Siding!

These pictures are about a week old but due to the weather, not much progress has been made since then. The siding is complete on the back of the house and on the gables on the sides. The front is still barren of its siding. Inside the only progress has been to mark off where the new cabinetry is going in preparation for the plumbing and electric. This seems to be a slow and tedious process and I'm hoping this will be the final hump which will thrust the project to its end. Of course we are way over-budget but we are slogging along.



I love the color of the new roof and the siding but the blue trim has got to go now!! I've always loved the blue but boy does it clash with our new colors! The best news, I think, is that we have had much hard drenching rain and the basement remains bone dry!

Heartbroken

We are heartbroken this week. Tiffany and little Ava went home for a weekend visit on Thursday and aren't coming back. Saturday she called to say that the trains weren't running their usual schedule, she'd try to catch one on Monday. Monday her mom called and left a message that Tiffany would be home "later" as she had some relatives who wanted to see the baby. We've played the train game before and had already decided we weren't going to stand for it. It's very difficult to plan our whole day around a time when I need to get 8 children to the train station only to be told at the last minute that she has no intention of being on that train and so thus began a series of conversations with Tiffany's mom trying to explain why they were being inconsiderate. She didn't get it.

In fact, she didn't get a lot of things. She didn't get why Tiffany was living with us in the first place - isn't the best place for her in her own home with her own mom? She didn't get why Tiffany didn't see a future for herself in DC - wasn't this where she'd been raised and isn't this the city she loves? She didn't get how a 16-year old girl could have the will to change her heart and her circumstances - how can she know what she wants when she's so young? The conversations with her over the next couple of days were very revealing to me. They were filled with lies, half-truths, broken promises and a lot of self-pity. By the end of the first day I was up all night reading a map written on my soul of Tiffany's spiritual heritage. It was truly frightening and I prayed for her, begging God to bring her back to us before she slips away for good. But she'd been in the city for too long and she'd been sucked back in. The next morning Deacon Jeff called to tell us Tiffany had called him to tell him she wouldn't be coming back. She didn't have the guts to call us - and still hasn't. That seems to be her family way - if there's some unpleasantness just don't talk about it and you won't have to deal with it. Convenient for them, infuriatingly frustrating for those who are at the other end of it.

I spent 3 hours today cleaning out her bedroom - she had, afterall, just gone home for the weekend and so she left behind most of her things. I sorted through a mound of laundry, I put aside her wallet and her WIC coupons, her medical card and her important papers - things you just don't abandon somewhere if you're thinking rationally. I sorted and packed and I cried. There was so much evidence there of her growth since she'd entered Sparrow House. I found her baptismal certificate, her pamphlets on parenting which she'd been reading religiously, CD's filled with Christian music she'd been trying to use to replace the filth of the world which had filled her mind and soul until her recent conversion. "Please, Lord, don't let bitterness take root in me!" I cried out and He listened and He replaced the bitterness with an overwhelming, heart-wrenching sadness.

I'd been contemplating yesterday in a particular way the marriage relationship between God's people and His church which scriptures describe most vividly in Song of Solomon. I had been thinking that intimacy between two people married so long that they begin to acquire one another's thoughts, characteristics, even looks is a wonderful picture of the intimacy Christ desires with us. When we use the phrase that we are to "be Christlike" we are placing ourselves in that relationship with Him in which we are so acquainted with His ways and so intimately connected to His thoughts that His Being begins to seep into ours. It is as much a curious happenstance of Friendship with God as it is any intentional effort of our own. And so, in the midst of my turmoil over Tiffany I stood in the bathroom and called out to Christ as the Spouse of My Soul. And He responded with likewise intimacy by revealing to me His Heart. I saw Him stand and watch Tiffany wherever she was at the moment and He began to weep and the pain overwhelmed me and I had to weep with him. I wept for only a moment compared to His eternal weeping for all of us. It was too much. It was too overwhelming. His love for us is so lavish. His gift to us, too generous.

My heart is broken. Betsy watched me sort through a pile of papers and immediately noticed a colorful picture full of butterfly stickers she had given to Tiffany. "Mommy!" she cried, "I gave Tiffany that picture! She loves that picture! Why did she forget her picture, Mommy? Why didn't she take her picture? Is she coming back? Is she coming back to get her picture I made her?" How do I answer that? How do I wrap up all the generations of someone else's bad choices in a simple answer for a 4 year old? I can't. There is no answer for my dear little Betsy except to assure her that Tiffany will get the picture back. She'll get it because it will be on the top of the pile of things I send to her that she's too irrational to realize yet that she needs. She'll see the picture Betsy made her along with the picture of our family I tucked into her wallet and the broken crucifix we'd given her which was broken because she'd been carrying it in her pocket faithfully.

Tiffany is teachable - it's the thing I love most about her. So when she sees her things, she will remember that her sights were set higher here, that her soul was more free here and that God has a wonderful plan and purpose for her life. She will remember and she will rise above it. No, I don't think this chapter is done yet but there is still the lingering sadness of the present moment. I am still living in that place in life where we allow God to have His way with our hearts so that we can learn more of His heart. Tiffany and Ava have taken up residence in that place of my heart already occupied by Jake. They are the ones for whom I will pray without ceasing until God sees fit to raise them up out of their circumstances to walk solidly on His path.

