This ought to be relaxing.....

Thursday morning will mark the start of the official Workman Family Summer Road Trip! We have simplified and shortened our travel plans this year to better accommodate Nate's need for oxygen and his overall fragile health. However, this does not reduce the job of packing which has been under way for a week!

So TODAY we will pack two vehicles with clothes, swim gear, food, diapers, medicine, oxygen, monitor, feeding pump, wheelchairs, strollers, 3 pack-n-play cribs and 6 car seats. Then about this time tomorrow, we will add sleepy kids and get on the way to Omaha!

On vacation our activities will be restricted by the temperature since Nate cannot manage high temperatures. We have plans for if it is really hot, plans for it is not really hot, plans for rain and even plans for how to get babies' their naps. Now we are 24 hours from finding out if all the planning has worked...no matter if it works or not, our kids will likely remember this trip for a long time!

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations to William Woods University's 10 newest MBA graduates!

I had the pleasure of teaching this cohort their ethics class and now their capstone class. They are a talented group of students. I know they will do great things with their newest credentials! Below are some pictures from tonight's wonderful class presentations.

BTW-I currently teach in Joplin and Springfield for the MBA program through William Woods. I enjoy teaching so much that I count this as my night out without the kids when classes are in session! If you live in Missouri and are considering an MBA, you should check out the program at William Woods University.

Pop Tarts, Cheese Puffs & Fish

Did you ever get something that you really didn't want? I think most of us have had this happen, BUT when you have a large family, people give your KIDS stuff that you would NOT buy in a MILLION years. Below are some recent "gifts".

POP TARTS
I hate pop tarts! The kids get so hyper and so silly that it is almost unbearable! Therefore, pop tarts are rarely on our menu...so rarely in fact that Mark was coxed into pulling up to a kitchen chair for the first time by the promise of a sliver of pop tart. Kids will do extra chores, play quietly while I work and in general be so unlike themselves just for the promise of a pop tart...BUT the after effects! Oh it tries my patience! So imagine my surprise, when a friend who knows my dislike of pop tarts delivered several boxes to my home. (You may be asking why is she still my friend, and I have a great answer for you. First she is awesome and second she brought me a play pen when I needed it most...SO awesome + play pen overrides pop tart induced hyper children.)

CHEESE PUFFS
After attending a family reunion two weekends ago, the kids noticed a bag in the twin stroller basket. The bag turned out to be biggest family size bag of cheese puffs that I have ever seen. Someone had anonymously "gifted" us again. That evening after dinner, we had 100 cheesy fingers touching walls, window shades, ME! and everything else you could imagine...I insisted that they eat all they wanted and I tossed the empty bag!

FISH! (AND I don't mean fish sticks or the game Go Fish)
Yes, real, live fish in a tank is our newest gift. You are probably thinking this gift has grandparents written all over it! But you would be wrong...it is worse...it is much worse...its our pastor's wife...she's a grandma, friend, mentor, & prayer partner rolled into one amazing person...who I can rarely say "no" to and between you and me, I think she knows it! (This fishy gift proves she knows I cannot tell her no.) Thursday she brought over the fish in a tank, and the kids are thrilled. They point, yell with delight and jump up and down. Jon gets home from school and is mesmerized by the fish. When it is time to feed the guppies, a crowd of toddlers, children and even a teen assemble with more enthusiasm and interest than the feeding of the sharks at the zoo. So now I sit here typing by the glow of the fish tank. You know what? It is really kind of nice...the fish are quiet, calm and relaxing...well, until I get to retrieve the first dead one and host a fishy funeral...but the sound of the bubbling water and glow of the tank are nice tonight.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above --James 1:17a

News Report

Below is a link to a news report that will introduce you to each of our amazing kids.

News Story Link

Affliction

To be honest "affliction" did not seem like a very positive word to use in my blog title with nice words like "faith, family and joy". In fact, I seriously considered stopping at "faith, family and joy", BUT then I thought of all those sappy sweet Christmas letters. You know the ones, that say all the great things in their lives, but not a mention of what really happened in the past year. I didn't want my blog to be like those letters! Plus afflictions or troubles are a big part of every one's lives and a big part of what changes our priorities, focuses our energies and develops our character.


For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; --2 Cor 4:17

How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. --2 Cor 8:2

J-O-Y!

When I was a pre-teen, I attended a Christian camp in southwest Missouri called Camp Joy. At camp Joy, we learned a camp song that told us "J" is for Jesus, "O" is for others and "Y" is for you. The song explained that Jesus was to be our first priority, then others and lastly ourselves. But even before learning that song, one thing was for sure, I have always had a lot of joy, a lot of smiles and a lot of loud laughter.

