Busy love

Today's accomplishments seem small, but as I crawl into the covers at 10, I can reflect that it was a good day. We are pooped out at the end of a full weekend...school carnival, baseball tournament, volleyball tournament, church, meetings, and laundry.

Hooray for a family business that sponsors school events.
We appreciate you!

It was my turn to cook breakfast goodies for our Sunday School class along with my friend Gennie. I have learned to double everything so that my family doesn't eat cereal while I take all the casseroles and baked goods to the family that just had a baby, or surgery, etc. In our haste to get everyone and everything out the door, I forgot to take our breakfast-for-lunch dishes out of the oven, so they were a little less delicious and overcooked, but no one complained (much).

Before church we were able to call Latvia. A special moment of the day for me was telling Natalija that we were coming to see her soon. Although we know from the process that she has been told that we are trying to adopt her, she apparently didn't know that we would be coming to her this time. I could hear her quickly inhale in a gasp of excitement and surprise and she kept telling Laurel how happy she was. Little brother Vilnis (Will) was playing outside and doesn't much like to talk on the phone, but I am confident that Natalija told him our news.

My sweet friend Amy gave me a bracelet that matches one she will wear while we are gone. I rarely get emotional, but I teared up when she told me that she had bought four of them last year....and one by one they have gone to China when Betsy adopted Vivi, and to Ukraine when Gennie adopted Ivan, and now there was one going to Latvia. How God has blessed us with a community of praying girlfriends!

After church and Sunday School, we came home to the balancing game that we play on the weekends. We are trying to figure out what a Sabbath looks like for a family involved in ministry, in family business, and in the final stages of preparing to adopt two children.

A took L on a long power walk so that they could have some one-on-one time and get some exercise. Then he needed to head back to church for a director's meeting and then off to work to meet business consultants for dinner.

MJ spent all afternoon learning how to balance on a ripstick. One scraped elbow later, she's got it! We drew a chalk circle on the sidewalk that reminds me of a Dr. Seuss tree.

B worked on his habitat report. We learned all about the venomous black mamba and will come up with a diorama of an African savanna sometime before Friday. We finished reading Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH, a book I remember loving when I was a child and both agreed that our favorite part was when one brave rat sacrificed his own safety to try and go back and recover a fallen rat.

L made fudge for her teachers as an end of year thank you gesture. She loves to bake and she loves to give.

We folded clothes, cleaned up messes again and again and again, had a YOYO dinner (you're on your own) where everyone claims what leftovers they want for dinner, took baths, and read. Then somehow it was 9:45. A had returned home, changed the air filters and put the letters up I had spray painted to make the boys' room just as much Will's as it is Brennan's. I was proud of Brennan for pointing to the letters on his wall and requesting that we put Will's name up too.

Air filters and spray paint. Busy tasks. Our soul connection time was collapsing into bed, turning on the ipad and discovering that there is a gym in Riga that has classes that we recognize. Maybe we'll get to work out while we're gone? Maybe we'll get to go on a date next Saturday. Saturday seems so far away.

A and I are trying to figure out how to have any energy leftover for ourselves. Looks like we are going to have to start bedtimes at 7:30pm! I can tell that's not going to go over well in the summer with the extra daylight hours.


This is the season for patient love.
We watched this movie based on a true marriage this weekend.

                                                             
The Vow wedding vow
Paige: I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home. 
Leo: I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I promise to never forget that this is a once in a lifetime love. I vow to love you, and no matter what circumstances might carry us apart, we will always find a way back to each other.