Thoughts On Our Adoption Journey

My fella and I are well on our way to adopting, and our adoption journey has pretty much gone off the rails. The fella would say "We got hijacked by the Holy Spirit" and I would probably agree with that. Before you comment and email me with a zillion questions, you should know that even if I wanted to, I could not tell you anything, there is much that I don't know. But please pray. Pray for our family and our future kids. And pray that we would have patience with and find favor with those that control the process.

Meanwhile, in all of this unknown, I began to think about ways to make sure that any children that come into our family by way of adoption will know that they were just as excitedly anticipated as those that came by way of birth.

There will never be one of these:

Or one of these:

and there certainly won't be one of these:

I am faced with a home that is full of baby books and maternity photos and birthday collages that show age progression. And no adopted child of ours will ever have that. What they will have is a book of photos that we have been taking along the way, depicting things like me putting the application in the mailbox and us at DSS training. And they will have a journal, written in the form of letters to them, that I have been pouring my heart into. 

While I will never be able to tell them what it was like to feel them kick, or what I foods I craved, or tell their birth story, I will be able to tell them how they were loved, wanted, expected, selected,and eagerly anticipated. I will tell them about how my heart was inexplicably drawn to them, and how from the moment of conception, although it was not in my womb, God knew that they were for our family.

God sets the lonely in families...

Psalm 68:6

To read more about our adoption story, check out my post Questions & Answers About Adopting. I am always happy to answer questions about the process, either by comment or email, so as long as they are not situation specific (we don't know any specifics), keep the questions coming!

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Love Gave Hope

For the next 58 hours straight, the Body of Christ will be His hands and feet in our community, raising supplies and awareness for local orphan care. 

I pray that the organizations that will benefit from this outreach will be blessed beyond their greatest expectations. 

But, I have another prayer too, and that is that my family will learn a bit more about giving love this Christmas, instead of just focusing on getting gifts.

We signed our oldest up to volunteer alongside us, and I plan to take him with me to watch his daddy in action as one of the co-hosts of the live webcast. I don't want him to just hear about generosity and giving, and want him to see it in action in our lives. 

To view the live feed or donate, visit www.lovegave.com, and maybe you too can teach your little ones to "Give This Christmas Away"

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The Return of the Elf

Last year was our family's first year participating in the media-driven madness that is Elf on the Shelf. We purchased him, because our then 3 year old saw the 30 minute tv special and really liked it. Later that week, we saw an Elf on the Shelf box set in a store and picked it up. It was quite a lot of fun moving our elf, "Sheldon" from spot to spot each evening and watching Man-Cub eagerly search for him each morning. It wasn't until after Christmas that I really got into Pinterest and discovered all of the fantastical elf-y ideas that are out there.

This year, I had an elf plan, and of course that plan involves character education. You might say that character education is my hobby these days. When I look at these children, I see not only sticky faces and goofy smiles. I see adults that, with the right foundations, will become disciples of Christ and servants to others. Now, back to the elf.

Our elf arrived the same day that we were putting up the decorations, which happened to be during Thanksgiving week. I sneakily placed a package addressed to the kids on the front porch, and a few hours later when I knew that the mailman was on our street, I asked Man-Cub to go out and check our mail. When he discovered that the box on the porch bore his name, he was pretty pumped.

I then assisted him in "sounding out" the return address. You cannot imagine his excitement when he learned that the package came from Santa!

We took a seat on the stairs and opened the box, which contained Sheldon the elf and a letter from Santa.

The letter read:

Noah & Evelynn,

Sheldon was so excited to see you again, he couldn't wait one more day! So when I told him that you were decorating for Christmas early, he begged me to send him by express mail!

Remember, I bring presents because my heart is so full of Jesus' love. If Sheldon acts naughty or misbehaves while he is at your house, please remind him that Jesus loves him no matter what.

I will be seeing you both soon!

Love,

Santa

So the plan is for Sheldon to get into a little bit of mischief while he is here, and for Man-Cub to teach him all about grace and forgiveness.

There are some really cool ideas and resources out there for incorporating the fun of Santa with the true meaning of Christmas. One of our favorites is Veggie Tales: The Story of St. Nicholas. We love how it teaches our kids where the tradition of Santa Claus came from, as well as reinforcing the idea that; "I can love because God loves me, I can give because God gave."

I would love to hear all about how you incorporate the real reason for Christmas with the Santa fun!

Chain of Gratitude

This is an activity that we did when I was a kid. I love the fact that it focuses on being grateful for what we already have. In my opinion, there is just way too much focus on what we are going to get at Christmastime. 

I started with a basic mason jar, and decorated it. I used some hemp twine and a handmade tag reading "25 Days of Gratitude."

I then picked a few pages of scrapbooking paper in colors that match my home decor, and cut them into strips measuring 1"x6" which I added to the jar.

