We have been busy!

Like most of you, we have been busy lately! But, let me tell you, in all the hustle and bustle I am overflowing with thankfulness to my merciful, tender-hearted Heavenly Father.

Last weekend my parents were in town and stayed the night. We ended up having time to work with Hallie on her 8 year old bedroom valence. My mom showed her all about the sewing machine and Hallie made the valence almost 100% on her own!!

597. Watching my mom teach Hallie with patience and care.
598. Hallie's attention to detail and work ethic.
599. Creating beautiful things with my mom and daughter.


While the three of us worked intently on sewing and creating Ryan played a game of Monopoly with Jacob. Jacob thrives on quality time so it was wonderful that he had his daddy's undivided attention for so long.
600. A dedicated father for my kids.
601. Jacob's delight in time spent with his daddy. I pray he is learning how to delight in his Heavenly Father too.

So, that left Zac. He played with Poppie, dressed up and also got hugs, kisses and tickles from our good friend, Hannah.
602. Zac's smile and giggle.
603. Hannah's adoration and genuine love for our kids.

So, after a fun Saturday together my folks left on Sunday. My dad took a big truck of furniture out to my brother and my mom headed to Lincoln to be with my grandma.
604. Ryan and my dad working together and their relationship.
605. God's protection over my dad during his long trip to Las Vegas.
606. My dad connecting with my brother and showing his love through his gift of service and time.
607. My mom's never-ending, enduring, difficult and loving commitment to caring for my grandma as she ages.

Meanwhile, we went to church and took the kids to visit Santa. At church we listened to a wonderful sermon, lifted our voices in songs of praise and enjoyed laughter and joy with our church congregation. You see, we just finished a sermon series on joy which was entitled, glee. So, to end the series we all enjoyed some glee together with a funny video. To see the video go to this website.

608. Santa smiles.
609. Laughter and joy from silly stuff.
610. The sincerity and authenticity of our senior pastor.
611. Raising my hands to worship God.

Finally, just last night we got to watch Hallie and Zac in their first Christmas musical at church. Oh, I was so proud of them! Jacob was beside himself with boredom, but before the production enjoyed taking pictures with my camera all around the sanctuary.

612. Jacob's delight in showing me his pictures. "Mommy, I took pictures close up, far away and in the middle!
613. Hearing my daughter's voice.
614. Watching her hold back a smile when everyone applauded for her.
615. Zac's confident one-liner, "What's taxes?"
616. Grammy and Grandpa showing their love with their presence.
617. Grammy's tears of joy with Hallie's song.

My sweet Zac

Today is a Zac and Mommy day while the older kids are in school. Well, after the turkey leaked in the stove this last weekend I had some major oven cleaning to do. My sweet Zac said he wanted to help and started scrubbing. He said, "Mommy, if you ever have show and tell at work you could bring me! You can tell them what a good scrubber I am!" A few minutes later..., "Mommy, when I grow up I am going to be a helper cuz I am really good at scrubbing things."

I love this kid!

Thanksgiving 2010

This is one of my favorite holidays! It is all about being thankful to God, sharing time with family and not giving any gifts! It seems like such a pure holiday.

Since this blog is mainly a thankfulness journal I can not pass up such a great day to give thanks!

Philippines 1:3 says, "I thank my God every time I remember you..."

God, thank you for...

576. Your Son, Jesus. My friend, my Savior, my example, my hope.
577. Your Spirit. My guide, my convictor, my comforter.
578. Ryan. My best earthly friend, my greatest love.
579. Hallie. My daughter.
580. Jacob. My son.
581. Zachary. My son.
582. Melia. The hope of another daughter.
583. My mom and dad. Patient, enduring, sacrificial love.
584. Doug and Jean. Adoption as a daughter into their hearts and family forever.
585. My sister. My dear, dear friend.
586. My brother. Family forever.
587. Jenni. My sister. She is so generous to me with her love and her life.
588. Shawn and Will. Brother-in-laws. The ties to other men, fathers through the gift of family.
589. Jillian, Tyler, Bill, Cole and Brooke. Cousins, nieces and nephews. The joy in each of their births, the opportunity to watch them grow into children and young adults. Fun, joy and laughter from time spent together.
590. Grandma. 94 years of life. The love and prayer she has poured over me and my family.
591. Aunt Anica and Uncle Jeff. Encouragement, friendship as adults.
592. Aunt Jonell and Uncle John. Intentional love, wisdom and devotion to my family despite the miles.
593. Aunt Marania and Uncle Wyman. Example of living a quiet dream.
594. Adam, Emma, Susanne, Aroha, John, Nick and Chad. My cousins. Different lives connected and bound by the gift of family.
595. Jen C., Jamie, Jacy, Lindsey, Emily, Darcie, Becca, Margie, Tami, Amy, Beth, Jenny Z., Cathy, Rhonda, Hannah, Jen G., Nicole. Close friends that I have and can share my life with. Accountability, faithful friendship. Answered prayer.
596. Church family. Real, genuine, kind, trustworthy Jesus-lovers.

Heavenly Father, in your abundant loving kindness you not only sustain my life with breath every day you also have lavished on me the gift of these lives. You have caused my life to intersect with so many others for my benefit and your glory. I thank you for each one of these precious, dear people as I remember them today. Love you, Father!

Today...

