Foreign Turkeys

Today, to celebrate Thanksgiving in a foreign world that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we went to the beach.

And it was a lovely morning and early afternoon to “get away” together as a family.

How we enjoyed slowing down and exploring some hands-on science of checking out dead jelly fish on the shore.

Our Stateside swim lessons for the Littles also provided much joy and peace for the entire family.

Then we came home where two native Americans and two pilgrims joined us for Thanksgiving dinner 🙂

It was simple and it was also simply delightful to share in a thankful meal together. Each person went around the table and shared three things they are thankful for.

And even after the meal was finished, the sorority laughed and chatted on so.

Yes, it was another marvelous Mozambican Thanksgiving.

❤️ Happy Thanksgiving, all. ❤️

May you also find MUCH to be thankful for.

November 26, 2020 0

Twelve

Twelve years ago I said the best two word sentence of my life; “I do”.

The greatest adventure of our lives started with those wonderful two words.

Matthew, our twelve year anniversary will be spent for most of the day hours apart; me here caring for our little ladies and you finishing up a training weekend and traveling back. And while our anniversary “get-away” will be celebrated surrounded by our community of little people, it sums up our marriage beautifully. We will always find a way to find us in the middle of all the life happening around us. Albeit an extra hug while my hands are in soapy dish water, scooting closer while we’re both answering emails during a rare quiet moment on the couch, putting my water bottle shot-gun in the car because you are reserving my seat even if we’re transporting someone else who could culturally take that place, or endless other little things you do to love me so well. We find a way to be us. Fight to be us. Together.

It has been twelve amazing years, Love. Four wonderful girls. Four semi-crazy dogs. Eight cats. Six guinea pigs. One turtle. Two foster sons. Living in two countries. Visiting four other countries. Countless hours of sleepless nights, newborn snuggles, toddler teething, growing pains, bad dream comforting and middle of the night vomit wake-up calls. Endless tears of heartbreak and utter joy. And I’d do every single second of it over again just to walk alongside of you through it all.

You just laying with me to hold my hand on a day I didn’t feel well.

Love you, Babe. Love you so!

And yes, Love, next year in anniversary years we’ll finally be teenagers.

The world can’t handle our kind of cool. 😉 Haha.

*Happy twelve years, Love.*

Here’s to decades more.

August 25, 2019 0

Family Identity

It came to us right before bed one night in Johannesburg. I had gotten out of the hospital by the grace of God and finally felt like a human being again. We had moved beyond the survival phase; Matt’s day dictated by hospital visiting hours and mine dictated by pain management and nursing schedule. And now we stood at the doorframe of recovery. Recovery from surgeries, recovery from anxiety and recovery from apartness (hey, I can make up words, this is my blog 😉).

And we lay there processing, for processing for parents often happens at night when small ears are not around. In that land of processing I wandered a bit, smelling the flowers, until I realized what I missed the most: family identity.

See, every transitional reality we have walked through as a family was aided by finding a new sense of us. Each added family member helped to redefine how we do family. Each big change. Each trip. Each adventure. Everywhere we find ourselves laying our heads at night, that time period, grows us into a new layer of family identity.

And it was then and there that we realized that that was true for everywhere except Joburg. We had had three weeks of unavoidable division: me at the hospital, Matt being Superdad and trying to still stay fully aware and engaged with what was going on with me, and the girls bouncing from wonderfully willing person to person, but still finding an identity of just the four of them – Rachael being, many times, the voice of reason and taking on the role of “mom” for her sisters. We had been, for all intensive purposes: scattered.

For healing to happen, we realized that we needed to regroup and find our family identity once again right where we were, in Joburg. So it began with a 1,000 piece puzzle…

Everyone’s hands worked on the puzzle. It helped us not only pass time healing, but also just have a united goal again.

We were determined to finish it. Matt and I worked on sections when the girls were sleeping. Waiting times were filled with sorting pieces. Eden even got pretty good at finding edge pieces. Hannah sorted colors. Abi and Rachael helped Eden collect zebra pieces. And we slowly chipped away at it, even when it was really frustrating, until the final piece was laid. I loved how we all cheered at it’s completion. In hours of focus and teamwork we found a sense of family identity in Joburg.

See, friends? We live in a generally quiet town. With generally quiet evenings filled with time. Time when few are out, risking malaria, among the mosquitos. Time when people return home at dusk and shut down for the nights. Seven hours from fluent English and teammates is where we live. And that’s in no way a complaint, just a reality. And then we came to the big city; busy, loud, full of activity, and everything costs something and even the most wonderful friends that we wanted to see. But it wasn’t until we sat down to that puzzle that we realized how much we just needed a slice of us again. Quiet. Uneventful. A united task. Until completion.

And after the completion comes the very best part: the destruction.

[wpvideo FG0PEf1k ]

Family identity is critical. Everyone has a part. Everyone is valued. Everyone is needed.

Together we are better.

