Christmas 2012

I hope you and your family had a great Christmas season!  

Our family did!

December is always so busy, 

but always such a special time of the year!

We get to...

 spend time with friends.

....bake cookies, make candy and decorate gingerbread houses.

It's a special time to gather with family

 and eat way too much food :)!

My mom's table full of finger foods, ready for us to enjoy!

My sweet sister and great niece on Christmas Eve at mom's house.

A time for presents.

Abby opening an empty box from Taylor, he was "playing her",
 then he handed her the real present!

Andrew opening his GoPro camera!

A time for silliness!

A time for dogs to enjoy their Christmas bones!

But most importantly a time to focus on Jesus' birth.  Born for us so that He could go to the cross, die, and rise again three days later to save us from our sins!  We get to celebrate because of what He did for us!  A time to have hearts full of joy and gratitude!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

What a precious day!

Sunday was a wonderful day!

A day to truly focus on our Savior!

Born to die for me, for you!

I have been filled, filled to overflowing with His sweetness.

It has been a full day, but oh so wonderful.

Our day started with our church cantata, Our Lord Emmanuel.

Reminding us that the babe in the manger was our Savior on the cross.  I also love watching some of our teens serve our Lord with their talents.  Gifts that can only come from God, that they are using to sing His praises with.

After the cantata H.O. and I went to our church's adult Christmas dinner.  The guest speaker was a missionary our church supports, he was a great speaker.

Then, to complete our day we, along with my niece and great niece, went to my moms church's cantata/drama!  Wow, another amazing service, 10,000 Hallelujahs!  Clearly presenting the gospel message, and a real conviction to tell others about the real meaning of Christmas!  Reminding us that when someone excepts Jesus gift of salvation the angels in heaven will sing, 10,000 Hallelujahs!  Praise God for His unspeakable gift!  Two cantata's in one day both exalting our Lord, but two different stories.

For God so loved the world (that's you and me) that He gave His only begotten Son(Jesus), that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish (go to hell when they die) but have everlasting life (spend eternity in heaven)."  ~ John 3 :16  
What an absolutely, exciting promise from God!

It is always so much fun visiting my mom's church.  The church I was raised in, the church H.O. and I were married in.

The song director was my youth director growing up.  The lady who sang in our wedding still faithfully singing in the choir.  The lady playing the organ, played at our wedding, still playing the organ.  Many folks have come and gone in the past 21 years since I left that church and moved away when I got married, but so many are still there, still faithfully serving the Lord.  What a blessing it is to see their sweet faces.  Heaven will truly be a wonderful place, first and most importantly to worship at my Saviors feet, secondly to have an amazing reunion with many wonderful Christians!

Our day did not start so wonderfully, 3 out of our 4 children had, hmm...attitudes!!!  All three needed correction, one in tears~ the same one finally ready stating, I don't want to go to church, I don't want anyone to see me crying.  It was about that time that I realized this was going to truly be a great day, the services were going to be amazing.  You see anything that wonderful the devil did not want us participating in.  He was shooting fiery darts at our family, trying to stomp out our desire to be a part of this wonderful day.  He wants to destroy families, not have them worship together in church.  Just look how far our country is from God, as one by one He destroys families.  By the time we walked out the door tears were dry, a different child had apologized, we corrected our state of minds and oh what a beautiful day it was!!

Jesus is the reason for the season!
May I stay focused on that now and throughout the year!
May I share His love with others!

What a precious day Sunday was!

Our teens are the best!!

I may be a bit partial, well maybe a lot, but I think the teens at our church are just the best!!  They are polite, caring, and are some of the prettiest and most handsome teens around!

Wouldn't you agree?!?

At Christmas time each year our youth group has a formal progressive dinner.  It is so much fun to see all of our wonderful teens all dressed up.  The girls especially enjoy the night, 

looking so beautiful!

We had the privilege of hosting the dessert portion at our house, we had a great time!

They enjoy being goofy, but they also have servants hearts, ready to serve God!

My very favorite teens of all:

Praising God for all the wonderful teens, they are our future!

One year...

One year ago today we met Abby for the first time!

Wow, how the time has flown.  

Older child adoption is so wonderful!


Meeting Abby...

Notice the look on her face, as she cuts her eyes up at H.O., poor thing!  She was scared, but not for long, she quickly warmed up.  She was not too sure about her new family!

