The Wall Bloggers

At the beginning of November, the injection helped with the constant, unnerving, mind-numbing pain, since the doctor focused it on the site of the bulging disc.  But to sit without pain... that is not an option... yet. I might be willing to just live with that for a while, hoping to get help at some point.  But, in August, when we chose to pursue adoption of our little boy in Uganda, we agreed to it, knowing we were going to need God's provision in some big ways.  First, we needed financial help (which He's helped us with amazingly!) and next, I needed to be able to sit -- not just for a few minutes, but for 16-18 hours on airplanes, to make it to Uganda to pick up our little boy.  Right now, I can sit for about five minutes.  Sitting longer than that leaves me burning, aching for hours... that mind-numbing kind of pain which makes it nearly impossible for me to do anything else. I went back to the spine specialist at the beginning of December for my injection follow up.  

My blog was fairly quiet for the three months I was teaching (October 1 through January 11).  By God's grace, I had enough stamina to teach each day and to care for my children in the evening.  After the kids made it to bed in the evenings, I would crawl into bed for a couple of hours, resting my back and my brain and then go to sleep.  But from the days, the teaching, the fatigue, the lessons, flowed blessing after blessing.  While I'll fail to capture it all here, I will jot down my thoughts before I forget the beauties of His grace. - Completion of my "first year" of teaching ... Six months teaching Kindergarten while waiting for Adrianna's arrival (2005) ... Three months teaching first grade while waiting for our third child's arrival (2012) - An instructional assistant who jumped to do every task she could to make teaching easier for me ... And who even took over my class the times I was on the phone with my spine doctor, trying to get appointment

We decided to stay home for the whole Christmas season this year, since we did not know if we would get the call to pick up our new son in Uganda.  Alas, we did not, but Lord-willing, we hope to hear of our court date before too many more weeks go by. Here are some of the sweet moments of blessing from our Christmas celebrations... - Adrianna and Abel opening stocking presents - Our Christmas morning traditional breakfast: bacon, eggs, waffles, berries, and coconut milk "cool whip" ... This year, we even added "coconog" (coconut milk egg nog - yum!) - Acting out the Christmas story using our nativity set - Abel's presents from us: "robot arm" and stilts proving popular with both Abel and Adrianna - Abel enjoying Grandpa's BBQ ribs - A little Christmas day football play in the cold - Exchanging presents with Scott family - Making snowflakes with the family and stringing them around the rooms - Eagerly

These blessings from November have been sitting in my "draft" folder on my blog list, so here they are finally... - Our November fundraiser dinner ... And being able to go to it, even after my cortisone injection ... And sweet friends coming to help and to support us by having dinner ... And my in-laws putting together the yummy BBQ dinner again ... And Abel with his buddy, "Uncle James" - Breakfast for dinner by the fire while Scott was out of town - My two little snuggle bugs trying out the blanket my mother-in-law and I picked out for our new boy from a craft fair - My little helpers making more recipes with me - Making cards for Grandpa Steve's birthday - A very long train - Adrianna's card for Grandpa - Surprising Grandpa Steve with hidden messages in his birthday balloons ... And Adrianna taking it so seriously to get them all ready before he came over - Abel's Rusty playing