Someone thought the same thing!

Rather than finding the music to add the song I was talking about in the previous entry, I found this video of a church mission trip to Haiti in 2010. They understood the "Greater Things." There are so many of you out there with hearts to serve. Let this inspire!

Greater Things

I was touched in church on Sunday by the praise song "God of This City." We sang the words as we watched the screen filled with photos from needy places from all over the world. I have been repeating the words in my head a hundred times since:

Greater things have yet to come. Greater things have still to be done here.

I don't want this adoption story to define us. I don't want this to be the end of our story. I don't want what started out to be a "life mission" to leave us too busy and preoccupied to see beyond ourselves. Taking "time out" for the past 18 months was ok and understandable. Our family needed to be careful with our time and energy to adjust as a new family.

But now, we need to turn back to where we started. We need to be a family who serves and sees beyond our own circumstances. We know the joy and peace that comes! As we kick off our new church school year with small group studies on Prayer, that will be our overarching prayer: that Bruce and I can be examples for our kids by having a renewed focus on WHY we were placed here...in this place and time...and with the specific people we come into contact with.

The adoption of Pierre and Ange-Laurette was simply ONE of his many callings for us. We are confident that it is not our only calling...or our last calling! It was a BIG one, yes. It stretched us (and continues to challenge us) like we never imagined. But it would be a shame to think that we could now "coast."


During that song in church last week, I could hear Pierre singing his heart out. He can now read most of the words, which is a treat for him. When we were praying and the pastor asked us to think of various things to bring before God, I also could hear Pierre. His loud whispers went on and on, as he laid his head on his hands on the chair in front of him. I can guess what he was praying...the same thing he prays each night: that there would be food on every table, that help would come to those in need, that everyone would know that God is there and watching out for them, and that we would always remember to read the Bible to know what God has to say. That boy's testimony will be priceless!

A great start to 5th grade for both

The $1 section at Target had dry erase boards in their Back-to-School section, so I picked up 3. Each of the kids were using theirs to practice spelling words before bed tonight. After tucking them in, I did the usual walk through the house to pick up the miscellaneous items they forgot. This is a photo of Ange-Laurette's dry erase board, as I found it.


I also received an email from her new 5th grade teacher today: "What a lovely girl -- so enjoyable to have in our classes. She is doing remarkable in school considering the fairly short assimilation period since she joined your family."

Yesterday, I ran into Pierre's teacher at the grocery store. This is the first year they are in different classrooms, which has been a good decision that will help their individuality. Mrs. Ellis also had only good things to say about Pierre's progress and effort in school. (We had warned her that she would LOVE him!) She explained: You are right. I do really enjoy having him in class. Oh, that smile!

The fact that all three younger kids can read and write pretty independently is a treat. We were playing "Junior Loaded Questions" last night (a great game where you try to guess who wrote which response). The question came up: "What is your greatest accomplishment?" I explained that it meant something you were proud of or a big success you had. Pierre wrote "Fast ForWord" (the reading program he did each day this summer). Ange-Laurette wrote "making it out of the earthquake." If I would have been totally honest, my response should have been that my greatest accomplishment was "trusting God enough to obey his call to adopt these precious human beings!!"