Our Rescuer

 Today I wanted to share some of my favorite words from our favorite children's Bible "The Jesus Storybook Bible". I think it's just perfect for Christmas!

 "No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne - everything - to rescue the one he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this story - is that it's true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this story. And at the center of this story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle - the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture. And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend. This is the Child who would one day - but wait. Our story starts where all good stories start. Right at the very beginning...."

  "You see no matter what, in spite of everything God would love his children - with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God's children would miss him always, and long for him - lost children yearning for their home."

I have a few more gifts to make, but aside from that I'm as ready as I'll ever be for this Christmas. After the news we just received I think this will be one that my family NEVER forgets! I want it to be remembered as loving, thoughtful, fun, relaxed, full of excitement as we wait on our new addition, and FULL OF CHRIST!



Are you ready? I pray that this will be an unforgettable Christmas for you too! xo, Sam

Our Christmas Miracle!!!

WE WERE APPROVED BY DHR, AND WE ARE NOW WAITING FOR A MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After almost three years of wondering if we would ever really make it this far......Praise God it's HERE!!!! We could be weeks away from meeting our new child (or children)!!! Weeks, not YEARS!

Talk about a Christmas miracle! As we celebrate the Greatest Adoption Story ever told this season, my family will also be celebrating this amazing breakthrough in our own adoption story. Friends there have been times over the last three years that I felt like we would never make it here. We had so many dreams shattered along the way that it seemed like an impossible task. BUT HE IS FAITHFUL!!!! There are absolutely NO WORDS to describe the way I feel right now! I've cried, I've laughed, I've called, I've texted, I've jumped, I've danced and I've said how I can't believe it at least two thousand times! We MADE IT!!!!! Very soon I will get to meet the person that has the missing pieces of my heart, I will get to hear their voice, get to know their heart, learn what their favorite meal is, know what makes them feel better when they are sick or hurt, I get to finally be their mama. Timothy will finally know what its like to have a brother!!! We get to be a WHOLE family!!!

Ahhhhhh.....it's nice to be here. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us friends. I'm honored and blessed beyond measure to have so many sweet friends that care about my family! MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!!!!!!! xo, Sam

Jesus On Facebook

They showed this at church last night. It's so cute that I just had to share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Merry Christmas friends! xo, Sam

We are back home.

We made a little visit to Children's Hospital this week. Very soon after I wrote my last post my babe became very sick. She couldn't hold down anything. After 36 hours of vomiting, and a visit to the doctor, Thursday morning we ended up in Children's. I had a dream the night before that she had a blockage. She hadn't had a dirty diaper since Monday and she only had a low grade (99) temp. It wasn't just a tummy bug. Sure enough the X-ray showed a suspicious bit of intestine that had likely turned inside of itself (like a telescope) creating a blockage. They said that it was probably happening intermittently, which is very common at this age. She was admitted for observation and IV fluids until she could keep herself hydrated and yesterday we brought her home WELL. My goodness how these little ones can scare the life right out of ya! We thank God that he once again protected our little Claire. This condition could have been much worse, some children have to have it corrected surgically. This week we were reminded again of what a HUGE miracle her little life is. I think God has big plans for my little Claire Louise! xo, Sam

 

PS. Claire stayed on the same floor that I used to work on. Do you know how old I felt when I told the young nurse "Eleven years ago I used to be a nurse on this floor!" She was sweet and said "Eleven years ago? Girl you don't look that old." A decade makes a big difference in the medical world, it was crazy how many changes there were!

Ceramic Painting

Today I'm playing with ceramic paint for the first time! It's so much fun, but I'm not all that good at it yet. I think the pens would be easier, but I got this kit with my 50% off Michael's coupon so it was much cheaper than buying a bunch of different pens. I got the mugs at the Dollar Tree.

My plan is to practice up and then make myself a whole set using miss matched white pieces from the thrift store. Wouldn't that be delightfully odd? Miss matched dishes all painted with the same theme? I like it! I just need to get better at it. I think my brushes may be too stiff because they are leaving lines in the paint.

By the way, you are welcome to look at the mess in the background. :) Claire put that there for me. My sweet chubby little babe, she loves playing by the tree. I am so grateful for little baby messes around the house again! In the last two months she has gotten so mobile that she has been keeping us in messes to enjoy. :)  xo, Sam

We will go west in....

A vintage Airstream! A 1962, 24', Tradewind to be exact. Woot woot!! Yep, we didn't even own the popup for an entire month before we traded in her in for an older model. I bet you're thinking who trades a perfectly good popup in for a gutted clunker? Well, I guess we do! I know she's a little rough around the edges, but ain't she a bute?

