Operation Christmas Child

Before...will all that stuff fit?!
It sure did! Good thing for those rubber bands.

We filled our shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse a couple weeks ago. We did a boy box age 5-9 and a girl box age 2-4. We do this every year and the kids really enjoy it. We bought hygiene products like toothbrushes, washcloths, hair combs, and socks. And then the kids chose fun stuff like candy, toys, crayons, stickers, and pads of paper. We were shocked to see that all of the stuff we bought fit in the boxes we picked up at church. The kids were so proud to carry them in that Sunday to give to "children in Africa", as Isaac said. We do not know where in the world our boxes will go, but we talk about children in Africa so I assume that is why he said that. Our church donated a total of 1700 boxes to the drive!! The organization also includes books about Jesus in the child's language in each box. That night Isaac said that he wanted to pray for the children who would get our boxes, so we did! We just love this opportunity to give the gift of Christmas to children around the world. I will remind the kids when they see the ground below our Christmas tree covered in gifts all for them this year, that many kids are beyond grateful for the little shoe box of gifts they receive. What a great perspective for young kids to learn early.

Oh Christmas Tree

Sneak peek at our Christmas decor as we put it up this weekend.

More to come...

Dealing with Race at Christmas

I had to post this adorable video on Transracial Adoption I saw off of Shawnda's blog. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but in it, the mother touches on the idea of "white privilege". I went to a race seminar a couple months ago and we did a table activity that dealt with this. Often times as Caucasians, we do not realize the priviliges that are afforded our race in society. Here are just a few examples: the majority of role models: professionals, celebrities, magazine covers and other media are white. It is not difficult to find children's books with characters who are white, that also includes children's programming on TV and movies. It is not hard to find someone near our home who can cut our hair. We are typically not scrutinized and stereotyped by what we wear, talk like, or our music choices. We are not followed in stores when we shop. Do you see what I mean? The video talks about how this adoptive mother had to become quickly aware of how white the world around her was. This time of year, reminds me especially of this. Most decorations and characters at Christmastime are white: Santa, angels, nutcrackers, children on tv and in books, snowmen, elves. Even manger scenes are light skinned except for that one wise man. I have tried to be dilegent over the years to find items that do not fall into this trap. Years ago I found this at a craft store and it now sits proudly on our mantel as the only nutcracker we own:

On one of the days this week Isaac was home from school, we watched an episode of The Cosby Show. The 3 year old character, Olivia was asking Dr. Huxtable what color the real Santa Clause is because all the mall Santas were white. Bill Cosby answered in a very funny transaction with the child that Santa became whatever color the family was that lived in the home whose chimney he was coming down! This cracked me up and I asked Isaac if he believed that. (We do not observe Santa at Christmas but he has seen his share of pictures and mall Santas.) He said, "No, Mom he is your color. Everybody knows that." This made me kind of sad to think that at 5 years old, he already had this set in his mind. Of course I am sure based on the region where he was born, the real Saint Nicolas was white and this is where we get this notion, but still. Needless to say, I was pleased to find this ornament given to Isaac a few years ago by Billy's aunt when we put up the tree this year.
I said "See, Isaac Santa can have brown skin too." He looked at that ornament for awhile and wasn't sure what to think!! Thankfully I do not decorate with Santas, other than their mall santa photos, so he won't have to look at that white face and snowy white beard all over the house! I am currently in the process of finding an African American or Hispanic angel for our tree who is in a white or red dress. This image would be a good one to have as well!

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

We had a great Thanksgiving at our house!
The decorations were up.

The food was cooking.

The parade was on! No football in this family. :)

The table was set.

The troops were fed.

We took a break from the prep to have a snack of appetizers,

as Isaac likes to call anything on a cracker!

The turkey was buttered and bagged!

This was my first real turkey to cook. It turned out so moist, that bag was the secret.

No basting for us!

The kids were getting restless and ready for Grandma and Grandpa to come over!

Show time!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009 from our family to yours!

Activism At A Young Age

Our little Oscar was our mascot at the protest. He may make a live appearance at the next one!

As I have blogged about before, he was rescued from the Humane Society from a backyard breeder who kept him in a box outside in east texas for 8 months so he wouldn't breed with the other females. I talked about that a year or so ago on this POST.

We went to a protest Saturday to stop a popular petstore in our area, Petland, from selling puppies. There are four Petlands in our general area alone.

Their puppies come from puppy mills and backyard breeders. You can find out more about puppy mills on one of my links below. As Christmas approaches, I felt it was especially important to roll out for this cause. Santa seems to like to bring cute little puppies to children. Please do not ever buy a puppy from a pet store. In fact, please do not shop at Petland. Our hope is to shut these shops down and to encourage people to get their pets from the SPCA, The Humane Society, or http://www.petfinder.com/. You can also google the breed you are interested in with the word "rescue". For example, my friend Brooke volunteers her time with DFW Lab Rescue. Googling your breed and "rescue" should route you to the websites of people who have taken in the breed you are looking for, had them spayed or nuetered, given them their shots, and have assessed what kind of home they will best thrive in. As you go through the following photos, I have listed websites below certain photos so you can click on them for more information.


