PES-KES News 2001 (January)
Hi everyone—we’ve kept up pretty well with many of you during the year via email but beyond that our letter-writing skills are just plain sad! We’ve enjoyed hearing from many of you and getting together with some of you too. I am still amazed at how friends and family can be scattered all over the globe and still keep in regular contact. Please send a recent photo of yourselves for our prayer wall! God has been incredibly good to us this year, as every year, and we are so grateful for his blessing and protection in our lives. He gets ALL the credit!
Our major major news is of course our adoption of Karis Maria Peace and Esther Ana Joy (born Feb 16th, 2000). Wow! What a journey this has been! Red tape, waiting, more red tape, more waiting—get the picture? We’re still waiting to bring them home, but they are now legally ours . . . Along the way, we have known God’s hand & timing every step of the way, as he took care of literally every detail, from giving us the precise desire of our hearts (twin girls), to giving us favor with governments, agencies, & embassies with paperwork and finances. As a totally unexpected bonus, he even gave us babies (we had been told to expect one girl, approx. 2 years old). Our family is so blessed to welcome Karis and Esther as daughters and sisters, and we look forward to a lifetime of peace and joy together. This is a fulfillment of a 15-year dream, so we’re pretty excited! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 Can you tell?! Thank you to each of you who prayed with us, encouraged us, and helped us in so very many ways.
Since I (Karen) end up writing this letter each year, I’m delegating some this time, so each of us who can talk has dictated a paragraph. Highlights for me . . . traveling to Bucharest to get our beautiful Romanian princesses (but sadly, we couldn’t bring them home yet); going on an awesome mission trip to Russia with Peter; enjoying the blessings of friends and family; our church family, the Atlanta Vineyard; celebrating our 15th anniversary; having the best hubby & kids in the world :); keeping our Sculley Academy fun and challenging for a 3rd grader, 1st grader, Kindergartner, and play-doh /puzzle specialist; being TOTALLY surprised by 20+ friends at the best baby shower ever; sharing our home with others; losing all 4 wisdom teeth (ouch!); emailing; cross-stitching; electric cello; finding the bottom of the ironing pile; “Parents & Children” group at the Vineyard; chocolate; flowers; encouraging others in homeschooling or adoption; date nights with Paul or the kids; hanging out at soccer, ballet, Scouts, piano lessons; and just being home!
This is Paul. I’ve been keeping busy with work (4 contracts this year, currently at Georgia Pacific doing Visual Basic & ASP), spending lots of time with Karen and the kids; teaching elementary kids at church; going through the adoption process; going on vacation; having my mother, sister and niece come visit; recovering from Y2K :); going to Promise Keepers with Peter & Jonathan; spending lots of time at soccer practices; going to SeaWorld; having a week in the mountains with snow. That’s all!
Hi. This is Peter. I had a happy Christmas and my birthday was fun. I got a scooter and a microscope. I went to Russia when Cascade & Michael were having their birthdays– I missed them a lot. In Russia, everything was different. I mean, we went on a train for 22 hours, we had a night there, we slept in the train. I like doing the computer a lot, and I wrestle with Michael a lot. We always have fun doing that. And Jonathan & Cascade. Math is my favorite subject. I like sports, and I like building things out of all sorts of models. Soccer is my favorite sport. I go to Cub Scouts and it’s really fun because it’s my first year of ever doing it. When they handed out popcorn awards, I got a pocketknife. I lost a tooth and I didn’t’ take the money from under my pillow till 2 days later. I got baptized last January. I can’t think of anything else. I’m done!
This is Jonathan. I’m 7. I really like my thermometer-whistle-magnifying glass-compass all-in-one and I like my big magnifying glass and I like building models. I like my plant that’s growing on my desk. I lost 2 teeth. I like to color beautiful pictures and I like science. Math is my favorite subject. I like playing with my pocketknife. I liked building my model car, and I like doing puzzles and origami. I like my desk and my timer. I like going on the computer. I like my launcher. And I build stuff out of wood. And I like playing games. I got baptized in October. That’s all.
I’m Michael. I like watching a movie. And I like to play. And pet my kitty Jaffa. And doing my alphabet. And petting my tiger that Mummy got from Russia. And I like to run around. And I like to look at flowers and butterflies. And I like to go on Stone Mountain. And I like to sit on a chair. And I can jump! And I want to go at the beach. And I like to watch a movie about Peter and the Wolf. Done!
My name is Cascade Grace Sculley. And I like to do ballet and play with play-doh and make cookies with the play-doh. And I like to go out with Mummy and Daddy. And I like to pet Jaffa. And I like to play soccer. And I like to play with my dollies that are in my bed. And I like to smell the flowers. And I like my new dolly and her name is Samantha Ally Beth Cascade. And that’s all.
Cute Quotes:
Cascade—“It wasn’t a circle! It was a straight, corner, straight, corner, straight, corner, straight, corner,” while in the background Michael was saying, “a square, Cascade, a square.”
Michael—“Can a recipe hurt you? . . . What’s a recipe?”
Peter—“I have a saying: ‘bigger is better!’”
Jonathan—“The Bible is as sharp as a 2 inch sword.”
Cascade—“Do my hair like Beth does—she takes out my hair boo and tangles it up with her hands.”
Michael—“Woo-hoo!”
Peter—“I’m glad our house isn’t always clean—then I wouldn’t get any tokens for chores.”
Jonathan—“I know how to ride a bike . . . I just can’t do it yet.”
Cascade—“Watch me wime [rhyme]!”
Michael—(watching me mulch some plants) “Why are you making them all comfortable?”
Cascade—“It’s taking too long to be 3!” (waiting to be 4)
Michael—(intending a compliment) “Mummy, your hair looks like weeds!”
Peter—(while visiting an older couple) “Everyone’s old around here!”
Jonathan—“eleven times ten is . . . eleventy!”
Cascade—“Thank you Father for my big old fat mama”
Michael—“Ho, ho, ho, and the glory of the Lord.”
Peter—“I don’t want to be a basketball player—I want to be a daddy!”
Cascade—(weighing herself) “I cost 200!”
We wanted to share with you some Bible verses that now have an even deeper meaning for us . . .
Galatians 1:4-5 (NirV)—“God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us. So he decided long ago to adopt us as his children. He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it.”
Lots of love in Jesus,
Paul, Karen, Peter (9), Jonathan (7), Michael (5-1/2), Cascade (3-1/2), Karis & Esther (11 months, hoping to have them home soon!)
. . . sleep is once again emerging as a popular spectator sport for some of us 🙂
