Dinglefest: And the festival continues...

Zoe's four month birthday present: A stone of remembrance

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

In Joshua, God's people set up stones to serve as a reminder of what God had done on their behalf.

And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.” {Joshua 4:20-24}

Skip ahead a couple books in the Bible, and we see Samuel setting up a stone after God acted in a mighty way to give victory to His people. He called the stone Ebenezer, which means "stone of help."

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”{1 Samuel 7:12}

In Joshua, the people remembered God's provision of dry ground and safe passage.

In 1 Samuel, the people remembered the great victory God accomplished for them.

In our lives today, we have a new stone of remembrance.

Or, perhaps I should say, Zoe Amanda has a new stone of remembrance.

When I initially drafted yesterday's blog post, I shared the deadline of the end of this week for the rest of our first adoption payment to be raised. Then - before the post went live - I thought, That's crazy. It just isn't possible. And even though we needed the money sooner, I changed the deadline in the post from the end of the week to the end of the weekend. I just wasn't sure $1,870 could be raised in two days via this blog.

Two days weren't necessary. We didn't even need 24 hours. It is all raised. The exact amount.

Today Zoe Amanda is four months old. And to be honest, I was dreading today. While I praise God for each milestone and birthday, I know my heart will ache a little every time she is one month older and not here with us.

But I didn't need to dread today. I didn't need to because God's timing provided a stone of remembrance instead.

For me.

For her.

For His glory.

A breakdown of our adoption costs, if you're curious

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I always knew international adoption = $$$, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a breakdown of that, so I’m going to try to do so in this post. {But first, let me be honest: we need ~~$1,870~~ $100 by the end of the weekend. See more info about that at the end of this post.}

Before I list the costs, though, consider this: if someone you know bought a vehicle for $20,000, you might say, “hey, nice car!” You probably wouldn’t say, “Geez, that’s a lot of money. How can you even afford that?” (I know some of y'all are impressively frugal, so you might think that, but most of us wouldn’t say it.) However, when someone is adopting and the cost is the same, that censor of "maybe I shouldn't say that" seems to disappear.

I don’t mind. Actually, I expect it. Because we’re having to ask others for financial support, we're opening ourselves up to a little more scrutiny. If I have to ask others to consider supporting our adoption, I want to be as transparent as possible. So feel free to ask away, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions about the cost!

{And for your reading pleasure, here’s my all-time favorite post about the cost of adoption from Stephanie at Ni Hao Y’all. She uses a vehicle cost analogy too, but hers is much better than mine.}

Before I list our expenses, let me add this disclaimer: these are just our costs. Every adoption is different. Every country is different. Two adoptions in the same country can have different costs depending on the region, the agency, the orphanage, the judge assigned to the case, and a whole host of other factors. That disclaimer given, here's the breakdown for us...

Expenditure	Cost
Home study fees	$1,400
US CIS paperwork fees	$890
Translation fees of documents from English to Chinese and vice versa	$400
Wiring fees	$150
National insurance in Taiwan	$170
Paperwork and agency fees in Taiwan	$6,600
Cost of full-time care in the children’s home for Zoe Amanda from her birth until the time we bring her home	$9,000
Travel for me and Lee (5 day trip, including airfare on short notice)	~$4,000
Re-adoption paperwork in US (required because we won’t meet Zoe Amanda before the adoption is final)	$400
Required post-adoption visits from home study social worker	$500 (2 at $250 each)
TOTAL	~$23,000

Yes, that's a lot of money. Some of it will come from our savings, and some may be recovered via tax savings (though the exact amount won’t be certain for a while because part of it may be on the budget chopping block), but we still need to raise a big chunk. We had planned not to have to raise many funds because our timing would have given us another year or two to save, but God's timing was different from ours. We've had to take several huge steps in faith as we work to bring Zoe Amanda home, but we think she's worth more than a car, don't you think?

Please pray that the exact amounts we need will come in as we need it and that God would increase our faith in His timing and provision throughout this process!

If you'd like to contribute toward these expenses to bring Zoe Amanda home, instructions are provided in the upper left-hand side of the blog. You can donate directly to the children's home - which goes toward the Taiwanese costs (childcare, paperwork, translations, etc.) - or to us via the Paypal link - which will go toward the US-based costs (travel, paperwork in the US, etc.). Of those costs, nearly $9000 need to be paid by the end of the weekend; we have a sizeable chunk of it, but

we still need ~~$1,870~~ $100. Before Monday.

And then - assuming the car being sold by our friends for our adoption funds sells for what we think it will and assuming our fundraising night goes as well as we're hoping - we'll need to raise another $6,000 via donations before we travel to Taiwan.

Would you consider making a donation? If you could help in any way, we'd greatly appreciate it!

{And if you can't give but would be willing to add a fundraising button to your blog, you'll find the code you need here.}

an atheist practicing Christianity for Lent, and a fundraising blog button I made for her

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:32:00 +0000

My friend Dy-Anne is an atheist, but she liked the idea of taking a set period of time to give something up, like many Christian do during Lent. So she posted on Facebook,

So I may not be catholic (or a theist at all) but I see Lent as the opposite of Christmas. So what should I give up this year?

And another friend of ours - who is a Christian and a journalist - suggested

So I am TOTALLY not joking, but I think it would be awesome if you gave up Atheism for lent. I know sounds crazy, and obviously you can't just not be one, but I think it would be interesting if you like went to church and immersed yourself in the culture and blogged about the whole thing. I REALLY think that would be an interesting social experiement. And especially since Lent has a religious background, it owuld be fitting.

After some back and forth throughout comments, Dy decided to give it a go. She's not giving up atheism for Christianity because her belief (or lack thereof) hasn't changed. However, she's giving up the culture of atheism (discussion forums, books, activities that she associates with atheism) and adopting the culture of Christianity (attending church, reading the Bible, praying even though she considers it to be talking to the air, and so on) for the season Lent. And she's blogging about it; check it out at A Temporary Christian.

As her blog started to get a lot of hits, she asked me if I could give her something to put on her blog that would link to our Paypal account, in hopes that her blog could raise money for our adoption.

So I made this button for her.

If you'd like to add one to your page, here's the code:

<center><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick" /> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="N3MXFLZFD3JC6" /> <input type="image" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mnUJGPTme2Y/T0WSJ-Sf4FI/AAAAAAABG2Q/js3Kb1OxOHI/s320/Adoption+blog+donation+button+copy.jpg" border="0" width="200" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" /> </form></center>

I have another post coming ~~this evening~~ tomorrow, in which I'll be providing a breakdown of our adoption costs, but I wanted to share this now since Dy-Anne's blog started up today!

Wanna shop for a good cause? Support our adoption by buying from Wild Olive Tees, Just Love Coffee, or Mary Kay!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:21:00 +0000

First up, biblically-encouraging tees for the ladies...

I love Wild Olive tees. I have more than a half dozen. If you remember when my little guy needed an MRI to check for spinal abnormalities, you might remember that I wore a Wild Olive tee that day, one that reminded me to sing praises.

