WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

the night before the first day of school. it's still so hard to believe that we're going to be bringing caleb to his first day of high school tomorrow - I remember high school!!!! he's a cool cucumber - not nervous one bit....'it's just another school year mom!'....yea right! we'll see how early he gets up tomorrow morning - that'll tell me how nervous he is!! it seems as if i was just laying out his clothes for preschool. now he's taller than me, driving a car, playing football, and heading off to high school. i kinda miss my little boy. i wouldn't trade him right now for anything though.

first day of school brings so many emotions in kids. i miss the fact that abby won't have seth with her as she starts her first day of middle school. i think it's affecting her more than she even realizes herself. she's so tired again lately....her cue that she's going through a grief burst. how could she not? thinking to herself i'm sure that 'i bet seth would be loving having his own locker too'. if you think about her, could you say a little prayer for her. i'm even dreading that first day of school somewhat. i would always get them on the bus and then follow them to school and watch them get off the bus. (my mom would laugh at me so much for that!!) i would take pictures of them next to their friends and leave them to start their day. last year was horrible. one less picture to take. i hope that this year is a little easier.....

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

so another miracle has just been experienced in the van wienen household. we got word last friday that the IRS has APPROVED our 501(c)3 non-profit application. Starlight Ministries is an official organization! the miracle part of this is that our lawyer had told us not to expect any word from the feds until the earliest october and then after that expect a few more months of addressing the questions that they will have about the application. our hope was that all would be finished by the end of the year. well......our God is a HUGE God.....5 weeks after submission - our approval arrives!!! our lawyer told us that in all the years that he has been doing these, not ONE has been returned that quickly and not ONE has come back approved on the first submission!!! Our God is an AWESOME God!! talk about reaffirming to greg and i that we're hearing correctly what He is asking and that we're on the right road (at least for once!!!! :):)) so thank you for all the prayers - they are working!
we are planning on training our facilitators in november with a start date of january. the first 2 deliveries of seth bears have been done and we were given a list (from mike matthyse) of all the area funeral homes that are interested in participating in the seth bear project. is this really happening?!?!?!? at times it seems like just a dream! i just can't believe that it's all coming together.....it's unbelievable to watch God work it all together.....it's the most amazing feeling to be able to see God at work and then be a little part of His plan. praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

it was a year ago today that we left for guatemala to pick up our new little girl. wow! what a difference a year makes! so much has happened....so much has changed.....for the better! so many memories of guatemala.....so many memories of her adjusting to us and us to her...so many things to be thankful for!

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS

home......love that word! we got home last saturday from being gone for 2 weeks. 2 weeks is a VERY LONG time in the van with a screaming 18 month old! WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?!? actually, ben didn't do too badly, just some tense times when he was refusing to sleep and needed it about 100 miles before that! all i can say is that dramamine is our friend! yes, i admit it....we drugged our child......the first time i felt INCREDIBLY guilty. the 3rd time.....not so much!

it was a vacation that was filled with laughing, crying, staying up super late, driving, eating, playing a gazillion games of monopoly, driving, playing with the kids, white water rafting, driving some more! did i include driving? all i know is that about 1 inch on the atlas is about 2 hours of driving time!!!!! everything out west is big! i'll include some more pictures of vacation, but for now i'll let the kid's own words of what their favorite part of our out west adventure was:

caleb: "probably the grand tetons and hiking up to the waterfall"

grace: "our apartment at the cabin"

abby: "grace....wasn't mall of america your favorite??!?!"

grace "oh yea.....put that on my list too!"

abby: "my favorite part was the grand tetons and jenny lake"

luke: "playing pranks on the girls!!!!" (and MANY were done to both boys and girls!)

andrew: "going on the rides (at mall of america), the tv in the cabin, me and jonah's own bed,

going on the hike, seeing that water spray way into the air, seeing a moose, oh yea and

riding that boat over that lake (taking the ferry across jenny lake), trying to see the

bear at the cabin, riding in jonah's van"

YELLOWSTONE ADVENTURE

yesterday we made our way to the lower loop of yellowstone and saw old faithful. what an amazing work of creation! on our way through yellowstone we were able to see a bald eagle, bison, coyote, elk, and on the way home a moose! i was amazed at how much of the park has been damaged by wild fires. i wasn't expecting that.

today is a lay low day. we're preparing for tomorrow when we make our big trek to the grand tetons. i was able to finish taking the kids' pictures outside today. the kids are doing great except when luke stepped into a 4 X 8 piece of EXTREMELY sticky paper to prevent ants from getting past....he stepped into it ACCIDENTALLY of course. he then continued to spread the sticky mess throughout the entire house!!!!! UGH!!!! to which andrew followed suit and ACCIDENTALLY stepped into it too - yea right! oh i was so upset!! it was nearly impossible to get that stuff wiped off! the boys are needing a routine and that's why we decided to stay around the cabin for today.

we're planning on doing white water rafting on monday....really looking forward to that!

it's been a week since we left....i can start feeling the homesickness settle in just a little....i'm such a home body!

