Words, words, words

To illustrate what I mean when I say Hudson never stops talking, I did a little experiment.  Last week I brought a notepad along on our daily walk.  I walk and Hudson rides his "bikle" which is a little 3 wheeler that he propels super speedily with his feet--not the pedals!  We were gone a total of 14minutes.  I wrote down the phrases he said and then put tally marks next to the repeated ones.  Not an ounce of exaggeration here guys!

I go fast    4
car coming        3
mommy yay  2
I ride bikle    6
Whoa!    18
choo chool     4
See water
I go that way
water fun     13
I pull it    2
mommy bug   2
I walk     6
come on...home     4

Oh, and unbelievably, he peed in the potty yesterday and today.  This afternoon he said "I go peepee."  I took off his diaper and viola....he did it!  He's just amazing.

AND....for your smile today

I don't know about other states, but here in Texas we are super classy with our advertising.  Some business had a giant blow up sumo wrestler and Mike's brilliant idea was for Abby to have her picture made underneath!

Oh, these boys are a  hoot.

And here are my friends' sweet kiddos loving on me.  Remember me rejoicing when Eva came home from Haiti after the earthquake?  Here she is, doing fabulously, and her brother(they are 3 months apart!)

Speaking of Haiti, I'm working on a post to assist you all with your shopping needs--yep, you know me, it is with a cause!

Got Golf?....for a good cause?

Golf Tournament Fundraiser

www.orphancareintl.org

Tuesday October 12
Save the Date for the First Annual Give Hope Golf Classic...

Benefiting orphanCare® International and Dillion International®
orphanCare® International is a humanitarian aid program providing funding and services for daily welfare, educational and medical assistance for children in underdeveloped and developing countries.


Join us for a day at the Tribute Golf Club in The Colony, Texas for fun, prizes, and community support to achieve our goal of $20,000.
(214) 893-6324 for info

Relaxed guidelines for Korea

I'm so happy to see that the family requirements for adopting from Korea through Dillon have relaxed a little.  For a while, the requirements were very very strict and I could rarely recommend people to that program.  So, if anyone is feeling called to adopt a darling little Korean sweetie who needs a loving family, go to http://www.dillonadopt.com/.  Now, the requirements are still rather stringent and the wait is long, but some of you out there just might be a perfect fit.

working through it

     I don't know, I've been thinking on this post for several days.  Sometimes I think I'm a little too transparent.  My ob/gyn doc called me at work many days ago.  She'd had a chromosome test done on our recently miscarried baby.  It had a genetic defect that is always fatal.  She asked if I wanted to know the gender.  I quickly answered no way!  That would be WAY to personal and painful.  This is an interesting position to be in. 
     So, the baby was destined to die from the minute the genetic pattern was created.  As a strong prolifer, that is a very difficult idea to grapple with.  You see, I believe that only God the Creator can bring forth life.  I'm struggling a bit to understand how senseless this all was. My sweet friend Anjanette told me that regardless of the severe chromosome defect, she believes that when we get to heaven, that child will be whole-running, skipping, playing, healthy, able to run into our arms.  Id like to believe that too, it's a struggle-truth be told.

     In the end, the only decision I must make in all of this is.... do I trust God no matter what?  In church last week  we sang a great worship song that I've loved for the past year(music always speaks loudly to me).  The chorus says
 "So I'll stand, with arms high and heart abandoned,
In awe of the one who gave it all,
 I'll stand my soul Lord to you surrendered,
 All I have is yours."

That is really the heart of the matter, isn't it?  No matter what, I choose to trust in the one who gave His life for me so that I may truly live.  Not one place in the Bible does it promise us easy and carefree lives with health, riches and happiness.  But, over and over and over it promises that when we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ--we have an advocate, a high priest, a true friend, a savior, shepherd to the wanderer, a healer, a king, a father to the fatherless, a husband to the lonely, and much more.  I think I'll keep trusting Him.

Happy Gotcha Day Hudson

Disclaimer--the maker of Slide.com has chosen to put this STUPID "adopt a pet" game thing on top of the slide show.  Click the X to make it go away.  And, as a personal pet peeve--adoption is a serious and forever choice--NOT some stupid cyber game with fake animals, or roads, or dolphins---GRRRRRRR!!

On Thursday Sept. 9th, we flew home with a toddler who was an adorable stranger.  Today he's one of the crew and you'd really never ever guess he's only been home with us for 1 year.  In many ways it seems he's always been here.  In other ways, I still can't believe how the time has flown.  Certainly, this year has been a wild one.  Adopting an almost 2yr old boy from the other side of the world kinda rocks your family's balance for a while and presents challenges :)
He's changed so much.  From a terrified, unruly, very babyish little boy who didn't know how to eat real food.....to a super duper smart, funny, party animal kid who never ever ever stops talking or singing!!

I must say a HUGE thank you to our family and friends for praying, for donating money to help with his adoption fees, to the Murphy family for your steadfast prayers, to Dillon International--you guys are not just a fabulous adoption agency, but truly our extended family.  And finally, to our Almighty God for putting the orphan on our heart, for saving Hudson Lee just for us, for enlarging our tents and giving us increase!!!  So, 4 kids--I "think" we are done.  Who's next--wanna jump in on this blessing???

Scary reaction

We were at a friend's home for a birthday party with the kids.  We swam, played outside, ate hamburgers and cake and watched her opened presents.  Hudson suddenly began itching and his left eye swelled up.  Then he broke out in red hives.  We thought it was ant bites at first but he had large red whelps all over and his eye was getting bigger.  Then he began coughing.  We gave him some Benadryl and Zyrtec and quickly drove home.  By the time we got home he was coughing and wheezing pretty badly.  Thank the Lord, I always keep extra children's oral steroids in our cabinet.  Lord knows it has saved us many a trip to the ER with our kids breathing issues.  We stuck him in a cool bath and gave him a breathing treatment.  What a blessing to have modern medicine.  He cleared up and was 100percent better!!  Whew, another trip to the children's hospital avoided and best of all he was fine.  But, the scariest part is that we have no clue what he  had an allergic reaction to.  I was thinking a plant or bug, but Mike thinks it was an ingredient in the cake since that was what he ate right before the reaction.  How do we know what to avoid?  Everything we ate tonight he's had before unless there was something new in the cake.  I guess I'll get the recipe and investigate.  Hmmm, so do I carry Benadryl with me all the time?  Poor sweet baby boy.

The Hole In Our Gospel

Yep, new book!!  Yipppeeee.  You know I love reading challenging books.  Books that make you really question what you think is right, make you examine your heart and life, make you think outside the box.  Here's another one....The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns.

Basically, the author was a successful(in the world's eyes anyway) and rich guy, living the American Dream.  Then, God called him to be the president of World Vision.  Amazing story.  His heart was shattered when he traveled to a village in Uganda and met a 13yr old orphaned boy who was the head of his household, taking care of siblings with no parents--they died from HIV/AIDS.  Did you know there are 12million orphans in sub-Sahara Africa????   Anyway, this book totally speaks to my heart.  Here is how he sums up the way most of us live out the famous passage in Matthew 25 when Jesus says that whenever the people feed the hungry, clothed the naked, invited the stranger in....they were actually doing those things to Jesus.

For I was hungry, while you had all you needed.  I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water.  I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported.  I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes.  I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness.  I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.

Haven't finished the book yet but I'm plowing through it pretty quickly.  I'll keep ya posted.