The Leegacy Farm

Pulling down the long dirt road leading us to the Lee's farm we're in awe at what the Lord has done for them. Green pastures await us as we pull through the gate. Safety. Freedom of the world it seems. Surrounded by the beauty and far away from broken trees and broken houses. The hearts on the other hand still mending and its evident as we spend time here, working along side all of them. Hearts still missing the one man that would have loved this place the most. Cows grazing in the pasture. Kids riding bikes and swimming in creeks. His beautiful bride slowly directing it all with her soft voice. A lot of times we worked in silence as if everyone was deep in their own thoughts. Mending in their own way. The only way they know. Working.

 These long dirt roads give you a lot of time to ponder life and the events that unfold on your journey. I'm sure each one of them walk this dirt with the knowledge that walking dirt roads are healing somehow.

The air and the sun seem healing and the roads keep you laughing as you journey down to go feed

chickens or play in the water. You just seem to talk. The words a cool water to the burn of the heart. The trees and butterflies keep the children laughing and running. At night the fireflies in such multitude that the children all had jars and would catch so many that we would use the jars as flashlights.

 Judson or Dubs, as everyone who knows him calls him, is growing up. His little free spirit has lots of room to roam out here and roam he does. His feet stay dirty and he pounds these rocks. He see's a picture of him and his dad and tells Cullen, "this is my dad". More than anything I hope that Dubs never forgets his dad. That the Lord would etch his memories into his heart so thick that years would never be able to erase Tom's frame in his mind.

 The girls feet tough as nails as they walk back and forth from the houses. They are as kind and sweet as ever. The Lord flavoring them with what seems like more kindness and gratefulness than they had before, if that's possible.

The girls room is on the top floor of the house and it literally made me cry. It was the simple beauty of sisters sleeping together and sharing a space. Sharing the deep reality of what has happened in their life but doing all that together. Beds so close that if in the middle of the night you need someone all you had to do was rouse a sleepy sister and you could be holding hands with someone for comfort. For the living support of a sister.

The kitchen is still the main stay of their house. The front door always wide open and the cool Tennessee breeze coming through their home. The girls making homemade pizzas and ice-cream. Always someone in here straining milk from a cow who just got milked or washing the piles of tin cups that get used up quickly. This new kitchen reminding me so much of the former kitchen. Girls having hands in dough and preparing food for the hungry.

 Hannah, who loves to build, had her own little workshop set up in the side yard and she was busy almost the whole time we were there. She can build almost anything and her thoughts deep as she worked but when she did put down her drill she was loving on the kids and running with them pushing them on the bikes. She never told the little guys not to mess up her stuff nor did she mind if they worked on some random piece of board at the other end. She amazed me with her beautiful smile and generous attitude.

 I loved this shot as I was coming down the road from our little bungalow. I could barely make out Jo and Judson broke down on the middle of the road and their sisters were coming to their rescue or wait, maybe they were laughing at them? Either way it was a cool shot.

There is always work to be done here on leegacy farm. You work. You learn as you go and you put in your 12 hour day and then you sleep.Work is good for what ails you, I've heard, and these roads were being worked.

Sherry is doing good. In our living a legacy conference she said, "In proverbs 31 it says that she does him good all the days of her life." She said she has lots of years left to do Tom good. I thought that was one of the most beautiful truths that I had ever heard. She can still do Tom good even though he is not here in body.
She can still praise his name in the gates and make sure that she passes the baton to their children, his children. I have to admit right here that tears are streaming down my face because to see her without her
Mr. Tom still hurts and probably always will but she is doing Tom good. She is living out his dream and although the work would seem overwhelming the work is what keeps them going and moving along. She is slowly pulling things back to a new normal and with that new normal she has surrounded herself and their children with God's beauty. Tom would be so very proud at what she has done.

Jordan is busy he has stepped in some very big boots and well, he is doing it well. He is focused and he is now the head of this Lee family. His father's white truck is now the truck he drives with Tom's hat on the dash.

Abby worked in the garden for 5 hours straight one day. No, I did not hear one ounce of complaining. Sorry mothers out there who's children complain about taking out the trash. You just don't have complaining in this Lee family. They work and they  know it will take all of them to get it done. Do we instill that in our children? A mentality of team? A giver of yourself? Work until you have nothing else in you and then you find a bed and crawl in and sleep. Teaching our children the lessons that only work can teach them. It's a good thing.
 We need to be living more like this. Walking more dirt roads with bare feet as a reminder of life. Life is hard, roads are long, but they're meant to be walked together and work is meant to be cleansing and healing.
 So teach your children to be a team. To work along side each other and work out anger, grief, on the dirt of this land of ours and learn to do it together. Life is meant to be lived in community.

