Give Life

We will update you on our fun Saturday of basketball games and birthday parties soon, but today we are focusing on a prayer of thanksgiving and intercession. This week we have all been praying for the country of Haiti and the families forever changed by the devastation. One family we know of has adopted 2 children from Haiti, one of which is still in the country. Please join us in praying for the Ivey's and their son, Amos as well as all the families experiencing similar heartache and fear.

Today we also stop to pray as a part of Sanctity of Life Sunday. Many of you probably took part in this day of remembrance and prayer that seeks to shed light on the dark issue of abortion. Houston is especially broken today because tomorrow the 2nd largest abortion clinic in the world will open here. You can read more about the effort local churches are making to make a peaceful stand against this facility and for the unborn at this site. I encourage you to watch the video as well which only takes a few moments but will surely change the way you think about this issue.

Today in the service I was reminded to pray for our children's birth mother for the very first time. I have let her remain nameless and faceless in my mind until today, mainly out of fear of the feelings I might have towards her. Her name is on the children's birth certificates, which I have but I never really took note of it. I could chose to hold such anger towards her for the choices she made which have had life altering effects on them. The choices she made that did not protect them and instead harmed them are always on my mind. This is where I have been, but today I chose to be grateful that she chose life for my boys. I will forever be endeared to her for that, because of them. I will also pray that God will capture her heart for Him and make her a new creation for His glory.

Psalm 139

13For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

In Rememberance

We got home at 3 this morning. Yes, "A" still went to school, Jeff went to work, and "J" and I followed our regular Wednesday schedule with the addition of picking up the dog from the pet hotel first. It was a hard 12 hour drive home, especially for Jeff who did the lion's share of the driving. But, it was all worth the sacrifices we made to go pay our respects to Jeff's sweet Granny. She passed away on Friday night and we left Sunday evening after our welcome home celebration to drive all night to the pan handle to spend time with family and remember Lori. I wrote about Granddad and Granny in this post about our recent holiday trip. Praise God we saw Granny then after having not seen them since our wedding day and the boys got to meet her. Little did we know just 2 weeks later she'd be gone. We just wish the hello and goodbye weren't so close together! Here is a photo of Granny that was taken with our boys and Granddad during our trip.

She lit up around them and it made my heart happy to see the joy they brought her! Please pray for Granddad as he grieves and determines living arrangements. He and Granny had moved to Amarillo for the care she needed and he no longer wishes to remain there without her. We will miss you Granny, but we are so glad you are with Jesus!

God's Provision through the Journey

I have spent the morning reminiscing in preparation for a very important day in our family. Tonight we will be having a "welcome Home" celebration to honor ours and other families who have recently welcomed children. This is probably as close to a "baby dedication" as we will get and so we are very excited to share our story with other families walking this beautiful road to adoption! We have been asked to share a few words about our journey to adoption and how we have seen God's hand in the boys lives since they joined our family.

I cannot look back on our journey without an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude washing over me! It was unexpected and unconventional, but it brought us our boys and for that we will be forever grateful! It started over a year ago in November 2008, just about the time our adoption ministry at church had their first meeting-this is definitely no coincidence! We have had the opportunity to be prayed for and ministered to by sweet families at exactly the time we needed it most. My prayer is that now we can do the same and really grow in leadership. Since it's beginning, the group which began with a handful of people considering, having already adopted, or pursuing adoption has grown and many children have found their forever families. It doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas Came then We went

Let's not mention how I am painfully behind in my blogging duties. Lets pretend that we aren't a week into the new year/decade and I haven't even blogged about Christmas. Let's do that, okay? It's nap time people and I'd love to be sleeping too, but I have decided to put you, my loyal readers first. You are welcome. I'm just that kind of girl.

We started our celebrating early with the Hendrickson side of the family. The Carpenter crew came into town a few days before Christmas and we played hard/celebrated BIG! My mom and dad are so sweet and are super grandparents to all our energetic boys! Having 4 boys in the home of 2 people who raised 2 precious, perfect girls (I'm not just saying that because I am one of said girls) is a little overwhelming I think. They were troupers though and planned activities to keep the kids busy and make it extra fun! One of the activities was making Christmas cookies. My mom made the dough from scratch (not quite sure why I didn't inherit those genes) ahead of time and the boys got to help cut out the cookies. The boys fluttered in and out of the room, between chasing each other and playing so I'm sure this wasn't as sanitary a process as planned. Here's J's sweet hands making a snowman cookie.

My parents also started a great new tradition this year. It is kind of Hanukkahesk. Each day of our family celebration, they hide a gift for each kiddo, wrapped in their own unique paper so they can tell it is there's. The gifts are hidden in the house and they all find there's and race back to the living room to open them together. They LOVED it and the gifts were all fun things they could do together. Our boys love to play with cousin Clayton so these gifts made for hours of cousinly fun! I know they are all looking forward to this fun tradition next year.

