beyond that, he loves hearing stories and books…narrative learning in all its glory.

I also had a great conversation with Tara the other day about schedules and such.  I asked how she does it…raising 5 kids, homeschooling etc, that I just feel like I should be having a better routine.  She basically said she didn’t have that either and what she does works for her family.  Some days they read in bed, others they jump up and head out.  They do chores and study etc  but it’s not all perfectly organized and planned.  So I am praying and thinking and reading about how to find rhythms that suit who we are, what needs to be taught and still always be growing and improving.  At least for today, that feels fine to me.  (We had gone with Tara and kids to Point Woronzof and saw a huge pod of beluga whales on a very gorgeous sunny day….great choice to head outside)

How do I want my birthday month to look?  How do I want to be?  A loving, generous, happy, patient person who is curious, interested, always learning, has faith and trust.  How can I become that person more?  Daily pondering and prayer, continuing to record and complete my tasks (but not necessarily obsessively-I tend to try to avoid the hard stuff)

It seems like us getting the sibling group is a foregone conclusion even though no one has said so; just their language indicates it’s going to happen.  We’ve been relatively busy-running around a bit-the last few days so I need to sit down and figure out the next few steps.

Do I ask for what I seek?  Do I trust Heavenly Father to answer my prayers?  Do I believe that what’s required of me (ie getting up at 5:30 for seminary?) will be just fine…it can be done and change my life positively.  It can all work together for my good, right?