Christmas Traditions

I can't wait for Katie to share in some of our Christmas traditions!  The trees and the decorating are obviously big favorites for me.  

We love some nutcrackers in this house.  

Each child gets a new one each year, and they all did this year (including Katie Ruth).

We haven't broken any of them yet this year, which is a record.

They do get rearranged daily, thanks to Jack.

We also get new ornaments each year to memorialize something we did that year.

Sometimes they're for vacations we've taken, or for something the boys liked.

We have bikes for the year they learned how to ride their bicycles, and Dora for the year David was obsessed with her.  This year we got three new R*****n ornaments for our Katie Ruth.

I write the year on the bottom so we don't forget when we got them, and we have fun every year talking about why we got them, where we got them, etc.

This is hung up HIGH.  Like, top of the ten foot tree high. 

I had to stand on the back of the couch to take a photo of it.  I don't recommend that.

The boys' favorite Christmas tradition is our advent calendar.  

Each day someone gets to open a door and there are tiny gifts inside each door.

And I mean tiny - some of them have been chocolates, four quarters, a lego mini figure, a parachute man, stickers, gum, and things like that.  I have to keep it on top of the refrigerator so no little fingers get into it!

The person who opens the door on the calendar also gets to open book.  I wrap 24 Christmas books at the end of November and put them all in a basket.  They open the book and we read it that night before bed.  (The person who opens the door and the book also gets to be first that day when we're leaving the house, getting ready for bed, picking stories, etc.  It's a big deal around here to be first!)

My other favorite?  CHRISTMAS CARDS!  I love them.  I text Chris each day from work to see if we got any in the mail.  He saves them for me to open because he knows how much I love them.  I love sending them (and want our's to be the first one people get) and I really love getting them!

Go here to read about one of my favorite card recipients!

Hopefully next year there are six people on our card instead of five.

I can't wait for Katie girl to be here to be part of our Christmas traditions!

Coins for Katie Goes VIP

When we had our Coins for Katie Pancake Breakfast, it was covered by a local magazine, VIP Murfreesboro.  The issue was published recently, and there's a full page feature about our breakfast.  There are some great photos, and we are so lucky to have been included in this issue.  What a fun thing for us to keep and show Katie!  (And my name is listed as "Karen", which cracks me up literally every time I think of it!)

You can find the online edition of this issue here.  Thanks VIP Murfreesboro!

Katie's First Christmas Gift

I had lunch with my friend Joey yesterday and she gave us Katie's first Christmas gift!  (You may remember me posting about Joey earlier and the delicious jam she gave us, as well as the tutu and hairbow she mad for Katie.) 

She gave us a really sweet book that I had never read, "On the Night You Were Born", by Nancy Tillman.  It's a perfect book that talks about how on the night you were born people celebrated and that there was never anyone like you born before.  It talks about how special "you" were on the night you were born, and how much we love "you" because of how special you are.  I cannot think of something more appropriate.  Although we obviously didn't know Katie on the day she was born, she is special to us already, and we will spend our lives making sure she knows that.  She may have had a rough start, but we want her to know how loved and special she is to our family, our friends, and people she will never even meet.  Joey also gave us a really soft, squishy, snuggly polar bear that we will bring with us to Katie's country when we travel for the first time.  We will leave it with her so she has something to snuggle.  I plan also to bring the book and read it to her while we're there.  I know she won't understand a word I'm saying, but someday she will.  Katie is so, so fortunate to have so many people who already love her and are praying for her and working hard to bring her home.  I can't wait for her to feel that herself!

Let the Translation Begin!

What does that photo mean?

It means our registration dossier and court dossier have been delivered in Katie's Country!

This is awesome news!

Let the translation begin. . . 

We Have Movement!

Why are they so excited??

Because our dossier package has been sent to Katie's country to be translated!

(OK, they were excited about Thanksgiving lunch at school. . . play along.)

YAHOO!

What does that mean? 

It now will be translated and submitted for registration.  

Once it's registered?

We get a travel date to meet our girl!!

This will still likely be two months in the future, but we're excited that there's progress!

Paying it Forward

We have been so incredibly blessed by so many generous people who have helped with our fundraising and have supported our family throughout this process, both with their financial donations and their emotional support and encouragement.  Chris and I have always tried to consciously teach our boys about helping other people and have tried to impress upon them how fortunate they are.  It's difficult to really gauge how much understanding they have of that because they are so little, but we want them to grow up to be giving, generous, helpful adults.

We thought it was especially important this year to make sure our boys were involved in helping other people.  We have done a few things to do this, and have included the kids with choosing what to participate in.  The first thing we did was help with a can drive at school to help feed families in our county.  The boys each selected some non-perishable foods to donate, and we talked about some reasons people may not be able to buy enough food.  Henry's class brought in the most canned foods in the school, and they won a pizza party!  He is so proud of his class and excited for his party.

The school that we are so fortunate to have our boys in does a lot of things to benefit the people of our community.  They are committed to ensuring each child in our county has a Christmas gift, and they are doing a toy drive.  David and Henry each will select a toy to bring in for a child who may not otherwise get a Christmas gift.

My favorite activity we have done is to participate in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan's Purse.  We filled these three shoebox sized boxes with toys, candy, books, and some personal hygiene items like soap, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.  The boys picked every single item in the boxes themselves.  It was a bit frantic and frenzied, but they were excited.  Very excited. . . .we had to cut down the items they included by about fifty percent!  Henry and Jack each chose to buy items for a boy, and David picked a girl.  It was interesting to see him choosing items for a girl his age - needless to say, we didn't always have the same ideas!  They were excited to pick toys and gifts for people who would not get gifts, and we talked a lot about how Katie will celebrate (or not) Christmas at her orphanage.

Thank you for being part of helping us make our boys more aware of how we can help other people.  And thank you for helping us.

Come on Santa

I made this stocking for Katie last night.

It's a stocking from the Dollar Tree, and I made the Matroyshka doll from a very easy pattern and template I found here.  I admit I cheated a bit - the flowers are pre-made pins/hair clips I found at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each.  I don't really plan on this being Katie's stocking forever, so I can take the flowers off and put them in her hair or on a sweater or shirt.  The doll was SUPER easy to make, and this is a very inexpensive way to make a cute stocking.  If I had made the flowers instead of purchasing pre-made versions I think the whole stocking would have cost about $3 or $4.  Some come on Santa!  Katie's stocking is ready.

I'm also going to use the pattern to make something similar to this for her room. 

I can't decide if I'm going to make this using scrapbook papers or fabric. . . I like this version from Etsy, but it's about $70.  I don't like it that much!