Craigs List, I thank you. We were able to sell the old camper and buy her for the same price. Our plan is to work hard building and fixing all year and have her ready to go by October. Our new family member (or members) should be home by then too! 

 Once she's done we would like to be able to take 4-5 trips a year, some short and some long. As a family we decided that traveling is what we want to be doing for the next few years, but as this new exciting chapter of our life books begins, another had to end. We can't run a farm and not be here. The big gardens are fine, we probably won't travel in the Summer anyhow, but it wouldn't be fair to leave the animals so much. We feel good about it! Our animals have had a good life here and they will go to a nice loving home to live.

So now we have a lot of work to do! We plan to start in the next few weeks, I'll keep you posted on our progress. If anyone has any cool links to redone airstreams, send them my way! Oh, it's going to be so cute! xo, Sam

Our Gypsy Travels :: The Maiden Voyage :)

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Finally here I am writing about our first trip! I say first because there will be more, oh so many more after this! In fact, when we got home we made some pretty big changes in our lifestyle, and made some big decisions about how "Our Gypsy Travels" will fit into our life from now on (more about that next week).

Our only real plan was to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway and play it by ear from there. We headed out with a popup from Alabama, and before it was over we had been through seven states (and a district Molly says). We went from Alabama to Maryland and had a blast!

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Our travel rules are simple:

-Have fun

-Spend as little money as possible, but see the most we can

- For every busy day we take a day of rest

-If we have seen all we want to see we need to "move on"

-Always leave a place better than you found it

-Try to only eat food that we prepared (that kinda went along with the money thing)

Day 1: Our maiden voyage began on a Thursday morning, the 13th of October. We were all excited and ready for our new adventure! We decided the week before to start at the Blue Ridge Parkway. This weekend was said to be the best as far as fall color goes, "peak color" they said, and it was perfect! Our plan was to make it to the first National Park on the Parkway, Mt. Pisgah, and camp. The last hour of the 10 hour drive was pretty bad. It was raining, cold, dark, and we were completely worn out...we pulled into Mt. Pisgah at 8pm and set up camp in the dark. Ben wrote in our travel journal (he is such a funny sarcastic writer) ""The last hour of our drive was rainy and miserable. We all wanted to die. The drive was so long that Tim asked "When are we gunna land." The best thing about Mt. Pisgah, they have a shower!

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Day 2: Ben wrote "Woke up cold!!! Had eggs and turkey bacon, then straight to town for more blankets and Claire a hot-suit." Ha! Yes, it was cold! We left weather that was still in the 80's, we were in shock. Claire's "hot-suit" was a fleece bear suit. We ate hot wings cooked over the fire and Molly made some of my Granny's famous fried taters. It was a feast! We went to a camp fire talk about bears too that was very interesting, and slightly un-nerving. The girls and I walked to the bath house a little louder after that talk! We waited in line for showers, there is only 1 for girls and 1 for boys, but we are grateful). Good move. :)

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Day 3:We woke up warm!! We went on a guided hike with Ranger Lou. In talking to her we found out that she and her husband have been on the road in their fifth wheel for the last 12 years. We had hobo stew for dinner, so good. That night in the camper we played UNO and the loser had to sing everything they said until bed. Ben lost! Ha! I laughed so hard I cried!

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Day 4: Pancake breakfast and coffee by the camp fire. We already had a fair amount of dirty duds and we wanted to head to Biltmore the next day so we headed to town and found a laundromat. Now that was an adventure! Who knew that a laundromat could be such an interesting place for the kids? We got a few snacks at the Dollar General next door and headed back up the mountain. On the way back to camp we drove to Looking Glass Falls. It was beautiful! We waited for the showers again so that they wouldn't kick us out of Biltmore. :)

