Thank you!

To all of you who left comments lately - aww! Thank you very much. It makes me smile. :)
So - what's been going on lately...
School is back in full swing, co-op is going well (Shiloh is knitting now, the other girls are in soccer for PE, and Jackson is doing a letter of the week for his "class" - which is great, because I don't like doing "letter of the week" stuff - I just want to get right to reading. :) ). We went to Octoberfest at the Frontier Culture Museum last Saturday and couldn't have asked for a better day. It was gorgeous weather, and the kids enjoyed the oompah music. Adah thought the skits the dancers did were hilarious. Shiloh and Cora (as you can see in the pictures) were wearing their German outfits passed down from a friend in North Carolina, and they fit right in. This weekend is the ladies' retreat through church, next weekend is our church picnic, the following weekend is the pregnancy center banquet, and the following weekend Daniel leaves for Tennessee with Adah and Abigail for his hunting trip. Then the next weekend we're heading to North Carolina for a wedding, and the Tuesday following that Daniel will have shoulder surgery. It turns out that his muscle is starting to separate from his bone due to an injury in Bosnia (yeah - ouch.). Phew. We have a busy couple of weeks planned. In that time period we will also celebrate Adah and Cora's birthdays - which are on the same day! This will be the first birthday that Adah will celebrate at home, and I am so thrilled to celebrate with her.

We passed a milestone yesterday - it was our TEN MONTH anniversary with Adah and Nathaniel. TEN MONTHS they've been home. That seems incredible to me, both because it feels like they've been home forever and because I can't believe how much progress has been made in ten months. I am astounded at the Lord's goodness to us in allowing us to bond so quickly as a family. I expected the worst, I feared the worst, and the Lord has really given us the best. Yes, Nathaniel still has a ways to go, but part of that is just being two. :) My heart broke and broke again as we waited for them to come home, I lost hope along the way, I regained faith in the Lord's timing, and He has been faithful throughout. Adah and Nathaniel, if you read this one day, please know that your mommy and daddy are so very blessed to have you in our lives. You have added your own unique personalities to our crazy mix, and we couldn't have asked for a better fit. As I danced with Nathaniel this evening to Dean Martin and as I listened to Adah and Abigail giggling in the bathtub, I thought, "The Lord has done this." He has made us one big, loud, crazy family. I'm so grateful.
Have a great day and enjoy the FALL!
Love,
Casey
Adah with her best bud. Next to Shiloh, Roscoe likes Adah best. I think he could take or leave any of the others, unless they were being attacked and then he'd protect them. :) The picture below is the way I first found them. It looks like Adah is hypnotized by Roscoe's ears. It's entirely possible - they are strangely soothing.
The picture below shows one of the blessings of Daniel's schedule with every other Monday off...he's helping Jackson with his reading. Jackson felt like a big boy sitting with Daddy.
Abigail Emma with her sleepy face and bedhead. Oh. My. This child is adorable. I had to take a picture. I think I want everyone to grow up except for her.
Oooh - aren't we fancy? :) This was taken by our babysitter the night we went to the opera. Daniel is wearing the tux he bought in London at the last minute as he ran around panicked. It's a long story involving a rental shop that rented him a dirty, smelly tux so he had to find a replacement in three hours. He came back to the hotel room having BOUGHT one. :) At least he's getting some use out of it. We had a simply lovely time - it was a beautiful theater from the 40s, wonderful performances by Renee Fleming, and two champagne receptions during the intermissions. Too bad I got some sort of stomach flu right afterward and had to pull over from driving the babysitter home because I thought I was going to throw up (I didn't - then). I stayed in bed the next day and Daniel took over with piano lessons, co-op, meals, signing kids up for pictures, etc. What a man!
Daniel brought home his grandfather's steel helmet from Pennsylvania, and Jackson is making good use of it. He also brought home another helmet - civil defense - and I looked out the window while making lunch one day to see the girls pelting him with acorns while he just leaned his head down and let them ping off the helmet. How do they think of these things? They just laughed and said, "Well, he was wearing a helmet and sunglasses. He would've been okay." Uh huh. It's all fun and games...
(In the picture above he's actually wearing Daniel's dad's uniform along with his grandfather's helmet - do you think we can sign him up for West Point now?)

The following pictures are from Octoberfest. This might have been the third try to get everyone to look at the camera. :)

It's not traditional to have miniature ponies at Octoberfest celebrations :), but the kids were thrilled to see them anyway. Nathaniel said, "Moo!" when he saw it. I can see we need to work a little more on the animal sounds. Shiloh beamed the ENTIRE time she rode this pony. (Notice the saddle blanket - very German, methinks :) ) Daniel only had ten dollars in cash with him after buying brats and the boys' hats, so we were trying to decide which combination of kiddos could take a ride (the rides were $5 a piece! sheesh - this economy!). We ultimately decided only Shiloh would ride because she's the horse crazy one. All of the kids had been looking longingly into Daniel's eyes waiting for the decision, and we were so proud to see not one of them pouting afterward. They were so happy for Shiloh instead and leaned on the fence to watch her. We were especially proud of Adah, given her history with pouting and her insistence on "fairness" to all. The bystanders were forming a line to dance through the pavilion, and this lady reached out and and beckoned to Jackson. We can't believe he actually went willingly! He danced around with them for the whole song, and I think he even let out a smile at one point.
The kids are grabbing ribbons from a pole. I think Cora is trying to keep Nathaniel from ripping it off, though. :)
I can't remember what this young woman said she was doing, but it's like a miniature loom. What she was making could be used for laces or for embellishment on her gown. They have four working historical farms at the museum, and all of them had special events going on during the Octoberfest.
Cora is stirring plum butter. The gentleman told us that they would gather as small villages and cook the plums all day in a central place. They only add water at first to keep the plums from sticking, and it had to be stirred constantly. After the plums were smooshy enough (technical term), they would then taste the mixture to see how much sugar it needed. Cora struck up a conversation with this gentleman as well as another one, and then she decided to instruct additional visitors about what she was doing. They might have thought she was a volunteer with the way she was dressed (minus the shoes, of course! :) ).