Here's to Hoping

My Feingold buddies have been following this pregnancy closely and were convinced that yesterday was going to see the birth of Nathan. They announced, they prayed it and they waited for it to happen. So, since yesterday was supposed to *my* day I did a lot of nonsense - walked around to a bunch of stores w/the girls getting birthday presents for our two August birthdays and buying Breyer's (buy one get one free at Superfresh - yahoo!!). I also got myself an eggplant and ate it for supper w/tomato sauce and mozz cheese - yum! That seemed to work. I sufficiently tired myself out, came home and camped out in my chair and let the contractions begin!

Those continued for a few hours and then they stopped so Ben and I walked down to the neighbor's pool on the other side of the neighborhood and took a swim/made a whirlpool. I decided I needed more walking so we took the long way home. About halfway home I got a cramp in my side so bad I couldn't walk anymore and we sat on some tree stumps in someone's yard - we must have been a sight since it was dark by then! I mustered up some more energy and we made it to the next street where we sat in the gutter and I text messaged dh to say please come pick me up!! I waited for my knight in a shining silver Saturn to pick me up but after a few minutes and no response, we decided to try the last leg home. Slowly but surely we made it home. I was BEAT!! We went to sleep and I had contractions all night. Now I'm up sitting in my most comfortable chair and still having contractions which are getting quite a bit stronger...We shall see...Of course, Sunday mornings here are always packed since we are supposed to be at church by 8:30 and usually stay there until 1 or 1:30 (such is the life of a clergy family! lol). So Nathan will have picked the most inopportune time of the week to arrive - figures! By the way, the Bradley way of breathing through these puppies is working much better than all the other labors I've ever had!! I just may make it through this one without the epidural - I hope so!!

The Pregnant Pause

Well, just everybody wants to know...when is this baby coming?! And, hey, I'm right up there with them. It just seems I can't convince little Nathan to pack his bags and head south for anything. As of Monday, I was 2 cm dilated, 60% effaced and little guy was still a free floater which means....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING apparently on your 5th go round. I could go from there to delivery in a matter of minutes, hours or weeks and no amount of convincing is going to change his and God's birth schedule.

So I am just praying for the grace to make it through the day every day and praising Him for 8 wonderful children who have learned to go with the flow and pick up the pieces of our lives as I drop them. JT and Ben have become the perfect helpers - they now get breakfast for everyone and come up with a morning play plan before I'm even thinking of getting out of bed. I mostly spend time daydreaming about a bonified *dark*haired child and managing all the random sensations flowing through my body at any given time. Today those happen to be minor contractions and major back pain in addition to Nathan's attempts to scrape off the lining of my uterus with his knees and fingernails.

The most amusing part of this has to be the vivid dreams. Yesterday I layed down for a nap and dreamt that I was napping on Mom's sofa. I awoke to realize that Nathan's head was crowning in spite of a distinct lack of contractions. I desperately tried to get my husband's attention but he just wasn't understanding me and all I could think was, "I'm going to deliver this baby right here and I'm going to get Mom's couch all bloody." At that point I woke up for real and realized it wasn't a crowning head, but a marvelous wedgie causing that sensation....

Ben's Calling

At the farm where we do therapeutic riding they are trying to inseminate several of the horses. They do the insemination and then at 16 days they do a sonogram to see if it has "taken". Well, our children were blessed to view one of these sonograms - it was sooo neat to see that little pony zygote on the computer screen - esp when they've been so aware of my own pregnancy this time around. The only thing is that the vet did the sonogram internally and she was up to her armpit in horse bottom getting the wand in there....Well, while everyone else was transfixed on that computer screen, Ben was busy watching the vet. He looked at me and said, "Mom, promise me one thing - just this one thing.." "What's that Ben?" "Promise me I will never be called to do*that*!" I just thought that was so sweet that he was really open to whatever the Lord's calling may be on his life but he could see that there would be some internal struggles if the call went in a particular direction....I'm so glad that our children are learning to see growing up as growing into their call from God.

Why We're Letting God Plan our Family

This issue recently came up on the Large Families Homeschooling e-group to which I belong. One member of the group is earnestly seeking the answers to NFP (Natural Family Planning) vs Quiverful thinking (allowing God complete control over the wife's womb and fertility w/no intervention) for her own life. I know we have many friends and family who have learned to just bite their tongues and shake their heads at us when we announce a new pregnancy or another adoption and so I thought that perhaps my responses to the member of that group on this topic would be an edifying addition to my blog. I gave two responses and I am posting both of them here.

Here is part of the first response:

I think part of why my children like to expand the family is that with adoption they have a bit of a say in the matter too. Of course we only adopt the ones we feel genuinely called by God to adopt but they have put in their orders w/Him. JT was feeling rather outnumbered as the only black child in the family and then we adopted an African sister. He still has his order in for a slightly older, dark-skinned brother who likes to play soccer (I'm not sure God's going to honor that one but he's welcome to dream..). They find it fun to kick around the possibilities and often look at the adoption photo-listings with me. But they are just as thrilled when I get pregnant. I don't know if the boys will still be enthusiastic shouldI ever be able to conceive a girl again but as long as I'm popping out brothers, they are thrilled and the girls just seem to like to be big sisters to anybody who comes along.

