Whirlwind Livin'

My plan was to be cleaning house right now since my kids are with my parents traveling. The hubs and I won't be traveling until he gets off tonight and I thought it would be a perfect time to clean house. Well....I decided catching up on the blog is much more fun. So the last few weeks have been a whirlwind (isn't it for everyone!) but wonderful and fun at the same time.

First, we headed down to the ranch to cut down some trees to get stocked up on firewood. It was a chilly day but the kids had fun watching their dad work a chainsaw for the first time. They got to help push over the trees and yelled "TIMBER!" every time.

Papaw showing Jerod where to cut to make it easy and fall in the direction we needed it too.

All bundled up :)

Then the next evening, we had the awesome privledge of watching my little brother graduate from college with his Bachelor's in Business. We are very proud of him and so glad this long hard road is at its' end!

My mom is very proud of her baby boy :)

Amanda is pretty proud of him too

Then later that evening I decided that if he was big enough to graduate college, then he was big enough to finally hold the newest nephew. So being the good sister I am, I just walked over and plopped him in Uncle Adam's lap.

Of course, we had to do the traditional gingerbread houses. Princess chose a village to create and Little Man wasn't interested in helping this year so it was different but still so much fun!

My icing was a little runny

But it was all so yummy!

Gingerbread village done! Complete with sugar snow, sprinkle roads and gummy trees

And then the Christmas celebrations began! This little one was so fun to follow around with the camera. She is a HAM. BONE.!

Little P did a good job of chilling out and watching all the other kids play. He is studying up so he can join in next year!

Three days after this picture was taken it became official: these two are getting married!!! Yeah! I am so excited for them and ready to watch them grow as a married couple and see what God has in store for them. I love them both very much! :)

Christmas lovin'

After the first few Christmas' were over and we had a break between the next two, the kids and I went to the ranch to get out of the house and hang out with my parents. My dad has this obsession with these alpacas off one of the roads we travel to get to the ranch. Princess likes them too but isn't brave enough to get too close. One day...Papaw is going to get spit on. And I am going to laugh really hard.

This one must have found some drug-store buck teeth

Very funny animals! :)

So I guess now that I'm all caught up, I'll go clean house. Yesterday was Princess' birthday and today we leave for another Christmas. I hope to post her birthday post when we get back with more pictures. But now off to rejoin the whirlwind. Thanks for resting with me today! :)

Chasing Rabbits

Sometimes it's funny to look back at previous posts and realized how little you know about your own future. :) Like, in my last post, I said I was going to buy presents from the craft shows I would be attending. Haha! The first one we had to dodge out of because of bad weather and the second one, well...I ended up getting the stomach flu the day before and couldn't go. Thankfully, my wonderful husband went for me but there was no shopping going on. Oh well. I have ordered a lot of my gifts online and in one way or another, I've held to my gift-buying goal. There may not be as many handmade gifts as I wanted, but I feel good about what has been purchased this year.

Although, I have a confession. After being sick for 2 days and not feeling like doing much more than sitting with my eyes open, it hit me today how far behind everyone else I am. And that bothers me. And the fact that it bothers me, bothers me. I do not want this season to be stressful, I do not want to be a frantic maniac and hurried. I want to enjoy this season for what it is. My Lord, my Savior was born into this world for me. And you. And everyone else that you know or don't know. That, my friends, is what I want to be celebrating. This year in our studies we learned that Christ may or may not have been born in "December". The truth be told, at the time of his birth, there was several calendars and somewhere down the line we chose one to stick with. We learned that it wasn't until 386 that someone actually gave Christmas the same specific day to be celebrated every year. I find all that very interesting and something to be studied further. Some people celebrate "Christmas" at different points in the year (Ethiopia's Christmas is January 7) but for me, I don't mind celebrating in December. It is still a time where we come together to remember, reflect and remind ourselves of who He is to us. This year my family has been doing two advents: the one we call the "candles" and the Jesse Tree advent. It has been so wonderful to go back through history to learn about all these people God put in just the right place at just the right time so His son would fulfill His plan perfectly.

Since we just finished our Roman studies and are moving into medieval times, I got a book that studies how they celebrated Christmas back then and one that describes "The Real 12 Days of Christmas". It's all very different and new but I like it. So all that to say, I refuse to let the commercialism and materialism of the season affect where my focus is. If I don't get everything taken care of, so be it. I will make time to build a gingerbread village with my daughter, I will make time to shop for our "special family" and look at lights with my family, I will sit and watch movies with my kids while enjoying a season of rest and reflection. I will not let the "world" win and steal my joy because we've decided to only buy 3 things for our kids. I will not allow the stress, rush and frantic madness take over. I will not let family differences and schedule conflicts take the happiness away from the time I do get to be with them. I will not let gossip, negative words or snide remarks affect my attitude.