Well, if you put a shirt from this link in your cart and you use DINGLE220 as your code at checkout, then we’ll get $7.50-10 for each shirt purchased! This code can be used as often as you’d like and as many times as you’d like, so feel free to share it! {Note: the code doesn’t reduce the cost for the shirt – it just directs the funds to us!} I do find that their fitted shirts are a little snug, so you might want to order a size up if you want it a little looser.

Next, COFFEE!

Who likes coffee? {Me, me, me, ME!} Well, next time you need to restock your supply, if you order some from Just Love Coffee using this link {https://justlovecoffee.com/zoeamanda}, we’ll get some of the money from your sale. It's fair-trade coffee, and I hear it's tasty (though we haven't tried it... yet!)

You get coffee; we get adoption funds. It’s a win/win, right?

Finally, beauty products {'cause we all like to look purty}

I’ve been a Mary Kay girl on and off since high school. My friend Kelly has graciously offered to donate her profits between now and March 22nd to us if you list our name at checkout. How gracious is that?

So if you need make-up, skin care, or other beauty products, go to Kelly's page, place your order, and put "DINGLE" in the notes field.

Of course, if you don’t want to shop and still want to make a donation, you can always donate using the button at the upper left-hand side of the blog or using the instructions in this post!

Thanks, y'all.

honest and ugly, but grateful

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Yesterday was a rough day. Basically, we were given hope last week that a large donation toward our adoption expenses would be coming in this week, and the actual amount turned out to be a fraction of what we had been expecting and felt that we had been promised. I went from thinking that most of our expenses were covered to realizing that we still have a long way to go. The "how to donate" post I had taken down last week in anticipation of the donation went back up.

It was hard. Tears were plentiful.

The hardest part, though, was dealing with the ugliness of my emotions. When I read the Bible and see examples of God doing something huge for His people and then those same people doubting Him the next day or next month... well, it frustrates me. I think in disgust, "Seriously?!? Look at what God did for you, and your hearts shift from grateful to whiny in such a short time anyway? How fickle."

Well, my friends, that was me yesterday. God has been moving in huge ways in our lives in the past few weeks, and I was mad that He didn't move in the one way I wanted and expected. And instead of being thankful for the gift that was given, I was angry it wasn't more.

Yep, an attitude of entitlement is an ugly thing.

I share this because I want to be real and transparent. And because I want you to know that we are not perfect. Yes, we're being faithful in following God's will for our family all the way to Taiwan, but we are unfaithful daily in so many other ways.

Today, I'm choosing gratitude. I'm choosing trust. I'm choosing faith.

Specifically, I'm thankful that in the last 24 hours:

we did have the commitment of that donation
we had a friend share with us that they're selling their third vehicle (valued about $7,000), hoping to get $5,000 for it, and planning to donate the entire sale amount to our adoption expenses (I'll be posting the details and pictures of the vehicle later this week!)
a popular blogger in the disability community contacted me about donating a $50 Amazon gift card to our silent auction
I confirmed March 22 as the night for our adoption fundraiser at Chick-fil-a at Falls Village (mark it on your calendars, Raleigh folks! more details coming soon!)
I woke up to two new pictures of Zoe Amanda in my email inbox!

I'll have two posts later this week with info about donations and with practical needs we have, and - to be honest with you - I'm not looking forward to those posts. (I didn't even like asking my parents for money when I was in high school, and I find it even less fun to post about the financial aspect of adoption on this blog.) But I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to be blessed by the addition of Zoe Amanda to our family, so I'll do it. And I'll balance those out with a couple posts full of pictures and stories from our lives (like yesterday's post about Robbie's antics)~~, as a way of making myself feel less guilty about asking for money~~.

And you know what? I'm looking forward to the day when the pages of this blog can be less about the nitty gritty adoption details and more about random thoughts from yours truly and reviews of books and pictures of our three children.

little boys love mud

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:49:00 +0000

even the drywall compound variety. You see the white on the bed?

Well, we were repairing a hole behind little man's bed.

When he came downstairs saying, "Mommy, the goo. Oh, no. The goo," I knew the outcome probably wasn't going to be good!

Thankfully, he only managed to get it on his hands - not even his beloved dinosaur clothing, thank goodness! - and the plastic parts of his bed. It all cleaned up just fine!

Silly little boy.

would you pray for another baby girl who needs a family?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:37:00 +0000

Our adoption coordinator just asked if I could get the word out about another baby girl in Taiwan who needs a family. She's in the same home as Zoe Amanda. She is seven months old. Her mother is 16 and gave birth alone in a hotel room; she was later found wandering the streets. This baby girl also has special needs; the primary diagnosis appears to be schizencephaly, which is a rare developmental disorder of the brain. She is able to track items with her eyes and enjoys being held and loved by the caregivers in the children's home where she and Zoe Amanda are living now. Some short videos and medical records are available for families who are seriously interested.

image source via pinterest

Please pray that God would provide a family for this little girl and, in the words of Psalm 68:6, "set the lonely into families."

If you're interested in adopting her or know someone who might be, please contact me at shannon@dinglefest.com. Because of changes to Taiwanese adoption law, the process of getting everything together and submitted to the courts in Taiwan would need to be accelerated. A home study should already be done, or a family must be willing to have that process expedited. (Ours was done in less than a week, so it's possible to rush it.) The total adoption cost will be $20,000-25,000.

P.S. - Tomorrow I'll have a post with loads of pictures, more in line with the posts I usually have around Dinglefestopia, so if you've been missing those, don't worry... they're coming!

so you must know a lot about cerebral palsy, right?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Nope.

My MAEd is in special ed, but my concentrations were learning disabilities and autism. I taught special education for four-ish years, but the preschool I was at focused on kids with developmental delays and fetal alcohol syndrome and my middle and high school teaching experience was mostly to kids with learning disabilities, ADHD, behavioral/emotional disturbances, and mild intellectual disabilities.

I'm not incredibly familiar with brain injuries or abnormalities. Physical disabilities aren’t a world I know well, though I technically would be classified by some medical professionals as having a mild degree of physical disabilities in my hands due to damage for rheumatoid arthritis. And my experience with people with intellectual disabilities is limited. (Learning moment for today: “intellectual disability” is the new term for what we used to call “mental retardation.”)

So what outcome are we looking at for Zoe Amanda? Some degree of physical impairment with a possible side of intellectual disability.

(Can you tell from my metaphor that I’m hungry? Planning for this baby has me wanting to stress eat without the justifiable excuse – It’s for the baby! – for it.)

(Though, considering that I gained more than I should have with my two pregnancies, perhaps that excuse wasn’t so justifiable then either.)

We’ll be setting up an appointment soon with one or more medical professionals to review Zoe Amanda’s MRIs, but the three top pediatric neurosurgeons who have already seen them (before we knew anything about her) have each confirmed that the range of possibility is wide for her. On one end of the spectrum, she could be in a wheelchair and have mild-moderate intellectual disabilities (as a point of comparison for you, most people with Down syndrome who have intellectual disabilities fall in the mild-moderate range). On the other end, she could have typical cognitive functioning and a limp.

