Hearts Full of Joy

back to school

it has been a ridiculously & somewhat embarrassingly long time since i posted. this summer has been incredibly full and amazing, and time has gotten away from me. i have neglected my blog, and everyone else's too. but school started today, and i am finding myself with just susie grace in the morning, and peace and quiet in the afternoon while she naps, so i anticipate finding some time to think, clean the house, and hopefully blog.

this morning before school.... the little ones' hair hadn't been combed yet because they leave for school much later than the bigger ones. we now have: a senior, a junior, a 3rd grader, and a kindergartner.

little man has been counting down the days until kindergarten starts ever since preschool graduation on May 8th. i love having my kids home with me, but this little one, and his sister just older need a lot more stimulation and social interaction that their older sisters did. is it just personality differences, i find myself wondering, or is it because they are different genders from each other and have a 3 year space, rather than a one year space. is it combination of these differences, or is there more to it? or less?

my kindergartner needed a pillow and blanket for rest time. i wanted to make him something that made him feel very loved and very cozy.

first i picked out some bright and lively blues and greens, but then remembered these flannels i have in my shop - woolies and shadowplay flannels from maywood. it was a delight to put this together. and now my mind is full of more possibilities for these fabrics. i made a small pillow case from the red and cream windowpane plaid print.

baby's birthday

susanna G is 2 years old.

because noah needed something to do, and i needed to get some things done, i encouraged him to get his giant construction paper pad, his gift from tashi on his birthday (and his favorite birthday present), and make some decorations for gracie's party. i envisioned him drawing some pictures. this is what he came up with:

i love it! he can be so surprising. i had gotten in the habit of having lower expectations for him because of his delayed speech and fine motor skills. he couldn't sit still for even one page of a book to be read to him until he was almost 4. but now he is really taking off, and wants me to do "school work" with him every day. lower expectations no more.

we love birthday presents that they can all enjoy together.

we were able to find one hour that we could all celebrate together, between the last day of school, scouts, achievement days, and young women's.

we were half way through the party when i realized that mia had worn this same dress on her 2nd birthday. brock points out that my subconscious must have realized it. gracie wanted to wear the same dress she wore on her birthday last year. she is wearing it today instead.

mia's quilt was a hit.

 

hazards of having an older brother

we're fast discovering that little girls with big brother are much more accident and injury prone.
 
wooden swing (the one tashi is swinging on, two posts ago) in the face. it looks much worse now, 2 days later. her eye is black and swollen and her face puffy. this was right after recovering from playing with brother in the car, falling out and skinning off the right side of her face on the driveway, which was right after recovering from brother's stick sword in the face, etc. calendula ointment to the rescue.

on the topic of baby grace, i was surprised by this coloring job she did the other day, 23 months old.
she carefully colored the paint, the painted star, and the letters.
here are some doodles on my to0do list from a few months ago. she is even more precise now, thinking she is writing. she got hold of an application form the other day and carefully filled every empty line with word-like doodles, just the right size.

little graduate

noah is a preschool graduate. his graduation was so adorable. they sang a song about a rainbow world, with lots of different kinds of people, as they waved their rainbow streamers, and he was the only ethnic child out of 35. he was also singing the loudest. so cute! we have adored preschool this year. noah has loved every minute of it, and was so disappointed when he was too sick to go, or school was cancelled. he has really blossomed during the year and moved from being a little behind, to a little ahead. and it was almost too good to be true to have the bus pick him up and drop him off in our front yard every day.

it is bitter-sweet that he will be miving on to all day kindergarten at the end of the summer. I have enjoyed my mornings with my little man. i enjoy having my children home, and don't like letting them go. although i do enjoy quiet alone time. gracie will be incharge of filling up my mornings next year.

noah is 5!

his birthday comes just two days after mia's. so it's that crazy time of year for us when a holiday and two birthdays fall in a week.

his favorite present was the jumbo pad of construction paper from natasha.

