my heart

is breaking for two people that mean an awful lot to me.

for my sister.

for my friend.

both have children waiting in a far off country. children that they have been preparing to go and redeem. neither are on a plane. neither know when they will travel. both have been told that they will need to wait until more paperwork is finished.

my sister was planning to leave on christmas ever and return today, with a baby boy in her arms. after cancelling their tickets they are $900 poorer, plus they will need to buy airline tickets at outrageous costs, since they will have little time to plan their trip.

my friend has watched airline tickets go up by $300 since last week and another $150 since yesterday. christmas falls in summer in peru and since the beaches in lima are a major surfing destination....well you get the idea. they thought they would have a sna appointment on jan 10th, but not sure that will happen now.

it is heart wrenching to watch. my stomach is sick just thinking about it.

my sister is waiting to pick up a beautiful brown skinned baby boy.

my friend is waiting to pick up her gorgeous brown skinned daughters, 12 and 8.

although i have tried to tell them how much i care, to pray for them, to listen to them pour out their pain. i feel i fall short of saying the 'right' thing. of even knowing what the 'right' thing to say is. of being able to express my love and my concern. my anguish.

i believe in the very depths of my soul that there is a reason for the wait. that in the long run it will be for the best. that God is in control. i know these things, because i have seen God work in amazing ways. i have seen Him change the hearts of people in authority. i have seen Him do things that were deemed impossible. i have seen Him. in little things. in big things.

i. have. seen. Him.

i know He is able to accomplish anything. but my brain is having a difficult time wrapping itself around this one. i guess this is when trust and faith come into play. somehow i wish it were easier. i wish there was something more that i could do. something to make it all right. to ease their pain. to soothe their souls. but that is the work of God, not me. so the best i can do is pray that God will protect their children, their hearts and will work a miracle for each of them.

will you join me in praying for these women i dearly love?

these things i will ask you to pray for.

1. that the person or people in charge of looking over documents at the u.s. embassy in ethiopia will look over my nephew's file and process it tomorrow.

2. that travel permission will be granted immediately for my sis and her hubby to travel to their son.

3. that the judges in peru will no longer be on strike and one will be able to sign the necessary documents for my friend's daughters tomorrow.

4. that those papers will be taken promptly to the u.s. embassy in lima, peru and processed. that the article 5 letter will be granted as well as travel permission for my friend and her husband.

will you join me?

please.

pray.

treasure

my littlest princess is tucked into her bed. hopefully soon visions of sugar plums will dance in her head.

she has been so excited watching us get ready for christmas.

baking cookies.

shopping for and wrapping presents.

watching music programs.



talking about baby Jesus.

i've spent a lot of time thinking about mary this year. thinking about treasuring things in my heart. things to pull out later and take a closer look. pondering how much i have seen God work in my littlest daughter's life. watching her learn what a family is and seeing her fall in love.

her sweet little brown arms wrapping around my neck. her lips puckered in a big smootch. giggles. new words, almost everyday.

i have two friends that have just been matched by peru. one will probably travel in about a month or less, the other probably early march. there is something so powerful about knowing others who have children from my child's country. i hope to travel to visit them someday. it would be so much fun to all travel back to peru together in a few years.

on the other hand i am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my youngest sister is not on her way to pick up her sweet little boy. for some reason her travel was cancelled. they are still waiting to find out exactly what they need to do. hopefully it will be easy, quick and they will be on their way to africa. my heart hurts for them. i know how badly they wanted to hold that little boy tomorrow. to bring him home.

i wonder how mary did it. knowing who her baby really was, the Maker of the universe, the Sacrificial Lamb, the Messiah. did those treasures help her in the dark days, when He hung on a cross? was she able to find those treasures to aid in her grieving when He left for heaven?

my small group girls came over on sunday night. we ate snacks and talked. we had planned on going caroling, but they wanted to see the peru pictures and hear some stories. i am close to these girls and my co-sponsor. we have been through some tough times and it is a joy to be with these young ladies.

A asked a question: if you could be anyone at all in the christmas story who would it be? i loved their answers. deep thoughts. sweet answers.

who would you be? a shepherd? a king? mary? an angel? i chose anna. she and simeon met up with mary and joseph and the 8 day old Jesus in the temple. how exciting it would have been to have held your Savior in your arms...knowing who He was.

what a treasure the newborn King was. not just for mary or anna or the wise men. but for you and for me. you see He did not come here to be born, so that we could celebrate and buy gifts for one another. He actually came to die. for me. for you. so that we could LIVE. eternally. as His children. the children He would adopt. the branches He would graft onto His family tree. making a beautiful tree, with different branches. not unlike our family tree. with some ancestors from germany and some from wales, but now some from peru and ethiopia.

this is the true treasure.

drum roll please

the drawing ended at 7 am central time this morning.















