What about this?

I've had friends tell me before that they are a bit turned off by the adoption community. Which is really sad to me. People have told me they feel like they're constantly being pushed. It is (dare I say it) the "in" Christian thing to do. They feel like they're being told by the adoptive community (and ARE being told in some instances) that they have to follow God's command in James 1:27 or they aren't being good Christians. And really, I'd rather not go into a debate right here, right now, on my opinions of that viewpoint. ;)

But I'd like to ask this: if you are NOT being called to adopt at this point in time... and you don't feel that you have the finances to donate to adoption ministries... (all of which by the way is none of my business) would you consider just praying? I wholeheartedly believe in the power of prayer. That by praying alone, you could help give a child a family. And I'm sure many of you already do pray for the plight of the orphan, but what if we each directed our prayers to one little one. What if you, your spouse, and your kids prayed daily and together for one specific child living in an orphanage? Do you believe that God would move on that childs' behalf?

If you'd be interested in signing up to pray for a child but aren't necessarily financially able to "sponsor" a child, I have a program for you. (You already know its Reeces Rainbow, don't you? ;))

The Reeces Rainbow prayer warrior program signs you up with one child. You are given a bookmark, a picture, and some brief info on that child. And once a week you'll get a general RR email update on different children that have specific prayer needs and/or children that have newly committed families. :) No obligation to send in a monthly check. (But of course, if you'd like to raise funds or awareness for the little one you're praying for, thats always awesome!)

***

We used to be prayer warriors for a little girl named Annie. The girls and I would pray for her almost every day. They'd sit at the bar and eat cereal while looking at her picture on the fridge. And we'd pray for Annie, that God would find a family for her and she'd grow up.... loved. A couple of weeks after we signed up to be her Prayer Warrior, we got an email that a family had committed to her! I have to humbly confess that I was a little shocked! Did I doubt that God would answer our prayers? No, not really, I was praying in faith, but I guess I didn't think we'd see the results so quickly. You can read about Annie's new BIG beautiful family here :)

Annie with her new Mommy (this was at the orphanage)

What an awesome things for my kids to see that they helped pray THIS family up to the plate! Look at this happy girl!!! We prayed for THIS woman and didn't even know her.

***

Since Micah came home, we hadn't signed up for another to pray for. But I did. Today. God might not be calling you to add a new member to your family right now. But He might be calling you to pray?

CLICK HERE to share Reece's Rainbow on Your Blog! Thank you!

Things I should never have to say

There are things that every mom expects to have to say to correct her children. And things that are inevitable that you hear moms all over the planet saying. "Be nice to your sister," "Sit down" "Stop whining" and other things that all kids do that need correction. But sometimes... sometimes a lot of times... I have to say things that just shouldn't HAVE to be said. They should be a given. Or, should never be happening in the first place to need correction. And I'll think as I'm saying them, has anyone else ever had to say this? Do I have strange children? But based on my conversations with friends, I'm more normal than I think I am. So for your enjoyment and for my memories, I've written down a few that have come out of my mouth in just the last few days or weeks. I think I might make this a reoccurring post...

"Stop spitting in my drink"

"Put the stroller back on the floor"

"Go help your sister out of the drawer"

"Go put your clothes back on"

"When she makes that noise it means she doesn't like that"

"Take that back out of your diaper" (which is followed by "and give it to mommy so I can wash it")

"Don't bite your toes"

"Don't eat paper"

"Don't stand on the table"

"This is toothpaste not glue"

(when in the snow) "Leave your shoes on"

These are just off the top of my head. And I'm sure some of you could come up with MANY more thing that shouldn't HAVE to be said to our kids. And yet... we must.

Feeling sentimental

My husband just left to take our kids sledding. He's taking them down the street to "the hill", behind the big oak tree. The same place he's taken them the last couple of years... the same place he first kissed me... the same place he asked me to marry him. Its only a little over a mile down the road from our house. The same house we brought home all 4 of our babies from the hospital. The only house that Micah's ever known as a son.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE small town life? :)

Ok, enough reminiscing, I need to get these babies down for naps and the washer cleared for a pile of snowy clothes...

The story I'll never forget

I'll never ever forget what God did for my kids yesterday.

But for you to appreciate this story, I'm going to have to take you back to the weeks (months even) before Christmas.

Like lots of little girls, Ashley and Emily love when the "American Girls" doll catalogs come in the mail. They study them. They each pick out "their" doll and memorize the accessories, long to read the book, and have that doll for their very own. And a few of their friends have these dolls... You've probably heard of them, they've been around forever. Since I was a kid. Each girl is from a period in history and comes with a book that tells about her life in that time period. I read the books but never had a doll. And they're such high quality, amazing dolls that a lot of people pass them down to their little girls.

