Hearts Full of Joy

give me liberty....

this etsy treasury beautifully expresses the heritage i am grateful for, and all the we celebrate at the 4th of july.

a kitty tale: a tribute to adoption & motherhood

our kittens are over 3 weeks old now, and so, so fun. they want to explore and play with us and wrestle each other. we have always felt that gigi, their mommy, is the best little kitty cat in the entire world (she found lexi & i as a tiny ktten when we went for a walk last summer, and wanted to come home with us), and she has proved to be a wonderful mother ~ staying in her box and nursing her babies even when she was weak from hunger. we would bring food & water to her, and she would gobble it desperately, but she wouldn't leave her babies.

(first time out on the lawn)

on monday, the day after their 3 week birthday, a cute little neighbor boy brought us a tiny gray kitty he had found in their barn. they heard it crying on sunday, but couldn't find it. he finally searched until he found it in the rafters after school on monday. it was so tiny, about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of our kittens.

this little kitten confused us because he was so small, about the size of our kittens at birth, but he had his eyes open. our kitties didn't get their eyes completely open for over 2 weeks. then we noticed that he still had his cord. our kitties lost theirs within a week. lexi googled and discovered that kittens can open their eyes as early as 3 days, so we think he is less than a week old. this tiny guy is so sweet and affectionate. he purrs and cuddles, which our other kitteis wouldn't do for us, they just wanted their mommy at this age. we put him with our kittens hoping that gigi would feed him. she was unsure, but did allow him to stay. but he was so weak, and the other kittens so big and pushy, that he didn't have a chance at nursing....

so we force fed him some milk through a syringe, worried that he would get it into his airways, and decided it would take a miracle for him to make it through the night.

little mia is our animal lover and she put him in a doll sling and carried him around that evening. she lovingly and patiently cared for him and kept trying to feed him.

finally we put him with the other kitties for the night, hoping for the best. when we went to bed, we found two signs on our bedroom door:

"please check on buster (that's what she named him) every 30 minutes"

and

"did buster die?

yes/no

at what time

     :         "

we wrote that he was alive at midnight and went to bed.

in the morning he was alive and willing to be fed more milk from a syringe.

and now for the really interesting part of the story (at least we think so)....

mia took buster to gigi before she left for school, and had a long talk with her, telling her how important it was for her to feed him. gigi listened and then picked him up by the scruff of his neck...it took her a long time to accomplish it, because there isn't much scruff. it looked like she was eating him....and carried him to an empty cardboard box in the garage and let him nurse. then she carried him back to the box with the other kittens. she has repeated this over and over and will take him to his own box whenever we ask her to. now, wednesday afternoon, he can hold his own and feed with the other kittens.

i don't believe in coincidences, but do believe that most (if not all) things happen for a reason. i wondered if this little kitty may have been sent to us for a reason. i asked mia what she and buster (pronounced "bustard" by gracie, which inspires endless amusement) have in common. she noted that they were both small. i contributed that they both had birth mothers that couldn't take care of them for some reason. then i asked if we, or gigi, love him any less because he is a different color, or different size, or was born to a different mother. i saw the light go on in her eyes that i had hoped for. and that brings me joy. she struggles with these issues. i'm grateful for an orphaned kitten and a devoted kitty mother and what they can teach my precious little girl.

 

technology free

we enjoyed the most delightful day yesterday. skies were blue, birds were singing, the temperature was perfect. but these were not the reasons we enjoyed our perfect day, they were just icing on the cake. what made the day wonderful is that our cable provider's system crashed, leaving us without phone, internet, or tv. i wish this would happen more often. it was blissful. we were relaxed, and leisurely caught up on so many things that had been put off. i made banana blueberry bread and granola and strawberry rhubarb jam (rhubarb from our garden!). i cleaned. i enjoyed gracie.

i wouldn't want this to happen too regularly, because i had to ignore the customers of our internet shops. i really enjoy our shops and our customers, and want to provide the best service possible. but there is always more to be done with the shops, ALWAYS. and not being able to access the shops, or anything/one else by phone or internet was so refreshing. maybe i should schedule one day like this a week. i believe it would bless my life. but do i have the self-control to stay off the internet and phone if they are accessible? i fear i don't. and that's a painful admission.

more customer inspiration

more fun inspiration from some of my incredibly talented customers:

boodybabies bedding made this amazing crib set made with "retro rocket rascals" and "play stripe" from michael miller fabrics. click here to see more details of this set and find her etsy shop.

handmaidenscottage on etsy made this sweet dress from the indigo stars fabric from the "waving old glory" collection.

and nancy in london made these sweet dollies with fabric from my shop, and even sent me the first one as a present! gracie just asked me to make her a dolly for her birthday (end of may), and i am so happy to have this darling one to give her. visit nancy's etsy shop.

