Once again, I've fallen behind and have forgotten so many of the cute moments that make up my days. So, I'll just tell ya'll about the present, or as much of the present as I can talk about at 10:43 p.m.

Tim and Karen, Timothy's parents, are here visiting. We picked them up from the airport last Saturday. I told Clay it was time to go, but he was playing with his friends down the street and didn't want to leave. I told him we were going to go to the airport and see airplanes. That worked. He was all excited! Timothy asked him where we were going, "A aiw poe." Then Timothy asked why and the response was, "A see aiw pane."

Clay knew who these people were as soon as he saw them and is now beside himself with these grown playmates. Grandma is making cookies (and cookies and more cookies and brownies!) and Grandpa is able to do strange things with his ears... You'd have to see it to believe it. He can even take one of his fingers off!

I was upstairs taking care of Thadeus this evening and heard Clay coming down the hallway, "Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!" He came in carrying a plate of cookies for us! He'd made it up the stairs with the plate all on his own. Evidently Grandma had suggested he share with us and he was determined to do what he was told to.

The potty training is going really well. Even in a diaper he doesn't want to go unless he's on the potty. Timothy, Clay and Grandpa went camping yesterday and stayed over night; it was my first night away from Clay. When they got in today Clay didn't want to use the potty, he wanted to go to the bathroom outside.

Thad is pulling himself up and has four teeth. He wants to walk non-stop. He continues to be such an affectionate little thing, but is starting to come into his own and will push away if he's had too much. He's finally started getting that 'm' sound out and has been saying "Mama". Of course, it's hard to tell if he knows what he's saying or not, but I sure do enjoy hearing it.

Our Temporary Child, Continued

First of all, let me just say, five years ago today I married the greatest guy ever! Happy anniversary, Honey. I love you.

The final chapter of the story goes like this... When the girls left our place Monday evening I called Ivana right away and told her that if they needed anything to call us no matter what time; I would keep the phone by our bed.

She took me at my word and I got a wake up call at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning from Ivana who was very close to tears. Alexandra was sitting in the car in the parking lot, in the Milan airport, refusing to get out and giving the story that she just wanted to see if they would really drive her there. She was demanding to be brought back here and calling Ivana every name in the book.

I asked Ivana to calm down, reminded her not to respond to anything Alexandra had to say and asked if Alexandra was listening, or at least civil, to anyone in their party. Yes, she was being nice to Marko. The poor girl was obviously frightened out of her wits, proving to us she'd never been on a plane before so that was another lie, but this was actually good. Marko was able to pray with her and get her calmed down. Ivana, Judita and Marko stayed with her until the security point which is what I wanted. Figuring she'd never flown before I knew she'd be too scared to realize she could still leave at any time. She'd be focused on the security personnel!

The three amigos went back to the desk after her plane was supposed to have taken off and made sure she got on. Yes, they confirmed she did so they were able to drive away from the airport feeling like they'd accomplished their mission.

Ivana called the center in Spain later on Tuesday and they said she'd gotten there and was even feeling pretty happy with things. Since Alexandra's family doesn't know where she is (she wanted it that way) Ivana has special calling rights. It also helps that the girls in charge there know Ivana and that she had left their center on good terms.

After we got the phone call from Ivana saying everything had gone smoothly after Marko's prayer I was able to finally take that big sigh of relief that had been waiting to get out for so long. Burden lifted.

Our Temporary Child

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth... A week ago tonight we found out about Alexandra. She had gotten in touch with the pastor in Nova Gorica to get help for a drug addiction by going to the center in Spain. This pastor is from Ivana's home church and the same center in Spain where she lived for three years. As soon as Ivana told us of Alexandra, how she was living on the street and that she had taken the initiative on her own to get help, Timothy and I looked at each other and knew.

Ivana picked her up late last Thursday night and they just left tonight for the airport in Milan, Italy. I now have much more education on the drug addicted person than I ever wanted and I know it was only the tip of the ice burg. She isn't what is considered to be a bad case. I want to feel relieved that we got her out the door and that life inside our house is back to normal, but I know I won't rest easy until Ivana comes back tomorrow telling me that Alexandra got on that plane.

I've lived such a protected life and thank you Dad, from the bottom of my heart! I haven't heard so many lies thrown together in such a short amount of time since Clinton was in office! And the manipulation! Ugh! Drug addicts are not my calling.

One minute she would be asking questions about the Bible and amazed that God would speak to her and the next saying how Jesus abandoned her and He doesn't love her. I enjoy roller coasters, but this has been too much.