I will love my Jesus, celebrate my Jesus, thank my Jesus, and look for His glory in everything around me. And I pray...that you will too. :)

Sunday ramblings

I don't have much to say...I was just on changing my background. What do you think? I love how it's elegant and wintry. Our thanksgiving was wonderful this year. We started off with breakfast at my mom and dad's house then moved on to lunch at Jerod's aunt's house. After that, we joined our friends the Tuttles and Talbotts and ate more food. :) There was dancing, laughing and just hanging out having fun. Then on Friday, Cindy, her two girls and I went shopping. We didn't even hit our first store until 9am so I wouldn't call us Black Friday shoppers. We were just four people taking advantage of a day off and enjoying spending time together. The girls shopped and me and Cindy walked and talked. Her wonderful husband offered to keep my kiddos so I could have some grown-up time and it was just the refreshing morning I needed. Then we picked up Princess after lunch and hit a few more stores before calling it a day. I think I bought two Christmas gifts and two things for myself. Hey...at least I can now say I have 'started' Christmas shopping.

I want to do something different this year on my gifts. I would really love to find a way where most if not all of my gifts benefits someone other than the person receiving it. For example: I found a website with "fair trade gifts" that looks like a big possibility. What happens is that when I buy something, the money goes to someone who made it by hand in a third-world country that needs these purchases to make money for their family. Does that make any sense? If I can't find just what I'm looking for that way, I hope to find the rest at the two upcoming craft shows I'm doing before Christmas. I just feel that buying from people who spend their efforts, talents and time making beautiful things is better than buying from a huge corporation that is already getting billions from everyone else. Maybe I just have a soft spot in my heart for those who make things by hand. (Gee I wonder why :)) Anyway, that's my goal so we'll see how it goes.

Well, for not having much to say I sure got a lot on this page. I am just enjoying being curled up with a blanket, drinking my hot cider, watching football and admiring the lights on my Christmas tree. It's a good, relaxing night before another busy week starts. We have a big thing going on this week but I don't want to blog about it until we're done. Oh, the suspense! Good night!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is just three days away and I wanted to share something I've very thankful for. There were 5 referrals last week!! Can you even believe it? :) That puts us at number 29. It's great to know that we are moving up the list.

Yesterday in church we had a guest speaker and he talked about how the first pilgrims stopped and thanked God before even getting off the Mayflower. That amazed me. They had not even stepped foot onto the new land that would be called their home and they were already thanking God. They had no idea what trials and hardships they would face but they were thanking God. They didn't know where their next meal would come from, if there was even enough natural supplies to build shelter for all of them, or if the land would produce good enough crops to be able to feed them and help them store up during the winter, but they were thanking God.

Do we follow in their example? Do we thank God when we have no idea what the hardships are going to be? Do we thank Him when we don't know if all our needs are going to be met or do we tell Him all about how we should have more? Do we thank Him for the everyday things that we think are mundane but to someone across the ocean seem huge?

I have been reading through Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" and it has been very eye-opening, humbling, and exciting to see what God did in her life and think about how if I followed her example, what He could do in mine. I have tried to be very conscious about thanking Him in all things...the little and the big. And I have tried to be even more aware of the great blessings He has bestowed upon us that we take for granted.

I don't know if I'll get back to blog more before Thanksgiving...we are taking our "sabbath week" from school this week and I have several projects that I want us to work on before we begin again. Plus, we are celebrating Thanksgiving in several ways this year and I plan on spending a lot of time in my kitchen. But I wanted to leave you with the passage from the service yesterday. I pray that you will let the words sink in and speak to your heart. It's the passage that those pilgrims prayed all those years ago but they are still so relevant today. May you be blessed today!

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us and we are His.

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and

enter His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Metal Mouth, Milestones and Pottery

Wow, the days keep flying by don't they? Wasn't it just mid-July and I was complaining about how hot it was? Now we are smack in the middle of November and winter is right around the corner. I was looking at Princess this morning as she told me a story and I swear I was looking at a teenager instead of a 7 year old. She is quickly moving from little girl to young woman. Time is flying.

Yesterday was a milestone of sorts for several reasons. First off, my Little Man had the first step of many for some major orthodontic work. His little mouth is just that...little. He has teeth that have been out for over a year and are not coming in because they have nowhere to go. We can see one that is coming in and it's completely sideways...not a good thing. So we are going to try to expand his jaw and make more room for these adult teeth. This contraption they put in yesterday is quite the sight. They cemented it to two of his molars and we will go in every three weeks and they will tighten it so it spreads apart and expands his jawline. Then in a few weeks we will put one on the bottom jaw for the same reason and then we will add brackets to some majorly crooked teeth on the top. Lots of changes taking place and lots of sore days ahead I know. We are stocked up on the jello and pudding for sure!

