Visit the Zoo with Us!

Mrs. Beaver:

This week Joe and Lissie finished their second-to-last college semesters. To celebrate that accomplishment and take advantage of their two weeks of unencumbered freedom, we traveled to Omaha to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Our first stop was the "Lied Jungle."

There we saw everything from water fowl to...

...several species of monkeys. I thought this pair bore a resemblance to Joe and Lissie...

...but our twins just couldn't see the resemblance!

Alexander's favorite animal in this exhibit was the colorful parrot. He clearly remembers the bird's Russian name, so I suspect our 12-year-old's interest in the colorful winged-creature began before he came to America.

I have to admit, I love the photo below. The second bird peaking out from behind the tree just begs for a caption. When Joe has recovered more fully from the drain of the last college semester, I may have to see if he can come up with something clever. Joe tends to think in "captions"!

By the time we left the jungle, we'd made all kinds of discoveries...

...this upside down character had to be the least expected and funniest! He was dangling from a light fixture we crossed under as we exited the building. Again, I think this photo just begs for a caption. It's looking like I can keep Joe intellectually stimulated during his two-week break!

Our next stop was the large cat house. There we were surprised to see a tiger stand up to it's full height on it's hind legs and stride back and forth in front of a set of windows. We soon realized that the tiger was intent on, and perhaps even coveting, a large ball being toyed with by another tiger in an enclosure across the exhibit hall.

We learned from a volunteer docent standing nearby that the "dancing" tiger was just one and a half years old.

She eventually gave up on her lust for the ball...

and settled into a contented cuddle with her mama (right).

Tigers weren't the only cats we were able to see today.

What fascinated us the most was a mammoth male lion.

His roar rattled the building, and it's rumble reached far outside his compound.

His enormous paws left no doubt as to his strength!

Getting this close up view of a lion just before Christmas, left us contemplating the stunning miracle of the babe in the manger. That frail infant was fully human and yet fully God. That babe, born in a manger smelling as badly as some of the exhibits we visited today, would transform the world!

The Bible calls Him the Lion of Judah. While a real lion's strength is awe-inspiring, it is also limited. There is no limit to the strength of the great Lion of Judah. He was strong enough to endure our sin on the cross. He is strong enough to rescue and save all who call upon Him

After we left the large cats exhibits, I caught Lissie enjoying the warm sunshine while she texted photos to Anna.

We moved from the cats to the bears.

We then entered a building dedicated to the animals of the island of Madagascar, off the southern tip of Africa.

A large enclosure featured Ring-Tailed Lemurs.

Within their habitat were two or three tubes with bright light pouring out their ends. Each of these "lamps" had a possessive lemur stationed in front of it, basking in the light or the warmth or perhaps both.

Whatever the reason for the lemur's attraction to the tubes, the combination of animal and strong light made for a good "photo op"!

Another of the Madagascar exhibits housed an animal that wasn't...well...quite so cute!

As we excited the building, Lissie and I both found ourselves attracted to this zoo train. She just finished a photography class, and I had the opportunity to learn some of the material alongside her. This train provided a great example of repeated shapes and bright colors that are often sought out by photographers.

As we made our way along the back side of the zoo on our way to the giraffe habitat, we stumbled upon a sculpture garden we'd never seen before in our many visits to this zoo.

The garden's sculptures and ponds provided both beauty...

...and fun!

We left Tatiana's sculptured giraffe for the real thing, housed indoors:

While I was trying to get the perfect photo of one of my favorite animals...

The kids all collapsed. They were zooed (just invented that word!) out. The one exception was Amy, who continued to be full of energy--hence her blurriness.

As we trudged up the steep hill to the zoo's exit, we caught sight of one last unusual bit of wildlife--a black squirrel.

See the squirrel's open mouth in this second photograph below? What is this squirrel trying to communicate???

Again, I think the picture just begs for one of Joe's captions! Hopefully, he will have soon caught up on his sleep and be ready to think in "captions"!

We were so blessed today. The weather was unseasonable warm. The zoo animals were active.

Most importantly, we were reminded how incredibly blessed we are to have been glued together as a family by the Lord. He is so very good, and we relished His abundant lovingkindness today!

Video: Out of Control

Daria stumbled upon this video this week. We just watched it as a family after reading the Bible together. We found it to be a convicting reminder.

(You'll want to mute our music before you watch.)

Delicious Math

Cassandra:

Today Alexander, Amy and Oksana enjoyed a day of sugar-cookie baking math. Kristen, mom's home school assistant, taught them the basics of baking.

 Sometimes I wish I was still younger!

