snowmageddon...

 We finally got the first snow of the year, and it was a biggie! (I'd guess we got about 10 inches!)  People around here were calling it "snowmageddon."  School was out for several days, and the kids were SO excited.

 Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills," which makes it super easy to find good sledding.

 Just off the back of our property and across the street is a nice hill down into a ravine.

 Jameson loved sledding more this year than last, but he didn't want to make the long climb back up the hill.  Which made for quite a workout for Mom and Dad. 

 This year we enjoyed sledding with our RUF intern, Taylor, who is from Memphis and doesn't get to see great snow like this!

wipeout!

Taylor lives one street over from us and like a crazy person, he proudly sledded in CANVAS tennis shoes all day.  

the Queen of sledding herself

Caroline is our snow girl.  The minute the white stuff falls from the sky, she's already suited up and out the door.  

And now a few weeks later, it's all melted and we're wondering if we'll get another snow before the end of winter!

the magic of unplugging...

He would've stayed here ALL DAY.

We found a new, off-the-beaten-path pumpkin patch, Dark Leaf Farms, this year.

(I don't think I'll ever go to another one again!)

No crowds.  Tons of activities for the kids.  Adults were free.  Kids were $10 each, and that included a free pumpkin of any size.

We started off in the "front yard" of the farm, and I literally had to peel Jameson away from these diggers kicking and screaming.

hayride

We decided to turn the phones off and leave 'em in the car.  We only carried my camera and the picnic we packed for dinner.

The afternoon felt so magical to be completely PRESENT as a family.  Unplugged.

tire swing

She pulled out some corn!

Jameson, almost 3 years old

Caroline, age 7 1/2

She picked this big one for our front porch.  

my girl

love them

Enthralled with the excavator...

Barrel ride

Tunnel Slide

How cool are these carts?

What a nearly perfect day with the three people I love most.

change of plans...

When we faced the disappointment of our plans falling through one morning,
he and I looked around for the possibilities.

 It was the peaceful, simple things,

like finding rocks

 and throwing them in the river,

 that filled him with joy

and poured meaning into the minutes. 

Laughter.

And love.

And suddenly, 

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

redefining family...

this pic was the "features" page of the article

It's kinda fun to be little local celebrities for the day.  

This month's issue of our local magazine, Lynchburg Living, ran an article about adoption called "Redefining Family" and we were given the opportunity alongside two other families to be featured in the magazine!

Here's the link to see the article with the pictures.  (We're on page 11, and pages 48-55.)

I was NOT so pleased with what goofballs Marc and I look like in this picture!
Oh well, at least Jameson looks great!  You can't win 'em all...

 Even though the writer apologized to me for not having more space to write more of our story, Marc and I were pleased with how much she WAS able to capture in such a small space.

The writer herself has fostered and adopted many children, and it was an honor to connect with her! 

This awesome pic was the cover page to the article- LOVE!

Now, I don't know if anybody actually READS the magazine, but it's all over town, so it at least feels like our little 5 minutes of fame, ha!  

 I hope that some who do read the article or see our family's pictures might be inspired themselves to consider adoption for their family.

If my kids' smiles could somehow convince someone to take that move forward towards adoption, I'd be overjoyed.  

(As the article mentions, 1 in 3 families discusses adopting, but only 2% of families actually adopt.)

Caroline's diagnosis of alopecia is explained in the article as well, and I feel like it'd be a HUGE victory even if a hand-full of people walked away from that article with a new awareness of alopecia.

Oh, if only more people knew about alopecia, what an easier life we would lead...

I hope that somehow, in some small way, seeing the love within our family might help build bridges between races on both sides.  Families don't have to match to be family.  I love that the writer included me saying we're not a white family with a black son, but that we're collectively a black and white family now.

My greatest hope as people look at our family and read our story is that they'll see a God who is always at work in our lives, through our suffering and not just in spite of it.  He's governing His creatures and writing all of our stories.

I hope they'll see a Father who adopts ALL of his children, who Himself has a multi-racial family with children from every land and every tribe.

It's my hope that the story He has written in my little family, even as unplanned as it orginally seemed, will somehow lead others to trust in His tender goodness, grace, and timing.

To Him be all the glory.

six year old guest blogger #2...

Well, I don't know what could possibly top Caroline's first blog post, but she's back in the blogging saddle again, ready to tell you all about one of our little city's most beautiful and historical gems, Old City Cemetery.

We took the kids there last night for a mini photo shoot, and I wasn't the only one busy snapping pictures.  :)

This girl is my CONSTANT reader and writer.  Language is (and has always been) her thing.  She's now beginning chapter books by herself (!!) and there's nothing she likes more than typing out (or writing down) her thoughts.  For instance, instead of acting things out with dolls, she'll go to markers & paper and draw out the scene she's thinking about and write what the characters are saying.  She's amazing.

I'll share my pics with you soon, but without further ado...

here's Caroline, the six-year old guest blogger.

Hi, Everyone!  I went to the Cemetery place and I loved it. One time, me and my Dad were taking the car to the car fixing shop and when we were walking back Dad saw the Cemetery and he said "Caroline, do you want to see the Old City Cemetery?" and i said "Yes! I would love to see the Old City Cemetery!" and there is dead people there too, Yucky! Well, you couldn't see the dead people.   

The Cemetery center is not just a place where dead people are. The Cemetery is a place where you learn about stuff about the Civil war.  I really liked seeing the Cemetery.

I took this picture of this bullfrog and whenever it croaked Jameson my little brother ran over to me and clinged onto my leg's and was SO scared of it's noise.  And there were 4 bullfrog's but 1 jumped into the water and we never saw him again. The other 3 stayed right where they stood and never moved a inch or a foot. 

it's noise scared me a little bit too. I heard this fidgeting and jumping underwater and i was SO SO SO scared, i didn't even figure out what that Crazy thingy was.

