A Family in Need of Prayers!!!!!

I am at a loss for words. I have just found out that one of the best families I have ever met, is in dire need of prayers. If you have not met them yet please drop by and see for yourself how wonderful they are. Here is the link to Linny and her family.

For the last eighteen months they have been in the process of adopting a beautiful little girl named Jubilee from another country. It has been along and frustrating journey. Today Linny found out that this country or rather the "delightful" government has decided to renege on the adoption agreement or process. The reason... it has taken the family too long to gather all the needed paperwork! Linny wrote that they could have the rest of the paperwork within two days.

After eighteen stinkin' months they can't wait another two days!!!! So what happens to Jubilee?

I guess this country doesn't think about that. Gee, I was under the impression that it was a good thing for these sweethearts to be adopted. I thought that was the goal of the adoption agency, the government and everyone else involved. Guess I was wrong. It's all about paperwork and "deadlines".

I am so up in arms over this, I could scream! This is the most ridiculous decision ever made. There is a family who would do anything for this little girl, a family ready to take her home, a family who loves her. I don't have the words to express my exasperation and sadness over this.

I am asking for you all to please pray. Pray for a miracle. For a change of mind and of heart to those in the decision making seats in the other country. Anything is possible for God, even the impossible.

Emmie Did It, Did You?

Did you get your "I did It" t- shirt? If you haven't heard the latest buzz head on over to , threes a charm, Jennifer is donating the book Gifts2 to hospitals, doctor offices and genetic counselors for every t-shirt she sells. What a difference this could make to a mother sitting in a doctors office or even better a genetic counselors office contemplating the future of her unborn child. This could change the fate for that child. How about the parents who think their lives are over because they just received the news there baby has Ds. If someone had put this book in my hands then... boy would that have helped with the multitude of breakdowns I had.

Emmie is proudly sporting her "I Did It" shirt and I praise and thank Jennifer for doing this wonderful act. I truly believe our children are the best kept secrets. Secrets the world should be let in on. I was a doubting Thomas, I had to see to believe. Emilia has opened my eyes and my heart. She "did It".

Thankful Saturday?

Well, I wasn't going to post anything today. I was just sitting here with , you know who(Emmie) , and we were going through our morning routine, bottle for her, coffee for me. Then we check in on every one of our bloggy friends. My goal is to do this before the rest of the "circus" wakes up. I noticed the date, it's the 22nd, My little Lovie is 10 months old today! Double digits month! Where in the world did ten months go? That's over 300 days! Emmie has been bringing us joy and laughter for over 300 days almost a whole year!

I know today is not Thankful Thursday or Sunday, but today is Thankful Saturday, just this week, for me anyway.

How thankful am I for this sweet gift from God.

I'm thankful for her health.

For her smile that fills my heart.

I'm thankful that I have a house full of children who love Emilia as much as I do.

I'm thankful that I live in a community that embraces Em as their own.

For a patient and forgiving husband, who tolerates more than he should.

I'm thankful for the laughter and screams that fill my home, the silence without them would be deafening.

I am grateful for bloggers who are now friends who care enough to be interested in what goes on in my life and the lives of my loved ones.

Most of all I am in wonder and complete thankfulness that The Lord for some reason,that I hope to figure out, looked upon us with approval and entrusted us with Emilia.

One more thing I'm thankful for... blueberry pie. Yup, Emilia will chew ansd swallow pie. Good thing we picked soooo many. I will be busy making pies for the Princess.

Emilia's First Real Beach Day

Well, we finally made it to the beach. Emmie got to play and "swim", OK she just sat in a puddle we dug for her. Yes she is sporting a lovely seaweed headpiece in the photo above. Peter was having some fun with her,of course, Em being the constant good sport went right along with it.

She absolutely took a huge bite out of this pile of sand. And she absolutely had no problem chewing and swallowing everything in her mouth. So why are we bothering with a speech therapist and food clinic. She obviously knows what she wants, griddy sand like foods.