thank you to all of you that entered. i was especially warmed by your christmas traditions. it was fun to read all of your messages, some tugged at my heart strings...a few left me wiping away tears. i wanted each of you to win. truly. but alas, there could only be one winner. how i wish that i could have made something for each of you.

if you would like to order something for yourself or a friend, i will do my best to get those done by the weekend. you can visit my etsy shop.

i thought the hubby would help me draw out a name this morning. life didn't work that way for us today. so little bit drew out the winner this afternoon. just minutes ago.















lil.

that's right, you are my winner.

let me know how to get a hold of you and we can talk shop. be thinking of what you would like your necklace to say.

congrats!

paying it forward

in the last 24 hours i have been immeasurably blessed.

thanks to matilda jane clothing and my sweet sis.

in return i want to bless you, too.

or at least one of you.

so this is what i am going to do....another drawing!















for a personalized necklace.

this is what you have to do to play:

1. leave a comment on here, facebook or by email.
2. tell me about one favorite holiday tradition.
3. make sure you leave me your name.

i will keep the drawing open over the weekend. on monday morning 7 am central time i will have the hubby draw one out of the basket and you will be my winner.

it's pretty simple.

you can have it for yourself or for someone else, because you will get it in time for christmas, unless you live in australia or something, then let's hope for new year's day!

this is what you will receive.

one silver disk with one word of your choice stamped on a 3/4 inch circle, a small freshwater pearl and one 18 inch snake chain. all in a pretty little drawstring pouch.

good luck!

matilda jane

today was an ordinary day.

i got emma ready for school.

i got ready for work.

i kissed her goodbye...daddy takes her to school.

i went to work.

worked all day.

came home.

saw a giant package sitting on the kitchen counter.














hmmmm....a package from matilda jane?

for me?

so i rip open the package and peer inside.

brown tissue paper and a card.















my mother taught me that you should always read the card first. so i did. this is what it said, "what goes around comes around and this time around it's your turn to smile."

instant tears. i still choke up when i read it. still.

so i dug into the tissue paper. unbelievable.















the cutest clothes you have ever seen. all in emma's size.















one track suit.

one ivory tee shirt.

one twirl skirt.

one pair of brown tights.

one ivory bib shirt.

one vintage inspired oatmeal sweater.

holy cuteness, batman.

when i started pulling things out of the box, emma started squealing. there we were in the kitchen squealing with joy. "emma's ropas, nuevas ropas, bonitas." (emma's clothes, new clothes, pretty) over and over and over.

then we did a little photo shoot.

why? well my sister entered me in a drawing so to speak at matilda jane. i guess they asked people to tell them about others they would like to do something for. so she told them our story. our story to emma. they chose us. it still boggles my mind.

so how cool is it that a little girl born in peru would get to wear amazing clothing made in peru by an american company. she wore a mj dress on the adoption resolution day.

pretty cool.

thanks, jenn!

thanks, matilda jane!

life is sweet

we have had a fun couple of weeks. i love watching life through little bit's eyes.

i have never met a child who is so willing to go and do and still be good. never. in my whole life. i have been known to go to 'just one more' place, wondering all the time what might happen. so far nothing. nothing that is, but smiles and kisses and sunshine.

not that life is all fun. not all the time. we have our share of issues. sometimes we battle bad behavior. sometimes we deal with a little one who doesn't really want to do what we want her to do....but isn't that just life? what kid wants to obey all the time. i don't want to. so why should she be any different?

i know you are curious about school. she LOVES it. she is happy to go, works hard when she is there and is curious about life. she yells from the backseat, 'yeah, school' when we pull up. so precious. but she is ready to come home when her day is done. i am not so sure that she likes school lunch....but she loves playing with the kids.

how i miss her sweet kisses during the day. listening to her singing....making up songs about what she is doing. singing new songs she has just learned. putting together puzzles, practicing writing her name.

fortunately she is excited to see us at the end of school and we still get in on a lot of the fun. playing together, singing and lot of smooches.

not long ago she had her first brownie. we have limited her sugar, mostly because she is going to need some dental work and we don't want to make the situation worse. but she does get a few sweets. especially after supper. so this particular night she had her first brownie. she apparently thought i had been holding out on her after her first bite. she simply had no idea how good a brownie could be.















she loves brownies.















a lot.

it's funny that this little girl likes to go shopping, loves to look cute and adores chocolate. it's almost like Someone knew this before He founded the heavens and earth. it's almost like He planned her for our lives. that He knew we needed her as much as she needed us.

we hear all the time how lucky she is. but i see it a little bit differently. we are the lucky ones. the ones that get to be with her. the ones that get to raise her. the ones that get butterfly kisses and silly songs. the ones that get to tuck her into bed each night. the ones that get to teach her about Jesus.

life is sweet.