This House is Loud

I've taken up the habit of sitting outside for a few minutes during the day when I feel like I just need to clear my head. It does me wonders. The weather here hasn't been particularly nice so I've sat in the rain and the clouds and the cold usually in my sox and no coat but my mind doesn't seem to notice except to take in with delight the sharpness of and the contrast between what's inside the house and what's outside.

Tonight I made it through the hour of power - 5:15 - 6:15 pm - when I am trying to make dinner for a lot of little people and the little people are doing their best to exert their limited power over me and each other. I actually had a nice dinner prepared a few minutes before Fr. Joel was due to be home from work and so I snuck through the house, tried to quietly exit through the front door and sat on the porch breathing in the cold, wet air and working my way into an inviting welcome for my dear husband. About 2 seconds into my escape I felt the eyes of little people boring through my back and turned to see no less than 3 or 4 faces pressed against the windows of the front door staring at me. I squawked, I shooed and I skeedaddled those faces away. A couple left silently, one hooted at her brother and another let out a war cry and ran willy nilly for the nearest target to torture. It's ok, I thought, I'm right here, how much damage can they do in a couple of minutes? I'm still going to take my time on the porch.

I put my head in my hands and breathed deeply as I thought about the loudness of it all. This house is loud, no doubt. The collective noise of that many people can be overwhelming - even when they are all actually acting like civilized human beings and not whooping and hollering like hooligans. At the moment there was a lot of hooliganian shenanigans going on and with great effort I put my chin in my hand and chose to ignore it. From that vantage point, I could look across the street at my neighbors - people I barely know, who after 7 months time here are still virtual strangers. There's Loud Boy (so named by my husband after just a few weeks in residence here) on the corner. His family is rarely home. I don't know where they go but it was months before I even realized that this young man has 2 parents and a little sister. It's loud at his house too, the kind of loud that just seems to happen when you get a bunch of 18 - 20 year olds and their cars crammed into a small space of tarmac. They don't mean to be loud but, really, take it to a college campus please. This is a neighborhood with, you know, grown-ups and young children who take naps in the afternoon and dogs who bark at every disturbance to the territory surrounding their households. Yep, I'm awfully glad, I thought, that we're not that family (momentarily ignoring the fact that at some vague point in the future we will have several 18-20 year olds of our own in our household at once).

Next door to Loud Boy is the Quiet Family. They only have one little girl that I know of. I'm told through the grapevine that her mom would like to have more children but she is frustrated by a closed womb. I see her and her daughter outside together looking incredibly lonely with just the two of them rattling around that house all day without anyone else to play with them. Well, I think to myself, I'm glad we're not them too.

Next door to her is a family with two children (I think). One of them is a young lad of about 3 or 4 who likes to hang out his 2nd story bedroom window and call out to passsers by. That, I thought, is more like it. I get a kick out of passing by that house when I walk down to the mailbox and I hear that little voice scream out, "Hey Lady, whatcha doin''?!" I'm happy to tell him I'm getting my mail and then counter with an equally enthusiastic, "Whatcha doin''?!" Yep, that house is a little closer but you know there just isn't enough of those little faces hanging out the window - it still seems, well, lonely.

I turned my sights to the family who live behind us whose house I couldn't see at the moment. We know them the best. They have two children and are very loud - in a whiny, demanding and dysfunctional way. I am soo glad that's not us that I didn't even have to dwell long on that household. Which is good, because just as my thoughts turned to them I saw one of my favorite sights - a silver Saturn driven by a very handsome gentleman - come around the corner and pull up to the curb in front of the house. The gentleman got out of the car with a surprised look on his face. He's not used to seeing me sitting on the front porch when he gets home and he asked, "Is something wrong?" I replied with, "It's really loud in there" and gestured vaguely toward our front door. "Yeah," he said and I completed his thought, "but I'm really glad. I like our kind of loud."

I got my hello kiss on the front porch that night uninterrupted by the loud and then he proceeded to his favorite part of the day - walking through that door into the loudness after a long day away. He always says any man who doesn't have at least 6 little people scream out his name in delight and offer excited hugs and streams of chatter about their day the moment he walks through the door is missing out on the best part of life. He's right, you know. There's some loud you just can't beat.

Locks of Love

On Thursday Miriam and I finally got our hair cut for Locks of Love. It was a year and a half of growing it out. Miriam was at the point where her arms were too short to even brush out her long hair and I'm just too hormonal to deal with all that hair cascading around my shoulders so it was perfect timing and now we both have the cutest little haircuts...The pictures are of her with her long hair, then getting it cut and the bottom picture shows her with her bag of hair to send away.

Who knows, maybe we'll do it again in another year and a half. It feels good to help someone else.

Today's Progress

This is today's picture from my spot in the backyard. As you can see, the siding is going up around the addition. It probably got finished today on that part of the house. You can see the new French doors from the outside. Obviously we'll need a few steps down to the yard.



This was how much siding had been done as of Sunday. I didn't realize what slow going that can be - especially when cutting around edges, roof, windows, etc. I pleased that the guys were taking their time and making sure to get it all fit nice and tightly. They asked today if we needed to keep the two antennae on the roof since we have cable. Fr. Joel said we may as well trash them as they don't seem to work very well even as lightning rods...