Stop Puppy Mills LINK



Boycott Petland LINK

Buying a Puppy LINK

Here were our fellow protesters on a very busy street.

We had lots of supporters drive by!

Petland Investigation LINK

Here is the front of the Petland we protested near.

You can see by the ads on their windows how desperately they push their puppy sales.

"$100 off all puppies" tells you how expensive many of these dogs are selling for. The average adoption rate for a rescued dog is around $150-$300. Petstores have been known to sell their puppies into the thousands. Please join us in stopping this madness.

I have heard the argument, why go to lengths to advocate for animals when their are humans suffering in the world. Well- we choose to do both. We advocate for children in foster care and orphans, and have a heart for those who have little. I plan to have the children come volunteer with us at soup kitchens in dallas when they are older (they have to be atleast 8 years old a couple places told me last year) but for now while they are young and in love with animals- we will advocate for this cause. I feel it is important to teach them to care for God's creation- whether it be the earth in not littering, or putting an end to animal cruelty. If they have a voice, I hope they will use it! Isaac was chanting at the protest with some others "shame, shame, it's time to go humane!" He said "Mom why should people not buy puppies from a petstore?" I was able to explain in G rated terms that those puppies come from bad places and are often very sick. We even had a lady drive up and ask how she can file a class action suit because the puppy she bought at Petland has seizures. If you read the links above about puppy mills, you will see why her dog was so sick at such a young age. People care about this issue. And so do we.

Thanksgiving gifts to the teachers.

My mom and I made these pretty little coffee cups on her Cricut and I slid Starbucks giftcards in there with a note that says "Thanks a Latte". I then taped chocoloate covered grahams to the back. It was fun that a couple of the teachers told me in their thankyou cards what drink they would be getting!

Isaac's Limo Ride

Isaac joined 30 other kids at his school who earned a limo ride to pizza lunch for selling atleast 25 items in the school fundraiser. He was the only pre-k student to go! The other kid cried right before the limo got there so they had to call his mom. :)

Isaac hopped right in and waved goodbye! It was a bit nervewracking as this was his first field trip away. But he did great. He told the waitress that he could not drink soda so if they didn't have lemonade he would drink water! Good boy. Then after consuming 3 slices of pizza, his teacher told me he came back to school and ordered a large salad and green beans in the cafeteria to eat with his class. Goodness.

Shopping....Early/ **Edited to Add

I have been very surprised (happily so!) at the numerous sales that have been going on around town these days for Christmas. I can actually say as of today, I have bought about 75% of the gifts I will be buying this year! Mainly what is left are giftcards. I have even gone so far as to wrap them!! That is a true record, a week before Thanksgiving. I have been able to see many of the ads on http://www.black-friday.net/ of what retailers will be marking certain items down to, so I can guage is it worth the lines and mess on black friday or can I get it now on sale for just a few dollars more. I have opted in many cases for that! I will still go out to Kohls and probably Walmart on Black Friday but there will be no mad dashes to get any certain thing. I just love to shop, and that is fun for me! I was also so happy to get very pretty wrapping paper 50% off at Hobby Lobby this week. It is thick and there is a ton of it on the roll. My wrapped gifts are taking up floor space in the library right now, much to Billy's annoyance! You will get to see how cute the packages look when I take photos of our tree after we set it up next week. I just love this time of year!! Happy shopping!
***Edited to add- Kohls and Walmart are having "pre-black friday" sales which will be the same as their sales next weekend THIS weekend. SO go early and beat the crowds! I can now check two places off my black friday shopping and will be able to sleep in!

Which one is Vivi?

I don't post photos of Vivi's birthfamily to respect their privacy, but seeing as you can't tell the difference between my daughter and her biological sister in this photo- I HAD to share it!! It is just so adorable. Her birthmother emailed this to me just like this a couple weeks ago. With a photo I sent to her of one year old Vivi on the left making our favorite face and her daughter at one on the right, doing the same face!! Isn't this hysterical? I printed it and hung it on our fridge. The girls are two years apart and her birth sister was at the hospital with us the morning of Vivi's birth before she went to daycare. Seeing as Vivi looks nothing like her biological mother or 8 year old brother except maybe her nose (they are African American), it is sweet to me that she has a family member that looks like her. The sister has long black hair and a slight different hue of skin, and of course is taller- but their face and ears are the same!

Photo Shoot With Isaac And His Guitar!