New Year’s Resolutions- or the lack thereof

I’m just not gonna do it this year…

Year before last, I stuck to it. I said I was gonna read my bible cover to cover and I did.

Last year, I decided I’d read The Message bible cover to cover.

I made it to about May on my reading guide and that’s as far as I got… Shame on me… I really wanted to do it. I will finish it at some point. Hopefully this year.

I’ve been reading my bible, but more certain passages over and over and studying, as opposed to reading it straight through.

I’ve been reading a lot of adoption books, books about Ethiopia,  adoption and books such as, “Crazy Love”,  “The Hole in our Gospel” and “Outlive Your Life”.

Good books. Books that I’ve been learning from and I have enjoyed meditating on the truths in them.

So, I’m not formally making a Resolution this year.

None. No resolutions to lose weight either.

So, I’ve put back on a few pounds in the past few months…. I feel good, I’m healthy and my husband tells me every single day that I’m beautiful (and he means it).

I’m not going to stress over it this year for a change.

I guess maybe I’m going to resolve to quit looking around me and constantly comparing myself to every other woman I see… and feeling like most of the time I am not good enough because I’m not thin enough…and just see myself the way God sees me. From the inside and not the out. What’s in my heart and not what size is on the tag of my jeans.

Wait…NO… I’m not making any resolutions, remember?! :)

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m certainly looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year in 2011!!

Unexpected feelings

This adoption journey has had me on a roller coaster of emotions for the past 13 or 14 months.

It was almost exactly a year ago that the journey really started for us. We spent November to Mid-April praying, researching and soul searching. Then it was Mid-April that we officially started the process with our agency.

Quite honestly, (I’m a little embarrassed to admit this publicly…)as we were just remotely considering it, I wondered if I could REALLY love an adopted child like I love my biological children. I mean, I thought I could. But how do you know for sure? We were never the couple who always dreamed about and planned for adoption for our family. It actually just kind of came out of nowhere for us. So of course, we had lots of questions…and fears.

When I talked to other adoptive parents, or read books or read blogs, I was assured that I could. Sometimes with a smile and a pat on the back with a “oh, you’ll see!”

So, we took the leap of faith and just trusted that all those people were right and that God had laid all of this on my heart for a reason. We would go forward with the adoption journey and I decided this was something that I didn’t need to be worried about.

And you know what… it wasn’t long before I already knew they were right!

It might sound crazy to someone who’s not experienced it… it did to me at one time as well. But, as soon as we got off the phone for our orientation with our agency, the emotions hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like someone said, “you’re pregnant!”

Before long, I realized that I could honestly say that I loved her already. Just like I loved my biological children when they were in my womb- before I met them. The feelings of anticipation, excitement and joy are no different than when I was pregnant with each of my three biological children.

It’s so weird. I just never really expected the feelings to be so intense. But, it’s such a good thing! It’s such a comfort to me that God is allowing me to feel these emotions so intensely because at one time, I was doubtful that it was possible. Without ever seeing her face, I already love her. So much.

With each day, week and month that passes by, the intensity in the feelings and emotions are getting stronger. I’ve always been the natural Mamma type that intensely loves my babies. I’ve always been the impatient type also. The 9 months of pregnancy seemed like an eternity to me each time as well. I just wanted to get the show on the road and get that baby in my arms. This time, it’s no different. I’m impatient. I’m ready to have my baby in my arms now.

What is different this time is that she’s not physically with me. I can’t feel her. She can’t hear my voice when I speak, sing or pray over her. I have to trust God to keep my children safe every single day. I ask Him to bless them and keep them each day. But there is some element of the “mother hen” in me that makes me feel like I’m the one keeping them safe and protected. While I’m sure I do have a hand in it, ultimately, I know that it’s God who holds them in His hands.

So, while I trust him where my children are concerned every day already, this time around with child #4  it’s a whole different level of trust that I’ve not experienced in my life before now. I have absolutely no part in her safety, health or well being at this point. Nor will I until I make the trip to bring her home. All I can do is pray. This part is hard for me. And I’m sure it also contributes to my impatience! And it is such a good thing! God is shaping me and molding me each day through this process. I’m not the same person I used to be and I hope that each day I’m one step closer to being all He created me to be! I think He’s taught me SO much about trust and faith in the past few years, but now He’s teaching me to trust Him on a deeper level than I ever have before. And I’m so thankful for it! I’m thankful that He is patient and loving as he guides me through these life lessons. I’m sure I’m not the greatest student…

I just look so forward to the day I will get to hold my new daughter in my arms. I think about it. I dream about it. I talk about it. I write about it in my letters to her.

I know that it will happen and that all the waiting will be worth it. I know that it will get harder before it gets easier.

I’ve got my seatbelt on and I’m ready for the rest of the ride!

Gingerbread House

I got sick the week before Christmas, so we were a little late in getting our annual Gingerbread house made. We finally did it on Christmas Eve Eve.