Our fertility is in God's hands which is an interesting place to be considering I'm about to give birth to number 9 and I'm only 35. I have at least 10 more fertile years I would think before things slow down significantly. That could add up to a lot more little bodies in the family! I really struggled with that, however, after John Michael was born. His was a really hard pregnancy with lots of pre-term labor signs, bedrest and worry. Shortly after he was born, I confessed to the other clergy wives at our annual retreat that I really needed prayer in that area. We had turned our fertility over to the Lord but I was really hoping and praying that God would give us a bit of a break for a while as I didn't know how I would cope. Well, what I didn't know then is that I was probably already pregnant with David who was born two weeks before John Michael's first birthday! He was also my easiest pregnancy ever *and* in between there God provided us with a full-time live-in nanny. God heard my prayers and answered them in ways I never would have thought. I wanted a break and He gave me an easy pregnancy and fulltime help. I just needed to trust Him to know the plan!


And here is the follow-up response:

I have always had funky cycles and when I was in college they became extremely painful and problematic. I went on the pill then to even out the cycles and my moods - not to use as BC. That said, I was still very emotionally unstable when I first got married and stayed on the pill for about another 2 years. I went off the pill and we decided to try to conceive and took NFP classes. We basically failed the class b/c my cycles were literally off the charts and all my NFP "signs" were completely whacked (like perfectly wonderful stringy mucous for weeks on end and temperatures so erratic there was no making sense out of them?!). The nurse who taught the class threw up her hands and said we must be doing it all wrong - unfortunately her incredibly insensitive response came from absolutely *no* training in dealing w/women w/irregular cycles.

After that and still no baby we went to a fertility clinic. We were told that both of us had issues which would preclude us from ever being able to conceive. In retrospect, I blame the pill on those "issues". As soon as we got that news, we decided to adopt instead. A month after we placed JT, we found out I was 6 weeks pregnant w/Ben - a MIRACLE! Since it took us so many years to conceive Ben, we just stopped worrying about it and put it in God's hands. In the meantime, we adopted a couple more children. Then came Betsy, born 4 years after Ben. That was a doable time span -why worry (except that we were in the middle of an adoption from Hong Kong at the time)? Obviously God's clock was going to go nice and slowly for us on this conception thing. So we continued to leave it up to the Lord. Well, John Michael was born 2 years after Betsy -the gap was getting closer and, as I said, that was a miserable pregnancy. That was the one that really made us stop and think about this Leaving It Up To The Lord thing. Our hearts were convicted but we just didn't know if we could handle it if they came any closer and that's when I really started to cry out to the Lord over it and He responded as I told you in my testimony.

There are so many issues surrounding this with us. I now believe that artificial BC is unacceptable for Christian couples. I am sorry if that statement offends but I have btdt and the physical and spiritual pain it caused me and my dh (not to mention the abortifacient effects) are not fruits of a godly thing... I know and understand NFP and see its value for Christian couples. For us, it just can't work because my body just does not work the way it should. So my dh and I are caught between a rock and a hard place -do we completely surrender this to the Lord or do we use BC because the alternative (NFP) doesn't work for us? Well, if you don't believe BC is a viable option for Christians then we were left with a pretty clear answer there...

We also happen to be a clergy family - my dh is a priest who has been teaching on Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body - a very deep,challenging and convicting reflection on God's plan for marriage. It does allow for NFP, in fact actively endorses it as the best, most godly way to go. Since it doesn't work for us, we've had to adjust our thinking.

All the clergy in our church are on board with this teaching and havebeen working together to teach it from the pulpit, therefore our personal lives have been closely scrutinized by our congregation - we really need to put our money where our mouths are, so to speak. Of the 4 clergy couples - one is beyond childbearing years, one couple is using NFP and two of us are choosing to allow God to completely control our wombs. For the other couple this has been a particularly hard walk. It has meant carrying and birthing miscarried babies at home so that they could bury the bodies properly and be a witness to the fact that these are all lives planned by God and not a pile of tissue to be disposed of by hospital personnel. I see the strength in their witness and how can we *not* go the hard road that, yes, we feel God is calling us to walk in?! The couple who is using NFP are currently the houseparents of a home for unwed pregnant girls - a wonderfully dynamic and necessary ministry. They have 2 young children and having another, will make it very difficult to carry out this ministry. They, also, I believe are following God's call for their lives.

So, I guess my response is a mixed bag. I do not believe Christian couples are called to use artificial BC - it definitely dampens the spirit of a marriage and, I believe, goes against a biblical ideal for man and wife. So the choice becomes one of no intervention at all or NFP. Either, I think are acceptable but I don't think either one is *our* choice. I think as husbands and wives we need to earnestly seek after the Lord's plan for our marriages and our families. We can't just make assumptions - but really need to communicate w/our spouses and with the Lord. It can be a hard road to follow the former but, when called to it, the Lord will provide for all our needs.

In some marriages, it may be virtually impossible for a wife to get that conversation out of her husband and so her job then becomes to submit to his wishes and pray for his heart to be open to the conversation. There are many, many women on this list who have demonstrated that beautifully and now have wonderful testimonies about such things as vasectomy reversals, hearts opened to adoption and several homemade blessings who would never be walking this earth w/o God's grace poured out.

