Christmas Angels

You know, there have been times in my life I felt compelled to help others, just knew I needed to do it. Sometimes I did it, sometimes not, something got in the way, it seemed too late, no money. Excuses, none really good enough and I can't go back now:(

I felt led, and I mean LED to help someone that mentioned in church that their son had no job, broken ankle and a little girl with nothing for Christmas. I knew I had a velvet dress at the very least, hanging in the closet, 24 months size, was never going to be worn again by our girls ages 5 and up:) Worn ONCE. I found some gorgeous barely worn Chinese shoes. I added in leggings and a small doll with a bottle I bought. I spent very little. Yet when I gave to grandma she said "you- of all people, YOU!" And I said "yep, me, I felt I was led to do this."

Funny enough, later that same day the pastor came to me and said " We did up the food baskets, we have an extra turkey, would you like to have it?" Guess what? I hadn't bought my turkey yet, and it cost double what I put out for that girl.

I tell this story as I feel so blessed this Christmas season. We have a compelling story with the new foster girls, and of course, the sibling situation has touched so many people. But all along God has made sure to cover all bases with the financial end and I focus on the JOY! I share the JOY of these wonderful children. I share the story of the sibs to encourage people- NOT to give money to us, but to think of any child you can help, adopt a child, foster, sponsor a child, babysit a child for a stressed parent, be a Big Brother/Big Sister, cub scout leader, or if you aren't "into kids"(gasp) it's okay- support someone emotionally, in prayer, or financially if you can who is adopting. That's what our children and their stories, our lives, represent-- HOPE.

I e-mailed someone about a pony (shhh don't tell) for the girls. Not a real one, comm'om mom no phone calls, if anything goes in the back yard it's a cow to produce the gallon of milk we use a day. ANYWAY---It's one of those 3 foot tall ones that the girls can sit on, it moves and makes all kinds of noises. In answering the ad, which the girl wanted to sell it and posted it without mom knowing to buy her sis a Christmas gift. Mom asks about the kiddos we have especially the 2 new ones who came with little.

Next thing I know, I get an e-mail from mom. Not only are we getting the pony BUT.... they feel so blessed in overabundance that mom and Bailey ( little girl) are GIVING us clothes, toys, to help out with the girls. My son went and picked it all up and he calls and says "mom it's amazing" and in he comes with the clothes. The squeals were so loud, I had to stop the girls from going totally nuts trying on everything!! They are looking GOOD every day, so cute and it's so adorable to see them just dance to get ready for school each day in their "new clothes".

AND I HAVEN'T mentioned the toys yet! Tons of them, some new, all with new batteries, amazing things that we are soooo thankful for. It's going to be a super Christmas morning, I am NEVER up early, I LOVE my sleep, but I swear I am more excited than them. I was up at 5 am today after being up till 12, couldn't sleep! I can't WAIT for the big day!

Amy and Bailey are Christmas angels. 2 very special girls, we thank you so much for caring. They even sent a gift for hubby and I and we are waiting to open it:)

Yesterday I also received a phone call. Could someone who read the children's story in the article come meet Chloe. I said "sure, come on over." She had worked in China many years ago and said she had a heart for these precious children. Her and hubby came after school and although Chloe was shy, Kat doesn't know the meaning of the word and when the wife said "come here" to her she was up giving hugs in no time and talking their ears off.

We talked a little about the boys and their situation, she took a call from her son, and they went to leave. Before leaving she handed me a check. For $2,200!!!! Then proceeded to say "my son said to expect another $2,000 coming from him, it's in the mail." Now, like my daughter, I am rarely speechless. But I was, I cried. I hugged them and I managed to get a thank you out and said they didn't begin to know what this meant for our sons and Chloe. I told them they MUST see these children together in person, they have dibs on visiting when we are home:) I was just dumbfounded, not even by this money gift to help get the boys home- because we all know God has that figured out- but by how much people CARE.