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON EARTH

i was hoping to have written each night about our out west adventure....HA!!! what was i THINKING!! i had forgotten how much WORK it is to take 2 little ones on vacation! I'M TIRED!! i need a vacation from this vacation! actually it has gone quite smoothly so far...it's just logistically moving 9 people in and out of hotel rooms each night, making sure each are dressed with the appropriate child's clothing each day, and handling two little ones who are WAY off schedule! lydia has traveled well so far.....ben on the other hand?!?!?! let's just say dramamine is my best friend!! it doesn't help that he's teething his eye teeth right now as well.

anyway, last saturday was our big push to orange city, IA. i know all the jokes about corn and iowa, but it didn't ready me for the unbelievable beauty to see acres of corn for as far as the eye can see. it was really quite beautiful. the other thing that i didn't know was that iowa has wind farms as well. talk about majestic beauty in those ginormous white arms stretching to the sky circling around and around!

sunday we met up with a wonderful family that we met in guatemala when we were picking up lydia and they were picking up their son. it was so good to see them again and all of our kids hit it off great. we hope to be able to meet up with them again and meet in the middle. (sorry, heather...i tried to upload your picture, but i wouldn't let me!! :(

monday we were up and out early so that we could put in some miles to see the badlands and mount rushmore. the badlands were explained perfectly by our neice "it's like one great big sand castle". the kids just about gave me a heart attack when they went so close to the edge to just about falling off. it was gorgeous in a dry, sandy, brownish sort of way. we got to rapid city and then went to a dinner show at fort hayes (the movie set of dances with wolves). cool set, ok food, horrible kids (greg and i ended up in the van with the younger two before the show ended). the older kids liked it though. after the show we were let out in time to get to mt. rushmore and see the lighting ceremony. i ended up in the van with the 2 little ones (they had finally crashed), but i was able to see rushmore from the van. completely amazing!

tuesday was bear country. very cool to see bears in front of our cars. the elk were huge! we then drove onto devils tower. it just amazes me the things that God has created. i've never seen anything like it. it was incredibly hot and we decided to just drive past it instead of drive up to it. then came the road that never ended....212 from devils tower to billings.....the road that NEVER, EVER ended!! that was a long haul. the only interesting thing was that there are some HUGE bugs in montana!! we nailed them all i think! we ended the day in billings.

wednesday brought us to our home away from home....big sky, montana....the most beautiful place on earth. this morning i woke up before everyone else and sat out on the deck and watched the sun rise. between the cool air, the pine trees for as far as the eye could see, the mountain range growing from deep browns to pale blues, hearing the creek rushing by, the birds waking up, and spending some precious time with my Heavenly Father. it's seth's birthday today. and i'm missing him more today than usual. it's normal i'm sure, but today God spoke to me in psalm 23. i've read and memorized that chapter since i was a little girl, but today the verse that says "He leads me beside quiet waters He restores my soul"

popped out like i had never seen it before. i don't know if it was being next to the creek and listening to it...but it just spoke to me in a way that i've never heard it before. it was if God had ordered everything together this morning for me to read that verse. (doesn't He do that every day?) i felt so reassured that He wanted to restore my soul. heaven knows my soul is in need of some restoring. so seth's birthday is almost done. we ate pistachios (one of his favorites....in fact we found cup fulls of shells in his closet after he died!), looked at his abc book, talked about how much he would have loved it here, and went out for his birthday supper. i so much would rather he be here in person. my heart aches for him at times.....but God IS restoring my soul.....day by day. and today He's doing it in the most beautiful place on earth.

MONTANA HERE WE COME!

1 van packed to the gills......9 bins of clothes.......1 trailer filled with bikes.......7 very excited kids.....2 very tired parents......1 big empty hole......25 gallons of gas........5 bags of chips.......69 pages of trip tiks......4000 miles ahead of us........1 mom with no hair.......9 sweat shirts packed.....112 diapers(hopefully enough!)....... 2 bottles of benadryl......around 54 hours on the road round trip.........55 dvds......montana here we come!!