Merry Christmas!

We did not send out Christmas Cards this year. It's causes me anxiety attacks just thinking about getting all the kids to smile at once in matching outfits. I thought of this idea today, so here's your internet Christmas Card from the Peaks. :-)

silly

Lucy told me she loves Frusty th'noseman.

Sorry, haven't been able to post in a while. My computer crashed and I can't access my pictures.

An Evening in December

Painting

Karianne spent her Birthday money at a pottery painting place. She did a great job painting a little kitty.

Giveaway

This fun blog is doing a huge gamestop giveaway. Just go to the site, answer all the questions on your blog or facebook and let them know you did it!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.


1. What is your holiday wish for your family? 
   Laughter


2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?
   Kids wake up and dig in their stockings, parents wake up, big breakfast, Christmas Story, then PRESENTS!
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? 
   Is a maid too much to ask for?
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
    We love looking at Christmas lights, going to church Christmas Celebrations.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
    Lots of board games, card games.
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
    Kids get in their stockings before the parents have to get up. Oh and there are always some unwrapped presents under the tree.
7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?
    A lake cabin.
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?My husband wants a WII. I like PS2 games, and a DS.

Creepy Santa

 

   I love anything old. If you know anything about me, you know that. I couln't resist buying this giant old Santa at a church junk sale for $1. He is just about life size. He is coming out of a cardboard chimney with hands reaching out, he just kind of looks creepy. I also bought a child's recliner at the sale (for $5 thankyouverymuch) so the van was already full with 4 kids and a recliner. I held him in my lap in the passenger seat with the window down and had him wave at the cars we passed. Brent got tired of that pretty quick so next we stuffed the Santa behind the back seat and he was looming over Amy and Angie like something out of a horror movie about to snatch them.

 When I got him home, everyone begged me to hide him. For the next few days I had great fun hiding him for the single purpose of scaring Brent when he opened the closet, turned down the bed covers or went to the bathroom. I put him on the toilet seat in our little bitty closet bathroom in our bedroom and waited for Brent to scream. Somehow he managed not to use that bathroom for over 2 days and I got tired of scaring MYSELF every time I opened the door to use the bathroom, so I finally gave up and hid him somewhere else.

He's a great gag, but the family wants him gone. He's on ebay now if you want him: here

Hope you don't have nightmares.

Sights of the Season

There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries.  ~W.J. Cameron

waiting

Angie told me she was going to wait for the green lemons on our tree to turn yellow. And then she sat...

Everything Changes

This is Zhuang Lu Hu. Zhuang is the last name of the Orphanage director, all the kids have that name and Lu Hu means butterfly. She was found on the side of a road, less than a day old wrapped in a red and white rag next to another little baby. Butterfly is a compound Chinese name and both girls have half of the word butterfly since they were found together. Almost all the referral photos I've seen of children overseas waiting to be adopted have this vacant stare.


This is Wu Hong Cai. Wu means the town she is from, Hong Cai means, "a pretty name for a girl". She was found abandoned in a hospital a few days old, and was taken to an orphanage. She waited for almost 3 years for her family to come scoop her up and say, "There she is! There's our little girl." And they scooped her up and brought her home.


This is Amy Wu Cai Peak and Angela Lu Hu Peak , sisters. Same little girls but what a change. Not that they are older, but they are different. They belong, they have family and they have a name. Not the orphanage director's name but their own parents name that were chosen for them.



Today in church we heard a message on adoption as the church announced the launch of our new Orphan Care ministry, Hands of Hope. The message was about how Christ adopted us, our names were changed and we were given the title, "Child of God". But so much more than that, our before and after adoption tale is more than a fairy tale. Before we were forlorn, undesirable, unlovely and rejected by the world. When Christ adopted us, we went from no hope, no love to a bright future with God and Everlasting Love.

I just love looking at before and after pictures of adopted children. The before pictures are so sad, so forlorn. The after pictures are without a doubt, beautiful children with breathtaking changes from their before adoption pictures. What is the difference?

Love.

Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
(Isa 1:17)

Orphan Sunday

This Sunday is Orphan Sunday. I am thrilled to be a part of a church that is participating this year. We will also be introducing our new Orphan Care ministry Hands of Hope at the church this Sunday. May God use it to united Orphans and Families.

Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.