Grief, Love and Food

So far this week...a 3 year old died of cancer, a full term baby's heart stopped before his mommy could hold him, a tornado blew through a town and many people, many children lost their lives. Earlier this year a young lady went to bed one night probably thinking of her college graduation a month later, but she never woke up. My own 5 1/2 year old little boy, just 16 months ago, despite the best medical care we could ask for, went to be with Jesus. Life is just so hard sometimes. One thing that I am thankful for is that all of these children have families. Families that love them. Families to grieve for them. As I am praying for the Lord to give peace and comfort to these families, I cannot help but be reminded that they (we) were truly blessed. Things that we take for granted, such as a family, love, food...are not lost on me right now. You see, there are children within our reach that will sit in a crib all day, every day just waiting for that once a day attention from a diaper change or the bottle full of mush. They entertain themselves by chewing on their hands or pulling their own hair. They don't know love or family or even real food or play. There are children trying to survive on the streets, longing for the comfort of food or a bed. They are fighting treatable diseases and losing. They may never know the love of a family, the comfort of a daddy's lap or a mommy's hug. They rarely let their guard down to even sleep, because where they are is scary. Not just the monster-under-my-bed, daddy-can-make-me-safe scary, either. They are alone. I have children in heaven. I loved them with everything I have while they were here, even before they were born. Thao knew it. Jeff and I were with him every step of the way. And I grieve for him, long for him and pray for God's grace for the moment. I have 2 children in Africa and I cannot wait to love them with everything I have, provide for them, scare off the monsters and give them a family. I know 2 children in the midst of 5 million orphans doesn't seem huge to you. But, it means everything to them. I'm okay with that. If the called ignore the calling, the orphans will be orphans forever. I am definitely not saying everyone needs to adopt. What I am saying is, whether adoption, foster care, sponsoring a child, hosting a child, praying for a specific child or just the orphaned in general, then you are helping care for orphans. I beg you to pray about this, listen to the call, and start praying for orphans to not have to die alone, unloved and unwanted. Pray for people to follow their hearts to adopt. Pray for strong children to let their guard down and be loved.

***Just wanted to add, our children in Africa are in foster homes with 2 meals a day, vitamins and medicine. Our 3 year old was severely malnourished and had malaria but he is recovering, praise the Lord! Our 2 year old seems to be a normal fiesty toddler, but still fearful she won't have food. Please pray for them to heal, physically and emotionally. Pray that their hearts are ready for us when we get to bring them home!

Five on Friday: Confession Time

Have you ever decided not to tell your children something out of convenience? It may be just easier if they don't know? Hmmm...am I the only one? : /

1. Only Daddy can replace batteries in toys. Mommy can do a lot of things...except this and...

2. Fix those silly machines at restaurants that never seem to work. I guess the candy and small toys are just to look at.

3. Marshmallows are for art projects

4. Dessert is for when we have company over

5. Kool-aid is for birthday parties...at other people's houses.

Meal Planning: Giveaway

Let's finish this meal planning series with a little fun! :) I have something that will help you with your meal planning...a little organization for your kitchen....

If you'd like to be in the drawing, comment with your favorite fast food weakness!

Here's mine: Cherry Coke from Steak n Shake

Seriously, I cannot say no. Ok, I can, but it's hard, especially with Happy Hour (half price!)

Meal Planning Phase 3- Wrapping It Up with Recipes

Here's a few recipes to finish up my little meal planning series. These are some of our family favorites!

No Yeast Pizza Crust
*spray pan

2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup water
1 Tablespoon cooking oil

Mix together to form a sticky dough. Use more flour as needed. Spread on pizza pan (or cookie sheet) and top with your choice of toppings. 400 degrees. 18-20 minutes.



Chicken Pesto Pizza

shredded chicken (leftover from taquito chicken is fine)
 pesto (I use store bought)
mozzarella cheese
pizza crust (package mix or recipe above)

Make pizza crust, spread pesto over it. Add shredded chicken and cheese (spinach is good too!)

Bake according to pizza crust directions.



Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potatoes cut into fries (or "chips")
Olive oil
Cayenne Pepper
Sea salt

Coat sweet potatoes with olive oil, spread on cookie sheet. Sprinkle cayenne pepper and sea salt. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.



Lentil Soup

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and Pepper
14.5 ounces veg or chicken broth
3/4 cup cooked lentils
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar

Optional: crispy pieces of bacon added at the end

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until onion softens, 3 to 5 minutes. Add broth;bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Add lentils and cook until soup thickens slightly, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add bacon.

Not Our Plan

You know, some things we don't plan. Some things we try to plan and it doesn't work out. It's not always a bad thing, sometimes it's just even better than we could have planned for. Sometimes we don't understand. Sometimes life hurts. But, we always have a choice. We can take that hurt and focus on the things we do have, the things we can be thankful for. Our blessings through the storm, although many times hard to see, can still be found.

