Thursday, December 29, 2011

Happy Holidays!

Our days were Merry & Bright, as I hope yours have been!

We started off the holidays with a trip to see none other than Alvin & the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked! Daniel loved it!

Christmas Eve we had our annual dinner and survivor style auction! We had 21 total people, 7 of them were ages 6 and under and they were all EXCELLENT!!! We cooked a 22 pound turkey for the occasion and had all the trimmings. Good food, great family and lots of fun!

The auction was the highlight as always. I auctioned off my CVS stash from the year, instead of hoarding it like you see on Extreme Couponing!! (If you haven't check out my other blog From Dimes to Dollars - I'm sharing more hot coupons and deals this year in an effort to lower our monthly grocery budget, and maybe yours as well!!) I keep enough of the auction items to get through a few months and the rest goes to my family! You should see them outbid each other for items like toothpaste and shower gel! The funniest thing to happen - my niece's new boyfriend buying her a toothbrush because she said she needed it! The second funniest, my brother-in-law buying my father-in-law (and they are no relation) vitamins for his eye and brain health!! Always a load of fun and laughter!!

Christmas Day Daniel was in heaven. He counted his gifts this year from Santa and then woke us up!! Some of the items he received from everyone including Santa were Leapster games, a personal CD player and his first books on CD, a science lab kit, the Joker House, Star Wars items, including a clock, and a Bop It!! Awesome!!!!

We spent hours mixing colors for a food coloring experiment with his science kit! I have great photos below to share!! I also have great photos of Daniel listening to his book on CD. Santa got him a Magic Tree House Books 1-4 audio book and at first Daniel wasn't interested. Then when I said he couldn't run around with the CD player, that it was for music or books only, he sat down and gave it another try.

Within about 2 minutes he was hooked!! I couldn't have pried it out of his hands if I had wanted!! Since I love audio CD's I was thrilled that he took to it also! He's listened to the stories several times now!! I wasn't sure how he would do without having an actual book to follow since our other short CDs have books and are only one story lasting about 10 minutes. These stories last about half an hour each. I have to say again how thrilled I am that he really likes them!!

We had an awesome holiday and are looking forward to a New Year's dinner at my mom's house with a big game of Tripoly to follow (we bet with pennies) so if you lose, you lose about a buck, but you can win 4 or 5 bucks!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays as well!!














Monday, December 12, 2011

Troy's Medical Appointment

Troy finally got his medical appointment done and with that the last of our end of the foster-to-adopt paperwork chase!

You may remember how well my medical appointment went and how I left the office in tears. Well, Troy saw the same doctor and said he was perfectly nice to him. Marked all his papers as excellent, never said a word about the fact that we were going to be fostering, and got him in and out in no time at all.

I cried again (I know think BIG baby) when Troy came home and said the doctor said nothing to him and marked everything as excellent.

I guess I'll never know why he chose that particular day to be so ugly towards me.

Moving on - at least it's done!! I'll be sending those in tomorrow, along with a strongly worded email and letter that we are ready to move forward with the process at this time.

In other news, well, there really isn't any. Other than getting ready for Christmas, things are moving along smoothly! Daniel and I are working on handmaking gifts (from Daniel ) to each family member and I rolled and dipped 480 chocolate covered peanut butter balls with my best friend this weekend for family as well!! Looking forward to Christmas!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wait No More Book Review



I was chosen to read and review the book Wait No More. Wait No More is written by Kelly and John Rosati and is a true story of a family of six formed by foster care. Since we are beginning our journey through the foster care system in our state, I was so excited to receive this book to read.

I'm going to cut to the chase. I LOVED this book. I thought it was extremely easy to read and I was engrossed in the story as soon as I started.

I particularly like how real the story is. There was no sugar coating. There was heartbreak and worry, but also joy and a never ending faith in God. There was even a placement that did not work out.

In the book I was able to follow four separate and very different adoption stories through the foster care system. Each story was unique. The problems faced included medical issues, birthparent issues, and attachments issues. I felt like I was right beside them sharing in the moments.

There is one particular chapter that really hit home with me. It is a chapter when the family thought that they were being led to adopt from Africa only to find out every door was being slammed shut for them. In the midst of their wondering why this happening, they realized that they were being nudged gently by God to continue with foster care. Troy and I are in much the same position. We feel the urge and calling to return to Russia, but felt like the doors were being slammed on us. It was during this time that we re-discovered our faith in God by finding a new church and that we felt like we were being nudged to pursue adoption through foster care right here.

I feel like this book opened my eyes to what we will soon be facing and I know that with our faith in God, we will be able to withstand the heartaches and come out joyous in the end, no matter how long it may take.

Anyone considering foster care, or adoption through foster care should read this book.