A lesson for a little boy

I read this book to Isaac tonight before bed.

Someone once told me that they hated this book. In shock I asked why? It is such a sweet, somewhat sad story. They said that it teaches children that they have to give away everything they have to make someone else happy. Hmmm....

As I was reading it to Isaac, we went through each page where the boy grows and the tree continues to give little parts of herself to the boy. And it says in doing so the tree was happy. And we got to the part where the tree is down to just a stump and it says "she is happy...but not really." I asked Isaac why is the tree sad? Is it because she gave everything she had away or is she sad because she doesn't have her boy with her and nothing left to give to him. He said she was sad because the boy, who she loved very much, was gone. I asked did he think she might be just a little sad that she had given everything away and he surprised me by saying "No, Mom. The book said when she gave to him it made her happy, so she wouldn't be sad for having gave."

The ending of the book confirms his theory when the boy comes back as a withered old man, the tree sadly says she has nothing left to give. The boy says all he needs is a place to sit for he is very tired. So he sits on her stump...and the book tells us the tree was happy.

I told Isaac I would say a special prayer for him tonight. And I took his little (well...ok..big!) hands and prayed that God would grow him into a man who regards others as more important than himself, and that he would give without thinking of the cost to him.

For I know that in doing so, he will be the richest man in the world.

Tiny Dancer

Vivianna is in dance class now! It is called Twinkle Toes and she goes to a Christian dance studio. This is good because from what I hear their recitals are very tasteful compared to other studios.

She has enjoyed her first two classes and tells total strangers,

"I go dance class."

She needs another leotard if there are any grandmothers or great aunts out there just itching to buy her one. ;) Apparently the black one I bought her with the little shorts is for gymnastics, not dance. Pink or black are the dress code.

Vivi is second from the right.

Ring around the rosie was her favorite part of class.

And hearing Ariel's "Part of Your World".

On the subject of our little darling, next Tuesday she will begin going to a preschool right up the road. Why put her in so late in the year, you ask? Have you seen her recent blog posts of mischief? That is just a tiny bit of the havoc she actually puts her mother through on a daily basis. Even as I write this post I have been interrupted several times as she is supposed to be taking a nap and by the noise I hear, is not doing it. This is after hours of her getting into some kind of trouble or another. And for those of you who know me, you know I am NOT a pushover parent. We have tried every humane discipline we know of, including taking multiple toys out of her room, locking her closet door so she cannot get into her dress-up stuff, and baby gating various portions of the house. She has proven she will not be deterred. For example (in case you are not convinced yet that we both need her to go to preschool two days a week)...just this morning I am awakened in the darkness at about 5:30 a.m. to a noise in the kitchen. After seeing that her door was open and her bed was empty I flipped on the light in the kitchen to discover her sitting ON the counter eating Dots out of a box of Valentine candy. In the dark. At 5:30 a.m. All I can say is good thing this kid is so darn cute. That has saved her tail end many times.

Preschool cannot begin fast enough.

What is going on with the mission trip?

Some of you may have wondered what is happening with our scheduled June mission trip to Uganda. It is mid February, and we haven't said anything! Well areas in our life took a turn with the new year. We were contacted by our adoption agency about an African American mother-to-be who was pregnant with a boy due early March. The agency wanted to show her our profile, which we of course happily updated and sent them! Well, that turned into a 3-week process which resulted in her choosing to parent. We were fine with this and all the events that transpired, but it put a halt on our mission trip progress because we would not want to leave a 3 month old for 10 days! That put us in late January when we got the news she was parenting. At that time we talked to our agency about the process of adopting from Uganda, as we have a strong pull to Africa. She said that in that process, you would need to stay in country for 5 weeks and during that time we would have plenty of opportunity to do mission work. So we changed the direction to forgoing a short term trip for a more long trip, and began to pray about beginning the adoption process by late spring. Well...as things usually do...that took a turn when Uganda put a hold on expediting any further adoptions. It is highly likely by the time we are ready for our referral, this will all be cleared up. But until then, we will not begin the process. Here is a website that further explains those details: LIFELINE.

So...that all being said it looks like we are not going to Uganda any time soon. We have mixed feelings about this, mostly sad. But we feel God is quite possibly moving us in a different direction (not related to adoption). We should have some answers about those things in the coming weeks, at which time I will post if anything unfolds. Thank you all for your love and support. For now...we will continue to be faithful and seek contentment right where God has us.

Our Celebrations of Love...

This was the scene the kids awoke to this morning.

They had Valentines in their little mail bags from Grandma and Aunt Vicki (who also sent money!) And candy and one gift from Billy and I.

For breakfast I made strawberry and white chocolate heart pancakes,

with Valentine sprinkles.

They enjoyed drinking their pineapple orange juice out of champagne glasses!

We dressed up in our finest for church.
They got LOTS of compliments!

Who can resist these cuties?

We lunched in style at La Madeleine.

Soup, sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit, and pink lemonade.

French food on the day of love seemed appropriate.

Bon Appetite!

Grandma came over in the afternoon and gave the kids handmade mailboxes in their favorite themes...

filled with candy!

This was the lunch I served the 3 kids on Friday.

They loved it!

And this was the table I set for Billy and I on our date night a week ago.

The plan was to go out, but the kids were too sick to go to Grandma and Grandpa's so we did Olive Garden to go! Mmmm. I set the coffee table all pretty before Billy brought our food home and we baby gated the kids in the other room with a movie, while we enjoyed our dinner and a show. I rented 500 days of Summer, which turned out to be the perfect date night movie.

Loved it!

Isaac cracked me up when he said, "Mom, why is the table so dressed up?"

Hope ya'll had a great day celebrating with your loved ones!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I never got around to getting our Valentine cards done this year. :(

But this is the photo I would have chosen.

The kids are holding their little mailbox bags that hang on their kitchen chairs.

Today we loaded them up with the couple of Valentine's that came in the mail. They will open them tomorrow with the candy I have slipped in there.

Here is a shot of the kids two years ago!!

My how they have changed.

Snow Day 2010...Record Breaking!!

Today is Day 2 of our snow days. We hit a record of 12.5 inches. This record dates back 111 years according to the news! Crazy...crazy.

Backyard tree yesterday.

This morning!!

Here is this trike yesterday

This morning it was buried!

Yesterday, the snow fell non stop all day from morning until 10 p.m. that night!

The bad parts of this are that Valentine's parties are cancelled.

And my stomach bug is back wreaking havoc on my intestines, so I didn't get much sleep last night.

If I feel better I will attempt a snowman with the kids today, as I have not seen this kind of snow since I was a child in Indiana. We used to build huge snow forts and bury our She-Ra dolls. Then in the spring, we would find all our missing pieces thawed out and laying in the lawn!