Merry Christmas!!

We had a very enjoyable Christmas! We hope that you did also!

We opened gifts at Grandpa's so that he could be with us and be part of all the excitement, and also for him to be able to share the Christmas story with the kids again before opening gifts. He likes his space and feels most comfortable in it, without my little dogs running around. I can understand that since the morning was a bit chaotic as it was :-) I truly do think Aubri and Andy understood and Sera knew it was Jesus' birthday. She also was very certain Santa had to come down the "fire" , since they had discussed this aspect at school. We did not not tell her otherwise, so she enjoyed the magical moments of thinking the gifts had been delivered through grandpa's Amish miracle heater :-)

The blessings of the season were definitely apparent as the children hugged each other and us as they rejoiced in ther newfound treasures. They really played well all day with very few squabbles, even though we were in tighter quarters at Grandpa's and they literally were in each other's space quite often. It was so nice to enjoy this day with Grandpa and celebrate the best gift of all, the most special birthday, together!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Whew! Last minute adventures!!

With all of the hustle and buslte of the end of the school semester, etc... getting ready for Christmas at home had basically amounted to just getting the presents purchased. We did some cooking for snack type foods and wanted to do more, but time did not allow for it. So... we postponed to do some on Christmas day, rather than just play with toys. The kids liked that idea, so I relaxed a bit and decided to let that slide until then. Today, Aubri and I had planned on a leisurely wrapping/ cookie decorating day with Grandpa and possibly going out to see the Christmas lights before reading the Christmas story and going to bed.

Knowing that the wrapping was the last thing to do on the list, we slept in late, went to Grandpa's to eat a late brunch together and got ready to start wrapping. As I sorted out the gifts, which had been delivered to Grandpa's, or to our house and stashed away, I realized that a very major gift was missing!!! Andy had asked for a Nintendo DS for over a year. He has been very consistent in saying that was the one thing he wanted for a long time, especially when talking about his "Santa list". This little boy is so busy and active that I do not worry a bit about letting him have some sedentary time to sit and play a game some of the time ! In fact a few minutes of quiet are greatly appreciated by this old mom! :-)

We searched all over and since Grandpa had been the one to actually purchase this item in person, rather than the online shopping I have become so fond of, he started to question if he had actually purchased it. He got quite distressed that his memory is failing him and we decided to go to Best Buy to see if it actually did get purchased and if not we would get one and all would be just fine. Aubri stayed home with the little ones for the short time we planned to be out. She does a great job with them and I am so blessed! At the store, they were able to look it up and it had been purchased.

We decided. or rather I kept trying to convince him, that he must have been interrupted while he was putting it away and that it must be in the house somewhere, just not anywhere he was hiding anything else.

Since we were not sure that we would find it in time, however, we tried to find another one, so that Andy would have his desired gift tomorrow morning. WOW! Every child in town must have also asked for the same thing and the stores did not keep enough in stock. We raced into store after store. Each one filled with last minute shoppers! Our 2o minute jaunt took well over 4 hours!! Well, I hobbled in as fast as I could and my dad still kept up with me. No place we went had any... None at all! I truly did not know what to do, neither did my dad, but we kept calmly telling each other that it would be OK, while inside just feeling absolutely awful.

As we stopped at the grocery store quickly before going home, I called Aubri again to check on her and the kids and decided that I had to also enlist her eyes to try to help find the gift while they waited for us. I did not want her to give away what she was looking for to Andy though. I told her to look in all the places Grandpa might have just set a plastic bag. I told her not to look IN anything, just on every shelf in the garage, in the den, kitchen etc.... She already knew not to let Andy know what she was looking for and really took this new mission seriously!!! I should have enlisted her help with this so much earlier!!! I was just too worried to think straight, I guess....

Within 5 minutes she called me back telling me that she FOUND IT!! My baby girl, who is such a responsible young lady now, saved her little brother's AND her mom and grandpa's holiday!!!

She found it right it plain sight... on top of the book case, where Pop had evidently set it when bringing it in to hide, but was disrupted. He felt so badly that he was losing his mind. It did not matter how many times I tried to reassure him that I do the same thing far too often. It is so easy to start doing something and get interrupted, set things down to take care of the interruption and then have no clue where you left them. Less than 1 hour later, I was searching for some picture frames that I knew I had, but had no idea where I put them! Yep, same kind of situation and they were also found!

The Heavens were guarding my two littlest ones surprises for tomorrow morning since Aubri and I quickly wrapped gifts, Grandpa went to see Evelyn and Andy and Sera enjoyed Grandpa's wide selection of digital TV holiday specials. Both of the were totally clueless that Aubri and I were up to anything! If they did know, they were extremely cooperative in allowing for some surpise tomorrow!

Our Christmas eve was not what I planned it to be, but all is done and we enjoyed our time together, so it went just as it should!! Suprises are all ready for tomorrow morning! We will open gifts at Grandpa's tomorrow so that he can be there with us without having to get out. It will be so nice to have him with us as the kids enjoy their suprises!! We will just have to read our Bible story together, decorate some cookies and go see the lights tomorrow!

Always too many steps behind....

I cannot begin to catch up... We are getting ready for Christmas today and will be wrapping packages etc... I went to charge the camera battery and realized that I hadn't even downloaded our Thanksgiving photos to the computer yet. Imagine that...