Then, yesterday marked one year from when we turned in our first application to adopt. It's so funny to think about that because when we turned it in, I remember honestly thinking we'd have a child home with us by now. God has been so good to show me that this journey is NOT on my timeline but on His. :) He has taught us so much during this process and we find ourselves being drawn into Him more and more. I told my Bible study girls not long ago that I feel like I just want to drown myself in His word. I can't get enough. We have grown in Him not only individually but as a family and I am so thankful for that. There are things in my life that are so different than they were a year ago. I've lost friendships, turned a hobby into a fundraising effort, talked to people about things I never dreamed of, been bold enough to go to my Father's throne and beg for movement and then watch as less than a month later He answered, had new friendships brought into our lives and on and on. I don't want to change anything that's happened over the last year if it means that we wouldn't be where we are today. My mantra still stands: God is so good!

Another thing that marked yesterday as special was it was my mom's birthday! It wasn't a big milestone birthday number but we celebrated just the same. Our local paint-your-own-pottery place was having a girls night out and so me, my mom and Amanda went and made some really fun Christmas tree plates. We really wanted my sister to come too but she didn't want to get the baby out in a crowd and my dad isn't quite ready to keep all four of hers by himself. :) That and he's really afraid of dirty diapers. So the three of us enjoyed a nice quiet dinner and then went and let our creative juices flow. She was missed but we will be doing again. I am blessed to have my mom close and blessed to have a mom who is also one of my very best friends. I can count on her to help me keep my head on straight and knows me better than I think I know myself sometimes. She loves me and my family and does anything she can to help make our lives easier. She is always giving of herself for others and loves her grandbabies! I love you mom!!

October in the Rear View Mirror

Happy Saturday! Well I finally decided to sit down and catch up my blog. :) I have been debating on even continuing this blog because it was feeling so "me-centered" but I decided that that is exactly what it is and that's what I wanted it to be in the first place. It is a place for family to come and see what's going on with us, what we've been up to, and see pictures of the kiddos as they grow up. If someone doesn't like that, then they don't have to read it. :) Besides, it's the closest thing I'm gonna get to scrapbooking right now!

Anyway, let's start way back at the beginning of October. We had Little Man's birthday very impromptu. We called the neighborhood kids together, asked if they wanted to go with us, and away we went. We also called my niece so Princess wouldn't be the ONLY girl.

We played putt-putt

Tried out the batting cages...

And ruled at the go-kart races

A few weeks later, I hosted a table at a local fundraiser. I did this same fundraiser last year and had just about as much luck so I don't see me doing it next year. So...if you're interested in a cross, I have about 30 in stock right now. :) I do have three upcoming craft shows I'm doing before Christmas so hopefully I can knock out some of my inventory.

Princess and I got up VERY early the day after the craft show to watch about 10 hot air balloons lift off. It was fantastic.

Then we went to the ranch with some great new friends that have moved down the street from us. They moved to Texas from Georgia and both work for our church. God truly blessed us by putting them in our lives. We all click very well and we share a love of adoption. They adopted their son from Latvia two years ago and will be a great support when we get our child(ren) home. I hope they fall in love with Texas and don't want to go anywhere for a LONG time!

We had such a great time and Cindy, the mom, is an awesome photographer and caught our time together perfectly.

The entire family feed Tex by hand...I was very impressed!

Everyone had to have a cowboy hat...it's not a true Texas experience without one!

I just put this in here because I love it. I like him a lot and I really like him in a cowboy hat.

Drool.....

Little Man and Aleks enjoyed riding the 4-wheelers more than anything else.

Me and Cindy...we took this ourselves and could not see the camera..this is my excuse for looking so goofy.

The "big girls"...they are so good to make Princess feel like she's as big as they are

Then before even Halloween, our weather decided to go bi-polar on us and snow 4 inches. The kids wanted to make their first snowman of the season and it is such a perfect picture of how quickly things change. His eyes are green tomatoes that we picked the day before and his nose is a milk dud from our hand-out candy. He didn't last 24 hours because the next day, it was in the 50's and he was completely melted by lunch. I just hope snow this early isn't a sign of a really bad winter.

The snow and whacked out weather put me in the mood to try something I've never made before...they were yummy!

The day before Halloween, we had a very exciting and proud moment as parents. Princess got baptized!! Most of our families got to attend the event and then we had a huge celebration lunch at our house. Nothing could have made the day better! :)

Then on Monday, my sis took my newest nephew to the doctor and after some testing, it was learned he had pyloric stenosis and needed surgery to fix it. So my parents and I took all the kids trick or treating and then to trunk or treat at our church. It was fun but we all had Lil' P on our minds.

Princess found her match at trunk or treat...yeah maaan!

