Oh Canada! Part 1

Oh Canada!  Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Park Adventures Part 1

Banff from Tunnel Mountain

31 Hiking Miles on this journey!

I can't dream of encapsulating  the beauty and feel of the Canadian Rockies with my camera and amateur photography skills, but here are some of our memories of our 2016 adventure!   I will never forget the smell of Christmas from all the pines, and the feel of 9 degrees Celsius with no humidity in June :).  The look of that teal green translucent water will never cease to amaze me, and I did not do a good job capturing the color that glacier run off creates in these mountain lakes, but in the next few posts I will share what I did capture ! 

The first time I looked over and saw 100 on the odometer :).  Ha!  Kilometers per hour and 9 degrees (Celsius) took some getting used to! 

 Going into Banff

Adventuring with this man for almost 20 years :). 

Many of the bears were really busy eating these tomato like berries! 

How do you carry around these antlers all day?

 

We saw 4 black bears, but one was Cinnamon colored. 

We think this is a big bobcat, but might be a Lynx? 

 

Big horn sheep in the road at dusk with their babies.

Bow River

Bow Valley Banff from the Top of Tunnel Mountain

Johnston Canyon Catwalks

Johnston Canyon

Snow Cave

View from the Plain of 6 Glaciers Teahouse, Banff/Alberta Canada

Ski slopes at Lake Louise in the summer!

Takkokow Waterfall Yoho National park

Natural Bridge with SCARY potholes of death.

The Endless Chain

Two Jack Lake Banff

2 Cute 2 be 2! How can it be?!

2 Cute 2 be 2!  How can it be?! My littlest girl is 2 this week.  These moments are bittersweet in some ways as adoptive parents.  After all, there are no warm-fuzzy memories in the hospital. I was not even there.  I was not the one who got to "bring her home." She was hand-delivered though. All 4lbs delivered by not one, but 3 social workers! They did tell me that one did the slow driving dad's usually do, one did the navigating, and one sat there and stared at our 4 lbs. of sweetness.   I did not know she was here the first week in January of 2013.  But, 10 days later my life changed forever.  I never knew that new year would bring the birth of my 4th child, and oh my goodness am I thankful. 

At 9 mos old I let her go, but now I have been able to see her grow into a full-blown toddler. I don't know why folks say the "terrible twos."  I have always thought that 2 year olds are pretty fun, interesting, and the things they say/communicate are just hilarious!  Threes are really where they start pushing my buttons I think:), but 2 year olds in pig tails...well, they are just cuteness.

Fostering Journey Part 3!

http://www.justbethlawrence.com/a-new-direction-again-some-more/


I could not have said it better myself!   I loved this blog read today.  I am so sick of Christians saying they can't foster b/c they can't let kids go.  Our GOD is bigger than that folks!  I know it is not for all families, but if just one church family in SC would take on loving one orphan, well, then we would not have any kids waiting for homes!  To be truly pro-life --consider it!

We had two bilingual kids this weekend, and while is was complex for reasons I can't really get into it was FUN too. They were funny, and my kids flat out LOVED it! I wish I could post pictures of them to share how much fun they had at the waterfall we hiked to.

I wish I could show you his little face when he realized that J was a REAL COWBOY, while out a 4 wheeler ride to see the "vacas."

He had never heard of the word CHURCH...and he thought when I said Jesus I was referring to our cat Josie and had just misspoke!  I loved telling him about what both of those things mean!  Thank you God for that opportunity!

"This is about the least of these. This is about children up the road from our homes who are living through hell. Who are scared. And beaten. And molested. And broken. This is about children who simply need a consistent parent figure to say you are worth it.
You are worth me possibly getting my heart broken in the process of loving you. You are worth my home being turned upside down while we all adjust to each other. You are worth extra laundry, extra cleaning, extra doctor visits, extra homework, extra diapers. Jesus died for you, precious one, so you are worth the room in my heart and life to love you. Even if it’s only for a time. Even if a little piece of me dies if you go away. 
You are worth me getting too attached and the pain I will feel if you go.

Nothing about following Christ is tame or safe or easy. He often asks us to do things that are difficult and demanding. 

But He is worth every sorrow we face.

Do I worry when they leave? Of course, I do.  Do I lose sleep the night they come...for nights during...worrying even after they leave.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
 
Yes.  It is worth it.  It draws me closer to my God.  I ask him some tough questions sometimes.  Each of them teach me something about living life, and they instruct our family to be compassionate.  I am so thankful.

Summer 2014 Awesomeness

Summer 2014 Awesomeness

selfie

Panther Falls GA

If you’re so done with boring...

Our life on this

earth is like a

sentence. Some

lives are clipped,

truncated sentences

that feel wantonness

for many more

words. Others are

likened to elongated

run-on sentences,

drawling out as

multi-syllabic as a Southerner’s twang.