No one has to, they aren't forced to answer that call if they hear the story, they don't have to do a thing, it will go away, be forgotten. BUT-not just our story, but our LIVES are touching people in ways we never thought possible. God opened our heart with Kat and we said "come on in" and it's snowballed into something wonderful from there. Even with fostering we have people ask how we do it, that they want to, they have thought of doing it, how special it is.

We don't think we are doing is anything "SUPER" we are just living our life. We love kids, it's my "job" and I can say I am good at it. I am blessed with this job I love and want to do my best for each of them every day. I am eager to get the boys home and have them a part of this family, to learn about them, to be their momma.

We also got a knock at the door this a.m. and "someone within the community that does work with the foster system here had sent out word of ages of our children, we had 5 van loads, not just the foster girls, but ALL of our kids, gifts- clothes, shoes, 3/4 of the stuff is wrapped so we don't know what all it is. Unbelievable, I can't describe the thankfulness of our hearts,yet more people who CARE.

THEN I got the mail and a card arrived, no signature, just a $100 gift card for the local grocery! I can't stop crying, I'm not an easy crier, but it's so overwhelming and wonderful!

We are sooo blessed and thankful, this is such a load off of us about the spending with trip looming soon. It's hard not to think of it with everything we must spend let alone Christmas for 7 kiddos.

I hope if you get nothing more out of this post that you somehow feel our JOY at the awesome people we have met, some we don't even know but have touched our lives, at the love we have for our kids, at the amazing things that can happen when you trust in God. It's not about the getting, it's all about the JOY!!!

BTW I got out of all the wrapping, I begged, bribed, guilted son #2 to come home early and he has all this stuff stashed at son #1's next door and is wrapping it ALL- I just make piles, who gets what, he wraps. It's going to be an amazing Christmas morning...this may be the best year yet!

Nahh, that's gotta be next year when the boys are ALL here and we can see them together with Chloe for their first Christmas, but this will be a close second for sure. We truly hope and pray you all are as blessed as we are. Open your hearts, there's so much out there waiting for YOU....

What's next?

I was in shock about the LOA and didn't even give my post a title:) Good grief. Anyway, for all the "non adoptive" people, LOA means we have been accepted to be the parents of Chance. We sign paper, send back, accepting him.

Next step is Travel Approval or TA in adoption lingo. That takes about 8 weeks or so, for us to get it and then for agency to plan travel is about another 4 weeks added in. So we have about 12 weeks and we are working hard to get Chase's way here done so they will both be coming.

Our roller coaster this week was grant- good, finding out original social worker (SW) is unable to help us due to a serious illness- BAD. Then LOA, GOOD. No more bad please. But these are the roads of adoption that make you a stronger person, that shows the world you are up to snuff to parent if you can make it through all this and still be sane.

And we are still claiming we are. Sane that it. Not looney, nuts, goofy, gone, over the edge, losing it, lost, nutso, bonkers, whacko, whifty, ditzy................I think you get the drift?

Speaking of drifts, we are 6 inches and counting deep in AMERICK snow. WOOO Hooo fun. It's beautiful, so white, so peaceful. Just like my heart, knowing God is keeping His plan in place for our SONS......one is official now, can we hear 2?? Keep praying we will:)

LOA BABY !!

Yes, it happened already, LOA for boy #1. WOW. Can't say I expected that at day 59!!! I was thinking word on the other boy, but that's something. Doesn't mean anything changes in our goals to get the other brother home, it's just a nice little Christmas gift to us, brother #1 is sure to be our son.

What a wonderful surprise. We were told we may not know anything about the other boy till we are very close to travel, so thinking that will be about 12 weeks or so>>>>

Hummmm....not very LONG! Another boy, oh JOY!

Doing the LOA dance in our world tonight, we have it perfected by now:)

It's a GRANT

AHHH- A huge answer to prayer. We have been awarded a grant:)

We are sooooo incredibly thankful, it's hard to even put it in words, every dollar, every person, I hope that seeing these 3 kiddos together will be your reward to know YOU touched these kids lives, YOU did it. We may get the joy of raising them (remind me I said that in 6 months or so) BUT bringing them home, YOU ALL are doing that.

