When one does not post on a blog in 9 months, events tend to be unreported. When events are unreported, our faithful readers are disappointed. When our faithful readers are disappointed, depression ensues and they become reclusive hermits. Well now is the time to leave your holes and caves, faithful readers! At last, you can be heartened by the appearance of a new blog post detailing the events of the past 9 months, and, along with that, you can be rewarded with a considerable decrease in depression and thoughts of hiding in holes.

9 months in the Walker household means 9 months of event after event after event after birthday after event (most of which we work at). Sometimes, however, we get a moment of respite and get to do a few fun things :) You will find, oh reclusive hermetical faithful readers, that we have been busy for the last 9 months.

Our first picture was taken in March. It is a picture of a transition between winter (white flowers) and spring (green shoots).

This is one of my favorite orchard pictures from this year.

A skip ahead 2 months to Corey's birthday. Corey is extremely happy with his new Kindle. Hope wonders what the fuss is all about.

Corey's perennial cake choice: it makes him feel light and fluffy.

Caleb LOVES birthdays; they make him very hyper (and he gets to eat cake!).

The next event (at least the next event that we took pictures of) was Independence day.

Hey hey! The gang's all here!

After the Fourth was the Brown side of the family's reunion (and a real, live, genuine owl's). Look at them all!

This summer we, as a family, hosted nearly weekly movie nights in our front yard. We would put up a screen, fire up the projector, then watch cool movies like The Adventures of Tintin and Amazing Grace. Also included in these events is late evening swimming.....

....and late night volleyball.

Eve and Rach prepare for the movie.

The biggest news of the year! If you can't tell what's happening here, it has to do with sparkly diamonds and rhodium-plated gold.

Let them eat cake!

No year would be complete without Family Camp! Our speaker this year was Pastor Lovett from Heritage Church in Centerville, Tennessee. Their family stayed at our house for the duration of the trip (except, of course, the period where we, and their family, were gone at Family Camp). Pictured above is the game called "Try to get your Opponent into the Big Blue Barrel and Roll them down the Hill". Unfortunately, nobody won.

Next in the line of Family Camp activities is the famed Steal the Bacon: Men's Style. Can you say "Bumps and bruises?" I feel that this picture so adequately captures the spirit of Steal the Bacon that it almost makes me cry.

Nope, this one portrays Steal the Bacon so much more accurately than the above picture that it makes me weep. Corey stole the bacon and ate it, but he choked on it and Mr. Heyne had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.

Almost got him, Isaac! Keep those fists swinging, and you might get him sometime!

Relaxation after Steal the Bacon is much needed.

TACKLE!!!!

GET THE BACON!!!

Hannah watches on.

As does Isabella...

...and Kaliste.

Walking the gauntlet. Don't smile, Sean!

During camp, the first UFO in years was sighted above Camp Chinquapin. Reports say that it was egg-shaped and had multiple colorful noodle-like appendages.

Dad reacts in disbelief to the fact that a UFO flew overhead just moments before.

Volleyball is a popular activity at Family Camp.

Caleb loves pointy sticks.

Skits! Natasha fills the role of shelf admirably well.

BARREL!

After Family Camp comes school. We take first day of school pictures every year. This is Caleb's.

Hope.

Your's Truly.

Corey Mo-Fori.

Kevin.

The whole gang.

Now to very recent events. Last week was Fall Homeschool Camp 2012. The Harders came to have some fun.

A lively game of Chain Tag.

With house prices as they are right now, these kiddos were actually able to afford one! It is about 6 square feet in area, 4 feet tall, and has a leaky roof! What a steal!

For some odd reason, Ultimate is a ton more fun when it is cold and dreary outside.

The Ladies' Tea. No, I was not there (whew!). Apparently, they served tea, of all things.

Well, that was a look at our life the last 9 months. Hopefully this blog will be posted on more often (blogging is always easier if you keep up with it!)

Hasta la Vista!

Casey for the Walkers

Trip to the Iles de la Madeliene: Part two

Bonjour everyone!

Thursday morning heralded the beginning of another windy day. It was snowing most of the day, but because of the wind, the snow was often traveling horizontally and at times even slightly upwards.

Yet despite the cold and wind, inside it was nice and warm. Austin and Isaac were still on Christmas break, so they were trying to get some position papers done on topics such as music, boundaries, the Church, and marriage. During the morning I sat with them at the kitchen table and we talked about many different aspects of music. As we quickly saw, it is much easier to come up with questions than to answer them!

At lunch time, I had the treat of getting to meet some friends of the Adams. Though not official missionaries, the couple carries on what many would consider missionary outreach. Over lunch, they gave me advice on what steps to take as I prepare for a future in missions and also gave us all a hearty laugh through stories (accompanied by many humorous facial expressions) about some of their recent experiences.

