This Little Piggy

I was debating whether or not to cut Amanda's bangs, because they are always hanging down in her face. She will not keep a clip or barrette in her hair for longer than 10 seconds, so today I tried a pigtail for the first time. I was skeptic thinking she would pull it out right away, but she kept it in all morning/early afternoon. The best thing about it, is she had no food in hair after breakfast and lunch! So pigtails it is, and no bangs at this point. ;0)

Make A Joyful Noise to the Lord

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
Psalm 100:1

When picking up Micah yesterday from school, he came bursting into the van with extreme zeal and excitement. He quickly opened his backpack to show me what he received in music class, a recorder. You know those plastic little clarinets we all were given in grade school. He pulls out a little music book and joyfully says, "Mom I want to play you a song that I have been practicing just for you. It's one of your favorites, OK."

He puts the recorder to his mouth, struggling to find the right placement of his fingers onto the little holes and making awful, high pitch sounds as he tries to find the proper first note. He is sincerely apologized with each loud, ear piercing sound that came out of his recorder and reassures me that that was not the right note, and to wait because he was not quite ready yet.

Finally he finds the first note and tells me to listen closely and see if I could recognize the song. He starts off rather well, and after the first 4-5 notes I realize he's playing, "Amazing Grace". My heart sinks, my ears attuned as he plays his little heart out FOR ME! He made no mistakes until he hit the high D note. Ouch my ears! You know what note I'm talking about... The 'high D' that only those who have been given the gift of song can hit(vocally), and make the note sound pleasing to the ear. For the entire 20 minute car ride home myself and Amanda were Micah's audience as he kept trying to play the entire song perfectly (and if he didn't, he would have to start the song all over again). Lets just say it was a rather long ride home yesterday.

Well we survived the car ride home, and for the rest of the day I had the song playing in my mind over, and over, and over again (minus the screeching sounds of Micah's recorder). ;0)

With this it made me think of my 1000 Gifts List I decided I would keep this year. I started my list, but it has become clear to me that I was making a general list of all the things I'm thankful for. Kind of like a 'count my blessings' type of list, and not a heart felt list of me experiencing God's grace. As the song continued to stir in my mind and began to sink deep into my heart I began to meditate on His grace. What it means to me, why I don't deserve it, but how he continues to extend it to me daily.

Soon it occurred to me that the list I started sounded more about me, and less about Him. My husband, my children, my church, my friends, etc. I am truly thankful for all of them, and do see them all as gifts from God, but I started to feel that the list needed to be something more than just what I'm thankful for. I feel that my list needed to be of the graces He gives to me in every moment of every day that I fail to see because my mind is either filled with worry, stress, obligations, commitments and all of the other daily distraction that can come my way. So last night I decided to look at my list differently. I'm keeping my original list, but I want to seek deeper and find the everyday graces in each person/experience that I have written down and how God uses them as gifts of His grace each day.

From Race Cars... To Earrings

Yesterday was Micah's derby car race with his Y-Guide Circle. I wasn't going to go, because after all is a Father/Son event. But considering it was the first day with an overall high above 45 degrees, Amanda and I tagged along.

Micah won his first two races; lost his third race; moved over to line 2 and lost again. After 2 loses, you're out. Some of Micah's buddies made it close to the end, but no one from his circle placed. Afterwards some of us went out to dinner. It turned out to be a fun outing, and I was also happy that some other Mom's from his circle tagged along as well. Here are some pictures from the race!





Here are a couple of new pictures of Amanda. We had her ears pierced last week and I've been meaning to take some pictures of her with her new BLING! Isn't she just so darn cute?!?

1000 Gifts List

Every other Friday I go to a women's group at my church called, "Encouragement Fridays". It's a great time to fellowship with other mothers, eat yummy food, and hear a relevant, practical message from some of the most amazing women. I have been abundantly blessed from the wisdom, knowledge and the authenticity that these women bring to our group. They have openly shared with us about their lives, their marriage, their families and their relationship with the Lord.

During our last meeting, one mom talked about a blog she follows and how she has been blessed by reading the writings by a Canadian mother of six. She has started what she is calling her One Thousand Gifts list. The speaker at our group challenged us to keep a list of gifts that God has given to us. Not gifts we want, but to list the gifts we all ready have. God gives to us daily, and many times we miss those gifts within the craziness of our daily lives. I know I do.

So today, I have decided to start my own 1000 Gifts List, that God has generously h given and continues to give to me on a daily basis. Some I will share on my blog, others I will write down in my journal.

Here is the link to the blog in mention and I hope by reading this blog it will inspire you to start your own 1000 Gifts List. LINK

In His Grip,

Nancy

CHRISTMAS IN KAUAI!

Our time in Hawaii was the most memorable Christmas ever! We had a blast and enjoyed all that the island had to offer. We swam, snorkeled, hiked, sunbathed, went sightseeing, ate and ate some more!

We highly recommend going to Hawaii during the Holiday season. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The humidity was at a minimum for the region and there is a lot less bugs during the winter season as well. We hope to return to the islands every 3-4 years to vacation during the Christmas Season.

Here are a some pics of our time spent in Kauai! We took over 500 pictures and I narrowed it down to a few less for you to view.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!

FINALIZATION DAY!!!!

We finalized Amanda's adoption yesterday! She is now forever a part of our family, and one of the newest and cutest United States Citizen.

Amanda has been sick the past couple of days, and we were going to reschedule the hearing, but we went ahead and kept the original court date. We did not want to wait one more day to finalize, and sense she did not have a temperature yesterday we figured she would do OK. She ended up sleeping through the entire proceeding, and woke up at the end when cheers roared throughout the court house. There were several other families in the court room waiting to finalize their adoptions as well. It was nice to have other families there to share in our joy! After the proceedings they had a small reception with punch and cookies for the families.

Thank you all for the prayers, support and the encouragement you have so graciously given to our family while we were on our journey to Amanda. There were many bumps in the road, but God was faithful to bring us through those tough times. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine that Amanda would be as amazing as she is. She is such a blessing in our lives and we now feel that our family is complete.

Again, thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Here are some pictures from the proceeding. We did get her to smile a bit as we were waiting for our adoption decree after the formal ceremony. She's still so darn cute even with a snotty nose!

Micah's Narration

This past weekend was Micah's Christmas Choral concert at church. Micah was granted a narration part in this year's concert. I took this video with my digital camera, and like always I filmed it vertically so the video appears sideways. Sorry. I have no clue on how to rotate the video, or if that's even possible to do. Sigh....

At first you will be hearing a girl delivering her narration, and then Micah will do his. Doesn't he look so handsome?!?!

Christmas Card Pictures

Needless to say, trying to get a 13 month old and a 9 year old to smile at the camera for that 'perfect' picture is a difficult task. Soowan and I resulted into making funny, silly faces, jumping around and singing silly songs to grasp Amanda's attention. Micah's job was to sit still, look at the camera and smile. As you can see in some of these pictures, Micah was losing interest real quick. We did get some great shots, and some silly ones too. Here are some of our favorites.