Just think, you can't/ don't want to adopt. Don't know how you can help be a difference? It's SOO easy. Donate to someone adopting, even $10, 20,$5 may be the amount they need to get a paper sent in, to go to the next step. Or sponsor a child's foster care, that's just as important for the children, ones being adopted and ones not. Can you imagine when you see the picture of Chloe and her sibs and even if you gave $5 knowing YOU helped make this happen? YOU made a difference in the lives of THREE orphaned children, no longer orphans but LOVED, CHERISHED children within our family.

God gives us these precious children, they are meant to be shared, and we share with you the journey of lifetime, made one step closer for us today by Gift Of Adoption!!!

Who is trying to fill mom's britches?

I have never once denied being my own fluffy self. Now the girls, being the little buggers they are, thought it would be terribly funny to try to fill MY underthings, before I could grab them and go for my shower. I'm thinking these two goofballs will NEVER fill mom's britches:) They can only wish- or not.

I had a nice cold shower to start my day, as Mal beat me to the only bathroom we own and had used up every drop of hot water we had:( Isn't that LOVELY. I'm amazed that 5 people can shower and be clean till we run out of hot water but just one of Mal uses it ALL. GRRRR.

I had to get clean to take off to the doctor's first thing this am. Poor Pip has 2 bulging ear drums and she was up crying at 12:30 am. The doctor said she was amazed she wasn't in more pain from her ears that they are nasty sore looking.

We went to the store to get her medicine when she wouldn't stop touching EVERYTHING and I said we were going to go sit and wait by the pharmacy. She talked, and talked, about Santa coming, Santa seeing everyone, then about how people get old and die, but they go to Jesus and He can make them new bones out of sticks, she even had me feel her leg, since it's hard like a stick:) When we got called up they asked " was that just her talking- we thought you had more than one with you?" Ha ha, I said. Just her. She's a talker.

Kat, Em and Cam went to 2 birthday parties, luck for us they were the same time at the same bowling alley:) Pip had to stay home but she was good having mommy time to herself, other than Chloe. Chloe seemed to think she HAD to go somewhere too, I told her, no that was not a requirement of the weekend.

We did have to laugh when Chloe asked for $5 to buy a school shirt. I was thinking T-shirt? Uhh, no not quite. She comes home with a size 40- yep, 4-0 used basketball jersey? She has a hair band tied to the back to keep it from reaching her knees. It's pretty silly looking, but she loves this shirt.

Chloe was making out her Christmas list last night with 8 things on it. The first 6 were toys, #7 Chance, #8 Chase.

Sure wish Santa could deliver those 2 wishes for her. She is getting excited just knowing it isn't going to be too much longer now.......... she's even making her " things Chloe wants mom to buy her in China list" it's getting LONG>>>>> and includes a basketball jersey that FITS, she says if I get her one she will give up the HUGE one to her brother. Isn't she great at working her momma?

Honor Roll

Yep, our girl did it. Actually 2 of them did, but Mal is always on the Honor Roll. Not that we aren't super happy with that:) Chloe made the Honor Roll!!

I showed her the newspaper with her name in it. What does she say? "what I do? I told her good grades, this is super! She says - as she waves that pointy finger back and forth at me- " no, no. no, I bad." Then she laughs. She's quite the little bugger, she told me the other day she was bad in school and I said "WHAT?" Then she says "just kiddin".

Chloe's English skills have grown by leaps and bounds, just the amount of " how you spell?" questions decreasing is showing us she is picking things up very fast and her reading skills are close to a 2-3 rd grader when just months ago she was at a kindergarten level. She loves helping the little girls with their homework, they read simple books every night, and she loves that she can have them read to her, as she can make sure they are doing it right:)

Her writing is really coming along as well. She made a poster of a girl from a TV show and then listed her different traits, she did a great job, plus she added in some Chinese characters as well. One cool poster. She took her new school schedule and translated it over into Chinese:)

The girl LOVES to mess with paper, she can make amazing folded paper things, she loves tape, scissors, drawing. That's her using up the last of my tape:( And her shirt says "CUTE is my middle name." Of course it is:)

We should have some news within a few weeks on Chase, please, please, keep him in your prayers, we need God to hear our pleas for this precious child. Chloe shared something out of the blue yesterday, we heard a commercial say "so many children live on the street tonight- blah blah." Chloe comes off with " I live in street in China."

