Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was a fun time. There wasn't any tur-duc-hen, but it was still delightful. My mother and grandmother joined the Lute side, and it was just an all around nice day to be together.

Why We're Doing What We're Doing

Waiting is a theme in our lives, especially in the last three years. Among all the things that we have waited for, none has been more awaited than starting the adoption process. The waiting goes far beyond the last three years and back into the days of when Casey and I were dating. For me, it goes even further.

You see, one of the most important people in my life is a woman who I don't even know. I don't know her name. I don't know what she looks like. I don't know a single thing about her except that once upon a time, she carried me in her womb and loved me enough to let me go. That single act has shaped my life so profoundly that I'm not even sure I could completely describe it.

Certain things define who you are, and one of the things that defines me is my adoption. As I have grown up, my adoption has helped me understand the greater thing that defines me: my identity in Christ.

You see, when I was born, I needed a family. For whatever reason, the best thing for me was not staying with my birth mother. I needed help. I needed someone to take me in and call me their own and give me all the things that I couldn't get for myself or do for myself.

I needed to be adopted.

We all need to be adopted.

We are all born into what is not best for us. Sin is not the best for us, and even though it's not best, it's what we choose over and over again, even when we don't want to. We can't be good enough or do anything to solve the sin problem in our lives.

That's where the greatest grace comes in. Jesus died, taking our punishment for the sins we committed, and through faith in him, we're offered a new life, and adopted into God's family.

This is God's plan for his people. Throughout all of Scripture, every story, every book is pointing towards Christ. It is all a giant tapestry woven together for his glory and to restore what was broken by sin.

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.

(Ephesians 1:5)

Casey and I have talked about this truth so many times. It is dear to our hearts. We have talked about all the things that make us excited about adopting a child into our family. We value the lesson it will teach our children, that families aren't held together by flesh and blood but by love. We want our family to experience God's provision in building our family. We want to be stretched in our faith and step out not knowing what trials or hardships or waiting may come from the adoption process.

Most of all. We want to live out the gospel in a way that so closely parallels what our Savior has done for us.

Please join us. Please walk with journey with us. Pray for us. Pray for our son or daughter who God is preparing for our family. Pray for our family that the Lord would prepare our hearts for the journey, especially our children.

We'll try to keep folks updated here, and of course we'll still share pictures of our adorable children and tell the stories of the funny things they do.

We just want people to know why we're doing what we're doing.

Pixie Dust and Spider Silk

Day 46: Two Roses

** One of these posts is not like the others. One of these posts just doesn't belong... Uh, it's this one. It belongs over here at this blog, which is Kelly's personal blog. **

On Valentine's Day, in the middle of my work shift, two of the sweetest little valentines entered the store with flowers in hand.

"Momma! Momma!" my little boy cried, waving a rose in his hand, running towards me. His sister was close behind with a big smile on her face.

Their dad followed. He's my greatest valentine of all.

I'm so glad that I have such special people in my family. Every day they bless my heart. Every day I love them more and more. Every day I learn more about love and about myself and how I fall short of loving them perfectly. Every day they love me anyway, despite those shortfalls.

Thank You Lord that we can love because You first loved us. Thank You that you have given me three of the greatest loves in my life. Thank You for giving us all the many kinds of love that we can feel for each other from friendship to family and romance. My life is so rich because of the treasure that love is and that true, perfect love comes from You. I praise You because You are Love. I praise You because You pour out Your love lavishly on me and on all that You call Your own.

AWANA Grand Prix

Norah entered her "Rainbow Trout" this year in the AWANA Grand Prix, and if I do say so myself, she did pretty well! Out of 4 heats, she took second twice and first twice! She was pretty excited to take part in it, and the highlight for her was winning a special award, "Most Colorful Car". So she felt pretty special!

Merry Christmas!

Well, since I finally took down the Christmas lights this week (of course, they'd been turned off a while ago), it's probably time to make our last 2010 Christmas blog post. Here are a few pictures (and one video).

Our tree on Christmas morning:

The kids opening their stockings:
Us with our stockings (it was early in the morning still):
Norah and her Fuzzoodles. The kids had been singing the commercial theme song for them:
They were both excited for their Zhu Zhu pets:
This video captures it well. Dig the unified excitement around the 0:25 mark:


Haddon loved his turtle pillow pet most of all. Right after opening it, he went into his room, took the pillow off his bed, and chucked it into the laundry room. He told us we could get rid of it; he wouldn't be needing it anymore.

After morning festivities at our house, we went over to my parents' place. Here's Kelly and Haddon excited for what's to come:
My parents got Norah a Leapster (her first video game system).
She took to it pretty well:
Playing with baby cousins:Here's Haddon at the end of the day sleeping on his new pillow pet:

Merry Christmas to all.

Various Christmasy Things

(So I had this post cued up on December 27th, but had trouble uploading the videos, and then kept forgetting to get back to it until now. Enjoy...)

We had some fun times leading up to Christmas this year.

We cut our own tree...

...decorated it...

...decorated some more...
...but didn't really get a good picture of the finished product. No matter, though, as the kids moved the ornaments around on a daily basis, sometimes with less than ideal results from an aesthetic standpoint.

The kids decorated cookies as well...
...and had a lot of fun with it...
...leading to this:

The kids' Sunday School classes both performed at church a couple Sundays ago, as part of a Christmas-themed program. Norah, however, was in a mood and didn't want to join her class. Here's her "performance" from that day:


Haddon did pretty well, but for some reason the video of him didn't want to cooperate in the uploading process. Just imagine him kind of bobbing back and forth and attempting to sing on occasion.


Later that night we went out to Mission Mill Museum for their "Magic at the Mill" night. We had never been before (or even heard of it, for that matter). It was worth attending though, especially since we had half off admission coupons.

The kids got to see Santa Claus...
...although Norah was making every effort to prolong her bad mood.
The entire grounds were lit up, which looked really nice.
Everyone had fun. There were concerts, exhibits, model trains, lights, treats, and craft projects.
Norah tried to keep her pouty mood, but eventually admitted to having a good time.
She made a paper "quilt"...
...so did Haddon...
...and everyone enjoyed the yarn-making demonstration by the lady at the spinning wheel.

On our way out, Haddon joined this quartet for a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells."


I'm not sure if we'll go back to Mission Mill next Christmas. If there's another coupon, though, I think it would be highly possible. If you've never been before, we'd recommend it.

Finally, here's a Charlie Brown tree I made out of old Christmas tree branches and some spare plywood I had laying around.





I'll try to get to the actual Christmas celebrations soon.