the men in her life

lulu loves her boys...

the feelings are obviously mutual.

my sunday

church.

lunch with our life group.

jack to laser tag for a birthday party.

shopping for the girls new bedding.

two hours of online "window shopping" to gain inspiration for tate's bedroom (we are switching the girls and tate's rooms thus the re-decorating. )

dinner as a family.

em has a friend for a sleepover.

boys to captain america.

and now i sit down to write a blog post.

i could give you a link for the yummy corn salad we ate.

i could tell you about the funny things jack said last night.

i could post pictures of us happy or whine about kids whining.

but tonight i am thinking about a part of the world

experiencing a greater crisis than what color to paint a bedroom.

a part of the world that i where around my neck

and i put a bumper sticker of on my van.

africa.

the horn of africa specifically.

kenya. somalia. uganda. dijibouti. and yes, ethiopia.

but even if it was a part of the world that i didn't have a child born in,

i should still care that there is massive food crisis going on anywhere in the world.

in MY world.

because i don't want my world to just be about bed, bath and beyond

and birthday parties and blogging.

the world is a whole lot bigger than that.

and i don't want to live that small.

{though most days, i'm afraid i do just that.}

but not today.

if you do nothing else,

please read this short article titled jesus, stalin and casey anthony.

if you want to do a little more, would you consider fasting

to focus prayers for this part of the world?

and if you want to do something tangible, would you check out opportunities like this and this?

maybe you, like me, need to be rescued.

not from famine, but from a life too small.

i know, i know, most of you read my blog to laugh

and this post ain't really chock full of guffaws.

and i generally don't ask a lot of my readers,

save the occasional name that movie request which is almost

always from "notting hill".

but i have made a promise to myself and to my bloggy pals

that this blog is going to be real.

and this famine is real, people.

it's not going away overnight.

real, lasting, sustainable change is going to take a lot of time, money and commitment.

but somehow, someway, i want to do something.

join me.

(out of freedom, no guilt necessary).

if not this cause, there are plenty of others.

"but be doers of the word and not hearers only" james 1:22

luci may day!

two years ago yesterday we met our "blessings" face to face. this sweet little face...

was a sweet little scared face...

my kids like to point out that anyone would be scared by my euphoric high-pitched laughing/crying combo on that day. i'll spare you the video of the encounter for that very reason, but you can read about it here. basically, it was an incredible moment...

a moment that changed both lulu's life and our family forever. as we celebrate this day, i am always joyful, but also mindful that this day was born out of great loss and sadness. a reality i don't know how lulu will process as she grows older. but that does not cause me to hold back in my gratefulness and our celebration. so celebrate we did. we knew we were going to be traveling all day on luci may day, so the night before we went out for an ethiopian dinner...

the kids aren't big fans of ethiopian food and their softie parents let them order the oh-so-traditional, chicken tenders and fries...

we tried injera again with lulu with the same result as in the past...

she spit it out of her mouth. in time, i hope she grows to love ethiopian food, but that time has not yet come. but the day had come to celebrate. to celebrate this child...

who has blossomed into this child...

to celebrate her home country and birth family...

and to celebrate being a family...

we celebrated on the night of the 27th by returning to our home after our travels. my sister's family surprised us by driving an hour at 10pm to be their when we returned to a decorated home and a luci may day celebration...

dear luci may rediet kollar,

your ethiopian mommy named you rediet which means "blessings". i cannot count the ways you have already brought blessings into this world, into our lives, and into this family. we are grateful to know you, let alone to call you our own. and you are ours, lulu. well, HIS, then ours. and we are, always, yours...

blessings, indeed.

suits me just fine

it's summer. which means there is all kinds of fun to be had at the pool...

there are some times i get kind of sad that there'a lot of pictures of me with my kids since i am usually the one behind the camera. but being at the pool is not one of those times. being behind the camera suits me just fine, thank you very much.

i need you

i have heard that diet coke is, like, bad for you. i don't pay much attention because i am, like, addicted to it. but i have learned that it is also bad for computers. being the experiential learner that i am, i decided to spill diet coke on my computer to learn this lesson.

my computer immediately got all poltergeist-y. it wouldn't let me type the letters v and f, but it incessantly was typing the letter v on it's own.

after a computer guru stepped in a saved the day, i only needed to replace the keyboard and i was good to go.

for a week.

now the testy little fella is acting up again.

giving me the distinct impression that a new computer might be on my horizon.

that's where you come in.

i need you to weigh in.

i blog.

i email.

i dabble in facebook.

i write a few talks.

i love photos and take way too many of them.

i would dig making videos.

i don't learn new systems quickly.

money doesn't grow on trees.

given those facts, what say you,

mac or pc?

discuss amongst yourselves.

red, white and MOO

we celebrated america's birthday with good friends...

(welcome home nathan)

good food...

(have you tasted the yummy goodness of homemade chocolate and caramel dipped potato chips?

what about the divinely fresh taste of caprese salad?

if not, please partake.)

and good exercise...

okay, so a little parade isn't exactly good exercise. but when i am running around trying to capture picture of my kids, i think it qualifies as such. we all know i have very low standards when it comes to exercise. that i capture any pictures of jack that aren't blurry is amazing since he is constantly on the move...

(yes he was actually wearing a shirt. he wanted to go shirtless with

a big USA on his chest, but we thought better of it)

but it was easy to capture shots of lulu since she brought up the rear of the parade. normally she is obsessed with riding her "cooter" (there are times when being to pronounce the the s sound comes in handy)...

but when she was supposed to ride it, she was instead obsessed with tooting her horn...

you can toot your own horn all you want, baby, 'cause freedom is a pretty big deal.

and so is chick-fil-a. which is why just a few days later, we had to find our way to a chick-fil-a to celebrate cow appreciation day. if you dress in a cow costume, you get a free meal. my husband is a pretty laid back guy, but he is INTENSE about chick-fil-a. which is why it was fine with him that i spent almost as much as our costume as it would have been to pay for our meals. but it was worth it...

walking in was a bit of a challenge, but once we got "left. left. left right left" down, we were golden. there was a prize (chick-fil-a for a year!!!!!!) for the best dressed herd and, though we want to be humble people, we thought we had it in the bag. maybe since the employees kept telling us we were the best. but alas, we did not. oh well, we wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it since we don't have a chick-fil-a here at home. YET.

we still got our meals free and lulu got her face painted like the cutest little cow I ever did see...

god bless chick-fil-a.

god bless america.

and god please bless those who don't know the freedoms and privileges we do. i want to be thankful for my blessings while being mindful of those who don't know such blessings.