Yergler Family Vacation

Monday's w/ Michael

Well, I'm typing this Friday evening around 8:00. We leave for Gatlinburg in less than 4 hours. Hopefully, as you are reading this, we are enjoying a wonderful vacation.

One of the highlights of Yergler Family Vacations are the bets. We play games and the loser or losers have to do something. Sometimes, you might have to eat something disgusting (like a skunk flavored jelly belly or a gross flavor of baby food). Sometimes, you might have to do something challenging (like take a shot of Pixie Stix (if you haven't tried it, it's harder than it sounds)). Sometimes, you might have to perform a death-defying stunt (like getting Grandma's hair wet! (this bet is so scary that most family members refuse to play the game when this bet is involved)). Sometimes, you might have to do something embarrassing (like last year when dad had to go to the balcony overlooking the cafeteria at the Farmstead in Shipshewana at breakfast and loudly proclaim "Friends, Romans, countrymen...lend me your ear." Or the time when Grandpa, Steve, Chip and Dad had to sing "God Bless America" outside of the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg (people actually asked them where they were going to be performing!)).

Ah, yes, before there was Improv Everywhere, there were Yergler Family Vacations. So, if any of you happen to be in Gatlinburg this week, you may see a scene like one of these below:

Another busy week

Ok-so this week has not been any less busy than the 2 weeks of Bible school. We were sad to see Lucas go home on Friday, but we hope that he will want to come again to Bible school again in the future.




I had the pleasure of getting together with some friends from high school. We had so much fun reminiscing and lots of good laughs. We may even be planning an 'official' reunion in the near future! Thanks Kay for having us in!




Well, you saw how Michael's Father's Day got started, but we just looked really hard to find the humor in it, and thought, "This is what we wanted. This is what we prayed for." Thank you Lord for your MANY blessings. Of course at the top of the list is my wonderful husband and Deacons's wonderful daddy. We love you, Michael.





Monday night, we had Harry and Lois in for dinner. We have been trying to do this for months, so we were excited when it finally worked out. We just love being with them and we always have so much fun together. Of course, we got in a game of Rook, and Lois and I won! I told Harry I have been waiting for this win since we were in Florida a year and a half ago. Thanks for the memories!

Remember going to this place when you were a kid?

Oubache! Well, I don't think I have been there since Middle school and I certainly remember it looking bigger than it actually is. My sister Marissa and I took her son Lucas, our niece McKaelon, and of course, Deacon. We had lots of fun (even though, if you know me, this wasn't AT ALL, my cup of tea {hot, sunny, no shade, swim-suit in public pool. . . .}) and I even went down the slide with Lucas!

Deacon, after a couple hours at the pool! He fell asleep right after we got in the car!

The kiddos came back to our house and stayed the night with us. Michael brought home pizza and we watched my new favorite movie, 'Hotel for Dogs'. If you haven't seen it, you MUST!

Here we are, about 30 hours until we leave for vacation, and I still have so much that I NEED to get done, and then there's things that I WANT to get done. I am really going to try and relax and just enjoy our time together as a family (isn't that what 'family vacations' are all about?) and focus on the present. We always have such a good time with the Yergler's playing games, watching people 'pay up' on their bets. We have been brainstormning for months on ideas for bets, which reminds me, I need to add the Harry Potter Jelly Bellies to my grocery list. . . :)

"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. . . ."

This is what could happen if you lose a bet playing a game with the Yerglers-I can't wait!

A Father's Day Surprise

Monday's w/ Michael

Warning...the following story contains disgusting details and may not be suitable for young readers.

Yesterday morning, Jane and I were awakened by the delightful sound of a babbling 1 year old. Together we crept to his room to peek in his door. The stench coming from the room was very powerful, but I didn't think anything of it as he typically makes a mess in his diaper during the night. We cracked open the door and peered into his room. It took a moment for the sight to register: a nude little boy happily standing in his crib. Somehow, the little stinker (and I mean that quite literally) had managed to take off his diaper during the night. He then decided to play with his...um...deposit. He threw some on the floor. He smeared some all over his crib. He used some to paint his wall. My dad referred to him as our very own little "Poocasso". Somehow, he got some on his forehead.

