home sweet home

Well, we made it.

In the past 13 days we’ve packed up our gifts, our dog, our three girls, and crammed our van full then hit the open road as soon as school was out on the 17th.  We drove to WV to spend a few days with my family and enjoy a huge, chaotic, enjoyable time with extended family.  Then we drove for 12 hours (got caught in a two-hour accident scene) to the other grandparent’s house.  Rose, G, and I all fought a nasty cold that kept us up at night and seemed like we’d never breathe normally again.  We thoroughly enjoyed taking Kait to New York City on Christmas Eve, then we laid low at the grandparent’s for a couple more days.  We headed back on Tuesday, and after spending another full day in the car, we rejoiced to be home in our own beds and very thankful that the girls did AMAZING through all the travels.  G figured out that we drove 1,660 miles PLUS about 250 miles to and from NYC.  That’s a LOT of time on the road with little ones in just 12 days.  We really enjoyed our time with family, and we are thankful that we have no planned road trips on the horizon.

We’ve spent the past two days stocking up at the grocery store, doing load after load of laundry, packing away Christmas decorations, enjoying some Pioneer Woman recipes for dinner, and scouring our town for a pair of ice skates for Kait.  Whew!  We need some vacation from our vacation.  We’re still not completely unpacked, but maybe by tomorrow?

We have no big plans for New Year’s Eve.  Too tired.  And, oh yeah, we have little ones who go to bed at 7pm.  We hope to rent a movie to watch with Kait and spend a fun day with friends on New Year’s Day.

Happy 2011, everyone!

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in case you were considering . . .

In case you have ever considered doing some last minute, Christmas Eve shopping at the Toys-R-Us in Times Square, let me suggest that you reconsider.  Unless you relish waiting in line for 45 minutes or more and the fear of losing those you are with, never to see them again because it appears as if all of New York City has descended on that store at the same time as you.  Go ahead . . . ask me how I know.

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G and I had a delicious time with our big girl on Christmas Eve in the big city.  Precious memories.

Why is she smiling so?

Here’s a clue.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more than 300 pictures to sift through.

Hope your Christmas was as beautiful as ours.

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traditions

I was a wee bit late, Ok, really, really late, with our tradition of decorating a gingerbread house and adding it to our my Christmas village display that appears every year for the month of December.  We finally decorated our gingerbread houses on Tuesday, at my  parents’ house, so these beautiful creations will not join the Christmas village this year.

Rose threw her whole self into decorating.

Pendo quickly discovered that eating the decorations was more fun that putting them on the house.

Rose decorated,

and Pendo ate.

Kait decorated her house all by herself this year.

After they finished, they were eager to eat one.   Yum!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

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first time for everything

The girls, especially Kait, are very excited about our snow.   We’ve bundled up a few times and headed out to play.  G has yet to dig out our sled (it’s a little buried under the porch), so the girls had a blast enjoying my parent’s sledding hill a couple of days ago.  This was both Rose’s and Pendo’s first real experience with sledding.

Rose smiles from ear to ear the whole way down.  Every time.

Pendo is a little more cautious, but will not be left out of the fun–even though she and her sweet little cheek met the asphalt up close and personal on her second time down the hill.

Could she smile any bigger?

Here you can see Pendo’s “owie”.  I love how it looks like someone kissed her with lipstick.

G had to get in on the action, too.  Looks like we’ll be playing in the snow all winter long, whether I like it or not.

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it’s coming

Yesterday I realized the Christmas really is almost here.  Today I put the second angel on my beloved, treasured,  Amani Ya Juu advent calendar.  I was able to get it for my birthday and Christmas  last year when we were in Kenya (yes, I’m one of the “lucky” ones whose birthday is close to Christmas).  I particularly like this advent calendar because it combines our love for Africa with the beauty of Christmas, and it is hand-sewn by some beautiful African ladies.

See, here’s the humble hut just waiting for the stars of Christmas.  Won’t be long now until they take their rightful place this year.

I think I’ve been enjoying the Christmas season more this year, in some ways.  A friend of mine introduced me to a blog that is beautiful and deep, and I only “get” about half of it, I’m sure.   But Ann has helped me slow down and really think about the meaning of this special season of the year.  Kait and I are going through her Jesse Tree Advent, and it has really blessed me.  It’s amazing to see God’s plan from the beginning of the world as it culminates in the birth of His Son.  Of course that’s not the end. I look forward to reading what Ann has to say around Easter, but for now, I am slowing down and reflecting more this Christmas.  And I love it.

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a new way to the manger?

Rose has been enamored by our Little People nativity set this year.

We play with it every day, and I love, love, love when she pipes in and tells the Christmas story along with me.  Precious memories, I tell you.

When she’s playing with the nativity on her own, sometimes she adds some creative license.

At least Jesus is driving the bus, right?

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jingle all the way

We can hear Pendo all the time now.

I put jingle bells in her hair for fun this week.  One of our Kenyan friends puts a little jingle bell headband in her daughter’s hair each December, so I thought I’d try a little variation on that.  I don’t know how she sleeps with them in, but she doesn’t seem to mind at all.

We’ve been really busy the past few days.  Kait was in the local holiday parade with her Girl Scout troop, so we all bundled up and went to watch her march down the street.  The little ones explored this nativity before the parade began, and my battery died so I have no good pictures of the actual parade.