566. Games and laughter with my family at Grammy and Grandpa's house tonight.
567. Little girls giggling for four hours straight.
568. They way Ryan processes things and thinks...he is spatial and sees things as patterns...amazes me!
569. Jacob in a pilgrim hat singing, "God bless this food" with all the Kindergarten kids at school!
570. Family support. Grammy, Aunt Jenni and two cousins all came to Jacob's 15 minute production at school.
571. Tickling Zac, hearing him laugh and getting a note from him with his name and a heart on it.
572. Forgiveness asked for and given by my 5 year old.
573. Writing Christmas letters.
574. A clean room. Reminds me of a clean heart.
575. The four boy cousins building legos, playing Star Wars and sharing fun.

Details...

So, here are some details about our decision to adopt.

A few months ago Ryan and I thought I might be pregnant for a few days. In most instances that would freak us out, but we were actually kind of excited about the idea. When I was not pregnant we actually felt a little sadness. This combined with the Lord prompting me during my quiet times to pray into adoption slowly led to our decision to adopt.

561. Lord, thank you for your patience in letting us come to this decision.

After deciding to adopt we decided gender. Hallie has always wanted a little sister and to even out the boy/girl ratio in the family we decided to adopt a little girl. Ryan teases that now I won't just have one to take to the bathroom (the easy one) when we go out!

562. Lord, thank you for longing in Hallie's heart for a sister and how it has helped us make a decision for a little girl. You use all these longings to bring about your good, pleasing and perfect will. Phil 1:8 "God can testify how (we) I long for all of you (our little girl) with the affection of Christ Jesus."

Next decision was where to adopt from. First, Domestic vs. International. From talking with the staff at NE Children's Home it seemed that it would be really hard to choose a young girl because their are so many families wanting to adopt young children. We did not want to take a child away from a family that desperately wanted a baby, but instead wanted to take a child that was in need and make her a part of our family. That moved us to International adoption once again. We considered Russia, Ethiopia, China and Korea. We wanted to use HOLT because of the wonderful things we have heard about their Christian affiliation, integrity, and the experiences of other families that have used them. They don't work in Russia so we looked at the other country options they had available. Obviously, China has a long history of having lots and lots of girls available for adoption so that combined with cost and one trip (instead of two) as well as Holt's long history of working in China led us to this country.

563. Lord, thank you for surrounding us with wise people that have gone before us in adopting from China and with Holt. Thank you that our lives are relational. Thank you for my running friends that have played a part in helping this story unfold and lead us to our daughter.

Next, was her name. Ryan and I have always named our kids early on. We love to think about names and begin to pray for our kids by name as soon as possible. Initially we just started looking on the computer for A names, B names etc... For God's reason we skipped to the M's and started to think about ways to use "mei" or "mee" in a name because it means beautiful in Chinese. After MUCH discussion and consideration we came up with a name that does not have "mei or "mee" in the name but, one that we love. Her first name will be MELIA (pronounced muh-LEE-ya).

564. Lord, thank you for giving us her name. We pray for you to guard and protect Melia's heart, mind and body in your Son, Jesus.

So, now we begin the paperwork process. We filled out the application to the agency and a list of minor/correctable special needs that we feel good about handling. Thanks to the wonderful International adoption physician who met with us for free at Boystown to discuss the list! We also each filled out a 17 page questionnaire about our personal history which will be a part of the homestudy and began filling out the paperwork for our criminal history check. Pretty soon we will be off to do fingerprints for FBI clearance.

The process has begun and we could not be happier!

565. Lord, thank you for the resources available in Omaha that make this process easier and smoother. We are so thankful for the doctor at Boystown and his generosity to us!

Happy News

Ryan and I have decided to begin the process of adopting a little girl from China! We are so excited about this decision! For those of you moms out there that say going from three to four is not that big of a deal...I'm counting on that to be true!

We have submitted an application to Holt Internationals Child of Promise Program. This means our little girl will most likely have a minor or correctable special need. We have discussed different medical diagnoses with the International Adoption doctor in Omaha and feel totally at peace with the information we have received and our application to use Holt.

I will write more as the story of our little girl's journey home unfolds. Please keep her in your prayers if you think about it!

When you need to turn off your mind...

...give thanks!

This week (yes, it is only Monday) my mind has been swirling. I feel like there are so many things to think about and figure out and do or not do and schedules to keep and..... I know you have all been there.

Well, I'm pretty sure one of the ways I am tempted into anxiety is to keep my mind preoccupied with stuff instead of CHRIST! So, I am choosing to see Christ and give thanks so that He will receive glory and my mind can know freedom and peace.

546. A crescent moon at sundown in a clear Nebraska sky.
547. 70 degrees on November 8 in Nebraska!!
548. Watching Hallie's graceful hands in ballet.
549. Playing dragon castle with Zac today.
550. Jacob yelling, "Mommy!" in front of all the kids running out of school today.
551. A letter to Jacob from Andrew that said, "Jacod is my bff!" (Still working on b's and d's
552. Listening to Hannah sing and play hymns at the piano.
553. Pushing Zac on the swings.
554. Zac's laugh.
555. Ryan's hug.
556. My mom's voice.
557. Reading grandma's evening prayer to her.
558. Quiet Reading.
559. My aunt's encouragement.
560. My uncle's silent, sweet protection and love for his wife.

Wow! That felt good to just think back on the day and praise Him. He is good, He is gracious, He is loving, He is peace!