Each night of December, before bed, every member of our family will take a strip and write down something that they are grateful for on the white inside the strip.

Then we will add them to the chain.

While the chain will start short and probably stay on a tabletop at first, as it grows we will probably  use to to decorate our buffet in the dining room or hang over a window valance. You can choose to either add to it year after year or [as we will do] you can pack it away with your decorations, then start the next Christmas season by taking apart the previous year's chain and reading aloud all of the things you were grateful for last year.

I pray that your Christmas season will be filled with gratitude, generosity, joy and love!

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Paper Bag Manger & Character Building Activity

 If you know me, or have been reading this blog very long, you know that I am borderline obsessed with character education for kids. During Christmas, I am also obsessed with teaching my kids the real reason for Christmas. This activity is a favorite of mine, because it combines both.

As with many of my Christmas activities, this is a great craft for older children, but if you have little ones you can make this and then allow your children to participate in the activity that goes along with it.

To make your paper manger you will need:

-Brown paper bag (lunch size or grocery size is your choice)

-scissors

-glue

-yellow card stock

-Either a baby doll or make your own doll with white felt and a wooden ball

 Begin by cutting the top of your bag to your desired height, and cutting a circle in the center.

Now you will cut the sides out of your bag, approximately half of the remained height.

Glue the top of your bag together. Then decorate as desired. I simply added a paper star to the top.

Cut your yellow card stock into strips and fold accordion-style. Place these in a separate jar, bag or other container.

Now comes the character education part. Explain to your kids that each time they do something that embodies the true spirit of Christmas, they get to add a piece of "straw" to the manger. This could be anything from displaying generosity, kindness, keeping a joyful attitude or even doing a service project for others. Be sure to give examples, and stay on watch for this behavior. You could even enlist your kids to "catch" each other pleasing Jesus. You may decide to remove a piece of straw each time the behave selfishly, greedily or are unkind, but be sure that it doesn't become a tattling contest between your kids. On Christmas Eve, talk to your children about how their actions were pleasing to Jesus, and praise them for filling up the manger. Then you can add your doll "Baby Jesus" on top of the bed they made for him.

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Felt Nativity Advent Calendar

Around this time of year, I am always concerned that my kids are counting down to a day when they get presents,  and not counting down to a big birthday celebration for Jesus. With all of the commercialized aspects of the holiday season, it takes a lot of effort to bring the focus back to the true reason for this wonderful holiday.

For several years, I searched for an advent calendar that depicted a nativity, to no avail. So last year, I decided to make my own. This is an awesome craft for older kids, but if your kids are little like mine, you can do the "making" yourself and allow them to participate in the daily countdown.

You will need:

-Felt advent calendar base (I found mine at Hobby Lobby)

-Black, white, yellow and tan felt

-Glue 

Your first step will be to do a Google Images search for "Nativity Silhouette" and decide which one you want to use. I chose a very simple one. Print out the image of your choice, and cut it out. Now, trace your image onto your black felt. Pencil shows up fairly well. Glue your silhouette onto your calendar.

Now use your remaining felt to create your baby Jesus. I pretty much free handed mine, but if you are looking for a template or ideas, use that Google Search again. Make sure that your Jesus is sized appropriately to fit into the pockets of your calendar. 

The one main difference between this calendar and the others you have probably seen is that instead of counting up from 1 to 24, you will count down from 24 to 1. This allows the Christ child to "travel" towards the manger scene. 

Because felt sticks to felt, on Christmas morning you can place baby Jesus directly in the manger.

This is one of many things that we do around our house in an effort to put the focus on Him. What traditions does your family have that celebrate the true reason for Christmas?

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Super Simple Salt Dough Ornaments

 

I originally discovered this recipe on Pinterest, and we have had so much fun with it here. I have slightly altered the original to include more flour and less salt, which creates a very smooth outcome.

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups water

Combine flour and salt, then incorporate water slowly. Knead the mixture on a floured surface for approximately 15 minutes or until very smooth and not sticky. Roll out on floured surface to about 1 cm thickness.

To make the handprint gift ornaments, simply cut out a circle (I used a drinking glass) and help your little ones press their hands into the dough.

To make the cut outs, just allow your kids to use cookie cutters, the same way you would do with sugar cookie dough. (That's Man-Cub making a "please stop taking photos of me so I can keep playing with this dough" face)

For all of the ornaments, I used a straw to poke the holes.

Once you have cut out or shaped them, bake in a 300 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. The ornaments should be completely hardened once cooled.

Decorate your ornaments with acrylic paint, glitter glue, or paint pens.

Here are few of our finished ornaments. We all had a blast with this project, and Man-Cub has brought out the cookie cutters several times since, begging to repeat the project!

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