Following the Father

I will ignore the fact that it's 70 out right now and post some pictures from earlier this month.  The kids don't have to wish for snow any longer, they've had a healthy dose of playing in the winter wonderland white stuff!  It was so beautiful.

Kobo prefered to watch the commotion from a safe place.

   Jetta's the opposite, she'd spend all day in the snow if we'd let her!

It does make for extra campus work, but since Oklahoma doesn't get that much very often we'll take it and enjoy it!

 Five years ago my family increased from five members to eight!  Here's a snapshot from just a few days after Daddy and Mommy came home with Samuel, Grace, and Mercy.

 You wouldn't believe how many tries it took to even get this shot, as pitiful as some of us look.  It's beautiful to me anyway, my family was together.

 Five years.  This is definitely a milestone in our family.  We've recognized each anniversary as it's rolled around, but this one seems extra significant somehow.  Maybe it's because this means that Samuel and Grace, being five years old when they arrived home, have now been in our home about the same amount of time they were in Liberia.  Maybe it's because five is just seen as a halfway point to the grand number, ten.  Maybe it's because the kids are at an age now where they can enjoy looking back and appreciating where they've come from a bit more.  Maybe it's a little of each.  Whatever it is this year we decided to do a big party like what we did on their first year anniversary.  It is probably the last of it's kind since the next big anniversay would be number ten and the kids will be past the age of wanting a big party for it. 

  We invited friends, staff of HGM, and all our extended family knowing that no one as far as family was concerned would probably be able to come due to the distance.  We were pleasantly surprised though to hear though that my uncle and aunt (my mom's oldest brother and his wife) in CA were wanting to be in attendance.  They'd been thinking about a visit anyway and when they recieved the invitation it was the perfect timing.  Having family that we don't get to see very often at the party made it even more special for the kids and all the family.  Ben came and spent that weekend with us, which also gave us the chance to celebrate his birthday with him.  Many people showed up and we had a perfect amount of people during the entire open house time. 

 I hope Adoption Day 2010 will be a very fond memory for my younger siblings in the years to come.

  I

      LOVE

    YOU!

  (The caps were presents to them from me.  The girls' are handmade, though not by me.)

They also each got a cute knit hat from our auntie that she made.  They sport hats beautifully, don't you think?

  We enjoyed a wonderful full week with my uncle and aunt.  They insisted on helping out with the many projects my parents have going on around campus.  It was great company which makes the work go quicker and more enjoyable.  We visited a science museum with them that we've been wanting to go to but hadn't taken the time to.  It was amazing well done.  We were there for three hours at least and still did not make it to all the neat hands-on displays.  It was fun and interesting for the entire family dispite the vast age differences!

 Fantastic Family Fun.  That's an alternate title for this post.

All for now.

The following photos are courtesy of my siblings who I found entertaining even at rest stops during our trip as we stumbled out of the car to use the restrooms and stretch. 

Josh and Mercy were exercising in a different way at this stop.  Though I think only Josh really gets physical benefits from this. 

As adventursome as Tiger Lilly seems to be, she wasn't so sure of being up that high on a moving being.  If Josh was a short young man it might have been a different experience.  In the end though I think she'd jump at the chance of getting another high top ride, in fact she requested one the other day.

Samuel is plenty adventuresome as well, when he's in control of his own facilities.  Whenever we find ourselves at a place with trees you can bet that he'll find his way up one of them.

I'm an avid tree climbing lover myself, so it's fun to watch.

(Don't worry he didn't land on his bottom.  He rocked back after landing on his feet when I snapped this.  He very rarely gets hurt!)                

On a side note, our first night we spent on our travels was at a motel in Memphis.  It was fun to watch the younger kids take note that, at least in this particular area,  African Americans were the majority of the population.  I think it was a strange yet good feeling for them to finally not be the ones in the extreme minority in the tone of their skin like they are in our small midwestern town. 

We are home!  We arrived back on schedule Thursday evening the 24th.  I've been waiting on catching up on my blog till I sorted through the 1,000 plus pictures I took during the week and a half we were gone. 

