Photo Card

Wreath Monogram Christmas

Design photo Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Back to School!

I didn’t mean to take the entire summer off from blogging, but life was simply too full to fit anything else in. This morning it is cloudy and even rained a little, which prompted me to brew a cup of tea and pretend that it is fall.

Summer has a way of feeling so short and so long. “Has it already been three months?” I think, but then, “It’s really only been three months?” So much time has passed and so many things have happened in three months, but it is still only the beginning.

Our new addition, Matthew, came home on May 27th. We have shared many trials and triumphs since that day. Thankfully, the successes are far greater than the setbacks. Matthew is loving life, and we are loving him!

Now that the kids are back in school, I am amazed at how quickly I can do things. I had forgotten that the laundry could be folded, fresh from the dryer, before it even cools off. And that every room can be vacuumed without having to wait for messes to be cleaned up along the way. And that I can make my lunch and eat it, before the apples turn brown and the sandwich bread dries out. Ah, the joys of the first week of school. I’m sure as the year goes on I will forget my glee. I will miss my kids, who are gone all day. But right now? This is bliss.

I am happy to be back in more of a routine, though the routine itself has changed quite a bit. With Jackson in middle school and another kiddo in the house, we’ve made some adjustments. As a whole, I think the family machine is running well!

NEWS!

We have AWESOME news! Andy and I get to meet our new son on Tuesday afternoon! Today we spent hours clearing stuff out of his bedroom... He'll be spending the night here with us one week from today. One week from this very moment, all three of my sons will be under my roof. God is SO good.

Some of my very best friends are throwing an adoption shower for us next Sunday. It is such a blessing to be surrounded by so many loving and supportive family members and friends!

We can hardly wait to welcome the newest Boyd Boy. Thank you for celebrating with us!



And his name literally means "Gift From God." You just can't argue with that!

Has It Been Two Months Already?

Today my neck is sore, so I have skipped my morning at the gym. I should probably clean, but I can’t do much of anything without hurting, so I am seizing the opportunity to blog. Since it has been over two months, there is quite a bit to cover.

I present to you… Bullet Points.

• OYWB officially ended February 1st. Hooray! I expected, as did my children, that there would be a ceremonious trip to the store to make a long awaited purchase. Instead we had snow!

• I love snow days, and I love that my children have experienced so many of them! It definitely didn’t snow this much during MY Texas childhood. That’s okay. I’m sure that I appreciate it more now than I would have then.

• Our church held our annual C3 Conference. It was AMAZING, as always. Andy and I were blessed to host Pastor Shannon O’Dell and his family during the conference and the following weekend. They are beautiful, humble, genuine people, passionately chasing down God’s plan for their lives and their church. I am teary eyed just thinking about them! Truly. I am deeply grateful for the people I have the opportunity to meet through Fellowship!

• Maybe some of these bullet points are going to be long.

• Get over it. You can skim if you don’t want to read.

• I went to a one-day conference for parents of gifted and talented children. WOW. As a gifted person, it was validating. As a parent, it was encouraging.

• My mom and younger siblings came to town for a visit. Much food was eaten.

• We had several opportunities to spend time with people in our lives who we don’t know well. I love the community that I live in and the people of my church en mass, but I feel like I don’t know many of the individuals. Do you know your neighbors? Do you know the people you serve with at church?

• Parker took his pet, Alvin The Biting Hamster, to show-and-tell. Good news! Alvin didn’t bite any of Parker’s classmates… only Parker. Poor baby.

• We were blessed with beautiful weather for Spring Break, and spent nearly all day every day out in the glorious sun. We then spent nearly every evening inside sniffling and sneezing. Allergies.

• We checked out Dinosaur Valley State Park, which was cool. Lots of easy hiking and climbing. And then we ate at Dairy Queen, which is an event in itself.

• Andy spent a night of the Break camping alone at Mineral Wells State Park. The boys were a little bummed that they weren’t going along, so I set up our newest tent in the living room. It required moving all of the furniture, but we could still see the tv from in the tent. And THAT is what is important when you’re 10 and 8 and your allergies have trapped you in your house.

• Jackson’s Fifth Grade Choir participated in our district’s annual Elementary Choir Festival last Tuesday, which consisted of every elementary school in our district plus one high school performance choir. Throw in equipment failure, a rogue bird, a power outage, and some jazz hands... Did I mention that we have twenty one elementary schools? It was much longer than it sounds.

• This year, Andy and I celebrate our tenth anniversary. Hooray! As a part of our celebration, I am having some bling added to my ring. I’ll post an update when it comes back from the jeweler. I’m so excited!

• Speaking of excitement, we have some possibility on the adoption front! We have been included in the selection process for adopting a little boy, and also for a pair of brothers. The truly exciting thing about this news is that soon, these boys will have their forever families. It may not be ours, but I know that God will provide them with the families that they need.

 

So, rejoice and pray with me through the ups and downs of our story, and over these updates about others:

Our friends, the Ballast family of Seattle, have adopted little Z all the way from Ethiopia. He is finally home!

Joanne Heim, who suffered a stroke in January, is recovering quite well. She is a walking miracle!

 

Our Year Without Buying: January Update

Look at that… We’re almost done! Including today, there are only fourteen days left in our little challenge. I think I can make it from here.

However

I didn’t have it together enough to make Christmas a completely purchase-free event. We made gifts for our extended family, but still bought some clothes and things for the boys. And they got toys from Santa.

