Love & Generosity: Days 18-22

Well, we did it.

We made it through our first Christmas Sunday service without my mom.

I can't even begin to process it yet, and honestly all I want to do is go lay down by the fire.

So that's what I'm going to do.

I'll leave this post with you to catch us up on our Christmas Kindness Advent.

And yeah, I know it's the 23rd but the day is only half over...maybe some time for kindness later.:)

Off to rest.

***

We had our first snow this last week!

Breathtaking, isn't it?

 What, you can't see the smattering of drizzle on top of our garbage can?

In our world such a blizzard requires full on snow gear to be worn and children are to immediately run outside and frolic.

Day 18

Leave quarters at a gumball machine

 Eva with our bag of quarters at Elisha's swim lesson.

 Before leaving the money for other kids to enjoy the machines gummy goodness we had to sample the goods ourselves.  You know, just to make sure they were safe.  

Day 19

Thank the best piano teacher in the world with a Christmas gift

We love this lady.  She is so professional, so warm, so inspiring and encouraging to her students that we feel like we've won the lottery.  Local and looking for a piano teacher?  Let me know and I will hook you up!  And when I do I simply MUST tell you about her piano parties.  So much fun.

Days 20 & 21

A lot of our love & generosity has been giving gift certificates or going out and purchasing items to give away.  On these particular days we wanted to be resourceful with what we already had, because the truth is even though we're not millionaires we are still very rich in comparison to the rest of the world.  The fact alone that we have a refrigerator that holds food and I can go out anytime and purchase food puts us in a very blessed category.  So on these particular days we wanted to give of our time and resources in a different way.  I actually was going to do a different task but after praying about it this is how the Lord directed.  I had made a lasagna and also done some grocery shopping over these two days.  I was headed out the door to prayer meeting and I kept hearing the Lord say to go back inside, to pick up the lasagna we had made and a stack of chicken I had just bought and take it to the prayer meeting to give away.  I don't know about you, but more important than any kindness advent is living each day being directed by the Holy Spirit.  So I did.  And you know what?  The Holy Spirit knew just who to give it to.  And you know what else?  I can't tell you how many times people have done the same thing for me, and sometimes they even feel silly handing me a bag of potatoes or a pair of ice skates or a bag of clothes...but unbeknownst to them, it is ALWAYS something we can use, need, or that I've specifically prayed for.

You just never know when what you have in your house might be the blessing someone else needs.

Day 22

Our task was to empty out our money jar and take it to the Salvation Army bell ringers.  

I don't have a picture of that because we were busy shopping and pushing a cart with four little girls who were all a little shy to hand over the ziploc bag of coins.  But it put a big smile on the bell ringers' faces.

I love when the tables turn on us and we find ourselves blessed by someone else's love and generosity.

Isn't it amazing to see how God uses people to care for us?

On this same day my dad bought us lunch.

On this same night Lee's mom came to watch our children so we could go to Lee's work party.

On that same evening we dined atop a fancy hotel overlooking the river completely planned and paid for by Lee's company.  We received goodie bags and tickets to the movies and a gift certificate to a cafe.

We met lovely people and got to chat it up with old friends--Jen and Jason, you know who you are:)--who generously contributed to our adoption a year ago.  That same night they offered to do whatever was needed when we finally go to Ethiopia...are you all picking up on my clues in each advent blog post?

Most of you already know, especially if we are friends on facebook, but I have yet to tell the latest story on the blog.  I promise I will get to it this next week.

Let's just say, we are definitely going to Ethiopia in 2013.

Now go spread some love and kindness, or you know, go be kind to yourself and take a nap by the fire.:)

Maisey's 4th Birthday

This little girl is pretty special.

 December 13th of 2008 Maisey was born during an incredible snow storm that shut down our city for about two weeks.  I still remember how empty the maternity floor was, how most of the nurses were either stranded and spending the night or couldn't even make it in for their shift.  Our floor lost power for awhile and in those dark hours of the night while chaos broke out on the roads and alarms went off at the hospital and I was moved rooms multiple times, I got to hold sweet Maisey and felt absolute peace.

 I should've taken a clue by the weather as to her personality.

She is little but fierce, physically strong and absolutely capable of doing anything she sets her mind to with excellence.

 Her strength is balanced by her softness, a lot like the fresh fallen snow after a storm.

She has a quiet way about her, likes to fly under the radar.  She is shy but extremely courageous.  She never met a challenge she won't accept and conquer.

She looks up to her big sisters and nurtures her littlest one.  She is a straight shooter and a snuggler extraordinaire.  She wasn't sure she liked me for awhile, but now she's my little buddy.

