WayfaringStrangers

After the busyness of July, August has been a fairly quiet month. I was sick with a cold for a week, and since then we've been working on house and garden projects and trying to soak up the rest of the summer. It's amazing how quickly I can go from overwhelmed and too busy to bored and listless at home. Such is life. I've been mindful to do things with the boys that I could not do when V was visiting. Even visiting the library was too much for me to handle with 3 kids (and one I could not communicate with and explain the rules to). So, we've been visiting the library, went to a movie, and enjoyed going to the pool one day. I'm just trying to spend time with the boys and do fun little things. It almost always keeps our spirits up when we have a little activity. Behn and I also had friends over the other night, and really enjoyed good company. This week I'm back to tutoring, so the evenings are full. Graham's been playing with his marble run blocks and Le...

We had a busy month in July, hosting beautiful V from Ukraine. I want to share some details and lessons learned. Hosting is such a growing experience. First, real quick, the purpose of hosting, since many do wonder. Hosting children who are orphans gives them the unique opportunity to travel, learn how to live in a family (surprisingly this does not come naturally if you've grown up in an orphanage), feel loved, special, and treasured, have new experiences, hear about the love of Jesus, and be exposed to potential adoptive families. I think many people wonder if it's kind of a teaser for the kids: here's this great experience and a family- and now you're taken away again! I can see that. But the hosting experience is rich, seeds are sown, and many times it does  lead to adoption. It's better than a summer in the orphanage. Here are 7 lessons we learned while hosting: 1. Children Do Not Belong in Orphanages During our home visit, our social worker told us tha...

This is the longest this little space has been quiet. My rule is and has been, don't write if you don't feel like it, Megan. In July, while Victoria was here, I did not have any time or energy or desire to write. I was consumed by each day, fully depleted. Then, last week, I was quite sick with a cold and trying to get life back to normal. Just in the last day or so, I've been thinking about this blog and ready to write again. So much has happened, and yet things look almost the same. We hosted and loved a little girl, which was a lot harder than any of us imagined. We saw many walls slowly come down. We relied on family for support, which was humbling and also wonderful. We lost my Grandpa; well, not so much lost him, but had to say goodbye for now. And now it's mid-August and the summer is looking older. I will write more. Soon.

To distract myself from obsessively checking my email for an update from the agency with information about when Victoria may arrive this week, I figured I would take a minute to share pictures of her room. I had such a fun time getting the room ready! I've never been one to do much in the kid's rooms, but this time I felt the strong urge to make it special. I had a lot of help- Dad T painted the room. Friends from church gave us a mattress. My sister-in-law Rachael shared the curtains, a friend gave us a canopy that matches the curtains, another friend gave us a brand new pretty suitcase, my Mom got the bedding. Many different friends and family donated new or used clothes, shoes, toys, as well as bath products, nail polish, and hairbows. Another SIL, Lydia, just sent a new carseat for her! I am overwhelmed by how many people have cared for this little girl. (Also, if you donated something and I forgot to list it, excuse my featherbrain- we appreciate every gift!). Without ...

Hello! Happy Summertime! Another cliche "life is going by and I don't have free time to blog." Ok, now that's out of the way. We are just back from the beach, where we visited with family for 3 days. It was so wonderful. We are supposed to have Victoria right now...but the Ukraine group were not able to get their visas on time, due to circumstances completely out of their control. She will be coming, Lord willing, later this week. It was disappointing, but it also gave us an extra day at the beach and fun memories made. The delay also gives me a few more days to prepare for her, so I will take and post pictures of her adorable  room soon, as well as get ahead on some freezer meals this week. FYI when she does arrive and stay with us, I will not be allowed to post pictures of her on the blog. So, the beach. The whole thing was arranged by my sisters-in-law and all 5 of the T siblings, their spouses, kids, and Mom and Dad T were there. A few of the group had to ...

I've been flying solo for several days- Behn went to Texas to see my brother Aaron graduate from basic training for the USAF. Although it would have been great to go, too, I'm so glad that he had this opportunity to get away for a bit and spend time with family and visit another state. I think he had fun and I can't wait to have him back. Single parenting ain't easy, folks. Last weekend, though, we took the boys to our local minor league baseball game. It was a perfect evening and we had a lot of fun. My brother Stephen came, too, and we enjoyed his company. There were even fireworks! Even before we got there, Graham was itching for a new ball. The other times he's gone, he's lucked out and gotten balls from the players because we were sitting close enough to the dugout. This time I told him, unless he caught a fowl ball, it was unlikely he was going to get a ball. For one thing, we were sitting pretty far from the dugout, and for another, Graham does NOT need...

Oh, little blog. I've missed you. Life has really been going by a mile a minute and my 'free'  time is more limited than ever with these 2 active boys, who rarely nap. But now, tonight, the windows are open and the frogs are singing and the house is finally quiet. Time to take a few minutes to write. Where to start? Nothing really major has happened, just lots of little things. Things like, a new (to us) van. I love it and am so, so grateful that stress is behind us. Things like an old friend visiting (hi, Dee!). Things like this boy finishing up PreK-3: Pretty proud of him. PreK was the right thing for him; at age 4 he needed it. He's become much more confident. As of now, he's enrolled there again for next year for PreK-4. We enjoyed a relaxing Memorial Day. Behn and I took the kids out on a pedal boat at a local park. No one fell in the water, which was the main goal. The boys and I have been outside a lot. Nature walks, park, garden. So hap...