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!