We have an agreement between us:  I tell her I love her and she responds with, "I know mom.  I love you too, but remember our deal?  I love daddy the most."  Sounds like a good deal to me.  I kinda like the guy myself.

Smart as a whip, this one.  She's an excellent memorizer and anytime I give her school work to do she always wants more.  She knows her letters and has been working on writing her name even if all the letters don't end up in the correct order.  She remembers seemingly insignificant details of Bible stories and can rattle off the 91st Psalm.  She loves a good shock factor and just the other day announced to me how thrilled she was that the bathtub water can change color.  Ahem.

That's my girl.

To celebrate Maisey's bday we gave her a choice:  Have a traditional birthday party or choose a special adventure. Eva started the tradition of spending the night at the Embassy Suites hotel for her birthday, and Maisey decided she would follow suit this year.

Who can say no to swimming and colored cereal in the morning?

Breakfast buffets rock, and our family cleans the place out.

I am a big fan of the Embassy Suites.

I am not a Pinterest mom at this particular season of life.  Instead, I take the kids with me to the store and we pick out any birthday cake or cupcakes they like.  This is another accidental birthday tradition we have kept up because they think it's so cool to pick out their own stuff.  This was Maisey's choice and it was DELISH!

The evening always starts off with pizza and you can count on the girls' excitement level to be at an all time high the moment we load up the van.  Arriving at the hotel only kicks them into high gear and overloads every sense in their body.  Things get nutty funny fast.

Within about 30 minutes time we have unpacked the car, eaten pizza, cut cake, and opened presents.  

Then while daddy and mommy track down everyone's swimsuits and life jackets for pool time the birthday girl (whoever it happens to be at the time) parades around with her gifts and climbs on hotel apparatuses.  

Why are there no pictures of the pool?  Because I don't want to choose between my child drowning and a photo op.  We wear them out and then follow up with a movie and then bed.  Bwahaha!  Bed?  Yeah right.  Four girls sleeping in a hotel room is a joke.  Four girls staying up really late, crying, getting hungry at 11 p.m. and then daddy heading home with one or more of them to sleep in their own beds is more like it.  Sleep?  Who needs it.

All this girl wanted for her birthday was "Bunny Sthompeez and an elephant cuddleuppet."  I love how she says that phrase.  Cutest voice on the planet.  

Kids were a wee bit excited.

Since we celebrated her birthday a week in an advance at the hotel I completely forgot to do anything the day of her birthday, but BONUS, since she's only four she didn't even realize it was her birthday.  We have a birthday morning tradition of decorating the breakfast table.  Nothing huge but the kids really look forward to waking up to this little surprise.  I was so proud of Elisha and Eva.  They woke up really early because they wanted to decorate for Maizers.  They picked out the Angry Bird theme (Maisey's favorite right now) and even dressed up and made masks to look like the characters on there.  Warmed my heart and Maisey thought it was fantastic.  I really, really love my kids.  And I really, really love my husband who did a late night store run for decorations.  He's the most incredible guy ever.

Maisey Eden Pearl we are so blessed to be your parents.
You are truly treasure and light.
Thank you God for the gift of Maisey.

I started a little saying a few years ago that is now part of our family's fabric. We say it to each girl, inserting their name at the beginning of the phrase, sometimes in a silly voice to make them laugh, other times in a soft voice in their ear when we kiss them goodnight.  I couldn't end this post without saying it here.

"Maisey, I'm gonna love you all day, everyday, for the rest of your life."

Happy Birthday.

Love & Generosity: Days 14-17

We fell off the bandwagon for a few days and our random acts of kindness gifts and projects stacked up on my kitchen counter.  In fact, my kitchen counter is so out of control I moved the items to our dining table for your viewing pleasure.  You're welcome.

The deal is I have made one too many trips to the post office, you know what I mean?

You'd think I'd have everything consolidated for ease of errand execution but alas I do not.

I got off our "son" in Sudan's package and then completely forgot to mail one to our "daughter" in Ethiopia.  I'm pretty sure it is two weeks late from the deadline but I have had way too many deadlines swimming in my head.  If I don't make it on time maybe I can hand deliver it.:)

Days 14, 15, & 16

Put Mulu Tulu's Christmas package and send it.  

Supply gingerbread houses for a contest our worship team was having and put together lunch for the dance/drama team at church.

Sneak to my dad's and clean while he was out practicing his sermon (his first time speaking again this last Sunday since my mom died. So proud of him.  He's incredibly brave and we love him.)

Saturday night we partied it up!

We are great friends with another church in the area and our two worship teams joined together for a par-tay and gingerbread house making contest.

 Creativity abounded.

 Utter perfection.

 My man comes through with a train set and his team took off the front door of the house and put a light inside.  The stakes were getting higher.