It was important to us keep Christmas Eve and morning just our little family of 4 at home. We went to our church's Christmas Eve service at 5 pm. It is a kid friendly service complete with a candy cane explanation and all the kids got their very own candy cane. Jeff and I looked at each other with fear when the pastor said for all the kids to come down to the front and get one. I mean, our kids were already rolling around on the ground, but Jeff took them down there. All 3 of my boys and their canes made it back to their seats in one piece, so we consider that quite a success! We got a lot of compliments on their matching newsboy hats and sweeter vests, even from one burly security guard. I guess he has a squishy center under that hard exterior. Our boys melted his heart just like they do everyone else!
Christmas Eve Jeff and I were up until 1:30 am wrapping and preparing for Christmas day. It's a good thing Santa still had time to come once we went to sleep. He brought all kinds of goodies for us and more importantly our precious boys!
One of Santa's gifts to the boys was an awesome sand table. He couldn't carry 80 lbs of sand in his sleigh so he asked mommy and daddy to help him out with that! Our boys are really excited that the cover also doubles as a race track! What a clever guy that Santa is! ;)
"A" got an awesome keyboard from us and the car that goes on the wall from Santa. Big fun for him!
I wasn't sure if "A" was ready for his first Bible, but we decided to try it. He LOVES it!! His teacher emailed me today and he told her about it first thing this morning, even before he told her about any other gifts he received!! My prayer is that God is working on his little heart and getting it ready to accept him one day sooner than later!
The boys also got super cool super hero capes that are personalized just for them! "J" wore his while opening the rest of his gifts and most of the day! I have a million pictures I wish I could share that show the boys genuine excitement for every gift they received, including clothes. Now, that is priceless!!
Harvey even got to share in the Christmas excitement with new bones and chews!
Christmas day we went back over to my parents house, armed with Luby's to go. We all shared a nice meal and put together this great gingerbread house kit I bought.
A pretty successful first try if I do say so myself.
Complete with a "garage"! Let's just pretend we meant to do that!
We spent the weekend after Christmas with the Albus side of the family. Sweet Kayleigh is growing so fast and we can't wait to meet baby Liam in March!
Jeff and the boys bought fireworks from the stand leasing part of his parents land and we set them off. Oh the joys of celebrating in the country! The boys mostly hid behind adults' legs and covered their ears, but they had a great time! They got a ton of great gifts at this Christmas too and Mimi and Papa agreed to hold onto them for us until we came back through after our Tour d' Texas trip of family holiday fun! I was going to include that on this post but I think this is enough of a mega post. Read below if you want to follow us on that journey. We'd love to share more of our adventures with you!

Tour de Texas/1st Family Holiday Road Trip

December 27, 2009 will go down in history as the day we began our first (and possibly last) Tour de Texas/Family Holiday Road Trip. We left Jeff's parent's house near Huntsville and our first stop was the one that is quite traditional for our little family, Buccees! We had GIANT wraps that the kids struggled to hold onto and eat in the car, but conquered quite well!

We ended up in Arlington just in time to share a few hours of fun at holiday in the park at Six Flags! The boys love going to visit the super heroes and thought it was even cooler that our hotel was super close to "their house" AKA Six Flags. The boys tried new rides they weren't tall enough to ride last time and we saw the Texas Giant being torn down. It was kind of bitter sweet because my mom had just shown them a picture a couple of days earlier of me riding this roller coaster as a little girl!
These were 2 of the boys favorite sites to find from all parts of the amusement park: Super Man's Tower and the star!
After a good night's sleep, we headed over to my sister's house to spend the day with them. The boys LOVED Clayton's new play set Santa brought him. Maybe we will ask Santa to bring one to our house next year! There was still some snow on the ground from their white Christmas so the boys enjoyed playing with that too!
On 12/29/09 we got up early to make the 6 hour drive to Pampa, Texas where Jeff's grandma lives. The kids slept most of the way and we saw what were the beginnings of a pretty good amount of snow fall. We spent the day with Jeff's grandma and she instantly fell for the boys. She said they made her lonely house so happy!

We spent that night in Amarillo and went to visit Granny and Granddad Albus the next day! I can't tell you how much it warmed our hearts for the boys to meet all their great grandparents! Granddad Albus proudly rolled them down each hall of the assisted living facility on his walker seat! The fellow residents would say, "who ya got there?" and he would say "some of our great grans!" with such a giant smile! He even shared cookie and milk hour with them. What a great Great Granddad he is! I have really grown to love and respect him since meeting him a few years ago and am so glad our boys know him know too!

