I love to wear my daddy's shoes though my feet are small When they're in my daddy's shoes, I feel so very tall Someday I'll grow to fill them, I only hope to be As fine a man and great a dad, as my daddy is to me.
We were so excited that Auntie C and Cousins H&B were here to celebrate the first weekend of autumn. We love when they come to visit us and always plan special things to do.
Roasting hot dogs, marshmallows and sipping apple cider...the perfect way to begin the autumn season!
Our day for pumpkins began with some delicious pumpkin waffles and then we were off to the pumpkin patch for some autumn fun.
Three kiddos excited for some pumpkin fun
We were excited that the farm we visited didn't just have a pumpkin patch, but a large open area filled with fun activities for all ages. The kids were thrilled too! They had a small feeding and petting zoo with goats, chickens, pigs, and rabbits. There were also rubber ducky races, a large playground, a wooden fort, a ginormous slide, tricycle track, a corn maze and the list could go on and on.
Since Daddy had a busy work week, Titus and I decided to join Papa, Grammy, and Cousins Hadley and Braxton for a mini get-away in Branson. Our original plan had been to take the kids to Silver Dollar City for some fun. Unfortunately, they were closed for the week so we had to come up with other alternatives to keep three kiddos entertained.
One of our alternatives consisted of a visit to College of the Ozarks. I love the idea of this college! It is a non-denominational Christian college where students work their way through college with zero tuition costs and when they finish zero debt. The students work hard and earn their degrees. What a concept in today's society! ;) On their campus they have many things to see and do.
Our first stop was to the Ralph Foster Museum. It contains the original clunker car from the show The Beverly Hillbillies, a huge weapons display, Native American artifacts, many taxidermy wild animals, a collection of Kewpie dolls, musical instruments, and historical pieces from around the Ozarks.
They also have a beautiful chapel on their campus. I love looking at old churches, what a spiritual history they hold within their walls.
The next stop was Point Look Out. The highest point in Taney County. What an incredible view!
Branson in the distance
College of the Ozarks also is home to a mill, a basket weaving shop, a jam and jelly kitchen, a dairy farm, and a tractor museum.
A grave reminder of Matt 18: 5-6: "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
After months (literally) of daily high temperatures being in the 100 degrees, this week was a very nice reprieve. It has been in the low 60's each morning this week and the afternoons have been in the 70's and 80's. Ahhhh, autumn...we are so ready to welcome you!
The heat has kept us from taking walks and playing in the park, and we have been missing it a lot.
Year after year August was a fairly insignificant month on our calendar. The thirty-one days of August would float by without too much significance in our little family's life, minus a couple of special family birthdays scattered about. However, now and forever more, one ordinary day in August is now engraved into our memory and etched in our hearts forever.
August 21st, 2010 is one of those ordinary turned extraordinary days...and I can pinpoint 6:57am as the moment that change our little world. The moment I finally held my son. In the blink of an eye, there he was in the flesh and I was a mother. His mother forever and ever. My heart was filled with more love and joy than it had ever known before.
For four months I had stared at and memorized the thirty-two photos we had, read and re-read the monthly emails about our precious boy, day-dreamed about our little one's personality, and wondered what he was doing at any given moment on the other side of the world.
Today marks one year ago when we finally held our precious boy. Those incredible days have come and gone like a blink of an eye...but not one passes without a prayer of thanks to our Father from a happy mama's heart. Our sweet Titus Andrew, thank you for making every ordinary day extraordinary. Your daddy and I are so proud of you, and we are so very much in love with you.
Thank you Father for this child~and giving us more than we knew to ask for.
Now all glory to God , who is able through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20
Exactly one year ago today, Kevin and I were on our way to finally meet our Titus Andrew. Taking in everything that his birth country is. Loving every second. I never thought it would take me this long to blog our trip. There are several factors as to why. One, we had very limited internet access as well as time while in Taiwan. Two, I was emotionally and physically overwrought and the very idea of processing and trying to put all we were experiencing into words was just too much. We were just living and taking in the moments as they presented themselves. I honestly remember the details vividly that it's like it was yesterday...and I'm thankful for the time I've spent reliving and praising God for that special week.