Later in the day, we again headed down to the beach for another attempt at reaching the furthest point on the beach.

Unfortunately, we were only able to get past the second of four points due to the size of the waves, but it was still a challenge to keep our footing on the frozen rocks.

We also had fun scaling some of the cliff walls, though we were only able to get up a short way.

After returning to the house, we did one of the Adam’s favorite inside activities: puzzled over some puzzles. In one day we did almost five puzzles.

Friday morning, Austin and Isaac let me help them with a project they’ve been working on: a recumbent bike. It’s very interesting and I was glad I was able to help out a little bit on it.

The afternoon activity was a hike through a nearby forest and the weather had cleared up so much that we were sweating by the time we got back to the house.

Though there wasn’t much snow on the ground, we still managed to scrape together enough for a small snowball war.

On Saturday, Austin, Isaac, and I all headed back to where we had hiked the day before and rode bikes down the trails. Curtis unfortunately had some schoolwork to do, so he had to stay home.

When we returned, we sat down to a wonderful lunch that the girls had prepared.

Once justice was done to the goodies, Mr. Adams led the whole group of us out on a special New Year’s Eve hike. Here there was more snow so we had a lot of fun throwing snowballs, though Ibby seemed to take a lot of hits since she was often in the middle of the pack. Emily had to stop several times to fix her shoes because they were hurting her feet, so even though we all felt sorry for her, I have to admit, a still target is easier than a running one.

Throughout the week, Austin and I had camera wars.

Mealtimes are times of bustling activity in the kitchen and the meals are always delicious.

Sometimes, however, we had leftovers, so someone had the brilliant idea of tying a biscuit to a string and seeing if any of the nearby crows would attempt to grab it. Though no crows did, a cat that is often around the house took a go at it and succeeded in pulling the biscuit to pieces.

Sunday was spent in prayer, discussions, puzzles, Scripture recitation, and a hike. We headed towards the beach once again and headed towards what is fondly called the monkey head.

Some of the favorite activities on these hikes were skipping rocks, jumping on rocks, and cracking icicles.

The Adams are all excellent musicians and so I’ll leave you with these last pictures and video.

Well hopefully you were able to wade through that long post! I’ll try to get the next up sooner than I did this one.

In Christ,

Corey

Trip to Iles de la Madeliene: Part one

Howdy to all you folks!

Thanks to the Lord’s mercy, I made it safely to Iles de la Madeleine yesterday after a long night of flying. The trip began in San Francisco where my mom and Kevin dropped me off.

After a quick pass through check-in and security, I hopped onboard a plane to Toronto. As you can see, the sunset was beautiful:

My face, on the other hand, is not:

(As a forewarning, throughout the first leg of the trip I amused myself by taking pictures while making faces. So beware! Also, I apologize for the blurriness of some of the pictures. Due to either wind or low lighting, some pictures ended up blurred.)

I must have made several people chuckle to themselves at the Toronto airport. I had an 8 hour layover, so to pass the time and try and make up for a lost night of sleep, I made my own bed on the airport floor, curled up, and tried to sleep.

Luckily, it was pretty empty in the airport at that time. :)

After checking in my baggage, I headed through security again and waited out the last little while until my next flight took off.

This next flight was about an hour long, but in that hour the sun came up and I was able to see the change in landscape. On all of my flights, I wish I was allowed to take pictures during take-off and landing. Despite the ability of the camera to capture landscapes, it can’t fully do it justice. In San Francisco, there was a low fog, barely reaching higher than the top of the skyscrapers. Coming out of it and looking down as the sun was beginning to descend was truly a wonderful sight. Flying over Toronto and seeing a maze of lights, laid out in rows and curves, soaring over mountains and iced over rivers, watching people venture cautiously out onto frozen streams, seeing the landscape change from coast to desert to mountains to snowy tundra, all was breathtaking and wonderful to behold. God is truly an artist.

After reaching Montreal, I got on one last plane for the final leg of the trip.I was now in the middle of a country of French speakers, so the only people who spoke English were the flight attendant and a few other people scattered over the plane. With each successive stop for fuel and other passengers (there was one in Quebec and another in Gaspe), the plane only seemed to get more and more full. For most of the flight, I was sitting next to a friendly older man who tried several times to talk to me, though, of course, in French. I, of course, could not speak French and was left with no choice but to shrug apologetically. He eventually realized that I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying, though at one point he did turn to me (forgetting that I couldn’t understand), said something, and then seeing my blank expression, turned around and said the exact same thing to someone else. After that, I was chuckling to myself and hoping that I'd be able to understand at least a little on the way back.

The Lord continued to bless my journey and provided clear skies and sunny weather. Touching down in the Magdalene Islands, the Adams gave me a hearty welcome and introduced me to the rigors of a walk on the beach.

