Mackinac Island

The Grand Hotel

Kregg had a business trip that took him to northern Michigan several years ago. He fell in love. He took me back for an anniversary trip, and I also fell in love with the area. We decided we needed to plan one of our famous road trips and take the kids. So, we set aside a little over two weeks and set out from west Texas. In route, we went through many beautiful country. But that will have to wait for another time. This post is about a little island we visited in Michigan.

A visit to Mackinac (it sounds like "Mack-i-naw") Island is like stepping back into the Victorian Era. No cars are allowed, only bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. It's quite romantic.

 

The main street is lined with quaint shops and restaurants. But the island is especially famous for its fudge. There are dozens and dozens of flavors to choose from. And the fudge shops will ship anywhere. During the Victorian Era, the people who owned the large summer homes along the hills were called "Fudgies".

Fort Mackinaw sits atop the hill overlooking the Straits of Mackinac. It was established in 1780.

The kids heading into the Fort

The view from the Fort

Rebekah and her cousin, Grant, participating in an old fashioned dance.

One of the many period actors

A "soldier" overlooking the Lake

This little chapel is at the foot of the hill below the Fort.

        

There are many beautiful little churches

Around the island are many historical buildings complete with actors to explain life 200 years ago.

This giant bellows hangs in the rafters of the blacksmith shop.

Of all the beautiful churches, this one is my very favorite. It is so quaint from the outside.

The stained glass is exquisite.

Isn't it wonderful?

In the distance, you can just see the Mackinac Bridge, joining the upper and lower peninsula's of Michigan. It is considered an engineering marvel and the story of its construction is fascinating.

The Grand Hotel is a huge, old summer hotel and is the most famous thing on the island. It's front veranda is over 600 feet long and is lined with white wooden rockers and geraniums. It has been open since 1887.

The landscaping is incredible. This is a life-sized topiary.

It is quite charming to arrive at the Grand Hotel in a horse drawn carriage

Another beautiful little church

A limestone arch overlooking the lake

One of many lovely bed and breakfasts on the island

                   

After spending a glorious day, the ferry took us back across the Straits of Mackinac. It is one of those places we would visit over and over again if it were not 1600 miles away! If you ever get a chance to see it, you should go. And send me some fudge! :)

Puzzles, Anyone?

Some in our family love puzzles. Others, who shall remain nameless, are ambivalent. But when we have a puzzle going, it requires thought concerning logistics. There is always so much going on in our "antbed", that very few horizontal surfaces are available for long periods of time. Where should we work on it? Do we leave it out, or put it up when through for the day? How do we keep up with all the pieces? As usual, I want a system.

We have tried one of those roll up mats that are supposed to allow you to simply roll and unroll the puzzle when needed. There are probably ones that work better, but the one we bought was vinyl and permanently wrinkled. So it ended up in the trash.

We have resorted to a simpler fix.


We assemble the puzzle on a poster board that can, with the help of two people, be safely moved from place to place. Now the best solution is actually a piece of masonite, thin but rigid. But in a pinch, a poster board works fine, too.

                      

Now, what about all those hundreds and hundreds of pieces? After removing all the edge pieces, we sort the rest by color. Using a paper plate for each group, we keep the piles separate, but portable. If several people are helping, the plate system works well because each person can concentrate on a specific section and have all the pieces in their plate. When through for the day, the plates are stacked and stored in an out of the way place. 

Don't know why I thought ANYONE else would find that interesting, but it's always nice to have things written down so if I forget . . .

Our First Jesse Tree

We started with scrapbooking papers

I don't know what rock I have been living under, but before this year I don't recall having ever heard of a Jesse Tree. We are thrilled to add such a meaningful tradition to our family's celebration of the Coming. In trying to decide the best way for us to make a Jesse tree, I looked at many examples. The two I ended up using to help us were the free gift from Ann Voskamp and the artistic inspiration from Laura at The Wellspring. Additionally, we are enjoying this book: The Jesse Tree.

This is the only remaining open wall in my house.

 

Leaf Cutter Ants (hahaha!)

They spread from the kitchen into the hall!

