God bless you everyone

Here are a few of the nicer photos from last night. Most of the photos just didn't turn out well. The lights were too low and everything moved too fast. Sarah wore her Bell dress. I ordered this dress two years ago and had it sent to my friend (Jodi was that you?). She took it to China and gave it to our waiting Sarah. I sent many things to China for Sarah; this dress was the only thing we got back. Who cares! We got the girl! She is so happy and wonderful now! Tomorrow my friend Jodi goes back to China for another beautiful Chinese daughter. I wish I could go back too. More and more I wish Sarah had a sister.

God bless you this Christmas

Operation Christmas Child in China

Sarah's new baby

I know it's not Christmas yet, but I gave Sarah an early gift. She got a new baby doll named Anna. Anna speaks German. I had to go to the store and buy Anna some socks and I had hoped not to shop this week! It's so cool how "girly" Sarah is with her baby. You don't need to be a girly girl to be a good mommy!

Peking duck

I'm just taking a rest from the work

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.
-- Erma Bombeck

No self-respecting mother would run out of intimidations on the eve of a major holiday.
-- Erma Bombeck

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
-- Erma Bombeck

It's the small stuff

A few weeks ago I got the letter that says to check your kids head for lice. I checked Sarah's head but found nothing (not that I really knew what to look for). Nicole's head started to itch so I checked her. I saw small bites and white stuff that I thought was dry skin. I figured (wrong) that these where spider bites. I was looking for brown little bugs and found none. Anyway, my head started to itch. Juergen checked my head (after educating himself on what to look for) and said that yes I had lice. Just great!!! I wanted to try a natural method to get rid of the little beasts. Nicole and I poured olive oil into our hair and covered our heads with shower caps. We slept over night with oily heads. this morning we washed the oil out with a shampoo that has tea tree oil (actually it's a dog shampoo)and rinsed our heads with vinegar. Sarah, Jessica, and Juergen all also have lice. Our natural method just won't work with Jessica and Sarah. Juergen went to the doctor to get a prescription for the medicated shampoo that kills lice. Philip and Thomas never brush their hair. I'm sure that's how they escaped this fate. It also seems lice prefer clean hair...so perhaps this also has something to do with the boys bug free heads? Now I have to boil all the hair brushes and wash all the cloths and blankets and sheets. We are talking about a mountain of cloths. Ho Ho Ho!!!
BTW: more important then a special shampoo or what you put in your hair is a special comb (like a flee comb) that helps you brush out the eggs of the lice. I thought I had a clean head until I started to brush it with the special comb. They say the shampoo only gets rid of 30% of the problem, the comb gets rid of the other 70%.

we smash our food

Your not raising grass you're raising kids(up date)

I bought Thomas, Nicole and Philip new winter jackets this week. Thomas took his off on the playground at school and forgot it. I get so frustrated with him. He has ADHD and this is so typical of him. He does his homework, and forgets to pack it in his school bag. He loses his shoes, coats, gloves. Today is the last day of school before Christmas vacation. I want the vacation to be positive so I pray he finds his coat. I'm just going to have to go buy another coat if he doesn't find it. It was such a nice jacket!!! I'm not raising grass, I'm raising kids. Sometimes my kids frustrate me sooooo much!!!!! God needs to remind me that I can destroy them with the roll of my eyes and the anger in my voice. Thomas, because of his ADHD does stuff like this often. Pray for me friends! A lost jacket is nothing compared to a lost boy. I want to build my kids up during this vacation. I need a theme song!!! Maybe you need it too?


UP DATE- He didn't find his coat. I pray that someone who really needed it found it. In the mean time I ate a big piece of cake. Maybe that is why fat people are "jolly", they eat cake when their kids lose new coats!

I saw this on my friend Jodi's blog, how fun!!!

I was checking Jodi's blog. She is traveling to China in less then 10 days. Oh boy!!! I am so happy for her family. Anyway, she had this cute Disney video. All my kids (except Sarah) have been to Disneyland in California and Paris. Paris is only 4 hours from us. We will have to take Sarah in 2009. This will be Sarah's big year!!!

Juergen teaching Nicole an old song

This is Juergen teaching our 15 year old Nicole an old song. At the end of this video you see Sarah making good use of Juergen's guitar case. It was cute!

I'm in love with another man... Up Date

HE JUST GOT HIS FAMILY. SADLY IT IS NOT US. GLADLY HE WILL HAVE A FAMILY!!!