 And then there was my team's house.

 Complete with it's own ice pond, chocolate bunnies, a toothpick snowman and gumdrop trees.

 A very merry place.  Almost too merry.  We ended up having a few "oops" and well, you see the yellow rope in the front?  It's caution tape.  A gingerbread man went down and we left his outline in the snow.  We were all laughing hysterically at our brilliance and our mishap until later when we realized it probably wasn't appropriate timing to be funny about a scene like that.  So I am posting this picture knowing you will all understand it was in the "heat of the moment", nothing at all to do with recent news events, and absolutely no gingerbread men were hurt.

 Day 17

As most of you know I totally heart child sponsorship.  In the last year I've had the privilege of travelling to two of our sponsored children's countries and I truly hope to travel to them all someday.  Well, Sunday night I volunteered for my first Compassion event.  There was a local concert going on and I joined a group of volunteers to advocate for waiting children.  With the recent tragedy on our minds we all laid hands on the photos of waiting children and prayed.  There's a lot of hurt and pain in our world and we need the Savior of it to heal us and bring hope.  That's what sponsorship does in a child's life.  It brings hope.  And while I can't bring back the lives of the 27 lost on Friday in Connecticut, I can for sure change the life of one child who might otherwise not make it.

As we were passing out children's profiles I heard my friend Heidi (in the blue shirt) looking for a child with the birth date of October 24th.  It's pretty common for folks to sponsor a child with their matching birth date, and while Heidi was looking for young lady who had come to our table I heard her say, "Well, I don't have October 24th but I do have the 25th."  Ding ding ding ding ding!  Bells were going off in my head.  October 25th?  That's the day my mom died.  I asked to see the profile knowing full well Lee and I had not agreed to add another sponsored child to our family.  But within a matter of minutes I was over the moon for this little guy and the Lord reminded me that I had asked for our next sponsored child to be in Guatemala.  Not sure exactly why God laid Guatemala on my heart but He did.  And there I was looking at this little boy who was undoubtedly meant to be ours.  Who knows, maybe I was supposed to be at the event just for him.

 So simple.

Monthly sponsorship changes lives.  I've seen it first hand and I'm a believer.  I'm also in serious of need of brushing my teeth after my morning smoothie.  Chia seed much?  It's ok, you can look.

 Braulio has quite the name.  It goes on forever.:)

The other thing that touched my heart besides his sweet face is that he was born the same year as my Eva, just a few days before her.  He's a 6 year old and right now 6 year olds are on my heart.  I know they're on the heart of this nation.

Isn't he going to be such a fine young man?

I just know it.

His whole life ahead of him and with hope his future is about to change for the better.

So many themes the Lord continues to weave together for me:

Love and generosity, compassion that moves us to action, and living in hope.

God's story in my life, in yours, and little Braulio's continues to be written.

My mom may be gone, and the lives of 27 Americans may be gone but there are so many, so so many whose world could be changed right now.  We need to grieve loss.  We SHOULD grieve. That's right, it's human, and it's Christ-like.  We don't have to rush that or apologize for it. I always tell people when they ask how I'm doing, "I'm moving FORWARD, but I haven't moved ON."  Does that make sense?  I'm not just picking up and pretending life is normal and will go on the same as it did before October 25th, because it won't.  The same is true for all of the victims' families from Friday's tragedy.  Our nation SHOULD pause.  We should weep and be broken over such loss.  

  BUT for me, in the days and week of losing my mother I know I am faced with a choice.  Stay paralyzed in grief and hopelessness OR look to HIM for all I need...  I'm gonna keep going, keep loving, keep giving, keep serving until I leave this world.  I have a joy in my heart that the enemy of this world can't take away.  We never know when our time is.  If anything, this year has taught me that.  

I gotta make it count. 

I wasn't planning on making any sort of pitch here, but it seems appropriate to at least put the link for Compassion.  If sponsorship is a way God is stirring you then don't wait another minute.

www.compassion.com

And wherever you are, may the God of all grace fill you with HOPE tonight.

Love & Generosity: Days 7-13

I promise I have a really, really good reason for not keeping up with our daily advent posting, but that good news is going to have to wait awhile.  We are B-to the IZZY.  As we wind down this semester of school it has been fun to do something loving and thoughtful everyday.  It is great to be intentional about others and the girls really enjoy discovering what our objective is each day.

Day #7

Put together 3 blessing bags for the homeless.  I got this idea from my dear friend Amy, and if I had a few extra minutes on my hands I would find the exact post in which she tells what blessing bags are and how to put them together.  Basically, the idea is to have something handy in your car when you see someone in need.  We have a fair amount of homeless who stand at freeway exits with signs needing money/work/food and we thought that'd be a good place to start.