I made cardstock patterns and the kids used them to trace all the leaves on the backs of the papers. Then we used Stick Tack to put each piece on the wall. Since I got a late start on it, I didn't laminate it this year. My plan is to do that when we take it down. I will also have to number the pieces on the back to be able to reassemble the trunk each year. Rebekah is already lobbying to keep it up all the time. 
      

Odd, I know, but this tree grew right up out of the baseboard.

The narrative Ann Voskamp has done to go along with the Scripture readings each day is absolutely beautiful. I love the idea of seeing God's Plan of Redemption through Christ from the beginning, woven so carefully into each of the stories of His interaction with man. 

This is definitely something we will plan to do each year.

Are you doing a Jesse Tree this year?? What have you used?

Confessions of an Adoptive Mom

 

This is one of those things I would rather not have to write about. You probably won't like me after you read it. But, that doesn't get to figure into the equation when the Lord asks us to speak. Still, I hope you will be gentle.

The Lord is moving in His Body. Have you noticed it? Is it happening around you, too? His People are being called to adopt children. And as I hear more and more stories, the theme remains the same: God is growing hearts to receive His precious children who are in need of families. And as more and more people have adoption stories to tell, the story of our Adoption into His Family takes on new and deeper meaning. As adoptive parents we come to know the Heart of our Father in special ways.

I have told the story of our adoption adventure before, and it is filled with God's Grace. He called us, then carried us through the entire process in such a way that we were continually amazed by His Provision. 

We know He called us to it, but that didn't mean it would be easy.

We were concerned about adopting older children because we knew there would be "baggage" that arrived with them. Already having five other children, we were concerned about how that "baggage" would affect the children for whom we were already responsible. But the Lord, in His Mercy, chose exactly what He wanted. And we trusted Him to make a way. We thought it would be easier to start with infants because there would be less to "undo". But in the spiritual realm, the issues are the same. The spiritual heritage of an infant will still need to be sanctified, as it does with each of us. So the Lord asked us to let Him show us the Might of His Hand. 

Joshua and Benjamin had arrived at the orphanage in Magadan two and a half years before we brought them home. They had been taken away from their parents for neglect. When they arrived at the orphanage, they had never even seen a toothbrush. They had no idea how to sit at a table and eat a meal. You see, their parents allowed alcohol to control their lives. They were warned. They were given chances to mend their ways. But the Lord already knew that Sergey (Josh) and Oleg (Ben) would need a new family and had gone before them to prepare their new home in west Texas.  Their parents never even contacted them during the entire two and a half years before they left Russia.

As we were leaving the orphanage in Magadan, the director gave us insight into what to expect. Through our translator she told us that Josh was like Cinderella, hard-working and a 'pleaser.' Ben, on the other hand, thought he was The Prince. He believed he didn't have to do anything he didn't feel like doing. She was very insightful. And her assessment proved accurate.

Josh and Ben became Conders in August of 2004. After leaving Magadan, Siberia and returning to Moscow with them, an interesting thing happened. We were in a really nice hotel in downtown Moscow for a couple of days waiting to complete the embassy work. There we were with two little boys who the law said were our sons, but were total strangers to us. And they only spoke Russian. Kregg was having a grand time playing with them, but he was letting them do things we would never let our other five children do. As we talked about it, he realized that he had become so enthralled by the excitement of the "rescue" that he wasn't thinking beyond that moment. That helped because the boundaries were going to take a while to establish and the sooner we started, the better. Not to mention the fact that it wasn't good for the boys to learn one set of rules and then have to start over when we got home. 

Being the mom, the enormity of our task was definitely real to me and I was so very thankful the Lord had been crystal clear in His instructions to do this. I wanted to be as carefree as Kregg was those first few days, but I knew we had just set foot on the battlefield. 

When we came home, everyone was beyond excited to see the boys. We were met at the airport in two cities by large groups of people, all ready to welcome them to America. It was a precious thing to see my dad, a widower of less than a month, sitting on the floor in the middle of a terminal at DFW airport so that he would be at eye level with Josh and Ben. 

We were thankful for all the love and support. We were going to need it.

As we began to settle in to life as a family of nine, the boys needed constant supervision because there were so many things they just did not know or understand. There were many "near misses" with catastrophe, but the Lord kept the guardian angels close. 

