Santa Grant This Wish Please

To see this full screen, you can double click on the letter and it should come up.

This is a letter that Caleb wrote to Santa at school. This is the kind of stuff that makes a Mom and Dad really proud. We obviously don't know what they are doing when we, as parents, are not around but you always hope that it is at least something nice. You try to teach them things and you hope that some of what you are trying to teach them is sinking in. This is definitely an item that we will hold on to and get it out some time when things aren't going so well. This gives us encouragement that he gets it. Just in case you can't read it, here is what it says:

Dear Santa,

Did you know that you are not the biggest thing in Christmas? It is Jesus' birthday, at last lets get to the presents, just one present, a Bible, not for kids.

From,

Caleb

Caleb, unfortunately, has been really sick today (Friday). He is acting like he feels much better now but he was in a world of hurt for most of the day today. His teacher sent his letter home with his homework.

Here are some left overs from our Christmas card photo shoot. It is hard to get all three of them to be serious and then capture a photo of it. We could a couple of them to do it at the same time, but hardly ever all three.

Christmas is Coming

Having a new person in the house that is old enough to start to learn about the meaning of Christmas causes Stacey and me to be so much more aware of what we are really teaching our kids about Christmas. We so much want them to have fun and enjoy the "stuff" of Christmas without that becoming the primary focus of Christmas. Of course we ask them what they want and will try to oblige as best we can but we really want them to know the true meaning of Christmas. We are trying to teach Coy what Christmas is about before he gets lots of presents and forgets to think about why we are celebrating Christmas.

Coy loves to "read" books. Here he is reading a book to Stacey. Stacey is really good about reading to the kids or having them read to her. Coy especially likes books about Clifford or Arthur.

We had lots of fun taking our Christmas card photo. This isn't the one that we ended up using but it is pretty close. I like it just the same. We also went to see the Go Fish Guys the other night at Southeast Christian Church with some really good friends of ours. We really enjoyed the music and we went out and bought the Christmas CD this past weekend.

I have been reading some blogs recently of some folks that are in Ukraine now finding out who their kids are now. How exciting for them. Some other friends of ours were over there at this time last year. It is hard to remember exactly what we were doing this time last year.

My parents got us a Web Cam and we got it installed. It is pretty cool. I don't think it would be cool just to talk to any old person with it but the kids really enjoy being able to see themselves on the computer and to be able to "show" Grandma and Grandpa stuff.

What is after Thanksgiving???

Of course, it is Christmas, but not until we celebrate Katie's birthday first. We did however manage to put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day weekend, despite all of our travels. Since Katie's birthday is the weekend after Thanksgiving (usually) we have to do it that weekend or it is just too much. I did not get very many good pictures of putting up the tree because it went up too fast. With all of the help (a lot of improvement of the help that we had last year) and the new help, it went up faster than I could get the camera out. When I did get it out, I had trouble getting the lighting right. I don't know if Coy knows what to make of the Christmas tree or not but he is definitely a big fan of the train that goes around the bottom of the tree.

This has been a week of celebration for Katie. We had her birthday with the Yankey family on Thanksgiving weekend and then the Ferguson side of the family came up through the week this past week to help celebrate. Katie also had a couple of friends over today (Saturday) for a couple of hours to play and do some crafty stuff. Caleb went to a movie with a friend but Coy and I stayed with the girls. He got right in on the crafts that involved food (cup-cakes and gingerbread men).

Coy is fond of shoes. I don't know what it is but he really enjoys putting on shoes that don't belong to him. My guess is that he is trying to make us laugh and it usually does. He will probably regret this picture in Katie's shoes some day.

Below is the scene at bedtime at our house. Unfortunately, I was out of town all week with work so I did not get to see this scene at all. I feel sorry for folks whose jobs take them away from their families on a regular basis. But I really feel sorry for the folks that are left behind

to run the house with one of their sets of hands tied behind their backs. I know it takes a toll on Stacey while I am gone. Fortunately, both sets of Grandparents came up to help break up the week but I know it is still hard to keep the peace alone for the week.

I don't know when, or if, we will make it to go see Santa. Neither Caleb nor Katie have ever been a big fan of Santa and Coy has not really shown any real affection for adults in costumes so we will have to see. Of course, Coy has no idea about Santa and it is not really a topic that we discuss much at our house. We will probably end up walking past Santa at the mall some afternoon to gauge whether or not to try it but I am guessing that ours will be a letter, or e-mail, campaign to that guy.

How About This For a Bunch of Turkeys??