After scrambling over rocks and getting slightly wet from accidentally slipping into the shallows, we all hurried back to the house to get warm. The next morning, another beautiful sunrise greeted me.

After breakfast, Mr. Adams let me ride along as he ran a couple errands and stopped at a house to try and get contact information for some old friends of theirs. The Magdalene Islands are basically several islands joined by sand bars on which roads have been built. We traveled to the end of one of these where Mr. Adams showed me one of the oldest settlements on the island.

At one point, we saw a cross on a hill and so we stopped to hike up to it. The wind at that point was pretty strong, though not as strong as it is right now. It was only about 40 mph then.



Most of the islanders here are Catholic and so it was no surprise to see a shrine at the top of the hill.


After we got back, we had lunch and then went for a hike up a hill right by the house. One neat thing about this mountain is that there is a path through the trees on the side, almost like a tunnel that you can go down holding a rope for support.

I'll end with a picture of the house.


There is more to come soon!

~Corey

The Journey

As I have time, I'll post all the details, but here is a post I sent to our church family (with photos now added) while in Uganda.  Thanks to all those who prayed so faithfully and gave so generously to bring Caleb home!
______________________________________________________________________

I’ve hesitated to write an update, not because there is nothing to tell, but because it is difficult to put into words the emotions and events of the last several days. But now, in the quiet, early morning hours, as I sit, for a change, with Caleb still asleep, I have decided to write. It is tempting to paint a rosy picture, for there are happy moments: laughs with Corey, the exciting find of a refrigerator next door where we can put our drinks and have them cold; music-making with Caleb as he beats on the trash can or sings us a tune; walks to the one little store nearby to purchase peanut butter and jelly for lunches; magnificent storms that clear away the thick black smog that pours from the vehicles and the brown smoke that snakes from the endless piles of trash that burn along the roadways; the discovery of rainbow-colored birds, large, blue lizards, and brightly decorated moths; late-night games of Settlers of Catan with Corey. We treasure these simple pleasures. But we’re homesick. Bored. We miss the rest of our family. We’re tired…exhausted, really. We have no guarantee that we’ll return home on our ticketed flight. And yet we know, here in our little Ugandan compound, just like in California, God is on His throne, orchestrating the events of our days, tenderly caring for us, His beloved children.

We talk of adoption as glorious. A child becomes part of a covenant family. A family gains another blessing. A child is rescued from orphanhood. These are accurate statements. Adoption is glorious. But if we are to understand God’s adoptive love for us, we must tell the whole story. God’s love, while glorious, was also gory. Our adoption was purchased in sweat, blood, and tears. While I have not sacrificed my heavenly prerogative, nor given my life for Caleb, I now understand, in small part, the cost of my adoption into God’s family. Caleb did not come running to me, asking me to be his parent . Corey and I have traveled a distance to redeem him from poverty and fatherlessness. We make seemingly endless drives into the city and wait in ninety degree heat with high humidity and an unhappy child to see officials who often treat us like stupid Mzungus (white people). Dragged from all he has ever known, Caleb’s world has been turned upside down. He’s been given new garments and a new name. Yet he has clawed, hit, bitten and scratched us. He screams to be put down and then screams to be picked up. He doesn’t really know what he wants or needs. He operates with the mentality of a child raised in an orphanage. How like me.

For me, Christ was mocked, spit upon, beaten, bruised, and crucified. And yet, I did not naturally come running to Him. God dragged me from fatherlessness to make me His. When I was made his child, I gained all the rights and privileges of an heir. Caleb now has all the rights and privileges of a Walker. When I was given my new name and clothed in Christ’s righteousness, my former world was rejected. And though at times, I respond, as does Caleb, with loving affection, I often forget that I am God’s child and attempt to still live the life of an orphan, kicking at my Father, begging selfishly for my way, not His, clawing and scratching at the One who redeemed me. But He loves me yet. And I love Caleb. Not easily; but with sacrificial purpose because this is what adoption must be. I continue to be sanctified and hopefully will act more and more as a Christian with each passing day. I pray that Caleb, too, with devoted training, will act more and more as a family member in both the Walker home and in the family of God . Adoption isn’t necessarily pretty. But it is good.



__________________________________________________________________________________

On another note, we need your prayer. Our visa interview is Monday and that will determine, in large part, whether or not we’ll return home on February 11th. There are also things in which to rejoice with us. We had visitors last night at our guest house (hotel). A couple from a local church came to call. We couldn’t find the church last week, but Steve finally tracked down a phone number and we contacted them. Ben and Lovin, our visitors, and church members, stopped by to introduce themselves and kindly arranged a ride for us so we can worship with them in the neighboring village this Sunday. And, on Saturday, Corey and I will head about 5 km north of Kampala (we’re staying about 8 km south) to visit the Ugandan girl, Ruth, that we sponsor through Compassion International. Though we gave short notice, Compassion was able to coordinate a visit to Ruth’s Project and home. We’re excited to meet this young lady for whom we’ve been praying and to whom we’ve been writing.
Since I'm posting this after-the-fact, pictured here,
Ruth shows me her grades while we sit at her Compassion Project

Well, Caleb awoke about five minutes into this post and I can no longer concentrate on my thoughts nor find time, between disciplining him, to write more. Please pray that I will be patient and long-suffering. Corey has been such an encouragement and example to me in this area.
We send our love to each of you. How terribly we miss you and long to be with you!

