Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was busy but very good. So different from last year. Anna loved all of her new presents and handled it well overall. A few meltdowns were had but nothing out of the ordinary for a three year old.

As we look forward to 2017, we have some pretty big changes coming up. Anna will most likely start attending school three hours per day. We're still working everything out and haven't made a final decision yet, but if she does attend school, her therapy will be interwoven into her classroom experience. Because she's progressing so quickly, she now knows her colors and numbers 0-10 and some letters, we think she'll learn a lot this way. So please be in prayer for us to make all the right choices for Miss Anna over the next couple of weeks.

We are also getting ready to start on the new house in the "country". It's not way out in the country, but we'll have some land, room for a big playground, and lots of peace and quiet. So, I'm working on packing and purging for our last move for, hopefully, a long time.

As far as personal goals for 2017, I don't have any many. I do want to lose the five pounds I gained in 2016, but that means giving up ice cream so ... I also want to be more diligent about reading my Bible and praying. Otherwise, I'm excited to see what the next year holds.

And with that, I thought I'd leave you all with a lot few pictures from Christmas.

Anna currently has an obsession with these spoons. They are all different colors, and she carries them around. They've actually helped her learn her colors.

They were happy. I promise.

The grandkids on my side of the family

Anna and her Great Aunt Karen

The ever elusive family picture

Grandkids on Patrick's side

Happy New Year Everyone!

Good News of Great Joy

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:13-14‬ ‭

No matter who you are ... No matter where you've been or what you've done ... Just over 2000 years ago a savior was sent to earth as a baby, born in a manger, worshipped by shepherds, to save you and me.

There's so much busy-ness and stress this time of year, but beneath everything that is going on the good news of Jesus Christ's arrival on this earth remains. Praying that each and every one of you remember that and come to know Him this season.

Merry Christmas from the Davis Family to yours!

Why We Believe

Growing up I believed in Santa. Patrick didn't. We had to come to a place of understanding regarding the whole belief in Santa with our own kids. It was a personal choice we made. I have no issue with parents that do not choose to do the whole Santa thing. I not only respect their reasoning, I understand some of it. What I don't understand is the vehement need to tear down everyone that doesn't come into line with their way of thinking. It's not everyone, but I've seen enough of it, and it's ugly. Believing in Santa never, not once, made me question my belief in Jesus, and while I know there are probably some that have been crushed by finding out Santa wasn't real, for the most part the people I know weren't really affected by learning the "truth" behind Santa. I think a lot of it has to do with how you go about it all. So I'll share how we do Santa in our house. I'm not debating whether it's right or wrong. I'm not trying to convince you to change your mind so please refrain from trying to change mine or debate with me (I'll delete any comments on here and on social media that are trying to debate).

1. We do NOT worship Santa. We worship Jesus. Three hundred sixty-five days a year, throughout the day, everyday, we worship Jesus. We pray to Him. We sing to Him. He permeates every area of our lives. He forgives our sins. He delivers. He sets free. He heals. Santa comes into play about a month out of the year and not even close to the extent that Jesus does. He does none of the stuff that Jesus does. We do not worship Santa, but he is fun. You know the old song, "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake"? Well, not in our house. Santa is not all knowing or all seeing, and I don't call him or email him or even address the whole naughty or nice thing. Which segues nicely into my next point ...

2. Santa bringing gifts has nothing to do with behavior. Now whether you get to keep and play with those gifts might be influenced by your behavior, but Santa doesn't bring gifts based upon how you behave. My kids are not "naughty". Sometimes they may act naughty, and we will discipline accordingly, but I (and by extension Santa) will never withhold gifts based on behavior.

3. But not all, or even most of the gifts, are from Santa. Yep. I am a control freak, and I set limits on Santa gifts. Like monetary and quantity limits. Because that's how I am. So they get to pick a couple small things or one big thing from Santa, and he fills their stockings with junk. The rest is from Mom and Dad. And if and when my kids start questioning Santa, I won't push it on them to believe. I was seven when I stopped believing, and Andrew is asking a lot of questions so I leave it up to him. He's a very imaginative kid and is still very much into pretend play (he also believes in Captain America and the Hulk) so he'll figure it out in his own way.

