more vacation

That was a great vacation! Yes! The mark of a good vacation: you wish you were still there!



"Wow!"
(what makes a girl make that face?)


THIS!


Anna and Momma defeat Zurg!


Buzz and my big kids


Momma Hen and her peeps


Ariel and Mulan (but known to us as Amy and Anna!)


A ride for all six of us!



Dinner on our last night! We ate dinner at Nine Dragons at Epcot (in "China")


One of the best parts of our vacation was seeing my brother and his family in Georgia! My entire family flew to Georgia and met us for Christmas at Adam and Laura's home! Here is a picture of all 10 cousins together! My two "bigs" and EIGHT cousins 3 and younger!!!

serious cash

I will post more pics from vacation - I promise - but I wanted to share what my kids were doing today.

It snowed last night. Quite a bit (about 5 or 6 inches I think!). The kids started with our neighbors driveway and moved onto ours and another neighbors and made some cash today! From what I can tell, Austin made $11 and Ash made $13! Three driveways! All on their own motivation! And they were outside for almost 4 hours! Wow!

I baked some whole wheat apple cranberry bread this morning. Although that sounds like a quickbread, it is actually a yeast dough and it is FABULOUS! We ate the small loaf (I call it the "runt") today for lunch! I just love the recipe (thanks, Christina!). I should say that the original recipe called for raisins, but we don't care for raisins too much, so I use dried cranberries. I found a Wal Mart brand "Craisens" that is only about $1.50, so it is pretty inexpensive to substitute the cranberries.

My thoughts are jumbled today. I have so much running through my head. House. Kids. School. Friends. Dave Ramsey.

No. I am not thinking ABOUT Dave Ramsey as much as I am trying to wrap my mind around the book I just read. "Your Total Money Makeover" It's a great book and so many of the things he says align with what we learned in the Crown Financial Ministries course we took three years ago (I think it was three). I really do think he has a LOT of valid points, but one I can't really "get" is his not allowing credit cards. At all. (Time out: I know we are adults and don't HAVE to follow some guys direction, but like I said, he has a lot of valid points) He says don't even use them if you pay them off every month. Why? I don't get it.

For now we have put the cards away. Although I ordered Chris's birthday present yesterday and used the Discover. :) We have "worked" this way for so long that I don't know how to do it otherwise!

If anyone has an answer to the "no credit card" question, post or email and let me know.

(By the way - Crown says that as long as you are paying the balance IN FULL every month, credit cards are ok.)

I'm back - kind of...

I still don't have my own computer back, but broke down and put Picasa on the extra computer. Whew!
We actually are back from a very needed vacation! We went to Florida! It was a wonderfully relaxing time and I am so thankful that we had the chance to go! We drove...
Yes. I said drove. From middle America to Florida!
We enjoyed a LOT of fun on the way and on the way back, though, and that made the road trip with four kids worth it!
On the way we stopped and met EllyeKate's family!!! That name might sound familiar to some of you. EllyeKate's Momma (Kim) met our Anna on Mother's Day and got some very special pictures for us as we waited for our turn to go to China. EllyeKate's sister just happened to be from Amy's orphanage - Yangjiang! Amazing. So we got to meet them and spend some time playing at their home.
Then it was onto DisneyWorld!!!
We spend 5 days in Florida and then went to see my brother and his family in Georgia for a few days.
And then on to North Carolina to meet another family that we "met" through adoption! Shelley and her family were AWESOME hosts to our family and even took us to see the ocean before we headed for home! Shelley and her family are "paperchasing" for their first adopted daughter (to join three bio daughters!).
We had an adventure on the way home, but managed to make it home on Christmas Eve.
So - now for some pics...
:)


Amy-Hui and Olivia


Anna and EllyeKate


Amy meets Mickey!


Anna meets Mickey!


Big kids being "little kids"


the girls enjoy a little dancing with Playhouse Disney!


Austin bustin' a move with High School Musical!


Ashleigh and Amy dancing at lunch

takin' a break...

...and boy do I need one!
Since my computer went "ka-put" over a week ago, blogging is a pain (since my photo software is on my computer) and it is just too much work on top of moving and stuff. So. I need a break from posting for a short while. I should be "back" right after Christmas (as I hope my computer is, also!) and I will post about Anna's first Christmas!
I just wanted to "let you know" since I find it frustrating to check blogs - hoping for an update - only to find none.
Merry CHRISTmas and blessings to all!
-Momma Hen
(almost literally running around like a chicken with her head cut off!)

happy birthday to me...

On my 30th birthday - we were able to be DTC (Dossier to China) for Amy.

On my 31st birthday - we accepted the referral of Anna Chenghao.

On my 32nd birthday - I hope to have a blessed day and that's it!

I honestly prayed about a week ago and asked God to not let me find a waiting child before Christmas this year! That may sound silly and surely an EASY thing to happen, but this will be the first Christmas in four that we haven't been waiting to bring a child home at Christmas... My heart is always wide open for another child.

(praying for our original DTC group; logged in 12/28/2005; still waiting to know who their little one is this Christmas... Our thoughts and prayers are with you)

can I ask you???