I don't know the answers for you in particular, but I do know that calvary was a hard road, that the cup poured out was not the easy thing for our Lord to do. He doesn't ask us to do the easy thing, he asks us, "Can you drink from this cup?" If we look at the cup as death and crucifixion, the answer may be no, but if we look atthe cup as resurrection, the answer will always be Yes, Lord!! I can only offer my testimony which I've tried to make one of saying yes to Jesus in spite of whatever discomfort it causes me.

The baby I am about to birth was conceived during our year in exile after a devastating housefire, after which our live-in nanny left us and I had to pick up the pieces of our home life by myself (dh is not only a priest and a father of many but has to hold down a full-time secular job as well). God has provided more abundantly, over-filling, blessedly in the past year then ever before in our lives.My friend loves to quote a scripture (and I'm sorry, I wish I knew the reference - I'll have to ask her) about how in our obedience GodCOMMANDS a blessing. It's not just His heart, that we are blessed for our obedience, He makes sure it happens by COMMANDING it! Howc ool is that?!

Well, I don't know if I've answered your questions but I've certainlyhad my say here...lol.

Live Jesus!

Mary K

A Way Cool Answer to Prayer

Several years ago, the wife of one of our bishops shared with the ladies of our church about their ministry in the Philippines. She spoke specifically about the children there and the terrible conditions. She talked about children abandoned in trash heaps and on the streets. The lucky ones were left in places where the parents were sure they would be found and taken to an orphanage. She talked about a difficult political situation and severe poverty which are the source of such atrocities against the children. I came home from that retreat weekend and talked to my children about what I had learned. The story struck a chord in Ben's heart and since then he has faithfully prayed for the children in the Philippines almost every night.

Well, yesterday we got to spend some time with our friends who have 4 children adopted from Korea and just received two Filipino children into their home for a summer adoption program. Hector and Joey will be joining their new family after a brief visit here, a return to the Philippines and then a permanent move back here sometime this Winter! Nobody planned it this way, they weren't exactly looking to adopt again and certainly not from the Philippines! God just spoke to our friends and they responded with joyful obedience. Since this is the family which took us in after the fire, I'm certain Ben's prayers for the children were prayed under their roof at some point. There are still many children in the Philippines in need of loving homes but don't we have an awesome God who hears the prayers of a child and responds in such a way?!

The Long Silence

Well, I haven't posted here in quite some time, not out of a lack of anything to write about. It's been a long, hard month and I don't have any fun pictures to share or funny stories to relate. There have been several things keeping me from writing and I hope to get back on board this week. Here's the run-down of the past month or so:

WATER - We moved back home Memorial Day weekend and that Friday Fr. Joel took the 4 eldest boys camping as a well-deserved break from the hard work of moving boxes. I glanced down the basement steps on my way to bed at around midnight and saw about 2 inches of standing, muddy water filling the entire basement. What's a pregnant woman to do? I left a message for my husband, prayed a long prayer and went to bed. The water had receded by morning which left us with a layer of mud all over anything new we had just put down there (which happened to include the big boys' bedrooms). The next two weeks we went through monsoon season here and the water clean-up became a daily chore in the basement. Two pumps later and a few wheelbarrows full of dirt and we finally got it under control, just in time for the last week of heavy rains. There is now a major drainage diversion project on the top of the to-do list for the back yard.

SPIRITUAL TURMOIL - Somewhere in there we began to experience some turmoil in our church government. Fr. Joel's presence was required at several lengthy meetings which kept him from home for a period of a few weeks. The end result is that our bishop has resigned from the CEC and our church government is experiencing a period of adjustment and renewal. It has been a confusing time for our clergy, our congregations and for us personally and a lot of time and energy has been spent in the business of reconciling relationships and restoring joy and order to our parish life. We are finally at a point where we can begin to pick up where we left off in the most important business - that of being church to our town and our Neighbors.

PREGNANCY - Well, the final thing keeping me from my blog is the fact that I'm very pregnant and in the midst of all of the above at the same time. God has been so good to grant me a fairly easy and mobile pregnancy. I've been able to be on my hands and knees mopping up muddy floors, unpacking boxes, decorating bedrooms and just restoring our household to some semblance of order, in addition to the day to day tasks of raising up a small army to the glory of God.

I think we're finally stabilizing a bit here, just in time for the birth of Nathan Lee which should be occurring any time between right now and another 2 weeks from now. I just passed my 37 week mark and, as usual, Mr. Baby is measuring big. There have been some off and on contractions but nothing that feels like delivery is imminent. We'll be sure to keep you posted!

JT did get to have a week at River Valley Ranch as a real overnight camper. It was a tremendous experience for him and Heidi did a great job keeping him on his diet so his transition home was pretty smooth.

This past weekend we sent the children off in 4 different directions while Fr. Joel and I took a much-needed weekend away. It was fantastic! God was good to provide each of the children with the perfect situation and He was equally as good to provide Fr. Joel and me with exactly the right experience. We attended a Roman Catholic homeschool conference at the Baltimore Convention Center (I'll save the details for another posting) and got loads of time to spend alone together and to spend some very relaxed time with good friends as well.

It is well with my soul...and I'm glad to be back on the blog!

Walking Through the Fire

Last weekend, as we moved back to the house, I was filled with gratitude for what God has done. Truly I could sing, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below" for I have realized that I am just one of His creatures, created out of His tremendous benevolence and yet He cares for me - and my family - with such love and attends to every detail of our lives. My hope is to chronicle the many ways in which He worked through this fire to refine our souls and to bring others around us closer to Him through the witness of our walking through the fire.