In many ways traveling into the mountains of east Tennessee where I grew up has the strongest sense of homecoming for me out of anywhere in the world.  It has a  presence, I have a certain feeling of excitement, yet... peace as the hills and mountains come into view and we start winding in our car higher and higher.  Home, as much home as it can get here on earth.

Take it all in,  to the flat lands we will return very soon.

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

 Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his hosts!

Mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars!

  Beasts and all livestock,

creeping things and flying birds!

-Psalm 148: 1&2, 9&10 (ESV)

I think I could feel at home in just about any corner of the world as long as I made bonds with the people around me.  But no other place will give me this feeling of home, untill I see Jesus in the eternal home of heaven. This is just taste of the feeling that will wash over me when I am home... forever.

For the first time in three years the whole family is going on a trip together!! 

Everyone is exciting and things are slowly but surely coming together for our departure.  The visit will include two states that we've previously lived in.  It will take a few days of travel, but since we do enjoy being together that is half the fun.  I'm very thankful that we have a twelve-passenger van that creates a much roomier environment for seven people (*and part of the trip eight) than a normal mini van.   My older brothers and I had many trips in Ghana spent smooshed together in the backseat of our 4x4 truck on roads unfit to be called an actual road in the USA.  Now I even look back on that with a certain fondness.  We'll be leaving this coming Saturday, we're actually going to HGM (Heart of God ministries, where my parents will be working on staff) first to pick up some literature and promotion items and spending the night on campus.  Then in the morning we'll leave for our first destination to visit old friends.  We'll be gone till the 24th of this month.

*Ben just started a full time job so he will not be able to be gone for that length of time.  Instead he's making a sort of extended weekend visit.  He'll fly in on Wednesday (the 16th) to our first destination, visit old friends with us, and then ride with us in the van to our next destination.  He'll then fly out Sunday (the 20th) from there back here so that he can be at work on Monday!  At least he'll be with us for part of the time, so we can still consider this a family trip that includes everyone.

Because of all this I will probably be silent for awhile.  I don't know what access we'll have to wireless, what little time I have on the computer will probably be spent checking e-mail and facebook real quick!  I hope to be able to hop on though for a couple of minutes to post a favorite picture of two.  I'm anticipating a very busy camera and lots of pictures from that week and a half!

~Elizabeth

After Ben's graduation

After Josh's birthday

After my parents anniversary

After my dad's birthday

After my mom's birthday

We have...

...yet one more celebration!

One more person in our clan deserves a birthday cake this week.

Count the candles and you will see

  That gracious Grace

Has turned neither one, two or three. 

That's right, my "little" sister has joined the double digits!  Alas only Mercy remains in the singles.  It will be a sad day, at least for me, when she also moves beyond.  I remember lamenting turning ten and entering into the double digits.  I enjoyed being little, adults really didn't seem to have fun in comparison so why grow up?  Grace though was happy to turn ten, not least of reasons being that now her Irish twin, Samuel can no longer point out that he is ten and she nine.

Grace's birthday meal she requested this year, for the first time wasn't fried rice!  Now my mom's fried rice is delicious, and a family favorite, but the meal Grace choose instead is an even more popular meal in our family.  Groundnut soup is a staple in northern Ghana where my family used to live and is also native to Liberia, the younger children's birth country.  We only have it for special occasions now, which makes it taste all the better when we do eat it.  Grace was adament that she wanted groundnut (peanut) soup with rice this year and sweet potatoes.  She also wanted fruit, especially mango.  You'd think I'd ordered the menu.  I LOVE fruit, and mango is top of the list.  Sweet potatoes also hit the spot, but we weren't sure how they'd go together.  In the end, rice balls with groundnut soup, a tropical fruit salad, and sweet potato wedges as a side.

MMMM, this picture makes me hungry.

Two of Grace's gifts this year were Only Hearts dolls.  Us gals quickly got into them after the gift opening.  I'm so glad to have little sisters.

I'm so glad to have this sister.

Happy birthday, Grace!  With lots love from your family.