This girl needs a sister

This is Anya Rashi and her new playmate. She is hauling a big rock up to our

fort and sending it down the slide. She also perched her rock on the swing and gave it a push. Clearly, this girl wants someone to play with that is smaller than her great big 10- and 11-year-old brothers, and needs her little sister to come home soon!

No news = good news, and a brief digression about Peeps

We have no news from India, which for once, truly is good news! We haven't heard anything from CARA since being assigned to our orphanage in Bangalore at the end of March -- which is good, because it means that the orphanage has not found any reason to refuse to work with our family. Some families have been turned away from their assigned orphanage for a variety of reasons, such as having no children that match the family's criteria for age, special needs, etc.

So after months (over a year!) of hearing nothing, at this time we are actually glad to hear nothing! Many friends and family have asked us when we will be matched with a child. If the process plays out as we hope it will, we may hear something about our referral (in adoption lingo, that means receiving information and a photo of our daughter) in June or July. But as always, there are no guarantees of anything.

So for now, we continue to wait for news of ANY referrals, from ANY part of India. This will be a huge reassurance that things are happening and children are moving closer to having a family, as every child deserves.

* * * * * * *

And we continue to enjoy and cherish the three kids who are already here in our home. For Easter this year, they saw a photo of a sunflower cake in a magazine, and asked if we could make it for Easter Sunday dinner. The main attraction was that it used Peeps for the sunflower petals -- their Dad hates Peeps, and each year they tease Peter mercilessly about eating just one Peep. (I suspect that was the main reason they wanted this cake to be our dessert.) It has become a tradition in our house to sit around the table chanting "Eat the Peep!" until Peter caves in and shoves one in his mouth just to get us to be quiet. Other people make gorgeous traditional Ukrainian eggs, and dignified stuff like that. We, on the other hand, force people we love to eat artificially-colored marshmallow poultry.

As I type this, I'm having a twinge of guilt about how irreverent I'm making our Easter sound. Why the silliness, when Easter is the most meaningful day of the year to us? Here's why: amidst the Good Friday nature of real life, laughter is a holy experience. It is a defiant, joyful reminder that amidst tragedy and loss, illness and pain, Easter Sunday always comes.

A feast, a play, and a New Year's Resolution kept

The past two weeks have been FULL. This week, our kids have been off of school for spring break, and we originally considered a road trip of some kind. But with so much happening in the weeks leading up to spring break, we decided to stay home and do a few fun things around here -- and prepare for celebrating Easter, of course.

First, Nathan was part of his class' Medieval Feast. The feast is preceded by entertainment, most of which is written by the 4th grade students. Nathan was a knight, Merlin, a jouster, a troubador, and also wrote a funny rap for the monks following their more traditional evensong. This child loves to be onstage, and does a wonderful job singing and performing. We were so proud of him using his talents.

Then all of the "boys" had five performances of our community's Passion Play. It's the boys' third year in the children's chorus, and Peter's fourth year in the role of Jesus. I love that they're involved in this production because it makes the Easter season markedly set apart for us. It always seems that the trappings Christmas virtually take over the entire culture, while the real meaning of Easter is diminished into only a visit from the bunny -- so I appreciate that our family gets to spend time helping 2,000+ people remember the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I think that next year, if we still don't have our little one home from India, Anya Rashi and I might join the cast for the crowd scenes and songs.

Rounding out our week was Aaron fulfilling his New Year's Resolution to train for and run a 5K. He and Peter ran together during our unseasonably warm spring, and he successfully crossed the finish line with his Dad. We are so proud that he set a goal and did what he needed to do to achieve it. He plans to do more races this summer.

This morning, we boiled eggs to dye for Easter, and tonight we will have our Lord's Supper together as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter. Happy Easter to all . . .