Living the Dream
I have a friend at church who also reminds me that I am "living the dream." On Sunday afternoons both Kasey and I each take a turn watching the kiddos and the other gets to rest or do whatever they want for a couple of hours. Today, during the first part of my rest time, I continued reading "Choosing to See", by Mary Beth Chapman. She is the wife of Steven Curtis Chapman. In this book she talks a lot about their life including the loss of their 4 year-old adopted daughter from China who was tragically hit by a car in their driveway. What was even harder was that the car was being driven by their son. If you have never had a chance to read it, it is a very insightful look into both the overwhelming grief and also the hope we have because of Jesus through it all.
But the reason I felt compelled to write is because she just talked about how she wished she could have just taken in different moments before the accident. As I was reading this, I could hear the girls singing downstairs, "Let it go!!" from the Disney movie Frozen. And I just wanted to take time to reflect on our wonderful kids.
Elly is now 5 years old and what a great joy to us. It is amazing to see the development of children every day. Elly is learning to read right now. She reads a few pages of her children's Bible each night to us. She got that Bible as a graduation present from her VPK school. Elly has a heart for God and always wants to do what is right. She has a very tender heart. One of my favorite memories of her lately is when Kasey and I were talking about adoption. (We eventually want to adopt and add to our family). Elly is super excited about this. When we were talking about this, somehow it came up that there were costs to this. Our then 4 year-old Elliana got a beam on our face. She said something like, "That's great because you can use my money." It was so cool so see her offer up everything she had. She also suggested that we might want to adopt a 9 year-old. She obviously is picturing adopting a "Gwen" who played so well with her when we went to the adoption of their cousin Gabby. Elly is always singing church songs out loud wherever she goes. Whether she is outside swinging, whether we are on a walk, whether she is alone in the bathroom. It doesn't matter. We recently took Elly to Cracker Barrel for her 5th birthday celebration. It was a special time because Kasey and I got to take just her to celebrate. One of the highlights was seeing Elly dig in to the dessert they brought her. Since there are so many allergies in our house, Elly rarely gets to have anything good even though she could as long as it doesn't have colors. Well the free birthday dessert just happened to be some kind of Blondie cookie with ice-cream. The look on Elly's face as she dived in was priceless. I think she must have been afraid that someone would take it or mom and I would eat too much because she ate it faster than I have ever seen her eat. We then got to play her first game of checkers where her and I destroyed Mommy. Kasey then had to do a quick Target run and Elly and I sneakily followed her and spied on her the whole time without her knowing. Elly at this point was on a ridiculous sugar high and was laughing at everything that was said. Elly is also extremely good at impersonating and doing voices. The other day I was making a reference to a Thomas show and said to Lily, "You have caused confusion and delay." Lily was like, huh? But Elly then said the same thing nailing the British accent and Lily could then laugh at it. She definitely got that talent from Kasey because all my voices sound the same no matter what I am going for.
Lily is now 3 and a half years old and also a great joy to our family. Lily is going to be the life of the party when she grows up. With Lily you never know what you are going to get. She is unpredictable in every way. And I love it. Lily always wants to give me a hug and kiss anytime I leave for work and also at night. Lily also likes to sing songs out loud, but she likes to make up her own songs. She throws God and Jesus and other Bible stories into her songs along with rainbows and princesses. Lily learns things just by being around when Elly is learning. Actually Lily usually just teaches herself things. If you told her you wanted to teach her something, she probably would not want to. She is awesome at computer games. So not surprisingly, she also has began to read early. However, she is just starting but it has led to some funny things. For example, the other night she was trying to read the creation story in her Bible. A lot of times she just sees the first letter and guesses what the word or sentence will be. So it read, God made the first man. His name was Adam. God also created a b..... Here is where Lily decided to take off with her own story. Obviously the B stood for Big Hairy Monster. Sorry ladies, in Lily's version God created Man and a Big Hairy Monster. This caused us to die laughing which has only led her to make up things more often. So we try not to laugh as much anymore. Just as Elly is good with voices, Lily makes me laugh with her faces. She can make the funniest faces and can also replicate anything silly. After we watched Monsters Inc, she would crack us up every time she would say, "I'm watching you, always watching" in her silly monster voice.