For Christmas and birthdays, they've asked for them, but there's one little hitch for us.... the cost. These dolls are VERY expensive. And they NEVER go on sale. Like, in 20 years. And the doll clothes? The doll clothes cost more than I would pay for an outfit for myself or my kids, much less a doll. But the girls love their other baby dolls and don't seem to mind that lots of their friends have one. They understand that that's life. Sometimes your friends have things you don't have and sometimes you have things your friends don't have. And there were okay with that. Until this Christmas.

They each showed me "their" doll in the catalog and BEGGED to get it for Christmas. Emily wanted Kit and Ashley was deciding between Josephina and Julie. I told them that these were VERY expensive dolls and I wasn't sure we could really get them. But they said "PLEASE mommy" with pitiful faces. *big sigh* So I told them, "Let me talk to Daddy, but I think if you each get a doll, thats ALL you're going to get for Christmas. Like, literally, thats all you get." And to my surprise, they were okay with that! So I researched online, tried to find them cheaper, etc, thinking if I could find the dolls for cheaper maybe I could still afford a little something to open with it. But to no avail. And even getting just this one doll each would be stretching the budget, much less stocking stuffers etc on top of that. And I was so afraid they'd be disappointed if they really did just get this one thing.

So after talking with Daddy more, I think they realized they might be disappointed later, and it would be more wise to not just get this one thing, when they could open lots of just as fun, but much less expensive gifts for Christmas. And there's always their birthdays. :)

So in my shopping I found that Target has a doll that is a knock-off of the American Girls at less than a third of the cost. PERFECT. They didn't have ones that looked like the ones they wanted, but I got Emily one with blond hair and green eyes (like her) and Ashley's had blond hair and blue eyes (like her). I even had enough left over to get the big closet with extra outfits and accessories. And the closet COMES with an extra doll, which we gave to Abby. Soooo.... not exactly what they were asking for but it seemed like a great fit all the way around.

And come Christmas morning, they opened the dolls last and fell in love with them. YAY!! Success!! What a great feeling as a parent to see that joy on your kids faces on Christmas morning. Thank you Jesus for knock-offs at Target! :)

And thats what brings us to yesterday, when God stepped in.

A sweet woman from our church- a friend of our family- came by yesterday. She had two doll beds for us... she was cleaning out her attic, came across them, and thought of our family. "What a blessing!" I said and briefly told her that the girls' had just gotten these Target dolls for Christmas. The beds were JUST the right size! She smiled and said she was happy it worked out that way and headed home. The girls were THRILLED with the beds when they got home from school and played with them all afternoon.

And later last night, she showed up again.

This time with a serious look on her face and a shoe box.

And what was inside that shoe box still has me in tears. There were two American Girl dolls inside. Kit and Josephina. And a bunch of their clothes. (You can pause here to go get tissues.) She said they were her daughters (now in high school) and that she was saving them for her grandkids. But that earlier when she came by the Lord spoke loud and clear that she was supposed to give them to us. I asked her was she SURE and that she could still save them, she didn't have to do this. But no, she said, she knew the Lord was saying to let them go.

So Ashley and Emily came in, opened the box, and their faces LIT up as each grabbed their new doll. There was not a single word spoken to decide who's was who's. They automatically reached for the one they'd wanted for months. They cradled their new dolls and each thanked her, not fully understanding how she knew. So she left, and I explained to the girls the best I could, how special these dolls are and how the LORD alone had given them.

I think I learned a million lessons last night. About how good God is and how much He loves us. How He cares about 5 year olds and 7 year olds and what their hearts desire. How nothing is impossible with Him. I learned that when the Lord says "let go", you never know who you're blessing and just how very much. I learned that nothing is ours but only the Lords. And that my heart REALLY wants to do with my own possessions as the Lord see's fit. Oh how I could keep going on.... and every time I see my girls with their baby dolls, every one of these lessons will come flooding back to me. Thank You God. You ARE good to Your kids.

Merry Christmas Micah!

Today is Ukrainian Christmas. I'm all about hanging on to a little bit of my son's cultural heritage... even though, lets face it, Micah's probably never gonna care much (or at least for a LONG LONG time). :) When Micah came home I thought it would be fun to always save one Christmas present for him to open on January 7th. Well, this year I thought I would let it slide (bad adoptive momma, I know). But as it worked out, one of the things Micah got for Christmas was a trampoline- one of the mini ones with a handle bar to hold on to. Its supposed to be great for kids with low tone to work on balance and coordination and... ok, I won't go into all that right now. Well, in the chaos of Christmas and kids and toys and two sick parents... it never got put together. So its still sitting in a big box. And today is Jake's day off and I'm going to have him do it today! So how cool is it that it just happened to work out that Micah will get his Ukrainian Christmas Day present after all. :) A little wink from the Lord for Micah.