So, before I went to take my shower, I had to put some of them together to share and to print for our scrapbook before time slipped any further away and it didn't get done. Such is the life of a single parent of 3 busy little people :-)

Here are our scrapbook pages to record our Thanksgiving this year. It was the first we have been able to spend with our Grandpa in several years, since Evelyn had a difficult time being around the kids. As you can see from the photos, the kid love their 80 yr old grandpa and he loves them! I truly cannot imagine much more to be thankful for than the people in good health and sharing such happiness that day. We had a good family friend join us and enjoyed eating and playing the Wii, but the kids enjoyed playing with grandpa even more than the Wii!! Hard to imagine, but I am so thankful for his good health and the time the Lord is giving us to spend with him

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Santa, or Christ's Birthday? The answer is simple!

Today we tried to get out to get some of the necessary shopping done for the week. We bought a toy for Toys for Tots and a couple of things for the kids gift exchanges at school while they looked at things they are hoping Santa will bring. After we did the shopping, and I had them in the car. Andy asked me a question I truly had no answer for and still really don't. Thankfully he let me put of answering him when the phone rang and has not pushed me for an answer since we have come home.


He asked me, "Mommie, Does Santa not know where China is? He never brought me anything of my own when I lived there and now he brings me toys and clothes I do not have to share with everyone. Was I a bad boy in China? He never brought me black rocks either. Where was he?"


I am really feeling that this year it is it is necessary to be telling him the truth about Santa and just having Christmas in our house be about celebrating Christ's birth and sharing his love with those we love, as it really should be. Aubri already knows and was excited to be sharing Santa with them, but she also thinks we should let Santa just visit other homes and our gifts all be gifts of love to each other. Sera will not have a Christmas with a visit from Santa that she will understand, since last year she had no clue why we had presents under the tree, but I think it will be for the best now, especially hearing how Andy felt he must have done something wrong for Santa to forget him. Little children's fascination with Santa and the glee of Christmas morning are all so wonderful, but for my little ones who know Santa was not there for them, I truly am not sure trying to get them to believe in Santa is a good thing. Especially when I have to tell Andy not to tell lies other times!


I think we are going to have to have a very serious talk. My babies will all have to know the truth. I hope it helps them enjoy the season even more, rather than worry about why they had been forgotten by Santa before coming here. They really need to know that their Father in heaven has never forgotten them and what a great gift he has given them, even when they were in China and did not have the presence of their earthly loving family around them.

So, thanks to my very astute and questioning son, we are going to enjoy Christmas as it should be. A true CHRISTmas full of His love and family joy!

One Step at a Time

This past week has been so long, and yet so short. Not enough time to get things done and not enough energy to do them! We have all had a bad cold and resulting complications and I am soooo ready for the break!!

This week while we were rushing out the door, though, I saw my sweet Sera make a huge accomplishment, and I was almost too rushed to see it! She has always had trouble going up and down steps, since her rickets had made her muscles so weak and her balance much more difficult to keep. She has made good gains in walking and running, but steps were still a cause for caution.

Thursday morning I saw her pick up her brother's hat to take it out to the car for him, where he was already waiting. She flew down the garage step and never once reached over to hang on to steady herself!!

ONE step mastered!!!

Santa

Can you tell from the photo who was annoyed that Santa was not listening to what she wanted?

She didn't have a long list, but Santa did not understand her and would not let her explain.....

Mommie asked Santa to help hurry up the scheduling for her surgery!!!!

Opthamologist appt- the good and the bad news

Well, after waiting for what feels like forever ( actually just a little over 2 months) to get an appt with the dept head of Opthamology at our local Childrens hospital, we finally got to go.

I had taken the day off work and entered my absence on the computer weeks ago, but amazingly when I went it to talk to the sub this morning as I dropped Andy off, there was NONE.... My absence had been deleted when Sp Ed had deleted an inservice absence and I had to wait for a sub to pick it up after we entered it again..... Not a good start to the day, but it worked out OK.

It did not snow on the hour and a half drive ,both to and from, , so that was really good news! I was prepared to be driving n snow and ice. Pop came with us and had even packed blankets and a spade.

Sera was willing to have her eyes dilated and checked and even cooperated in reading the pictures after Aubri did it, so that was also good news! Then the Dr. told me that outside of her duct problems and the lower eyelid not attaching where it should, her vision is great. Another really great piece of news for the day!

Then the bad news.... We have to come back to have the occuloplastic surgeon evaluate Sera in January. I will have to take another day off work (of which I have very precious few left due to my knee replacement and know that I will need them when she ever gets to have these surgeries, let alone if anyone actually gets sick...). When I set up the appointment with the referral from Shriner the receptionist assured me several times that I needed opthamology not plastic surgery. I told her repeatedly that Sera has a Tessier Cleft and that it affects her eyelid and tear ducts... I guess I just said these things for my own benefit.

Soooo we wait some more and see a different Dr. in January. Hopefully her surgeries will now not conflict!! I so wanted to have one done over the Christmas break!!

"He" must have a reason why surgery for Sera is constantly being delayed!! I guess that I am needing these lessons in waiting and just need to develop more patience, or maybe He is trying to save my budget and keep me from total confusion and bankruptcy from all the medical bills that have been coming in from my surgery. Who knows? I know that I am trying to get it done now that she has become more safely attached and able to understand what is happening, and something keeps stepping in the way to let me know that we are just not as ready as I wanted to be.....