Josiah is almost two and is also a great joy to our family. He is a man after his mother's own heart. Because he looks just like me, except likes to be clean and organized (not like me). He always likes things to be put away. When he gets done with a bowl, he will put it in the sink. He sometimes even puts other people's bowls in the sink. His laugh and smile is so awesome. At Elly's birthday party not too long ago I heard over and over again how cute and well-mannered Josiah was. He just wondered around being happy. (He loves birthday parties because of one word, "Cake"). Right now I love singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with him at night because he loves to raise both arms in the air and shout. "AMEN!" He loves doing whatever his sisters are doing. He loves to play Hide and Seek and count to 10. The girls love to do "Iceskating" after watching the Olympics. Josiah gets right in there and ice skates with them (dancing around the room and doing tricks). He especially loves the entrance. He also loves putting on princess shoes and tries to put on the dresses. I am trying to steer him away from this and am looking forward to giving him some more manly stuff for his birthday. He loves trains right now. In fact, if he is awake, he wants to watch Thomas the Train. Josiah is also going to be our engineer. He is always trying to figure out how things work. Unlike me who made my brother figure out how things work growing up. (Now Dustin knows how to make a lot of things work which I don't). Today I let him ride the elevator from church today so he has said, "Elevator, Button, Up and Down" about 1,000 times (No exaggeration). There is nothing sweeter than hearing Josiah say, "Daddy!!!!" His favorite word right now is probably "No" which he thinks is the appropriate answer to any question you ask him.
Elly and Lily have both now learned to swim. Just yesterday, we were over at a friends pool for a birthday party and Lily had lost her confidence. But slowly she gained it back and swam the short way across the pool. I love watching my children conquer fear. This is really helpful here in Florida. Josiah, on the other hand, thinks (or wishes) he can swim. He loves to jump in to Daddy. He can float on his back when in trouble but I can't wait until he learns as well.
Along with the joys come the difficulties of having three kids. Josiah already thinks he is two so he has started tantrums. Along with Lily's unpredictability comes crazy outbursts and pooping in her pants even though she is potty trained. And yes, Elly and Lily are best friends but can also make each other super mad and fight. But through it all, Kasey especially is doing a wonderful job. She starts homeschooling Elly next year. She is pretty awesome.
My rest time is now up. So I am going to head downstairs and continue "living the dream." And I will soak it all in right now while I can. Because just like the Chapmans, things could change any moment. But God is Good. And will always be no matter what. But I will try to always take in the blessings and the moments while they are here.
But the reason I felt compelled to write is because she just talked about how she wished she could have just taken in different moments before the accident. As I was reading this, I could hear the girls singing downstairs, "Let it go!!" from the Disney movie Frozen. And I just wanted to take time to reflect on our wonderful kids.
Elly is now 5 years old and what a great joy to us. It is amazing to see the development of children every day. Elly is learning to read right now. She reads a few pages of her children's Bible each night to us. She got that Bible as a graduation present from her VPK school. Elly has a heart for God and always wants to do what is right. She has a very tender heart. One of my favorite memories of her lately is when Kasey and I were talking about adoption. (We eventually want to adopt and add to our family). Elly is super excited about this. When we were talking about this, somehow it came up that there were costs to this. Our then 4 year-old Elliana got a beam on our face. She said something like, "That's great because you can use my money." It was so cool so see her offer up everything she had. She also suggested that we might want to adopt a 9 year-old. She obviously is picturing adopting a "Gwen" who played so well with her when we went to the adoption of their cousin Gabby. Elly is always singing church songs out loud wherever she goes. Whether she is outside swinging, whether we are on a walk, whether she is alone in the bathroom. It doesn't matter. We recently took Elly to Cracker Barrel for her 5th birthday celebration. It was a special time because Kasey and I got to take just her to celebrate. One of the highlights was seeing Elly dig in to the dessert they brought her. Since there are so many allergies in our house, Elly rarely gets to have anything good even though she could as long as it doesn't have colors. Well the free birthday dessert just happened to be some kind of Blondie cookie with ice-cream. The look on Elly's face as she dived in was priceless. I think she must have been afraid that someone would take it or mom and I would eat too much because she ate it faster than I have ever seen her eat. We then got to play her first game of checkers where her and I destroyed Mommy. Kasey then had to do a quick Target run and Elly and I sneakily followed her and spied on her the whole time without her knowing. Elly at this point was on a ridiculous sugar high and was laughing at everything that was said. Elly is also extremely good at impersonating and doing voices. The other day I was making a reference to a Thomas show and said to Lily, "You have caused confusion and delay." Lily was like, huh? But Elly then said the same thing nailing the British accent and Lily could then laugh at it. She definitely got that talent from Kasey because all my voices sound the same no matter what I am going for.
