Answered Prayers...So far!

Thank you for praying for Summer and her birth mom, and us as well. At the last minute, the birth mom decided to cancel her visit with Summer. It has been our specific prayer that she do what is best for Summer. Then low and behold, while on our way to the meeting, our caseworker called telling us that the birth mom had had a change of heart and would still surrender her parental rights, but would sign the papers at the hearing on October 26th. She said it would be too much for her after all, to visit with Summer and then sign those papers. Please keep praying that she doesn't change her mind. Thank you!

Prayer Request

According to our case worker, Summer's birth mom is considering voluntarily surrendering her parental rights! That's exactly what we've been praying! I think it will be much better for her, emotionally, if she let's go of the child for the child's sake, rather than fight a losing battle to hang on to a child she gave birth to but doesn't know and so far cannot take care of.

So far, there have been no visits, but we are tentatively scheduling one for next Wednesday. The newly rescheduled TPR hearing will be October 26th.

She hasn't signed anything yet, so it is not a sure thing. Please keep her, Summer and us in your prayers. Thank you! God is in control.

New Banner

It's still the Spillers Family Blog. I just decided to try a new banner. Enjoy! I think I like the black background, too. What do you think?

At Marietta Square

Training Chopsticks

Have you ever seen these? Hannah and Summer now have "training chopsticks"! Since we eat a lot of Asian food, the girls often ask if they can use chopsticks like we do. Hannah of course does better than Summer with regular chopsticks, but check out how the playing field is virtually leveled when they both have "training chopsticks". It's kind of nice to have them use them because some things (like ramen, or salad) are just hard to eat with a fork or spoon.

Soccer This Year

Soccer this year has been so much fun! Not just because David and Daniel's team has won 5 out of 5 games, but because they are enjoying it so much.

It gives me a lot of joy to see kids learning and growing, and David, who knew almost nothing about soccer last year, changed from being a statue trying to figure out what's going on to an obstacle the kids have trouble getting around on defense.

Daniel, who is rather sedentary around the house really comes alive on the field. He is quite coordinated with that ball. He has made many goals this season because of his size, speed and skill.

Another aspect of cheering your kids on in a sport is that you have to sit or stand with fellow parents as they cheer. This year is better in that regard, too. We have more parents showing their support and the cheering is better. They are more positive and less sore when kids' don't do well.

Last year's soccer season was so thrill-less that I wanted David and Daniel to run Cross Country instead of playing soccer this season. I'm glad I let myself be talked into letting them play soccer instead. :)

The other day FLS played Greenfield Hebrew Academy and I shot some video with my little camera. The lighting was so good you can actually follow the ball! Somebody must have told their coach to watch out for Daniel because he was always surrounded by 4 or 5 boys. Here's another player--Austin scoring a goal.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

All of our utilities worked fine during the storms, so I could see this kind of image on my computer. On Monday, for most of the day, this is what I saw when I looked at the radar screen.

Atlanta's Big Flood brought more rain in a week than I had ever seen. I'm guessing we got an inch of rain per day for a week, then on the last day we got several inches at once.

No one knows what will happen when you have that much rain until they actually do. I saw several houses here and there with flooded yards and basements that I never would have guessed would flood. This storm was weird. There was practically no wind. That's why so few trees fell. In that sense, many people were spared much damage. But here is one tree that fell down the street from my house. I think the trees roots were weak.

After looking at the photos below of our yard during the worst of the downpours, you may think our house had water damage. Wrong. Not a drop. What a blessing! Thankfully, the creek that flows through our yard, which all but dries up during the summer, could handle lots of water. The lake it flows into downstream still had about 3 feet to go to reach the top of the dam. Our creek is so much lower than our house that the house was never threatened. But on the last day of the drenching, watching the water flow over the driveway really got my attention! It happened 3 times that day but somehow our driveway withstood it. There are a lot of plants in my yard and a lot of vines. I was thankful for every single one of them that day--even the poison ivy!

This part of our creek flows through our next door neighbor's yard.
Here you can see the creek going over the driveway that runs behind our house. I don't think it ever got too deep to drive through, but I'd rather do it in an suv than in a little car.