No, we've not heard anything new...

and we've not slipped off to China....but wouldn't that have been a great reason for not posting in a while?!?

No news is good news? We pray this is true!

Yes, we've not posted in a while.

I suppose it is because I like to write exciting things...good news. Since we're still waiting for word about where we are in the process of waiting to bring home Emmy Xiang, I have wrongly assumed we haven't had much going on. But we have. We have three precious children here at home who are a blessing to us. We have a wonderful family. We are blessed with an awesome church family and friends. God is good to us if for no other reason than we are allowed one more day together.

So, no there is no new exciting thing to tell. But if you care to read, I'll share some of the simple happenings in our family.

Jim, Ladybug and the Elf have been running - I mean, ruuuunnnnnnning...miles and miles and miles. They keep on running. (My friend always asks, "and no one is chasing them?!?") The girls joined the local Christian school's cross country team this year and are enjoying running with others! Their commitment to training has encouraged even me to begin exercising again. I've never been a jogger, never wanted to be...but I admit that I feel a bit of peer pressure (the good kind *wink*). Of course, the first day I "jogged" (I use that term very loosely, as I barely made it one half mile) I thought my heart and lungs would burst. Three tries later and I can do it without begging myself to keep going. Maybe one day I'll be able to run a mile.

All the Brown kids usually do, but this year only the Elf will play soccer for the rec league. The Pooch decided to just stick to piano this fall. Good idea!

So far school is going well for the girls this year. The usual subjects like math, Latin, grammar, science...they'll study those. But what they are most excited about is our history, literature, writing and co-op activities. We're going medieval. We've sewn capes for costumes and will soon be working on making tunics, caps, shoes, pouches and the like, because as everyone knows, you can't really enjoy the study of a time period if you don't play dress up. The boys in our co-op will also be needing costumes and accessories, so we'll probably help craft some of those as well. The Pooch is building a castle with the boys in the co-op and the older girls will be planning and leading a few hands-on art projects, like illumination and embroidery. Surely we'll learn to prepare food the medieval way, for we hope to have a great Medieval Feast in December. In light of all this the girls are reading delightfully written books about the legendary King Arthur, Joan of Arc, Robin Hood and other medieval poems and stories.

Since we will be literally delving into the world of great adventures, fearless knights and imposing castles, we thought it would be entirely fitting to gather as ladies in our home and discuss fair maidenhood, or rather what it means to be biblically feminine...a maiden of virtue. Jim helped me choose the book Raising Young Maidens of Virtue to guide me in our maiden discussions. We hope to gather weekly, put on a pot of tea and enjoy a time of reading God's Word and this lovely book together.

On the quilting and sewing front....we've gathered many fabric pieces and wishes, I finally started sewing pieces for the quilt. It's still okay to participate if you've not yet done so...hint, hint! The quilt top will be lots of circles (think different sized polka-dots) on a black background. The girls will be making the scrapbook with all of the wishes. I'll post sometime soon to show the progress! Emmy Xiang is gonna love it! The Pooch wanted to help make a doll and some doll clothes for EX, so we started that too (gotta get some black yarn for hair!). And, we made for her a set of matching/concentration fabric, quilted cards to take to China. Hopefully these will give us a fun thing to play to help her learn a few English words. Hmmm...that's gonna be interesting...communicating with her when she knows no English.

Our "other" time lately has been trying to finish little and big projects, enjoy time together and patiently, yet actively wait for God to bring word about our China princess.

Wordy post...yet that's what life's like for us right now. We do stuff. We wait. We enjoy each other. We wait. We trust God's timing. We wait. We pray. And we wait.