Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday: C'mon RING those bells!

(If you can't see the video- go HERE. It's only 20 sec long)










Have a GREAT DAY!!!

(Those of you local know who that guy is! ha!)

If not Santa, then what?

So after yesterday's post, I wasn't about to end there. And for those of you who follow on facebook- there was some good discussion over there about what I wrote. Like I said yesterday, when it comes down to it each one of us must make the best decision for her family regarding what goes on at home. Traditions can be wonderful or they can hinder us from what we're actually celebrating. I have found that to be true in our family... when I get so wrapped up in making the "tradition" just perfect and then I fail to stop and enjoy the fact that my children are home everyday and just want to be with me sometimes. I forget that the conversations we have and the daily anticipation of Christmas drawing near are just as important if not more than the activities we do.

And so to us (and most everyone reading) Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. Which leaves us wondering "How do we CELEBRATE something/someone so significant in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle and commercialization that is around us?

Did someone say SHOPPING???

Well, I don't claim to know all the answers or even some of them. But one thing I can do is share how our family has celebrated Christmas over the past 13 years. (Wow- has it really been that long?) One thing I won't do in this post though is repeat a lot of what you already know. That is all of the stories and meanings behind the traditional "Christmas Traditions." There are tons of books out there on everything from the Legend of the Candy Cane to why we put lights on the Christmas tree- all very readily available. We actually have several of those books for children and I love to snuggle up during this season and read aloud from them together. One of my favorites though that I have learned a lot from is called Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. It's more for you to read and then talk to your kids about as you go through the season. Good history lessons too!

Many families we know have different advent traditions to prepare their hearts during the season leading up to Christmas. I love the idea of lighting of the advent candles each of the four Sunday's of advent. Our family has never done that, but I think it is a beautiful tradition and I love that our church does this during Sunday worship as well. Our family, like so many others, has an advent calendar that has become a beloved tradition for our boys. It is a wooden nativity scene that I got when Austin was about 2 and has little doors for each day of December. Every day there is a little part of the Christmas story to be read along with a tiny ornament to hang on the scene. Even though they are getting older now, this has still been a highlight of each morning during December. A fellow blogger/adoptive mom Melissa shared on her blog about a wonderful advent activity that she has done with her children. They made a paper chain to countdown the days until Christmas... but the coolest part was that on each strip of paper they wrote the names of friends and family and pray for them that day they pull it off the chain. I love that!

One tradition that we will start next year will be to read to the boys each night from Jotham's Journey. It is a wonderful exciting story for your family to read aloud together each night during advent and includes discussion questions and scripture points after each reading. I had seen this book years ago and knew our boys would like it but had heard that it might be too scary for younger listeners, so I told myself I would get it when the boys got a little older. Well, this was going to be our year except that I didn't order it soon enough to be able to fully enjoy it, so now we will be prepared for next year! Check out the link for more info on the book if you are interested.

One of my favorite traditions that we do is the Jesus Tree. I got the idea several years ago from Noel Piper's book and we have done it ever since. The basic idea is to get a large bare branch and hang ornaments and items on it that both represent the nativity as well as symbolize who Jesus is as found in Scripture's names for him. The fun part is helping your kids find little things that will work for the tree. For example- Jesus is the Light of the World- Austin found a tiny little flashlight bulb that we glued ribbon to. Or Jesus is the Bread of Life- we hot glued pieces of graham crackers together to look like a loaf of bread. We made a tiny crown of thorns out of a rose bush and found a large railroad spike to remember Jesus' death. Silly or cheesy maybe. But you get the idea. One year I typed up all of the different symbols we used and the scriptures that go with them and it became part of our daily devotion time. I would share that and some pictures, but it is all on our other computer at the moment. For the past few years our Jesus Tree has just been a miniature Christmas tree, because there haven't been any bare branches to spare over here!

