Winter's Day Walk

Although it is hard to remember it is still winter with the weather we have had this year, today we took the princess (and siblings) for a little winter's day walk.

And another day recently was time for wagon rides with Addisu and Julia...

Precious times.  Lord, please don't let us forget them.

Here is Julia on her big sister's recent birthday. So precious!!!

A Valuable Life

Recently my mother gave me an excellent article written by columnist, Cal Thomas.  Cal writes beautifully about his younger brother who had Down syndrome.  In light of a situation that occurred this past week, where doctors in a U.S. hospital have refused to give an organ transplant to a child because she has developmental delays, I thought this article about Cal Thomas's brother was poignant.  Cal describes so clearly about how valuable his brother's life was and how he touched the lives of others.

He also references the following book about the valuable contributions of another child with Down syndrome, Robin Elizabeth Rogers (daughter of Roy and Dale Rogers, famous entertainers) who only lived to 2 years old. This book is wise, touching and informative all at the same time and Tom and I enjoyed it very much.

Angel Unaware on Amazon

As the reading in church this morning spoke about all of us being the temple of the Holy Spirit, I pray that each person whether  "typical" or special needs will be recognized as being valuable and worthy of any type of care they may need.

Here is the link to the article  http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=3441

Update on Valentin

We were so happy to find out yesterday that Valentin has a family.  If you would like to read more about them and find out how you can help, here is the link to their blog www.headoptedusfirst.blogspot.com.  Please join us in praying for the Ashton Family as they start out on their third adoption journey.

Help for Valentin

Please check out this post by a family who has adopted from the same orphanage as our dear Julia, about a little boy still there who desparately needs a family.

Help for Valentin!

Christmas Present

Dear Friends and Family,

We always like to watch/read multiple versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" over the holidays.  This year we had the added benefit of Joshua appearing in a performance of it at the local theater as one of the Cratchett children.  Consider this post your tour of Christmas Present.

It is hard to believe that one year ago we were picking up our dear little Julia at the orphanage.  Here she is in her Christmas pajamas waiting for Santa this year, with her Mom and Dad.

We definitely did not get a white Christmas (which is Ok by Tom - check out Addisu riding the camel).

The kids definitely had visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads up until Christmas morning.

There were many tasty treats prepared and consumed by all.

Ah the glow of Christmas on the carefully selected and made gifts below...

The little kids were excited when it came time to open their gifts.

And everyone looked beautiful or handsome for church as appropriate.

Our photographer got his own portrait studio equipment...

and yes - there were lots of trains.

That is about all the Christmas joy that will fit in one blog post.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you and yours!

Thankful Hearts

I love the line in the Veggie Tales song that says "Because a thankful heart is a happy heart...".  Very true.  Well we are thankful for a very blessed weekend gone by.

I'm also learning that in today's cyber world there are Facebook people, blog reading people, email people, and then a very rare breed that do all of the above.  So even though our weekend goings on have been posted multiple times by different people in different places, I'll post it here again for the benefit of those blog only people.

We had a great visit with Andrea G from Canada including a great hike at Mount Mohonk.

And a great visit with Uncle Lau including a Christmas wonderland display.

 Addisu's first visit to see Santa - ever!

And there is the ever adorable Julia.

As we work our way through Advent season, time to prepare to celebrate the coming of the infant Jesus.  Christmas will be here before we know it.