Dear Mr. Govenor

I dont post much about Noah... what's there to say. To know him is to love him. Noah talks in facts- there is no grey. He didn't speak until he was 2 and then started in complete sentences. Noah has the vocabulary of a 29 year old (so they tell me), yet so often he has a hard time verbalizing, to get his many thoughts out the way he means to. Yet where is struggles verbally, he excels by writing. This is a letter he wrote at school today. Not an assignment, just something that has been on his mind to do. He has been talking about it for several days. This letter is a glimpse of the true Noah that so often isn't visible....

Dear Mr Govenor,
Hi, my name is Noah Thompson. I live in *** , Oregon. I go to school at *** Elementary and am in the 5th grade. I understand that the new 1 dollar coin is being manufactured to the public. All coins say "In God we trust", but the new 1 dollar coin does not. If I am given it I will refuse it. I will also encourage my family and friends to do the same. My family is a christian family and it would mean alot to me and most christian familys. Would you please try to encourage the govermnet to stop making the coins or put "In God we trust" on them.
Thank you. Sincerely your friend
Noah
PS please write back
hear are a list of people who agree with me on back...
(signed by his entire class)


Truly Noah will refuse this coin and woe be to anyone in this house if one turns up

Happy Birthday Addie

Dear Addie,
Is it possible that you can be turning 14 today? Where has the time gone? I know you are in a hurry to grow up, but I would love to turn back the clock and keep you my little girl forever.
I am so amazed by the person you are growing up to be and you continue to make us so proud. You are a wonderful sister-
the little kids adore you and respect you and you are so patient and helpful with them. You spent your whole day off of school making shrinky dinks and playing dress up with them. You aren't embarrassed to take them down the hallway at school (well, maybe you are, but you do it anyhow). You are amazingly patient with Noah and so understanding when he just doesn't handle life. You continue to try and help him with his homework even when he isn't being easy. I know it cant be easy having a brother with autism, yet you just deal with what God has given you. You are an amazing daughter- you are responsible beyond comprehension. You have our complete trust. You have opened your heart to Tom, and even though he isn't your "first" dad you never make him feel like he takes second place. I probably never say it enough, but your helpful spirit is so appreciated. You empty the trash and the dishwasher just to save me a little bit of time. You have a huge heart for others and no doubt will continue to do great things in your life. You are such a kind and loyal friend- noticed by everyone including your teachers and evidenced by the 10 girls sleeping over right now!!

You write letters- real letters, you know how to cook, you play violin beautifully, you can carry 50 lb feed sacks (and 40 pounds of naughty brothers), you muck out pig pens, cause it needs to get done, you protect me from snakes that your cat hauls home, you watch scary movies and are still able to sleep, you let your sister sleep in your bed, you never get tired of reading, and you always stick up for the underdog.

You have a wonderful heart for your animals- all of them (including your pig who is asleep in my garage AGAIN) and you are certainly not afraid to get dirty or have fun (this really impresses the littles). You are a wonderful creation of God and I thank him daily for making me your mom.
Happy Birthday. We all love you!!!

November is National Adoption Month

I have been planning on posting something great in honor of National Adoption Month- but it has been an absolutely CRAZY week (I say that like it is over...) but this video speaks so much. It is not adoption related, yet it touches my heart. Maybe because those are the same scenes we saw in Ethiopia, and maybe, because I hope Ethiopia and the people there changed us. We must never forget.

Music to my ears

I am making dinner and overhear a conversation between Molly and Addie-

Molly: I just love being your sister- you are the best big sister.

Addie: why is that?

Molly: You let me do all the really cool stuff like make your bed, sharpen your pencils and clean your bathroom...

Addie: Yep, got this big sister thing down!

Injera or Pnut butter????

The big kids had school and the boys didn't so I decided as a special treat I would make them some shiro wat and injera (from the freeze dried injera Addie so carefully carried home from Ethiopia) instead of the typical luch around here of pnut butter and jelly. I am pretty pleased with myself for thinking of doing this for the boys and just knowing HOW much they are going to love it. I call the boys to the table and they are so smiley and immediately start talking about Ethiopia and how mommy doesn't like injera... Ha Ha Ha, so funny...

I ask Bis how it is, does he like it...???

Bis says "Injera good... (pause) pnut butter and jelly better"

There you have it...

Take a look at this

You have to watch this...

The verdict is in...

After much testing (a mother can never be too careful with the safety of her children) Noah and I have come to the conclusion that YES, the candy is now safe to be eaten, well...
what is left of it. :)

Thankful...

WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN

I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received."

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world..

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them. "I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed "How is it that there is no work going on here?" I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments ."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"Simple," t he angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge? " I asked.


If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy ."

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity. "

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .. You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day ."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world! ."

"If your parents are still alive and still married....you are very rare ."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

OK, what now? How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Happy Halloween!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had such a fun day- we started off by keeping the boys home from school (they don't celebrate holidays at their preschool) and having lunch with Molly and the whole kindergarten class. The festivities began when lunch was over and the room moms got busy!!! We had to decorate and set up for the party as well as help the teacher get 15 little goblins ready in their costumes. Of course most of us have more than 1 child in various rooms throughout the school, so we took turns running all over and adding mustaches, or eye paint or painting whiskers. The ghost walk begins at 1 and this is a long standing tradition of parading through the school and picking up all the classrooms along the way. Then the entire elementary school parades down main street and trick or treats (in a very orderly line) from all the merchants. Then before heading back to the classroom we get to go through the middle school which has been turned into a haunted house by the different grades. The littles were so cute- they saw Addie and took her a piece of candy and gave her big hugs. The 8th graders did a fabulous job this year - designing a haunted cornmaze. It is amazing how much work and planning goes into this every year!!! Since Addie is student body VP I personally know how long these kids work and plan and the late hours that go into it. And as soon as the elementary kids go through, it all comes down!!!!

After several hours (felt like days) we brought a few extras home and crashed for a bit before gearing up for the nights activities... Addie and her BF volunteered to take the littles up to door for Trick Or Treating... Most people were kind and handed them candy too (they were dressed up) although a few thought they were too old!! After we filled way too many bags of candy we made our way to the high school for the last home game. Too much fun and we left at half time while we had more awake than asleep. They didn't even argue for candy when we got home. They just dumped it and sleepily staggered to bed... So much fun... Tom had to work graveyard and Addie spent the night with a friend, so Noah and I climbed into bed to "inspect" the candy!!!!

making cookies

We had so much fun making halloween cookies... nothing like having green frosting all over the floor to let ya know halloween is here...

Make a Smilebox slideshow