Now that the boys are older, we will now incorporate a lot of the symbols used with the Jesse Tree onto our Jesus Tree. They are basically the same thing, but I love how the Jesse Tree uses many of the prophesies leading up to the coming of the Messiah and it isn't in a random order like we seem to have been doing. As I was researching the Jesse Tree I found this to be helpful if you have no idea what it is:

"The Jesse Tree is a way to help children and adults get a better understanding of what and why we are celebrating. Jesse was the father of King David. The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-9, where God promises a discouraged nation that the glory they remember from David’s time will come again. They will have another king from Jesse’s family, in whose reign the whole earth will know God. As a Christian, we see that promise fulfilled in Jesus, and so we use a Jesse Tree and decorate it with reminders of how God prepared the world for that kingdom."

And what Birthday party would be complete without a cake? I know most families already make a birthday cake for Jesus with their kids- but I never had even heard of that when I was a kid, so now I think it is pretty cool! We have chosen to be a bit wild and crazy and take it a step further by making and decorating the cake the day or two before Christmas and then on Christmas morning we light the candles and sing happy birthday to Jesus and eat cake for breakfast with a fancy glass of sparkling cider! The kids are nice and sugared up for present opening! :-)
One of my favorite pics from several years ago. (look at all that sugar!)


Another of my favorite parts of the season is giving. Whether it is of our time, talents or treasures- we don't give to get a good feeling or to have others say wow great job, but we give as an act of worship to the One who gave all for us. I love to see how different families include their children as they give and serve. I have much to learn in this area. My friend Brandy wrote about how they give gifts to eachother in their family at Christmas time and I think it is a brilliant way to have the fun of stockings while at the same time everyone is learning about giving and sacrifice. We have done many different things over the years and our favorite times are when we have had the priveledge of blessing another family at Christmas. After watching the wonderful new Veggie Tales Saint Nicholas, we all started to try and think of ways we could bless others in secret like Nicholas did. (I forgot to mention yesterday that yes we do know the story of the real St Nicholas who loved the Lord and blessed many families in need.) The music video in the movie is wonderful as well... a moving song about giving Christmas away.

Some other fun traditions that we do during Christmas are just that: fun traditions. Scavenger hunt on Christmas morning, getting the tree, jammies on Christmas eve, driving around the neighborhoods looking at lights, baking, making and wrapping gifts, etc etc. One book that I have found to be helpful for pointing our children to Christ even in the midst of all of the fun traditions is The ADVENTure of Christmas. I have not done all of the activities, but over the years have gotten some great ideas from it.

Lastly I want you to enjoy celebrating Christ's birth GUILT-FREE. The last thing I would want is for some mom reading this to feel overwhelmed by how many "things" she should do with her kids during Christmas. My point is to give you ideas of what we have done and to encourage you to make your own traditions with your kids. It is YOUR FAMILY. I have to tell myself this over and over too- just because that mom does something with her children that sounds neat, doesn't mean that is what I'm supposed to do!

Over the years, Christmas has looked differently depending on the circumstances we are in. There have been years where we are prepared and are purposeful with each thing we do and then there are those years where the entire month seems to fly by and we have barely stopped to take a breath. I remember the year I was pregnant with Jensen and due at the beginning of January- I was exhausted and was wishing Christmas would just hurry up and come so I could have this baby! Or a few years ago when I had major surgery just a few days before Christmas- I felt so guilty for skipping some of our traditions that year that I didn't even enjoy the rest of the celebration! Or last year after we had to turn down 2 referrals and I thought I would never see my daughter's face. My point is that on any given year you may find yourself in a difficult situation. Much more difficult than my small trials. And every single tradition you've ever had may disappear for a time. And that is when you realize that JESUS is enough. He alone is our strength and the rock of our salvation- He is what holds us up through those hard times- NOT our traditions. I love what Noel Piper says about this in her book that I mentioned yesterday, "May our decorations, gifts, and festivities- or lack of them- never block our view of him but always point us towards him."

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Telling the Truth at Christmas (or why our children don't believe in Santa)

Yesterday's message at church really impacted me. So much that I felt the need to write a little about why we do the things we do at Christmas-time. And maybe even why we don't do some things as well. I'm not going to repeat the message that our pastor shared- which was about how the true spirit of Christmas is WORSHIP, but will say that it definitely caused me to re-evaluate where and who my focus is on this season and confirmed some of the decisions Randy and I have made over the years for our family.

And today's post is mostly about the guy in red.