Here is the most recent picture of the basement. The gutting of it down to the insulation is now complete.

This is my day today...

The big boys are at their grandparents' house for the week and the girls were at my mom's. Life should have been pretty good...except for that thing called lack of sleep caused by a lack of furniture which was removed from the house yesterday afternoon thanks to our insurance company wrapping up the whole relocation bit of our settlement. Unfortunately, with renovations being done on the house, we are still about 2 months from being able to move back in...so away went the rental furniture. We bought new mattresses but they don't arrive until tomorrow sometime which is the same time I'm supposed to be in an appliance showroom an hour away from here to finally choose the appliances - which has been a whole complicated mess of its own. The clincher is that the inside work can't go forward until we have our appliances chosen since the next step is plumbing and electric. I'm beginning to realize why marriages suddenly dissolve when couples decide to take on major home renovation projects. These deadlines, decisions and ultimatums from the contractor are enough to drive the sanest person to the brink of madness. That and lack of sleep in my case. I have to admit I've been a terrible bear today. The closeness of space, the decisions that need to be made, the morning sickness...and afternoon sickness...and evening sickness, the regular bickering and bantering and , oh yeah, did I mention lack of sleep, have all started to creep into my brain and make me a good candidate for the nearest nut house. We just keep looking at each other and saying, "Why is life so *hard*?" Is it too much to ask to just be able to walk into Sears, pick out some appliances and then have our contractor work around it? Apparently so.

So, anyway, I decided to declutter some things. And I decided to use my favorite venue - Freecycle. If you've never freecycled then please stop reading now, go to yahoogroups and look up a freecycle group for your local county. I have decluttered, gained valuable items which someone else mistook for clutter in their homes and made some terrific friends along the way. These were my posts for the past two days:


OFFER: Lite Brite Cube - Brand New

This was a gift and I have no desire to even open it and let a single one ofthose little colored pegs come tumbling out of that box...lol..


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse
This was also a Christmas gift for the two children voted most likely to lose any tiny loose piece of anything given to them. It is adorable. It is a little dollhouse w/furniture and two itty bitty dolls. The dollhouse is about 4 inches high and 6-8 inches long. It opens up with the little furniture and dolls inside. I prefer pickup before the owners come home from their grandmother's house tomorrow.


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse - OFFER RESCINDED
I'm sorry to say I can no longer offer this item. The 18 month old and the 21/2 yo have taken all the itty bitty peices and stuffed them into the tape deck of a boom box here. I cannot get them out and what remains of this item has been thrown in the trash in frustration.


OFFER: "Boombox" CD/Cassette player
I have up for grabs a boombox type CD player/tape player /radio. There are two cassette decks. One of them has been stepped on when the 2 yo shoved the 18month old off of it and the door has come off, the other has pieces of an ittybitty dollhouse set stuffed into it which I cannot get out. I think the CD player works ok and I know the radio works but I can't really make any guarantees since we haven't used this thing in a while. I am considering adding a 2 yo and an 18 month old - two adorable boys - in with this offer.

It amused the freecycle community and gave me a little therapeutic release anyway...Oh yeah, did I mention I also bought a balance beam today? Yep, a bonified gymnastics balance beam for 10 bucks - now how many cool mom points do you think *that* will win me?! I'm going to need them....it's been a rough day.

Merry Christmas!

Moving Right Along...

Construction is really progressing nicely. The kitchen plans are just a foretaste of the many, many decisions we are going to have to make under the gun. It's funny to have our very own cabinet consultant...The guys from our contractor are great. The foreman called today to thank us profusely for thinking of them with our cookies in a jar for each one. Really, they're so simple to please...We, on the other, require lots of heavy work and the downing of entire walls in order to be pleased...teehee....Here's a sample of their latest work. In this picture, you can see the new roof - the whole house, including the addition has been completely roofed (notice the new color - red has been replaced with Virginia Slate Grey). The siding goes up early next week, so we're told. It's sitting in the garage.





All the windows in the upstairs have been installed except for one. Here you can see Fr. Joel testing out the wonderful tilt and clean feature. He seems to have the tilt part down, now if I can just get him to work on the clean part....










This is my VICTORY! picture. After many expressions of consternation over the state of the water-damaged basement, the whole thing (with the exception of the shop area) has been completely gutted. They are hanging dry wall and re-hanging the drop ceiling! Yes, Virginia, there is a guardian angel of moldy basements!






And now for the really fun part. Here you can see the guys holding up the piece of plastic between the old dining room and the new. There is NO MORE WALL! That opening to the outdoors now holds a double French door w/blinds sandwiched by double paned glass - pictures of that will be forth-coming. Now *that's* a dining room we can fit our family in! (if we only had a table big enough ....lol). To the left of this picture is also a new window which sits directly over the basement stairwell.



And here is this week's picture of the back of the house. You can clearly see the addition, the new roof and all the siding removed. You can also see all the new windows in place. The piles of dirt behind the addition are an attempt to redirect the water run-off around the side of the house. I think that's still a work in progress.

To Tree or Not to Tree?

