Christmas time traditions

 Making cookies is one of our Christmas time traditions.  I love baking cookies and breads just like my mom.  My kids enjoy decorating the cookies or eating the sugar ;).

 I typically double any recipes because if you are going to go to all that work you want cookies for more than just one meal.  I think we may need a bigger mixer?

 What other traditions do we have?  Well we may not always be very traditional, but we have fun.  We start opening Christmas gifts after Thanksgiving and they are gifts aimed at needs or family together time.  So gifts that we all can use- books, balls, sports equipment, gaming system for everyone, board or card games, family movies, microscopes, things like that. 

 We put them in a huge Christmas bag that we got half off last year and hide the bag around the house.  We go from youngest to oldest picking harder places to hide it and let the kids go hunting. 

 We love looking at Christmas lights which usually entails some snacks to take in the car. 

Everyone gets to buy a new Christmas ornament at Hobby Lobby when they are half off.  Then we do a huge splurge and eat at Texas Roadhouse which is conveniently located next door.  It also happens to be my favorite restaurant. 

 We have a few manger scene sets- one which is strictly for play time.  The others right now only have the manger and animals set up.  Then on Christmas week we add Mary and Joseph.  Then baby Jesus arrives on the scene Christmas Day.  We read from the Bible for these and we enjoy letting the kiddos add the people. 

 The week of Christmas we have a "What Jesus Really Wants For Christmas" set.  Each day you open a "present" which is a different person in the manger scene and you read a fun poem and scripture.  It focuses on why they are in the story and the last person is YOU! 

 We have a cute advent wreath that is a sculpture of children from around the world.  It was a gift from a friend and we love it.  Some years we have done more traditional readings for advent and some years we are just go with the flow and focus on table talk.  Things that are happening with our family, things we love, and how we can encourage each other in our faith walk. 

 We love hanging out the stockings and adding a few fun decorations.  Better yet making some decorations too.  It is something that doesn't come naturally for me- so Pinterest is my best friend.  Typically Jason helps because I am severely craft deficient. 

 We have sometimes done a Bethlehem dinner- where you dress up in towels, robes, etc.  Jason and I become the "Inn Keepers" and we invite our kiddos to dinner.  We eat fruits, fish, flat bread and we talk about the story of Christ and how that looked at the time. 

 Some years we do more than others.  Some are more slim pickings kind of like last year- when we were still hoping to move.  Then we didn't and well you know having your hopes up only to have them let down again is hard work.  Sometimes you just survive. 

 Part of what I truly wanted to write to you today was about expectations.  Some people do Elf on the Shelf, some have scary nightmares about him.  Some talk about Santa and some call him Satan.  Some do Christmas crafts daily, read all the advent readings, and so on. 

But expectations for the meal on Christmas, expectations of family arriving, how it all should play out.  You know that dream of the perfect family and time together.  That is really hard to live up to. 

 Whether you "have a perfect Christmas" or do the traditions you think you should I encourage you to really make sure you are not so wrapped up in all of it that you miss having fun and enjoying the celebration of Jesus Coming!  Oh that sounds so cliche as if it were just a dream, but it isn't!  It is real.  Was Jesus born on Christmas - who cares!  It's not about the date- its' about making room in our lives FOR HIM! 

So whether you do lots of crazy, you shop on Black Friday, or have a million people over- don't let your expectations get in the way of HIM!  Set aside time for HIM.  Cut out some traditions that take time away from HIM.  Just have some simple conversations about HIM.  You don't have to be a great theologian (I am not), but I can read scripture and devotions.  I can relate to my family about the fact that I am passionate about serving and loving Jesus. 

Traditions are fun- when they are fun.  When they become work- set them aside and focus.  ON HIM!

Speaking of Christmas miracles??  Does he look amazing on this bike?  OH MY!!!  I am in awe of him daily.  He inspires me in a way that no one else can.  I love that the Lord planted him in our family even when we felt totally inadequate and do most days.  We are working on getting him this bike.....either through fundraising or through grants.  I can't wait- because HE ROCKS IT!!!


****If you are a reader who loves to hear all about adoption and what we do with Christian Adoption Consultants - please check out our new professional website/blog at adoptionshapedheart.com I have posted some of our clients stories over there and some other posts about adoption.  :)     

Happy 12th Birthday Matthew/Happy Thanksgiving!!! It's now triplets week!

