Such is the Kingdom of God

Life has changed.

We have four little ones now. The littlest one yet came on Tuesday.

Her name is Tamisha. She is five.

Things are different around here.

I have a new reason for getting up in the morning and for going to bed early at night.

The morning hours, I've been given for school. When the morning is up, so are my own projects and from after lunch until bedtime I'm learning to give 110%.

At meal times, after first serving my young charge, I sit down to watch and teach and correct. There is no talking theology with Dad or listening to a conversation on farming between Mom and Dad and Tasha. Quiet at mealtimes has flown out the window. It's all a hubbub.

Silence is a luxury. I used to listen to music or an audio book on my ipod when things were quiet. Now I sit. And think. And pray. And breathe.

But I am so happy. All day I tell God thank you, because He has given me exactly what I needed. Teaching a child is fulfilling - more than I'd imagined. A creation growing and blossoming before your eyes is a beautiful thing to see.

There is too much to say, too little time to say it in.

God has given us so much by giving them to us. And one day maybe they will know how much they have been given.

~

We got to celebrate Emmanuel's eighth birthday with him. We made a cake and had a party.

[Tasha took only two pictures at the table]

After cake we took our kids to the woods to run around and Tamisha went shopping with Mom. She's still getting used to us. 

Beautiful, sunny day.

Dirt wood paths.

Dust and dry grass. Thorns and sticks.

They're learning to get cuts and scrapes and to not complain. Sticks poke their soft little paws and they whimper, but I say, "You're a man. Keep walking." They're learning to be tough. I wonder if this is the first time they've climbed trees and slid down dusty, rocky slopes and seen deer and hawks.

Calvin found a deer skull. Jacob's holding it in the picture.

To see an animal or a rock or a stick or a bit of rabbit fur is as fascinating to me as it is to him.

To see something in his hand that he's never seen before is like me seeing it for the first time, too. 

Helping the lady, Angel, down the slope.

Sliding over stones and dirt.

Running headlong. Kicking up dust.

Here, the camera battery gave out and I couldn't take any more pictures till we got home with mud caked to our shoes.
There was a mud fight at the pond.

The pond was half dried up and the network of rocky islands were entirely exposed. Beds of soft black mud connected them. Calvin chucked a rock into it and the mud splattered the boys and they screamed, of course and began chucking rocks, too. The bigger, the better.

Before this, Jacob's shoe stuck fast in the mud, so he pulled his foot out of it and stepped in the mud in his sock. Calvin freed his shoe and put Jacob's foot back in it. They were so funny, those little boys, chucking rocks and screaming like girls. Each time Jacob bent to pick up a whopper, I saw a flash of Superman underwear, because he'd forgotten to wear his belt.

We walked home for baths and dinner. A girl drove by us on the road. She looked at us kinda weird.

I liked seeing so much mud, because baths are wasted on clean boys. We make sure these kids leave the bath water brown and grassy.

This is you, thinking:

Oh, boy, these kids have no chance living with the Carlsens - the barefooted Africans.

I'm sure it was their first mud fight ever.

I love it that they loved it.

They begged to have another one today, but we won't be doing it until they get mud shoes.

Funny little chap, Jacob.

He wanted Tasha to spray him with the hose and he stood there and took it.

Then he said he was cold and wanted to take a bath.

Water and sun are like cheese and crackers. That is to say they go well together.

Eight-year-old Emmanuel.

He's a serious chap, but he also laughs a lot. He has an interesting character. I'll have to write about him some time. He's a good boy, but difficult to figure out. 

Happy Birthday, Emmanuel. It was a blessing to share it with you. 

So, that was Emmanuel's birthday.

And I think it was a sort of day he calls "A Good Day," at the end of it.      

~

    As for the new little one. She is a joyful spirit. Everything excites her and she says, "Thank you!" for the smallest thing. 

I'm so glad she came to stay. She still misses her Mommy Sharri (her other foster mom), but she's settling in and loves that her brothers and sister are here with her.

She slept in her own bed last night. Her first night here she cried and wanted to sleep in Jacob's bed, so we let her. They're used to it, curling up together like puppies.

And she's already made a friend. When she saw Avi, she said, "It's a little girl! It's a little girl!" Tamisha rolled her bouncy ball off the table and Avi grabbed it and gave it back, giggling, every time. Then they began poking each other. Silly, giggling girlies. And Tamisha had to give Avi a kiss goodbye.

It's funny, cause I'd told Tasha just the day before, "Avi and Tamisha are going to be fast friends, the minute they see eachother."

And they were.

So, this is the Carlsen's life at the moment - a family of nine.

But Jesus called them to Him and said,

"Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them;

for of such is the kingdom of God."

~