Thanks for praying ...

I don't have any pictures to show you of our last few days together (because I didn't take one single one!), but I did want to update you on how all of us made it through that last 24-36 hours. Special thanks to my sister (Ruthanne), my mom, Sabrina, my dear friends, Pam and Karen ~ and others who prayed for all of us as the Hands and us were coming to the end of the three weeks with the grandchildren. God was so good to us in every way!

We received the children from Grandpa and Grandma Hand at about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. There were tearful good-byes and my heart ached for them. We stayed on the front porch waving good-bye until we couldn't see their car anymore ~ and then we went inside to play. We did a bunch of artwork at the dining room table using stencils and crayons and pretty markers. We ordered pizza and breadsticks delivered from Jets, and the kids ate a bunch of fruit and veggies and dip too.

It was pretty sticky and hot inside the house; so after dinner, we were outisde in the backyard. We actually played baseball with bubbles. I know. Weird. We only have one bat, one of those huge plastic bats for real little kids ~ and we have two bubble wands that make huge bubbles. So two of the children were making huge bubbles, while the other ran around with the bat hitting the bubbles and bursting them! We kept switching out who was the batter and who were the bubblers. We played with Thomas K outside for a little while too. He decidedly does NOT like to be around rough-and-tumble kiddos. He avoids us as much as possible ... so it was great fun to see if we could find all of his outside hiding places and chase him out!

And then we went downstairs to the playroom, put on a DVD (Milo and Otis), got out quiet toys and just watched this delightful little story of a cat and dog and their adventures. It's a peaceful little tale with beautiful scenery, lots of barnyard baby animals, and it's just so cute.

By about 9:00, it was time to start the bedtime routine. In El Paso, it gets dark by about 7:30 because when the sun goes down behind the Franklin Mountains, their house is in the shadow of the mountain! Michigan doesn't get dark in the summer until much later! We washed up, had a yummy snack, brushed teeth and then went upstairs for our story time. We had done the story of Daniel the prior time they were over; so I asked Emma and Chris if they could tell it back to me. They could! They went back and forth telling all of the details. So last night, we read about Jonah trying to run away from God. I asked the kids if it was possible to hide where God couldn't find them ... like how about under the bed? or perhaps in their closet? or maybe on the moon? No way! Impossible! God can see us no matter where we are! He can even see through the ceiling of our house! And as I read the story of Jonah, you should have seen the sparkle in Chris and Emma's eyes! They loved hearing about the big storm that God sent because Jonah refused to go to Ninevah and tell his enemies about God's love. And when Jonah was thrown into the sea and sank down, down, down ... what would happen? Would he drown? No. God was kind enough to send a big fish to swallow Jonah up and keep him safe (even though it was cold and stinky and dark inside the fish for 3 whole days!). And then we talked about how the fish spit Jonah up on dry ground and Jonah obeyed God this time and went to his enemies in Ninevah to tell them about God's love. Chris thought it was odd that God would care about mean and bad people. He thought it would be better if God would just hate them. So we talked about God loving everyone and wanting all of us to come into His arms of love.

I was tucking everyone in and started the music playing, having forgotten to pray. Emma reminded me that we hadn't prayed, so I stopped the CD and asked who would like to pray. Christopher said he would like to. Here is his precious prayer. He folded his hands, closed his eyes real tight, scrunched up his little face and said, "God? Thanks for not being mean and for always loving us." Isn't that sweet? He has the most precious little voice and face.

And I forgot to tell you that the whole time we were doing the Jonah story, Matthew was busy counting all of the "owies" on my legs (I was wearing shorts). I didn't actually have any sores, these were just moles (the kind old ladies get) but Matthew leaned over and kissed each and every one with his face all sad and whispering, "Poor grandma." I gave up trying to explain to him that I didn't hurt and then just relaxed and enjoyed his tender heart.

Getting the kids to sleep was a bit of a trick last night, but I think we did okay. Matthew was real wound up and it took extra long to settle him down but he finally did. Christopher had fallen asleep a half hour prior (after just a brief back rub) and then Emma and I cuddled and sang songs softly to each other until she too was sleeping.

This morning, we left for Chicago a little before 7:00 a.m. We had a very uneventful trip, stopped twice along the way and had bathroom breaks and snacks and arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make their flight. The children are good little travelers. There was such a crowd in line at the airport and so much to keep track of that there really wasn't time to dwell on the fact that we were leaving each other ... so the good-byes were sad but not terrible. We waited and kept waving and blowing kisses until we couldn't see them any longer. Grandpa Jones and I arrived back in Grand Rapids at about 5:45 this evening. Di and the kids should be home in El Paso in the next little while.

So, yes I am sad tonight. But I have a huge peace knowing we have made good memories that will last for a lifetime. I so appreciate all of you dear folk who have prayed for us throughout these weeks.

