Santa baby.

The time has come for our yearly trip to see the big man in the red suit.  The kids waited patiently and then marched right up, climbed up the stool, and took their places on his lap.  They were ready.

Peanut requested a tea set to have tea parties with her little sister, and Buddy asked for a race track.  This is the best Santa I've ever met... genuine beard and sweet Santa voice.

Then we tried out the Red Rider guns again.

Buddy manned the train controls for a good while since the store was almost empty.  Then he discovered there was no line for Santa's lap, so he went back down the red aisle to chat it up with the merry man.

Item of discussion:  what Rudolph eats.

Once he was pleased with the answer, he climbed back down and went back to the train station.  Peanut took another turn to talk with him too before we left.

Since this visit, she has had lots of questions:

How does he keep his suit clean when he goes down chimneys?

How will he fit down our chimney?

How do the reindeer get up onto our roof?

Where is the North Pole?

Can we go there for a vacation?

(after hearing "Santa baby" on the radio) When was Santa a baby?

This year is so fun already since she understands all that much more than last year.  We've been reading a book K's sister gave us that tells the true story of how St. Nicholas came to be a part of the Christmas story.  Santa is a ton of fun, but don't forget the reason we celebrate ...

"a Savior has been born to you!"  Luke 2:11

Blessings, angela

worship.

It's been a tough last couple of weeks because of a whole host of events.  Typically I get a healthy dose of Veggie Tales sing-a-longs or squeeze in a few minutes of talk radio so I can feel like I know what's going on outside my van walls.  Being a mom in a minivan couldn't get much more hip, now could it?  


Over these weeks I've purposely sought to encourage my spirit by listening to Seeds Family Worship in the car.    I can specifically recommend Seeds of Faith, Seeds of Praise, and Seeds of Encouragement.  They aren't kid music like you'd imagine.  I find myself singing along, feeding my soul Truth... and then I look over my shoulder to see Peanut singing along too.  Beautiful.  It's strictly Scripture put to music...  not annoying tunes that you can't get out of your mind for days on end!  Can't say enough about this music and how it's ministered to my weary soul many days.  


Blessings, angela

angel.

A sweet sister in Jesus left earth a couple weeks ago.  As I talked with Mrs D the day she died, I told her I was jealous that she'd be with the angels singing... joining in with the beautiful praises and seeing the King in all His glory.  Even though she's there in Heaven and without the pain of cancer overtaking her body, she is terribly missed.


Shortly after she got sick, Peanut started praying for her every single day.  Since my little girl takes after me, she needed to write her feelings down in a note.  She drew a picture of herself and Mrs D and wrote, "I am praying for you."  Weeks later, Mrs D was at church and I told Peanut I had seen her.  Peanut really wanted to see her in person, so we tracked her down and Mrs D thanked her for the card.  She said when she got sad, she pulled out her box of cards to remind herself how many people were praying.  She told Peanut, "I don't really need to be sad now, do I?"  Peanut shook her head.


The minute we walked in the door from church, Peanut went right to the table and went to work on another card for Mrs D.  This time, it depicted the two of them with a big rainbow and butterflies overhead.  She wrote, "I love you.  Be happy!  Love Peanut."  She told me she wanted to draw pictures of things that would make her happy so Mrs D would not need to be sad.  


Last week Peanut asked me when Mrs D would come over to our house.  I told her that Mrs D died because her body was very sick and is now living in Heaven with Jesus.  (we've already had lots of discussions about death)  So Peanut wrote a card for Mrs D's family: 

Psalm 116:15

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.

 I am blessed to know such a godly woman and to have shared life together in Bible study the past two years.  She is greatly missed.  Blessings, angela

needs.

I resolve to be thankful all month.  Some days it is difficult to be thankful that Sweet P is a zillion miles away when she could be home with us.  The last few days are the first I have been truly grateful for the fact that Sweet P is living in an orphanage.  


You see, we got the draft of the long-awaited child history document on Friday.  Hopefully that means the official copy and the other papers we need with it will be here shortly.  It was full to the brim of new information about our baby girl.  Some quite surprising:  her parents' full names and addresses were included, which may be helpful if Sweet P ever desires to find them.  Yet much quite disturbing:  we read some of the intimate details of how and why Sweet P came to live in the orphanage and why she suffers from hydrocephalus.  


I have yet to talk here about Sweet P's medical need.  Mostly because everyone has some sort of issue going on, and hers is what it is.  Any of my children could develop any number of issues tomorrow and we'd just deal with it as necessary and live life to the fullest.  But, I have found myself talking about it with some of you and getting blank stares since I forget who I've gone into detail with about it.  I would love for more friends to pray with us specifically.  

Hydrocephalus is also known as water on the brain.  Here's a little info from wikipedia about it (with some editing done by me):

Pediatric hydrocephalus affects one in every 500 live births, making it one of the most common developmental disabilities, more common than Down syndrome or deafness. It is the leading cause of brain surgery for children in the United States. 

Sweet P has had a shunt in her brain since a few months old which regulates the fluid on her brain, since her brain cannot do it naturally.  This type of need is relatively easy to deal with; it requires periodic doctor visits to ensure the shunt is working correctly.  All doctor reports about her say she is meeting the developmental milestones as expected.  However, these benchmarks are a bit skewed considering she has lived almost all of her 26 months of life in an orphanage.  (The general rule is, for every three months in less-than-optimal care, she will be about one month behind... until she lives with us a while and will catch up quickly to children her age.)

I'm praying today that her caregivers hold her a few more minutes and give her even one more hug and read one more book with her.  My heart aches to do all these thing for her but know that time is coming very soon. 

Give thanks to Him and praise His name!  Psalm 100:4

Today I will be thankful.  

Today I will thank my Lord for Sweet P's precious life.  

Today I will praise Him to be a mommy of three.

Blessings, angela

our new pets.

Meet our new pink kitty...

...and our lovable little gorilla.

Buddy grabbed a gourd and was using it as a fire hose.

We made a quick round to a whopping four houses before calling it quits.

Oh, and it was just in time to get the kids in bed so we could dig through all the candy.  

Please don't tell.  

Blessings, angela

pops.

The night we got back from Tennessee, Pops arrived for a quick visit!  

All visiting guests must be introduced to Rita's Water Ice.  

reading Bible stories before bed

We love having grandparents to visit and can't wait to have you back!  

tennessee. prettiest place i ever did see.

My parents blessed us with a week of their timeshare, so we packed up and drove to the mountains of Sevierville, Tennessee.  Sorry to disappoint anyone, but we did not go to Dollywood or even lay eyes on Ms. Parton.  Thank goodness.  It might have been a little much.


We did, however, spend the first four days with our good friends from K's college days and finally met their precious boys.  Here's picture overload from our week away.

Peanut and her favorite purple car

This guy knows his cars.  At his request, the dads took the kiddos to the Muscle Car Museum.

Ripley's Aquarium

The timeshare had an amazing indoor waterpark that kept us busy for hours!

the bigger kids' play area

...and the ginormous bucket that dumped water every few minutes!

Exploring Cade's Cove

Tennessee, I miss you.  

Blessings, angela