The Gift of Generosity

Today my family received an amazing Christmas gift.  Someone very close to me brought me to lunch and told him how much I mean to him, and how much he appreciates my friendship and the things that I do for him.  He told me that he considers me a part of his family, and that he is proud that Chris and I are working so hard to adopt Katie Ruth.  He told me that he and his wife had talked, and that they want to help us bring Katie home.  He knows how stressful the expenses of the adoption are when I think about them.  He knows that, when we started this process, we knew we would have to work really, really hard to raise the money to bring Katie home.  And he knows that we have.  And he told me that he will pay the remainder of our adoption expenses when we're done fundraising.

Yes, you read that correctly.  When we are done with our fundraising, he will pay for the rest.

Let that sink in for a minute.

He was so heartfelt in and sincere in his intent and his feelings behind this amazing gift, and the sentiment and the purpose behind his generosity mean as much to me as the monetary gift.  He has absolutely no obligation to do this for us.  But he has done it.  He has his own family to support, and three children of his own.  He obviously has the financial means to do this for us, but more than that he has the heart to.  There is no way for our family to ever thank his family for this.  And he doesn't expect us to.  And please don't think this is the first generous thing he has done for us.  He has always been exceptionally generous to me.  But this - this is a different level.   This is literally bringing our child home.  And he is so excited to meet her - this gift was genuine and entirely from the heart.  We are amazingly blessed.

So tonight I am thankful for incredible friends.  For generosity and selflessness.  For humility and for being able to appreciate all of the blessings we have received.  I am thankful that this little girl that nobody wanted has shown me so much about the people I love, and about people I don't even know.  I am thankful that my family has jumped into this journey to our sweet girl with open arms and open hearts.  I am thankful that I have surrounded myself and my family with people who will accept Katie as a Simpson, not as a child that was thrown away.  I am thankful for the journey, and I cannot wait to see her sweet face at the end.  And I am thankful that my sweet friend has made that reality so much easier for us to see.

Special Christmas Gifts

We had our office Christmas party Friday night.  I am so fortunate to work with a small group of people who all genuinely like each other and like spending time together.  They are all incredibly generous, and Friday was no exception.  One of my favorite things I got was this necklace, from Travis and his family.  It is so sweet and thoughtful, with each of our children's names, including Katie, stamped on it. I love it.

Instead of giving gifts to the attorneys this year, the other two girls in the office and I decided to sponsor Reece's Rainbow angel tree children for them.  Let's be honest - the attorneys I work with do not need us to buy them anything.  We weren't sure how they would feel about the Angel Tree kids, but they LOVED them!  

These are the children we've sponsored:

Emilie.  

And this sweet girl has had a family commit to her during the Angel Tree!

Jonas.

Silas.  

Seriously?  Can you stand those glasses?!

And Terrence.

If you need a gift for a teacher, friend, or hard to buy for person on your list, I so encourage you to donate to Reece's Rainbow.  Obviously we have been incredibly blessed by the donations made by people.  When we committed to Katie she had a grant through Reece's Rainbow of $87.40.  When we started this process we had no idea how we would pay for it, but we trusted that we would figure that detail out.  If a child has a large grant he or she is much more likely to have a family commit, as the financial aspect of adoption can be overwhelming.  Obviously we cannot all adopt a special needs child.  You can help change the life of one by making a donation though.

Katie's Photo Book

I wanted to leave a photo book with Katie when we get to travel to her so she can look at our photos while we're gone.  I love the book we made, and I plan to use Google Translate to put the captions underneath in her language so (hopefully!) someone in her orphanage can tell her who the people are.  Even if they can't, she can see our pictures!

Click here to view this photo book larger

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Christmas Traditions

I can't wait for Katie to share in some of our Christmas traditions!  The trees and the decorating are obviously big favorites for me.  

We love some nutcrackers in this house.  

Each child gets a new one each year, and they all did this year (including Katie Ruth).

We haven't broken any of them yet this year, which is a record.

They do get rearranged daily, thanks to Jack.

We also get new ornaments each year to memorialize something we did that year.

Sometimes they're for vacations we've taken, or for something the boys liked.

We have bikes for the year they learned how to ride their bicycles, and Dora for the year David was obsessed with her.  This year we got three new R*****n ornaments for our Katie Ruth.

I write the year on the bottom so we don't forget when we got them, and we have fun every year talking about why we got them, where we got them, etc.

This is hung up HIGH.  Like, top of the ten foot tree high. 

I had to stand on the back of the couch to take a photo of it.  I don't recommend that.

The boys' favorite Christmas tradition is our advent calendar.  

Each day someone gets to open a door and there are tiny gifts inside each door.

And I mean tiny - some of them have been chocolates, four quarters, a lego mini figure, a parachute man, stickers, gum, and things like that.  I have to keep it on top of the refrigerator so no little fingers get into it!

The person who opens the door on the calendar also gets to open book.  I wrap 24 Christmas books at the end of November and put them all in a basket.  They open the book and we read it that night before bed.  (The person who opens the door and the book also gets to be first that day when we're leaving the house, getting ready for bed, picking stories, etc.  It's a big deal around here to be first!)

My other favorite?  CHRISTMAS CARDS!  I love them.  I text Chris each day from work to see if we got any in the mail.  He saves them for me to open because he knows how much I love them.  I love sending them (and want our's to be the first one people get) and I really love getting them!

Go here to read about one of my favorite card recipients!

Hopefully next year there are six people on our card instead of five.

I can't wait for Katie girl to be here to be part of our Christmas traditions!

Coins for Katie Goes VIP

When we had our Coins for Katie Pancake Breakfast, it was covered by a local magazine, VIP Murfreesboro.  The issue was published recently, and there's a full page feature about our breakfast.  There are some great photos, and we are so lucky to have been included in this issue.  What a fun thing for us to keep and show Katie!  (And my name is listed as "Karen", which cracks me up literally every time I think of it!)

You can find the online edition of this issue here.  Thanks VIP Murfreesboro!

Katie's First Christmas Gift

I had lunch with my friend Joey yesterday and she gave us Katie's first Christmas gift!  (You may remember me posting about Joey earlier and the delicious jam she gave us, as well as the tutu and hairbow she mad for Katie.) 

She gave us a really sweet book that I had never read, "On the Night You Were Born", by Nancy Tillman.  It's a perfect book that talks about how on the night you were born people celebrated and that there was never anyone like you born before.  It talks about how special "you" were on the night you were born, and how much we love "you" because of how special you are.  I cannot think of something more appropriate.  Although we obviously didn't know Katie on the day she was born, she is special to us already, and we will spend our lives making sure she knows that.  She may have had a rough start, but we want her to know how loved and special she is to our family, our friends, and people she will never even meet.  Joey also gave us a really soft, squishy, snuggly polar bear that we will bring with us to Katie's country when we travel for the first time.  We will leave it with her so she has something to snuggle.  I plan also to bring the book and read it to her while we're there.  I know she won't understand a word I'm saying, but someday she will.  Katie is so, so fortunate to have so many people who already love her and are praying for her and working hard to bring her home.  I can't wait for her to feel that herself!

Let the Translation Begin!

What does that photo mean?

It means our registration dossier and court dossier have been delivered in Katie's Country!

This is awesome news!

Let the translation begin. . .