"Let us praise the LORD for His great love and for all his wonderful deeds to us. For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." PSALM 107:8-9

Desperate measures ...

I'm sure you've heard it said that desperate times call for desperate measures ... "desperate" might be a bit of an exaggeration of our situation, but let me explain. We are into day 20 of having Diana and the Pahman grandchildren home. Everyone is quite a bit more than tired. The children are exhausted from going back and forth between families who want to spend time with them, sleeping at either of the grandparents' houses, being away from their own beds and toys, etc.

Last evening, the kids and I drove over to see Grandpa Pahman and Uncle Shane for one last visit before the kids leave to go back to Texas on Wednesday. We walked over to a school playground and stayed only briefly ~ it was too hot and there was little shade. We walked back to Grandpa Pahman's apartment and played with the children there for awhile, and then took everyone out to eat some fast food over at Wendy's. Christopher did real well with everything that we did. Emma was just completely out of sorts and absolutely nothing pleased her (nothing!) ~ and I think Matthew was just too exhausted to care!

We came home here and got ready for bed, had a snack, and then we just watched a movie to kind of wind the day down. In the three weeks the kids have been here, we have only watched some very short videos on only a few of the days. But I know how difficult it is to get the kids to bed in this Michigan daylight, so I put on one of their favorite movies and we got out quiet toys to play with for awhile. We did our usual bedtime routine after the movie, but sleep was not easy to come by! Oh well. I think each of the kids ended up getting 8 hours, but not all at the same time.

I had thought about taking the kids back to the John Ball Zoo today ~ they had gone last week with the Hands and had such a great time ~ but when I saw how tired they still were this morning I decided against it. Instead, I we just stayed here and played. I got out some balloons ... you know, the cheap blow-um-up-kind of ones that are 99 cents per package. Emma wanted me to put faces on them and we ended up making whole families of balloons. I know this sounds pathetic, but we were able to spend a pretty fun hour just drawing faces on the balloons and chasing them around the house. Dylan came through the family room as we were designing our balloons and I was using a weird voice for the baby balloon ~ and he gave me one of those raised-eye looks ~ and I said to him, "Hey! Desperate measures!" And he laughed. After riding home with us last night with the three kids banging around the toys they received at Wendy's (and by the way, whoever designed this particular toy ought to be shot, or at least arrested ~ it was the most obnoxious!), I think he knows just how crazy and chaotic three small children can be!

We took our balloon families downstairs to the coolness of the playroom and constructed a block house for them, which ended up being used as a daycare center for the baby balloons.
Here are the baby balloons going inside the daycare center through one of the doors we made. Hey! I know this is pathetic, but I'm telling you ... we are very exhausted here at the Jones Junction!
Here is Emma building one of the chimneys for the daycare center ...
After lunch, we went outside with our sidewalk chalk and spent a good hour making nice pictures. This mouse was drawn by Emma, without any assistance at all from me. She was very carefully following Ed Emberley's instructions of how to make a mouse.
The boys were at the end of the driveway playing trucks and generally getting about as dirty as possible. In between drawing and trucking, we consumed some very nice giant freeze pops while sitting in the shade of the garage. We also walked throughout our entire yard, in and out of pathways and high grass (which desperatedly needs mowing!), looking for any turtles or toads who might be visiting. We didn't find any, but the hunt was very fun anyway.

The Hands picked up the kids up from us at about 3:00 this afternoon. Di and the kids are due to come back here tomorrow afternoon, spend the night, and then we need to leave for Chicago at 6:30 Wednesday morning. We would appreciate your prayers that our last 24 hours together would be sweet, fun-loving and peaceful. I'm dreading the good-byes at the airport, so if you could pray about that for me as well, I would really appreciate it.

The nicest of days ...

We had such a great day Thursday. I have so many pictures to show you! We started our morning at The Lena Meijer Children's Garden ~ what a great place to play and to learn! My mom used to volunteer at Meijer Gardens (before Grandpa Roy came into her life and swept her off her feet) and years ago she gave me a gift of a children's CD of songs from here. The very first song talks about the little gate that children go through to get to the special garden ...
I used to have three copies of this little children's CD. I kept one in my car so that the kids and I could listen to it to and from picking them up at their house. And then I gave one to the kids to keep the last time I was in Texas. And then I thought I had one here in the house, but I can't find it anywhere! Emma recognized the little gate right away and was so delighted! I managed to squeeze myself through the gate as well (thankfully, no one was taking any pictures of that).
There is a wonderful play place of the Great Lakes, very accurately modeled, where children can play with all kinds of little boats and take them through the Soo Locks and everything!

