The Spirit of the Season

When I think about the Christmas season, I think, of course, about God's greatest gift to the world, His son, Jesus. I also think about how easy it is to get caught up in the world's commercialization and greed of the season. Every year we hear about someone being trampled during the Black Friday frenzy. For what? To save a few bucks on a stupid TV? Is this really why God sent his Son to the earth? So we could have hi-def at a low cost? I think God intended Christmas to be so much more.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

As my passion lies with serving the orphaned and poverty stricken children of the world, I have decided to post about the importance of Child Sponsorship. Consider the cost of caring for a healthy child (orphanage staff or foster parents, clothing, medical checkups, immunizations, school supplies, diapers, formula, food...etc). Now consider the cost of the many not so healthy children. This would include my daughters (Eliza was 10 weeks premature and spent 2 months in the NICU. Vishakha has been in care for 5 years and has cerebral palsy).

Holt strives to insure that the children in their care receive excellent medical care, for which I am very grateful, but that medical care is expensive. Please consider all God has blessed you with this holiday season, and consider being a blessing to a child in need.

Watch the video below, and then click HERE to sign up to sponsor a child.

Go Chiefs!!

Miss Eliza is quite the football fan. She screams " Go! Go! Go!" at the TV on Sunday afternoons right along with the rest of us. Her being the natural born cheerleader, I think these pics are long overdue. She sure does look good in Chiefs' red!

Understanding God's Heart for Adoption

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. For obvious reasons, I am very passionate about adoption. I cannot say I always have been. I have never been against adoption, in fact I've always considered it a great way to build a family. But the kind of deep passion that moves you into action and makes you want to change the world came more recently.

It was 4 years ago when we decided to adopt a little girl. Initially we started the process because we felt called by God to adopt a child. Beyond that, we were mostly driven by the desire for the daughter we did not have biologically. It was May 2009 when I first saw a photo of my daughter, and my heart began to change.

I have to say that I think since adopting Eliza, my love for all my children is different, because through adoption God has opened my heart to a deeper kind of love - the kind of love my heavenly Father feels for His adopted children.

Ephesians 1:5 says he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

He feels a love born out of choosing us and waiting and longing for us to choose Him in return. It is easy to love a child that accepts you, relies on you and loves you back, but it can be heartwrenching to love a child that pushes you away. This is why there is great rejoicing in heaven every time one person comes to faith. This is the love God has for each of his children.

Am I saying if you want to experience God's love on a deeper level, you should adopt a child? I shamelessly say YES! If you're thinking about it, why not check into it a little bit more. Yes, it's a huge responsibility; Yes, it could be one of the hardest things you ever do; and Yes, it could be one of the greatest blessings of your life.

Just look at one of the blessings I could have missed out on.

Eliza's Birthday (better late than never)

These pics are a long time coming. Our sweet girl turned 2 last month, but I forgot to bring my camera to her birthday party, so thank you very much Grandpa Wayne for sending us some pictures from that special day. Oh how much Miss Eliza has grown since her 1st Birthday (sniff-sniff).

Opening presents...unlike the boys, she loves to get clothes. (or in this case, super cute halloween pj's)


So grown up with her purse and cell phone. (sigh)


Oh Aunt Jennifer, how we wish you could have made the birthday cake. It would have looked SO much better than mommy's attempt.


This year, she used a fork to eat her cake instead of the faceplant technique.

Scout Family Campout

This past weekend was the annual Cub Scout Family Campout for our district. We had such a fun time playing games with all our scouting friends. It got a little bit cold for my taste on Friday night, but Saturday was a perfect autumn day.

On my soapbox today...enjoy

As I was diligently working to put together our adoption dossier (which is almost done!), I came across this video on another blog and had to share it. I have been thinking so much more about the issue of what happens to young girls who are orphaned or in poverty since begining our adoption of an older child. I suppose when we adopted Eliza, I didn't think much of it, because the truth is that she was an infant girl (infant girls are adopted much more than older children or infant boys). Even though she was labeled as special needs, her needs were not severe and I knew she would have been adopted by another family if we had not chosen to adopt her. With Vishakha, it is different. She is already 5 and has a special need. She has been in an orphanage since birth, and no family has chosen her until now. I often think of what life is like for girls like Vishakha who are not chosen by families. What happens to them when they age out of the system??? It's a horrifying thing to think about. Watch this video, and if you'd like to learn more, visit The Girl Effect website. This is such an important problem in the world, and definitely not spoken of or acted upon often enough. We who have so so much, can do something or give something that is so small to us, and it could change the life of not just one little girl, but generations.

Random Cuteness

This one melts my heart. So sweet.





Isaac Playing in the Fountains at Crown Center

Chocolate Covered Cheesecake on a Stick= YUMMMM!

The T-Rex Cafe

Fun in the Pool

And my favorite...can you tell I keep my cell phone in my back pocket?