The Creation Museum

We had a great visit to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati last week with Mike's brothers and associated family members. What an inspiration to visit an organization that believes God's word from Genesis through Revelation! We highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the area. You will walk away equipped for aplogetics at a whole new level.

"The Creation Museum presents a unique and unparalleled experience, a walk through time portraying significant, life-altering events from the past, illuminating the effects of biblical history on our present and future world."
The Creation Museum: Prepare to Believe

Polar Express

Saturday night was a real treat for Hendrick - he got to ride the Polar Express from Connersville, IN all the way to the North Pole to visit Santa. The experience was packed with nuggets from the book, including hot cocoa, the conductor, chefs, and sleigh bell gifts. We are proud of our big boy for his request....in the midst of other kids asking for Wii's and XBox's, our Hendrick only wanted a "Slinky" from Santa. I am sure Santa is only too happy to oblige. The train ride also gave us a good opportunity to reinforce with Hendrick that Santa brings us presents because he is soooo excited about Jesus' birthday!

We can't wait to go again in three or four years to brave the Express with our quartet.

Family Trip

We just returned home from a wonderful 10-day-long visit to Cincinnati. We really enjoyed spending time with both Amy and Mike's families (the kids loved being with great grandmas, grandparents, all uncles and aunts and all 7 cousins!).
We stayed plenty busy: Cincinnati Art Museum and puppet show, the Children's Museum (Clifford Exhibit), EnterTRAINment Junction, Natural History & Science Museum, Creation Museum and a Polar Express train ride...plus 2 delicious Thanksgiving Dinners and the necessary Cincinnati Skyline Chili and Graeter's Ice Cream!
Now, it's time for life to return to normal...our normal!

Maxims to live by

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

- Ben Franklin

Happy Thanksgiving

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:19-20

Has it been a year already?

One year ago today, I had the privilege of meeting my new son, Zerihun Atnafu Young, for the first time. Dad Barrett and I were sitting in the dark office of the Christian World Adoption Care Center with another adoptive family. I looked out the window and saw a green-smocked nanny carrying a little girl dressed in pink pants over to us. Surely, this was a mistake? She proudly presented me Zerihun Atnafu and thankfully I was able to sneak a peak down his diaper to make sure he really was coming to us as advertised!

Thank you, Burke, for bringing so much fun and excitement to our lives! You have been a blessing from God in so many more ways than we imagined possible. We love you.

from the archives

Think Davis takes after his mommy?

The Fab Four

Amy was having fun with pictures today...

How Did This Happen?

No, really...how did this happen? (yes, our daughter is in the floor vent)

Outdoor Art

"Our backyard" by Hendrick. This work features: grass, trees (with leaves), our playground (blue), the dogs (in blue), bird (green), sky, mommy and Hendrick.

On Her Knees

Oh my, our baby is mobile...very mobile! Maegli is 10-months-old (today) and is perfecting her "knee" crawl (she has graduated from the "inchworm" crawl).
Mommy and Daddy aren't quite ready for this...Sweet girl, could you please slow down?

I guess that's why it is so important to treasure every moment. Kids grow so fast and these "phases" don't last long enough (especially with 4 kids). Can we slow down time?
Way to go baby girl, we love you!

Media Recommendations - November

Mike
The Lord of the Rings (Audio CD) by J.R.R. Tolkein, narrated by Rob Inglis

It's been great to listen to Tolkein's story in its true form again. As good as the movie was, it really is impossible to top the prose in the novel and rediscover the best parts left out of the movie....The House of Tom Bombadil, The Barrow Downs, and of course the myriad of poetry and songs throughout the books. I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to appreciate these.





Amy
Three Cups of Tea
A very amazing and inspirational read by Greg Mortenson and Davis Oliver Relin...it is the true-story of one American's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides in the backyard of the Taliban. Mortenson's mission began in 1993 after a failed attempt to climb K2 (the worlds second tallest mountain) in Pakistan where he vowed to help the forgotten village of Korphe that sheltered him. Since then, he founded the Central Asia Institute and has built over 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson strongly believes the way for Americans to fight Islamic extremism in this region is through education. It's amazing what a difference one imperfect man with a vision and a lot of hard work can make! (This book won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction.)

The Kids
Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, narrated by Leonard Bernstein

Hendrick adores listening to this in the van. He knows every animal by sound ("The clarinet is the cat!") and knows to anticipate each part in the story. We are pleased he loves this media as it encourages his imagination, rather than him seeing the story on TV.

Giving Thanks

In preparation for Thanksgiving (2 weeks away!!!...and Christmas is just around the corner - where has the time gone?), the kids made a list of 30 things for which they are thankful. Hendrick did a great job making the list into a paper chain to hang in our home - a visual reminder of the many blessings for which we are thankful (their list is pretty cute!).
We are thankful for:

1. playing 2. swimming 3. baseball 4. daddy's job 5. the playground 6. tickles
7. our house 8. leaves 9. staying up late 10. the beach 11. winter 12. soccer 13. friends
14. toys 15. Maegli 16. dessert 17. brothers 18. apricots 19. God 20. Jesus
21. wrestling with daddy 22. the birds outside 23. caves 24. reading books with mommy
25. food 26. stuffed animals 27. elephants 28. my cousins 29. books 30. coloring

What are you thankful for?