from the bounty of the earth

one of my most delightful experiences this fall was discovering the dutchman general store in cantril, iowa. a friend took me to this mennonite store (where you can watch happy rosy cheeked children playing in their traditional clothing. we drove through scenic, rolling, autumn farmland, and i repeated this magical journey for my in-laws when they visited.

i came home with boxes of apples, pears, and tomatoes, delicious and decorative squash, bulk spices and other goodies that i haven't been able to find here in the midwest, like millet, flax seed, unrefined sugar. oh! and unbelievably yummy dark dutch cocoa. and all at great prices! dreamy!  

i am enjoying a continuing love affair with canning this fall. the apples and pears combined made scrumptious juice, apple/pear sauce, and my favorite sauce that i discovered last year by accident: follow the apple pie filling recipe on the minute tapioca box (using both pears and apples), cut the sugar by 1/3, and cook until very juicy, then can it to put over pancakes, waffles, etc. so yummy!

i used the tomatoes to make surprisingly delicious fresh chunky past sauce and salsa.

we had fun with crabapples again.

and have been canning more chicken and beans with the new pressure canner.

we've picked apples at baxter's vineyards down the street more than once this fall, and on our first visit found 10 old blue glass canning jars waiting for a new owner. here they are with spices and goodies from the dutchman's store.

now they are full of apple/pear juice. somehow so much funner than clear glass jars.

i'm still drying apples from our last apple picking at baxter's last week.

i thrill at the bounties of autumn.

etsy

etsy is so much more fun than i ever anticipated! we've been surprised to find ourselves shipping packages off to germany, australia, the netherlands, japan, and three to the UK. i feel back in touch with my antique quilt business in japan, which is a happy feeling. and i'm meeting the nicest, most interesting, incredibly creative and talented people.

one of them has me feeling very inspired.
she is expecting her eighth baby, has two fun etsy shops -

check out the adorable scripture bags on this one,
 
she also homeschools, and has a fabulous blog.
i feel honored that she is using my "squares & stripes forever" quilt kit

as a give-away prize on her blog.

a few more shops that i love:

drawingroom's shop

sweet nellie's shop

lexi is loving this:
DanaCastle's shop

look to right-hand column to see my featrued and most recent etsy shop listings.

free flowers!

more blessings from the overflow of the temple gardens:

this is an extra blessing that i didn't anticipate that living near the temple would bring. tuesday i brought home and planted about $250 worth of free flowers - extras from the temple flower beds! i arrived on the scene of the flower give-away later than most, and i wasn't absolutely in love with what was left for me. but i do hate waste, and as i was the last one left to gather the left-overs, i brought home more than i initially planned on, and even brought home some that i didn't really like. but once i got them all planted, i loved everyone of them! some were a little scraggly and stressed, but i am giving them extra care in hopes that they will make a beautiful comeback. lots of zinnias and floss flowers, and some that i don't know what they are. i planted them among my marigolds, snapdragons, allysum, etc., and hope they are bunny-resistant. all of the beautiful salmon pink and ruby red double petunias i planted a month ago have been nibbled to ground, never to return. and just after getting all 170 new flowers planted and bringing brock to see the results, we found a baby bunny hiding in the zinnias!
i have also planted a japanese maple, two hydrangeas, six "dinner plate" hibiscus, and five dahlias in this front garden, plus shasta daisies and sedum - the last two free from a friend's garden! brock pulled out two shrubs to make room for the maple and hydrangeas. we also planted two more hydrangeas and miscellaneous flowers in the back yard. the hydrangeas are all the new ever-blooming variety in red, pink, and blue. i want to eventually get this front garden filled in with perennials, but for this year, $250 worth of free annuals will do!

usually i feel that my flower photos are lovelier than the real thing, but this time i couldn't take a photos that i felt did these new flowers justice. they are really more pretty than this photo woud lead you to believe.

8 years

mia is 8 today. she was born on tax day, but it wasn't tax day in japan. the 15th was easter that year, everywhere. easter isn't celebrated in japan, but it was celebrated by us, a particularly happy and memorable easter that year, and three days later we got a phone call about a healthy, genki (happy) baby girl....did we want her? ummmm, YES! we had to think about it for approximately .0000001 nanoseconds. it was pure magic, an easter miracle, and  it still is.
on friday we cut off her 12 inch ponytail of beautiful hair to donate to locks of love.

before
 
after

she had a bit of a panic when the ponytail came off. but i just love her new look, the way her hair frames her sweet face. and it's wonderful to be freed from the brushing and brushing and washing and washing.....painful for both her and i.

