As I was saying....

We are all called to help the orphan.

Meet Pablo Candy Finger, otherwise known as Calvin. He's a five-year-old friend of mine. Click here to read about how he's already raised hundreds of dollars for orphaned and hungry children.

His cards would make perfect Christmas gifts for the artist in your life, or anyone who just loves children's drawings.

November is National Adoption Month!

The timing of this post is actually perfect! I think I'm about to July in catching up on my blog, and on July 21st we celebrated our second anniversary of Gotcha Day with Josh!!!

Here's my sweet, baby boy just moments after he walked into my arms. Boy was he so precious!! I look at those first pics now, and notice that he had a bit of a "deer in headlights" look about him. He was so brave!

Here we are on our first Gotcha anniversary. He really just jumped into our family with both feet and stole all of our hearts that first year. His adjustment was amazingly smooth and easy (except for the first 6 weeks waking up 15-20 times a night).

That brings us to July. Josh is truly an amazing kid. He astounds those around him with his personality, ENERGY, intelligence and athleticism! He's quite gifted at making people smile. I know that God has big things in store for his life and has a great purpose for Josh! Let's just hope we don't kill him before he fulfills it! Ha!
As I mentioned, November is National Adoption Month and if you're around me long enough, you'll quickly learn that I am passionate about the plight of orphans and adoption!! I don't feel like every family is called to adopt, but I am convinced that every believer is mandated to be actively caring for the fatherless and the orphan. I can't ignore what God's Word says about it, and I invite you to see for yourself (word search the Bible for orphan, orphans, fatherless).
I was just catching up on a friend's blog today and learned that God has specifically called them to adopt a teenager out of foster care. This is scary, unknown territory for them as it feels reckless and unsafe. But, God calls us to do those kinds of things sometimes!! Keeping it "safe" in this world may mean loosing out here and in the next!!
I can't help but think, "what if we had not been "reckless" and pursued adoption?" What if we had thought the $25,000 price tag was beyond our ability?.... The Lord wouldn't have moved family and friends to contribute all but $208 dollars to cover the cost!!! (not to mention the fact that we are still benefitting from the >$12,000 tax credit) (By the way, we are humbled by the generosity shown us during our adoption. It would bless us beyond measure to be able to contribute way more than $25,000 towards other's adoptions during our lifetime). What if we'd been too afraid of the process or of taking on a child with "special needs"? We'd never know this amazing and incredible boy that is gifted in so many ways. He is destined for greatness, and I am so in love with my little China boy! We received an unbelievable gift from the Lord when we adopted him!!

Please, as the holidays are here, remember the fatherless. Please find a way to bless them. And, if you have the slightest incling to adopt, pursue it until God either closes the door, or places one of His precious little ones in your arms!!

Come Shop at the Holiday Bazaar!

A friend and I are going to have a booth here. A large portion of our sales goes to orphans and missions! Come check it out!!

Proceeds to benefit Hope Community Church Invites You To:
HoLIDAY BAZAAR
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4
8 am – 5 pm
Unique and wonderful Christmas Gifts!
Dozens of vendors will be offering a broad range of items!• Jewelry • Ceramics
• Antiques • Salsa and Chili Blend Gift Packs
• Cosmetics • Jams and Jellies
• Ornamental Glass • Girls Accessories
• Banners • Cakes
• Poinsettias • Hand-made baby shoes
AND SO MUCH MORE!

Family Christmas Photos
Have your family’s photo taken in a fabulous Christmas setting!
Just in time to put in your
Christmas cards.

Gift Wrapping – Available ALL WEEK!
We’ll wrap ALL your gifts. Just drop them off and pick them up later.
Beautiful hand-made gift tags add a unique flare under your tree!
Gift-Wrapping Hours: (Sunday, Nov. 28 – Saturday, Dec. 4)
Sun: 3-7 pm Mon-Fri: 6-9 pm Sat: 8 am-5 pm

Holiday Bazaar Cafe
Tasty lunch and dessert items will be on sale. Plan to stay, eat and chat with friends.

SHOP WITHOUT YOUR KIDS
It’s easier to shop without the little guys in tow. All day
Saturday, Dec. 4 we’ll have a special Kids Zone where they can play games, do crafts and tons more fun stuff. We’ll feed them too! You can drop them off, shop all over town, and pick them up when you’re done! All for a donation!

For information about having your own booth at the Hope Holiday Bazaar,
contact Tara Shepherd, 316-706-5517, fish2shep@gmail.com
Hope Community Church • 1831 E. 21st Street • Andover, KS • (next to the Andover Turnpike exit)

EASY Carmel/Kettle Corn

If you want a really yummy snack for movie or game night, try this:

1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. sugar
several shakes of salt
1/2 c. popcorn

I use a Whirly Pop to make this, but you can use just a big pot on med/high heat (just be sure to keep shaking it), or if you have one of those poppers with the bowl thingy on top like a dome, I'm sure that would work great too.

