A WEEK to REMEMBER

I am a little under the weather this morning. That time of the year and things are going around I guess! I thought that while I sit here by the fire I would post a little more about my week and some pictures!

Monday:
A normal day! Is there such a thing? Thank God, because I needed a restful day before the storm began!

Tuesday:
1. We had tornadoes touch down here in our little town. So, we were without power for a few hours. It is bad when the Weather Channel names your town and some streets where the tornadoes are heading. Thankfully our street was not one of the ones called.
2. I scratched my car fender on a pole, because I was trying to get the kids some lunch while the lights were off and the weather was so bad. Thankfully it is a small dent and scratch and can be fixed easily.
3. Kensli had her collar bone re-xrayed and all is mending perfectly! I do not see how because you should see how she uses that arm! I was kind of worried!
4. I prepared a gumbo supper for 25 people that was hosted at our house, during the 5 inches per hour flood that was happening right about then! Let me just say that not a drop of the gumbo was left, so I must of overcome and got it right! :)
5: The bad lightening fried our thermostat on the heater, so there was no heat, just cold air blowing in here. Thankfully we have gas logs that heat the kitchen, hearth room and sun room.

Wednesday:
1: Our painter shows up to work on the bathrooms. I had been going to paint the bathrooms myself, but after removing the wall paper I could tell immediately that I needed professional help.
2: ACA arrives and fixes the heat!
3. Violin Lessons
4. Play at church that night.


Thursday:
1. SNOW DAY!!!!!!! Oh, my goodness, we hardly ever see snow, and we still didn't see much, but it snowed. It only stuck to the the plants and houses, and of course all schools, business, and roads were closed. We just don't know how to handle such here in the South.

Our SNOW!

Now don't laugh! New Orleans got a lot more than we did, but it is snow!

2. Painters came anyway, they only live a few blocks from us!
3. Spanish Language Classes were at our house tonight! We are getting fairly comfortable speaking some Spanish and I can understand more than I can speak. Hopefully my mouth will catch up with my ears soon.

Friday:
1. Dr's apt in Houston.
2. Took Kaitlyn ice skating for her birthday! She was so excited! She had never been on skates, but she can in line skate! She took off skating, no wall holding or anything! Toby and Nic, were not so graceful. Ricky didn't want to and Kensli couldn't (arm), so I sat with them and took pictures.

Look at her go! She could even spin around once by the time she was finished.

There are my little wall huggers!!!!!

Saturday:

1. Kaitlyn's birthday and she had a 2 friends over to help her celebrate. I made a cake and we partied. I was tired from the late night, so I am glad I had held it down to 2 friends. She had a great time as you can tell by the pictures.Kensli wanted to dress for Kaitlyn's birthday and this is what she finally decided on! :)

2.Mom and Gran came for her birthday, and dad must have called 6 times. He misses being with us for special events when he is off on a job!

3. Tried to help Toby pack for Spain! He leaves Monday on a mission trip for a few days.

Wow, no wonder I am a little worn out and feeling under the weather! I hope next week will slow down some, but I just looked at my calendar and there is no hope for that to happen! 'TIS THE SEASON.....................

A New Look at Africa

Today, I came across a fellow CHI family's blog. They had adopted from Africa and I was admiring the beauty of her children, when I spotted a little box in the top corner of the blog. Interested I clicked on the box and found this amazing video! I have never seen Africa portrayed in such a light! I have been to Africa and I have seen the poverty, the despair, and the hunger! Yet, I saw people from all over Africa come together and worship the Lord with such happiness, abandonment, and joy in the week that I was there. I was moved to tears at my own greed, unthankfulness, and spoiledness(if there is such a word). I am ashamed that sometimes I gage my happiness on what I have! Help me, Oh, God, to take what I have seen and apply it to my every day life. Circumstances to not dictate my joy or happiness!

Please turn off music player before watching video.

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!!!

Kaitlyn turns the big 9 today!!!! As my oldest did, she is rejoicing in the idea that this is her last year in the single digits. I am not rejoicing in this idea at all, because my little girl is growing up!!!!!

It is hard to imagine what my life would have been like if 9 years ago today a beautiful girl on the other side of the world had not given life to my daughter. I have looked back at my calendar on this day for 1999, and it must have been just and ordinary day here. I have nothing but a blank, but if I had known who was being born, through the hand of the Lord, I would have been REJOICING. I would have called every one I know shouting, "IT'S A GIRL!" So, today I rejoice with a girl, that I have only seen once, over the birth of "OUR" baby girl!

In the words of a song I have heard on XM KIDS.............