Here’s a good link describing CP, and I think the liberal use of “sometimes,” “different,” and “may affect”/”may occur” show well how varied CP outcomes can be. The root of CP is always in the brain, caused by injury or abnormalities that occur in utero, during birth, or in the first two years of life. Zoe Amanda was born at 30 weeks gestation – that’s 10 weeks early – and while lots of babies with CP are preemies, recent research indicates that the brain issues could cause the prematurity or the prematurity could cause the brain damage. It’s one of those, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?" sort of things.

(And now I’m hungry for chickens or eggs.)

We know that Zoe Amanda’s CP is caused by several small areas of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) that are spread out in her brain.

Peri-what? you say?

Here’s a link for you other research-loving nerds, but my best description is that she has small areas of dead or underdeveloped brain tissue. The fact that they’re small instead of big and spread out instead of all concentrated in one area could be a good thing. Or maybe not. Basically, brains are complex, and a small boo-boo in a crucial spot can affect someone just as much as a big boo-boo in a less vital area.

We’ll know more after reviewing her MRIs with people who know what they mean, but the best indicator of how she’ll develop is how she develops throughout her preschool years. Right now, she’s responding well to caregivers and, other than some muscular tightness in her upper thighs, seems to be developing typically so far; she’s only three-and-a-half months old, though, so only time will tell what the outcomes will be for her.

In other words, right now we have a diagnosis; we won’t have a prognosis until Zoe grows more and shows us what she can and can’t do.

For now, we’re trusting God with the unknown, and we’re thankful that He has called us to adopt so that “having a family” is one thing she can do.

life worthy of love

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Note: Today's post and - to a greater degree - tomorrow's will give some details about what Zoe Amanda's special needs are expected to be. While many of you have asked questions and I do want to answer them with transparency, I am taking a risk by posting about this so early in the adoption process. You see, cerebral palsy is something that Zoe Amanda has, not what she is. We want you to love and care for our baby girl as a person, not as a label. In most cases, you'd see pictures of a child and meet her before learning of a diagnosis, but we can't yet share pictures publicly and we haven't even met her. Information in the absence of a baby in our arms could have a dehumanizing effect, and we certainly don't want that.

Lee's approach to this? He just tells people we're adopting and doesn't mention special needs. His take is that everyone will figure it out eventually and he wants people to remember her name and not her disability. Me? Well, I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that I like to learn and offer as much information as possible.

So read on, but as you learn about the special needs Zoe Amanda has been diagnosed with, please think of her as a kid first and foremost. If you think that might be a struggle for you, then just skip this post and tomorrow's and pick back up with us on Thursday or Friday.

Thanks.

~+~

I’ve started a baby registry (one on Target, and another at ~~my obsession~~ Amazon), not so much for gifts but rather to help us keep track of what we do and don’t have for Zoe Amanda and what we need/want/desire. It’s helped in an unexpected way:

It has helped me wrap my mind around the realities of becoming a mom to a child with special needs.

I think we registered for a little kid potty for Jocelyn. When I saw those this time around, I realized that I don’t know if Zoe Amanda will ever be potty trained or not.

I considered strollers as something we’d use for a short period with our two oldest, and I considered pricey strollers with high weight limits to be an unnecessary and somewhat impractical luxury. Now I’m looking at brands I would have scoffed at before, considering what stroller might work well as Zoe Amanda grows. We don’t know for sure that she’ll need a wheelchair, but – considering that’s a good possibility – a stroller that can work well for a longer period as a pre-wheelchair option is a wise investment. (Side note: Anyone have a used fancy schmancy one – with life left in it, of course – in need of a new home? If so, we’d love our home to be its next stop!)

When Robbie and Jocelyn were babies, I tried to gauge what type of shoes to get them in each size, guessing when they would need “pre-walker,” “toddler,” and “walker” shoes. Zoe Amanda might never walk. Or she might use a walker. Or the braces she might need could work better with some shoes than others.

For everything we know, we realize how much we still don’t know.

I’m not anxious or sad or upset by any of this. Most parents of kids with special needs have to set aside their old dreams and dream new ones for their child. For us, we found out about Zoe Amanda and her cerebral palsy at the same time. It’s not what defines her, but to us it’s always been one characteristic that she happens to have.

People with CP have higher odds of other conditions – like epilepsy and autism – so we may experience unexpected diagnoses in the future… but we could experience that with Robbie or Jocelyn too. Regardless of labels and disability and all that, we will have a sweet reminder every time we say her name.

Zoe Amanda

Zoe means “life,” and Amanda means “worthy of love.” Her name explains who she is, why we were called to adopt her, and what God has taught us in His word about disability and orphans. Hers is a life worthy of love. Christ declared that when He lived the sinless life we couldn't, died on the cross we deserved, and defeated death by his resurrection. For me. And you. And Lee and Robbie and Jocelyn. And Zoe Amanda.

In her name's meaning, we’re merely affirming what He already declared to be true.

Zoe Amanda, we have no idea what God has in store for you, but we look forward to finding out.

many thanks to Heather for taking this shot at church on Sunday

and to her husband and youngest daughter for goofing off behind her to elicit the smiles on the kids' faces

P.S. - If you'd like to know you can support us during this process, here are a couple posts about that: {part 1: financial support} and {part 2: PRAYER!}.

Thanks, y'all.

how you can support our adoption {part 2: PRAYER!}

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Wow! I'm not sure where to start with this one. There are so many requests we could share, so I know this list won't be exhaustive, but here are some things we're praying for...

For our family

We know all of our lives are already changing and will change in a big and beautiful way this summer. As we prepared, we're praying

that our marriage will be strengthened through this
that our children will understand God's love in new ways
that Jocelyn - who doesn't usually handle transitions well - will adapt to getting a baby sister, starting kindergarten, and going to summer day camp for the first time, all in one summer
that Robbie - who is a momma's boy and fills the role of resident cuddler in our house - will adjust well to no longer being the baby of the family
that Zoe Amanda will be loved and cared for well in Taiwan until we can bring her home and that her transition - as everything about her life will change when she comes home - goes as smoothly as possible
that all of us - in our immediate and extended families - will be changed for the better in all this

For the logistics of the adoption

I'll share more later this week about the steps along the way, but here are the some of the key ways we're praying:

that God would allow our paperwork to be complete and acceptable the first time we submit it
that the Chinese translations of our documents will be accurate
that our schedule would fall on the shorter end of the spectrum so Zoe Amanda can join our family and receive needed therapies and treatments as soon as possible (as a note of explanation: lots of steps in the court process in Taiwan have estimates of "2-8 weeks," so we're praying that each of those steps be closer to two weeks instead of eight)
that breakdowns in communication will be rare and quickly resolved
that we will remain focused on Christ instead of the sea of paperwork around us

We're praying that God will provide for the money needed to adopt Zoe Amanda, and we're praying for God's help in trusting Him in this area. (I'll admit I had a bit of a meltdown today about the moola. During lunch. In public. With my poor husband sitting across from me and fielding the "is your wife insane?" glances from the waiter.)

For health and energy

A lot is happening very quickly, which means we have a constant to-do list... and one that will become more challenging if an illness hits any of the four of us. We're praying for protection from sickness for all of us.
Y'all know that the last five years have included the diagnosis of a couple of chronic health conditions for me. While those are under control and treatment right now, the only persistent area of anxiety for me in all this has been a fear that something new - like cancer - would be diagnosed that would make us ineligible to adopt Zoe Amanda. I'm not a big worrier, so I've been caught by surprise by this anxiety. I'm clinging to prayer and the truths of Philippians 4:6-8.
Our kids - who used to be great sleepers - haven't consistently slept well in the past six months. We're praying that they will rest well (which will also mean that we can rest well)!