Shortly before we moved back in, I got a visit from Kirk, our construction foreman. He began to tell story after story of things that had been happening of which we had been unaware. We knew that God was pursuing him and wanted him for his very own but we had no idea the impact we'd made on him and how he had shared our story with everyone he encountered working on the house. Right after we signed with Capezio, we were told we would be assigned a different foreman but, funny, Kirk showed up instead. Over the course of the past year, we prayed faithfully for Kirk and his crew by name. We asked our church to storm heaven for them as well, although we didn't need to ask - they were faithful to pray for the completion of the construction, for the safety of all on the job and for the witness of our family to those we met in the process. Kirk shared with us how in the midst of the project he had spent several days in the hospital and been diagnosed with diabetes. Within a couple of weeks, a friend within the company prayed for him and he was instantly nearly healed. He was able to immediately go off all but one of his meds and his doctor even said he did not need to return for follow-up visits. A couple of months later, his wife was bitten by a brown recluse spider and also ended up in the hospital with an infection which remained unresponsive to many different antibiotics and was causing the skin around the site to decay. Within a few days she was home, energy returned, only a slight sign of the bite on her arm remained and completely healed.

Kirk also shared with us that whenever a subcontractor came into the house, he would tell them about our family and urge them to do the best job they could as quickly as they could so we could return. Many of the subs went above and beyond to do little extras that weren't part of the scope but Kirk had convinced them that we were a worthy family. Even the final building inspection went quickly when Kirk told the inspector about us, had JR. fix the problems immediately, and the inspector was convinced that he wanted us in our house as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...we were beginning to see a change in the neighborhood children. Our children would come in most days from playing with them frustrated, angry and confused. They would lie, cheat, steal and our children just didn't get it. We began to pray through every situation and discuss ways to handle the behavior they were encountering. They eventually began to tell the other children, "We don't want to be treated this way and if you continue to (say, do) these things we are not going to play today." At first they were scorned and mocked for that response but, hey, when you have 8 kids you have enough for a *team* and our folks walking off the field was enough to stop any game dead in its tracks. Eventually, they began to see a definite difference in the way the other children were playing. They were being *nice* to each other, they weren't cheating (quite so much) and they were more willing to include those they weren't normally inclined to include. The big test came when one of the neighborhood children had his cousin over to play with the crowd. Both children had been notoriously difficult for our children to handle and they didn't even want to go out that day but I encouraged them to keep trying. Sure enough, they went out, this little guy started up, our children made their statement and the mocking began. Surprisingly it was cut short by little guy's cousin this time! The one child in the neighborhood who had caused the most grief to our children was now defending them. I praised God for allowing my children to be able to see the difference they had made! God had changed the hearts for whom we had prayed and prayed and prayed and my children witnessed it in a powerful, concrete way! That is a benevolent God.

Then there is the story of how we even came to have a place to live in the first place. The house we rented for the past year is owned by friends from within the CEC. They moved out the weekend before the fire and had just begun to look for renters. They were more than happy to get us settled in and work with the insurance company. When the insurance pulled our relocation funds in December, they lowered the rent to half as much for us. We prayed for God to bless their generosity and for a quick sale of the house once we moved out. It looks like God will answer that prayer as well - as the family across the street has shown an intense interest in buying the house quickly.

There are so many other little stories and many ways I know we aren't even aware of that we have witnessed the faithfulness of Christ to others through this experience. And, yes, we know that we are far from perfect and so God had some refining to do on us as well. I began my spiritual direction with Fr. Jeffrey and the works of St Francis de Sales which has changed the very nature of my heart. We were forced to slow down and quit all activities except for the boys' sports and our homeschool co-op which gave us lots of family time together and a wonderfully productive school year. This was the year we found some help and relief for JT and his growing difficulties. He is now a much more calm, loving and confident child. And probably the biggest lesson every one of us learned was true perseverance. It is a lesson we never could have taught our children otherwise. It is a lesson Fr Joel and I will hold in our hearts. Our marriage also has seen a tremendous boost. We have learned to love each other through good times and bad and through trials and tribulations. Rather than run into anger and frustration, we allowed God to wrap us in His mercy, silence our tongues against hurtful words and uphold and support each other with love and tenderness.

We know that our family has a particular call. We know that we are to be a picture to the world of God's love - of unity between races, of the value of each person in God's sight no matter what the color, disability, ability, personality....And this past year we were also a picture of God's grace, of walking together as a family through a difficult trial and coming out the other side in His triumphant glory.

A few weeks ago I took all the children to a store. We always get lots of stares and well-meaning but often off-color comments. On this particular day, one store clerk watched us closely for quite a while. Finally when we passed by her she said to me, "Someone needs to take your picture and put it on a poster and title it What the World Should Look Like". She didn't know our story, she didn't know the half of what we'd been through nor what we would continue to go through and yet she instinctively saw the picture we strive to paint. What a victory for Jesus Christ! That store clerk put into words the whole vision for which our family strives! We are so imperfect, so impure, so dark yet lovely and yet God chooses to use us to draw a picture of His Kingdom. Praise God from Whom ALL Blessings Flow!