Until next time...We love you guys. God Bless.

Train them well

The rain is coming down on the farm. My garden getting the good drenching that it needed. My clothes that got left on the line....not so much. I'm always caught off guard by these stray showers. Clothes being lifted up and swinging back and forth. All the little people that I adore run to get swim suits on and are now running and jumping through the puddles.   Playing in the rain.

I didn't see the cloud coming or I could have had time to prepare. This is usually whats happens to all of us. We didn't see it coming. The character issues that slowly make their way into the life of our children.
It starts off at a distance and we slowly blame it on other things and then one day it becomes so big we ask ourselves where did this attitude come from? I thought I taught them better than this.

We think it's cute when they're little. We think it will go away. We think they will outgrow it before we have to do something about it. None of which are true.

1. They don't outgrow it, the bad attitude usually grows.
2. We are supposed to be training them up in the way they should go so ANY behavior you see that will not look Godly in 5-10 years you must train them now not to do it.
3. Training our children up means work. Imagine you're training for a race or battle. It will take you working at it every single day.

Some days the battle is easy and we swing and laugh and eat popcorn but other days we're on the battle field fighting a huge battle for our children sake..Don't think you're not in a battle for your children because you are. This weekend I taught from Ephesians 6:1-3 Children honor your father and your mother so it will go well with you in the land I have given to you.  
This promise is not for me. It's for my children...it will go well for them. So knowing how much I love the children under my roof I train them up to honor their father and me. I don't believe they come into this world knowing how to honor. We have to teach them to honor. Most kids today are being taught how to honor themselves not their parents, so why should we not be surprised when it's not going well for a lot of children?

God's grace covers and has covered a lot of my parenting mistakes but we have a job to do.
We have our part to play in the raising up of Godly children and The Lord wants us to keep at it and not be surprised with the summer showers.


Blessings from the farm,
Robin  

The scars that I can't heal

If you look close enough you can see them. The scars that brought him back to life. The 6 hour surgery where they stopped his heart and put him on the ventilator. The surgery that turned his life around from death to life.
It's funny, he doesn't ever ask about the big scar that runs from his neck to his belly button. It's there and yet he doesn't seem to care much about it. The scar that brought him full circle. The reason he's with us in our family is because of that heart that couldn't pump enough blood.... and so the scar.
I love that scar. The reminder of where we started from. 





The scar that you can't see in Jo is the scar of missing his sisters in Africa. The two sisters named Ruth and Princess. They seem to cut him much deeper than any open heart surgeons knife could. He prays they have enough to eat and that they are safe. He prays for his African mother with the beautiful clothes that held him and protected him for 17 months. He prays..
I pray with him and tell him every little detail of my time with her and what she looked like and how she smelled of dial soap. How she was so determined to get him help that she was there everyday that I was there. Watching and letting go of her son little by little. I would hold him and he being so sick would not cry for her or cry because of me, he just sat between the tears that she and I shared.
She gave him up and now I live with a little boy who has scars of the heart inside and out. As he gets older he looks at their pictures more. He touches the colored copies of their faces and says "black like me." Yes, Jo black like you. Scars........I can't see, but nonetheless they are there. Adoption continues to be a road that I live more on my knees then my feet. Trying to say the right things, trying to always point him to Christ and remind him that we all are adopted. But the fact will always remain that he has a black mama that loves him more than I could ever love him because she found him help and then she gave him to me and rested in the fact that I promised her I would get him surgery. Could I give Jo up? Could I make it well with my soul somehow or would I hold him until he took his last breath because I was to afraid to let go? My own selfishness standing in the way of help.

She let him go and now I live with the scars that only God can heal. The scars that reach his inner most parts.
I don't want to mess this up. I want him to grow up being so very proud of his mother. I want him to love her so very much for committing to him even when the road was long and the cost was much she never stopped.
I have wished so many times that she could see him now. Running and playing and talking. He has never been to a Dr. for a sickness since he left the hospital. He's strong and he's my African Warrior. He's a survivor.
Oh, to hold his hand and to kiss his face. To teach him how to read and write his name. To teach him that God has been so good to Him even though it may seem like a hard providence, God has been good and faithful.

Teaching the lessons of scars in his life and I am remind that God uses our scars for battle cries and they make us stronger and deeper and more dependent on Him.

I love Jo scars and all....and I'm praying for a woman that lives half way across the world.....


Posted from the archives

Chickens and strawberries

The girls are getting so big. I can't help but laugh at their spunk. They keep me running and they keep me laughing and they keep me praying, a lot..How do I do it all? Everyday is fresh and new and everyday I start anew. I know that the days on this farm are changing and I do what I know and I pray that He will fill in the blanks. Little AA is staying with us off and on and he is such a joy. He brings with him laughter and happiness. He is one of the most pleasant babies I have ever been around and I love him being here.  

