Dad's "Away on Business"

The weekend is nearly over and the children and I have fared reasonably well without Daddy at home.  Saturday morning was probably the roughest -- I was really, really tired but both kids were up before 7, raring and reading to go for the day!  By mid morning I still wasn't presentable, the house was a disaster zone, and the next 9 days were looking r-e-a-l-l-y looong. We went to the park briefly before lunch. I quickly realized that the kids are at two very different places as to what's accessible, so without a 2nd adult, the trip was shorter than I hoped it might be. In spite of the brevity of our time outdoors, I got a super long nap out of Reni so I could get in a few winks myself.  That made all the difference.

One bonus to "single parenthood" has been Ellie's understanding that she needs to step up to help Mommy and today she made it through children's church without a parent in the room (a first!) and then this afternoon she put on her shoes all by herself (double high fives for that!).  I've also had a few individuals tell me they were praying for us and I can honestly say I can see the answers to those prayers.  Thank you! While bedtime on Friday was difficult (taking over 75 minutes from putting them both in bed -- with one waking the other up to call for Mommy to come in, and over and over), last night both kids were asleep within 15 minutes.  We made an impromptu stop at Wal Mart after church and both kids were pleasant and cooperative the entire visit -- no complaining to switching seats, or groceries "crowding" their space in the basket -- in spite of losing an hour of sleep, to boot!

Doing the 'single parent' bit seems a bit more tricky in our situation because Nathan and I are both so used to having the other spouse home most of the day.  But with the Lord's help, it's working well, and I'm enjoying this time with them -- but I will be so glad when Nathan returns!

I can't remember if I posted a link or not, but you can follow Nathan and the Haiti team here:
http://asburywgm.blogspot.com/
They left Friday morning around 4AM, so we haven't seen him since Thursday...(I have NO memory of him waking up and leaving -- thank you Mark for taking everyone to the airport!)  Thank you for prayers on their behalf!  I think they have a great little team!

ADOPTION NEWS:
Finally, for those of you who may not be following adoption headlines, the country of Ethiopia has announced that they are going to cut the number of intercountry adoptions they facilitate by 90%, effective immediately.  My heart breaks for the thousands of children affected by this decision.  We know firsthand the miracle a family makes in the life of an abandoned child, and while intercountry adoption affords a permanent family for a small percentage of orphans, for those children, it can be the difference between life and death.  Fellow Asburians, Daniel and Sara have a good post here about prayers needed TONIGHT regarding an important meeting which will take place tomorrow morning between Ethiopian officials and our state department.  Thank you for interceding for this issue.