A Holiday....
Last week was Spring Break here in Vancouver and we decided to go to a little Gulf Island called Pender Island which is in between (roughly) Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
We had an awesome time,relaxing as a family, just being together.
It was the first time that Ayana and Moses had ever seen a hot tub of course and there was one right on the deck of the gorgeous house that we rented. It was surrounded by trees and believe me it was heaven to sink into. Ayana called it "the bubble water"
We spent time on the beach, going for walks, exploring bakeries and coffee shops, perusing through book stores. We took up a DVD collection of .....The Waltons (my favourite series ever :) ) and watched them at nights, the kids loved them!
One day I took the three older kids to a thrift store and they got their money ready, all excited that they would pick up some sweet bargains, maybe even a souvenir of the Island. Well, we got there and it was like a nightmare of an old Bargain Basement /Junk store. The crowing glory of it was finding bins of (clean!) used underwear for 25c. Joshua almost died as he saw the boxes of old bras and underwear...I don't think he's forgiven me yet for taking him there! We still laugh when we remember it :)
I have added a link to a slide show of our time on the Island and a little video clip of Ayana and Moses on the beach. Ayana discovered chips on this holiday and rapidly became quite passionate about them. Being the generous little soul that she is, she wanted to share them all the time because if she shares...she gets more. She has also picked up on the phrase.."Gosh!" that my older girls have taught her and she is hilarious as she uses it all the time. If the TV is too loud, she says, "Gosh TV", if I drop something she says "gosh mama" etc etc, you get the picture. She's just a funny girl.
Anyway, I am going to update this blog, it is sadly in need of an overhaul but for now, let me know how you like the slide show and "goodnight John boy, goodnight Mary Ellen, goodnight...."
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=25d01c717508b9028571bf&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Isn't he Gorgeous?

I just had to share this photo. This was Moses fast asleep last week.

He's so cute!!!

A Beautiful Day For A Walk...

Today was a gorgeous day in Vancouver. The sun was shining in a blue sky. Little clouds were lazily drifting. Flowers were blooming. It felt glorious after our snowfall last week.

In the late morning, I got Ayana and Moses ready and headed out to the duck pond in our neighbourhood. We live in a cute area with lots of trees and a local duck pond at the end of a cobbled street. The little ones LOVE the duck pond. Sometimes we even glimpse a turtle swimming slowly from one end to the other, or just kind of leaning/sitting on a branch in the water.

We got to the ducks after a slow walk in which Ayana had to stop at each flower bed and exclaim about the beautiful buds and blooming flowers.Moses was safely in his umbrella stroller or we would still be walking! We had a snack at the edge of the pond. We laughed at the ducks. Ayana skipped from one end of the bridge to the other. Moses toddled around and I had to be very vigilant as he approached the waters edge. It is actually a little difficult to take pictures and keep one hand on a lively baby!.

All in all a lovely pre lunch outing.

As we were headed back, they both heard an aeroplane and we spent a while looking up at it, Moses waving away and pointing in delight. As I was standing waiting for them to lose interest in the 'plane, I noticed ugly, scrawled graffiti all over the path. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed it on the way in as it was vivid red and in huge letters.

As I read it, the day seemed to lose a little sparkle.

It was horrible. Very racist. Using awful words to describe people with black skin. Slurs against women. I felt cold as I read it, as though the sun had disappeared. The day felt grey.

As we walked home, Ayana was still skipping. Moses was still waving at the cars and shrieking with joy when we saw a doggie.

I felt so sad. So mad. There are people who will hate my beautiful children because...they have a different colour skin. This is reality for those of us adopting children that look different than we do. I have never had to read any graffiti imploring others in my community to "get rid" of me. As my children grow older, they will read things like that and we will have had to educate them as to how they respond. We got home and Ayana ran to the bathroom. After a while, she called for me to come and see her. She was standing looking at herself in the mirror, a huge grin on her face.

"Look mama, Ayana cute. Ayana beautiful" she said. Suddenly, the sun came out again. The day sparkled.

Oh yes my little girl. You certainly are beautiful and don't let anyone tell you different.

One of Those Evenings...
Tonight was one of those nights where everything seems to go wrong. In England there is a great ad on TV that has people going about their daily lives with a big key sticking out of their backs. Every time something stresses them out, the key winds them up a bit more until the only thing that can unwind them is...(come on this is an ad in UK, you should guess what can unwind all those stressed out British people...)...a cup of tea of course! I felt that way tonight. Everything seemed to wind me up, like a key creaking away in my back..
Moses dumped out a big bag of garbage all over his room. Creak.
Ayana jumped off the toilet too early and peed on the floor. Creak.
Megan spilled a whole jug of juice on the kitchen counter. Creak.
Joshua ran in from soccer practice and spread clumps of dirt across the hallway. Creak.
I sat down with a headache, feeling quite sorry for myself. I'm so tired and busy I thought. My house is a mess and I still have to make lunches for tomorrow. Get all the kids to bed. Help Dave unpack the zillion grocery bags on the floor. Will I ever get that soothing, unwinding cup of tea???
Creak...that key was so tightly wound.Then I checked my emails.
A friend of mine has a tiny little boy that has just undergone a liver transplant. The email was telling us that things are not going well. The email asked us to pray for this little boy's life and for peace and a calm for the parents.
WHAM. Suddenly, I got perspective. Suddenly I felt privileged to be home with my healthy children, picking up after them, making lunches and cleaning up messes.
I realised that my "key" is often wound up too tight and I need to stop and reflect on how very, very thankful I am for my family and circumstances.
Maybe we all need to do that, stop and give thanks, for everything. For the little things. For the big things.
Finally, if you are reading this and you believe in prayer, please pray for little Andrew fighting for his life.