Now I remember why I LOVE homeschooling ....

I get to see Luke's hiding spot for hide-n-seek tag

I let Emily carry around her doughnut holes and play while she eats them

we get the 'car' grocery cart and I get 4 really good helpers!

and because I get to see these sweet smiles and have fun with them all during the day !!!

I am truly a blessed woman!!!

Fear

Psalm 145:13
The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.

I have found myself wavering between overwhelming excitement and paralyzing fear. I hate when I feel fearful. I look back in my life and see instances that I missed out on really neat, fun, and possibly life-changing stuff because of fear. It isn't like fear of heights, after all in our younger days we went bungee jumping - or fear of dying, we went scuba diving with sharks. It is emotional deep fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of emotional discomfort, fear of coming out of my comfortable little world. I realized this is what I was dealing with when I read "Strength of Mercy" - It is the story of Jan and Ron Beazely and their journey of adoption. When they were discussing the call of adoption, Ron expressed his fear about adopting and the unknowns that came with it, and his godly, loving wife responded: "You are my husband. I will submit to your decision. But the sad thing is, if you are wrong - if God really does want us to do this - we will never know this side of eternity what could have been. To me there is nothing more devastating that to miss what God has, what He wants us to do....I don't want to stand before the Lord someday and have regrets."
I don't want to stand before the Lord and give an explanation for why I said 'no thank you' to something HE asked me to do - and ashamedly admit it was because I was afraid. I have to keep my eyes upward and my heart connected to HIS so my human frailty and fears do not rule my actions. I am beginning to understand that our adoption jourey is going to change my heart and refine me in ways I can not begin to imagine.

The helmet was my idea

What do the Porters do on a beautiful Saturday morning in Texas? This of course

Craig is in the neighbor's tree cinching up the zip-line...yes, it goes across the street

Can you see the expression on Katy's face?

No, we didn't bring a monkey home from Gibraltar - that's Luke

Hannah waving to her fans

Emily Jane - not scared for a second

Caps for Sale

Have y'all read this book? It was one of the favs around here for quite some time, so we read it over and over. I feel like the peddler carrying my hats on top of my head - not to sell, just to balance and wear. In the book there is a little peddler man that has a stack of hats on his head "first he had on his own checked cap, then a bunch of gray caps, then a bunch of brown caps, then a bunch of blue caps, and on the very top a bunch of red caps." I feel like I add 'caps' to my head all day and then try to balance them so they don't fall off "first she has on her own Jamey cap, then her wife cap, then her momma cap, then her serving others cap, then her homeschool cap, and on the very top her adoption cap" Wow, my neck is sore :)
While my heart is really tied up in our adoption journey right now - I am also trying to get ready for school. I have finally come to terms with the fact that one of my children really needs help with reading... I mean focused help!! So, I am researching reading programs and now I feel like I need to add another cap - the help me cap. I have found two interesting websites but I don't know if either are what I really need. Any chance anyone has heard of or used: Toe by Toe (by Keda Cowling) or HEC Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons (different that Alpha Omega Horizon Phonics program)? Both are 'Highly Structured Intensive Phonics programs, and both have parental reviews that rave about them. Any advice?

Wait for it, wait for it ...

I can't stand to hold it in any longer, it's true, we are growing our family through adoption from Ethiopia. We are overwhelmed with so many emotions but most importantly we know that this is what God has called our family to and we fully trust Him. Nervous, excited, unsure, anxious, hopeful, how many emotions are we suppose to have at one time? And the paperwork holy cow the paperwork! So glad that we have led simple law abiding lives (for the most part). Anyone that has traveled this road before us knows how overwhelming it can be. We look forward to the journey!! We will have MANY more posts as we move along. Thank you for sharing this with us!

Southern travels

After the festivals were finished we stayed and traveled a bit with Manny & Jamie (full-time missionaries in Spain). Our travels first took us as far south as possible to Marbella, Spain - where we became beach bums




Behind the kids is The Rock of Gibraltar - which was our next stop

Gibraltar is a British Territory - which was really cool because we drove across the border and all of the sudden we could understand everyone and read all the signs -- Yippee!! Gibraltar is also home to the tailless Barbary Macaques. These delightful little monkeys roam around the entire rock where visitors can sit by them and watch them and feed them (sshhh - don't tell - I don't think we were supposed to). For those that don't know Luke LOVES LOVES LOVES monkeys. I can't even begin to explain his fascination with and adoration for monkeys. It was as close to heaven as he could imagine. One monkey friend even tried to take his bracelet off - how many times do you think we heard this??
"A real monkey touched my bracelet, right here - a REAL monkey"


If I haven't bored you enough with our geography and history lesson, here's more: Standing on the Rock of Gibraltar - looking across the Strait of Gibraltar - Africa is only 14 miles away. The view was breathtaking and it was cool to be standing on British territory, look to the right and have Spain right there and look straight ahead and see a clear view of Africa - (I mean the continent of Africa was closer to us there than Ft Worth is to us here at home - WOW) -

Objects in the background (Africa) are closer than they appear

Next post: San Sebastian, France and running with the bulls ... stay tuned!