Hide-n-seek Nativity

Now you see it...

now you don't! 

 "Ta-da!"

It's no wonder when we can't find something the first place we look is under the couch! :-)

 

And here's a close-up of Anna's first shiner.  She nailed the corner of the piano bench, conveniently the night before our case worker came over...

On Santa

I've come to realize that a major part of raising children is deciding what will and will not be a part of our home. Making decisions about traditions and what they will and will not look like is hard, this time of year especially.  Although we had thought through many things before we were parents, a lot was discussed on a "We'll think about that when we get there" basis.

Well now we're there and the topic of Santa needed to be discussed. Would we include Santa in our Chritmas festivities? 


***And let me just say now, many families I know do traditions of all kinds very differently. I am NOT saying one way is better, but merely what will work best for OUR family. I refuse to judge others, especially parents, on parenting decisions of any kind.  I do not want to be judged for my decisions and therefore do not judge others on theirs.  We all, as parents, are trying to do what is best for OUR families, and that looks different in every family.***


We have been asked countless times already, "So has Anna had her picture taken with Santa yet?"  I guess I didn't realize just how big of a deal it was until this year.

So here's what we decided. We will treat Santa like the fictional character that he is. Similar to say, Cinderella or the Smurfs. We do, and will, read stories about him, acknowleging the works of fiction, as we would Harry Potter or any other fictional character.

We will also talk about where the idea for Santa came from.  From the holy bishop, St. Nicholas. We will celebrate his feast day on December 6 with small gifts in our shoes and giving a gift to charity as a family, as St. Nicholas would have done. 

You see, I don't really have a problem with Santa, especially since his roots are in a holy man who spent his life giving to the poor. I do, however, have a problem with the publicity he is given. He becomes a celebrity at Christmas time. Taking all of the focus off of Christ's birth, and instead putting the focus on a jolly elf who sneaks down the chimney at night to bestow upon children mass amounts of gifts. 

I want Christmas morning to have the same "magic" that children often express about Santa, but instead of the "magic" of Santa, feeling the "magic" or sheer joy in the birth of our Lord. I want Christmas morning to be about Christ.  Not anything else. WE will get our children gifts for Christmas because that is a way of celebrating the wonderfulness of Jesus' birthday. We will bake and set out a cookie or treat to be eaten on Christmas morning by US to celebrate. We will read the Christmas narrative before opening gifts.  Santa does not need to be a part of that.

That is how I want Christmas to look in our home. 

I want the anticipation of Christmas morning to be about a birthday. The most important birthday. Because the reality is that we have not been decorating the house... and reading our Jesse tree verses... and lighting our Advent candles... and singing O Come O Come Emmanuel... and attending Christmas parties... and wrapping gifts... for a fictional character.  But rather for a very real, and very important baby who saved the world from sin, suffered on a cross for us, and rose from the dead. 

Journey to Adoption #2

I've mentioned a few times about our beginning of the journey to Adoption #2.  I mentioned meeting with our case worker.

Well, we met with our case worker and are just so excited to begin.  At teh first of the year, we'll begin our second homestudy.  We'll go back through all of our paperwork, editting where needed.  Luckily, we did the paperwork the first time not that long ago, so not much will need editting.  We will them redo/revise our profile.  We will also do another video. 

Our caseworker said that we could be back into circulation very early next year.  That makes me SO HAPPY!

The first time around, it took about 3 months for our Homestudy to be approved (this is after we had done everything WE needed to do), our licensing to go through, and our profile to go into circulation.  Thinking timeline for #2, I was hoping it would be shorter.

Our caseworker confirmed that.  Our license is still valid, check.  Our Homestudy was approved the first time and because we're quite involved and attend all of the functions Catholic Charities puts on, the director of CC knows us well.  This means that getting our second Homestudy approved is no big deal, they already know us and don't need to start fresh, check.  The birthmom counselors already know us (because our profile was shown to a lot of birthmoms the first time) so going into circulation is so much faster the second time around, check.

The process is much easier, less time intensive, and much easier this time around.  That makes me SO HAPPY! 

In addition, there are A LOT of birthmoms right now.  In fact, our caseworker almost called us to ask us come up with a profile quick last week to show a birthmom because we fit her qualifications perfectly, despite not yet being homestudy approved.  They found a few other families though, and although bm hasn't picked anyone yet, she's pretty sure they will.  But that's great, our caseworker already wants our profile out there.

