Mustique

transferred to my blog Wanderlust.......@

Ice Cream

FWD:

Last week, I took my children to a restaurant...

My seven-year-old son asked if he could say grace.

As we bowed our heads he said, 'God is great, God is good. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And Liberty and justice for all! Amen!'

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, 'That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why I never!'

Hearing this, my son burst into tears and asked me, 'Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?'

As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job, and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table. He winked at my son and said, 'I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer.'

'Really?' my son asked.

'Cross my heart,' the man replied.

Then in a theatrical whisper, he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), 'Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.'

Naturally, I bought my kids ice cream at the end of the meal. My son stared at his for a moment, and then did something I will remember for the rest of my life.

He picked up his sundae and, without a word, walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, 'Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes; and my soul is good already.'

Rood Chilo's Birthday

since i posted a bday shout out to Davidson in january, i think i'll do the same for Rood Chilo. He's the second lil boy i sponsor in Bercy, Haiti. if anyone is interested in sponsoring children in Haiti or Uganda where i do or will have direct contact with the kids please please let me know.

Rood Chilo turns 7 today. such a handsome lil man!!!

Feb Family Trip

Isaac Mérant Taylor

...or so that will be his name. inshalla. i finally decided so those of you who were tired of referring to him as my lil man have an official name... unofficially. i won't change it legally till his placement, but in the meantime he can get used to it and they will still call him Kervenson at the "O" so not to complicate paperwork, and confuse the birth family and the nannies.

i'm absolutely 110% in LOVE with this lil baby. he was such a joy to have with me. he laughs and giggles and screams and squeals. it's so precious and i miss the sound of his baby babble so much already. Isaac means "laughter" and was so fitting. just look at him.

anyway, we all had a great time at Villa Therese. i stayed in my first haitian hotel and really enjoyed the company of those from HIS Home and others adopting. the coffee and food were great and it had a nice little pool. who from KC doesn't love 80 degree weather in february?!? Chris and Hal did a wonderful job planning and keeping up with a million things at once. God bless them =) i'll post more pictures soon.

In Haiti

For those of you that don't have facebook and haven't seen.... my Ma and i are safely in haiti. Spent today lounging around the pool with the kids and got to meet my lawyer for the first time. We found out that the new laws aren't officially in effect yet, but as of january this year they are cracking down on min and max age of adoptive parents. The word in the mtg was that it was 35 for single parents and at least one of the parents (in a couple married at least 5 yrs) must be 35. Please pray i don't have to wait 6 years just to start. That is not even an option in my mind. 30 years old may be fine. I've never minded getting older, but i've never in my life wanted my next birthday to come so badly (i turn 30 november this year).

We also had a very nice lunch with Dorothy, Casey, and Mickenson and his mother. For those of you who do not know, Dorothy runs an infant rescue in PAP and i have had the pleasure of staying with her the last couple trips. Casey is part of the Brooks clan in GA that my sister, Natasha, is going to stay with this week and will be there for a few months helping with Much Ministries. Mickenson is a precious little boy waiting to have a surgery that was funded by my Ma and folks at KC Life Ins in KCMO.

We have a couple great photographer types on this trip so i'm sure to have a bunch of fotos in about a week

Tomorrow we are headed to the playa.... =)

Also... i'd like to thank everyone back home for the support, baby gifts, donations, prayers and most of all LOVE.

@

The G Series: Grief

i recently found it appropriate to read C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed. not having a spouse and certainly not losing one in the way that Lewis lost his wife, i cannot even begin to fully understand. i do feel tho, that all of us as humans, and having the capacity for profound love, can relate. and even in a case as his, no two people feel or grieve just the same.

Lewis states that "Grief feels like fear, like being mildly drunk,.." and later, "... like suspense." that feeling is one that i recently went thru. the grief so sincere that i couldn't move a muscle. i sat, arms folded. it was as if i were to move i'd lose all my bearings or break down. maybe it was suspense. maybe i was waiting for the shock to wear off... for it not to be true.

one thing i have learned in all of this adoption literature over the last year is that the unknown is much more terrifying than reality. open adoption is the best choice for everyone involved. when a child does not know the circumstances surrounding their situation or does not feel free to ask about them, the imagination can create a monster in and of itself. communication is so important between people. the art is finding the right time and place, as well as what and how much to reveal or inquire about. this is where we need God, to trust Him, and let Him guide and show us.

"The earthly beloved, even in this life, incessantly trumps over your mere idea of her. And you want her to; you want her with all her resistances, all her faults, all her unexpectedness... And this, not an image or memory, is what we are to love still, after she is dead."

WOW. this has stuck with me. how often do we idolize a person or situation or memory? in reality they are much more than our memory. and it is hardest to remember clearly thru the pain of sorrow.

"You can't see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears. You can't, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately: anyway, you can't get the best out of it. 'Now let's have a real good talk' reduces everyone to silence. 'I must get a good sleep tonight' ushers in hours of wakefulness. Delicious drinks are wasted on a really ravenous thirst..."

Lewis notes that sorrow is not a state, but a process. a lesson i think anyone who has tried to work thru something, rather than repress it, can comprehend.

"But my heart and body are crying out, come back, come back. Be a circle, touching my circle on the plane of Nature. But i know this is impossible. I know that the thing i want is exactly the thing i can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace." then Lewis later questions his motives. "What sort of lover am i to think so much about my affliction and so much less about hers? Even the insane call, 'Come back,' is all for my own sake."

grief can be a strange thing. i found myself grieving a particular dream so intensely that i felt more alive. odd yes, but being a person who is seen as chill, aloof maybe, many people never know the intensity and passion in me. i found myself actually giving thanks for the sensation of being so alive and feeling so deeply.

i guess the point in feeling grief and being put thru difficult times cannot be known, but we learn more about ourselves in the process. 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger', character building of some sort. i'm just thankful to have loved so deeply to feel that way.

God doesn't ask us to fix things (that's His job), He does ask us to be a little less timid and a little less passive about things.