This year we had a hippie, big foot, Hiccup, and a light-up something or other

Then early Tuesday, we got an email saying our agency had given out a referral the previous day. Yee-haw!!! We were so excited! So between baby surgery and referrals given out, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster week. :) Then yesterday we learned they gave out another referral! Four months of referral drought and then two in one week!! I hope this is the beginning of a huge avalanche.

Thursday night was our annual homeschool living museum. This is where the kids pick someone from history, learn all about them and then present themselves as that person in front of their peers.

Princess was Cleopatra...isn't she beautiful?

Little Man was Neil Armstrong...isn't he so cool? :)

So here we are. Already in November...already getting ready for the holidays and trying to give Thanksgiving it's due respect and place in time. May the fall season find you happy, healthy, and surrounded by people who love you.

Still Here

I have this thing called a blog that I started awhile back that I've been totally neglecting. But just wanted you to know that we're still here, we're still waiting but we are living each and every day to its fullest. Football (Little Man's) is over and we have a few weeks break before Princess starts basketball. So I hope to get caught up and write about some things that have really been on my heart lately. God is growing me in some amazing, awesome ways. I can't wait to share but for now, we're here, still waiting and living. :)

A Call to Be Bold

Monday was a very frustrating day in our adoption process. I can't go into details but let's just say that when the day was done, there are two governments that are not my most favorite people right now. We are still very much on the waiting list but just when we thought we were feeling called to a certain situation, we hit a very big roadblock.

That seems to be the word of the week: roadblock.

Tuesday morning I woke up just with a stirring in my spirit that I was suppose to ask for your help. But I was concerned that I was trying to be too "controlling" of the situation since we know it's all in God's timing. But when doing my Bible study that morning I came across these statements:

Jesus has been "appointed to represent [us] in matters related to God" (Hebrews 5:1). Is there any aspect of life that does not matter to God? The birds of the air do not"sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" (Matthew 6:26) Jesus says that, while God does not ignore our needs, our task is to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). These two verses combine to point out that our physical as well as our spiritual needs are important to God. Everything that matters to us matters to Him! And, because He understands and cares, we are encouraged to boldly approach Him to ask for help.

So what does this mean and what am I wanting from you? I am asking you to join us in boldly approaching the throne of God to ask for help. It has been 3 months (last one was July 1) since anyone has received a referral and with more and more things that are being required, there seems to be roadblocks everywhere. We are asking for a corporate prayer gathering to take place and for us to all approach God in prayer at a certain time, asking for these roadblocks to be moved or dissolved altogether.

Will you join us? We are going to bend our knees at 8:00pm (Texas time) tomorrow night (Friday Oct 7) and go to the Lord in prayer. Whether you are at a football game or eating out or travelling, I am asking that at 8:00, you take a moment and pray for the adoption process in Ethiopia. For all the families involved and that God will move mountains to get things moving again. For the hearts of officials to see what is best for these kids and make decisions that will get them into their forever families.

If you are local and would like to join us physically in this corporate prayer, our door will be open to any who are interested.

God is mighty and powerful and I am confident that He will hear our prayers. Thank you for your consideration in this and I will be excited when I can send out an update saying He has answered our prayers and referrals and embassy appointments have come flooding in. :) Share this with whoever you'd like!

CDP...#4

I'm behind getting this on here but it's been less than a week so I think I'm still doing good! :) My newest nephew entered the world last Sunday morning at 12:25 am. This is my sister's fourth child and third boy. It's going to be very busy at her house. She is such a champ when she has these kids...it makes me very envious when I think back to my 18+ hours of labor with Little Man plus 3 hours of pushing but I'm glad she has a relatively easy time. Really I am. :) So with no further delay, I introduce Cooper Douglas to you. He's a keeper.

Listening to daddy

And the pouty face is perfected already! :))

Momma's first time to hold him

Big boy and holding on for dear life!

Daddy love!!

GooGoo love!!

Beginning to quiet down and settle in

Little Big Sis didn't know what to think...she's still only a baby herself so she didn't understand what was going on. She was okay until he started crying...

...and then she needed some major momma lovin'

She was so tired and ready for bed...she's doing much better now and has decided he might not be an alien after all.

Papaw is quite experienced and less nervous now

And Yay! for daughters who can take good pictures! After being the photographer during delivery, I was excited to get my picture taken when holding him the next day.

Princess settled in with him in no time and immediately started rocking with him. She ended up putting him to sleep. Going to be a good mama I tell ya!

Since Little Man was coming straight from a football game, I decided to not give my sis a heart attack and let him hold his newest cousin. But he did admire him from afar and is so anxious to get his hands on him soon!

So that brings a grand total of 6 grand kids for my parents and I'm not done yet and my brother hasn't even started! :) Life is so fun and God is so good!