Some of What has been Happening

I haven't been on here for so long.  It wasn't planned.  Things just happened.  One of which was having no internet connection for 3 weeks.  Many of the other things are now forgotten by me.  We did a lot of normal stuff, just hanging out, being our family.

But, stuff happened, and somehow it meant that I didn't blog for 6 weeks.
Some of the happenings would be -

Um.  During this period my son turned 5 years old!  Peyton is such a cool five year old.  

And we had a great birthday celebration. 

His wish was to go to Golf Land for his birthday.  

We drove over to Sunnyvale, to my childhood neighborhood. 

My parents and siblings and the cousins met us there.

We went to Inside N Out for the birthday request of cheeseburgers afterward.  

Look at this crew!

It was a super fun day.

A few days later was his actual birthday and we had a simple family celebration at home.

Peyton really is such a sweet, crazy, fun guy.  

It would be hard not to love him!

his eyes are super sensitive to bright.  so, it is a hard thing to look at all.those.candles.

His dad's panicked enthusiasm is distracting.  he has to push his cheeks down to keep from laughing.

We also had Hummingbird Days up at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.
Scott was a volunteer guide for the weekend.
The event was super fun for the whole family & Scott loved being part of the guided walks.

We went on a little last minute planned vacation to Palm Springs.  So, that was awesome.

It was a perfect vacation.  (Even though it involved some whining children, some parents coercing children to stay quite in a hotel room and an awful breakfast at Elmer's.)

It turned out that Palm Springs wasn't really a typical family vacation spot.

We may have had only one parent/child spotting, while in Palm Springs.

Any other children seen appeared to be with Grandparents.

And yet, we found it to be a fabulous vacation spot for our family.

I'll post separately about our favorite spots for a kid-friendly vacation in Palm Canyon.

I "ran" in my first race - the "pinkest" race.

Here is our running team, only part of the gals in my family made it to the race.  
But all these gals crossed the finish line.  

We had a blast.  This is us post race.  The real deal.

I took the kids on a little farm tour school field trip at Wilder Ranch.  

We love this state park!  

I want to go back for their next event, April 27th, Sheep Shearing!

Also, during this time, the daddy was traveling overseas for a couple weeks for work.
He went to Amsterdam, South Africa, Kenya, Spain and Morocco!

Sevilla, Spain

Morocco

Morocco

Then my husband came home and it was sweet and we celebrated Easter.
(and didn't get any great pictures)

And now he has finally adjusted to our time zone.
That is something we are all glad about!

Thanksgiving {#8} for Provisions & for You All

I am grateful for every single person who has helped us in funding our adoption.

We are so blessed by seeing our friends and family pull together with us!

I am planning a December Bake sale.
I think it should be fun.  I'll let folks know the details, soon.

Do you see the little adoption fund thermometer on the sidebar?
We are $706 away from $12,500.
Once we reach that dollar amount,
we have a promised gift of $5,000 that will be added!
$17,500 is super close to our goal.  Wow!

If you want to give to our fund, there are a couple ways.
See our page "Ways to Care".
At the top there is a link to our fund kept by Lifesong for Orphans.
You must designate with our name and fund number - Adams #2627
If you donate to this fund, you can get a tax deductible receipt.
If you want that for your 2012 tax return,
be sure to get it into Lifesong prior to December 31st

Another way to help us fund our adoption is to buy coffee or hot chocolate
from our storefront with Just Love Coffee.
For every bag of coffee you buy, they send $5 to our adoption fund!

The current news on our adoption is, we are still waiting!
We have had our dossier waiting in country for just over 12 months now.
We will start to update all our paperwork in the coming months,
since it expires at the 18 months mark.

We can't have a good guess as to when we will receive a referral of a little child.
It could be another year.  Or it could be a good deal shorter than that.
We continue to ask God to prepare our hearts and minds
and our little family for this blessed addition.

Photo Source -  weheartit.com via Erin on Pinterest

Day #7 Thanksgiving

I am thankful for the humble, and yet awesome meal -
Hainanese Chicken and Rice

Everyone eats this food.  Every single kid.

Tomorrow night's dinner is easy.
The night after Hainanese chicken we always have "leftover soup".
This is where you throw the chicken and rice into a pot and cover it with water.
Stir in the leftover ginger & pepper sauce.
Chop up a green, such as chard, bok choy or cabbage, and throw that in the pot.
When it is hot, serve it.
Toss some fresh cilantro, basil and/or green onion over the top.

Dinner for tomorrow is pretty much done.

Day #6 Thanksgiving

Today I am thankful for my man's long awaited
winter-blooming Salvias starting to show color.

And, I am grateful the election is over, too.  Kinda nice to be done with it, at least.

