4 Years Ago Today

My world stood still in time. My eyes cried tears that could have filled an ocean. A huge piece of my heart was ripped out and taken away for what seems like forever. It almost appears that it has taken four long years to realize the impact of my treasured friend being gone.

I don't talk about my loss very often. I tend to keep her to myself, but Lorrie is never far from my thoughts. We celebrated and did life together for 23 years. Our children were born days apart from one another. We raised them together. We laughed like I could only laugh with her. We cried tears that I could only cry with her. We prayed often together. She knew my inner most being and loved me wholeheartedly anyways!!!

Things you would have loved about Lorrie

• She knew and loved God.
  


• She loved her family, like no other.


• She loved her friends, like her family.


• She made you feel loved the moment she met you.


• She loved shopping at Wal Mart at 2am.


• She loved her Diet Pepsi and Taco Bell.


• She loved to decorate her house and redecorate and redecorate and then come do yours!


• She suffered from Coach purse OCD.


• She and I together were T-R-O-U-B-L-E, but boy was it fun trouble!!


• She kissed me each and every time she saw me.


• She never said good bye without saying "I love you" immediately following. Fortunately for me, those are the last words we ever exchanged.

I miss you. I love you. I celebrate YOU! I will see you again!

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget."

Perfect Attendance

Lauren's goal when she started middle school nearly three years ago was to have perfect attendance throughout middle school and then of course hopefully into high school. Yes, it may be implied that she is driven like her mama!! Although I will be the first to admit that I could careless about having perfect attendance, sometimes my bed just felt better than getting up to go to school!!! You would think my mom, a nurse, would have caught on when I would take the old mercury thermometer and put it on the light bulb and the mercury would be at the top reading 110.8! :-)

So, Lauren will be graduating from middle school the end of May. There are exactly 91 days left of school. Lauren is choosing to lose her perfect attendance award to go help sick babies in China! She will miss one day of school and is more than willing to give it up to go serve!

Oh, the little things...........

2010 Offering

No resolutions, no unmet goals, no unkept promises, no guilt, just an offering! My hope for this new year is truly to give my life as an offering back to Him for all He has given me.

Sure 2010 that offering is including some BIG things such as Lu and my trip to China next month and then again to bring our new son home in May or June.

But offerings don't always have to be BIG to be meaningful, I like BIG. I like adventure. I like changing the world one child at a time, but the little things are just as important.

The other day in the grocery store a lonely older man stopped me to talk as I was delicately squeezing the avocados. He talked to me for over 20 minutes. Did he NOT know I was there on a mission to get the food for my holiday meal on a time constraint? At first I found myself wanting to end the conversation as quickly as possible, but then I remembered the little things.

I changed my heart and learned all about this Vietnam Vet's life history. Talk about adventure, his whole life has been one big adventure! He blessed me! He made me laugh! I left with a smile on my face as did he.

So this year, yes it does include the BIG things, but I am going to also focus on the little things!

One of my favorite songs is "Offering"by Third Day. I put it as the first song on my playlist to start 2010. Enjoy it!

Ch*na Bound in February!!

Lu and I that is!!!!!

Can you feel our excitement through your computer screen? Lu and I are leaving Feb 11th through the 19th to go work at Morning Star Project in Be*jing. We are going to go love on, feed, hold, diaper and love some more on babies. We are going to be Bill and Lynsay's hands and feet, whatever they need from us we will do.

The new baby house currently has NO heat. Do you know how cold it is in Ch*na right now? I am hoping to help them raise enough money to get heat ASAP. It may be perceived as a selfish act since Lu and I will be staying in the baby house ourselves, but really come on those babies need to be warm!! (Not to mention the staff and volunteers taking care of them).

So, if you feel compelled you can donate through their website, click on their button on the right side bar of my blog or you can contact me and I can tell you how to get a tax deductible donation. Just let them know you are donating for heat!

DTC Baby!!!!!!

DOCUMENTS TO CHINA!!!!!!!! I really think it gets easier from here, more exciting but less nerve wracking! DTC Baby!!!!!!!