Long Time, No Blog

Well, we have moved in...It's been a looong week and the house is still a mess. Last Saturday a bunch of guys moved all the furniture we had collected into our house. Then on Tuesday ServPro brought back everything they had in storage and we spent the next few days trying to sort and unpack it all. Friday Fr. Joel took John Michael and the big boys for a celebratory camping trip to Knoebel's. It poured for hours here and round about midnight I looked down the basement steps at an inch of water covering the entire basement floor....sigh...Being 8 months pregnant and alone, I had no idea where to even begin to clean that up. Then I started having contractions which sort of put the whole clean-up out of the picture anyway. Those lasted for about 2 hours when I finally fell asleep around 2 am only to be awakened by my husband calling me at 7:00, returning my many frantic calls to him from several hours earlier. He and the boys wrapped up the campsite and came home immediately. We spent the rest of the day - and night - mopping mud out of every crevice of the floor and tossing out even more ruined stuff (including the Persian rug I was so excited about because I had found it at a yardsale for $20). Well, if we've learned anything, it's that stuff is just stuff. No one was injured, not even our tempers or our faith. God is still good and He still provides for our every need...but, really, can we can get a break here?!

Welcome Home Day

I got a call from Kirk, our construction foreman, today announcing that today is Welcome Home Day. He had just gotten word that our building inspection was complete and approved! He confessed that he'd spent the night tossing and turning and worrying about this inspection even though he is normally a rather calm, cool and collected person. I was touched that he cared so much about us...Then when I arrived at the house, he'd gotten these flowers for us and they were signed by the 4 guys who did most of the work on the house. How sweet is that?! So tomorrow they finish up some carpentry work they have left, Thursday the cleaning crew goes through and takes care of the layer of dust covering everything and Friday we MOVE IN! But I know here's what you really want - the grand tour! I'll give you some of the highlights.

This is one of the tubs upstairs. The original tubs had been special ordered b/c of their unique size which was dictated by the design of the bathrooms. In order to avoid another special order issue, we had the original tubs refinished and they turned out beautiful!



Here's John Michael and Davey running down the hallway. You can see the carpeting on the steps to the upstairs which is the same as the carpeting on the basement steps. Also notice the hardwood floors have been completely refinished. I can't believe how beautiful they are!

And my greatest joy and delight - the KITCHEN! This is a view from the dining room of most of the kitchen. We replaced every single appliance except for the fridge. The cooktop is my favorite - a DACOR 5 burner cooktop which required that massive micro-hood over it. .

The oven is a self-cleaning, double convection oven- woohoo!!! The 10 foot stainless steel prep table goes right done the middle and the shelves next to the oven are for organizing our homeschool materials.

Here's the long view from the front door into the dining room. You can see how much more spacious the whole downstairs seems with the addition (and the hardwood floors - you can't even tell the transition to the laminate in the back of the dining room in this picture)
Here's the reverse view looking into the living room and front door from the new french doors in the dining room addition.

The girls and the toddlers were sooo excited to be allowed in the house and to run wherever they wanted. Up until now, they usually had to stay outside for safety sake or make little trips in with lots of rules about touching stuff. Here's Davey on the landing going down to the basement.


Here they are enjoying their stage which they've missed very much and was finally about 3/4 free of the smoked wood which landed there about 8 months ago. And here they all are just making faces in front of the fireplace. I have tons of pictures like this because they were so excited they just ran from place to place dancing, making faces, playing hide and seek and demanding that I take their pictures!

Going HOME!

Well, we are in the throes of the final push HOMEWARD. I've been packing almost as quickly as John Michael and David have been unpacking and running...Meanwhile, back home on the range, our construction foreman is pushing ahead as fast as he can. The building inspector is scheduled for tomorrow so we'll hopefully have our occupancy permit by the end of the day. Wednesday will be spent touching things up, Thursday the cleaning company comes through and Friday we MOVE! It feels so good to see that in writing. We are thrilled with the house. It is really beautiful and the addition is going to add a lot of flavor as well. God has been so good to us and so have our friends, neighbors, family....Another day will be the essay about all the lessons learned during our year of conflagration exile....Here's a few pics of what's been going on. Hopefully, I'll be able to put more up in the next couple of days.
Here is the new railing Bill built. He took out all the middle rails and left the corner posts standing. He wrapped the corner posts w/new wood that he stained and routered to look more like the trim at the bottom of the steps. It turned out really nice after many months of all of us staring at it and shaking our heads wondering who was going to do what about it. Those rails are now much sturdier than the original and the corner posts have maintained their Steve-proof-grade mounting.





Here's the kitchen with counters in place but now all the appliances are in place, the pantry has a door and shelving and flooring is in place. It really looks fantastic.






I love this picture of the kids on the new laminate floor in the master bedroom. The floors look terrific and I'm so happy to be rid of carpet - of course, we'll see if the floor outlasts my happiness after kids and dogs have their way with the house! You can see in this picture that everything is still covered w/a layer of dust. Thus, the post-construction clean-up crew...

Litany of the Lover and the Beloved

Well, I finally finished it. I spent Lent meditating upon Song of Solomon and felt led to write a litany. It's still the Easter season so I figure I'm not too late...I thought it fitting to post it here on the day of Fr. Jeffrey's doctoral graduation. He's been my mentor and friend in this Salesian journey and I am very grateful for his guidance and the sharing of his study of St. Francis de Sales. I've been praying this litany daily now and this, along with my Lenten meditations, have radically altered my understanding of God's tremendous love.


