For this special occasion, I made a “personalized” pancake breakfast for the family.  For each member of the family, I made two pancakes: one in the shape of a heart, and one in the shape of the first letter of his/her first name.  I then dusted their pancakes with powdered sugar, and arranged with strawberries and blueberries. The children loved their breakfast!

It was very heartwarming to hear my oldest tell me: “Mommy, you are very creative. I think you should be a baker.” Awwwwwww. . . he really liked his special breakfast.

Andrew and Matthew with their personalized pancakes:

Calissa and her personalized pancakes:

Emmaline and her pancakes (that’s really a smile, not a cringe):

I confess that one of the chores that I don’t do is vacuuming because I’m really not good at handling a big vacuum cleaner. We have stairs in our house and bringing a vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs is quite cumbersome. My husband has been faithfully doing the vacuuming until I decided to purchase a hand-held vacuum cleaner. I’m now taking up the chore of vacuuming and so is my son though my husband still does the major vacuuming in the house. What I like about the hand-held vacuum cleaner is that it is very portable and it stores very easily. Whenever I see dirty spots in the house, it is very easy for me to take out the hand-held and clean the area immediately. In addition, it is small enough for my five-year-old to use. We are teaching him how to do small chores in the house and vacuuming is one of them. He now knows how to use the hand-held cleaner and knows how to properly wind the cord and store it.

Instead of getting a rechargeable hand-held vacuum cleaner, we got a corded one. The problem we foresee with a rechargeable one is that the battery does not last long in the long term because the battery eventually loses its effectiveness. In general a corded vacuum cleaner lasts longer than a rechargeable one.

I attended a homeschooling conference two weekends ago where the Maxwell family of the Titus 2 ministry were the speakers. Our family enjoyed the Friday evening gospel music session featuring the entire Maxwell family, each with his/her different instrument(s), including mountain dulcimer, hammer dulcimer, mandolin, psaltery, harmonica, fiddle, bass, banjo, and guitar. It was really neat seeing the entire family performing with joy and humbleness. What surprised me was that they learned each instrument on their own without any paid instructors. With the number of instruments (and children) they have, music lessons can be very costly.

In the “Home-schooling with a Meek & Quiet Spirit” workshop, Teri Maxwell shared about her struggle with 15 years of depression. Among several ways to help cope with depression, one of the ways that was encouraging to me was: Don’t act the way you feel. Even though she felt like locking herself in her room, or go about the day with a downcast spirit, or go somewhere to hide and cry, she decided to put on a smile despite her depression. She discovered that after some time, her forced cheerful outward countenance became reflective of her inward countenance. The more she acted cheerful outwardly, she became more cheerful inwardly as well.

Even though I don’t struggle with depression, I have my moments of downcast spirit where I want to lock myself in a room or just not deal with everything and everyone around me. When my day gets busy or overwhelming, it is easy to let myself go and act the way I feel. Many times I feel justified in how I act because after all, I have FOUR kids! I even feel more justified when people tell me, “Wow. . . I just don’t know how you do it with four kids. I could never do it.” As much as I want to justify the way I act, ultimately I know that my action does not please the Lord. What I need is to remember and apply 2 Corinthians 10:5:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Every thought that goes through our minds must be trained or be subjected to the obedience of Christ. When we feel depressed, dejected, or downcast, we need take this feeling to God. When God looks upon us, He does not excuse us for our behavior because of number of kids we have or whatever circumstances we have.  And we need to be of the sort who walk by faith in what God has promised for us and made sure through the cross and not the sort that merely walk by sight and allow ourselves to be torn down by discouraging circumstances.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

Our Emmaline turned three on Saturday. She’s fond of cats so I made her a pink cat cake. For the curious, I got the cake idea from Betty Crocker’s website.

We’ve come a long way as a family. It’s hard to believe that Emmaline has already turned three. We adopted her from China on October 31, 2005 when she was 9 months old. Since coming home with us we went through many unexpected trials with her. With much prayer and support from friends, we have overcome all or most of the problems such as bonding, hip surgeries and recovery, eating issues, sensory problems, and speech impediments. She’s seen many medical professionals more than all of the family members combined.

When I reflect on the past two years, my heart aches because much of her life and experience with us was marked with pain. She turned our lives upside down and we went through many emotional roller coaster rides with her. Even though the past two years brought on many heartaches, I firmly believe that these trials were not meaningless but that they were divinely appointed by God for our sanctification. We learned much about parenting an adopted child and the meaning of Biblical love.

Despite her difficult beginning, Emmaline is now a very happy little girl. She is very helpful around the house, likes to play with others, adventurous, energetic, and resilient. As we grow together as a family, we look forward to seeing how God will shape and mold this little girl into a beautiful young woman.