First Day of Homeschooling '08

Here is how are day began...

And here is how our day ended...

Wake Boarding Maniac.

Micah FINALLY had the courage to jump off the high jump! Here he is (before my battery died) with a death grip on his very brave friend, Tyler's, hand. My battery died waiting for the courage to be fully mustered.
What a great way to end a momentous day. Good friends, cool summer evening, watching the sunset while boating on the lake! It just doesn't get much better.

"VERY SOOOON"

Yesterday we heard from Rwanda!!! Yes, you read that correctly, we heard from Rwanda. We received an email from Veronique (the lady that hung up on us about 3 1/2 weeks ago). It said...

Dear Family,

I'm soo sorry for the delay. I received your E-mail. I began to analyze your dossier. You will be informed about it very soon.

Thanks.

Veronique

Did you catch that? "VERY SOON" I think we moved up:) I'm thinking that since "soon" has been just over a month, "very soon" must mean 2-3 weeks? I am very pleased to know that we have been acknowledged and that they have a correct email address for us.

"It will be SOOOON"

This is the phrase of the month. It has now been two days from one MONTH since we first heard the "sooooon" word. We now feel pretty confident that African "soon" does not mean USA "soon", though an argument could be made that it could mean USA government "soon". God has been teaching us patience for sure, but more than that, I guess I have also been learning trust, listening skills, and God's omnipotence. I have joked that I keep telling God what would work best for the Farrand family schedule, but I am confident that God has the better plan. The God of the universe who set the stars in place really does NOT need my advice nor my help in bringing Aliya home. I am convinced that God loves Aliya more than I ever will have capacity to and He loves our family. He will not forget Aliya. He will not forget the Farrand Family. Here are a few verses that I feel are particularly fitting...
Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what He is doing." Boy can I relate.
Psalm 146:9 "The LORD protects the foreigners. He defends the orphans and widows, but he blocks the way of the wicked."
Psalm 116:7 "I said to myself, "Relax, because the LORD takes care of you."
Psalm 5:3 "LORD, every morning you hear my voice. Every morning, I tell you what I need, and I wait for your answer." (need to remember this one!)
And after a particularly tough couple of days I prayed and told God how I just wasn't sure if I could keep up on the hurdles that seemed to remain ahead of us, this is what I read...
Hebrews 10:35-37 "So do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward. you must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what He has promised. For in a very short time, The One who is coming will come and will not be delayed." Please understand, that THE One being referred to is the God, but what a cool portion of Hebrews to read to give me added oomph when I felt I needed it!

Once Upon A Time

What's old is new again. Aliya will benefit from her sister's cast-offs. Now, we just need the beautiful princess.

Sarah's new I'm-a-big-girl-now Tween Room

Old Room

New Room

Yes, she needs a bit of wall stuff yet, but it is a smashing start to a way cool new room for a growing girl.

Brevity is NOT my strong suit.

Some days are like today. Some days you wonder how everything can culminate in a 24 hour period as they sometimes can. To be fair, today really started last night when Ryan came to the conclusion that the renter we thought we had lined up for our house is not the renter we would like to do business with. We set our alarm for 4:30 AM to begin our day's adventures. Upon coming downstairs I noticed that my lifeline (aka my computer) was not shuffling through random cute photos of my adorable children as is typical, rather a very unimpressive blue screen with white lettering was staring back at me. My dear sweet husband gave me the news that in his professional opinion, at first glance, it appears that my hard drive CRASHED. Deader than a doornail. Gone. Gone are my photos of my adorable cute children over the past few months. Gone are my emails. Gone is my lifeline to the outside world beyond these walls on Marina Drive. At 4:45 AM we called the Rwandan Ministry office again. This is because we have been under the impression that they wanted us to call them and put forth effort to make a personal connection with them. Well, we were hung up on. I hoped to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that maybe we were "disconnected" rather than hung up on, but later information would cause this hope to disintigrate into oblivian. Ryan left for work with the reminder that it was fully his belief that the layoffs were to affect his level of employment in Ford today. So, let's recap. By about 5 AM we no longer have our house renter, my computer has crashed, we have ticked off RWANDA, and Ryan may be on his way to a job for the last time with Ford.
Morning devotions went something like this... Habakkuk 2:2 "write down the vision; write it clearly on clay tablets so whoever reads it can run to tell others." This is applicable in my life as such; I have been itching to write - something - for a while, but did not feel enough was happening for me to justify the writing. As for the particulars in the verse, I figure blogger is the 21st century clay tablet, but I cannont figure anybody reading might possibly want to RUN to tell others my day's events. Nevertheless...
The passage that surrounds this verse has been near and dear to me over the past few months. I have been wondering if truly this adoption is going to come to fruition. Is there really an Aliya waiting for us in a remote village in the middle of Africa? Well, after praying early on in this process for God to give us clarity I turned to Habakkuk 2. How often does one turn to Habakkuk in a lifetime? It states: "1) I will stand like a guard to watch and place myself at the tower. I will wait to see what he will say to me; I will wait to learn how God will answer my complaint. 2) The LORD answered me:...It is not yet time for the mesage to come true, but that time is coming soon; the message will come true. It may seem like a long time, but be patient and wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not be delayed." This gave me renewed patience in waiting for "the" time. Funny sidenote- we have been told for about 1/2 month that the Rwandan Ministry will contact us SOON. It does seem like a long time.
Here is where the day stands for the Farrand family at 3:05 in the afternoon. Some days are like today. I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day! :)

Notable Mentions

Double Fisted S'more Eater

GG on a ride

Fields of Blessings...

This is my favorite photo of our trip up north this week.

What was lost, now is found.

After a series of unsuccessful phone calls to Rwanda this morning, my cell phone rang with an unavailable phone number. I am glad she was persistent, it took 3 cell calls before I was able to hear Nyanja's voice. She is working for America World (our agency), but lives in Rwanda. To my delight, she speaks fluent English! She assured me that she laid eyes on our dossier and that it is "almost finished". I am encouraged that it is being worked on and that contact has been made! Phone call attempts will begin again on Monday.

The Voice of Veronica!!!

We have been trying to make contact with Rwanda for almost a week now. Today I spoke with Veronica (I think:)) VERY quickly I came to the conclusion that not a lot of small talk will be had between us. She did write down my name and ask that I call back in 1 hour, so won't she be surprised when at 5:51 her phone rings again. I am of the opinion that Rwanda time is not of the same intensity as US time. I think she probably meant, call back sometime this afternoon or tomorrow, but she SAID one hour, so one hour it will be:). Ryan and I reminisced of a time gone by when you asked somebody to hold and you set the phone down on the desk while walking over to the person and bringing them back to the phone. This time has not gone by in Rwanda yet:)

Update - Call number two. 3 1/2 hours later I was finally able to make contact with Veronica again. She could not find my dossier. I will try again tomorrow.

Fishers of Fish - Itty, Bitty, Teensy, Little Fish...

Hope that's not dinner plans. Good job Mukai!

Proud little girl.

Proud little boy. Claims he caught a "big one" the day we left. Have NOT seen proof. Sounds a little like a fish story to me.


Love this.

Opie? I can almost hear the whistling in the background. Too precious.

Joshua, Satoshi, Micah, Mukai, Sarah AKA: the mighty explorers

Memorial Day Weekend with the Bracy Bunch

This picture just makes me laugh:)

Dad finds himself WAY too funny! He's laughing himself to tears!

Micah Makes a Run

Dossier has arrived!

The dossier has officially arrived in Rwandan hands today! We are hoping that our referral might come in about one month and then travel about one month after that:)