Litany of the Lover and the Beloved


Jesus, Pleasing Fragrance Hear Us
Jesus, Heart-throb of Maidens Hear Us
Jesus, Lover of the Dark, Yet Lovely One Hear Us
Jesus, Shepherd Who Leaves Footprints to Follow Hear Us
Jesus, Sweet Myrhh of My Heart Hear Us
Jesus, Handsome Lover Hear Us
Jesus, Host of the Verdant Bed Hear Us
Jesus, Cluster of Henna Blossoms Hear Us

I am Rose of Sharon.
I am lily among thorns.

Jesus, Seed of the Apple Within the Forest Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Cooling Shade Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Sweet Fruit Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Bearer of the Banner of Love Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Strengthener Have mercy upon us

I am refreshed by my Lover.
I am faint with love.

Jesus, Sweet Embracer Pray for us
Jesus, Arouser of Love Pray for us
Jesus, Awakener of Desire Pray for us
Jesus, Lover Pray for us
Jesus, Leaping Gazelle, Young Stag Pray for us
Jesus, Gazer through the lattice at the beauty of
your Beloved Pray for us

I am beckoned.
I arise.
I come into the Spring of my Lover's arms.
I come from my hiding place.
I turn my lovely face to my Lover.
I speak my sweet voice to Him.

Jesus, Possessor of My Soul Bless us
Jesus, Browser Among the Lilies Bless us

I search for my Lover.
I find the one my heart loves and I do not let go!

Jesus, Noble King Mold us
Jesus, Crafter of the Cedars of Lebanon Mold us
Jesus, Craftsman of Silver and Gold Mold us
Jesus, Wearer of the Crown Mold us
Jesus, Rejoicer of Heart Mold us
Jesus, Describer of Beauty Mold us


I am Beautiful!
I have teeth of white and lips of scarlet.
I am elegant.
I am beautiful, there is no flaw in me.

Jesus, Rescuer from the Lion's Den Deliver us
Jesus, Caller Forth form the Haunt of the Leopard Deliver us
Jesus, Possessor of Hearts Deliver us

I have stolen His heart!
I am His sister, His bride.
I have stolen His heart with a glance!
I am a spring enclosed.
I am a locked garden.
I am a sealed fountain.

Jesus, North Wind Blow upon us
Jesus, South Wind Blow upon us
Jesus, Emancipator of the Garden Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Gatherer of Myrhh and Spice Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Taster of the Sweetness of Your Beloved Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Drenched in Dew Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Disrobed before the Beloved Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Washed Clean Blow Your Spirit upon us
Jesus, Who Opens the Latch Blow Your Spirit upon us

I awake to my Lover's beckoning.
I arise to open my doors to Him.
Alas, I am too late!
I look for Him and am beaten down.
I tell of Him to all I meet.
I remember His attributes with my lips, with the words of my mouth I tell of His Beauty.
I cry out, "He is my Lover!"
I search for Him in His garden.

Jesus, Gardener of the Beds of Spices Deliver us
Jesus, Gatherer of Lilies Deliver us
Jesus, Browser Among the Lilies Deliver us

I am beautiful!
My Lover sees my beauty and calls me His dove!

Jesus, Fair Bright Majestic One Heal us
Jesus, Admirer of the Open Blossoms Heal us
Jesus, Full of Desire Heal us
Jesus, Among the People Heal us

I am beautiful!
I am pleasing to my Lover.
I am full with the fruit of my Lover.
I belong to my Lover.

Jesus, Arouser of Love Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Seal of My Heart Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Mighty Flame Have mercy upon us
Jesus, Unquenchable Love Have mercy upon us

I am a wall.
I give my vineyard to the One I Love

Everybody Loves Their Body

This is Miriam. We decided she looks rather like Dora the Explorer with the hair thing going on.


And this one is Philip. I thought he did a great job with his face!


This is JT's loooong skinny body. His body was too long for the organ templates we were using so his parts are bit disjointed..
Here is John Michael on the left and Betsy on the right. John's body would be troublesome to any serious student of anatomy but I think Betsy has hers together fairly well.

Ben's at the bottom.

I have a lot of catching up to do! We finished this homeschool project a couple of weeks ago. We did this once before when the bigs were Betsy and Ruth's age and so I thought it could use a refresher for the bigs and the littles would get something out of it as well. We traced all of their bodies on large newsprint paper and then each day we studied a new organ, colored it, cut it out and glued it onto the appropriate spot on our bodies. John Michael decided to join in but his spots aren't always appropriate...the liver he had glued to his right hand seems to have fallen off as well as the body part he had in his left armpit. But, hey, he got to "sticky" with the rest of them!

Hmmm....I seem to have misplaced Ruth's body. It's probably standing somewhere and forgotten to move...

Math- Oh My!

I tried to explain the commutative property to Philip today - he's up to +4's and I figured it was time. He was completely confused. He didn't want to give up his start here and jump that many routine.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Betsy was just in the car on the way home from the baseball game rattling off math problems so I thought, "what the hey" and explained it to her. She had said, "Mom, 2+4=6" Yes, good Betsy. "So what's 4+2?" Well, Bets 4+2 and 2+4 are the same thing. You can turn the problem around and get the same answer. "Oh, so it's 6." "Yes." "Well, then 3+3 is the same as 2+4 which is the same as 4+2. They're all 6, right?" Mmmmhhhmmmm.....She jumped straight from there to subtraction and got those all right too. So..we have at least one budding mathemetician in the bunch!

