I love me some dreads. Seriously though, Ry and I have worked on my hair for about 30 minutes total the past two months and I have washed them maybe twice.(My hair doesn't really produce very much oil, so it only needs washing once a month.) That is it. No hair dryer, no styling...nothing. Just a scarf, a hair band, or just plain ol' down. What a time saver. I love them. I am thinking about dying some/all of them. Got any suggestions?

Out of the mouth of babes?

A couple of the things that Jones said this week...


"Your surgery was very very traumatic, huh daddy?"

"Daddy's surgery was traumatic because his balls are precious, right?"

"Jesus takes our hearts, but it is just a metaphor."

What the??? Who says words like traumatic and metaphor at 3 and actually uses them in the right context and knows what they mean. Weird.

Dang...

My kids are cute! And old...

Holy Chicken....

If you know much about my childhood, you might know that I grew up with chickens for a lot of the time. I really disliked them...a lot. I was scared of the roosters and despised the poop and smell. But because we...


a.)Have to much organic compost for my husbands worms. b.) We try to only buy only organic cage free eggs and they are very expensive. c.) We like the idea of our children being involved in the process of their food (for the ownership and knowledge of how it works.)

We are getting chickens. Actually we have already purchased them (they are remarkable cheap. Like $2 a piece.) and my mother has been raising them for us so we could skip the whole stinky baby chicken in the garage thing. We have hens and they will lay a multitude of colored eggs. 2 will lay brick red eggs, 2 blue or green eggs, and the other 2 your regular old brown eggs. Of course they are all the same inside, they just have colored shells. I am not sure when they will start laying, but when they do we shall have farm fresh eggs everyday and that is something a girl can get excited about! I think I shall even sell a dozen or so every week.

Jones started to name the chickens...the ones who have been named are as follows:
Eggy
Chicken Bock
Cock Rooster ( he wanted to just name it cock and I was a little happy when he decided to add rooster onto it...I just don't want an animal named cock...know what I mean?)
Pip

the other two still need names and I cannot wait to find out what their names shall be.


When we get the the ladies home I shall take pics of them and the little red chicken house my hubby built and show everyone. It will probably be later this week.

Foster parent orientation...Check.

So I went to the 3 hour orientation about becoming a foster parent tonight. I am pretty excited. Very overwhelmed. There is a lot that goes into it and I am not sure if we can qualify for everything we need to. I am unsure if we make enough for them to consider us able and they are checking into the fact that my children do not have immunizations (Two of the guidelines are that you have a minimum income level and that your children in the home are immunized...mine are not...but that is another blog post). Both Ryan and I will have to complete 30 hours of training, plus 7 hours of CPR class, plus fill out a mountain of paper work and get a home study with a bunch of requirements. I went alone to the meeting and towards the end I was starting to feel like maybe I wasn't really ready to do it. I started to doubt the time commitment it would take and my ability to get all of the paperwork done on top of everything else I have going on. Then something happened. The foster parent liaisons got up and talked. They told their stories and had a question and answer time. I inquired as to the probability of getting an infant with special needs. Would it be hard? Are infants available? They told me there is such a need for foster parents, even for babies, that I would probably get an offer to get a baby placed in my care the moment I get my license. Then I remembered why I wanted to do this in the fisrt place. How ever much work it takes and whatever heart break is involved with the loving and giving back of a baby is worth it to show the love of Jesus to a vulnerable little child. Now if only I can keep remembering that....
Lord what baby do you have for us?

Sweet India Jayne

India turned 1 on September 1st!! We were camping and so I am just now getting her birthday post done. Here is my letter for you sweet baby girl:

My India Jayne,

What a treat is has been getting to spend the past year falling even more deeply in love with the treasure that you are. God truly gave me a blessing by letting me have you! Your perfect smile brings joy to my heart and your sweet kisses melt it. My precious child God has blessed you with such an ambitious and motivated personality, I know He has designed you for something special. My prayer for you is that you will always look to Him and love Him so much that your will falls in line with His. I pray you let Him guide you and use you for the purpose He created you for. Sweet baby, you also were blessed with great passion and for that I pray that you love God first with your entire heart. May you be so in love with Him that your passion flows out of it. You are an exquisite beauty, a masterpiece, a perfect creation, exactly who He wanted you to be. May you always remember that and know you are loved beyond measure.
Being your mommy is a gift I am thankful for everyday. I delight in you! I love you!
Mommy

Fosters...Australian for beer.

For the last several months (probably since papa fest)I have been really muling over the idea of community and how we live in such independent family units in America (Or actually I should say the more prevalent American culture. There are many sub cultures that live much more communal type life styles...but I will be primarily talking about the main-stream culture....anyways...). I have been contemplating what it looks like to truly care for one another and to care for widows, orphans, the poor and oppressed, etc. I have been feeling led to have either an elderly woman who has no family to care for her or an orphan/foster child into our home to care for and to give love and a family to. (you see my littlest sister Jenna is living with us know and will be moving out probably sometime in Jan or Feb, thus freeing up a space for someone else.) I had been unsure what to do and so was just sort of praying and waiting for God to reveal what He wanted for our family. And now I really believe he is calling us to get a foster baby. We need it to be a baby at this point because several wise people have counseled us to never get a foster child who is older than our current children living in the home. (I could totally see Ryan and I fostering older children when our bio children grow up since we will be so young. Seriously when Indi graduates I will only be about 41. Still practically a babe myself...that my friends is what happens when you get married at 11! I kid...but seriously.) I just started the process to get certified and I think if I am able I am going to get specialized training so that we can get a baby with special needs, maybe a baby addicted to meth or something like that. Ryan and I are both very excited. I see this as such a good opportunity to bless a child's life all the while being with my own children and hopefully teaching them about how Jesus wants us to care for others. I have so much more I could say about this, but I am really tired and having a hard time getting any of my thoughts out. I will write more about this in the days to come, when things start to happen. I know the next step is orientation on September 8th. I will be able to update after that. If you want you can send any advice, experience, or prayers our way.