Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving this weekend we spent the actual day and Turkey Dinner with Husband's side of the family. Only one of Husband's brothers was able to make it, but B-10 and CW had a blast with the older cousin (the younger was sleeping most of the day, sweet thing).

This was the first holiday that the boys were with Husband's family, and it was so wonderful. They behaved well (as well as little boys can behave) and the family was so welcoming!

Then it was off to Chattanooga - just Husband, the boys, and me. We are spending the weekend on our own little family vacation to our favorite city.

We got in pretty early last night, the swimming pool was still open and the boys got in a good 45 minutes worth before bedtime. This morning, we had breakfast - the back to the pool for another 30 minute swim - before heading out to the Chattanooga Zoo. This was our first time to visit the Zoo, notice the four monkeys in the picture:

Okay - there's only three monkeys! ;) I was very impressed by the care that was obviously being given to the animals here. It's a very small zoo (and I live in a city with a very LARGE zoo), but it was well laid-out and was teaming with zookeepers taking care of the animals. We were able to get very close to the cages. One of the chimps even came all the way up to the glass, right next to me, and attempted to communicate (if anyone knows what a head nod and a kissy face means - ring me up!).

After lunch at Krystal's we drove to the Chickamauga Battlefield. This was exciting for the boys, because not only could they run around and play on cannons/cannonball pyramids/monuments, they were also able to have their National Park Passports stamped.

I know, at this time in their lives, it's still hard to understand exactly what history they are looking at. But my hope is that as they grow older, and we study more indepth during their homeschooling years, they will be able to make those connections to the places they have already been. It's so rewarding to know that the time we spent learning today was family time and school time.

After that drive, the boys were ready for dinner, which I cooked back in the room (I LOVE staying in a suite). Then we went swimming again (for over an hour this time), before coming back for baths and bedtime. They are doing so well together. Currently B-10 and CW are under the covers watching a movie, their stuffed animals stuck between them, watching quietly.

The other special thing about this trip, is that it's the first trip with our new Travel Pet. Jonah, the clownfish, has been with us since our first family trip to Chattanooga in Feb of this year. When Husband and I were on our honeymoon, we added a new pet, christened "Lightening" by B-10.

Here they are posing beside the breakfast centerpiece. Aren't they cute!

It's off to bed for me, hopefully the boys will sleep a while in the morning (neither had a nap today). I can't wait for tomorrow's adventure!

~Lone Butterfly )i(

God's Grace

Grace – it’s a word that means so much, in so many different ways. I’ve often heard the quote: “Mercy is not getting what you deserve, Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.”

It’s here that Husband and I begin the process of adding to our family. With two sons, we’ve decided that God has a daughter in store for us. One who is already here, simply without parents and brothers. B-10 and CW have been involved in the discussion, and are beyond excited about having a little sister, one who they can hug and love and adore.

I often am amazed by how God constantly uses our past experiences to prepare us for our future. Because the caterpillars saw me as a surrogate mother for an infertile couple (I carried their genetic child to term and gave birth), it is completely normal to them to understand that sisters don’t have to come from inside Mums. Sometimes sisters come from somewhere else – and they are still OURS.

I know that through that same experience, God prepared my heart to accept another woman’s child as my own. Fully and completely – with no distinction. What a wonderful God we have.

After countless hours of searching, we’ve tentatively settled on the country of Kazakhstan. We intend to adopt a girl between the ages of 2 and 3 years old.

I’ve spent about 8 hours working on what seems like 6 simple pages of paperwork and one government form. Here is where my heart grows heavy. Can we do it? Can we spend the next year preparing and waiting and waiting some more – just to bring our new caterpillar home sometime next fall? Will we grow weary along the way?

Of course we will. Weariness is normal in any situation that requires waiting. Waiting for the paperwork to be filed and approved. Waiting to get FBI clearance. Waiting to hear what the Social Worker has to say about our home. Waiting to be invited by the Kazakhstan government to enter their country. Waiting to be allowed to travel. Waiting for court dates. Then waiting to bring her home.

But through God’s power, we will do it. And our daughter will come home. Someday she will be our Grace. Our beautiful daughter.

But for now, she is God’s Grace. And He will sustain us through the next year, all of us. The four parts of our family that live here, in the Southern US – and the missing piece of us that lives so very far away.

~Lone Butterfly

What You Got?

Yeah, Yeah.

~

What you got if you ain't got love?

The kind that you just want to give away.

It's ok to open up.

Go ahead and let the light shine through.

I know it's hard on a rainy day.

You wanna shut the world out and just be left alone.

But don't run out on your faith.

~

Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing,

is just a grain of sand.

And what you've been out there searching for forever,

is in your hands.

And when you figure out love is all that matters after all...

It sure makes everything else seem

so small.

~

It's so easy to get lost inside

a problem that seems so big at the time.

It's like a river that's so wide it swallows you whole,

while you're sitting around thinking about what you can't change.

And worrying about all the wrong things,

time's flying by, moving so fast.

You better make it count cause you can't get it back.

~

Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing

is just a grain of sand.

And what you've been out there searching for forever

is in your hands.

Oh, and when you figure out love is all that matters after all,

it sure makes everything else seem

so small.

~

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

~

Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing,

is just a grain of sand.

And what you've out there searching for forever

is in your hands.

And then you figure out love is all that matters after all,

it sure makes everything else,

oh, it sure makes everything else seem

so small.

For mine and Husband's wedding, my sister, Boo, surprised us by playing Carrie Underwood's new single, So Small, for us to dance to. I cannot thank her enough for giving us that moment.

Because if you ain't got love - you have nothing, but if you have love - you have everything.

~Lone Butterfly )i(