That is the question. We have found ourselves this year crammed into a 3 bedroom house currently with 12 bodies occupying the space and very little extra room to move. Where would we put a tree here anyway?! But then, how can Christmas go on without a Christmas tree? It somehow wouldn't quite be...Christmas without one.

So we took a family vote and there was a unanimous decision to make the tree work. We picked out a corner of the kitchen which was occupied by our bread-making flour bins but provided the only spot in the house within eyesight of all and out of mischief- making site for the little ones. So the boys headed off to find the tree while the girls and I moved those flour bins and scrubbed the floor.

The tree stand was lost in the fire - I don't even recall seeing it, it may have been one of those unidentified mangled lumps of plastic - so the first stop was Home Depot for a new one. This was also the last stop as they found the "perfect tree" for just $10 right there in the Home Depot tree yard. It is perfect - just the right height and roundness and length of needles but we all had this uneasy feeling inside at the thought of our Christmas tree being plucked off the lot of a department store. That's not how the tradition goes! We're supposed to all bundle up on a cold Sunday afternoon (the 2nd or 3rd Sunday in Advent to be precise), drive way up to the tree farm in the northern part of the county, hop aboard the wagon out to the tree sites and then wander around for a good hour debating the merits and demerits of each specimen until our fingers turn just frosty enough that everyone suddenly gets quite agreeable on a final selection. Then the boys proudly crawl underneath the spreading canopy of bottom needles with Dad, bearing saws and smiles a mile wide. Many hacking attempts later, Dad makes that final cut and we all put mitten to trunk and haul it back to the wagon stop. On our way out, we have one last show as we watch the men put our tree on the shaker machine (the wonders of modern Christmas tree shopping!) and then run it through the netting. Dad makes that last push to the van where it gets dutifully tied to the top of the car and we drive home, the wind whipping through the cracks in the windows which are opened just enough to anchor the tree to something solid within the van.

And then there is the decorating. Dad, of course, has the job of fighting with the lights - there's always that one stray bulb which defies detection and blows the whole string. Three strings of colored lights and string of white lights at the top - with a few carefully placed to sit beneath the skirt of the angel. The angel is special too - we bought that on our honeymoon at a neat Christmas shop in Mt. Snow Vermont. A visit there isn't complete without going out back to pet the two pony-sized Newfoundlands Luke and Hannah. We thought we were being lavish when we blew $20 on that angel, dreaming of having her top our tree for many years to come.

Then the joy of each child pulling out his or her ornaments, one special one collected for each year of their lives. Then the ones given by friends, Sunday School teachers and grandmas over the years. Of course Mom and Dad have many ornaments of their own - ones labeled, "Tad/CCD, 1975" or "Mary, From Scott, 1974". Dad always had to stick his little red knitted stocking off the end of a branch (after he pulled out and hung the plaster drum Aunt Paulette painted for him eons ago) and there was always the argument about whether or not the Star Trek ornaments would be allowed to grace our hallowed evergreen this year.

That was before the fire.

This year there is no angel, no ornaments, no strings of ancient lights.

This year we forged a new tradition. Muffy, with great foresight, had long ago sent a shopping bag full of wrapped surprises. We opened a snow globe which played a tinny version of Joy to The World when wound up and provided the background music for our tree decorating. There was an angel ornament for each of the children to open and hang, a set of felt nativity figures with strings for hanging and an assortment of cookie cutters with Christmas themes (although I'm not sure how the giraffe snuck in there!). She even thought to put in a small creche for under the tree which was unwrapped and lovingly placed there by Betsy. Dad picked out new high-tech lights - these have LED's and a bit of a sharper glow to them. We had managed to collect a few ornaments each over the past months and so our tree isn't completely bare. The fact that is sits in a corner makes the baldness of 3 of its sides bearable. And, after having watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" no less than 5 times in the past month we sat back and sighed prayers of thanks for our lives, a home to live in and people to share in Christ's love. Dad prayed his blessing prayer over the tree and a pile of jammied children went off to bed. It's not what we *usually* do but it's ours and we're going to make it even when everything seems upside down and backwards. Thank you, Lord for our $10 Home Depot tree and for our Muffy who just understands which gaps need to be filled at exactly the right time.

Ava Gabrielle

Well, for those of you wondering what we've up to the past week, I must say it's been rather eventful. Yesterday afternoon 16 year old Tiffany and her newborn daughter Ava came to live with us in this lovely little 3 bedroom bungalow. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday building furniture and moving bedrooms. Poor John and David have been relegated to the basement w/the rest of the boys and walked around like little lost puppies for awhile wondering what happened to their comfortable little world upstairs.



I was driving from one place to another today and meditating on what it has meant for our family to take in a young lady and her baby who had nowhere else to go. I was particularly musing on its effect on the children and thinking that our children truly know what it means to sacrifice for a greater good. I believe giving up some personal space or position in family - or whatever - will help them contemplate Christ's tremendous sacrifice for them as they get older.

The more I thought about this, I began to cry. The tears ran down my face and I was overwhelmed with my sense of unworthiness. How unworthy we are to receive the blessing of taking in these two little sparrows! How God must lavish His love upon us to allow us to play a part in His plan. I don't know why He chose us to bless. It seems there wasn't much more room in this inn and yet He placed this precious baby here. He blessed our humble stable with a mighty gift of Love.