Sadly, many others are stuffed with safe,

shallow, colorless words so boring that we

may find ourselves questioning if they’re

even worth the black and white type-space

they fill, much less the

laborious investment

of reading them.

While each of our life

sentences may vary

in length, vibrancy of

adjectives, strength

of subject, number of

breathing hyphens,

and pausing commas,

we all share one

grammatical truth: the

end of our sentence.

Whether it be hailed

by question mark,

exclamation point, or

period, the fact is: our

sentence will end.

Good writing teaches

us that our sentences

should end strong.

The height of our message should blare like

a sea Nymph’s siren to Odysseus, luring

the reader to sail on to the next sentence.

The older I grow—the longer my sentence

carries its poetry—the more I lean into

reflecting upon what would be a worthy

ending and punctuation.

In my fifth decade, I bear a heightened

awareness that my sentence indeed has an

end, and find myself hungry to make clear

both the point and privilege of filling the

universe with words at all. Do I really want

my period to be based upon safety, clarity,

certainty, achievement, and acquisition?

God spare me; spare us all from one more

such monotonous sentence picked up from

dime-store living.

Although it is terrifying, for many will

laugh at or even mock my feeble attempts

at living a powerful, vibrant, life-breathing

sentence, I long to write one that leaves

all readers closing the book of me with

an unnerving sense of the divine loom

of God that both squalls the oceans and

stills the heart of humanity from the same

Mysterious Cloud.

I’d love to hear from some of you life-

writers who dare to craft poetry with

your sentence. Let’s

encourage one

another to never settle

for living tightly

edited text, passed on

to us from someone

else’s book. None of

our lives are meant

to look the same.

God has a unique

dream, purpose, and

narrative for each of

us.

If you’ve dared to let

your life write outside

the margins, post a

bit of your squiggly,

scrawled-out story on

my Facebook author

page. Even just a

line or two about

where you ventured away from the life-

expectations of friends, family, culture,

and even church may encourage others

who read your experience along their own

journey of writing a sentence that matters:

facebook.com/KimberlyLSmith.Author

Part 2 Foster Parenting Reflections: Case number 8 has come and gone, and I am not telling God what I will and won't do anymore!

 (This post was written in mid Oct, but updated 12/20 after our sweet little one left last Sat.)
You can read my thoughts on what I thought was our first real foster parenting experience here from 2013 (http://dearabbyc.blogspot.com/2013/10/reflections-on-our-first-foster.html ).  As it turns out, that baby is now my daughter.

Before I begin this reflection, I would like to take a moment to recap this journey that began in 2011 when we applied to adopt a baby through our Region's DSS Adoptions office.  You can read about that in a much, much earlier post.  The short version, is that 2 years later God sent us a 2 year old to love...not a baby!  She had been loved her whole life by foster parents that are like godly grandparents to us.  People who loved her well and whose lives have impacted ours tremendously.  He knew we weren't ready for a complex roller coaster case like hers out of the gate, and though that is hard to swallow, I trust His plan.

About a year after that, we decided to just do foster care for toddlers that can walk and talk since someone had loved our daughter so well. Before our license even arrived, DSS called us with a 10 day old baby.  We said yes, even though, this was not what we really "signed up for," but it was only for a few weeks, right?  Well, for 9 mos we loved her and then heart-breakingly gave her to her cousins.  14 nights later she was back in our arms, and we decided she must be our daughter.  God knew we needed that baby after all I suppose.  Would we ever had said yes to our second daughter if we had already adopted one baby girl?  I don't think so.

So, then we said, well we can still do respite care and very short term cases since there is such dire need in our county for foster parents.  Last I checked, we had about 25 families (maybe!) for 90 something cases here.

We said we won't take kids older than ours over over and over. And, you know what?  We have broken our rules about 3 times now.  Each time God has sent a child or children, yes, sometimes in pairs, that we have adored!  Each time their entry and exit from our family has been a beautiful experience.

We said we probably could not "handle" taking kids with disabilities, but we did that once so far for about a week. Even that short foray into what it is like to have a special needs child changed our souls forever.  Hearing someone who can't see your child who is making strange grunting noises make a smart comment (not realizing she can only make sounds), or struggling with feeding issues, or carrying a heavy child that should be walking and can't, makes you realize how caregivers of special needs children need so much support, respect, honor, and love. She was an amazing little girl that I hope is bringing much joy to her new family.