A Look at Lissie

Mrs. Beaver:

When we spent Thanksgiving week at the North Shore of Lake Superior, the weather grew warmer and warmer as the week progressed. One afternoon we were able to be out on the lake's shore in light jackets and shirt sleeves. This is utterly unheard of in northern Minnesota in late November!

As the sun was sinking toward the horizon, some of our children went out to enjoy the warmth and beauty. As I saw them drifting outdoors, I grab our camera and ran. I always try to remember to pray for the Lord's guidance and blessing before I begin taking pictures. This time I prayed that God would help me to capture each of their vastly different personalities. As always, He was faithful.

Here's a look at our precious 19-year-old Lissie.

First Snow: Beauty and the Beast

Mrs. Beaver:

It's been an unusual fall here in northwest Iowa. We made it through the entire autumn with out seeing a single snow flake. Until today.

When forecasters began predicting snow for Saturday, our whole clan was excited. We love snow's ability to transform everything it blankets.

After we traveled to a funeral in rural southwest South Dakota today, returning home at dusk. I immediately ran outside with our camera.

I didn't manage to get the dried geranium blossom in focus, but I like the stair rail in the back ground.

If you look closely, you can see individual snow flakes. And every snow flake is different! Isn't God amazing?

Family Fun with a Purpose

Mrs. Beaver:

Years ago I had the opportunity to hear a widow named Marina speak to a large audience of young mothers. She opened her heart about a struggle she'd gone through with one of her four children. To her horror, she realized that after she'd lost her husband, she'd also lost the heart of one of her sons. He was pulling away from what was left of their family, as well as rejecting the values she and her husband had tried to instill in their children. If her son continued on the path he was following, he'd be lost.

This brave single mom fell to her knees and cried out to the Lord for wisdom. At first mystified as to how this could have happened in what she thought was a close-knit family, she was led to the insight that her son viewed "the world" as more attractive than the family. The world was exciting. The word was ever-new. The world was full of social opportunities. The world was anything but mundane.

Having her eyes opened to the attractions available outside their home, Marina battled to make the family home a place her son would wanted to be. She prayed their family members would become the people with whom he would most want to spend time. From that point on, she purposed to plan events that would draw the five of them together. She invested herself in bringing her teens' friends and their families into their home. Fun wasn't the goal in and of itself, but she saw it as a crucial vehicle to her children being receptive to the Saviour for whom she and her husband had shared a deep love.

When Marina spoke to the women in Texas at the homeschooling conference I was attending, several years had passed since the heart-rending time when she saw her beloved teenager slipping away. She had a happy ending to share with those who were listening. As she followed the Lord's leading to make life in their family more attractive than the world, she won her son's heart back again. By the time she spoke to us, all four of her children were followers of Christ who had rejected the charms of the world.

When I returned  home and shared Marina's story with Mr. Beaver, we agreed that we too would purpose to make life in our family delightful for our children. At that time we had only three kids. Anna, Lissie and Joe weren't even nine years old yet, but we knew it could never be too soon to make family time a priority. Our quest to become a unit they loved being assoicated with began immediately. Their salvation would be dependent on God's grace. We knew we couldn't cause our beloved children to be saved, but we have purposed for more than a decade to make Christ attractive by making our family a place of faith-encouraging fun.

For us this has meant doing nearly everything together as a family, and we've all come to cherish that togetherness. It's meant setting aside the daily-ness of life to spend time having fun. It's meant setting aside personal agendas to focus on having fun together. Interestingly, Paul's encouragement to set aside selfishness and focus on others (Philipians 2:3.4) actually tends to yield greater personal joy than pursuing our own personal agendas.

Just one example of this committment  to faith-ecouraging family fun occurred on our second hike at the North Shore. On this jouney, there would be something for everyone. The wet snow that day was a guy's dream come true. A warm front had passed through the area over night making it perfect to form SNOW BALLS! We'd barely started walking when Aaron formed SNOW BALLS and demonstrated his juggling ability.

While Aaron was basking in the applause of his wife and new in-laws, Alexander took three slightly bigger SNOW BALLS and made a tiny snowman along the path, using part of his lunch for his creation's nose.

While the guys were enjoying the SNOW BALLS, the gals were engaged in one of their favorite pastimes -- chatting.

 Anna (l) and Tatiana

While Anna was catching up on her sister's life, her husband had left the path for a short cut... straight up!

Soon Joe followed his brother-in-law, and then ...

...a crowd joined the climb.