Lily is now 3 and a half years old and also a great joy to our family. Lily is going to be the life of the party when she grows up. With Lily you never know what you are going to get. She is unpredictable in every way. And I love it. Lily always wants to give me a hug and kiss anytime I leave for work and also at night. Lily also likes to sing songs out loud, but she likes to make up her own songs. She throws God and Jesus and other Bible stories into her songs along with rainbows and princesses. Lily learns things just by being around when Elly is learning. Actually Lily usually just teaches herself things. If you told her you wanted to teach her something, she probably would not want to. She is awesome at computer games. So not surprisingly, she also has began to read early. However, she is just starting but it has led to some funny things. For example, the other night she was trying to read the creation story in her Bible. A lot of times she just sees the first letter and guesses what the word or sentence will be. So it read, God made the first man. His name was Adam. God also created a b..... Here is where Lily decided to take off with her own story. Obviously the B stood for Big Hairy Monster. Sorry ladies, in Lily's version God created Man and a Big Hairy Monster. This caused us to die laughing which has only led her to make up things more often. So we try not to laugh as much anymore. Just as Elly is good with voices, Lily makes me laugh with her faces. She can make the funniest faces and can also replicate anything silly. After we watched Monsters Inc, she would crack us up every time she would say, "I'm watching you, always watching" in her silly monster voice.
Josiah is almost two and is also a great joy to our family. He is a man after his mother's own heart. Because he looks just like me, except likes to be clean and organized (not like me). He always likes things to be put away. When he gets done with a bowl, he will put it in the sink. He sometimes even puts other people's bowls in the sink. His laugh and smile is so awesome. At Elly's birthday party not too long ago I heard over and over again how cute and well-mannered Josiah was. He just wondered around being happy. (He loves birthday parties because of one word, "Cake"). Right now I love singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with him at night because he loves to raise both arms in the air and shout. "AMEN!" He loves doing whatever his sisters are doing. He loves to play Hide and Seek and count to 10. The girls love to do "Iceskating" after watching the Olympics. Josiah gets right in there and ice skates with them (dancing around the room and doing tricks). He especially loves the entrance. He also loves putting on princess shoes and tries to put on the dresses. I am trying to steer him away from this and am looking forward to giving him some more manly stuff for his birthday. He loves trains right now. In fact, if he is awake, he wants to watch Thomas the Train. Josiah is also going to be our engineer. He is always trying to figure out how things work. Unlike me who made my brother figure out how things work growing up. (Now Dustin knows how to make a lot of things work which I don't). Today I let him ride the elevator from church today so he has said, "Elevator, Button, Up and Down" about 1,000 times (No exaggeration). There is nothing sweeter than hearing Josiah say, "Daddy!!!!" His favorite word right now is probably "No" which he thinks is the appropriate answer to any question you ask him.
Elly and Lily have both now learned to swim. Just yesterday, we were over at a friends pool for a birthday party and Lily had lost her confidence. But slowly she gained it back and swam the short way across the pool. I love watching my children conquer fear. This is really helpful here in Florida. Josiah, on the other hand, thinks (or wishes) he can swim. He loves to jump in to Daddy. He can float on his back when in trouble but I can't wait until he learns as well.
Along with the joys come the difficulties of having three kids. Josiah already thinks he is two so he has started tantrums. Along with Lily's unpredictability comes crazy outbursts and pooping in her pants even though she is potty trained. And yes, Elly and Lily are best friends but can also make each other super mad and fight. But through it all, Kasey especially is doing a wonderful job. She starts homeschooling Elly next year. She is pretty awesome.
My rest time is now up. So I am going to head downstairs and continue "living the dream." And I will soak it all in right now while I can. Because just like the Chapmans, things could change any moment. But God is Good. And will always be no matter what. But I will try to always take in the blessings and the moments while they are here.
posted by D Love at 6:18 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for sharing Darin! I Love imagining what each of them are doing as you describe it. My favorite part about the adoption plans is Elly's request for a 9 year old. Especially because Gwen also requests that we adopt another child "around 5 years old". :-) Little precious minds thinking alike. We need to start having summer visit kid swaps.
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