daddy tied up the tire swing that we drove around town to find in someone's "city clean-up" pile of garbage on tuesday.

the big present, combined for both noah & mia, is the fort/jungle gym/play set (we haven't yet decided what it will be called) that daddy is framing up. he planned  to have it done for the birthdays, but his time has been spent on re-modeling the building for the shop we are opening....more on that to come.

but yesterday wasn't just noah's birthday. i have a cousin and two good friends with the same birthday. and yesterday on facebook we discovered that at least 5 more of our friends were born on the april 17th, bringing the total to at least nine wonderful people in our lives who share this birthday. what a good karma day! it was a beautiful day this year, the best spring weather we've had so far, causing my shy daffodils to get serious about bursting and blooming.

noah got up and put on the same shirt he had worn last year on his birthday, but not intentionally.

 

noah one year ago, on his 4th birthday.

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)

strange but true....and i'm grateful

a random list of strangely true recent happenings.
i can see the had of the Lord in at least the first two, if not all:

thursday night we were startled by a large sonic-type boom that seemed to come from down low, rather than up high. it resonated through the earth and our home. while the details are still sketchy, this is what we have since learned..... a man was building pipe bombs in his home, less than a mile from us, and quite near the temple. one accidentally went off, removing his hand..... how it could make a boom that big, and only take off his hand? we don't know...... why was he building pipe bombs? we don't know that either, but have heard that he is known for his anti-mormon "antics". people in sycamore haven, up the river to the north, said their windows rattled from the explosion. the police reportedly sent robots into the bomber's home to disarm at least 3 more pipe bombs.....we are grateful that it ended as it did.

two weeks ago or so, i was driving along the river road, giving a friend whose car was getting repaired a ride home. she noticed a young boy walking along the road and commented that he was awfully young to be walking alone. it was late afternoon, approaching dusk, and very cold. i didn't think much of it, and passed him by, but then felt that i should pull over and wait for him to approach. i knew that he shouldn't talk to strangers, (or get into a stranger's car!), but felt compelled to ask him a few questions.
me: hi! do you need a ride?
boy: well, yah.
me: where are you going? do you live nearby?
boy: i'm going to keokuk (15 miles away)
me: why are you going to keokuk?
boy: to find my mom
me: where do you live?
boy: nauvoo, but i'm not going back there, i'm mad at my dad.
me: how old are you?
boy: 9
he was an adorable and very sweet little boy. and i wanted to help him, but was unsure how to proceed. so i started offering silent prayers for guidance. and i was able to take him to my home, after taking my friend home, even though he refused to go back to nauvoo, and then track down his grandparents who were most grateful. he goes to school with my little ones, and i know his cousin who is in mia's class. in asking him more questions, it became clear that his father hadn't really done anything wrong, this little guy just felt a sense of injustice in the way his father had handled something, and set out looking for his mom who has been absent for years. i later learned that his mother is only allowed to see him under supervision. i felt how much the Lord loves him to guide us to bring him safely home. if my friend wouldn't have been in the car with me, i don't think i would have noticed him or stopped for him. if she had been driving alone, she wouldn't have known how to find his grandparents. as it was, we each had something to offer in his "rescue". the river road is narrow, winding and very dangerous. it would have soon been dark and very cold. and no one yet realized that he was missing. what if my friend hadn't noticed him or said anything? what if i hadn't stopped? i am so grateful that it ended as it did.

we experienced countless earthquakes during our years in japan, some big enough and long enough to cause quite a bit of anxiety. but now we are experiencing something new: thunder that feels like an earthquake. and it is quite unnerving. we have had thunder that rattles the dishese in the cupboards and makes the whole house shake. wednesday morning brock & i both sat up straight in bed at about 5:40. i thought it sounded like half of our home was being sheared away. brock thought it sounded like we were being hit by hurricane force winds. we were both wrong. it was thunder. and such a storm ensued. each thunder (not clap, not roll...) boom & shake felt like it would last forever. lightning would strike, and the thunder would be immediate and go on and on and on. i have truly never known anything like it. maybe i will get used to it as i did to earthquakes.....we'll see. but the old timers here seemed to be as shocked as we were by the storm. i am so grateful that we were all safe and dry and warm.

