What we do when it’s too hot!

Time to update on our end of July happenings! It’s been too stinking hot and gnatty (south Georgia vocab word) to play outside much, so we’ve been taking advantage and getting some school done. Now when the weather cools off, we can spend more time outside, and do a little less school on those days! Josh is my big boy 2nd grader now, and Mallory is officially a kindergartener! We’ve been studying the life of Jesus, ancient Egypt, and finished up swimming creatures of the 5th day, and began flying creatures of the 5th day. Also, throw a little latin, math, grammar and phonics. Lukey does some number pages sometimes, and has learned to spell his name! Yes, Sorenson Christian Academy starts at age 2! Actually, I don’t MAKE him do it- I give him a choice to color a sheet- sometimes he wants to, sometimes he doesn’t. Can I just tell you I absolutely LOVE being the one to teach my kids new things! I LOVE seeing them learn. I cannot even begin to imagine letting someone else have the privilege of teaching them!!!!!!! I am so blessed!

Why we have chosen to adopt……

We have been asked this question quite a bit, and the question of why we chose Ethiopia. Just thought I’d record the answers for our family: how Joey and I were led in this direction…..

I pretty much grew up as an only child. I always longed for siblings. Because I wanted brothers and sisters so much, I always said I wanted my children to have siblings if I was able to have more than 1 child.  I remember one day when Joey and I were dating, we were sitting in chapel (at Liberty University). A few rows ahead of us was a family with 7 children!!! I nudged Joey and whispered to him, “I want 7!!!” Obviously that didn’t scare him off :)  I have always thought of larger families having tremendous amounts of love and laughter!

Fast forward several years: 1998. Joey and I really want to begin having children. After about 9 or so months I find out I’m pregnant! We had seen our baby’s heartbeat and everything, but at about 12 weeks, we found out that we miscarried. We were heartbroken. Our due date was January ‘99, so we have a baby in heaven who if he/she had lived, would be 11 years old now. For the next 4 years we struggled with infertility. Lo and behold, January ‘02, we find out we are pregnant again, with our sweet Joshua! Then Mallory and Luke were both surprises!

So, now we had 3 wonderful kiddos, who were all c-sections. When the doc went in to take Luke out, he told me that my scar was dangerously thin, and if I were to get pregnant again, my life, and the baby’s life would be at risk because of a higher possibility of uterine rupture. Oh, I was so sad. But, all in His plan- who knows if we could still keep having children biologically, we might not have listened to His calling for us to adopt!

A few months after having Luke, we began to discuss adoption. When he was 8 months old, we met with someone from our local adoption agency about China. We then left it alone for a while, because I said I couldn’t leave Luke to go around the world till he was 3 (I’ve never left for my kids for more than 3 days, and never gone more than 2 1/2 hours away from them). When we jumped back on board, we found out that the waiting period for adoptions from China had slowed down so much, that it was now around a 5-6 year wait! So we started researching domestic and international adoptions. About this time an old friend of ours posted a blog about a family who was raising money to adopt 2 little girls from Ethiopia. Joey began reading it, and reading about Ethiopia. His heart immediately was tugged in that direction. Now, I am more of the ….take my time…….ponder all the possibilities ….type person. We did choose an agency and have our application pre-approved during this time. Joey was all about Ethiopia, it took me more time to process it for several reasons. Finally, one day in December, God totally made it COMPLETELY clear to me, that we were supposed to adopt from Ethiopia! My dear, sweet, patient husband was SO glad I finally was ‘there’. Ever since, my heart has taken roots there. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ethiopia is where WE are supposed to be adopting from.

So, we began the paperwork process the very end of December/very beginning of January. We originally asked for a girl, 0-24 months, but due to my ‘baby fever’ I’ve been having, we have lowered the age to 0-12 months. We asked for a girl simply because Josh has a baby brother, and Mallory has always wanted a baby sister too. When we begin the process for baby #5, we are thinking of asking for a boy, or just asking for either. Yes, we feel pretty sure we are supposed to adopt at least 1 more time after this one! Oh, how I am so excited to have the privilege of a big family! So much love and laughter! :)

As far as her name, Luke would have been Katie Joan had he been a girl. We still love the name, so it is hers. Joan is Joey’s mom’s name, and all of our kids have a family name as their middle name.

So, there you have it. I could have written more, but this is as much as I can do at the time. It’s funny, people so often respond by saying what WE are doing for Katie, but I soooo don’t look at it that way. Seriously. I am just overwhelmed with gratefulness that God is calling US, and allowing US the privilege to have a precious daughter from Ethiopia, and I CANNOT wait to see her face and to hold her and bring her home!!!!!!!!!!!