4. Everything and everyone bows their knee to Jesus at Christmas. Maybe you find that contradictory. Maybe you say Santa distracts from that. I could argue that the tree, the gifts, the food, the carols ... are all a distraction, but I don't think that. And honestly, I don't think Jesus does either. I think sometimes we split hairs over ridiculous things and turn, what should be a celebration, into a legalistic, rule bound time of year. God is not putting us on a guilt trip. Don't put yourself on one.

So that's it. That's how we do Santa. If you do it differently or don't at all, that's fine with me. I think there are much bigger, much more serious things in this world with which to take issue.

Gotcha Day

Today marks one year since Anna left the orphanage! One year since she joined a family forever. It's surreal and hard to believe. This year has been hard and beautiful and challenging and fun. We've seen Anna grow by leaps and bounds both physically and emotionally. She is most certainly not the same terrified little girl that we picked up one year ago. She is so full of life and joy and tenacity and determination. We are so proud of our Anna girl and cannot wait to see what this next year has in store, and we give all the glory to God as He has done and is continuing to do great things in her life.

Tonight, to celebrate Gotcha Day, we are going to hang out at home and have fried chicken and mashed potatoes and homemade banana pudding ... a few of Anna's favorites. We'll play and laugh and hopefully have a limited number of fits.

A year ago ...

And from the past few weeks ...  

Thank you all for supporting us, loving us, praying for us, and walking this journey with us. We appreciate you more than you'll ever know. 

Happy Gotcha Day, Anna Gayle! 

Catch All

Believe it or not, October is almost over. We've been very busy this past month.
Andrew turned 9, and we celebrated both at school and with friends and family. I took donuts to his school on his birthday, and he was very excited about that.

We've also been playing a lot of soccer. This soccer season has been over the top intense. I think it may be our last one as we love soccer, but we're not in love with the idea of any sport dictating our lives. At least not until, Andrew is a little older.

Miss Anna has been very busy being ... well, busy. She's learned to say "banana" and requests about three per day. But we can't really complain as she's a great eater overall. She's still growing. At this point she's averaging about a pound and half an inch of growth each month. She no longer looks like a baby. She's also decided that naps are not for her. This can make for a very long afternoon and evening with a grumpy toddler, but the trade off is she's usually asleep by 7:45 at the latest. As far as therapy, well insurance doesn't want to pay for it any longer. Her diagnoses do not warrant therapy according to them. We have filed multiple appeals and are still in the process of fighting it. In the meantime, I have her scheduled for therapy evaluations through the school system. We do not want her attending school at this point, but are open to therapy through the district. So we'll see how that goes. Thankfully, her language is still developing and progressing albeit slowly. I'll leave you with a few recent pics of our sassy girl. She keeps us on our toes. That's for sure.

New Blog Address

FYI: New domain name. Same old blog.

My original domain name was hosted through google. Google has so convoluted the whole renewal process that I just don't want to deal with it anymore. I also thought about transferring my domain name, but that seems like a lot of trouble for just a blog. My new domain name is davisfamilylifeandtimes.blogspot.com, and this really only matters if you're one of the two people that link up to my blog or if you follow my blog with the original lifeandtimesofme.com domain name. Otherwise, keep clicking fb links for updates. Hope everyone is having a good Sunday.

Nine Years

On October 6, 2007 at 3:51 a.m. this guy made his debut on this earth.

I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it has been 9 years. Andrew has grown into such an amazing young man. It's incredible to see his love for Jesus continue to grow with each passing year. He has such a tender heart toward God, and I know God has big things for him. He also loves school, superheroes, his friends, soccer, his pets, and his family (not necessarily in that order). Part of me is sad to know he's entering his last year in single digits. But more of me is excited to see what God has in store for this amazing kiddo! I know the next 9 years will be just as awesome (and then he'll be 18 ... if you'll need me, I'll be crying in the corner). 

Happy 9th birthday buddy!

10 Month Update

Today marks 10 months since "Gotcha Day". It's hard to believe our sassy little girl has been with us that long, but at the same time, I can't remember life without her.

Miss Anna is really growing up. She's trying more and more to talk. We're currently fighting insurance on occupational and speech therapy. Because Anna doesn't have any real major medical diagnoses (and for that we're thankful), it's often hard to figure out the magic words to get her therapy. But we're (meaning us, the pediatrician, and the therapy center) working on it so any and all prayers would be appreciated.

