How to Cry Your Way to Awesome Christmas Presents

For the first three-and-a-half weeks of December, I had a cold that loved my body so much it decided to turn into a stubborn sinus infection. Awesome. After two weeks of being ignored, this lovely virus decided to fight dirty—aches, chills, headaches, etc. Of course, I did the sensible thing and took plenty of time to rest.

HA!

As every mom in the world knows, there is really no such thing as a sick day for mommies. The kids still want to eat. And we were out of important groceries. And Harley wanted me to frost a Tom and Jerry scene on a homemade cake for Cub Scouts. For the next day. 

I did the mature thing and stormed out of the house to the store, spending the next hour grumbling about how NOBODY CARES THAT I’M SICK. On the way home, I broke down into a sobbing mess and called my friend Jaimie.

I know I’ve got a great friend when she answers the phone and lets me sob for five minutes before asking “do you want to talk about anything?” (a good question considering that I called her). I howled “noooooooooo!” into the phone and proceeded to cry louder before launching into my well-rehearsed self-pity monologue. Jaimie sweetly soothed my distraught self, half-jokingly promising to make me a t-shirt to wear in times of dire exhaustion that reads “I’m going to bed now!” I told her that I expected to receive just such a shirt at Christmas and promptly forgot about it.

But then Christmas came. And I opened THIS!

Yeah, that’s right. I have an incredible friend. And now, a shirt to wear that is a loud and clear signal to my family that I’m going to bed. Now. I can hardly wait for that next cold…or maybe I could just use the shirt to snag some time to tackle my sky-high reading pile.

Advent Rookies

Advent is all about waiting in expectation, so it’s only fitting that I promise an Advent article and wait forever to post, right?! Well, wait no more.

For anyone who may not be familiar with this topic: Advent is a four-week season leading up to Christmas in which Christians celebrate the coming of Christ. We look back to the first Christmas when Christ was born to be the savior of the world, and we look ahead to His return.

PJ and I want to lead our children well in our celebration of Christmas. We are committed to making Christ’s birth the focus of Christmas, because without His birth, we would be devoid of hope and joy. This requires a sustained, intentional effort in the midst of hyper-commercialization and a busy time of year. It turned out to be so much harder than I anticipated!

Being the OCD planner that I am, coupled with my intense desire to do everything “the right way” as we form our family traditions, I started planning for Advent in September. I began here at this awesome blog, which became my main source of ideas. I also re-read Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. Armed with these resources, I formed The Perfect Advent Celebration Master Plan.

How our family would celebrate Advent (in my mind, far from reality):

• From the beautifully wrapped pile adorning the coffee table, we select a Christmas book to unwrap and read each day.
• We spend time together as a family every day, doing a fun Advent-themed activity.
• Each night before bed, we have a lovely, peaceful time of family devotions in which we sing carols, memorize Luke 2, and discuss the mystery of the Incarnation.
• PJ and I read Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, a wonderful Advent devotional. While reading the thoughts of great Christians, we deepen our relationship with the Lord and each other.

How our family actually celebrated Advent:

• I got Christmas books, but neither wrapped them nor read them with the kids. (WRAP twenty books? Who am I kidding??)
• I made a calendar of fun activities. Then I remembered how crazy-busy our days were. I think we did two activities?
• We had a few family devotions. Emma tried to eat the Advent candles. Multiple times. While they were lit. She’s certain they are cake. Today, Brooklyn said she had no idea what we celebrate at Christmas. Sooo…there’s always next year?
• PJ and I made it halfway through the devotional. I may have fallen asleep in the middle of half of the readings that we actually did.
• The kids and I memorized about half of the Luke 2 passage. Harley recited it at a family Christmas, and he did a great job! Minor success! YES!

What I learned from our first year:

• Advent is an essential celebration. It is absolutely worth the effort to celebrate well. I really want to pass on a love for this special season to our kids.
• December is a really busy time. We will always be too busy to focus on Advent unless we properly prioritize it. To address this, I’ve scheduled for our family to take a vacation from school from Thanksgiving through the New Year. (Year-round school—another post, another time!)
• I’m really looking forward to next year!

So that’s it. Thoughts? Do you celebrate Advent? Do you have any ideas to share?

I Love My Brooklyn

Brooklyn drew this last night, and I thought it was pretty precious. I particularly like that she calls her siblings “my Emma” and “my Harley”.

December, So Far

Thanks to all of you who have asked how we’re doing. We’re doing…really well. I’m so thankful for this calm season in our lives after all the stress and craziness of the past seven months. The kids settled down almost immediately after the adoption, which has helped our day-to-day routine immensely.

Post-CPS:

• I don’t freak out when Emma bumps her forehead after jumping out of her high chair. She’s one! She’s going to have some bumps! Now it doesn’t result in a multi-county paperwork and phone call frenzy.
• No one comes to my house to privately question my kids about their opinion of my parenting.
• Goodbye therapy! After much internal debate, I realized that I could decide what’s best for my family…which definitely isn’t a weekly three hour trip with a toddler to let my kids run around being rude egomaniacs.
• We can now go to our Dallas psychiatrist four times per year instead of monthly!!! Again, anything to avoid a no-nap toddler, long car trips, and kids who turn rude and crazy in the presence of a mental health professional.
• My inbox fills up with messages from friends and family instead of demands for (more) paperwork.
• I’ve been able to read books to my kids, have friends over for dinner, wrap Christmas presents, and do many other things that didn’t make it into my crazy days before the adoption.
• I was able to support PJ working more than a week of  12-hour days and taking an overnight trip without going crazy. This would NOT have been possible before the adoption when the kids were almost unmanageable and I was a wreck by 5 pm.
• I stayed up all night with Brooklyn during a stomach bug and was less tired after two hours of sleep than I was every single day before the adoption.

The kids aren’t perfect. They’re still testing boundaries like crazy, but they are met with firm resistance that makes them uncomfortable enough to think before being disobedient and disrespectful. Our days are so much happier now that constant, drawn-out discipline is not the norm. We’ve had some really enjoyable times, and we’re loving celebrating Advent and focusing on our family.

Seriously, pictures are forthcoming along with a post about our first Advent season. Stick around!

Videos!

Through Foster Parenting Podcast (can you tell I LOVE them?!), I came across a fairly new organization called ReGenesis Rising. They seek to provide support and community to foster kids who turn eighteen and age out of foster care.

The plight of these older kids is something that absolutely breaks my heart. For several years now, God has been growing an intense discontentment in me about this tragedy that is happening throughout our nation. I feel that He is not done using PJ and me in ministry to orphans—perhaps even to these older youth.

Will you go watch these two short videos? Does God want to use you to be a blessing to these almost-adults?

Part One

Part Two