What makes my husband an awesome daddy…

My husband helping one of our sons learn to fly a kite at the beach

My husband, Dave, is a great daddy. I knew when I married him he was a pretty terrific guy. But there are a few traits of my husband I wanted to highlight on this Father’s Day, 2012.

My husband loves God. He seeks wisdom and direction from God in leading our family, and prays regularly for us. He strives to love God will all his heart, mind, strength and soul. Just as the David of the Bible was a man after God’s own heart, so is my husband. We are blessed to have a Godly man leading our family and seeking to do God’s will.

He works hard for our family, allowing me to stay home with our children. I knew when we started a family, I wanted to be able to stay home to raise our children. We took steps early on in our marriage that enabled us to be a one-income family. I am so grateful to be able to spend my days with our children and watch them grow.

He is patient, much more so than me. When I was at my wit’s end in potty training one of our children, my husband came up with a game plan of incentives that motivated our child to succeed. He takes the time to teach our children. When my daughter struggled in learning a new math concept last year, my husband sat down with her in the evening and helped her understand the concept a different way than I had been trying to teach her. As a homeschool mom, I cannot begin to tell you what a blessing it is to have a supportive husband who takes an active role in helping teach our children. He researches curricula and homeschool resources, and encourages our children as they learn.

He goes along with some of my crazy ideas…like going on vacation with four young kiddos (actually going anywhere with four very energetic kids). I often underestimate the effort involved in taking our family places. But Dave knows I like to get out and do things as a family, and he sacrifices Saturdays and other times so we can spend time together.

He supports my interests and encourages me to try new things. My first priority is being a mama…and it is hard to get time to myself at this stage of our family life. But Dave encourages me to get together with friends and other homeschool mamas, and to take care of myself.

I know I don’t tell him often enough how much I appreciate all his hard work. Happy Father’s Day to my husband, and to all daddies (and daddies-to-be)!

Wordless Wednesday: At the beach

Wordless Wednesday: Playtime!

Wordless Wednesday: The Great Outdoors!

Mama Bear Instincts

As an adoptive mama, I have become accustomed to curious glances from strangers – rarely does a day go by when I am not asked about our family or adoption. Just last week, I met a lovely couple simply because they were curious about our two younger boys. It was an older Chinese couple, and the man approached me and first asked if all four kids were mine. When I said yes, he asked if my younger boys were adopted. I explained yes, from Taiwan. Turns out his wife was born in Taiwan. He asked some questions about our adoption and even offered to teach me Chinese – it was so sweet. I hope I get a chance to see them again. I love talking about adoption and Taiwan. But our family does look different from most. My protective mama instincts kicked into high gear yesterday when a stranger kept staring at my children and watching us as we walked into our gym. The man was not dressed to work out, and was watching us a little too closely for my comfort. He followed us into the gym and sat down in the lobby. I mentioned my concerns to the childcare coordinator and she was able to figure out he was there to pick up a child from one of the children’s programs. That put my mind at ease. I am fairly certain he was just curious about our family and probably didn’t mean to alarm me. But you can never be too careful and I would rather mention my concern and for it to turn out to be nothing, than ignore it and regret not saying anything.