a long week

It is hard work to wear a prosthetic leg. Combine wearing his leg for hours each day, going to VBS for 3.5 hours everyday (except today) and going to physical therapy twice this week (today we left the house at 7:30 to make our session) and you will get one tired little guy. He literally fell asleep playing with his toys. Now the question is do we wake him for dinner or try and transfer him to his bed?

Not sure what Emma did today to make her so tired. But she apparently tried out multiple beds and decided she liked Jordan's the best. Unfortunately, I just washed sheets yesterday so he may have to sleep with dog drool on his pillow till next wast day!Proof- that they do get along- brothers for life!
(granted it could look like they are strangling each other, but really they are just
lov'in each other)

Summer Reading

2 books that Jeremy and I have read or are working our way through...

Terrify No More by Gary Haugen- Gary is the President and founder of International Justice Mission which "is a non-profit human rights organization that investigates and intervenes on behalf of victims of oppression". This is not a fluffy read, but will open your eyes to what is going on in the world. This book I did find at our local library.

Crazy Love by Frances Chan- this book is challenging us to take a look at our lives.

2 books worth reading.

Perfect Timing

July was a busy month. When we returned home Thursday night from New York, to say Jeremy and I were both physically and emotionally exhausted would be an understatement. Before we left to come home, we got an email from Mom-mom offering to watch the kids overnight this weekend. Pop-pop is away - so their house would be empty if we wanted to basically swap houses for a night. The beauty in this plan was that Mom-mom's house was empty and quiet. Mom-mom came to our house which is not quiet and entertained our 5 children. This unexpected night away was just what we needed to rest and reconnect. Besides feeling the exhaustion of all of our travels, we are trying to figure out what our next move should be. That will be a blog post for another day. We will suffice it to say that God is challenging us and letting us know in various ways that He is not done with us. This overnight getaway was the first time since we returned home from China that Jeremy and I have gone away overnight. God's timing is perfect and we are so thankful for Mom-mom offering not only a place for us to go but watching all of the kids.



We are home now and the kids are slowly going to bed. Tyler and I played a game of hangman which led to Jonathan and Ben playing a game of hangman. Ben told us that Jonathan's word was "choo choo train".

Jonathan is doing well with his physical therapy. Getting him to wear his leg is still a bit challenging. We are praying that he will see the benefits of having 2 legs and will want to wear his leg on a daily basis.

The twisty-turny road back home

We made it home from our visit to the Jamestown, NY area. It was really good to see my Mom, my brother Peter, and his wife Shirley. The photos Kim posted previously illustrate some of the fun stuff we got to do with the kids.

We had a really unfortunate mishap while we were in New York. Even though Kim does most of the blogging around here, she didn't document it because, well, she's a really virtuous sort of woman and she didn't want to publicly "dis" her husband. (I love that about her.)

But, the sad story goes like this: on Tuesday morning as we were just about to head out on a day trip to see friends near Buffalo, I backed the van into a tree. I mean, I really whammed into a tree, not just a little tap. Crunch went the tailgate and the whole back window of the van shattered into a million little pieces.

And our plan for the day was scuttled.

Now, here I could attempt to interject excuses and justifications, but the sad truth is that I was the driver, I should have been paying closer attention... and I didn't. That's it. I goofed.

So, as my brother and I squirreled around in Jamestown the better part of Tuesday (visiting car rental agencies, and a body-shop) I had ample opportunity to talk to God about what had gone on and listen to what He had to say. You know what He told me?

1. You need to be more careful.
2. When you're backing up your car, you really need to be more careful!
   
3. Making excuses will do you no good.
   

So, here I am.

I wanted to write this to say how really, really, proud I am of Kim and the kids. They took all this in stride. They flexed. We still had fun. We still managed to squeeze some good stuff out of our vacation and, yeah, we still got to see our friends in Buffalo the next day. (Not exactly what we had planned, but close.)

My hat's off to Peter and Shirley too. They really rolled with the punches and were a tremendous help to us.

As you can imagine, the car-ride home was quite an adventure. Our rear window was covered in plastic and duct tape and we took many many more twisty-turny back roads than we would have preferred (in the rain!) And there were the 5 kazoos that came in kid's meals.... but we made it.

I'm very proud of my family here and that, I thought, was worth putting in to print.

hayless rides

Everyone is enjoying country living!

The kids enjoyed a hayless ride in the trailer being pulled by Uncle Peter on his riding lawn mower. They went for a great ride all around the roads here.

A visit to Nana's house

We are currently in Western New York visiting Nana, Uncle Peter and Aunt Shirley. This is the first time they have met Jonathan. Peter (Jeremy's brother) and Shirley have graciously opened up their home to us and they have been wonderful hosts. Today we began our day by touring an Amish community and eating the world's best Amish doughnuts. These were by far the best doughnuts I have ever tasted! We then went to a fish hatchery. The kids loved feeding the fish.

We then went fishing only to discover all of the fish must still be at the hatchery.

Since, no one caught any fish, it was fish sticks for dinner.

Aunt Shirley and Jonathan

Jordan, Amanda, and Tyler

Fishing was followed by playing on a really cool home-made slip n slide!

We ended our day with a campfire and smores.

The kids (and Jeremy and I) are enjoying "country" living. Everyone is enjoying Uncle Peter's house. Tomorrow we head to Buffalo to visit with friends and to tour the Erie Canal. There is a house for sale a few doors down from Uncle Peter's ... now if only there was an IT job within commuting distance!