Now knowing her better, when she gets nervous the lips go out.  Thankfully, that is a look we do not see anymore.

She is SO brave!!  I can not image leaving all that I have ever known, good or bad, and walking away with strangers that I now call my family.  However, now that we talk a lot about her past, she openly shares she was a little scared but more excited.  Excited to have a family of her very own!!  Excited to have a fresh start! 

One year later....
a happy girl!!
  Yes, there are moments but for the most part she is a happy, loving, sweet girl!

No more pulling away!!  She is enjoying the love of her family!

Only God could perfectly match us with a child on the other side of the globe that blends into our family and is OUR child!

DTC!!!

                                    D=Dossier

                                    T=To

                                    C=China

This means all thirteen of the precious papers that we collected such as,  birth and marriage certificates, doctors/health reports, police clearances, immigration approval, our lovely home study along with family photos and reference letters have all been authenticated by the Chinese Consulate and are on there way to CHINA!!

Now we wait for LID (Log in Date) into the waiting line to have our petition approved to adopt two sweet little boys!

Another step closer!

Thankful

This time of year I like to look back over the past year and think on God's blessings for the year.  

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1

This year has been a hard year, but it has been an absolute wonderful year!  Through the hard times I have been able to experience a peace from my Savior, Jesus Christ that I would of never experienced had it not been for the hard times.  I had a peace that passes all understanding.  A peace when life does not seem peaceful.  I am so thankful for that unexplainable peace.

Next week it will be a year since we boarded a plane headed for China to adopt Abby.  God had pricked my heart for years to adopt and I had answered, no.  As I have watched the events of the past year, I am amazed to watch God's plan unfold before my eyes.

How sorry I am that I was so slow to listen to God.  God patiently waited for me to answer "yes, Lord".  

We were so excited to bring Abby home last December and were adjusting to our new normal.  Then on February 23 of this year as we traveled to the mountains Abby began to go in and out of consciousness and our new normal stopped abruptly.  We called 911 on the side of the road.  We were taken to a wonderful pediatric ER at a wonderful hospital.  The doctor's began running many tests, by the end of the day God had revealed to the doctors that Abby's brain stem and spinal cord were severely compressed.  This was the beginning of a 6 week hospital/rehab stay which included a very risky surgery and a slow and very difficult recovery process. 

Those are six weeks that I hope I never forget.  Not because of the pain I watched our daughter endure, not because of the sleepless nights, not because of the stress it put on our entire family.  I hope I never forget because of the absolute peace that God provided.  I hope I never forget because of  the love I felt from God and from others.

As I look back at the events of the last year and see God's plan I am humbled.  You see, as I said before, I had answered God with a no each time He nudged me to consider adopting, it took me many years before I said yes.  We have been told from multiple doctors that Abby should have died when she was only a couple of years old, there is no way she should of been able to survive with the extreme compression on her brain stem.  

But God had other plans!!  

He preserved Abby's live!  He waited on me to say yes.  He waited until we were together (I can't imagine how I would of reacted had I been alone with Abby without H.O.) headed to the mountains for her to pass in and out of consciousness.  He placed us by the hospital where one of the country's best surgeons specializing in the surgery Abby needed worked.  People come from all over the country to see this surgeon.  God placed us 20 minutes from this hospital on this exact day!  Amazing!!  Looking back I can see how God orchestrated each step and the days when I couldn't take the step He carried me.  What love!

I remember one day after a team meeting, where I  met with Abby's doctors and therapists and they had told me we would probably spend 4-6 more weeks in in-patient rehab.  I went back to the room and had a major cry and poured my heart out to God and told Him how I couldn't do it.  I kept thinking of all the other things in life, the other three children waiting at home, my husband, our house.  Well, looking back, we did spend 4 more weeks in rehab, and I didn't make it through on my own, I made it because God carried me through with an amazing peace.  In His amazing way He surrounded me in love, He provided two amazing christian nurses for Abby(one of which was Chinese), He provided food for our family at home through the love of my family and church family, He provided folks who provided companionship for my children at home.  HE was amazing!

God has blessed me with an amazing husband and children and He allowed our family to grow closer during this time.  I look back over the past year and am so absolutely humbled at the peace and love God has given to us!  It was a hard year but one of the best in my life, and I wouldn't want it any other way!

Thankful???  Beyond what words can express!  My heart is overflowing!  So... :) when God began to nudge our hearts to adopt again....I quickly, happily, excitedly said oh yes Lord!  I look forward to what God has for us in this coming year!