I can't help but to show you what I'm up against. The girls are so stinking cute but these two need to be watched. They do this little tag team shuffle and keep me guessing who's going to have a bad day. I'm ready for them. They are little pistols fully loaded and it's my job to unload them...it's hard work people!
They are very close to being fully potty trained during the day which in itself is quite an accomplishment. They now stay up late with the family and watch movies and love to cook and wash dishes. They are such blessings and I love shaping them and molding them to love the Lord.

Cooper went on a walking herb class with his grandmother and they told him the benefits of the thistle plant so he decided to dissect one and try and get the milk out of it. He worked on that big brier patch for most of the day and barely got a few drops. That's the joy of homeschooling though. Time to explore and research things. One of the many reasons I love homeschooling so much.

Little sweet flower is doing well. We recently got 10 new laying hens and well, this little country girl loves to sit out there and watch all those chickens scratching around in the dirt. She jumps over the fence and sits out in their yard and just watches. In a day and age where girls hardly ever go barefoot anymore this little girl's feet are always dirty. The dark soil from her grandfather keeping her feet the color of coffee.
This girl loves her chickens. Come by sometime and she'll show you.

More than chickens she loves strawberries and the strawberries are ripe and big and beautiful this year.
She has went picking twice and she is a pro. She can fill a bucket almost as fast as Cooper but she always stops and eats a few. The red juice slowly finding it's way down her shirt.

Sometimes I feel so busy raising up 8 + 1 children and this chair calls me to come sit a spell and write about our life here on the farm but our life here is full, rich, joyful and busy so it keeps me out of this chair...

I do have some upcoming posts on child training so any specific questions you might have leave them in my inbox and I'll try to answer them!

Blessings from the Farm,
Robin

His life a light

He's been here for most of his life. His light pushing back the shadows of doubt and confusion. God said the words, "let there be light" and there was light. God said the words, "let there be an African boy named Jo" and so it was the beginning of his beautiful story. With his story comes the story of his best friend Cullen. His brother only 1 year older, these two share life together and break bread everyday and absolutely cause me to love the smell of boys and the laughter of pure friendship that I see in them.    
Jo is taller and Cullen stands on tippy-toes saying no, he's not taller.

Jo's light of braveness as he stands in a field that is not his country.

Stands with a brother who is not his color.

Stands next to me as my son and showers me with his

ability to cope and laugh and give God thanks for

saving him but in the process having to give up all he knew,

all he loved in Africa for the chance God offered. He has dealt so well

with the many changes I forget sometimes that he was never born here.

I forget sometimes that I never gave birth to him. 

His long African legs stand now in our pasture. The Lord restoring the life of this boy. The Lord smiling at Jo's strength and endurance as he grows another year older and he realizes just how much he has to be thankful for as I explain to him how near death he was. He puts a finger to his scar and runs it down the jagged edge and says "He saved me".
Yes, Jo, He saved you.
God made you and now you should always give thanks and glorify God forever. Tell your children so that they can tell their children of God's faithfulness in your life. Be a thankful person and don't look at the past as a negative, look at it as God's intervention in your life to heal you and save you.

So with those words I pray that you never ever know a day without the Lord as your Savior. I pray that thankfulness continues to be pressed on your lips.
I thank the Lord for your birthday and for His words of "Let there be a little African boy named Jo." and I'm sure He said, "he is good"..:)  

Consider

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink: nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?.... Matthew 6-26,28 

Can you imagine listening to these words while resting on the grass and watching the gentle mountain breeze entice the wildflowers into a delicate dance on the meadow as chirping birds fly effortlessly from tree to tree? How could you help but feel the pressures of your daily troubles lift as you breathe the fresh air and hear the voice of Truth remind you to rest and trust?

Christ was saying "Come, look at God's handiwork!" and them pointing beyond the handiwork to God Himself.

"Look," Jesus told the crowds and his disciples that day. "Observe."

Another translation says "consider".

Are we paying attention to God's reality and presence in the world around us?

Are we inspired by the handiwork of our Lord and Savior?

I know I am!

Like when I look into the eyes of this little brown eyed girl named Ellie. She is precious to me. My soul delights in her. I consider how every thing about her was created and molded together by God. She is Ellie because He is God. I love that! I love that!

I consider the wonders of the Lord when friends run through your pasture, the sunlight draining from the day and landing on their faces. I recognize that the Lord put it there Himself. Sunlight, the beautiful flowers of the field. He was kind of showing out because He brought it all together and it was captured. This moment can never be relived and yet we can look back and remember.