Thanksgiving Day #5

I am thankful to
-have my kids at home for their schooling.
-cool online resources like Made by Joel and his Paper Cities.
-our once weekly support classes at CFT.
Gillian is learning some basic French language & culture (from her Grandma!)
She is learning drawing skills & calendar skills.
She gets to share all her scientific discoveries with other kids.
We get introduced to great books.
She loves her lovely, youthful teacher, Mrs. Jensen.

Thanksgiving Day #4

Thanksgiving today for

- a day to worship together with our church family.
-Scott discovering these great banjo boys.
-my guy back in his garden, contentedly tending.
-Sunday dinner at my parent's house.
-finally attempting to make S'mores Cupcakes.

Thanksgiving Day #3

Thankful to be home again.

Day #2 Thanksgiving

I am thankful for our firstborn girl.

Gillian is such a classic big sister.  And she is learning to be a great one!

I am thankful for country farm adventuring opportunities for my kids.

They are crazy happy about all the cool stuff they discover every day.

 We have massive rock collections to tote home with us.

I am thankful for the great clothes from the UK.

Adorable, right?  They just have good style over there.

Gillian's dress and footless tights are from Mini Boden.

Her rain boots are from Hatley.

Day #1 Thanksgiving

Giving thanks for being together in Macdoel.

Loving this big belly baby who is 21 months old now
and cracking us up with her words and facial expressions.
Also, she is still a big snuggle, "hold me" girl.
I am thankful for that, even though sometimes I get tired of holding the big chunk of love so much...

Empathizing with Weakness {does not mean excusing sin]

So.  I read relationship advice on Yahoo! Shine sometimes.

I do.  

Like anytime I am looking at the news headlines & there is a relationship headline, 

I click on it.

Also?  My husband occasionally does this, too.

Yes.

Recently I was mucking about in the kitchen & he was browsing the online world.

He asked me if I wanted to know, finally, finally know -
the one key to lasting & happy marriages.

Yes.  Of course I did.  Read to me Yahoo! Shine, sweet darling.

Empathy, he declared.

And I was pleasantly surprised.  I think Yahoo! Shine got it pretty right on with this one.

We both agreed.  This was a job well done.

We all want to be understood and accepted, right? 

But, as Christians shouldn't we hate the sin, you ask?  

How can we have empathy for all that bad stuff we have to witness in our spouses?

And this applies to any relationship we are in, I would think.
Parent/child, friends, siblings, etc.

Empathy is the ability to understand.
That does not mean we have to excuse sin, though.

In order for our marriages to be pointing to God's glory, 

we should be encouraging one another in holiness.

We should be growing more like Jesus. 

Allow me to quote my current book love, "Just How Married Do You Want To Be?"

"Marry a person who isn't entertained by your sin.  

Marry someone who isn't fun to be with 

whenever you are indulging in your favorite way of being unlike Christ.  

Marry someone who likes you best when you are following God, 

and likes you least when you're not.  

Otherwise, it will be too easy to fall into the trap 

of conspiring in sin with the person you marry while yet telling yourself 

'we're so good for each other'"

By God's goodness, my husband & I are, most of the time,  this way to each other.

He planned us as a good match.  We do have opposite strengths & weaknesses.

Sometimes that can make it hard to empathize with the other's weakness.

How can it be done, if you don't really struggle with the same issues to the same extent?

I think we can empathize with the weakness of the one who is different from us, 

by being grateful for their strengths.

If you look at the complete personality of yourself, 

do you not see that your strengths & your weakness are connected?  

God gave me a personality, just for me.  

It is not more prone to sin or more prone toward greatness than any other personality.

In all the things He made me strong in, if I use those apart from His truth, 

then I will end up twisting those to sin & they are my weaknesses.

Example - a person whose great strength is a nurturing heart 

will have their weaknesses within this same sphere.  

The nurturing heart may turn into a controlling person 

apart from trusting the work of the Holy Spirit in others.

Or perhaps a guilt ridden person, apart from believing God's grace.

As the empathizing party, try looking at your spouse (child/friend/whomever) 

& see what great potential is underneath that weakness.

What is the "other side of the coin"?  

That stubbornness has potential for so much, under the power of Jesus.

That obnoxiousness could have another side
of someone being able to see reasons for joy in all things.

That attention-needy person has potential for strong connection.

When we are grateful for the strengths of the personality, 

we are better able to empathize with the weakness.

And when we show empathy, correction is better received by anyone.

Perhaps empathy is key to a happy, lasting marriage.

And, accountability is a key to a growing, holy marriage.

{Teach Them to Know} God as a Creative Gift Giver

I sat on the lawn with my eldest & youngest girls.

These ones didn't nap.

Together we three shell fava beans.

