On the Subject of Adoption

Hi Joy,

The MOJ will most probably not meet this week since Friday is not a
business day. However, they are likely to meet the first Friday of the New
Year. I am not sure and I will have to call on Jan.3rd. I will keep you
informed and rest assured that as soon as your verbal referral is a fact,
I will let you know :)

Hugs,
Toni


As antsy as I am to travel the fact remains that financially we are not ready to go. We still need to raise $4000 plus our travel expenses. As of early this morning we still had just the $5 in our fund with Reece's Rainbow. Could you please pray about this matter and consider contributing to this worthy cause?

Christmas Eve

God has certainly been gracious to us.
We played a game as a family. There are 8 of us so we had 8 characters from the Bible Christmas story: Mary, Joseph, shepherd, wise man, donkey, King Herod, sheep, star. We each drew one and then had about 5 minutes to run and make a costume. Funny thing was that Kevin ended up being Mary and I was Joseph!!
Steven was the star and Caleb was a sheep.
Teresa was a wise man (riding on James' big reindeer for a camel), James was a donkey with a rope for a tail, Billy was King Herod complete with brandishing sword, Scheri was the shepherd (but in the above picture she left her staff in the capable hands of her sheep) so she could snap the photo.
We played another Bible-related game and read those timeless passages from Matthew 2 and Luke 2. I think the kids were even surprised at how fun it was.

Christmas Eve Eve

Dec 23 our crew went over to my Mom and Dad's for a special supper followed by a gift exchange. The older kids each got two pair of PJ's; the little boys each got 3 pair of snuggly blanket sleepers PLUS Buzz and Woody jammies. Oh my goodness!! They were in heaven! Of course, my efforts to get both of them looking AT me with a semi-natural smile on their faces was only semi-successful.



Here are my girlies in their adorable presents. I couldn't get the big boys to pose in theirs.

Here's Dad with his lovely compressor (totally a guy-thing, obviously) and below with his big bag of gummy bears which the kids were infinitely more interested in.

Here's Mom with the little church. (She'd received her plates, glasses early so she'd have them for the church Christmas Dinner)

Hmm . . . who could these lovely people be?????? Yep, me and my sweetie-pie. With my money from Mom and Dad (plus some of own), I'd ordered Radical and Hole in the Gospel and a map, phrase book and tourist book concerning a certain Eastern European country that I hope to visit soon :) :) :) And Kevin got a compressor like Dad's--yep, definitely a guy-thing.

Christmas Dinner and Visit with Papa Clark

Our table setting at the lovely adult Christmas dinner put on at our church on Dec 19 at 6 pm. Each host/hostess got to bring their own china and set the table (this picture was taken before I added the small nativities and angels and beads); a sweet young lady decorated the cakes in the center of the tables to match as best she could the setting at each table.
Here's a nice shot of our tree. It is covered mostly with lots of ornaments the kids have made over the years (I especially like the ones that include a school photo of that year) and with Hallmark ornaments that they've been collecting. It's homey--the kind I like best.
On December 23 we went over to visit Papa Clark, Kevin's Dad. This summer he had to be moved to a care center near Hagerman. He has suffered with very poor circulation in his lower legs for many, many years. It was so fun to get to spend the time with Kevin's oldest sister, Pauline (far left, above) I don't think our two families have ever spent Christmas together. She had brought lovely chocolates, toffee peanuts and special popcorn with chocolate-covered popcorn for the family, lip glosses for the girls and a wild, crazy, loud and fun wrestling/boxing game for the boys.

Here we are again except this time Kevin is taking the picture: Pauline, Teresa, Billy, James, Scheri, Joy; Papa Clark, Steven and Caleb in front.
Here's Papa Clark with his new flannel sheets and cozy fluffy blankie that color-coordinated without us knowing what the other was buying. Kevin had trimmed his beard and hair and by the time he got back in bed and his medication started kicking in--well, he was getting pretty tired out.

Here are the boys playing away.

Christmas Sunday Morning--December 19, 2010

At Home With the McClain's

Here's James with microscope and prepared slides at hand on the dining room table. We were studying various cells--lettuce leaf, onion peel, potato for Idaho Virtual Academy.
Several people have the habit of chewing their fingernails--but not too many have the flexibility to nibble on their toe nails.