 Matthew turned 12 on Thanksgiving this year!  I promise it was just yesterday he fit inside his stocking! 

Happy 12th Birthday Matthew!!!! To my inventor and comedian! The one who used to fit inside his stocking! We are so proud of you and who you have become! Sharing your faith boldly and following after God! Love mom and dad 

 Literally took him no time to figure out his new marble run "roller coaster".  He loves seeing how things work and is great at figuring things out.  He loves marble run, electric circuits, baseball, math, and creating things!  

When Matthew was born he was born the day before Thanksgiving and we brought him home the day after Thanksgiving.  A wee little boy not quite weighing 6lbs. 

 Fun having everyone over for Thanksgiving- my cousin Heidi, husband Mark, daughters Makenna, Jessa, my Aunt Jane, and another friend Tara. 

 GREAT FOOD!!  What a great birthday bonus!!!!

 Loads of extra treats and a huge table filled with laughter and sharing stories and memories. 

 Matthew wanted chocolate cheesecake because he has excellent taste!  YUMMY!!!

 I love this age- well let's be honest I love every age!!!  Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

AND- this is the start of our triplets week which officially ended today (Andrew's birthday).  One week every year our boys are the same age!!  Look at all the handsome 12 year old young men!!  I wonder how in the world I got the pleasure of having this much crazy fun in one family?  

**Update:  we did have a good friend from church that capped off our water going to the leak so we could get- WATER!!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!!  Tomorrow we will have our home repiped.  Which of course is coming out of our wallets because our insurance didn't tell us we could do this in the first place.  So they will be paying for a new floor.  Stay tuned for that adventure (1,600 square feet out of 2,500 will be replaced over a 3 week time period) sounds ummm..... :/.

I went shopping Thursday as is my typical.  I got in a casual conversation with the lady behind us in line.  After ringing everything up - she said as I was pulling my debit card out she was paying for it.  My jaw dropped and I started crying and hugged her. 

MY FB status:  And then someone in the line at Walmart gets in a casual conversation with you and after everything is rung up pays for it. Giving her a huge hug and saying thank you doesn't seem like enough. She tells you it is what Christ did for us and she is passing it on. And you blubber like baby knowing full well God has reached down and physically taken form! ‪#‎realchristmas‬‪#‎itsallabouthim‬

Happy Adoption Day Joanna!

 On November 22nd we celebrated the official day we went to court and said yes to finalizing the adoption of Joanna Faith Wright!  Her cake of choice- donuts!  Now for our family that involves quite a few donuts because of sheer numbers.  Great part is that daddy found a coupon so we got 2 dozen for the price of 1!  Yea for us, and everyone got 2 donuts with a couple of extras. 

 She got Arial book, Arial characters, Arial play castle, bracelet, and Frozen bouncy ball - thanks Joe and Lisa! 

 As you can see she LOVED her presents! 

 Joanna is a cute spunky little girl.  She has lots of cuddle and love needs.  She prefers mommy and daddy over anything else.  She is a little on the crazy side of life and we love it!  She enjoys Arial anything, loves to mimic her siblings, her favorite food is meat, and she loves her tea as well (calming tea for bed time that is). 

 Daddy and Elizabeth had fun playing with her.

 Maybe a little too much fun??

 But hey you have to have some fun right?

HAPPY ADOPTION DAY JOANNA!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

**Some extra prayers would be great!  Last Monday we lost hot water- so we called out people through our home warranty to fix it.  They replaced pretty much the entire water heater...still no hot water.

Found a leak in the floor the night before Thanksgiving.  Thought it was just the hot water....it wasn't.  That night water came up through the floor and Elizabeth came knocking on our door in the middle of the night to say that there was a huge puddle on the floor.

So we turned off all the water to our home.

Had them drill into our concrete- because we were told by the "answering service" for our insurance agency that we couldn't repipe.  Then they called water remediation.  Which meant we didn't have water and our home sounded like a huge wind tunnel for 2 days.  :(

Then the plumbers came and fixed the pipes.  Although we had been told by others- you may just want to repipe.....ok maybe in the next year we will.

Then Sunday morning all our water was gone and we discovered the busted pipes less than a couple of feet from the last leak- could hear it through the floor and the hot water was again drained and the water pressure was gone.