I am a happy person, but ironically rarely optimistic which has always puzzled me because one would think optimism and happiness would be linked and perhaps they are for most people. However, I truly believe my happiness is much bigger than just an emotion.

My happiness is motivated by intrinsic joy. Joy that makes me feel thankful and alive and full of energy. Joy that makes me see humor and the good (example: it could always be worse) in even the most uncomfortable or perplexing of situations. Joy that grows even greater when I'm taking care of my spiritual health and wellness. Joy that helps me see the needs of others and joy that gives me the energy to get involved in others needs and help create opportunities for them to have those needs met.

What would happen if I lost my joy? I would lose hope and peace too because they are all tied together. Its a good thing that my hope, peace and joy are not in jeopardy.

(BTW- Now the camp slogan says Y is for yourself, but I'm sure it stood for you in the 70s. Must not have been grammatically correct.)

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. --Isa. 12:3
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. --Hab. 3:18

Family

Our family is blessed with ten amazing and brilliant children. Below is a brief introduction to the kids.

Grace is our oldest. Grace is 14. She was home schooled until 7th grade and then she went to public school because she wanted to play basketball. Grace plans to be a missionary when she is grown. She wants to set up job training programs in 3rd world countries.

Hannah is 10 and we adopted her from Ecuador when she was 3 years old. Hannah is blind and deaf, but has a cochlear implant to help her hear. She is missing brain structures. Hannah is learning to read Braille. Plus Hannah has an amazing ability to play the piano!

Corrine is 10 and she is our brain child. She is still home schooled and I enjoy getting to spend so much time with her. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Vanessa is 7 and was adopted from Haiti when she was 5. Vanessa has schizencephally and some other brain deformities which affect her like cerebral palsy and she uses a communication device to talk. She is just starting to learn to walk with a walker. Vanessa has an amazing smile.

David is 7 and was adopted from Haiti right after he turned 5. David has a big heart for babies and until our recent new additions, he would pray for us to get babies every night. He would always tell me to just go get some from "under the mango tree" (were the babies play at the orphanage he was from).

Jon is 5 and we just got him home in February. We had been trying to get him adopted and home since December 2008. Jon has cerebral palsy. He does not talk and is physically unable to crawl or sit up independently. Like Vanessa, he likes to smile.

Matthew is 3 and we just got him in February too. Matthew knows how to get my attention in good & bad ways! Matthew is a typical toddler. He has developmental delays, but he is making progress. His therapies are helping him catch up.

Mark and Luke are 18 months old and came in February. I call them the "Turbo Twins". They are BIG and rough, definitely boys! Luke is a charmer and is developmentally ahead of Mark. Mark is quieter and likes snuggling more than Luke. They have delays like Matthew and therapies are helping them make progress towards getting caught up.

Then there is my peanut Nate who is 20 months old. He came in October and we were supposed to host him temporarily. Things changed after he got here and he needed adopted to get surgery so we thought for sure God would bring another family his way, but no one applied with insurance that could cover him completely immediately. My husband's insurance does these things so we realized God was giving Nate to us...which was a good thing we were already VERY attached! Nate has a web site of his progress at www.caringbridge.org/visit/nateworkman

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Psalm 127:1a

The Purpose of Faith

Do you have any great recipes? Any secret recipes? Any that are so good that even if no one asks you for a recipe, then you are telling friends about the great dish that you have found?

For me, talking (or in this case blogging) about my faith is as natural as talking about a great recipe. To me faith is a key ingredient in the recipe for a well-lived life. Some aspects of my faith are like a secret family recipe because they are so unique to me that others might misunderstand or not appreciate the sweetness or bitterness. However, most aspects of my faith cannot be secret as it is part of my purpose and the foundation of my satisfaction with life.

So as you read my blogs, you will read about my faith. It is not meant to offend you anymore than my giving you a recipe that you don't like, just accept that it's one of my favorites. It does not have to be your favorite recipe too (but I would be lying if I lead you to believe that I am not hoping you will like it too).

(BTW-You are welcome to share any and all good recipes with me, especially crock pot meals.)

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.--Hebrews 11:6

Introduction

"It wasn't supposed to be" this way or that way....is such an odd phrase. In some ways, I feel like this odd phrase has been pursuing me since birth. Sometimes it brought good news, sometimes it brought bad news, sometimes it delivered unexpected changes...BUT many times "it wasn't supposed to be" turned out to be just what I needed. Even more than that, sometimes "it wasn't supposed to be" prepared me for the unknown challenges ahead or it filled a desire that I did not even know I had!
If you decide to read my blog, don't be alarmed when "it wasn't supposed to be" happens. Join me in being content and see what we discover about faith, family, joy and affliction.