Unfortunately, we didn't think to take a picture of it before it was cleaned up. But here is a picture of the guilty culprit.

Random Pictures

Mondays with Michael

Ok, so I'm clearly running out of ideas.... Here are some random pictures.

This is our "outside dog", Bailey. Doesn't she look regal? She's very photogenic. She looks pretty calm and well-behaved, doesn't she? Don't let the picture fool you. If you've driven down our road lately, there is a good chance you have almost hit her. Our neighbor calls her "the ditch dog" because she lays in the ditch, waiting for an unsuspecting car to come before she makes her attack.


Here is Deacon doing his best GQ "hair flowing in the wind" shot.


Here's Deacon doing his best "Yuck! What is this nasty green stuff?" shot.


We had a tradegy on the farm. Our beloved Betty was severly wounded in a hit-and-run accident. Fortunately, an AP photographer happened to be on the scene and was able to catch a photo of the gruesome incident as it was happening. Be on the lookout for a yellow convertible with blue wheels.

Here's a photo from our lovely beachfront property!

Make it a great Monday (night)!

God Made Everything

I know this isn't Monday, but I had an experience with Lucas tonight that I had to share! Jane was at Bible School song practice, so I put Lucas to bed. We read about Jonah. He asked me why God sent the whale to get Jonah. I said, "Well, what else would God send in the middle of the ocean?" Lucas replied, "Why not just send a new boat?" Ah, the simple faith of a child. Then he said, "But God can't make new boats anymore." "Why not?" I asked. "Because, we already make them." Ok, here is where it gets interesting. "But in one day, He made everything. He made the houses, the trees, the leaves, the butterflies, the windows, the curtains, the wood, the walls, the bed, the blankets, the pillows. All that stuff. (As he continues looking around the room) The clocks, the light, the pictures, the frames for the pictures, the fans, the new fans (not sure where he got that one, we only have 1 fan in his room), the coloring books, the markers, the crayons, the colored pencils, the pencils. All that stuff. The people, the dogs, the cats...." At that point, I interrupted him, "Ok, Lucas, time to say our prayers." If I didn't interrupt him, we'd probably still be up there. "The goats, Little Guy, Optimus Prime, Rosie...."
It has been a lot of fun having him around!


Lucas' 1st day of Bible School!

Life in a Barn. . . .

Bible School-Day 2

We had another great day at Bible school again. Sarah Fiechter (Klint's) is one of Lucas' teachers and she told me that he told the class today that he lives in a barn with Aunt Jane and Uncle Michael! Hmmmm . . . . . never heard that one before. We went to Mom and Dad Reinhard's for supper tonight, so I decided to walk and push Deacon in the stroller, and Lucas rode his bike the whole 3 miles!!








There were a couple of times when he said, "I don't know if I can do it anymore", but I said, " I know you CAN!" And guess what? He did!! Pam and Uncle Michael were cheering us on as we crossed the finish line! He's going to sleep good tonight!

Bible School & Lucas

Mondays with Michael

Today was the first day of Bible School! Let's remember to be prayerful for the 110 women who are giving up so much of their time over the next 2 weeks to teach these children about Christ. Let's also remember to be prayerful for the hundreds of students that the seeds that are planted today would take root and bring forth much fruit in the future.


One of those students is Jane's nephew, Lucas. He will be staying with us for the next 2 weeks. This morning, Jane made him special chocolate chip dinosaur pancakes.



Deacon even got to have one!


I'm not used to having a 6-year old around. Here are a few of the conversations that have taken place.


Jane: Do you want french fries with your Chicken McNuggets?
Lucas: Yeah, but I'll only eat 11 of them.
Michael: You'll only eat 11 of them?
Lucas: Well, if I'd eat 50,000 of them, I'd probably turn into a big pile of milk!