PRAISES- we have had someone give us a gift just because the Lord laid it on their hearts.  Thank you isn't even close to enough.  We also had the wonderful people who work at Michael's therapy place offer to bring dinner for the next week!!!  Again, we are speechless and sooo THANKFUL!

We are without water- picture lots of sanitizer, paper plates and bowls, plastic silverware, and several gallons of water bought at the store today.  We can also get bucket fulls of water (not for drinking without boiling first) from a spigot near our well. 

Let's just say these "fun" times are extremely stressful!  We are thankful for insurance who will hopefully cover some of the expenses....although not all because we still have to repipe- and they won't pay for that since the person told us to dig up the leak (during everyone else's Thanksgiving brreak).  So that is several thousands of dollars. 

We know God will provide!!!  As we speak we are having a plumber come to hopefully cap off the place where the leak is to maybe....just maybe have water to our home again!!!!!  PRAYING!!!!!!

Abigail turns 15!!

 This is a picture redo that Jason did with Abigail- Awwww.......how did she grow up so fast? 

 HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL!!!!!  This was my note to her on her special day:

To our first born sweetheart: Our compassionate, beautiful, young lady who loves others well.  Who encourages and shares her heart. 

You love to dream, imagine, sketch, and design.

We pray today you remember just how special you are to us.  What a true gift from God you are to all who know you. 

 She got make up, fingernail polish, and loads of bling to go with it, and drawing and tracing supplies (she has a creative side that I just adore). 

 Of course when you bring out fingernail polish for one young lady you have to get more out for everyone.  We also went to a park, had a picnic, went on a walk, and had a very beautiful day!  

 I just had such a hard time with writing the number 15 on the board.  Oh don't even go there with me because ages 5, 10 also were huge issues for me.  A huge reminder that my fist baby is growing up and one day she will be completely independent.  I am happy for her to be as she is a beautiful young lady....so it's not a worry about it as much as it is a struggle because I just love her so much I have no idea how I am going to let her go?  I am pretty much thinking I am going to be a bubbling mess.  I am going to need some wise counsel from some of you out there!!!  So if you have some let me know. 

 She chose a recipe she found in a magazine (she loves to try new things out).  It had Oreos, two kinds of ice cream, fudge topping, and cool whip.  So she chose to do mint ice cream and chocolate which of course led to getting mint Oreos as well.  YUMMY!  My daughter of course has excellent taste :). 

These two how can I describe them together.  It is kind of like peanut butter and jelly.  They are right at 10 years apart and they have a deep love for each other.  I won't be the only puddle of mess when Abigail decides to leave the nest. 

Big Announcement!!!

 

 

We are THRILLED to announce that we have launched our new professional blog/website!  This site is for anyone interested in specific information about adoption.  

adoptionshapedheart.com

 

NO WORRIES- we will still be posting here about our family, about our passion for adoption,  homeschooling, large family, Jesus lovin', and our daily crazy!  So stay tuned!!  

We just felt that we didn't want to crowd this blog out with all our clients matching, specific things about Christian Adoption Consultants, etc.  No worries we will crossover sometimes too, but again it gives us a whole new area to be very specific so we can still post here about our real life crazy. 

We would LOVE for you to go check it out and share our new blog/website with others as well!  So many are wondering if adoption is for them or if they can adopt.  This blog/website can be so very helpful for those who have questions.  We help families do infant adoptions, special needs adoptions- for children over the age of 3, sibling groups, or children with specific physical needs, as well as helping to assist those in doing international adoption.

THANK YOU for all of your love and support and keep and eye out because I will be posting soon about Abigail turning 15 although deep down I am still in denial ;). 

What some Christian Adoption Consultants clients have said about CAC

 Here is what Thomas and Kristi said about using Christian Adoption Consultants. “We are so blessed to have been matched with our sweet son and we cannot imagine walking this adoption journey without the support and guidance from Dawn and Jason Wright and Christian Adoption Consultants.

  

The process can seem overwhelming and daunting at times, but the Wrights were always there to answer any questions we had, lend a listening ear when we needed support, and really hold our hand every step of the process. What a journey it has been and we could not have walked this path alone. The Wrights not only shared their knowledge and experience about the process, but also their deep love and compassion for adoption and finding forever homes for these precious children. We are forever grateful for their help, and they will always be a part of our story ."