Now if I could just get the 4 yo to teach the 8 yo we'd be in math heaven!!!

Play Ball!

Baseball season has begun! This year I just couldn't commit to driving all the way into Bel Air in rush hour traffic so our compromise was to join the Hickory/Fountain Green league which is proving to be a whole new adventure. Our opening day games scheduled for Saturday were rained out so Monday Ben and Philip had their first game of the season. Those player picture packages are a bit pricey so we made up our own version. Here's Ben's 2006 Player Pose:

And here's Philip. They are playing in the 7/8 league and their team is the Cubs (thus the Cubs uniforms). They sure do look spiffy, don't they?!
AND...this year they even got their names on the backs of their shirts. Since we have two Klopcic's on the team, Ben and Philip even got their first initial - big stuff, folks!
They had a great first game, from their perspective anyway. They even played their good friend Gabriel's team which may prove to be a tender spot in their friendship in days to come. The Cubs looked great on the field - they were batting well and fielding well but poor Gabe's team was....well...not doing so well. It was the sort of game where round about the 3rd inning, both sides of the stands are rooting for the same team - just to give them a morale boost. Needless to say, the Cubs walked off with a grand victory - 15 - 0. The highlight of the game for Philip was getting whacked in the back by a ball thrown by a wild pitch. In this league, they actually let the kids pitch and that turned out to be a bit dangerous.
I'm not sure how these two got in here but they wanted their picture taken too. They start gymnastics next week so I guess I'll have to highlight them in their gymnastics leotards later...

On Tuesday, JT had his first game. He's playing for the Ironbirds in the 9/10 league and boy was he unprepared for the changes! This is the big leagues, folks, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Both teams had a couple of pitchers with some impressive arms but still a bit wild and unpredictable. It doesn't help that they seem to hire 13 year old boys with relatively untrained eyes to serve as umpires.... JT was the first to bat for his team in the top of the very first inning of the very first game. He didn't know what was about to hit him! It didn't take long before he struck out and wandered, perplexed, back to the bench. He was feeling pretty discouraged until he watched his next two teammates meet the same fate.
Then it was to the outfield for him. His coach has him playing way out in the outfiled, hoping to use his speed to the team's best advantage - it doesn't take JT long to reach a long hit to left field. He was ready but the other team didn't do a whole lot better that first inning than the Ironbirds did. This was some small comfort to both teams I think. The game became a pitcher's game for the first few innings and then the boys finally managed to marry bat with ball and make a few runs. No one scored more than a double but JT did get walked a base and then batted in for a score. The game was close but the final score was Ironbirds - 3, A's - 4. Not bad for their first time out in a brand new league!
And, well, Davey just wanted to try on the hat! He has a few years to go...

Lots More

Things have been going so rapidly that I've not been able to keep up with the pictures on the blog. The painters have now been through the whole house and all the rooms are their finished colors. Although, I think the trim in the basement still has not been finished. The doors have doorknobs, the windows and floors have trim and baseboards, the counters, sink and double oven have been set and the other appliances are sitting in the living room waiting (although I may be sending back the dishwasher which somehow is not what I thought I was ordering!).

On the outside, the gutters and downspouts are all replaced. The electric fixtures have all been installed, new vanities have been set in place in the upstairs bathrooms...shew! So much I'm having trouble listing it all!! Here's lots of pictures so enjoy the tour!

The last big hurdle is the flooring (and the dang-blasted banister for which we've finally come to an acceptable compromise). The flooring should get started this week. There will be wood laminate throughout most of the house, carpet on the stairs and basic vinyl flooring in the bathrooms. The upstairs tubs still need to be refinished, they do plan to reseed the yard at some point and the painting on the outside trim is being saved for last so that we can get the interior finished up. The girls are thrilled to have a PINK room, JT's and Philip's basement room and the first floor bath color were chosen by JT - a lovely sea blue that just makes you feel like jumping in and doing the backstroke! lol... The basement is a light purple which we also used in the girls' bathroom upstairs and the kitchen is all about blue.

This is the electrician finishing up his install of the outdoor lights and outlet. He's standing in the new French doors which enter into the dining room addition. The little window to the left is the new kitchen window. Hopefully there are some steps coming out of the French doors in the making. You can see the new gutters and downspouts also.




Here are the French doors from the inside w/the two dining room light fixtures. At the this point the countertops s had been delivered but not set - the big cardboard-looking thing to the right is the countertop standing up on end.




This is the guest bedroom. I picked out a nice, bright yellow and it turned out ELECTRIC yellow once it hit the walls. We're hoping to tone it down a bit w/some neutral colored texturing. We don't want our guests complaining that they couldn't sleep because the walls kept them up all night!!





Here is the far wall of the kitchen addition and the old kitchen. The shelving and cabinetry to the right will be for our homeschool materials - YAY!! JT is modeling the spot where the refrigerator will stand. We were wondering if a light would go on if we opened his mouth...






Here is the rest of the kitchen w/the counters in place. There is a hole under the countertop for the dishwasher and the hole in the top of the counter is for the stovetop - a 5 burner beauty! The cut-out over the cooktop is for a microhood.



