christmas with my family

we celebrated Christmas with my family last night.
this was the cozy scene we walked into!

all the grandkids

we all just enjoyed being together and then my parents set out our stockings!

we ate a YUMMY dinner and actually lingered a bit over the meal...
my dad even included our children in Rwanda in his prayer...they are never far from our minds!

did a fun "Christmas quiz"...



the kids shot downstairs after dinner to play...so the adults exchanged our gifts in the quiet!
we have simplified Christmas quite a bit the last couple years on my side of the family.
my parents still spend too much on us...but they just do our stockings {which is my FAVORITE part!!! socks...candle...a new worship CD...book...gift card to your favorite store...i just love all the "little" stuff! but it still totally adds up, i know!}

then the adults each draw one other adults' name so we each have 1 gift to open.

rebekah spent her quiet time yesterday wrapping gifts for each person.
she went all over the house finding an appropriate gift for them...a {used} baseball for papa...a book she's already read for andrea...a picture for Phill.
she wrapped each one in plain white computer paper.
and attached a "Merry Christmas" card made out of white computer paper.

the look on her face...she was SO very excited to give...i love watching her!

papa with both of the babies.

and then the kids.
they each had 1 gift to open - the one that they got to pick for each other when my parents took them shopping.
they were SO excited to see each other open the gifts because they were a part of it!





and the evening wound down with a piano lesson for rebekah...

it was such a GREAT evening!
it was noticeable to us that things were simpler and that allowed for more conversation and enjoyment and gratitude.
thanks, mom and dad!!!

home study mailed off!!!

many will not understand how huge this is...but it is.

our finalized, notarized homestudy arrived in the mail this afternoon.
i put it in THE envelope and headed to the post office.

so...the week before Christmas.
4 kids.
4 pm.
could have been awful.

we brought a bowl of candy and decided to pass it out and spread some Christmas cheer!



now what??

we wait.
{surprise, surprise...}

we have just mailed off a form (with $830!) asking our government to be approved to adopt internationally.
it takes about 8 weeks to get the approval letter back.

in these 8 weeks we will be compiling our dossier.

what is a dossier??
a bunch of paperwork that we submit to Rwanda so that they can get a picture of who we are as a couple and as parents and as a family...our homestudy, financial statements, physical exams, pictures of our home...and refer us 2 precious boys to add to our family.

once we receive approval in 8ish weeks we will be able to include it with our dossier and mail it off to Rwanda!!!

THAT will be a BIG day!

but, today is also a big day and we are rejoicing!

a snapshot

a snapshot into where our kids are.
from an adoptive mom there now.

improved my mood a bit

ok.
a lot.

got the mail and our passports were in it!

WE CAN GO GET OUR KIDS!!!
{well, not really..but you know...}

and in other adoption news...this is sitting on our counter...
once we get our home study back from our agency -- NOTARIZED -- we just have to stick it in this envelope and put it in the mail!!!

then we wait...again...
{"they" say it can take up to 3 months to get approved...but it seems like it typically takes as little as a month...we'll see!}

bailey

this afternoon...
a neighbor was driving by.
we were playing in our front yard.

she stopped.
we were chatting.

bailey ran up and said,

"guess what?!?"
what?
"in a long time we are going to africa to pick up some kids!!!"

:-)

an observation

as i've been cleaning...and looking around my home "through someone else's eyes"...

there are LOTS of...

WORDS...

BOOKS...

and PICTURES!

just an observation...

_______________________________________________

now for the real stuff.
it's been insane.
i'm insane.
seriously.
it is a GOOD THING that we only had 2 days notice of this home study meeting!

had to ask pat's forgiveness last night because any little bit of kindness i might ever have flies out the window SO quickly when there's something "stressful" on my plate (kindness really isn't my strength. i hate that. we're doing a book study on it in our Shepherd group and it's ugly...my heart, that is...UGLY!)

had to ask joshua and bailey's forgiveness this morning...for hurrying them through things that they shouldn't be hurried through.

it's been quite a day.

cleaned the whole house...
and, in the midst, decided that this morning i should highlight my hair.
like...with a kit...you know, the cap and you pull your hair through it?
i've NEVER done it before.
just bought it...um...3 weeks ago...and decided to do it THIS MORNING??

see...i'm INSANE!

sawyer had a dr appt - he has these weird spots on his leg (for about 6 months)...they are just some form of ezema...but we had to go to the dr. to get it diagnosed and get some cream for it. well, dropped the prescription off for the cream...who knows WHEN i'll get a chance to pick it up!

and then, after rushing home and feeding the kids lunch and getting joshua on the bus, we ran to Target to buy more shirts amd a couple other things! (YAY! for shirts selling!!! and YAY that they had them!) but i would have much rather been sitting reading books to bailey.

so...here i am.
didn't get to mopping.
didn't get the last basket of clothes put away {kids are sleeping in the rooms i need to put them away}.
but it's good enough.

we are ready to take the next step in this fight for 2 children's lives.

{and i'm sure i'll have to apologize again before the day is over...}

we knew it wouldn't last...

and it was really getting on my nerves this week...

THE mohawk...

i like it.
i think it's cute.
and SO many people comment on it...

but i already do 2 girls' hair every morning.

i don't need another child's hair to "do."
and i have to do his twice a day...the gel wears off...

so i knew it wouldn't last.

but then we got a call yesterday!

from our home study social worker!!!
she's coming TOMORROW!

{some last family pics with the mohawk...and our water shirts!...and some silliness :-) i LOVE joshua looking at me in this one!}

so...the mohawk is leaving {i KNOW, i know...it doesn't have to...but it was just a good thing to put me over the edge}...

good thing Monday is my cleaning day!

{so basically, once our social worker meets with ALL of us (which we are hoping she has time to do it ALL tomorrow...it "normally" takes 2 meetings) she will write up our home study and we will be DONE with at least 1 major part of this process!!!! we are ready to check something off...did you know there is a 99% chance that our kids are born now? did you know that i think about that every day...many times?}