AAI sent me their DVD of waiting Thai kids. I screamed with joy when I saw it in the mail box. They have about 35 waiting boys (most are just older and healthy) and 15 girls with greater needs. Why won't people adopt boys? Anyway, there is a 5 year old I have already met. He is such a doll. If I could just move Juergen, Germany, Thailand (they don't like larger families) and the USA I could adopt this boy. As hard as it is to move governments Juergen is the biggest obstacle. But this boy cried when Juergen left him after we visited the orphanage. It was like the boy choose Juergen. That just proves the kid has very good judgment. I know what I want for Christmas.
HERE is an overview of AAI's Thai program. We adopted Philip and Thomas with AAI. They are really great! I love Thailand. I know I would have no shortage of volunteers to travel there if we could adopt from that beautiful country again. Don't hold your breath folks. It probably can not happen for us. But maybe it could happen for you. Thailand is beautiful and the kids are all treasures.

In China now...amazing Grace

Here is a family that is in China now adopting Grace, an older girl I prayed for! I'm so happy she will be spending Christmas with her new family!!! Isn't she cute! God bless her new family!!!

a blog to look at

HERE is a family that has adopted 3 kids from Ethiopia. They have a very large family and they blog about it. With my new interest in Ethiopian adoption, you know this is one blog I'm going to be looking at! What a beautiful family!!!

Anyone want to help bring two Chinese kids home? Please HELP!!!

First let me rant a little!!! Everything in the world of International adoption seems to have gotten harder. The world has more and more orphans, the orphanages are full and the governments of the world keep on piling on more rules and fees making it even harder for average families (we are not all millionaires) to adopt!!! It makes me really angry that they seem to make it impossible. I know it's not impossible but it can be discouraging. I guess like everything else in this tuff economy, we need to pull together. We need to help each other out. So here is the deal...

A very good blog friend and her sister in law are adopting from China. They just got hit with the news that the orphan donation fee will now be raised by $2,000 in January. That is an extra $4,000 for them because they are pulling their resources. In order to raise some extra cash they are raffling off a GARMIN Nuvi 200. If you donate $10 to the raffle and post this cause on your blog they will give you two raffle tickets. Here is my appeal to you. Even if you don't need a navigator, it would make a cool gift. I can not begin to tell you what a great family this is! I love this family! They are not rich in money but they have beautiful hearts. This is their 2nd adoption of an older Chinese child. Please help bring Bethany and Eli home. HERE is the website. please give and please put this on your blog. Many small donors will move this mountain. You can be a part of the miracle of adoption! And this note to my friend and fellow adopted mom...
do not freak out! There is a saying in Africa, "God's going to butter my bread". I'm so sorry that you got hit by this fee. I'm sorry that it's hitting so many families that already find it very hard to come up with the funds. But God loves these kids, and this fee is no surprise to him. I want to see God butter your bread!!!

This is an unofficial guide to Ethiopian adoption.

A book that has really touched my heart is "There is no me without you" by Melissa Fay Greene. I have raised money for Ethiopian orphans for years. After reading this book I wanted to adopt from Ethiopia. I still do...but God would have to move Juergen and the German government for this to happen. I hear I'm too old to adopt from Ethiopia at least this is what I've heard. Anyway, I encourage you to read this amazing book. I also found Melissa Fay Greene’s blog. HERE is an unofficial guide to Ethiopian adoption.
And here are the official rules for Ethiopian adoption. I could not adopt a baby from Ethiopia, but I could adopt an older child according to these rules.

I just love the eyes of the children from Ethiopia

Who will buy this wonderful feeling

This video is from the play Oliver. I bought the 2 DVD set of the musicals “Oliver" and "Anne". I wondered how the kids would react to seeing orphans in really bad orphanages. It's funny, but Sarah was singing and dancing to Anne. She wanted to watch it twice. Now Philip and Thomas are glued to Oliver. The boys didn't want to watch Anne, and Sarah doesn't want to watch Oliver. Sarah loves the dances. She is dancing along. It's too cute! And Thomas (who doesn't watch TV) is totally into Oliver. I'm grateful my kids didn't come from such dark orphanages. I would love to think that was just then, but I know there are some pretty awful orphanages even today. I love this song, "who will buy". Sometimes I just sit and watch my kids...and I get that feeling of wanting to freeze time.

Thai dye bags

We want to raise $1,000 for CCD in Thailand. This is a Christian orphanage that helps disabled orphans receive better care. I have set up a blog that tells you what we are doing. We will be tie dying 50 shopping bags over Christmas vacation. These bags will sell for $5.00 + postage. You can naturally give us more money for each bag. I can only guarantee they will be made with love by myself and Philip, Thomas, Sarah, and Nicole. We will do our best. 100% of your money will go to CCD. You can pre order a bag today, just e-mail me. We only plan to make 50 so first come first serve. I will ship them sometime in early January. My Thai Dye Bag blog is HERE.