For home plans

We're still putting the house on the market in a couple weeks. We'd love it if our home would sell quickly and a new home that is perfect for our growing family would become available at the same time so that we can sell and buy and move before Zoe comes home.
We're praying for endurance through the home-selling process, whatever the length may be. We know it can be long or short; it can be 100 showings or just one; it can have ups and downs or proceed smoothly. While we're praying for the latter in each of those examples, we're also praying that God will sustain us through whatever timeline He has for this process.

For Access Ministry, the special needs ministry we coordinate at our church

We are just as passionate - if not more - about this area of ministry and will continue in our present roles, but we know there will be a period of time of at least a month that we'll have to step back from that when we're traveling and first have Zoe Amanda home. We're praying for wisdom in handling the logistics to make sure we can serve our family well and others can serve our Access families well during the initial transition period.

If you'd join us in praying for just one of these requests, we'd appreciate it. And please join us in praising God for the journey He has set us on!

(If you'd like to see part one of this post, here you go: "how you can support our adoption {part 1: financial support}. Later this week, I'll post part three about practical support we would appreciate, but I have a couple other posts scheduled between now and then.

And if you came across this post without reading other recent ones, you might want to start a few posts back, with our adoption announcement post and our thankful post.)

how you can support our adoption {part 1: financial support}

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:13:00 +0000

I wasn't going to devote a post of its own to donations, but many of you have asked, so here goes...

Here's the reality: bringing home Zoe Amanda will cost somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000, once you add together everything: court fees, travel costs, paperwork expenses, translations of documents, and so on. We had some money set aside and a savings plan in place for adoption, but we weren't planning to start the process until late fall 2012 and we were expecting a typical slow process rather than the fast-tracked (and exciting!) one set before us.

In other words, we don't have all the money we hoped to have saved and we don't have a long process in which to make up for that through a variety of innovative and carefully spread out fundraisers.

If you had asked us two weeks ago about our plans for adoption, our answer wouldn't have sounded anything like the exciting news we posted on Tuesday. Everything has developed so far in ways we never could have imagined and with speed we didn't know was possible in international adoption, and we are trusting that the finances will come together too. (God has already moved mountains to bind us to Zoe Amanda, so what's one more?)

Today and next week I'll be posting about prayer and practical support you can offer without a single penny. We've been asked enough times in the past couple of days about donations, though, that I figured it was time for a post to share how you can offer that kind of support if you are interested and able to do so:

Morning Light Home offers a way for those who wish to help with our adoption expenses to make a tax-deductible donation. Donations can be mailed to the address below with an attached note that the funds be applied to "Deana and Luke Pan at Morning Light Home in Taiwan," and you will then receive a tax receipt for your donation. To make sure the donation is credited to our adoption, please send an email to Jeff Land at mlhadoption@gmail.com with our name (The Dingles) and the amount of the donation. Unless you indicate otherwise, Jeff will share your name with us so that we can thank you, but we will not know the amount given. The address for donations is:

Central Missionary Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 219228
Houston, TX 77218-9228

From my experiences with fundraising for the NC Children's Hospital and a couple other non-profits, I know small amounts can add up, so we'd appreciate any gift, no matter the size.

Also, we'll be having a silent auction in conjunction with the one fundraiser we have planned - our Chick-fil-a fundraising night (March 22 from 5-8pm at Chick-fil-a at Falls Village) - so if you know anyone who could donate something - like an item, gift card, service, or week at a beach or mountain home - please email me at shannon@dinglefest.com.

The greatest gifts you can give us, though, are prayer and encouragement. Thank you for already providing that!

oh so very thankful

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Today was an exhausting day, but the sweet encouragement I received from each of you carried me through. I have loved reading your texts, emails, and comments about our news. I am moved to tears right now even thinking about it. Y'all have reached through the computer and virtually hugged us, and we rejoice that our Zoe Amanda is being covered in prayer by you already.

Thankful.

Last night I had the opportunity to chat with one dear friend on the phone and two others over a latte at Jubala, allowing me to take a break from the paperwork and the cleaning.

Thankful.

After posting yesterday that we could use a crib, I had seven offers of cribs.

Thankful.

A friend stopped me in the hall at Bible study yesterday to offer her daughter's baby girl clothes to Zoe Amanda. I'm not sure we'll need them, because Jocelyn had a plethora of baby clothes and we've saved them all, but it was still touching.

Thankful.

Lee's bosses gave him today off so we could spend all day on adoption paperwork and so that I could attend a meeting a church.

Thankful.

Precious friends of ours cared for Jocelyn and Robbie while our social worker came to evaluate our ability to parent the girl we already consider our own.

Thankful.

Our social worker scheduled us right away and will have the first draft of our completed home study ready on Monday for us to review to make sure everything is accurate and for our adoption coordinator to review to make sure it includes everything the Taiwanese courts will want to know.

Thankful.

The project leader for the Treasuring Christ curriculum included lunch in our team meeting today, which was the first food I had all day in the midst of all the busy-ness.

Thankful.

Our pediatrician and our family practice doctor each made sure we got the paperwork we needed right away to complete our home study.

Thankful.

GPS helped me get to the pediatrician's office after I discovered that it has moved. (Jenelle, when did that happen?)

Thankful.

The planning team for this weekend's special needs ministry respite event has stepped up in a major way, so that we can focus on bringing Zoe home instead of concerning ourselves with every detail for this weekend's event.

Thankful.

This gift arrived in the mail today. Taitung City on the southeast coast of the country - just labeled "Taitung" on the map below - is where Zoe Amanda lives now, and now I can wear it around my neck until I have her in my arms.

Thankful.

And now? I think a warm bath, a hot mug of coffee, and a good book are in order, followed closely by an early bedtime.

Thankful.

But before I go, know this: thankful doesn't cover it. You all are rallying around us while we fast-track everything to bring home Zoe Amanda, a baby girl we love now but we didn't know existed two weeks ago. While we are heeding God's call in these verses,

learn to do good;

seek justice, correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow's cause

{Isaiah 1:17}

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:

to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,

and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

{James 1:27}

you are doing so as well as you pour out encouragement on us. You are expressing your love for an orphan on the other side of the world. You are affirming with us the meaning of her name - "life worthy of love" - as you pray with us. When you gush with us over the chubby cheeks in the pictures we have of her and accept with us the unknown prognosis stemming from her diagnosis of cerebral palsy, you are agreeing with us that she is - in the words of Psalm 139:14 - fearfully and wonderfully made.

I said I'd be posting today about ways you can support us, but that will wait for another day. Because y'all have overwhelmed us with love and support already.

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

did you know...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:07:00 +0000

Did you know that the abortion rate is higher than the birth rate in Taiwan?

Did you know that in Taiwan an estimated 90% of pregnancies to unwed mothers end in abortion? (source)

Did you know that only a handful of crisis pregnancy centers operate there, each supporting unwed moms who choose life for their child and each doing so in the name of Christ?