Preaching to the Adoptive Choir

I am VENTING preaching to the choir for all the adoptive families that read my blog, but for crying out loud the questions or comments people say regarding finding out we are adopting again is something I just don't understand. Why is it so hard for some people to just be happy for us? Why does growing our family get any other reception other than celebration?

What have I been specifically asked recently in this joyous season beyond the normal FAQ's that has created this fury inside of me???

• "Are you shooting for an even number?"
• "Really, Sally what IS your goal?"
• "Honestly, isn't Bryson going to feel displaced?"
• "You are amazing, I can't handle the one I have!"
• Or the passive aggressive eye roll with slight smile, like we can't possibly give all our children the love and attention they need when there are so many.

My answers to the questions,

• We are not shooting for any numbers. This is not a basketball game. There are no numbers other than the 143 million children with no parents to call their own!
• We do not have any goal other than to please God and obey what He places on our hearts to do. Honestly, we are the lucky ones being blessed with this calling to adopt!
• We are far from amazing. We are far from perfect. We get tired. We get grumpy. We get frustrated, BUT we love our kids! We love our large family. We love using our lives for Him. He is AMAZING and this is an AMAZING journey!
• Each and every one of our kids, grown and little, feel loved and know they are loved. Do we have to strategically divide our time between all of them? Yes! But life does not revolve around one child, living in a large family teaches them valuable life skills they will use throughout their lives.
• Bryson displaced? Hmmmmm let's see there are 7 others, not just Bryson, but since the question focused on him...hmmmmm Bryson spent nearly 5 years in an orphanage not getting any of his needs met to the point of failure to thrive and now is loved more than life itself...hmmmmm...displaced? Not a chance!!!

A big thank you to the majority of you who do support our decision to adopt, to have a large family, to accept us as non-amazing, imperfect followers of Christ whose only goal is to love our children and serve Him all at the same time!!!

Christmas Fun!

No traditional family photo here!

Okay, my parents were game for tradition!

Well, I still have some control of these adorable kiddos!

But this is so boring Big Rob!

Okay, now you are talking!

Sorry about the back injury, Big Rob!

Marissa would have been perfectly content with only receiving her black box of makeup!

And homemade Christmas trees to eat right after decorating!

Bryson loved it all!

He got these adorable wooden Asian people to go with his train set.

Justin's best gift by his sponsor - his newly wrapped brand spankin' new Suburban with his name on the door!

And our best gift of all,

and the reason why yesterday was such a great day!

Truth be told, Lauren is holding the cake to hide the mysterious bite that was taken out of the corner!

Keeping Him as our focus, made our Christmas the best ever yet!

The Reason

Kind of cliche I suppose saying "Jesus is the Reason for the Season", but the truth is anything but trite or overused expression. People all around the world will be celebrating Christmas, but my heart often wonders how many are celebrating it truly for our savior's birth and what that means for us.

Even me, who has grown to become more in love with Jesus than life itself, still gets caught up in the shopping, and other bedlam that our current Christmas culture instills. I have struggled for years to find a healthy balance and yet always making JESUS the reason for our celebrating.

My hope is that everyone who is celebrating Christmas is somehow honoring the birth of our savior, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace!

Have yourself a Merry CHRISTmas!!

Missing with alot of Action!

Just got back from working the Christmas store at the women's shelter. This is my girlfriends and my annual tradition since 1999. There are always so many excuses and reasons not to go. However, each time we are reminded how much we receive from serving others even in the midst of the holiday craze. (Older lady in the middle is the sister who is in charge of the shelter. She loves us!!!)

Last week was Lu's 14th birthday! We have been celebrating it all month long, but the official day was the 15th. She picked out her fabric and ribbon for me to make her birthday crown. She made her Korean doll on her birthday wreath. I think it is adorable and surely better than any attempt I would have made!!

Two weeks ago we woke to snow on the ground and kids sledding down our front yard at 7am before school. It was a fun treat that has not happened in over 30 years!

Life is good. Life is full. Life is waiting for Gio to join our family. Life doesn't get any better!

Wishing everyone a peaceful Christ filled holiday season!

6 Ornaments Going Out Today!!!

If you left a comment, please email me your address so I can get your ornament in the mail.

Nancy, I will bring yours on Sunday!!

Thanks for participating, but most importantly thanks for all your great giving!!!

