Gone Fishin!

Bill is a great Dad! And one of the things he loves (and has since he was a kid) is fishing. This year he took all the kids to a fishing derby at the lake down the road from our house. They all got loaded up with free gear! So he has taken them out quite a few times and they all LOVE it! We love the outdoors and nature around here, so any excuse to get out in it we take! Each child has caught at least one fish so far and they really look forward to this time with Papa. We can't wait for Jabez to join the crew!

Big News, Big Plans

Not one........

Not two.........

BUT FIVE MEYERS ARE GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!

Yes that's right 5 of the Meyers are going to be traveling together to get number 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited, to be bringing the whole family to get Jabez! We have had plans for a while and that included having our dear friends watch Jerry, Angeline and Gracey while we traveled to get Jabez. But as the time is coming closer we began to put all the pieces together and we added up time in country, and the time to travel and the 1-2 days to get our kiddos to and from our friends in Montrose the time away from from our sweeties was getting LONGER and LONGER. The fastest we could do this all was looking like at least 12 days, and I had no peace. We prayed and prayed about direction and it began to look like only one of us would be traveling, and it would be me. It made sense, I had been there before, Bill could work from home and have the kids. But it made us so sad, I really didn't want to be with out my husband, let alone my kids and Bill was already grieving the loss of the first moments with his son. There really wasn't much else we could do. So we put it all on the table. A friend asked, "What about bringing all the family?". Could we? It was financially impossible. It was logistically scary. It would be beautiful if we could. Bill half heartedly said, " Well if God wants us all to go then he will just have to make it happen." We went and applied for their passports and we left it at that. A few weeks later I received a voice mail from a very sweet person I know, it went a little like this -" I have a friend who is a part of an organization that likes to help adoptive families, if you would like to bring your children with you they would like to make that happen.'' WHAT?!?!?!?!?! We were and are extremely humbled. We are grateful and excited and shocked. In a matter of days we had all the finances we needed and the passports arrived in the mail. Still I am in shock. Happy Shock. Now I have traveled overseas only once before as a single woman. I know it won't be an easy task with my lovely 5 more along. But I know this is what we are supposed to do and we are doing all we can to prepare in every way. More about that to come!

Another crazy adoption update from the past few weeks: We had been waiting on USCIS immigration approval...and waiting....and waiting. 8 weeks. I finally got my adoption agent to call and see where we were. COMPLETELY STALLED. Our paperwork had apparently been sitting there due to what was thought to be an error by ourselves and our agency by having some earlier paperwork mistakenly sent to the US Embassy in Manila. I was told of about 50 hoops I would need to jump through to remedy this ONLY to find out in the end that we did nothing wrong...it was actually no problem where our paperwork was......someone was just misinformed. Phew! Well all this did actually get our paperwork sent right out from that day. Yeah! And we now have our tentative Visa and medical appointments dates for Jabez Joseph Meyer!!! PRAISE GOD! July 13 and 17th, so please keep all that in prayer. What this means is that the Meyer Clan could be leaving for the PI at the end of July or early August!!!!! WOOOHOO!!!!!!!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

Sun, Fun, and lots of Luv

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We took a vacation to San Diego and it was an amazing time! We have never taken the kids on a plane before and rarely ever vacation in hotels. In the past we have camped or rented a cabin in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, but we wanted to combine a bunch of birthdays and celebrations all in one and this was the perfect time. After a few weeks of a "Beach and Ocean" unit study for Homeschool, we asked the kids what they wanted to do for Papa's week off, and they all wanted to go to the beach. Well, luckily we had already planned that, and they felt like they were a part of the big idea. We left a few days later and stayed at the most amazing place ever! The Pacific Terrace Hotel http://www.pacificterrace.com/ at Pacific Beach, right on the boardwalk and water, so family friendly and if you hit the time just right a great deal for all you get! Simply paradise! We walked to restaurants, taco stands and coffee bars, played and laughed in the sun, one trip to Legoland all were satisfied. We felt such a joyful presence of the Lord and a sweet memory of our family, just before we add number 4, our sweet Jabez. We stood at the ocean's edge and knew we were closer to our boy than ever......next time he will be at the beach with us all.

When In Rome.....

So, I have not blogged much about homeschool but lots of changes and good stuff going on. One of our Big changes has been to focus most of "school time" on the 3 Rs, for PreK-2nd Grade we can crank that out in about 2.5 hours. So while the kids think school is done pretty quickly, well it actually goes on almost all day. In the past I have spent alot of time on planning and preparing Unit Studies and History, Science etc, but this season I prefer child led, delight directed "fun school" for these things. So this AM Jerry was watching Drive Thru History(great stuff BTW) "Rome If You Want To" and the girls colored while it was on, but when it finished.....well the Roman Drama began to unfold. They spent the next 2 hours(and still are) acting out "Geraldus Maximus and the Twin Empresses", LOVE IT!

