I was thinking yesterday about how poorly I'm tracking Jonah's development as he grows.  When Jacob and Joseph were this little, I was posting on xanga almost daily; not for anyone else's enjoyment but for my own journaling of their growing.  I recorded the things they said that cracked me up and I was intentional about it.

Life seems to be a blur right now and I don't know how moms with more children do it.  I get through each day and barely remember what we had for dinner, let alone the funny things the boys do and say.  I determine to write more and then fail.  In fact, each year I write a birthday letter to the boys...I'm now 3 behind.  I haven't written to any of them yet this year. ARGH!!

Joe and I keep talking about scaling back our commitments. But, we can't figure out what to cut. Between a demanding job, school commitments (not just homework but volunteer work), church commitments, and even neighborhood commitments, we are stretched pretty thin.

Tonight Jeremiah piled a bunch of pillows on the floor in front of our big green lounge chair (where I was sitting). At first he was trying to jump them. Then they became his springboard to land on me.  This was all done naked - still trying to get this almost-3-year old out of diapers - and I thought...I need to remember this.  He howled with laughter - a ver new, sinister and delightful laughter he has developed - each time.  Every day there is a very real possibility that his birth mom can call us and say, 'bring him back to me' and I'll not have this delightful, messy, loud, cuddly, disaster-causing boy to squeeze and love and snug.  I have to remember every detail.

We've had Jeremiah for 6 months and 1 week.  He is part of our family as if he was here from day 1, as we all believe he should have been.  He and Jonah breathe the same air.  We love him more and more all the time.  God has brought us this little miracle whom we never thought we'd meet.  He then provided a way for him to be given a Christian baptism and membership in our church.  He has given us more than we ever dreamed.  We are thankful; so thankful.  He turns 3 this week!

He has made very big progress with his speech and overall ability to communicate and express his thoughts and desires.  He answers us in full sentences and initiates conversations; not just, "i want.." He knows we are his family.  He clings to our hands, he squeezes us tight, he tells us he loves us, he hides behind us when he is uncertain, he calls us mommy and daddy and brother, he says Amen. All the time.

When he arrived, he didn't know what to do with a book. He threw them like they were balls.  He threw cars too.  Now, he insists on two books read to him before nap and bedtime.

In the meantime, Jonah turned 5 and has hit that hilarious stage of thought and speech.  Why aren't I writing them down???  Here is an example of random Jonah thought: "Mom! We should always have a jetski attached to our ship. Then if a shark or alligator come up, we just jet away."  And the best part of this line of reasoning is that we own neither jet ski or ship.  

Here is how Jonah and Joseph work together:  Jonah at dinner proceeded to tell us, "if you chug too much water too fast, it will go down the wrong hole and hit your heart and calories to your heart will make you weak and sleepy," 
to which Joseph replied, "No it won't! It'll go down your esophagus to your tummy and through your intesticles!"
Joseph turned 10. How on earth did that happen?? He continues to utterly slay us with his literal, dry humor.  On his birthday,  he sat and reflected, for he does a lot of that, on the significance of his birthday and overall life and then threw in for fun, "and you, mom, are half done with YOUR life..."  Just prior to his birthday he announced, "when I grow up, in my RV I'm going to have a close full of Doritos." With so many things wrong with this thought, I responded, "and at your funeral - because you'll die young if you're only eating Doritos - we celebrate your life in the RV" to which he said, "you can bury me under all the empty bags."

Worst of all for my mommy heart...Jacob turned 12 this week.  How did my baby, whom I swear I just bore, turn 12???  How has he already become a moody pre-teen with, as Joe puts it, flashes of brilliance that turn to head-of-the-jackass-club moments within seconds of each other?  I'm so hard on this poor kid, always on him about his homework and chores..and I hate it..but I still do it.

Although he has grown so much, he still keeps us laughing with the things he says, such as: In his plea for the purchase of certain baseball cards on eBay: 
"Come on, mom. Its the deal of a lifetime...well, after the Louisiana Purchase...but, second to that its the deal of a lifetime!" ..because one can really put the two in the same category.

A day to Remember

This is the day that the Lord has made. let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Yesterday, something happened in our family which, if you'd told me a week ago about it, I wouldn't have believed possible.  We met and brought home Jonah's full biological brother, Little J.  Yes, I meant full sibling.

This little guy, now 21/2, has been in our hearts since summer of 2010 when we heard from mom that she was having him and needed to find a home for him.  We cried, "yes! We will adopt him!" and began the proceedings, so excited at the thought of this new child in our family.

During the coming weeks, she asked that we bring Jonah for a visit. I did and it didn't go well.  Jonah was not quite 2, not feeling great that day, it was a hot and sticky August day and the surroundings were less than ideal.  He wanted me and only me to be anywhere near him.  This was too hard for mom to see and experience with the thought looming of "losing another" of her kids.  She decided to try to parent and a sweet older lady in her life said she would help.  Other family members begged us to hold on and keep hoping because they all felt it was the wrong decision and that she'd come to realize that.  Of course, we did hold on hope.

This kind woman worked hard to help mom get some stability in her life but it never really took.  Over the coming months, we would get a photo text from time to time that would make my heart stop...and then ache.  But it looked, at first, like things were going ok and we were pleased that she was successfully parenting.

