Christmas- Part 2

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We had such a wonderful Christmas.  Cason got some great toys that he has had so much fun playing with.  Mike got a workbench for the garage that inspired him to straighten and re-arrange our garage which now looks great!  I got a few of my favorite things- tea, clothes, makeup, accessories… all the good stuff!

Christmas- Part 1

One of the first presents we gave Cason was a motorcycle.  It was given to us by a family at our church and Mike cleaned it up and got new stickers and spray painted it.  Just like new.

We had it outside and opened the garage with Cason on the inside for his first view.  The neighbors happened to be out there at that time so he was more focused on all the people more than the motorcycle at first.

 

It didn’t take long before he was off!

 

Down the sidewalk…

 

There are some buttons on the top that make engine noises.  He had to find out where the sound was coming from.

 

The motorcycle goes about .5 MPH so there’s not much danger of running into anything. 

Riding in the street is so much fun because he gets to drive with the real cars. 

Present #1 is a hit!

Becoming Licensed for Foster Care

 

If you missed yesterdays post read it first HERE or this one won’t make much sense.

There is so much we don’t know and so much we still need to learn but I’m going to attempt to tell you about the first few steps in our journey. 

Step 1: Find and agency to work with and go to orientation.

It’s possible that you can work directly with CPS but in our journey we chose to work with an agency. 

It was important that we found a group to work with that was not only founded on faith but lived out their faith in their everyday practices. 

We decided to work with Arrow Child and Family Ministries. 

We attended orientation in early November.  We immediately felt this was the place for us.  The founder was a foster child himself and is a believer and their commitment to the Lord was evident in all parts of the orientation.

During the orientation you find out more about foster care and adoption and fill out a basic information form that allows them to run a background check on you.  You can’t move forward without a background check.

Part of the information they want to get from you is what kind of children you would be open to.  For our family- we asked for a girl in the 0-3 age range.  You are also asked what kinds of disabilities (physical and emotional) you feel you are equipped to handle. 

A few weeks later we found out we passed the background check (whew) and they would like to move forward with us!

Step 2: Home Check

Well, step 2 is probably to start the training but with the holidays of November and December we might be a little out of order.

A week before Christmas someone from Arrow came out to our house to show us the checklist that would be used during the home study and see what we would need to do to our house to be prepared. 

Everything looked great at the house and the changes are pretty minimal.

The things we need to do in our house are:

• Put a fire extinguisher in the kitchen (do you think they come in cobalt blue?)
• Put smoke detectors in all sleeping rooms, the hallway, the living room and the kitchen.  So in our house that’s every room.  It’s going to be really annoying when the batteries start going out.
• Put a screen on the window in the kitchen that we ripped off the time we got locked out of the house.  Long story.
• Put any dangerous tools in the garage out of reach as well as fertilizers and other chemicals.
• Change this room

from whatever it is currently to a little girls nursery…. or toddler room.

And for the record, it only looks like that because we are converting another space into an office so we can make this room a bedroom.  Oh, who am I kidding.  It looks like this a lot of the time.

The last one is the hardest.  I mean, it’s easy because I love to decorate and I can’t wait to design a little girls room.  But hard because it is a serious step of faith.  We don’t know what age we are getting- zero means a crib, three means a toddler bed.  They have different toys and needs and it’s hard to know how to design a room with so many unknowns.  We don’t know WHEN- it could be three months it could be a year.  God could change our hearts.  We don’t think he will change our hearts for foster/adoption but he could tell us we need to take a boy… or an older child… or siblings… or any number of different things.  Starting to convert the room means we will be totally acting on faith.  A step we are excited to make, excited to see where the Lord leads us… but a tiny bit nervous too. :-)

Step 3:  Lots of training

Keep you posted!

Motivation

Thanks to some advice from friends I created a little motivation for Cason to go to the potty.  We are almost 3 and have made NO progress with potty training.  As in zero.

So, I got some toys that I knew Cason would love and placed them behind the potty. 

When he walked in and saw the toys he started jumping up and down and told me he loved his presents!  I explained how he will get them- by using the potty.  He said okay and I asked if he wanted to try and go to the potty and he said no.

No problem, no pressure. 

Except he keeps taking me into the bathroom and showing me the toys and he is so excited and now I feel like the worst mom ever because he obviously doesn’t want to use the potty and now I’m taunting him with toys.

And I promised myself that I wouldn’t force the potty training thing- I just want him to go ONCE so he knows what it feels like and what he is supposed to do but we have not even gone once. 