Mighty Warrior

Our mighty warrior, Hendrick, is becoming such a big boy! Our 4-year-old is so proud of being a big brother and mama's big helper. He is excelling in his schooling - he has such a passion for learning (he can now read simple words and sentences, organize data and write numbers and letters). We take time every morning to read in his "Mighty Warrior" bible...which has led to some fun discussions. He has decided that Heaven has "cabins and bunk beds and we can have pillow fights and not get hurt" --- sounds wonderful to me! The simple faith of a child is so wonderful and refreshing.
Hendrick takes his "mighty warrior" role very seriously. He enjoys protecting his family and "fights off all the bad guys" in the back yard. Thank you Hendrick, we are so proud of you!
We know God has big plans for this little boy!

She Eats

A week shy of the 10-month mark...Maegli feasted on her first solid food. She LOVED it! Maegli expressed a "mmmmm" as she worked each bite around in her mouth - yummy! Hendrick was so pleased to help daddy feed Maegli (notice the open mouth as he's feeding his sister).
Rice cereal now, sampling of veggies coming soon...are you ready?

Election Reflection 2008

These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, "Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King's words can be true for them."
The Digital Journalist


Tuesday, we were watching history be made…millions of children who had been told “you can do anything” can now believe it.

We wish President Elect, Barack Obama well – we will be praying for him and his family. We wish we could have participated in voting for the first African American president in U.S. history. This is HUGE! This is a important step in healing the curse of racism in our country. We would have liked to vote for the son of a man from Kenya, however our convictions prohibited us from casting our votes for him. We took a stand…a stand for life. And we will continue to exercise our right to vote in favor of those who will best lead us in a virtuous way – thank God for America!
We do not agree with Barack Obama, but we love seeing how he has given hope to millions of people around the world. We are thrilled to see an African American family in the white house. We will be praying that God will richly bless him and give him wisdom and strength. God promises to work all for the good of those who love Him. We did not vote for Barack Obama, but he will be our president. We are excited to see how this most important and historic presidency plays out - we'll be praying!

Four-legged Family

An update on the dogs in our lives:
Chaska (smooth-collie) is now an outdoor dog - by her own choosing. She has decided she prefers staying outside and now has a very cozy dog "den" in our carport. She has aged a lot this year but seems quite content outside. She roams the yard, protect the kids, sleeps under the trees, plays down by the lake, and comes in to visit us for a few hours each evening...it's a wonderful life!
Olive (schnoodle) is still a live-in member of our household. She is the perfect child companion: always near the kids and always so sweet with them. She is very high energy, loves playing and tolerates their poking...the kids must think she is a toy!
We are so fortunate to have two wonderful family pets. The boys are so smitten with "Ah-viv" and "Dah-kah".

Big Shoes

Davis is now sporting an awesome pair of ankle braces and fancy Hatchback shoes. These braces help to hold his ankles in proper position and will (hopefully) help to strengthen his leg muscles. They sure don't slow him down - he runs everywhere!!! Way to go big boy!!!

Leaves are Falling

1 pile of leaves = 4 very happy children

Fall Colors

Vote

So we normally avoid anything controversial, but we thought it would be good to share our views on tomorrow's historic election...

While we very much want to see a dark-skinned president in the Oval Office very soon, we simply cannot align to Obama's views on some key issues. Specifically, he is an avowed supporter of all forms of abortion, including the shockingly awful partial-birth abortion and the even worse and barbaric Born-Alive abortions. Children are a blessing and we strongly believe that each one is to be cherished, not discarded.

We will be voting McCain-Palin, for the above issue and many others (rights of homeschooling families, energy independence, and support of American businesses to make money). Please make sure to research the issues that are important to you and vote for your person.

We are so blessed to live in a country in which we CAN vote - we have a say! And, we can find comfort in knowing that God is above this election...He knows what is going to happen - God is in Charge. Pray for this election! Pray for these candidates, pray for our country...and go out and vote!

Gotcha

Today our family is celebrating a very special anniversary: "Gotcha Day." On November, 1st, 2007, little Zerihun Atnafu was presented to a judge in a courtroom in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. The judge (with the Holy Spirit's help?) declared us his new parents and Zerihun legally became our son. While we were not able to hold him in our arms for another month, we will always remember November 1st every year as the day we "had" our third child.
God's grace and protection has never been so evident as during the year-long adoption process! God called our family to adoption...for Burke! The needed funding appeared from multiple sources, lengthy paper-chasing and awaiting of government approvals flowed seamlessly, and the trip to Ethiopia was an amazing, life-changing experience. While we did not know of Burke or see a picture of him until July 17th, 2007, we had been praying for this little boy for a long time. God always knew Burke would be a part of our family. Our son, Burke Zerihun, is a blessing in our lives. We are so humbled by God's grace and His awesome plan, and we are so thankful for Him bringing us together with our Son - wow!!!