Happy Thanksgiving. This video is typical of a night at our house. I caught Coy singing this song in the van on our way to church on Sunday morning. Just out of the blue came, "God made me, God made me, in my Bible book it says that God made me." I was able to make it out pretty easily even though I did not prompt him to say it, which is a big improvement alone. It must have been in his head because he was still singing it this night. The lighting is bad but it is the best that I can do.

I know this is a time for us to be thankful, this being the season of Thanksgiving and all but I was reading another lady's blog other day of a couple that adopted older children from Ukraine and she made a very interesting point that I don't know that I have ever considered. Or if I did, I don't know that I had ever pondered on it very much. She said that even though these children are being provided homes, and families, and love, and everything else a child needs to thrive, they are still grieving what they have lost. We expect these children to just be so greatful for all that they have gained, and I am sure that many of them eventually are, but initially, they could very well be upset over what they have lost. They lost their friends, what they knew as home, their culture, their familiar surroundings. Stacey and I were just discussing the other day how well Coy has adapted to his new situation. He really seems to roll with new situations and surroundings really well. He is easily made content and is never demanding. If there is anybody that should be thankful this year, it is Stacey and me, not Coy. We have 3 wonderful, healthy, children. We have lots of family and friends that have always supported us. We have been to Ukraine and back and lived to tell about it. We have lots of answered prayers to tell about and we have a Father in heaven that loves us very much. Now who could come up with anything more to be thankful for than that??

This was Katie's idea for how to make a turkey out of her brother. Actually, she made a turkey out of herself first but then she did it to Coy. Coy had on the "turkey feathers" before I could get the camera out.

If you look real closely in this picture, you will see a Wii remote in Katie's hand. We went out and bought a Wii the other day and have had lots of fun playing it since. It is hard to limit ourselves in how much we play but we have to or else the kids and I would play it all of the time.

We also have bought a new clothes dryer in the last week or so. Our other dryer was making a lot of weird noises so I decided to "take a look at it" by taking off the back of the dryer. It seemed like a good idea at first but it didn't take me long to realize that trying to take the back off of a dryer was not a good idea. We eventually decided to go and buy a new one because this one had already been repaired once and we felt like the cost of a new one would be about the same as the cost of a repairman and any repair that might need to be made.

Here is a Neat Painting

As a general rule, we don't let the kids play around in our bedroom. Every once in a while, they may get to watch our TV while one of us is in the shower or something, but our room is pretty much off limits. For some reason, just the other day, we were back in our room and Katie found this painting. I was astonished at how much it resembled Katie. She held it up in front of her and Caleb's comment was that he didn't think it looked much like her, the hair was too light of a color. I then began to explain to them that that picture was probably painted about 30 years ago. Stacey's grandma on her mother's side was very artistic, among other positive qualities. She painted and sketched and wrote poetry and many other things. This is a painting that she did of Stacey when she was probably Katie's age or perhaps a little younger. I had always been impressed by her grandma's abilities before but now I am impressed even more. I don't know what she may have been thinking when she painted her granddaughter that day or several days or however long it took her but she ended up painting a picture of her great granddaughter as well. It is kind of ironic because Katie is named after her. Her name was Cathryn with a C and went by the nickname Kitty whereas Katie is Kathryn with a K and goes by Katie. Katie is definitely the artist in our family. Not just drawing, but the unique and original personality that is associated with artists best describes Katie. She can be kind and gentle and sweet too. We also have a poem that hangs on our wall that my mom cross-stiched for us as a gift for us when Katie was born. The poem was about Stacey as a baby. Another one of her poems hangs in a shadow box that Stacey and I have. It is entitled "Thoughts for Tomorrow - Today". I have no idea when she wrote it but I would like to share some of her thoughts because they still apply.

"America, my country proud,

Your virtues we will sing aloud

Of sea and sky, vast country wide

You truly are the pilgrims' pride.

So let us deem it dutiful

To keep America beautiful

America, my country best,

Two hundred years you've stood the test

And better can be on the way,

If we will all just start today.

For in this land where man is free,

It's up to you and you , and me."

You are right on with the poem Kitty, and good job on the painting too. You were an amazing woman but I didn't realize how amazing you were until just the other day.

KISS ME BABY

Who could resist a big kiss from this guy?? The discouraging thing is that I scraped off most of the icing before I gave him the cupcake. He only eats the top half anyway.

We got good news from the doctor's office the other day. Coy's parasites are gone. Woohoo!!!

Katie and I are planning on going to the Casting Crowns concert in Lexington in a couple of weeks. It is going to be fun since a friend of Katie's and her dad will be going as well as three of my friends from Lexington/Versailles and their daughters that are all about Katie's age too.

