Rolling right along

Yesterday started with Emma waking in a pool of poop.  Seriously, in her hair, her feet, her hands, and ALL over her bed.  It was one of THOSE mornings...  After getting the kids off to school I stopped by a playgroup gathering that was also a birthday party and a 'sending off' party for two different friends.  I had only a few minutes but was glad to see the ladies and their little ones for that little bit of social 'down time' ;).

From there I started to head to Melbourne to pick up the remainder of my consignment items, but got a phone call instead asking me to pick up James at school, that he was sick.  I won't go into it... but he sounded congested and was "running a fever" of 100.2.  So I went to the school, went by the church to grab something, went by the house to get a stroller since I now had 2 kids and not just one, then headed to Melbourne (almost an hour away).

I decided now that James was just supposed to come with me to Melbourne :)  At the consignment building two of the ladies running things asked me about James and Lynae's age difference and as we talked a bit I was able to share about our family, adoption, special needs... well... it all just kinda comes out together :).  It was a great opportunity to share!

I'd asked my mom to pick the kids up from school so I could go to Sam's Club while I was down there and I went to the larger store there instead of the smaller one close by.  I'm glad I did :)  I grabbed a slice of pizza and a soda since it was after 1pm and sat and ate it and let the kids nibble on it as well, and a man and woman and their 9 month old commented about the kids as well.  Then the wife said that they've considered special needs adoption and she used to care for her cousin that has CP but is cognitively developmentally appropriate to her age.  Of course I shared more of our story there too :)

Then as I was walking through the store, a woman with Huggies samples came over and said she'd spotted me from across the way and handed me a few samples of diapers.  Later on when I walked by we engaged in conversation and she said we probably go through a lot of diapers... of course that was the open door to be able to share with her as well.  Because... yes... we have 5 kids in diapers.

In the back of the store a woman stopped and said "oh, you have a little Down's boy." To which I said yes...  She pulled out her photographs of her five children... the youngest was 23 and has Down syndrome :).  We talked for a few minutes and of course... I shared our story that we have four children with Ds.

So... James was simply supposed to be with me in Melbourne.  There's nothing more to it.  Unfortunately, he was still pretty iffy today though he went to school and did ok.  We'll see, I may decide to keep him home a few days just to make sure he doesn't catch something else while his immune system is running its course with whatever he's getting over.

After the grocery run I came home and of course unpacked and arranged things around here.  I stocked up BIG TIME on things like Pediasure for James and Lynae, babyfood "stage 4" containers for Micah, and other things that are much less expensive to buy through Sam's than at Wal-Mart or Publix.  Before long it was time for dinner and baths, and then my mom was knocking on the door.

In the evening, Michael and I went to the church to meet with the Elders and had asked them to pray over us and our upcoming trip and all the opportunities that are there for it.  I won't go into details, but I will say that the church leadership's "general reaction" (yes, big time generalizing so as to not call anyone out and I apologize for that but it is what it is :) ) has not been very supportive of our adoption.  Some things have been said that have been very plainly hurtful.  My husband works in ministry for the church, so it was especially difficult coming from these people whom we interface with regularly.

I share this now to say that when we went last night to receive prayer, we were OVERWHELMINGLY supported!  Once Michael and I shared our story and the testimony of God's hand and our just wanting to follow Him in whatever He's doing right now... it was as if there was no questioning what we were after.  They may still not all understand what we are doing or why we are doing it... but they know that it's what God's calling US to do.

I am so grateful to our church leadership for showing us their support both in word and in prayer as they prayed over us both.  My heart needed that confirmation that they understood at least in some way that we are following God's leading and that we will continue to seek Him out along the way.  Several opportunities arose for people to offer their "cautions" and I'd steeled myself for the idea of exactly that happening.  But nothing came of it.  All of the conversation was overwhelmingly supportive and loving.  We serve an awesome God, and He can change the hearts of even ministry staff :).

When we got home, a friend came by and brought me over her Kindle.  She got it just a week or so ago but offered for me to borrow it for a few days and play around with it to see if it would be worthwhile to get one.  I'm enjoying it!  It's definitely handy, but I think I've decided that I'll only buy it if I figure out a way to make it nearly free using points off of our credit card and such.  Otherwise, though I'd use it, I don't think now is the right time to put the money into something like that.  I'll just break my back lugging all my books overseas with me :D.  I am enjoying it, though, and I can see where I'd use it a lot if I did have one.  Thanks Heidi! :)

Today was a wash... I spent the entire day at the church helping get a worship ministry a forum, blog, etc... set up.  It's a good thing that I seriously had NOTHING else going on, of it would've been difficult!  But, today was an open day and it worked out for me to be there.

Tomorrow I'm sure will be another busy day, since I do have a lot to get done still before leaving...