Thorburn Family

December 3, 2005, three years ago today, we first laid eyes on Jesse.   Can it even be only three years?   He was 6 1/2 then .. small for his age, blond, cute. We didn’t know at the airport that night that we were meeting the boy who would, within mere days, be known to us as our next child.  Our family life continues to be a vivid illustration of Proverbs 16:9  ”In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”  Our adventure was about to continue and we didn’t even know it.

A few months earlier, with absolutely no plans to ever adopt again, we had felt a compulsion to make ourselves available for free respite care for adoptive parents in difficult situations.  As we were in the process of figuring how to actually DO this respite care thing, we met a precious couple from Texas who had rescued three children w/needs from a Russian orphanage one year earlier, including this blond-haired bundle of energy and mischief.  Jesse would visit for a month, we figured, and that was the plan,  But, within a few days of Jesse’s arrival to our home, we knew we were adopting him. The legalities started and we finalized in court six months from his arrival into our home. Proverbs 16:9 all over again!

Jesse has been a real joy — he is a precious, delightful, and strong-hearted son.   We have been greatly blessed by his sense of family identity and loyalty, his infectious sense of humor (see picture :-)), his ability to make any number of unique sounds and noises :), his what-you-see-is-what-you-get personality, his developing strength and skill, and his sheer brightness and passion as a kid.  We love the type of sibling he is, as well.  Jesse deeply desired a brother since arriving here, and he missed his brother from the Texas family immensely. We told Jesse to start praying about a little brother. We are so thankful God gave Jesse his new little brother this year! He cares so well for him, teaches him things, plays well with him, and is a (mostly :)) good example to Ben.

Rich is the perfect father for Jesse.  They “clicked” right away and Rich shared with us later that he’d started praying about Jesse joining our family before we even actually met him, though there were no plans to adopt then. He just couldn’t get him off his mind and believed this was going to be bigger than we planned. Rich has a knack for bringing out the best in Jesse, and for knowing what will be good for him in any area.  I frequently tell Jesse that if he grows up to be anything like his Dad, he will be a great man!   As a mom, having this little boy has given me a different angle on boys and on raising them.   Though Jesse has been through a great deal in his short life, especially during his time in Russia, “winning” him as my son and ministering to his brokenness and difficulty, has come through very different means than “winning” a child in our other adoptions.  I quickly learned that Jesse is blessed most by food :), baking for him, keeping a fairly consistent schedule for him, reading to him, giving simple praise for accomplishments, forgiving/forgetting his “mis-steps,” and simple things like rubbing his back. He’s not too complicated, and he internalizes those simple things as acts of love, which is a blessing to see — we take this resilience & attachment as a gift from God.  

Since joining our family, Jesse has made a working potato cannon, and an enormous plane in our backyard (complete with an old ceiling fan for the propellor), and other cool things. Let’s just say that the day he learned his plane would not actually be able to fly.. was not a good day at our house :). Jesse’s also getting really good at Karate. Every time he tests, he is “promoted,” and it will be fun to see how far he gets with martial arts in years to come. He’s doing well in his school work, too. Jesse’s got a penchant for absorbing history, and he’s just about memorized, word for word, the first volume of Story Of The World, The Ancients, by Susan Wise Bauer, and he’s working on her second volume, Middle Ages. He listens to them over and over again and retells the stories to us frequently.

We praise God for our little man :^), for his amazing life & story, and pray that God will be His help, strength, and salvation for the rest of his days. Thanks for letting me “love on him” a little here.

Lydia just graduated from her training at a local hospital in the Dare To Care program, and now she can work w/patients on “the floor.”   We were especially blessed that Nana (Cheryl Saunders) was able to join us.

 Catching up — Lydia celebrated her 15th birthday last week.  She is a fabulous blessing.

What were we thinking!?  There’s really no excuse for not cranking out a post on Thanksgiving is there?   How outrageously we have been blessed! Because our floors are being refinished downstairs this week, we could not cook & host as we normally do each year.   Instead we were treated to sumptuous, sweet, & relaxing hospitality in a good friends’ home. What a great blessing, and we’re thankful.   Maybe we’ll post a couple pictures from our fun day soon.

