We drove out to Oolagah today, the town just north of us to show Felicia Will Roger's birth home. it took a while to get there and we were coming straight from Totem Pole Park, not very close by. When we got to the home it was 4:40. the gates were closed, they decided to close 20 minutes early today! We've been there a few times before, it's a working farm and the girls were looking forward to petting the animals and chasing the chickens. Bummer! We drove back through "downtown" Oolagah, there are about 4 buildings there. Karianne asked if we could stop and take their picture in front of the "dollhouse". Right on the highway is a miniature replica of Will Roger's house. So we all got out and took pictures in front of the house. At least Felicia kinda got to see his house. :-)
We went down Route 66 today to another roadside attraction, Totem Pole Park. It's a park with a giant totem pole made out of concrete built in the 1940's.
Here's an excerpt from it's website:
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and claiming the title of the World’s Largest Concrete Totem Pole, the park features a 90 foot totem pole that towers over the park in a vivid array of folk art colors.
Ed Galloway built the totem pole over an 11 year period from 1937 to 1948, utilizing some 28 tons of cement, six tons of steel, and 100 tons of sand and rock. His tribute to the American Indian features 200 carved pictures, with four nine-foot Indians near the top each representing a different tribe.
The base of the totem pole is a huge turtle, Angie was very scared of him and would not walk by him.
I haven't posted this week because we have been doing Sports Camp at church this week- our version of VBS. Brent has been using our camera there all week so I haven't had it to snap pics of our girls. They had fun at sports camp, learned new songs, told us some bible stories they learned and they are feeling very sporty. Every day we would get to church they would grab a basketball and dribble and kick the balls around and they'd try to make baskets too. :-)
At the end of a full day yesterday, Brent's sisters and I went to Discoveryland to watch a live production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It is performed in an outdoor ampitheater all summer long with performances of Oklahoma! on the weekends. It's one of the must see things here and I'm glad they were able to check that off of their list.
We went to Independence, Kansas yesterday. We visited THE Little house on the Prairie and then we went to a really nice community park they have there complete with waterpark. I hadn't been on one of those old playgrounds with the really tall metal slides in a LONG time. The slides were really tall. They were also very hot so Brent and I raced a couple times on the slides sitting on towels. Maybe he'll upload the video sometime soon. We had a full day.
We took Brent's sisters to the "Little House on the Prairie". It's the Ingalls family homestead in Independance, Kansas. I think I read one book. I never got into it, so these pictures are for Amanda, who read all the books and wanted to write her own book about a heroine named "Cordelia". :-) Sorry Amanda, if I embarrass you let me know and I'll delete the post. :-)
Brent's sisters are fanatical fans of the Little House books so they enjoyed it thoroughly.
We took Brent's sisters down Route 66 today. Our local route 66 destination is the Blue Whale in Catoosa. He's a big whale in an old swimming hole with slides and water spouts coming off him. It's closed down now but visitors are still welcome to visit him, just no swimming aloud. There used to be a Noah's Ark there as well that housed a small zoo. Watch out I think that whale is going for Karianne's snack!
Actually it was very VERY hot so we were just there or maybe an hour and a half. Besides being very hot we had fun. Again, it was very helpful to have Brent's two sisters there. We had a double stroller and two single strollers to push all the girls around the zoo.
We got a break from the hot summer heat at a friends pool sunday night. Brent's sisters are visiting us from Florida,incidentally, they've been a big help at the grocery store I always need more hands to push carts. :-)
Amy's third birthday and her first birthday celebration! We made a big deal about her all day and she just blankly stared at us. Brent came home from camp late this afternoon and then we had a princess party with the girls. They dressed up and I did their hair, make up and nails. After dinner we got out the cake and put a birthday hat on Amy. She didn't want to keep the hat on and we weren't sure how to communicate with her that she was to blow out the candles that that her sisters were more than willing to do for her. Turns out Amy doesn't like fire too much so she had no problem blowing them out quickly! :-) It was actually more difficult to get her to open her presents. I didn't wrap them, I just put them in bags. She just kept showing us the pretty bags and wouldn't even glance inside even though we were all cheering her on to look inside. Angie and Karianne got a little impatient and were all for opening her presents for her. We finally got her to take a present out of the bag, but she didn't even look at it, just kinda took it out as if to say, "I took it out ok?" and then she tried to put it back in the bag. It was pretty fun to watch her figure it out and realize that she has probably never done anything like this before. At dinner we prayed and thanked God for our food and Karianne chimed in as she always does, "and thank you Jesus Amy come home." Yes, we are so thankful that God has brought home our precious little girl from China. She is such a gift from God and we love her to pieces! Happy Birthday Darlin'!
