Moving On!

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” ~ C.S. Lewis

The new name of my family's blog "Boulders Into Blessings" is from a devotion I was fortunate enough to hear at just the right time. It was the story of Aron Ralston, a climber who had to cut off his own arm to save his life. He was on a solo hiking and climbing trip when his arm became trapped in a boulder, he realized that the only way to save his life was to cut off his own arm. He had to use the pressure and weight of the boulder and a pocket knife to remove his arm and that's just what he did. 

Sometimes life can become so painful that it seems as if the only way to save ourselves, our spirits, is to be forced to confront the "boulders" in our lives, free ourselves from them and let those stumbling blocks become blessings. Aron says that he is so thankful for the experience with the boulder, no matter how painful, he wouldn't change it if he could. It gave him an entirely new perspective on life... for him the boulder was a blessing. For the kids & I, the boulders have become blessings as well, navigating and discerning truth from lies has been painful to say the least. Despite it all, we get a new beginning, no matter how complicated and tangled and painful our boulders have been. 

The boys 4 wheeling at camp!

Yes, the girls have helmets too, we were just posing for a pic!

So what did we do? We've gone country. Seriously, we packed it up and moved out of the city to the middle of NOWHERE! I took a job at a camp that I grew up playing at, I have childhood memories of playing in the same spots my kids now call home. The boys call it the "bermuda triangle" because once you are on camp property you lose cell phone service and the internet is spotty, oh the tragedy! They are doing great at their new (much smaller!!!) school, their number one reason for liking it better here = less homework. It's the little things. 

Not too long ago, one of them came home from school and said that people are just less "judgy" here. What they have all picked up on is that there is less concern for material things here... kids don't have to have the most expensive clothes, game system, cell phone. They are kids! They just need a safe place to call home and room to play. Yesterday consisted of new friends coming over to play, 4 wheeling, hiking, climbing rocks and sunset canoeing on the lake thanks to the awesome summer staff kids who are here on the weekends. How cool is it that they get to play with their summer camp counselors all year long!? Last night ended with having to force them off the trampoline after giggly wrestling matches with the summer staffers and all I could think was Thank You God for giggles instead of tears tonight. 

We'll take giggles over tears any night...  but when the tears resurface, and they do ~ it's just part of the process ~ we will listen God when you shout through our pain.

    

FAQ

Here are a few of the questions we get asked the most:

How are you paying for the babies?
They are on medicaid for health insurance until the adoption is final. WIC provides their formula (which costs roughly $600/month, yikes!!!) Beyond that they receive no other assistance or foster care payments because this is considered to be a "long term family friend" placement and not a true foster care placement. We have had lots of people help with buying baby gear, diapers, clothes, etc... which has been soooooo helpful. We are also hoping that the sky will open up and rain down buckets of money into our bank account ;)

How long will the adoption process take?
Probably somewhere around 6 months depending on how backed up the courts are. At that point, the babies will officially become members of our family and will share our last name.

How are Turner, Clay & Lanie doing with all of this?
Lanie thinks she is a big helper and hasn't shown much jealousy, which is a huge relief.

Clay is very hands on, and also was with Lanie. He will hold & feed the babies and loves to have one snuggle on the couch with him to watch TV. He also says that he doesn't look forward to them getting bigger and learning to talk because then they will drive him crazy like Lanie!

Turner is more hands off. When we had a serious family meeting to talk to the boys about the whole situation, Turner's response was: "They are total chick magnets, they should stay with us"... nuff said?

What is the mark on Peytons face?
It's her birthmark, a hemangioma. It's grows rapidly at first, but usually shrinks and disappears. We call it her strawberry :)

How are they sleeping?
Peyton is only up once a night to eat and is generally a great sleeper. Marleigh (aka Mad Marleigh) has good nights and bad nights. Still mostly bad nights, she wakes up in pain, probably from her reflux, quite a bit. I have tried to keep them on the same schedule eating, napping & sleeping... but in the real world it is hard. Especially while juggling the 3 other kids schedules.

That's all I can think of for now!

The tooth fairy brings castles these days!

Clay finally lost another tooth and instead of money, he left a note asking the tooth fairy for a caste. So did she deliver? You bet! Apparently, this is her Christmas Castle. I guess the tooth fairy is doing pretty good these days to have such a swanky Christmas spot to hide out in.