MIA for a week, stirring the "Soup" with a little Monday update...

The snow is gone. The 72 degree temperatures on Tuesday pretty much melted all of even the northern exposure hillside snow drifts. The flowers are flourishing, the Bradford pear trees are in full bloom, the Japanese flowering plum  and Redbud trees are adding their pink hues to gardens and streets all over town. We have purchased new fruit trees to expand our little orchard and  the seeds for the summer 2010 vegetable garden. Charlie spent the better part of Saturday prepping his  trees, digging, planting, staking, fertilizing. He loves his fruit trees. A but too muddy and cool to plant seeds  yet so I am still  in planning mode.  ** ***Monday morning update:  7AM as I go to pour my coffee, I see the little white goat and Ribs the one-horned wonder  buck out of their pen . OH this is not going to be good, I already know it.  Goats eat trees, they love trees. We have lost countless trees to escaped goats and my goats are chewing on the new fruit trees  Charlie just planted. NOT how he wants to start his Monday morning: chasing two goats back into safety and security when he'd rather boot them  in their back sides.  I will wrap the tree trunks to try and salvage them, but they are probably not going to live.  When we were at the Thunder NBA game  last night with the oldest boys , the rest of the children( 8-16)were here to do the farm chores.  They do a great job almost all of the time. Its those "not -so-much" times that are just so much more noticeable.  We'll see what happens. The littler girls assure me that they DID lock the pen, but kids get in a hurry, memories overlap, icky things happen. BIG teaching talk about double -checking ones work is on tap for this morning!!!*****
I am so very ready to get busy in my waiting garden soil.This year we will have a separate corn field from the other veggies. Last year I planted  a lot of corn, but folks, we EAT  a lot  of corn.  We've effectively doubled the size of the garden. I am going to try my hand at soy beans  for the first time, having discovered how much  I enjoy eating them (edamame).
A total "aside" but in his testimony the man who shared in church this morning reminded us that Seed is Seed. IT is the SOIL that makes the difference in the outcome. We work our soil carefully and thoroughly so that we can produce a good crop. WE as a people, I as His child,  need to allow God to work  in ME, He needs to be free to work in  US, the soil into which He places His Word  so that we can produce for His Kingdom.
**
 In the last week, we saw most of our plumbing problems resolved, fixed, diagnosed, and the "least of these" trade places with the "worst of these" in terms of what was really broken and what REALLY needed attention and time to repair. So we have our front bathroom back, both the tub and the shower stall, the whole bathroom. That is the really good news. The back bathroom ,which we thought was the small problem turned out to be a lot more problematic.the shower drain  pipe is broken, the toilet pipe is broken, the shower which needs to be replaced  can not be replaced....not without huge expense and a lot of cosmetic and altering construction. It seeems that in 1970-something when our house was built, one could choose to install a 28" wide shower stall, build it into the bathroom wall and voila': you'd have a nifty albeit small  shower in an other wise powder-room sized "master bathroom". HOWEVER, in 2010, not only do they not make 28 inch wide shower stalls, there is no where to order an old obselete  leftover one. The only solution to replacing this mini-Behemoth  is to shave three inches off of one wall and one off the other wall to fit a 32" shower stall into the space (can't do it 2 and 2.......one wall is brick)  Seems we will fix the broken pipe and somehow or another make the original old saggy shower stall work a while longer. While repairing what we thought was one crushed pipe, we discovered seveal other problems: our piers have shfited under the house and causes other pipes to pull apart and to cause our tile floors to crack and break up from the increasingly shifting sub-flooring.  There was so much water under the house the plumber could not work for the first 3 days after he started our project. There is also a problem with our propane line as well. Plumbing continues , phase two, looking forward to phase 3. ALL THAT SAID  TO SAY  we are incredibly thankful to have plumbing downstairs which does not involve shop-vac-ing out the bathtub after using the kitchen sink!  INCREDIBLY THANKFUL!!!!!!!!!
There is nothing to say about Liberia except that I was so aware of people praying for my discouraged spirit all through the week. Thank you to those of you who were among those who prayed!  It will not be March when Daniel comes home; perhaps it will be late April? It was wonderful and oh so painful to hear  from others who traveled to Liberia recently to bring home their children : families who had gotten adoption decrees for their children before the January 26, 2009 suspension date. Having no decree for Junior and Diamoh, there is no possibility for us to even begin to start an adoption  until after new laws are written and implemented: laws which seem  to be beyond any horizon at this time. Meanwhile other children in countries whose programs are fluid, children  who ARE adoptable, wait for paper-ready families.  On my heart is a young girl,  a beautiful young girl for whom I have been praying for several weeks. A new face was added to our refrigerator door this week................she has the same name as my mother in law..........................Not all the children on my 'frige door are children I have asked about for us; most I KNEW were not, but God used me to pray them home to their forever families. What of this girl? I don't know yet , but I know I CARE DEEPLY. I have fallen asleep seeing her face. I have awakened the past few mornings to her image. it is the cry of my heart that she be matched with and unified with her family, a family she so desperately desires.
My younger children who read as I blog, who ask about every face they see in every email, who pray with me for every child or situation I mention to them, know a bit about her. Charlie and I have not had any tine together to talk about anything.  We have a date today. Maybe as  we drive down to OKC for the Thunder  (NBA basketball )game later this afternoon we can talk.  I have such a NON-"poker face" anyhow, he probably already knows "Something " is on my heart. Lord may we communicate, may we hear each other, may we listen to You and to each other...............for Your glory!