Of course, the children get rather wet in the process ~ but it was a very warm morning and it felt refreshing. There is a huge garden area with tree houses, bird houses ~

where you can pretend to sit on your very own egg (rather large eggs to have laid ... poor bird!) ~ and by the way, the children are pretty tired of posing for pictures (as you can see) ... and there is a nice old Log House where you can play inside ~ some nice games that children used to play a long time ago ...Emma challenged me to a game of checkers ... this was her very first try at this game, and she did really well! She especially liked the part where you could get "crowned" and be a very dangerous piece on the board, being able to move frontwards AND backwards! Watch out!
This is the face of victory! Don't tell her, but I let her win ~ she was so pleased!
Christopher challenged me next, but there were just a few too many rules in this game for Chris to completely understand yet, so we just jumped our guys around the board a little bit until he grew tired and saw something else that caught his eye!
This is a cute peg board with little wooden objects that you could start at the top and see if they would bounce their way to the bottom. Matthew was very fond of playing with this.

There is an enormous sand area, but it was closed off with danger signs ... thankfully, this raised sand box was accessible for the kids to play in.
We visited a beaver lodge, very nicely done, that you had to crawl to get inside of ...
complete with beaver puppets to play with! There was also a cool squirrel house in the base of a tree that the kids could go inside of and play ... but my pictures there are really bad.
This is just a really fun place to take kids!

If I had grandchildren that lived here in town, I would have to just buy a family membership deal so that we could go here whenever we wanted!
This is my pathetic picture of the children in front of some gorgeous flowers that are EVERYWHERE here ... like I said, the kids are really really tired of posing for pictures.
We brought a picnic lunch and ate a good meal outside together. We fed our leftover crackers to some little birds who had been watching our picnic and waiting for their turn ... and then, you would think that would have been enough fun for one day, but NO! We were invited somewhere else!

Karen's Magical Place! We took a 10-minute drive over to Karen's house. These pictures do not do it justice. It is just a superbly beautiful 97-year-old home that reminds me of a mini-Grand Hotel (if anything about this place could be said to be "mini"). Everything about it is lovely.
This is their backyard and pool ...
And what a great swing! Big enough for 3 or 4 children, under the shade of a giant and most beautiful tree!

On the side of their property, there is a tree house, with the sweetest cement pond nearby ...
and a great sandbox underneath! Remember this, Sabrina? Years ago, Sabrina used to take care of a few of Karen's children right here!
We all enjoyed the pool together ... I had hoped more of my pictures would have turned out ... but I really like this one of Di and Emma!

I have to say a few more things about Karen. I have known her now since Jesse was two day's old. I have never seen her even a little bit annoyed with a child ~ not hers, not mine, not even a total stranger. She is beautiful, like you would imagine an Arabian princess to be! But better than that ~ when you are with her, you forget about all of the sad things, all of the heartaches ... AND she is so full of encouragement and kind words ... she is better than the sweetest Southern ice tea on the hottest of days! And it's been that way since I have known her, when she lived in a little tiny apartment with not very much extra of anything!

I told Nana and Roy that we would be back home close to 4:00 in the afternoon. They hadn't seen the children yet and were anxious to visit with them for a little bit. So we reluctantly left Karen's and came on home.
Nana played trains with us for a little while! She loves these little toys almost as much as I do!
It was fun to see her get down on the floor and play for a little while ...
We tried to get everyone in this picture, but it just wasn't going to happen ... the boys have really had it with cameras in general! They took one look at us trying to pose this picture and ran for their lives! So the next day (yesterday, Friday) I put my camera away. I didn't take one single picture the whole entire day! We really just did re-run activities anyway. We are all of us beyond exhausted! When I returned the children over to the Hands' house at 3:00 yesterday, I came home and fell asleep on the lounge chair in the family room, woke up, and then it seemed that anywhere I sat down I was sleeping again!

A forgotten anniversary!

Well, I've done it now ... I've gone and completely forgotten Adam and Emily's second anniversary! It was yesterday ... ouch! I was checking blogs a few minutes ago and went to Emily's and saw her very nice tribute to Adam ... and felt TERRIBLE! I have a little space on the side of my blog that I use to remind everyone about special family events too, and I STILL FORGOT this incredibly special day. So, it looks like their anniversary card is going to be even more belated than this little post. I hate it when this happens! I do love this picture of them, though, from last Christmas ~ aren't they the cutest?

A BELATED HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY TO ADAM AND EMILY!

A quiet kind of Tuesday ...

Christopher was the first to go to sleep Monday night, and he was the first to wake up Tuesday morning ~ that only seems fair!
Chris and I had a whole hour to ourselves to play Legos before Emma woke up at 8:30. It's amazing to me to watch this VERY rough little boy, play so quietly and carefully with these Legos. He really loves them!
Matthew woke up in a very silly mood and decided to try on some of my hats ... just to see how he looked.
Later in the morning, Emma and I made a bunch of cool animals out on our driveway, using Ed Emberley's book about drawing animals. We made a few pigs, some shark, a whale, some monkeys, and even an ape!