This is the girls' purple bathroom upstairs with the new vanity in place. They replaced the same flat mirrors but with a light bar across the top instead of thee two light fixtures on the sides.







And this is the Beach Boys bathroom that just makes you wanna put on your suit and do the backstroke! I don't have a picture of it, but JT's and Philip's room is painted entirely in this color - it's pretty intense!


And here are the girls in their PINK room. They love this color! It will be the horsey room and Betsy will finally have her own bed. She's been sleeping on the floor underneath Miriam's bed for the past month or so.

The Lord Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!

We celebrated our second major holiday in our rental house. We have just as many Easter traditions as we do Christmas traditions but, unfortunately, many more of them needed to be set aside this year. In the first place, we puked our way through Holy Week so the week we normally spend preparing our hearts, minds and souls for the celebration of Easter was spent laundering linens and passing around buckets. I suppose there's an essay in there somewhere as well...sigh...

We did manage to hide some Easter baskets on Easter morning, get a few pictures of the children in their dressy clothes, get to church and head to Muffy and Granddad's for the annual cousin Easter egg hunt. There were lots of great missed photo ops there - had the camera but didn't seem to use it. David really enjoyed his first egg hunt and he did remarkably well. He and John Michael got their own category and got a head start on the hunting. It was a nice fun and relaxing day but we're all looking forward to having our big cross and our tomb back to continue with our usual observances next year.

The Long Waiting

I had to show off JT's writing skill. He wrote this story about our housefire as a school writing assignment. Of course, I think it's just too excellent to keep to myself!!


A Long Waiting
by
Joel Timothy Klopcic

Chapter one
How it Came to Happeen

Once upon a time on a nice summer evening, the Klopcic's went out to the library. That was very rare ,you see, because there were eight kids in the family. Shortly after they got there it started to rain. JT was ready to go home. So he was telling his mother that their house was going to catch on fire. Before his mom had put meatloaf in the oven. So by the time they left the library there was a thunderstorm. And when they got to the entrance to their neighborhood they saw a lot of smoke, more smoke than you can imagine. There was at least ten or eleven fire trucks there. Fr joel said, "I'll go up and see what happened." Ten minutse later he came running down and said to my mom, "Our house is on fire!!" Then my mom got out of the car and they both went up to the house. A few minutes later, some of our friends came driving up. And they went up to the house too. Then Matt Z came up to tell Colin, our other neighbor. Then he came to say hi to us. Ten minutes later my mom came to us to say she wanted us to go up and see the house. When we went up there, we saw the Prichard's - Ben, Mike, and Steven. We watched the fire fighters tear down our house. Soon we went down to the Z's house where we were going to stay for the night. When we got there they had ordered Papa Johns pizza which our whole family loved. Of course in the mornning the Z's had to go to school. Every one was waking up when Matt was going to school.



The End!

Caution, Wet Paint!

Painting has been progressing nicely for a couple of weeks now but this week we finally got some color on the walls! This was Miriam's room and will now be Cowboy John's room (and David). He gets that sort of Southwest feeling with the beige walls which will be accented with his cowboy pictures.









This is the master bedroom suite. The green is almost exactly the color we had just finished painting our room just weeks before the fire. The bathroom is the same color and we have a color-coordinated closet too! You can see the other big project that happened this past week - the trim around the closets, windows, floors and door frames.






In the upstairs bathrooms we opted to replace the blue fiberglass walls with tile. This tile work is in the girls' bathroom upstairs which is actually painted purple (I promised them a purple room!). Unfortunately, I couldn't get the flash to work to show off that color but you do have a nice picture here of Glen's tile work. He is our construction foreman's boss and tile is "his thing" so we had him on the site for a day or so while he finished up the showers.




In the basement, the gridwork has been hung for the drop ceiling. That had been completely removed and has now been re-hung. I like this perspective shot of Ben. The walls are up in the basement but they have yet to be painted - still rough.








And another dream come true for me. That nasty rust red linoleum in the old kitchen has been removed! Yay!! It will be replaced with wood-grain laminate (we hope - this is one of the last sticking points in our negotiations - the other would be the upstairs banister but that may get a post all of its own since that negotiation has taken on a life of its own!).

Giant Prairie Dog Sighting!

This giant prairie dog was sighted on our construction site about 2 weeks ago. It seems the larger dirt pile has attracted a family of giant prairie dogs which gather there periodically with shovels to create new tunnels and pathways for their prairie dog community.

Doors, Doors, Doors

We now have doors everywhere! Here's the upstairs doors - to the girls' bathroom (which will be the purple bathroom), then the door into the master suite and the last door there is the bathroom door for the suite.









Here Ben is modeling a closet door in what was once John Michael's and David's room and will now be the baby's room.







Mr. Smiley JT is modeling a pocket door in one of the upstairs bathrooms. I've been promised that all the doors will have hardware attached to them eventually...








It was fun to watch the new garage door go up. He built it in pieces starting at the bottom. Notice the dark green trim. This will the color of all the outdoor trim eventually. I do miss our loud and unwieldy vintage wooden garage door.





Here he has all the but the last piece in place.





And this is the finished door!








In the kitchen we have cabinet doors - here is a panoramic view and then a straight on shot of the corner which will house the cooktop, microhood, dishwasher and wrap around counter. Although I dispensed with many of the cabinet doors and had a plethora of drawers installed instead.