Our “normal” life resumes on Monday. Meanwhile, we want to praise and thank God.   Mostly, we want to thank Him for salvation through Jesus Christ…that, as Charles Wesley put it..   “Let this blessed assurance control: that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul.. ” and, “My sin –oh the bliss of this glorious thought!!– my sin, not in part, but the whole– was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.  Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul!!!” Still can’t sing it without crying!

Though we hardly ever get to hear it anymore (except when we are belting it out at home), Charles Wesley also blessed generations w/ my number 1,  most favorite hymn ever:  Arise My Soul, Arise. If this doesn’t make us thankful, then what will, eh? :^)

Arise My Soul, Arise

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

It is scientifically proven that our ears and noses never stop growing.   Mom turned 37 today.   Since she thought she was already 37 most of the year, the blow wasn’t too bad.  Speaking of blow, the nose picture Lydia took didn’t turn out well and Mom doesn’t want it on the blog.   However, here is a picture of her ear for a baseline. We’ll have to remember to keep track of this every year.   :o)  Mom had a good birthday.    We made her pancakes, and she and Dad went out to dinner with some friends and had a great time.  I love her very much.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Good night!  Love, Valerie 

But you have to do the whole trick, and prove you did!  :^) I know $5 isn’t much but hey, the economy and all. [Ok so maybe this wouldn’t be all that nice to do to someone.. so .. uh.. well, we’ll trust your judgement]

Since we have some extra time on our hands for the rest of the week– no school till Monday, trippin-out on the fumes of varnishing floors, seven of us piled high on crammed furniture and stuff upstairs for a couple weeks — here’s a little story we thought we’d copy for our friends, from girltalk.blogs.com    

PREGNANT TURKEY STORY by Gloria (true story)

One year at Thanksgiving, my mom went to my sister’s house for the traditional feast.Knowing how gullible my sister is, my mom decided to play a trick. She told my sister that she needed something from the store.When my sister left, my mom took the turkey out of the oven, removed the stuffing, stuffed a Cornish hen, and inserted it into the turkey, and re-stuffed the turkey. She then placed the bird(s) back in the oven.

When it was time for dinner, my sister pulled the turkey out of the oven and proceeded to remove the stuffing. When her serving spoon hit something, she reached in and pulled out the little bird. With a look of total shock on her face, my mother exclaimed, “Patricia, you’ve cooked a pregnant bird!”At the realization of this horrifying news, my sister started to cry.It took the family two hours to convince her that turkeys lay eggs! Yep…she’s blonde!

We rented this DVD from Netflix this week. Expelled:  No Intelligence Allowed is a refreshing, gutsy documentary about the state of the exchange between academia’s most accomplished scientists on intelligent design vs. darwinism.    Ben Stein also takes a good look at past and present ramifications of the positions and the dialog.   Chock full of detailed interviews with the big brains on both sides of the argument, there was never a dull moment. Cerebral, yet riveting!

Yes, you read it.  We’ve been totally dissed.   Up till now, Social Workers at our local DCYF (Division Of Children, Youth, And Families) have checked our blog while at work.   Of course, I consider this just part of their duty in overseeing our family’s adoption of Benjamin, and monitoring our general sanity-status for the well-being of future foster children.   I am sure that is how they were thinking of it too, being the very good DCYF workers that they are  :^) 

Then the black, bad day came….the day when they turned on their computers, eager to see the next “almost crosses the line” move by the Thorburns.. kids jumping out windows, foot funerals, waking children up at night to take them out for ice cream in their pajamas…and other tidbits of crazy family life sure to keep psychiatrists employed for years and years to come.   But that black, bad day — no Thorburn blog appeared.   It was BLOCKED BY THE POWERS-THAT-BE AT DCYF.   Our little family blog is now a “RESTRICTED SITE” for DCYF workers.  No kidding.  No freakin kidding.

Why?  We don’t know.  The possibilities are endless.  Maybe someone high up at DCYF just doesn’t like us.  We are a little radical in the “religion department,” we’re told.  Maybe our kids are just so CUTE that they make all the Social Worker people JEALOUS, and maybe the cuteness hinders their focus during the work day.   Maybe they don’t like that we missed those classes we signed up for (gulp).   Maybe they DON’T LIKE MY NEW CHAIRS!!!!!!   I bet that’s it. 

Whatever, we have been totally dissed!!!!!   “Talk to the hand,” DCYF