friday the 13th

when brock came upstairs this morning, as i was finishing my yoga, and told me that he had put a nail through his finger with his nail gun, i thought he was joking.....he does that, frequently. it looked like he was holding a nail behind his hand, and faking. i was wrong.

we have three hospitals in our "area" to choose from, none very close. they are 20, 25, and 30 minutes away. we haven't been to any yet, and didn't know where to go. after prayer i felt that we should go over the river, 25 minutes away, but although i knew of that hospital, i didn't know exactly where it was. so on our way out of town, we stopped at our good friends', who gave us directions, and offered to take gracie, and take our other two littles after school. it was an early out day. neither brock or i were thinking completely clearly, and so she was a tremendous help.

we were blessed by being guided to the right hospital. they had an orthopedic surgeon on staff, and a great surgical center. the x-rays weren't clear on whether the bones had been damaged. but the surgery showed that, thankfully, they weren't. and there seems to be no nerve damage. there was some damage to the tendons on two of the fingers (i thought only one finger was involved until we were almost at the hospital, which trip only took me 15 mintues, instead of the required 25), but the prognosis for healing looks good.

we are grateful.

i think this is my first really unlucky happening on a friday the 13th, but it can be argued that it was also a lucky day, because the damage to brock's hand could have been so much worse. he handled it, and still is handling it amazingly well. they thought he had no pain at the hospital, because he was so calm. i had to correct them on that mistaken idea. brock was afraid that he might lose his hand (his right, and dominant hand) but i had no idea he was so worried. when all was said and done we were only at the hosptial for 6 hours, which is remarkable to me. and although i hate hospitals, surgery, etc, we were very well cared for and had a positive experience. he had surgery under general anesthesia, recovered, and was home for dinner.

at times like this, one feels surpemely grateful for modern medicine.

shingo

we have been treated to a 5 day visit by one of our most favorite of people in the world, shingo.

the first time i saw shingo, he was a missionary, singing a musical number in church with a large group of young missionaries. when i saw him, i knew that our plans to move back to the u.s. after receiving mia's visa from the u.s. government needed to change. the spirit told me strongly that i had a son like shingo coming, and i needed to stay in japan and find him. it was an overwhelming experience, unlike any i had ever had, and it changed everything. shingo was serving as a missionary in the ward that shared our building, and so we had the opportunity to get to know him. he loved mia, who was 17 months old, and we discovered that his family was best friends with dr. samejima's family (the doctor who gave us mia). shingo had left medical school to serve his mission and planned to work with dr. samejima after he graduated (medical school begins right after high school in japan).

after this experience, and a few others i won't take the space to list, we called dr. samejima, and although we felt tremendously selfish and brazen in asking for another baby when so many other families were waiting, we found the courage to say that if he ever had a baby that he couldn't place for any reason (racial mix, handicaps, etc) to please let us know. he laughed and said there was another baby for us, a boy, and he would find him.

if we were to adopt again, and pass the u.s. home studies required, we needed to move out of our one bedroom home in tokyo. we felt guided to move to maihama, just outside of tokyo, and walking distance from tokyo disneyland and disney sea. and we did so about a month and a half after meeting shingo. and to our surprise, in our new japanese ward (we had spent the last 7 1/2 years in an english ward), we met shingo's family who lived just blocks away from our new home. we loved them immediately.

there is so much i could write, but to keep it simpler, 18 months after meeting shingo, i received a phone call that woke me early on a sunday morning. brock was gone, already at early church meetings. dr. smaejima's voice said "omedeto" (congratulations), "i've found your baby". it was march 7, 2004, the day of shingo's mission homecoming. we celebrated that day for two joyful reasons. and at shingo's openhouse that evening, sister samejima met with us and told us all about noah's birth mother. in april shingo went back to medical school and noah was born. these two (noah & shingo) are intricately tied together, and although i don't completely understand it, i know that it is significant. the spirit tells me so. we've seen very little of shingo since, as his medical school was in tokushima, shikoku, far away from tokyo...and nauvoo. i was thrilled to answer the phone in early december and hear shingo's voice. he would be graduating from med school in march, and would like to come and visit us then. we've been eagerly anticipating his visit, and it was even more enjoyable than hoped. he is amazing, and brought a wonderful spirit to our home. we hope that noah will be as much like him (as the spirit whispered to me) as possible....they look remarkably alike.

noah following where shingo leads....

it was a painful farewell when we put shingo on the train back to chicago. but he promises to visit before too long with his "new family" (the family he plans to have). we'll be waiting.

saturday we realized that it was the 5 year aniversary of the day of shingo's homecoming, and we were all together again.

update....shingo's dad just sent me this link.   (shingo flew to utah from chicago to visit his mission president, mission companions, and the university of utah med school)