As I said, she is full of sass. Her personality has really started to emerge. She has preferences and opinions, both of which are great, but she's also learning that you don't always get your way. No fun! For the most part, her fits are short lived, and she's on to the next thing. She has gotten to where she likes to go places and will tell me, "Shoes. Bye bye." It's been a lot of fun to watch her grow into her own person. She's smart and funny and silly and cuddly and loves pretty much all food now. So many of the things that stressed me out in the beginning are no longer an issue. Of course, I can always find something to stress about. ;)

As you can see from the picture below, our little girl is definitely a little girl now. There's no evidence of the baby we brought home. I know I'm biased, but I think she's pretty beautiful inside and out.

On Moving (Again)

I hate moving. I hate packing and unpacking. I hate hauling furniture, and the stress involved, and living in chaos. Because whether you move 1 mile or 100 miles, it will be chaotic. In my lifetime, including all the moving I did in college, I figure I've lived 15 different places. So when we moved into this house, I said we'd be here for a while, and I meant it. I really did. I love this house (except don't put your kids' bedrooms right off the living room ... you can't watch t.v. at night if you do that ... that's free advice right there).

And yet, I find myself looking at the very real possibility of moving once again. As much as I hate moving, I'm 100% on board with this move. When we bought our first house in this neighborhood (just around the block from where we are now) it was pretty undeveloped. We had neighbors join us on both sides, but for the most part, our little subdivision stayed quiet and relatively undeveloped. When we built the house where we currently live, on the backside of the subdivision, there was no one around us. However, within a year, a new construction company came in and started buying lots, and more houses were built. Still, it was all pretty okay. Things have stayed relatively quiet.

But our little town is growing quickly, and before long, it looks like there will be multiple subdivisions being built around us. While I don't mind living in town, I've always appreciated the "rural-ness" of where we live. I love that when I go running, I run past pastures full of cows and farmland planted with corn, cotton, and maize. Soon all of that will be gone. There will be more traffic, more people, just more. And that's all great for our little town. Progress and growth are important and necessary, but I want and need just a little space to breathe. So when we were given the opportunity to buy a few acres of land a little ways out of town (and slightly closer to Andrew's school), it was hard to pass that up.

But of course that means moving and building ... again. If you've moved, you know that's stressful. If you've built and moved, you know that's even more stressful. Right now we are in the house planning phase. We are trying to figure out how to build what we want without going overboard. Without going into numbers, because tmi, we want to put a good chunk down on the new house, and we don't want to finance more than a certain amount. Which leaves us with some choices to make. We either have to cut some things (which we're definitely looking at), or we wait longer and save more which is also fine except right now we live in a seller's market. If you're going to sell your house, now is the time. Will our house lose value if we wait? Not a ton, but it might lose enough that it cancels out the benefits of waiting.

But enough of all that boring stuff . . . that's where we are right now. Moving, building, buying, selling . . . I guess I should be grateful I'm married to a realtor. At least that relieves about .000001% of the stress factor.

First Day of School ... Two(ish) Weeks Later

So I'm a little behind. It is what it is. Blogging isn't exactly on the top of my priority list at the moment. I think it falls somewhere between having a root canal (woohoo!) and brushing the dogs' teeth. So yeah, do with that what you will.

The first day of school was over 2 weeks ago, and Andrew is in the 3rd grade. How do
I have a 3rd grader?!? It's now a rapid and slippery descent into Junior High followed by High School followed by driving and dating and college. I'm going to look up one day, and he's going to be married with kids. And I'll be a grandmother. Third grade is just the beginning of the end of childhood.

On that pleasant note ...

Hope everyone's school is off to a fantastic start.

Anna 8 Month Update

I'm not sure how, but I've gone too long without an Anna update. Tomorrow marks 8 months home.

So how is Miss Anna?

She's growing and growing ... emotionally, physically, mentally ... she's making huge strides in every area. She's so big and tall, and I have no doubt that I'll one day be looking up to my little girl. After taking a break from in home therapies, which just weren't that great for us, we are going to be switching to doing therapy in a center. But, exciting news, Anna will only be doing speech and OT (mostly speech). She no longer needs PT and is turning out to be a very athletic little girl. As far as speech goes, Anna has a number of words and even more word approximations. She's trying to put words together, but still needs a little more help to get her over the hump. OT will focus some on sensory things and some on fine motor and practical, daily skills as we work to help her make up some of the ground she lost in the first 33 months of her life.