After all that puddle sitting and eating, it's time for a bottle to wash down the sand and a little nap.

Another seaweed headpiece on a lovely mermaid. That's my Sophie

Some boogie board fun.

And a lovely group shot before coming home. My camera isn't acting up, there was a lot of fog around today. In fact when we got to the beach we couldn't even see the water. Most of the fog burnt away. It wasn't windy, that's all that matters, I can't stand a windy beach day.

A quick bubble to remove any left over sand. She was probably hoping for a midnight snack.

And all ready for bed. They will all sleep good tonight. So will I, it was an exhausting but really good day.

My Blueberry Pickers

Emilia needed a cool down after picking, she's such a good sport.

Smiling and picking

Still smiling

No smile, but still picking

Just keep picking , just keep picking... Andrew was drenched with sweat! He said"Mommy I'm dripping".

Reaping their reward.

.

Blueberry season is almost over and I was not going to miss it. Yesterday was about 95degrees, and I don't want to know how much humidity. We had plans to go picking with our neighbor and her kids. The good part , no other crazy people were there and we had the whole place to ourselves. We picked over 10 pounds in a very short amount of time. That means lots of pies.

My kids are the best.

Emmie's New Trick

I haven't updated any of Emmie's accomplishments lately. So here is her new "trick"(no she did not pull herself up, she still needs help getting up). I don't think this child has any intentions on crawling. Much to the dismay of her PT. I think she's going to hold out until she can walk.And she has two bottom teeth. She's wasn't working with me so I don't have a picture of them, but they are definitely there. OUCH!!

I Had To Do It

I just had to show some pictures of our trip to NH.

The mountains ever changing weather.

Above the clouds
Cathedral Ledge

A moose

Emmie getting some attention from Cinderella at Storyland

Emmie being a Princess

Heidi and her Shepard?

Enjoying a train ride with Daddy

Covered Bridge

Just foolin' around

Looked like the entrance to Heaven

High in the mountains

That's all!

Surreal Surroundings

What if you had the chance to jump into your favorite book. To see all the things and places that the author of the book wrote about. Well that happened to me, this is the incredibly,exciting adventure that happened while we were on vacation.

My most favorite author is Gladys Hasty Carroll, 1904-1999. She wrote beautiful stories about her life growing up on a farm in S. Berwick Maine. She has the most intriguing way of writing. I fell in love with her life and with Maine and mostly her family and the home she was raised in. The home that her Grandfather George built in the 1800's. Her home and family were always most important to her.

Well, we were in New Hampshire and Maine was just a hop, skip and a jump away. On our way home we drove to S. Berwick to try to find her home and hopefully get to take a picture. We were able to get directions from the postmaster. It's a small town and we were only about 10 minutes away. I was so excited!

We followed the directions, and then I saw it!! Just like in the book! I couldn't believe it! Her !house, her actual house!

We parked in front and I saw cars in the driveway.Oh No, I didn't think anyone lived here anymore. There goes the photo ! I can't take a picture of someones home. Shoot!!! I was so disappointed.

Then, I heard a man ask if we needed any help. Oh great now we're trespassing! Before I could say anything to him, Peter takes my book, gets out of the car and asks the man if this was the home of GHC. He says, "Yes and my wife is her grand-daughter. I'll get her for you".

WHAT! I'm going to meet her grand- daughter! Oh my goodness!!

OK, my disappointment was gone and my giddy excitement had returned. Caroline(grand-daughter) came over to us along with her son,( whose name I cannot remember to save my life), but she is smiling and welcoming. We talk a bit about her grandmother and her books, the house, everything. Then Peter asks if we can see where she is buried. "Sure" she said, her son will take us on a tour of the grounds. Can this get any better?

Walking to the family cemetery. We were warned that it was overgrown. Ya think!

OH YEAH!! It can get better!!!!