Scott & I eagerly await the arrival of fava beans into our farm share box every spring.

Today was the day.

Gillian told me she was glad to quit whatever she was doing in order to do work with me.

She does thrive on time together, working with hands.

Painting, cleaning, cooking, sculpting, penmanship - 

if I am focused on doing it, she is happy to be focused to.

She pauses from her her chatter to say a heartfelt, "I love you, Mom."

We chat about how there are so many different kinds of beans.

More than a thousand, maybe?  

God is so creative to make so many different kinds of beans for us.

Gillian says, "I'm creative, too!"  

I tell her that is because God made her to be like Him.  

He created her in His image. And He made her creative.

She gives an emphatic, "yes!"

Gods creativity is a gift to us.  All the different things He made, in all their amazing variety, that is all a gift.

And He giving us the ability to create is a gift, too.

I tell my girl to use the gift well.

And that God loves to gives good gifts to His children.

I am grateful for a chance to teach her to know who God is.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father..."  

James 1:17

I don't pretend to be an expert on teaching my children about who God is. 

But, I am going to give it my best shot.  Can we all encourage & inspire each other?  

Will you link up a blog post with us, sharing a way you were able to teach another to know more about who God is?

I want my children, first & foremost, to know who God is, 

the only One who can fully know them.

Join the link list below by adding the url for your blog post 

& be sure to link back here from your post.

I am linking up with Heather @ b. rooted - we Found a good gift from God in Fava Beans.

Gifts in all this (Five Minute Friday)

I forgot to publish my five minute friday from yesterday...
Happy Saturday morning!

...I wake hearing the little voices down the hall.
I've closed my eyes again & the guy next to me has rolled out of bed.
He shows the kids that the long awaited Care Bears dvd was brought by the mailman,
and yes they may watch it.
I fall asleep in the few minutes that pass.
He brings me the smallest baby, who is not so small anymore.
Look at all these gifts in the first few minutes of my day.

Leftover oatmeal is already in the fridge.
Breakfast in a literal minute before the man heads out to work.
Coffee brewing, children eating, baby exploring, gifts.

Library visit & books piled high.
A sister helping her toddling baby sister.
A sister building towers for her siblings.
A brother & sister adventuring through the yard together.

The daddy to these four gifts surprises us with an afternoon visit,
part of which includes a tricycle ride.
And the gifts go on and on.

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above"

Do you know about Five Minute Friday?
Go check out The Gypsy Mama.

We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy peasy!

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.

::

It's Official

She is now a big girl.

Gillian lost her first tooth a couple weeks ago.

We were a bit shocked.  She's 5 1/2.  What happened?  It seemed so soon.

But, that big tooth has already poked through.  It was time.

Crazy.

The other news on her growing up is that she started wearing glasses.

Her eyesight was quite a bit worse than her own daddy's already.

It is an emotional thing, when your child can suddenly see,

& you think back to all the times she was unable to.

We felt awful, really.

When we went to the zoo at the beginning of the year,

she was pretty much just waiting to go back home the whole time.

We were irritated by that. 

What?  Our child who loves this kind of stuff

is a grump the whole time we are at the zoo, just begs to leave?!

A few weeks later we realize she probably couldn't see the animals...

That was the only thing she had missed out on, either.

That was not the only time when I lost my patience with her,

because I thought she was just being difficult. 

I felt guilty & grateful all at once

I was filled with gratitude that we were able to give her the glasses she needed.

How many parents around the world wish they could do the same, but don't have the means?

We are so blessed to be able to get high quality medical care for our kids. 

Speaking of, you know about Toms shoes, right?  One for one.

Did you know they have sunglasses now? 

When you buy a pair of sunglasses, you are also giving sight to someone else.

This may be reason enough for me to get my first pair of nice sunglasses.  Maybe?

I really only sunglasses from Ross.

So, this would be a whole new world for me.

More on Gillian & her grown up self...

She is a good money saver.  I knew that.

But last week she wanted to put money from her piggy bank into the real bank,

so we emptied the pig & counted & rolled money. 

She had $50 in there!!

We have never given allowance, either. 

I think we put a few dollars in there, when we first got the bank when she was a baby.

Mostly she hunts the ground & couches & washing machine for spare change.

I guess I should start picking up all the pennies I see on the sidewalk.

Gillian & I got to go on an ice cream date last weekend.

We have rain here right now.  But there was nice sunshine last weekend.

A trip to the best ice creamery around was perfect.

(mom & daughter matching eye wear & over-grown bangs.)

Gillian had Meyer lemon poppy seed.  I had burnt cinnamon.  Yummo!

Do you know about Embrace the Camera? 
Emily is trying to get everyone to get into the shot, because our loved ones care.
They will want pictures of YOU.