Wow. A whole year? I did not realize how much time had gone by since I had written anything.

Sometimes people will ask why I haven't written.

It mostly comes down to:

-Children old enough to google and find their mom's blog. As much as I love a funny story, not if it makes my kids uncomfortable :)

-Busy. Five kids=busy. I thought when they were older, they were more independent...but not yet. So some days, I drive kids to school, pick up, multiple practices, all while trying to have dinner on the table when everyone shows up because otherwise, they will just fill up on cereal and cheese-its.

-Privacy. Whether it's my own thoughts I can't quite put into words, or something hard going on that I don't need the world to process with me, this has not been the place to write.

I miss writing, sharing-mostly, I miss re-reading it years later.

Hopefully one day I will look back and give myself grace that there just wasn't much to say. That parenting kids who are 11,11,12,14, and 14 just takes up so many brain cells, there isn't much left over at the end of the day.

We did have a fun summer. It included: football camp for J, volleyball camp for A, Camp Raybird for all, trips with my parents for most the kids to Detroit, a week of family camp and a family trip to Virginia Beach and Washington DC. Plus of older kids-they travel SO well and even did a 14 hour day :)

This coming year will include even more travel-K and I are headed to CO, T,H and I to DC, a trip to India for K and I have the privilege of touring Israel with my dad.

Kids are busy this year with lots of activities-B is boxing, J playing football and the clarinet, A is playing volleyball and the french horn, T is doing Science Olympiad and robotics and playing the trumpet. And last but not least is H, playing the tuba and running Cross Country. I am sure they will all run track in the spring, which makes my life a little easier.

Everyone is taller and older-B and H have passed me in height (which isn't saying much), while T and A are right behind. J will one of these days :)

This is our last year for a while with most of our kids in the small school. B is doing schooling at home, which is a long blog post in itself. T&H will pick a High School this winter to prepare for next year. How can it be that TWO of my babies are headed to High School next year?!?

Below are some favorite pictures from this year-hopefully I can become more regular in sharing here again!

       
                                              

We also celebrated that B and J have been part of our family for TEN YEARS!!!!

Hello world!

We are still here.

It was quite a year-too much to blog about and honestly, this isn't the place.

But a new school year has started. Things are going smoothly for the most part.

This summer included:

-a 2.5 week family trip, driving from IN to CO/UT

-T&H on a mission trip to Mexico with my dad (H's first time on a plane!)

-J,B,&A and I headed to DC to visit family (A's first time on a plane!)

-T&H went to Niagara Falls with my parents

-I spent a week in OH helping take care of my mom

-5 kids went to Camp Raybird

-T served as a co-counselor the discipleship week of camp, while J attended as camper.

-Our church opened it's community center that we have been working towards for the past 3+ years (thebeacon.cc)

WHEW! No wonder I was tired at the end of the summer! Hopefully I will get to blogging about our vacation at some point-it was quite a drive with 5 kids, but totally worth it.

Oh and we added a DOG! Yes, a dog. I don't even like dogs. But Hank has won my heart. Thank goodness for hypo-allergenic, non-shedding dogs, who are smart and train quickly.

School started a few weeks back. Four middle schoolers (7th,7th, 6th, 5th) and one at a new school as a 4th grader. We have fallen into routine-XC practice, robotics team and many instruments (tuba, trumpet, clarinet. and french horn). Between the instruments and the dog, I am surprised our neighbors have not moved.

Below are the kids 'school' pictures. We hate paying for school pictures, so my mom always takes some and crops them to the right size. We won't see her in the fall this year, so I sent her the below to crop! I can't believe how OLD they are all getting!!

The kids and I were sitting around the other week, reading through old blog entries. We were smiling and laughing, amazed at how we survived all those years with 3 in diapers and so many little faces to wipe clean. When they were young, I longed so much for them to grow up. To be independent. To be able to make their own lunches, tie their owns shoes and put themselves to bed.

It is hard to believe we are to that stage in life, that I dreamed about for so long. And it is so bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, not having to wipe butts and cut food into small pieces is a wonderful thing, but man, as my kids are getting so independent and I selfishly miss them needing me and wanting to crawl in my lap! :)

We are coming up on the end of a school year. This will mark the end of elementary school for A, which just seems unbelievable. How the heck is she ready for big, bad middle school? I am so glad to have sent 3 brothers ahead of her. She is ready for the challenge-to make new friends, have homework and projects (her words, not mine!) and to play the french horn.

B will be at a new school next year-we are excited for him and hoping it will be a good fit. He is such a laid back kid-we are quick to forget that quiet and compliant does not mean he doesn't have feelings. Or thoughts. Or dreams. What a fun kid!

J, H and T will be in their same school next year. It has been a good place for them this year. They all did amazing in track this fall, making some good times at the City Meet. I hope they stick with running-I love cheering them on!

We have had our ups and downs this winter and spring-things to private to blog about and not worthy of being spread around the internet. We doing a lot of heavy lifting-praying for healing and hope and just doing things the best we know how. And rely so much on our community and friends to come in and help us with the heavy lifting.