And no we aren't having any Ukrainian cuisine for dinner. I was pregnant when I was in Ukraine and I think it put a bad taste in my mouth for Ukrainian food (mostly fried, covered in dill... ugh nevermind) and I'm pregnant now sooo... yeah, not tonight. :) Maybe for his birthday? :)

Anyway, in honor of my little Ukrainian man, here is some interesting info that I pulled from Wikipedia. ;) Pretty interesting stuff!

Miss Mabry

If I were a really good blogger, writing to appease my faithful readers, I would have already written a witty post about New Years and how great 2010 was. I would have posted about Christmas and shown the video interview of each of the kids that I promised before Christmas. You no doubt would be touched and awed by all of my beautiful children and how much they've grown.

But IF you've been reading this blog for any amount of time at all.... you know that it is random randomness out of my rambling recesses of my brain. So instead of an insightful, inspiring first post of the year, I'm now going to tell you my random thoughts about Mabry and how cute she is.

Ok? Awesome.

Mabry is a funny little girl. And when I say little girl, it feels weird because up until like, RIGHT now, she's just been the baby. But recently, she's become a toddler. A little girl. (A BALD little girl who refuses to grow hair and so I still have to put baby headbands on her, but we won't talk about that right now.) She's growing into this hilarious personality that for some reason, I totally did not see coming. For one she's a talker. But not in a loud, pay-attention-to-me sort of way. She just softly talks... nonstop. And she uses her hands and points her tiny fingers to make her point. Or when she says "ub-du-lala-fu-duhduh" (take a guess, we don't know either), she puts one palm up for emphasis as if to say "don't you agree?" ADORABLE. Sometimes she'll be chattering and I'll pick her up to take her back to her crib for a nap- I'll lay her down, kiss her, we wave at one another and I shut the door.... all the while she's never stopped chattering, "shub-ub-all-uf-onah-da-da-da" Its all very serious conversation but she's really not concerned it anyone is listening at all. If you are, awesome, she might raise the volume. But if not, she'll just keep going and talk to her blanket or babies, or whoever whatever will listen.

She's also started this thing that we "call" dancing. ;) If you've seen me in person at all since Christmas I've probably already shown you a video. I truly have never seen a child as little as her wiggle her hips the way Mabry can. When my other babies "danced" they would just shift their weight back and forth on each foot. But Mabry dances, her chest and feet can be completely still, but this girl can shift her hips from side to side like nobody's business. ITS. HILARIOUS. Sometimes it happens when she hears music. And sometimes it happens when she's just really excited about a TV show or someone walking into a room. And there it is, the booty wiggle. The fact that she is, to date, my chunkiest and therefore curviest baby makes it all the more hilarious. I've yet to get a really good video of it, just snippets here and there. It happens when you least expect it. Oh Miss Mabry. :)

Lastly (and I MUST get this on video), theres the scowl. When Mabry isn't happy about something, she lets us all know, by scowling. She furrows her barely-there baby eyebrows together, hangs her head WAY down, and scowls at you from what little eyes you can still see. This happens when someone takes a toy, refuses to share food, or anything else a 15 month old might find upsetting. Now sometimes, she really WANTS to be mad, and will begin to lower her head and furrow her brows, but then the angry eyes give way to a crinkled nose and big cheesy grin. Her face says "I tried being mad but just couldn't". :) Too stinkin' cute.

If you can't tell yet, I could just eat this kid up with a spoon.

This week has been drastically more quite compared to the chaos of Christmas break. Because Micah and Abby are on opposite days at preschool, its just me, her, and one other kid in the house during school hours. And because she's still doing two naps but Micah and Abby only take one, that means opposite nap schedules... when she gets up from her first nap, Micah/Abby goes down. When they wake up, she goes down. Sometimes they overlap a little (nice for me), but usually only first thing in the morning and after school does she see the other kids. And she LOVES her free/quiet time. She plays so nicely by herself. Its like she's savoring the chance to have all of the toys to herself.

Ok, I could really keep going, but I'll stop there and leave you with this little picture from Christmas. My sweet Miss Mabry Ruth. You are a fun, funny, sweet, little girl and I love you so much.