To pray?
The awesome thing is this: God knows every detail!
(this is nothing to do with my family or house or adoption or anything like that; it is ministry related)
Please storm the gates of heaven for the hearts of 6 especially precious young people. My Savior died for them (as he died for you and me) and they are desperately in need of Him.
My heart is heavy this morning as I realize that the spirit of darkness comes in like a flood; BUT the battle belongs to the LORD!
Thanks...

so - the secret's out!

NO - we are not adopting again...
(yet!)

But - we are selling our home and moving to the country!
I am SOOOOOOOOO excited!

Of course there is "a story" involved and of course, I have to share it!

Chris and I have LONG dreamed of a home in the country! When we were still very young and naive we even wanted a Christmas tree farm (still a possiblity!) that people could come to and pick out a tree and take a hayride and sip hot chocolate around a fire. (I know - a little corny - but that's the way that 18 and 19 year olds dream!)

Now - we are by NO means "farming" people, so living in the country will not include planting, sowing or harvesting (unless we are talking the Word of God and souls!). It is fairly difficult to find a house in the country that isn't in the middle of a field and it is also next to impossible to find a small acreage (local law dictates a minimum of a 40 acre purchase to keep farmland intact) on which to build.

Well, this past spring we found the perfect home! Problem? It wasn't for sale :) We bantered with the homeowners that if they were ever interested in selling, we would be VERY interested in talking. After we arrived home from China in July, we contacted the owner again and asked if they had thought any more about it and basically asked if we could come look at the house together so we would have something to compare other houses to while we shopped around.

I promise you that NOTHING we have seen compares!

So - while I was in Branson a few weekends ago, the owner approached Chris and said they were ready to sell; would we be ready to buy?

I must back up a few steps and reference this entry in my blog...

We felt like we were hitting a wall. The "perfect" home wasn't for sale and we were shopping around a lot and not finding anything we liked as well. Finally, we sensed that God was indeed telling us to "be still" or "cease striving". So we did.

And then this happened.

We obviously have a house to sell and this move won't happend without our home selling. We are trusting that God has opened the doors so far and if (and we really HOPE) we are to move, he already has a buyer prepared for us!

Without posting our location (to maintain an annonimity on this blog), if you know us - you know where we live - and we are asking you to help us get the word out! We have a wonderful 6 bedroom home for sale for a big family and we need them to find us! Email me if you need the specifics!

birthday morning pictures

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Ashleigh!

I am up early this morning - trying to at least start Ashleigh's birthday post...

I have a great excuse - really, I do! Ashleigh had her big birthday party last night! She invited 5 of her friends over for a slumber party. Yes - I am an insane and crazy mom! But, I guess I figured if I could do it for 15 Jr High girls, I should be able to do it for my daughter and five friends.

They are all still sleeping :)

We made a doughnut run at 11:30 last night and that was as crazy as it got.

So - back to her birthday post...

Eleven. Wow. Chris and I gave her a card yesterday and I asked Chris to write in the kids cards this year. He wrote a message sideways along the crease on the inside of the card. As he wrote it, I told him "hey - I was only 4 years older than Ash when you wrote on MY birthday card like that!" to which he relplied "yea, I don't wanna talk about that right now." :)

Ash got a birthstone ring, earrings and a necklace from us. She loves it! She had been hinting around for a ring for about a month and, as always, it is fun to surprise her. I also presented her with the labor of my Scrapbook/girlfriend weekend! An "ABC" book all about Ash. I think she liked it! We also gave her a "sweatsuit" from Aeropostale, but darn that girl if she isn't growing so much that the pants are too short! So we need to make a mall run and exchange it. Austin gave her a cool duffle bag with some American Girl bath and body stuff. Amy gave her a purse with a new wallet and Anna gave her a new pair of gloves.

I am going to break tradition *gasp* and do something new for birthday posts (because I promise it gets more difficult to come up with unique words - especially "A" words!). I will write about my favorite memory from the day Ash was born. (When it's time for Amy's birthday, I might write about the day she was born AND the day she joined our family!)

So. Ashleigh decided to join this world on the last day of Novemeber, 1996. The day previous was the "day after Thanksgiving". I had an OB appointment and the dr broke my heart when she said "well, it doesn't look like baby day..." I went home and cried. Chris was selling cars at that point, so he left for a LONG day of work. I went shopping with my three little brothers (and I still remember them all being horrified to shop with the preggo sister because people might think the baby was theirs!). I walked a LOT that day. Finished the shopping and went home. It was late. I talked with Chris's cousin on the phone and whined... Chris got home around 9:30 and we just talked until I WENT INTO LABOR!

We drove rather quickly (try driving about 40 miles inside of 25 minutes!) to the hospital and labored all night...

Miss Ashleigh Ciera made her debut at 5:57 a.m.

Now - months before her debut, I was pretty confident that she would come on the day of the first snow of the season. Guess what? She did. It started snowing while I was in labor and snow covered the ground by mid-morning!

We were at WalMart yesterday - stocking up on slumber party supplies (a.k.a. JUNKFOOD!) and when we came out, flurries were falling...

What a precious memory.

What a precious daughter.

I am one blessed Momma Hen.

One of the blessings of being Ashleigh's mom is that people (young and old) are always telling me what a joy she is, how compassionate she is or how fun she is (or how much she looks like me!). When you are raising a "tween", sometimes it's hard to see through the attitude. I am so thankful that she really IS a great kid and that others see that and remind me...

(pics coming later!)