Decorating the Tree

Oh the excitement as the tree is untied and readied to decorate!

Every year we add ornaments to each child's personal collection.  Isaac even had a few that we had gotten him last year in preparation for his homecoming.  He was surprised that he had a box with ornaments!  So many of our lights had burned out that after the personal ornaments went on we took a break until the next day so we could get a few more lights.

Decorating resumed the following morning. When a wheelchair and walker are added into the mix, decorating gets a little bit more crowded and confusing, but everyone got involved and had fun.

Jen is a REALLY hard worker, and she stayed on to fuss with ornaments long after the other kids had called it, "good enough."

What we are hoping for this Christmas is our LOA from China!  We hope you all have a blessed Christmas season!

O Christmas Tree!

It has been a tradition in our family for about thirty years now to cut a Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving.  The two little princesses wait for everyone else to be ready to go.

On our way to the tree farm!

Tree farms aren't very wheelchair friendly, but with team work we got the job done!  Everyone got a turn to cut the tree.

 

Less than 2 weeks to hit the goal

At the end of October we got the good news that our family had been awarded a dollar for dollar matching grant up to $2500!  In order to receive the full grant it has to be matched however.  With less than two weeks to go our fund stands at $510.

If you would like to help us meet our $2500 goal to meet this match, (and be involved in the Tag His Bag fun) please send your donation made payable to "Hand in Hand Christian Adoption" and postmarked by December  11.  For tax purposes please include our name on the OUTSIDE of the envelope only - do not put our name on the check itself.  Send to:

Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.
Ethan and Randy Lanz
18318 Mimosa Court
Gardner, KS 66030

If you have any questions concerning this grant you may contact Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. They can be reached at 913-248-5015 or by email at handinhandadopt@gmail.com .  

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to work towards Pat's homecoming!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so very much to be thankful for, and these people in our lives are among our greatest blessings!

When our kids and THEIR kids gather and then you throw in an Aunt, Uncle, Cousin and Grandma it is a great big group of happy!  We are very fortunate in that we actually ENJOY one another's company.  It makes holidays a lot more pleasant that way!

Grace (James' fiance') was so sweet in helping the kids with their art projects.

Pre-dinner activities included making turkeys, coloring pilgrims and a word search.

 

 

 Crock pots began to arrive in mass.  There were so many crock pots all around the kitchen. It was like someone had called a crock pot convention!

 

Of course the pies had a good turn out also!

And Ruth made an adorable turkey from fresh vegetables.

 
But the people!  They are the REAL treasures!  From the youngest -

 

 to the oldest

And all those in between!

 

 

And we are extra thankful to have Isaac home with us for his first ever Thanksgiving in America!

While the blessings of a large family are many, it is getting rather tricky to arrange seating for us all.  One of our daughters hosts Thanksgiving at her home each year, and her husband and kids are so patient with the mob descending on their house.  In order to allow a walker, wheelchair and lots of kids room to move, the tables aren't set up until it is actually time to eat.  I was amused watching as the family shuffled around setting up tables, then counting and recounting chairs.

 

 

We added in a princess table....

Nope, still not enough.  We'll add one more table to the end...

And we had enough!

No meal is perfect, of course, and we had our little problems...

And one little guy just couldn't quite make it through the meal.

 But it was a great day filled with lots of laughter, good food, and most importantly those people we love the best.

 I can hardly wait for Pat to join in our Thanksgiving Day next time around.  One thing we discovered about him last summer (while he was being hosted in the States by our agency) was that he LOVES to eat.  This may be his favorite holiday!  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.