It wasn't long before the battles began. They had never been taught any kind of moral standard. Nothing. So they did exactly what they wanted to do whenever they wanted to do it. We started from the beginning with short leashes, the same as we have with all our children. But, it makes a huge difference when you start from birth versus ages 6 and 7. 

Emotionally, it was so very hard. We had chosen to love them. But we didn't like them. I know that sounds horrible. And we felt horrible. We cried and prayed and prayed and cried. In many ways, it made it even harder because everyone on the "outside" only saw these adorable, cherubic faces and told us how wonderful we were, and how wonderful they were, and how wonderful everything was. But it wasn't wonderful. It was a deep, dark hole and we felt like we would never be able to climb out. 

I am sure there are adoptions where everyone and everything fits perfectly with no adjustments. But, I also know there are many families called to adopt for whom the experience is similar to ours. And it can be frightening to be in a situation where you have made this huge commitment and you reach the point where you can't even imagine surviving it. It can get to the point where the only thing you can do is put one foot in front of the other and remind yourself to breath in and breath out, and breath in and breath out. And since we homeschool, it was all day. Morning. Noon. Night. Every day.

I felt like I should be able to simply flip a switch and change my heart. I begged the Lord to help me. But everyday I would wake up and find myself no closer to liking my sons. I was a terrible mother. I was a terrible person.

But the Lord did not leave me there. 

He carried me through each day. And we continued to try to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There were years where it felt like we made no progress with their hearts. Still from the outside, everyone thought things looked perfect. We tried to talk about our struggles, but no one understood. Not really. I think they thought we were overreacting, or imagining things. But we knew the reality. 

The fact that the Lord had so specifically told us to adopt two little boys, combined with the fact that we had let Him pick them out, provided us with the only foundation we had to stand on during the storm. And it was unshakable. We knew this was the Lord's Plan. No matter how bad things became, we knew these were the boys we were supposed to have. 

And so we waited. And worked.

We waited for years for him to bring us to the place where it no longer felt like "pinching". 

I made so many mistakes during the process. I let my feelings control my actions at times. I was angry with them, sometimes for just being there. And yet the Lord Faithfully continued His work in all of us. 

Over the years, they learned what was right and what was wrong. They learned not to lie and deceive us. They learned to obey no matter how they felt about things. And they learned about a Loving Father and a Holy Spirit and a Blessed Savior. No matter how long we were called to sow these seeds, the Lord was responsible to bring forth the fruit in His Perfect Timing. He took their hearts of stone and changed them to hearts of flesh.  And in the process, he taught us so much about ourselves. And about walking in obedience when we see absolutely no "progress". 

Philippians 1:6

. . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  

We didn't know if He would allow us to see the fruit, or whether He would ask us to simply walk in blind obedience without any outward proof of change for the duration. But in His Mercy, we have finally come to the place where we can truly say Josh and Ben are our beloved sons and we even like them a lot. He has accomplished so much. In all of us. And we praise Him for the gifts He has given. Now we can't really imagine our family without them. 

C. S. Lewis says, "We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."  

I didn't want to tell you all this. But I just heard a tragic story of a family who were called to adopt and they are in the same situation we were in. Except they have now lost all hope. The father has fallen into depression. They feel completely alone. The evil one loves to isolate. They believe no one understands. They don't know what to do. 

Those heroic families who obey the Lord when He asks them to adopt need to know what we know: He is Faithful. He will see you through. He will sustain you. He knows how hard it is. He is pleased with your trust in Him. Even if the fruit is invisible, He is working. Those children are blessed to be in your home. They need you. They need to see you depending completely on Him. And you are not alone. We have come through to the other side. And it is worth everything it cost us. Over and over again, worth it. Hang on. Hang on to Him. Breathe in, breathe out. Pour out your heart to Him. He hangs on every word. None of your tears fall unnoticed. Unappreciated. You are offering yourself as a drink offering, poured completely out on the altar, being His Love to the very least of these. So your service is for Him. Thank you for stepping out in Faith.

As I hit this little button that says, "Publish Post", I tearfully offer this prayer: may these words only Glorify Him. May the evil one not be allowed to misconstrue or misinterpret any of them. May any who need to see my confession find encouragement in the fact that I am not able to do anything good, but through me He can change lives.