"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... :)