Multicultural Eggs

As I was preparing breakfast this morning I got a grin from ear to ear, not an easy task with only a half of cup of coffee in thy system!

Anyhooo, I was grinning because cooking eggs in my kitchen is not what it was when the oldies were at home. I could scramble up eggs, throw some toast in the toaster and everyone was happy.

Not the case any longer. Instead, I have become a multicultural chef. I can now make Guatemalan eggs, Chinese Eggs and good ol' American egg sandwich for Lauren who has been eating American style for 13 1/2 years now!

What are Guatemalan and Chinese eggs you may wonder?

Scramble an egg with some black beans serve it with a few tortilla chips or a tortilla and Marissa thinks she is back in Guatemala!

Scramble an egg with some leftover rice, douse it with some soy sauce and Bryson is speaking Chinese!!!

Simple, yet powerful for them to feel connected and PROUD of their cultures!

Oh, the benefits of having a multicultural household!

I wonder what Ugandan or Ethiopian eggs might look like.......I mean, you can at least wonder can't ya?

Giveaway on a Thankful Thursday!

Thankful for my life, my growing family, friends and all I have been abundantly blessed with.

Giving Thanks!

Giving to others is my love language. I usually am blessed more from the giving than the recipient. I love the anticipation of giving a gift, selecting just the right gift; whether it is purchased, made or me serving- I just love all of it. I just can't get enough of it!!!

So I am giving away a few Christian ornaments next Wednesday, December 9th. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me how you are blessing someone else this Christmas season. I hope this challenges you to think outside the box and bless someone who will least expect it!

One way I will be giving is by serving. Each year for the past ten years, the week prior to Christmas my girlfriends and I volunteer at a local women's shelter. It is something I look forward to all year.

Another way I will bless someone is by sending a simple homemade gift to a friend I have lost touch with over the years, just to let her know that she is special and loved.

I am excited to hear your stories! Now go bless someone!!!

Fall Leaves

There are three beautiful red leaved trees that I pass several times a day when driving in our neighborhood. They are stunning to look at and truly the most beautiful amongst an abundance of foliage in our mature tree lined neighborhood.

Each year, I promise myself I am going to take a photograph of them to savor all year long. Life gets busy and then the red leaves are scattered on the ground beneath its trunk....too late for a picture.

When I saw the three trees nearly bare and over exposed today, a bittersweetness came to me. It is a sign of another season nearing its end and the preparation for a new season.

I LOVE fall, so to see it on its way out brings a tad bit of melancholy to my day, yet knowing our next season celebrates our savior's birth brings hope and promise once again!

Giving Thanks!!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and for this I give thanks!!!

Thankful for such a beautiful day here in California!

Thankful Justin got to spend Thanksgiving with Joe in Georgia!

Thankful for my sister coming down to spend a pre-Thanksgiving slumber party with us!

Thankful for my other sister or should I say my brother-n-law fixing our Thanksgiving meal today.

Thankful that this time last year, Robert and I were able to be thankful for our new son in Changsha China while we celebrated with Peking Duck instead of turkey!!!

Thankful that we have another son waiting for us in China!

Thankful for my Savior who has set me free!

Thankful for my family and friends who love me just the way I am!

Divine Appointment

Do you believe in divine appointment?

Do you believe that people are placed in our paths at the exact moment that we are ready to receive what they have to offer?

I believe that Jean was on the Great Wall of China at the exact moment I was on it so we could support one another through our adoptions.

I believe that Linn's journey to Isaiah led the path for me to contact her and to this wonderful friendship that we now have.

I believe my dear friend who continuously emailed regarding why I was not blogging was convicted to do so.

I believe that God divinely appointed Bryson to have his specific aide not just for Bryson, but also for me.

I believe going to the Revolve Tour with Lauren today was not just about she and I having our girl time worshipping our God together, but to put me next to a woman whose heart's desire is to adopt.

I believe today after the Revolve Tour receiving a sweet email from another parent who also attended only happened because He revealed pieces of our hearts to one another today.

I believe that the phone call I received during the Revolve Tour was perfect timing for what has been on my heart lately.

Divine appointments indeed,

but now it is my responsibility to

act.