Due to our openness, we fit a lot of birthmoms' criteria.  We also have a child of a minority race already in our home, making us more appealing to birthmoms of a minority race because we're already "walking that walk" as our case worker put it.  The bms can then feel confident that we'll welcome any child with open arms, and boy would they be right :-). 

All of this makes me hopeful for a quick wait time.  But at the same time, I'm realistic.  I know it could be a long time, it could be years.  And in reality, I'm okay with that.  I'm in a different place than I was alast year, waiting the first time.  We have Anna.  And I'm confident that God has a plan and that His plan is best.  I KNOW that I will survive through a fallthrough.  I KNOW that God will bless us with another child if that is His plan.  And I KNOW that through it all, I can stare at my beautiful baby girl and confirm God's love for me.  This time around, I have hope, something I didn't always have last time.  I have peace.  I have joy.  And I have willingly given up control.

The thought of adding another child to our family makes me giddy with excitement.  I LOVE being a mom and I can't wait to see the plans God has for us. 


On a less happy note, please say an extra prayer for the birthmom we were matched with first (our fallthrough).  Our caseworker gives us updates on her once in a while and we received some sad news about her situation.  Please pray for her and her children.  I truly believe God put her in our lives for a reason and right now that reason is to offer prayers.

Castles... In Scotland

We had Jeremy's work Christmas party tonight.  Things like this really aren't my scene.  I despise small talk.  I don't "mingle" well...  I'm awkward and don't like to start conversations with people I don't know.  Did I mention that I'm awkward?

Tonight, however, turned out rather nice.  Funny, in fact.

Our table was very chatty, the perfect outlet for me to respond politely to questions but not have to initiate conversation.

When discussing their son's upcoming wedding (in Scotland, yes, the country), one of Jeremy's co-workers said, "It should be fun, we rented a castle for the week."

I could hardly stifle my giggles.  Who has enough money to rent a castle?  Let alone for a week?  Not a hotel room, a condo, a house even, but a castle?  In Scotland?

7 Quick Takes (8)

 

--- 1 ---

Anna's trying to be like her mommy and overachieve... Yup, she hit 90th percentile for both height and weight!  At 21 lbs and 29 in., she's getting all A's!  We had her 9 month well check yesterday and her doctor was surprised when she saw Anna walking around the room.  And equally impressed when she asked if Anna has tried a sippy cup yet and I informed her that she in fact loves her sippy cup and has totally given up her bottle for a cup (Anna made it very clear this week that she does NOT want that silly bottle, but definitely wants her formula out of a cup)! 

Okay, maybe that sounds braggy, but I'm just a mama proud of her baby girl :-) And so very happy to have a baby girl to be proud of!

--- 2 ---

And to continue my proud mama moments, this morning Anna figured out how to stand up without the use of furniture or anything, just in the middle of the floor.  She's been trying for a while and finally figured it out this morning!
 

--- 3 ---

We meet with our caseworker this afternoon to start the process for Adoption #2!  I'm really excited!

--- 4 ---

Anna is like deathly afriad of people sneezing!  What is with that?  If we sneeze, she screams...  I don't know how to avoid it, it's kind of a weird fear to have! 

--- 5 ---

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful Catholic moms.  Who, feast days/solemnities like yesterday, always get together to celebrate.  We went to McD's yesterday and let the kiddos play.  Anna and Luke love keeping up with the big kids, they're fun to watch!  I love being surrounded by friends who have the same beliefs and values that we do!

--- 6 ---

My youngest sister turns 20 this weekend.  That makes me feel incredibly old.  I don't so much notice that I'm getting older, I feel the same on my birthdays as I did before, not older.  But when my younger siblings turn "old" ages?  That's a totally different story!  Happy Birthday Baby Sis aka Aunt Julie!

--- 7 ---

Well, #7 was going to be a few cute videos, but they don't want to load again, so I'll just say Happy Friday and I hope everyone has fantastic weekends!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Snow!

Actually, this post has nothing to do with snow, but I just noticed it's snowing outside!  Yay for the first snow, I hope we get enough to cover the ground!  Somehow I doubt it, it's not coming down very hard :-). 

