The Red Thread

I've been thinking a lot about this book recently. It was given to me shortly after we adopted Kaleb, and it became a favorite of both kids.

"There is an ancient Chinese belief that an invisible, unbreakable red thread connects all those who are destined to be together." In this book, "a king and queen rule a beautiful and peaceful land. They should be full of joy and contentment, but they both feel a strange pain that worsens every day.

Then a peddler’s magic spectacles reveal a red thread pulling at each of their hearts. The king and queen know they must follow the thread-wherever it may lead." Well, they end up following this thread all the way to China, to a tiny village, to find that the thread is being played with, and pulled on by a baby girl in a basket. Of course, they bring her home, and she becomes their daughter. It is a beautiful story.

It is interesting because shortly before we made the decision to adopt Kaleb, I began feeling a "pulling" on my heart. It was strong and intense, and adoption was all I could think about. I prayed about it, I researched and studied, and I knew it was what God intended for our family.

God blessed us more than I could've imagined with Kaleb. He is the most amazing, wonderful son I ever could've asked for. And of course, He blessed us in the same way with our beautiful Kaitlin through childbirth.

Recently (for a couple months now), I have been feeling that pulling on my heart again. It is strong and is growing more intense. I have been praying and researching, and wondering if God has another journey of adoption planned for our family. Right now it seems impossible. Financially we are not in a position to do it. But I know that "with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). I know that if it is His will, He'll provide a way for us to do it. Perhaps somewhere out there, there is a baby pulling on our "red thread"...

Kaleb's 5th Birthday Slideshow

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Homeschooling

I am officially a homeschooling Mom.  I started this adventure with the intent of homeschooling Kaitlin through the end of her 3rd grade year.  I didn't want her to have to change schools mid-year, and in addition, I was growing weary of her tears over homework and stories of her class "working through lunch" and using recess time to study for standardized tests.  So I jumped in-- learning as much as I could from my sister and other homeschooling moms, blogs & forums, and studying about & comparing all the different curriculums.  The more I read, the more excited I became about our new adventure.  I chose the Charlotte Mason philosophy because it made the most sense to me, and I really agreed with her ideas and loved her recommendation of "living books" over dry textbooks, doing nature studies, and her emphasis on fine arts. 

Now, two months into homeschooling, Kaitlin and I are both hooked!  We are enjoying our time together, and I've seen such positive changes in her. We've visited the museums in DC, taken a field trip to a local organic tulip farm, and done lots of hands-on activities.  We've also spent a lot more time outdoors enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  We've decided to continue with it for 4th grade, and beyond!

Here are some pictures of our Homeschooling Adventures thus far...

Kaleb is thriving in preschool. It's funny, being a preschool teacher, you'd think it would be a perfect scenario for me to homeschool him too... but his personality type is one that does very well in a school setting.  He loves the social aspect of it, and seems to listen to teachers better than me!  But one of the cool aspects of homeschooling Kaitlin is that he participates in much of what we do on his "days off" preschool.  Above is the kids' splatter painting which they did after a short lesson about Jackson Pollock.  I should've taken a picture of them at the end because they were pretty splattered with paint themselves! 

 

Volunteering with the Kids

This Saturday the kids and I partcipated in a meal packaging event called Stop Hunger Now. Their mission is to provide direct food relief in crisis areas and areas where chronic hunger and malnutrition exists. The meals packaged Saturday will be sent to Haiti.

I was thrilled to find a service project that the kids and I could do together. Kaleb got to scoop and pour rice into a funnel with three ladies who were rooting him on as he happily waited his turn to pour. Kaitlin was a runner, and brought bins full of the food bags over to the weighing & sealing area, and empty bins back to the food packaging stations. We did this for 2 hours and all really enjoyed it! I will definitely do this again. I would highly recommend this project to anyone who wants to get out and do something to help others. And it's wonderful that parents can bring their children so that everyone is involved.

It was also inspiring. In two hours, 15,000 meals were packaged! It shows what can be done when people come together and work to help others. It didn't even feel like work. Every time we reached 1,000 meals, a bell would ring, and everyone cheered. The atmosphere was uplifting and joyful.

At the beginning, there was a short educational presentation on hunger. After watching it, I think everyone felt excited and motivated to be there, doing something to help. We learned that that a large percentage of the food packages go to schools and orphanages where there are food shortages.

I would encourage everyone I know to get involved with this project, whether through donations or attending a meal packaging event. I definitely plan to do it again, and hopefully make this a tradition with the kids as well.

My Beach Photography

Photography is a hobby of mine, so living at the beach has been a fun opportunity for me to shoot something other than my kids. I'm learning more about landscape photography, but having such beautiful surroundings makes it pretty easy to capture beautiful shots. All of these were taken on Topsail Island, most very close to our house. My favorite one is the third one down from the top, taken from the deck of the beach house my parents rented last month.
I also love the one where you can see lots of footprints because those are Kaitlin & Kaleb's :-).

Photography Lessons from my 3-year old

If you know me, you know that I usually have my camera on me. I am always taking pictures of my kids, loved ones, the outdoors, you name it. Photography is a hobby/passion of mine, and living at the beach, I've been snapping away like a madwoman.

Recently, Kaleb and I took our dog, Amber on an evening walk in our backyard. We decided to head over to the beach, because, why not... it's the beach :-)! We ended up walking a while, and then sitting together, building a sandcastle, digging for "treasure" (a.k.a shells) and watching the sun set, while Amber rested in the sand beside us. We had so much fun! But I felt really disappointed that I hadn't thought to bring my camera. I so wanted to capture this moment. The lighting was perfect, the sun was setting, the waves were crashing, and Kaleb was smiling and laughing. I began to feel frustrated that I hadn't thought to grab my camera. I even said aloud, "Man I wish I had my camera!" Kaleb responded, "Oh, here you go Mom!" He proceeded to hand me big clump of sand. "It's my camera!" he said proudly. I smiled and took the "camera" and he threw his arm around me and said, "Say cheese Mom!" We smiled and posed together for the pretend camera, and after Kaleb's sound effect "click", he wanted to review the picture we had just taken. He held up the clump of sand, looked at it, and said "perfect!". And it was perfect. It taught me that sometimes I get so caught up in capturing the moment on film, that I don't fully enjoy the actual moment! From then on, I relaxed and forgot about how great it would be to photograph our outing on the beach, and actually enjoyed LIVING it.

What happens when Mommy goes to take a quick shower...

When I got out of the shower Kaleb proudly said, "Look Mom, I'm shaving!" He had a toothbrush and a cup of water all set up. Then he proudly declared, "I smell like Dad!"