The next morning it was snowing hard when we woke up! Here is the view from our hotel balcony. SO pretty!
We let the boys help us get the snow off the car before heading back toward Arlington to ring in the new year. Check out all that pretty snow!
I cannot take credit for this awesome picture of the "Blue Moon" because the magic was all my hubby's doing! We spent New Year's Eve (also Blue Moon) back at Holiday in the Park. We tried to warn the kids we'd be up all night and to nap in the car, but they were too excited to sleep! What ensued was perhaps a combination of fun family memories and a total mess! "J" had his worst melt down to date at about 11 PM and spent the next hour or so in complete delirium and hysterics! We tried to get him to rest on our shoulders and on benches until midnight and he barely made it, but it wasn't pretty! We did however get a good self portrait of me and my hubs despite all the excitement.
I don't think that is the "blue" moon with these fireworks, but I can pretend!
New Year's day we meet my first friend, Katie whom I've been friends with since I was 3, her family, and our sweet friends Derek and Lauren for some very important introductions! The boys were introduced to everyone for the first time and our family of 4 got to meet baby Reagan. He is a cutie and has a great little grin! We are anxious to meet Lauren's little bundle of joy, Dean in just a few short months! The 3 of us girls will really be outnumbered then, the score is boys: 8, girls: 3. Two of those precious boys even infiltrated the girls' picture. Oh the joys of boys!

The boys also got some great basketball shirts they don't want to take off and their very own official basketball. Thanks Herwecks for your generosity! It was a great time and wonderful ending to our trip! After 7 days away from home, it was time for our little family of 4 to get back to a little sense of normalcy, but boy did we enjoy our Tour de Texas!

Weekend Wrap Up!

Well, Christmas is in full swing at our house and we are enjoying every minute of it! "J" and I played Santa on Friday morning, dropping off Christmas gifts to he and "A's" teachers and then enjoying his classes Christmas or should I say "December" party. One of the kids in his class was quick to remind me that is what they were celebrating. 4 year olds crack me up! But at our house it is Christmas, little guy!

Friday night was parent night out at the church. I truly understand the need for this now that we are parents-cheap child care we can trust is very much appreciated! We were able to enjoy dinner just the two of us and then hit up Toys R Us to finish up some last minute shopping! Date night was Heaven sent and just on time!

On Saturday our church had a function called Candy Cane Lane for families. The boys enjoyed hours of fun that included tons of bounce houses, cookie making and decorating, crafts, pony rides, a train, and a live nativity with live animals! We enjoyed capturing all the fun memory making moments in pictures! It was a great time!

The boys love a good petting zoo although "J" was done the moment the goat decided to poop on his shoe. Totally don't blame him!The boys loved riding this great little train all around the church campus and were bummed when it wasn't there the next day for "real" church!

No, we don't know this man, yes he did end up in the one good picture I got of the cool camel at the Live Nativity. By then the camel was basically over all the people trying to touch him and feed him hay.

After church on Sunday (yes we went to church all 3 days of the weekend), we went to the Galleria for lunch and a sibling visit. I don't discuss it much on the blog because I think emotionally I'm not ready to, but the boys have 2 sisters placed in another home. We try to get together at least once a month to do something fun. This month the kids had lunch and then built bears together at Build a Bear. They seemed to really enjoy it and I think I held it together okay considering me and Jeff had 4 kids on our own in a mall full of people just mere days before Christmas! "A" chose a monkey and dressed him as a hockey player. "J" chose a panda and dressed him as an Astros' baseball player. I think Jeff was pleased that they chose his 2 favorite sports totally unassisted. The girls both chose Hanna Montana bears, of course. Here are our 2 under the Christmas tree. They became fast friends!

I just can't wait to share the joy of Christmas with our precious boys! All of the fun we've had this month is just a precursor! This week we have the Hendrickson Christmas celebration, ours at home, and then the extended Albus family celebrations on the road! SO exciting! Merry Christmas everyone!

Simple Teacher Gift Solution

Another challenge of being a new mom has arrived at the Albus' house in the form of teachers' gifts! I probably wouldn't have even thought of it if my sweet sister hadn't casually mentioned it one day while we were chatting on the phone. Thanks Sarah for the reminder! I quickly went to my most reliable mommy saving tool these days-the internet- for a craft idea of something the kids and I could make together! Family Fun Magazine (also my sister's suggestion) has a ton of great ideas, but I settled on this one. The mug holds ingredients for a personal size cupcake made in the mug with the use of a microwave and a couple liquid ingredients. The boys helped scoop the ingredients and put them in the bags. My favorite part is that the teachers that love on our boys every day get a gift hand made by them!

I added a Starbucks gift card and they came with these sweet knit envelopes which really spiced up the simple wrapping job! I hope the teachers enjoy them as much as we do!