Of course, Titus is the most important reason behind writing these Taiwan Rewind posts. He won't remember his six months of life and time in Taiwan and so it is my privilege and responsibility to share with him what his daddy and I experienced and saw while we were there. Because of him, I never want to forget a single detail. It's his precious story and the journey of a lifetime for our little family.
On August 17th at 2:34 am we received a phone call from Ted Skiles that he would like us to be in Taiwan in two days or in two weeks. We chose the two days; nothing was going to post-pone me from waiting to hold my little boy another two weeks. After all my prayer through this entire adoption journey was that I would be able to hold my son, on or before his 6th month birthday.
The funny part of this story is my niece and nephew were staying with us for the week because my sister and brother-in-law had to go back to school as they both work for their town's school district. When my sister asked if we would be willing I said sure it will be great parenting practice for us. She then hesitantly asked, "You don't think you'll get a travel call, do you?" My reply was that at best it would be weeks away. And God laughed.
On Friday, August 19th Uncle Eric and Aunt Kate came to pick us up and take us to the airport at 6:30 am. When we pulled away from our home, it was surreal to know that we were leaving as two and coming back as a family of three. Oh, what a glorious day!
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in, pray together, promised to post lots of pictures, gave hugs, talked about the journey that awaited us, and said our good byes.
Kevin and I then sat and waited by ourselves in great anticipation for the journey that awaited us. Our emotions were high. We had no idea what awaited us on the other side of the world, but it didn't matter, we were ready. We had several flights before we would actually be on our way to Taiwan. Honestly, we would spend most of the day traveling or sitting in airports. And somehow due to the International Dateline we would lose an entire day. Our trip consisted of traveling from KC to Dallas, Dallas to LA, and finally LA to Taipei.
Just after 8:30pm we were finally leaving LA and on our way to Taipei. The 14 hour flight was long, but went well. EVA Air did an excellent job of taking care of our every need. We ate some yummy Chinese food, Kevin watched 3 or 4 movies, and I tried to relax.
Every 20 minutes or so I would click my individual flight monitor to see how many miles we had traveled, how many more miles of the 6823 miles we still had to travel, and to watch the progression of our plane over the wide Pacific Ocean. It helped relieve some of the anxiety in my mama's heart to know how much longer it would be until I was FINALLY in my child's birth country.
I'll never forget the rush of emotions that I had as our plane descended and I got my first peek of Taiwan at 10pm on August 20th (Taiwan time). It was hard to see much, but this was it. We meandered our way through customs, thermo scanning, finding our luggage and even stopping to snap a picture or two.
Finally in the crowd we spotted Ted's smiling face. What a welcome sight! We then began our two hour car trip to The Home. It was midnight when we arrived and we were given what we considered our preview of our precious boy. It was sooo hard not to reach out and touch and hold him.
With much restraint we headed to bed. I attempted to sleep, but knowing that my son was close by, I couldn't. Finally, I woke Kevin up at 6:15 am and told him it was time to finally go hold our son. We stayed in the apartment that was about a mile from The Home but that morning that one mile walk seemed to to be ten miles. Finally we arrived at The Home to find out that Titus was still asleep. Thankfully though, Bev allowed us to wake him up. Maybe, my restraint and good behavior the night before helped my case. :) I felt bad waking Titus up from his peaceful slumber, but my aching arms couldn't take it much longer. We tiptoed into the nursery and I slowly lifted him from his bed. He studied us and stared intently at Kevin and me but his overall demeanor was peaceful. We jumped right in caring for his needs: diaper changing, feeding him breakfast, burping, and rocking him.
Our hearts were overflowing with love and joy. We were finally complete. We had waited so long for this day to come and it had been worth every single struggle. Titus has always been meant to be our child and we are blessed to be his parents. Our Father's hand brought us together...only He could of made this happen. To HIM be the glory!!!!
Playing in the autumn leaves
Becoming a skilled fisherman