Braden helped me with the set up, then he chose to leave the decorating to his brother and sister.

Teamwork at its finest. There were only a couple minor altercations between the two of them by the time they were finished—no one got knocked off of their bar stools or anything :)

The finished product.

I thought they did a fine job.

Rhett said it was the ugliest gingerbread house ever and Gracie said it wasn’t very pretty.

I told them I thought it was pretty good-- especially for being the first one they ever did by themselves and now that they’ve had some practice,  they’d probably do much better next year.

Like a good Mom, I still have it proudly displayed on my kitchen table!

Young-uns vs Golden Oldies

At the end of the Fall soccer season, the kids played a game against the parents. The kids called the parents the “Golden Oldies”-- They were trash talking up a storm. They were hilarious! Too bad the parents whooped up on them… ;)

I forgot my good camera this day, so all I had was my camera phone…

I have to say…my hubby has still got it! He was outrunning the kids and running full blast the whole time. I was impressed!

Nice view… if I may say so myself… :)

I didn’t get many of Braden because he was playing on the opposite side of the field from where I was…

Here’s one. He’s the 2nd from the right. He had an absolute ball out there this day. He was smiling from ear to ear the entire game. After the game, he was exhausted (no subs), but he was begging the parents to play again!

And here’s the other two munchkins. They always find a way to keep themselves busy when we’re at outings like this. They were being WILD. Running around with the stroller and dumping Gracie’s baby dolls out of them. At least they were happy. And occupied!

Christmas 2010 Part 2

Christmas Day we spent the whole day at home together.

We woke up, read the Christmas story and prayed together. Then, we opened presents.

On Christmas Eve Eve, Rhett said that he wanted to spend some of his own money on buying a present for his brother and his sister. I thought this was so super sweet and suggested that we do a sibling gift exchange this year. The other 2 agreed that it was a good idea, so we did it!

They enjoyed exchanging them with each other on Christmas morning. That’s what they opened first!

Among some of their gifts were new hats and scarves. What can I say, we love to accessorize!!

And they each got a Custom made Junkposse necklace!! They were so excited! Ever since I got mine, they’ve been wanting one. I had these made for them and they turned out so nice!

The boys’ look like this:

It says “brother” in Amharic, and there’s a tiny little Africa charm as well.

Gracie’s is the same, but it says “sister” in Amharic.

I thought this next one was hilarious!
Jason was all prepared like a surgeon going into the OR. He had all of the various tools we needed to get into all of the Christmas gifts.
Can you tell this wasn’t our first “rodeo”?! We’ve been opening kids’ Christmas gifts for a long time now! Actually, this was our 11th Christmas as parents :)

After the present opening, we Skyped with MeMe and PaPa and each of the kids took turned showing them all their new stuff!

I love Christmas! It’s my favorite holiday.

As it does each year, it seemed to come and go so quickly.

As this Christmas has drawn to a close, 2011 is now upon us. I look forward to the new year in hopeful anticipation for all of the changes it will bring our family.

Christmas 2010 Part One

We had our first Christmas celebration a couple weeks ago at Jason’s parents because his brother was home from Antarctica. We were glad we were able to celebrate with him.

Here’s a few pics of the kids opening some of their gifts.

I have to include this one of little miss. She got this Rapunzel outfit. She loved getting all dressed up, as usual!

Braden got to play his first game of Ulcers. It’s the famous Kennett card game. I’ve been playing the game since 1996 and I still stink at it. Braden played better than me! He and Daddy were a team.

The next celebration was Christmas Eve. We were back at Jason’s parents house.

Here’s the girls sitting and staring at the clock. Gracie’s grandma told them when the clock said 1:00 they could open presents. They were so excited! I just love this picture!

Once again, the kids got some great stuff that they really wanted!

Christmas Eve night at my brother’s house.

Here’s me and my Daddy.

Me and my nephew

Mom and the boys watching Poppy make homemade butter. So cool! And so yummy! Especially on Nanny’s freshly baked Polish bread.

Love this picture Jason took of the tree in natural light. As you can see, these children are blessed… look at all those gifts for them!

The cooks!

My sister in law is from Poland. She is also a fabulous cook. Put the two together and you get a fantastic (mostly traditional—she has adapted the traditional meal to suit her non-Polish family members :) meal. The meal also takes days to prepare.

Especially these little guys. Stuffed egg shells. Here the tops are being fried in butter. Yum!

Ready to eat.

Of course, the Pierogies. Made from scratch, by hand. And sauteed to deliciousness. Mmmmm. There are 3 kinds, but the potato with Polish cheese is my fav. Scrumpious. I wish I had a hot one right now!!

Carving the prime rib

The table. And that wasn’t even all of the dishes we had!! We had shrimp, 2 ways, a baked chicken dish…all the sides…soup, salad, sides, dessert… I told you it was a feast!

The meal was just awesome! I know a lot of hard work went into it, so thank you Russ and Aggie! And to Mom too, because I know she was there helping with some of the advance preparations too!