My Version of Homemade Bread

(photo from http://www.deliacreates.blogspot.com/)

I recently tried THIS bread recipe from a blog I like and loved it!!! It's super easy, seemingly "no fail" and makes 3 loaves at a time!! When I want regular sandwich bread I use 1-1.5 cups of whole wheat flour as part of my total flour. One thing she doesn't mention in her blog is that she uses Fleischman's INSTANT dry yeast. The only place I've seen it is at Sams. Instead of kneading by hand as she does, I divide my dough in 1/2 and let my KitchenAid mixer knead each 1/2 for 5-7 minutes with the bread hook. The author, Delia, did a follow up post to answer questions that came in about her recipe, so if you're going to try it, also read THIS. Oh, and I tried the pumpkin bread she made with the recipe... didn't like it... seemed kinda dry.

My version:

Recently Han and I tried the recipe using only the white flour and when we rolled it out we experimented a bit. On two loaves, I tried to imitate the "white chocolate cherry swirl bread" that Great Harvest Bread Co. makes. I melted some butter and brown sugar to make a thick "syrup" and spread it on the rolled out dough, then we sprinkled some chopped dried cherries and white chocolate chips on top and rolled up the loaves. I'd have to say that I think I came pretty close to Great Harvest's bread. The only thing I will do differently on that one next time is to put less of the buttery/sugary spread on and I'll bake it longer. There was an abundance of the gooey goodness, and the loaf was a bit under baked. But it was still yummy!!

On the 3rd loaf we did the same butter/brown sugar mixture then shook a bunch of cinnamon over it and sprinkled some chopped pecans. Made great cinnamon swirl bread that Han gave "100 thumbs up!"

My Version

I really liked the idea I saw HERE and wanted one for myself. I thought it would make life so much easier to just glance up and see my "week-at-a-glance." I also needed a place to write down my weekly menu, so I made mine big enough for the schedule and the menu (schedule in the middle and menu on the right). Here's my version:

I'm a horrible photographer, so the colors are a bit off, but here's how I did mine, which was a lot easier than the inspiration tutorial. The frame was brown and $2 at a garage sale, I buy up wood (not fake wood) frames with great shapes when I see them at garage sales. This particular frame had a somewhat ugly picture in it, but the frame was cool. I think people look past those finds when they see the pic and it doesn't work for their house.

I had the black spray paint, and cut the back out of a man's old dress shirt ($1 at goodwill) for the background fabric because that was what I had on hand. The fabric has a green stripe in it that matches my kitchen wall color.

So after painting the frame, I wrapped the fabric around the original pic and inserted it in the frame like a picture. I used a permanent black marker and wrote right on the glass to write the days of the week. (Permanent marker can be easily removed from glass with window cleaner.) I used a dry erase marker for our schedule and menu.

This same idea would be great on a wall where you wanted to write notes to yourself and others. This would be neat hanging somewhere with a verse written on it. You can erase it and write something new whenever you want to. I also made an 8x10 size that I hang from the side of my fridge to keep my grocery list on.

Looks like Abby and Josh Best's birthdays are coming up this week... wonder if they'd like one of these for their birthday!?

My Version

Since I do such an incredible job of keeping you up-to-date on this blog (that was a joke) I am going to start a new feature called, "My Version." I read and enjoy way too many crafty blogs. Even if you don't consider yourself crafty, these blogs provide all the creativity and usually tutorials for making so many cool things.

Anyway, when I see something on a blog that I decide to create, I thought it would be fun to show you the blog where I found the idea, and then a pic or two of my version.

We'll start with a fun wreath I saw HERE. Burlap is all the rage right now in home decor. I loved the idea, but not the Halloween theme it had, so here's my version:

I used a different wreath that came from the Dollar Tree. It was more like sticks, and because the burlap was brown, I didn't need to paint it. The fall leaves and "greenery" I used came from an old arrangement that I had tired of.

This idea could easily be used for a fun Christmas wreath, you could still use burlap, or any other fun fabric. I'd probably use pinking sheers if I used regular fabric.

Han's Pee Joke

You Wanna Piece of Me!!!???

This video is sooooo Josh. He's always moving, hard to contain, funny, happy and ornery!!!

PaPaw's Party

We all met up in OKC for two nights to celebrate PaPaw. After the photo shoot, we headed to Cracker Barrel. Really glad we didn't eat before taking all the pics! Those white shirts were a mess after dinner!

