Mom and Dad

and 2 little darlings. :)

I Will Not Leave You As Orphans...

In John Chapter 14: Jesus says, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come for you!  Kelly in Toll for Thee says, " Jesus is saying there is no greater pain than being an orphan and he will not leave us like that."
The pain of being an orphan is GREAT!  Each of our girls have told us of times of crying themselves to sleep.  They have told us of not understanding where mommy and daddy were, or WHAT mommy and daddy were, and they were terribly sad about not having one.  Not just terribly sad, but physically longing....

 Jesus comforted his disciples, who were adults, that HE would not leave them as orphans....  That gives me much contemplation about the plight of the orphan.
My childhood was not great, but I was not orphaned.  I cannot imagine being all alone, rejected, totally ALONE in a very scary world!

The pain of orphanhood is on my mind tonight.  Those who have come home recently are also on my mind. :)  So many this year! So many that I personally know is just a drop in the bucket of the orphans in this world.

It breaks my heart that millions of orphans will cry themselves to sleep tonight.  But it makes my heart happy that 4 of them... will sleep peacefully and happily. 

At the same time, I am overwhelmed with the children left behind. 
Are you one of those who are supposed to adopt? Are you one of those who are supposed to help somebody else adopt??

Each person involved in adoption is so important!  Who are you?

New Year's Resolutions

Coming soon to a blog near you!!!!
I can't post them till after Christmas. :)
Have you started thinking of yours?

Our Austin Trip

WOW! What a doozie of a trip! The girls and I left at 8:00 this a.m. and got home at 8:00 tonight!
We had fun though....
I love long car rides anyway.  It is close to a 4 hour drive to Austin.  The weather was not so great today, so we ran into lots of rain, which really slowed us down on the way home.  I followed an 18 wheeler for about an hour and a half because I could barely see where we were going!

When you have paperwork apostilled,  you have to go to the State Department.  It was directly across the street from the Capitol Building.  I think that building is quite lovely. :)

 Erika wasn't too thrilled with the back seat, early in the morning on the way there. :)  But she was a good sport. After all, there are two teenagers in the house now. :)

 Sarah and Alli played with magnetic dolls.

 Anna was thrilled we were finally eating! Cracker Barrel hit the spot. :)

 I was thrilled I did that silly thing with the pegs that made me a NON ignoramous! :)

 Alli was happy we were getting to eat at the same place we ate at in North Carolina!  She loves their mashed potatoes.

 Erika took some pictures of the buildings.... This is the top of the Capitol Building.

Alli fell asleep on the way home.

 I was THRILLED that those reports have been Fed Ex'd to the translator and we are finished with our first of 4 reports. :) 
We were ALL so glad to get home! It was a fun trip.....

Off to Austin .....

Tomorrow morning, we are headed to Austin to have Alli's first Russia Post Placement Reports apostilled and sent off for translation.
They require 12 pictures along with a home study update report.  It is much more complicated of a process than Ukraine, but we only have to do it for 2 years.  With Ukraine, you have to do it 1 for each year and after 3 years, one every 3 years until they are 18.

It is so hard to pick 12 pictures over 9 months of time, so these are the ones we picked:

Erika's Poor Bone

Erika has a sore spot at the bottom of her leg. She is very boney there, and the prosthetic pad isn't giving enough comfort. She has grown and we are most likely ready to start new legs.... But for now, they relieved the pressure area and added a gel pad to help with comfort. In the mean time, she will stay out of her legs and let her bone area heal.  Poor baby. :(

She is such a good sport. She has some knitting to do. :)  I hope things feel better in a couple of days. She said she can wear her legs, but I am afraid if we don't let it heal first, it will turn into a bigger problem. Our prosthetist agreed...

This is the scarf Erika is working on for a friend. :)  The ends are gray and the middle green. She needs to have it done by Sunday.

Mommy's Funny for the Month

I fell asleep in my chair.  I was apparently talking in my sleep when I woke up saying, "No sweetie, fish don't get saved." 
I think what woke me up was the roars of laughter with little girls surrounding me, saying, "Mama, what ARE you talking about?" :)

Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes

Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes 

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract   
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Xantham Gum 
1 cup finely-chopped  pecans
Powdered  sugar set aside

mix all ingredients well until creamy.  If dough is too soft  to roll in hands, put in fridge to firm up a little.
Roll some dough into small 1 inch balls.  Bake at 375º until done. (lightly browned on bottom but not on top)
(about 8-10 minutes)

Cool for 10 minutes, roll in powdered sugar and set on wire rack.

Cool completely: then roll in powdered sugar once again.

These are very delicate cookies that taste DELICIOUS!
(for non gluten free: Use same amount of regular flour (not self rising) and omit xantham gum)

Socializing During Holidays

Some of our children are social butterflies and others no so much.  Holidays, with all the extra fun and excitement, all the extra visits with friends and family, all the out of the ordinary activity can cause some of us to be excited and some of us to want to hide behind a book or retreat to a room.