On the day that Kaitlyn was born,

On the day that Kaitlyn was born,

On the day that Kaitlyn was born,

The angels shouted and blew on their horns,

And they danced,

They danced,

They shouted and raised up their hands,

On the day that Kaitlyn was born!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAITLYN!

The Greatest Christmas Pageant EVER

Last night was our church's Children's Christmas Play. The children's department worked so hard and tirelessly to make sure it was an event worth remembering! Anyone that can get that many children to perform and act good for an 1 1/2 to 2hrs has my admiration any day. We attend a church that has around 3000 in attendance, so there was a lot of children in the play! Our 3 oldest kids were in the production and I must say that is was absolutely darling!!!!!!!!

Ricky was in the Air Strikers Band! It was made up of a large group of older boys and they played 5 gal. paint buckets! They did an awesome job!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They had a portion of the show that used black lights and performed a song in sign language. The group that was made up of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders did a fabulous job! It is amazing what children this age can do!!!!!!!! The picture turned out a little blurry, due to my problems with taking pictures in the dark, but you can get a good idea what they are doing!

Last was the play, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Kaitlyn and Nic were in this performance. Kaitlyn was Beverly in the angel choir and Nic was a baby angel. The kids did one of the best performances I have ever seen of this play.
Kaitlyn, as Beverly, singing her heart out.

At the very end of the play the baby angels came out on stage and sang along with the choir. Nic was the cutest angel I have ever seen. He had trouble keeping his halo up!

Now, be truthful, isn't he adorable?

The baby angels had been up there a few minutes and Toby asks me what is wrong with Nic's socks. I look and Nic has a hole in his socks and his big toe is sticking out. Every one around us could see his toe clearly and they start laughing! I got so tickled my sides were hurting. It didn't help that he kept wiggling his toe up and down, while standing perfectly still without a smile or singing. When he was dressing for the play that evening he had shown me these "cool socks" that he could poke his toe out of the end. I told him to change them, but obviously he didn't. Yes, we got several tips on where to find socks on sale after the play was over. :)

Toby tried to get a picture of his feet. He is the middle set of feet and there's the toe.


Our adorable, "HOLELY", little angel!

This will probably be the only year he will ever agree to wear such an outfit!

After the play, Kensli and her friend H. were glad to see one another.

The nice part about this friendship is they live a couple of blocks from us and H.'s older sister is really good friends with Kaitlyn.

H.'s older sister A., who was Imogene in the play, and Kaitlyn.

A. is a born actress! She did an AWESOME job in the play.

No wonder they are such good friends!

Oh, Happy, Happy News...A Prayer is Answered

A few weeks ago I requested prayer for 2 very urgent prayer requests. Today I received good news that my 2 request was answered! Our adoption agency, Children's Hope International, received their Hague Accreditation! This means that CHI can continue to place children from other Hague countries! This is truly an answer to prayer!!!!!!!!!!!! A big thank you for all that prayed for this!

We still have not heard from the other request, which is that talks mid-December would lead to the reopening of Vietnam adoptions! Please help us continue praying for this very important need, because many children wait for their forever families!

Happy Wacky Wednesday

Natchitoches Christmas Lights

Friday Night was our church's Christmas Banquet, and due to babysitter issues, we were not able to attend. It gets hard to find someone you trust to keep 4 kids! So, Toby and I packed up the kids and drove to my parents and left the kids with them for a few hours, so we could have date night. It was so much fun to just be able to sit over hot chocolate and talk, about he kids, of course! :)

If you have never been to Natchitoches (said Nack-i-tush), LA, it would be worth it to make the trip around Christmas. The town is actually alive with lights and activities! The 1st full weekend of December they have the annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival. They have parades (usually 2), live music, crafts, good food, and a huge fireworks display. The festival draws around 100,000 people or more from around the world.

Natchitoches is the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase, and just misses being the oldest town in Louisiana by a few years. It's old downtown area reminds you of the French Quarters in New Orleans. It is absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!

I snapped a few pictures of the lights! I am not very good at night photography, but these turned out pretty good!

Some of the light displays on Cane River from the river bank.


A couple of displays across the river from Front St.

Lights down Front St.

Another shot of Front St.

One of our favorite places to eat in Natchitoches. Known worldwide for their Meat Pies.

Of course, no festival in the South would be complete without our deep fried specialties! This is a Louisiana festival, and seems like this vendor puts all these goodies on a stick. How handy is that?

For all those concerned for the health of my body, I passed on the fried anything, and went straight for the hot chocolate! :)