There's no place like home!: I'm NOT doing it...

Friday, December 13, 2013

I'm NOT doing it...

I refuse to do what you may be doing...

I'm sorry to hurt your feelings,

BUT

it is time to make some major changes...

I refuse to do what I have done in the past years.

Instead, we are redefining our Christmas...

We have thought about it a lot...
and it is time!
With 13 children at home and 5 of them have never celebrated Christmas

NOW

is our opportunity!

We are rejoicing!

We feel free from what this world thinks we should be doing for Christmas!

We have checked it out with God...

and

He is good with with it!

If He is good with it,

than so are we!

Our Christmas plans include...

peace

smiles

praise

joy

good food

and

family

fun!

Please

join us

if you can!

And if you are already lost in this world definition of what Christmas really is all about...

Please join us next year.

Same time,

same place!

(okay, that's from Batman 1960's, sorry ;-)

8 comments:

Jennie said...: Jean, Rejoice! He comethe! And that is the true reason for Christmas. Whole-heartedly agree with yours and Hubby's philosophy. Consumerism in America goes haywire at this time of the year.; December 14, 2013 at 5:49 AM
Sammy said...: Good for you and Merry CHRISTmas!!!; December 14, 2013 at 7:04 AM
Unknown said...: Praise be to God and glory to His name! Congratulations on making that ever so hard step of non-conformity in this area. We stopped 14 years ago and have never felt so close to God and free during these holiday months. May everyone have a great holiday season celebrating in the way they feel is best! Blessings!; December 14, 2013 at 8:15 AM
Sarah said...: Jean,
You are wise beyond your years:) There's a post about another family that decided to forego gift receiving and instead to give gifts to others more in need and more in keeping with what is eternally worthwhile. You probably 'know' her already. It's Nancy at Ordinary miracles.; December 14, 2013 at 10:43 AM
Angela said...: Good for you! We do the same for many reasons...! Have a relaxing and enjoyable holiday time!!; December 14, 2013 at 5:03 PM
Janet and Kevin said...: I love that you are letting your new sons see Christ in Christmas.

hugs,
janet and gang; December 14, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Sally-Girl! said...: Our Christmas is minimal on gifts and maximal on FAMILY and JESUS!!!; December 14, 2013 at 11:28 PM
From the Erben Gang..... said...: That sounds nice! (I am not there you but I totally understand( I wish you the best christmas.; December 15, 2013 at 7:33 AM

Quick Update On Us!

Hubby and I have 5 bio kids that are currently 26-36 yrs old. As our bio children were leaving the nest we felt called to serve our Lord through the blessings of adoption!

We have adopted 17 waiting children from China! Anna came home first on August 8th, 2007 (at 16 months). She is currently 14 yrs old! Sarah came home on December 5th, 2008 (at 8 yrs 9mo.). She is 20 yrs old and being an adult! Emma and Ellie came home on July 19th, 2010! They are bio sibs, and were 8 and 10 yrs old when they came home! They are now 18 and 20 yrs old. They live at home with us! Next we brought home Sam at 4.5 yrs old and Ava Marie at 5.5 yrs old at the time of their adoption. They came home on April 1st, 2011 and are now 14 yrs and 15 yrs old.! Both of the kids are from Henan Province.

On our 5th adoption trip we journeyed to Abby and Luke. They came home at 5.5 and 3 yrs old. They have adjusted well! They are currently 14.5 and 11.5 years old!

We will traveled back to China for adoption trip #6 in January 2013. This time God blessed us with 3 lovely daughters from China! At the time of there adoption they were 11, 7 and 6. Mia is now 18 years old, Melissa is 14.5 years old and Madeline is almost 13.5 years old now. We feel so very blessed to have these darling girls in our family!

Our 7th adoption trip to China was to bring home our two boys- Ben 7 yrs and Joseph 5 yrs. The boys are now 14 and 12 yrs old.

Our next adoption was a domestic adoption and our amazing daughter, Jenny joined us in December 2015 at 10.5 yrs old. She is now 15 yrs.

Then we traveled to China one last time to bring home two treasures, Grace was 8.5 yrs and Jake was 9.5 yrs. They are now 12 and 13!

Last but not least our Mary joined us in May of 2019! She came to us through a domestic adoption right before her 11th birthday! She is now 12 yrs old!

Our family is now complete BUT we continue to be blessed with grandchildren! Precious beautiful little treasures! Thank you Jesus!

We have had many many procedures and surgeries over the years, God has been so very kind and they have been amazingly successful!! We still have more surgeries in our future and we will rely on HIM and pray our way through each day.