I finally put some pictures on our Flickr account and you can see more birthday pictures there.
Amy and Karianne got their ears pierced today. Karianne went first and didn't even blink an eye. I was very suprised. I haven't prepared them at all the it would hurt a little. Honestly I don't remember how much it hurt. Karianne hopped down and said, "it just hurt a little". Amy was next and she started fussing a little as soon as they started touching her ears and she cried when they pierced her ears. Angie watched Amy wided eyes and I said, "Ok Angie, you're next" Angie just looked really nervous and said, "no.... uh no..." So Angie decided not to get hers pierced but I told her to let me know if she changed her mind. I wish I had snapped a picture of her face as well. :-)
Amy and Karianne both got a "Certificate of Bravery". Angie still got treated to McDonalds so she didn't mind too much.
One more day until Brent comes back from camp. Praise God! ;-) I saw my Dr today and he asked how Brent was "holding up" at camp. I said, "you gotta be kidding me!" I guarantee he is getting more sleep and more rest than I am! I took Amy to her Dr down in Tulsa today (right before I went to my Dr). He said all the bandages could come off and she can wear shoes now. I need to get some for her. One foot is 3 sizes smaller than the other so I am going to have to buy 2 pr in the same style. Amy was afraid to walk on her foot. At the Dr's office she wouldn't get off the table and kept pointing at the bandages so someone would put them back on for her so she could walk out of there. I picked her up and put her in the stroller since I didn't have a shoe to put on her. At home, she just sat. I kept telling her to get up and go play and she'd point at her foot. I'd tell her it was ok for her to walk on it. It took a few hours but she is finally walking around on it now. She seems very proud of herself about it too. :-)
Took the girls to a water carnival tonight at a church that they attended VBS at last week. I got them all suited up, towels, change of clothes the works. We got there and they all screamed that they didn't want to get wet so we sat around and sweated for 2 hours. Crazy kids! Amy actually got wet, there was a little pool set up and she sat in it for quite a while. Karianne and Angie were content to eat watermelon and cheetos - they were a mess!
My Husband is a children’s pastor. For 9 years we loved and worked with other people’s children with a feeling of emptiness in our own home, we were childless. After 8 years we found out I was carrying identical twins, only to lose them to miscarriage. A year later I gave birth to a baby boy, Jason Benjamin. He was stillborn. I had a special verse that I held onto in my very rough pregnacy with Jason, I Samuel 1:27,28. So many moms use the verse "For this Child I prayed..." and don't use the rest of the verse. I felt like I was just like Hannah, I had prayed so long for a child and God was finally giving me one. The rest of the verse says, "and I will give him back to the Lord all the days of his life." I claimed that part of the verse too. It is the verse we put on his tombstone, for indeed we gave him back to the Lord.
We had looked into adoption a few years before through Child Protective Services and we were told they were not looking for families that wanted a baby. In January 2004, 6 months after we buried Jason, I heard the Steven Curtis Chapman’s family adoption testimony on the radio. It was Sanctity of Life month and adoption was highlighted as well. I was moved but my husband had told me several times over the past 2 years he was not ready to adopt. A few days after I heard the Chapman family’s testimony on the radio I had lunch with a friend who had also had several losses. They had tried to adopt internationally a few months before and it hadn’t worked out. I’ll never forget that lunch. She and her husband had decided they were going to adopt from China. She said, “We are going to China to adopt a baby and we would like you both to go with us.” I smiled and said that was great but I knew my husband would not want to do it. I brought it up to him a few days later and kind of laughingly told him what my friend had said. He didn’t say anything for a moment and finally, slowly said, “I can’t explain it, but yes, I want to do this!” I was stunned. Immediately the depression I had been feeling for so long after losing my children was gone, I had hope.