Lucas: Do you know what my favorite word is?
Michael: What's your favorite word?
Lucas: It's "trees". Because if you have trees and there are leaves and there is a cloud and Jesus blows into the cloud that's what makes the leaves fall. And then if you make a wish when the leaves are falling, it will come true. So that's why my favorite word is "trees".
Michael: Yeah, trees are nice.


After we came in from weeding the garden and feeding the goats, he said, "Wow, you guys are the best farmers!" Ok, Dad B, you can stop laughing now.


There have been numerous more funny conversations. I wish I would have wrote them down. Instead, I will tell you about a humorous incident we had a few hours ago.


I brought Little Guy out so Lucas could give him the bottle.


When it was time to put Little Guy back in the pasture with the rest of the goats, Lucas wanted to help me. He opened the barn door for me and we walked through where the ducks live to the goat pen. After we put Little Guy out, we turned to leave the barn. "Watch out for the duck poop," I warned him. For some reason I'll never understand, instead of walking on the side of the barn with no duck poop with me, Lucas headed right toward the messiest part. He took one step and WHOOSH! His feet went out from under him and he landed in the sloppiest, dirtiest, most disgusting pile of duck doo-doo you can imagine. He started crying instantly. Not because he was hurt, but because he was going to have to change his clothes. His shoes and the back of his legs and shorts were covered in black filth. But after a quick shower in our slightly less disgusting basement shower, we were all able to laugh about it!

Adoption Story

Well, I'm sure most of you have heard the story of how we adopted Deacon. So I won't share that with you again. What I would like to share is our 2nd Adoption Story. That's right, Jane and I have started the adoption process again!

We would like to have several children, so we knew we wanted to adopt again, but were unsure about the timing. Unlike being pregnant, there is no set time frame for adoption. It only took 6 months for us to get Deacon. So we didn't want to start the process when he was too young in case we would have another 6 month adoption and then have 2 children under the age of 1. But sometimes it takes a couple years to adopt, so we didn't want to wait until he was 2 and then he wouldn't get a sibling until he was 4. So just knowing when to adopt again was the hard part. The answer became very clear to me one night several months ago.

One of Jane's friends told her that her sister worked with a lady who had a friend (did you follow all of that?) who was pregnant with twins, but was planning on having an abortion. When Jane's friend heard about the situation, she thought of adoption and she thought of us. She was a little hesitant since the girl was pregnant with twins. She didn't realize that since both Jane and I have twins in our background that we always thought there was a chance that we could have twins one day and always looked forward to that. As soon as Jane told me, I told her to call her friend back right away. Not that we were planning on adopting at that point, but we needed to save those babies! Jane called her friend who called her sister who was going to call her co-worker. Jane's friend called us back to let us know what was going on. A short time later she called us back to tell us that it was too late: she had already had the abortion. We were too late! I cry now, just thinking about it. The mother was bi-racial and I picture the twins in my mind. I picture them as newborns. I picture them running around as toddlers. I picture them in their elementary years. I picture them in high school and college. I picture them as adults. And I cry. When I get to heaven, I'm going to find those twins. I'm going to hold them in my arms and tell them that they were loved on earth, that they were wanted. And I'm going to apologize for being too late.

So that's when it hit me. The longer we wait, the more babies die. Every day that we don't adopt, another baby (possibly our baby) dies for no reason. If anyone reading this is considering abortion, please don't. Please know that there are many families out there who would love to raise your child.




So, we have started the process again. We were spoiled by our adoption of Deacon. Everything went so smoothly. We don't expect that to happen again. We know this could be a long, painful process. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we would be open to whatever God has in store for us. At this point, we aren't sure what direction we will go. We may adopt another infant, but we are also looking into adopting an older child (possibly a sibling group) from the foster care system. Soli Deo Gloria! Glory to God alone!

Make it a great Monday!