A Beautiful Way to End the Year

 

White as snow, white as snow,

Though my sins were as scarlet;

 

Lord, I know, Lord, I know

That I'm clean and forgiven.

 

Through the power of Your blood,

Through the wonder of Your love,

 

Through faith in You I know that I can be,

White as snow.

 

~Leon Olguin~

 

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD.

"Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

thought they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool."

Isaiah 1:18

No home for Christmas

~Our Family Christmas 2012~

 

Imagine for a moment, what would it be like if you had no family.  No one who you could call when things got rough, no one who you know you can count on, no place to go home for Christmas, no place where you "fit".  That's the reality for the roughly 30,000 kids aging out of the foster care system this year.

Did you know...

~In 2009 there were 115,000 children waiting to be adopted in the US state system.

~In 2009 57,000 children were adopted through the state.  That's about 50% of the total children waiting.

~The average wait time from when the parental rights are terminated to when a child is adopted is about 14 months. 

~In 2009, about 29,000 children aged out of the foster care system with no permanent family connections.

Do you have room in your heart for one of them? 

It's not easy to adopt these children, as we are finding out!  It is a process and many times we wonder if the agencies really have the best interest of the children at heart, but there is so much regulation that it makes things difficult all around.  There are photo listings of many of the kids that are available for adoption, like www.adoptuskids.org , and many states have their own photolistings as well.  We are finding that a lot of these kids on the photolistings are in process of being adopted already, but many are just waiting.  So even though the system isn't perfect, it's what we have to work with, so we do it.  We are glad God has chosen to use us in this way, to care for and love some of the fatherless in this old messed up world.  If you think of us, please pray that God would send us whoever he wants in our family, and that we would be open to His leading- thanks so much!

All statistics are from this website.

Dreaming of summer

 

I was sorting through my pictures this evening and came across

these pretty roses- don't they make you wish for summer again?

 

"Sing a song of seasons, something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer, fires in the fall!"

~Robert Louis Stevenson~

 

The seed catalogs have come in the mail already, so we can

start dreaming about next year's garden.

 

I would like to move our vegetable garden this year and possibly

make some raised beds or build a new garden area closer to

the house.  It hasn't happened yet though and now it's too cold.

Guess I'll keep dreaming...

 

I'm so glad to live in a place with seasons, there is something

good about each one.  Although once Christmas is over

winter could be over too as far as I'm concerned!

 

As long as the earth endures,

seed time and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease.

Genesis 8:22

 

A fun toy-

 

One toy that was a big hit for Christmas this year was this fun little plane.

When AJ flew it the first time it flew a little too good and ended up in the

top of one of our tallest trees...  They got it down though and we headed out

to the pasture where we'd have a little more room.  This plane really goes!

The kids had fun chasing it down.  If you have a little boy that loves

planes, here's where I got it.

A Christmas House Tour

Merry Christmas to all of you!  I hope that you have a very

special time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior

with your families.  Today I'm going to take you on a

little Christmas house tour- this is the home I grew up in

and it's where my dear Mom and Dad still live.  There

are lots of pictures, hope you don't mind!

 

 

Come on in!  My Mom is very good decorating with details

as you will soon see.  She made this cute Christmas door decoration

with a silver platter and creamer and some pine branches.  First

we will tour the living room.  Mom calls it her "parlour".

 

This was my Great-Grandparent's nativity.  I love it!  In the back

there is a place for candles, and the heat would make the angels

go around and around.  You can tell it did catch fire one time!

 

Another family nativity on the organ.

 

I love this rose tea set!

 

Mom made the trees out of cereal boxes and spray painted them.

 

Wouldn't it be fun to eat at this table?  She clipped little candles

to each plate charger- a little detail that would be so fun.

 

This doll belonged to my Great-Aunt.  Isn't she cute?

 

I love how my Mom packed this box with family treasures.

The photo is my Great-Grandma.

 

Mom has little fun things to look at throughout their house.

She made these trees out of scrapbooking paper, cut in

little rectangles and glued to styrofoam cones.

 

In the kitchen my Mom grouped these trees together next

to her miniature village on the antique kitchen cupboard.

It used to belong to another Great-Aunt.

 

Moving on to the family room- she decorates

this room in a more natural, rustic style.

 

 

There are lots of birds in this room, especially at Christmas!

 

Mom made the little twig tree and candle holder- I love

this grouping together with the vintage elk and antler!

 

And at last Santa's coming on his sleigh!

I hope you enjoyed the tour-

Merry Christmas to all!

Beauty and Pain

 

We had such a pretty snowfall this morning when we woke up!  In the shelter of the trees the snow had piled up on the branches- what a beautiful sight every time I looked out the window today.

 

Of course, when the kids got home from school they immediately headed out for a snowball fight.  I tried to stay out of the way and just take pictures!  Where we live the wind always makes drifts of snow, so even if we only get an inch there are lots of places where it's deeper.  They had fun!

 

This is a different subject, but I read this article, by Rick Lawrence the other day.  A friend had posted it to facebook, and it made me think, especially since we are pursuing an adoption of a waiting child who will probably challenge us in many ways!  Maybe it will make you think too.  Here is an excerpt--

 

"Jesus pursued the marginalized. He never spoke condescendingly to the broken and hurting. Pain was a beacon that drew him to people—he always made time for them. And he’s our model. If we’re not available to hurting kids, then we’re not serving as Jesus did. Our mission is to go after the frightened and desperate and abused—to offer them safety, forgiveness, and unconditional love. Our filter and our mission: Never trivialize a teenager’s pain, no matter its source. Remember the woman at the well? Jesus took a detour into enemy country just for one counseling session with a stranger in pain!"



Look what I got!

 

One thing I love about our house is our wood stove.  It keeps

the whole house warm and we don't have to use any other

heat.  Plus it's cozy!  The previous owners had put up the brick

wall behind it but there was just a strip of plywood surrounding

the bricks.  So for my Christmas present this year, Andy

made an oak mantle!  It turned out really nice and I love it,

so I just had to show it off a little- hope you don't mind!

 

Christmas is so fun!