How appropriate that this little one should be named after two such notables from the bible - Eve and St. Gabriel. Eve, mother of all and St. Gabriel the archangel who came to Mary to announce the coming of the Spirit to stir within Mary's womb. Mary, who was young , alone and brave enough to say yes to the life within her - just as little Ava Gabrielle's mother has done.

I am in awe of God's graces poured out upon us. I am in awe and I often think of those things in my life which shaped my character and allowed me as an adult to say a million yes's to things which seem absurd to the world. Eight children and still counting?! I say Yes, Lord! Burn the house and keep persevering? I say Yes Lord! Build the house even bigger to accommodate more of the Lord's orphans? I say Yes, Lord!! From what strength does this still small yes come? From the strength of Christ found in my own mother's million little yes's. I grew up in a home full of Mom's "3 Dollar Bills" - the folks who just didn't "fit". We were the overnight stay for the stray seminarian, our Christmas days always included the most recent widow, the friend whose family had suddenly become inaccessible, the one or two who had nowhere to go and on the way home we were sure to drop off something to the refugee family living down the street or the one-armed man who spent his days leaning against the parking meter and greeting the town. I have untold such memories of kindnesses done out of love for Christ and love for neighbor.

And now, today, I am humbled to realize that my own children are learning this lesson as well. God has seen fit in all of our unworthiness to pass on this rich spiritual heritage to another generation. As I look into it deeper, I pray that not a generation will pass without this caring for the lost, the forsaken, the forlorn, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner, the sick. Thanks, Mom. And, Mom, if you ever think we've gone in way over our heads this time...just remember that you did this to me!!

View from the Dining Room...

Here is the current view from the dining room window. The window framed out is the new kitchen window - the sink goes under it. When this photo was taken on the 7th, the roof rafters were being finished. It is probably all sheathed by now. Pretty cool, huh?!









Here is the same view from the outside. That small opening will actually be the walk-out from the dining room. You can see that all the siding has been removed around the whole house and the roof is tarped over.









On the inside, the kitchen cabinets are being removed and the whole fire-damaged area has been sprayed with Killz - the fumes are awful!!

Oops, My Bad

I called and ordered pizza tonight. As usual, I asked for any specials and listened to him rattle off all the evening's deals. After that recitation, I was pleased to get a great price on 4 pizzas but when he confirmed the order he said to me, "And that is 4302?" "$43.02?!" I replied, obviously a bit flustered. "Why is it so much?" "Uh, ma'am," he answered, "that *is* your house number isn't it?"

The Christmas Letter

Well, I decided to go ahead and make the annual Christmas letter a post on my blog. It was an eventful year and this as good a place as any to recount all our adventures. Also, for anyone reading this blog who doesn't know us personally, this should fill you in a bit. So, here goes...


To Our Dear Friends and Family, Christmas, 2005

As many of you know, this has been quite an eventful year for us -- a year which has made us acutely aware of God's tremendous grace poured out and which has made us tremendously thankful for the blessings we have, which includes having all of you in our lives.The year got off to a smashing start when Fr. Joel totaled his little Saturn on the fender of a Cadillac. Nothing like starting off the year with a new car! The new year also found Betsy and Ruth in gymnastics, JT turning 8 years old and a family contingent joining in the annual Right to Life March in Washington DC -- an event which we are very pleased to say our eldest sons have chosen to participate in for the past several years. Of course, our hope and prayer is that each year will be the last as we anticipate a day when the murder of our children will once again be illegal and there will be nothing to protest.

The rest of the winter was fairly uneventful. In addition to the usual parade of doctor appointments, gymnastics classes, homeschool co-op and social engagements, a dear friend sent our live-in sitter Jessica to Driver's Education classes. That proved to be an education for all of us...

In April, on the heels of taking the top prize in a local public speaking contest, Fr. Joel was blessed to take his daughters to attend the Profession of Novice Ruth to the sisterhood at Life in Jesus. What a beautiful thing for a young woman to devote her life entirely to the service of Our King, and we were so glad our daughters got to witness her covenant evening.

May ushered in baseball season which featured Ben getting his first chance at catcher. What a dashing figure he cut in that chest plate and face mask! JT and Philip continued to improve in their skill and agility as well, and Mary and the girls are becoming quite the cheerleaders! In addition to the baseball season, May also brought the Septic Guys to our backyard with large trucks. Now, nothing gets a pile of boys more riled than having a backhoe tearing up their very own back yard! For several days, school was abandoned in place of the joy of sitting in the dining room and staring out the window. The backhoe operator claimed to be the best baby sitter in town -- always able to keep his charges in rapt attention! Even David sat in his bouncy seat on the table and gurgled with glee at every load of dirt scraped and transported in that big motorized bucket. The end result was even better -- a huge dirt patch, surely made just for their bikes!