 We have gotten about 1 call a week lately, and at least one a month since our shift to respite care about 9 mos ago when we realized that our daughter was probably staying. So, we have been saying yes to some very short placements, but for different reasons the kids did not end up coming lately.   We were going to say yes to two little ones, but I had to work out of town last Friday, and so in the end they had to go to another home.  I was sad about having to say no that time.  But, on my way home that Friday I got another call to take a "pre-k" boy for about 3 nights while they sort things out at DSS.  So, we said yes.  About 15 minutes later, he was at our home.  As it turns out, he is in our daughter's Kindergarten class. I told the social worker that I was so glad he found his way to us and that I was really sad to have said no two days ago, but now I see why I had to.  She shared with me that those 2 also ended up with a family that knew them from school! (Update: They are still there today.)


 God is so good.  He can be trusted.  He cares about these kids.  This is the second time one of our children's classmates has ended up here for a bit.  When we say we are available to Him, HE knows what we need.  We don't set conditions on how God will use us.  We don't control our plans. He does. This time when I said yes, I had very little anxiety about this little man that was on his way over.  J and I were up until very late last night, talking and praying, and thinking and dreaming about what we could do and what we needed God to do for this little boy. In the end, we went to the room he is sleeping in, knelt before God, and just gave Him this little boy's future.  As it turns out, he'll be here a little longer than we originally thought, but a good plan is in place for him in just a few weeks. (Update --it was more like 9 weeks--AGAIN--I told God short/short term, but he had other plans and it was all good.) I have decided that I am done telling God what I will and won't do, but I will take each story as it comes, confer with J, and trust God to sustain us through each situation he calls us to love through. This little fella is a gentle, caring soul that is enjoying running around this farm and riding power wheels until the battery dies.  It is not easy to add another child, but it is the most rewarding work to see him just get to be a child.  He  will always hold a special place in each of our hearts. The night we found out he was leaving us to move to his family's home M burst into tears, and I had a good cry too.  Our buddy was leaving us. 

I do know by now that no matter how long a child/children are here, my heart will break to trust someone else to love them when they go. (Update: I sobbed on the way home.)  But, He is faithful. We have been blessed to visit with his new family 4 times in the weeks he was here, as well as watch him restore his relationship with his sister whom he had not seen in 6 months.  It has brought me so much peace to see how much they love him and desire to care for him, and to be their friend has been wonderful.  They say they will share him with us :). 

I do know that my children are growing up to be more compassionate, share their things more willingly, and are consistently growing in maturity in Christ through each child we love.  One of my son's recently was not thrilled at the prospects of changing his seats in the van.  This led to a great discussion of serving others "unto the Lord."  I said, "Don't change seats with a happy heart for me, or for this child, but for God, son!"  Col 3:23 came to life right in the back seat of my van:  "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."  Each time they say they would do it all over again.

I do know that our marriage, though like all marriages shows signs of strain at points, is stronger and we are closer because we have worked together to love these children.

It is hard to tell, even Christian families, that we have 5 right now. I feel like everyone just thinks we have lost our minds.  It may just be me being over sensitive, but sometimes I wonder if they would have as much judgement if we told them we were leaving for a mission trip for a few weeks? To me, it is not much different. When this little fella ask each night for his Bible story, I know our family is on mission. Last night, I was talking about how we all make bad choices (which he says he does not do-ha!), but I said Jesus loves us and God sent him to us so that we could be friends with God even though we make so many bad choices.  He says, "I think there is a song about that. God loves you or something." I started singing Jesus Loves Me. He hangs on each word, then says, "Can you sing that every night?"  Folks, just call me crazy for a while.

Update: He came for about 9 weeks, and we had the joy of taking him to the zoo for the first time, letting him ride a dirt bike (which he says is the highlight of his stay), taking him on a camping trip with friends, trick or treating (which he did not do the year before), enjoying hot wheels again (we had forgotten how fun they were), watching him wrestle with brothers, hearing him really belly laugh often while playing hide and seek in the woods or being wild on the trampoline, praying with him and hearing him pray for the first time, being thankful at thanksgiving with him and sharing birth family as well, and simply watching him learn to be less fearful of water, enjoy new foods, and learn to read a bit better has been one of the major highlights of 2014 for me.   It was fun to see him enjoy just being a cherished kid!  I will never forget how happy he was when he found out that I was going to lie down and snuggle with "just him" (as he said) and read tractor books.  I thought I was so totally spread thin, but God always multiplies time and energy as needed I suppose!  This little boy has so much value an promise.  I can't wait to continue to invest in his life, and see what God does!

 This week we got to see him again for a bit and he had a Christmas present he had picked out just for me.  It was a candle with Jesus on it.  He said he got one for himself as well and that he just knew I would like it. He was right; I just love it!  He also picked out just the right gift for all my kids.  They loved his choice! 

Now, we wait and pray.  Adventuring with God is never boring. Who knows who we'll get to love next?  I will wait and see what He has planned for our family.