Enjoy this wonderful Christmas season! :)

Well here it is two am....did I just say TWO?!? ummm yeah..I did...well in that case this will be very short and sweet!

Today was a wonderful day. We had Christmas at home. We were home by ourselves with only Grandma(hubby's mom) here. It was much quieter than it is some years...especially those spent with my family!! We missed them all today! We had some friends over...7 of them. So altogether we had 14 people for Christmas dinner..It was fun and the food was yummy! We finished off the day singing Christmas carols in livingroom, accompanied by Lindsay on her guitar. Everyone sang along and seemed to enjoy themselves. After that the kids brought in the karaoke machine and everyone had fun singing along to Frank Sinatra, Julie Andrews and some others. It got quite lively with Louise taking the mike and singing "New York New York" with Frank. :) All in all it was a good day filled with lots of fun and laughter and good food. We are so thankful that Jesus came to this Earth to die so that we could live! He is so gracious and merciful to each one of us and I am soo thankful for that!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones!
Have a wonderful time this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour.
Love Heather
ps
will post some Christmas pictures for you -- hopefully tomorrow...but maybe the next day..I think we are having more friends over tomorroww....from now til New Years...party party party....well actually ...truth be told..it's more like visit visit visit~ It's so nice for everyone to have time off to be able to spend time together and just soak up the togetherness of it all!

Rita

I have copied a post from another blogger's blog. It was SO touching that I wanted to share it. It is written by Katie from "The Journey". Please hop on over and have a look through her blog. It's amazing! :)
Please take a moment and read on...it's a captivating read.



I found this story in my journal last night... its fairly old but still has the same meaning. As you hold the ones you love this Christmas, please keep in mind those who have no one to hold them.

Yesterday a sweet little girl named Rita came to my house with two teeth that had been completely eaten through by a cavity and were almost completely rotted away. The holes looked like they were starting to get infected and the nerve was exposed; I cant imagine how much pain she was in. I took her to the dentist, and they said they were closed. The dentist was in a hurry to leave and wouldn't help me, but he said I could use his things and do it myself. Of course I was terrified, but I was more scared to think about the teeth not being removed immediately; they looked so painful. I gave her a shot to numb her mouth, waited about ten minutes, tried to sterilize these tweezer things with a match and dug out what was remaining of her poor little teeth. I don't think she could feel it, but my heart hurt for her.

I took her back home, made her a hot bath and some soup. Then she had ice cream and slept in my bed under a big blanket. As i tucked the covers in around her and kissed her heas she looked up at me with these big, wondering eyes. Unbelievable as it is, she was SOOO happy. She told me that this was the best day of her life, even though her mouth hurt. She said that she would get her teeth pulled every day if she could stay with someone like me. And that made my heart hurt even more.

There are so many children out there that don't feel loved on a daily basis. So many children that don't have a person to hold their hand or rub their back when they are scared and in pain. So many children who don't have the simple pleasures of taking a warm bath or sleeping under a blanket. I would move all of them, ALL of them into my house if I could. I wish I could love them all. I wish more people cared enough that they also wanted to love them all. Sometimes I just can't even believe how blessed I am. I have always been loved, always been cared for, always been warm and well-fed. Its frustrating sometimes, but mostly its just motivating. Sometimes I feel so tired, and then something like this happens and I am reminded that I can give a child the best night of her life simply by naking her soup and kissing her forehead. Simply by love her.

Sometimes I feel so tired that I think if I give away any more of myself I may actually be empty. And then I remember, It is only in giving away the love given to me by the Father that I am ever actually full. And so I keep going because of Rita. Because kissing her forehead and saying 'I love you" actually did change the world for that little girl. Because maybe through my hands she can get just a glimpse of a fraction of the love her Maker has for her. There is nothing better.

Darling Rita, now sponsored - Shout out to the Littleton family!

Which one are you?

(Scroll down..there is another new post below this one) You Are Easter

You are an optimistic, hopeful, and genuinely sweet person. Sensitive and affectionate, you are easily touched. You love nature, animals, and anything cute or cuddly. For you, every day is a new chance - no matter what happened yesterday. What makes you celebrate: Almost anything. You love most holidays and celebrations. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The peacemaker. You can prevent any squabbles that might break out. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Remember to include everyone

What Holiday Are You?

The Water Taxi

We have a highway widening project going on in our area. It is the only highway that goes from one end of our valley to the other. Well after 9 months of work being done, they had a setback. A HUGE crack appeared on the side of the mountain--where it wasn't supposed to be! The blasting created this fissure(crack). There must have been a fault at that spot.It made the highway below it unsafe for travel, as it was slowly sliding down towards the road. SO this meant that we were now cut off from the central and northern end of the valley. Which is where the largest city happens to be. So that meant that hundreds of people were no longer able to get to their jobs on the other side of this now closed road. People came up with different solutions. Some took the backroads through the bush. This was rather dangerous as these roads are sometimes very narrow with steep drops over the edge! YIKES! So that wasn't safe. The government decided after a week or so to upgrade a former logging road for use. They did this and it helped very much but a former 45 minute drive now became 1 1/2-2 hours. Then they decided to put a water taxi into service around the blocked road. This became a very popular form of transportation. Well...I decided that I'd like to try out the water taxi service. So one saturday afternoon my daughter and I drove up to the terminal and got on this FREE water taxi. I figured we could go have coffee with friends on the other end and then turn around and come home.
We had a great time on the boat! It was a neat experience. The boat was a summertime tourist boat....all set up for summer parties. It was a very pretty boat on the inside.
We should have left earlier in the day so that it wouldn't be so dark by the time we got to the other end of the run....oh well....it was a fun experience.
Once we got to the other end our friends talked us into staying overnight. It was great! We left in the morning so we could get back in time for church but ended up missing most of it....oh well...all in all it was a great experience and a fun weekend!