And did you know that our third child is named Zoe Amanda, is three months old, has cerebral palsy, is living in a home affiliated with one of those crisis pregnancy centers, and will be coming home as an official Dingle family member sometime this summer?

(I apologize for my little man's sullen look. He was running a fever when we took this!)

Yeah, we didn’t know any of that either until January 28^th when a friend contacted us and asked us to pray about adopting Zoe. We agreed to pray, fully expecting to say no. But we prayed. And God moved our hearts and plans and minds.

This was not the timing we planned, the country we planned, the age we planned, the special needs we planned, or… well, suffice it to say, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” {Isaiah 55:8-9}

This is crazy. And exciting. We’re still in a bit of shock about all of this, but we can’t wait to meet our little girl and hold her and bring her home.

I’ll share more details in my next post, but please pray. Pray for Zoe, pray for Taiwan, pray for us. I’ll also be sharing information about specific prayer, financial, and practical support we’d appreciate (~~for example, anyone have a crib to spare? we don’t anymore. we thought we were done with babies in the Dingle household, so we gave that away!~~ update: praise God, we now have a crib!), though prayer is our greatest need.

Thanks, y’all.

P.S. - If you see me around, ask to see Zoe's picture! I can't post them publicly here, but I have a couple of pictures I can share in person and via email.

thankful that God has confirmed many things for us lately

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:10:00 +0000

I know I've been MIA over here until the past week, but I thought I had mentioned our upcoming move before. Maybe I didn't, given the number of questions I've gotten about my mention of it in our last post, so here goes...

Back in May, I shared our plans for adoption with y'all. And at the end, I mentioned that we were planning on staying in our current home forever and ever, amen. Right after I posted that, I told Lee, "You know, now that I've declared this publicly, this means we'll end up moving." That's how it tends to go with us. God is concerned about shaping our hearts in the process, so going through the process of buying a home we thought we'd stay in forever and making renovation plans to add space was beneficial.

But.

He has led us to change those plans. In June, Lee's sister and her husband were looking at homes in the area, and I started helping them. In doing so, Lee and I started finding houses in our price range that were larger and closer to all our frequently visited places (work, church, schools, etc.). We waffled about the idea for a while and, while praying about it, focused our efforts of wrapping up little projects here and there to get our house ready to sell if we did... or to enjoy ourselves if we didn't.

Long story short, we decided that we would move toward selling and wait to begin the adoption process until we're in a new home. A lot of factors weighed in, but one was my health. We actually expected to have the house on the market by October, but my body changed our plans.

In September, my knee gave out, a result of rheumatoid autoimmune disease (which is a term my friend Kelly is advocating for, since it's more accurate than "rheumatoid arthritis").

In October, I had knee surgery.

In November, the breathing problems I've had on and off in the past couple years became much worse.

In December, I was diagnosed with asthma, most likely due to RA lung damage though we won't know that for sure until I see a pulmonologist. (Hi, my name is Shannon, and I'm addicted to specialists.)

Some wonderful news in all this is that the RA damage is not continuing. My IV meds have it under control. The knee and lung issues are the result of RA damage that occurred in the year before I was diagnosed and the year after that when we couldn't start strong treatments because I was pregnant with Robbie and recovering from childbirth.

But isn't it neat how God confirms things for us? You see, one of the reasons for the planned move was that a three-story house for a woman who has a chronic disease that can affect her joints and lungs and heart... well, that's just not the smartest plan. It has become clear to us that we need a home that will work for us, even on my bad days. We had already determined that we wanted our new home to be wheelchair accessible so that we can host all of the families we get to know and love through our church's special needs ministry, and it could turn out that I need that level of accessibility someday too. (Given the success of current treatments, that's not expected, but the prognosis for RA was much bleaker 15 years ago and the meds that work so well for me now have only been out for that long, which means that long-term side effect aren't known. That makes it much more comforting that we worship a God who does know all that this life will hold, doesn't it?)

My recent health issues have confirmed adoption as the right next step for adding to our family too, because another pregnancy would require us to stop my meds. Any prolonged break in treatment makes it more likely for my body to reject the medicine whenever I'm ready to restart it, plus stopping meds means that the damage we've stopped would likely start again.

But the cool thing is that God set adoption on our hearts before we got married. Our premarital counseling surveys are in a box somewhere, but I remember that in response to a question about how many kids we wanted, we both wrote that we hoped to have a couple of biological children and then adopt. For us, adoption was never our plan B. It was and has always been part of plan A for our family. God has just used my health circumstances to confirm that.

So next step, get this house on the market next month. Then, sell it and find another house and buy that one and move. And then get underway with adoption plans.

Please pray for us. In my ideal world, we'll get an acceptable offer the first week our house is on the market and have time before closing to find the perfect-for-us home to buy so that the whole process will be as brief and painless as possible and we can move full speed ahead with the adoption plans. I know that's not the most likely scenario in the current housing market, so you can either pray that everything will go according to my ideal scenario or that God will sustain us through the different scenario He has in store. :)

And also pray for us as we research a tough topic related to our adoption plans. I wish I could share more than that cryptic comment, but I can't yet, except to say that God has drawn us to consider something we hadn't considered before and that we need to be bathed in prayer.

Thanks, y'all.

There IS a right choice for schooling your child.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:11:00 +0000

When Lee and I were considering school options for Jocelyn for kindergarten next year, everything was on the table. Homeschooling. Christian private school. Secular private school. Traditional public schools. Magnet schools. Charter schools.

We sought to talk to parent friends of ours who had school-aged children, hoping to learn from their choices and experiences. What did we learn?

That there IS a right choice for us, but there ISN'T one single right choice that applies across the board to every family.

That's where this blog post title comes in. I do think there's a right choice for schooling your kid. I just don't think the right choice for my family and the right choice for your family have to be the same thing.

I had a great conversation in the church hallway with another mom last Sunday. We have made different choices for next year, but we were still able to encourage one another. It was nice.

And, sadly, I think sometimes that sort of thing can be rare.

I think as each of us are convinced of the right choice for our own families, we can erroneously project that right choice onto other families. We live in a culture that increasingly preaches "what's right for you isn't right for me." And while that relativism can be dangerous in many areas, I think we need a healthy dose of it when we enter the slippery territory of comparing parenting choices that aren't laid out in scripture.

Are all parents responsible for teaching the truth of Christ to their kids and discipling them in God's word? Yes.

Will that happen in the same ways, at the same times, and through the same means in every family? No.

And what choice have we made? Well, I wish I had an answer. We are participating in the public school choice process, and we know which school we would like. We also know that we really, really, really don't like the other options. If we get the school we'd like, then Jocelyn will probably start in public school in the fall. If we get our choices two through five, we don't feel comfortable sending her to those. In that case, we'll apply for a transfer - listing our number one school as well as another one that isn't an option for us right now - and then, if necessary, go through the appeal process. (We are planning to move this year, but our number one choice would be the same, no matter where we live, because of the Spanish language program it offers. In other areas, though, we could have applied for that school as a magnet program last month, whereas that wasn't an option in our area since it's on our proximity list instead.)

