'Down with Santa' by Thabiti Anyabwile

'Down with Santa' by Thabiti Anyabwile

I am so glad to see a Christian seriously looking at this issue from a BIBLICAL worldview. A friend and I were talking about this just the other day ~ that just because our culture does Santa does not mean we as Christians should do Santa. Since when were we Christians supposed to conform to the culture? Thabiti does an excellent job of explaining why Santa should not be included in the Christian Christmas. He portrays my sentiments exactly.

My parents did not want to lie to my brother and me, so we did not "do" Santa. My Christmases were just fine. I have wonderful memories of "magical" Christmases. On thing I did run into as a child and am now revisiting as a parent is that I was forbidden to tell other children the truth about Santa. I fully understand why my parents did this. But now that I have a four year old who is very adament about not lying and telling the truth and wondering why people believe lies, I don't think I want to tell him to go along with the lie for the other children's sake. How can I tell my child NOT to tell the truth? That goes against what I have taught him and what the Bible teaches. There is of course the fact that we should tell the truth in love. But how do I teach my four year old this as it applies to Santa and other children? As I said, I'm still grappling with this issue. Any comments and suggestions would be welcome.

Carissa's Adoption Day!!

Today we finalized Carissa's adoption. Here are some pics from court.

The whole gang who came for the hearing.

Kalie and Carissa.

Here are several pics from lunch at Brick Street Cafe for Carissa's adoption party.

Josiah and his girl, Ellie.

Bops with a wiped out Carissa.Caleb and Ethan.

Rosie and Ellie.

Minnie and Carissa.

Grammy and Bops.

Mark and Meredith (the kids' second parents)

Grammy, Minnie, Carissa, and me

Thanksgiving (posted a little late)

Here are all of us at the table.

Uncle Will with Josiah and Caleb.

Carissa eating her first Thanksgiving meal (rice cereal - yum!)

Josiah with Carissa.

Here's a movie of Carissa eating.

Here is a video of Caleb singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Here is Josiah singing "Jesus Loves Me".

The Brotherhood of Sons

Here is an excellent article. It is a little bit long, but well worth the read.

The Brotherhood of Sons:
What Some Rude Questions About Adoption Taught Me About the Gospel of Christ
by Russell D. Moore

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Video of Josiah's Thanksgiving Program

Friends and Thanksgiving Program

This morning Caleb got together with his two best friends, Ethan and Sam.

Also here is a pic of Ellie with Carissa.

Then Josiah had his Thanksgiving program and then lunch.

Max Lucado on Adoption

I was recently emailed this excerpt from Max Lucado's book, The Great House of God, from some friends in our adoption group.


God's Mission: Adoption
by Max Lucado

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us. Through a dramatic series of events, we go from condemned orphans with no hope to adopted children with no fear. Here is how it happens. You come before the judgment seat of God full of rebellion and mistakes. Because of his justice he cannot dismiss your sin, but because of his love he cannot dismiss you. So, in an act which stunned the heavens, he punished himself on the cross for your sins. God's justice and love are equally honored. And you, God's creation, are forgiven. But the story doesn't end with God's forgiveness.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15--16 NASB).

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4--5 NASB).

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name. It would be enough if God just set you free, but he does more. He takes you home. He takes you home to the Great House of God.

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone. I certainly don't mean to offend any biological parents--I'm one myself. We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child. But in many cases our cribs were filled easily. We decided to have a child and a child came. In fact, sometimes the child came with no decision. I've heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I've never heard of an unplanned adoption.

That's why adoptive parents understand God's passion to adopt us. They know what it means to feel an empty space inside. They know what it means to hunt, to set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future. If anybody understands God's ardor for his children, it's someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.