I realize that probably 95% of people reading this blog may not agree with us on this and that is absolutely OK. Everyone has to make the best decisions for their family and I am just sharing the one we have made for ours concerning a very popular Christmas tradition.

So all that said, there are several reasons why our family has chosen not to include Santa Claus as a part of our Christmas celebration from the very beginning.

The first one being kind of obvious is that it is a fairy tale. Now make-believe and fairy tales are fun, but we don't ask our children to believe them do we? I don't read my kids fantasy stories like Peter Pan and The Chronicles of Narnia and tell them matter of factly "now you'd better behave because maybe Aslan will come and take you to Narnia with him tonight." I just lied to my kids. No that would be ridiculous. We read those stories because they are just that- fun fantasy stories that are fun because they aren't real!

The second reason is that it is too confusing for a little child to figure out what is make-believe and what is reality. If our Christmas celebration is really about baby Jesus, who is GOD MADE FLESH (which is a very REAL thing) then why would I want to confuse my child by asking him to figure out which parts of Christmas are truth and which parts are just make-believe? Don't we pray from the time they are tiny babies for our children to grow up with a knowledge and understanding of who God is? If so then I should try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding.

Thirdly, if we think about all of the things parents tell their kids about Santa- it looks VERY similiar to what we are trying to teach our children all year about God. Think about it:
~Santa sees everything you do: he's omniscient
~Santa rewards you if you're good.
~Santa can be everywhere in one night: he's somewhat omnipresent
~Santa gives lots of good gifts
~Santa lives up north in a place no-one can see

But when you go a little deeper, Santa really isn't like God at all. For example the idea that Santa is watching you to see if you've been "naughty or nice" and then gives you gifts accordingly is nothing like the way God operates. God gave us the gift of his Son when we least deserved it. We could never prove ourselves good enough for the gift of salvation. Read Romans 5:8.

And what about our poor, deprived children you ask?

Ha.

Our boys have grown up knowing the truth about Santa and I can positively say that there is nothing they have been "deprived" of. In fact for them to know that the few presents they do receive come from mommy and daddy who love them whether they've been good or bad- it gives them a bit more of a thankful attitude and lessens the "i'm making my wish list for Santa" self-focused mindset.

They actually think it's pretty funny that they know "the secret" about Santa Claus and have been very good sports over the years when we are around other kids or families who believe.

Speaking of that- actually in my family I grew up believing in Santa and having that be a big part of our Chrsitmas traditions. Every year we would go to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve and "Santa" always would show up with a sackful of presents. Everyone took turns sitting on his lap, opened the traditional gift of pajamas, and then he would leave. This has gone on for more years than I've been alive I think.

And now that our kids are the only kids left and Christmas Eve is at our house- guess who still manages to show up at our door? My boys get a kick out of watching my mom and aunts get excited about Santa coming. They asked me last year "Mom, they don't REALLY believe he's real do they?" So we all play along and continue that tradition- knowing full well that this is a fun game and it is not what Christmas is about.

So, there you go. A few reasons why we tell the truth at Christmas.

But before you go accusing me of being a boring ol scrooge, who doesn't let her kids have any fun at Christmas, stay tuned for the next post...

If not Santa, then what?

I want to share a few of our Christmas traditions that we do to keep the focus on Christ, but would also love to hear some of yours as well. If you feel like sharing, leave a comment and I will mention and link your idea in my next post. If you have no ideas or time or whatever- don't worry, remember Christ is what matters!


*** A lot of what I wrote about here is much more eloquently written by the wonderful Noel Piper in one of my favorite books Treasuring God in our Traditions. I must give her the credit for a lot of what is written in this post and I highly reccommend this wonderful book for your family.



(for clarification-that was supposed to look like a "J" for Jesus, but she turned it the other way! You get the idea still though)

That was fast. I'm baaaack. :-)

Ok, so maybe all I needed to do was let go of some of the pressure I was feeling about everything and just blog what came to mind.

So today I want to direct you to someone else's blog actually.

Someone who I don't even "know" in real life, but who has chosen to be open and real about what God is doing in her life and who has impacted me greatly. She will probably never know that. But that's ok- Jesus will.


She is an amazing writer. Amazing. I cry almost every time I read her blog.