Mmmm, Maple Syrup!

Well I don't post much about products and such here, but if you are one of the few who read my blog and you at all like pure maple syrup, you've got to check out Mom and Pops! The Gendron family has been making pure Vermont maple syrup since 1918."We think it's the best in the world. Try some and you'll agree." http://www.momandpopsmaple.com/index.html

My sweet friend Rebecca just ordered like 12 gallons for a bunch of families in our homeschool group and it is "Such a deal!", great price, great taste and Pop's just seems to be cute as can be! They sent us samples and have been just precious, what better way to support sustainable family farming! Getcha some!

No News is Good News, I Suppose

So not much to update about sweet boy Jabez. We are doing LOTS and LOTS of new paperwork. Immigration, affidavits, sign here and there, etc, etc. We are not permitted to contact the orphanage so, no new pics or updates until we actually get there. We sent our little photo book over with the Philippines Rep from our agency a few weeks ago so he should have it by now. and we were told that when they received it they would try to tell him about his family. He is 2, so I am praying that his little heart would understand. I have been doing a bunch of reading about bonding and attachment. I thought I knew what we should be expecting, but I am finding through my research and reading of blogs and books that attachment is SO much bigger than following the right steps, that we as adoptive parents are committing to an altogether new style of parenting. It is really fascinating and really hard. I of course have no idea what Jabez will bring home with him in the way of grief, trauma, and heartache....but I do know that the many parents who have and are presently walking this road are deeply passionate and brutally honest about all that it takes to do this and give God the total control. My cyber friend Lisa has truly shared her heart on her blog in a way that ministers to me daily. Visit her blog and be blessed at http://abushel-and-apeck.blogspot.com/ .

Beagle or Bunny?

So funny… we don’t do the E bunny or Santa around our house, but we don’t boycott the holiday festivities completely, we just use every opportunity to try to point our babes to the true meaning of the holiday. So for Easter we focus on the glorious resurrection of our Savior, but we do some Easter Egg hunts, and things like that. We assumed they knew full well that we hide the eggs and leave a little treat basket for them, no Easter Bunny talk here… well the 3rd kiddo gets some of the trickle down effect and I guess I didn’t make things quite clear to Gracey. Tonight she said, “Mama I know now who hides the eggs for me….it’s not the Easter Beagle, it’s the Easter Bunny… It’s a rabbit not a dog!”. Guess I should have clarified “It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown” a bit more! The Son rises in the morning! Hallelujah!

A Special Kind of Birthday For a Special Kind of Girl!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I wanted to take a moment to let you all know about what we didfor my daughter Angeline’s 6th birthday. A few years ago my amazing friend Cheryl, gave me the idea of what our family has come to call “Give-away Birthdays.” The kids have asked very often to have a big party at one of those Bouncy Places or Amusement Parks and we as a general rule, don’t do those every year or have big parties at home with tons of kids etc. But when Jerry turned 6 he wanted so many kids and a Bounce Town Birthday, that we gave him the option to choose a big party where (in lieu of gifts) he could have everyone bring a gift for a special cause, or the usual small birthday with presents and gifts. He choose the big party and, it was a few weeks before school and we decided to gather school supplies and back packs for Boulder County Foster Kids, and it was great, we got tons of stuff from so many gracious friends and Jerry was able to come with me to bring everything to Social Services. And the ladies from Social Services were SO wonderful and thankful to him and we could tell it really impacted him. So after that, we decided at ages 6 and 12 we would give the kids this option. I am continually amazed and humbled by my children's generosity and empathy for others. I learn a lot from them! Angeline turned 6 this year on March 27th , andwas SO excited about her “Give-away Birthday”, what made this extra fun is that she wanted to gather some things for us to ship to Jabez’s orphanage! And what made it extra, extra, super-duper special is that Jabez’s birthday was March 24th ! So many dear family and friends joined us in blessing Angeline and this children’s home that has cared for our sweet little boy so far! I was told about ½ of the children at the Children's Home are special needs, so we are excited to be able to provide for some of their needs. We gathered books and DVD's and donations towards the shipping cost. Thanks so much for all the love and encouragement Angeline received and we hope Angeline’s special day was something that will bless Jabez and his orphanage too!