Hadley Photo Shoot +

Things are going well here...just super busy as usual. I have become HORRIBLE at emailing, just in case you are wondering why you never hear from me in that way. I have SO MUCH to blog about...nothing super important or major, just the everyday fun things. But, I just simply have no time to do it all. So, I will just do what I can as I can. Gone are the days of a daily blog post from me. Bummer...I really do have so much to share. :)

The homeschooling thing is going well. We did it 4 days that first week. Then we had a holiday last week. It was called "Daddy's out of town so we are taking the week off"...do any of you ever have that holiday? :) This week we are focusing on the letter B. One day this week we had Beans for lunch and Banana Blitzes for snack...and did other B things. Another day we ate lunch on a Blanket and played Ball and other B games (pictures of that another day...really cool picnic we had). Today is Book day...we are going to curl up on the couch and read, read, read. Fun. I'm looking forward to just reading with my kiddos.

Anyhoo, more chatter later. Here are just a few pics of the kiddos. One night after showers, Hadley wanted braids to sleep in. So, we had a little photo session.

Her default pose.
We think it's because of this pose Gillian made. :) Cute.













And so as not to completely leave out the wee one, this is her new favorite thing to do. You know how she adores sucking on her thumb? Yeah...she does the same thing with her big toe sometimes. It's quite the cute show...really funny the first time we saw it.
Can we say fetal position? :) Although she can still assume the position, I'm so very glad she's not still in the womb. I'm really enjoying NOT being pregnant for a while, you know? :) What a fun girl!

Busy Thing #3

Alright, so this is the last busy thing that occupied our time the past couple of weeks.


Can we all shout out together in our singing voices, "HA-LE-LU-YA!! HA-LE-LU-YA!! HA-LE-LU-YA!! HA-LE-LU-YA!! HA-LE-LU-YA!!"

That's right, we have a new vehicular! We are all SO VERY EXCITED as I'm sure you might imagine. Grady and Hadley L-O-V-E sitting "all the way in the back" and being able to move around and play with their toys while they are on the road. Grady can't get over the fact that we have "music in our car!" (like Marcelo) :) In fact, when we got to church on Sunday night, he almost cried to stay in the car instead of going inside. Seriously, he loves it. (We finally convinced him to go in with us to church)

We finally decided on a Chevrolet Zafira. It seats 7 and is just an all around great car. We are enjoying the fact that it has an A/C and heater (if we should ever need one), music (including a CD player...wow, upscale), tinted windows, power locks and windows...basically just all the things that we take for granted in the states.

Oh, and as soon as it was in our possession, Grady asked, "So now we can go to the kids' house and bring one home?" FYI: Kids' house = orphanage. Guess he thought that's all we were waiting on, a bigger car. :) So cute. I tell you what...he is ready to give a kiddo a home, that's for sure. (we seriously don't ever talk about it; we planted the seed in his heart and God grew it)

Anyway, here are some more pictures for you to enjoy. The 1st one is ours, but the others are of another one that we were test-driving for a while. We brought home a blue one first and then a black one. The kids had a hard time keeping it all straight. :)




Cass hanging out in the big girl carseat.
Look at all that room!!
Some of the neighbor kids were around and hopped in with us...we were just going around the circle on the seminary campus.
Eissa lovin' it.
That's a load, right?

And now, a couple of fun videos.

Sunday before last was Father's Day here. Joel picked a little Italian restaurant here for lunch. We had to entertain our clan until our food got to us.


Yesterday morning the girls were having a grand ole time together. You will be able to hear Eissa saying "Look, Mama" at the beginning. Then, I think it's hilarious how Cass just gives Eissa 'the eye.' Cass wasn't sure about Eissa at the time for some reason...and it shows.

The Judge

First of all, Joel made it home yesterday evening. He had a great trip and we had a great time here too. More on that maybe later. But, today...

Gillian worked at the nearby orphanage while she was here. I went too on her last day and took some pictures of her with the kids. I have to say that I fell IN LOVE with one particular little boy. I even have a name for him...but I won't divulge. We are really feeling the pull to adopt these days. But, of course, we can't. We haven't done any of the required things in order to be able to adopt here...and I don't even have my driver's license for heaven's sake. Yep...I'm a totally illegal driver (we started the process last summer, but it just takes forever to get anything done here). It's just not the right timing for it quite yet and we know that...but, our hearts are being stirred, that's for sure.

There is another thing, though, that hinders EVERYONE here in Anapolis from adopting. That is the judge. We talked to Agda, the director of the orphanage, about the status of the kids there. She said the problem is that some come in as newborns (there were 2 new ones that had come in that past week...one was a preemie newborn and the other was just a few months old) and that is the prime time to be able to adopt them out (everyone wants babies), but they can't. Why? Even when there is no family to contact and/or all family has relinquished rights, the judge just lets the paperwork sit on his desk, doing nothing about it at all. That INFURIATES me. These kids are losing their only chance at having a home because some big shot doesn't care. I'm crying big frustration tears as I type this.

This is a land where people in power do what they want to do at the expense of those all around them (with no power). Corruption runs rampant. The 'nobodies' of society...truly nobody in every sense of the word.

Agda says it wasn't always so here. Each city has its own judge and that judge is over the adoption process paperwork. Therefore, no adoption goes through without going through the judge. She said that although this judge takes years to get paperwork done (and by that time, usually nobody wants to adopt the kids, who are no longer babies), the judge before this one was very speedy. Unfortunately, there is no set term for a judge...when one gets comfortable where he is, Agda said they usually stay for a very long time.

