I took my holiday vacation VERY seriously this year.  I had visualized two weeks of sleeping late, staying in my pjs all day, and watching enough movies to burn my eyes out.  Well, mission accomplished.  Laziness ruled in our household for most of the holiday vacation.  In fact, one day I was so determined to be lazy, I actually hurt my back laying around watching movies all day.  That’s when I started to feel pathetic and the crazy overachiever Kelly took over.  I decided that our storage room MUST be cleaned out immediately.  The 15-20 containers that held my boys outgrown clothes got pulled out and sorted into bags of Good Will donations or donations to family/friends.  I kept just three containers of Jake’s clothes to be passed on to Cody.  I still had an entire wall of teaching materials to sort through, but then I fizzled.  Back to several days of laziness.  It was a strange, but wonderful holiday and I can honestly say that I was thankful for the structured work week to commence.

Our holiday started with hosting Christmas Eve at our home with Jason’s parents and brother Jeremy, his wife Jamey, and their daughter Madelyn, visiting from Florida.  Sadly, Jason’s mom was very ill and couldn’t make it to the house, but Jamey and I managed to pull off the meal nicely anyhow.  Most of the day was filled with enjoying Madelyn’s delight in Riley–and that’s just about all I took pictures of!  I told you I was on vacation! 

So this is what Riley REALLY wanted to do with his new headband.  That’s okay though because Miss Madelyn decided to give him lots of little fruit loop treats! 

And then he was her friend for life.

After dinner and church, we headed back to the house to open gifts.  Riley’s belly was full and he was tuckered out from all that attention from his new playmate.

I recently found an old fortune cookie fortune in my purse when I was cleaning it out.  It said, “A PHOTO DOESN’T CAPTURE YOUR CHARM.”  Well, I don’t know if it captures my charm, but it sure captures theirs…

I just ADORE how goofy they are!  And I love how in the photo of the cousins below, Cody’s doing his eyebrow thing and Jake’s patting Madelyn’s head like she’s a pet.  Hilarious.

I’m including this photo just to annoy my sweet hubby.  He was baffled by me taking pictures of the fire, but I just thought those new sparkly firelogs that spew rainbow colors are so cool!

After all the family went home, we set out the milk, cookies, and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your families, whether it be lazy or productive or something in-between. 

I must take a moment to share with you a bit of what’s taking up space on my DVR right now.  My hubby’s a wee bit obsessed with deer hunting right now.  I mean at this moment, we’re watching freaking Ted Nugent’s Spirit of the Wild!  Anyway, I handed over the remote tonight and was hit with this beauty of an intro to a hunting show…

Seriously.  I mean, seriously.  At first, I started to giggle…and then I think my mouth just hung open.  What’s most hilarious about this is that MY HUSBAND WATCHES THIS!!

I do have better things to blog, but I had to share this tonight :)  Please have a Safe and Happy New Year!

I never knew what an impact this give-away would have on me.  It’s so ridiculous to call it a “contest” or award a “winner” when we’re talking about struggling families.  These stories have been heartbreaking and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wept in the past weeks over them.  I received the first nomination just a few hours after announcing the give-away and I spent the rest of the day with this family’s story heavy on my heart and mind.  It touched me deeply and I knew I would need help deciding who would be given the gift if I should receive any other nominations.  Well, three more came in, so I enlisted some friends and family to help me out. 

The holiday season is busy for all of us.  I’ve spent the past week in a tizzy, preparing for baking, cleaning, visiting family, gift-giving, and travel.  I’ve had one of the best Christmas Eve’s I’ve ever had.  We had wonderful food, visiting family that we’ve been longing to see, an amazing church service, and grateful and appreciative boys opening gifts tonight.  When I realized at 9:45 p.m. that I still needed to turn on my computer and blog about the winner, I was bummed–at first.  But now, I’m so grateful for this time to reflect on my blessings and be able to give back to others who may be struggling with some aspect of their lives. 

So now, I will announce the “winner”–but I will still be giving to all four nominated families.  I’ve decided that there was no way for me to say no to any one of these deserving families, so I will be offering a complimentary session and a $150 print credit to the other three families.  

