Recognizing Our Blessings

Recognizing Our Blessings

Though I wasn’t present for either of these experiences, Millie shared them with me and they mean a lot to us.  Both of these occurrences took place within a couple days of each other.

The first story: we had just spent some time with my parents and getting caught up on life.  After we drove back to Colorado and continued on with our lives, my mom called and talked to Millie. This is her story...

While we were spending time with Bruce’s parents we had asked them to pray for Haiti and its turmoil and pray for the adoption process. When we returned home Bruce’s mother called a few days later. 

She called and asked some very poignant questions about the current conditions in Haiti and about the process of adoption and the things that we need to do and have done in order to adopt. Then she asked the million dollar question about how much the adoption cost us. When I told her we could buy two brand new cars for the price of the adoption it blew her away.

As we were having a conversation, I felt the love that she had for us. And it meant a lot to me that she was taking the time to ask these questions and show her interest in what is going on in our lives.

At the close of our conversation she apologized to me for not asking these questions sooner and apologizing for living their busy life and not taking time out to be involved.

The second experience happened later that day. I went over to our friends house: Thea and Orley Mitchell. They own a tree farm and they had said I could come pick some logs up to complete my craft for our adoption fundraiser. When I got to their house they informed me that they had just gotten home from a trip to Nashville.

They have dropped everything to help me. Orley was ready to go cut down a tree if that’s what I needed. He had the chainsaw all ready and had the gator hooked up with the trailer. Fortunately we were able to find the logs I needed in his woodpile. I was planning on coming home and cutting them with a miter saw but he had other plans. He tried to use his miter saw he had set up in his woodshop and then ultimately ended up using a chainsaw to cut my slabs from the log. I was so humbled to see how willing he was to give his time freely to help me. My heart swelled. 

In these experiences, I was reminded that this adoption is bigger than me. God is in charge. And one of the things that I am learning through this process is that it is OK to receive help from people.

Post-blog request: 

Please follow our page ("bookmark" it on your browser or subscribe via blogger to get email updates).  When you feel inclined to bless us with your story, your words of encouragement, or anything else good, please comment.  If our adventures may help you or someone you know, please share our blog with them.  We are also happily accepting donations.  To help us financially, we have the following options:
A. Venmo "Millie-Hoggan" or 
B. Mailed Check made out to "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account" and mailed to Alpine Bank (Mail to 82 Sipprelle Dr, Battlement Mesa, CO 81636) 
C. Walk-in cash donations at Alpine Banks in Colorado to the "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account".  
We understand you can only give so much financially each month to causes you support.  If you can’t help us now, but want to, we ask that you think of us and our mission the next time you can give financial support to someone.  
Regardless of how you participate in our efforts to raise our little tribe, we appreciate the prayers, the kind words, and uplifting stories shared by so many!  May your loving kindness come full circle in your life.  

With much love, 

The Hoggan's

Dinner Time Language Class

EFFECTIVE WAITING 

Dinner Time Language Class

These are some of the ways that I can think of right now that people use to learn a foreign language:

A. Immerse yourself in the culture, and have no other way to survive but to learn it.

B. Google translate. 

C. Book or translation dictionary.

D. Language app. 

E. Taping the word and pronunciation to various items in the home.

I have lived in Germany for three years but worked on an American military post, so I was not immersed in the culture. I did not learn German.

Internet-based translation has always caused the other person to raise an eyebrow, so I am hesitant on its accuracy.

I have a small pocket dictionary for English to Russian translation, and though I see it daily, I have only opened it a handful of times over the last year because it’s not a necessity.

Language app: I downloaded one for French Creole, and tried the free parts of it, but I only kept it up for about one day. It just didn’t hold my attention.

Taping up the words on items around the house has not yet been done, and I wonder how much it would be utilized.

I’ve made lots of changes in my life, and I found that some of the most powerful key ingredients to change include the following:

A. A living human teacher/mentor. 

B. Interaction based practice.  (Hands on learning)

C. An assignment I’m willing to do with a deadline.   

D. Accountability for the assignment.  

So, I thought it was pretty cool when my wife signed up for a one on one FaceTime class for one hour each week.  The teacher has experience with both Adoption and Haitian society today.  My wife takes what she learns, and uses our dinner times that are already happening every night and converts this time together into social time for us to practice applicable phrases. It’s a slow pace method for myself and the kids, but it’s not overwhelming, it’s enjoyable, and it keeps us all on the same subject… as you can imagine how crazy dinner time might be for a family of seven.

