A Few Family Updates

It has been quite a while since I've written about those little things that are going on in our family...  here's a quick update of our world:

*The school is officially open and operating. :)   The first 2 months have been filled with God-sized things and so many learning experiences.    Every day brings something new.  For this, I am grateful.

*We have a 2-year old ... hard to believe, the little nugget is already 2.    While most of my peers are watching their kids start to drive, we are still potty-training. :)    Cumi Joy has started calling me "Mama Mia" in a loud, sing-song voice.    Her adoption is still 'in the works' and quite far from ever being finalized.  It is hard to explain the process and unknown if she will ever actually be 'ours.'    I cannot think about this very long or my heart begins to unravel.

*We have two 7-year olds... yes, we are in that 3 month time of the year where both Adam and Aaron are 7.    They are 9 months apart... and eons apart in every other way.    They have such unique talents.   This appears to be a good thing in many ways.  If they were more alike, we would have even more competition than we do now.    I pray that one day they will stop fighting and just enjoy each other.   Our most recent solution for fighting is putting them both in one of Alex's t-shirts at the same time and sending them outside to pick up trash...  

*Arlee is 10 going on 20.  She heads over to the school for Spanish class.   As always, she is super competitive and scored the highest score in Spanish for the first quarter.    Arlee dreams of living here one day with her husband - she drew a picture of their little house on stilts the other day - it made me smile.   

*Aidan is rapidly finishing 8th grade.  He also participates in Spanish at Instituto Vida Abundante... and his sister got a higher grade than him.  Hmmmm...  

*Next week, a team from West Virginia is coming to visit.  They will be building a house for a dear friend and visiting a remote village to give food bags, dresses, balls, etc.   They are throwing a party for our students and working on a few small projects around the school.   

*It seems like as each week of school passes, we begin to settle in a little more to the new normal.   

There are a lot of deep things that have floated around in me these last few years.  I stopped writing in this public spot because I just couldn't get it all out.   Writing does ease the confusion and often brings me back to Jesus instead of my struggling.    If I can grab some time, I will try to write again here on a more frequent basis... just sharing the stuff God is teaching me.  I am no preacher, just one broken person living a life where the pieces are being put back together in a beautiful way.