Adoption is an amazing tough walk. Bittersweet and full of so many unknowns. Standing where we are today, I am glad that we didn't know what we know now. Hard things shape us into who God wants us to be-it is painful and hard and uncomfortable and sometimes just down right awful, but I truly believe that in the end, it will all be worth it.

Random pictures below are from our Spring Break trip with my family. Always good to spend time with those you love! We are lucky to have amazing family on both sides!!

I know I have not gotten to writing about the rest of our trip. And I get sad as days go by and I forgot more and more of the little details. Sigh.

I made a video this week to show at church this weekend but in Shelley fashion, I didn't figure out how to get the sound to work well enough to actually show it. Darn procrastination!

But I thought I would at least share it here! Enjoy! :)

It was hard to believe that after spending the morning and lunch time with such wonderful ladies that there was still a whole afternoon to enjoy!

We headed back to the boys home right as they were getting home from school. Our next two hours flew by, as we talked with them, learned more about what they liked and disliked. We talked about their families, played with balloons and bubbles. It was such a glorious two hours. The boys home is 2 stories with a roof area for playing. Yes, a bunch of boys playing on the roof. I can't tell you how many times I was waiting for someone to get hurt or fall! I just had to remind the social worker in myself that, "This is India!"! :)

He was not shy. :)

This sweet one stole my heart. I talked with him much of my time there. He was so sweet looking after the younger ones and had such a precious heart for the Lord and for his family. 

Pastor Sam's older daughter. She was too precious.

Around 5, we headed over to the girls home for the rest of the evening. We sat with them and helped them write letters to their sponsor families. I loved the way they took time to think about what they wanted to say and share with them. They are all amazing artists and drew beautiful pictures. Time with them was just so sweet and too short.

I was telling one sweet girl about my family and how my daughter wishes so much for a sister. She looked me in the eye and said so sweetly "You tell your daughter, she has a sister here in India!" and then proceeded to hand me a picture of herself to give to Anna to hang in her room. Such a sweet moment.

This is Pastor Chhabi and his beautiful wife. They are doing an amazing job of taking care of the girls! We were amazed by their servant hearts. And their son is just too cute!

Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the rickshaw and head to the boys home for dinner. I don't think there was a single dry eye between any of us. I have no idea how you can feel so bonded to a group of girls-we were so sad to leave them!

Both the girls home and the boys homes in Kolkata made us the most beautiful banners, with prayers and drawings and notes on them. Their hospitality was amazing.

We slept much better that night-I am sure the busy day wore us out.

I enjoyed our time in Kolkata so much more then I ever imagined. It is a special place-full of poverty and darkness and people and colors and smells that I will never ever forget. I love thinking of these Asha Mission homes-they are such light in the darkness. They are loving each other, their neighbors and their city so well. They all asked us to many times to not forget them and to pray for them and their safety. And also asked us when we were coming back. They would always say "Next month? Next month you come back?" I WISH! :)

Tuesday morning in Kolkata. 

Going into this trip, we were asked to help lead a women's conference. Again, this is not something in any of our skill sets BUT we did not want to missing meeting a bunch of amazing Indian women!

When had gotten to Kolkata, some communication lines had been mixed up and they thought we would be teaching for THREE HOURS. HA! We decided that we felt comfortable sharing our stories, sharing about our church and what we have been learning lately. Luckily, this seemed to work out for the best. 

Our rickshaw picked us up around 1030am for the 10am conference. :) Ahh...Indian time! It is very much like African time. 

We rode about 20 minutes to the church where the conference would be held. We knew there would be women coming from all over-some would be riding the train for the entire day to get there! What a privilege to get to meet them.

Gotta love the banner-we were official!

About 40 or so women showed up by noon. We listen to Pastor Sam speak and then listened to an amazing testimony of a woman who is now leading in her church. 

Here she is, sharing her story. I wish I had written her name down! 

We then broke into 3 groups and had our sharing time. It was fun to speak with a translator (gives you time to think about what you want to say next!). I enjoyed hearing questions from the women and learning more about their stories. We took time to pray over each of the women in our groups. This was humbling, going from woman to woman, just asking the Holy Spirit to lead me to pray. Some asked for specific prayer for healing or ministry or for their families. 

Cathy and I sharing our stories. Such a humbling place to sit, hoping that something you say will bring encouragement.

We then ate the most delicious meal. YUM! I was not a fan of Indian food before this trip, but now, having eaten authentic food every day, I am sold. :) We loved watching these women enjoy a huge plate of food, something they do not get very often. 

The conference ended with us being able to hand each woman a new sari. This ended up being such a sweet time. So many hugs were given, tears fell and silent prayers were said. It is hard to feel an immediate bond with women who don't even speak your language. It is even harder knowing you are sending them off to places where they are persecuted for what they believe.

A woman came up and asked if she could sing a song to us. Those were holy minutes, as she sang the most beautiful worship song to us in Bengali. We just sat there, knowing we could not ever re-live this moment again. Sitting in a church in the middle of this loud, colorful amazing city in one of the most populous countries in the world, connecting with women who we will probably never see again until we are in heaven. It is hard to even find words.