A short side story from tonight‘s dinner: our youngest daughter (5 years old) in her very tired condition shed a few tears and was a little angry when I told her that her siblings won’t be able to understand her at first because they won’t know or understand our language. She demanded adamantly that they would understand us easily when they first arrive. I just gave her love, told her tonight‘s phrase, and she easily switched gears and replied with pride with a twinkle in her eye and a smile...and a tear still on her cheek.  I love her!

Post-blog request: 

Please follow our page ("bookmark" it on your browser or subscribe via blogger to get email updates).  When you feel inclined to bless us with your story, your words of encouragement, or anything else good, please comment.  If our adventures may help you or someone you know, please share our blog with them.  We are also happily accepting donations.  To help us financially, we have the following options:

A. Venmo "Millie-Hoggan" or 

B. Mailed Check made out to "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account" and mailed to Alpine Bank (Mail to 82 Sipprelle Dr, Battlement Mesa, CO 81636) 

C. Walk-in cash donations at Alpine Banks in Colorado to the "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account".  

We understand you can only give so much financially each month to causes you support.  If you can’t help us now, but want to, we ask that you think of us and our mission the next time you can give financial support to someone.  

Regardless of how you participate in our efforts to raise our little tribe, we appreciate the prayers, the kind words, and uplifting stories shared by so many!  May your loving kindness come full circle in your life.  

With much love, 

The Hoggan's

Haitian Dinner

Haiti Dinner Time:

One of our objectives as parents is to help our children fall in love and appreciate each other‘s culture. From what little we know, a Haitian diet is different than ours. Tonight‘s dinner was black bean soup with a small piece of chicken and some rice. We added the option of cheese and sour cream as well as a side of fruit and garlic bread to help with the adjustment. So, in the pictures you can see a close-up of my meal, a table shot of our dinner time, everyone’s ratings on a scale of 0 to 5 … that’s right, 0 to 5 and some of them still rated above five. Our seven-year-old struggled a great deal even though she’s been one of our biggest lovers of black beans for years. Texture is a big deal!  I think I liked Lincoln‘s comment the most when he said, “It’s not too bad, but it could use some improvements.“ Eventually, mom used her mommy magic to help this little one take a bite and move past her fear. She has been telling her for years, “You can do hard things!“ The process is getting easier.

The conversation was great too! I told everyone at the beginning that we were keeping the focus of all of our conversations on Haiti or this adoption adventure. Nothing mind blowing in the conversation, but it was great helping to explain to the children that it might be hard for the kids to come from Haiti and eat our American food or do the things we do. We are grateful that soccer is a prominent sport in their culture because Lincoln, our 12-year-old, is always looking for someone to play soccer with. And so we continue to wait, experience their culture, try to learn some new Haitian words here and there, read some books, and pray for our children over there in a country in turmoil.

Post-blog request: 

Please follow our page ("bookmark" it on your browser or subscribe via blogger to get email updates).  When you feel inclined to bless us with your story, your words of encouragement, or anything else good, please comment.  If our adventures may help you or someone you know, please share our blog with them.  We are also happily accepting donations.  To help us financially, we have the following options:

A. Venmo "Millie-Hoggan" or 

B. Mailed Check made out to "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account" and mailed to Alpine Bank (Mail to 82 Sipprelle Dr, Battlement Mesa, CO 81636) 

C. Walk-in cash donations at Alpine Banks in Colorado to the "Hoggan Handfuls Adoption Benefit Account".  

We understand you can only give so much financially each month to causes you support.  If you can’t help us now, but want to, we ask that you think of us and our mission the next time you can give financial support to someone.  

Regardless of how you participate in our efforts to raise our little tribe, we appreciate the prayers, the kind words, and uplifting stories shared by so many!  May your loving kindness come full circle in your life.  

With much love, 

The Hoggan's