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Day 5: Biltmore, the biggest house in America, was AMAZING! We stayed all day! The kids were so excited, we saw it all! When we headed back to camp that night we decided that we had done all we wanted to do in North Carolina. It was time to move on. Within an hour of being back at camp we were packed and back on the road. Shenandoah or bust! Loft Mountain National Park, we heard you have showers, here we come.
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Day 6: Ben wrote "Arrived in Shenandoah at approximately 3AM. Crap-load of deer on the road, really cool. Set up camp in stealth mode with the diesel running for cover. Slept till 10AM. Hung out at camp, cooked spaghetti, gathered firewood on the Appalachian Trail and played some dodge ball. Shenandoah means serious business about bears (all wildlife). Tim and I took a shower tonight. $1 for 5 minutes, genius!" I love that man! Our camp was only about 200 yards from the AT, so cool. we took a lazy day since the day before was so full. This was my favorite campground, each site had it's own private yard. I loved it.
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Day 7: We woke up with rain so the girls and I got us a $2 shower (10 minutes!). We met some biker/gypsy/campers who had rode there from New York! They were raising money for veterans by playing in a bluegrass band. One guy played the washboard for us! Who knew? We headed to town. Our friends from New York moved to Virginia just 6 weeks earlier. They were only about two hours away so we met up with them and let the kids play. It was so much fun hanging out with them! We got back to camp at around 12:30 AM.
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Day 8: Woke up with rain again and more on the way, so we decided to move on! Ben said that he had always wanted to see Washington, DC and it sounded great to us, so 30 minutes later we were on the road to DC. We arrived in Greenbelt National Park at around 3PM. Setting up camp in daylight is awesome! We had a lazy day hanging out at camp. We saw a painted hippie camper on the way in and Ben looked at me and said "By the time we leave you will probably know those people." What?! The kids were missing family back home, but they were still having too much fun to head home. We got in touch with some friends in DC! Yes! They are going to tell us what we needed to see and they wanted us to come for dinner. AWESOME. Oh, and Greenbelt has showers!!
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Day 9: Up and at'em! Our friend Nate got us to the metro under his building, and helped us buy day passes and set us on the right course. We went everywhere, the Air and Space Museum, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial (my favorite), the White House. when it all shut down for the day we went and had a wonderful dinner at Nathan and Amanda's house. After dinner Nathan took Ben and the three older kids back out for a personal night tour. Amanda, Claire and I stayed behind, baked apple pie and talked. The kids loved their tour! They didn't get back until almost midnight! They all said that it was even better at night. I have to admit, the pictures were pretty, but I was happy to be in that nice warm apartment. I gave Claire a real bath in their bath tub! She loved it! We got back to camp around 12:30. Awesome day! We decided to try to get further south so that the drive home didn't take two days, next stop the Great Smoky Mountains.
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Day 10: Ben wrote "Woke up after a long day site seeing. Hung out at camp all day and chilled and ate left overs from Nate and Amanda's. We were all showered, packed up, and ready to head to the smokies and up walks this old hippie man with a guitar . Of course we had to hang out with him a while! We played a few songs and hung out a little while before leaving and driving through the night." And the first thing I thought when I saw his painted hippie camper was "Ben was right! Ha!" We had a blast and then we hit the road.
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Day 11: We arrived in Look Rock at around 5AM and got 3-4 hours of sleep.  We had a nice relaxing day at camp and tried to catch a nap. Fail. Ben took the big kids to Look Rock Tower at sunset while Claire and I stayed back at camp and read some Grace Livingston Hill. We were all asleep by 8pm. Nice. :) By this time in the trip Claire had begun crawling like an old pro, and she was learning to pull-up on the side of her play pen. Man, a lot can change in two weeks!
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Day 12: Look Rock doesn't have showers so we broke out the shower tent that we brought along. The whole trip I dreaded using that tent with the 4 gallon water bag and shower head. I thought that I would freeze and hate it. Well, I didn't have an option that day, there were no showers. We used the tent and it was so much better than a public shower! Wayyyy better! We filled it half full with hot water from the fire and the rest with cold and it was a nice relaxing private shower that was clean. Next time, I'll definitely be using the shower tent more than public showers. The kids have never seen Gatlinburg before and they had some money from Nanna to spend, so to Gatlinburg we went! The kids loved it! They spent their money and we ate dinner out for the first time. No Way Jose's in Gatlinburg, you guys rock. We were so full when we left that our clothes were tight!
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Day 13: Our last day in the camper. We were sad to leave, but excited about seeing family. We headed out after eating sausage and rice cooked over the fire. We were home before dinner and when we walked through the door we all said the same thing "Oh my goodness! This house is so big!" Nanna and Papa were there within an hour to see their babies. Maybe coming home isn't so bad. :)
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We learned a lot about us on this first trip. We learned that you don't need a lot of stuff or space to live happily, that we didn't miss having power as much as we thought we would, the shower tent is the way to go, kids adjust amazingly to life outdoors when all of the indoor "stuff" isn't there to distract them, cooking over the fire makes everything taste better, that we should never leave home again without bikes, next year we need at least a month, and that good clean fun can be fairly cheap. Next year, we go west in a ??? :) Be back soon with some exciting news along this thread. xo, Sam

P.S. If you would like to make fun of my Old school music choice, I'm game. :) Die hard Steven Curtis fan!

Her First

 My little Claire was very enthusiastic about helping decorate for her first Christmas. ;)

 She was just delighted with the results too!

 And we, well we were all delighted that she was delighted!

We were also delighted with the pudgy rolls on her legs, and feet, and back, and well, all over. At nine months old this little lady has us all wrapped around her chubby little pinky finger. Where have the last nine months gone anyhow? I can't tell you, but I can say that they were full of firsts.

xo, Sam