It's What Our Family Does

Since Dylan was born, Brad and I have tried several scheduling options to get the most time together while also still working some very full days.  For a season, we made it a point to get bagels on Fridays with the girls before taking them to school and before Brad and I headed in to our offices.  It is what our family did ... and we still so sometimes. 

Over the last couple of months, we have been able to help a few other families out through Safe Families for Children (you should really check them out here http://www.safe-families.org/).  I picked the girls up from school one afternoon and shared with them that there was a family that needed help, and one thing we could do was to have the children stay with our family while their mama did what she needed to do.  Dylan's eyes glimmered a bit - the kind of spark that comes when something clicks - and she said, "oh, so she needs help - and we will help her - because that is what our family does."

That is exactly right sweetheart.  That is exactly what our family does.

After some deliberations between both me and Brad and me and God and Brad and God - we have signed up to host a little boy currently living in an orphanage in a Eastern European country.  We will be a family of five for four weeks.  We will be going on adventures and staying home and trying new foods and celebrating Christmas four times (because that is what our family does).   Our visitor, Mr. T, is a nine year old boy who is in the third grade.  He likes playing cars, Minecraft, and running around.  Aubrey has already pulled out a tooth brush for him, and is proudly telling everyone that soon there will be five people in our family.  Hopefully I can get in front of that before people start looking at my belly for signs of life.

We know that this Christmas will be awesome.  We also know it will be crazy hard.  Mr. T is in for a wild ride - as are Miss D and Miss A.  If you are the praying type - we would love if you would join us in praying for our time together - that we would get used to each other quickly, that we would have patience as deep as the ocean, and that we focus on loving and serving and making the day great - because that is what our family does.

There are many factors that feed into Mr. T coming here - if you would like to help us in this journey - that would be awesome!

• If you have gently used boys clothes in size 8 - we will take them!  Mr. T will need a winter coat when he returns home, as well as the other warm and cozy things like sweaters and pants.
• We are hosting a garage sale to help raise funds for Mr. T's program costs (travel, visa, insurance).  If you are local and have some stuff you would like to donate some stuff with the proceeds going to Mr.T - please let me know!
• If you would like to make a tax deductible financial gift to Mr. T's program fee - you can do that here: https://www.youcaring.com/b1171b-451115

We are thankful for this opportunity and look forward to the madness.