a gumbo of a day

yes that's an accurate description...big pot of lots of different ingredients simmering. The "Simple" air filter repair job on the '01 Buick turned into a $580 repair of many things (and that was after the kind fellow at the shop (aside aside: where we get ALL our automotive work done) discounted over $75 from the initial ticket, and the "simple" recharging of the AC on our Big Green Van turned into an $800 total repair of the system, which he discounted down a little bit as well...............while the freezer was dying and did indeed cease to live up to its name. I am now the thankful owner of an older car which will run for many thousand more miles, a very thankful owner of a cooled Big Van, and the relieved and thankful owner of a new upright freezer which is now maintaining all that meat from spring butchering and frozen goat milk to be used later in the season. PRAISE GOD we didn't lose one single item from the storing in a dead freezer, moving the contents to cooler chests while old Faithful (that freezer was almost 18 years old) was hauled off and New Freezer was chilling. I am also the grateful house-mamma whose
2nd downstairs toilet is FINALLY fixed, after a long "out-of-order" spell. ONE toilet for everyone living downstairs got real challenging sometimes!!
Malachi and Sopheak left this morning for Orlando to visit friends of 'Pat's whom she met in Cambodia while they were doing missions work. The plan is to show M. and S. Disney World and the Atlantic coast, AND to go to the Cambodian Christian Church on Sunday as well. They will be back here sometime late on Monday. Sopheak's English is quite quite good, but I am sure she will be glad to let her brain go to "default mode" and "just" worship . She is the translator at her church in Phnom Penh so "just worshipping" will be almost a vacation in and of itself. (The pastor is American. 'Pat translates instantaneously for worshippers wearing head sets so they can understand in Khmer. When the Khmer pastor or worship leader speak in Khmer she translates that way too, so the non-Khmer speaking worshippers have their language too. YES.she's THAT GOOD!!! Malachi and she had a lot of fun this week giving Khmer classes to the younger children. ISaac and Leah remembered more than they thought they would; Malachi is truly quite conversant himself, but I digress.
It was so very hot today, even the pool was too hot! As a result, the house stayed pretty cool because NO ONE opened the doors to go out, or need to come back in!!! Lots of laundry got done, lots of games of Sorry were played and lots of NCIS and the 2009 NBA BASKETBALL DRAFT got watched on the tv too. The boys camped out side last night in their newly roofed tree house, but didn't sleep well because it never really cooled off last night.This added to the sleepy/lazy aura of the day too. I crocheted quite a bit on Baby Charlie's varigated camo colored afghan. It needs to be done for Hannah's baby shower on August 1!
One of the younger moms from church is having a baby shower for Baby Daniel and me tomorrow night! Hannah and I have garage sale-shopped for our baby boys, have been given /loaned nice cribs, our nurseries are almost completed, but there is still that "starting from scratch" element for both of us!
A little news about Daniel's adoption, sort of. There are a few docs required by his agency that our agency for Junior and Diamoh do not. I sent what I had from Addy's Hope to Acres of Hope. Acres has not had a coordinator for a while so we have been waiting, thinking that we were complete and ready to submit to the Ministry, not so much. Found out I need to send several more things, several of them notarized before our file is complete. They are being awesome about the fees and how to get them paid, and I am praying that there is grant money to help. God has gotten us all this far, He will be faithful to lead and guide us to the next steps. NEEDING TO REPAIR AND REPLACE ALL THAT "STUFF" was NOT on my budgetary agenda (well, the freezer was ..........)so now we are REALLY trusting for completed funding.
Thank you to those of you who left comments about sweet Baby Daniel. He IS lovely and yes, he DOES have God wrapped around his little finger; a great way to think about him!!