Some summer fun

These are some pictures from our trip to visit relatives in Indiana last month. We visited the fabulous Indianapolis Children's Museum with Grandma Spears, Aunt Johanna and cousin Meredith. If you are ever near Indianapolis, you should go! It is the world's largest museum for kids, and it is wonderful.

Twins, Daddy and Meredith hanging out with dinosaurs.

Sarah, Candace and big brother Kenneth in the Egypt display area.


The Barbie exhibit was super cool! My sister Johanna and I loved it; probably even more than our little girls did!


This is our family with my parents at their 50th anniversary celebration. Kind of a wacky photo, but the only one from the evening with everyone in it!



Anna and the twins playing in the wading pool at Grandma's house.

Personal selfishness

I've been thinking about selfishness a lot lately. My own. It is making me more than a little uncomfortable. I've been thinking about how easy it is to accuse someone else of selfishness, and also how easy it is to excuse my own selfish behaviors.

We have a beautiful home in an idyllic setting... it's way more than what is needed to comfortably house my family. Is this selfish? Is it selfish to have frivolous things like jewelry that I treasure? You could feed a lot of people or send a lot of children to school for the amount of money that paid for my treasured bracelet.

Is it selfish to want another child when we have five already? Five who each have their own particular needs... some more major than others, but all important to that person and our family. What about taking a child from half way across the world, away from his family and culture... is that selfish?

Or spending a couple of thousand dollars on surgery for our beloved little dog?

I don't know the answers. I am going to try to find them.

Beautiful Nebraska

Don't worry, be happy... for us

There is nothing really new to report on our new adoption. We got our fingerprints for the FBI last week, and next week we are going to get physicals. We are still waiting for application paperwork from the agency.

I have a funny feeling that people aren't really excited for us this time around. When we were referred twins instead of one child in 2008, some people seemed to think that was a lot to add to our family at this stage in our lives. Mostly, though, people were excited and supportive. I feel like the reaction with this adoption is something like this:

Me: "We're going back to Ethiopia to adopt a 3 1/2 year old boy!"

Person: "Wow. Really? Well. That's great."

I don't know, maybe six kids is the magic number where people begin to wonder if we are on our way to becoming the Duggars. Maybe some think we are too old to have a four year old at home. Maybe some think transracial families are strange. Maybe I'm just reading a lot into the situation that isn't really there.

I guess I'll get my giant shoe ready to move into just in case.

Back to Ethiopia!

"Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world." James 1:27

Tom and I and all of our children are so happy that we will be welcoming a new son into our family... three and a half year old Feyissa, from the Hadiya region of Ethiopia! We're not sure how long it will take since the adoption process has changed some in Ethiopia. Also, we found Feyissa on a waiting child listing, so the order of completion of some things is different, and we're using a different, larger agency. There is a lot to work through...

But for today, I'm just happy to be able to share the news.