Picking Blueberries and Family Fun nights

Well, on these hot summer days, we’ve been busy going to the pool (I have no pics as it’s difficult enough to bring in 3 kids, towels, pool bag, etc), and staying inside with AC to keep cool. But we have done a few HOT activities this week. One night we went to our friends, the Glausier’s blueberry field to pick. We go there every year and get TONS of berries. The kids enjoy eating them right off the bush!  

We got 9 1/2 pounds, and sweated to get them! But they are oh so yummy and worth it. As you can see, I have to hand Lukey almost as many berries as I put in my bucket, and Josh and Mallory enjoyed picking and playing with Robert (who’s parents own the field!)

So on Friday nights sometimes we enjoy family fun nights. We always do a fun meal (usually homemade pizza) and a fun dessert. In the winter our night may include watching a  movie with snacks by a roaring fire. In spring or fall this has included roasting smores on the firepit. For the 1st time, this last week, we did a Sorenson family fun/work night. We have decided we want to clean out the woods behind our house to make them more enjoyable and useful! After dinner we headed outside to begin by cleaning up sticks. We would use Joey’s dad’s truck to haul the wood we’d gather and put them on a big burn pile on the extra lot next too us.  Problem was, it was 586 degrees and the air resembled the Egyptian plague of gnats. But I kept reminding the fam of our desired result: wonderful woods to frolic in, and Joey kept reminding Josh of the hard working Almonzo from Farmer Boy. But our work was cut short when Joey lifted a pile of logs out back and was stung by some kind of evil wasp. But I did get a few pics  before the incident. Oh well, we have decided to finish our projectwhen it turns a LOT cooler!    

The 4th of July!

We started our 4th of July by worshipping at church that morning! Here are some pics of before church- every year we get pics with flags in this chair! Awesome to see how they’ve grown! Pretty soon they won’t all fit in this chair though! :)

The kids made nilla wafer ‘firecrackers’- quite yummy!

We had our new neighbors over and had a fun time celebrating our nation’s birthday and our freedom!

Summer days……

Today the Josh and Mallory spent the morning cooking at our church with our pastor and other kiddos ! They had a BLAST!

Lukey and I came back to the house and I changed bed sheets, then we did puzzles, then climbed under a blanket on the sofa and snuggled and read some Curious George (between kissing his ever so kissable cheeks!) Loved our sweet time, but I tell ya- the house was SO QUIET! I love special one on one time with my kiddos, but I also LOVE having them all with me every day! I was thinking if I sent J and M to school this fall, that would be 5 days a week! 35 hours!!!!!!!!! This mommy couldn’t do it! One of the many, many reasons I homeschool is that we do everything together- and love it! :)

So after quiet times and computer times in the afternoon, we stepped out into the heat and humidity with some $1 water guns I got the other day- thought I’d share these pics!

  

We bought these cones to put on the driveway to keep Lukey from going in the road! Trying to teach boundaries! :)

Here they are watering my sorry looking tomatoes with their water guns! Lord, please help me to be better at tending my ‘family garden’ than I am at tending literal gardens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to reality!

Sooo, laundry, laundry and more laundry! I love packing so much more than unpacking!
Well, it's been over a year since we had pictures done, so I called a local photographer we've used in the past and asked if we could do some outdoor pics. We met in a church yard, which was beautiful. I kinda knew what was coming, because Luke had very recently started saying "NO" to the camera thing. He also woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning- which is NOT like him! So I packed a baggie of Fruit Loops and was on my way.
Right as we get out of the car, Josh and I get a few fire ant bites. The photographer asks for Lukey 1st, the second I set him down, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I want Mommy!!!!!!!!!"
So we go to Mallory and Josh, who of course do beautifully. Meanwhile Luke walks over to a fountain. He's finally happy in the fountain, so we let him get in, fully clothed! I'm really hoping at this point there are no yucky chemicals in there! I toss in Fruit Loops to keep him happy (we tell him to catch them but not eat them!
All this to say, it was quite an experience, but we got a beautiful individual pic of each of them. One pic of the 3 of them, you can't see it, but there is a friut loop on each of the older kids heads to keep Luke happy. :)

Amelia Island

We have a tradition (4 of the last 5 years) of going to Amelia Island every June. Joey actually has a conference that goes on, and we play in the mornings while he learns :)  The kids LOVE coming here! It’s a beautiful place, and it feels like we never left. We love riding around in a golf cart, going to the nature center, walking around the little shops, walking on the nature trails, going to the Fernandina Beach downtown, and of course the beach and pools!

