My world vision

I was so happy this year to participate with World Vision.  Every Christmas I get a little frustrated with the amount of stuff that accumulates under our tree, for I fear that the holiday loses it's true meaning, and the focus is skewed.  My goal is to have a gift less holiday.  Stockings only would be my preference.  This year we decided to try something different than anything we have ever done before.  We asked the kids if they wanted to give a part or all of the money we would spend on them for gifts to World Vision.  This is different than in previous years when we as a family would give to an organization because this was coming straight out their monies.  It would literally mean that they had less and would feel the cost of the giving, rather than it just coming out of our pockets.

 I decided to see if other families in our church wanted to join with us and do the same thing with their kids and each other.  Someone at work asked Nate what he was giving me for Christmas and he said "a goat." That really raises some eyebrows.  I just mailed off the check to World Vision for $1342.  It has been one of the highlights of the season so far. God is slowly stripping away the veil, and the view is inspiring.

The short lived ginger bread house

This is the picture that sucked me in.

All the pieces were in place.

Every one was ready to start.

Nate was ready for construction.

Construction began

It was coming together nicely..

We added the decorations, though it looked nothing like the box.

Then the foundations shook, and the roof started to slip.

There was no stopping the collapse

So we decided to eat it,

and lick all the icing off.

The poor gingerbread house.  It didn't turn out quite like I expected.

Flashback

This was the very first picture I ever saw of Dania, and that is when I knew that she was going to be ours.  I had no idea that it would be 4 long years until we met. There was a lot of confusion and frustration in these in between years, I had a lot of wants and desires that I saw slipping away, yet I trusted that he knew best, and was given the grace to trust that his timing was perfect and that he is good.

This was the first time we met, one year ago last night. She grew up without us, and yet she had the most perfect father to watch over and protect her until it was time to release her out of his hands into ours.  He did a better job of caring for her than I ever can do, and I am so grateful for his provision, protection and love.

Traditions and Plans

Every year, in almost all things that we do, I have plans and we have traditions.  The traditions are usually carried out, my plans are often thwarted.


Christmas Traditions
Going to a tree farm and cutting our own down - usually happens
Going out to lunch after our successful tree hunt - Chik Fil A every year
Having it up the weekend after thanksgiving - pretty consistent
Having everyone participate in the decorating - after several tearful years of begging, this now happens.
Playing Christmas music, usually O Holy Night (from every artist imaginable, compliments of Nate) - check
Only opening presents on Christmas morning - DEFINITELY
Rotating who places the special placing of the angel at the top of the tree - yes

Christmas Plans by me
Everyone getting along on the hour ride to the farm and appreciating the beautiful scenery - keep dreaming
Getting something different than chicken nuggets with buffalo sauce - can't - break - free - yet!
Being okay with not having it up on Saturday after thanksgiving - I still feel myself hyperventilating at the thought of losing days without Christmas lights on in the house.
Not to nag everyone to help decorate the tree - from all my previous nagging and cajoling, it's not too big of an issue.
Force myself not to run screaming over to the computer and smack it off the table after an hour of O Holy Night. ( thank goodness the chipmunks have yet to release a version of it)
My plans are never thwarted about Christmas present opening, because there are 2 big people against the little people.
I never have plans for the angel.

I love traditions! I love making new ones! I am flexible with that as long as I planned it.  I have found that my plans really serve no purpose, except to force me to have expectations that I have no right to have.  I have been slowly learning, to slowly release my plans.  If ever a holiday or family outing is ruined, it is because I had some expectation that was not met. Did I mention how slowly I have been learning this.  This year was the first year in memory for Nate or I that we did not get into any kind of scrap.  That includes Thanksgiving, which we hosted 23 people at our house.  Amazing! I am on a roll and I do not want to lose it coming into the home stretch.  I am undertaking a new outlook on life in general.  My new years resolution (which I never really like to say) is starting early.  I am spending the month of December in considerable reflection and deliberate actions, to put me on a new path for the coming year.  Christmas plans are just the tip of the iceberg. BTW, I love O Holy Night! 

This was actually the end result of our tree decorating. Chaos!

I planned to take photos of the kids on this freezing day, but all I got was the mountain man.

This girl worked on untangling the lights like one determined by the true spirit of Christmas.

This year it was Dania's turn to perch on the father to place the angel

Dancing to the beat of O Holy Night

The hooded man is Austin, whom I didn't even have to beg to participate in the decorating, so I didn't even mind the hooded garb.

The resident photographer took a break to hug the tree

He mocks my beautiful novelties.

Thankful

We had a lovely holiday week filled with cooking, fellowship and memories. 

Thankful

cleaning before guests arrive.

the women prepare before the feast begins

delighting in all the food

We set up tables in the living room

a game of basketball with the cousins and the uncles

this girl helped me disembowel the turkey

she collected the vertebra and played a game with the bones

Do I wear the cloak?

Mother Teresa gave these to her sisters to instill the virtue of humility:

I so desperately wanted to rate/grade myself against this list, but then I realized that would be breaking #1.  I have been pondering these in the past few weeks and have so far found NO WAY to avoid #3, how is a Cat like me to avoid curiosity?  So often in my Christian walk I reminded to guard myself against being prideful, but often forgo the difficult task of walking under the cloak of humility. What would I look like if I lived this way?  May the God who is able to do all that we ask and more, give me the grace to see.

1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.

2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.

3. Avoid curiosity.

4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.

5. Accept small irritations with good humor.

6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.

7. Accept censures even if unmerited.

8. Give in to the will of others.

9. Accept insults and injuries.

10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.

11. Accept injuries and insults.

12. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone. 

13. Do not seek to be admired and loved.

14. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.

15. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.

16. Always choose the more difficult task.

Home grown fun

For the past 7 months we have had workers at our house doing some home repairs and what not.  We had a room built for Austin in the attic space above our room, painted Dania's bathroom, fixed our sagging sun room, stained the decks and underpinning and painted the exterior of the house.  When you have someone in your home for7 months they become friends.  We had many long talks about God, wives, marriage, childrearing and the meaning of life.  I thoroughly enjoyed having them here and so did the kids.  Luke in particular made good friends with them both, and was always challenging them to some kind of competition.  Luke even hounded Chris (the younger guy) to give up cigarettes. (which he did)  Luke even went so far as to write his "hero" paper about Chris.  Often, I would look out the window to see the workers playing some sort of game with the kids, Brad who knew quite a bit of riddles and magic was always stumping them with his tricks.  The workers called their time at our place; The Brock Glory Train

This is how you sleigh ride in the south

They could barely hang on for a minute, Nate was ruthless in his attempts to fling them off

Nate gets sucked into the kickoffs

"I felt something rip"

Chris says "watch a pro do it"

Brad takes a stab at it, while Luke who instigated the whole thing with a "betcha can't" watches on.

Military Weekend

Our town hosts a military weekend every year.  The Band of Brothers military series was based on an infantry group that trained here, and I believe parts of the film were shot here on location as well.  It is a pretty big deal and a wonderful piece of history, so we try to come out every year and see the old planes and go to the demos.

This is the Huey that we all took a ride in at the local airport

Nate is too big to fly this bird, but he keeps on dreaming

Evan mentally gets ready for his first flight in any type of aircraft

Random thoughts

I have been reading over and over again the book of Ecclesiastes.  I do not feel like I can move on yet.  I have been getting some surprisingly good stuff out of it.  Usually, I skim through this book or just pick out the "good" verses, since the little black cloud that follows me doesn't need anymore fuel to the "woe is me" fire.

Austin is not doing that great in school.  His spelling is atrocious and his handwriting leaves much to be desired.  I am SO glad we got the Reading Detective comprehension material; until this past week, he was failing every one of the assignments.  He over thinks everything, and his brain is certainly not wired like mine. He has been struggling in grammar as well.  The comma splice, fragments, and fused sentences were throwing us both for a loop.  I still don't really understand when to use ; (this) rather than , (that). ugh!  We are having a good time though, and I am not really concerned with his performance.  I will whip him into shape soon.

He is having the most wonderful opportunities to go to Nate's shop and help out with the motorcycle business.  He and Nate took apart his first bike last week.  He received $35 as his share in the process.  He gets to hang around a bunch of really nice young men, and with the 12 or so motorcycles in the shop right now, the testosterone is really flowing.  I even caught some of it the other day and jumped on an orange crotch rocket and sped off past the airport.  When I thought that I was really flying, I looked down to see that I was going all of 43mph.  Nathan was ahead of me.  I should actually say that he was a small black speck on the horizon, and when we arrived at the shop, he stated that I could hardly have been going any slower. Oh well!  I guess I have no future as a leather ed up street racer.

I just got home from driving a couple in our church to the Atl airport.  They are on their way to Bulgaria to pick up their new 4 year old son.  I am so excited!  I felt like I participated in a moment of eternity.

I am excited about the young married women in our church.  I have a couple of them that I am particularly vested in.  I find great fulfillment in these mentoring type relationships.

A citizen, an anniversary, and the good stuff

Dania got her citizenship on Friday without a hitch.  She asked me in the directors office: "now can I stay with you forever?"  We took her to the mall to eat lunch while our van was having some scheduled maintenance, and that was a brand new experience for her.  Sometimes I forget that she hasn't done certain things or seen things that I take for granted.  She had never seen a food court, an escalator, or the merry-go-round.  She was scared to death to step on the escalator, but I forced her to do it a dozen times while Nate sat on a comfy sofa and watched the spectacle.  She got to pick what kind of food she wanted to eat, and while I choose county fair, she choose pizza and spaghetti. (she is getting the hang of what American kids eat)

My paper chase and her citizenship quest all ended on our 16th wedding anniversary.  I have now known Nate half of my life, since we dated for 4 years.  I am so grateful for the good, bad and ugly that has been our journey of marriage.  I couldn't be happier, and I don't say that very often.  Saturday my parents took the kids to Blue Grass, so that I could have a casual dinner party with friends at our house.  The weather was perfect, the food good, and the company delightful.  Sunday, Nates folks picked up the kids so that we could go on a nice long motorcycle ride in the fallish weather.  The evening ended with pizza and cake at their house.  Today, I laid around in my pj's and read outside on the deck.  The only work I did was, load the dishwasher and make the bed.  It was a perfect long weekend.

My oldest baby. My littlest baby.

Austin is headed out in a few hours to spend the night with a friend, and then leave at 5am to go to Minnesota for a youth conference.  He is headed way up north for the first time, and this will be the first he flies in an airplane.  Yikes!  Believe or not! (believe it) I am nervous for him, but rest assured, I have said nothing to him about it.  I am acting like any other normal mother would in preparation for a trip.  I refuse to even give a hint of my anxiety to him, lest he befall into the pit his mother has occupied for so long.  Nathan has assured and reassured me that he will be fine and that I am utterly weird and bordering on lunacy. (nothing you or I didn't already know)

My littlest baby (Dania) has her citizenship appt. early Friday morning in Atlanta.  This will be the end of the paper chase for us.  She may walk out with her paperwork or it will be mailed to us.  In the event that something is askew with her paperwork, it should not be to hard to resolve it from this point out.  I have been nervous about this as well, trying to get everything in order, run all over the city of Atlanta getting physicals and paperwork.  I also had to get stuff translated and forms filled out. She is the first one in the group that works with my agent to go through the process, so we are the guinea pigs.  I pray everything is in order and this chapter can be closed.
I will still have to readopt her in the state of Ga, but that is not a necessity.  I do want her to have a US birth certificate and not have any hang ups in the future with drivers licenses, marriage cert. etc, so we will proceed with stateside adoption.  She will be a full fledged American citizen on Friday.

Ahh! the beach

We had a very nice time in Myrtle Beach.  Our timeshare was across the street from the ocean and set back a little, so we had to drive or walk carrying our chairs, but still it was a good time for all.  Austin loves swimming in the waves, Dania loved the sand and water, while Luke and Evan love looking for creatures and shells, although they are avid swimmers as well.  I was surprised that no "chickenness" was present in Dania.  She had a moments hesitation, and then dove in almost like a pro, jumping over the big waves and trying to ride them in to shore.  She had a blast!  Mostly what you hear while watching from your chair perched in the sand 100 yds back is: "whoohoo, hoo, hoo,hoo.  You may also see some fist pumping as she escapes being flattened by the foaming white wall of water.  It was pure delight to introduce her to another new adventure.

Since we no longer have TV at all, I did not even feel the slightest bit guilty about how much cartoons or movies they watched during the heat of the day and evenings that we were not swimming.  That gave Nate and I tons of time to talk, hang out in the hot tub around the corner of our building, or watch Litttle House on the Prairie. (my fav)  I even got to partake in the fresh seafood.  We avoided eating out at a fancy place, because that can get way too pricey with 6 people, and besides, Nate and Evan can live w/o it, so I went to a fish market and bought steamed shrimp and blue crabs.  Dania, Austin and I ate them out on the back patio, in order to not contaminate the room with a fishy smell.  It was divine!

School had already started there so the beaches were not crowded, and there was not too much indecent exposure either.  It seemed pretty family friendly.

We came home late afternoon yesterday, and school started for the littles and homeschool for Austin.  I am so happy to be back on a schedule that I don't even mind hitting the ground running from vacation.

Add he fades into the sunset.

So invigorating!

On our way back from "treasure" hunting.

Beach! Glorious! Beach!

Explaining why men don't give birth. (really!)

Getting a massage hot tub side.

Swimming like fish.

Reflecting on the finer points of the day.

Engaging in frivolous pastimes.