Family Day!!!

11 March 2013.

We are finally a family, full and complete.  Today we consummated the adoption we'd been looking forward to for some time.  Christopher and I first talked about adoption when I was pregnant with Eva, six and a half years ago.  As difficult as my pregnancies were, we knew that we could not do it again, it would've killed me.  When she was 18 months old we first took the classes to become foster parents, in the hopes of eventually adopting.  On the day we finished the classes, in the summer of 2008, I found a lump in my breast.  The diagnosis knocked us cold and put a kink in all our plans for a while.  As I healed we again thought perhaps it was time our family grow.  Christopher approached me with inspiration that LDS Family Services and the adoptoin of a newborn was the path we should pursue.  And we did.  After almost one year of paperwork, homestudy and waiting, 2 days before Christmas 2010, we were chosen to parent a sweet little baby boy due in April.  After only a few short weeks, however, the birth parents changed their minds and decided to parent themselves.  We were crushed but we kept going.  We felt soon after that the purpose for which we had gone to LDS Family Services was fulfilled.  Back to the drawing board and lots of prayer.  This time we were led to ACH Child and Family Services and again to foster/adoption.  More paperwork, more homestudy, more waiting.  This time, though, we got to do respite which is essentially babysitting for foster families who need a weekend off.  We loved it.  We'd done it a few times when we were called and asked to take a sibling group of 3 for 2 nights, starting March 1st 2012.  We'd only ever had 2 kids before and the oldest had been 3 years old.  These were 6, 4 and 1.  We said yes, but before we did so we prayed.  We prayed because we felt that for some reason this one was different.  We knew before we ever met them that this would be different.



We prayed more.  They stayed with us for 2 nights and the minute they left I contacted everyone I knew at my agency and CPS to ask about the status of these kids.  Why?  Because we loved them already.  We prayed more.  About 2 weeks later they called us.   The children needed a new foster family, they had to leave their current family by the next day.  Of course we said yes and they came to live with us March 13th.  We bought a van.  We'd only planned on 2 more, but with three we were now 8 and needed a van.  I wish I could explain all that happened in the next year but I can't.  Lots of waiting, lots of prayers, lots of love and tears, lots of joy and fear.  But the coolest part was TODAY!  Almost exactly 1 year later we welcome to our family

Cruz Alexander Edwards (2005)












Anya Maricelle Edwards (2007)


 













Georgio Ceaser Edwards (2010)

Hanukkah

In keeping with our attempts at being a diverse and multi-culturally aware family, today we had our Hanukkah feast.  We wouldn't have the time to do it on Saturday the actual start of the holiday, so we did it a day early.  Being non-jewish we did the best we could at authenticity and really learning about the holiday and it's significance to the jewish faith.   I made 2 Challah, the traditional bread of Jewish holidays, with 6 strands in each loaf, totalling 12, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.  We had a roast chicken, spiced applesauce and green beans as well, all kosher and normal Hannukah fare.  Then the kids taught us the dreidel game they learned at school, although we had to make some modifications since we don't have a dreidel.  Eva won!

 

 

 

Before and after pics of my Challah.  For some reason one loaf didn't rise as well as they other. :(  But they turned out great nonetheless.

 

 

We made a feast day out of it and even had lighted candles on the table, just the two since we don't own a menorah.  We had fun learning and talking about what we have in common and what is different between Mormons and Jews.

 

Next up...Christmas Eve (Christian celebrations), Christmas Day (American celebrations) and Chinese New Year (Chinese celebrations)...

 

...hopefully I'll remember to post pics, since I forgot to on several of the other holidays this hear (Cinco de Mayo was awesome).

St. Nicklaus Day

We're trying hard this year to teach our kids about different cultures, religions, countries, etc.  So for the first time St. Nicklaus came to our house last night.  He filled our running shoes with nuts in their shells, christmas socks, 2 candies each and two christmas pencils.  We learned about dark chocolate being what most europeans eat so we were not surprised to find Ghiradelli's dark chocolate variety's in our shoes. ;-)   And to top it all off, I'm taking the kiddos to the Arlington Christkindl 2nd annual German festival tonight, I thought it would be the best day to go learn more about German holiday traditions. 

 

I have pictues of the kids enjoying Flammkuchen (German Pizza) at the Christkindl but I can't post them until after the adoption finalizes.  We also had Schmalzkuchen (scones) and wassil. Yummm!

 

We shopped, we learned, we tasted, we listened, we played, we had soo much fun being German for the day.  We even got to see St. Nicklaus himself, although he had a strangely Texan accent. Humm?!?

 

And tomorrow we'll be moving on to another cuture to study...we are having Challah at dinner in honor of Hanukkah

Spelling Story

One of Isabelle's options for spelling practice each week is to write a story using her spelling words.  This weeks story was so good I had to post it.  The spelling words are italicized.

"The mild and mighty wind looked as if it started a fight. But then a child named Emily saw it and was scared because an unfriendly wolf was behind the tree.  He was staring right at the child thinking in his mind "I will fry the child."  With delight he tightly squeezed his hands.  But the wolf was careless and stayed there for a while so Emily ran as fast as she could.  But the wolf ran as if in flight.  He caught Emily and went to the baker.  Thinking it would satisfy his diet he said "Cook this child in mild hot sauce."  But the baker said "no, I will not."  So the wolf went to buy green dye to have green eggs and ham instead.  The wolf shared with the baker, which brought brightness to his heart."

By Isabelle Edwards

I thought it was adorable and awfully creative and post-worthy.

The Holy Ghost

Christopher gave father's blessing tonight since school starts tomorrow.  Two of our new kiddos (age 4 and 7) had never had blessings before and I was a little unsure about how it would go.  It was so beautiful.  The blessings were beautiful as always, but even Christopher got choked up when after his blessing Cruz (7 year old) slowly got out of his chair and sat on the couch and then curled up in a ball and said he didn't know why but he felt like crying.  It was the first time we were really able to explain to him what the Holy Ghost feels like when it touches your heart.  I was bawling as soon as I realized that he was, partly because the blessing was beautiful, partly because the Spirit was so strong, and partly because he was feeling the Spirit for the first time.  I'd seen the light in his eyes but I'd never seen such an obvious touch by the Spirit.  I looked up at Christopher who was trying not to cry as well.  Afterwards he came and told me why he was crying (because of a specific sentance in the blessing) and I read it to him again (good thing I always type while Christopher is giving the blessings).  He asked if it would be okay if he wrote about it in his journal because it made him so happy, up until today his journal had been full of writing practice that I give him, and drawings.  This is his first real entry (with spelling corrected because it would be incomprehensible otherwise).

"Today I had my first father's blessing for school.  My dad blessed me.  I felt excited and happy.  I cried because I felt the Holy Ghost in my heart.  He said with my medicine and if I work hard I will learn to read."

And then he drew a picture of him in the chair with Christopher's hands on his head.  I think it's no coincidence that this was able to happen on day 2 of his ADHD meds.  He knows the difference, he feels it and he is so happy.  I love that he was able to feel the Spirit.  I'm so thankful for the blessing of being a Mom.  I'm thankful for the children I have been blessed with.  And sometimes, I'm especially thankful for modern medicine.

--Robin

House for Sale by Owner

902 Greenridge Drive

$125,000

902greenridgedrive.blogspot.com

Mother/Daughter Date

My little artist and I enjoyed the Kimbell Art Museum in downtown Fort Worth followed by some Sweet Sammies! Since Isabelle loves art and I love Impressionism this was the perfect date! We had so muc hfun and got to see so many beautiful works of art.