We can remember the tall grass, the purple flowers, the sun setting and remind them that Christ made it all.
Amazing!

I see the fruit of the labors of planting our garden. The watering and weeding...The beauty of divine

work that He brings together for food for our table.

He has truly thought of everything and given us everything we need. If we do the work

without remembering Him, it's all for nothing.

Oh Lord, thank you for the magnificent gift of your creation. Your handiwork makes me stand in awe at your greatness. May I always find time to stop and point my children to all the wonderful things you have created for us and in return point them straight to you, the creator of it all.

Even our dog Boo....

Blessings from the farm,
Robin

Dance with me

The rays from the moon are twinkling and we dance under the moon beams.
I dance with all of them and I love the sounds of the night. I hear them far off..The frogs making their noise looking for that "someone special".  I smile because that sound has been a part of my life for as long as my memories take me back. The sounds of frogs and crickets. The darkness so deep yet their song so loud.
A constant reminder of God's creation and I'm so happy I have this night to share it with them. To hold their little bodies close and smell them and soak them up.

Channie bringing up a  "make a wish" flower..

"Make a wish with me mama"..

"ok, Channie"

 I wish that you would never ever forget this night and you will always remember us under the moon dancing and holding hands. I pray that you never ever forget that we share nights like this and that they're gifts from the Lord. The Lord gives us nights like these so that when we have hard nights we can look back on these beautiful moonlit nights and remember He is good.

Slow down tonight and dance under the moon with your children. Share a memory under the canopy of God's love.

Blessings from the Farm,
Robin

Genesis 1:16
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Gratitude

The light from the cake shining in my heart still as she blows the number 6 out and another year with this little girl has passed and the Lord has been so good.

1. Learning to read and tying shoes 
2. Learning to change diapers
3. Learning to cook
4. Learning to serve
5. Learning to hope in the Lord.. "since I turned 6 Daddy, I'm going to ride my bike without training wheels."  

Channie-Mae has had a wonderful year of health and happiness and as I become "more familiar" with this beautiful person whom the Lord has allowed me to raise up I'm amazed at His goodness..

The old saying goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt". We tend to take for granted the things that have been

a regular part of our lives.We don't live with a sense of appreciation for the lavish food, clothing, housing, and health we enjoy. We are incredibly rich but we do not live with a sense of privilege.

Yet in my life I live with the most beautiful expressions of God's love and  

I don't want to be too familiar that I forget how special she is, how special they all are.

I don't want to ever forget that it is a privilege.

 I am a mother and for the privilege of that one job I am thankful. 

1. Reading stories
2. tea parties
3. library days
4. teaching her to read
5. teaching her about the Lord
6. going swimming
7. holding hands
8. kissing her boo-boos
9. sharing my bed
10. watching movies
11. teaching her to cook
12. holding Rosie
13. smelling her hair
14. jumping on trampoline
15. braiding hair
16. ice cream

She is a sister to many and she wants more.

 He is a boy from Africa who will tell you straight up that

God saved him from a certain death.

I remind him everyday..what God has done for him.

I've taught him to live with a sense of gratitude at what the Lord has done.

He will remember that the Lord orchestrated his adoption and he should live out

his life with gratitude. 

You're looking into the eyes of the next generation and the Lord

has given me marching orders to teach it to them. The brown in their different shades always looking and I pray that I always look into their eyes and see something different..Never becoming familiar and losing my focus and my agenda.. 

Teach it to the next generation.

I remind her that when she was born the cord was wrapped around her neck two times...She was breech and they (the doctors) were going to try and manually move her and after much prayer we decided not to let them.  Later that week when she was born the Dr. said if we had done the procedure the cord would have tightened around her neck. I tell her the Lord preserved her life and how she should live with a sense of gratitude. I help them to remember what the Lord has already done in their life and to look to the future with a great sense of Hope and trust in Him.

If we don't do this our children will never feel connected or see the foot prints of the Lord in their life at an early age. Keep reminding them how faithful the Lord has been. Teach them to tell others their story of adoption, how He healed them with open heart surgery, or how the Lord saved them at birth.

Teach them to look at their life and know that the Lord has had it all mapped out from the very beginning and He's been there.  

His finger prints etched into their very core. 

That's what I tell them.

Channie-Mae, your life is mapped out by a living God who adores and delights in you.

May you, my darling, live your life in such a way that 20 years from now I can still look

upon these pictures with delight and happiness and say, "she has only grown in her Faith"..

May you always remember you were born to Glorify and Love God forever. 

March 31, 2012

love you forever,

mom