Merry Christmas - Our December...

Each year I am amazed at how the month of December flies by.  Here are a few shots we captured to remember Christmas 2011.  Hope you enjoy them!

 Sunshine and Little Buddy had so much fun "feeling" their stockings on Christmas Eve.  We went to our church service and then invited our cousins over for dinner and decorating Graham Cracker Houses.

 This year Sweet Pea and Bookworm had acting parts in the Christmas Play at church.  Sweet Pea played a ditzy blond.  She pulled it off quite well.  Bookworm was a very nervous choir director.  They had such a great time sharing the story of Christmas in a new way.

 Here is the crew standing in front of our Christmas tree, right before Stand-Up Dad knelt down in the mud to cut it down.  Our Dad is SO amazing!

Every year our kiddos choose a new ornament for the tree.  My hope is that when they leave our home, one day, they will have ornaments for their own tree.
This year we decorated porcelain ornaments.  They loved this activity and amazed me with their artistic ability.

Christmas is now over, but I am feeling extremely blessed by the good gifts of our family and friends.
May God bless you and yours in the coming new year!

Sweet Momma

Happy Family Day 2011!!

December 1st will forever be our Family Day!

Two years ago we brought Sunshine and Little Buddy home from the airport and the knitting of our family really began.  These past two years have flown by.  It has been the most challenging time of my life.  Every person in our family has experienced huge adjustments.  The two littles have obviously had to bend the most.  Bending is hard.  I am so proud of the strides they have made.

God has stretched me in ways that I did not know were possible.  At the moment, the challenges are very real and difficult.  There have been many different seasons over the past two years.

I went to therapy last week and mentioned that it has been two years since we met.  She said, "Only two years?"  I laughed out loud.  It feels like a lifetime that we have all been praying for God to help them through the tough stuff.  She thought they were doing extremely well for the amount of time they have been home.  We are so thankful for that!  These two little ones are such precious gifts to our family.

 Our first picture of all six kiddos!

 This year in our backyard.  I am so proud of all six of them!

Silly shots are the favorite at our house.

Sometime soon when I am not in the middle of the battle I would love to share more about how the two youngest are doing.  It is a wild ride!  I am so thankful that God is driving the roller coaster!

Sweet Momma

Secret Agent Training

We recently held Secret Agent Training at our house for Pumpkin's birthday party!  Stand-Up Dad had a great idea that he wanted to try and pull off for the party this year.  I am usually the one in charge of such events, but was happy to take a side step and let his idea take form.

The event that my husband created was amazing!  We got some ideas from the internet, but the bulk of the party was from Stand-Up Dad's imagination.  He led the Secret Agents on a scavenger hunt for over an hour.  They had to decode messages and search for clues. 

The party was amazing! I was just a helper, so I got to sit back and watch all the boys and Pumpkin's dad have fun.  The best part about the party was the realization of how Pumpkin's dad made the party so much better than I would have.  He has a boy brain and understands what they like best!

The boys looked so COOL in their Secret Detective disguises.  We even drew on mustaches.=)

And now my oldest boy is nine.  So hard to believe.  At the age of nine, he has decided that he has grown out of the blog name of Pumpkin.  We actually started calling him that when he was in my womb.  So, even though he will always be my "Pumpkin," he would now like to be called Bookworm by our blog friends.  It seems to fit.  He is an avid reader.  I have found it so challenging to find good literature for him that is at his reading level, but does not hold content that his heart is not ready for.

Bookworm is a wonderful young man.  He has a soft and caring heart and is super fast on the track at the YMCA.  He loves Jesus and is trying to make sense of why some people get away with sin and some don't.  He has a strong sense of justice and is thoroughly enjoying being an older brother.  It is still a learning process for him, because he lived for seven years without a brother and now they are needing to work through all the hierarchy that boys go through on a daily basis.  There is a lot more wrestling and fun elbow jabs than before.  It is exactly what a nine year old and a five year old needed.