Our life has not gone as we planned it. That, my friends, is simply an understatement. "Not our plan" can mean so many things: moving, surprises, gifts, routines, or losses. Even though our life is not what we pictured, we have a choice to make our loss consume us or we can keep living. We have chosen to keep living, to praise God in our storm, but it's not always easy. In our plan, Thao left this earth too early. We miss him more than anything, but we are so thankful to have the peace and hope of heaven. We are still learning to live with this hole in our hearts.

Our adoption story is a little like what our life has become. Our children's biological families did not plan for this. Our children did not plan for this. Children go to bed and expect to wake up to the same circumstances each day. But the harsh reality is, sometimes in this fallen world, that doesn't happen. Sometimes parents cannot care for their children. Sometimes parents don't come home. Sometimes parents don't wake up. Our adopted children will be no less a part of our family as our biological children, but they come with hurt. This is a pain that we can relate to and hopefully, help them with. Adoption is a lifelong dream for us and even though the timing is surprising to us, we are thrilled. Yes, we are excited to welcome TWO broken, orphaned children in into our home. No, this was not our original plan, but we feel so blessed that God is giving us more children and a chance to help the broken-hearted heal through showing them Christ's love and giving them a family.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you in with unfailing kindness.  Jeremiah 31:3b

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

*New* Africa T-shirts!!

Check out our latest t-shirts available with a donation to our adoption fund. If you missed all my posts about adoption, we are matched with a sweet little 2 year old girl in the Congo. YOU can help her come home!

Message me or leave a comment to order a shirt! We have adult sizes s-xl and kid sizes xs-l. We will ship them! :)

Meal Planning Phase 2- Grocery Lists

Really, each family has their own little food personality. I mean what is normal for us may not be normal for you. Even healthy food differs from family to family a little. There are many food allergies and sensitivities lending to the eating style you and your family choose. We have some food sensitivities, but we are mostly just trying to eat a healthy, balanced diet. We mostly avoid high fructose corn syrup and limit food coloring and sugar and absolutely no artificial sweeteners, such as "sugar free" candy. We avoid gummy, sticky food for our dental health. :) We do not do all organic or gluten free or grass fed or anything like that. We try to eat well balanced, but all in all, we all do our best, right? All parents want to keep their kids as healthy as possible, right? Parents aren't going to purposely feed their children junk all the time. Anyway, my reasoning for the way we eat is for another post. :) This post is for my grocery lists.

I typically shop at Meijer, Sam's Club, Walmart and occasionally Aldi's and County Market.

Meijer is my all time favorite!!

They have excellent sales and even better produce! Their produce is always fresh and they offer a great variety. Their generic brand food that they offer has NEVER let me down. In fact, we prefer most of it over the name brand. *Did you know that most name brand ketchup has HFCS in it? Meijer brand does not* They often have "10 for 10 with the 11th one free" sale for items like bread, buns, pasta, crackers, pasta sauce, salsa,yogurt,....These are stock up prices! :)

Sam's Club

Obviously, you have to have a membership to shop here and that costs. I think I pay $30 per year for a membership. I recently saw deal where you purchase the membership and get a $25 gift card back. DO IT! :) Anyway, the items I buy here are usually the staples. I buy things here that I know we'll use, that don't often go bad, and that aren't often on sale. My list usually includes: flour, sugar (hit and miss), cereal (we only buy Honey Nut Cheerios and 1 other kind-remember we are picky about sugar and HFCS), chocolate chips, frozen chicken breasts, eggs (hit and miss), coffee, peanuts,oats,peanut butter, and V-8. Remember you can look at the prices and it will tell you at the bottom how much per ounce, per item, etc. This makes it easy to compare. The Sam's Club prices on cereal equal out to about $2 per box (name brand) the last time I figured it out.

Aldi's

I only go here to purchase fresh produce and a few extra snacky things. I shop here when I cannot go to Meijer, but overall I have found Meijer to be a better deal and better quality for the things I use for my family. :) Both Meijer and Aldi's carry great gluten free snacks. We buy rice crackers, rice cakes, etc because we like them, not because we are gluten free! :) Their sales on produce are great! It's just not worth it to me to go unless that is all I need.

Walmart

I only go here when necessary. We don't care for the quality of their generic foods. I don't mind going there to price match if I need to but it's not my favorite place. If I need a lot of non-grocery items, this is where I go. They have more variety of snacks but we don't really buy a lot of that so it doesn't benefit us much to go there.

County Market

They are more pricey than the other stores in town, but it's a great quick stop for those times you just need a couple of items. Their produce is good and they have good sales. If there is enough of what I need on sale, I shop here. They also send good quarterly coupons out in the mail. If you don't get them, you can ask for them at the service desk. I like to support local business, so I do try to shop here when I can. If we don't go to the butcher shop, we buy our meat here. It's definitely comparable. :)