January 19, 2019 0

Bob and Weave

Oh you know, just another Saturday night at the Stauffer household…

Obstacle course.

Trophy.

Flying darts.

Bring on the squealing!!!

[wpvideo PxfZ9mHm ]

#whenindoubtshootyourkids

#inthebestwaypossible

😂😂😂

August 4, 2018 2

The Finish Line

Well the race was this morning. And we all got up at varied times during the hour of 5am to get on out there. Hannah had a rough week of teething all this week, but God blessed us with a good night’s sleep 2 nights ago that helped during the race. Sadly, last night I got barely over 6 hours of sleep with my rough teether waking up 3 times (every 2 hours) in the night. Yeah, not a great start to the already early morning, but not once did I ever think to let the poor thing cry so I could get more sleep in preparation for the run.

Our precious friend, Jessica, joined us to care for the girls while Matt and I were in the race. I cannot say enough about this wonderful woman in Christ. Her heart is so beautiful and how she loves my girls… makes this Mommy’s heart so thankful and hopeful that my girls will turn out like her some day.

So after parking a little after 6:15am, we waited out one of the last waves of the storm in the van. When we got too antsy and Hannah had an opportunity for her morning nursing session, we loaded up the girls and headed in to the Start line. Potty, a dropped shoe, and kisses later, we took these two pictures and headed to the Start line.

We were multitasking in stretching too. You know, that’s why Matt only has one leg. Hehehe.

And these little ladies did WONDERFULLY while we were racing. And Jessica took these sweet little pictures during their wait at the Finish Line. =)

Of course Ducky came too. =)

She’s getting so big.

Bless her little heart.

We were hoping to finish at 3 hours. And my personal goal was not to walk at all during the 13.1 miles.

We ended up finishing at 2 hours and 53 minutes and 52 seconds. And I did not walk at all.

Shortly after crossing the finish line we found the girls on the sidelines. Sweet little Hannah was out cold in the stroller and had been so for almost 2 hours. Rachael was just tall enough to see over the wall. And little Abi didn’t quite make it without assistance. It was sweet to see Matt pick her up over the wall and carry her through the finishing food/drink distribution lines before we were out of the runners finishing area and free to mingle with our family. The girls took turns wearing and holding our participation medals. And dear Rachael told us at least ten times throughout the morning that she was really proud of us. – Sweet thing.

We started across the start line holding hands and finished through the finishing gates and across the finish line holding hands. I couldn’t ask for a better teammate and friend in my life. I am so blessed beyond measure to accomplish this life goal alongside my Matthew.

I am so glad the girls were able to be there, even though it was early, and raining at one point. And a lot of waiting. They are our little world and it was such a blessing to share in the moments together.

Matt and I both agreed at mile 12 that we both have NO desire to ever run a half marathon again, but would like to make a lifestyle out of 5K’s and maybe even 10K’s in overly ambitious moments. Both of our knees are shot and EVERYTHING hurts. But today as we pop the tylennol and rub our sore muscles, we are just so thankful that this goal was accomplished. And is behind us. 😉

**** Thanks be to God, for the motivation and the strength. He is more than sufficient. And He surely provided. SURELY. Thank You, Lord. Thank You.

September 21, 2013 0

At Bat

Well many things have happened since we last spoke, dear Readers. You’ll be seeing more entries popping up again. Summer is winding down to the last little lull of revamping before the school year begins. Things are returning to schedule and routine, which is lovely for this planner of a Mommy.

Since we last spoke:

Matt and I took the girls on a 3 day trip away and a 1 day “just us” return.
The boys had a MARVELOUS time at respite (staying at another foster home – sort of like babysitting) while we were away and were spoiled as well.
It sort of fell into our laps to have the possibility of enrolling Big Guy in Christian private school (with Mom giving the okay) and we’ve been riding the county and scraping together everything needed for enrolment since pre-registration. [Sidenote: Dude, enrolling a kid in school is intense PLUS the whole “you can’t sign for anything” side of foster care!]
We’ve all managed to catch a high-fever bug and pass it amongst ourselves, with the exclusion of Matt and myself.
Had an awesome playdate with an old high school friend and her two sweet boys.
Attended another good ol’ foster care license upkeep trainings. WOOT! (NOT!)
Had a girls morning out to Ikea with my lovelies, a friend and her little girl.
Played way too much of this online facebook game…. I’d tell you the name, but then you’d play too.
Took the masses out to a few traveling playgrounds in the area for fun-packed outdoor play that produced strong napping tendencies.
And signed MY oldest up for ballet – tear. I’m working through letting go, people… but I still have until she moves out for college.
Oh and my dear Rachael also started Piano Lessons with our dear organ/piano player, Ms. Betty. So that’s been quite fun to sit down for 30 minutes a day and help her practice as well as watch her build in confidence in her mastery of beginning music skills.

So that’s us lately… hence the reason for the silence in blogville.

But I’m getting it back together, people. =)

August 10, 2013 2