Pals!

Hangin’ out with one of the big dogs. He would sit there and let the kids rub on him all day.

What a wonderful Christmas season and Christmas Eve we had!

We are so blessed with wonderful family that loves us so much and I’m so thankful that we were able to get together to celebrate this Christmas season.

I already can’t wait until next year!

Happy Birthday Jesus

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

The Henley’s and Kennett’s celebrated Christmas at Nanny and Poppy’s house last night. After dinner and gifts, we had a little birthday party for Jesus!

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

Black= Sin
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God- Romans 3:23

Red= The Blood
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

White= Salvation
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

Pad Party

I recently got involved in a project making reusable cloth pads for young women in Africa. I got involved through Andrea. I’ve been reading her blog for quite a while now and I love her heart.

I really felt compelled to be involved in this project. Something so simple and that most American women take for granted could literally change these women’s lives.

My mom and I gathered all of the materials and Mom got to work right away. She spent many, many hours and days cutting and pinning material as well as sewing. She did all of the prep work and a lot of the dewing ahead of time.

 

Then on a Saturday afternoon, a couple friends came over to help me with the sewing.

Here’s Melissa. She and I had never sewed before this day! It took us a good couple hours just to figure out what we were doing!

Here’s Angel. She is a wonderful seamstress. She was the friend who had made that dress for me to raffle off for our adoption a while back. She started off the day by making drawstring bags to put the pads in.

Success! Melissa completed our first one!!

The girls stayed and we worked for 8 hours. After they left, I kept on working until I got them completely finished.

In this photo, you can see how Jason set up 2 tables for us in the living room so we could all be together and work together. It worked out so nicely!

Rhett took this picture with my phone :)

Here we are at the end of our work day. Gracie was there with us all day so she got in our group shot too!

Thank you so much for all of your help Mom, Melissa and Angel!

And thank you, also, to Betty and Ashley for donating funds for us to buy materials.

You are all awesome and I love you all!

It just wasn’t meant to be…

This was such a fun day!

It was the day that our season tickets to the Vikings games arrived in the mail. I took this picture to text to Jason right when they arrived. We were so excited!

Our plans were to sell the tickets to all of the games but 2 and the money that we made would pay for our 2 trips.

As the first game we were planning to attend rolled around, we decided not to go. We realized that we just couldn’t justify spending the money to go on the trip. We are working so hard to save for our adoption, and we still have a long ways to go to save up what we need. While we’ve been working around the clock and could REALLY  use a little getaway… we just didn’t feel right about it. So, we sold our tickets. We ended up making more money off of the two games we had intended to go to than any other game of the season. In my mind, that was confirmation that we had done the right thing.

We were supposed to be leaving for Minneapolis Friday after the kids got out of school and we were supposed to be at tonight’s Monday Night Football game.

But we aren’t there. We are sitting in our living room to watch the game instead.

2 days after we sold the tickets for tonight’s game, this happened:

They were unable to fix the roof before tonight’s game so the game is being played at the University of Minnesota (which is outside! And it’s wind chil –1 and snowing! brrr!)

While I feel for the people who bought our tickets… we were so thankful that we were able to sell them before this happened.

We’ve been sad about having to cancel all our plans and go without our fun little “mental health getaway”. The boys were especially upset when they found out we weren’t going to be able to go, so that was hard too.

It was a good reminder for me that doing the right thing isn’t always the option we want to chose, and isn’t always the option that seems the most fun. But in the end…it’s the right thing.

Instead of spending the money to take a trip (or two) we were able to save all of the money that we made off of our ticket sales.

After all, we are praying that God will provide. He did. He didn’t provide enough to save this money for our adoption AND go have fun…but that’s not what we NEED. Ah… the old needs vs wants lesson :)

And besides…the dream was always to see the man play in person. And we did last year. It was an awesome little trip.

I blogged about it here, here, here, here and last but not least, here. I got all teary eyed looking back at these posts.I’ll never forget this trip!

I may be sitting at home today instead of on a trip, but I’m thankful anyway. (And I’m MUCH warmer!!)

Merry Christmas Dance from Sissy

(Gracie is in the pink leotard, and pink skirt :)

I just love her little “end of dance class performances”!

How do you like my new glasses?

What??

You don’t think they’re sexy?

I was being goofy while glasses shopping with my mom several months ago.

I can’t believe I never posted this!! :)

Seriously, I put these on, whipped myself around, struck a goofy pose and serious as a heart attack, asked my mom, “What do you think about these?” She laughed so hard I thought she was going to pass out!

So I had her snap a picture of me with these ever-so-fashionable- glasses and a goofy face and I sent this picture to Jason as a text message and asked him if they were “sexy enough” for him.

Then we both laughed so hard….oh my gosh…

Mom almost threw her back out, I almost pulled an abdominal muscle, and we almost got kicked out….

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This sure was a fun day!