meet the faulkners

Kickin’ It for the Gant Girls

margo — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:00:27 +0000

My sister, Monica, teaches PE in Galena Park. The other day she sent me an email. It was about a fundraiser she is organizing for some sweet girls.

So, I open the email and read about the girls…”Samantha, three years old, was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Olivia, 17 months old, was born with a main artery malformation that is affecting her brain causing seizures, known as Arteriovenous malformations (AVM’s). She also has an inoperable brain tumor that has affected her sight and her ability to communicate. Both girls are in and out of the medical center and receiving radiation twice each week.”

I thought, awwwww… poor babies! I started thinking about how I can help or what I could do. Then I scroll down and saw their picture. I know all kids are cute. These 2 girls are super cute. But what made me tear up was that I saw my kids in this picture. Not literally of course, but symbolically.

Here are mine tonight at gymnastics.

When I look at the Gant girls the first thing I want to do is cry. That is empathy, or feeling what their family must feel every day when their beloved daughters have serious medical issues. My tears won’t pay for medical treatments or hospital bills or life saving medicine. So my tears are short lived. Empathy that doesn’t move into action is worthless and trite.

So here is the action…

Kickin’ it for the Gant Girls
Benefit Kickball Tournament
Saturday, February 4, 2012
First game starts at 8:00am
Galena Park Middle School football field

$120 per 12 person team (cash, check, or credit)
Registration Deadline: January 25th 2012

Come have some family fun for a good cause!
Yummy Concessions will be sold!
T-Shirts will be available for$10
($5 for Kickball Team Members)

Entry fee
$2 adults
$1 students
For a Team registration form or to inquire about donations
Email forgantgirls@gmail.com or
Call/text Monica: 979-574-1461

Me and the boys will be there to help out! I don’t play sports so well, so maybe I’ll sell shirts

day one

margo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:47:10 +0000

i only made one resolution this year. be in this year. i have a bad habit of continually planning for the future. great when you’re doing international adoptions and house hunting and financial planning, but horrible when you have 2 little kids that won’t be little forever. so my only resolution is to live it up this year with the family and friends and let the future worry about itself.

because let’s face it. these boys aren’t going to be so compliant with my picture taking request for much longer!!!

Christmas Letter 2011

claytonfaulkner — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:27:49 +0000

We hope you are entering the holiday season with pockets of peace and happiness. If not, we can relate. Having preschoolers and full time jobs is a challenge at times, but always worth the toil in the end. We have not been as consistent at updating the family blog for the same reasons. This little note is a peek into our lives as we come to the end of 2011:

Margo is the glue that holds our family together. She is in her fourth year as a 4th grade teacher at an elementary school in Katy. She is growing into her role as an educator and winning the respect of her colleagues and co-workers. This summer she was the lead trainer in instructing other educators how to use KISD’s outdoor learning center. Margo has also been experimenting in the kitchen this year. Thanks to Pinterest she has started trying out new recipes and making some really delicious food.

Clayton’s exciting year included accepting a new ministry position at Faith Lutheran Church in Bellaire, TX as the Director of Worship, Music, and Technology. He continues to amaze those around him by using his gifts to glorify God and be an innovative leader in our church. He also is wrapping up his Doctorate degree in Worship Studies. Clayton goes above and beyond every day as a husband and father from providing for our family to bath time and bedtime stories for the boys.

Deacon is getting taller every day. It is easy to see that he will be a talented athlete as he grows up. He has a pretty solid spiral for a five year old. He loves going to preschool where he has music, religion, computer, and Spanish classes. He is looking forward to starting kindergarten next year. One of the funniest things Deacon does is make up songs and dances. He loves to change into costumes and play memory games.

Masamo is doing extremely well since joining our family in March 2010. He immediately found his place as the little brother. He and Deacon play very well together and usually have a great time. Masamo is also in preschool and is kind of a ladies man. One of greatest blessings this year has been that the boys attend chapel at the preschool once a week where Clayton leads music and shares Bible stories. One of the funniest things Masamo does is talk non-stop (which stops being funny after a point). He loves to try new foods and loves to play with his big brother.

Happy holidays from The Faulkners – and a blessed 2012.

happy birthday deacon

margo — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:27:32 +0000

happy birthday deacon! deacon turns 5 today. we celebrated with a big party on sunday and those pics will follow later. to catch you up to speed, here are some birthday pasts.

Birthday #4 at the little gym. theme was batman.

Birthday #3 at home. theme was spiderman, but he wore a batman mask. go figure.

Birthday #2 at home. theme was basketball.