And it’s crazy because he can understand all sorts of things and tell me all sorts of details about his day and the past and he can’t go potty.  Ugh.

Poor Cason- those toys will tease him forever.

Our Expanding Family

I think it took about 1 day after I had Cason for someone to ask me if I was ready for another one. 

Seriously?  I think I wanted to hit them.

Cason is almost three and I get asked that question much more often. 

When someone asks when we are having another child I typically say “no way”. 

But there is a little more to the story- so let me tell you now.

 

Mike and I have always wanted to adopt.  In fact, I think we talked about it before we even got married.  The thing we didn’t know was HOW or WHEN. 

We had Cason and I felt like my life was spinning out of control for a few years and more children was the last thing I wanted to think about.

This summer Mike and I were visiting friends in Houston and sitting in their church service and I felt convicted about saying we wanted to adopt but making absolutely no progress towards that.  We felt it was time to start researching our options.

 

One thing that really pulled at our heart was foster children.  Mike’s sister works for an agency so it has always been on our radar- but as we started thinking about how we would add another child to our family, foster care kept coming back into our hearts.

We are in the early stages and there are still so many things we do not know.  Here’s what we do know.

The Lord has called us to adopt and given us this direction.  Unless the Lord gives us a different direction, we will continue to move forward. 

Based on the fact that people feel compelled to tell me foster care horror stories every time I mention that this is what we are planning on doing, foster care has a scary reputation.  Here’s the deal though, the LORD is guiding this process.  There will be ups and downs.  We are not naive to think that it’s going to be easy, we know our hearts might get broken, but we are trusting the LORD to carry us through.

 

Can I have more children (a common question)?  It doesn’t matter right now.  We want to adopt whether I could get pregnant again or not. 

 

One night mike and I were praying about our decision to adopt.  I showed him a verse God led me to in Ephesians: He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—Ephesians 1:5.

A few days after that we found out that we couldn’t work with the first foster agency that we wanted to and would have to keep looking.  It was discouraging and was easy for me to start thinking that it would be easier to just wait a few more years.  That Sunday in church pastor started a new series and the verse he opened with was Ephesians 1:5.  I started laughing (almost crying) because I knew that was the Lord telling us to keep going.  Since then we have found an amazing agency to work with and we can’t wait to get started.

 

I’ll be keeping you posted with updates and timelines as we continue in the process.  I can’t wait to tell you all the details as we go along.

If you feel led to pray for us, please do.  Here are a few things:

• We had lots of training to do over the next few months- we need to find time to fit in the training and find childcare for Cason
• Pray for our future child(ren)
• There are a few things we have to do to the house to get ready.  Although adopting through foster care is not very costly, some of the stuff we need to do at the house will cost money.  Pray that the Lord will provide for that.
• The Lord gave us a very laid back son in Cason, perfect temperament to have a new sister arrive on the scene one day- but we know that with any change it will be an adjustment period.  Pray for his heart to be ready when the day comes.

Thank you- and stay tuned!

Keeping the Kids Busy

 

 

Pinterest inspired me… again.

I got to hang out with Cason’s good friend Jack some the week before Christmas while his momma worked.  I was in the market for some activities to keep them busy.

This was a super easy setup.  I put some paper down and used crayons to draw their names and some circles.  I wrote color names that corresponded to M&M colors (I omitted the brown because I didn’t have a brown crayon). 

Then, I divided a bag of M&M’s in half and put them each in one circle and showed the boys how to divide up the colors.  The goal was to divide the colors BEFORE eating them.  Jack did much better with that concept (as seen below).  Cason separated a few then ate a few, then ate a few more.  

This activity occuppied the boys for approximately 5 minutes.  That’s 4 minutes longer than coloring occupies Cason so I was happy with that!

Christmas Concert

Cason got to participate in the Sonshine Christmas program this year and I was so excited... and nervous.  I wasn't sure how he would do but they all did great!

I think he really liked being in the spotlight.

When he wasn't waving to us he was doing the motions or watching Shiloh do them.

He even got a chance to be on the big screen. 

I'm already looking forward to the concert next year!  Thanks to Zach for saving seats for a couple of hours so we could be on the second row! 

Family Photoshoot

We had family pictures done for the 1st time by our high school neighbor.  He did a great job and I edited them a bit and I really like how they turned out!  He gave me about 300 and here are a few of my favorites.

Any favorites?