(Let me pause our regularly scheduled program to explain: Our ~~oh-so-helpful~~ ~~unbalanced~~ ~~ridiculous~~ ~~ignorant~~ school board put a plan in place that gives each family a list of schools in proximity to their local address, a system that under the guise of "neighborhood schools" ensures that kids in each neighborhood will likely be divided among many schools. They've done this while also failing to communicate details clearly so that only the most educated and informed parents understand the process. I could continue on that rant, but let's get back to the process... For kindergarteners, we each have to rank at least five schools in order of preference. Our address's list only includes five schools, though, so I have to rank all our options. The choice period opened yesterday, but it doesn't end until late February, so we won't know anything for a while. The magnet school selection period was in December and those families have been notified, but any school on your address's proximity list doesn't appear as a magnet option for your family, even if it is a magnet option for other addresses.)

Homeschooling? Honestly, that's where we thought we'd end up. But now? We're open to it, especially if Jocelyn gets placed in a school we don't like and if none of our other options (including a couple of charter school lotteries we're considering) work out, but it seems that God is leading us toward public schooling. We aren't closing the homeschooling door with absolute certainty, but due to my health and a few other reasons, that's not the direction we expect to go.

And private school? Setting aside financial concerns, we've decided that we're not comfortable sending our kids to a school in which kids with disabilities aren't welcome, and that's the reality for most of the private school options in our area and all of the ones we think would be a good fit otherwise for our family. We spend a lot of time and energy working to eliminate barriers to church involvement for families with special needs, and it seems incongruous to us to spend our time doing that while supporting (albeit, passively) similar barriers in a school setting, particularly in a Christian school setting. (I don't share this to say that it is wrong to send your child to private schools that exclude kids with disabilities, just that we've decided that it would be the wrong choice for our family.)

So, yep, I do think there's a right choice for your child. And I think that choice could change from year to year. Shoot, it could even differ from kid to kid within a family, though I hope that's not the case for ours because I like the idea of keeping them in the same schools if possible.

Whatever your family's choice may be, I hope we can each encourage one another.

PS - The book Chasing Elephants: Wrestling with the Gray Areas of Life by Brent Crowe is an exceptional one about biblically working through issues in which a universal right choice is unclear (and about figuring out what areas are truly gray areas vs. ones that do have a clear black and white in God's word).

PPS - My friend at New Every Morning wrote a post on a similar topic at the beginning of the last school year: Calling a Truce. I highly recommend it.

my husband, the comedian

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:41:00 +0000

Alternate title: Because some things just don't fit on the other blog, you get them here.

(By the way, I do have intentions of posing here more frequently, as we're winding down home projects in anticipation of selling our house to move elsewhere in the City of Oaks. No promises or timelines, but I've missed this place. anywho...)

I showed Lee this logo and told him I liked it.

He said, "You have the love for wheelchairs?"

"No, no, no..."

"You love people who are seated?"

Sigh. Eye roll.

"Oh, I see it. You used to have love and then someone sat on it."

"Just go away. Now."

"I, too, am available to speak at conferences!" he boasted proudly, assuming a Superman stance (minus the cape, spandex, and letter on his chest, of course).

To which I, in true ~~tongue-in-cheek~~ ~~Ephesians 5:33~~ Proverbs 32 fashion, responded, "I wonder why you haven't been asked to speak at any yet."

Unperturbed, he confidently replied, "I am undiscovered talent."

one another

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:28:00 +0000

I'm not going to lie: it's been a rough and wild week. This time last week I was at the park celebrating sweet Leiana's third birthday, and a couple friends asked if I was nervous about surgery the next day. I said no, that God had given me peace and an attitude of praise, because getting in for surgery this early was a magnificent answer to prayer.

I am glad God had me resting in his perfect peace before surgery, because I had to cling to it with desperation in the past week.

The pain was more intense than I expected. The swelling was more widespread than I anticipated. And the lack of mobility was more extensive than I imagined. And I certainly didn't expect Robbie to have a bad case of croup on Saturday night.

But the outpouring of love and prayers and meals and childcare and ministry leadership from friends held me up, in the way that Aaron and Hur upheld Moses' hands in Exodus 17. And I did something different this time around than I have in previous health crises:

I.
Accepted.
Help.

I don't do that well, y'all. It's been one of the greatest challenges to my faith because I don't like having to rely on or trust anyone but myself. Even God. I could psychoanalyze myself to explain where that came from, but I already paid good money to do that in counseling the year before Lee and I got married so we don't need to go there.

When I had c. diff and had to crawl from my bed to the bathroom because I was so sick, I wouldn't let Lee carry me. And when Norma called to check in and offer to bring a couple of things during that time, she had to verbally strongarm me into accepting help. Other friends - during that trial and others - offered help, and I did my best to graciously rebuff them.

I secretly liked the set-up of my old Sunday school class' meal sign-ups because no one asked if I needed help. If they did, I wouldn't have accepted. They just provided meals - first, when I had back surgery, and later when each of the kiddos was born.

(To be honest, I did - in a postpartum freak-out as I realized we weren't getting meals the first week after Robbie was born - practically accost the gal coordinating them to beg for a meal that week because I couldn't see straight in the midst of the hormones. And I don't think I've ever apologized for that. Caitlin, I am sorry I was such a jerky basket-case that week, and thank you for helping to coordinate meals for us anyway.)

My point is this: (wait, did I have a point? Oh, yes, now I remember...) God didn't design us as islands made of flesh. The Bible is filled with one anothers. I'll be pulling some of my next memory verses from this webpage listing a plethora of those one another verses, like:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19)

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings. (Romans 16:16)

(Don't worry. I'm not planning on planting any holy kisses on anyone but Lee.)

It has occurred to me this week that I've only thought about one side of these verses: the exhortation to do for the one anothers in my midst. There's another side that I didn't realize until this week: the need to receive from others. On other words, the need to - on occasion - be the one another.

(You can go through old posts to check if you'd like, but I'm pretty sure that paragraph wins the prize for most uses of "other/another" in less than four sentences in Dinglefestland.)

If no one listens, there's no point in sharing songs and psalms and spiritual songs. If no one is willing to move toward good deeds, there would be no point in spur one another on. If no one is willing to receive the acts fueled by devotion to one another, then that devotion would dry up.

We each need to be willing to give to one another and receive from one another for it to work.

Thanks, sweet friends, for giving to me this week with your prayers, comments, messages, calls, meals, gifts, and love. We are thankful, and God has used you to teach me much.

it's a good thing she's good at what she does

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:09:00 +0000

because if not, I'd probably hate my physical therapist by now. Today I learned from her:

that my knee has a MRSA infection. (Woohoo, more antibiotics!!! And praying, praying, praying that we won't have to do surgery again to deal with this.)

that my hips are funky and that we'll be working on that in a future session.

that my other kneecap - on the so-called good knee - is out of alignment and prone to needing this sort of surgery in the future. (I already had figured that one out, but it didn't help to hear it out loud.)

that even though I'm already making good progress in range of motion, physical therapy is going to be a rough road.

Instead of concerning myself with all that, I'm washing down my hard-core, MRSA-killing antibiotics with this loveliness.

