Back to Volleyball

Today was the day. Open gym for volleyball!

This year I am one of the captains on the varsity team & you have no idea how excited I am!

Just had a meeting last week with the other captains - scheduled captains practices, picked out team clothing, and chose the workouts so we can all get back in shape!

It's going to be a very fun season!

A sign that it's been too long since I touched a volleyball... A bruise & a few popped blood vessels. :)

Blessings,

~Michlyn

Soccer Girl

Erin is still playing soccer. Like a pro.

This year, it has been particularly fun to watch her play as her team continues to play hard, have fun, and show us what they got. She's been on this team with the same [incredible] coach for the last 3 years. They are awesome. A couple weekends ago they played in the championship and took 2nd place! (Although it was for a shoot out and not because the other team was better)

Keep it up Erin!

~Michlyn

She's Married!

Our big sister/oldest daughter got married last Saturday, June 15th. Now you're probably thinking "what?". Well she's not ours biologically, but it's always felt like she was in our family. Josi married Dan on a hot and beautiful day, out in a field on farm.

Their nephew introduced her before she walked down the aisle, and it was just the cutest thing!

They were so happy! I didn't see a smile come off either of their faces all night.

The barn looked amazing! The decorations were all hand made and just perfect. 

'T' was missing, because it would have been too overwhelming for her, but she was in great care.

The wedding was soooo beautiful! It was completely focused on our amazing God and how He created marriage and that keeping your relationship focused on Him will keep it strong. There were bible verses read, everyone sang two worship songs, and then vows were said, the rings were exchanged, and they shared their first kiss as a married couple.

We love you Josi & Dan! We were so happy to share your special day with you!

Happy ever after!

~Michlyn

P.S. Josi was our babysitter until I ('M') was old enough to watch my siblings. We've always called her our big sister or daughter. :) She's been such a great & Godly role model for us.

Adoption: Behind the Scenes

'T' is now 7yrs old and has been home for almost 3 years. Wow time flies. Just thought I'd give you a little "behind the scenes look" on my perspective of our adoption experience so far.

The first thing people see is a beautiful, spunky, & innocent little girl that is part of our family. If meeting someone for the first time, they ask her a lot of questions and just say how cute she is. The thing is...they don't know.

They don't know how hard our daily life can actually be.
They don't know how much trauma and hurt she's gone through.
They don't know how different everything was before.


Adoption is a miracle. It brings kids home from all over the world. And everyone who brings a child(ren) home always have different situations. Some are good, some are not so great, and others are rough.

Ours has been rough. Because behind that little girl with crazy curly hair, and a smile that could trick even the wisest person...Is a daughter of our King who is broken. Completely and utterly shattered into thousands of pieces.

The pieces of trust, love, connection, joy, security, and hope are missing. They were missing before we even laid our eyes on that very first picture of her. She doesn't have these problems because she was adopted, but because she was abandoned. In some way, shape, or form. That's why these pieces are missing.

And as I see the tantrums, tears, and hurt through her...I see more than just my broken sister. I see how she sees herself. I see how she thinks she should be treated. It's the hardest thing I've experienced.

Mostly I just want to cry at the hardship of it all and sometimes I want to laugh at the craziness God put into our lives.

The patience my parents have. The wisdom of therapists, friends, & prayer warriors. The protection and grace of our Savior.

It's all just a gigantic huge mess. Sometimes a bad mess. Sometimes a good mess.

When people don't understand our situation and chat and smile with my sister. I just want to scream. Because she barely does that with us. We should be the ones giving her the love, patience, and lessons of life and get a smile. But that's rare. And I just want to tell that person how they don't understand. How incredibly hard we try to make progress and teach her every. single. day.

1 yr. 2 yrs. 3 yrs.... Those walls around her heart have been falling a lot slower than we ever expected. Everything isn't hard of course. She's grown so much and learned quite a bit. But when survival kicks in from past memories or something triggers...we start sliding down instead of climbing up. And each step is going to be work & worth it.

This is exactly how we live without pretending. We show her the best we can and hope & pray that things will get better. I don't know who will truly understand this, but I hope it makes you think a little differently if anything at all.

I just needed to say this. And Jesus is faithful.

~Michlyn

P.S. I'm doing a series on my personal blog called "Live without Pretending". I've done a couple more posts and will continue for the next week or two. To see the list you can click here and scroll down. Thanks!

School's Out!!

Last Thursday marked the end of our 2012-2013 school year! It was a fun day full of pizza parties, field trips, movies, and games! :)

Just for fun we took some after pictures to compare to the ones we took on the first day of school.

School's out, let's scream & shout! (that was a high school musical line by the way)

~Michlyn

Happy May Day

The weather has been beautiful, and I of course have been outside taking pictures of PROOF that Spring finally has arrived. It's May 1st and there's another winter storm warning, so let's just hope that these beautiful days and clear skies will stay! :)



How have you been enjoying the weather?

~Michlyn

On Technology, Spring, & School

Well hello there strangers...it's been quite a while!

I don't remember the last time it's taken me this long to blog. So I'm here to give you a little update.

In the last 2 months our computer has crashed 3 times, and our internet has also gone out for a few days.

Our technology life wasn't really helping with the blogging anyway. :)

Spring really is coming believe it or not. Snow is almost melted, temperatures are in the 50's, and we're even seeing the sun a little longer than normal.




We are in the last 2 months of school. Crazy how time flies when you're having fun. Yes, school is usually fun for the 4 of us. :)

Michlyn - Finishing up her sophomore year in high school. Has made some great memories, including driving the other 3 siblings to school almost everyday. She's enjoyed volleyball, watching the guy's basketball games, getting to TA (teacher's assistant) for the kingergarten teacher, and work extra hard to keep her grades up this year.

Erin - Finishing up her first year of high school has a freshman. She's probably the most social out of all of the kids. Has enjoyed soccer all year round for the first time, cheering on our school's basketball and baseball teams, often hanging out with her friends, and thinks math is easy.

 



Jace - Finishing up his year as a 4th grader. He has worked soo hard this year on big projects, presentations, his reading, and excelling in math. Mom got to come help at a Valentine's party that his grade was throwing for elderly people and he had a blast at that. He's definitely athletic and enjoyed the basketball and soon baseball clinics that the high school boys help with.

Scout - Finishing up his year as a 1st grader. Our comedian as always has made us laugh so hard we're crying. He's very active at school and likes to tell us things about his day. His brother is his biggest fan, and will often wave to his big sisters when they are eating lunch at school. He's done pretty good at learning new things in math, and is reading! Although sometimes we wonder if he's just memorizing the books instead of reading. :)

Tareh - She continues to stay at home with mom as her referree, teacher, and of course mother. A couple times throughout the school year my parents have thought about putting her in school, but know that it is best to work on attachment and bonding at home. She does her fair share of stories (aka fibs) that would probably not help anyone in the long run. So she will continue to be at home.

Thanks for reading! One of us will blog sooner rather than later.
~Michlyn