Hubby and I are passionate about special needs adoption. We feel called to adopt, God planted a seed long agao and it is pure joy to raise our amazing kids! We are loving every minute of it! We are both in our early 60's now. We can't think of anything we would love to do more than what we are doing right now! We are thankful for this opportunity to enjoy these wonderful children!

We have chosen to home school our children from China. When adopting older children they really don't fit into one grade, they are combination of many grades (including 2nd in math but Pre-k in reading/phonics). We also feel like we missed out on so many years with our wonderful children, we don't want to miss out on any more! Plus it is great for attachment and bonding!!

If you are considering adoption feel free to email or message me with any questions you may have!

Timeline to Emma Joy and Ella Mei

Saw the their pictures - March 2009

Got their referral! - April 2009

Accepted their referral - June 5th, 2009

(we had to wait to officially accept it until Sarah had been home 6 months)

Adam Walsh - May 26th, 2009 and May 26th, 2010

Homestudy done - July 30th, 2009

CIS approval - November 2nd, 2009

PA - November 12th, 2009

DTC - December 10th, 2009

LID - December 24th, 2009

LOA- March 15th, 2010

I-8oo Aproval - March 31st, 2010 (received April 7th)

NVC - April 7th (received Saturday, April 10th), arrived at agency on April 12th.

Article 5 - May 13th, 2010

TA - June 10th, 2010

Travel dates - June 30th- July 16th

Gotcha Day - July 5th

Consulate Appt. - July 14th

Home on July 17th!!

Thank you Jesus

Our Journey to Sarah Grace JiangMing!

Requested referral- Dec. 20th, 2007 ( the minute we saw her picture we requested her referral, but we needed to be approved by the older child committee in order to proceed.

Referral approved- Jan. 11th, 2008

LOI - sent February 14th, 2008

Fingerprints/ USCIS- March 5th, 2008 (Sarah's birthday!)

PA - May 17th, 2008 (never officially received)

USCIS approval - June 23rd, 2008

DTC - July 1st, 2008

LID - July 11th, 2008 (11 days)

LOA - Oct. 17th, 2008 (98 days)

TA - Nov. 10th, 2008 (24 days from TA arrival, 19 days from the date it was sent back to China)

CA- Dec. 2nd, 2008 (We received it on Nov. 13th)

Leave for China - Wednesday, November 19th @1:00!!

Gotcha Day - Monday, November 24th- Yippee Jesus!

Return home from China - Friday, December 5th

Thank you Jesus

Our Journey to Mia, Melissa and Madeline

PA for Mia- April

PA for Melissa- June

PA for Madeline- July

HomeStudy Done- June

I800A Sent- 6/27/2012

I800A Approved- 8/9/2012

DTC- 8/30/2012

LID- 9/11/2012

OOT- 9/19/2012

LOA- 10/22/2012 (41 days)

USCIS I800 Submission- 10/26/2012

USCIS I800 Approval- November 16th, 2012

NVC letter- November 28th, 2012

Article 5- December 18th, 2021

TA- January 11th- February 1st, 2013

Mia Gotcha Day - January 14th

Melissa Gotcha Day - January 16th

and Happy 31st Anniversary to us!!

Madeline Gotcha Day - January 21st

CA- Thursday, January 31st

Travel Dates-

Friday, January 11th - February 2nd

Timeline to Abby and Luke!

Our Journey to Ava and Sam!

PA for Sam - 6/21/2010

PA for Ava - 9/28/2010

Adam Walsh (local clearance)

Submitted 8/11

Approved 9/10

(this is where we lost a month in the process- this should have been submitted earlier- but there was a bit of a mix up)

USCIS - Submitted 9/21

received letter from Texas 9/27

(We do not need fingerprints right now)

Approved - 10/18/2010

Fingerprint Extension - prints done 11/26/2010

Dossier Certified - Oct 14th, 2010

Dossier Authenticated - Nov. 2nd, 2010

DTC - November 12th, 2010

LID - November 19th, 2010

LOA - December 17th, 2010 (28 days!)

USCIS Received Application - December 27th, 2010

I800 Approval - January 11th, 2011

received in the mail- January 15th, 2011

NVC Letter- January 25, 2011

Art. 5 - February 14th, 2011

(Delivered Feb. 16th)

TA - February 28th, 2011

CA - March 30th, 2011

Travel Dates - Thursday, March 17th - April 1st. 2011

Gotcha Day - Monday, March 21st, 2011

Thank you Jesus