I'm Back

I have so much to tell you from Portugal but It's been a whirlwind since I have been home with family Thanksgivings and putting up Christmas decorations and getting caught up with the work I missed.  Whew, I'm still exhausted.  How long is jet lag supposed to last anyways?  I think I should probably stop using that as an excuse.

The picture above is a look at the city Coimbra where we were serving.  It was so incredibly beautiful!

We took our cooking very seriously.

We really did... but sometimes we had a few minutes to relax before the guests arrived.

All utinsils were washed before using.

Some of the "imports"

Here are some of the things we have used every day here. The Portuguese make everything from scratch (another reason I like them so much) so they are amazed by box stuffing.

We checked 2 50lb suitcases full of food. Actually, one was 54lbs. So we had to open it up in the airport and pull out 4 lbs. Michelle and I each ended up carrying on a bag of pumpkin bread.

So far everyone has liked the food. Only a few have loved it but they are very polite and eat everything. The kids are hesitant to try it. One thing they have all really liked is the cranberry sauce. No one wants to try it but when they do they love it. Also, sweet potatoes with marshmallows are a big hit. Neither thing is popular here.

Michael and Cristi always take the opportunity to explain about thanksgiving and why we celebrate. They talk about how families take hands to pray (which we do) and then go around the table to say what they are thankful for. That is sometimes harder for them but they all participate.

Cooking for the neighbors tonight so pray for good conversations with them.

Thank you for all your prayers. This trip has gone so smoothly and I know it is because of prayers from you.

More later!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:R. da Paínça,Coimbra,Portugal

Cooking in Portugal

We knew when we came that there would be a lot of cooking. 5 full thanksgiving dinners in 5 days. I've never cooked 1 full thanksgiving dinner much less 5. The cooking has gone easier than I originally anticipated... Cooking almost everything from a box makes that possible I guess. It is still long days of standing on your feet and lots of cleaning up messes.



One thing we did make from scratch is the pumpkin pie. Here's Michelle trying to fit 2 in a tiny European oven.




You can see a few of our meal items here.

I'll take more pictures when we start really cooking in an hour!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Av. António Portugal,Coimbra,Portugal

Portugal- The First Few Days

First of all- forgive me, I am typing on a Portuguese keyboard and it´s a little different.

Tuesday morning we arrived at DFW at 8:30 in the morning and took off for Miami, a 3 hour layover then a long flight to Madrid, another 3 hour layover and off to Porto.  Cristi met us in Porto with our 5- 50 pound bags and we headed to the mall for lunch.  The food court was really cool and offered us a lot of options ( including McDonalds) but I had some crepes.  Yummy!

We looked around a bit and headed to Coimbra to their apartment.  It's wonderful and modern and the perfect place to entertain.  After lugging the suitcases in we headed out for dinner.... at McDonalds (I can't escape it!).  After dinner we came home and pretty much crashed.  Exhausted after being in an airport or in the air for 24 hours.

Thursday morning we got up and headed to breakfast at a cafe inside the grocery store.  We proceeded to grocery shop for the next few hours for a weeks worth of Thanksgiving dinners.  3 grocery stores later we got back to the house and made sandwiches and started cooking.

The pies were first- 2 pumpkin and 2 pecan.  Then we headed to Calvin's elementary school to read them a story in English and share some pumpkin bread and chocolate chip cookies.  They were totally precious pre-schoolers and we loved watching them interact with each other and speak in Portuguese.

When we were done there we headed home to do the rest of the cooking- green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, pumpkin soup, turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing- and I'm sure there was more.  LOTS of cooking, cleaning, arranging, etc.

At 7:30 or 8 the students from the local University start arriving.  Michael and Cristi meet with them twice a week to help them practice English so this night was all mostly in english.  15 students came and that was a BIG group.  Luckily we had doubled some of our recipes.  I could go on and on about how much fun they were.  I think we counted 5 different countries represented and we loved teaching them about thanksgiving food, helping them with English words, playing cards, learning more about their lives and telling them more about ours.

I will have to wait to post pictures until I get home and unload them from my camera but we got a lot.  When we sat down to dinner the first thing they wanted to do was pray.  They have seen so much American TV and movies where people pray before their Thanksgiving meal they were excited to participate in the tradition.  We also took the opportunity to go around the room and talk about what we are thankful for.

They were absolutely precious and we were so blessed to meet them last night.

Today we toured the city this morning and after another grocery run we started cooking.  It's time for me to go help Michelle put the finishing touches on dinner before our guests arrive in 1 hour.

More pictures later!