And yet, that is not what has impacted me.

It is her life. Her life lived in extreme devotion to Christ. And it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

It is the life of a young woman- 20 years old... living in Uganda....

Who has adopted 14 children.

And who is in charge of the care of 400 more.

Those of you in the blog-world probably already know who I am talking about.

Because once you read her blog, you are impacted. You don't forget and the more you read the more you long for your life to be lived with that same kind of passion and faith and closeness to Jesus.

Her name is Katie. And she is an ordinary college-age girl who has chosen God's path for her life and not looked back. She is just one example of many who have taken God's word seriously and chosen the abundant life. You may have noticed the button on my sidebar.
Amazima ministries is how Katie and her team help to feed and clothe those 400+ children in Uganda.

So if I have you curious now, go on and go to her blog.

I dare you to read and not be moved.



More than that, I challenge you to read and ask yourself "what am I doing to further the Kingdom of God and be Jesus' hands and feet?" "Am I living this abundant life that Jesus talked about so much and that people like Katie are living everyday?" "How can I pray for Katie and the orphans today?" "What can I possibly do to make a difference... when there are 143 million orphans and counting?"

These are all questions I have asked myself and am still wrestling with.

And it would be easy to go on and not think about it anymore. You know, because I don't actually live in Africa, and I'm not 20 years old, and I have 4 kids (oh wait that isn't an excuse since she has 14!), and we have a mortgage to pay for, yada yada yada! EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES!

What does following Christ look like today right here in Clovis, California?

I'm not quite sure. Yet. I know of a few who are doing just that right here and I am inspired by them as well.

But as I continue to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, I'll let you know what I come up with. :-)

For now, read and be moved into action my friends!

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Posting to resume....sometime....in the near future.

Ah.

This blog has been neglected. Yes, I know. And each night when I have a little bit of extra time after the craziness of the day I think ok I should really post a little something on the blog. It has been a journal of sorts for me and I really don't like to neglect it. And I like to tell myself that there are still a handful of folks who actually still read it. (So what if they are all related to me... it still counts right?)
So obviously most nights that never happens. Nothing gets updated. Because if it did then there would be a whole lot more posts and you wouldn't be able to scroll down the blog page and STILL see pictures from five months ago when we came home from Korea. Nope.


Some nights I do get online and check and respond to email or order curriculum and Christmas presents (can you tell what I've been doing lately?) But most nights I am just plain worn out from the going going all day and I just crash.

And you know what?

It's ok!

I love that others follow this blog, but when I start feeling guilty because I haven't posted in a week or two... I need to check my motives. Am I blogging for others' praise and so I get the glory for being some great writer or photographer or whatever? I hope not.

I started this blog as a place to record my thoughts and experiences as a follower of Christ. As a place to make known all of the things He is doing not only in my life but in the world. I wanted it to be a place to share about missions and the persecuted church and the plight of orphans and the journey of adoption and homeschooling and parenting and photography and just plain life as a believer.

But somewhere along the way I may have forgotten that reason.

I have so much to share, but instead of writing about it, I end up posting a few pictures and adding a little commentary about it. I spend all of my time just working on the darn pictures! DOn't get me wrong. I love taking pictures. I don't think I could ever post without having atleast one picture in it. It is a new passion I have! But I would love to get back to "Making Him Known" through this blog... whether that is through words written or pictures that reflect the beauty in what HE has created and done in our lives.

That is my new goal.

Call it an early New Years resolution or something like that.



And hopefully soon I can come back and write about what the Lord is doing around here. Because He has been at work. I just have been a slacker in recording it!

And don't worry. If the only reason you follow this blog is purely to see pictures of our beautiful Korean princess... you still might be in luck.

Because, c'mon how can I NOT want to share even a few of this precious gift of God?





It's hard to believe that a year ago we had no idea who this sweet little thing was and even still, I missed her soooo much at Christmas time.


Praise the Lord that she is here and celebrating the coming of the Messiah with her forever family!






I'll be back soon!!! ;-)

Here it is....Elliana's Gotcha Video!!!

For those of you who haven't seen it yet- it's long, but worth watching when you have the time! ENJOY! :-)




***Not sure why there is that black space on the left side... I think because my page isn't wide enough?

Adoption Sunday, Dedication, & Tol Celebration... whew!