Here's Han with her cousin, MiKayla (Susan's girl).
Hud playing a little game of checkers with Gentry (Susan's other girl).

We all chipped in to buy the birthday boy a nice pair of what Hud used to call, "knockers."

Russ and his sweet sister, Susan.

Alaska to Africa

My talented brother and his amazing wife are making iron art to sell this Christmas. They are raising money to support orphans in Africa. Check out their blog, and enter this giveaway.
Make your purchases count for something this Christmas!!!

http://alaskaafrica.blogspot.com/2010/10/giveaway.html

PaPaw's 70th Birthday celebration!

Here are a few of my favorite pics taken during the family photo shoot.

Crazy Summer Fun in the Backyard

With 19 kids under 11 on our block, there was a whole lot of popsicle eating and jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it!

Ears pierced and toes done!!

All of Russ' family met up in Oklahoma City this June for PaPaw's (Rusty's dad's) 70th birthday. Even though it was his birthday, PaPaw blessed all us girls with manicures and pedicures before the trip. This was Hannah's first time to have a mani/pedi. It was a really fun time with just her and I!!

Hannah decided she was brave enough to get her ears pierced this summer, so Rusty took her for a special daughter/daddy memory moment.

Having some serious second thoughts!!

When it was all over, she was so glad she did it!

Summer Fun!!! I've got a lot of catching up to do...

"Chips" that's all I have to say about this pic!

Being silly in Mom's glasses.

Only certain people will appreciate this picture...

If you're one of those people, you're probably either from New Mexico or lived there at one time. Try to refrain from envy. Rusty grew these green chilies in our little garden and we're roasting them on the grill. Yumm!!!

Super Yummy Get-well-soon Chicken Tortilla Soup

One day while I was sick (for nearly the whole month of August) my sweet neighbor showed up with a pot full of chicken soup. I'm not exaggerating, it was the best chicken tortilla soup I've ever had. It was broth-y and spicy and absolutely hit the spot. When I asked her for her recipe, I was shocked to hear how easy it was.

So here ya go...

about 5 cups of chicken broth (using bouillon and water) (you can adjust the amount of broth to your liking... it's not so strong and spicy the more broth you add)
1 can of Rotel
1 can of chicken (you could also cook up a chicken breast, or just boil it in the broth and chop in bite sized pieces)

Heat through and once you've served it up, top with shredded cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips.

Sooooo yummy!!!

What they've said lately....

On our long drive to vacation, the kids were taking turns picking out videos to watch. It was Han's turn, and she chose High School Musical. Hudson's response... "Ohhhh commme onnnnn! Does this movie even have any fighting?"

During a little snuggle time Han asked me if she could cut a chunk off my hair when I was really old and getting ready to die so that she could remember me. A few days later we were passing a cemetery and she said, "Mom, you know the gardens they plant dead people in? When I die I want you to plant me in the one closest to our house!" She is definitely not afraid of death and would prefer to go to heaven as soon as possible so that she can see Jesus. I'm praying that her days would be long on the earth, however!!

What do you wear to go get the mail?

This is another original by none other than our Chinese cowboy.

black hat, soccer shirt, basketball shorts, black knee highs and brother's cowboy boots

yee haw!!

ride 'em cowboy!!

Mr. June!

Mr. June has been making my month!!

Last year our adoption agency America World had a photo contest for their upcoming calendar of kids they had helped place. Well, guess who's handsome face made one of the months! I just love this pic of Josh taken at the lake by my friend Courtney , it totally captures his personality!

Hud and Nick

This spring brought several new families to our block. There are now 19 kids in our 6 home row. One of the families actually were our neighbors at our last home. They had two little girls, then had boy/girl twins about a year before I did, but moved shortly after Hud and Han were born. It's been fun to be neighbors again and their twins Nick and Laini have been super friends for Hud and Han.

Nick and Hud are like two peas in a pod. They have a great time on their sword fighting, light sabor, star wars adventures.

My God is So Great

The other day Josh was singing a song and by the tune, I finally realized he was singing, "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do, for you!!"

Kids' Kamp verses

Apparently while we were helping Hud and Han memorize their vbs verses last week our little Chinese genius memorized them too!

John 14:21 "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."

Psalm 103:8 "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love."

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins."

Romans 10:15 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!!"

First Day of School and Last Day of School

The Red Baron Flys Again!!

The Last Day of Kindergarten (May 26, 2010)

Here they are, about to head off to their last day of Kindergarten.

Josh always insisted on putting on his back pack and waiting outside for the bus with them.

Hudson really loved Mrs. Gray. She was a terrific teacher.

Hannah adored Mrs. Boone and I'd have to say she is a fabulous teacher!!