SOME DAYS....

They. are. best. buddies!

Other days, ummm, not so much.

But today...

 was a giggly, hand holding, full of fun day from start to finish!

And that warms this mommy's heart!

Immigration Approval!

Our immigration approval came in the mail yesterday!!

This states we may bring two boys from China into the U.S.!  This was the last document that we have been waiting on to complete our dossier.  Our agency says we should have our dossier sent to China in about three weeks.  Our dossier now has to go through the authentication process, it will make its way from the county level, to the state level, and onto the Chinese Consulate level!

Thank you Jesus, one more step done and one step closer to our boys!!!

Caleb Joseph

Seth Curtis

Wild Wonderful West Virginia

Our family was able to go on vacation to West Virginia a week ago.   The leaves were beautiful!

We stayed in the New River Gorge Bridge area, we saw the bridge from just about every angle!

The New River Gorge Bridge is the longest arch bridge in the 

Western Hemisphere.

In these pictures you can not see how amazingly high this bridge is, you could put the Washington Monument and two Statue of Liberty's all on top of each other under this bridge and still have 20 feet left.  Pretty tall!!

We took a gondola ride to the bottom and then got on a boat to ride up to the bridge.

We also enjoyed the Summersville Lake area, so beautiful.

I love the picture below, I'm sure H.O. is explaining something really important to the boys!

View of the river below the dam.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the river, climbing on rocks, and skipping rocks.  How great and beautiful is God's creation!!

We also went to see a coal mine exhibition "town".  It was set up as  a coal town would of been in the 1930's.  The buildings had been taken down from there original location, with each board numbered and reconstructed in this exhibition location.  We enjoyed our day here.

I often hear from folks how far our country has gotten away from God.  But, it was so evident at this exhibit.  I was amazed each bed or kitchen table had an open Bible on it.  In the school house "The Ten Commandments" were posted on the wall and a Bible was on the teachers desk.  Those are concepts I can't imagine in my lifetime, I've never seen a school room with the ten commandments or had a teacher that had a Bible on her desk.  How sad!

Carrie Anne playing the piano in the church.

I love the picture below because of Andrew's face in the background, trying to be silly.  Gotta love my Andrew!

We had a nice time enjoying God's creation in the fall.  It is hard to believe we were enjoying temperatures in the upper 70's and just 2 days later Hurricane Sandy came through and dumped a foot of snow in this same spot!

NEVER! DID. I. THINK.

I would hear my son say, 

"Mom, can you help me get this fingernail polish off!"

Last night at AWANA, at church,  the commander came to me and said, Your son let my daughter paint his fingernails.  I didn't even have to think, Hmm, I wonder which son that could be???  Nope!  I knew... Andrew!

Last night at AWANA it was orange night and in the spirit of the night the teens, at least some of them, were painting their nails orange!  And, as I've said before Andrew is our official family goof ball. So... of course he had no problem painting his nails.  Taylor, on the other hand, no way!

So... after I had a good laugh and took a picture :) I showed him how to take off the fingernail polish!

He did say he didn't know why girls painted their fingernails: 1. it felt weird, 2. it smelled bad and 3. you couldn't bite your nails!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!

Our sweet Abby turned 11 today!  This marked her first, of many, birthdays with us. Oh, our sweet girl!  She has been SO excited for this day!!  Andrew said to her the other day, it's hard to believe last year Abby was not with us for her birthday, she was in China.  Abby spoke up and said, "yes and so sad, life is so good now".  She is so truly thankful for EVERYTHING!  I can not even count how many times she has said "thank you" through out this day.  

We have had a wonderful, relaxing day celebrating Abby!  Each time we have prayed today, we again thanked God for putting Abby in our family, she just grins from ear to ear.

We started our day at a bounce house.

Then stopped for a snack at McDonald's and headed home to open presents.  She was excited!!

Then, the next long awaited moment... getting her ears pierced!

She loves them!  She just came up to me, gave me a big hug and kiss and said thank you for my earrings.  I love you mommy.  Oh how I love you sweet Abby!  

To finish our day we had Chinese take out followed by cake and ice cream!  Yum!

As I tucked her into bed tonight, she squeezed me tight and said I want to pray tonight, she closed her eyes and said, "Thank Jesus for giving me my mommy and daddy and family."  

We thank God for giving us the gift of Abby!  We are so blessed!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!