Thanking God for my Bible study leader who fed us well tonight (with lasagna and salad and bread in addition to the pie!), even though my four-year-old admonished her for parking in "my Daddy's spot in the driveway" and declared "I think we're going to have to put a sign up so no one ever does that again."

Nicely done, Jocelyn. "Thank you" would have sufficed.

when you give a girl a camera...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:37:00 +0000

(that is, a certain 4.75 year old. not me.)

she will show you new angles of herself, her doll, the house, and the backyard...

...and she will entertain herself for hours on a car ride with Daddy to Charlotte (and he won't even know what she was doing until you look at the pictures she was taking right behind him).

Choosing joy.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:26:00 +0000

When I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I found that my blog encouraged new and old friends in a whole new way. One of my favorite passages in scripture is Daniel 3, and my heart's desire is to reflect the same trust in the same God that Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael trusted. He is wholly trustworthy, even when my joints are not.

Today I wrote on my disability ministry blog that I don't want to be noticed for my limp but that I don't mind people noticing the limp if they notice my God in the process. While I would love for you to check out that post, I also wanted to come back here to talk a little more personally.

It's been a tough week. A week and a half ago, I was considering going on a mile run in the beautiful weather. (I didn't, thankfully.) The next day my knee started acting up, not from an active RA flare but from previous damage to bone and cartilage caused by previous flares and a few injuries from my childhood. By Saturday, my knee started painfully locking into a straight position. Sunday morning I broke down in tears at one point, frustrated that my mobility was limited when I really wanted to poke my head into a few Sunday school classes to check on some of my kids. (And by "my kids," I mean the ones who are supported by Access Ministry. I can't check on Dingle kids on Sunday morning without having them cry to join Momma!) By Monday, I was nearly ready to make reservations for a pity party: Shannon, party of one, please. On Tuesday, I had steroids injected into my knee, and I'll spend Saturday morning in an MRI tube to figure out which (probably surgical) option we'll be considering next.

Since Saturday, I've been fighting against the pity party. I know it won't do any good, but it's still enticing. A few friends have been on their knees on my behalf, fighting that pity party desire for me. And I am thankful.

Something happened last night to change that. I'm not fighting the pity party anymore.

Don't worry! I'm not giving in, either. I just don't desire a pity party now. It's not tempting to go there anymore.

You see, I could count on a blogger I've never met to help me get out of my pity party mode in the past. Sara wrote for {in}courage, but she also has another blog called GitzenGirl. Sara's disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis, has a lot in common with rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, AS and RA are much more similar than RA and osteoarthritis are, so much so that my friend Kelly (aka RA Warrior) is hoping to get the name of RA changed so that "arthritis" isn't even in it. RA, like AS, is systemic but also affects specific joints; both can wreak havoc in specific spots as they weaken the rest of your body as well. And both are treated with the same arsenal of drugs, like my trusty Remicade.

Sara is allergic to the effective drugs that sustain me, though, so the disease just runs its course for her. Her breathing is labored, her movements cause pain, and her immune-related allergies have flared to the point that she can't go outside. Not for a walk, not to get the mail, nothing. She can't even open the windows to let fresh air in or feel a breeze on her face. This has been her reality for years.

Yet the tagline of her blog is Choose Joy, and she chose the word praise as her resolution word to define 2011 for her.

And it will, my friends, in a way she couldn't have known when she chose it back in January. You see, when I stopped by her blog yesterday for the first time in months, I was looking for encouragement. And I found out that Sara is dying. Hospice is there, and she probably won't see October from her current body.

But, praise God, she knows Jesus and has learned to trust and rejoice in him, despite harder circumstances than many of us will ever face. So praise will define 2011 for her, as she will soon praise our sweet Jesus face to face, able to breathe and move and laugh without pain or tears.

And I am so privileged to know her. And I can't wait to meet her in heaven one day.

My blog header will be changing soon in honor of what Sara has taught me. I'll be adding "choose joy" in the corner as a reminder to you, but more importantly as a reminder to me.

Because why would you ever choose a pity party when joy is the other option?

Thank you, Sara. Rest well. I will encourage others to choose joy while you praise Jesus beyond the walls of your earthly home and the confines of your sick body.

Interview time with Jocelyn

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:36:00 +0000

Because I want to be like Jenelle when I grow up (or, um, something like that) and because she posted this and because I loved it the last time I did it, it's interview time again...

What's your name? "Jocelyn, remember?"

How old are you? "Four. [pause] Mom, you know this stuff. What are you doing?"

What are you wearing right now? "A dress that is a nightgown sometimes too." (That's true. Sometimes she wears it as a dress, but sometimes she sleeps in it.)

What is your favorite…

Food? "Hot dogs. And ramen with a little water in it and sauce in the ramen."
Cereal? "Hmm, let me think ... pink squares! 'Cause that's a kind of cereal. Really, Mommy, it is. We just ate it a long time ago and that's why you don't remember." (I have no idea what she's talking about.)
TV Show? "I have a lot of favorites. My favorite is Arthur, Calliou, and Curious George, and the last one ... uh ... CyberChase."
Movie? "All my princess movies and The Incredibles."
Book? "All of my books in my room." (Yes, she is her mother's daughter. I can never answer that either.)
Song? "All the songs I know and can sing. Like Twinkle Twinkle, Rock-A-Bye Baby, and Lord, Compare Me." (Hmm, maybe we need to articulate the words to Sanctuary a little better: "Lord, prepare me/to be a sanctuary...")
Thing to do at home? "Have friends over and play in the backyard with them and play with the bubble machine."
Color? "Pink and purple and orange and yellow."
Toy? "All of my toys."
Disney princess? "I don't know because all of them are my favorites so I don't know."
Fast food restaurant? "The one with jelly. 'Cause, remember? Where we go-ed with Aunt Laurie? That's the kind of restaurant I like." (I have no idea what she's talking about! I guess I have to ask Aunt Laurie.)
Sit-down restaurant? "That's the one I was talking about, the one we go-ed to with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jay." (Oh, Sweet Tomatoes is what she's talking about. She doesn't know what "fast food" means, though she has certainly eaten it before!
Game? "Dora princess game!" (It's a Wii game. Don't get it. She might like it, but I hate it.)

How much do you think the following costs…

New Car? "26" (Nope, no units.)
House? "36" (Maybe we should work on units of measurement.)
Milk? "Three dollars." (Okay, I feel better about the units thing now.)

Where would you go if you could go anywhere on vacation? "To the beach house or to the big city where we went to with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jay."

What do you want to be when you grow up? "Remember, Mommy? Make movies! I want to be an actress."

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? "Lizzie Rose."

If you could have one superpower what would it be? "I don't know. The bubble one or a running fast one or the make storms one. Maybe...the bubble one to make big bubbles that get little when you touch them and it doesn't pop once you touch it."

If you could wish for anything and have it come true, what would your one wish be? "I wish I could get back in your belly and get small and then I fall out and then it will be my five birthday and we'll have a party." (Yes, her wishes are to return to the womb and to turn five. I don't know what to say about that.)