I have been thinking about this for a while.  Personally, I am rather introverted. All those personality tests come back as Introvert.   I love holiday celebrations, but they also cause me to retreat for energy.
A few of us are this way.  One of our girls in particular gets overwhelmed with too much activity and needs to retreat with a good book and a cup of coffee. :)

I  wonder how many children and adults stress out at this time of year because they are required to put on a happy face and kiss Aunt Ethyl under the mistletoe, smile at all the silly jokes, smile in front of all the guests they have never met, and have conversation, when this is something that is a struggle in everyday life?
Christmas should not become a litmus test of success if you attend every function and smile nicely or failure if you really need to go for a long walk ALONE. :)

Alone times can be refreshing for the person who is more contemplative and introverted.  The one who retreats does not love Aunt Ethyl less than the one who smiles and sits on her lap and lets her squeeze their cheeks!  They just need personal space, and I really think that should be respected.

Our personalities are all different, and different things excite one and cause dread for another. 
So where is the proper line, if you have a wall flower in your home, or if YOU are that wall flower?

Honestly, I don't know.  I think taking part in celebration is a good thing.  But if our kids get overwhelmed, we should have an escape for them, so they can relax and regroup.
If a celebration is taking place in your own home, I would not hesitate to let my wall flower retreat to her room for a time of rest and reading.  If we are at another person's home, I would not be the last person to leave the party, but be sensitive to the needs of everybody; don't leave first, don't leave last. 
I would also encourage the children to stretch just a little to try new experiences and see if they like them.

We did that with the recent concert we went to. Two of our girls were not excited about going, but once they got there, they had a wonderful time.  However tonight, there was a piano recital to attend.  I didn't force anybody to go.  It would have been nice, but honestly , we can't attend everything. I took Erika and let her stay while I went home and did other things and then picked her back up. :)  It worked out great for everybody.  I wasn't especially feeling social tonight either.

I think what I am trying to say is, that there is nothing wrong with a person who just isn't that social or gets stressed with too much social activity.  Everybody should welcome their guests and be friendly.... but they should also be allowed to be themselves, even if that means, retreating for awhile, away from the crowd and noise.

Holidays are for everybody, and we should be able to express our joy as individually as God has made us. :)

The Alli Funny for the Month

Today, everybody was outside and I decided to try and practice a song I am learning  for the Christmas program.   It is a work in progress.... but while I was practicing, Alli came back with Sarah from her walk. She had no idea I was recording it so I could catch all the bad spots.   She came in at perfect timing of "You're here! I'm holding you so near!".... I could barely keep it together. She broke into dancing. (wish you could see it from the video, then proceeded to hand me mail, hold my nose to see how I could sound differently, and then finally realized that the red light on the camera was on.  So : Presenting Alli, ala' natural! :) (she appears at minute 2:05, if you want to skip all that singing) :)
Lots of work to do before Christmas!

Last Night

I caught this picture of Miss Alli. :)  She fell asleep trying to draw a horse. :)

LOVE IT WHEN THEY VISIT!

 Chris was finding cookies!

 Oh how exciting!

 Aunt Anna enjoying Ilse

 Chris loves this horse

 Joey and Tim cracking nuts.

 Love those smiles

So glad they cracked nuts!

Gluten Free Christmas Cookie Recipe

I finally feel like I can share this recipe gluten free now.  It took some work to figure it out.  They are even holding the hooks well!:)   If you are NOT gluten free, just use regular flour. same amount and do not use the xantham gum.

                                                                   GLUTEN FREE
                                                         SPICE CHRISTMAS COOKIES
preheat oven to 325º

1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 TLB Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract (or powdered vanilla)

1/4 tsp finely ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1TLB Cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
 3 cups of gluten free flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill all purpose baking flour)
Tapioca flour for dusting....

In a large bowl, cream together all butter, sugar, honey, vinegar, eggs and vanilla.Add all spices and blend well into mixture.

Add flour and mix well.

Use wax paper and divide dough into two parts.  (for a log of sorts)
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Take out one half of dough and divide it into 1/2.  Roll out  on dusted surface (tapioca flour)
to keep dough from sticking.
Roll to 1/8 inch thick and use cookie cutters.

(if you are going to put hooks in them for decorating, now is the time to put them in. Press dough around hook gently.)
 Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper

Bake in oven for about 10 minutes until brown but not too brown.
Let sit on tray for a few minutes and then transfer carefully to a wire rack to cool.

When cookies are completely cool, then you can decorate them.  Let icing dry thoroughly before hanging or eating.
The icing will dry well enough that they can go in a cookie jar without getting stuck together.

Icing and sprinkles.
( I make icing from powdered sugar, a little vanilla extract a dash of cream of tartar and a little milk)

1/2-3/4 c powered sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, dash of cream of tartar, 2 tsp of milk, then add just a drip at a time until you get the consistency you want. (too thick isn't good, too thin isn't either)
add food coloring..... decorate with sprinkles and set to dry.

NOTE:  The flour is a garbanzo bean, fava bean, sorghum, tapioca blend.... uncooked, the dough does not really taste very good, but cooked it tastes like a regular cookie.
*** you can get gluten free sprinkles and colors online*** (just google) :)