Stacey and Caleb went on a date on Friday night. I think they had fun together. Caleb's highlight of the night was getting a rare Pokemon card with money that he had gotten for his birthday and Halloween. Katie had strep throat on Friday but she sure did not act like it. She has bounced around like normal ever since she got home from the doctor on Friday afternoon.

Coy got dressed up more than ususal to go to church today. I am not sure where he got this flag but we taught him to chant USA, USA and it is kind of cute. I didn't get any video of it but the picture is pretty good I think.

Katie is our little fashionista. This is the outfit that she put together to go to eat on Saturday night. The tights aren't tights but actually socks that she has pulled up to look like thigh high tights.

Passports, Flu Shots, and Other Stuff

The weekend went fine last week. I think all of the kids had a good time at their respective destinations. Like they say in the small town newspapers, "A good time was had by all."

By all accounts, our trick or treating was a success. The kids had a lot of fun and they got to spend time with the neighbors and see lots of their friends.

I was going to post that they felt no ill effects from the flu shots that they took earlier in the week but Katie woke up sick this morning. She complained about her ears hurting last night but we didn't think that much about it. However, she woke up with a high fever this morning and is at home today. She also had a bad bruise on her harm from the shot. You can make it out on her arm in this picture.

We received Coy's passport in the mail a week or two ago. That may not seem like such a big deal but it has been a really big ordeal for us. I won't go into all of the details here but I will try to give the condensed version. When we got back from Ukraine, we were kind of clueless as to what paperwork we needed to do to get Coy a social security number. Instead of asking others that had adopted what to do, I thought I could figure it out on my own. From reading on-line, it appeared that we had the paperwork to either apply for a passport ($82) or a Certificate of Citizenship ($210 or something like that). Easy decision for a cheap skate right?? So we applied for a Passport on a Friday at the first of June. The part that made me the most nervous was sending some very irreplaceable paperwork to the Department of Homeland Security. After mailing the application on a Friday, Coy received a Certificate of Citizenship just a few days later. Apparently we had applied for one while at the Embassy in Kyiv. Who knew?? Now the rest of his paperwork that we needed to get his Social Security number was on its way to get a passport. No problem we thought, we will get him a passport and he will have it if he needs it. A couple of months went by without hearing from the Passport so I decided to call and check on it. When I called, they claimed that they had never received his information. Instant Panic insued. Incredible panic. I called Stacey and just by happen stance (maybe or maybe not, you tell me) we had received that very day a letter from the Passport Agency in New Orleans a request for additional information regarding Coy's Citizenship. They had his name spelled wrong and his birthday wrong and since he did not have a SS#, they had no other way to track him. So he was in the system. With some limited relief, we mailed his Certificate of Citizenship out within a few days. We thought we were just a couple of weeks away from a Passport for him. In a couple of weeks we did hear from the Passport office but it was not good news. They sent us a letter saying that his application had been denied, that we would need to reapply because we had not responded within the required 90 day window. The worst part was that his information came back with some of his paperwork missing. Some of his very irreplaceable paperwork missing. I called immediately to discuss. It had not even been 90 days since we had applied, and we had just sent them his Certificate of Citizenship within the last couple of weeks (which was in the packet that was returned to us). Stacey and I both called the Passport Customer Service office number but they can not really comment on the specifics of each case. They can give you a status of your application and can send messages for you to the Passport office, but you can not speak to someone that is handling your case. THAT IS FRUSTRATING. Everyone we spoke to agreed that the Passport Agency was in error and that it needed to corrected. We asked what we could do and they suggested writing letters (how old fashioned). But that is what we did. I wrote letters (and sent them via signature confirmation) to both the Passport Agency in New Orleans and the Complaint Department in Washington DC. No response. A couple of weeks later we did get the rest of his paperwork back (some slightly damaged but got it back anyway). We took that paperwork and got his SS# and had almost resigned ourselves to not getting his passport. But we were out $82 plus all of the postage used sending them additional information and writing letters. (The first letter we wrote was lost by the Post Office). So one letter that I sent indicated that my next course of action was to either contact the local media or my elected official. When another month went by and we had not heard from them, I decided to call our US Representative's Office. I called and spoke with them on a Thursday and faxed them some information regarding Coy's situation. By the following Thursday, someone from the Passport agency had called and given me specific instructions on what to do. I sent of that information (again priority mail with signature confirmation) on a Friday morning and by Wednesday of the next week, we received Coy's passport via FedEx. Ok, so I went on a little longer than I had to, but it is important to me to get the details in there.

Katie is officially a Daisy Scout now. It will be interesting to see how this goes. They meet after school a couple of times a month. So far, the reports back from the Daisy Scout meetings have been favorable. There are several other girls that are Katie's friends that are in the group that makes it a good group.