And, as a reprise of last year's questions (see her previous answers here!)...
My dad is 30 years old. (Yep! It's his birthday today.)
He weighs 260 pounds. (She ran to the scale to consult it. And he's put on a bit of weight if she's right!)
His hair is black like Mommy's, and his eyes are maybe the same as mine.
He likes to relax by laying down and stopping doing stuff and maybe falling to sleep.
When my dad shops, he loves to buy all the things we don't have.
His favorite TV show is Mommy and Daddy ones. (In other words, not cartoons.)
I make him happy when I love him.
I really love it when he makes me happy.

My mom is past Daddy years old. (Nope, still rocking my 20s for ten more months!)

She weighs 500 pounds. (Wow, I've put on some weight!)

Her hair is the same as Daddy's but not curly, and her eyes are the same as mine.

She likes to relax by falling asleep.

When my mom shops, she loves to buy peanut butter and jelly.

Her favorite TV show is Mommy and Daddy ones. (In other words, not cartoons.)

I make her happy by loving you. And I make you sad by being angry.

I really love it when she makes me happy.

I love her. :)

How good the book! (How Huge The Night)

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:16:00 +0000

This book is on my list of top young adult book of all time, near the top if you limit it to modern works. (Most of my favorites in this genre are classics.) If you teach adolescents or teens – or if you, like me, are an adult who likes to read their books – do yourself a favor and get How Huge the Night by Heather Munn and Lydia Munn. I think words like well-written and encouraging and inspiring and thought-provoking are thrown around too often in book reviews, but this one truly is all of those things.

(Heads up, though, that this is overtly Christian, so it would be a no go for my public school teacher friends. Sorry! I still think you should read it, though.)

I love YA fiction, but I’ll be the first to acknowledge that much of it is trash (Twilight, anyone?) and that the bar drops significantly lower when you add “Christian” before YA. Another strike against my expectations for this book was the time period; I’ve read plenty of mediocre fiction about WWII and the Holocaust. But, because the blurb seems compelling enough and because I was itching for a little escape fiction, I agreed to review it.

And my expectations? They were all so far off-base that I can’t even see them from here.

At one point, I expected to gripe a little in this review about the authors’ two-dimensional depictions of all the good guys as great and bad guys as terrible...and then they twisted the story in such a way that no only turned that concept of its head but also convicted me of arrogance and self-righteousness at the same time as the main character was convicted of the same. While there is certainly evil in this book, being set in WWII and including some Jewish characters dealing with the effects of Nazi hatred, the more subtle evils in every man’s (and woman’s) heart is revealed, much in the same way as Nathan’s “you are that man!” speech to King David in 2 Samuel 12:7.

Furthermore, it is rare for two women authors to capture and characterize adolescent boys in a rich and realistic way, but the Munns did just that. I do think that some aspects of one of the two parallel storyline was a little under-developed, but I don’t think I would have noticed that if the well-developed one hadn’t been so exceptional. At one point, the gospel of Christ is presented, but it is done so in a natural way that is logical to the story – starkly different from the forced, contrived passages that often show up in Christian fiction and seem hastily shoved in to add a little more religious content.

I was frustrated by one major misstep, but that was probably the fault of the publisher and not the authors. On the back of the book, it states, “Soon after [event A], [event B happens].” I’m leaving out the specifics, because it gave too much away. Plus event A happened on page 21, while event B doesn’t happen until page 222. In any book – particularly one that is 304 pages – you can’t say “soon after” if the lapse between the events is 201 pages!

All in all, this is a coming of age story for a young Christian boy and his friends who are living in a small town in southern France before and during Hilter’s occupation of the country. And it’s a very, very, very good one.

Many thanks to Kregel Publication for providing this for my review. They did not ask for a positive review, just an honest one.

recent thoughts...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:14:00 +0000

No organization here, just some things I've been thinking about lately (plus some hints at other posts coming in the next couple weeks)...

1) Today I'm ranting about injustice on The Works of God Displayed. It's written more in the style of this blog than that one, so if you're read this one, you'll probably want to check it out.

2) Robbie began throwing up on the way home from church on Sunday evening. And then pitifully looked down at himself and looked up at me and said, "It a lot of yuck, Mommy. A lot of yuck," in a distressed tone. Thankfully, he is running and jumping and bouncing today after 36 hours of tummy bug and fever.

3) We've re-prioritized house projects so that we have everything downstairs in order before we even consider expanding to add two bedroom to the third floor. And, while I posted a few weeks ago about our plans to stay in this house indefinitely, part of the reason for the re-focus is that we're toying with the idea of moving to a larger home closer to Lee's office and our church instead of making more room in our current home. (A new house would also ideally have a first floor master so that I can avoid stairs when my joints are flaring badly.) Finishing projects downstairs will make it so our house is ready to sell if we decide to go that route.

4) Today, though, I'm feeling more like we'd be better off staying put. Our neighbors are wonderful, and Jocelyn is hanging out with one of them and "helping" her with her chores so that Robbie and I can rest. So right now I'm feeling like we can only move if there are two houses available on a new street so that our neighbors can move with us (and then, of course, we'll need to convince them of that...).

5) I have a handful of book reviews, ranging for a quick evangelism book for adults to a young adult novel set in southern France during WWII to a kids' picture book, coming this week. And then next week's posts will be brought to you by Jocelyn's photography skills.

6) Overheard in our car a couple weeks ago:
Lee: "So who's the dead person this time?" (referring to my Kindle, which has screensavers that frequently consist of pictures of authors...dead authors, that is)
Me: "Virgina Woolf."
Jocelyn: "Why's she not alive anymore?"
Robbie: "Because she's dead."

7) I love this post and how it relates to parenting. Yes, it is from the Onion News Network, but satire is one of my love languages: Very Lenient Umpire Tells Base Runner Next Time He Gets Tagged He's Out

8) And thank goodness I'm not applying to college right now. A tweet as an essay? I had trouble keeping college essays under the word limit; 140 characters would not have been enough for my word-loving soul.

9) I am really, really excited about our church's new Sunday school curriculum for little ones through high school.

10) I am very, very, very much looking forward to my IV on Thursday. My joints need meds. And I'm nearly at peace with the idea of moving my IV cycle from every eight weeks to every seven and adding a second drug (well, replacing the current second drug with a different, stronger one). Nearly at peace, so please pray, y'all. And I'm very, very, very thankful for insurance, because my meds would put us back $45,000/year if we didn't have insurance.

11) I like Google+, but I'm not sure I can handle another social media option. Either it needs to dominate something else quickly, or it's not going to stay on my radar.

the post that my son might not appreciate someday

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:48:00 +0000

When you have a son and a daughter, particularly when the daughter is older than the son, it's a good idea to let her know proactively what the rules are for playing dress-up with her brother.

Yes, he's crying. One day he'll tell people that he was crying because his sister had the gall to put him in a dress.

On that day, you can decide for yourself whether to let him run with that story or to share the truth.

You see, the sobbing began when I started to take the dress off.

And he cried, "Nooooooooooooo, Mommy, I playing dress up with Jocy. Jocy say I priiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitty!"

Yes, this is a typical day in our house. And I love it.

Endless supply of laughter!

wordless wednesday: why my husband is making wood brackets for the curtain rods

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon Dingle) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:18:00 +0000