Love,
Wendy, for the three of us

Africa: Part 2

I wrote this back a couple months ago to let you all know that we are alive and well. Well, now, at last, I’m posting this to let you know just how alive and well we really are. Let me begin by briefly telling you what happened the last week we spent in Uganda…

After numerous appointments with the Ugandan passport office, we finally got our passports. That was a joyous day, knowing that all we had to go through next was the U.S. Embassy. However, we were running out of time. It was just over a week until we were scheduled to leave and stress levels were high as we tried to deal with crying babies, restless nights, grumpy officials, and above all, a terrible longing to be home. After meeting with the Embassy a few days later, another load of stress was added as we were told that it would be at least two weeks until we were issued our visa. It was Thursday and we were leaving the next Thursday night. Over and over we prayed that the Lord would work out the details and speed the process along so that we could come home. Day after day was spent in restless anticipation as we wondered whether or not we would be able to get Caleb’s visa on time. Every other night it seemed like one of us, exhausted and worn out beyond our own strength, would burst into tears which would set the other off in a second. But in His mercy, the Lord sent relief.

The previous Sunday we had been unable to find the church at which we hoped to worship and so we were forced to hold our own worship service. The following Sunday it seemed like the same thing would happen, but right when we were about to give up, an elder from the church showed up and drove us the fifteen minutes to the church building. To many people, Sundays are social events: chances to see friends, eat food, and overall have a good time. They are missing out, though. Unless one is in a situation where they are deprived of Christian fellowship when they desperately need it, they can hardly understand the joy it was for us. We hopped out of the car to be greeted by a joyous chorus of voices. Soon we were in the midst of a group of African Christians, with a scattering of white skin here and there. The seven person choir swayed rhythmically to the music and passionately sang praise to our Maker. After the singing was over, the pastor gave a sermon that can only be described as doctrinally sound coupled with African enthusiasm. Though we missed worshipping with our church body at home, how much we enjoyed the encouragement of that morning! The Lord is truly a refreshing stream and He revived our spirits through the ministering of His people. Looking back on that day, I think of how blessed I am to have experienced the worship of another people group. Here in America, we often forget that the reason we go to church is to worship an all-powerful, all-mighty, all-seeing God. Many don’t go to contribute to the meeting of His people. Often, we go to worship the Lord in the company and fellowship of others who have come to do the same but how little we follow the commands of Scripture which say, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God,” (1 Peter 4:10-11) and also tell us that “God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:10-12). We so often want our own needs to be met that we forget to minister to the needs of others. Yet we truly had our needs ministered to that day. We returned to the hotel with renewed hope and trust in the Lord’s provision.

The next day, that hope was dampened somewhat when we returned to the Embassy to check the status of the visa. It was still predicted to be done in a week and a half with the possibility that it would be done early enough to arrive the day after we were scheduled to leave. Our biggest worry was that we would have to reschedule all of our flights: a task that would cost well over a thousand dollars. For the next four days, we were on the edge of our seats, hoping and praying that we would get the visas before Thursday. On Wednesday, we were told to come back the next day to check and see if they were done. So Thursday morning, we got all packed-up in anticipation that we would be leaving for our flight at 9:00 p.m.. At 12:00 noon, my mom left for the Embassy while I stayed behind to watch Caleb and pray. And pray I did. 1:00 came and passed, followed by 2:00. 3:00 passed and still nothing. At last, at 5:30 p.m., I heard my mom talking with another mom who was also in Uganda adopting. The moment I heard that voice I was excited, but told myself to stay calm. I could tell that my mom was cheerful, but this could be attributed to a blessing of peace from God. Yet the moment I saw her face, I could tell we’d be going home. For fifteen minutes we did nothing but smile, dance, and shout for joy. Even Caleb caught on to the excitement and began frantically bending up and down, laughing hysterically with eyes half-closed. When 9:00 p.m. rolled around, we began our journey home. Several events occurred during that trip home, but I will leave that to a third and final post as this is already quite lengthy. However, for now, suffice it to say that we made it home safely and are now in the midst of training this young bundle of black-skinned energy in the path of the Lord. May the peace of God be upon you and may He reveal His bountiful mercies to you, even as He has so richly opened our eyes.

Until next time,

~Corey (for the seven of us)