Happy Birthday Bookworm!  You are loved and treasured more than you will ever know!
Sweet Momma

An Attitude of Gratitude

November is here!  The hustle and bustle of the holidays are just around the corner.  The thought of this caused me to think about taking a new approach this year.  What if we began right now to think of things that we are thankful for?  What if we wrote it down as a record of all the ways we are blessed?

This past year I had the privilege of reading the book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  This book shook me to the core.  I know that there are days that I don't pause to thank God like I should, but I had never thought about how an attitude of gratitude could transform how I see God and the world around me.  If you have not read the book, I would encourage you to get it.  You can also read Ann's Blog at www.aholyexperience.com.

Each of my kiddos works on character as one of their assignments for homeschool.  I decided for the month of November that they would take time each day to list the things that they are thankful for in their own Thankfulness Journal.  I took a piece of colored card stock and folded it in half.  I added sheets of lined notebook paper and Elsie tied it all together with yarn.  They each decorated the cover of their journal.

It was important to me that they look beyond the obvious.  I encouraged them to choose things that we cannot buy to put on their list.  It is easy for kids to write 1. Mom, 2.  Dad, 3. Legos and so on.
I wanted to stretch their writing abilities a bit.  If you are thankful for cookies, what is it that causes you to be thankful?  Is it the way the smell of them baking fills the house?  Is it the warm gooey chocolate?

Little Buddy said he wanted to be thankful for our house.  At five years old, I think this is great.  But he went on to say that our house makes him feel safe.  Even better!

After one day of writing, here are a few of the things they are thankful for:
- the hope of salvation.
- frost on a crisp fall morning.
- the sound of my little brother singing.
- the freedom to praise God.
- the Holy Spirit lives inside of me.
- God's protection.  Psalm 46:1  God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.
- Mom's warm hugs throughout the day.

I can't wait to see the attitude of gratitude grow in the hearts of my children.

That reminds me to get back to my Thankfulness Journal.
Sweet Momma

FIFTEEN!!!

Last week it happened.  Our baby turned fifteen.  I am in awe of how quickly this has occurred.  

I remember when she was the only one.  I spent all day just playing with her and marveling at all the amazing new things she learned each day.  Everyone said that those days would fly and to take time to enjoy each moment.  There are many wonderful moments that I hold so dear.

 Now I have the future to look forward to.  She is almost grown.  She is such an amazing young lady.  She absolutely loves the Lord and wants to honor Him with her life.  Her heart is soft to His ways and we are extremely thankful and very proud of her.

Happy Birthday dear sweet Elsie!  God has amazing plans for you and we can't wait to see what they are.  May God bless you and may you always stay close to His heart.
We love you!!!
Sweet Momma and Stand-Up Dad

Our August Birthdays

Summer has flown by and we have just completed our third week of school.  

I can't seem to get on top of my blogging.  Ugh!

I want to take some time to celebrate our little ones who both celebrated another birthday - almost a month ago.=)

Sunshine (Who is obviously Sophie, from the picture - Oops!) celebrated her seventh birthday in the middle of August.  In July she started talking about her birthday and I could see that it was making her very anxious.  We took the time to talk through all the events of the day and I reminded her that I would make her day special.  It would be a birthday that was just perfect for her.

It was perfect.  It was just right.  Not too much excitement as to overwhelm her, but just enough fun to make it a wonderful day!

Sunshine is such an amazing young lady.  She is super smart and very determined.  She has grown by leaps and bounds since she came to live with us.  She has just started second grade and just loves to learn.  She is reading independently and loves art.  There are so many things that she is good at, she has trouble choosing her favorite.

She struggles greatly with yielding to me.  I know God has an amazing plan for her.  I know that He can be trusted.  So we move forward each day in full faith that He will work everything together for His good.

Sunshine loved the special treat I had planned for her on her birthday.  I took her on a Mommy/Daughter date to get her nails done.  She got her toes and fingernails painted while I had a pedicure.  She even got beautiful flowers painted on her big toes and thumbs.

