About Me
- Joyce Howerton
- We have lived in Romania for 16 years now. We have 6 kids. The top photo of our family is the day we met the twins, just before their 4th birthday. We were granted custody of them on their 5th birthday.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Adoption Update.
We just got the phone call from our social worker that we received Joey's paper that says the adoption is open! Woo Hoo!! We go and turn in our file with all our paper work in it Friday. Please Pray that we get assigned a court date in a timely manner! We would love to have all of this done and have them be official Howertons! The last time we waited for a court date it was months and months and months before we got one...let's hope and pray that Timis county judges give out court dates quicker then Bihor county! Miracles can happen. This will be such a huge sigh of relief to have this behind us!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Flowers
I just love flowers and gardens. I have always looked longingly at garden magazines. I have potted plants and flowers and hanging flowers in my courtyard under my grapvines but have always found that sitting in a beautiful rose garden brings such pleasure and beauty.
These are a few of the recent pictures that have inspired me lately. I began to realize I have the space for this garden. It was full of junk, old windows, glass, and old roof tile from when we tore down an old building in our yard. I kept pestering Baron asking him to find someone to haul away all this junk. Then I kept talking of my dream of some day having a rose garden and showing him pictures. Then he decided this was a good thing to do with this space and tore down the old fence on one side and took measurements and went to a man in a village that is a carpenter. He went with his measurments of what we need for a picket fence, gate, and arbor so now I will save up through the winter and Lord willing next spring we will paint and put up our fence!
This is the site of my future cottage garden. It will have a white picket fence around it with an arbor and a gate to keep the animals and children out and it will have climbing roses growing up the arbor. There are lots of beautiful climbing roses to be found here. A lady from our church loves to grow roses and she will get me some starts from people so I won't have to buy so many unless they just don't take! I already have about 4 rose bushes. My first years here I had no idea about flowers (still don't know a lot) and my rose bushes were under the grape vines so they were really weak. We finally wised up and moved them to a sunny spot last year and they are doing much better now.
I am so thankful for the house and yard God gave us. It is such a peaceful haven to have a private courtyard to come home after being out and about in a different culture.
When we were in Barcelona we visited an old monestary that was so quiet and peaceful. I really look forward in the next few years to working on this project and having a quiet peaceful place to spend time meditating on God's Word...of course it will only be quiet as long as the kids are still sleeping!
These are a few of the recent pictures that have inspired me lately. I began to realize I have the space for this garden. It was full of junk, old windows, glass, and old roof tile from when we tore down an old building in our yard. I kept pestering Baron asking him to find someone to haul away all this junk. Then I kept talking of my dream of some day having a rose garden and showing him pictures. Then he decided this was a good thing to do with this space and tore down the old fence on one side and took measurements and went to a man in a village that is a carpenter. He went with his measurments of what we need for a picket fence, gate, and arbor so now I will save up through the winter and Lord willing next spring we will paint and put up our fence!
This is the site of my future cottage garden. It will have a white picket fence around it with an arbor and a gate to keep the animals and children out and it will have climbing roses growing up the arbor. There are lots of beautiful climbing roses to be found here. A lady from our church loves to grow roses and she will get me some starts from people so I won't have to buy so many unless they just don't take! I already have about 4 rose bushes. My first years here I had no idea about flowers (still don't know a lot) and my rose bushes were under the grape vines so they were really weak. We finally wised up and moved them to a sunny spot last year and they are doing much better now.
I am so thankful for the house and yard God gave us. It is such a peaceful haven to have a private courtyard to come home after being out and about in a different culture.