It took us a few months to come up with the initial applications costs of $150 for the adoption agency. They accepted us and the next day I found out I was pregnant. Having already lost 3 babies, we were definitely not going to stop the adoption process. The agency was wonderful and waited for us while I was sick with the pregnancy and as we tried to come up with the money to cover the adoption. In November I had my first live birth, Karianne. 3 months later unbeknownst to us, our second daughter Angie was born in Jiangxhi, China. We were matched with her when she was seven months old and we brought her home when she was 9 months old. God provided the money just when it was needed. At the time the cost of the adoption was about half the annual salary my husband was making at the time. We just knew we were to obey Him and he would handle the rest. A few weeks before we were to travel we still needed $6000 for the adoption. God provided. Angie and Karianne are 3 months apart and neither can remember life without the other. They are inseparable.
We wanted to adopt again. In 2006 I had a surprise pregnancy. Again we buried a son, Richard Thomas born in heaven January 18th , 2007. In May of that year we saw our third daughter’s face on a special needs list with “multiple diseases” listed as her disability. We prayed for a family for her and spread the word about this sweet little girl that needed a family and didn’t have much time left before she was taken off the lists. We finally heard God telling us that she was our little girl. Again we just obeyed. We didn’t know where the money was coming from, we had come under financial strain because of the housing market as well as the medical expenses associated with my pregnancy and birthing of Richard. It seemed financially irresponsible to embark on an adoption but we have learned that finances should be the last thing considered in adoption. Make your heart willing and open to God and he will provide. Somehow history repeated itself and once again after we had committed to an adoption I found myself pregnant a month later! It was twins again. I lost one after 10 weeks and amazingly gave birth to another sweet little miracle on January 17th, 2008; the day before the anniversary of her brother’s birth. When Lucy was 4 months old, we traveled to China to bring home Amy. Amy is 4 months younger than Angie. And her “multiple diseases”? She had Spina Bifida, with one surgery already behind her and a tightened Achilles tendon.
2 years later, we felt like we had room for one more, and we thought "let's adopt a boy". We didn't know what boys were like really with 4 little girls in the house. It was hard to find an agency that would take us with our large family and not enough income by China's standards. We just decided it someone took us, then we'd walk through that door and bring home a son, and left it in God's hands. An agency took us and went to bat for us asking China for waivers for our family size and income. China said yes. The agency showed us a little 1 year old boy, just a year younger than Lucy that was also diagnosed with Spina Bifida. We already had a child with Spina Bifida and it didn't scare us so we opened our hearts and committed to being his parents and bringing him home. On July 15th, 2010 Brent and I met little Jack in our hotel room in China and he stole our hearts. We came home with him 2 weeks later and he met his sisters and they fell in love with him immediately as well. We know what a little boy is now, he created lovable chaos in this family and we adore him.
We are now the proud parents of 5 little miracles, never forgetting the 5 awaiting us in heaven.
Here's a top I made for Angie. I collect old aprons, I love them. I have been trying to figure out how to make a top for my girls with them. This is what I came up with although this isn't one of my aprons, I made the whole thing to look like an apron. Anyway, I think she looks really cute in it. Of course, she is pretty cute anyway.
We were given some clothes. One of the little outfits has "Flirty Girl" writtten on the shirt. Karianne wears it to bed. She told me she wanted to wear it today. I said, well I don't really like the words on it. She said, "I know words, what does it say?" I told her what is says and said "do you know what that means?" She said no and I told her, "it kinda means you like to tease boys a lot." She thought for a moment and then said, "Daddy is a boy... Rocky (our dog) is a boy... I don't know any other boys." Yea, my daughter is not a flirty girl. :-)
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