June was the big month for us this year. On the evening of June 6th, There was a dispute with Philip about the treatment of his laundry which was duly returned to the dryer. This situation caused a delay in dinner, which resulted in the decision to take the whole family -- 8 kids, a Jessica and 2 parents -- to the library while the meatloaf finished cooking on low. We weathered a horrific storm in the safety of the library only to come home and find our house on fire and 13 fire trucks blocking our entrance to our road! Within minutes of arriving at the library, our roof had been struck by lightning, causing a fire in the attic. (Praise God it wasn't the meatloaf!) Although the fire department responded within minutes and confined the fire to the attic, the resulting smoke and water damage destroyed the entire upstairs, a good portion of the basement and the living room ceiling. We lost everything in the attic and everything belonging to JT, Ben, Philip, Miriam, John Michael and David (except for Philip's clothes which, you might remember, were still in the dryer..). We also lost use of the house for the rest of the year. But we had some great meatloaf to share with the generous folks who housed us for the next week!

We are taking the time to share some of the detail of that evening because we want to offer it as a testimony to God's hand over our lives. We don't believe a single circumstance to have been luck, but truly the provision of Our Lord to see us all safely through this. In a short time we found a temporary housing situation through the generosity of some friends in the CEC and moved what was left of our household about 10 miles south of our home. We anticipate being here for a couple more months and then returning to a fully renovated and remodeled home -- with a new kitchen/school room and 10 more feet of dining room! As we plan for the move back, we are constantly holding before us the vision God has for our family -- specifically to be open to His plan for growing our family -- both out of Mary's womb and out of the vast pool of orphans in the world. We anticipate a much larger family and, as these rooms represent the heart and soul of a family, the remodeled (and much larger!) kitchen and dining room are an important step in nurturing and growing the souls entrusted to our care -- both now and in the future.

The rest of the year has flown by quickly. The day of the fire, Mary met with her ENT who decided surgery was the best way to deal with her chronic sinus problems, and so she underwent surgery in August which went very well with terrific results. Somewhere in there, the 5 oldest children visited the eye doctor. Good thing too as he decided Philip and Miriam will need glasses within the next year, he found Ben to be slightly color-blind (thanks for the genes, Granddad!) and he immediately fitted Ruth with new purple spectacles which seem to have been a tremendous help to some of her gross motor difficulties. We also found a wonderful new craniofacial surgeon (truly an answer to many years of prayer on that one!) who plans to do a bone graft on the small hole left in Philip's hard palate. In preparation for that, Philip is in the process of acquiring a metal mouth (and the resulting bills for Mom and Dad from the orthodontist). We are very thankful for an orthodontist who is very experienced in treatment of cleft palate, and we are overjoyed to have Philip's new surgeon on our team as well.

Along the way, the children have found the time to pursue their passion -- horseback riding. Ben has chosen to step down off his horse to be replaced by John Michael who, at 2 years old, is proving to be a born cowboy. Betsy and JT also have a very natural "seat" (as we've been told is what you call it when they look pretty durn good on a horse) and Philip, Miriam and Ruth are doing fantastic as well -- meeting all kinds of therapeutic goals. There is a lot more trotting going on now that they have been at this for awhile and there has even been a canter or two along the way....

September brought us the gift of a much-needed two week vacation. We spent a week in Williamsburg taking in colonial history with Mary's parents and another blessed week in the Outer Banks taking in nothing but sun and waves. September also saw the waxing and waning of soccer season with JT moving up to the Under 10 league and making a good showing (one of his team's highest scoring players). Ben and Philip shared a coach and both played well. Ben enjoyed being one of the oldest players on his team and also a high scorer.

The Fall season brings most of our birthdays. After Philip turned 8 in July and David and John Michael celebrated 1 and 2 in August, Betsy's birthday kicked off the rest. She turned 4 in September, Miriam turned 10 in October, a week later Ben had his 8th birthday. Ruth will be 5 this month and after the celebration of Jesus' birthday JT will come around again for number 9.

So far, the winter has found us back to our routine and retreating from the usual hustle and bustle of activities. School is going very well considering that we are simply moving boxes and shelves around to find our books, but we anticipate a much more organized and effective set-up in our newly renovated home!

The birth of Our Saviour for the salvation of the world is the most wonderful time to be thankful for all of God's graces poured out on a fallen world. We hope that our story this year is a testimony to the world, of God's grace to keep us going when the things of the world should get us down. Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your generosity, thank you for your kind words, your babysitting, your dogsitting, your gifts, your smiles, your hugs, your floor space, your lawn-mowing and mulching. The list is endless. We will never be able to express enough thanks for the love showered upon us. It is truly through your prayers and support that our family has been sustained this year, and that the benevolent eye of the Father of all has rested upon us.

May you find the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your hearts this year as never before and may you be blessed as mightily -- and more -- as we have been.

God's Peace to you in the Christmas season,

Fr. Joel, Mary, Miriam, JT, Philip, Ben, Ruth, Betsy, John Michael and David

PS: For the first time ever we do not have any new family members to report in our Christmas letter. However, please pray with us as we do have a couple of situations under consideration. We are sad to say, also, that Jessica moved on after the fire to experience "real life". We miss you Jessica! Godspeed to you!

