Never call 911 unless it's an emergency

Rose is still a little too young to understand, but we have talked with John more than once about this. "Never call 911 unless it's an emergency".

Well sooner or later it happens to many of us. Today was the day. I heard a knock at the door and went to answer it, only to discover a policeman at our door. As I opened the door (to a friendly Canal Fulton policeman that I know personally) I had a funny feeling I knew why he was at my door. You guessed it. Someone had called 911 from our phone and then hung up. The culprit? Dad.

As my great friend Monk would say, "here's what happened". Moments earlier I had picked up the phone to call the motel in Savannah, Georgia where we will be staying when I go to be trained and commissioned by the North American Mission Board. The area code in Savannah is 912. (Do you see where this is going?) I dialed "1" and then "9" "1" but my phone hiccuped (for the lack of a better word) and accidently dialed another "1". I guess I held it down for a nano-second too long. Not realizing immediatly what had just happened, I hung up because I knew it would be a wrong number and I redialed using the correct area code and the rest of the number. As I was waiting for an answer on the other end, it did occur to me though, that I had actually dialed "1911" and I wondered if it would trigger a 911 call.

Well now you know the rest of the story. We chatted for a few minutes and he left smiling. As slow as things are in Canal Fulton, he may have been glad to have something to go check out. I just hope that his coffee didn't get cold while he was responding to my call. Sorry Officer Tickerhoof and Chief Frisone. I'll try to be more responsible next time.

Clean

We have a little one in the house who likes to clean and be clean! Rose loves baths, washing her hands and brushing her teeth! If we'd let her she'd be washing her hands and brushing her teeth everytime we go in the bathroom! :) Unlike many kids who are attached to their favorite stuffed animal, she actually encourages us to wash her Sleepy Bear that she sleeps with all the time.

On Christmas Eve we found out that she had actually attempted to wash it all by herself. It had just been washed at her request the day before so when she inquired again I told her he was clean and didn't need cleaned again. Shortly thereafter she came out to me and kept saying, "Bear, wet!" I thought she had just spilled a little water on it or something, but when I felt it a little later I realized that the one half of the bear was quite wet. We finally got her to show us where Sleepy Bear had gotten wet and she took us to the toilet! Yep! She had tried to dunk and clean it all by herself! LOL! Thankfully she didn't leave it in the toilet or try to flush it! Needless to say Sleepy Bear did go in the wash again!

We also discovered that she likes to clean up trash. For Christmas she was staying more busy cleaning up the wrapping paper then she was opening her own presents! :) She kept picking up the wrapping paper saying, "Trash, trash." :) Hopefully all of this bodes well for a clean room as she grows up!

a little perspective goes a long way

Laurel was at work the other day while I was running "daddy day care". I was preparing lunch for the kids, when all of the sudden John declared that he was starving. (From the looks of it, he will most likely take up my interest in drama). I told John that while he might be hungry, he was not starving. He insisted that he was in fact starving, so I quickly made my way to the bookcase and pulled out one of our photo albums that contained pictures of one of my mission trips to Haiti about 10 years ago.

John and I sat down at the kitchen table and I showed him what kids who are starving look like. I showed him the types of houses that they live in (if you want to call it that) and I showed him the street that they live on, and how they take their baths naked right next to the street. He looked at the pictures with awe in his eyes and seemed to reconsider the whole starving idea.

It's easy to forget how good we really have it and sometimes all we need is a little perspective to help bring us back to reality. Like most of the rest of the world, we will celebrate Christmas in just a few days. While money is in short supply at our house and we don't have many gifts to give, I am reminded that we still have more than most of the rest of the world. I am also reminded that Christmas is all about one gift in particular and I already have that one. It's Jesus, who came to this world over 2000 years ago to be our Savior.

"Hoag"

Now you might not recognize this word, but it's become one of my favorites. Rose says it to David and me numerous times a day. A couple of months ago she combined Hug and Hold and came up with Hoag when she wants to be picked up and cuddled. It's fun to add new words to your vocabulary when they come from your 21 month old!

we're doing WHAT for Thanksgiving?

When I dropped John off at preschool today, the teacher gave me a booklet they had made telling what each child in his class is doing for Thanksgiving. As I was getting in the van I glanced at John's page, and thought WHAT? That's not what we're doing for Thanksgiving! Then I realized that they had asked each child for their answers and compiled a hilarious book full of stories from a child's perspective. Here is John's...

"John will be going to the Amish Door for Thanksgiving dinner. he said that Grandma and Grandpa and Mamo and Poobah (who live far away) will join them. They will have grapes along with turkey for dinner and candy from John's candy bucket for dessert. He said that Mom and Dad will cook the turkey by putting salt and pepper on it and baking it in the oven for one hour. John is thankful for the Christmas tree and lights".

While we will have turkey for Thanksgiving and we will see both sets of Grandparents, that's about where the similarity ends, and John's imagination begins...

Thanks-living

Like all parents, we try to raise our children to the best of our ability (and still we know that we fall short). There are moments that we can't believe our children would do or say some of the things they do. But there are also plenty of other moments where we are so proud of them for what they do and say. Of course, we want to take credit for it, but if we're honest we know it's really God at work in their lives.

Last night at bedtime was one of those moments. After I had tucked John into bed and prayed with him, I was getting ready to leave the room. Of course like most kids, he tries to think about things to talk about in these moments, so he can stall for a little more time. Last night what he said to me was "Dad, can we make a list of things that I'm thankful for, so I can take it to Heaven with me and give it to God?" Wow! Where did that come from?

I said, it would be great to make list of things you're thankful for and then we can share the list with God when we pray and we can thank Him for all of those things. I told him that I'd be happy to help him with his list tomorrow, but for now he needed to get to sleep. He thought for a brief moment and then asked again if he could take the list to Heaven to give to God.

Without getting into a deep theological conversation...with a 4 year old...at bedtime (actually past bedtime now) I told him that when we go to Heaven we don't take anything with us. He was okay with not taking toys, stuffed animals or other things that he really liked, but he still didn't see why he couldn't take the list. Oh well, maybe he'll understand that when he's five.

My prayer is that we can all remember to be this thankful. Not just at this time of the year, but every day of our lives. It's what I like to call "Thanks-living".

Chapter 1

This is the place I hope to record our funny, interesting and unusual moments. I've missed so many already with John and Rose. So often we don't get to share their funny comments, questions or actions with more than one or two people before they are forgotten. I'm hoping this will be a way to share with our friends and family more of the day to day and week to week adventures and story of our lives. It will also help record this story so John and Rose will be able to learn about their early years. I was inspired in this journey by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law as they started a blog when they adopted their daughter Lily this summer and have continued to keep us updated with the whole family. We hope you enjoy the story as it continues to unfold... :)