Last Sunday was a big day for our family! We had our sweet Elliana dedicated to the Lord!
This was a day that I have been excited about for a very long time... since before Elliana was even born!
Our church celebrated adoption Sunday and it was the perfect Sunday for her to be dedicated. I made a little slide show of all of the adoptive families in our church and I'll post that soon too.



She did so well. Our pastor did a wonderful job of introducing her and then he asked Randy and I almost the same questions he asked Randy when he was baptized. It is more of a declaration of the parent's faith and desire to raise and disciple her as unto the Lord. I got a little emotional for a moment as we were up there, just thinking about all that God had done in our lives to bring us to that very moment.


Pastor Chuck was loving on Elliana too!


Then our pastor prayed for us... and Elliana of course started to make a little noise right then!
(Look at the way she is looking at him! And if you look closely everyone has a little smirk on their face because she was talking during the prayer!)


Ok this was funny to look at- notice how I am the only one paying attention to what the pastor is saying! The boys' expressions crack me up- they are trying really hard NOT to smile!


And a quick family picture by the cross outside- complete with the sun in our eyes!


Then after her dedication, we headed back home and had a Tol party! It is a traditional Korean 1st Birthday celebration and I was so excited to finally be able to do this as well! Koreans make a huge deal of a child's 1st birthday and this was no exception!

We chose to celebrate Elliana's 1st birthday a few months late because of several reasons, the main two being that at the time of her actual birthday she had only been home 2 weeks, and the fact that she was more like a 7 month old than a 1 year old. I am SO glad we waited! I would have never been able to pull off a big party like we did if we had only been home a few weeks and she would have been MAJORLY overwhelmed and she really is so much more like a one year old now than she was! We had a great time with lots of family and friends!


First we put Elliana in her Hanbok- which is the traditional Korean dress. Elliana's foster mother gave her this beautiful hanbok and I think it will fit her until she's 5 years old!


Blessing and prayer for the child are a part of the Tol celebration and Randy had the neat idea to have the multiple generations of men in her life surround her to pray a blessing over her.

It was my grandpa, Randy and his dad and of course the 3 big brothers. It was very special to see them surrounding her like that.


Next was the Toljabee. According to Korean custom, in this event, the birthday child goes around the table and picks up items that attract him or her. The child's future is predicted according to the what he or she grabs. I know it is silly, and of course we do not really believe in superstitions like this, but we thought it was a fun tradition that was worth doing. Here is a tray of the items that we put in front of her and their significance for her future. Some were traditional...
Needle & Thread- long life
Wooden spoon- good cook
Korean won (money) - wealthy
Pencil- scholar/ excels in academics

And then we added a few of our own:
Bible- ministry
Soccer ball- athletic like daddy
Financial calculator- (Randy uses it for his job as an appraiser.)
Camera- creative/ good at photography :)
Ballet slipper- dancer like mommy
Oh and it isn't in the picture, but the boys added their own item: a video game controller- hoping that she'll grown up to like and play lots of video games-lol!


Crawling up to the table


And what did she choose first?


The pencil!

And secondly the calculator




So I guess she is going to be a scholarly appraiser??!! :)


Here is a picture of the Tol table. It is customary to have stacks of fruit and many different kinds of rice cakes on the table to signify long life snd other things. Our rice cakes ended up being rice- krispy treats!

Tried to get a picture with her in it.

Not really too successful


Then we ate lots of yummy food! I am sad to say that I didn't get a single picture of any of the food. I made a few traditional Korean dishes like Bulgolgi, Japchae, Mandu, and pork lettuce wraps and friends and family brought other yummy dishes as well. Elliana even liked it!


Elliana opened a few presents


(this is our pastor's sweet wife holding the princess)

And then after everyone left- we let her have a little bite of cake.


She liked it!



Thanks so much to all of our family and friends who were able to come and celebrate with us. And a big THANKS to my friend Tamera who took just about every picture! I don't think I'd have a single picture from that day if it wasn't for her!

And the Gotcha Video is finally finished and I will post it soon! (for those who haven't seen it yet!)