When we got back from seeing the graves of the family I've been reading about we got a tour of the house and barn! What a moment that was for me to be invited into this house, actually this home. I know this house like the back of my hand. I've read and re-read her books to the point of knowing all the little details. I walked into the book, what a feeling. The house has been kept exactly as it was when GHC lived in it. All the original furniture, the same furniture in the book. Caroline took her time , she showed us GHC's doll and school books, the very bell used to call the children into school(I know that bell). GHC's Aunt was the school teacher. The organ they used to sing around.

She took us out to the barn. I saw the special stall for Bess their horse. She even showed me the place in the barn that GHC had turned into a room for her to do her writing. Outside I saw and even had a drink from the well GHC's grandfather dug himself. I remember a part in one of her books, when every one's wells were going dry. GHC's grandfather dug that well 10 feet deeper.He said his well would never go dry and they would always have water. Over 100 years later I'm drinking from it. Amazing.

I will remember this forever. It was so much more than I ever expected. Caroline and her families generous hospitality have left a great impression on me. Not only did we get our own private tour( this is their home it is not open to the public) but Caroline gave the kids popsicles and to me... books!!!!!!! Books I cannot find anywhere, special, so special are these books to me. Books written by my favorite author, handed to me by her grand-daughter, while standing in her house! If that's not surreal than nothing is. I will never get over this one.NEVER!

I absolutely have to say thanks to Peter who insisted that we go to Maine. I had second thoughts about it. Maine will still be there next year, right? "No way were going now", he said. I am so glad we did. Maybe I should listen to him more often.

Chaos at the Campsite... AGAIN!

I'm starting to think that no matter what we do or where we go some sort of an adventure will follow. Some incredibly exciting( I'll post about that soon) and some, well , I guess we could do without.
Like this one. The good part, this is not our campsite, actually by some miracle it was empty. Just a couple of days before this campsite was completely full. This could have been a very different scenario if there were campers here.

This storm came out of no where. We were at the pool, when I saw this cloud come over the mountain. Can you be afraid of a cloud? Well I was. The only way to describe it is to say it looked like Satan himself coming over that mountain. I have never seen such a black, big and fast moving cloud. I knew it carried trouble. Trouble reminiscent of last years camping fiasco.We barely had time to get the kids out of the pool and make the short walk back to our campsite , before it hit.

We told the kids to get in the car, NOT the tent. The winds were so strong I didn't think it would make it. I literally threw the baby in to her car seat and told Sophie to buckle her. Peter and I then frantically tried to grab whatever we could and throw it into the trunk. It was crazy. The winds were so strong I seriously thought this must be some kind of a twister or something. Then I heard a crack! A big one, I knew it was a tree. But where? Then I heard the thump of it hitting the ground. It was close but I still couldn't see where.(in the first two pictures you can see just where that tree landed) I was so concerned about saving our stuff. Andrews trains for one. The playpen and stroller, clothes we had hanging up on our clothesline, cell phones, it was crazy!
Peter and I finally got into the car with the kids. I noticed Andrew's Thomas the Tank backpack. I jumped back out to grab it, Peter jumped out and the kids were yelling for us to get back in. Later Peter made me laugh. He said he only jumped back out again when I did so he didn't look like a loser letting his wife run around in the storm alone. I must have looked like a chicken with it's head cut off, running in circles.

The picture above shows where one of the trees fell onto the power lines.

This area is two sites away from ours. They were completely flooded.

A few minutes after, everything was calm. The skies cleared and it was a beautiful day.

A beautiful day to wash everything that got soaked. The kids had never seen a laundry mat before. Needless to say, they were amused. Glad someone was.

Still Having Fun!

Frauline Emilia, visiting "Heidi's house" in Storyland.

Her first taste of icecream.

Sitting at the campsite

Wordless Week

Good Morning

Bathing Beauties

Since we're away this week, I've turned it into "wordless week". A few pics to update our days.

We're having a great time and so far ...knock on wood, great weather too.