The Turkey Bowl

For the first time in several years, we went to my family's Thanksgiving celebration. Usually we travel out to Ohio where the children enjoy having Grammy and Tata all to themselves for a long weekend (well, there was last year when all 5 of the sibs and their families were able to make it and that was wonderful too!). However, since the whole family will be here for Christmas and since we took a long vacation this year (two weeks - yeah!) we opted to stay home for Thanksgiving. I must say I had a fantastic day and so did everyone else once they got over their disappointment over losing the year's major road-trip. The day began with mass which was a nice break from the usual since it was a bit shorter (good for the children) and I actually had my husband in the pew to deal with all the "issues".

Our first stop after arriving at Mom's house was the soccer field where we played the annual family Turkey Bowl Soccer Game. Now I must say I was a bit apprehensive about this game since the last time we participated in one of these events. On that day, Peter and Reid got to be team captains and it was a painful process watching my children be picked over one by one - almost as painful as the fact that Beth and I were the very last ones chosen (which brought on bad flashbacks of way too many childhood memories). So you can imagine my relief when those children of mine voted Most Likely to Not Get Picked opted to stay at Muffy's house out of the cold and play. With that out of the way, I was overjoyed to be on the field with my boys (and my new mittens made for Heidi and me by Beth after our last sister outing). This time, we had the blessed occasion of Alden and my husband being chosen as team captains which meant that Beth and I were PICKED FIRST!! This had to be a first in our lives which of course needed to be celebrated with high fives and lots of whoops and hollers. It also meant that Heidi, ever the one to excel in athletics and to dominate social scenes, was picked LAST. Also a first for her - not accompanied by so much whooping and hollering but more like an embarrassed sulk onto the field. This deflated creature was the same one who had simply shrugged and smiled when I expressed my sadness over watching my children be picked over at the last game. An important lesson was learned I think...

Well, we played through wind, hail, rain, clouds and mud ( it seemed Sam's goal had more to do with acquiring mud stains on his pants than acquiring goals scored for his team) and in the end, we won 3-2. It was great to see Dad on the field. He was pretty pleased with himself that he still has a good foot on him. I got to play goalie and I also got to learn a valuable lesson - large, flowing skirts make great ball-stoppers. I was wearing my new (50 cent find at a yard sale) bright orange, extra long peasant skirt and found that if I stretched it out from side to side I could triple my width, and, thus the amount of goal protected from the opposite team. That skirt saved many a score...

The rest of the day was filled up with turkey and the usual array of snacks, pies and beverages. I had made sure the night before that it would be an eat-fest for JT who rarely gets more than a choice or two anywhere we go. The boys had a grand time playing with their cousins (spent most of the afternoon engaged in a game of Vanished Planet) and once we introduced SWAP! to the crowd that became a fast favorite. I can't remember the last time I was just relaxed and not exhausted for a holiday. There was no rushing around, I wasn't pregnant, nursing or exhausted from lack of sleep or a 10 hour drive with way too many children in one vehicle and way too many hours of Hank the Cowdog. I hadn't been arguing with my husband and my children were all very well-behaved and old enough to be basically self-sufficient (once we got past the turkey-cutting event). It was the best Thanksgiving I can remember in a long time...just calm, peaceful and truly thankful for all the blessings of the year...

A Dream and a Death

Friday was an interesting day.... JT woke up and told me he hated to wake up because he had been dreaming that our painter, Mr. Bill, was painting the last wall of the last room and we were just about to move back into our house. Nice dream but not quite reality. Truth is, things are moving along nicely. The trusses are up over the garage and the roof sheeting replaced. All this is now being protected by a tarp so the whole roof still looks exactly like it looked immediately after the fire...

When we arrived at the site on Thursday, there were 3 very large men looking very pleased with themselves and they asked me what I thought about what they'd been doing. I looked at that tarp and teased them about not actually doing anything since it looked just the same. Well, they kept grinning right at me and then said, "Yeah, but did you notice anything?..." At which point I finally shifted my focus to the back wall of the house where they had spent the morning man-handling all the brick-work off the part of the house where the addition will go. Wow! What a lot of work and they were so pleased with themselves! I don't think we could have a better crew of guys working on this thing. We are pleased with them, too. In addition to this, many of the windows have been removed upstairs and they continue to gut it out and prepare for the painter to treat the trusses so they no longer smell like smoke. It is coming along, folks...

That evening I took Betsy in the car with me (she'd been voted most likely to keep the driver awake) and drove to Pennsylvania for the memorial service of my college roommate's husband. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a 36 year old widow and my heart goes out to Sheri in her pain. I was glad to be able to be there for her and she was genuinely surprised to see me there, knowing something of the goings on around here. Sheri, we do love you and please, please know that our doors are always open to you!

Little Funny

I was driving the girls today somewhere and charging my cellphone on the car charger. The girls spent quite a while discussing what this might be before they actually bothered to ask. When I told them that my cell phone was charging, Betsy said, "Oh that's just like changing the batteries." I said "Yes, Betsy, that's exactly right." She must have sensed that I was a bit surprised and pleased with her answer when she responded with, "Mom you are so very proud of me, aren't you?"

Keeping Sight of the Vision

Yesterday they put the trusses up for the attic. JT and I explored a little and realized that with the new trusses (the old stick structure wouldn't pass inspection and needed a sturdier frame) we will no longer be able to put anything useful into the attic. Nor will we be able to put the attic door back on with it opening in to the attic...not exactly a good start to the project but we move on. Today they got a bit of the sheeting onto the attic roof. It's actually starting to look like something now. The heating and air vents are in, along with a brand new furnace installed in the attic. How nice.

