adoption day Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: July 28-August 3, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: July 28-August 3, 2024

I mentioned in last week’s post that I was blessed with an opportunity to spend time with family in California over the weekend. This was so needed and so restful. Catching up with my sisters-in-law was life-giving.

We said our goodbyes on Monday morning and headed to the airport to fly home.

Back at home, we were all happy to reunite and we hit the ground running Tuesday morning. Keith had “Kindergarten Jumpstart” for two hours that day as a way to acclimate the upcoming kindergarteners to school and their classroom before school starts. So we loaded everyone up to walk him to school.

He was both nervous and excited to be there. :)

Back at home, our sweet York friend Nancy stopped by with a toy she wanted to hand off to our kids. We enjoyed catching up with her for a few minutes while she showed the kids how it worked.

Our walk back to school to pick up Keith was a hot one so we refreshed with popsicles when we got home.

Brayden helped me make several cans worth of Chicken Salad for lunch.

We used the chicken salad to make Sandwich Melts and had Smoothies on the side.

That afternoon Brayden, Kiya, and Keith went with me to hand out food to the community at our weekly Food Distribution. We got to hand out school supplies this time!

Back at home, Elias warmed up two bags worth of frozen Chicken Burritos for dinner. We ate them with Spinach and Canned Fruit (because Mom needed to go to the store for fresh produce and hadn’t had time).

Malachi stopped by for burritos. :)

Everything got extra crazy that evening because one of our air conditioners was struggling so Matt had to work on it. Auggie found a coffee mug and fell and broke it. Chaos was everywhere. Malorie came to the rescue by taking several kids into the kitchen to distract them by helping her make a peanut butter chocolate treat.

Wednesday morning when we dropped Keith off for Kindergarten Jumpstart, Brayden saw some of the preschool kids he had worked with as a helper in their classroom last year. They were so excited to see him!

We spent the morning getting ready for Auggie’s big Adoption Day and Party! Since I’d been in California I felt a bit behind on prepping so I was very thankful that I had Butterscotch Bars and Brownies in the freezer that I could pull out and serve with dinner. (I almost always make a double or quadruple batch when I make them for a Sunday lunch, then freeze the leftovers to have something to pull out and serve as needed another time.)

You can read all about Auggie’s adoption here!

We invited everyone to come over to our house afterward for Shaved Ice. There were around 38 of us at the house at this point.

I loved that my dad and his wife, Tacy, could meet their great-grand babies for the first time.

Several had taken off for the evening, but we were still in party mode about the time a big storm rolled in. We lost power and had warnings on our phones to stay inside because of terrible wind.

The kids played in the dark house and some of them were pretty scared of the storm. :(

Elias was planning to grill burgers and dogs for all of us for dinner but we have an electric smoker so that was a no-go. Instead, we cooked them on our gas stove. Meanwhile, our friend Christina cut up watermelon and prepped grapes. Basically, we fed 28 people a meal without electricity. It was kinda crazy and pretty special at the same time as everyone worked together to make the party go on.

My nephew, Troy, had made it over and I was very happy to capture his silliness when I took a photo of the food line.

Dinner in the dark!

When the storm blew past, Lincoln/York guests headed home and we started to figure out how to survive the night without air conditioning. Kelsey took Brayden, Kiya, and Anna home with them for the night. We moved Papa and Grandma Tacy into Malorie’s room and Keith into Elias’ where it was cooler. We put mattresses in the basement, we rearranged a few others. All said and done, we survived. We were blessed to have power come back on in the middle of the night. Others in Lincoln had to wait several more days as the damage from the storm was pretty severe. :(

Thursday morning I made Eggs and Bacon for breakfast to go with two huge Cinnamon Rolls my dad had picked up on the way the day before.

Dad and Tacy headed home, then we all headed outside to work together to pick up fallen branches and sticks from the storm.

Even Auggie tried to help.

Some (most) of the kids weren’t super excited to work instead of play, so we encouraged them to push through with the promise of popsicles when we were finished.

Back in the house, we realized that the storm and loss of electricity had made us forget about Auggie’s adoption presents that people had brought. So we enjoyed those with him.

Daddy read some of his new books while I got lunch ready.

I had lots of bread and cheese so I made a loaf of bread worth of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Even through it was so hot outside, the sandwiches made the kids think of Tomato Soup so we had a couple cans of that too.

Anna made a bridge with her sandwich and insisted that it was so cool that I must take a picture.

Elias and Malorie wanted to make dinner for us that night so they worked together to make Pancakes, Bacon/Cheese/Eggs, and Hashbrowns. After the craziness of the past few days, it was nice to have a night off from cooking!

We took the kids on a walk that night to put some food into our church’s Little Free Pantry.

As we finished, a preteen boy and his sister came up to “shop” in the pantry. I was so thankful we had put something in it as it had been empty before we arrived.

Friday morning we ate cereal for breakfast and I made a pan of Peanut Butter Crunch Bars for snacks.

Keith had been wanting to golf at his cousin Troy’s workplace and today was the day! Elias and Malorie took him to “Troy’s golf club field” as Keith calls it. He had the best time!

Matt and I took the other six kids to Costco to stock up on groceries.

We try to get everyone involved in unloading the van when we get home. The little ones make it harder than easier BUT we are training them to be actually helpful in a few years. ;)

We picked up a Costco Rotisserie Chicken for lunch and I made a blender full of Smoothies to go with it.