Maybe that fidgeting and jumping thingy was ANOTHER bullfrog, so then that would be 5 bullfrog's. Except that 1 jumped in the water and never came up. i think it died when it jumped in the water.

This picture is cloudy but you can see 1 yellowy thing and 1 orangey thing. Those things are fish. They are almost everywhere in the pond. they are called Goldfish. They're not EVERYWHERE in the pond. i was just trying to explain what the fish were. 

And i found the King fish. This photo NEED'S to get you ready and set for more pictures. Am I Crazy? I don't really think so. HaHa! Maybe the King fish was a Queen fish.  Mommy sometimes say's "i think you should start thinking about posting a new blog now." And when it's time to post another one I am SO happy to tell you guy's about my adventure's I've had.

This is the telegraph place. The telegraph place was a long time ago building.   Look very closely near the sun that's really bright.  Can you see something black? Near the gate  or you could call it a fence? that's a long time ago built wagon. and you can barely see the sign that say's: "Stapleton".  

 I have a story that's called: "Happy Birthday, Addy!" and Addy grew up in the Civil War.  And one time I read something that a MEAN white person said and he said this: "EVERY BLACK PERSON GET OFF, NOW! OR I'LL THROW YOU DOWN TOO!" I don't know if he said "OR I'LL THROW YOU DOWN TOO!" Addy's BEST friend Sarah was with her when that MEAN guy said "EVERY BLACK PERSON GET OFF, NOW! OR I'LL THROW YOU DOWN TOO!" And I didn't tell you they (Addy and Sarah) were on a street-car. And when they rode back that's what happened. Well, they were finished with that (good drug store) and the guy that owned it answered a white lady before Addy and Sarah. and when it was their turn the guy said "what do you want?" in a stern voice. that's what happened when Addy and Sarah were alive.

 

 This photo say's "JEREMIAH CORBETT" and he was a Civil War soldier who died in the Civil War. Was he related to our family, mom? Cause' i don't know yet.
I wish I could of gotten to see Jeremiah Corbett. He even lived in North Carolina, which is where our family is from. (my parent's say that.) (probably still would!)

There is a pest house that tells you the story of some of the Civil War stuff. And there's another pest house that is a hospital that helped people in the Civil War, and why they closed it is because it stinked in there SO bad and it probably smelled like Blood, gross!  And there were mice and rats and i'm so glad that they definitely closed down that hospital when it stinked. i do not know why it put's a red line on stinked. Ughhhhhh! Tired of it.

This is the picture of the HUGE tree swing.   I can't take a whole picture of it, it's SO big.

Under this, guys, is a picture of me on the tree swing.

                                                                                                                                

I am swinging on our... Old Cemetery Center swing.

Mom just said something Crazy Crazy CRAZY! Am I

CrAzY? i don't think so.  Do you like me in my:

New Sun-Hat,

Pink and Green dress,

Pink shoes,

Smile,

And Wig?

I've had so much fun and I cannot WAIT to talk to you again!

Bye-Bye! 

down to the last diaper...

Maybe you noticed this new family pic at the top of the blog?

It was snapped by one of our college students this weekend at our Virginia RUF Fall Conference.  Approx. 16 of our students joined another 200 RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) students from other campuses around the state.

(Excuse me, around the Commonwealth.  I'm learning.)


The conference was in the Blue Ridge mountains, just about 45 minutes away from our house.

The way our schedule worked out this year, I was only able to come and bring the kids up for the day on Saturday (then Caroline enjoyed spending another night there with her Daddy while Jameson and I headed home).


When I got to the conference, I found our students together in a small group, discussing and applying what the speaker had just taught to the entire large group.  Good stuff.

I was only able to stay for a little while that day, but even in those few hours, I had some great discussions with a few students that included:

• Does God choose who will be saved, or is it our choice?
• Is wanting to have your own biological children ultimately selfish when there are so many children in the world who need to be adopted?
• Why do many Christians baptize babies and many other Christians completely disagree?  (this was brought on by talking about dispensational theology vs. covenant theology)
• What does the Bible say about speaking in tongues today?  
• What is the purpose of worship music, and who is it really for anyways?

I'm confident that if those were the conversations I was having after only a couple of hours, there must have been all kinds of great discussions the entire weekend.

I love these two.  They have a Caribbean bond-- she is Jamaican, he is Haitian.  :)


Time to hike!  Students piled in all parts of our cars to catch a ride to the trailhead.  :)


I've only got pictures of the group from the bottom of the mountain this year since I'm currently not able to hike. (or go on walks or exercise, for that matter) I'm in the middle of a long, discouraging bout of physical therapy for injuring my hip/lower back from WALKING ON THE TREADMILL over the summer.  (go figure, right?!? Why did I even bother??? Uggghhhh....)


Close to this time, I realized I was down to Jameson's last diaper.  (because I was careful to pack everything else.....)  Ummm, yeah.  That'll cut your time short when you're in the middle of NOWHERE Mountain with a baby on its last diaper.  So I high-tailed it outta there to race back into town, while Marc and Caroline enjoyed the rest of the conference with all the students.

(Turns out the conference speaker's children were there, ages 4 and 6, so Caroline was in heaven to play with kids her age.  Her Daddy also played with her barefoot in the cold stream, too.  Special times for a little gal!)


It was a really good, much needed weekend of rest, learning, discussing, and relationship-forming for our students.

It was a great few hours for us, too.

Maybe next year I'll remember the diapers.