Christmas Cupcakes

For Christmas I decided to make these adorable (and totally easy) cupcakes that I saw on Pinterest.  Of course, I roped my darling husband into helping with the decorating.  I think they turned out pretty well and my nieces loved them.

North Pole Cupcakes

Snowman Cupcake making in progress

My helper!

Opps!  This snowman has a face on both sides...we'll call this the Momma snowman- eyes in the back of her head!

The puppies benefited from the snowman rejects!

Charddy loves her some snowmen!

The girls loved the cupcakes

Videos on the Congo

Interesting videos on the Congo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQhlLuBwOtE



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4o2lElFzM0

I-600A Paperwork

Our I-600A Immigration paperwork was submitted last week to the Department of Homeland Security and today we were notified that our application was received.  We should receive our biometrics appointment notice soon.  We are still getting all of our dossier documentation together, there are quite a few documents so hopefully we can have this piece done in the next few weeks.

We are hoping and praying that by this time next year  we might just have our little one (or maybe two!!) in our arms.  All I can think of as we enter this Christmas season is how joyful I am to be in the midst of this adoption journey and how much fun it will be to have our little one home to see the amazement on their face on Christmas morning.  Plus, I keep seeing adorable little baby items and can’t wait to start buying them to dress our baby up and take adorable little pictures of him or her. 

These are just too cute!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19337958@N02/3889951488/

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http://www.jujubeandlolo.com/patterns/cardiganformerry.php

Happy Birthday!

To celebrate my niece’s 5^th birthday I decided to take her, her sister, her mother and my mother out for afternoon tea.  The girls were so excited, they dressed up in their ball gowns and we headed to Mrs. B’s Tea Parlor.

Bella and Lila outside of Mrs. B's

Mom (Grandma) and Bella

Mom (Grandma) and the Birthday Girl



Tracy and the Birthday Girl



I think the girls enjoyed the Princess Grey Tea more than they enjoyed the scones and tea sandwiches.  They probably drank at least a pot of tea each! 



Lila drinking tea like a princess.  Note the pinky finger!

Bella has drinking tea properly down!

The scones and tea sandwiches may have been a little too fancy for 5 and 8 year old taste palettes but I think they had a great time. 

Mrs. B’s had Christmas carols, offered a history of the old Victorian home that is now the tea parlor and gave a history of afternoon tea.  Although the sandwiches may have been too fancy the girls loved the mouthwatering confections.  I hope that this becomes a birthday tradition for my youngest niece!

After tea we headed back to my parent’s home so that Lila could open her gift from Grandma and Grandpa.  She was so excited to find out what she would receive!

A purple Hello Kitty bike!!

Lila was thrilled about her new bike!

Learning to be Patient

Through this journey, God is teaching us, probably me more so than Dean, an important lesson in patience.  The Monday before Thanksgiving we met with our Social Worker to review the write up of her assessment for our home study.  We reviewed the home study assessment and now it will be sent to the State for approval.  We are learning that we need to change or rather not have any expectations as to time frames.  The reason being, the home study we thought would take about 4 weeks for completion took over 3 months and counting.   I keep questioning why this piece has taken so long and what could have been done differently to speed the process up, but then I feel God whispering that I need to have patience.  I am finding that patience is not one of my strong points. I struggle with this. I am a person who likes to be in control of situations and God is teaching me that HE is in control not ME.  I need to understand that He has a reason why things take longer than expected.  That it could be our child isn’t born yet or that he is using this time to prepare us for all the patience we will need with children!   The next process we are about to start is gathering all of our paperwork and documentation for our dossier.  I had a meeting with our dossier specialist this past week so now we will start the paperwork hunt.  I am positive I will have a chance to exercise patience with this process as well.

Thanksgiving Day this year was a gorgeous day; it was close to 70 degrees!  Given the weather it felt more like Labor Day than Thanksgiving.  Since both of our families are in town we had 2 turkey dinners to attend…the second one I think we rolled to!  Both dinners were delicious and it was great to spend time with family.  We were able to see my nieces who we hadn’t seen since June and of course they are still adorable and growing so fast. 

I am so THANKFUL for my Savior who was sacrificed for my sins and who loves me and has forgiven me.  I am so THANKFUL that I live in a country that allows us to worship freely. 

I am so THANKFUL for my parents who love me unconditionally, provided for me and are always there for me when I need them. 

I am so THANKFUL for my best friend and husband who loves me when I may be unlovable, keeps me grounded and shares the same passions in life. 

I am so THANKFUL for all my other family members who love and support me and who make me laugh. 

I am so THANKFUL for all the friends God has blessed me with that each of them are true friends who would do anything for you. 

I am so THANKFUL for my job (although it can make me want to pull my hair out every day).  I so THANKFUL for my home, that it is warm, homey, provides a place to eat and sleep.  I am so THANKFUL for so much, God has richly blessed our lives and totally don’t deserve it.  I am so THANKFUL that God has broken our hearts for the orphans of the world and I am HOPEFUL that maybe at this time next year (God willing) we might be united with our child.

Classes Done!

We are happy to report we are FINALLY done with the required classes for our adoption!  We completed 12 hours of online courses and 24 hours of classroom courses.  We are glad to have our Saturday’s back! When people hear that we have to take classes as part of the adoption process they always wonder just what is it that we are learning about.  Well, we took classes on the following topics:

·         Attachment

·         Attachment II

·         Child development

·         Parenting through your child’s development stages

·         Basic child care

·         Grief and loss in adoption

·         Talking to your child about adoption

·         Being a multi-cultural family

·         Adopting black children

·         Adopting from African countries

Some of the courses were interesting and some seemed like they were repeating all the information we covered in a prior class.  I have said it before but will say it again, we should have received our PhD in parenting with all the classes we have had to take! 

Glad to have our courses behind us, it is time to move on to focusing on the quickly approaching Christmas season!  I took the opportunity today while my husband was watching the Broncos game to hit the stores to start my Christmas shopping.  I have to say I got quite a bit done in just a few hours.  I even felt motivated enough when I got home to wrap the gifts!  It feels really good to have the majority of my shopping done; this is by far the earliest I have ever started and it has me thinking I should make this my routine from now on.  I am looking forward to having it all done so I can focus on the spirit of Christmas and actually enjoy it without the headache of trying to get everything done in such a short amount of time.  I even finished ordering my Christmas photo cards tonight!  Next weekend, I might just start digging out the Christmas decorations and try to get a jump on decorating!

Heartbreaking.

My heart continues to break today for the Congo as I looked at blogs from families who have adopted from the DRC.  I know the DRC is poor.  Poor is an understatement, in fact it is one of the poorest countries in the world but seeing the true poverty is hard to comprehend.  6 out of 10 children will die before their 5^th birthday. 

Heartbreaking. 

There are 5 million orphans who live in complete and utter poverty.  5 million orphans who can’t even have their basic needs met.  Orphans who if they are lucky may receive a meager 1 ‘meal’ a day (mix of beans or watered down formula).   

Heartbreaking.  

Orphanages that don’t even have enough beds for all the children.  There is one orphanage that has 130 children and only 15 beds (if you can even call it a bed). 

Heartbreaking. 

Orphans who will die because they won’t receive the inexpensive medication to combat malaria. 

I feel guilty for having been born in America, while these children are born in a war torn country.  I feel guilty for having a nice home while these children don’t have a bed to lay their head on or even a roof over their head.  I feel guilty that we have 3 vehicles and recreational vehicles.  I feel guilty that I have enough food to never truly know what hunger is and that I waste food when there are millions of children who don’t even receive 1 meal a day.  I feel guilty that I can go out shopping and in one trip spend what families in the Congo make in a year.  I feel guilty that I have been so complacent in life and have taken for granted what I have been blessed with. 

Heartbreaking. 

God has been opening my eyes more and more over the last year to the heartache across the world. I am thankful that God is breaking my heart for orphans and showing me where my priorities in life need to be.  I pray that God continues to break my heart for the orphans and shows me ways in which he will use me to help reach the least of these in the world. 

Video on DRC 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgViwIbVHZw&feature=player_embedded