Look at Auggie go! His Occupational Therapist has helped him master drinking through a straw. He enjoyed his smoothie very much. :)

Brayden had been having trouble breathing so I got him in for a doctor appointment and breathing treatment that afternoon.

Dinner that night was Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Steamed Broccoli.

Kiya helped me made a batch of Homemade Ice Cream. We added a cup of peanut butter to this recipe. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

We spent the evening outside watching our neighbors remove a tree that had fallen onto our neighbor’s garage. Some of us watched like this:

Saturday morning, we went to an event put on by our friend Hannah at Mourning Hope.

Then we came back home to enjoy my birthday lunch! All the kids were able to join us except for Malachi, who was in a wedding in Wisconsin that day. Kelsey helped put the final touches on a Nacho Bar and we had our Homemade Ice Cream for dessert.

All I wanted was time with family for my birthday, and I got it! (Plus a lovely text from Malachi since he couldn’t be here.)

Bonus! Justus was able to set up the Olympics for us to watch, something I didn’t know we could do since I didn’t know if we had the right networks. It was SO FUN to watch some events together!

We were invited to a Back to School event hosted by a church near our kids’ school that night. There were free meals and fun activities. We came home and cooled off with bath time, then got the kids to bed. And that was our week!

Once upon a time, Malachi was the youngest of four boys. We thought he’d hold that status forever, but God had different plans.

18 years ago when Malachi was born, one of my sisters-in-law made the boys adorable shirts that said:

Biggest Brother
Bigger Brother
Big Brother
Baby Brother

Having our four boys was so special, and their friendship grew and became beautiful through the years.

Then one day, 13 years after Malachi became our baby, God shocked us by adding a four-year-old boy to our family. A few months later, his baby cousin joined us. Within a year, we had adopted them both and Malachi had two younger brothers.

This transition was full of challenges, but Malachi, like all of our older boys, opened his heart and let God grow him into his new role.

God continued to bring more children into our family, and within five years, we had grown from a family of six to a family of 15 (including two parents, four biological children, six adopted children, one foster son, and two daughters-in-law). In addition, one of our former foster sons still spends time with us and we consider him one of our own.

The day we adopted our four girls, the judge asked Malachi to come to the front and sit with Matt and me and the girls. We thought this was strange, seeing as we had lots of other siblings who were a part of this too. But the judge recognized something special about Malachi as he had been the only one of our older sons living at home during the entire process of fostering the sisters we were getting ready to adopt. So with a grin, Malachi stepped down and had a seat with us as Matt and I testified and as the judge finalized our girls’ adoption.

The very next day, Malachi graduated from high school. At first, I was overwhelmed by having two huge events back-to-back. But as the weekend progressed, I was profoundly impacted by how perfectly timed these events were. You see, we had thought that the day Malachi graduated, we would have launched our last child and become empty nesters. But in fact, just the day before, God officially added four more children. The beauty of God’s timing in this astounded me and I couldn’t get over how good God is in overruling our plans and giving us so much more.

Our graduation tradition is to gather in our living room and speak a blessing over our graduate. Here we are, gathered around, listening in as Malachi FaceTimed Justus who couldn’t join us that day.

My blessing was this. I’m sharing it with you so that you know a little bit more about who this wonderful young man is:

Malachi,

We all got a chuckle yesterday when the Judge asked you to sit up front, but the truth is that she was very right when she said, “You need to be up here; you’ve played a very big role in this.” So true.

Today, your graduation day, looks very different than what we all expected five years ago. Literally overnight, you went from being the youngest brother to being an older brother. Within the past five years, you’ve become oldest of nine. THIS WAS SO UNEXPECTED! It hasn’t always been easy for you, but you’ve turned out to be such a beloved big brother to your little sisters and brothers. What a gift you are to them (and to your older brothers, and to Dad and me).

I think God has used this huge life change to teach us all something so important. First, we can make plans for our life, but God is the One who knows what we actually need. Our job is to be open, to listen to Him, and to trust that what He has for us is best – even if it’s hard.

Second, being uncomfortable is often right where God wants us. You’ve been learning this and I pray that you never stop seeking to be uncomfortable in all the ways God wants you to be. I pray that being uncomfortable becomes comfortable as you continue to walk in obedience to Christ.

Third, remember that your identity is in Christ. Not in where you fall in line in our family birth order or in your Sideline Media career (which is awesome, by the way, and we’re so proud of you) or in anything else – but who you are in Christ is all that matters. You are a child of God – adopted, chosen, cherished, and so very loved. Live your life in that love, and choose to let the Holy Spirit love others through you. What amazing things God will continue to do with and through you when you walk in His love.

Thank you for being my boy, and for loving me through my weaknesses. Thank you for crying with me as we’ve navigated these years together. Thank you for always making me laugh. I love you.

Mom

As Malachi launches into adulthood, he will be working full-time at the thriving production company he created two years ago, Sideline Media. He is so admired by his three older brothers Asa, Justus, and Elias. And by his younger siblings Brayden, Kiya, Keith, Anna, Acacia, Josie, Baby#11, and Bonus Brother K.

We truly don’t know what God has in store for us, but we know that He is faithful and He is good. He is provider and we can trust Him fully.