We knew things took a less-than-ideal turn about a year ago but didn't hear anything from mom.  Around Jonah's birthday we did hear that she may need help but it turned out she didn't need OUR help.  We truly expected that to be the last we spoke to her in a long time.

So, you could have knocked me over...except I was driving so I guess that would be roll me over....when my phone rang last week asking if the offer still stood for us to take Little J.  We said yes and then heard...crickets...only crickets...for a week.  We took it as a reminder from the Lord to pray for Little J always and entrusted him to Jesus.

Late Wednesday, the next call came.  She needed someone to care for him and she wanted it to be us.  The sweet lady who had first helped her keep Little J now realized she needed to help mom make this next and very hard plan.  She asked how soon we could be there.  We jumped!

Thursday morning, calls to lawyers asking how to do something like this legally because mom is not yet ready to sign parental revoking consents, calls to mom, calls to and from sweet lady...it was beyond imagining how smoothly the Lord seemed to be working this out.  I was hesitant and a bit apprehensive. What will the future bring, I fretted.  How long will we have him?  What if, what if, what if?  What if he is perfect in our family?

The Lord made the path straight.  Mom was fully ready to sign and notarize, with her mom and grandma as witnesses, the custody affidavit.  This gives us protection and the right to care for him but she can revoke it at any time.  We met at a sweet little park and saw Little J for the first time (aside from pics). Here he was...the guy we've prayed for and wished had come from birth!

The time was not nearly as awkward as I feared.  We all fell in with each other well - and its been almost 3 years since we last saw mom.  Sweet Lady was there to meet us too.

The sweetest thing was Jonah's reaction.  He, being only 4 1/2 didn't have a comprehension ahead of time that he had a particular connection to Little J. He couldn't stop looking at him - I mean just staring at him.  Laughing all the while.  They ran off to play like they'd known each other forever.  There was a carousel at this park and as Jonah and Little J sat side by side on their horses with me in the middle, I said, "Jonah, do you think he looks a little like you?" and he said, "No, he looks ALL like me!" with such a proud smile.  

We all agreed to share dinner together and Little J rode with us so we could get to know him.  Jonah couldn't stop touching him and comparing hands, feet, skin.  Little J kept looking for his mama in the car ahead but it was quite distracted with the near smothering of attention and affection from 3 boisterous boys.

The hard part came when we packed his belongings into our van after dinner.  We cried and hugged and  mom settled him into his car seat.  He did amazingly well, again with the distracting help of 3 new big brothers.  Jonah, I'm so proud of him, he spent this strange and wonderful day in his life being hugged and squeezed by people he doesn't know but who love him and wanted to love ON him...and he let them (which isn't something he usually does). He played with two other siblings he had never met who were also there.  He knew something was unique here.  Of that I'm certain. He can't really articulate that but maybe one day he will.  

Little J has a "schedule" that doesn't quite match ours.  So, at 12:30 am he and I had a rousing game of patty cake over a yogurt snack.  This was sweet for me because he had not taken to me yet.  Beautifully, he took to Joe within seconds of meeting him.  And all he has wanted was Joe to hold him.  So, late-night patty cake with my new Little J was the sweetest way to spend the night.

What comes next?  We aren't sure. But we will love every minute of him and pray he can legally join our family in time.

Ps 118:23 This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in His sight.



  

Recent Mutterings at our house

Me: we aren't bells and whistles kind of people. 
Jacob: yeah...we're bells and horns

So true.

Says the boy recovering from a 4-day fever: chocolate feels me better!

Jonah, after swimming: " My eyes are burning. Can I put some chocolate in my mouth to feel them better?"

This is his general post-Easter-basket approach to life.

Joseph The Random (while playing pool basketball):
"man, I can't believe Israel didn't have one single righteous king...after 'the split' of course"

Jacob: Dad, can tell me why you like crushed red pepper so much?
Joe: Well, because I just like it on my food.
Jacob: Dad, I'm sorry. That isn't a very good answer. Can you tell me more? Maybe add an interesting opener or some dress-up words?

"Jonah, what is your favorite song?" 

Jonah: "Joy to the World. God is in it."

Oh, Joey...

"mom, now that Michael and Cat Cathalain Carter are in Japan, will their babies born there look Japanese?"

"Joe, come to the table for dinner." "Sorry, Mom. I'm writing a book. Let me finish this sentence."

"If I write a story about a donkey, am I allowed to say ass?" "uh, no!"

Jonah: "come on, mom, let's play Legos and have a fight." Me, as Lego girl: Ok, but how about we get a coffee and then get married?" Jonah: Well... we don't need swords for that. Lets bring them anyway." Girl then meets in the middle by picking a sword fight because he wouldn't marry her. :)

Joseph's random thought of the morning: mom, you know how some ladies who like to sing might say, "God gave me this song" and then they start singing...have you ever thought to yourself, "maybe you should give it back?"

Joseph: "Dad, look! A wine and spirits store. Wine lifts up your spirits!"

Jacob, with trepidation as we arrive at his Orthodontic consult: "Daddy said 'Just get it over with. With good teeth, you'll be able to marry a good woman.' Or something like that."

The church militant?