The walkway to the boat.















It was a chilly foggy day on the water.







Our windblown selves on the boat.


This picture shows the crack...sort of...too bad it was so dark by this time. Anyway...along the right side of that orange fence is where the crack goes...right down to the road--it goes across the top and then back down the other side to the road again...nice clean break..but WAY too much material to come down at once as it would land in the lake and cause a mini tsunami!
If you look you can see the smoke coming up from the drills...you'll also see the lights. They're drilling and blasting across the top of the crack. They blasted a bunch of rock etc. -pushed it over the edge and up against the bottom of the crack. This was to hold it up enough so that it would stop sliding! C-r-a-z-y!! Not my idea of safe! But I guess it's temporary and they say that if it does decide to let go and slide that there will be enough warning for everyone to get out of the way. I sure hope they're right!

If you look-you can see a mountain goat that fell down into the crack. They were able to sedate him and lift him out...apparently he was okay.
**I got this picture off Google**

My place of origin....ain't it purdy??

that warm fuzzy fleece blanket

I've been wanting to make some knotted fleece blankets for my kids for Christmas. Do they need them? Well...not really..But I thought they would make a wonderful snuggly gift for them...that would last for years! "A special memory of something that Mom made for me when I was a kid..."
Well..there's nothing wrong with any of this really...but then this morning I read this:

December Project!

As you know, a major earthquake hit the Sichuan Province in China in May. This earthquake killed over 50,000 people and left man more homeless. Save the Children says that, “3 million infants, children and teens have been among the worst affected”. This was a disaster of immense porportions. School buildings, orphanages and small village towns were completely destroyed along with hospitals and office buildings.

As you can imagine, recovering from a disaster that destroys EVERYTHING you own is not easy. However, if you are living at or below the poverty level. . .it becomes nearly impossible. Today, many children and families remain homeless. Many others are lfet without basic necessities. And. . .it’s getting colder by the day. Winter is fast approaching with overnight temps already at freezing. Children remain without blankets.
Doesn’t that just break your hearts? As you tuck your children into bed covered up with multiple blankets in a home that has heat, can you remember these children? Would you like to do something?

Our KidsLake’s project for the rest of this year is. . .

BLANKETS FOR CHINA!!!

For $10, you can provide a warm blanket for a child that needs it!
Not only can you meet a need for a precious one, but you can teach your precious ones in the process! Use this opportunity when you put your children to bed and snuggle them up, to teach them about children who do not have what they do. Teach them to pray for the children who are cold that night. Teach them to be thankful for the blankets they have. . especially during this season! Then, help them to do something!

• Allow them to ask for a blanket for Christmas and forgo a toy in favor of supplying a child with a blankie!
• Have a hot chocolate stand in your neighborhood to raise money!
• Have them do chores to earn money. . .possibly making beds!
• Forgo a fast food lunch or dinner and have pb&j at home and donate the money

Whatever you do, get creative and involve your kiddos. Help them expand their vision of our world by teaching them about the children of China. Help them be a part of the solutions!

Blankets for China!
PS: We’ll have a paypal button on the kidslake site soon! The organization we are working with would love to receive donations as your kids earn them (instead of waiting until the end of the month) this way, they can buy blankets as it gets cold! Feel free to blog about this too. . let’s spread the word!

I copied this from Red Letters Campaign blog....go take a look at the good things they're doing! Maybe YOU can help a shivering little one be able to snuggle up in a warm blankie tonight. Tucking my kids into bed tonight won't be the same. :-\

Another day at the Zoo.

Well this morning was spent chasing paperwork around town. My first stop was at the police station. Randal and I are both required to have a criminal check, a vulnerability report, and fingerprints done. So as I stood with the policeman holding my hands with black ink on them I told him that I never thought that I'd ever be standing in a police station having my fingerprints taken! He chuckled..and said "well this isn't bad unless you come in the back door!" He was really nice and waived most of the fees for the three things I had done because we are adopting. He only charged me $15 for the fingerprints! I was SO happy to hear him say that. He was very helpful and made my visit very pleasant. He told me to go have a seat and he would do my criminal check while I waited so that we wouldn't have any delays!
I then headed for my next stop and had a very important thing done! My eyebrows!! :P My next stop was the drugstore for a passport photo and one canNOT have one of those done with big bushy brows!! :-D I then got the photo done..for a great price too! -$9.99! I picked up passport applications and lunch and headed to Randal's office to have lunch with him and give him the forms...It was a nice little visit that we don't often get to enjoy in the middle of the day.
So this was my first day of many to come (me thinks!) spent running around with paperwork.

Well will keep you posted on the journey. Have a great evening.



Heather