Please pray with us. Pray that either God would change the heart of this judge or that WHATEVER needs to be done to get this guy out of power, it would be done. Pray that if we are supposed to DO anything, we would know exactly what to do and how to go about doing it (we believe God already gave Joel one idea...now we have to have wisdom as to how to go about it). Pray for Agda...what a heart she has for what she does. Please pray for the kids of this orphanage. How heartbreaking that even if someone wanted to adopt them, they just couldn't. Just pray!

This is Agda with Gillian.
And here are some pictures of "our" little boy (6 months at the time). :)

That Wandering Husband

Does that sound bad? Now that I think about it, isn't that a phrase used for a cheater?

Well, no, that's not what I meant. But, he is gone again. Yep, Joel is "on a trip" as the kids put it. It's exciting for him, but at the same time he wasn't quite ready to go off again since he just got back from a 10-day span of time away from us. Of course, we weren't ready to see him go either.

But, go he did and it's a great opportunity actually. He went with one of the SIL (the Wycliffe group here in Brazil...they recently moved their base here to Anapolis and are sharing hangars with Asas) on a mission to fly some pastors somewhere (I don't even know where) for a conference of sorts. We'll have details for you when he gets back (and we haven't forgotten...we will post about his 10-day mission trip soon also).

But, just say a few prayers for us this week. He left around 6am this morning. He'll be rolling back into town Friday afternoon (that is the hope anyway).

Thanks for your prayers...for his safety and for us too.

Busy Thing #2

So I told you that I was busy doing a couple of other things besides the whole homeschooling thing, right? Well, roll on over to my other blog to check out one of them. And in case you are having withdrawals, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...more to come soon.

The Ebersole One-Room Schoolroom

Oh yes, where have I been you might ask? Seriously, July was so busy. Not only did we have company, Joel go on a big trip, and we had just the norms of everyday life here with all these chil-rens. But, I was also busy preparing for HOMESCHOOLING!!

Yep, we did it...we started it. It is extremely informal in that I don't have a curriculum that I'm using. I just got stuff off the net and put stuff together to do. But it is very time-consuming in that I have to figure out what we are going to do everyday and have everything ready to go when it's time (kids waiting, with nothing to do, for Mama to cut stuff out does not make for peace). We are just doing fun activities revolving around the alphabet, shapes, colors, numbers, and of course we have a Bible lesson (seriously, that is the most important to me...I want them to KNOW God, know what I mean?). I have countless resources here for that...one that I even started getting before I had children (maybe even before I was married, I don't remember). It's one of those nifty boxes that comes with dividers for the different categories (People, Events, Everyday Life, Miracles and Wonders, etc.) and has interesting Bible facts on cards. The kids love them. But I also just recently got a Betty Lukens felt set. That right...I'm goin' old school Sunday School on 'em. :) Anyhoo, still cutting out the figures, but super excited about using that soon.

Alrighty, so that's what's been going on. There are 2 more things that I've been really busy with...I'll post about those things soon, when I get a chance. Schedule is fuller than ever now and blogging has gone down in the priority list, but still a priority and I will still be around...even if less frequently. Until next time, here are some pics of the last few days.


We have our Bible lesson in the mornings. It was so funny on Monday. I was finishing up in the kitchen after breakfast and told the kids to go get their Bibles and sit down on the rug in the TV room. I got done and went to the room to find this. Grady's work, it was obvious. My stool there in front. A chair for each of them with their Bibles placed neatly underneath. Super cute.
So cute. Grady is such an orderly little boy and his sisters followed his lead and sat down (after they fought over the orange chair for a bit...ha ha ha). Fun.
Clean-up after lunch. After only 2 days of this routine, they now hop to their jobs without even needing prompting. For instance, Grady and Hadley trade off jobs each day...one helps wash dishes while the other wipes down the table and counter and sweeps the floor. Yesterday after Hadley wiped down the table and counter, she went to the closet and got the broom and went to work, all on her own. Pretty cool.
Monday we started our week-long focus on the letter A. Even our Bible lessons, snacks, and other activities have to do with the letter A.
Here the kids were helping me get the lowercase letters ready for lamination...slight detour from concentrating on the letter 'a' that day, but they didn't care.
We made applesauce.
Yum.
Then we sliced apples for another snack and read this cute little story.
Who knew there were stars in the middle? Seriously, I never knew that...Joel didn't either. We've lived a sheltered life. :)
See? (Grady said this one looked more like a flower...good observation)
Then we had apple sandwiches (just peanut butter between 2 apple slices)...yummy!

Eissa was able to join us for the end of our snack time.
Apparently apple sandwiches make my firstborn girl get the crazy look.
Every child's chore, is it not...folding washcloths. Ahh the memories of being paid a quarter at my Granny's house floods my soul. :)


Not bad.
Yesterday we focused on the long 'a' sound with 'angels.'
My best attempt at an 'angel' snack.
Showing off their folders...thanks Granny!

So proud of their work.
An angel the kids made out of 2 circles and a triangle.
We also made these angel cones.
A girl angel.
Grady had the same parts of the angel to put together as Hadley (including the girl head). But, with a little scissor action (i.e. cutting the ponytails off), there was a boy angel to be had too. :)