This morning started off on the wrong foot when I rolled over in Avahs toddler bed from sound sleep and looked at my phone to realize .. It was 9am. I had to get myself, 6 kids and my hubby out the door by 9:20….
Well at 9:43… We were out the door. Mia wearing a wonderful Santa dress I had chosen however someone had put on her old purple coat with a pink toboggan. But okay… I had put her bow on and brushed her hair so we were good. Until we got to church.. Toboggan came off and the bow was gone. I know what you are thinking…
Wendi you have 6 kids.. Get over the bow.
But I can’t… My rule: No bow no go. Ridiculous I know. I typically can’t move past it.

But this morning I walked Into church with my 4 big kids looking smashing in there Christmas red and green… My 2 Korean beauties in Santa dresses and I was stomping my feet over a bow. A bow.

I walk in and our sweet church secretary sees me moaning yet she hands me a gift and smiles. In fact… Five friends give me gifts this morning…What is wrong with me?

Some children will not have Christmas. Or a hug. Or food. Or water. Or a family.. Ever. And I am upset about a bow…. A bow..:-/

Then I am sitting in church service holding my sweet girl Avah… Waiting for children’s church aka JAM aka Jesus and Me.. Also known to Avah as JAMP…

She leans into me and smothers me with kisses.
Wet. Slobbery. Kisses. All over my face.

But guess what.. Those were the first kisses she has ever given me. Unsolicited.

These were from her heart. Purely her idea.

And tonight I am reminded of her life before mommy and daddy came. She isn’t feeling well. She is so excited to be sick. She always wants to be sick. She always wants medicine. She always wants to be the one receiving attention.
I am sure in an orphanage the sick child always gets the attention.. They get meds. They sleep somewhere seperate/special so someone else doesn’t get sick. They get their temp taken.

My sweet sweet girl is healing in so many ways. Merry Christmas to me! A kiss for Christmas. An unexpected blessing something I didn’t even realize was missing until I received it.

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Ahhh I couldnt wait to get Simmy our elf out again this year. But I am growing weary… Here are a few. I didn’t take photos of our toilet wrapped wrapping paper,sitting on the edge of the toilet, hanging on TV, stockings and chandeliers.

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Or a mess..

I noticed in almost every photo.. A cabinet door is open.

The counters and tables are trashed.

But we were grooving to Christmas music and making cookies!

I love Paul’s face in these pictures.

And so happy Chloe is off from Wednesday to Saturday to help with all the festivities!:)

Yes more mess..

But we had cookies.. Even a special Texas one for daddy! Decorating cookies tomorrow!:)

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Life has this crazy way of letting us forget how blessed we really are. We get so busy we forget. How can we forget when HE is so incredible. No matter what the enemy does to us HE is there for us. Living in what I now call the adoption world. I totally see things differently. And love that I do.
a friend from high school, someone I wasn’t very close too. She was a couple of years ahead of me. We were friends but not close friends. We have reconnected on Facebook. She is adopting from China.. An adorable little girl, Meiya. She should be traveling in the next month and has been having Fundraisers to pay for her adoption.
I love to enter Adoption giveaways. I just love to get that feeling from God.. Donate. I will say I don’t donate to all of them or buy from everyone’s auction. Who could? But when I feel I should donate.. We do. Even if it’s $5.
Well Amy was giving away American girl bitty babies a few months ago… I wanted those something fierce. So I shared and blogged and donated.. I had so many so many entries. But by sharing on Facebook… A friend who is simply a friend because of our husbands who work together, we have never met. But we do seem to have much in common, and someday when our lives slow down. We will meet. Anyway.. She felt that pull to donate after seeing Amy’s giveaway that i lept sharing and she WoN the dolls!!!! And donated them to Mia and Avah! She even told Amy to order them exactly how I wanted them!

They were so excited. This was so good for Avah to see. She has zero concept of giving.

Ecstatic.

Things got crazy fast! They have Pined over the American Girl catalog for hours!!

And the giggles were priceless!