Today we spent a long time on the beach: Josh wants to be out  jumping waves, Mallory loves the sand and water, and Luke wants to be in the ocean. Problem is, he has no fear of it, he wanted to walk out by himself deeper and deeper! Thankfully Dad and Debbie came this year so I had help while Joey was at conferences and the kids have been having a blast with them. Mallory bravely and willingly gave up her  water wings today. She told me she was leaving them in the condo! That’s major for her! And she swam wonderfully! 

Now I’ll be quiet and share some pics! But 1st: we are SOOOOO excited there have been some referrals in our agency!!!!!!!!!! We think we may be #11 on the unofficial list! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

Father’s Day Fun!

  Today we celebrated my fabulous husband! After a wonderful breakfast, we worshipped, then came home to play with one of his gifts- the town corner lego! Then we rested, watched some world cup, made a Lowe’s run, ate dinner,and ended the day playing in the sprinkler! We got that one at Lowe’s today for $5- it was the type I played in as a kid- so cool to see MY kids playing in the same kind! Joey and I even took a run through it! (BTW, the kids were in their clothes cause we were too lazy to change into suits :)  After the sprinkler they had some of Daddy’s homemade caramel ice cream! Yuummm!

I am SOOO thankful for Joey- he is such an amazing daddy. He is a hard worker, yet his favorite place to be is with us. He would rather be playing and spending time with the kids than doing his own thing or anything else! We are blessed!

Couldn’t help but think today about our Katie Joan. Don’t know if she’s in utero right now, or born already, but if she is born, hopefully this will be her last Father’s day not in the arms of her daddy! :)

Surprise date night!

I have 8 followers! Yay! Actually, I forgot to mention last night that my main purpose in doing this is to keep a 'journal' that I can keep for the kids. Our neighbor said his daughter-in-law does that and prints it out at the end of the year. Since I am terrible at keeping up with scrapbooking I figure it will be a lot easier to devote 10-20 minutes a few times a week to end up with a treasure for them!
So as I was getting ready this morning, this is what I found in our bedroom:
Lukey had climbed up on our trunk and 'reading' a book- so cute. Books are his favorite thing - sometimes we can't find him, and he's usually in someone's room reading.
I had a busy day today: dermatologist appt., hair appt, (Joey had the day off) and came home to find my in-laws van in the garage and a note on the door saying I was being kidnapped for the night- by Joey! My sneaky hubby had been planning for weeks for his folks to take the kids for the night (they live ~45 min. away), and we have a date night/morning! I was shocked! I also asked a million questions about if he had packed everything I would have packed :) For those of you who know me very well, I hardly EVER leave my kids, esp. overnight, and when I have I am a meticulous planner. But he did great. And we went into Tally for our date (when we pay a sitter we don't leave town, we go to dinner and since our tiny town has nothing to do we end up at Wal-mart).
We went to some of my faves: TJMaxx, Kohl's, mall- but being that I recently read the book Radical (David Platt), I was not in the mood to shop- well look, but not buy! Great timing. I bring this up because I HIGHLY recommend this book! Life changing!
Well, I better go spend time with the hubs- he's watching Antiques Road Show.

My 1st post!

Sooooo, here it is my 1st post, and I have no clue what I'm doing! Joey and I for the last hour or so played around with blog addresses, titles, blog colors, etc. Shew! So many decisions!
The name Tending My Garden comes from an awesome book I read, "Tending Your Garden" by Denise Sproul. She says: "The home is the center of our garden as Christian women. As old-fashioned as it may sound, it's acutally a biblical idea: a woman's realm is her husband, her children and her home." It also ties in with a verse I picked for our kids that I have framed in each of their rooms- I need to figure out how to get it under my title- Ephesians 3:17. "Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong." (NLT) One of my prayers for them :)
My blog will be about our day to day life: my 3 sweet kiddos, my precious hubby, our journey of adoption to our fourth sweet one, homeschooling, what the Lord is teaching me, etc. I'm a little concerned about sharing my thoughts for the world to see (well, no one right now, I have no followers) (I'm kinda talking to myself at the moment). But I tend to get passionate and throw things out there- so if you don't like my blog, ahem, you may just wanna look elsewhere.....
So there it is, my 1st post! I did it! Maybe tomorrow night we'll figure out how to add pictures!