Happenings...

The last month, or so, has brought a lot of challenges, changes, special occasions and memories.

Mother's Day brought me yummy steak and a hydrangea...my husband truly loves me because he HATES hydrangeas.   (I find this strange for a man with so few opinions about the house, fashion, the yard...etc!)

School ended for the year...and not a day too soon!

We had  the great genetic scare, which turned out to only be a scare...Praise the Lord!

Hayden graduated...which requires a surprising amount of work for the parents...I did not know that!

My parent's and Veldon's parents came for the graduation,  and I had my house cleaned, by someone else, for the very first time in my life!  (That was super nice and will likely never happen again!)

Our one year anniversary of meeting Max, being approved by the Board and returning home came and passed and we celebrated quietly as a family, for me it was so very private, something I didn't really care to talk about.

Allison, my beautiful green eyed girl, turned 16! (They all have green eyes, but Allison's are so huge!)  I can't believe it, she's growing up into a lovely young woman.  Her friends call her "preacher girl" because she's always ready with a scripture when her friends are struggling or when questioned about her faith.

Max's surgery has been scheduled and will take place tomorrow, a little later than we had hoped for which meant a mission trip to see some great friends had to be cancelled.  We can't really expect the little guy to travel for 12 hours 4 days after surgery, as it turned out the need for the mission trip was much less than originally anticipated, but we are disappointed nonetheless.

The transmission in the van went out, it was a long, hard fought death, but the end did finally come, and a large chunk of Max's deductible had to be paid!  As life would have it, both of these ended up coming due on the same day, a Thursday! YIKES!!!  For a minister's family with one income, several thousand dollars in one day is impossible, but God provided, a good part of the deductible has been paid and the entire amount for the transmission.

Through all the fear, the need and the waiting God has shown us Himself.

Psalm 50:9-11

⁹ I have no need of a bull from your stall
    or of goats from your pens,
¹⁰ for every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
    and the insects in the fields are min

I love these verses because they remind me that my Father owns everything, He has everything. Verse 10 seems to be screaming that when He gives to us it doesn't deplete His resources one bit, they are abundant and unending. How could we tally the value of the cattle on a thousand hills? Can you picture a thousand hills covered in cows? How absolutely amazing is that!

This has been a long month that at the same time seems to have flown by.  I am so glad to have completed the first year with Max.  We have off and on struggles to be sure, he is stubborn, and disobedient at times, but at the same time he is sweet, caring and kind.  He's still working to find his place in this new world sometimes through listening and following directions and sometimes through coming up with a plan of his own.  He tells me all the time how much he likes me, his mommy, more than the nannies at the orphanage.  He tells us how glad he is to be home and that this is his home.  He talks about things he did in Thailand, not with remorse just as memories, some good some bad.  

We are so blessed to have had the last year with Max.  We are so blessed to have walked through the last month of triumph and stress, and fear, and to watch God provide for us.  I can feel God talking to me, wooing me, replenishing my faith which took such a hit through the long years of waiting for a beautiful brown boy on the other side of the world.  I've written several times about shaken faith and haven't posted much.  It would be a great step for me to do so, it's easy to be judged by those who haven't had their faith shaken, but mine was and there were days that I thought it was gone, that He was gone, but we got through and slowly but surely I can feel Him reaching to me and...well I don't know!