A Family Night I just wanted to share

A while back, as I was praying and searching for all I could do in Adoption....I had been going to adoption groups and birth mother panels and was greatly touched by these women's experiences. I wrote a post about that but decided my feelings were too personal to put out there yet… I wanted to learn more from their perspective, on healing, and life after placement. I found and followed a few blogs from Birthmothers.
This one The Happiest Sad I don’t know her in person but I continue to go to her blog here and there. I found her blog helpful & I was really grateful for her post showing how to create the adoption button for my blog which I used last year. I have gained from her honesty in sharing her experience… Recently she shared about Last Sundays Sep 12 2010 CES FireSide for Young Adults from Elder Richard G. Scott. And that it shared a plug for adoption.



He said...for those parents unable to have children..."I am a witness that the Lord can guide such parents to spirits He would have in their home through the process of adoption. Later when those children are sealed in the temple by the authority of the holy priesthood, they are in every sense equivalent to children born to that couple in the covenant." Of Course I had to watch it!!!


I asked Dan to come watch this with me because it had a support for adoption. As Dan And I Watched it together he kept asking me...
"Who sent you this?

Was it ???

Or ???"
"No, “Its just something I found on a birthmoms blog for adoption…”
We were both surprised at how much the whole talk applied to lives we have been caring and praying for. And how it spoke clearly on things we have been discussing so much lately in our home.
I had to share. (Adoption Plug was very sweet and pure although very brief) I loved the comment on the most stupid thing you could do on a date! And about not fixing the washing machine but playing with his kids...
You can get the synopsis of the talk from the Church News Here It turned out to be an inspiring family home evening together. On the roles of the Mother, Father, Eternal Family, the love of children, Dating and to HAVE PEACE and HAPPINESS.

Families Supporting Adoption Skate Night

A while back we had a Fun Family Time at Families Supporting Adoption Skate Night! Let me say the skates did not stay on my feet that long. After a few times around the rink I decided my bones were worth more then the "fun" I was having trying not to break them. I did not fall I am happy to say but Dan was a bigger sport and stayed in the ring longer suffering only one fall :)

Benji Was quickest to take the skates off out of all of us. But he was thrilled because they allowed the kids to have scooter on the rink and with the neighbors scooter be borrowed he had a blast and did not want to leave when 9 pm came around :)

Thanks FSA!

Slightly crass...But made us Laugh!

Imagine our Surprise when we opened up the bag of cookies intended for Benjis Valentines and found...LOOK CLOSE....

"Happy F*%ts Day"!

Benji got a big hoot out of it too..For the next week he would say "Happy F*%ts Day!!!"and Giggle up a storm!


Our special Valentines day Family Night Dinner... followed by a special candle lit chocolate molten lava cake dessert for my mom, 4 sister, niece Ryelle and my sweet hearts Dan & Benji.

LOVE YOU!

Puppy Love-Nelly- We Love you!

(Benji took about 5 photos of Nelly on V-day)

Did I mention my latest project. I finally got the black antic table I wanted...After many coats of paint, and lacquer. I love it!

Welcome to Family Home Evening

Welcome to Family Home Evening Yeahhhhh!

As a family we have loved a tradition for Monday night Family Home Evening. When we are gathered and sitting down together we shout out "Welcome to Family Home Evening" and after we shout together "YEAHHHHH !!!! We wave our hands up in the air ... aka Jazz Hands.

This has been our family night tradition for nearly 8 years. Benji wanted to put his own spin on it. Last week on hearing Dad was going on a business trip he wanted to do something special. So he made noise makers (out of recycling on his own) for each of us and as we were shouting Yeahhhhhhhhh!!!! On his direction we shook our noise makers with vigor..

Twister

As a family we love to play games one new game played in our home this year was

Twister. Its pretty funny to watch Benji to try and reach the colored dots. We played it for family night one Monday per Benjamin's request.

A master in the making

We let Benji have the knife this year! He was one determined designer. He was very secretive and serious about his design too. We were not allowed to see it until he was finished. No exceptions. Well done Benji you created one scary pumpkin! Note we went to 3 stores to try to pick up some more pumpkins with no luck. So I was very glad we had bought these 2 earlier at the pumpkin patch. This has been the least amount of pumpkins ever carved by our family.

I snuck a few pics of the action.

FHE: Iron Rod Lesson

For family night we taught Benji a few of the symbols in Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. We used yarn for the Iron Rod and strung it all around the house. With a blind fold Benji learned that to get to the Tree of Life he had to hold to the rod at all times. He loved it so much he did it 3 times.

The blanket served as a Mist of Darkness...he really liked that part.

The sweet rewards of holding to the Iron Rod!

We cut up the precious fruit and all partook together as a family. Definitely one of the more favorite family nights to remember!

Nephi builds a boat

March 24th
One of our big struggles is when Benji is excited his obedience goes right out the window and in comes supper happy excited silly boy who often goes overboard. So for family night we talked about how following directions bring blessing or privileges. This applied nicely to Nephi building a ship under his fathers & Heavenly Fathers directions. The tough part was keeping our cool as parents instructing a 3 year old to paint a ship with paint and glue. (why dont they provide washable paint and glue in these kits?) It was a fun lesson I think we all learned from it, and now we have had a great application when Benji wants to help with cooking or other projects he really enjoys we refer him back to building the ship and how when he followed the directions of his father he received blessings or (privileges as we call them). I don’t think Nephi had pirate sails though.

Thanks for the Easter Gifts Grammy and Poppy you really got all of Benjamin’s favorite things!!! Benji was so excited for a big box of nerds he had only ever had the small boxes and they are some of his favorite as well as the bubble gum that was so cool because it had 2 colors and flavors. The shoes are his favorite kind and he keeps wearing them though he needs to wait for bigger feet to fill them. The Dragon he named Benji after himself I tried to sway him to a more original name, but he said, “no his name is Benji because he is strong” and then he gave him a different birthday October 12, "when it is sunny and raining and cold and the leaves are falling not in May so we are not the same.”

So again with the “babies”, this time Benji called me to tell me Nelly was snuggling all his babies, he was so happy she snuggled right in with them. Latter that day with the same excitement he called me; “Mom! Mom!! Mom!!! I learned how to make mud!!! This is how you make mud; you get your hands all dirty & spray, spray, Spray (with the water bottle he snagged from the bathroom) & see MUD!!! I’m all out, can you get me more?”
When it happened I had planed to title this comment, This is how I know it is spring, but then the next Monday what do you know but he is making snow angels out in the yard again!!!