They have played nonstop with these dolls. Who are named.. Mia and Avah. And seem to get into alot of trouble already… I Will share later. But they have had to sit on The steps in time out and go to the corner quite often for saying ‘bad’ words and hitting each other.;) and our bad words are stupid, dumb, hate or shut up. And yes Mia up shut counts too.. Sneaky little one.

But this story gets better… Amy had one giveaway left… We had not donated yet. Its Christmas, we have been busy and just hadn’t felt my usual push to give… I don’t know why. Amy had one hour left and Kenny says I am donating to Amy’s giveaway. I said okay, I hadn’t yet. He donated and an hour later he won the first prize of a kindle
Fire. BUT there was no way we could accept… We have a kindle fire.. And if she doesn’t have to buy it at all that is another $150 towards Her adoption.

Blessed again by adoption… Love that!

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I do love Christmas time!! From Thanksgiving to Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love the shopping, the music, Santa, nativity scenes, caroling an of course my favorite family time.
I love love love to give Christmas gifts! We are in a very large home school co-op between my 6 kiddos we have 18 teachers. So we made peppermint fudge treat bags for them.:)

Of course the traditional gingerbread house…. We have always done this. I have yet to bake one and decorate it. Mate next year.;)

Lots of fun!!

Our last day of co-op for the semester, I have to admit I am so ready. I taught two Lego club classes and a gym class with about 35 kids in it. Ahhhhh I am ready for next semester. I am only teaching gym and Egyptian history.

Avah LOVES to give gifts to anyone! She was so excited to give gifts to her teachers.

The whole crew.

Chloe and Mia…. They sure do love each other. It makes my momma heart sing knowing how much my oldest and youngest love each other.

And never to busy for ‘baby time’ as Avah calls it.:) I sure do love this precious blessing.
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From Texas…

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We spent sometime at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Texas. A busy busy place… But wherever we go… It seems to be that way. So we must be the business!;)

Uncle Nathan, Aunt Taylor and my niece Lucille came over several times to visit. Last night they came and we celebrated Christmas.:) Avah’s first Christmas celebration home!:)

Mia and Avah were crazy about Lucille!

Trying to pose all three… Avah in a blur.. Imagine that!

Avah busting out of my photo opp to become the star of the show.

Snuggling while waiting for presents.

Loving Camye’s creation of ‘acorn’ people.

Chloe opening her present from Aunt Taylor and Uncle Nathan.

Mia diving in!

Loving her Cinderella costume!! Thank you grandma!

Paul overly delighted with his ‘build your own robot’ from Grandma Frenchfry. This was so cool!! Toys R Us finally carries build your own electronic toys.

And an extra special present from Nathan and Taylor!! Our 2012 ornament!!!:)
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When I first heard this saying, ‘Impress Your Kids’, I will be honest I was annoyed. I don’t know why. But I was.

But the longer I read about different ideas people had, the more I realized I should be more ‘intentional’… Maybe even ‘more’ fun.
So I decided to be a little unlike myself today.. And changed it up a little. Thanks to Pinterest.

Avah and Mia painted in the bath tub with blue shaving creme.

Paul planked in the spare room at Grandma and Grandpas house.

Mia planked on the kitchen counter.

Chloe and Paul planked on the fence.

And on the patio table..

Mia planked on the Grandmas bird bath.

Oooops I hope grandma and grandpa don’t see this blog! They didn’t see any of this monkeying around.:)

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Tonight we celebrated Christmas with my husbands family. The kids exchanged gifts and had so much fun!:)
I was in charge of rolls among other things but they were so fluffy!

I was so impressed with the look. The taste was slightly different. But would so take the place of that old gluten roll any day!!
I used the recipe from this blog:
http://mommyimhungry.blogspot.com/2012/11/gluten-free-dinner-rolls.html?m=1
Let me know if you have a better recipe! :):)
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Has come to a close. Adoption has blessed my life beyond my imagination.

Cute smiles!

Growling face and Korea pose..

Wait mommy needs a kiss..

Oh yea … We rule this house. And we would all rather be adopting.:)

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