Like it was NOTHING.

As usual I was shocked with the nonchalant comment, and totally unprepared to respond. I said "how did you eat?" Chase- he got her food. "Where did you sleep?" In the street. Chase watched over her and Chance. Can you imagine? I can't. I want to take that boy and hug the stuffing out of him. He was her protector. He made sure his siblings had food, were safe. But WHO took care of HIM? He would have been so little himself. It breaks my heart.

I pray he gets to be our son, we are doing everything we can to make that happen, I want to see him be a CHILD again. To never go hungry again. To not sleep "on alert." To know his siblings are safe in the same family, same home and they all have a mom, a dad, love, that they are wanted. To learn of God, who brought them home.

I know God must hear the ache this momma has in her heart for these boys, to have them home, with their sister, He has moved mountains already so we trust He will provide the way for our sons:) Not just to be sons of our heart, but sons of our HOME.

Weird dreams

It's funny that Baba says he never remembers his dreams but frequently I do. I woke this morning with the saddest memory of a dream. I had birthed a baby who was Chinese (of course). She was soo incredibly gorgeous. She had a cleft lip and palate. I was very young and she died because of MY inability to care for her with her disabilities. I even knew her name- Cecilia, odd as I have never even LIKED that name. How weird is that???

Now don't be telling me this is something to come in my life, I usually can pinpoint certain parts of a dream with something my mind mulled over during my day before.

I'm missing our baby boy. Odd how sometimes I can go days and days and just think of how wonderful he was to have even been blessed to be a part of his life- a total honor. Then sometimes I feel such an intense longing for him it's downright painful. I have already decided my "Heaven" will be rocking my baby boy with my other children all around me playing happily for eternity.

I was so incredibly happy last night to finally get to see our foster boys that left in October. Their Dad has not been willing to maintain contact for the boys, we figured this would happen as the one was very bonded to me. Last night as we went to the girls' Christmas program I walked in and heard "Bickie, BICKIE. BICKIE" and as he got closer to me "MOM!!!" He landed in my arms and was so excited to see me. He ended up on my lap at half way through the program as he wouldn't stop turning around and waving at me:)

It was so good to see him, he looks good, he seems happy, the girls were thrilled to see him as well and Kat kept hugging him. I have had dreams that he came here by mistake and I had to call his dad so I can honestly say I have worried about him and his brother. I hugged him and told them we love them as we left, he wanted to come with us but he did okay when they told him he couldn't.

I wasn't even sure they would remember us but no doubt about it, we touched those boys lives.

Our new girls are doing well, getting settled, although I admit the girls are quite different than boys, or maybe it's just getting used to the balance of girls being greater than boys right now:)

The school did something really smart this year, with the economy so poor and our area being huge in unemployment they had the kids come to their Christmas program in pj's. Everyone has pj's but it's often hard for everyone to have dress up clothes. So they did the program like it was the "Night Before Christmas". I thought it was a super idea and our girls looked so stinking cute that even though I can't post a full pic of the girls I took the time to block out Em and Pip's (not real names) faces so you could see them:)

I was able to share our family story on Sunday, I did well from what I was told. I was really nervous but I wanted to do it to make people see what blessings God can have for you if you just open your heart. It was geared to promote adoption, foster care, even just helping any child as they are our future! They are so important and really, I can honestly say we get so much more from them that we ever give them, I have a spot in my heart for each and every one of our blessings, they stay there always:)

I ended our story with "BRING ON THE BOYS!"

We heard back from a grant we applied for and we are being recommended for a grant- WHOOO HOOO, we need it!! We are so thankful, it will come for travel time- another prayer answered. Not sure how much it will be but anything is a help!!