But, like most projects of this magnitude, we seem to be running out of money for what we really want to do before we've even begun. Our plans keep dwindling and dwindling down until we always get to the crux of our project - the kitchen/schoolroom and dining room. We can see the vision so clearly of how God wants to grow our family and we know that these areas of the house will be and should be central to the life of our family. They will be central to taking in more orphans and making them part of the family and they will be central to extending the love that our family shares with others outside the family in the form of hospitality. These two rooms have become a metaphor for God's call on our lives...bring them in, love them, pray for them, raise them up and keep the family as the center of their lives. Their bedrooms will come and go and shift as family members grow, are added and move on but the dining room table and the place of my service to my family - the kitchen - will remain the heartbeat of who we are and why we do what we do for the glory of God. This is the greater vision, without which we would have crumbled round about June 7th - (a day or so after the fire).

No Roof and a Kissing Worm

Today they tore the roof off the garage and poured concrete into the hole in the back yard. On Wednesday they plan to haul the new trusses up and have the attic completely reframed. The kids watched for a while from inside the trampoline and then decided to play in the dirt pile. Miriam found a rather amorous earthworm which, apparently, needed to be kissed by her.

Ouch!

Two year old John Michael was toddling around this evening wearing the sheep costume in preparation for his sisters' show. As he ran through the kitchen, the hood slipped over his eyes and he smacked into the refrigerator before falling onto the floor. He got up slowly and muttered, "Aw, sheep!"

A Day in the Life

JT spent 4 hours in the emergency room last night for a splint and an x-ray on his wrist so this morning I had to get up and find an orthopedist. I found one who then wanted the x-rays, a referral and an appt before 11:30 am. It only took three phone calls to the pediatrician and 4 phone calls to the hospital (after I finally found the number - the one listed in the phone book for the ER had been disconnected with no forwarding number!). Then 3 calls to the ortho and a gazillion calls to every friend in my acquaintance who might be able to watch at least 5 children on short notice. God bless the friend who called me for some entirely unrelated issue and ended up at our house 30 minutes later toting her own 3 children. All the while, of course, those 8 little bodies needed to be fed some breakfast, there was Math and Reading to accomplish just so we could say we did some school today and David followed me around whining and putting his little arms in the air at me.

My friend arrived here shortly after 11:00 which gave me about 20 minutes to race into town, find a parking spot for the big red van (normally a 20 minute procedure by itself), race into the hospital w/both my fastest and pokiest children, take an elevator to the ground floor, track down the films, race back to the van and get 5 miles up the road to the doctor. We didn't do it. We arrived at the doctor's office at 11:43 but they were gracious enough to see us anyway. That made it all worth it. It's amazing how soft I can become when doctors actually turn out to be nice people and their staff are accommodating and efficient. Turned out to be just a bad sprain - more good news as 6 weeks in a cast was a daunting notion for JT considering the amount of energy he stores in his body which needs to be released into some seriously physical activity at least 5 times a day.

We were out of there so quickly we made it to the optometrist in time to replace the frames of Ruthie's glasses which she broke last week falling out of the van in a far-off-thought moment. And since we were on a roll we ambled on up to the orthodontist a half hour early for Philip's appt to get his spacers placed in his mouth in preparation for the BRACES he gets next week. They actually saw us early, too - another doctor office with marks for good behavior. So we had an "o" doctor sort of morning - orthopedist, optometrist, orthodontist...

We made it home shortly after 1:00 and it was the least I could do to watch my friend's 3 boys while she had some alone time at the grocery store. The kids had a great time playing with their friends for that extra time except for Philip who, somewhere in there, forgot to be social enough to disengage from his activity in the basement and say good-bye. The good-byes over, we locked the front door and piled into the van to take JT to his friend's house (1/2 hour away and only about 2 minutes from the orthodontist but of course we couldn't coordinate the two efforts). Had the key in the ignition when Ben asked, "Mom, where is Philip?" Oh yeah, still in the basement being anti-social. This is why we do roll call every time we get in the van - I would have figured it out in another minute or so, honest. We retrieved Philip from the basement and tried again, dropped JT off only to have a car full of sulking children who didn't't get to go to a friend's house. We racked our brains on the way home for friends we could see (um, what about the 3 boys who spent the morning romping around our house with you?!) and decided to stop in our neighbors. I was willing to take 2 of her kids home with me but instead we ended up leaving Ben there for the night to go to a family bonfire. The number of pouting children left in the car was dwindling anyway...

With Daddy gone, I needed a nap and I needed one badly so I resorted to the Mom secret weapon - the DVD player. I turned on Three Musketeers, put David in his bed and lay on the sofa w/the blanket over my head. Of course, this meant nothing to John Michael who persisted in climbing in, on and over me throughout the duration of the movie. Somewhere in there JT got delivered home, I ordered a couple of pizzas and we switched to old Roy Rogers movies (gotta love Netflix!). The children got into bed by 9:50, I took 20 minutes to write this post and now I will retire to bed with my latest Michael O'brien novel (reading in bed is a rare treat for me) and a pint of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk. And that's one day in the life of our family....