It was a hoot shopping with the girls for things they thought our friends in need might like.  Lotion, chapstick, beef jerky, toothpaste, toothbrushes, cookies, nutri-grain bars...and the list went on.  Some of their suggestions were comical but for the most part they really thought through what someone on the street might need and then they were on the look out.

(I love that this picture is of our blessing bags next to my day planner.  Ethiopia, always close to my heart.)

It was raining pretty hard Friday when we set out.

I didn't want to take pictures of us actually handing them out, and actually this gal I couldn't get to because we were across the lanes and I couldn't get back on the freeway and swing back around. We did however pass out two of our blessing bags.  Can you believe we are still working on the last one?  Either Portland is doing a great job helping the homeless or there is some kind of migration going on and these folks have moved on to warmer weather.  I wouldn't blame them one bit!  The first guy we approached was a DOLL.  He was in his 60s and actually reminded us of Santa Claus.  We told him we knew it wasn't much but that we wanted him to know he was loved and thought of that day.  He had the most sincere grin on his face and as soon as he saw the toothpaste in his pack his face lit up, "Oh!  I've been needing some new toothpaste!  Thank you!"  Can you believe that?  I mean, it was incredibly humbling to think that something I take for granted everyday could literally make someone else's.  

DAYS 8 & 9

We had the delightful task of going grocery shopping to stock up on pantry items for our care ministry at church.  We also bought flowers to give away.  We had a lot of fun on this outing and giggled discussing who we could surprise with flowers.  They were fun to give away and ended up going to a sweet friend who has dropped everything time and again to help our family in this transition time of life without my mom.  So thankful for GREAT friends!

DAY 10

Get a drive thru lunch and pay for the person behind us.

We chose Burgerville and the girls wrote a note ahead of time for the cashier to hand to the car behind us.

Long line that day but well worth the wait as the kids twisted around in their seats trying to get a glimpse of who we were going to surprise.  

Oh Burgerville.

Your spicy black bean burgers are divine.

The cashier was kind and really liked the idea of paying it forward.  As we drove away we could hear her telling whoever was behind us "Merry Christmas from the van that just drove away."  

We love brightening someone else's day.  We feel like Santa in his sleigh, only I drive a 12 passenger van and my reindeer ride INSIDE.  

Day 11

Writing letters and sending packages to our sponsored children.

This particular letter was going to our "son" Bona in Darfur, Sudan.  He can only receive letters once a year and the girls make sure to include many spectacular drawings and stickers they think he would love.  It's not the same as going there in person, but we hope when he opens it he will be reminded that in our eyes he is not an orphan but part of our family.  We love you Bona!

DAY 12

Send Christmas books and DVD to an unsuspecting family.

Who could the mystery family be?

I'll give you a hint.

They live where it's warm.:)

And bonus material:  Willoughby running the length of the post office while the other girls entertained her by chasing and then Willoughby deciding she was a cat and crawling on her hands and knees "meowing" while I tried to send this package off.  It's even better that she doesn't have an "inside voice" so that not only do the people INSIDE the building hear everything she says but also all patrons in the parking lot.  Sa-weeeet.

Here's Maisey trying to show me how strong she is by holding this thing.

She looks like she's in pain.

Aaah, that's better.

All this kindness wore us out and the girls needed some energy.

How about getting powered up with a tub of icing?

It's time to make our annual gingerbread house!

My dad was over for this one and thought it would be great fun until he started laughing that I pulled it out.of.a.box.  That's right.  My mom baked actual gingerbread.  This mom buys it.  So sue me.  Only $9.99?  And it comes in a kit?  DONE.

While we were at it we had daddy make a sneaky delivery...

Day 13

Surprise someone with a movie pack...some candy and a cinema gift card.

We couldn't think of anyone better to bless today that two dear ladies who are models of perseverance, joy, hope, and trusting in God.  Truly, they are wonderful women and we are lucky enough to live close to them.  So this was a no-brainer.

And while daddy was off we basked in the glory and splendor of our masterpiece.

I love Maisey's "This is sooooo good" face complete with rolling of eyes.

This is my "I long for you sweet gingerbread house" gaze.

The front, compliments of Eva.

Not sure what happened here.

Well, I might take a guess...I see lots of fingers at works swiping licks.

This house didn't stand a chance, and not 5 minutes after they were done did they start eating all the candy off of it.  As it stands on my stove right now there are large finger trails down the iced side.  Like a dog marks his territory, these kids have marked theirs with saliva and I can guarantee daddy and I will not be partaking of said gingerbread.

This mama has a lot to do in the morning so I'm off to snuggle my husband on the couch while I sip on my tall skinny decaf peppermint mocha.

Good night all!