I'm afraid to say too much. We're praying and hoping that Alexandra comes back completely restored. I know half of the things that were coming out of her mouth were not the real Alexandra. And it was amazing to me how God gave us discernment and wisdom. I've never thought of myself as a quick thinking person, but during each argument I was able to see through the crap and give a good response...until tonight at least. I saw through the crap, but I spoke a bit hastily.

Anyway, some very hard lessons have been learned in the past week. I've started doing some real self examination, going deeper in then I've ever wanted to go. It's been especially hard on Ivana. She's been the recipient of all of Alexandra's anger. She'll be driving through the night tonight and I don't expect to see her back before noon tomorrow. She's so exhausted emotionally I'm sure she could sleep solidly for three days. We ended up paying for the ticket out of our own pockets. If for some reason Alexandra doesn't get on the plane we told Ivana to change the name to hers and go for a vacation to see her friends in the center. She liked that idea.

There’s a lot more I would like to write, but I’m not sure I should. I also wanted to send some update on the boys, but it will have to wait again.

I Missed It!

As I said in my email yesterday, I stayed home sick from church. Last week there was a drama group from England who did a sketch on the life of Peter. Much like Images used to do; creatively using a small amount of props and humorous dialogue to get the point across. They went with the older kids in Sunday school to work on something for yesterday's service and I almost suggested to Timothy to take the video camera so that I could see what they did, but then I thought, "It's just a sketch and it's not as if my child will be performing..." Little did I know, Clay would be in his first drama yesterday...AND I MISSED IT!!! He was one of the Philistine soldiers and he also helped make the sound of the sea...AND I MISSED IT!!! He redid the sea sound for me later at home though.

Timothy has introduced the Muppet Movie to Clay. He's been asking us, "Watch Muckets?"

I've almost gotten my garden back into shape. Chena Underhill gave me a few pointers on growing tomatoes and Saturday I put the dahlias back out. The horseradish is way overgrown and needs to be thinned out. Also on Saturday, I discovered what we thought was some kind of nut tree is a cherry tree! I'm gettin' a craving for some cherry crisp!

1 June 2006

I finally got to go meet with the homeopathic doctor that I'd met last winter. Timothy warned me that if I see anything in her office to indicate she's into the New Age or Bio-energy to turn around and walk right out. I'm so happy to say that I didn't see anything. She's your typical Roman Catholic with pictures of Mary (better known as the goddess Diana) and a saint or two on her walls. While this still isn't good it's what we'd expect from any doctor here and "manageable". She thinks my stomach issues are stress related and gave me three different homeopathic medicines to take three times a day. I'm going to google them today to find out exactly what they are, but all in all I'm very happy. (Do you think Noah Webster ever imagined a verb like ‘google’?) She and I will meet again next week to see if there's been any changes. She also gave me something for Thadeus' teething. It's basically what I gave Clay when he was a baby (chamomile), but that bottle is so old I hate giving to Thad now.

We may have found a house to buy. The couple who started building ran out of money so it's only bare brick walls, cement floors and the roof. We love the floor plan and with a couple more walls it will have enough bedrooms. The issue is price. They want quite a bit for it and we're really going to have to low ball them. Please pray for favor for us. I'm trying not to think about it too much and therefore not get my hopes up. If this is the house God has for us then we'll get in and finish the house for a good price. If not, He'll direct us somewhere else. For any of you who really know me, you know how hard this is for me. I like to think on something and chew it up, spit it out, put it back in my mouth and chew on it some more. I'm really doing much better this time and I hope it stays this way.

Have I told you about Clay's shoes? Clay loves his soccer shoes. He was wearing a pair of Caleb Gilson's old shoes, but they were starting to get tight so we went to the store a couple weeks ago to get new shoes. I'd warned him before hand because he loved that old pair of shoes too. Clay sat in his stroller while I looked for a good pair of shoes. Unfortunately, at his level were the girls' shoes. He chose a pair he liked right away...of girls' shoes. At first I had a little difficulty getting him to look at the boys' shoes I'd chosen. He liked the pair with the pretty pink laces and sparkles on them. That wasn't about to happen. "Clay, these shoes Mommy has are special soccer shoes!" There goes the pretty pair; hello soccer shoes!

I made the mistake of buying two sizes too big. I think it's because of this that Clay insists on wearing his new special soccer shoes on the wrong feet. But, he wears his Bob the Builder house shoes on the wrong feet too, so maybe it's a phase.

All day long Clay is changing shoes, putting one pair on, taking the other somewhere safe. I haven't figured out his system yet, but the guy really loves his shoes. The other evening we got home from somewhere and Timothy took his shoes off in the entryway. Clay did likewise and put his shoes right up next to Daddy's. It was sweet, and you know Timothy loved it.