Happy Birthday Sunshine!  I adore you!

Little Buddy had a birthday the next day!  Yes, that is right.  We do not know their actual birth dates as people in Ethiopia do not keep those kinds of records.  But to be adopted a birthdate had to be chosen.

Their birth dates were chosen by their oldest sister.  That is what makes these dates special to our family.  If someone at the courthouse had chosen them, we might have spread them apart a bit.  In this way we honor their sister who had no idea that two days of birthdays can be quite busy!=)


Little Buddy requested Ethiopian food for his birthday dinner.  I was happy to oblige.  It is fairly easy to make if you can buy the injera, which is what we did.  It was delicious and his tummy and his heart were full.

Happy Birthday Little Buddy!  I love you SOOOOOOOO much!=)

Birthdays for kiddos from hard places can be difficult.  This year was hard for Little Buddy.  Our therapist told me that how a child does on their birthday can say a lot about how they are doing in general.  It made a lot of sense to me.

As you can see, this little guy is adorable.  His hugs and kisses melt my heart.  He has come so far.  Not only has he learned English and adjusted to a new family, he is also reading independently at just five years old.  I am so thankful that he does not have to struggle with school as he struggles in other areas.

My greatest desire for both of these precious children is that God would heal and transform their hearts. This would allow them to trust and be free of the hurt that they carry daily.

I guess I really want them to be free to be kids before they are grown.

That is what I want...I am waiting to see what God wants.  His plan is always better than anything I can dream up.

Sweet Momma

First Day of School

We started school last week.  This is a great shot of my class of kiddos.  


This year Elsie is a Sophomore in High School, M&M is in Eighth grade, Fifth grade for Sweet Pea, Third for Pumpkin, Second for Sunshine and my adorable Little Buddy is in Kindergarten.


It has taken me weeks to get everything ready to start.  I am a person who likes to "feel" organized and with this many kids to school I have been pushed to a new level.


We have worked out a daily schedule that almost works for everyone.  I hope to work out the kinks in the next couple of weeks.


Enough about school.  I haven't blogged much lately.  I have many excuses, but mostly it has been a challenging summer on the kiddo front.  Most days I am just trying to figure out my next step or if I need to step back.


I would love to write that everything is wonderful all the time and everyone is completely adjusted to life in our family.  That would not be the truth.


This summer has been a time of adjusting expectations.  I am generally an optimist who hopes the best of people.  That has not changed.  There is much to be thankful for.  Lives are changing and adjusting and trusting a little at a time.  This is just a much slower process than Stand-Up Dad and I expected.


The process of teaching a child to trust you while you wrestle (at times) for control is daunting.  Giving up control has proven to be the biggest stumbling block for our littles.  When the first years of your life are spent taking care of and protecting yourself, it is like reprogramming brain function to ask them to give up that control to Daddy and I.  They are scared.  Can they trust us enough to let it go?  It doesn't look like fear on a regular basis.  It comes out in behaviors that will drive you upside down crazy.=)


Through this process we are learning a lot about our original family and how our expectations for parenting have to change and flex to accommodate children from hard places.  Do you think you have a stubborn, strong willed child?  Our two littles have multiplied strong willed to a level I did not know existed.  And all that "will" comes from those early years of life experience, much of which we are unaware of.


The result of almost two years together is that they both want to be a part of our family! Praise God!  They want to be "family kids."  But they are not quite willing to go to the next step. They can't do it their own way and be "family kids."


And this is where we are.  Trying to love, lead, guide, and encourage them to the next step.  It is their choice.  We can't force this in any way shape or form.


You see, God is the shaper and the former of our lives, when we allow Him to work.


When I look at the picture above I see six transformed lives.  Yes, we hope the greatest change will come in the lives of our littles, but our big kids are learning to exhibit compassion, patience and understanding that they would have never experienced were it not for our little ones.  This weaving of the family is an amazing, overwhelming, and worthwhile experience.  I thank God daily for the privilege to be right where I am.


Sweet Momma