The custom photography give-away will go to Andy and Suse.  They were nominated by Andy’s sister-in-law, Wendy, and this is a bit of what she writes about their story:

My brother-in-law, Andy, and his wife, Suse, pursued the avenue of foster care to adoption.  Their perspective was that they knew they’d be taking in a child who desperately needed a family, and that some of these might be children that others might not consider to be ideal.  They brought their first foster baby home straight from the hospital.  The mother’s rights were terminated due to her drug usage at the child’s birth.  He had some mild disabilities and they went above and beyond in caring for and loving him…all the while pursuing his adoption.  After a year of raising “their” baby…he was sent to live with his biological father and their hearts were broken.  Shortly after, they took in Izak at just a few weeks old.  He was a baby whose mother was a drug user and couldn’t identify the father.  Then, when Izak was just 8 months old, they were given the opportunity to take in Ellie (a newborn who was born to the first drug-addicted mother).  So, Andy and Suse were now raising two babies and giving them more love and affection than they would ever have known in their entire lives if they had remained in their biological homes.  After 2 years of battling for adoption rights for Izak, and one year plus of battling for adoption rights for Ellie…they were able to adopt Izak and Ellie “officially” into their family this summer.  What a huge relief for the entire extended family.  They made a decision for Suse to stay at home to care for the children while Andy worked full-time.  They could barely make ends meet, were getting behind in debt, and recently decided that Suse would begin working nights and weekends to help supplement the income (i.e., Andy and Suse would sacrifice pretty much any time together).  One week after she began her part-time work, Andy was laid off from his job as a call center trainer due to the economy.  Custom photography would never be an option for them - they’ve never even been able to afford a JCPenney/Target photography session for their 1 and 2 year-old beauties.  I don’t think they have any formal pictures of the children, just snapshots.  I can’t imagine a better gift to them than to be able to capture Izak and Ellie in their first adopted year in their family.  They are beautiful and loved children who are lucky enough to be adopted into a Christian family who has everything (except, of course…money).

This is just one of the many examples of adoption stories I’ve been served up in the past few weeks, which have done some serious yanking on my heart strings.  Tonight at the Christmas Eve service, the pastor listed three things to consider about Christmas:  Christmas is about adoption, Christmas is about remembering, and Christmas is about light.  When I saw that first point up on the screen, Jason and I just looked at each other, smiled and shook our heads.  The adoption messages have gotten seriously out of hand!  (Some of you may be wondering how Christmas is about adoption.  The pastor was talking about how Jesus “adopted” others and took them in and how Joseph essentially adopted Jesus even though he wasn’t his son–I promise you it made sense!) 

I’m wishing you all peace, love, and happiness this holiday season.  I’m on vacation for the next week or so, but I’ll be touch with the nominated families after the new year.

God bless,

Kelly

When I received a call from Laura, who was inquiring about getting some family photos taken since they had just come home from China with their newly adopted little girl, Lily, it brought tears to my eyes.  Not only is adoption such an amazing gift–for the child and the family–but this call came at such and interesting time.

My husband and I have always talked about wanting to adopt at some point in our lives.  At Thanksgiving, we spent some time with my friends from high school, Adam and Joey Gaines.  After having two children of their own, they decided to foster and then eventually adopt.  They are now a family of seven, with three adopted children.  After hearing and being so touched by their story, God started sending me some heavy messages.  I’m not kidding when I say that on almost a daily basis since Thanksgiving, Jason and I have been touched by adoption stories–on tv, connecting with long lost friends on MySpace or Facebook who’ve adopted, commercials about local fostering/adoption agencies in Kansas City, clients and co-workers, etc.  It’s really almost comical. 

The Wright family was such a joy to spend the afternoon with.  Lily has adapted so quickly and loves her new brothers, Max and Ian, to the point of smothering–but they don’t mind at all!  :)  She’s got her pink flowery bedroom with a closet full of clothes, which I know was fun for Laura, and a family that adores her.  It’s amazing to witness how much she’s blessed this family, as much as she has been blessed by them.  Maybe one day, we’ll have that same thing for ourselves.

Lily was blessed with a loving foster family in China.  This necklace and bracelet were gifts from them and Laura said she never takes them off.