Scheri and Billy working on a picture puzzle in the dining room.

Get out the Red and Green

December 13 Caleb and Steven dressed up for their elementary Christmas program. Due to budget cuts we don't have a music or band program this year in our schools but some ladies from the community volunteered to help the students prepare a very enjoyable program.

On Thursday December 16 Scheri and Billy were figuring out what Holiday-themed clothing they were going to wear to school the next day.

Dossier Submitted to the Ministry of Justice

This is the wonderful message I received from Toni this morning:

Your dossier was submitted with the MOJ today. However, with the upcoming Christmas and New Year's holidays, it is not very clear when the MOJ will meet to give out referrals. In any case, I will keep you informed. :)

December 11, 12 Church Children's Program and Mama Sheep

Saturday rehearsal

Sunday morning before the performance: James (wise man), Teresa (shepherdess), Billy (wise man), Scheri (angel) Caleb and Steven sheep.

On Saturday afternoon I must admit I had quite happily sent our crew down to the church to rehearsal for their program on Sunday. I had envisioned some free time--maybe shopping??!! But just a few minutes later my husband called saying my presence was requested by the program director. She felt the need for a couple more hands. Okie-dokie. My main contribution to the event was trying to keep the adorable resident sheep (Caleb and Steven) somewhat near their proper area on the stage in front of the shepherds, not messing with the speaker jacks, not directing the songs, not annihilating their little woolly bonnets. By the end of the program our director asked if I could be the 3rd member of the flock for the program. Baaaa!!

I'm actually glad that I went to rehearsal where I could see our kids in action because Sunday morning being front stage with the spot-light in my eyes and trying to sing along with songs I hadn't rehearsed while also watching my lambs--well, I really couldn't see what was going on behind me. A couple cute things was when Caleb put his arm around me and then sat right in my lap. Teresa, our shy one, did a very sweet solo on the 2nd verse of "Come on Ring those Bells" I could hear James and Billy singing out when the Wise Men sang "We Three Kings" and I know Scheri did a very nice job as well--but she was on the other side of the stage behind me and I couldn't specifically hear her.

Sorry, I didn't think to have someone snap a picture of the Mama Sheep.

December variety

Last week on December the 7th, Kevin was driving to work, hit a pothole and blew out the passenger rear tire on our white van. It even dented the rim.
This was an evening moment when Caleb and Steven were actually playing WITH their farm toys on our kitchen floor--not just throwing them or scattering them. They'd set up buildings, put several animals in the pasture, and stuck with the process for several minutes.
This is a picture of Teresa with her burgundy hair and earrings in place--she was proud of herself because she'd pierced her ears her own ears.

Dec 3-Extended Family Christmas gift exchange

We started celebrating Christmas early this year--had our extended family gift exchange on Friday, Dec 3 at the Golden Corral in Twin Falls. It was so fun to get to spend time with my brother and his wife along with their youngest daughter and her intended. After stuffing our bellies to varying degrees with the wide variety of foods offered at this smorgasbord, we opened presents starting with the youngest child present (Caleb) to the oldest (my Dad.) We had drawn names and had a $5 limit. Caleb got a talking cell phone from Grandma/Papa--that teaches numbers, colors, shapes and also has music. Steven received a big blue Smurf with accompanying finger puppet Smurfs from cousin Kandous. James was tickled with the Batman vehicle from Rick. Teresa got burgundy hair dye, chap sticks and a candy bar from Kevin. Scheri got a bath/shower collection from Steven. Billy received a delicate light-up Christmas scene from Grandma/Papa. Kevin got a fleece shirt from Billy and I received a lovely hand-made potholder/towel/washcloth set from nephew John. James, got grandma some lovely white plates, Teresa gave Papa a big flashlight, Scheri purchased Reece's Candies for John, I got a fleece shirt for Mark, and Kevin got green serving bowls, sandwich holder and skewers for Kim. (Neither John nor Jessica/family were able to attend-- Jessica, however, had sent very soft pillows for the little boys, snuggly scarves for the big boys and beautiful hair-flowers for the girls. She also sent home-made cheese and brownies for our whole crew.