Fall

I'm not one to enjoy the weather turning cooler.  I don't like cold very much, and as someone who is cold even in Texas summers, I can be pretty miserable.  But I am thankful for a house that is much tighter than it used to be, thanks to generous people who worked on it for us.  The wind is blowing mightly outside, but we are cozy and warm inside, doing school this morning.

A lot of things are changing around here.

I tell people Bill and I had three batches of children (Angel-Leah doesn't like that term, so I changed 'batches' to 'litters' for her, but she didn't think that was an improvement):  When we married, we were only going to have two children, and Rachael and Celeste were born.  We moved to Oklahoma, where we began to keep foster children, and after falling deeply in love with a little boy who didn't stay, I begged for more children. Gage was soon born, followed by three brother in eight years: Max, Spencer and Beau, and then pretty little Mary Susannah.  By then, I was in my 40's.  My heart was content.

Rachael and Celeste were 7 and 9, already in school, when we began to have children again.  They were my first batch, the boys and Mary Susannah were my second batch.

When Mary Susannah was around 8, and Bill and I were in our 50's, we began to adopt.  First came Luke, then Angel-Leah.  Soon after her adoption was final, we were asked to take her baby brother, Tommy, which we did.  That closed our home, because with Tommy coming, we were over the limit of children in our home that CPS would allow.  But then, three years after his adoption, we were asked to take Luke's sisters, Cynthia and Selah.  That was a very hard road with many obstacles, but eventually we were able to adopt them, too.

Life finds me now with all my biological children grown, married, courting, or far away in other states and even another country.  My adopted children all still live at home, and are fast growing up.  Sometimes, when I find myself in the rare situation of being alone for one reason or another, I realize that in eight years, my hands on parenting is going to be over.  By that time, I will have had minor children in my house for 50 years.  That's going to be a major change!   But God is good, and He gave me my hearts desire, lots of children to raise.  I am thankful for that!

My first batch, Rachael and Celeste, gave me nine grandchildren.  Those grandchildren are now grown or almost that way.  Chloe and Julia were married this past year, and Chloe has just given me my first great grandbaby, and he is just wonderful!

Daughter Mary Susannah is expecting her first baby, and I can hardly wait.  Max and his wife Whitney, who were fostering for a while, have decided to start a family, and I am anxiously waiting good news there.

So my second batch is adding babies to our family.   With 12 children, I am hoping for grandchildren in the 100's!

Son Spencer is dating now, and I couldn't be more pleased with his choice:

I haven't seen son Gage in three years, since Bill's funeral, because he is in South Korea.  But this summer he is coming to America!  He will be in Boston, Massachusetts, going to Harvard for the summer for a masters degree.  I am saving already to go see him there.  I have never been to Massachusetts, but mostly, I just want to see my son again.  I never dreamed three years could go by without my seeing one of my children.  I can't even say how much I have longed to see him again.

My third batch is growing, Cynthia will be 21 next month,  Angel-Leah and Luke have become teenagers.  They are all getting taller than I am, with only Tommy still shorter, but catching up fast.

Life is good, and cheerful.  And again, I am thankful.

I want to revive this blog, although I am told blogs aren't so popular anymore.  I have made ALL the mistakes in my life, but hopefully have grown through them, and am at the "older woman" stage the Bible talks about.  I would love for this blog to become a place where I can inspire women in their walk as a Godly woman, and teach them what I have learned.  Not that I am anywhere near perfect, far from it, but I do have a very few things I can teach.  I will be deleting old posts that aren't inspirational, and hopefully writing new ones, at least once a week, but life can get busy and we will see.
Input is very welcome!