silly reading

gracie is a funny girl. a really funny girl. not in a baby-ish sort of way, but in a quirky, surprising, wise little adult-ish sort of way. she has been from day one, and friends and strangers comment on it constantly.
i took these photos on our lawn in october.

one of our family's favorite books is a favorite becasue the heroine, trixie, reminds us so much of gracie.

and not just because of the hairstyle, nose, and teeth....

this is gracie's favorite activity, except it is underpants on her head, and the bra goes around her neck.
she's been doing this since she was 10 months old.

gracie is also expert at this.

not to be outdone, noah is also a funny boy (as previous posts attest) this is noah's favorite book. if we only mention the title, he giggles.

for those unfamiliar with this book, the reason for the giggles are these favorite pages:

overheard

a conversation overheard yesterday in our home...

lexi (17):
what are you going to be when you grow up?

noah (4):
a motorcycle guy...or a pleas (police)....or a daddy who eats candy all day.

lexi:
how many kids are you going to have?

mia (7):
don't have 102 kids because that will drive you crazy!

noah:
(counts as high as he can go)...27...no that might drive me crazy...22.

lexi:
what else are you going to do when you grow up?

noah:
i'll eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and sometimes...candy!

lexi:
what else?

noah:
i'll get a watch so it will tell me what time to go to church.
and  i will pay.

lexi:
pray? (no) 
play? (no)

noah:
PAY!

lexi:
you don't get payed at church..

noah:
(bewildered stare)

...i'm going to have lots of money so i can buy everything i need, like the watch...oh, and the candy!

mia:
you'll have to have lots of money, because kids want things!

random updates & observations

we received the good news, on new year's day, that we were accepted into this summer's nauvoo pageant. my parents will be joining our family in the pageant too. we are excitedly anticipating!

brock's facebook status monday:
"Brock was obliged to help tackle/restrain a violent passenger on a plane over the Pacific, and felt United employees were very professional during the 6-hour ordeal."
yes, it was for real.

alexa announced yesterday that she was double cast as the lead role of "kim" in her high school's performance of "bye-bye birdie". this is of particular interest because she didn't really even audition for the musical. she has just joined the scholastic bowl team and doesn't have time for the musical. her choir teacher asked her to consider being a silly screaming fan girl, which would only need to be at rehearsal once a week or so, and she agreed to consider, did a few readings, and next thing you know....

natasha's comment on the topic when i asked for her thoughts last night:
"i think it will be difficult for all of us."... said simply & matter-of-factly.
i think tashi is right. lexi doesn't handle pressure or restraints on her time well, and tends to take that out on those she loves :)
we love her anyway!

noah's words:
...said in a sweet, plaintive voice yesterday morning at 5:30 as he came frantically rushing in to wake me up:
"my dreams are bad."

...said in a contemplative tone today as we drove to warsaw to pick tashi up at school, drove to keokuk to take her to the orthodontist (to begin the 5 step!!! process of removeing her braces), drove back to warsaw, and back to nauvoo, trying to make it in time for noah's preschool bus:
"when you are far, far, far away, you are somewhere else."

lexi's recent observation:
"the older i get, the more i realize that i am like marianne and tashi is like elinor (in sense & sensibility)."
amen to that!

last week i drove along the mississippi as the ice was breaking up, and there were huge bald eagles sitting on the river at each opening in the ice, watching for fish. today the river is frozen again, except at keokuk where it has deeps lochs and dams. and there were dozens and dozens of bald eagles and various hawks circling over the river there this morning, looking for something to eat. it is amazing & magnificent to see so many large birds of prey in such a small area.

this silk has arrived for me to begin work on reproducing a 1841 national flag presented to joseph smith at the laying of the cornerstone of the nauvoo temple for a michael bedard painting.
wish me luck!