Birthday #1 at home. theme was curious george.

here is a seasonal deacon picture just for fun

and this one was taken on the way home from Ethiopia about 4 years ago. never were truer words written

resurrection

margo — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:56:27 +0000

as in, resurrection of this here blog. funny how i thought that i’d have time during the summer to blog and i didn’t. oh well. we are back in school and time is flying by. i am blogging on my new laptop (actually got it a month or so ago) from the end of masamo’s bed. judge if you want, but we still sit in the boys room until they fall asleep. bedtime goes faster this way and so we do it this way.

i felt convicted to blog because i was making calls for the gladney family association kick off dinner that is next saturday…hold on, i need to check on a baby sitter for that night…ok, i fbook messaged our babysitter to see if she is available. my sister is going to maroom 5 concert that night, so she isn’t free unless i get maroon 5 to change their concert venue to my living room anywho, gladney people that i called mentioned the old blog here and then i felt the need to post. so here we are.

right now we are planning deacon’s 5th birthday party. this statement makes me 85% happy (yay, growing up, maybe no more wall-eyed fits or insane obsession with his own rear end) and 15% sad (where did i put that little baby that used to sleep with his legs straight up in the air????). this year we are partying at a gymnastics place and our theme is firefighter. love this theme! the funniest part of the theme decision is how he really wanted a green lantern party for forever, but then when he decided on firefighter theme he let masamo have green lantern. poor little brother mossy. getting the cast off bday themes

deacon loves football. he is wearing a texans jersey that is 50 sizes too big for him to bed these days. masamo also loves most sports, but not too good with the catching so we decided he is an awesome punter…

Deacon & Masamo @ the museum

claytonfaulkner — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:00:21 +0000

The blog has been quiet lately, and I wanted to share a pic and say hello. I don’t post very often, as this had turned into “Margo’s world” but the original intent was for this to be a family style blog. I’m afraid that life is moving fast and these days of preschool life will be gone and forgotten. So the pic is a reminder and an update so you can see them in their element. This was taken outside the Houston museum of natural history not long ago, during one of our excursions. We are members there and enjoy the butterflies, dinosaurs, and hands on science experiments. Deacon usually tries to stop this globe from turning, but never does. (interesting metaphor about the time thing)

Video from Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa

claytonfaulkner — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:40:56 +0000

This is a video I recorded on March 4, 2010 while touring Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We were very fortunate to hear the cantor and chorus rehearsing the deggua or “church song” in the cathedral. The video also shows the beautiful stained glass windows and the tomb of Haile Selassie.

The sacred music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is very old. The hymnary is attributed to Saint Yared, a scholar who lived in Aksum in the 6th century. This is perhaps the most astonishing thing about our journey toward adoption because Deacon’s “finding place” was in front of Saint Yared Music School in Addis Ababa in 2006. I don’t think it was a coincidence that my profession/livelihood/calling happens to be church music and that is where Deacon was found! That news was an epiphany for me. Just as God had used music in my life to bring me into the faith and into a relationship with Him as an adopted son, God used a music school to make me a father and teach me about faith, love, and hope.

Learn more about Trinity Cathedral HERE. Learn more about Ethiopian Orthodox Liturgy HERE.

User error

margo — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:10:12 +0000

I was in the living room. The boys had been in the library (what we call the formal living room) for less than 5 minutes.

But it was quiet. Quietness worries me.

So I go in there. Both boys were behind the leather chair and I noticed they had the laptop. It looked like deacon was just going to type on it.

I grab it and talk about how they can’t play with it. I just happen to open it to see if they were typing and realize typing is the least of our problems.

Yikes!!!!

So then I may have started talking very loudly and using my upset face. Needless to say, both boys were crying and just pointing at each other while I asked, “who did this?”

Realizations:

We need a new laptop.

We need to not leave breakable things out unsupervised.

We need a third kid to be the ultimate tie breaker tattletale!

Sunscreen

margo — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:08:07 +0000

How is it possible that yesterday at the beach my children got multiple coverings of sunscreen, and yet I got none?!?! Rocking a bright red burn today.

We had a blast at stewart beach in Galveston. For those out of state friends, Galveston water is kind of brown. Very brown. Tried to find a photo filter that would turn the water blue, but no such filter exists.

I also feel like a liar when the kids yell, “ocean”, because it’s not the ocean. So then I’m trying to explain what a gulf is. Oh, to live in a coast with actual ocean water!!!

What body of water do you and yours visit??? Is it blue???

difference

margo — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:58:53 +0000

we went to the zoo the other day. we go early before it gets scalding hot, so we can actually see some animals. the boys love jonathon the lion. my sister was with us and we laughed a little as we thought about how different seeing a lion here was from seeing a lion in ethiopia last year.

here you are behind very thick glass that stretches at least 15 feet in the air. the lions have a beautiful habitat and a pool to swim in. the actual fence is 2 or 3 feet from the glass wall. safety is the theme here.

in ethiopia there was a chain link fence in front of bars that you could get right up next to and then stick your hand IN the cage and snap at the lion to get his attention for a picture. not going to lie… i was pretty scared that lion was going to go crazy and just jump over that fence or at least eat someone’s hand.

lions here, lions there. i’m just happy that i have the experiences i have so that i can make these kinds of comparisons.

what have y’all seen around the world that has something different than here at home?