Overflowing

The minister of Liberia has at last signed the case histories on Simeon and Patrick and handed them over to our agency!
This is what we have been waiting for, for a year. If God allows, the adoption should complete in 2 months and our boys will be here toward the end of February. We trust the Lord with this plan.
We have many preparations to make in a relatively short period of time.
We already moved the girls to the downstairs bedroom. We moved the boys around so that Naphtali (4), Asaph (9), and Nehemiah (1.5) will all be in one upstairs bedroom. Ephraim (14) is in the other upstairs bedroom which he will share with Simeon(7) and Patrick(9) when they arrive. The newest little one will stay in Leon and my walk in closet which we will convert to a little nursery as we did with Nehemiah.
We hope to have 2 weeks of freezer meals ready before our African boys arrive. Leon is planning to take a week or more of time of work. We will focus on bonding and dealing with family introductions, practicalities of living together and immediate issues resulting from completely different beliefs, habits, backgrounds, cultures etc. I am hoping to document these first weeks somehow but, I know I won't have much or any extra time. I think having all the children journal every day will be a good start.
We also need to take stock of what clothing and bedding we have and be ready with what we will need. I know we do not have enough to go around at this point. We'll even need extra bowls and mugs, toothbrushes, snowboots, shoes etc. We do not have one bowl for every member of our family as it is. That kind of stuff is going to be fun. I think I can get most of what I need from the pawn shop in Spirit Lake.
Wow! I have a feeling we're not going to be sending out Christmas cards or scrapbooking(you want to help me out Erin? or Marla?) or even taking the time to wear matching socks for a year (or ever?).
We love all of you. We pray for you, talk about you and think about you.

p.s.(Anybody want to make a few shirts out of a pattern I have for all our boys? Or some dresses? I have simple patterns for both. They turn out great but, I'm going to be so busy.)

Visited by God

The Goodenough family has wonderful news! The Lord has chosen to reward us with another baby. He created this person to do "good works which He planned in advance for him to do". We are very thankful.
By the end of July 2009 Leon and I may be looking at 9 smiling faces across our dining table every day. The children are thrilled to receive their African siblings and their tiny pale one.

Ephraim and Leon spent several hours today building and installing a door for the goat house. We received lots of extra saw dust and straw to put down in the chicken tractor (in it's semi-permanent winter location) and in the goat house. Thank you, Epps. We are borrowing a buck to breed with our other female. He is in the goat house helping to keep the females warm. Temperatures are dropping this weekend. It's zero degrees right now and it's expected to be -13 by Sunday night. The chickens have a good heat light too so that they will keep laying. This years chicks are just beginning to lay and we are getting 2 eggs daily from them right now and another 10 eggs each day from the older chickens. So, all the animals are cozy this weekend.

We have a good foot of snow on the ground. Friday morning there was no snow yet and I saw grass for the last time until probably April. By late morning it was snowing and now the trees are heavy with it. We took what was probably the last walk in the woods until April. It was fun and exciting. We felt like we were walking on the top of a wedding cake. It really is beautiful! Blue mountains, dark green trees under white fluffy snow.

sick holidays

I haven't written for a long time. We had a large Thanksgiving here and then the Baxter's and Rachel's sister were able to stay for a days. My children were sick off and on with first a flu and then a cold. I was feeling very tired and sick much of the time. It was rough but, had many good times. Today we are trying to recover some more. Nehemiah looks terrible and needs lots of 'mama' time. There's a lot going on over here.
I think we will try to install our new front door today. The old one was beyond repair and it will be nice to actually have a door knob again. The door is hard to keep shut.
We'll probably have left over pizza for lunch and keep the fire going nice and toasty. I think it's going to start snowing today. We don't have any snow on the ground yet wich is sort of surprising for out area. I think we are ready. We have our wood and shovels and ice and sleds and the makings for hot cocoa.
Be ready for adoption news.!! :) Something may be breaking through this week.