Sunshine

The girls disappeared outside for awhile on Thanksgiving and came in with beautiful pictures taken on Lauren's phone. I wish we had all gone out for a family picture while the sunshine was just right but I guess we were recovering from our food consumption!  

 

 

 

How good and pleasant it is when brothers (and sisters) live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

Thanksgiving in MH

Thanksgiving is filled with food, family and games in Mtn Home! We had the extra blessing of taking two U of O girls with us to Grandma's house! Gabi is from Mexico, and Liliam is from Honduras. Liliam is one of our host "daughters" and she was one of several who are traveling home for Christmas but not Thanksgiving. We had a great time playing games with them and sharing their sweet friendships with our family. Grandma headed up the kitchen (as usual) and Lauren, Sheridan and I got in on helping with cooking.

Gathering around the kitchen is the climax of the day!  Turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet green beans, crock pot corn, hashbrown casserole, sweet potato casserole, grape salad, jello salad, olive/pickle/celery tray and Sister Schubert's rolls. OH MY. Pecan and pumpkin pies for dessert. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for. It was a beautiful day and a great meal, it's always awesome to go home for the holidays.

 

The secret is out...Santa and Mrs Clause DO eat with us on Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at Big Cedar

 

 

 

SUPER weekend in Branson, at the Big Cedar Lodge. Mimi and Gramps hosted all of us at this beautiful location and we shared lots of laughter, food and games. The cousins all get along, not sure if that had to do with lots of space to run and play or not. We spent Saturday afternoon at the Dixie Stampede and had a great lunch and lots of laughs. We cooked several of our favorite dishes for dinner that night and then had a very special brunch at the Big Cedar restaurant on Sunday before we all went back to our homes/schools.

 

I was so thankful to have my whole family together, along with Katelyn and her sweet self. Sheridan is the beneficiary of her willingness to play games and Gramps treated her to the first taste of his homemade ice cream (which is a stamp of approval and an honor in our family). It was also a great time to get to know Rebecca's new husband, Rob. He joined right in our crazy Nertz game and entertained the little cousins just like all the rest of us. It was absolutely freezing outside for the whole weekend and we were thankful for fireplaces, heaters and laughter to keep us warm. We have MUCH to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

 

Super Weekend

This weekend was full of family and fun! ALL our kids were home and we went to see Erin in her high school play on Friday night. Saturday we had invited our soccer team over for lunch and all worked together to get the yard and house ready during the morning. We were a little concerned about the weather, according to the weather channel it was supposed to be raining, but the rain held off until Saturday evening, and the afternoon was absolutely beautiful!

The yard was FULL of kids and our new deck was finally used to it's full potential. This is the first fall with our deck, and I dreamed of the day we could host a lot of folks comfortably. Richard hosted the fat bat and kickball games, the food was plentiful, and it was a wonderful afternoon. We played bocce ball after our guests left until it started raining.

Sunday morning Richard had to go out of town but it was such a blessing to sit in church with all my kids on the same row. It's where we raised them, and where I love for us all to learn together. Thankful for our family, our home and our church.

Please pray with us

Officially, I'm inviting anyone who reads this blog to begin to pray with us. We are at a point now where we are on what I've called the "search and discovery" phase. If you've read any of my other updates you know that this adoption process doesn't have a downhill. We have accepted that fact and while Richard is home this month we are pursuing (think car chase) caseworkers, document holders,  and any others who have access to children we want to know about.

We currently have the files of a sibling group that we are praying over.

It's so impersonal to say that we've "read their files" and we think they may be the ones...and yet, that is the process at this point. We will have more specific requests in the future, but TODAY, we are asking our friends to pray:
1) For the children involved.
2) For the caseworkers.
3) For the current foster parents of these children.
4) For us to have a CLEAR sign of God's best for ALL INVOLVED. We DO NOT want to step out of His plan. He has led us to this point and we want to stay focused on Him so we KNOW when we are to move and how.
5) We are praying that we can have the children before school starts next January. We do not know if this is possible, but we are praying toward that end. We are staying close to home this Christmas with that in mind. 

If you're reading this blog, will you please comment if you are praying for us? If you don't have an account, you can make up one quickly, you can even be anonymous if you want...but we need to know that our friends are praying. We want to share the MIRACLE we know is just around the corner.

Quote of the Day

I know this is becoming a bit of a homeschooling blog, but that is what we do! We've been schooling at home since August, and tonight I asked her what 2 of her favorite things were about school. With about a 5 second pause she said, "We get done early, and the bathrooms are clean."

Confirmation again, that we're stamping out ignorance on the lane.

11-12-13

This was a perfect day for Sheridan to celebrate...she's the one in our house who always notices when it's 11:11 or 12:34. She loves to call out numbers and when they're in a pattern or in order, mostly because she's noticed and we haven't, not because she has a weird number fetish or anything. So today, on November 12th, 2013...it was a FUN day to put on our papers. It's the little things.

In the Woods

 

Sunday afternoon E, S, and I went tromping around in the woods at our friends house. We haven't been there in awhile, but we have a standing invitation to come anytime. It's like being in a secret garden, a forest showing all it's glory, all the time. I've been there in all different seasons and it's  always magical...I can't help but think of how God is so creative and how He intends for us to see Him in all He has created. It was a wonderful way to spend a few hours outside and I should definitely be spending some more time out in the woods.

 

Rolle had the best time...as she ran and romped and swam and climbed, it reminded me of the girl on Tangled who said, "BEST. DAY. EVER!"

 

On a side note, this last weekend was the opening of hunting season here. I didn't know that. We should be pretty thankful we weren't shot at. Really.

BEAUTIFUL

It has been the most beautiful fall ever! I'm thinking it's because we had a lot of rain this summer, but I'm not sure. I took this picture with my camera, just trying to capture the colors. I'm glad I did, because it's been rainy and windy for the last few days and the leaves are falling off the trees. I love living on the Lane.

THANKFUL

All Region

Our girls always stand out in their red dresses at All Region! Erin loves to sing and although she had a rough day during tryouts she still made the Mixed Choir and got to enjoy the day at All Region clinic at Russellville. More importantly, she qualified to try out for All State choir next semester. I love this girl, and I love it when she sings.