Kolkata. How to put you into words.

I have always though so very highly of Mother Teresa. I have read her books, learned about her life, repeated her quotes. And now I was traveling to the city where most of her work was done. Amazing.

We headed to the Delhi airport very early that morning, but still had to rush to make our flight. Flying a domestic flight in India was such a fascinating experience. Let's just say the plane was full of 200 hundred Indian business men, 3 Indian women and us. Four white women. I am sure we blended right in. :)

Our flight was delayed and we finally landed in Kolkata just before lunch time. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I think I thought it would be similar to Delhi? I was taken back and a bit sensory overloaded on our drive. The colors seemed brighter, the traffic full of more bikes/people/animals, the smells deeper, the poverty poorer. The drive from the airport to the Children's Home-I was just trying to process everything. (could have very easily been lack of sleep at this point!!)

The home in Kolkata does not have as many resources as the Delhi home and we all came back knowing this was something that needs to change! Pastor Sam and his wife are doing an amazing job with these boys, while raising their 2 daughters.

Another great sign! We loved the misspelling of Riverside-Reverside! Say it outloud-makes it much easier to practice your indian accent! :)

We met the boys later that afternoon-I am not sure what I expected. I think I figured I would not grow attached, especially over boys that I did not know as well as the boys in Delhi. I was dead wrong. Oh they were just as precious, loving, smart, hilarious, thoughtful....as well as wild, loud and well, boys! We spent a few hours getting to know them, sharing about our families and asking about theirs. They had the most beautiful view from the top of their building. I could have sat there every evening to watch the sunset.

It was again amazing to watch the way these boys are taken care of-their material resources may not be what we think it should, but they were so rich in many other ways. We loved having letters for each of them from families from our church!

After hanging out with the boys for a few hours, we headed to the girls home. This was also accompanied with our first rickshaw ride. I think we laughed the entire 5 minute ride.

Most of the girls in this home were moved from Delhi. There is more to this story and if you see me in person and would like to know more, I would love to discuss it. It is too much to write and I never know how much is too much to share in a public space. There is also a lot more information about the persecution in Kolkata-again, please ask if you are interested in learning more.

Seriously, aren't these girls just beautiful?!? On the inside and out!

They love to dance and showed us a dance they had done at their school. They were so proud!

We LOVED meeting the sweet Asha girls! They are amazing group of young women. Our two hours with them felt like 10 minutes. They were sweet to sing and dance for us, we worked on learning each others names and favorite things about each other. It really may have been the fastest 2 hours of the trip. Before we knew it, we were back on the rickshaw headed to dinner.

I would like to say we crashed and slept like logs that night. But being a new place had us on edge. Or maybe it was the woman yelling in Hindi for a good hour outside our window. Or the mattress that felt like a cement floor. Or the freezing cold air, which we did not expect, so we slept layered in all our clothing. and towels. And anything we could find. Or it could have been that every time you woke up, you debated whether or not it was worth using the squatty potty in the dark. Let's just say it was a night that we are all totally fine if we never have to re-live.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early. The night before Pastor Sharma had asked us to speak at their church service that morning.

To say I was stretched on this trip might be an understatement. I am a person who thrives in behind the scenes work. Yes I know my husband is a preacher, but I do not fall into that category!

We used our time that morning to tell our stories, how we came to know Jesus and what we were learning. It was so interested to experience worship in another language-to not always know what people were saying or singing or praying, but to be there in one spirit. I was so glad we said yes and shared what was on our hearts.

These were taken after church! The kids all got together-so handsome! The below picture is all of us ladies with Paster Sharma and his wife, as well as the cook at the home. Her food was amazing!

After lunch, we were able to go visit the leper colony in New Delhi. I am still frustrated that there are places like this existing here on earth today. HERE is an interesting article, that teaches you some of the basics of what leprosy is and how it is a curable disease.

It was also hard when I realized there were multiple kids at Asha whose parents live there. To realize the chance these kids are being given- to not be looked down on because of leprosy, to get an education (let alone an English education), to be receiving consistent food and medical care is amazing. It was hard to look into the faces of the women there, knowing I had just played with their sons hours earlier and how much they wished they could provide for their children.

Learning from Pastor Sharma-this sweet woman was blind and slept on a thin mat on the floor. But oh was she beautiful!!

We spent time praying over people and houses (which were really small single rooms). We ended in the little church, sharing our stories and (to our surprise) singing them a song. We became a regular three ring circus at the point!

This was in the small church in the leper colony. There was no electricity and what you can't tell from this picture was the room was quickly filling with thick smoke from a neighbors fire. Amazing we could breath!

We went back to the home and spent some time with the boys, as well as began to prepare for our trip to Kolkata. It was already hard to process at this point all that we had seen, smelled, heard and experienced. It was hard knowing we would have to get up at 5am the next morning to fly 2 hours to a city none of us had ever been to. We were sad to leave the boys we were just getting to know and we becoming anxious about what was to come.