Thinking about children without Christmas gifts breaks my heart. I admire those who struggle, who get by with less and teach their children that the gifts aren’t what is important. But we aren’t struggling. We’re just not buying things as kind of a game. Although we focus our family on Jesus, and talk about giving, they are still little boys who know what we have. They would be so hurt to know that we could bless them with gifts but simply choose not to. Jackson may have been able to tolerate it, but Parker would completely lose his mind. I don’t know that gifts are his top love language, but he would be devastated if he didn’t get anything that he asked for.

And remember back at the beginning when I said that I didn’t want to send the boys to school looking like street urchins? We were getting to that point. There’s a limit to how much sock should be showing beyond the legs of the pants. For real.

We also had an opportunity to bless another family this Christmas. We were talking about the family over dinner one night, discussing ways in which we could help. Parker piped up, “Jackson and I have lots of money… We could buy them a gift!” So that weekend, I took the boys to Target to do a little shopping. They started out strong, but once we had spent a few minutes in the toy section, their resolve began to waver. There were so many things that they wanted for themselves… It was a challenge for them to spend their hard-earned money on a stranger. But they did it! I am quite proud.

Here’s a gray-area with OYWB: Gift cards. Andy ran out and spent all of his, pretty much right away. He didn’t spend money, so… still good? But I haven’t let the kids spend the gift cards that they’ve received throughout the year, so I didn’t feel right about spending mine. But I did return a gift and pick out some other things in exchange. Does that count? Probably.

Ugh.

At any rate, I’ll be glad when February 1st arrives!

Lately

*NOTE* This post is super long and incredibly linktastic! Don’t feel pressured to click any of the links, unless of course you want to know what I’m talking about. And you have loads of time. And maybe some tissues.

This long absence from the blog was quite unplanned. I would think about things to write, fully intending to sit down and get to it, but never made it happen. I’ve missed writing, but most of all I’ve missed reading other blogs!

But blog time can sometimes seep into other time, like cooking time, or cleaning time, or gym time. And then I end up eating junk food in a dirty kitchen and feeling bad about my fitness level and (lack of) time management skills. But blog time is me time, so I’m going to make sure I get some of it back into my life on a regular basis.

Now, today I can have as much blog time as I want, because my awesome husband took care of the house yesterday while I was sick in bed. It’s nothing serious… just a really annoying head cold. Andy gave me express orders to take it easy today, so I am.

Before I dive into long hours of reading and sipping tea, I want to give you an update on what’s been going on around here lately.

We’re almost done with Our Year Without Buying! I just finished a post about that, which will go up after this one. C’mon, February First!

The canine population of the Boyd Abode has been en flux over the past twelve months. With two litters of puppies coming and going, we had lots of youthful excitement. In bitter contrast, at the end of November we said goodbye to our sweet old Courtney Rae. Liberty has been a bit strange since then. She’s more needy now than before. If you know her, you are no doubt wondering, “HOW is that possible?”

I can’t explain it. It just is what it is.

We had a very quiet Christmas this year, completely unintentionally. With much of the family out of town, the schedule of celebrations shifted and we strayed from tradition. This gave me the opportunity to prepare my first ever holiday meal, which was quite exciting for me. I served it to my little family of four on my great-grandmother’s china. Next year will be very different, I’m sure. For one thing, we’re hoping that our little family of four will have expanded to five or maybe six.

Speaking of which… We are officially licensed to adopt! We’re just waiting to be the right family for the right kid. Or kids. God is leading this journey, and only He knows for certain what destination awaits us. We are so excited to be on our way!

Right now, we are fasting with our Fellowship Church family. This is a Daniel Fast, which is a partial fast... Basically a vegan diet. It’s definitely a stretch for me, a girl who loves to eat animals and things that come from them. Sorry, PETA.

A favorite Deep Thought, by Jack Handey:

“If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?”

Any who… Last year, I found ways to satisfy my sweet tooth while still following the fast. This year, I’m more into soup. And straight up syrup. I feel like Elf, adding pure maple syrup to my tea and whole wheat spaghetti.

Now to be serious.

There are two families on my prayer docket who I am feeling led to talk about. Even if you pray for them for just one little second, it would be really cool. And maybe life changing. My prayers for them are similar, though their circumstances are rather different. I am praying for each family’s strength and comfort as they wait and cope, and for the wisdom and ability of the medical staff involved.

The first is the Heim family, Toben and Joanne, and their two young girls, Audrey and Emma. Joanne has suffered a stroke and is fighting for her life. I don’t know them at all. I’ve read Joanne’s blog a time or two, and became aware the situation through another blogger, Marla Taviano. This has forced me to consider the fragility of life in general, and my own plans, specifically. For Joanne, I pray for a miraculous recovery, that her health would be completely restored in every way.

The second is the Ridder family, who we have known personally for nearly a decade. Nick and Alecia, and their kids Kate, Luke, and infant twin girls Brooke and Layne. I just got word this morning, while typing this very post, that little Layne is very sick. Her tiny system is battling two illnesses at once: Strep and flu. As a parent, I know how helpless I feel when a child is sick. I pray that Laine gets well in a hurry, and that these contagious illnesses are not passed to anyone else in the family.

I know that God has things well in hand, and that His timing is perfect. Thank you for joining me in praying for these families!

13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
                      Psalm 27:13-14