From The Great House of God Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1997) Max Lucado

Recently read books

I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost

Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin by Neal Bascomb

When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone

The Pentagon: A History by Steve Vogel

Valley of Dry Bones by Pastor Lance

I recently read a series of posts from a pastor of a black church in Philadelphia. Pastor Lance talks about what he believes is the only hope for blacks from "moribund communities and . . . the sad cycle of despair, frustration, anger, violence, grief and more despair. " He combats the word of faith theology in the black community. It is an excellent read.

Valley of Dry Bones

Valley of Dry Bones - Blackness Rising

Valley of Dry Bones - Blackness the Resurrection

“Abba! Father!” and transracial adoption article by Dan Cruver

Here is an excellent article by Dan Cruver at Carolina Hope Adoption.

Adoption Article

Here is an adoption article I ran across on someone else's blog.

Mitt Romney in Greenville

Today we got a chance to meet Mitt Romney at the office of our adoption lawyer, Raymond W. Godwin. Romney wanted to talk with some adoptive families about current adoption issues and what needs to be done on a national level for adoption. We were one of the families asked to meet with him. Romney also held a press conference outside after talking with the families. Here is an article from the Greenville news about Romney's visit. Here is the photo gallery with some photos of us.

Here is the video from FoxNews. Chris's head and shoulder are on the left hand side.

Two Pirates and a Mermaid

The first two pics are from the Fall Festival at Chris' work last night.

These pics and the video are from the little parade our neighborhood had tonight.

Two little pirates with their friend, Ellie, who lives around the corner.

A little mermaid. My friend, Meredith, made the mermaid's tail for Carissa and I made the bow.

Plus Josiah's most recent prayer at the dinner table.

"Dear Lord, please bless this food and keep us safe from the yucky food that's not yummy. In Christ our bodies. Amen."

Soccer Trophy + Exersaucer

Here is Josiah getting his soccer trophy plus the video.

Carissa has been enjoying her exersaucer.

Happy Birthday, Minnie!

Carissa's coos

This was our first attempt at using the video feature on Chris's phone. Hopefully, I will become better in the future. Enjoy!

Pumpkin time

Here are some pictures of the kids while we were picking out pumpkins for the front porch.

It was rather hard to get all three looking decent. These are the best two pics.

I've realized Caleb doesn't really have any pictures on the blog, so here are some of him.

Another great interview about transracial/ethnic adoption

Here is another interview done by Dan Cruver at Carolina Adoption.

http://www.carolinahopeadoption.org/blog/archives/104

Another quite a week (and it's only Tuesday!)

It all started yesterday afternoon in the twenty minutes between the time Josiah got home from school and the time he was supposed to go down for a nap. He was jumping around being crazy in the playroom and fell. He landed with his hand on his knight's breastplate. It cut a gash in the palm of his right hand about 1/2 inch long and between 1/8 and 1/4 inch wide. Never having had to deal with any wound that needed stitches I called Chris to come home and look at it. If it had been the same cut on his arm or leg I would have put band aids on it and kept and eye on it. But since it was on the palm of his dominant hand and I knew a band aid wasn't going to stay there and Josiah wasn't going to be careful about not using the hand, I wasn't sure about whether it needed stitches or not, but I knew it needed more than a band aid. Anyway, I called the doctors office. They said "How soon can you be here?" So, Chris came home, said "It won't need stitches.", and then took Josiah to the doctors office. Anyway, the doctor cut off the 1/2 inch piece of skin and bandaged Josiah's hand, saying that the bandage was probably overkill. (Ha! He doesn't know Josiah. This wasn't his regular doctor.) He said that Josiah could still play in his soccer game last night. So, Chris brought him home and he got a short nap before his game. After the game the bandage was coming off and was filthy from Josiah falling several times on that hand during the game.

We got home from the soccer game and Nessie was acting all weird with her tail drooping. So I let her come in so I could keep an eye on her and try to figure out what the matter was with her. After watching her I figured her tail was hurt. It seemed swollen at the base of her tail and she would not lift it. If I lifted it she yaowed at me. So, instead of going to Bible study this morning I took all three kids and the cat to the vet. (It wasn't near as bad a disaster as it could have been.) Anyway, the vet said someone had probably slammed Nessie's tail in a door. It had not broken or dislocated it. But the muscle was damaged. The vet gave her a shot and some pills to take over the next week or so to help with the swelling and inflammation. The vet thinks that Nessie will regain use of those muscles and be able to lift her tail again.

