Anew

Two moves. One older-child adoption. One deployment. One year homeschooling five children.

Maybe I really did fall off the earth. I'm trying desperately to claw my way back on.

I want to be back here. I think I'm ready.


The last time I left you, we were just a couple of weeks from traveling to bring home Rosy. Some of you are connected with me either in real life or social media, so you weren't exactly left hanging, but for any new readers, she is home. On June 17th, we just celebrated our One Year Gotcha Day anniversary.

Rosy signing papers and making her daughtership official. (Momma signed some papers, too. Lots and lots of papers.)

Lily was the most amazing travel companion and the perfect big sister.
A year later, this fearless kid loves life and shines like the sun in the sky.


Princess in search of candy. She didn't have to look far.





God was so tender and merciful to us throughout the adjustment of a new family dynamic, which included Rob deploying less than 48 hours after our plane landed in our journey home from China. We were able to video chat with him almost every morning, and he was a daily part of Rosy's life, even though he was thousands of miles away for a very long time. And then shortly after he returned, we moved to a new home in a new state, and all the kids have done so well. He has kept them so close and secure in the midst of so many changes. Such grace!

I am just now finally starting to get a bit of footing, even though it's been eight months since we moved. We are deep into our school year and have some good routines going and some good breaks from our routines when we need them. This year is literature year, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see the kids learning to love some of my favorites, like The Giver by Lois Lowry, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, just to name a few. And it's only November! Our favorite time of each school day has been our read aloud time. Sitting and reading great works to all five of my kids is heaven to me. When they beg for just one more chapter, my heart sings. Can we just swim in the literature pool forever? Wait, I'm the teacher! We can stay at the deep end of this pool for as long as we want!

I'll leave you with just a few snapshots of our life from recent days. Meanwhile, know that as I'm ending this post, this refrain is on repeat in my frontal lobe:

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Love,
LPF




National Zoo, Washington DC: Because scarecrows are about as scary as I want Halloween to get. The end.

While Rob was doing the boring job of getting his Marine Corps Marathon race packet in DC, the kids and I schlepped on over to the National Zoo. I'm just posting a few of our favorites. This is a daughter elephant feeding her mother a snack. Sweetest!
The Lion king and his queen lay quietly until he decided to jump up and roar at a leaf floating in his moat. The people oohed and aaahed. His job finished, he lay back down to revel in his own glory.
Who doesn't love pandas? They are just so stinking cute and funny. This little girl was a big ball of fluff, eating and eating and eating.

Until the eating became so tiresome. So she rested for a couple minutes, and then went back to the eating. I want her life.

I know it's not a natural, God-made waterfall. Let's just call it perty landscaping.

Barns and windmills and sunsets make me happy.









We had to find a new home for our German Shepherd pup, Dietrich. We made a trip to IN to get him to the right new home. We'd had him for a year, but he just needed to be in a working environment, not a family neighborhood next to a playground.
Dietrich, such a gentle soul. Who loves to play in the leaves.



I love this shot. Rosy and Seth and Dietrich could not get enough of the leaf pile.

I can't find zee boy. He vas just right here a minute ago. (Said with a slight German accent.)




Oh, this beauty. Stop growing up so fast!
My favorite way to spend a couple hours with my girls.


We spent a few hours with family and friends in IN, but I spent so much time yammering away that I only dragged the big camera out a couple of times. Jamie and I questioned the wisdom of allowing both our adventurous boys to explore the field in camouflage. Can you see Corbin? Thank goodness for Seth's orange hair! (It's not a big field and no danger of being mistaken for deer. We were just nervous that we might not be able redirect them from all sorts of shenanigans if we couldn't find them.)




Neighborhood fun night.

First year not begging for candy. Mostly just looking cool. And giving away candy instead.














Comments

Sarah Hughes said…
Loved reading this! Kept wanting to hit the like button! ;) Beautiful pictures of the kiddos. Hugs to you!
November 9, 2014 at 7:40 PM
jodyfoznot said…
Thank-you, Sarah! Hugs and love to you!
November 13, 2014 at 11:05 AM
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