"Blessed is the man whose quiver is full" Ps. 127
How God Created a Miracle in Our Family...
Most people look at our family and either say "you're crazy" or "what a blessing". It is that statement alone that sets people apart in how they view what happens in life. We were childless for 6 years before God blessed us with our third foster child, Isaiah, whom we adopted. Our tiny, three pound, adorable baby boy quickly became the love of our lives.
8 months after Isaiah was born, my father-in-law gave a woman a ride. That 4 block ride changed our lives forever when she told him she was pregnant and giving up her baby for adoption. Oh yeah...and she was due in 8 days! Well, just 5 days later, we had Makenna Shea!
3 months later, after Dirk and I had just prayed to have another baby when Makenna was about 1, that same birth mother called asking us to take her next baby. Isabella was born 1 week shy of Makenna's first birthday!
The funny part of the story is when we found out that I, the one who could never get pregnant, was pregnant! Ian was born 7 weeks after Isabella! God had given us 4 children all under the age of 1 1/2!!! We were thrilled! Such a work of God's hands it was.
This year we added to our clan when we were surprisingly pregnant again (so much for not being able to get pregnant). We now have 5 under 4! And I now wonder how mom's manage with all those kids so spread apart in age. It may be hard sometimes, but we love our life!
It's fuzzy, but it is the only picture i have of him at 8 weeks old. So far that is. He is so great! He is one loved kiddo! He has started talking all the time. any time you look at him he just cooes and talks. he is quite social. as a matter of fact when driving back from Chicago this weekend, he was screaming forever and ever. i finally pulled over and lo and behold...as soon as i so much as looked at him he just started talking to me as if to say..."hey sure am tired of being ignored back here". then we talked for a few minutes, i put him back in his car seat....screamed again!!! fun trip!!!
he is really doing well. holding his head up, eating great, sleeping well. It will really be fun to see what his personality is like with all the other siblings. i think we will see what a true baby of the family really is like. they baby him and love on him so much that he just won't know what to do when someone is not makin' goo-goo eyes at him. he loves morning times. i get to wake him by myself around 7 and we do our bible study while he eats his breakfast. he loves to be read to. he was getting jealous because he knew daddy was downstairs with the other kids doing their bible study and he was left out. so we fixed that problem. he loves it and of course I do too. Until the other kids come crashing in to interrupt us! they just can't stay away from this little guy!
we get to go to the dr. this week and find out what he weighs. really why else do you go to the dr. at 8 weeks old?? he is growing up so fast, i almost don't want to know what he weighs! we shall see...
Elias's first swim! 8 weeks old...
Isaiah and Kenna have become such good friends. We just love watching them!
Elias was just chillin'
Bella, of course, could not stop eating Nanna Dot's wonderful popcorn...
she barely swam at all.
Isaiah is so cool. He basically can swim! he is not scared of anything.
This was Kenna's first year not afraid of the water. she even allowed us to let go of her with her life jacket on...a feat unheard of for her!
I am so excited i have a child who is actually looking like me!!! It's a miracle!! It is so neat to "look at yourself in the mirror". He still has many, many glimpses of Ian, so who knows..he may turn up looking just like a Homeier after all...
See...Kenna's hair really IS long!
Kenna learning to blow bubbles...another great accomplishment for a girl who fears water!
Fearless Isaiah. If we could just get him to use his arms regularly he would be swimimg!
Our freind Palal was so blessed to have his wife, Kikim and son Solomon come stay with him the rest of his schooliong here in the US. we too are blessed since we get to see them all the time. Well, Solomon may not know english, but that did not stop him from having a ball playing cowboys with Isaiah! Meghan got in on the action, too. it was so hilarious!
i love this one!!!
Apparently they did not like Elmo much! Funny thing is...Solomon may not know english, but leave it to a boy to not only immediately go for the toy gun, but to start shouting "DIE...DIE". He knows some english!
Kikim looooooooooves Elias! she spent the whole time holding him! she barely ate so she could get back to the baby ( And NO it is not because of my cooking...Auntie M brought pizza)! she is so great with him. She was baffled by the fact that i don't sleep with Elias! not to mention he is in a whole other room!!! i thought she was going to have a heart attack! it was funny! they really don't have that option in myanmar though!