Practicing Thanksgiving... For Portugal

A month ago (or so) we had a "practice" Thanksgiving dinner for our Portugal trip.  We have to take a lot of the food with us and many of the items are going to come from a box or a can.

My first thing to practice was pie crust.  I have only used frozen pie crusts but I figured the box wouldn't be too hard.

Apparently I need to practice a bit more because it was hard.  Easy to mix- hard to roll out and get in the pan and get even.  Mine is not very pretty.  Tasted good, but wasn't pretty.

This is the pumpkin pie.  It doesn't look great either.  I used the sweetened condensed milk recipe and I couldn't get it smooth.  I'm going to try the condensed milk recipe in Portugal.

I also tried to make cranberry sauce using dried cranberries.  Dried cranberries are lighter than cranberry sauce. 

First you soak in apple juice.

Then cook it down with some orange zest and sugar.  At the end you add cornstarch.  I wasn't using a great recipe and it just tasted like cornstarch.  Fail.

For the sweet potatoes we had two options.  There are boxed sweet potatoes and canned.  Did you know there were canned?  I didn't.  I made the boxed and put them in a casserole dish and topped with marshmallows.  The canned I mashed and stirred in some brown sugar and orange juice and topped with oatmeal and brown sugar.  I liked the canned better but cans are heavier and most of the others liked the boxed so that's what we are taking.

Also on the menu green bean casserole and stove top stuffing.

We also had some cute kids to entertain us.

Gifts from Portugal

When Mike came home he brought us a few gifts.

Cason's favorite was a soccer jersey.  Apparently soccer if very big there and Cason loves soccer too!

I couldn't get him to stand still.  This is him playing soccer.

So Cason doesn't usually play games at breakfast but he calls the game boy his "boy game" and it's so cute.  Besides the battery doesn't work and he thinks it's a field journal just like Diego.  It actually looks like Diego's field journal.

Beside the field journal is toast spread with pumpkin jam from Portugal.  It's really yummy.  Funny, they don't have canned pumpkin in Portugal but they do have pumpkin jelly!

Mike also went to a pottery place that had many beautiful things.  Mike worked hard to find something that I would like because most everything was very traditional.  I think he did a great job with these two pieces.

Here's the best part.  The bowls were 4 Euros each.  That's like $6.  Apparently they sell the traditional pottery at Williams Sonoma and it's not $6.

Two Weeks Till Porgugal!

So the countdown has begun.  Well, sort of.  I didn't realize until today that we only had 2 weeks and now, I feel like there's a lot to do.  Here are a few shots of Portugal from Mike's trip:

Number one on the list is collecting food.  Michelle and I organized the meals we think we are cooking and figured out how many of each ingredient we will need and in what country we need to buy that ingredient.  Then we passed out the list and are asking people to donate what they can.  We are accepting grocery gift cards as well because I'm sure there will be a few last minute items.

Here's our list:
Bag Chocolate Cookie Mix 5 bags



Box Mashed Sweet Potatoes 4 boxes


Box Pie Crust 4 boxes


Box Stove Top Stuffing 3 boxes


Can Crushed Pineapple 2 cans


Canned Pumpkin 9 cans


Canned Cranberry Sauce 6 cans


Cherry Pie Filling 2 cans


Crackers (Wheat Thins) 2 boxes


Crasins (4/3 cup in 1 bag) 10 bags


Dream Whip Package 7 pkg


Evaporated Milk 11 cans


French Fried Onions 1 container


Gravy Packets 5 packet


Kraft Homestyle Macaroni 2 boxes


Large Marshmallows 2 bags


Pecan Pie Mix 2 boxes


Pickle Relish 1 jar


Ranch Dressing 1 jar


Raspberry Chipotle Sauce 1 jar


Seasoned Stewed Tomatoes - Italian Seasoning 2 cans


Turkey Oven Bags 2 boxes


Vanilla - Large Jar 1 jar


Williams Sonoma Pumpkin Bread Mix 2 boxes


Williams Sonoma Turkey Rub 2 packet


Yellow Cake Mix 2 boxes

If you see anything that you want to grab and drop off at the church then please do! 
 
As far as prayer requests right now just pray that God begins to work in the hearts of the Portuguese people and that they will be open to coming to the dinners we will be hosting. 
 
I'm so excited about this trip and I thank the people who are helping make it possible.  I heard a song on the radio this morning about going through the motions and it reminded me that I don't want to just go through the motions on this trip- I want to give it my everything and make sure that I'm giving it my all every day I'm there. 
 
More to Come!