  

We chose Christian Adoption Consultants for two main reasons: we wanted our family profile done well to communicate who we really are in a way that birth parents care about, and we wanted to spread our net wide to adoption agencies that were already vetted (especially in terms of financial policies and birth parent services) by folks we felt we could trust. And we got exactly what we bargained for in those areas.

Our family profile looks exactly like what we would have wanted to make for ourselves, and it was composed over the Christmas holidays it was done well and speedily. All of our exposure to Christian Adoption Consultants- affiliated adoption agencies was superb: we loved connecting with so many individuals who care for every piece of the adoption journey.

We were specifically interested in minority adoption, and the expertise and experience that Christian Adoption Consultants have in that area was invaluable to us. Dawn and Jason Wright were easy picks for us because we had mutual acquaintances who raved about them, and they parent a multi-ethnic adoptive family that has come together through international and domestic adoption. With two children who came to them through Christian Adoption Consultants. We figured that we could benefit from their personal experience, and we certainly did.

Dawn and Jason prayed for us, advised us on situations that raised questions for us, and walked us through our match with ease, calm, prayerfulness, encouragement, and excitement. I felt like I was Dawn’s only care in the world . . . which, of course, I wasn’t! Her own family and her other adoptive families surely required her energy and attention too, but she was always there for us when we needed her. And we seemed to need a lot! We felt completely free to ask any question that we had, knowing that Dawn would give us wise, God-centered counsel.

ONLY 2 MORE DAYS of the 10% discount for Christian Adoption Consultants

Do you have questions on adoption?

Would you like someone who experienced and knows what it is like to guide you through the entire process?

We can help!

 CALL 813-360-7368

OR EMAIL wrights@christianadoptionconsultants.com

Questions about Christian Adoption Consultants- Answered!

I am writing a post for those of you I know who are curious, but maybe you just haven't gotten around to asking your questions about Christian Adoption Consultants.  I am going to take some of the most common questions that I have gotten, but if you have more please call me, email me, or leave a comment on my blog and I will be happy to answer them for you.  

1)  Is there a need for domestic adoption?  

Now if you would have asked me this same question before we adopted domestically I would have said- no.  I just personally didn't think there was a need because all I heard was how people waited years and years to adopt.  

When we originally signed on with Christian Adoption Consultants as clients and they said typically families match within a year I had my doubts.  Now after doing 2 adoptions with CAC ourselves as well as helping many, many clients I have seen that it is true!  

 2)  When should I sign on with Christian Adoption Consultants?

Typically they are asking if they should sign on before they start their home study, during, or after their home study is done.  The answer is any of the above.  Although there are some advantages to signing on earlier in the process.  

Some of those advantages are that we can give you financial education, give you home study and agency guidance, as well as create a professional profile for you in those early stages.  Sometimes this can help you get a great start!  

3)  How does Christian Adoption Consultants work?  

We help you network with multiple agencies that are ethical and need adoptive families. This gives you a huge advantage and helps you match quicker.  It also gives you the control of saying yes or no to situations based on if they are in your budget or match what would be a good fit for your family. We work with agencies that work in adoption friendly states as well so typically consents are signed in 48-72 hours. 

One of the greatest advantages is having your own personal advocate with a lot of experience helping to answer questions along the way and giving you personal support throughout the entire process.    

4)  Is there a time limit in working with you?  

No.  We know that sometimes things just take time.  We want you to relax as much as possible along the way.  If it takes a while to find the best home study agency, time to raise funds, or apply for grants then we want to give you all the time you need.  

5)  Can families with children adopt?  

Yes.  As you can see from the pictures above we have families with children all the time that use CAC and adopt domestically.  We work with agencies that are family friendly.  In fact I have had a client that has 14 soon to be 15 children through their upcoming adoption.  Families with 6-8 children, families with 3 very young children that have all matched and brought children home.  

I hope this answers some of your questions about Christian Adoption Consultants.  

**DID YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE RUNNING A 10% DISCOUNT THAT ENDS THIS FRIDAY?  

If you are interested now is a great time to get started!  

CALL 813-360-7368

EMAIL wrights@christianadoptionconsultants.com

Let me answer your questions today and help you get started on your adoption journey!