This is my brother, Lane. this was his very first visit to our house and we were thrilled!!! God has done some miraculous healing in our relationship the last year and a half and it was great to have him on my turf! the kids adored him...he really knows how to play and have fun! FUN is his middle name! Plus it was really cool to see Elias and Lane together since they look SOOOOOOO much alike!
Dirk and I met Lane and my dad in st. louis for dinner and then Lane spent some time lovin' on his nephew a bit. although i think he was just trying to pick up chicks!
Lane and I got to drive to St.Louis together...ALONE! it was so nice to have time together. niether of us could remember us being alone together. the best we could come up with was when i was in Jr. High!!! we had a good talk. well, who are we kidding...Lane talked...I listened. But it was just as God had planned. i learned a lot from him that day. I learned (or re-learned) that we must be careful what we expect of people who are not christians. Often I go through life with unfair judgements of people expecting them to act, believe, or speak differently. when really...they are just not held to that standard. that helped me a lot with Lane. I had forgotten how many wonderful qualities he has. He and I are polar opposites as people which is why there was ofter friction between us. he a fun outgoing party man, me the quieter "goody-two-shoes". He fears no one, I live by the rules...
It was great though. God showed me that I must work at loving the person Lane is that i can still learn from his life. I love him...I hope he had a great time too...
a couple of weeks ago we had a GINORMOUS thundestorm one evening! the kids went outside and played in the rain...
it was complete with quite an elaborate lightening storm later! the thunder was astounding and i was quite impressed that all the kids just loved it so much!! they had a blast!
Psa 113:9
He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
i was reading today and came across a scripture that i wish i had come across more when i was dealing with infertility! what a beautiful thought in hindsight as i now sit with 5 beautiful children. my youngest now 6 weeks old...
Time with this one is really flying! we are all so in love with him. I am so blessed to be able to breastfeed this one and what a joy it is. God certianly knew what he was doing. however, doing that with 4 other little ones is a real challenge. much more so than i anticipated. Meghan makes it possible, but there are times a bottle has been mentioned throughout a 60 minute feeding or two!!! Just wanted to share his growth at 6 weeks. he is so adorable. we are so blessed. At times i wonder why God believes we deserve such gifts in our lives, but all i can do is basque in the glory of it all. i hope and pray that we do the job we were given to do by growing them into wonderful men and women of the Lord.
The kids had the time of their lives! they played with a family nearby the whole time!
Grandma came with us and it was so wonderful! we rarely get to spend time together and i am so glad the Lord gave us some time to sit and really enjoy one another!
Mommy and Elias
Ian would hide under the sleeping bag during the fire works then run out and clap when the loud ones were over. he had a love/hate relationship with them. bella adored them, kenna jumped at each one and Elias slept through them. it was a good time had by all celebrating our freedom!!!
Isaiah is really growing up...so handsome
This was our first character of the day and had I known that from here on out we would have allow Ian to hug each one 100 times...i may not have tried so hard to get him over the fear of them.
hug #1. my sweet boy just can't help it.
Wonder Woman...I think she has some competition.
The Homeier side of the family has this "thing" with smelling everything. Well. Ian did not get skipped in this trait. He actually smelled the Martian's hand before he gave him five! it was great. We're pretty sure he's not OCD, but sometimes we wonder!
hug # 12 for the day!!!
#13
Ian...in all his sweetness...got tweety and sylvester to hold hands and tried to get them to ride a ride together. little did he know they are arch enemies!!!
Hey, look, I was there!
Ian adores his boogaboo. I just love this picture.
This one was just too cute not to include. Like i said...he is such a sweetheart.
Ian brought me flowers for the first time last week! it was soooo sweet. he was so proud of himself! and i am sure who ever had dandelions was proud too! Ian is such a sweet boy. God has blessed us so much with his tenderness. there was nothing like it when i was on bed rest!
It's fuzzy, but it is the only picture i have of him at 8 weeks old. So far that is. He is so great! He is one loved kiddo! He has started talking all the time. any time you look at him he just cooes and talks. he is quite social. as a matter of fact when driving back from Chicago this weekend, he was screaming forever and ever. i finally pulled over and lo and behold...as soon as i so much as looked at him he just started talking to me as if to say..."hey sure am tired of being ignored back here". then we talked for a few minutes, i put him back in his car seat....screamed again!!! fun trip!!! 