After lunch, Grandpa Jones and I took the kids over to Grand Rapids Township Park to play on the really nice playground over there ... I bet you are thinking: "ANOTHER playground?!!"

We are blessed to have a lot of playgrounds in our area ~ all of them just a little different from each other ~ and I just think it's good for kids to run and play and climb and explore ... as much as possible!
Grandpa Jones kept sneaking up behind the slide and scaring the kids as they came down!
Christopher kept coming back for more and more!
Christopher was very proud to have climbed up this big tire all by himself. I told him he must be very strong, and so here he is showing me his muscles.

And then we returned the kiddos to their mom and other grandparents for the rest of the day! Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we hope to take everyone over to the Meijer Children's Garden, eat a picnic lunch, and then get some ice cream over at Jersey Junction! We only have one more week of the Pahman grandchildren being in Grand Rapids. Nana and Grandpa Roy plan to come over tomorrow afternoon to see everyone. I'll show you those pictures in a couple of days.

And then it was Monday ...

After having not seen the kids since Saturday, the 48 hours kind of dragged by until 3:00 Monday afternoon ... Diana and I and the children headed over to visit Grandpa Pahman and Uncle Shane. We all went over to Palmer Park, on the southwest side of Grand Rapids. What a pretty place it is! I think it's probably been 20+ years since I had been here.
There is really nice playground equipment here, and the children had so much fun.
It was a very hot afternoon in Grand Rapids, so it was nice to find a playground with so many trees and shade!

Diana liked it here too. I like this picture of her, having fun on the equipment. She even went down the biggest curly slide at the park, but the picture I took of her while doing that just isn't the best ...
This is the park where Grandpa Pahman spent a lot of his time as a child, so it was delightful for him to be here with the grandchildren.

Isn't that a sweet little picture of Matthew? He enjoys heights and has absolutely no fear ... so you have to watch him carefully! He stopped running and playing just to enjoy the view.
There are lots of interesting trails throughout the park, some that take you to swampy areas ~ perfect for frog hunting, etc. ~ but it was just TOO hot to do that today. We decided to walk the boardwalk instead.

I'm going to have to come back here in the Fall and take some pictures of the colors and the leaves ...

It was a nice, long hike through the woods ~ the kids were really beat by the time we were finished ~ and then we went over to Grandpa Pahman's to eat supper and play ...
Uncle Dylan and Shane played with the kids for a long time. Matthew especially attaches himself to Dylan ~ we're thinking it has something to do with how much Dylan and Jesse are similar in appearance ... And Christopher LOVES to rough around with Uncle Shane ... it's very fun to watch them.

Time to say good-bye ... until the next time!
We took Diana back to her parents' house and then drove over to the Jones Junction for the night. It was nearly 8:00, but it was still SO light outside. We played for a little while, and then started the bedtime routine: snack, story, music, hugs ...



Ever since we read the story of creation the other night, Emma has been saying that she wants to see God and play with Him! She wants to see Him now! It's difficult to explain to little children how God is a Spirit and He is invisible to us ... so since Jesus came for the very purpose of revealing God to us, I decided that our storytime should be about Jesus. We actually read two stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible (by Sally Lloyd-Jones). One of the stories we read was about Jesus when He was out on the lake in a small fishing boat in a huge storm with his friends. Oh my word! The author does an amazing job with this story! And the illustrations of the huge waves and lightning and the tiny boat, and Jesus sound asleep ~ just beautiful! All of us were in my big bed reading the story. I had the kids make the sound of the wind and I rocked back and forth and acted out the story with them. When we got to the part where the disciples were screaming in fear and finally woke Jesus up, the kids were SO into it. And to have Jesus just say, "Hush!" and have everything STOP ~ the wind, the waves, the storm! I love how the author brought us back to the creation story ~ how the wind and the waves recognized Jesus' voice! Christopher said, "Wow! Jesus has a lot of power, grandma!" And then we talked about how Jesus is with us when we are afraid and how much He loves us, with a never-ending love!



After our stories, the kids were asking me questions about their dad (Jesse), about what he was like when he was little. I asked them if they wanted to see some pictures of him when he was a kid, so I took them into the lighthouse room (the other spare bedroom) where I have boxes of pictures stored underneath the bed. We got out an old photo album that still had some pictures in it of Jesse, Shane and Dylan ~ of when they were born, up until about Emma's age. We had so much fun! The kids laughed so hard to see photos of their daddy and their uncles (and me!) and how we all looked so many years ago.




And then we all went to bed! I'd like to tell you we all slept soundly, but these little ones talk in their sleep! But at least they all stayed sleeping and seemed to be well-rested in the morning ~ and that's the only thing that is really important anyway!