We are ready for Christmas!

Martha Stewart's Christmas Letterto Erma Bombeck
Hi Erma,
This perfectly delightful note is being sent on paper I made myself to tell you what I have been up to. Since it snowed last night, I got up early and made a sled with old barn wood and a glue gun. I hand painted it in gold leaf, got out my loom, and made a blanket in peaches and mauves. Then to make the sled complete, I made a white horse to pull it, from DNA that I had just sitting around in my craft room.
By then, it was time to start making the place mats and napkins for my 20 breakfast guests. I'm serving the old standard Stewart twelve-course breakfast, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I didn't have time to make the tables and chairs this morning, so I used the ones I had on hand.
Before I moved the table into the dining room, I decided to add just a touch of the holidays. So I repainted the room in pinks and stenciled gold stars on the ceiling. Then, while the homemade bread was rising, I took antique candle molds and made the dishes (exactly the same shade of pink) to use for breakfast. These were made from Hungarian clay, which you can get at almost any Hungarian craft store.
Well, I must run. I need to finish the buttonholes on the dress I'm wearing for breakfast. I'll get out the sled and drive this note to the post office as soon as the glue dries on the envelope I'll be making.
Hope my breakfast guests don't stay too long, I have 40,000 cranberries to string with bay leaves before my speaking engagement at noon. It's a good thing.
Love,Martha Stewart
P.S. When I made the ribbon for this typewriter, I used 1/8-inch gold gauze. I soaked the gauze in a mixture of white grapes and blackberries which I grew, picked, and crushed last week just for fun.

Response from Erma Bombeck:
Dear Martha,
I'm writing this on the back of an old shopping list, pay no attention to the coffee and jelly stains. I'm 20 minutes late getting my daughter up for school, packing a lunch with one hand, on the phone with the dog pound, seems old Ruff needs bailing out again. Burnt my arm on the curling iron when I was trying to make those cute curly fries, how DO they do that? Still can't find the scissors to cut out some snowflakes, tried using an old disposable razor ... trashed the tablecloth. Tried that cranberry thing, frozen cranberries mushed up after I defrosted them in the microwave. Oh, and don't use Fruity Pebbles as a substitute in that Rice Krispie snowball recipe, unless you happen to like a disgusting shade that resembles puke! The smoke alarm is going off, talk to ya later.
Love,Erma

Santa came to our house

Nikolastag is Dec 6Th in Germany. I really like this tradition. It makes it very clear that Christmas is not about Santa, Santa has his own day. Philip did not get what he wanted from Santa. He was a little sad. I told him it wasn't Christmas yet. He gave me a picture of exactly what he wants. Sarah loves her truck.

see the learning

Leapfrog has a contest called see the learning. The prize is a family trip to Southern California. It is open to people in the USA (this counts us out). You just need to send in a photo or short video of your child learning with a leap frog toy. I love the leapster. Too bad we can not enter this contest. But maybe you can win a trip to LA. Enter before Dec 17TH. Good luck!

http://www.leapfrog.com/en/landingpages/seethelearningcontest.html

So good!

What do you cook when you don't have time to cook? Waffles! I put a little fresh ground vanilla and cinnamon in my batter. My house smells so good!!! I have a double waffle maker. It’s great because I don’t need to stand there all day cooking. The maple syrup is not easy to find in Germany. It cost me almost 6 Euros. That’s a little outrageous. But we generally put apple sauce or yogurt or Nutella on them. I’m so glad it’s Friday.

I made this last year, open your heart to adoption

The Papers

Here is a list of the papers you need to adopt from China. Most other countries will also require these papers for an international adoption.

China Dossier Requirements

Adoption Application (written by parents)

Home Study report from a licensed adoption agency

Certified copies of birth certificates for each parent

Certified copy of marriage certificate; Divorce decree(s), if applicable

Current police clearance letters for each parent

Certified Medical Certificates

Financial Statement

Employment Letter for each parent

I-171H or I-797C Approval Letter (provided by USCIS)
All of the documents above must be notarized, certified and authenticated. The dossier must
also include:

Copy of Passports

Photographs (2 passport photos of each parent and several photos depicting family life)

Interagency agreement/ Licenses

Post-adoption report Agreement

It takes between 3 to 6 months to get the paper work together. If you think you might want to adopt you should start getting your paper work together. The birth certificates and marriage certificate; Divorce decree(s) need to be new.