When we were in Barcelona we visited an old monestary that was so quiet and peaceful. I really look forward in the next few years to working on this project and having a quiet peaceful place to spend time meditating on God's Word...of course it will only be quiet as long as the kids are still sleeping!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Children
A child is a curly dimpled lunatic. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
A little girl is sugar and spice and everything nice - especially when she's taking a nap. ~Author Unknown
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot
I love to play hide and seek with my kid, but some days my goal is to find a hiding place where he can't find me until after high school. ~Author Unknown
My mom used to say it doesn't matter how many kids you have... because one kid'll take up 100% of your time so more kids can't possibly take up more than 100% of your time. ~Karen Brown
A little girl is sugar and spice and everything nice - especially when she's taking a nap. ~Author Unknown
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot
I love to play hide and seek with my kid, but some days my goal is to find a hiding place where he can't find me until after high school. ~Author Unknown
My mom used to say it doesn't matter how many kids you have... because one kid'll take up 100% of your time so more kids can't possibly take up more than 100% of your time. ~Karen Brown
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Handicapped Kids
The Romanian government has reduced the salaries of all government employees, hospital workers, children's home workers, teachers, they have even cut funds to state run facilities. Normally orphans get to go on some sort of summer excursion be it the ocean or camp or whatever. We go once a week to a center for handicapped kids and do a craft and sing with them. This summer they have no prospect of doing anything special, there are no funds for them. Now, I should tell you that the parlament did vote to increase their own pay but all others received pay cuts...they cut the pensions of already very poor elderly people, they cut the funding of children's homes and so on. We really desire to help these handicapped kids be able to have 10 days of camp at the end of August. It would cost $5 a day per child. They want to take 25 kids...if anyone out there has some extra money that they don't know what to do with these kids sure would appreciate being able to have something to look forward to this summer rather then just sitting around in their hot building with nothing to do. Please let us know if you would like to help sponser this excursion for handicapped kids.
Streams In The Desert
I have a little devotional book called Streams in the Desert that my sister gave me years ago. I have read it through several times and continue to be blessed and encouraged by the daily readings. This poem is from the June 2nd reading:
Take heart, O weary, burdened one, bowed down
Beneath your cross;
Remember that your greatest gain may come
Through greatest loss.
Your life is nobler for a sacrifice,
And more divine.
Acres of blooms are crushed to make a drop
Of perfume fine.
Because of storms that lash the ocean waves,
the waters there
Keep purer than if the heavens o'erhead
Were always fair.
The brightest banner of the skies floats not
At noonday warm;
The rainbow follows after thuderclouds,
And after storm.
Take heart, O weary, burdened one, bowed down
Beneath your cross;
Remember that your greatest gain may come
Through greatest loss.
Your life is nobler for a sacrifice,
And more divine.
Acres of blooms are crushed to make a drop
Of perfume fine.
Because of storms that lash the ocean waves,
the waters there
Keep purer than if the heavens o'erhead
Were always fair.
The brightest banner of the skies floats not
At noonday warm;
The rainbow follows after thuderclouds,
And after storm.
Monday, June 14, 2010
June
It's June! Summer is here! Just last week I was drinking hot chocolate at Starbucks to try and get warm and now the second week of June I am sitting in front of a fan and drinking ice cold water. There is only one way to survive this heat without an air conditioner...eat lots of ice cream!
We had two birthdays this month, Spencer turned 10 and Nate, our baby, turned 4. We are officially out of the baby stage in our house and that phase comes with mixed emotions for me!
Nate is still very much the "baby" of the family and I am trying very hard not to baby him too much and to not let him be a brat :).
The past four years in many ways has seem to go by very slow. It's hard to believe it's been four years since we were home for a furlough. We do hope to be able to take one next year. Even though I was home for a short visit last summer and an even shorter one in February it isn't the same as a long term trip with your family. We are all looking forward to being in the states again and Joey and Gina are greatly looking forward to their first trip ever!
We will be taking kids to camp starting next month. Baron went today to visit a lady and get her permission to take her 10 year old daughter to camp. She comes to church on a regular basis and she comes to our house for tutoring. Gianina's mom gave permission for her to go but then asked Baron, "What will I do with Patricia while she is gone, she will just cry all week and I will have to take her to the hospital because she will be so sick from crying." (Patricia is Gianina's 4 year old sister) I don't think Baron quite knew what to say :-).
We had two birthdays this month, Spencer turned 10 and Nate, our baby, turned 4. We are officially out of the baby stage in our house and that phase comes with mixed emotions for me!
Nate is still very much the "baby" of the family and I am trying very hard not to baby him too much and to not let him be a brat :).
The past four years in many ways has seem to go by very slow. It's hard to believe it's been four years since we were home for a furlough. We do hope to be able to take one next year. Even though I was home for a short visit last summer and an even shorter one in February it isn't the same as a long term trip with your family. We are all looking forward to being in the states again and Joey and Gina are greatly looking forward to their first trip ever!
We will be taking kids to camp starting next month. Baron went today to visit a lady and get her permission to take her 10 year old daughter to camp. She comes to church on a regular basis and she comes to our house for tutoring. Gianina's mom gave permission for her to go but then asked Baron, "What will I do with Patricia while she is gone, she will just cry all week and I will have to take her to the hospital because she will be so sick from crying." (Patricia is Gianina's 4 year old sister) I don't think Baron quite knew what to say :-).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)