Here are a few pictures to sum up our week so far!

Anna thoroughly enjoyed dinner last night!  After cooking a chicken, I decided to make bbq chicken sandwiches for dinner.  She ate half of a sandwich all by herself with sweet potatoes!  And she LOVED it!  There's nothing this kid won't eat!

We baked Christmas cookies for our RCIA party tonight!  Anna enjoyed the cookie cutters.

We ended up with very few stocking cookies because once she got a hold of the cookie cutter, we weren't getting it back without a fight and a lot of slobber :-)

And to top off her bbq chicken dinner... A cookie and some sprinkles!  Who knew a container of sprinkles would provide so much entertainment?

Other than that, we celebrated St. Nicholas' Feast Day today with a St. Nick video and we even ate snack downstairs during the movie.  We're also enjoying lots of dancing to some Christmas music.  Anna's really into dancing lately, it's so adorable and I have a cute video, but blogger won't let me upload it for some reason.  So anyway, picture the most adorable 9 month old ever bouncing up and down on her knees and waving her arms in the air.  Throw a clap or two in there and some head shakes and you have insane cuteness!

And this week she's really taken off walking very well.  She doesn't go too far yet, but she definitely walks!  Her only problem is that she wants to go way faster than her little uncoordinated legs will let her.  Thank goodness she's tough, she falls a billion times a day, gets back up, and keeps going!  She'll have it down pat here in a few days I'm sure!

7 Quick Takes (7)

 

--- 1 ---

December's calendar is quickly filling up!  I'm so excited to see some friends who are coming into town!  We have lots of dates set for Christmas gatherings and such.  I always love spending so much time with friends and family in December. 

--- 2 ---

Anna loves the Christmas tree.  The lights, the ornaments, the presents under it, everything!  Her favorite thing is to get the big present (hers, and she actually already plays with the toy, we wrapped up the empty box) and she pushes it around like a walker.  It's pretty cute!
 

--- 3 ---

I broke my favorite Mary plate yesterday.  It was a gift and it was beautiful.  We had it sitting on Anna's bookshelf in her room.  It was a constant reminder of how I was supposed to be as a mother.  And I broke it... sad...

--- 4 ---

Speaking of breaking things, I have quite the track record.  I broke two pieces to a nativity set that we have.  Luckily I was able to hot glue them back together.  We then noticed that we had a nativity in every room except for Anna's.  And then Jeremy reminded me that we DID have on in there at one point.  And that I had broken it... It was on the same shelf as the Mary plate.  Maybe that shelf isn't a good place for breakables!

--- 5 ---

I finally found some stuff that makes Anna's curls soft and defined instead of frizzy and knotty!  I wish I would have bought it a long time ago, but I wanted to do my research first before I spent what seemed like a lot of money on hair stuff.  Now that I've used the products, I can't believe I waited so long!  Here's what I got and love!  I just can't believe how soft and moisturized her hair looks and feels now!  And I was able to comb it all the way out with no tears!  Worth it, right there!

(This is just my opinion on this product, I was not asked to write a "review", I simply wanted to share my good news :-)

--- 6 ---

Anna thinks she's a big kid.  When we got family pictures taken last week, there was a lego table in the waiting area.  It was surrounded by 2,3,and 4 year olds.  When I put her down, she waltzed right up there made a place for herself and took another kid's legos (the kid didn't care thankfully).  We couldn't stop laughing at the way she fit in with the "big" kids.  And Wed. we went to McD's with some friends and she acted like she owned the place.  She tried climbing into the tubes and standing on the slide and running after the other kids.  She doesn't care if she gets knocked over or pushed or anything.  She just wants to be big! 

--- 7 ---

I won a Liebster Award from G @ Renewing Moments!  Thanks G!

The Liebster Award spotlights up and coming bloggers who generally have less than 200 followers.

I have awarded my Liebster Blog Awards to 5 bloggers who I am constantly inspired by in their adoption journeys: (and I don't know who has already gotten it, so sorry if I repeat!)

1. Pray, Hope, Don't Worry
2. Grace in my Heart
3. Patiently Waiting
4. All You Who Hope
5. Magnify the Lord With Me
Upon receipt of the Liebster Blog Award, there are a few very simple rules:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog or emailing them.
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!