We also decorated the tree.  (Yes, our ceiling is too short for our tree to stand all the way up.)

We’ve been busy baking cookies, finishing up shopping, wrapping gifts, and getting ready for the annual Christmas camp out in our living room.  There’s still lots more fun things we have planned before the big day.  I hope you are having as much fun this month as we are!

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celebration and a break

Here are just a few pictures from our Adoption Day celebration.

We all went out to dinner for pizza.  Pendo was really excited, and she understood that it was all about her.

The pizza was delicious, and

the manager noticed my taking lots and lots of pictures, so she asked what we were celebrating.  We explained, and she surprised us with a free cookie and ice cream dessert.  YUM!!!

Now, I must tell you, my few faithful readers, that I’m taking a bloggy break this month.  My to-do list is very long, and much of it involves traditions and family events.  You know I’ll be snapping photos of it all, but I also want to keep life as simple as possible, enjoy the moments and the real meaning of this season, and take some pressure off of myself to blog about everything we’re up to.  Soooo . . . I’ll attempt to update about once a week, but if I don’t, I don’t.  I plan to be back in the new year.

Hope you have a beautiful, peaceful, grace-filled Christmas season.

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one year ago

Today is a BIG day for the Austins.  One year ago, we were officially granted custody of Pendo, and she legally became an Austin!!  Here’s an excerpt from what I posted on this here blog one year ago.

“Today we feel like we’ve had more than our fair share of miracles.  Not only did God answer every single one of our prayer requests about today, He went well above and beyond!  We didn’t really know what to expect when heading into today’s court hearing.  This hearing was about a week and a half earlier than we expected, and it was on a WEDNESDAY, which is very strange (for adoption cases).  We were one of only two adoption cases that they heard today.  . . . . by 11am it was all over and done with.  We were back in our car headed home–the tearful, thankful, legal parents of Pendo Austin!  Yes, the judge granted us permission to adopt Pendo, and in the eyes of the Kenyan law, we are now her parents!!!!

Well, I know you are just dying to know what happened behind those closed doors.  First of all, Pendo slept through over half of the hearing (thank goodness!!).  The hearing took place in the judge’s chambers, and the five of us sat on a bench in the back of her office.  Those Kenyans who have spent time with us and interviewed us to be sure we will be good parents to Pendo all presented their reports to the judge.  We had a difficult time hearing most of what was said, but all of the reports seemed to have been very favorable.  Towards the end, the judge asked both Graig and I questions about why we want to adopt and how Pendo will be accepted by our families, etc.  When it was my turn to talk, I just knew I was going to tear up.  Sure enough, good old emotional Sara, shed some tears while answering the judge’s questions.  At least I didn’t call the judge a “sir”.  Yep, that’s what Graig did.  We both thought the judge was a man.  Nope.  We found out later that she was a SHE.  Oops!  Guess my tears and Graig’s addressing her as ‘sir’ didn’t matter.  We were still granted permission to adopt Pendo.  The funny thing is that we didn’t know that happened until we were out of the judge’s chambers and back in the hallway.  Both Susan (from the adoption agency) and Esther (Pendo’s guardian) congratulated us.  We asked, “For what?”  They then explained that the judge had given us a court order to adopt Pendo and that we would not need any further court dates.  It was all over!  I really cried then.  It still seems surreal in many ways. . . . What a crazy, emotional, very surprising day!  We are just so thankful for how God has paved the way for us so far, and we are very excited that Pendo is officially an Austin!  Thank you so much for praying with us and supporting us in this amazing journey.  The real journey is just beginning now that Pendo is with us forever.”

We are just beyond grateful that this judge whose name I don’t even remember changed our family forever.  Pendo is exactly what we didn’t know we needed.  God knew, and He orchestrated a beautiful, scary, amazing plan to bring her into our family.  We are eternally grateful.  Our lives were forever altered one year ago today.

Sweet, precious Pendo, we celebrate this day with you, because of you.  December 2^nd will always be a beautiful day to us because God did it.  He humbled us and amazed us and delighted us with making our dream come true, becoming your parents.  We’d dreamed and prayed and hoped for this moment for five years.  We took huge leaps of faith, giant steps into the unknown, not knowing the end result would ever be as beautiful as you.  Adding you to our family has changed me, changed all of us.  My personal faith has grown leaps and bounds as I’ve experienced this faith journey of adding you to our family.  I know God much better because of you and how He brought you to us and the amazing year we were able to live in your home country of Kenya.  We adore you, precious girl, even though you are a two-year-old to the nth degree, even though you test me more times a day than I can even try to count, even though you fight with your sisters, even though you want the whole world to be about you right now (come to think of it, I still want the whole world to be about me).  When you say, “Mama, I’m sharing!!” and when you pray at dinner and when you tell me you want to snuggle me and when you snuggle with my hair and when you sing songs about Jesus with me  and when you ask for music or for me to read you a book, my heart just swells with the joy of having you in our family.  I speak for all of us when I say we really couldn’t love you more.  There’s just no way that’s possible.

So . . . today we celebrate the journey, the strengthened faith, the blessing of you, the story of you.  We adore you and are amazed that we get to be your family forever.

 

 

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