When some of Oksana's siblings went one direction while her parents and other siblings went another, she was left confused about what to do. We've noticed that when our little one feels insecure, we still get glimpses  in her face of what we call her "orphan spirit". It's easy to understand how the severe neglect she endured as a baby followed by years in an orphanage have left her fearful of uncertainty.

Thankfully, as soon as we called this recently adopted child to our side as we ascended the steep hill, her confidence, poise and happy grin returned.

Lissie's enjoyment of the scenery was heightened by seeing the beauty through a camera lens.

I, too, enjoyed seeing the canvas of our Creator through a camera lens.

These itsy-bitsy pine cones, about 1/2 inch long, were my favorite discovery. As we strolled, Mr. Beaver pointed out to me that this branch had all three stages of their growth--tiny buds, tight wrapped cones and the fully opened version.

Before long we came to a bridge stretched over one of the two waterfalls we saw that day. (See photo below.)

I love nine-year-old Amy's approach to making sure she was part of the picture. See her peering through the horizontal bars in the center of the bridge? Oh, the challenges of being the 11th out of 12 children! (Mr. Beaver was lifting up Oksana--12th out of 12)

The falls

For a while Alexander was content to merely carry his "baby." Then his testosterone kicked in!

It dawned on him that he could dash his SNOW BALL to dust by hurling it into the ravine through which the Temperance River flows. After this discovery, he rolled large SNOW BALLS with gusto, each time searching for the perfect spot for its destruction. He was one very happy 12-year-old boy!

Meanwhile, the girls carried on with their chatting.

Aaron jumped from rock to rock near the ravine's edge. He, too, was "all boy", taking logs and delightedly tossing them into the ravine, listening then for the big boom they made when they landed.

Unlike Alexander, however, every once in a while he'd take his focus off the available adventure. He'd swoop into the midst of the hikers to snuggle with his bride.

Joe slipped off every once in awhile to take in the beauty of the surroundings. I love my oldest son's meditative look caught in this photo as he peers through the brush, staring at the river where it widens and emerges from its ravine.

Joe's contemplative mood didn't last long as Alexander's excitement over throwing the SNOW BALL bombs into the ravine grew. Soon Joe was running along the trail helping his younger brother to find the perfect spot to launch each new SNOW BALL.

When we reached the bridge on the return trip, the whole group got involved in Alexander's quest to toss a SNOW BALL over its top railing.

Finally, Joe stepped in to give the "umph" that Nathaniel's shorter arms couldn't quite pull off. See the big SNOW BALL being hurled by Joe in the left hand corner -- much to the delight of his brother!

Alexander was quite pleased with the results.

As more SNOW BALLS were thrown to their destruction, the tribe got sillier and sillier, as evidenced by Joe and Aaron's response to my request for a photo of the two friends. Before I could click the shutter a second time, the jokesters had gone from this...

...to this!

The hike finished with all involved laughing, happy and eagerly looking forward to more family time.

When we finish an event like this hike, there's no way to test whether we've made Christ more attractive to our children. We won't know for years what God's plan is for their lives. However, when we've had a sweet time like this as a family filled with silly antics and plenty of laughter, our hope is that winsomeness might help keep their hearts and their ears open when we tell them about Jesus and His saving work on the cross. Concurrent to family fun, Mr. Beaver and I just keep praying fervently for the Lord's saving grace to be showered on all 12 of our kiddos and all twelve of our future in-laws that they might love God with all their heart and soul and strength. We long for our ever-growing tribe to be an army prepared to glorify God.

How about you, are you carving out time for special family moments? Do you surprise your kids with unexpected adventures. Do you ever cast off what's necessary and, by nature, mundane in maintaining a home to do something you know your children will remember for a long, long time? Do you ever push back the dishes on a warm fall evening to dash to a park to swing and climb just as the last rays of sun drop below the horizon? Family fun with a faith-building purpose is worth the sacrifice and investment!

A Happy Dad

Mrs. Beaver:

Few things can compare to becoming a parent after nearly seven years of utterly hopeless infertility.

For Mr. Beaver and me, it was Anna's birthmother who made our impossible dream come true. An ear-to-ear grin stretched across Mr. Beaver's face the night a beautiful newborn girl was placed in our arms by a very brave 20-year-old. That soul-deep smile of my dear husband is etched forever on my heart.

Mr. Beaver's gratitude to the Lord for his oldest child began that night he became her daddy. Last week I got to watch as Mr. Beaver exuded joy all over again. His eyes twinkled. He cranked his fatherly teasing up a notch. The reason? He was able to spend a week with his now married and pregnant Cinderella, while Anna and her new husband, Aaron, vacationed with us.

Here's the pair as our large family hiked in Temperance River State Park: