End of the Year ponderings

Okay so today is the last day of 2008 and so of course I am reflecting on all that has happened to us and all that I have learned, so you lucky readers get blesssed (aka: stuck) reading my reflections and ponderings.
2008 was the HARDEST year I have lived. There were days that I strongly disliked my life and there were days when I questioned everything that I originally believed in (mainly the wisdom of international adoption). However, 2008 is the year I grew the most in my faith...isn't that loving of our Father? Through our hardest most painful experiences, MUCH good comes of it, usually more good than our easy times.
Anyway, one thing that I have learned this year,(which is VERY helpful in this economy that we are stuck in) is to look for blessings in other ways than money. I have often equated blessings with money, but this year expanded my thinking. We make half (yikes) of what we made 2 years ago, but we are MORE blessed than before.
First of all, I have four HEALTHY kids (and a healthy husband) and as I observe friends in our lives who are sick with cancer, chronic pain, and HURT, I realize that God has given us an enormous blessing in the way of giving good health to us. I think if you were to ask ANY parent of a child who has cancer or a spouse of someone with a life-threatening disease, they would without a moment of hesitation, give all the money they had and more to see their child or spouse healed. Sometimes money doesn't matter that much and money isn't always the best blessing we have.
And secondly, we have salvation. I know it sounds cliche, but truly, who cares if we have NO money at all! This life is sooooo short and eternity is soooooooo long (in fact I heard it is FOREVER!;-) so truly, who cares if we live a few short years without some things. We still have more than 80% of the world!!! We have been saved from hell. Ponder that for a moment...our pastor said "Imagine if your child was about to be hit by a semi-truck and someone raced out and snatched them from death, is there ANYTHING that you would not give them, your house, your car, ANYTHING?" God rescued us from eternal death! I need to ponder that more, because when I do, I realize how MUCH I have been given.
Thirdly, my eyes were opened this year to the world around me. There is real, visible, touchable suffering that is happening in my lifetime. I do not have real, visible, touchable suffering, but others do. Because God has lavished blessings on me and taken care of me, I believe He expects me to do something with those blessings. If I have been given much (and I have) in ways that I have mentioned: health, salvation, happiness, etc. and then I hoard what I have been given, why would God want to give me anymore. I do live better than 80% of the world. I do have health and energy. I do have restoration and a relationship with GOD! so I better get moving and share what I have been given.
In conclusions to my ramblings, learnings, and ponderings (if you are still reading, thanks for hanging in there):
In 2009, if you see a blur, followed by 5 little blurs (LOL!) don't be alarmed...it is just me, rapidly doing my Dad's work!
The time IS short. My days are FEW. My blessings are MANY!

Christmas 2008

This last week has been fun, fun, fun! For the first time since I can remember, we had a WHITE Christmas! Kathryn and Isaac both kept telling me that it would snow then we would have Christmas; and seeing that we usually get snow in January, I told them it probably wouldn't snow before Christmas. But they kept saying "Mom, it will snow THEN Christmas" So of course as soon as it started snowing (December 17th) they said, "See, Mom, NOW we can have Christmas" (Reminds me of a conversation I had with Kathryn last April where she kept praying for snow and I told her we didn't get snow in April...)
Anyway, here are some pictures from our fantastic Christmas!

View from our back porch
Over the river and through the woods...

Delivering presents.

My snow baby (ONLY snow baby)

Phil + Snow = TROUBLE

New Pajamas!

"Just what I wanted!"

Wow! Socks!

New Barbie Scooter

Oh no! another Darin (saving the paper!!!)

We need another word...

Sometimes "thank you" isn't a big enough word.

Our friends just gave us $500 (yes, you read that right: FIVE hundred dollars!!!) to help us with our adoption of baby Gwendolyn. And last week, someone (anonymously) paid for our car bill which was $533 (yes, again, you read that right: Five hundred, thirty, three dollars!!!) and another dear friend gave us $300 dollars for our adoption. These are all people who have so touched us with their sacrificial giving. And we have many more people who have given us their HARD earned money to help bring baby Gwendolyn home. To all of you, THANK YOU! It seems like thank you is not a big enough word to express our gratitude. We know that adopting 3 kids in one year is CRAZY and doesn't make sense and we honestly didn't know how we would pay for this 3rd adoption, but the people of God chose to let God work through them and give to us...it truly is a BEAUTIFUL picture of the body of Christ at work. Phil and I don't feel like we "deserve" to have people give sacrificially to us, in fact, we feel very undeserving because there are sooooo many who have less than we do. Our first adoption we learned so much about ourselves and God; and so far, this adoption process has been no different. This time we are learning and trying, very hard, to be humble and let the people of God help us. This is a lesson that is actually harder than some of the other lessons we have been taught. So it is with DEEPEST gratitude that we say "THANK YOU" to all of you! (you know who you are;)
(And please don't critique my writing ability based on this post, because I just proof-read it and realized that I jumped all over the place and didn't tie my thoughts together very well. The message is still from my heart though;)

Lohrer Update

WOW! It has been awhile since I updated our blog! We have been VERY busy. I officially started working at our church in the children's ministry department and I must say that it took me a full 2 weeks to figure out the whole working mom bit (even though I am just part time). So here are the updates:

• I (amanda) started working
• Lukas ran his marathon
• Lukas lost his first tooth (thank you Lord!!!)
• Phil came back from Ghana (again, thank you Lord!)
• Kathryn and Isaac celebrated their VERY first thanksgiving!
• Evalin asked Jesus to be her Savior!

So as you can read, we are busy, but soooooo happy and BLESSED! God continues to SHOWER us with undeserved blessings....We are truly thankful!

Me and my super hot date!

Silly girls drinking hot chocolate outside in the freezing cold!

Gingerbread artists!

How that roof stays on, I will never know! (it must weigh about 3 lbs!)

My marathon runner!

First missing tooth

(I only have to pull 99 more teeth over the next few years!)

This is why boys NEED a father's influence

(this picture taken while Phil was in Ghana:)

Just Say "NO"

Lukas was brushing his teeth last night and from the bathroom I heard a "Oh NO!" Then he came out to me and said,
"Mom, you said never to try drugs, right?"
"That's right Lukas, they are soooo bad for you"
"MOM, THERE ARE DRUGS IN MY TOOTHPASTE!!!"
"No Lukas, there aren't drugs in your toothpaste"
"YES MOM...LOOK!" and turning the toothpaste bottle over and shoving it toward me, he said,
"see...DRUG FACTS"
After, I finished laughing hysterically, I hugged him and reassured him that they were not "bad" drugs, but that medicine is sometimes referred to as "drugs"
I am so glad my "just say no" message has been so effective!

My deep thinker...pondering life

Phil is WHERE?

It was completely unlike Phil. If I hadn't been standing in right in front of him, looking into his face, convinced that the Twilight Zone doesn't exist, except for on TV, then I would not have believed you if you said that this was Phil's idea.

"I think I should go to Ghana"

"Okaaaaay, why?"

That was how our conversation started out and after I recovered from my disbelief, we had a long conversation about his recent loss of sanity.

So yes, Phil is in Ghana and he went to help Romana (the saint who rescues children and gives them LIFE!) and to see if we could possibly get some things done to bring our baby home sooner. (Is sooner a word? I mean if you are not from Oklahoma, Dana!) So sure enough, Phil has done both! I believe God has a GREAT sense of humor because even though Phil loves his own babies, babies in general are not so much his "thing" But since arriving, he has held MANY, MANY babies. (I plan on calling him "the baby whisperer" from now on:)

Phil's YUMMY dinner:)

All joking aside, Phil is doing what God told all of us to do: "Care for orphans in their distress..." That is PURE religion. He took a huge leap of faith on November 10th, doing something waaaaaay out of his comfort zone (more like the Twilight Zone...OH, I said all joking aside!) and he INSPIRES me. If you had told me 2 years ago that Phil would be in Africa for the second time in 1 year, adopting a 3rd child, and eating unknown foods, I probably would have laughed, seriously, I would have, but that was before God became more than just an idea and Christianity became more than just going to church...hold on...who knows what we'll be saying in two more years!

Superheroes spotted in Lynden

Our Halloween was VERY fun! We went trick or treating in our old neighborhood, down our favorite candy-loaded street in Lynden, and at church. We came home with over 25 pounds of candy (so gross!!!) We ended up donating MUCH of it to our church kid's program (they can use it as prizes all year long...there is that much candy). Kathryn loved trick or treating and almost gave the home owners massive heart attacks by SCREAMING "Trick or Treat" at the top of her lungs each time someone answered the door. She had practiced all week, but I forgot to remind her not to scream. So we had to have a family info meeting mid trick or treating to inform everybody (Kathryn) that we can't yell or we will scare the person answering the door. FUN, FUN, FUN.

Look at ALL that candy!!!
Superheroes...Mr. Incredible, WonderWoman, Batgirl, Spiderman, and the Incredible Hulk

There's Mr. Incredible!

Family of Superheroes.

ALRIGHT, ALREADY!

I am back to blogging after our having MANY people complain about my lack of recent posts. One word for all "you people"...MOVING!!!
So in case you were wondering, we have moved into our new house! Phil totally outdid himself on this awesome, energy and space efficient, cost effective, beautiful house. I will post pictures soon. We are so happy to have a little more space than we did in our rental, and equally happy to have LESS space than we did in our previous house. Phil and his dad worked sooooo hard the last month, so that we could get in faster...WOW what a team. And Phil's mom came and helped every Saturday doing the jobs that no one else wanted to do (servant's heart) and my mom came and measured and drilled every single one of my cabinet doors so that I could put my cabinet handles in precisely the correct spot (as most who know me, that is impossible for me to accomplish:) So that is the moving update.
Here are some totally unrelated pictures, but so sweet from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend (yes, we actually can do something on the weekends now besides work on the house and go to Lowes!)

The kids saying "pumpkin patch" Evalin obviously is still stuck on "paaaaatch"

Sigh, my heart...

Is is just me or is he about the cutest thing ever?

Almost as heavy as her own body!!! HA!

Say "cheesy"
Am I really that white or do I just appear so compared to my daughter?
My very cool 1st grader (notice his hands...HA!)

Five More Days

(Due to the overwhelming response I received from my last post, I will no longer be posting political views...HA! FYI: If I don't know you, I won't post your comments; nothing personal, just my policy.)

Because my husband is so incredibly AWESOME (not to mention my father-in-law, who has made the completion of our house his full time job!) we will be moving this weekend! HOORAY!!! I am sooooo happy to be moving into our house. Not that this rental hasn't been great because it has, but I can say with certainty that everyone is ready for more SPACE. Especially Lukas who has shared a room with the three little kids and has just about had a nervous breakdown over it! (Poor little stressed out kid:)
I am taking pictures today of our house and will post them for all of you who live far, far away and can't come visit us:-(

I have had ENOUGH!!!

I have NEVER posted a political blog in my life, but this made me FURIOUS!

After years of listening to our media tell us that the Democrats were on the side of the downtrodden and poor and the Republicans were greedy and selfish Americans...I have had enough.

In 2007, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, earned $319,853 in adjusted gross income. How much of that did they give to charity? LESS than 1% of their income. Over the past decade they reported giving an average of $369 a year to charity!
Obama and his wife made $1.2 million dollars between 2000 - 2004. There "generous" gifts to charity...less than 1%

In 2006 AND 2007 John McCain gave more than $202,000...26% of his income.
Of George W. Bush's taxable income, he gave 11.5% in 2004 12.2% in 2005 and 12.1% in 2006

Need I say more?

First Day of School

Here are pictures of Lukas on his first day of first grade. (no further comment from his mom at this time)

Day of Dread

The day that I have dreaded for six and a half years is only 4 days away...the first day of school. It hasn't snuck up on me because I have known it was coming; and I haven't just known it was coming, I've dreaded it's coming. I am not shocked that it is here, but I wish it was still six and half years away. Now when I ask "Where did that little, bow-legged chubby faced baby go?" I can answer, "He grew up and went to school" Oh my heart...

More Summer Fun!

Here are a few more pictures of what we have been up to this Summer (busy, but FUN!) Lukas and Kathryn took swimming lessons (according to Lukas, he is going to the Olympics in 2020 so we will be spending even more time at the pool! ;)

Spiderman Sighted in Lynden!

And I thought Spiderman was just pretend...

Summer Fun

I realize that it has been awhile since I last updated our blog. We have been busy having an AWESOME summer. After believing that summer would NEVER come (still 45 degrees in June!!!) we have had awesome weather and LOTS of fun. This has been one of the best summers we have had as a family - even with Phil working soooo hard on the house in addition to his regular job (what a man!). Anyway, I love summer, so we usually have lots of fun, but with 4 kids, I get to enjoy summer through their eyes...yet one more reason I love being a mom! Here are some pictures of what we have been up to: