What we all got for Christmas

Jude: a cowhide drum (thanks to Opa and Oma who just returned from Africa and 13 other countries)


Hope: a kitchen dish set (Her Grandma Mary Nell knows her well. Thanks Grandma!)


Ava: earrings, slippers (won't she look adorable in them?), and a teddy bear


John: thermal socks, a stocking cap, and a Russian/English dictionary. Can we say "practical"?


Simeon: two rocks (before you feel too sorry for him, you must realize this boy dreams of being an archealogist, and these rocks came straight from the Dead Sea and the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. "Pretty dang exciting", as Nacho Libre would say).


Liesel: Webkinz, of course (and her cousin Evi got one to match) and handknit hats from Oma

Oma is very popular!!

Opa is pretty popular too!

Merry Christmas from the Urban Family!!

Not bad for the first try!! I told the kids that everyone could smile and get it over with, or we could make silly faces, bunny ears, look in opposite directions, pinch each other, etc, etc, and go on and on until we got it right. It helped that this was taken right before lunch and everybody was starving! We tried to get the dog in but she is so old she feels the need to lie down all the time.



This ornament was a gift from my friend Tina this summer right after we decided to adopt and decided her name would be Ava. Did I start crying when I opened it? Of course I did.



This is what I've been seeing and hearing all week: "Mom, PLEASE can we open JUST ONE? Pleeeaaase?"



"Mommy, I'm ready to go play in the snow now" (Check out the crown over the stocking cap, and the socks for mittens, not to mention the coat buttoned wrong and the mini skirt hiked way up)

Merry Christmas

Money for Jesus

Hope loves coins! She loves to collect them in a pocket, a sock, a bowl, any container she can get her hands on. Today it was a toothpick holder. She was filling up her toothpick holder with coins, and here is how the conversation went:

Me: "Hope, what are you doing?"
Hope: "I'm getting money for Jesus."
Me: "Why are you doing that?"
Hope: "Because He doesn't have any. Moses has a lot of money but he won't share with Jesus."

Good grief! What are they teaching kids in Sunday School these days?

Adoption Progress....I think?

We got word yesterday that our paperwork at the SDA had gotten misplaced. We are thankful to our facilitator, who we will meet in Ukraine, for getting to the bottom of it and finding out what the delays have been. WE ARE SO CLOSE NOW! We believe we will have a travel date within the next week or so. The waiting has been so hard, but we know it will all be worth it in the end, when we get to call that little girl..."Ours".

Gingerbread House Disaster

Well, the gingerbread house did not quite turn out like we hoped. It was falling apart almost before we even started, the roof kept sliding down, and the sides kept falling over. In the process of trying to secure all the pieces together, the roof broke in half, and there was nothing more we could do.

PLAN B: We decorated gingerbread doors, wall segments, and roof panels. Nobody complained (Well, except for me- I was hoping to get a great picture of the cute little decorated gingerbread house, with smiling children all around).

Instead, we got these....

Sweet Hope-Isn't obvious why I love this girl?

Hope being Mary

She's "bundled" up, wearing her boots, and ready to go play in the 35 degree weather

She loves to make soap bubble crowns and pretend she is a princess

Making melodies in my heart

I had a bad day yesterday. On top of my frustrations of waiting...and waiting...and waiting... for our SDA appointment, and different rumors we are hearing about Ukraine adoptions, I also found out that there has been some bullying going on towards one of my kids. Dealing with the school counselor and a particular neighbor left me emotionally exhausted and just downright grumpy yesterday.

Hope broke out into this song. Leave it to Hope to brighten my day!! Today is a new day, kids are out of school, we are going to make a gingerbread house, spend time as a family, and "make a melody in our hearts" today. :)

More Christmas Memories

Looking at last year's Christmas pictures I stumbled across this Christmas memory. Jude got very attached to this particular gingerbread man that he decorated. As you can see, they became very good friends...that is, until Jude got hungry and took a bite out of its leg. He began to cry and cry, "Why did I do that?! I loved that gingerbread man!" Nothing could fix it. A new leg glued on with icing wouldn't fix it, a brand new gingerbread man wouldn't alleviate the pain and grief he felt. I think he cried for about an hour and a half that day. I'll never forget the wailing coming from his bedroom, his face buried in his pillow, crying, "Why? Why? Why did I do that?!"

So John comes home and spends about 5 minutes in his room talking to him. They both come out smiling, and Jude is eating the rest of the cookie that he had been gripping for the last 90 minutes. Shocked, I whispered, "What did you say?"

John answered, "I told him that gingerbread men are happiest when they are eaten." That's all it took. Gee, why didn't I think of that?

Kids and public restrooms

One of the things I don't care for about eating as a family at restaurants is the fact that I spend more time in the restroom than I do sitting and enjoying my meal. Inevitably, somebody has to "Go #2" right in the middle of dinner, and I end up in the restroom waiting on them, only to have to return to finish my enchiladas and refried beans. I read a blog this morning with a funny bathroom story and it reminded me of this one, that I have never written down. I thought I better do that, because this is one that shouldn't be forgotten.

A while back we went out to eat with another family, and my 3yr. old, at the time (I won't mention names), had to "poop" and the 1yr. old had a dirty diaper. So I took both of them to the bathroom. After I changed the diaper, we waited and waited for the 3 yr. old to finish. While we waited I decided to provide some entertainment.

Thinking we were the only ones in the bathroom, I lifted the 1yr. old onto my shoulders, leaned her over the bathroom stall, and moved her lips with my finger, my voice talking like a baby, saying, "Hurry up, will ya? The food is getting cold! Come on, hurry it up!"....No response. "Hello? Are you OK in there? Did you fall in?"....No response. "HELLO?!".....At this point, a little old lady answered, very meekly and timidly, "hello". I looked under the stall, and lo and behold it was not the little pair of 3yr. old's shoes I was expecting to see, but a pair of ladies' shoes. The toddler shoes were dangling under the stall next door. OOOOPPPPPS!

Needless to say, I was very embarrassed when she finally came out. I apologized but she didn't say much. And looking in the mirror I could see my face was very red.

My kind of Santa

We went out to eat at Zio's after church today, and as we were paying and getting ready to leave, THIS GUY (I googled him) walks in. He was wearing regular street clothes, not dressed like Santa at all, but I was amazed at the number of kids who were drawn to him anyway. I noticed him pulling out candy canes from his pocket, so we went over to say hello too. My nephew asked him, "What's your name?" And "Santa" said, "What do you think my name is?" Then he reached in his pocket again and pulled out some more candy canes, and gave the kids this card that says:

God loves you. He gave you the best gift of all. His Son, Jesus Christ.

On the back of the card it had the story of the candy cane, the red and white stripes representing Christ's blood and forgiveness of our sins, the "J" representing a sheperd's staff, and when turned upside down, a J for Jesus. I loved this man! My kids thought it was pretty cool to see Santa while he was officially off duty in his street clothes, and to see he is just as generous and kind even when he's not dressed up and sitting in a mall.....not to mention he loves Jesus too! :) Thanks Santa for making our day.

Oops!

My kids were standing over my shoulder watching my last blog, and they were very upset with me for mentioning only Dennis, and not any of the other kids our family sponsored.

For teachers' Christmas gifts this year, instead of buying a mug or Hershey's Kisses, we let each of the kids pick an orphan to sponsor in their teacher's name. Each of these children has Down Syndrome like our Ava, and each sponsorship from Reece's Rainbow came with an angel ornament with a picture of the sponsored child. We have 4 beautiful ornaments (5 actually, since Hope has two teachers) with these sweet faces on them to hand out next week to our teachers.

Simeon picked Josue, age 2..
(for his teacher, Mrs. Seematter)


Liesel picked...Linh, age 7
(for her teacher Mrs. Stone)


Jude's pick...Slava, age 2
(For Miss Enkers)


And last but not least, Hope picked Nazar, age 2
(For Mrs. Douglas and Mrs. Connor)

I wonder WHICH ONE Ava would have picked!? By the way, if you scroll down to the very bottom, you can see how many of these orphans have found their forever families in the six weeks that this fundraiser has been taking place! And I think little Josue is just on the verge!

Dennis

This little guy is an orphan hoping to find a family soon. He is two and his name is Dennis. Liesel wants me to clarify...if you have seen the movie, or read the cartoon, this Dennis is NOT a menace. He is a sweetheart. I think he would make a wonderful son, don't you?

My niece Heather (Thank you Heather!) is class president of her high school in New Mexico. This winter her school did a fundraiser to provide an adoption grant for Dennis. They did a wonderful job, and were able to raise over $1,000 to help with his adoption costs. You can help too by going to Reece's Rainbow and donating through PayPal. Or better yet, maybe you or a family you know needs a little boy to brighten their lives!

Last year's attempt at Christmas photos

I saw a Christmas photo today of a family with 7 kids. They complained that they couldn't get everyone looking at the camera at once. That reminded me of why wer'e not taking Christmas pictures this year. Here is why......

That and somebody is missing, and it just doesn't seem right to take a family photo without her!

(One of my children, I won't mention who, has very little need for discipline. I'm sure it's not obvious which one, is it?)

What we did without electricity all week....

Mailed a special package to send to
Ava containing kisses, drawings, and the hand-knit blanket made by Oma.

Ate crow and humble pie

We made fun of people who went out and bought generators, then repented when we got an offer to borrow one from someone who didn't need theirs anymore. :)

We stayed warm by the fireplace (and learned how to cook on an open fire-I have the burnmarks on my forearms to prove it)

Mattress flips...

We drew pictures to send to Ava