Thankfully, we had an uneventful afternoon. I was able to make the bow to match Carissa's mermaid costume for Halloween.

Then at the dinner table Chris had given the boys some pumpkin seeds to try. A minute later Caleb had his finger in his nose telling me that the sunflower was in his nose. (He thought it was a sunflower seed.) I was about to cry. I was envisioning another trip to see a doctor. But I had Caleb blow his nose and he was able to blow out the pumpkin seed. Needless to say, the boys were put to bed soon after dinner.

Josiah's prayer at the dinner table:
"Dear Lord, we bless you for this food you gave us in our hearts."

Quite a week

It has been quite a week around here. Josiah started with a runny nose from allergies last week. In spite of taking Singulair he woke up Tuesday with a cough and wheezy breathing. (Josiah was diagnosed with allergic asthma in May.) So we did a breathing treatment of Xopenex and off we went to Bible study. When I got him from the nursery he sounded worse. (Last time the treatments really worked and I could tell he was better after the first one.) Anyway, after round the clock treatments for 24 hours he wasn't better; he seemed worse. So, on Wednesday morning I dropped Caleb off at preshcool and took Josiah to the doctors office. The doctor listened to him and she said his chest was tight. She did another treatment in the office and prescribed an oral steroid for 3 days with round the clock breathing treatments. We left the doctors office, dropped off his prescription, and I fed Carissa in a park on the way to pick up Caleb from preschool.

I am so glad that Carissa is sleeping through the night because I don't know how I could have done feedings and treatments. Josiah was so medicated I felt so sorry for him. The treatments and steroid make him very hyper. But the Singulair makes him sleepy. So he would be bouncing off the walls then ten minutes later be asking to go take a nap. Anyway he is doing much better and has a checkup Tuesday morning.

On a different note, as we drove past a pet store yesterday Caleb asked to go there. Josiah answered him with "No, we just got a hamster and we have too many pets. We have a cat, two fish, and a hamster. And when all of us are big kids we are getting a dog. And that will be the last pet for YEARS." Chris and I were trying so hard not to laugh.

Issaqueena

Josiah has been begging for a pet for the past year. Most of the time he has asked for a dog, but there have been many other requests. Some of the best ones that we can remember are skunk, parrot, squirrel, panda (which would eat the bamboo out back), aardvark, giraffe, baboon, and cheetah. So, we finally gave in and took him to the pet store this past Friday. He picked out a hamster. On the way out of the store he asked for suggestions for names and Chris suggested Issaqueena. Josiah liked the name. The name comes from a Cherokee legend. But of course Chris knows the name from an annual bike ride, Issaqueena's Last Ride. Here are some pics of Josiah and Issaqueena.

Josiah got some ball time this game

Here are some pics from Josiah's last game. The coach had Josiah try to run the ball up the field several times. This worked well until he ran into the other team and they took the ball.

Josiah and Owen waiting to play!

This is how Carissa watches Josiah's games.

Tummy time

Here is Carissa doing some tummy time.

Interview with Thabiti Anyabwile about transethnic adoption

Here is a link to a very good interview that Dan Cruver at Carolina Hope Adoption did with Thabiti Anyabwile about transethnic adoption.

http://www.carolinahopeadoption.org/blog/archives/63

Carissa's smiles

Carissa has really started smiling in the past week. Here are some pics of her.

Pictures from Josiah's 1st soccer game

Here are some pictures from practice before the game.

Here are the pictures from Josiah's first game. They play 3 on 3 with no score-keeping.

The team had their pictures taken after the game. Here is Josiah's team. Josiah's best friend, Owen, is sitting on the left.