Miscellany Monday: January 16, 2012

On Thursday night Amy, Kami, Chris and I headed down to the airport. The newest precious adopted child, Lizzie, was arriving back home and we weren't going to miss it...even though they were getting in at almost midnight!

But that little time matter was precisely why my children didn't come with me...MUCH to their chagrin!

But Lizzie's new big brother did get to meet her at the airport...no matter that it was almost midnight:
Big brother Grant getting ready to meet his new little sister Lizzie

My friend Leah holding that precious 22-month old bundle of love....

...but that bundle-of-love wasn't too sure about all the hoopla. Who can blame her after she'd been traveling for about 30 hours at that point?

Like I mentioned, I rode down to the airport with Chris and Kami (who have adopted), and Amy (who is getting ready to travel to China in about 3 months to bring home her 2 cuties). We had a great time riding back and forth together (about 3 hours)...and had a fun time talking about how we'd be making this trip again very soon to meet Amy and her kiddos at the same airport!

We didn't get home until almost 2 a.m. Guess who called me at 8 a.m.?

Leah.

She had some questions and needed me to stop by and show her how to use something. Could I stop by in the next few days?

MUCH to my children's delight, we were there in an hour and a half. Yes, I didn't want Leah to have to wait for me to show her what she needed help with...BUT also, truthfully, my children were dying to meet Miss Lizzie!

I wish I'd caught a picture of Miss Lizzie smiling. Because after approximately 4 hours of sleep, Miss Lizzie was feeling much better than she had at the airport. She was smiling and dancing around, and she played peek-a-boo with Elisabeth. Welcome home, S Family!

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We have been so blessed by the welcomes we have received upon arriving home with all four of our adoptions, and we wanted to pay that forward. So, we snuck into the S family's house on Thursday to leave a few things for them (one thing I love about living in a small town...you know all your friends' parents, too - and they can help you sneak in!).

One of the things we left for them was some Chicken Noodle soup. It would be more correctly named Very Simple Chicken Noodle Soup.

My children love, love, LOVE this soup. And I love that it is better for them than the Ramen Noodle Soup they love, love, LOVE (I do let them have Ramen once or twice a month, though).

I was hoping Miss Lizzie would find this soup reminded her of food she loved in her first home. (It can be very challenging to find foods adopted children will eat when they first arrive home!)

I originally found this recipe here on Heavenly Homemakers...but I changed it a tad to fit my family's preferences:

Chicken Noodle Soup

12 cups chicken broth (I use Better than Bouillon)

1 box of pasta, preferrably whole wheat (we used fettucine and really liked it)

3 carrots, sliced

2 cups cooked chicken

Combine broth and carrots in a pot. Bring to a boil, and boil for about five minutes. Add noodles and chicken. Place a lid on the pot and turn the burner down to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the noodles are done cooking.

SO easy! So yummy!

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Random Complaint: We. still. have. not. received. our. tax. return.

Yes, it is almost time to file our next return.

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We do not have a pet...much to our children's chagrin. Maybe that will change one day (but I seriously doubt it, actually).

But, much to my children's delight...a cat has adopted us.

I just found these pictures on my point-and-shoot, where Elisabeth snapped away several weeks ago. We've been getting semi-regular visits from this cat for weeks now. He will stay out there with the children for hours...for as long as they're outside.

They've named the cat Spirit. He looks a lot like a cat we had when E and N first came home named Tieg. They called this cat "Max" at first, but then decided he looked more like a "Spirit."

Spirit snuck into our house one time.

Spirit likes to chase jump ropes.

And toy cars.

And likes to sit in the children's laps.


The children are smitten.

Jas is not. The END.

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We had our precious "Walker Boys" over to eat on Saturday night.

My children had so much fun with Eli, Seth and Riley...

...and Jas and I had so much fun visiting with Phillip.

But...

But as I stood in the kitchen working on something during the evening (while everyone else was still outside) I almost broke down.

We'd never done this without Kris. WHY is Kris not here? Lord, this is hard!

Our Walker Boys are forging their way into lots of "new normals" these days. Oh, Lord, we pray for our precious Walkers...and thank you that You are right there with them every step of the way. Amen.