As for fitting into a family, we've seen Anna's and Andrew’s relationship really grow over the summer. She loves him, and he loves her. Like siblings everywhere they are fighting one minute and hugging the next. They have this fake crying game the play where they pretend to cry and then hug each other. It can get rather loud at times and make this mama a little crazy, but I also see that Anna is learning empathy. And in so many things, Andrew is the best teacher and therapist we could ask for. As far as Mama and Daddy go, we are really seeing Anna beginning to show a preference for us. Hugs and kisses are a daily occurrence around here now, and while, she's a Daddy's girl a lot of the time, she definitely knows who her Mama is.

Just like any kiddo, Anna has her moments. Sometimes she'll go days without getting in trouble, then, bam, we have days, like today, where it's one meltdown after another. It's hard being three and learning that you don't always get your way. 😉

So prayer requests: that Anna's speech will continue to progress. That she will continue to grow emotionally and as she matures the tantrums (which are mostly mild and developmentally appropriate) will continue to reduce. For continued good attachment to us, and that she'll continue to trust us more with each passing day. And with that, I'll leave you with a picture of our sweet girl.

On Organization

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on balancing everything. In order to keep things in balance and running smoothly, organization is key. Over the years, I've tried a number of different things to stay organized. With the advent of the iPhone/iPad, I thought I'd love using apps, but I didn't, and I don't. I do like coupon apps because I'm really bad at clipping and keeping up with coupons, but beyond that, I've found that I'm a paper and pencil type of girl. And there's no changing that. So here are the tools that keep me and my household running smoothly (most of the time).

Item 1: The binder. In this binder you'll find a medical folder (mostly for receipts), a school folder with various contact info and calendars, an adoption folder (self explanatory), a vacation folder for both ideas and upcoming intineraries, estimated tax payment coupons (blah), and a folder for house plans and ideas for our next house (more on that in the months to come). I don't open this binder every day or even every week, but I keep it in my desk where I have easy access. 

Item 2: My planner. This is probably my most important item because it's where I write down everything . . .  birthdays, dinner dates, appointments, bills due, meals (subject to change depending on the mood of the chef ... i.e. me), etc. Finding the right planner has been a bit of a trick. Many years ago I used Erin Condren's life planner. It was super cute, and I loved it. Who doesn't love a cute planner? But it was a bit pricey for my taste, and it was also kind of bulky. So then I tried out cheap Walmart/Target planners for a couple years, and I was underwhelmed to say the least. About a month ago, I decided I needed something in between price wise but still good quality wise. After a little google searching, I happened across the planners by Rifle Paper Company. This planner came last week, and I love it. Aside from the cuteness, it has full month calendar pages as well, as spots for each individual day. There's also a contacts section and a notes section, and the size, quality, and price were all more than right. 

  

Item 3: My "handy dandy notebook" (Blues Clues reference from my college babysitting days). This notebook was a free gift from Shutterfly. While I could certainly live without it, I like the convencience it adds. Right now I only use it for two things: (1) Meal lists - these aren't recipes. These are all meals that I can make off the top of my head with little variation. If I find or invent a new recipe I like, I'll add it to the list. The lists are organized by chicken, beef, other/fish, and without using this I tend to get in a major rut. I'll cook the same things every week. (2) Scriptures and Notes - this is where I write down scripture references for specific scriptures God gives me as well as notes about my readings and of course, inspirational quotes.

Item 4: My notepad which just happens to be another free gift from Shutterfly. I'm a list maker extraordinaire. I mostly use this for my household and grocery lists. I keep it on the counter where I can jot down stuff we need as it comes to my attention. I've also been known to make lists for trips, school events, Christmas gifts . . . If can be put into a list, I've likely done it.

So there you have it. Four simple items that help keep me and my OCD self organized (or as organized as possible).

Andrew’s Baptism

For most of his short life, Andrew has had a deep love for God. Two years ago he made the decision that, honestly, seemed like a very natural progression and asked Jesus into his heart. At first, he was nervous about being baptized. He didn't like the idea of going backwards into the water so we decided to wait until he was comfortable. As often happens, time kind of got away from us, and although he's been ready for a while, things kept popping up. Finally, two years after he made the most important decision he'll ever make, he was baptized in the river at my parents' this past Monday evening. Patrick had the privilege of baptizing him, and it was incredibly sweet and special. Andrew has an amazingly tender heart toward God, and I cannot wait to see how he serves Him. (Photos are out of order, but I can't get them to move.)